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“ | I am not the incarnate evil that you seem to believe, merely a man grown far older and wiser than the herd. | „ |
~ Mordred Glendower |
Mordred Glendower is the main antagonist of Brian McNaughton's 2011 Cthulhu Mythos novel Downward to Darkness (originally released in 1978 under the title Satan's Mistress). He is an ancient wizard who reincarnates in the bodies of his descendants through incest, and is the ancestor of Patrick Laughlin.
Biography[]
Glendower was a practitioner of the dark arts who lived in the nineteenth century. Possibly a native of Wales, he came to America in 1810 and settled in Mt. Tabor, Connecticut. He constructed a mill on Pine Hollow Road and made it his home.
Glendower was despised among the local people, not helping his public image by marrying the young and beautiful Purity Jennings. He frequently engaged in litigation over encroachments on his land, both real and imagined, and used black magic to make sure he always had enough money to survive. Hatred of him increased even more when his wife died soon after giving birth to his daughter Mirdath. Poisoning was suspected, but nothing was proved.
In 1830, Mordred impregnated his daughter through incest and she later gave birth to a son. Several years later, three infants disappeared from their cradles in the night. The locals blamed Mordred and burned down his house after discovering that he had eaten them as part of a ritual to gain immortality. Mordred and Mirdath were both killed, but the son escaped.
Unknown to the son, the inbreeding that led to his birth was a dark rite to ensure Mordred's survival. Mordred realised that in the event of his death at the hands of the villagers (the only way he could be killed after his ritual) he could be reborn in the body of his descendants if the descendant was born from parental incest. However, the son's lack of knowledge of this led to the family going for years without inbreeding, putting Mordred in danger of disappearing forever.
Towards the modern day, one of Mordred's descendants (who led a cult and believed himself to be God) had sex with and impregnated his daughter Rose. Rose, semi-aware of Mordred's legacy, married Frank Laughlin to cover it up. She later gave birth to a son, Patrick. Much later, a spell cast by Dr. Howard Ashcroft accidently awakened Mordred's spirit in Patrick's body.
During a Halloween party, Patrick was attacked by a school bully named Bruce Curtis. To defend his earthly body, Mordred uttered the First of the Ten Words that are the Litany of Hastur and put Bruce in a coma. Patrick shortly after began talking in anachronistic language from the nineteenth century.
Patrick soon became aware of Mordred when he took control in order to revive Mirdath and learn magical secrets from her, as she was a greater sorceress than he ever was. He did so, taking Patrick's classmate Shana Jennings with him for the trip. After he brought her back, Mordred forced Patrick to rape Shana before feeding her to the undead Mirdath.
Taking Mirdath back to the mill, Mordred beat her multiple times with a baseball bat to try and force her to tell him the remaining Nine Words. He soon decided to feed more people to Mirdath, over Patrick's objections. By threatening to feed Patrick's father to Mirdath, he forced Patrick to entrap his neighbour Mrs. Miniter to be eaten by Mirdath. He also planned to rape her daughter Amy to satisfy his perverted desires. Fortunately, on consuming Mrs. Miniter Mirdath concluded that Patrick was lying about being possessed and ate him, killing both Patrick and Mordred.