| “ | Asag, wypalać, the lightless flame. | „ |
| ~ Diego's mutterings before his death. |
| “ | So he went to arrest the guy, maybe calm him down some, while I got the handcuffs on. There’s still part of me that feels guilty it was that way around. As I was cuffing him, there was this sudden intense pain in my hand. It was just as I touched the metal to close them; it was incredibly hot. I once took a welding class, ages back, just kind of on a whim, and made the mistake of forgetting that just because metal isn’t glowing red doesn’t mean it isn’t scorching hot. It was that same burn, too intense for your mind to process for a second, then all your nerves fire at once. It hurt, is what I’m saying. | „ |
| ~ Basira Hussain describing her arrest of Diego Molina. |
Diego Molina is a supporting antagonist of the Rusty Quill horror podcast The Magnus Archives.
He was a serial arsonist who, upon finding a paranormal book once owned by Jurgen Leightner, began to worship the destructive godlike entity he called Asag. He eventually joined the Cult of the Lightless Flame, an organization that worshipped the same god and hoped to wreath the entire world in fire. After the cult's failure to make a messiah out of their chosen one Agnes Montague, Diego would take control of the group before eventually being killed.
Appearance[]
Diego was a tall Hispanic man with a shaved head. He was described in being in his late forties in 2011 and being fairly athletic looking.
Personality[]
| “ | Not like I can vent to the others about what a prat Diego is. Got a lot of funny ideas. Still calls the Lightless Flame Asag, like he was when he was first researching it. I just really wanna tell him to get over it; I mean Asag was traditionally a force of destruction, sure, but as a church we very much settled on burning in terms of the – face we worship, and some fish-boiling Sumerian demon doesn’t really match up, does it? Plus there’s a lot of disease imagery with Asag that I’ll reckon is way too close to Filth for my taste, but no, he read it in some ancient tome, so that’s that – | „ |
| ~ Arthur Nolan on Diego Molina. |
Like most of the members of his cult, Diego worshipped destruction and loved the concept of ripping apart the lives of innocents out of sadism and a reverence for violence. He was aggressively fanatical and worked to burn the entire world simply to please his god. Even by the standards of his peers, he loved the Desolation obsessively, putting it above his own self-interest. This led to him seemingly losing his mind over the course of his life, to the point of degrading to a petty arsonist, albeit one who maintained paranormal abilities.
Diego was considered somewhat pretentious, and insisted on calling the Desolation Asag, seemingly because it made him sound smarter. Despite this, he was seemingly more self-aware than some of the other members of his cult and acknowledged that they could not raise a baby without a book on parenting. He was also somewhat power-hungry and held contempt for those who gave him orders.
Biography[]
Serving Arthur Nolan[]
Diego was born sometime in the earlier 1900s and researched the Sumerian demon Asag, leading him to discover the godlike entity known as the Desolation. He began to worship the Desolation, burning buildings and spreading destruction in its honor.
At some point in time, he met Arthur Nolan, another servant of the Desolation, who was putting together a cult with hopes of bringing about a fiery apocalypse where those who loved devastation would thrive. Diego joined, along with serial killer Eugene Vanderstock, Eileen Montague, and some others.
Arthur hoped to bring about their inferno through a ritual called “The Scoured Earth”, which would require a messiah of the Desolation to pave the way. Eileen volunteered to birth the messiah, and Diego worked with his fellows to create a giant, fiery pyre, upon which the birth would happen. The baby, named Agnes was born, and Diego helped to baptize her in boiling water.
Diego helped to raise Agnes, even purchasing a book on raising a child, which Arthur promptly burned. Eventually, the ritual was disrupted when the archivist of the Magnus Institute Gertrude Robinson bound her soul to Agnes, which prevented her from destroying the world. Although most of the cult wanted to kill Gertrude for this, Diego believed that killing her would result in Agnes dying and convinced the others to believe the same. As a result, the cult ended up protecting Gertrude more often than not.
Eventually, Agnes told the cult that it was her wish to kill herself and return to the Desolation, destroying their chances at ever achieving their goal. Nevertheless, Diego assisted in her suicide.
With Agnes gone, Arthur grip was weakened, and many of the cultists looked to Diego for leadership. Diego accepted this and took over, exiling Arthur.
Leading the Cult of the Lightless Flame[]
A few years later, Diego began working as an assistant curator of a Mexican museum. At some point, he lit a building on fire with himself inside and attacked the firefighters who came to stop it. He attempted to flee but was subdued for the police. Eventually, officers Basira Hussain and John Spencer came to arrest him. He whispered something in Spencer's ear which shook the man, and burned Basira when she tried to put him in handcuffs, but ended up going to the police station nonetheless.
Sometime later, Diego somehow got out of prison and became involved in a conflict with Gerard Keay. Gerard attempted to kill him, which resulted in Diego's entire body burning while Gerard was burned everywhere but his face. The pair was found unconscious and taken to the hospital, where Gerard found a medical scalpel and stabbed Diego with it, causing the man to self-immolate and die.
Powers and Abilities[]
Diego's position as a high-ranking servant of the Desolation gave him abilities to assist in spreading destruction. He was seemingly able to create fire with a thought and was capable of spreading it to massive proportions. His skin was fire-proof, but also dangerously hot. It was very difficult for him to die, as he did not age, and any attempt to kill him usually ended in the assailant burning up.
External Links[]
- Diego Molina on the Magnus Archives Wiki
