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Olnar the First[2] was the last of the wizard-kings to rule the Dark Dimension before the coming of Dormammu and Umar. A descendant (many times removed) of G'uran the Great and Oka'an,[3] Olnar was one of the Mhuruuks, the multi-species group of wizards who were the governing elite in that realm. Olnar's reign began during a golden age of peace and security that had begun 28 "great" cycles (the equivalent of 28,000 Earth years) earlier thanks to the lasting peace arranged by Oka'an. However, while the other Mhuruuks (who were Olnar's advisors) regarded the time before Oka'an as days of chaos and misery, Olnar perceived that period as a time of ancient glories that he dreamed of resurrecting. Despite his dreams, the first 27 cycles of Olnar's reign remained peaceful.[4]

Near the end of the 28th cycle of his reign, two strangers named Dormammu and Umar came before Olnar's Azure Throne seeking sanctuary. The brother and sister claimed to be fugitives from the fabled dimension of the Faltine and offered to show Olnar new ways of power that would expand the boundries of his realm.[5][1] The other Mhuruuks distrusted the twins[1] and they strongly warned Olnar against trusting the exiles[5] but Olnar was intrigued by their offer since it fit with his dreams and he granted them high status in the realm.[5] Dormammu and Umar then showed Olnar how to break down the barriers between worlds and taught him how to absorb those other universes into the Dark Dimension.[5][1] However, while these conquests did expand the realm, they also revived the old and long-shunned war-like ideals, and that made Olnar increasingly unpopular among his own people.[1]

Midway through the 29th cycle of Olnar's reign,[5] the cunning Faltinians "assisted" Olnar in annexing the neighboring pocket universe inhabited by the Mindless Ones, savage, tireless and indestructible creatures who attacked anything and everything they saw. Once released into the Dark Dimension, the Mindless Ones began to rampage across the realm, killing everyone they encountered, beginning with Olnar himself,[5][1] as the Faltinian twins had planned all along. Dormammu and Umar used this invasion by the Mindless Ones as an excuse to exterminate most of the Mhuruuks.[1] The twins then combined their magic to erect a great mystic barrier that confined the Mindless Ones within a pocket of the Dark Dimension. As the twins had anticipated, their victory over the Mindless Ones had won them the gratitude of the people[1] and, since Olnar's son and heir was still an infant and thus too young to rule,[5] the people chose them to become their regents.[1] Dormammu then cast a spell of silence on the few surviving Mhuruuks and sent them to wander through the realm to be shunned as Outcasts.[5]

Since the twins considered Olnar's son Orini to be harmless to them, he was allowed to live[1] and was raised as a ward of Dormammu, eventually becoming the Dreaded One's closest disciple.[2] It was soon after he had assumed the countenance of manhood that Orini met Umar for the first time when she approached him one night and seduced him. However, Umar found her first brief sexual experience to be disgusting and she fled from Orini who did not see her again until six lesser-cycles later,[1] after she had given birth to their daughter, Clea. Orini raised Clea alone and only he and Umar knew that Clea was Umar's daughter.[6][2]

Attributes

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Great mystical powers.

Notes

  • The history of Olnar that was presented in Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #71 is very similar to that recorded in the chapters on the "Legends and Lore of the Dark Dimension" that were presented in Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #21-22 but there are some minor differences. This is primarily due to the fact that the first version was what was taught to young Dark Dimension natives in order to encourage them to worship the Faltinians and the latter was a more objective account from the Book of the Vishanti. Although the BotV account makes it clear that Dormammu and Umar were deliberately manipulating Olnar in order to usurp his rule of the Dark Dimension, it does not specifically state that they knowingly guided him into his fatal encounter with the Mindless Ones.
  • One of those differences is that Orini is depicted as pink-skinned and white-haired in the first account but as blue-skinned and black-haired in the second. No explanation for this discrepancy has yet been provided.

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