Mother of The Null, or simply referred to as Mother, is the overarching antagonist in King’s 65th novel, Revival. She is a malignant, insane Lovecraftian entity. She is the implied master of The Null, a dimension described as "Dark towers and ruins under a paper sky", with mysterious and formless "entities" floating high above, where all of humanity that has died is led (and presumably fed) to Mother by giant, monstrous ant-like creatures.
Whilst she is never described in great detail (and indeed, the terminology of the creature as being female is up for debate), Jamie Morton and Reverend Charles Jacobs see a great hole open up in the dark, almost abyssal sky, as a giant furred leg (implied to be spider like) descends out of the void above with a "claw made of faces". The sight of Mother causes Jacobs to go have a heart attack, and Jamie manages to pry himself away from the body of (the now resurrected) Mary Fay.
Mother then begins an attempt to break through into the real world; as Mary's mouth tears itself open and the spider leg begins to come out again, this time with the face of Jacob's son (Morrie) attached to it.
Jamie then shoots Mary Fay four times, closing the portal and placing Mother back into her dimension.
Whilst Mother did not escape, it is heavily implied that Jamie's actions were pointless; as she waits for Jamie regardless, knowing too well that he'll always end up trapped in the Null along with everyone else who dies.
Allusions to Other Works[]
- The whole concept of the novel, and therefore in part the role of Mother, is inspired by The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen.
- With her spider-like description and Lovecraftian nature, it can be seen that Mother is very similar to King's other creation, the eponymous IT.