RCCC 2024: Dave’s Cthulhu handout

appearing form. If they are not outright benevolent and protective towards humanity, at least their
agendas align with protecting Earthlings. The difference is because of the two writers opposing opinions
on the nature of the universe. Lovecraft was an atheist who saw the cosmos as uncaring, with no divine
intelligence directing it. Derleth, a practicing Catholic, felt that the universe could be boiled down to a
battle between good and evil.

In At the Mountains of Madness Lovecraft states that Cthulhu and his Star Spawn, are trapped on Earth
by an alien race known as the Elder Things. Derleth retconned this to be the actions of the Elder Gods.
Lovecraft in the story The Mound, states in what is essentially a throw away line, that the Outer Gods
were opposed by the “space devils”, he never elaborates what they are. Some later authors would infer
that the space devils were what the Outer Gods called the Elder Gods. The Elder Sign, a magical icon of
protection against the Great Old Ones and the Outer Gods used in the Dreamlands and on the Earth is
never associated with Elder Gods, until Derleth ties them together. In At the Mountains of Madness,
Lovecraft suggests that the Elder Things use Elder Signs as a form of currency connecting these aliens
with it.

Though it is clear in the original Lovecraft cannon the various entities of the Mythos often did not get
along with each other, Derleth in his posthumous collaborations published under Lovecraft’s name, re-
writes this as a war in heaven between, the evil Outer Gods and their Great Old Ones allies and the good
Elder Gods. This version was embraced by later writers and The Call of Cthulhu RPG, as it gives player
characters a motivation to continue and allies in their fights against the darkness.
What is the Dreamlands, and do they have their own gods? Lovecraft’s Dream Cycle is his collection of
horrific fantasy tales. Most of these stories were written in between 1926-1927, the most famous of
these is the Dream Quest of the Unknown Kadath, completed in 1927, but not published until after his
death. The Dreamlands is a dimension where technology is at the level of Earth’s medieval period and
mythical creatures freely roam. Powerful magic using humans can enter here when they dream. This
dimension has its own gods, sometimes referred to as “Earth Gods”. Though worshiped by this
dimension denizens they tend to be less powerful than the Outer Gods. Examples are the river god
Oukranas, Zo-Klaor god of birth and death, and Tamash the god of illusion. They tend to resemble
Earth’s real world pantheons more than Lovecraft’s other Mythos creations. These gods traditionally
cannot leave the Dreamlands, but other deities, such as Nyarlathotep and Nodens can travel freely
between our reality and the Dream Lands.
Is the Cthulhu Mythos based on real world mythologies? No, Lovecraft did on occasionally use the
names of gods from existing mythologies such as Dagon, Hypnos and Nodens, they bear little
resemblance to their real world name sakes.

Cthulhu.
Classification: Great Old One.
Creator: HP Lovecraft.
First appearance: Call of Cthulhu (1926).
-Cthulhu is Lovecraft’s most famous creation, but he
appears as the focus in only one of his stories, The Call of
Cthulhu.
-The most common pronunciation of his name is kuh-
THOOL-hu, though Lovecraft had said that the human
mouth could not properly pronounce his name.

• The Call of Cthulhu is three different tales in one short
  story. The first one is about an artist who is troubled by
  disturbing dreams of the ancient god. The next one is the
  story a police raid on a cult hiding out in the Louisiana
  swamps. The final one tells the tale of the crew of a ship
  that ends up on the island that Cthulhu is trapped on, when
  it temporarily rises to the surface. Lovecraft uses the story of a nephew piecing together stories
  collected by his recently deceased professor uncle as a framing device.
• In The Call of Cthulhu, a priest of Cthulhu named Castro calls Cthulhu the “Great priest”, implying he
  gets his power from the Outer Gods.
  -Cthulhu is worshiped by the human-fish hybrids the deep ones, and their leaders Father Dagon, and
  Mother Hydra.
• Cthulhu is served by a race of extraterrestrials called the Star Spawn. They are never described, but it is
  believed that they look like smaller versions of him. They are in a galactic war with the Elder Things.
  -Cthulhu is trapped in the sunken city of R’lyeh. Lovecraft said it was located at 47°9′S 126°43′W in the
  southern Pacific Ocean and is based on the real world island of Ponape.
• Cthulhu for President campaign first appeared in 1996.
  -Cthulhu is believed to be the inspiration for D&D’s mind flayers.
  -Cthulhu appears in the animated shows, The Real Ghost Busters, The Grim Adventures of Mandy and
  Billy and South Park.

Nyarlathotep
Classification: Outer God.
Creator: HP Lovecraft
First appearance: Nyarlathotep (1920)

• Nyarlathotep is an exception to the idea that the Outer Gods are
  indifferent towards humans, seeming to take pleasure in manipulating
  them.
  -Lovecraft claimed the idea and name for Nyarlathotep came to him in a
  dream.
• Nyarlathotep has a thousand forms called masks. The most well known
  form is of a giant with a triangular head and a large tongue, called the
  God of the Red Tongue, was created by Chaosium for their Call of
  Cthulhu role playing game.

-It is believed by some scholars that the form Nyarlathotep appears as in the poem named after him, a
crazy inventor who experiments with electricity is inspired by Nicola Telsa.
-He is known as the messenger of the Outer Gods.

• Nyarlathotep as described by Lovecraft would often take the form of colonial New Englander’s
  perception of the Devil, and it often implied that he is the source of the Devil legends in the Mythos’
  world.
  -Steven King has all but confirmed that his villain Randal Flag, from The Stand and the Gunslinger series
  is a form of Nyarlathotep.
  -In Robert Bloch’s The Shadow of the Steeple, Nyarlathotep is attempting to direct humans toward
  nuclear war and self-destruction.
  -Chaosium’s Cthulhu Dark Age, confirms that the gods, Hermes, Loki, Lugg and Thot were actually forms
  of Nyarlathotep.

Yog-Sothoth.
Classification: Outer God.
Creator: HP Lovecraft.
First appearance: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1927).

• Though Lovecraft never called the collection of his stories The
  Cthulhu Mythos, he did sometimes refer to it as Yog-Sothothry.
• Though he has many forms, orbs and spheres are often seen
  around his manifestations.
• Yog-Sothoth’s name is often used in spells, including the one
  that was used to resurrect Joseph Curwen in The Case of Charles
  Dexter Ward.
• Yog-Sothoth is the master of time and space in The Dunwich
  Horror Lovecraft described him as “Yog-Sothoth knows the
  gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian

of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. “

• Umr-at-Tawil is a relatively benevolent avatar of Yog-Sothoth who in Through the Gates of the
  Silver Key, teaches magic to thirteen creatures including the Earthling, Randolph Carter.
• In The Horror at the Museum, the Rogers Museum’s adult only section had a statue of Yog-
  Sothoth that appears as “only a congeries of iridescent globes, yet stupendous in its malign
  suggestiveness”
• Abdul Alhazard, the writer of the Necronomicon was a worshipper of Yog-Sothoth.
• Cthulhu is believed to be his high priest.
• In the Doctor Who novels the Seventh Doctor meets Yog-Sothoth twice, and though it is
  contradictory to the TV show’s canon, the novel claims that the Great Intelligence is an avatar of
  Yog-Sothoth.
• He has at least two, half-human demigod children.
• Yog-Sothoth is the code name of a female hacker and spy in the anime Heavy Objects. Yog-
  Sothoth appears in some form in the Amines Demonbane and Housing Complex C.
• In The Haunter in the Dark, the protagonist prayers to Yog-Sothoth to escape from an Avatar of
  Nyarlathotep, it doesn’t work.
• Fans debate between Yog-Sothoth and Nyarlathotep, who is the second most powerful outer God after Azathoth.
• 
  
  Azathoth

Classification: Outer God.
Creator: HP Lovecraft.
First appearance: Dream Quest of the Unknown Kadath
(written in 1927, published 1943) .
-Azathoth is the most powerful being in Cthulhu Mythos.
-He is called the “idiot god.” Because he is so powerful
that humans cannot understand his simplest thoughts.
His thought are so far beyond what humans are capable

of that he is perceived as being mindless.

• He is described as being asleep. If he ever wakes up, the universe would be completely re-written. To
  make sure he does not wake up, he is orbited by Outer Gods who play music to keep him asleep.
  -In The Dreams of the Witch House, it is said that the book that Nyarlathotep has people sign their souls
  away in is call The Book of Azathoth. Thi9s may be a joke on Nyarlathotep part, since he is one of the few
  Outer Gods with a sense of humor.
  -Though seen as the most powerful entity in the universe, Azathoth is only mentioned in passing in
  Lovecraft’s stories and only is directly described in one poem named after him.
• Russel’s Guide to Interdimensional Entities describes Azathoth as a sentient black hole.

Yig
Classification: Great Old One.
Creator: HP Lovecraft and Zelia Bishop.
First appearance: The Curse of Yig (1927).
-Yig’s most common form is reptilian with both lizard

and snakelike features.

• Originally, he was worshipped in the sunken island of
  Mu, but belief in him would spread to native Americans.
  -Yig’s children are large snakes, he is extremely
  protective of them. and if a human harms any of them
  he will surely punish them,
• One of the ways he punished humans who kill snakes is

to turn them into half-human half-snake hybrids. He can also mutate favored snakes into one of the
hybrids as a reward.

• Unlike other Outer Gods, he is rather benevolent and can be helpful to humans if they sacrifice to him
  and do not harm snakes.
  -The Aztec legends of Quetzalcoatl and Kukulkanare are based on him.
• No story has ever had Yig leaving the Earth, but he is known by the aliens in The Cthulhu Mythos, such
  as the Mi-go, the Fungi from Yougoth.
  -Later horror writers and game designers associated Yig with Robert E Howard’s serpent people.

Nodens
Classification: Credited as an Elder God
Creator: HP Lovecraft. (Inspired by Celtic god)
First appearance: The Strange High House in the Mist.
(Written in 1924, first published in 1931).

• Nodens is based on a Celtic deity. One difference is that in
  the Celtic Mythology he is a god of healing, in the Mythos he is
  the god of hunting.
• Lovecraft probably got most of his information on Nodens
  from reading about a temple archeologist found in Leydey
  Park UK. Nodens is seen in a mosaic there with two creatures
  that look a bit like the Loch Ness Monster.
• People who see the Mythos as a battle between the good

Elder Gods and the evil Outer Gods, usually see as the as leader of the elder gods.

• He is served by the supernatural entities the nightgaunts, winged faceless creatures with barbed
  tails, who Lovecraft would have recurring nightmares about as a child.
• He is in actively opposing the Outer God Nyarlathotep.
• Alongside intelligent violet gaseous life form S’ngac, he helped Randolph escape a monster called
  a shantak that was pursuing him in the Dream Lands.
• A house on the top of a hill outside the town of Kingsport Massachusetts has a shrine to him.

Hastur
Classification: Great Old One.
Creator: Ambrose Bierce.
First appearance: Haita the Shepard (1891).

• Hastur, was created by Ambrose Bierce, and in his stories, he
  was a relatively benign god of shepherds. Ambrose Bierce who is
  famous for writing short stories such as Strange Occurrence at Owl
  Creek and The Damned Thing, vanished without a trace heading to
  Mexico to write an article about Poncho Villa.
  Robert W. Chambers then used Hastur in his stories The King in
  Yellow, and The Repairer of Reputations. This is where Lovecraft
  discovered him.

In Lovecraft’s Whisper in the Darkness, the alien mi-gos, claim to be at war with the cult of
Hastur known as the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign.
-A Play called The King in Yellow has been written about him, and it is said anyone who reads it
or sees it preformed is immediately driven mad.
-Hastur is referenced in Good Omes and True Detective.

Tsathoggua
Classification: Great Old One
Creator: Clark Ashton Smith
First appearance: The Tale of Satampra Zieros (1931).
-Lovecraft used Tsathoggua more than any of other Outer
God, that he did create.
-Humans usually see Tsathoggua as slothful and lazy, when he
is discovered by humans in his physical form, he often seems
to be asleep, he often eats the offending human who disturbs
his slumber.
-He gave the Hyperborean priest Eibon, a device to travel to
other dimensions and planets.
-Lovecraft describes Tsathoggua as a shapeshifter, with at
least one form looking like a centipede.
-Though appearing in contemporary cosmic horror stories
when used by Lovecraft. Clark Ashton Smith would often use

him in his ancient fantasy stories set in the ancient land of Hyperborea.

Other Mythos Deities.
Shub-Nigurrath is first mentioned in The Last Test, by HP Lovecraft and Adolphe de Castro. She is a dark
and perverse fertility goddess, and a rare female Lovecraftian deity. She is often associated with the
Dark Goat with a Thousand Young, though it is disputed by scholars whether Lovecraft meant this as her
title of the name of an entity that serves her. She is often associated with mythological females Lilith,
Astarte and Cybele.

Iod was created by Lovecraft’s friend and fellow writer Henry Kutter, and first appears in his The Secret
of Kralitz, published in 1936. He has multiple forms but often appears as a large black sphere with many
tentacles. He has been worshipped by humans for almost as long as they have been on the Earth. He is
known as the Shiny Hunter, and cultists often call upon him to pursue and destroy their enemies. His
exploits are told in The Book of Iod, a tome of ancient magic, much like Lovecraft’s Necronomicon.

Bokrug was created by Lovecraft and first appears in the 1920 story The Doom that Came to Sarnath. He
lives in the Dreamlands and takes the form of a giant lizard. This god was worshiped by the frog like
Beings of Ib, who were destroyed by the people of Sarnath. Centuries after their destruction, he
destroys Sarnath in an act of vengeance.

Gloon is an Outer God that appears in Lovecraft’s The Temple written in 1920. In this story the sole
survivor of a damaged World War One German submarine discovers an underwater temple, surrounded
by dolphins. Here Gloon appears in the form of a statue of a handsome Greek god. However, his true
form is that of a giant slug.

Cythlla first appears in Brain Lumly’s, The Transition of Titus Crow, but the most famous story about her
is Tina L. Jens, In his Daughter’s Daughter Womb. She is Cuthlhu’s daughter, and a key component in
Cuthlhu’s plan to obtain an immortal body. After his current body is destroyed, he plans to be
reincarnated in an indestructible body birthed by Cythlla.
Ithaqua was created by August Derleth and is probably his most well-known deity. It first appeared in
1933’s The Ting that walked on the Wind and was greatly inspired by Algeron Blackwood’s The Wendigo.
He is a god of the wind, who takes the form of a giant phantasmal Native American with eyes that
appear like stars. He abducts people in rural cold areas lifting them into space, forcing them to orbit him
as he travels across the world.
Y’golonac is an Outer God created by Ramsy Campbell. He first appeared in Campbell’s short story Cold
Print. He is the most perverse of the deities of the Mythos. Much like Nyarlathotep, he loves to enmesh
himself in the lives of humans. He targets people who are interested in ancient books with hideous
carnal scenes. Once they posse these evil books, he either kills them or turns them into headless obese
fiends, that look like him. It is ironic that the most perverse monster