Back when Mars was still a planet full of life, the Abyss made the Martians tainted by his touch create three crowns to channel the power of his Dark Children: the Crown of Tentacles, the Crown of Wolves, and the Thorned Crown. Under the influence of these crowns, the Martians tried to break their own world apart to awaken the Darkest Child, who would in turn awaken his brothers to free their nameless father from his prison. However, the Archons, a race of constructs created by the Watchers to guard the Abyss and wait for his eventual return, fought them and managed to thwart their plan at the cost of their own lives. The nearly destroyed planet was abandoned in the aftermath of the conflict, with the only Archon who managed to survive the ordeal remaining behind to guard the crowns.

Thousands of years later, a portal connecting Mars to Earth was accidentally found in Texas by John Steele, a Union spy who was on the run after being discovered, and Aloysius Thorndrake, leader of a group of Confederate soldiers seeking revenge against Steele. As the portal was a pathway through the Vanishing Point, they ended up meeting the Abyss and being corrupted by him.[1][7] While Thorndrake started to work towards building an army to give the Abyss in the form of the Shadow Council, Steele somehow got free of the Abyss' control and actively fought in both World War I and World War II. Thorndrake later lured Steele into a trap and performed a ritual to rip reality open so the Abyss could take control of his mind again, making him join the Shadow Council soon afterwards.