Quick Links
If you’ve played a warlock inDungeons & Dragons, you’re likely familiar with the spells Hunger of Hadar or Arms of Hadar. While not out of the ordinary for a spell to have a namesake, said spells typically come from mages of high caliber throughout the multiverse.
Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, for instance, can be attributed to the eponymous demonologist, just as Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion can be attributed to the infamous Mordenkainen. These are well-known names throughout Dungeons & Dragons, for both newer and veteran players. Hadar, however, remains a bit of an enigma! Who exactly IS Hadar, in a world of Bigby’s and Tasha’s?
Where Is Hadar From?
Perhaps one of the reasons Hadar rarely comes up within D&D circles is because of his status as an"Elder Evil"of the Far Realm. To understand who he is, one must understand thatthe inhabitants of the Far Realm tend to be mysterious and unknowable, with myriad forms and shapes.
Aberrations frequently come from the Far Realm!
The Far Realm is known to bea plane of madness, comprised of infinite layers of reality. If this sounds confusing, it’s because it is!
The best way to conceptualize the Far Realm is topicture clear plastic wrap stretched into long sheet-like layers.You might be able to see through the sheets, and some sheets are thicker than others.
Each layer represents a dimension, and theremay be settlements on each layer,such as odd, tentacled cities or forests made of viscous material resembling ferns. These settlements can exist on multiple of these layers. Multidimensionality is the core idea of the Far Realm.
The Far Realm likely draws inspiration from Lovecraftian mythology.
What Is An Elder Evil?
The Far Realm has been known to drive mortals to the brink of madness by exposing itself in little pockets to them. So powerful is the Far Realm that tofullyengage with it unprepared would melt a mortal’s mind entirely, andmay even warp their formsinto moreaberrant shapes.
The Far Realm was able to invadeRealmspace, the Dungeons & Dragons concept of space. Beings from the Far Realm called “Elder Evils"took the shape of stars(or perhaps could only be perceived as such) and oftensustained themselves on the madness of these mortals.
Worshipped by aboleths and cultists on the Material Plane, these Elder Evils make up a very powerful group of entities that can destroy worlds around them and subsist on misery—of which there is much in the multiverse.
Who Is Hadar?
Hadar is one of the few Elder Evils that drifted through the divide between the Far Realmand Realmspace. It drifts through Realmspace, dying very, very slowly.
Its imminent death caused it to reach out to living beings on Toril(one of the planets in Realmspace) to gain followers and cultists to feed it. Intent on averting death, Hadar has become one ofthe more popular Great Old One patrons for warlocks, as its desperation made it more receptive to attempts made to contact it.
Unlike the other namesakes of various spells, Hadar didn’t spend years and years studying magic to name Arms and Hunger of Hadar after it. Rather, this is more likely referring to their origin, which makes these spells unique in the spell list, similar to Armor of Agathys. These are warlock spells exclusively.
