Graz’zt is the prince of the demons and lord of the Abyss: the power that made the world, who controls the guardians and is now handing over Antiterra in exchange for Sigil, “which is what he never could” take. His one recorded bodily mark is twelve fingers.
| Type | Character (demon prince) |
| Location | Triple Kingdom of Azzagrat (layers 45, 46 and 47 of the Abyss) |
| Spouse | the Countess |
| Spanish entry | Graz’zt |
Description
No face, height or voice is preserved; when he appears, he wears someone else’s face. In a missive with a half-erased signature reading “Papa Graz’zt” he calls himself “the man of peace, the man of poverty, the man who loves and guards creation”.
He was once seen bastante finamente (“rather finely”), “weak, a retired type”; at another time “at home, quiet … very run-down, very shabby, very undignified”. After meeting the entity of the records his condition changed “from one moment to the next”.
History
- In a cell on the world called the dark sun of Atas he spent a thousand years writing formulas of dual magic on the panels. The vault U-571 of the Mercaim still holds the space he left, which “even he had forgotten at one point”.
- Centuries ago he attacked Mecanus. He appeared, or did something, in the dead-magic zone of Dulis.
- His weakening lasted an era; his restoration, an instant. The companions freed him (“one of them is Graz’zt and you freed him”), which caused the current conflict: it was he who had locked away the threat of the war that now returns.
- He wants to send the group on a displacement of 1,180 years.
Powers and methods
He can control the guardians but is not one, and is not immune to magic. Nor is Elaina (“el Aina”) a guardian; her link to him is unexplained.
Twelve is his unit: twelve fingers, twelve sons, a shadow behind each son, twelve platforms. He plans to set his sons as guardians of the twelve platforms; one of the first was killed. He is credited with two platforms more than Sisi.
Unable to take Sigil “when he was more frontal”, he turned to indirect arts: brainwashing at his dark masses; taking bodies (one who fought Helter judged by the blows that it was “Graz’zt disguised as Helter”); gifts and pacts. His right hand is Caxathros, who “also started out rather feeble”. He now acts from Mordhek’s side, “either lost or shut in a dream”, without appearing.
He took the place of Tiamat, whom others call Takhisis, as the multiverse’s greatest adversary, and is one of three cosmic antagonist forces with God and Yog-Sothoth — the one “very much sidelined”. He is the one who truly knows Antiterra. Lucifer’s daughters were kidnapped by him.
Lord of Antiterra
Material recorded under the name “Grast”, a dictation variant of Graz’zt.
Graz’zt is the power that owns and made Antiterra, and that reigns in its chaos. A saying with witnesses states: «Este mundo es de Graz’zt» (“This world is Graz’zt’s”).
Description
Graz’zt appears only “in the form of a simulacrum”, a construction assembled on the spot that is not him. The simulacrum looks like a fat man, “half fucked-up but very charismatic”, with his hair combed back and standing up.
History
- When Arian gives Graz’zt the True Name, Graz’zt creates Antiterra. Arian holds and uses that name, the only known means of moving Graz’zt to act.
- Terra and Antiterra fell under his action once, before the present cycle.
- The archmage Eagwulf (also written Iggwilv) “managed to trap Graz’zt”; enmity remains from it.
- In the present cycle he is located in Venice, in the center of the city (obtained imprecisely, under a time-suspension effect).
Powers and abilities
- The gods forbade dual magic; Graz’zt was “the one who best managed to handle it”, better than those gods.
- He exists in several simultaneous temporal versions: “the original” and variants in other times. Capturing one version removes one fifth of his total power; only then can the rest be attacked.
Relationships
Tel is predestined to be his wife. Deals can be made with him, at least regarding Mecanus. The only recorded countermeasure to his chaos is “having things clear and putting them in order”.
Conflicting accounts
- One tradition gives his true name as Tiriel, under the variant “Graz”.
- Another suspects that “Graz’zt” is itself a corruption of an older name.
Open questions
- Did he destroy Terra and Antiterra before or after creating Antiterra?
- Did he escape Eagwulf’s prison, and did Tel become his wife?
- Is there a body behind the simulacrum, and does “one fifth” mean five versions?
- What the Mecanus deals are, and who holds them, is not recorded.
Conflicting accounts
- His confinement lasted a thousand years in one account; another says he “shut himself away 300 years”. Whether these are two confinements or one is unresolved.
- He is given both as dormant and as active (“now gathering armies”); the order of these states is unknown.
- Whether he “still has a home in Antiterra” is disputed; he appears everywhere without being anywhere, and is not in Europe “now”.
Open questions
- How he can be both maker of the world and a demon imprisoned and freed by a band of companions.
- What dual magic is, and who holds the panels.
- What the twelve platforms are, and how they fit the twenty-four guardians.
- Which title (prince of the demons, prince of the shadows, lord of the Abyss, “Papa”) is earnest and which ironic; what príncipe de las tiendas (“prince of the shops/tents”) means.
- Who the entity of the records is, and what it gained by restoring him.
- What he did at Dulis, and whether the dead magic is his work.