HRISTOMILO

Real Name: Hristomilo

Identity/Class: Extradimensional (see comments) human wizard

Occupation: Sorcerer of the Thieves' Guild

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Lankhmar Thieves' Guild (Fissif, Krovas, Sleyvas, others), Slivikin

Enemies: Fafhrd, Gray Mouser, Ivrian, Vlana

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Thieves' House, Cheap Street, Lankhmar, Nehwon

First Appearance: (prose) "Ill Met in Lankhmar", The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction Vol 38 No.4 (#227)  (April 1970);
   (Marvel) Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser#1 (October 1990)

Powers/Abilities: Hristomilo's magic allowed him to read minds using a combination of lights and mirrors. He could create a thick smog that suffocated and was solid enough to bind and constrict people. He could speak to and hear his familiar Slivikin across great distances, and possibly see through his eyes. He could presumably do many other unrevealed feats via magic, but all his spells required time and concentration to cast. 

Height: 6'10" (by estimation)
Weight: 170 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Black
Hair: Gray, balding

History:
(Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser#1 (fb) - BTS) - Hristomilo was a sorcerer with an affinity for rats and dark magics; whether the cause or a result of his rodent connection, he himself was somewhat rattish, with a pronounced nose, almost chinless mouth containing huge incisors, a short-haired bristly gray beard that grew high on his cheeks, and clublike hands with stubby fingers ending in clawlike nails. He was a tall but hunchbacked man who dressed in back robes and hood,...

(Ill Met in Lankhmar) - and spoke with a squeakingly high-pitched voice.

(Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser#1 (fb) - BTS) - His familiar was Slivikin, a rat so large it was sometimes mistaken for a small dog, and capable of an approximation of human speech. A resident of the city of Lankhmar, Hristomilo had a dire reputation but this did not prevent him being employed by Grandmaster Krovas of the Thieves' Guild to provide security, though most of the thieves were more afraid of the mage than they were of anyone who might seek to rob guild members.

(Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser#1 - BTS) - Hristomilo sent Slivikin to accompany the thieves Fissif and Sleyvas as they returned with stolen loot back to the guildhouse. Despite also being accompanied by several guards hired from the Slavers' Guild, the pair were robbed by two swordsmen, the northern barbarian Fafhrd and the wiry southerner Gray Mouser, who then took their doubly purloined prizes back to their lovers, Vlana and Ivrain.

   Krovas ordered Hristomilo to avenge the slight against the Guild. Whether through his magic or being told by Slivikin, Hristomilo learned where the robbers had taken their loot and enacted vengeance by sending an enchanted fog to the Mouser's home intended to choke both women.

(Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser#1) - Because Vlana had a vendetta against Guildmaster Krovas that she wanted her lover to fulfill, Fafhrd and the Mouser were absent when Hristomilo's fog attacked, as they had infiltrated the Thieves' Guild headquarters disguised as beggers (and thus low level Guild members). Unaware of the significance of what they were observing, they witnessed Hristomilo viewing a pair of smog-nooses in a crystal sphere and then making them to tighten. With that done, Hristomilo instructed Slivikin to gather "an ample sufficiency of feasters" to "strip the bodies to skeletons" so as to hide evidence that sorcery had brought about their demise. Hristomilo sensed the two bravos watching, and would have shooed them away, except that doing so might have broken his spell.

   Soon after Hristomilo was summoned to Krovas' presence, as the two interlopers had spun him an intricate tale about a threat to the Guild, and the Guildmaster wanted his wizard's guidance. The mage instantly deduced the backgrounds of the two men, and that they were not truly beggars, and then the pair were forced to flee when Sleyvas and Fissif identified them as the people who had robbed them. However, they soon returned in a killing rage, having discovered their murdered lovers being eaten by rats when they reached Mouser's home. Having now realized what Hristomilo's overheard words meant, they stormed the Thieves' Guild. At first the intruders had to fight their way, but Hristomilo had sensed their arrival, and the thieves' fled in terror not at the two attackers, but upon sensing the mage's magic gathering. He conjured a smog-web which blocked their way as they entered the mage's chambers, which then began to cling to and bind the invaders as they tried to hack their way to their prey, visible and incanting on the other side of the room. Fafhrd threw a dagger at Hristomilo, but the mage quickly chanted some more magic, and the blade was caught mid-flight by a new strand of smoke. With both men now held in place, Hristomilo derided them as poor excuses for assassins, but Fafhrd managed to reach another dagger, a silver one that had belonged to Vlana. Seeing the argent blade, Hristomilo began to chant in panic, and screamed when Fafhrd threw it. The smog parted for this knife and it impaled Hristomilo in the eye. He continued to scream as his body and all his magical items exploded with fire. Slivikin tried to flee but was skewered by the Mouser, and the two warriors watched as Hristomilo's remains crumbled to ash. 

Comments: Created by Fritz Leiber. Adapted into comics by Howard Chaykin, Mike Mignola and Al Williamson.

   The "Swords" series of books collect the short stories of the adventuring duo Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, mostly set in Nehwon, a world of sword and sorcery. It's not an alternate Earth, but another dimension, and in one story they encounter a German interdimensional explorer called Karl Treuherz, while in another tale, Adept's Gambit, the pair visit Earth in the 2nd century B.C.

   This profile was completed on 08/19/2026, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary's celebratory event to represent Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Hristomilo has no known connections to:

Slivikin

Slivikin was Hristomilo's familiar, apparently a rat though people often were uncertain of this, as he was exceptionally large; he was mistaken as a small dog, a somewhat undersized cat, a marmoset and a ferret. He accompanied the thieves Sleyvas and Fissif, and then later was sent to gather a rat horde to devour the corpses of Ivrain and Vlana. He could speak, and his front paws looked like tiny club hands, identical to those of his master. When Hristomilo was slain, Slivikin tried to flee but was transfixed on Mouser's sword Scalpel. 

--Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser#1

images: (without ads)
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser#1, p19, pan3 (main image)
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser#1, p36, pan3 (headshot)
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser#1, p40, pan1 (dagger in eye)
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser#1, p40, pan2 & 5 (death)
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser#1, p1, pan3 (Slivikin headshot)
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser#1, p40, pan4 (Slivikin impaled)

Appearances:
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser#1 (October 1990) - Howard Chaykin (writer), Mike Mignola (pencils), Al Williamson (inks), Nelson Yomtov (editor)

First Posted: 09/28/2026
Last updated: 08/19/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
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