Valgavoth

Valgavoth, called the Devouring Father by his cult, is the extremely powerful elder moth demon who rules over Duskmourn.
==Description==
Valgavoth takes the form of an enormous moth. His massive head holds faceted eyes, feathered antennae, and a mouth filled with teeth like broken needles and shards of glass. His spindly legs end in claws and his wings meld with the walls of the House. He can spew clouds of acidic white webbing and bleeds ichor and hemolymph.
Valgavoth was once imprisoned in a house on a magically and technologically advanced plane. Unable to escape, he magically extended the barriers of his prison so that it would swallow the entire plane whole. This world, now known as Duskmourn, serves as both Valgavoth's prison and his feeding ground, using it to attract unsuspecting victims and feed upon their feelings and memories. Extremely powerful, Valgavoth was able to open doors to other planes before the Omenpath Era and possibly even during the Mending Era. Conversely, he can prevent planeswalkers from entering Duskmourn through normal means. He can bend time within the House.<c>Time Bends to My Will</c>
The Cult of Valgavoth is a group of survivors devoted to serving the demon, in hopes that he may cleanse the plane of fear and create a utopia for its inhabitants. His followers know that he honors "the Rite of Four," meaning that the demon will trade a boon to anyone who offers him four lives. Marina Vendrell and Winter are the only two people known to have made this deal.
===Appearance===
Valgavoth is a demonic entity whose physical form is both grotesque and imposing, embodying the malevolence he exudes. His appearance is ever-changing due to his molting process, where he sheds his old form and emerges anew. This constant transformation means that Valgavoth doesn't have a single, stable form. Instead, his body is a horrific amalgamation of demonic features that shift and morph with each rebirth.
In his most recent incarnation, Valgavoth's body is a towering mass of sinewy, dark flesh, adorned with jagged, bone-like protrusions that jut out at irregular angles. His skin is an eerie, shifting palette of deep purples and blacks, reminiscent of bruises and shadows. His face is a nightmarish visage, with multiple eyes of varying sizes that glow with an unholy red light, each one capable of moving independently to track his prey. His mouth is a maw of sharp, uneven teeth, perpetually twisted into a menacing grin. Long, clawed hands extend from his muscular arms, each claw capable of rending flesh with ease.
===Personality===
Valgavoth's personality is as malevolent and insatiable as his appearance suggests. He is the embodiment of fear and terror, driven by an unquenchable hunger for the dread and suffering of others. His intelligence is dark and cunning, always seeking new ways to instill fear in the inhabitants of Duskmourn. Valgavoth revels in the power he holds over his victims, taking perverse pleasure in their terror and despair.
Despite his demonic nature, Valgavoth is not a mindless beast; he is a calculating and strategic entity. He carefully manipulates the House to maximize the fear it produces, ensuring that no one ever feels truly safe. His awareness of every individual within the House allows him to tailor his horrors to each person's deepest fears, making their suffering deeply personal and inescapable.
Valgavoth's cruelty is tempered by a twisted sense of artistry. He views the creation of fear as an art form, meticulously crafting scenarios that push his victims to the brink of madness. He is patient, willing to wait for the perfect moment to strike and unleash his horrors. This patience is complemented by his adaptability, as he can mold the House and its entities to counter any resistance or coping mechanisms that the survivors might develop.
Ultimately, Valgavoth is a tyrant whose sole purpose is to maintain a realm of perpetual terror. His power is absolute within the House, and his influence ensures that Duskmourn remains a place where fear is the only constant, and escape is an unattainable dream.
==History==
===Origins===
Centuries before the Omenpath Era, Valgavoth was summoned out of the plane's demonic realm and into the mortal realm, a place he had never been before.Wizards of the Coast (September 27, 2024).Duskmourn: House of Horror Commander Decks inserts. He was summoned by one of the House's owners previous to the Vendrells, in hopes of using him as a simple service spirit. Greedily, he tried to gobble up everything he could. Too greedily, as it turned out: his summoners quickly realized what manner of being they'd called forth and tried to banish him. Though he was powerful enough to resist the banishment, he was weakened from forcing his way through the barrier between realms. The summoners managed to neutralize him by binding him to the structure of the house where they'd conducted the summoning, using ancient, powerful magic to bury him beneath the basement. They swore to maintain a vigilant watch to prevent him from breaking free. But, as time passed and all the original summoners died, the house passed into the hands of others. All the while, Valgavoth bided his time, waiting for someone to come along and loosen his shackles. 
Decades before 4564 AR, when the Vendrells purchased the House, a sixteen-year-old Marina Vendrell came across the demon in the the House's cellar. Seeing a path to his freedom, Valgavoth befriended her, helping her to learn demonology, necromancy, and spirit-bending.
One day, after particularly vicious bullying, Marina returned home distraught. Screaming and crying, she poured out her pain and rage to her friend in the basement. Her friend listened in patient silence, and when her words finally died down, he offered to fix the matter for her. In that moment of misery and anger, she agreed. Following Valgavoth's instructions, she lured her bullies to her house and took them down to the basement. However, she was unprepared for what happened next. She watched, horrified, as the hungry entity came alive and devoured the bullies. Too late, she realized that her "friend" was something far more malevolent than she could have realized. She fled the basement and locked the door, vowing that she would never have anything to do with the entity again. But it was already too late.
Empowered by this first sacrifice, Valgavoth began to hunt. People around Marina began to meet sudden, unexplained, and terrifying ends. The neighborhood began to warp as well, twisting and growing strange and terrifying. But most disquieting of all, the house itself began to warp and grow, expanding to envelop the houses to either side. At first, Marina tried to pretend nothing was happening, even as the zone of influence increased and the occurrences became too obvious to ignore. But then, her parents vanished. Unable to deny it any longer, she delved into research and the history of her family's house and discovered that the entity in the basement was a demon. Previous owners of the house had summoned the demon but quickly lost control. To stop themselves from being devoured, they'd bound the demon to the physical structure of the house and fled. Trapped and unable to feed, the demon had sunk into hibernation and bided his time—until Marina came along and unwittingly loosened his shackles.
Faced with the full truth at last of what she had done, Marina confronted the entity and demanded it stop. If it didn't, she would burn the entire house down. Powerful though he was, the demon was still bound by his original summoners' curse. Destroying the house would kill him as well. With no other choice, the demon agreed to give her back the world as she remembered it. Marina accepted, relieved that she had bested the demon and restored the world to normality … as far as she could perceive, anyway. In reality, the house continued to expand. The horrors continued to increase, drowning all who lived within in terror. The demon grew in power until the entirety of the plane was swallowed up in the walls of Duskmourn.
===Ascension===
Valgavoth's most significant achievement is known as the Ascension. This event marked his successful expansion of the House's boundaries to encompass the entirety of the plane, transforming it into what is now known as Duskmourn. The Ascension was a gradual process, involving the absorption and corruption of the surrounding environment and the folding of the demonic realm into the House's confines. This monumental transformation granted Valgavoth a profound psychic connection to the House, effectively making it an extension of his consciousness.
===Dominance===
Following the Ascension, Valgavoth established absolute control over Duskmourn. The House, imbued with Valgavoth's consciousness, gained a level of sentience, allowing Valgavoth to monitor and manipulate every aspect of its environment. He could track the movements and thoughts of every inhabitant, ensuring that fear and terror permeated every corner of the House. His ability to control the House's layout and the behavior of its monstrous entities made escape or resistance nearly impossible for the survivors trapped within. One of his first acts after ascending was killing most of the plane's other demons and breaking the rest, ensuring none could challenge his rule.
Valgavoth's primary objective is to sustain himself by feeding on fear and terror. The House is designed to create an endless loop of horror, where survivors are constantly subjected to new and terrifying experiences. Valgavoth's hunger for fear is insatiable, and he orchestrates events within the House to maximize the terror experienced by its inhabitants. This endless cycle of fear is punctuated by periods known as Harrowings and Quiescences, corresponding to Valgavoth's molting process. Quiescences corresponding to the weeks before a molt offer a brief respite as Valgavoth focuses inward on his growth. Harrowings, on the other hand, are days-long periods after a molt when his malevolent energy peaks, causing a surge in the House's activity and the birth of new horrors.
===Expansion through Omenpaths===
Extremely powerful, Valgavoth can open doors to other planes, though it is costly enough that only a single door can be opened every few years. With the emergence of Omenpaths, connections between planes became more accessible. Valgavoth exploited these paths to extend his influence beyond Duskmourn, luring unsuspecting victims from other planes into his domain. This expansion has allowed him to draw in a steady stream of new sources of fear, ensuring that his hunger remains sated.
A few years into this cycle, Valgavoth opened a door on Kamigawa and drew in the echo of the former planeswalker Tamiyo, prompting her son Nashi to gather a search party and enter the House in search of her. Valgavoth's true goal in capturing Tamiyo and the extraplanar travelers was to learn of all the planes of the Multiverse so he would be able to open his doors across them all.
Eventually, Winter led the Wanderer and Niko Aris into a trap set by the Cult. Valgavoth manifested himself in the cultists' ritual chamber and opened a door to Innistrad, allowing Winter to leave. However, the planeswalkers managed to escape their bonds and fight back, while Nashi destroyed Tamiyo's echo to stop Valgavoth from exploiting it. When the demon seemed to have the upper hand, he was suddenly impaled by Kaito Shizuki, who provided the team with an opportunity to escape via an artificially created Omenpath.
Although heavily wounded and set back in his plans, Valgavoth had captured Loot, a creature that could visualize the connections across all the planes of the Multiverse.
===Ghirapur Grand Prix===
By the time of the second Ghirapur Grand Prix, Valgavoth fielded a team of racers as the leading edge of his "mansionization" process across the Multiverse. He sent the Speed Demon and Winter to win the race and bring the Aetherspark back to Duskmourn. He even gave Winter Loot, as the creature's knowledge of Omenpaths would prove essential in winning the multiplanar race. Failure to win the race would attract Valgavoth's wrath towards Winter.
After Winter not only lost the race, but Loot, the demon conjured a door connecting Avishkar to Duskmourn, dragging the man through it.
==Gallery==
File:ValgavothTrailer.png|Valgavoth in the Duskmourn: House of Horror trailer.
File:ValgavothTrailer2.png|Marina's drawings of Valgavoth.
==Story appearances==
Title	Author 	Publishing date	Set 	Setting (plane) 	Featuring
 	Mira Grant 	2024-08-28 	Duskmourn: House of Horror	Duskmourn, Ravnica	Tyvar Kell, Zimone Wola, Koma (mentioned), Marina Vendrell, Rootha Squallheart (mentioned), Valgavoth, Nashi, Winter, The Wanderer, Niko Aris, Rill, Sunset, Tamiyo, Kaito Shizuki, Himoto, Jace Beleren, Aminatou, Etrata, Niv-Mizzet, Alquist Proft, Yoshimaru
 	Mira Grant 	2024-08-30 	Duskmourn: House of Horror	Duskmourn, Ravnica	Niko Aris, Nashi, The Wanderer, Tamiyo, Valgavoth, Marina Vendrell, Winter, Zimone Wola, Tyvar Kell, Kaito Shizuki, Himoto, Alquist Proft, Aminatou, Yoshimaru, Loot, Etrata, Niv-Mizzet (mentioned)
 	K. Arsenault Rivera	2025-01-13 	Aetherdrift 	Avishkar 	Ishikari Bindra, Rashmi (mentioned), Spitfire, Mohar Varma, Pradesh, Gonti (mentioned), Pia Nalaar, Chandra Nalaar, Nissa Revane, Winter, Valgavoth
==In-game references==
==Trivia==
*Although Valgavoth is described as a moth, he isn't an Insect demon. This is because "Legendary Creature Elder Demon Insect" didn't fit on the type line, and R&D felt Elder was cooler than Insect.
*While she thought Valgavoth was her friend, Marina Vendrell affectionally called him "Val."
==References==
Category:Elders
Category:Insects
Category:Demons