by Daniel Harms
Mu was supposedly the land where humans first appeared, spreading from there to the rest of the world. In Hyperborean times, Mu paid tribute to the polar kingdom, but at the same time even the wizard Eibon acknowledged the potency of Mu’s incantations. Mu’s civilization reached its heyday around 200,000 years ago, when its nine kingdoms were in full flower.
The gods were much closer to the people of Mu than to those of later times. Alongside humanity lived another more powerful species, described in various sources as the lloigor, another resembling the Great Race in material form, or the serpent people. Most of the population of Mu viewed these as deities and worshiped through their intermediary, the god-priest K’tholo of Souchis. Aside from these, the Muvians called on a thousand different gods, including Cthulhu, Iod, Yig, Shub-Niggurath, Byatis, and Vorvadoss (who saved the continent from an invasion of extradimensional beings). The three most popular gods, however, were the three “brothers” Zoth-Ommog, Ghatanothoa, and Ythogtha. The Muvian’s devotion to these beings may have led to their downfall.
Over time, the cult of Ghatanothoa became more powerful, until the Year of the Red Moon (173,118 B. C.) T’yog, priest of Shub-Niggurath, set out to challenge their authority by entering the god’s prison in Mount Yaddith-Gho in the kingdom of K’naa. T’yog failed in his mission, and the Ghatanothoa cult became even more powerful until it threatened to close down the temples of all of Mu’s other gods.
The causes of Mu’s destruction remain a mystery. Explanations include the following:
Gas pockets beneath the continent exploded, causing it to sink beneath the ocean. (Churchward)
The species which lived alongside the humans attempted to reach the next stage in their spiritual evolution too quickly. This attempt released psychokinetic forces so powerful that they sank Mu, and these beings were forced to knock themselves unconscious to prevent themselves and the world from being destroyed. (Wilson)
According to the Zanthu Tablets, in the Year of the Whispering Shadow (161,844 B. C.) Zanthu, high priest of Ythogtha, tried to summon up his god to counter the power of Ghatanothoa. The Elder Gods took notice of this offense and sank Mu before Ythogtha could be unleashed. (Carter)
The humans of Mu and the serpent people spliced together their genes to create a new hybrid species embodying the best of both species. These creatures not only sought to become gods through the worship of Ghatanothoa, contacted Yig and ridiculed him, leading the Great Old One to destroy the continent. (Dziesinski)
The survivors of Mu fled to the regions around the Pacific, where most of them remain to this day. The high priest K’tholo traveled from Mu to South America, and thence to Yucatan, where he was killed in a volcanic explosion. Zanthu made his way to the Plateau of Tsang, where he was buried. Evidence of Mu may be found in the ruins on Ponape and Easter Island, and also in the books Unaussprechlichen Kulten, the Ponape Scripture, the Zanthu Tablets, and the works of Harold Hadley Copeland.
[The source of Mu lies in the priest Diego de Landa’s mistaken attempts to reconstruct a phonetic Mayan alphabet. Much later, the Abbé Brasseur tried to read the Troano Codex using this alphabet and believed that it told how a land called “Mu” sank beneath the ocean (the book is actually an astronomical treatise). Some earlier Muvian scholars such as Augustus Le Plongeon thought Mu and Atlantis were the same. The most famous proponent of Mu, “Colonel” James Churchward, placed it in the Pacific, where most subsequent authors of both occultism and fiction have left it. See Lemuria.]
See Black Seal of Iraan; Copeland, Harold Hadley; Cthulhu; D’horna-ahn Energies; Ghatanothoa; Ghorl Nigral; K’naa; Lloigor; Naacal; Nug and Yeb; Remnants of Lost Empires; Rituals of Yhe; Shamballah; Thasaidon; Tiania; Tsang, Plateau of; Tsathoggua; T’yog; Ubb; Vorvadoss; Yaddith-Gho; Ygoth Records; Yhe; Ythogtha; Zanthu; Zuchequon. (Manuscrit Troano, Brasseur de Bourbourg (O); “The Book of the Gates”, Carter; “The Dweller in the Tomb”, Carter; “The Fishers from Outside”, Carter; “The Offering”, Carter; “Out of the Ages”, Carter; “The Thing in the Pit”, Carter; “The Papyrus of the Dark Wisdom”, Carter and Smith; “The Utmost Abomination”, Carter and Smith; The Lost Continent of Mu, Churchward; Secrets of Japan, Dziesinski; “The Invaders”, Kuttner; “Out of the Aeons”, Lovecraft and Heald; Elysia, Lumley; The Philosopher’s Stone, Wilson; “The Return of the Lloigor”, Wilson.)
MÜLDER, DOCTOR PROFESSOR GOTTFRIED (or HERMANN) (c. 1795–1858)
Scientist from Heidelberg, friend of Friedrich von Junzt, and publisher of Unaussprechlichen Kulten. The two men met in 1815, most likely at the University of Berlin, and became close friends, a bond which grew even stronger after Mülder saved von Junzt’s life after a botched occult experiment. Mülder accompanied von Junzt in his Asian travels in 1818–9, but the two grew apart after their return to civilization.
Von Junzt did not re-enter Mülder’s life until the mid-1830s. At that time, Mülder was operating a publishing house in Dusseldorf, and von Junzt made arrangements with him to have Unaussprechlichen Kulten published. Mülder received the book in 1837; why he waited two years to publish it remains unclear, but it did appear in 1839 with an introduction by Mülder himself. Mülder had commissioned von Junzt to write a second book, but these plans were cut short by his friend’s death.
Mülder’s publishing house never recovered from the scandal that attended von Junzt’s death and soon went bankrupt. Mülder went on to Leipzig, where he used hypnotism to recall von Junzt’s conversations with him and published this information as The Secret Mysteries of Asia in 1847. Unfortunately for him, this printing led to trouble with the authorities. Mülder escaped to Metzengerstein, where he was incarcerated in a madhouse until his death.
[Mülder was originally the creation of Willis Conover who wrote about him in a letter to H. P. Lovecraft. According to Conover, Dr. Prof. Hermann Mülder was an individual who was still alive in 1937. Lin Carter did not see Conover’s side of the correspondence and created an alternate history — and first name — for Mülder. It is possible that one of the doctor’s descendants might have joined the FBI.]
See Ghorl Nigral; Secret Mysteries of Asia; Unaussprechlichen Kulten; Von Junzt, Friedrich. (“Zoth-Ommog”, Carter; Lovecraft at Last, Conover (O); “The History of Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten”, Harris; “The Von Junzt Timeline”, Harris.)
MUM-RATH PAPYRI
Documents translated and commented upon by Ibn Shoddathua. They are said to deal with the Great Old Ones, and provide advice for those who would deal with them.
(“The Book of Preparations”, Carter; “The Fairground Horror”, Lumley (O).)
MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE GREAT BOOKE
Book by Joachim Kindler written in English and published in Buda in 1641. The book purports to gain its material from a Gothic version of the Necronomicon.
See: Necronomicon (appendices). (“The Lurker in the Crypt,” Miller (O).)
MYLAKHRION
Greatest magician to have ever lived in Theem’hdra. Originally from the land of Tharamoon, Mylakhrion studied under such masters as the ice-mages of Khrissa. Despite his great mastery of sorcery, he followed many other wizards of his time in seeking immortality. Through his magic, Mylakhrion could prolong his life for hundreds or even thousands of years, but eternal life continued to elude him.
After many years of futile research, Cthulhu contacted him and offered Mylakhrion his long-sought goal in exchange for freeing the Great Old Ones from their prisons. When Mylakhrion refused to follow through on his part of the bargain, Cthulhu destroyed him.
See Exior K’mool; Teh Atht; Theem’hdra. (“Cryptically Yours...”, Lumley (O); Elysia, Lumley; “Kiss of the Lamia”, Lumley; “Mylakhrion the Immortal”, Lumley; “The Sorcerer’s Book”, Lumley; “Told in the Desert”, Lumley.)
MYSTERIES OF THE WORM
See De Vermis Mysteriis.
MYTH PATTERNS OF THE SHONOKINS
Work by New York occultist John Thunstone dealing with a supposed race of creatures, human-like in appearanc
e, who populated North America before the arrival of the Native Americans. They were reputed to be great wizards, but the newcomers annihilated them for their wicked ways. Some say the Shonokin still exist in small colonies, and Thunstone has much to say about what lies beneath certain mounds on the Plains.
(“Those Beneath the Waves”, Arnold; “Casting the Stone”, Pocsik; “Blood from a Stone”, Wellman (O).)
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NAACH-TITH
See Barrier of Naach-Tith.
NAACAL
Language spoken on the lost continent of Mu. This tongue may have originated in Hyperborea and was the sacred language of the priests of Mu. It later served as the basis for Mayan hieroglyphic writing. Naacal is now known only to a handful of lamas in the Himalayas, and can be split into two dialects, the common and the hieratic, or “priestly”. The originals of the Ponape Scripture and the Zanthu Tablets were written in hieratic Naacal. The author James Churchward wrote an unpublished guide to the language, the Naacal Key.
[James Churchward first mentioned the Naacal people in The Lost Continent of Mu. According to Churchward, tablets inscribed in their language were located at temples in India and Tibet and told the history of Mu. Very few people take Churchward seriously any more, but the authors of the Cthulhu Mythos were happy to appropriate his language and mention it in their stories.]
See Cthaat Aquadingen; Glyu’Uho; Naacal Key; Ponape; Zanthu Tablets. (“The Dweller in the Tomb”, Carter; “The Fishers from Outside”, Carter; “The Ring of the Hyades”, Glasby; A Resection of Time, Johnson; “Out of the Aeons”, Lovecraft and Heald; “Through the Gates of the Silver Key”, Lovecraft and Price (O).)
NAGAAE
Amphibious creatures living somewhere in western Germany. A nagaae has the body and hind legs of frog with four arms like those of a human. Each has two bulging eyes and a slit with two forked tongues for a mouth. The nagaae move by pushing themselves along with their two hind feet, leaving wide furrows in their wake.
The nagaae are the servitors of the Great Old One Cyäegha and often attend its rituals. See Cyäegha. (“Darkness, My Name Is,” Bertin (O).)
NAGGOOB
Personage known as the “Father of Ghouls”, and head of the servitors of Nyogtha. Though some claim that he is the leader of all ghouls, it seems more likely that he is the head of a small faction that dwells beneath the Plateau of Leng. Naggoob is believed to have presided over the coven-meetings of the Salem witches.
(“Zoth-Ommog”, Carter (O); The Complete Dreamlands, Williams and Petersen.)
NAMELESS CITY
Ruins buried somewhere in the deserts of Arabia, near Hadramaut. At one time the city lay beneath the ocean, but it came to the surface after a cataclysmic buckling of the earth’s crust. A species of reptilian humanoids, possibly a branch race of the deep ones or the serpent men, populated the city. These creatures are believed to have been aquatic, since their power was still great when the city lay on the seacoast but declined as its climate became drier.
The creatures of the city created an advanced civilization and settled several other outposts when the land was still rich and green. A major cataclysm destroyed their surface dwellings, causing them to live underground. When humans appeared in the Middle East and constructed the city of Irem, the reptiles fed on their people and inspired numerous cults that the people of Irem tried desperately to ferret out.
In the end, conflict erupted between the dwellers in Irem and the Nameless City, causing the reptiles to collapse the city of Irem. The remaining reptiles withdrew further to their deepest cavern-temples, carving through the rock to an underground paradise their prophets had promised them. All the inhabitants of the Nameless City departed to this subterranean world, leaving their city uninhabited. The squabbling remnants rest in that underground world, waging war between the clans over the preserved bodies of their ancestors. Today, only a few walls and cavern shrines remain to show their might.
Though it has been empty for centuries, the natives of this region still shun the Nameless City. Before he wrote the Necronomicon, Abdul Alhazred spent much time here. According to Professor Shrewsbury, the forces of evil took Abdul Alhazred to this city following his illusory “demise” in Damascus.
[Though it has become customary to place the Nameless City beneath Irem in Mythos fiction, the descriptions of both from Lovecraft’s fiction make this unlikely. Given that most of these are the descriptions of heat-crazed madmen, perhaps some reconciliation is possible.]
See Abdul Alhazred; Irem; Kara-Shehr; Mnomquah; That is not dead... (“The Keeper of the Key”, Derleth; “The Lurker at the Threshold”, Derleth and Lovecraft; “A History of the Necronomicon”, Lovecraft; “The Nameless City”, Lovecraft (O); “The Return of the Deep Ones”, Lumley; Alhazred, Tyson; Necronomicon, Tyson.)
NAMELESS CULTS
See Unaussprechlichen Kulten.
NAMELESS MIST (possibly also MAGNUM INNOMINANDUM)
Being spawned by Azathoth which in turn gave rise to Yog-Sothoth in the Hour of the Spiral Wind from Nith. It is served by the gugs.
See gugs; Magnum Innominandum; Yog-Sothoth. (“Dreams of the Black Lotus”, Carter; “The Shadow from the Stars”, Carter; Selected Letters IV, Lovecraft (O).)
NAOTALBA
1) High priest of Yhtill in the play The King in Yellow. See King in Yellow. (“The Repairer of Reputations”, Chambers (O); “Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?”, Ross.)
2) King of Carcosa who sent the “record-keepers” out from the library of Celaeno to the far corners of the earth to disseminate the knowledge of the Great Old Ones. See King in Yellow. (“The Repairer of Reputations”, Chambers (O); House of the Toad, Tierney.)
NASHT AND KAMAN-THA
Two mysterious individuals dressed as Egyptian priests. They are never encountered outside of the Cavern of Flame at the Dreamlands’ entrance. Nasht and Kaman-Tha seem indistinguishable, though some consider Nasht to have a greater understanding of the waking world. The two decide whether a visitor is worthy to enter the lands of dream, and they may be asked about the Dreamlands and the ways of its gods. Some people of the Dreamlands revere Nasht and Kaman-Tha as gods, but it is unclear whether they number among the Great Ones or merely serve as their priests.
See Dreamlands; Seventy Steps of Light Slumber. (“The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, Lovecraft (O); “Passing of a Dreamer”, Myers; H. P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands, Petersen et. al.)
NATH
Location known as the Land of the Three Suns. The history of this place is detailed in the Chronike von Nath. Nath may be identical with the infamous Vale of Pnath, but the descriptions of the two places seem greatly different. Another possibility is that it is a world home to the Elder Things. One dreamer records such a world as having three suns, and documents of that race speak of artifacts known as the “Spheres of Nath.”
See Chronicles of Nath; Pnath; Spheres of Nath; Tunneler Below. (“Dreams in the Witch-House”, Lovecraft (O); “The Tree on the Hill”, Lovecraft and Rimel; “In the Vaults Beneath”, Lumley.)
NATH-HORTHATH
Great One who is the chief god of Celephaïs. His temple in that city is turquoise, and its eighty priests have lived there for ten thousand years. In Hyperborean times, he was the god of the moon, who observed all dreams, protected humans from nightmares, and gave guidance to rulers. Nath-Horthath’s statues show him with two faces, and lions are sacred to him. Sometimes he will send forth a black, shadowy lion to help those especially favored by him.
See Nithy-Vash. (“Wizards of Hyperborea”, Fultz and Burns; “Celephaïs”, Lovecraft (O); “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, Lovecraft; H. P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands, Petersen et. al.; “Kadath/The Vision and the Journey”, Winter-Damon.)
NAVISSA CAMP
Town in Manitoba that grew out of a trading post near the Olassie Trail. In 1930, Navissa saw the reappearance of three individuals, two living and one dead, who had vanished from Stillwater the year before.
Both died shortly thereafter, and the investigating constable himself vanished, to reappear dead nearby after ten days.
(“Born of the Winds”, Lumley”; “The Thing that Walked on the Wind”, Derleth (O).)
NECROLATRY (“Worship of the Dead”; also NECROLOGY)
Book written by Ivor Gorstadt and published in the year 1702 in Leipzig. The Hoag family of Kingsport once held a copy of Necrolatry, which is now presumably in the library of Miskatonic University.
The book deals with people who have revealed the workings of secret cults and who have paid the price. A great deal of space is spent on Ludwig Prinn and Abdul Alhazred. Other sources indicate that the book may hold some sort of incantations as well.
