“The Dark Eidolon” is possibly one of Clark Ashton Smith's most notorious stories in the Zothique cycle, and my guess is it's due to its relatability. How many of us have yearned for revenge on past wrongs committed against us? Even better, how many of us wished for some kind of "outside assistance" in the matter... something beyond the ken of the material world. Precise and untraceable. If it was possible, would you sell your soul? How many times? Based on the "Dark Eidolon" story, wronged necromancer Namirrha partook of these sorts of dark, nebulous pacts twice. He easily fits the Faustian archetype, but to a more obscene and despotic level.

Within the confines of the realm of Zothique, the morally-ambiguous god Thasaidon seems to hold his ghostly gauntlet over much of the landscape. The world of Zothique is dying. Everyone knows it, and reacts (probably) how individuals in our world would probably do… who gives a care about things like ethics and morality when the sun is going to go out sooner rather than later? Why not vampirize every last drop of pleasure and ecstasy out while one still draws breath? Good and evil are unnecessary distinctions at this point, and the nebulous “in-between '' easily falls under Thasaidon’s aegis for the denizens of Zothique.

Though there’s not much background on the god’s personality, there are interesting contextual clues within Namirrha’s dialogue with the literal eidolon of Thasaidon in the story. It is indicated that Thasaidon believes that Nahmirrha should almost be thankful for Zotulla’s heartless trampling of him as a young boy, for had that specific event never happened, the dark necromancer-lord Namirrha might not exist in the first place. This heinous occurrence in Namirrha’s past should be seen as a blessing on the bloodstained road to power, as opposed to some random isolated event in the past. Thasaidon strongly urges Namirrha not to pursue vengeance upon Zotulla nor his decadent city of Ummaos.

The Devil, as an archetype, is present in many different cultures all around our world. He can take many different manifestations depending on the cultural matrix one is born in. One commonality of Devils in mythology, however, is quite a lot of them have an initiatory function with human beings. A literal shaktipat transferal of power takes place in liminal areas, such as the infamous crossroads where blues musician Robert Johnson purportedly sold his soul to Scrat himself. Traditionally speaking, a crossroads is a road that splits into threes… Interestingly enough, the tritone (a term used for a dissonant kind of musical interval used in quite a bit of heavy metal music) was known as the devil’s interval as well...

As we all know (or perhaps don’t know), the Devil has more at stake than just bestowing some worm-like human with untold amounts of power. Nothing is ever for free in his capable and chthonic hands. Everyone pays, in the end… no exceptions. Thasaidon is no different in this matter, but in his particular case, quantity seems to matter more to him than quality. If Namirrha exacts his revenge on Zotulla and his opulent city of Ummaos, the end result is a complete apocalypse of it and its citizens, who worship Thasaidon as their primary deity of choice. Now, if we are to assume the act of worship in Zothique gives deities a numinous form of energy to “feed” off of, this makes the matter of revenge much more complicated now. This hypothetical destruction of Ummaos ultimately means less veneration of Thasaidon and, well… he just can’t have that now, can he?

Understandably, Nahmirrha is rather nonplussed with Thasaidon’s “live or let live'' answer to his query on the matter of revenge, so he then proceeds to make a pact with yet another being known as Thamagorgos, Lord of the Abyss. Like many of CAS’s deities, not much is really said about Thamagorgos, but it is indicated during Namirrha’s pact-making process that this particular Abyssal entity resides within the cold, desolate and utterly inhuman blackness of space. This kind of motif is reminiscent of the Lovecraftian entities that lie in the vast beyond, far distant from any sort of terrestrial and even astral realms. In this instant, Nahmirrha is entrenching himself within the chaotic and utterly alien realm of the sublime as opposed to Thasaidon’s more earthly and material-realm concerns as a deity.

The Devil at least responds when spoken to… but does the Abyss? Can it even communicate or understand mere ants of human beings, even ones as powerful in sorcerous might as Nahmirrha? Obviously, if one has read the story, we know the pact is ultimately fruitless for Nahmirrha’s quest for power and revenge… though it could be argued he still “won” in the end, ultimately.

I would argue that, despite coming to a rather ignominious and utterly final end, Nahmirrha lived a spirited and succulent existence, full of conquering, wonder, and umbral majesty. He’s a fitting archetype for those of us who harbor many issues from our less-than-palatable past, and also a warning for us adamantine few to be sensible in how we direct “revenge” in our lives. One misstep, and even all of the strongest of luck, or darkest of pacts, won’t save you.