🐙 The N'Garai are a fictional elder race in the Marvel universe that first appeared in 1974, in a prose story in issue #4 of the 2nd volume of Haunt of Horror. Their first appearance in a comic was in 1975, in issue #96 of the 1st volume of the X-Men comic book series. In the 1980s, likely due to the Aliens sci-fi horror franchise, the look of the N'Garai was changed to make them look more like the Xenomorphs.
Background[]
Origin, Culture and Society[]
The N'Garai are a race of demons created by Chthon, one of the Elder Gods (the spawn of the Elder Gods is known collectively as "Elderspawn"). Millions of years ago, they lived on Earth, where they enslaved the human race, treating them as pets, workers, and livestock. Sometime later, they were defeated by an as-yet-unidentified force, and were driven back to their own dimension.
The race is ruled by a king-like demon. Their master and a small number of elite N'Garai are highly intelligent and lead the warrior caste (aka, the lower caste), who make up the rest of the race. The warrior caste are brutally savage and bloodthirsty, and rely on numbers to overwhelm their enemies. They are varied in appearance, such as reptilian or insectoid forms and having things such as wings, tentacles, mandibles, fangs, pincers, claws, etc. The most common type have a bipedal reptilian form with two arms, claws, an elongated head with a mouth full of sharp teeth, and a long tail. It's a race that ranges in size from an average human to multi-story ones.
N'Garai cannot give birth; they are born from the cycle of violence, from the unborn who were conceived and consigned to violence. They possess superhuman strength and durability, being able to tear out a motor vehicle's engine through its hood. N'Garai can go up against a superhuman like the bloodthirsty Sabretooth. One was capable of eliminating a town's entire sheriff's office, and bullets weren't able to noticeably slow it down. The upper caste have various additional powers. These aren't always consistent, but have included regeneration, the ability to mentally control others, casting magical spells, and optical energy blasts.
In 1861, the N'Garai returned to Earth and battled the mutant Apocalypse, who slaughtered an entire tribe of the demons by himself. Recently, they have clashed with the Avengers, the Invaders, Doctor Strange and the Hulk. Their greatest enemies, though, have been the mutant superheroes of the X-Men who have repeatedly thwarted them, with Wolverine doing the most damage to them. On Earth, the N'Garai have their human servants, the Camarilla of the N'Garai, and human allies, the Cult of the Darkhold.
Camarilla of the N'Garai[]
- Main article: Camarilla of the N'Garai
The Camarilla of the N'Garai are a group of humans. based in San Francisco, who pledged their service to the N'Garai. (EXP: Issue #4, Volume #2, Haunt of Horror) Its leader, Jimmy Cruz, was a monsignor in the Catholic Church who desired to destroy Satan and his forces by whatever means necessary. To accomplish that goal, he turned to the N'Garai for power and their assistance. Its members summoned demons, and both extracted and bound souls. They tried to kill Satana, the heroic rebellious daughter of Lucifer, only to die at her hands.