A Who’s who of the Cthulhu mythos.

Everything you need to survive a trip to Innsmouth.

Note: usually I’d put a picture here, but I had difficulty finding one I could properly credit. So just use your imagination, please.

H.P Lovecraft was a horror writer known mostly for the Cthulhu Mythos. In this article, you’ll get an explanation of the popular figures of the Mythos, and why they’re so well known.

H.P. Lovecraft lived in Rhode Island, and often set his works in fictional small towns on the eastern seaboard, particularly in Rhode Island, Maine and New York. I don’t know what’s up with horror writers and Maine, but it seems like something about the state gives a lot of spooky inspiration.

Lovecraft was known for frequently being ill and having vivid nightmares as a child, and both these things probably helped in his creations of horror. A feeling of weakness, and vivid nightmarish sights and sounds are integral to his works.

So, without further ado, here’s a list of some of the crazy monsters and characters in this universe.

The Basic Story:

Humans are but a tiny spec of dust in the whirling Chaos of Space, and a large selection of beings from the black reaches of the cosmos have come to roost on, around, or in the dreams of Earth. We pray they don’t notice us, and most humans live in blissful ignorance of the true dangers of space.

First up are the Great Old Ones, beings who ruled earth as Gods in the forgotten past and were imprisoned for trying to shake things up too much. Though powerful enough to make humans insane with a glance, these things cannot operate on a cosmic scale.

Next, the Outer Gods. These beings operate on a cosmic scale, and are so powerful Cthulhu is a priest of them. That’s right, he worships these guys like his cults worship him.

Finally, the Elder Gods. These beings are against the Outer Gods and Great Old Ones, and they tend to help us. It’s less out of a desire to be kind, and more because they simply don’t care about us enough to want to hurt us. Like how you ignore a bug during a picnic, but we’re the bug. These guys are so varied from writer to writer, I’m not going to list them here.

Also, all of these creatures are super-advanced aliens, so incomprehensible we sometimes go mad just by seeing them. They actually are from outer space. Here’s descriptions of six powerful bad guys from the Mythos.

Great Old Ones:

Cthulhu:

The big dragon-squid-man himself, Cthulhu is probably the most well known of the Cosmic Horrors. He’s actually not very powerful, only having the distinction of being the leader of the Great Old Ones. He’s stuck in a death-like sleep at the bottom of the sea, in an impossible city called R’lyeh.

Hastur, The King in Yellow:

A mysterious robed humanoid, and the half-brother of Cthulhu; he is the patron of decadence, nihilism, and for some reason, shepherds. He uses his mysterious Yellow Sign to drive people into insanity, and can posses different forms. His true form and purpose are unknown, and even his name itself is evil.

Cthylla:

The secret daughter of Cthulhu, she looks like a giant red octopus with six eyes and wings. Her entire purpose is to exist as a backup plan. If her dad truly dies, he will use foul magic to be reborn from his own daughter as a child. The Great Old Ones can do pretty weird stuff like that.

Outer Gods:

Azathoth, The Demon Sultan:

At the Nuclear Chaos, the very center of the Universe, Azathoth is held at bay by the piping of impossible flutes and the tempo of hideous drums. He is the single most powerful entity in the Universe, but is the Blind Idiot God; he is incapable of any thought right now. If he was capable of thought, he could end the entire universe if he wanted. Other than this, nothing much is known about him.

Nyarlathotep, The Crawling Chaos:

Nyarlathotep is the son and messenger of Azathoth. Unlike the other Outer Gods, he has a deep interest in humanity. Unfortunately for us, he is an evil sadist who loves to kill, enslave, and trick us any chance he gets. He is one of the only Cosmic Horrors who can pass as human, looking like an unusually tall, regal man with pitch black skin. He can talk and act like a human, but has many others of what he calls Masks. He’s an expert shapeshifter, and can become a giant bat-human with a three-lobed eye, a cloud of black fog, and many other forms. He’s an ultimate chessmaster, and we are the pieces. He represents the very soul of the malevolence of the Outer Gods, and is the most directly dangerous being in the entire Mythos. (As you might be able to tell, he’s also my personal favorite.)

Yog-Sothoth, The Key and The Gate:

Lovecraft’s personal favorite monster, Yog-Sothoth is the Outer God representation of time itself. Forced outside the universe and only visible as a group of glowing spheres, he can affect time however he wants and impregnate humans with terrifying monster children for mysterious reasons. He’s almost completely incomprehensible, so not much is known about him.

In Conclusion:

If you want more info on the Elder Gods, or the many other beasties and monsters of the Cthulhu Mythos, please go out and search yourself. This is but a taste of the crazy monsters seen throughout the many works of various horror writers. The idea of the Mythos was that many different writers could add to it, much like an actual mythology. thank you for reading this article, and enjoy some stories of terror and fear.

(fancy profile picture provided by MintyDripps.)