By the Gods!

The Fomorii

The Fomorii were sea gods in Irish mythology. Violent and misshapen, they emerged from the waves to challenge two ruling pantheons of gods in Ireland. The Fir Bolg were the first ruling power in the land, but the Tuatha De Danann, a younger race of gods who would come to be seen as the “good” gods of pagan Ireland, defeated the Fir Bolg in a great war. After that war, the Fomorii dragged their deformed and hate-filled bodies out of the ocean to make yet another war on the Tuatha De Danann. 

The Fomorii were described differently in different texts, most of which were all written as stories of the past after Ireland had been Christianized. The most well-known version describes the Fomorii as having one foot, one eye, and one hand. Yes, it might be terrible to look upon, but not necessarily very menacing in battle. Another description gives them the body of a man with the head of a goat––slightly more menacing. A few of them were described as quite beautiful, like Bres, who would become the king of the Fomorii. It’s safest to imagine them as a rag-tag group of assorted evil. This is how they are represented in the image above: a rabble of repellent and alien creatures, driven by a sick and menacing frenzy.