List of Great Old Ones


This is a compendium of the lesser known Great Old Ones of the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft.

Overview

In Joseph S. Pulver's novel Nightmare's Disciple several new Great Old Ones and Elder Gods are named. The novel mentions D'numl Cthulhu's female cousin, T'ith and Xu'bea, The Teeth of the Dark Plains of Mwaalba. Miivls and Vn'Vulot, are said to have fought each other in southern Gondwanaland during the Cretaceous period, whereas Rynvyk, regarded as one of the mates of Cthulhu's sister Kassogtha, likely matches with Cthulhu itself or a similar entity. Kassogtha would have sired Rynvyk three sons and Rynvyk himself currently rests in a crimson pool in the Hall of Tyryar, whose portal is located somewhere in Norway.

A

Aphoom-Zhah

Aphoom-Zhah debuted in Lin Carter's short story "The Acolyte of the Flame" —although the being was first mentioned in an earlier tale by Carter, "The Horror in the Gallery". Aphoom-Zhah is also mentioned in Carter's "The Light from the Pole", a story Carter wrote from an early draft by Clark Ashton Smith. Smith later developed this draft into "The Coming of the White Worm".
Aphoom-Zhah is the progeny of Cthugha and is worshipped as the Lord of the Pole because he dwells, like Ithaqua, above the Arctic Circle. Aphoom-Zhah frequently visited Hyperborea during the last ice age. His legend is chronicled in the Pnakotic Manuscripts.
Aphoom-Zhah appears as a vast, cold, grey flame that freezes whatever it touches. The being came to Earth from the star Fomalhaut, briefly visiting the planet Yaksh before taking up residence in Mount Yarak, a legendary mountain atop the North Pole. When the Elder Gods tried to imprison him beneath the pole, Aphoom-Zhah erupted with such fury that he froze the lands around him. Aphoom-Zhah is believed to be responsible for the glaciation that eventually overwhelmed Hyperborea, Zobna, and Lomar.
Aphoom-Zhah likely spawned Gnoph-Keh, Rhan-Tegoth, and Voorm. Though no human cult worships this being, Aphoom-Zhah is revered by the Gnophkeh, the Voormi, and his own race of minions; the spectral Ylidheem.

Atlach-Nacha

In Clark Ashton Smith's short story The Seven Geases, Atlach-Nacha is the reluctant recipient of a human sacrifice given to it by the toad-god Tsathoggua.
Atlach-Nacha resembles a huge spider with an almost-human face. It dwells within a huge cavern deep beneath Mount Voormithadreth, a mountain in the now vanished kingdom of Hyperborea in the Arctic. There it spins a gigantic web, bridging a massive chasm between the Dreamlands and the waking world. Some believe that when the web is complete, the end of the world will come, because it will create a permanent junction with the Dreamlands, allowing monsters to move freely into the waking world.
Atlach-Nacha probably came to Earth from the planet Cykranosh with Tsathoggua. Because of its appearance, Atlach-Nacha is often referred to as the Spider-God and is believed to be the regent of all spiders. Furthermore, the giant, bloated purple spiders of Leng are thought to be its children and servitors.
There is a disagreement about its gender. In Smith's original story, Atlach-Nacha is referred to as a male, but in later stories by other authors, it is implied to be a female.

B

Basatan

Basatan is a sea-god, also known as the Master of the Crabs. This deity possesses a ring with supernatural powers, and may be associated with the constellation Cancer.

Bokrug

Bokrug first appeared in Lovecraft's short story "The Doom That Came to Sarnath". The being is also part of Lovecraft's Dream Cycle.
Bokrug is the god of the semi-amphibian Thuum'ha of Ib, in the land of Mnar. The deity slept beneath the calm waters of a lake which bordered both Ib and the city of Sarnath. When the humans of Sarnath cruelly slaughtered the populace of Ib and stole the god's idol, the deity was awakened. Each year thereafter, strange ripples disturbed the otherwise placid lake. On the one-thousandth anniversary of Ib's destruction, Bokrug rose up and destroyed Sarnath. Afterwards, the Thuum'ha recolonized Ib and henceforth lived undisturbed.

C

Chaugnar Faugn


Some were the figures of well-known myth — gorgons, chimaeras, dragons, cyclops, and all their shuddersome congeners. Others were drawn from darker and more furtively whispered cycles of subterranean legend — black, formless Tsathoggua, many-tentacled Cthulhu, proboscidian Chaugnar Faugn, and other rumoured blasphemies from forbidden books like the Necronomicon, the Book of Eibon, or the Unaussprechlichen Kulten of von Junzt.
—H. P. Lovecraft, "The Horror in the Museum"

Chaugnar Faugn was created by Frank Belknap Long and first appeared in his novel The Horror from the Hills.
Chaugnar Faugn appears as a horribly grotesque idol, made of an unknown element, combining the worst aspects of octopus, elephant, and human being. When Chaugnar Faugn hungers, he can move incredibly quickly for his size, and use his lamprey-like "trunk" to drain the blood from any organism he encounters.
Chaugnar Faugn came to Earth from another dimension eons ago, possibly in a form other than the one which he later assumed. Upon arriving, he found the dominant lifeforms to be only simple amphibians. From these creatures, he created the Miri Nigri to be his servitors. The Miri Nigri would later mate with early humans to produce hybrids that would eventually evolve into the horrid Tcho-Tcho people.

Cthugha

Cthugha is a fictional deity in the Cthulhu Mythos genre of horror fiction, the creation of August Derleth. In Derleth's version of the Cthulhu Mythos, Cthugha is a Great Old One, an elemental spirit of fire opposed to the Elder Gods. Derleth set its homeworld as the star Fomalhaut, which had featured in Lovecraft's poetry. He first appeared in Derleth's short story "The House on Curwen Street". Cthugha resembles a giant ball of fire. He is served by the Flame Creatures of Cthugha. Fthaggua, regent of the fire vampires, may be his progeny. He has at least one other known progeny, the being known as Aphoom-Zhah.

Cthulhu

Cthylla

Cthylla is a fictional character in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft. Cthylla was created by Brian Lumley, who originally mentioned her in his Titus Crow novel The Transition Of Titus Crow, though he never actually described her. Tina L. Jens, however, depicted Cthylla as a gigantic winged-octopus in her short story "In His Daughter's Darkling Womb".

Cynothoglys

Cynothoglys first appeared in Thomas Ligotti's short story "The Prodigy of Dreams". The being appears as a shapeless, multiform entity with a single arm used for catching those who summoned her, and bringing them a painless, ecstatic death. In ancient times, she once held a small cult in Italy, which paid her homage rather than worshiping her, since actual worship would be the same as summoning the god. They considered her to be no mere Cloacina, but the mortician of all creatures, even the gods themselves.

D

Dweller in the Gulf

The Dweller in the Gulf appears in a short story of the same name by Clark Ashton Smith, first published in 1932. The Dweller in the Gulf lives deep beneath the surface of the planet Mars, but may have originated elsewhere. It is worshipped exclusively by a blind, troglodyte sect of the Martian race, the Aihai, and can be ritually summoned by the stroking of its idol.
The Dweller resembles a massive, eyeless, soft-shelled tortoise, but has a triangular head and two whiplike tails. At the ends of its tails are two bell-shaped suckers used for the ceremonial—usually forced—removal of its discoverer's eyes, turning them into the deity's blind, mute servitors.

Dagon

E

Eihort

Eihort first appeared "in person" in Ramsey Campbell's short story "Before the Storm". However, the being was first mentioned in Campbell's "The Franklyn Paragraphs" and "Cold Print"
Eihort lives within a network of tunnels deep beneath the Severn Valley, in England. It appears as a "bloated blanched oval, supported on a myriad of fleshless legs" with eyes continuously forming in its gelatinous body. When it captures a human, it offers the captive a "bargain". If the captive refuses, Eihort rams the victim violently to death. If the captive accepts the offer, the horror implants its immature "brood" inside the victim's body. The brood will eventually mature, and kill their host. According to the Revelations of Gla'aki, after the fall of humanity, Eihort's brood will be born into light.
"Ei" and "Hort" are nouns of the modern German language, "Ei" meaning "egg" and "Hort" meaning "hoard".

G

Gloon

Gloon first appeared in H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Temple" as a Dionysian statue. Whether Lovecraft intended the statue to be anything other than the centerpiece of a piece of weird fiction is debatable. In 2004, Chaosium released an expanded bestiary to the Mythos which included the entity of Gloon, attributing some non-canonical eldritch and limacine attributes to the entity, a counterpoint to its outwardly pleasing and homoerotic aesthetic. Author Molly Tanzer's novelette "The Infernal History of the Ivybridge Twins" expanded upon Gloon's cult and mythology.

H

Hastur

M

Morrick

See Brian Lumley deities.

N

Nug and Yeb

Nug and Yeb, the Twin Blasphemies, are the spawn of Shub-Niggurath and Yog-Sothoth. Nug is the parent of Cthulhu and the parent of Kthanid via the influence of Yog-Sothoth. Nug is a god among ghouls, while Yeb is the leader of Abhoth's alien cult.
Both Nug and Yeb closely resemble Shub-Niggurath.
The names Nug and Yeb are similar to the names of the Egyptian sibling gods Nut and Geb, members of the Heliopolitan Ennead.