Ghant

GHANT

Real Name: Ghant (first name unrevealed)

Class: Human magic-user

Occupation: Magician

Group Affiliation: None

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: London, England

First Appearance: Hellblazer #178 (January, 2003)

Powers: Ghant was an astragalomancer who possessed the bone abacus, a map of creation, and could make divining with it and by casting bones. Ghant could bind souls, and open the circles of Hell. He was a master of interrogation and torture.

History: (Hellblazer #187 (fb), 188 (fb)) - <1984> Constantine and the magician Ghant were called in by officer Roger Bentham to investigate murders that resembled vampire attacks. They went to the island of Gruinard which was populated by the spawn of a succubus and a vampire. Bentham shot one of them, and was shocked when it reverted to a humanoid form and he realized it was just a child. Ghant and John performed a ritual to bind them to the island, putting a spell on a sheep skull, and taking some of it's smaller bones with them. As long as the bones were never on the same soil a wall would shut the monsters in on the island. Ghant began studying astragalomancy, and took the small sheep fragments to start a bone abacus.

(Hellblazer #178) - Ghant was in the employ of Domine Fredericks, who pursued the near-mythical Red Sepulchre. Domine knew the occult dealer Scrape Gillis, and had him killed, seizing his inventory. Unfortunately for Domine he had no idea what the Sepulchre looked like, so Ghant was given the task of torturing Scrape's ghost to make him talk. Ghant used his bone abacus to keep sending Scrape's soul to different circles of Hell for months, but he still proclaimed having no knowledge of what the Sepulchre was. Domine blackmailed John Constantine into helping him, so Gillis was no longer needed and Ghant disposed of his soul.

(Hellblazer #187, 188) - Ghant tortured a man to death to locate another bone for his abacus. The abacus demanded its next piece be from the sheep that bound the succubus children to Gruinard, because their years of suffering gave the bone power. Ghant knew he couldn't go to the island himself, because the children ate only adults, so he recruited Gemma Masters. She wasn't sure what her uncle John Constantine would think about her working with him, but he knew she was desperate for money. They drove to a town near the island of Gruinard, where no locals ever tread. Ghant went to meet his ally Roger Bentham, and Gemma read his diary, learning how he and John had bound the children. John and Roger rowed her out to the island, and Ghant told her to fetch him his bone. Gemma met the children, who were starving and horrified by their own existence, which demanded preying on others. They's been preying on their oldest members once they'd hit puberty. Gemma dug up the bones, and knew that she could take the sheep bone from Ghant's abacus to free them, so after a struggle she made him drop it. The freed children killed Roger, but Ghant escaped by leaping into the water.

Comments: Created by Mike Carey & Marcelo Frusin.