Haon-Dor
Haon-Dor is the prehuman sorcerer whose subterranean palace receives Ralibar Vooz in Clark Ashton Smith’s The Seven Geases. Concealed in darkness above a chamber crowded with familiars, he decides that a single human would be insufficient food for his attendants and sends the visitor to his allies, the serpent-people.
3 min read · 507 words
Across the bridge of Atlach-Nacha
Atlach-Nacha directs Ralibar Vooz to Haon-Dor after declining him as an offering. A newly completed web crosses the gulf to the steps of the sorcerer's palace. The hunter arrives under a geas, accompanied by Ezdagor's familiar Raphtontis.
A giant serpent guards the stairway. It has conspicuous markings and formidable fangs, but allows the pair to pass when it sees the bird. The palace is thus defended, yet accessible to a guide familiar with the relationships of the underworld.
The palace and its chamber
The halls are cut from the deep rock of Earth and contain innumerable columns, moving forms of mist and statues of many-headed creatures. Unusual lamps burn overhead with flames whose appearance suggests an inversion of familiar fire.
Raphtontis leads the hunter through these spaces to a circular room. Its principal furnishing is an elevated seat supported by five pillars. No stairs or other ordinary means of reaching it are visible.
Haon-Dor sits above the visitor, wrapped in a darkness that conceals his face and bodily details. The setting establishes age and separation more clearly than it establishes an anatomy.
The familiars in the walls
While the seated figure remains silent, faces begin to appear in the surrounding stone. Necks, shoulders and bodies push outward, while other faces stir beneath the hunter's feet.
Haon-Dor identifies these forms as his familiars. They would readily devour the visitor, but their number makes a single human an inadequate portion. His delay arises from deciding how best to dispose of the gift, rather than from uncertainty over whether he has power in the chamber.
The episode converts the palace itself into an inhabited threat. Architectural surfaces no longer separate the guest from the creatures who might consume him.
Alliance with the serpent-people
The sorcerer decides to send Ralibar Vooz to the serpent-people, whom he calls his allies. Their scientific knowledge may, he suggests, provide some use for the visitor's body in chemical work.
He imposes a geas directing the hunter to their caverns. Raphtontis leads the way down from the palace into the laboratories. The serpent-people examine the newcomer but eventually reject him because they already possess adequate specimens and find no useful chemical novelty in his composition.
Haon-Dor's proposal therefore represents an informed connection between domains, not a guarantee that the scientists will accept the material he sends.
The limits of the appearance
The story calls Haon-Dor a sorcerer from before humanity and places him in a world older than the Hyperborean hunter's society. It does not reveal his full physical form, explain how he acquired every familiar, or provide an independently dated biography.
The visible relationships are more secure than an extended genealogy: Atlach-Nacha knows of him, Raphtontis can find his residence, his familiars inhabit its surfaces, and the serpent-people are his allies. These connections explain his role in the underworld without inventing a universal command structure.
References
- Clark Ashton Smith — The Seven Geases (1934)
Original story; the host identifies these texts as believed to be in the public domain.
At a glance
Clark Ashton Smith
The Seven Geases
A columned palace beneath Voormithadreth
Serpent-people
A seated figure concealed by darkness
Imposes the fourth geas