Elder God (Cthulhu Mythos)

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An Elder God is a deity in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft.

Contents

[edit] Summary

In post-Lovecraft stories, the Elder Gods oppose the Outer Gods and the Great Old Ones. Some consider them to be non-Lovecraftian because they employ a good versus evil dichotomy which is contrary to the cosmic indifference of Lovecraft's fiction. However, these deities are no more concerned for human notions of "good" and "evil" than the beings they oppose and consider humans to be less than fleas although they can be sympathetic to humanity on occasion and their interests usually coincide with our own.

A notable attempt to harmonize the good versus evil dichotomy with cosmic indifference was made by Gary Myers in his collection of Dreamlands fantasies, The House of the Worm (1975). According to Myers, the Elder Gods are identical to the mild gods of earth who figure in Lovecraft's The Other Gods (1921) and The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (1927). These gods found the Great Old Ones already asleep, and were so terrified at the sight of them that they wove powerful spells over them to try to prevent their waking. But the passage of time has weakened both the spells and the gods who wove them, and it is doubtful that either will have much power to put off the hour of the Great Old Ones' return.

The main "Elder God" used by Lovecraft is Nodens, who acts as deus ex machina for the protagonists in both The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath and "The Strange High House in the Mist" (1931). In this regard, he functions like Lovecraft's Nyarlathotep, although Nodens is obviously less malicious. Another entity mentioned as an Elder God is Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep. He appears in the story fragment "Hypnos" which is about a mediocre poet who is suddenly granted the power to usher in a new Golden Age. It is also speculated that Bast, the Egyptian goddess of cats, qualifies as an Elder God due to Lovecraft's feline obsession and because of hints given in Lovecraft's "The Cats of Ulthar" (1920).

[edit] List

This list is organized as follows:

  • Name. This is the commonly accepted name of the Elder God. A disputed entry is marked by an asterisk (*) to indicate that it may instead be an Outer God.
  • Description. This entry briefly summarizes the Elder God.
  • References. These are the sources in which the Elder God makes a significant appearance or otherwise receives important mention. A simple two-letter code is used—the key to the codes is found here. If a code appears in bold, this means that the reference introduces the Elder God.

[edit] Bast

Bast (Goddess of Cats or Pasht) appears as a female human with a cat's head.

Ref 
 BR, MA, SU 

[edit] Hypnos

Hypnos (Lord of Sleep) is an enigmatic being of unknown form.

Ref 
 HP 

[edit] Kthanid

See Brian Lumley deities.

[edit] Nodens

Nodens (Lord of the Great Abyss) appears as an human male riding a huge seashell pulled by legendary beasts.

Ref 
 DQ, GM, HW , NE, PN, HH 

[edit] Ulthar

Ulthar (or Uldar) is a deity sent to Earth to hold vigil over the Great Old Ones.

Ref 
 GC, SX 

[edit] Vorvadoss

Vorvadoss* (The Flaming One, Lord of the Universal Spaces, The Troubler of the Sands, Who Waiteth in the Outer Dark) appears as a cloaked, hooded being, enveloped in green flames, with fiery eyes. He may otherwise appear as a misty, silvery being not unlike Tawil-at-U'mr with an inhuman face.

Ref 
 EA, IN, AE, WH 

[edit] Yad-Thaddag

See Brian Lumley deities.

[edit] Other appearances

  • A group of entities called Elder Gods are part of the Mortal Kombat mythos.
  • The predecessors of the current generation of gods in the Marvel Universe were also known as Elder Gods and were likely inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos.
  • In the Soul Reaver and Legacy of Kain series of games an entity calling himself the Elder God is an antagonist. This creature was in a dimension that only Raziel, a character in the series, can enter. His form is that of a giant squid-like being, although no definite body is visible. All one ever sees is a mass of writhing tentacles and an occasional stretch of flesh, both almost always covered in eyes both large and small. Ironically, this bears a resemblance to the Cthlulu mythos.