Its coat was black as soot. Its hooves were wet with a viscous smearing brown. Its eyes burned with a foul blood-colored light. But the things she could not look away from were its antlers. They were amber. Translucent and honey-colored, pulsing with a low poisonous smolder, bits of ash falling from them here and there.
- Episode 0.5: The Witch Queen
Description[]
Weakened Form: It is almost, but not, a hoofed mammal. It has far too many legs that are many-jointed and insectoid. Darkness streams from its body like ribbons of fabric. A hideous carcass of writhing bones beneath. Its head the shape of an enormous stag. Eyes the color of blood clots. Its antlers broken and unlit.
Background[]
The Thing Whose Name Sounds Like Horned Head, But Is Not (colloquially known as Horned Head) is a Deep Thing of The Inner Dark, a shadow of something Greater. He generally appears as a large black stag with burning red eyes and smoldering amber antlers; his legs are often covered in viscera and black rot. Horned Head is frequently served and worshipped by the Blessed Folk of His Unending and Undying Gracious Love and The Gray Ladies.
Horned Head struck a deal with and later tried to corrupt Daughter Dooley into becoming a loyal servant, but she refused and eventually fought against him. She won the duel, breaking his crown and sending him into a diminished state for 140 years.
In 1917, a severely weakened Horned Head posed as Elder Henry, a disfigured man of the church. With the help of The Blessed Folk and the Gray Ladies, he ran a home for orphaned girls. Sarah Avery found herself in this home after surviving the mine explosion in Barlo. The orphanage was a front to rejuvenate Horned Head with the organs of young girls; Sarah would have been the next victim had it not been for Ellie and Marcie Walker's intervention.
In the Build Mama a Coffin story, Horned Head encountered J.T. Fields of Dorchester (Jack) at an unknown time when he was attempting to trick Horned Head for his antlers. Horned Head was scorned by this attempt demanded that Jack owe him two favors. One of these favors was used to force Jack to help Vernard Boggs bury Glory Ann Boggs in a special tomb that would siphon her power of The Gift to The Inner Dark. This was unsuccessful.
Thanks to the efforts of The Gray Ladies, in the year 1935, they returned three heirlooms made from the shattered antlers of Horned Head, His physical form is restored.
Trivia[]
- Pronouncing Horned Head's Name:
- Hornèd Head, as in Shakespeare: Horn-ed.
- Many fans heard Hornet Head. The writers confirmed that Hornet Head works too.
- The character's name as it will be written in all things official is The Thing Whose Name Sounds Like Horned Head, But Is Not.
"The Black Stag, the beast whose name sounded like horn-ed head and hornet head and Abomination and Betrayer and Judas and Liar and Defiler – he was old, but not the oldest, but he might have been the cruelest and the most petty." - Episode 10: The Witch Queen Chapter III: Last Harbor
- Facts about being in the presence of HH that aren't as noticed or not specifically stated:
- The telepathy he uses is intentionally disorienting. HH could sound completely human if wanted. It is not wanted.
- He can speak without being present, and the effect seems to be the same.
- He has been around for a long, long time. He's led many a settlement, camp, daycare center---to a dark and obscure end.
Appearances[]
Season One[]
- Episode 0.5: The Witch Queen
- Episode 9: You Ready to Go Home?
- Episode 10: The Witch Queen Chapter III: Last Harbor
- Chapter Three: Something Old, Something New