Samhain

Alexander before Samhain

Lord Samhain is the legendary ruler of the Underworld who reigns over the Realm of the Dead.

Background

Thousands of years ago, Samhain was once a mortal man, but he insulted the gods and was sentenced to rule the Underworld for all eternity. He was left mateless, robbed of sleep, robbed of movement, and robbed of companionship. He is bound to his throne; it is part of him; he cannot move anymore (although he is able to tilt his hand to pound hs chair arm with his fist). He is further bound by chains and shackles. Over the centuries, he has become virtually emotionless and has no sympathy for the mortal souls whom he judges and presides over. He hates mortals for the mortality that he lost. His throne is located by the Sea of Souls.

Samhain judges the spirits that come to his realm, deciding what next stage of the afterlife will be for each one.

Once a knight came to the Land of the Green Isles from a distant land seeking to spare the soul of his dead lover. He apparently failed, as Alexander finds the knight's remains and retrieves his gauntlet, with which he challenges Samhain. He succeeds in making him cry in order to save the souls of King Caliphim and Queen Allaria.

Alexander made Samhain cry by showing him the Mirror of Truth given to him by Beast. Samhain saw in the mirror all of those centuries of his pitiable existence, bound, motionless and emotionless, and for the first time felt pity for himself, shedding a single tear for all that he had lost.

Personality and traits

He is harsh and quick with his judgments, and he is not to be dallied with. One must be sure and stalwart to defeat him. Only one living man has ever entered the presence of Samhain, and lived to tell the tale; before Alexander, no mortal man had yet ever succeeded in his long history. The Lord tolerates no living flesh in his kingdom of eternal sleep.

While Abdul Alhazred is wicked indeed, next to Samhain he is but a mere child.

His legs have rotted away, leaving only bones. This adds to his inability to move.

Titles

• Death
• Lord of the Dead
• He Who Reigns Beneath the Sod
• Lord of Death
• Lord of Coldness and Despair
• Ruler of Underworld
• Dead Head

See also

• Samhain (KQGS)

Behind the scenes

Samhain ("summer's end") is a Celtic feast for the dead and the word signifies the month of November.

The concept of Samhain as a god of the dead originates from the 1700's but is not part of any actual legends see Samhain. This idea is often considered offensive by modern Neo-Pagans, Wiccans and Druids who blame it on 'Christian fundamentalism' propaganda.

The concept of a lover who enters the Underworld in order to find his beloved one and bring her back to life, like what the knight did for his beloved, is common in myths. In Greek mythology Orpheus went to Hades to ask Eurydice back.

While there are some elements of Samhain's realm that resemble aspects of Greek and Roman mythology such as Hades (or Charon & the river Styx), in Greek and Roman legends, Pluto (aka Hades) ruled the underworld, but he was not the personification of Death; that was the role of Thanatos, a kind of angel of death. The judges of the dead were Minos, Aeacus, and/or Rhadamanthus depending on the legend. These were several separate characters, where as Samhain appears to be a judge of souls, the ruler of an Underworld and a personification of Death, all in one. A similar role is shared by Lord Azriel in the Dimension of Death.

Samhain and Azriel's roles are somewhat like that of King Minos in Dante's Inferno in the Divine Comedy, who was the judge at the edge of Limbo and decided where souls went to in the nine circles of Hell.

In KQ lore Charon also takes the form of the traditional medieval personification of Death, aka the grim reaper (making him the first character to be called "Death" to appear the series as he originally appeared in KQ2, and mentioned as Father Death in KQ4, though the latter may also be a more direct reference to the 'grim reaper' character). Samhain was the second personification of Death to appear.

Samhain's appearance and that of his realm seems to be influenced by the works of H.R.Giger and cenobites of Hellraiser.