THE CORNERSTONE CHARACTERS

THE THRYGRAGOS BROTHERS

The Great Gods known individually as Varuna Ahriman Mithras (or, according to some, the VAM Entity), Lazareme the Libertine, & Unmoving Byron. Along with the Trigregos Sisters (who, as shown in pH-4, never left the second Weirworld), they make up the Second Generation of Devazurkind.

In "Feeling Theocidal" (as of the Fall of 2008, the latest PHANTACEA Mythos print publication), Thrygragos Lazareme is also known as both Thrygragos Everyman and the Lackland Libertine whereas Thrygragos Byron is also known as Bodiless Byron or, mostly by Lazareme, Brother Moon.

Neither Lazareme nor Mithras are factors in "The War of the Apocalyptics" (as of the Fall of 2009, the latest phantacea Mythos print publication).

Indeed, come the end of War-Pox it may yet prove the not even 500-year-long Age of Byron ended with it. (Might have a better idea of that when, come the Fall of 2012, "Goddess Gambit" becomes the latest phantacea Mythos print publication.)

"Tell us, son, who are you and of which tribe?”

[The Trigregos Sisters asked this of Thunder and Lightning Lord Yajur. They were speaking to him in their private 'Shelter' on New Weirworld. The date was their equivalent of Demetray-Tuesday, 2 Tantalar-December 59/1980, two days after the Launching of the Cosmic Express from Centauri Island.]

He told them.

“Better than the other two, we suppose,” they considered. “But only moderately. Thrygragos Lazareme at least had some small degree of passion; not to mention the occasional inclination to apply it appreciably. The other two might as well have been impregnating one of these Utopians’ development tanks for all they cared about pleasing us.”

That the Sisters held Lazareme in higher regard than his brothers, Great Byron and Thrygragos Varuna Mithras – not to mention their Father Sedon himself, whom they’d just left out of the equation apparently intentionally –  didn’t surprise Yajur. Many multiple millennia ago they’d had a thing for the Male Entity, humanized his distaff half, the Mnemosyne Machine, and spent many an hour sharing the same bed.

Perhaps they had more recently as well, whilst he was an impotent star. The Entities, along with Trans-Time Trigon, randomly tumbled throughout space as well as time whenever and wherever he died. And of course Lazareme looked like Helios not just by design. Sedon fashioned him, his firstborn, out of Helios just as the latter formed him out Cabalarkon (Sed’s Daddy Cabby) and Sedon thereafter did for Thrygragos Byron out of himself.

... from "Helios on the Moon", the third entry in the 'Launch 1980' story cycle

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The Thrygragos Talismans

As detailed in 'The War of the Apocalyptics' (the second all-prose PHANTACEA Mythos novel and the opening entry in the Launch 1980 cycle of stories), Old Man Power (OMP) had their Brainrock power foci (The Thrygragos Talismans: The Cross of Mithras, the Mask of Byron and Lazareme's Cloak of Many Colours) in his possession on November 30, 1980.

As discovered in 'Coueranna's Curse', Magister Joseph Mandam had them at Castle Nightmare in January 1938.

From shortly after his birth circa 2000 Year of the Dome (YD) until Thrygragon in 4376 YD, the constantly recurring deviant Chrysaor Attis had them as part of his regalia. He also had the Trigregos Talismans. How he lost them, and who acquired them, comes near the end of "Feeling Theocidal", the first all-prose PHANTACEA Mythos novel and Book One of the opening entry in 'The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories' epic fantasy trilogy.

Thrygragon occurred on Mithramas 4376 YD. That the Six Great Godly Glories (the collective term for both the Thrygragos and Trigregos Talismans), or something like them, fell into the hands of Helena Somata, the then Master of the Weirdom of Kanin City, is a PHANTACEA pHact (or fact, if you prefer).

Long prior to the Thousand Days of Disbelief, which coincided with Columbus 'discovering' the Americas in 1492 AD, they were transferred to the Weirdom of Cabalarkon (Sedon's Devic Eye on a map of the Hidden Continent) where for a time Master Morgan Abyss wielded them very successfully against Dark Sedon and indeed all the remaining Great Gods and Master Devas.

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Thrygragos Varuna Mithras

Thrygragos Varuna Mithras is myrionymous. He goes (or went) by many names on both sides of the Cathonic Dome. In not just the PHANTACEA Mythos he is thought of as the embodiment of Truth, Light and Justice.

Consequently, whenever one asks, wherever one is: 'Whatever became of Truth, Light and Justice?' one might as well ask 'Whatever became of Thrygragos Varuna Mithras?'. One answer is proposed in 'Feel Theo'.

With respect to the aforementioned VAM Entity, here's a thought-quote from "Feeling Theocidal" (Mithras himself is doing the thinking):

Plenty of creeds the Eurasian world over allegedly had Mithras as being but one-third of an imaginary triad. At least one of the many legends the Legendarian brought back from the Outer Earth concerning him conceptualized this consequential VAM Entity as the Male Trinity, the first true Thrygragos.

The VAM Entity, he could recall that legend. By its reckoning Mithras was the sun of dawn and the day whereas Varuna was the moon and stars of night. As for Ahriman, he was the darkness of a starless, moonless night, of a total solar or lunar eclipse, of beneath the ground where plants root, minerals are found, and the dead are buried.

More on the VAM Entity shows up in "The 1000 Days of Disbelief", the second book in 'The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories' trilogy. In it, the Legendarian speculates on the existence of Ahriman.

Tethys glanced at the copy of the Odyssey lying on the coffee table. His eyes suddenly brightened noticeably. “But,” he blurted as if in an epiphany, “What if Mithras had a litter that predated Phantast, Methandra and Tantal; that came before Coueranna, Marut Kanin and Belialma; Zuvem-Gravedigger, Domdaniel-Pride and bullish Plathon; or any other Mithradites, such as Pyrame and her Ninth, the rest of the Nergalids, the Apocalyptics, and the devils of Pandemonium?

”That said, he seemed to reconsider this theory briefly. “Mind you, there is no firm evidence to suggest Mithras had a hidden litter. There are, I’m informed by the likes of pal Pyrame and, yes, Mithras himself, ample indicators that a malevolent force has been at work amongst the always disputatious Mithradites since well before devazurs came to Earth.

“That force has a name: Judge Druj or Ahriman, the original Prince of Darkness, the flip side of the Dualists’ Deity.” The Fatman perked up at this. “You’re talking Persian fire-faiths: that of the Magi and Zoroastrianism; then, much later on, that of the Heretical Christian, Mani or Manichaeus. You’re equating Mithras with Ahura Mazda or Ormuzd, the Lord of Light. And why not? Ahura Mazda does sound a little like Varuna Mithras.”

“That’s what Mithras himself used to say, Al. I should know, too. For a mite more than a couple of centuries pre-Thrygragon, I used to spend hours drinking his surprisingly enjoyable beer up there atop Theopolis Hill, in his still-standing Mithradium, over on Apple Isle."

... from 'The Thousand Days of Disbelief'

Seemingly, Thrygragos Mithras did not survive Thrygragon; that is to say he's had the common courtesy to stay dead ever since. According to the Hidden Continent's own intrinsic mythos, Thrygragos Lazareme has kept his severed head to use as a pillow on Tympani, Eardrum Isle, that of the Undying One, in the Aural Sea (Sedon's Ear on a map of the Hidden Continent).

NOTE 1: in the Phantacea Mythos, the commonest depictions of the Roman Mithras (such as this one ==>, which can be found in the Paris Louvre and double-clicks to enlarge) actually depicts his deviant half-son, Taurus Chrysaor Attis, one of the major charcters in Feel Theo;
NOTE 2: Attis's devic mother is Fitna Marutia (Strife), Mithras's Ewe for Aries; Mithras and Marutia were possessing the Dual Entities when he was conceived; his betrayal of her is believed to be the reason Strife cannot tolerate possessing a pregnant shell after her daemoic body and power focus were destroyed circa 4000 YD
NOTE 3: more on Phantacea's Attis can be found here and here as well as by typing in his name in the search engine at the top of the page and selecting which of the three main websites to search;
NOTE 4: in pHanta-phact Mithras does not appear in this relief; rather characters shown are Mnemosyne as the Moon Goddes, Helios as the Sun God, the aforementioned Attis and the Idiot Twins, Tammuz and Osiraq, who feature in "The Death's Head Hellion";

PHANTACEA's Mithras is depicted on Feel Theo's front cover wielding his cross in the form of an oversized, sword-like ankh; PHANTACEA-specific imaginings of how Mithras generally appeared can also be found in collages reproduced here, here and here;

- a growing list of online references re non-pHant Mithras (Mithra, Kronos/Saturn, St Michael, St George, so on and so forth) is here;

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Thrygragos Byron

As depicted in 'Forever & 40 Days - the Genesis of PHANTACEA' (a graphic novel published in 1990 that is still available for ordering), when the Moloch Sedon divided up the Whole Earth amongst himself and his three sons shortly after arriving on the then Whole Earth, he assigned Byronics the entirety of the Americas.

Consequently, the Olmec heads on both sides of this paragraph may well represent the Unmoving One. They certainly do within the context of the phantacea Mythos.

The image the emerging Byronics projected was akin to rings around Saturn in effect. More generalized star-shapes than distinctive, individually recognizable entities, they seemingly orbited the moonlike, if not quite moon-massive, benign-looking Buddha-head that was their otherwise bodiless father.

Boulder-bald and three-eyed, that was as accurate a description of Great Byron as any. Might have passed for a beardless Oriental sage – one  depending on his mood, with or without epicanthic folds around his array of eyeballs – had he had a body to support said Buddha-head.

... from "Harry on the Head", the unpublished sequel to the 'Aspects of an Amoebaman' web-serial

Something evidently disastrous happened to Bodiless Byron and his Primary Nucleoids above Sisert at the conclusion of 'The War of the Apocalyptics'. The same thing happened to them at the end of pH-5. Perhaps they were cathonitized; perhaps they were obliterated; they certainly didn't appear in pH-6.

BYRONIC NOTE 1: Unmoving Byron and all three of his Primary Nucleoids (as well as Gloriel D'Angelo - the Radiant Rainbow Rider) appeared on the wraparound cover of pH-4.

BYRONIC NOTE 2: How the Great God lost his body is preserved here. The sectional overview of the sequence wherein the original artwork appeared is here.

BYRONIC NOTE 3: There's an image of the Byronic Nucleus in atomizing action here and he appears as Brother Moon in a collage found here.

BYRONIC NOTE 4: Devil Wind (Vayu Maelstrom, one of Great Byron's Primary Nucleoids, shown here as he's depicted on the front cover of War-Pox, artwork by Ian Bateson, 2009) looks accordingly aboriginal since his abilities are much the same as the pre-Columbian American aboriginal deity 'Hurican', from whence our word 'hurricane';

BYRONIC NOTE 5: There are couple of porcelain Byrons on pHanta-pHlickr here and here; they were taken in Beziers, Southern France in 2014; unfortunately, while they are (at least) two-faced, they don't have three eyes and I didn't have time to request one made special;

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Thrygragos Lazareme

As of end-Tantalar 5980 (December 1980 -- for clarification, please see the counting-time entry) Lazareme (Thrygragos Everyman, among many other names) is presumably the last still surviving Great God.

Although he seemingly emerged from his lassitude no matter how briefly in order to help bring an end to the Thousand Days of Disbelief, he never really recovered from his ordeals on Thrygragon. Consequently he spends most of his time asleep.

As per this quote from "Feeling Theocidal", which is set in 4376 Year of the Dome (YD), devils refer to Lazareme as Thrygragos Everyman because he looks like literally anyone's idea of not just a Great God:

He was called Thrygragos Everyman because he seemed humanoid to a human, saurian to a Saur, ophidian to an Ophidian, androgynous to an Androgyny and so it went. For their part most devils saw him as today, as a bright blur vaguely in their own chosen shape.

The one commonality of his seeming was members of every species – save for pureblood Utopians, who despised devakind – perceived him as the faultless embodiment of his, her or its own genus. In that Lazareme was in some respects proof of the theorem that in every individual there resides the spark of godhood.

Put another way, if God, as he’d heard, was made in the image and likeness of whomever or whatever, he had an innate as well as effortless aptitude for making sure he looked the part.

That said, whenever he appeared in 'Forever & 40 Days - the Genesis of PHANTACEA' (a graphic novel published in 1990 that is still available for ordering), he looked a lot like the Male Entity, as per ==>.

Collages incorporating depictions of Thrygragos Lazareme are here, here and here. Should you so fancy, Photoshop your head in the hole here and you too can become Thrygragos Everyman.

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Perhaps oddly, his firstborn daughter, the incomparably gorgeous, yet nonetheless thought-hellish Harmonia, Lazareme's Unity of Balance (as well as -- certainly as far as she was concerned during 'Feeling Theocidal' anyhow -- the Unity of Panharmonium), sees him as the howsoever speculative, 61st version of Helios, the one that called himself Alorus Ptah:

“And who do I remind you of, Harmony?”

“Yourself of course: Sky-blue skin, sea-green eyes and sun-blond hair.”

“And you, Order?”

“Much the same,” said Yajur, “Except with bark-brown skin and sparking hair.”

“In other words, I remind you of yourself. Chaos?”

“A bottle of beer wearing a jacket.”

Lazareme laughed. “Then all is as it should be."

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In this quote, the Male Entity (Heliosophos, Helios called the Sophos the Wise) tells Romaine Kinesis (Doc Defiance) how often he and Machine-Memory have encountered the devazur race. He also acknowledges that the Moloch Sedon based Thrygragos Lazareme on him, Helios:

"I kept coming back, lifetime after lifetime, time and space after different spaces and different times – sometimes even before them. On more than a few occasions I came across Sedon and his offspring. At times there were only his parthenogeny around: the Three Great Gods and the Three Great Goddesses, Thrygragos and Trigregos. One of the former, I don’t mind telling you, was even based on me whereas the latter three have formed a lasting bond with Mnemosyne and, to a lesser degree, myself."

... from "Helios on the Moon", the third entry in the 'Launch 1980' story cycle

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Thrygragos Lazareme and his many offspring, primarily his firstborn Unities, were the featured characters in 'The Thousand Days of Disbelief', which came out in the form of three mini-novels. A couple of them appeared subsequently, playing significant roles in "Helios on the Moon" in particular, but they're never too far away from the action in any era.

Here's a quote from one of the post-Limbo novels that will probably start coming out in 2016. There's much more on 'Anarchism and Phantacea' here.

"... Yajur’s the Unity of Order, not Anarchism, though he is an anarchist. All the Lazaremists are, none more so than their father, though it’s more rulers than rules they hate. Figure everyone’s born knowing all the rules anyone will ever need and they’re probably right. Nurture, not Nature’s the problem."

... from "Wilderwitch's Babies", the 2016 continuation of the Damnation Brigade saga

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THRYGRAGOS NOTE 1: The images to either side at the top of this entry are details taken from postcards I purchased in Nemrut Kommagene in Turkey during a tour I took through the area in 2003.

The one on the left has been identified as Zeus-Oromasdes but, in terms of the PHANTACEA Mythos, it's more reminiscent of Thrygragos Varuna Mithras. He had hold of Helios in the latter's Seventh Lifetime, which was when he fathered the Attis on Fitna Marutia (eventually Kore-Discord)

As for the one on the right, which supposedly looks like Elvis Presley, it's been identified as Apollon-Mithras-Helios. However, again in terms of the PHANTACEA Mythos, to my mind it's more reminiscent of Thrygragos Lazareme. Perhaps that's understandable because the Male Entity answers to Helios. See also here for more on the unmistakable resemblance between the two and why.

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THRYGRAGOS NOTE 2: The images in the Thrygragos Talismans section link to a larger entry on same, here. The two Olmec heads, which I shot at Mexico City's Museum of Anthropology in 2005, remind me of Bodiless Byron, who managed to keep his head when Xuthros Hor atomized his body in 366 Pre-Dome (PD).