Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia

by Harms, Daniel

  Rumor has it that Cthulhu himself is merely the high priest of Yog-Sothoth. He is mentioned more often than the other Old Ones, and it has been suggested that his coming signals the rise of the others. Some enmity exists between Cthulhu and his “half-brother”, Hastur the Unspeakable. Still, no one knows just how Cthulhu and Hastur are related or why this conflict between them exists.

  A good number of apocryphal beliefs about Cthulhu and his nature have sprung up. In some texts, Cthulhu is called a water elemental, even though it is the ocean that blocks his telepathic signals to humanity. The Sussex Manuscript mentions Cthulhu as a manifestation of Nyarlathotep, though no other source interprets him in this way. Francis Laney attempted to link Cthulhu to the Quicha-Ayar war-god Huitzilopochtli. This is seriously flawed, however; not only is Huitzilopochtli an Aztec god, but he bears absolutely no resemblance to Cthulhu. Finally, some have drawn parallels between Cthulhu and K’tholo of Souchis, a high priest of Mu who fled that continent’s destruction and took up residence in South America. Few accept any of these hypotheses.

  See Alhazred, Abdul; Angell, George Gammell; Black Tome of Alsophocus; B’moth; Castro; Chorazin; Confessions of the Mad Monk Clithanus; Copeland, Harold Hadley; Cthaat Aquadingen; Cthulhu Among the Victorians; Cthulhu in the Necronomicon; Cthylla; deep ones; Dreamlands; Dwellers in the Depths; Elder Sign; Elder Things; elemental theory; Esoteric Order of Dagon; Fishers from Outside; Ghatanothoa; Great Old Ones; Hastur; Idh-yaa; An Investigation into the Myth-Patterns; Irem; Kassogtha; K’n-yan; Kthanid; Kuen-Yuin; Laniqua Lua’huan; Legends of the Olden Runes; Legrasse, John Raymond; Mark of Cthulhu; Masters of the Silver Twilight; mi-go; Mylakhrion; Notes on Nessie; Nug and Yeb; Nyarlathotep; Othuum; Ph’nglui mglw’nafh; Ph’thya-L’yi; Polynesian Mythology …; Ponape Scripture; Prehistoric Pacific in Light of the “Ponape Scripture”; R’lyeh; R’lyeh Text; R’lyehian; sand-dwellers; Seal of R’lyeh; shoggoths; Sorcerie de Demonologie; star-spawn of Cthulhu; Thurston, Francis Wayland; Unaussprechlichen Kulten; Vhoorl; Xoth; Xuthltan; Yian; Yog-Sothoth; Ythogtha. (Strange Eons, Bloch; “The Tugging”, Campbell; “Star-Spawn of Hyperborea”, Fultz; Necronomicon: The Book of Dead Names, Hay ed.; “Castle Dark”, Herber; “At the Mountains of Madness”, Lovecraft; “The Call of Cthulhu”, Lovecraft (O); “The Mound”, Lovecraft and Bishop; The Philosopher’s Stone, Wilson.)

  CTHULHU AMONG THE VICTORIANS. Volume by Laban Shrewsbury published by Miskatonic University Press in 1929. Since the book was issued during Shrewsbury’s twenty-year absence, it was likely assembled from the professor’s notes and published in the memory of the vanished anthropologist.

  This book seems to be a collection of Cthulhoid events that happened during the last few decades of the nineteenth century. Shrewsbury asserts that this age was one of the critical times in our planet’s history, when the Mythos made great strides in re-taking the world.

  See Shrewsbury, Laban. (Cthulhu by Gaslight, Barton(O); The Trail of Cthulhu, Derleth.)

  CTHULHU CYCLE DEITIES. See Great Old Ones.

  CTHULHU IN THE NECRONOMICON. Manuscript by Professor Laban Shrewsbury, and intended as a sequel to his Investigations into the Myth-Patterns of Latter-Day Primitives. The first part of Shrewsbury’s unfinished book arrived at the publishers in 1938, shortly before the Professor’s supposed death in a mysterious fire at his home. This portion was probably published even though the rest of the manuscript no longer exists, as the book has turned up in several places since then.

  In this book, Shrewsbury correlates the Cthulhu Mythos as outlined in the Necronomicon and the R’lyeh Text with the myths of cultures around the world. He also speculates on whether it might be effective to pit the Great Old Ones, especially Cthulhu and Hastur, against each other.

  See Necronomicon (appendices); Shrewsbury, Laban. (“Introduction” to Dreams from R’lyeh, Carter; “The House on Curwen Street”, Derleth (O).) CTHYLLA. Cthulhu’s daughter, mothered by Idh-yaa, a creature from the black star Xoth. Cthylla appears to be a six-eyed octopus whose number of tentacles varies between eight and twelve. She once dwelled near the underwater city of Y’ha-nthlei, but more recent sightings indicate that she has moved her feeding grounds to the Pacific or to Lake Titicaca between Peru and Bolivia.

  Cthylla is rarely alluded to within the books of the Mythos, for her destiny was so hideous even the authors of these volumes feared to speak of her. If ever Cthulhu is destroyed, his spirit will depart and be reincarnated in the womb of Cthylla. Thus Cthulhu might return to the world, even in the event of his complete destruction.

  (“In His Daughter’s Darkling Womb”, Jens; The Transition of Titus Crow, Lumley (O); “Aus den dunklen Zwischenreichen”, Schiemichen.)

  CULT OF THE BLOODY TONGUE. Kenyan religion worshiping an avatar of Nyarlathotep. The cult’s power is great, and few in the area speak of its rites. It has a few branches elsewhere in the world, but these are quite weak in comparison to the main organization. The Cult was possibly responsible for the Mau Mau campaign of terror in the 1950’s.

  See Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh; Nyarlathotep (Black Wind, God of the Bloody Tongue). (Masks of Nyarlathotep, DiTillio and Willis (O).)

  CULT OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM. Organization founded by Adam Searle, a musician and artist, in 1990. Based in Gaithersberg, Maryland, the group began as a half-joking attempt to encourage human evolution. After returning to the States in 1992 after a year in England, Searle taught a new message foretelling the fiery destruction of the world in the year 2000. Basing this vision on the Ha-Sepher shel Teefays Or (Book of the Climbing Light), the sect grew until hundreds of people followed Searle’s vision. The cult’s headquarters in the Catskills burned in 1993, but some branches of the group may survive.

  (“The Truth Shall Set You Free”, Ballon; 1990s Handbook, Rucka et. al.(O).)

  CULT OF THE SKULL. Cult that meets in the deep woods outside Chesuncook, Maine. The organization’s high rites are held on Halloween, though worship may also be held at other times. The cult is said to worship Shub-Niggurath among the standing stones in the woods, though few details of their rites have emerged. Those few that have escaped their rites have described vast underground caverns down six thousand steps and pits where the shoggoths feast.

  The Cult of the Skull is said to have a rivalry with the witch-cult based in Arkham. Its membership remains mostly secret, though both Asenath Waite and Edward Derby were thought to have joined the cult.

  See Kamog; Waite, Ephraim. (“The Dark Stairway”, Berglund and Weinberg; Keeper’s Compendium, Herber; “The Thing on the Doorstep”, Lovecraft (O).) CULT OF THE YELLOW SIGN. See Brothers of the Yellow Sign.

  CULTE DES MORTS, LE (“The Worship of the Dead”). Little is known about this book. The commonly-available edition is highly censored. A portion of the book that was removed has been seen, but only four copies of this section are known to exist.

  (“The Strange Doom of Enos Harker”, Carter and Price; “The Isle of Dark Magic”, Cave (O).)

  CULTES DES GOULES. Book dealing principly with a Parisian ghoul-cult. The author was Antoine-Marie Augustin de Montmorency-les-Roches, Comte d’Erlette, a French nobleman of occult leanings who became involved in the Affair of the Poisoners, in which high-ranking nobles were accused of murder and black magic. The group circulated copies of the book in manuscript, but never published it. A later Comte of the same line, Francois Honore-Balfour, found the book, expanded it, and had it published at his own expense in 1703. Later, an expurgated edition was published in Rouen in 1737 (though the source for this date is suspect).

  A few sorcerers also made handwritten copies in Italian or Spanish. Fourteen copies of the original French publication are known to exist. One may be found in the Miskatonic University library, another was kept by the Starry Wisdom cult of Providence, and yet another was in the personal library of Titus Crow (though this was probably destroyed). One Lazarus Garvey is believed to have translated part of the book into English, but he disappeared into the Himalayas before the work could
be completed.

  In this book, the Comte speaks of his membership in a ghoul-cult, and gives a set of prophecies concerning its future. Along with this appear descriptions of pagan fertility rites dedicated to the earth-deities, some of which have survived to the present. Also mentioned are Nyogtha, Shub-Niggurath (whom the book links to lycanthropcy), and tales of the Yeti, for which no clear explanation is given. At least one authority, however, has stated that this book is more fancy than fact.

  [There has been considerable debate over who invented this particular tome, with Lovecraft, Bloch, and Derleth all cited as potential sources. Since the book appears in Bloch’s stories a year before it shows up in Lovecraft’s and nine years before Derleth’s, I have noted him as the original author.]

  See D’Erlette, Comte. (“Darkness, My Name Is”, Bertin; “The Grinning Ghoul”, Bloch; “The Suicide in the Study”, Bloch (O); Realm of Shadows, Crowe; “The Adventure of the Six Silver Spiders”, Derleth; Keeper’s Companion, Herber; “Books of the Cthulhu Mythos”, Herber and Ross; Spawn of Azathoth, Herber; “The Haunter of the Dark”, Lovecraft; “The Caller of the Black”, Lumley; “They Only Come Out at Night”, Medoff; Ex Libris Miskatonici, Stanley.)

  CULTUS MALEFICARUM (also THE SUSSEX MANUSCRIPT). Partial English translation of the Latin Necronomicon, made by a Baron Frederic of Sussex and published in 1598 in an octavo edition. Reverend Winters-Hall’s “translation” of the Sussex Manuscript (whatever that means) is kept at Miskatonic University.

  [The Cultus Maleficarum is a real illuminated manuscript created by Fred Pelton, a Lovecraft fan in the Forties who tried unsuccessfully to have Arkham House publish his work. As with many books in Mythos stories, the original has disappeared while the text has been passed on. Since many of Pelton’s ideas of the Mythos diverge considerably from the more-accepted lore, I have tried to note them where they appear.]

  See Necronomicon (appendices); Sothoth; star-stones; Ulthar. (“Zoth-Ommog”, Carter; The Sussex Manuscript, Pelton (O).)

  CURWEN, JOSEPH (1663-1771). Wealthy trader and reputed sorcerer from Providence, Rhode Island. Born in Danvers (then Salem-Village), Massachusetts, Curwen went to sea at an early age. Having returned to Salem after several years, he was forced to leave at the beginning of the great witchcraft panic. He then took up residence in Providence, where he lived for the rest of his life while keeping up an extensive correspondence with his friends Simon Orne and Edward Hutchinson.

  Joseph Curwen quickly became one of Providence’s most powerful merchants, bringing the colony great wealth from his overseas trade. His generous acts of philanthropy toward his hometown and the fledgling Arkham College, later to become Miskatonic University, established his reputation as a civic-minded individual. Despite this, his fellow townspeople spread tales about disappearances seemingly connected with him. Rumors told of the mysterious cargo brought to his house and a Pawtuxet farm in which he had set up a laboratory, not to mention the advanced age Curwen had reached without any signs of physical deterioration.

  Joseph Curwen was married to Eliza Tillinghast in 1763, and the couple had a daughter, Ann, two years later. While at first his alliance to one of Providence’s most influential families brought Curwen some public acceptance, the old rumors began again soon thereafter. By 1770, it was clear that Curwen was indeed performing some sort of illegal acts, and a secret committee of Providence’s most powerful men met to decide what action should be taken. On April 12, 1771, a party of raiders led by this committee marched on Curwen’s Pawtuxet farm. What exactly happened during the raid is unclear, but following this, Joseph Curwen was seen no more.

  See Hutchinson, Edward; Liber Damnatus; Necronomicon (appendices); Orne, Simon; Reflections; Ward, Charles Dexter. (“The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”, Lovecraft (O); Ex Libris Miskatonici, Stanley.)

  CXAXUKLUTH (also KSAKSA-KLUTH). Androgynous spawn of Azathoth who was the progenitor of both Hziulquoigmnzhah and Ghisguth, who was in turn Tsathoggua’s father. He and his children dwelt on Yuggoth for a while, but his companions soon left him on account of his cannibalistic tendencies. He is the lord of our particular sector of space, but pays no attention to prayers.

  See Ghisguth; Hziulquoigmnzhah; Tsathoggua; Yuggoth. (“The Family Tree of the Gods”, Smith (O); “The Unresponding Gods”, Tierney; “The Throne of Achamoth”, Tierney and Price.)

  CYÄEGHA. Great Old One appearing as a great black mass of tentacles with one green eye at the center. Cyäegha is a god of the caverns and darkness, as well as an embodiment of hatred. He sleeps for centuries on end, but when he is awakened, his wrath is terrible.

  Millennia ago, Cyäegha’s genetic material somehow mingled with that of humans in Europe. As a result, most people from the continent bear the legacy of the Great Old One. Those who express these markers most strongly remember their heritage, journeying to a place where the god might appear and becoming members of his cult. Although the group is ostensibly dedicated to serving the Great Old One, in fact its members are dedicated to keeping their god imprisoned so that they might draw upon his power and vitality in their rites before the time is right for his rising. To help in keeping Cyäegha immobile, the people use five guardian spirits housed in statues known as Vaeyen, who not only protect Cyäegha but act as its jailers as well.

  Beginning in the seventeenth century, the small German town of Freihausgarten worshiped Cyäegha. According to the cult, their god dwelt beneath the Dark Hill near the town, where all the townspeople journeyed to worship him. Cyäegha seemed to exert some sort of hypnotic control over the people; they came unfailingly to his rites, but afterward could remember nothing of what had happened. Around the year 1860, however, a young priest came to Freihausgarten and broke up the cult.

  See elemental theory; Othuyeg; Vach-Viraj. (“Darkness, My Name Is”, Bertin (O); “Sufficient Unto the Day”, Ingham.)

  CYKRANOSH. The planet Saturn, as it was known in Mhu Thulan. Tsathoggua and Atlach-Nacha came to Earth from that world, and Tsathoggua’s paternal uncle Hziulquoigmnzhah still resides there. When the priests of Yhoundeh came to capture Eibon, that wizard made his escape through a magical portal to Cykranosh.

  (“The Door to Saturn”, Smith (O); The Philosopher’s Stone, Wilson.)

  CYLINDERS OF KADATHERON. See Brick Cylinders of Kadatheron.

  CYNOTHOGLYS. 1) Deity appearing as a formless mound topped with an arm-like appendage. Cynothoglys is the god of transformation and death. If properly supplicated, Cynothoglys may provide his supplicant with whatever death they may desire. This death may not take place immediately, but its eventual coming is certain. (“The Prodigy of Dreams”, Ligotti (O).)

  2) Book that may contain prayers to or information on the Mortician God Cynothoglys. (“Vastarien”, Ligotti (O).)

  D

  DAEMONOLORUM. Book which may have been written around the year 200. It tells of an Egyptian sect that believed its gods could take on a human form.

  (“The Brood of Bubastis”, Bloch; “The Dark Demon”, Bloch (O); Keeper’s Compendium, Herber.)

  DAGON. Minor being that leads the deep ones and in turn serves Cthulhu. Dagon appears as a deep one of tremendous proportions, or more rarely as a cloud of mist. One description provides him with a single lidless eye in a bullet-shaped head and translucent skin. The deep ones and some coastal humans worship him alongside his mate, Mother Hydra.

  Dagon spends much of his time sleeping in a crevasse in the ocean floor beneath layers of muck. He comes forth to meet his human or deep one worshipers when they call out the proper rites. Legend has it that Dagon may come no further ashore than the low tide mark, though on at least one occasion he came further inland.

  Dagon’s cults have existed for millennia. Legend has it that the Phoenicians came to power through the influence of Dagon, and that the end of their supremacy came when they turned away from him to other gods. One of his modern-day cults, the Esoteric Order of Dagon in Innsmouth, Massachusetts, was raided by government agents in 1927 due to repor
ts of strange disappearances and illegal activities in that town. Rites held in common with deep ones, as well as black pillars covered with mysterious characters, are norms for the cult.

  It has been claimed that Dagon is only an avatar of Cthulhu, a portion of that being which was not trapped beneath R’lyeh. Past encounters with the god, however, suggest that Dagon is merely an exceedingly large deep one, and that the names “Dagon” and “Hydra” may be titles given to the largest of their species.

  [Dagon or Dagan was originally a Semitic fertility god worshipped by the Sumerians, Akkadians, Canaanites, and Philistines. Samson knocked down a temple of Dagon upon his tormentors (Judges 16:23). Later, when the Ark of the Covenant was left in the temple of Dagon, the statue of that deity was mutilated (1 Samuel 5:2). While in the past it was thought that Dagon was a fish-god, this seems to have been a misinterpretation of his name, a word meaning “grain”.]

  See Atlantis; deep ones; elemental theory; Esoteric Order of Dagon; Hydra; Invocations to Dagon; Lesser Old Ones; Oaths of Dagon; Pth’thya-L’yi; Ponape Scripture; Yhe. (Escape from Innsmouth, Ross; “Dagon”, Lovecraft (O); “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”, Lovecraft; “Dagon’s Bell”, Lumley; “The Return of the Deep Ones”, Lumley; A Guide to the Cthulhu Cult, Pelton; Necronomicon, Tyson.)