Shoggoth

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A shoggoth (or shaggoth[1]) is a fictional monster in the Cthulhu Mythos. The being first appeared in H. P. Lovecraft's novella At the Mountains of Madness (1936).

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[edit] Description

   
Shoggoth
 It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train – a shapeless congerie of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter.
   
Shoggoth
 
— H. P. Lovecraft, At The Mountains of Madness

Shoggoths are protoplasmic entities of mutable form and are considered to be among the most frightful entities of the mythos. They look like gigantic amoebae made of tar with eyes on the surface, often depicted as able to spontaneously form body parts and organs at will. The average one when a sphere was about 15' across, though later ones grew much larger and had better intelligence. They reproduce through binary fission, and are commonly shown as capable of tremendous feats of strength, such as tearing apart large machinery.

The shoggoths are terrible things to behold—even the Mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred, author of the Necronomicon, was terrified by the mere thought that they might have existed at all on Earth.

[edit] Origin and history

The shoggoths are the slave race created by the Elder Things. Before native life arose on the Earth, the Elder Things created the mindless shoggoths to serve as living construction equipment. Being amorphous, they could take on any shape their controllers desired, making them very versatile.

The Elder Things used the shoggoths to build their underwater cities. In time, however, the shoggoths gained intelligence and rebelled against their creators. Eventually, the Elder Things succeeded in quelling the insurrection, but thereafter took greater care in maintaining their slaves. It was during this time that, despite their masters' wishes, the shoggoths demonstrated an ability to survive on land. The existence of the shoggoths possibly led to the accidental creation of Ubbo-Sathla, a god-like entity responsible for the origin of all life on Earth (though other legends dispute this claim).

[edit] Other connections

When the Elder Things retreated to the oceans, they brought the shoggoths with them and eventually let them develop the ability to exist on land - as well - out of desperation. Eventually, in contrast to the failing society of the Elder Things, the shoggoths began to imitate the Elder Things' art and voices, and took over the cavern city underneath Antartica and created a perverted imitation of the Elder Things' society. Nonetheless, a few of the shoggoths appear here and there, often as servitors to the other beings of the mythos, such as the Deep Ones. Some shoggoths may be held in captivity by cults, perhaps for use in their ceremonies or for other more nefarious purposes. Shoggoths are known to mindlessly repeat the cries of their former masters: "Tekeli-li"[2].

[edit] Other appearances

  • Shoggoths appear as acidic recoil inflicting monsters in the online game Wyvern.
  • Shoggoths with approximate radial symmetry are available as plush figures produced by Toy Vault.
  • A Shoggoth is mentioned in the 'exit screen' (Being the text you receive when prompted to exit the game) in both Quake and Daikatana. Perhaps because Sandy Petersen worked on Quake along with John Romero, who later went to work at Ion Storm and made Daikatana.
  • In the webcomic Orneryboy, the main characters inadvertently turn their pet cat into a shoggoth while trying to cure it of zombiism.
  • The shoggoth could be considered the basis of the ooze family of creatures, or more specifically the black pudding in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game system. Much like the shoggoth, the black pudding is tar-like in appearance as well as amorphous. The glossary entry for puddings in the game Nethack quotes and cites the eyewitness description of a shoggoth in Lovecraft's original story.
  • In the table top strategy game Warhammer Fantasy, in the armies of Chaos, Dragon Ogre Shaggoths are ancient creatures of titanic proportions, being dragon ogres who have endured for centuries rejuvenating in lightning storms.
  • Shoggoth is also a name for a widely-used machine for restaurants.[citation needed]

[edit] References

  • Burleson, Donald R. (1983). H. P. Lovecraft, A Critical Study. Westport, CT / London, England: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-23255-5.
  • Harms, Daniel (1998). “Shoggoths”, The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, 2nd ed., Oakland, CA: Chaosium, pp. 273–4. ISBN 1-56882-119-0.
  • Lovecraft, Howard P. [1931] (1985). “At the Mountains of Madness”, S. T. Joshi (ed.): At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels, 7th corrected printing, Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. ISBN 0-87054-038-6. Definitive version.
  • Pearsall, Anthony B. (2005). The Lovecraft Lexicon, 1st ed., Tempe, AZ: New Falcon Pub. ISBN 1-56184-129-3.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ This spelling appears in the original Arkham House printing for "The Thing on the Doorstep" (1937), though the definitive manuscripts show that the proper spelling is in fact "shoggoth". (Burleson, H.P. Lovecraft, A Critical Study, footnote #14, p. 195.)
  2. ^ This cry is a reference to the Edgar Allan Poe novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, which is cited in At the Mountains of Madness. (Pearsall, "Poe, Edgar Allan", The Lovecraft Lexicon, p. 332.)

[edit] External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

[edit] Further reading

  • Gaiman, Neil. "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar". A young American tourist on a walking tour of the British coastline stops for a meal at a pub in Innsmouth, weirdness ensues.
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