THE DEMON HEAD
The secrets of Ras al
Ghul
PART ONE: MY NAME IS LEGION
KATHULOS, LORD OF THE DARK FACE
There exists a
singular
connection between a possessed man from the
Matthew Baugh, a well regarded researcher in Woldnewtonry, has long speculated that the Atlantean Sorcerer Baal-Seepa from Arthur Conan Doyle's The Maracot Deep and the mummified Atlantean sorcerer Kathulos from Robert E. Howard's Skull-Face were one and the same person. He believed that Kathulos coffin had washed ashore after the Maracot Deep incident as the Atlanteans expelled the mummy's case from their city in a last act of freedom from the evil one. Baugh has recounted this theory in his piece, The Best of Adversaries which is a fictional sequel to Taverel Manor. Although fictional the piece does contain some elements of truth.
However, there is some discrepancy in dating these cases wherein Stephen Costigan fought against Kathulos.
In The
Best of
Adversaries Baugh states that "The
only story Costigan knows is that a sealed sarcophagus was found
drifting in
the
This would place the events of Skull-Face several years after the events The Maracot Deep, that is, several years after 1926. Yet since Skull-Face was first published in 1929, the incident had to have taken place prior to this year. While it is possible that in the space of three years Kathulos had been revived and built up a following among the many diverse native populations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East and also established a solid organization in London, it does border on the incredible even with the power of supreme mesmerism. It seems more likely that this took many years, perhaps a decade. John Gordon's statements that he was sent to investigate the rise of dissent among the native populations of Africa after the war ended seems to indicate that the incidents in Skull Face took place not too distant from the end of WWI.
Matthew Baugh also makes a case for an earlier date for the events of Skull-Face in his earlier article Agent In The Shadows: The Life And Career Of Cliff Marsland. In this well written article Matthew Baugh makes the argument that The Shadow's operative called Cliff Marsland in The Shadow novels was also the man called Stephen Costigan in the Robert E. Howard stories Skull-Face and Taverel Manor. In Agent in the Shadows Baugh places the events of Skull-Face as taking place in 1921 and the events of Taverel Manor as having taken place in 1923. These seem to be appropriate dates for the events to have actually occurred. [1]
Yet these dates of 1921 and 1923 for the occurrence of Skull-Face would seem to rule out the speculation that Baal-Seepa was in fact the same entity as Kathulos. Yet why would a well-regarded researcher such as Matthew Baugh make this claim despite consciously knowing that it could not be true. Sometimes a researcher "knows" something to be truthful despite contrary evidence. I think that Matthew Baugh was correct and Baal-Seepa and Kathulos were the same entity despite the apparent chronological discrepancy. Having reviewed a first draft of this essay Mr. Baugh felt compelled to state, “I no longer believe that Kathulos and Baal-Seepa are the same entity. The discrepancies you mention are very telling. I had assumed that Kathulos had assumed control of an existing branch of the Si Fan with African, Middle Eastern and Asian members rather than forge his own alliances, but three years is a very short time. Breaking Kathulos of the Maracot Deep timeline helps to make Cliff/Steve's personal timeline make more sense. I have come to believe that Baal-Seepa is one of the many manifestations of Nyarlothotep. The descriptions he gives of his role in historical events are eerily similar to those of the Crawling Chaos' own involvement. The title "Lord of the Dark (could mean obscured) Face" is also very similar to Nyarlothotep's titles "Black Man" and "Faceless God." All of these traits also apply to Flagg from Stephen King's stories and I suspect that both Flagg and Baal-Seeps are both manifestations of the shape-shifting outer god. If there is a connection between the two I now believe that Baal-Seepa would have been a sort of behind the scenes patron of Kathulos who was using him. Kathulos wanted power after all, Baal-Seepa wanted chaos and death in the human world.” [2] We hope to prove that Baugh was correct in his first assumption and close to the truth in this latest speculation.
Kathulos was a
Sorcerer in
Ancient Atlantis but this seems to be the second Atlantis that existed
prior to
24,000 BC.[3]
In order to stave off death Kathulos had his body and the bodies of his
servants, the Masters of Atlantis, subjected to an immortality
treatment that
in effect made them into living mummies. He was in hibernation until
circa 1905
when his casket was dislodged from its undersea resting place by
falling debris
from the ship Clan Munroe which sank off the coast of
Although
Kathulos felt at
home in Africa, since Atlantis had had colonies on this continent as
demonstrated in the works of Burroughs, Howard and Saunders,[5] he was also drawn to Egypt because many
of Ancient Egypt's cultural borrowings from Atlantis. Kathulos became
fascinated with the culture and history of ancient
Using his
power of
mesmerism Kathulos forged a new organization out of two existing ones.
The Cult
of the Scorpion King which was based in
At the same
time that he was
seizing control of the Cult of the Scorpion King, Kathulos also took
over the
secret organization known as Scorpia. This was an organization that had
begun
in the 1500's as an organization of pirates [8]. Although Scorpia
was believed to have been destroyed in 1612 by the mysterious, possibly
immortal man known as the Phantom or the Ghost Who Walks. The Phantom
had
killed Scorpia's leader Brunel de Gottschalk in mortal combat. The
Phantom had
then destroyed Scorpia's castle by blowing up its gunpowder room and so
destroyed the stronghold from which they had carried out their
campaigns of
terror. However Scorpia had survived and it established strongholds in
The Si Fan was an international confederation composed of many Eastern societies such as the Thuggees of India, the Assassins of Syria, The Sublime Order of the White Peacock, The Dacoits of Burma, Druze of Syria and others. Noting Kathulos' swift success in gaining control of the Cult of the Scorpion and the Scorpia organization, the Council of Seven suggested an alliance, giving Kathulos the certain impression that a negative response would not be considered. Kathulos allied with the Si-Fan because it suited his purpose and he believed that he could eventually take over the organization. However the members of the Council of the Seven proved to be immune to his mesmeric power. Kathulos knew that one of these members would oppose his plans to take over the Si-Fan for he had ambitions to do that as well. This man was called Shan Ming Fu, who would become more famous under his nome de guerre, Dr. Fu Manchu.
When meeting with the representatives of Si-Fan he had also the met the allies of Fu Manchu. Among these was a man of middle age who was an advisor to the Wali of the Assassins. Kathulos realized that there was a strong connection between this man and Fu Manchu. Yet even odder he felt that there was a very strong connection between this man and himself, an inexplicable bond that felt as if he were gazing into a mirror. Taking this man's hand in a gesture of goodwill set off a psychic explosion in Kathulos. This psychic explosion was also reflected in the eyes of the Assassin's advisor, who used the name Rashiel[10]
Kathulos proved his worth to the Si-Fan by creating an elixir derived from a combination of the drugs that the Si-Fan used, the venom of the Black Scorpion and the juice of the Black lotus and other chemicals Kathulos only knew. The drug was so powerful that one dose eliminated addiction to any other drug including opium, heroin and alcohol. It imparted to the taker a great vitality and sense of well being, it also increased the adrenal levels imparting increased strength and speed. There was a price however, the drug was highly addictive and constant use of the drug would burn out the metabolism of the user. Kathulos had devised a cure for the super drug but it killed nine out ten who tried it.
Kathulos began
to
cultivate the name The Scorpion as his code name among the Si-Fan yet
he also
became known by another name, the Black Mandarin. In many ways the use
of the
term Black Mandarin was to recognize Kathulos efforts at broadening the
effective uses of the black scorpion venom and the black lotus juice.
[11]
It was also a title of respect
bestowed
upon this mastermind who was supposed to have originated in
Kathulos was
content to
work slowly to achieve the culmination of his plans. He extended his
influence
to
Between 1911
and 1914 Fu Manchu
spearheaded the Si-Fan's plans for the collapse of the West and rise of
the
East, with
Kathulos however was able to gather followers from tongs, triads and other organizations and folded them into an organization that was an important component of the Si-Fan yet large enough to be nearly autonomous from it. This organization was known as the Tong known as the Brotherhood of the Lotus or the Chang Li.[14]
In 1915,
Fo-Hi's
organization in
In 1916 Zani
Chada's son
became involved in a murder and the kidnapping of a socialite. In a
bizarre
twist Zani Chada kidnapped the son of Inspector Red Kerry of Scotland
Yard to
prevent his son from going to jail. For his part in the kidnapping of
Kerry's
son, Zani Chada went to jail.[17]
Madame de Medici continued to live at Zani Chada's townhouse and
operated
more openly as the Chang Li representative in
In 1917 Fu
Manchu's
activities led to Scotland Yard's crackdown on his operations in the
In late 1920
one of
Kathulos’ American operations was exposed by the dogged efforts of a
member of
the United States Secret Service. The most troubling aspect of this was
that
the exposure put the United States Secret Service onto Kathulos
personally.
Kathulos fled to
Raymond M'Cabe
was fatally
shot as he attempted to strangle the mummified body of Kathulos. Yet it
suited
Kathulos purposes to make it seems as though M'Cabe had killed the
Black Mandarin.
This would cease the Secret Service's investigation of his activities.
Kathulos
assumed personal control of the
In order to
teach her
humility, Kathulos forced her half sister, Fo-Hi's other daughter to
act as his
servant. Madame Medici's sister Zarmi had been an agent for Fu Manchu.
In 1914
when Fu Manchu had been forced to flee from
It was fortunate for Zarmi that an autopsy was not performed and that the member of the Tong who collected her body recognized the symptoms of f. kataplesis.[24] Kathulos administered the antidote to her on the condition that she would serve him. In this capacity she learned that her mother's people worshipped the same god as had Kathulos’ people.[25] Zarmi became more loyal to Kathulos than had her sister when she realized that behind Kathulos’ plans laid the desire to unite the world and then hand it over to their mutual god. Zarmi's mother's people were the descendants of pirates; European and Pacific pirates had shared an island named Ral and intermarried with the native population. This had originally been one of the further outposts of Scorpia. While in Kathulos' service Zarmi used the name Zuleika.[26]
Since the
mysterious Black
Mandarin was believed to be dead, Kathulos once again began using his
previous
title of The Scorpion. This was a move calculated to make the
authorities
believe that Fo-Hi may have not died, it also served to unite the still
loyal
followers of Fo-hi with Kathulos followers in the Cult of the Scorpion
King,
Scorpia and the groups of rebels in
Some of
Kathulos’ plans
entailed using Caucasians of European or American origins. Most of
these agents
were paid well, their cooperation bought or coerced. Often mesmerism
was
suitably employed. Yet in certain cases where it was necessary to
completely
bind the servant to Kathulos and yet ultimately dispose of him,
Kathulo's
highly addictive elixir was used. One of Kathulos’ agents discovered
one of
Kathulos enemies was a frequent visitor to Yun Shatu's
The young World War I veteran was using the name Stephen Costigan. Costigan was an American living in the Limehouse district of London. He was also a drug addict, having become addicted while recovering from war wounds.[30]
Kathulos offered the young American a cure for his addiction through the use of an Egyptian wine with life giving properties. The Egyptian wine not only freed him of the addiction but it made him more vital, made him physically sound and increased his strength.
The price of freedom from dope was to work for a mysterious benefactor who gave him assignments from behind a lacquered screen. His first assignment was to study all he could about a Major Morely. Costigan was then told he would be impersonating him. Yet even when it became obvious to the young American that he had traded one addiction for another, one form of slavery for an even more insidious form of slavery, Kathulos was surprised to find that the man still possessed a sense of right and wrong and a moral compass that could not be swayed.
While waiting
for the
signal to travel to
Costigan was informed that this man he had knocked unconscious was John Gordon, the Master's greatest foe. He had heard of John Gordon, heard that he was connected to Scotland Yard in some fashion. Thinking it best he escorted John Gordon to the outside door and told him to make himself scarce. Just as Denis Nayland Smith had made it his business, his goal in life to stop the machinations of Fu Manchu, Smith's protégé John Gordon had made it his goal to stop Kathulos the Scorpion. Kathulos on the other hand considered Gordon to be nothing more than an amusing threat.
After learning in the papers that the man was supposed to impersonate had been found dead Costigan wished to be free of his service to The Master.
He met with the man behind the screen once again. Costigan told the man that he believed that since Costigan had saved his life as he had saved Costigan's their obligations to each other were ended. However Costigan was informed that he was to be a slave for the rest of his life. He met his benefactor face to face, his benefactor was a tall gaunt man with skin so withered and so thin that it looked like yellow parchment stretched over bone. His face resembled a skull, so thin was the flesh over bone.
Costigan was ordered to go to the house of Sir Haldred Frenton and kill him. Costigan refused and his benefactor laughed. While Costigan's addiction to dope had been ended, he was addicted to the drug that had cured him. Costigan refused but before agreeing to carry out the task he experienced pain in every cell of his being. He drank the elixir and waited for the signal to leave. He did not plan to go through with the murder but rather warn Sir Harold and John Gordon.
A dancing girl
who had
become infatuated with him told Costigan that his master's name was
Kathulos
and he was from
Costigan left
Kathulos'
house and pretended to carry out his mission to kill Harold Frenton.
Once at
Frenton's house however Costigan joined forces with John Gordon rather
than
being forced to murder at Kathulos bidding. From Gordon Costigan
learned that
Kathulos the Egyptian was even more dangerous than Costigan had
believed. As a
member of the British Secret Service, Gordon had been assigned to
investigate
unrest that had been seething among the natives of
Gordon and
Costigan
learned that Kathulos was a master of Mesmerism and his hypnotic powers
were
how he probably gathered his forces. Further investigation
uncovered
another startling revelation. Years ago a German scientist classifying
the sea
life off the coast of
Gordon and Costigan eventually invaded Kathulos' lair. When all Kathulos’ carefully laid plans seemed to be unraveling Kathulos had the great fortune to capture both Gordon and Costigan. Gordon was to be sacrificed by his African voodoo worshippers and Kathulos planned to experiment on Costigan. Kathulos believed that Costigan had somehow resisted the overpowering addiction to his narcotic and he wanted to see why. He was unaware that Zuleika, overcome with lust for Costigan had secretly given him a couple vials of the narcotic.
Kathulos admitted to being from Atlantis. He claimed that he was not the only one… "The ancient masters lie under the green seas, in their lacquered cases, dead as men reckon death, but only sleeping." Costigan was held in a steel cage that not even his elixir enhanced strength could break. Kathulos planned to make Costigan experience the full effect of withdrawal from the elixir and when death was near at hand to administer his cure for the elixir. The cure either killed or cured. It in fact killed nine out ten who tried it.
Yet Gordon had escaped from his captors, he entered the laboratory and shot Kathulos point blank in the chest. He freed Costigan and gave him the vial of the elixir cure. As Gordon and Costigan escaped police raids began to arrest Kathulos followers and uncover his stashes of weapons and drugs. One of his more fanatical followers had ignited Kathulos main store of armaments, which were in tunnels beneath Kathulos’ main residence. It was believed that Kathulos perished in the explosion.
Gordon and
Costigan had to
fight their way past hordes of angry followers of Kathulos, into the
tunnels
that led from Kathulos hideout inside a walled up and abandoned
warehouse and
back onto the
Among the papers of Robert E. Howard was a story fragment entitled Taverel Manor. This was a sequel to Skull-Face completed by Richard Lupoff in 1977. In this tale John Gordon was asked to look into the disappearance of Sir Haldred Taverel by some family friends, Marjory and Harry Harper. Marjory had been engaged to the missing Haldred. Gordon asked Stephen Costigan to accompany him. In the course of their investigation they discovered that the Taverel Manor was being used as a smuggler's point, its proximity to the coast being a exemplary for this purpose. Confronting a smuggler they discovered he was a Malay. The Harpers received a telegram requesting that they come up to the Manor and meet with Gordon. Gordon had not sent such a note. The note was a ploy, designed to bring them to Manor so that they could be eliminated.
Gordon and Costigan discovered that the Manor's servants also served another Master, The Master, Kathulos whom they had believed was dead. John Gordon and Costigan soon discovered that Kathulos was still around. Kathulos was however in severely reduced circumstances. Most of Kathulos organization was been scattered or taken over by the resurgent Chang Li under Huan Tsung Chao a.k.a. John Ki, Fu Manchu's chief of staff. [34] Kathulos had been reduced to using an obscure manor on the English coast as a smuggler's point.
John
Gordon was
struck by a lightning bolt and killed during this case. The implication
was
that Kathulos had directed the lightning bolt to kill Gordon. After
Costigan
carried Gordon's body into Tavernel Manor he was spoken to by Zuleika
via
radio. She revealed that she was a captive of Kathulos and if Costigan
wished
her to be free he would have to once again serve Kathulos. She gave him
directions that he had to follow immediately if he were to see her
again. It
was also revealed to "Costigan" that Zuleika was still in Kathulos
power. Using Zuleika, and the zombified (drugged) members of the Harper
family
as bait Kathulos lured Costigan out of
Costigan made
his way to
In
After killing the creature and climbing out of the pool of water, Costigan had to overcome Marjory Harper, her brother Harry and his fiancée Joan before he could confront Kathulos face to face. Costigan snapped Kathulos neck like a dry twig. The power that Kathulos held over his followers ended with his death.[35]
Zuleika blamed her apparent willingness to aid Kathulos one moment and then aiding Costigan as being due to Kathulos having enslaved her by heroin addiction. This however was probably a fabrication.
For her part, Zuelika soon discovered that her infatuation with Costigan was purely physical and that it rapidly waned. She made it appear as though die hard adherents of The Scorpion had killed her. In fact she did connect with members of Scorpia and returned to the island of her birth Ral, where she assumed the duties of the high priestess of the Octopus cult.[36]
Costigan used
Clifford
Marsland, a variation on his birth name of Cliff Morris and returned to
The young man confessed to Cliff and told him that he feared going to prison. Cliff agreed that he would never survive in Sing Sing and decided to confess to the robbery himself. He was sentenced to eight years. During his imprisonment, he contacted his boyhood friend Robert E. Howard. He refused to let Howard tell his family that he was still alive, but did give him permission to publish the story of his encounter with Kathulos, so long as Howard disguised the names and had it published as fiction.[37]
In 1925
Yet Marsland was more right than he knew.
In 1921 after
Kathulos had
his house blown up around him he and Zuleika fled
Kathulos had been this man thousands of years ago, at least in his personal timeline. Kathulos was not merely an Atlantean Sorcerer who had lived in a mummified state for hundreds of thousand of years but was more; much more. Kathulos realized he had lived a thousand lifetimes and a thousand lives. He could not recall them all but he could remember some of the more memorable. As a being of energy he was nearly immortal yet in the energy state the sensations he experienced paled by far to those of creatures of flesh. Just as the tree from which humanity had evolved had many branch species, some more successful than others, his kind were a less successful branch of the evolution of humanity to Omni.[38]
Although nearly immortal they were however limited in how they sensed the physical universe. While they were not bound by the strictures of space/time and could exist simultaneously in various timelines or moments in time in throughout the history of the Universe, they were unable to "feel" anything. They had learned that they could bind themselves to material beings of flesh and so experience all that a material being could experience.
There were two methods of binding to a physical form. The first method was to co-exist with the living creature as a sort of benign parasite, experiencing the sensations of a body but second hand. The second method was direct possession usurping the body. Unless the energy being took over the body of an infant it stood the chance of losing the memory of its self until it were freed of the body and returned to the energy state. Once the energy being had attached itself to a body of flesh the only way to leave it was through the physical death of the host.[39]
Many of Kathulos' fellow energy beings had objected to any form of attachment to corporeal beings. They believed that obliterating or melding with an existing personality was murder. They also believed that inhabiting the bodies of infants was also a form of murder since it prevented the personality of the child to develop. They even believed that that the benign parasitic method was wrong because the host could become aware of this symbiosis and so be unduly influenced by the energy symbiont.
These energy beings believed that they should abstain from corporeal life and spend their existence contemplating the intricacies of their own innate senses such as the ability to experience non-linear time. They also felt a measure of responsibility to keep their fellow energy beings from murdering other beings. They discovered a planet which had an element which could caused their energy forms to experience an instability, it caused them to remain in a static state and radiate heat, in such a state they were not mobile, could not change quantum states (thus were unable to move through time and space). In essence this could imprison those energy beings that they considered murderers. They decided that the murderous ones should be imprisoned in the area of this planet where the peculiar element was located. The battle to subdue the murdering energy beings caused a rift to develop in the time/space continuum near the planet. This threatened to destabilize and engulf the planet so after the murderous energy beings had been imprisoned most of the energy beings took up existence in the instability melding their energies with the instability to prevent it from growing. Although their purpose was to keep the instability from engulfing the class M planet, they discovered that they could use it to enhance their senses. As they also concentrated on expanding their senses their combined energies formed a stable wormhole that reached into the gamma quadrant.
The humanoid population on Bajor became a special project for the energy beings living inside the worm hole, they became known as the Prophets to the Bajorians and the murdering energy beings became known as the pah-wraiths.[40]
A few of the murdering energy beings, the pah-wraiths, escaped from imprisonment and so a few of the energy beings that felt that came to be called the Prophets remained outside the group to pursue them.
Kathulos remembered being pursued throughout time and space by one of the Prophets. In many life times he had eluded him; in many life times they had confronted each other. When Kathulos had met Rashiel, the Assassin's advisor Kathulos knew him to be his future self. Kathulos had an unforeseen mental exchange with his future self and from Rashiel. Kathulos learned that from Rashiel’s future knowledge, in essence the Prophet would win, since that future self of Rashiel was so bound to his current physical form that when that physical form died, he would die.
Kathulos realized that his pursuer had also nearly won back in ancient Atlantis when it had convinced Kathulos to create and endure the process that would make him into a living mummy. The idea had been to preserve the body so that physical death would not force Kathulos to find another body. The process had not only made the body virtually immortal, Kathulos believed that even decapitation and dismemberment would not kill the body only incineration. Yet even incineration was uncertain, he had long believed that this process had so combined the body and spirit that he could not exist once this body was destroyed. Kathulos had not wished to spend the rest of eternity forever bound to a pile of ashes. Thus he had been unwilling to destroy himself. The mummification process had also destroyed the sensory capabilities of the body so in essence was little more capable of feeling anything than if he had been in his energy form. Unable to bear what he had wrought upon himself he had used various techniques to hide his memories of his past. When Kathulos had met his future self he realized that he would eventually be freed of the mummified body.
Touching his future self had unlocked many of Kathulos locked memories. He no longer feared death but he had to discover a way in which he could extract himself from this body in such a fashion that his energy form would not only be freed but stronger than before. He could then confront his eternal pursuer and destroy him.
So when Kathulos touched the severely burned Anton Phibes, Kathulos remembered having been Anton Phibes and so aided this past self to the best of his ability. Kathulos believed that he could change the course of his own personal destiny despite the Rashiel's belief that in trying to circumvent it, Kathulos would merely be fulfilling it. According to his memories of Anton Phibes, Anton Phibes had eventually died of his burns. Yet according to Rashiel’s memories of the incident Anton Phibes had perished or vanished in Egypt. Kathulos believed that in this dissonance of memories lie a divergence in timelines that he could use for his own salvation.
He and Zuleika gave Phibes immediate medical attention and as per Phibes request hurried to London to see about his wife. By the time that Kathulos and Zuleika had gotten to the hospital where Victoria Phibes was being operated upon she had died. Kathulos injected the corpse with a preservative that prevented corruption of the corpse. He had hope that he could resurrect Victoria Phibes and so change the course of his past life and in doing so start to unravel the threads of his ultimate destiny.
Kathulos and Zuleika stayed with the hideously burned and crippled Phibes for two years. Kathulos did so because caring for Phibes brought back more of his lost memories. In his lifetime Phibes had gained great deal of arcane knowledge. He was a genius in the realms of music and mechanics. He believed that by using music combined with Egyptian magical lore he could restore Victoria to life, possibly restore himself to health and free Kathulos from his mummified body without immolation. He claimed that he could build an organ that would strike the proper set of notes that would affect the music of the spheres at the moment that they were in harmonic convergence. If this musical piece was performed as they traveled down the River of Life all who were in the environs of the organ would be made whole and immortal.
Zuleika helped Phibes to build the devices that Phibes believed necessary to undertake this process. Kathulos spent the next two years surreptitiously making contacts among his shattered organization, doing so without alerting either the forces of the law or the criminal forces that would also have moved against him for his magnificent failure.
When he revisited Anton Phibes in 1923 he discovered that Phibes had spent most of the last two years indulging in bizarre fantasy world. He devised various death devices with which to torture and kill his wife's physicians. He had not made any progress towards creating the organ he needed to affect the music of the spheres. Disgusted, Kathulos left Anton Phibes to his revenge.
With Zuleika at Kathulos’ side he began to once again form his small smuggling operation into a first class operation which he hoped would allow him to take over the newly reformed Si-Fan. The Si-Fan was operating as the S Group under the mysterious figure known as Mandarin K. Kathulos believed that the Mandarin was a stooge or ally of Fu Manchu.[41] He further believed that the K after the title of Mandarin was so that some of Kathulos' still loyal followers would believe that Mandarin K was Kathulos operating under another name.
Kathulos planned, when the time was correct, to kill the Mandarin K and assume the name.
His plans however were once again defeated by "Stephen Costigan" At least he had the satisfaction of having killed John Gordon as recorded in "Taverel Manor" by Robert E. Howard
It is recorded in "Taverel Manor" that Stephen Costigan broke Kathulos neck and tossed his body aside. This much is true. Costigan had also torn out the delicate tissues of Kathulos neck and destroyed his larynx, leaving Kathulos unable to speak.
Since Zuleika had gone off with Costigan, Kathulos returned to the sanctuary of Anton Phibes mansion. Although Phibes' genius was able to construct a device that allowed Kathulos to speak, he spent most of his time dreaming of revenge and living in a world of fantasy. Phibes passed each night in a surreal nightclub with an automated orchestra of his own creation. Phibes did construct the organ but played odd anachronistic music upon it.[42] Contact with Phibes had also awakened some of their shared earlier life experiences. In a couple of their most evil incarnations they had been a crooner named Johnny Favorite [43] a Hollywood talent agent, and a book editor named Rorshak.
As Phibes slipped ever more into his fantasy world and as he became physically weaker. Kathulos realized that Phibes would be incapable of accomplishing the disruption of their personal histories. Kathulos began to fear that as Rashiel, the Assassin's advisor had believed, their destiny seemed immutable. Phibes also realized that he was dying and would never achieve his well planned vengeance. He made Kathulos promise to do this for him. Kathulos at first demurred but then he realized that this might be the way to thwart his destiny. Instead of being Kathulos the Egyptian he would become Anton Phibes. To make certain that this new plan would become fact he smothered the sleeping Phibes. He used sophisticated prosthetic makeup to look like Phibes.
Taking on the Phibes identity Kathulos acquired an assistant, a young woman who had been badly treated by physicians. A dancer she had been squired by a physician. When she became pregnant, the doctor refused to marry her. When she persisted in this he had her committed. While under the care of a friend of her physician lover, her baby was aborted and she was rendered mute, lest she tell anyone of this crime. Her physician lover was one of the men on Phibes’ death list.
Kathulos carried out Dr. Phibes series of fiendish murders with Vulnavia's aid in 1925. He had also learned that one of the reasons Phibes had been so lax in pursing the project to revive them was because the River of Life only appeared every 2000 years during a certain conjunction of stars. This would not occur until 1928.
After successfully carrying out Dr. Phibes' revenge,[44] Kathulos placed himself into a suspended animation for three years in a secret chamber under Dr. Phibes house. The film's account of Phibes filling his veins with embalming fluid is also exaggerated.
When Kathulos/Phibes awoke in late 1927, prompted by Vulnavia, he rose from the subterranean chamber to what he believed would be the first floor of Dr. Phibes’ mansion. The building had been razed. Dr. Phibes’ papyrus document detailing the location of the River of Life had been taken from his safe. In the film The Return of Dr. Phibes Phibes immediately knew that Darius Biederbeck had stolen the papyrus and it seemed from the way he spoke as if Biederbeck and he were old enemies. Yet as the film progressed it was soon demonstrated that Biederbeck was wholly ignorant of Phibes existence. What probably occurred was that Kathulos/Phibes did find the house destroyed and all of Phibes’ worldly possessions, except for those in the underground lair, having been sold at auction. Phibes located the papyrus after a couple months search.
Vulnavia and he stole it from Biederbeck's home, killing Bierderbeck's bodyguard by first drugging him with the poisoned fangs of a clockwork snake and then by driving a snake shaped pin through his skull from ear to ear.
The film shows Phibes and Vulnavia taking passage to Egypt on the same ocean liner that also took Biederbeck and his party. However it is more likely that Phibes and Vulnavia's voyage to Egypt preceded Biederbeck's party by about a week. However Biederbeck's partner in the Egyptian dig, Dr. Ambrose was also a passenger on the same ocean liner that Phibes and Vulnavia had embarked. While snooping around in the hold, Dr Ambrose stumbled onto the chamber that contained Phibes' preserved wife Victoria. Phibes/Kathulos strangled Dr. Ambrose and threw his body overboard.[45]
When Biederbeck and his party arrived in Egypt they were unaware of the murder of Dr. Ambrose. Dr. Ambrose was supposed to have gotten the excavation/survey parties started. Although the film shows Biederbeck angry because the enthusiastic archaeologists had gone off on their own rather than sit and wait for instructions, the diary of Diana Trowbridge, Biederbeck's fiancee, tells another story. Biederbeck was angry because everyone was still sitting around rather than excavating.
Phibes and Vulnavia had set up a camp inside the ruins detailed in the papyrus. The film’s depiction of Vulnavia's altering the Egyptian wall paintings into an art deco style was fictional. Kathulos would not have desecrated the walls in such a manner.
When the Biederbeck’s group of archaeologists began to explore the ruins Kathulos/Phibes tried to warn them off by having a desert eagle kill one of them. Yet they continued to excavate the ruins and opened a chamber that contained a golden sarcophagus. Kathulos/Phibes had concealed Victoria Phibes’ body inside this sarcophagus. Kathulos/Phibes had been in another section of the ruins working on more discouragement devices when this theft occurred.
Kathulos/Phibes could not resist using a death devise that would provide a clue to his real identity. Vulnavia lured one of the young archaeologists to her tent, which was set some distance from the archaeologists' camp. She had him sit on a chair shaped like a golden scorpion. As she danced the tail of the scorpion moved and pinned the young man to the chair as golden pincers closed upon his hands. Held tightly in the chair, the Archaeologist set upon by several live scorpions. The scorpions stung him to death.
As the body of the archaeologist was discovered and taken care of the next morning, Kathulos/Phibes stole back the sarcophagus. He discovered that Biederbeck had found the hidden serpent tongue key hidden in the sarcophagus. This key opened the bronze gates barring the entrance to the River of Life. Bierderbeck knew what the key would open and intended to use it for his own benefit. Furious Kathulos/Phibes set about to destroy the entire party of archaeologists.
Using a sandstorm as cover, Kathulos/Phibes turned the bed of one of the archaeologists into a giant press which crushed his body to paste but left his head intact.
The oldest man in the group was told to take Biederbeck's fiancee to safety. Phibes abducted the fiancee and turned the older man's car into a death trap. When the car's ignition was turned a sandblasting device that Phibes had installed blasted sand directly into the older archaeologist's face stripping it to the bone in seconds.
Kathulos/Phibes offered to exchange Biederbeck's fiancee for the key. Biederbeck had been searching for the River of Life for years. Biederbeck had extended his life by means of an Elixir that he had somehow acquired. Biederbeck had taken the last three drops enroute to Egypt. He was desperate to find a means of extending his life because he had finally after centuries of life he had found a woman that he loved very deeply.
Unable to free Diana from Kathulos/Phibes’ death trap Biederbeck handed over the key, choosing love over life at the end. Phibes opened the gates and began to float down the river on his raft. Kathulos/Phibes played the organ, standing on the raft that also contained Victoria Phibes’ coffin. After freeing Diana Biederbeck had hurried back to the gates only to find them shut once again. His elixir wore off and he aged rapidly, although this rapid aging could have been more for dramatic purposes in the film than what actually occurred, from the diary of Diana Trowbridge it seems that Bierderbeck lived ten more years before dying of rapid aging.
Phibes sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" as he floated out of sight.[46]
The papyrus that Phibes possessed was a second-hand translation of an even older document. The conjunction of stars did indeed tell of a river would signal the flooding certain caverns, however this was a warning to stay out of these caverns during this time period rather than a set of instructions on how to get into the caverns.[47] In Phibes’ papyrus the phrase The River of Life was a mistranslation of The River of Fire. As Kathulos/Phibes soon discovered the river he floated on turned into rapids which poured into a short spillway where it churned into a channel of molten rock and hot mud. The raft, coffin and Kathulos/Phibes were immolated.
Although this trip was a failure in the sense that the River of Life did not exist and Kathulos was not cured of his mummified state, in one sense it was a success since the River of Fire however did free Kathulos from his imprisonment in the mummified body. He was once again an energy form. Kathulos thought about his time in Atlantis and remembered that he had ruled another version of Atlantis under the name of Baal-Seepa until his enemy, his pursuer had once again thwarted his schemes there. He recalled that his enemy had striven to save a portion of these people when the island had sunk. Intrigued by this he sought out the area and discovered that there was a thriving community in the ocean rift where the island had sunken. He also sensed the presence of his enemy among them. He felt that with his many years of experience, most of his knowledge and all of his powers now available to him, this would be a good time to confront his enemy and finally destroy him.
In 1926 an undersea expedition was mounted to explore what would become known as the Maracot Trench. Professor Maracot had designed a diving bell that would carry a small crew of men to the ocean floor. He believed, contrary to the prevalent view, that the pressure of the ocean depths actually decreased the deeper one went. Therefore a vessel did not need thick walls to withstand crushing pressures nor would the pressures affect the crew as they traveled up and down the depths. His reasoning was based on the delicate body structures of many deep sea fish and other marine life. If the pressures were as great as science believed then the fish would have been crushed to jelly.
Upon reaching the target area of their research, Professor Maracot, his assistant Cyrus Headly and engineer Bill Scanlan were lowered from the steamship Stratford. Shortly after being lowered to a depth of 1800 feet their diving vehicle was attacked by large marine animal much like a giant crayfish. It snapped their lifelines, severing them from the ship. They quickly sealed their airline as they fell deeper into the trench. As their air was giving out they noted with detached interest that they had landed among the ruins of an ancient city. The inscriptions on the walls were in Phoenician. Just as they were nearly out of their oxygen supply they saw people outside the window of their vehicle, men dressed in transparent suits and a breathing apparatus of some type.
They were given three of the suits that allowed them to breathe underwater. They were then taken to a city enclosed in a glass bubble.
They would learn that this city was a remnant of an above ground island civilization of advanced science and learning called Atlantis. They watched a short historical film of the rise and fall of Atlantis. They later learned that this film was a recorded memory.
The Atlanteans had grown powerful on their island, rich with grain, wood and minerals. Trade with less developed countries had eventually turned into imperialism. As Atlantis grew rich and powerful, its citizens felt that manual labor was beneath them and so imported laborers by force. The slaves did all of the manual labor. As Atlantis grew ever more rapacious with conquest its citizenry became ever more corrupt, giving over to violence and depravity as symbolized by the dark gods they worshipped and by the bloody games they had for entertainment. A few people strove to bring back the golden age of a moral and upright society, among them was Warda, a mysterious scientist with arts and knowledge far beyond his humble background. He knew that the island was doomed to perish in massive volcanic eruption. Rather than flee or warn the island as a whole, Warda gathered a few followers and built a citadel that would withstand the devastation. He believed that the fire and flood would cleanse the island and expunge its sins from the world.
It was through his mysterious science that the sunken city survived.
The Atlanteans were a dark and swarthy people and they had a subservient ethnic group composed of light skinned and fair haired people. These were the descendants of Greek captives. The Atlanteans had been able to maintain the machines that provided them with energy and air but the need to keep the population small and the constant quest for food and resources had kept their scientific advances to a minimum. They were dependent on the devices that their ancestors had built. Maracot estimated it had been eight thousand years since this island had sunk.[48]
After a month of being in the sunken city Maracot's party was allowed to accompany some of the citizens on a trip outside of the city. They discovered to their horror the steamship upon which they had traveled had sunk with all hands. The engineer Bill Scanlan was able to rig up a radio receiver but he could not build a transmitter with the available technology.
They wrote a missive telling the world that they were alive and giving their location. They had it sealed in one of the plastic balls that the Atlanteans manufactured. They knew it was a long shot that someone would find it. Yet someone did almost immediately. A ship was dispatched to rescue them and contacted them by radio when it was in position. The three men and a young woman from the sunken city were lifted to the surface by means of a lowered wire attached to the plastic bubbles in which they rode. The young woman was Mona, a young lady with whom Headly had become romantically involved.
Upon their return to civilization they told their tale of the sunken city. Among the incidents that they related was one which has since been discounted as hallucinatory. This was their meeting with the being they named the Lord of the Dark Face.
Shortly before they left "Atlantis" Professor Maracot, Cyrus Headly and and Hanlon had gone exploring in the ruins of the ancient city that lay outside of the dome.
As part of their preparations prior to leaving, the three surface dwellers explored the parts of the sunken city not protected by the dome. Learning of this the being formerly known as Kathulos, now once again using the name Baal-Seepa went out to the unprotected part of the sunken city. When the party of the three surface dwellers entered the ruins of a temple dedicated to the Atlanteans version of the god named Baal, who was a big proponent of human sacrifice, Baal-Seepa made his presence known. To the surface dwellers he appeared like a tall man of at least seven feet in height wearing a black tight fitting outfit. He leaned up against a pillar watching them. Although the surface dwellers wore the Atlantean version of diving suits to explore the ocean covered ruins, it appeared as though Baal-Seepa needed not to wear one. He was unaffected by the water to the point that he could clearly speak to Professor Maracot and his party.
He told them that he was Baal-Seepa. He was an aether breathing being and did not need to breathe air. He said that he usually lived in the surface world but that people intruding into his temple had called to him. He said he had lived on the Earth for some twelve thousand years. His long life had made him bitter, so bitter that when he could do injury to mortals he would. He used his powers to accomplish this task.
"I have powers and they are not small ones. I can sway the minds of men. I am the master of the mob. Where evil has been planned there have I been. I was with the Huns when they laid half of Europe in ruins. I was with the Saracens when under the name of religion they put the sword to all who had gainsayed them. I was out on Bartholomew's night. I lay behind the slave trade. It was my whisper which burned ten thousand old crones whom the fools called witches. I was the tall dark man who led the mob in Paris when the streets swam in blood. Rare times those but they have been even better of late in Russia." [49]
Baal-Seepa claimed he had nearly forgotten about this city of water rats until Maracot's intrusion had awakened him. It was time to end the existence of this city. He handed Maracot an envelope, telling Maracot to give it to the leader of the city.
Baal-Seepa told Maracot and his companions that the citizens of the sunken city had to die since they were the followers of the man who had defied him. This was the scientist who had designed the wondrous dome and machines that had saved Atlantis. The man's name was Warda. Baal-Seepa claimed Warda still visited the Earth but as a spirit. To Baal-Seepa's delight his enemy seemed to not recall his past lives or recognize him. He could then destroy Warda and this city without interference.
After delivering his message Baal-Seepa's eyes flashed. He became blurry and indistinct, before the eyes of the astonished surface then as a dark mass he swirled up through the water of the temple[50]
Once his energy form had been freed of the mummy body Kathulos had taken over the body of one of the citizens of the submerged city, exerting all of his willpower to maintain his own personality. Since he was once again in the city he had once nearly controlled and nearly destroyed, he assumed his former name of Baal-Seepa. He learned that his enemy was a member of a scientific expedition that had accidentally stumbled upon this sunken city. This expedition was leaving shortly, returning to surface. Before they did however Baal-Seepa needed to destroy his enemy and the people that his enemy has saved from his wrath.
Baal-Seepa, like Kathulos had amazing powers of mesmerism, in this new form he was even stronger than he had been as Kathulos due to damage that the body of Kathulos had suffered during the mummification process. He used these increased mesmeric powers to make it appear as though he was not in one of the diving suit when he in fact was in one. His turning to mist before the eyes of Professor Maracot and the others was also another illusion.
The message that Professor Maracot gave to the leader of the Atlanteans commanded the citizens of the sunken city to meet in the great amphitheater and await Baal-Saapa's arrival.
Scanlan and Headly wished to confront Baal-Seepa with the Atlanteans at the appointed hour but Professor Maracot demurred, believing they could do nothing against such an entity. He went to his study to dwell on what course of action could possibly taken. When the summoning bell sounded, Scanlan and Headly were prepared to go to the amphitheater without Doctor Maracot but he astounded them by not only agreeing that they had to confront Baal-Seepa but he actually led the way with a vigor they had not previously seen.
Baal-Seepa made his way back to the sunken city. When the appointed hour came he appeared before the assembled citizenry of the city. He planned to strike Manda, the leader of the city of Atlantis and this would be a signal for the citizens of Atlantis to go on a killing frenzy amongst themselves. He realized that there was a good chance that the deaths would include the three surface dwellers and possibly his borrowed body.
When Baal-Seepa appeared before the people, Manda, the leader of the Atlanteans prostrated himself before Baal-Seepa begging for his people to be spared. Yet as he was about to strike, the surface dweller named Maracot stopped him.
Doctor Maracot jumped on to the dais and stood before Baal-Seepa.
He said to the entity "Your time has come. You have over stayed it. Go down! Go down into the Hell that has been waiting for you so long. You are a prince of darkness. Go where the darkness is."[51]
Baal-Seepa took issue with this statement and demanded how Maracot dared to speak to him when he could blast him where he stood.
Maracot replied, "Unhappy being. It is I who have the power and the will to blast you where you stand. "
Maracot argued that good was always stronger than evil and that an angel would always beat the devil. He ended his dialogue by commanding Baal-Seepa go down to Hell where he belonged.
Baal-Seepa suddenly recognized Maracot as Warda. His ancient enemy, Warda had appeared in this time and place to stop him. Warda had successfully hidden in Maracot until that moment. Although it appeared to the Atlanteans and to Scanlan and Headly that Maracot merely stopped Baal-Seepa with words, by telling him to go to hell, to go into the darkness he belonged, this was not the case. What transpired was an immense psychic battle waged across time and space.
Warda had outmaneuvered Baal-Seepa and attacked him on several fronts simultaneously, as Maracot confronted Baal-Seepa on Earth in 1926 A.D. he reinforced himself by connecting himself to form in 1901 which was an energy form which battled the energy form most recently known Baal-Seepa. Maracot and the energy form of Warda also mentally connected with their previous incarnation known as Benjamin Sisko who battled the pah-wraith currently in possession of Gul Dukat in 2375. [52] These three combined with the warrior Mika-El who battled the King-Warrior who called himself the Morning Star and was also known as L'mur-Kathulos 399,099 B.C.[53] Warda linked with two more of his incarnations, as Kull he fought Thulsa Doom in 18, 000 B.C.[54] and as Conan the Hyborean he fought Thulsa Doom in 10,000 B.C.[55] Thus linked Warda was able to focus the killing energy directly into Baal-Saapa. Just as Thulsa Doom in 18,000 B.C. collapsed into corruption so did Baal-Seepa in 1926.
After Baal-Seepa had died Maracot told the others that while alone in his study he had prayed hard for a solution. Suddenly a tall bearded man had appeared before him and laid his hands upon Maracot's forehead and vanished. Maracot believed that the spirit had imparted something of himself to Marcot.
Maracot and the others left the city of Atlantis shortly after this.
The battle across times and space culminated in 1901 near the star of Algol.[56]
In the winter of 1900-1901 the New York State Psychopathic hospital received a patient named Jake Slater. Like many patients Slater wore a strait jacket and raved of vengeance. Yet threats of vengeance were directed towards a blazing entity of light that only he could see. Slater also claimed he would burn his way through any obstacle to achieve his vengeance. Slater had been remanded to the Institution after having beaten one of his neighbors to death. Since this had been done while Slater suffered from a blackout brought on by excessive liquor consumption he was judged insane. His lunatic ramblings aside, to most of the staff, Joe Slater was nothing more than a backwoods drunkard who had become berserk while in the midst of a whisky binge.
However one young intern felt an immediate bond between Joe Slater and himself. This was surprising in a way since the young intern in question had a very elitist, snobbish view of society. He considered Joe Slater and the people of the Catskill mountain community, from where Slater came, in this regard "corresponding "exactly to the decadent element of "white trash" in the South, laws and morality are non-existent; and their general mental status is probably below that of any other section of native American people."[57]
Joe Slater had visions that he related to the young intern in chaotic but cosmic word-pictures. These visions were filled with gorgeous imagery and glittering realms of supernal radiance and vistas of outer space. The young intern could not believe that a man such a Joe Slater, a man who could neither read nor write, who had the "stolid imagination of a Catskill degenerate" could be the source of such wondrous visions. Rather he believed that Joe Slater was possessed by a lost soul from the dream realm. The Intern speculated that the trapped dream soul was trying to communicate with the outside world. "Could it be that the dream soul inhabiting this inferior body was desperately struggling to speak things which the simple and halting tongue of dullness could not utter?"[58]
The intern's attempts to communicate with the dream soul inhabiting Joe Slater met with frustration. He became desperate when Joe Slater's health took a turn for the worse and Slater began dying.
The intern had long believed that human thought consists basically of atomic or molecular motion, convertible into ether waves or radiant energy, like heat, light and electricity. This belief had led him to construct a device to transmit or receive which he had done during his college career. He had tested the device on a fellow student but to no effect. The intern retrieved and repaired this device and tested it upon Joe Slater.
The intern connected the device to his head and Joe Slater's head. Joe Slater died as the intern was tuning the instrument. The intern had a great sensation of music and light. A voice spoke to him telling him that Joe Slater was dead. The voice filled the interns mind.
"I am an entity like that which you yourself become in the freedom of dreamless sleep. I am your brother of light, and have floated with you in the effulgent valleys. It is not permitted me to tell your waking earth-self of your real self, but we are all roamers of vast spaces and travelers in many ages. Next year I may be dwelling in the Egypt which you call ancient, or in the cruel empire of Tsan Chan which is to come three thousand years hence. You and
I have drifted to the worlds that reel about the red Arcturus, and dwelt in the bodies of the insect-philosophers that crawl proudly over the fourth moon of Jupiter."
"Of the oppressor I cannot speak. You on earth have unwittingly felt its distant presence - you who without knowing idly gave the blinking beacon the name of Algol, the Demon-Star It is to meet and conquer the oppressor that I have vainly striven for eons, held back by bodily encumbrances. Tonight I go as a Nemesis bearing just and blazingly cataclysmic vengeance. Watch me in the sky close by the Demon-Star.
"I cannot speak longer, for the body of Joe Slater grows cold and rigid, and the coarse brains are ceasing to vibrate as I wish. You have been my only friend on this planet - the only soul to sense and seek for me within the repellent form which lies on this couch. We shall meet again - perhaps in the shining mists of Orion's Sword, perhaps on a bleak plateau in prehistoric Asia, perhaps in unremembered dreams tonight, perhaps in some other form an eon hence, when the solar system shall have been swept away." [59]
The intern's superiors refused to believe the reality of what the intern had experienced. Instead they believed that he had suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of overwork. They sent him on a six month paid leave.
Yet the intern believed what he had experienced was true. "yet I cannot forget what I saw in the sky on the night after Slater died. Lest you think me a biased witness, another pen must add this final testimony, which may perhaps supply the climax you expect. I will quote the following account of the star Nova Persei verbatim from the pages of that eminent astronomical authority, Professor Garrett P. Serviss:
"On February 22, 1901, a marvelous new star was discovered by Doctor Anderson of Edinburgh, not very far from Algol. No star had been visible at that point before. Within twenty-four hours the stranger had become so bright that it outshone Capella. In a week or two it had visibly faded, and in the course of a few months it was hardly discernible with the naked eye." [60]
In 1901 as the two energy beings battled with one another the star Algol flared briefly brighter as the energy being formerly known as Kathulos and Baal-Seepa was stripped of its energy and dissipated. Forcibly linked to his other selves the combined deaths diminished the Lord of the Dark Face until there was only a spark of life left.
It found the strength with its last bit of energy to once more bond with a physical body. He knew that this would be his last incarnation; he knew that once this cage of flesh was dead, his essence would also be extinguished
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RAS AL-GHUL
The being who had been known as Kathulos, Anton Phibes, Baal-Seepa, Gul Dukat, Lucifer, Tsoos-Ah and a thousand other names and lives, found refuge on Earth in the body of a young man in North Africa in 1312. Most of his memories were gone; he knew he had been nearly a god, that his enemy had defeated him near the star Algol. He also knew he had been so devastated by the assault of his enemy that this mortal shell would be his final resting place, that once the life was extinguished from this mortal body, he too would perish.
Most of his great ambition had been burned out of him but an ember of it still smoldered.
He chose a name appropriate to the area, Rashid. His thirst for power manifested in a more sedate manner, in the conventional sense of social advancement. He became a physician and an alchemist. He fell in love with a woman and he may have been content to live out his life as a mortal had not fate intervened. The son of a Sultan took a fancy to Rashid's wife and ordered her to join his harem. When she refused because of her marriage to Rashid, he seemed to accept her decision but looked for any excuse to end this marriage. Rashid the Physician treated a man suffering from a severe whipping and a sword cut. The man healed rapidly but Rashid felt that it was due more to the man's constitution rather than Rashid's skills. The man was a wanted criminal, he had tried to kill the Sultan's son. Instead of having Rashid arrested the Sultan's son tried to have Rashid murdered. Although Rashid escaped assassination, the Sultan's son tried to take his wife anyway. She threw herself out of a window rather than be dishonored.
Rashid attempted to enter the palace and kill the Sultan and his son. For his efforts Rashid was sentenced to be buried in a pit along with the man whose life he had saved.
A long harrowing three days followed in which Rashid and the other man burrowed their way out of the pit and to freedom.
Rashid the Physician was no more, he took for his name the Arabic name for the star where he had suffered his great defeat and become mortal. The star was Algol, the Arabic for it was Ras al Ghul, the Demon Head.
Together Ras al Ghul and Shoeya gathered many like minded men and led a rebellion against the Sultan. They woun in a long, brutal bloody battle in which Ras was severly injured and nearly killed. Shoeya was actually Iwaldi, one of the Nine. [61] Shoeya gave Ras a dose of the elixir without consulting the others, he knew that Ras Al-Ghul would never submit to being a Servant of the Nine, yet felt gratitude to the man. The elixir saved Ras' life and extended his youth. Yet he was told he could never receive another dose. Shoeya then disappeared from Ras Al-Ghul's life, lest Ras become so desperate for the elixir that he resort to torturing his friend.
At having been given a chance at a means of extending his life in this mortal shell, Ras devoted his time to discovering a means of replicating the elixir. Using his own blood as a base Ras tried to replicate the formula. He finally distilled a version of from his blood that was effective at first. It slowed his aging but lost its effectiveness over time. It may have been abandoned vials of this version of the elixir which Biederbeck (from The Return of Dr. Phibes) had somehow come to possess.
Seeking to extend his life, Ras traveled the world. He journeyed to various lamaseries in Tibet. One of these lamaseries told of a land of great magic and wonder. He traveled through a mountain pass, through a narrow tunnel carven into a mountain and exited in beautiful valley. In striving to find Shangra-La, Ras al Ghul discovered K'un-L'un.
He had dim recollections of the Elder Gods or powerful beings similar to them who had the ability to create small universes in a null space of the Universe. K'un-L'un was such a mini-universe.
Whoever had created this universe they had a great enthusiasm for Asian cultures without worrying too much about historical accuracy or cultural integrity. Elements of Chinese, Tibetian and Japanese cultures were present in an odd mélange. There were even living Chinese dragons. One twist was an intelligent species of plant named H'yulthri , which did not seem to be part of the original creator’s designs, the Dragons and H'yulthri preyed on the human population.
Ras al Ghul was mistaken for a reincarnation of Genghis Khan by the human population, a misbelief that Ras encouraged. He used this mistaken belief to incite the human population to use new tactics and strategies against their war with the plants and dragons. This allowed the humans to regain much of what they had lost and deal with the plants and dragons from a position of strength. Ras began to examine the old ruins that had been overrun by the plant and dragons. He discovered various pieces ancient technology including a device that led to unfinished universe. He discovered that when the blood of a human being was mingled with that of a dragon, the mixture created a highly toxic, caustic chemical that Ras believed would regenerate and rejuvenate, if the caustic elements could be neutralized to a great degree.
Ras learned of the Highlander Immortals and rightly deduced their connection to the planet, although he had no knowledge of the electro-magnetic field,[62] he believed it was a form of magic connected to what would later be called ley lines. He usually referred to them by the Chinese description as the "dragon current", or lung-mei, which existed in two forms: the yin, or negative, current represented by the white tiger, and the yang, or positive, current, represented by the blue dragon. These lines of magnetic force were key ingredients to the creation of what would be known as his lazarus bath. Using a form of the elixir derived from his blood, mixed with an alchemical potion of poisons and acids, Dragon blood and human blood placed on the dragon lines, Ras Al-Ghul developed a method to not only extend his life but also rejuvenate himself.
Ras did not stay in K’un L’un but for a few years, finding the small area rather stifling, although he would return several times over the next few centuries Ras returned to the outside world.
Because Ras Al-Ghul had achieved a form of immortality on his own and because he had great wealth, he was contacted by Iwaldi with an opportunity to join the ranks of the Nine, first as servant but with the promise to move into the ranks of the Nine when one of the Nine retired or died. As Iwaldi had believed Ras al-Ghul did not wish to be subservient to anyone and rejected the offer.
Once his goal of immortality was assured, Ras Al-Ghul turned his mind to other matters. He sought wealth and power. He achieved this over the course a century or more. In the early 16th century, he discovered the lost city of Yolgan. The name of which reminded him of Algol. The city was ruled by a cult of priests who worshipped the mummified body of a horned man-beast. Oddly enough this mummified effigy twigged something in Ras Al-Ghul's lost memories but he could not fathom what it was.[63] Ras gained control of the priesthood which also gave him access to great wealth in the mountain mines of Yolgan which were rich with gold and silver ore. One of his innovations to the faith of Yolgan was the idea that Erlik Khan, the God of the Underworld had won a cosmic battle and so he was the god of the Night skies as well as the underworld. To symbolize this he adopted a star symbol as the symbol of his priesthood, upon learning that a certain family in Yolgan possessed a star shaped skin blemish, he made the women of this family his hereditary high priestesses.
Mount Erlik provided Ras Al-Ghul with a constant source of wealth that had only three minor inconvenient interruptions. In the 1860's a hideously deformed man whose face resembled a skull even more so than did Kathulos. A description of this man was as thus, "His eyes are so deep that you can hardly see the fixed pupils. You just see two big black holes, as in a dead man's skull. His skin, which is stretched across his bones like a drumhead, is not white, but a nasty yellow. His nose is so little worth talking about that you can't see it side-face; and the absence of that nose is a horrible thing to look at. All the hair he has is three or four long dark locks on his forehead and behind his ears." [64]
The man had run across the lost city of Yolgan as part of a campaign against the Emir of Afghanistan he carried out as a commission for the Shah of Perisa. He had learned of the Cult of Mokanna. Mokanna or "The Veiled," was the founder of an Arabic sect in the eighth century. He wore a veil to conceal his face, which had been greatly disfigured in battle. He gave out that he had been Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Moses and the incarnation of Allah. When the sultan Mahadi marched against him, he poisoned all his followers at a banquet, and then threw himself into a cask containing a burning acid, which entirely destroyed him. Or he either poisoned himself and his family, or set fire to the place, and calling on his women and all who would ascend heavenward with him, to follow his example, cast himself with them into the flames, and perished. A cult that believed Mokanna would eventually return had risen around his legend.