Shuma-Gorath

One of the primal powers of Chaos, the Elder God Shuma-Gorath is an ancient extra-dimensional being who rules a hundred dimensions.

Older Than The Universe

Shuma-Gorath is one of the Great Old Ones—ancient, extradimensional beings predating Earth and possibly the universe itself. Arriving to Earth untold millions of years ago, Shuma-Gorath rules the blue planet and feasts on mankind’s ancestors. Shuma-Gorath meets the time-traveling sorcerer Sise-Neg, who banishes him to the distant past. Shuma-Gorath later returns to Earth and rules for an age in what would become the peninsula Cimmeria. 

On his altar, he receives blood-sacrifices, from both tribal warfare and ritual slaughter. Shuma-Gorath does not seek priests or intermediaries between him and his food and will destroy any shaman who seeks to curry his favor.

The Writhing Devourer

In his native dimension, Shuma-Gorath is virtually omnipotent. He generates his own mystical power and is invoked by many beings across many dimensions for dark power, but also draws energy, mystical or otherwise, from others. Shuma-Gorath can release destructive blasts and can manipulate magical energy on a planetary scale. He can communicate telepathically and control others, even across dimensions. 

Shuma’s physical characteristics vary greatly and his true form is uncertain; he usually adopts multiple tentacles and a rubbery, armored form, sometimes mountainous in size. Though Shuma-Gorath can be harmed by powerful assaults, he can eventually re-form from seeming destruction, and it may be impossible to destroy him permanently. The iron-bound Books of Shuma-Gorath , magically created long before conventional books existed, have been used by Lemurian sorcerers and many others to summon magical power for spells.

Powerful Earthy Enemies

Shuma-Gorath has one particular persnickety opponent and that is Dr. Stephen Strange, AKA Doctor Strange, who often banishes Shuma-Gorath back to his dimension or temporarily destroys him. He also faces the likes of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers, and the Invaders only to be stopped by both teams. 

As a dimensional being, Shuma-Gorath appears across realities, engaging in conflicts on Earth-30847 and Earth-9997, and invading Earth-9411. He was invoked on Earth-010011 to help kill Death; and makes appearances in other unknown realities and universes causing havoc.

Subjects

As the Master of the Great Old Ones, Shuma-Gorath commands them to attack worlds. Though, when the battles look grim, Shuma-Gorath will save himself and flee back to his home realm.

An Eternal History

Over 21,000 years ago, humanity cried out to a newly risen storm god, Crom, who led a shaman into a storm in which he obtained three iron-bound books of magic. The shaman recited the text, and from the books Crom manifested a flame-headed crowd that enveloped Shuma-Gorath and imprisoned him in what became known as Mount Crom. 

Around 10,000 BC, the newly wed sorcerers Kulan Gath and Vammatar sought to release and enslave the demon via the Books of Shuma-Gorath . After Vammatar betrayed Gath, however, both sorcerers cursed Crom, who caused an avalanche that buried the books; each sorcerer mistakenly believed the other dead at the time. A century later, Shuma-Gorath influenced Vammatar to destroy the Cimmerian village Snow Bear to clear the path for her to free him. Perhaps via Crom, the warrior Conan dreamed of his home’s destruction and Shuma’s involvement. When Conan arrived at Mount Crom, Shuma-Gorath manipulated Conan’s ally of convenience, Hob, to locate and read from the books, freeing Shuma. Vammatar and Kulan Gath briefly immobilized Shuma-Gorath via their combined magic before he broke free and obliterated them both. Conan hurled the books into the above storm clouds, giving them to Crom, and Shuma-Gorath was banished back to his home realm in an explosion.

In the modern era, Shuma-Gorath attempted to be reborn on Earth through the mind of its Sorcerer Supreme, Yao, AKA the Ancient One. For the attempt, he used agents Nightmare, Sligguth, Ebora, N’Gabthoth, Dagoth, Kathulos, and Living Buddha. After a fierce battle felt by mystics across Earth, the Ancient One’s disciple Dr. Stephen Strange slew the Ancient One, unable to stop the demon. This act banished Shuma-Gorath back to his realm while allowing the Ancient One to become one with the universe. 

Years later, Strange’s near destruction of his many talismans and scrolls in battle against alien sorcerer Urthona collapsed the barriers imprisoning the Great Old Ones, allowing Shuma-Gorath to gain a foothold on Earth. Forced to use black magic to oppose Shuma’s agents—such as Erlik Khan, Ghaszaszh Nyirh, and a water elemental—Strange ultimately merged with Shuma-Gorath and then impaled himself. This temporarily destroyed Shuma, but Strange suffered the consequences of his dark actions for some time. Re-forming over time as Strange purged himself of the demon’s taint, Shuma-Gorath failed to conquer Earth and other realms via acquisition of the Infinity Gems. Evil sorcerer Nicholas Scratch subsequently tricked innocents, the children Franklin and Valeria Richards, into reading a spell to liberate Shuma-Gorath , bringing him to Earth. Scratch presented the FF and his own children, Salem’s Seven, as sacrifices to Shuma, who intended to consume Earth. Mystically transporting Shuma-Gorath to Stonehenge, Strange banished him beyond time and space.

Shuma-Gorath was later summoned through a portal back to Earth by a spell-weaver who lost his family. Meanwhile, mad scientist Arnim Zola created a virus using a mineral that contained Shuma's evil aura. The greatest heroes of World War II, the Invaders, were assembled to stop the outbreak, and after meeting with a team of scientists, they produced an antidote. The spell-weaver saw the error of his ways and started to undo the magic, but Zola shot him and revealed his plan to create a more powerful virus with mysticism. Shuma-Gorath attacked and the Invaders fought him along with the souls of nearby deceased villagers, who all attempted to push Shuma-Gorath back. The Golden-age Vision stabbed Shuma-Gorath in the eye with the Spear of Destiny, and forced him back through the portal.

Shuma-Gorath was next summoned by Doctor Strange who was forced by Ebony Maw to do so. Shuma-Gorath destroyed parts of New York City but was ultimately defeated again by Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers. When Strange later caused an opening in the fabric of dimensional magic, Shuma-Gorath was one of many demonic entities that noticed the large hole and at the doorway, the various entities fought to get through to Earth. Doctor Strange held back Shuma-Gorath with the help of the Avengers, and then Dormammu blinded Shuma. Mephisto eventually won and cast the others down, including Shuma, banishing them to the Necro-realm for eternity.

When a door on planet Terminal opened, Shuma-Gorath had an opportunity to escape his prison. But Terminal’s citizens closed the door. But after Groot of the Guardians of the Galaxy visited and opened the door to go back to his home dimension, he let Shuma-Gorath in. Groot defeated him using the time storms that occurred in Terminal’s dimension in tandem with the Sentinel Projector, growing to an immense size and punching Shuma-Gorath back to prison.