Elder Thing
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The Elder Things (also known as the Old Ones[1]) are fictional aliens in the Cthulhu Mythos. The beings first appeared in H. P. Lovecraft's novella At the Mountains of Madness (1936). Additional references to the Elder Things appear in Lovecraft's short stories "The Dreams in the Witch-House" (1933) and "The Shadow Out of Time" (1936).
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[edit] Summary
Six feet end to end, three and five-tenths feet central diameter, tapering to one foot at each end. Like a barrel with five bulging ridges in place of staves. Lateral breakages, as of thinnish stalks, are at equator in middle of these ridges. In furrows between ridges are curious growths – combs or wings that fold up and spread out like fans. . . which gives almost seven-foot wing spread. Arrangement reminds one of certain monsters of primal myth, especially fabled Elder Things in [the] Necronomicon.
—H.P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness
The Elder Things were the first alien species to come to the Earth, colonizing the planet about one billion years ago.[2] They stood roughly six feet tall and had the appearance of a huge, oval-shaped barrel with starfish-like appendage at both ends. The top appendage was a head adorned with five eyes, five eating tubes, and a set of cilia for "seeing" without light. The bottom appendage was five-limbed and was used for walking and other forms of locomotion. The beings also had five leathery, retractable wings and five sets of tentacles that sprouted from their torsos. Both their tentacles and the slits housing their folded wings were spaced at regular intervals about their bodies.
The Elder Things were vegetable-like in shape, having radial symmetry instead of the bilateral symmetry of bipeds. They also differed in that they had a five-lobed brain. In terms of nutrition and reproduction, the Elder Things exhibited vegetal as well as animal characteristics. Though they could make use of both organic and inorganic substances, the Elder Things were preferably carnivorous. They were also amphibious.
The bodies of the Elder Things were incredibly tough, capable of withstanding the pressures of the deepest ocean. Few died except by accident or violence. The beings were also capable of hibernating for vast epochs of time. Nonetheless, unlike other beings of the Mythos, the Elder Things were made of normal, terrestrial matter.
[edit] Technology
The technology that the Elder Things possessed was not described at length, but was described as being extremely advanced, and At the Mountains of Madness even makes an off-hand mention that they may have had directed-energy weaponry. They are also presumed by some characters in H.P. Lovecraft's stories as being the creators of their servitor race, the shoggoths.
[edit] Society
Because they reproduced through spores, there was little biological basis for families to form, and were thus grouped together with others whom they would get along with. Elderian "families" lived in large dwellings, where furniture and other decoration was placed in the center of the rooms, to leave the walls open for murals.
In furnishing their homes they kept everything in the center of the huge rooms, leaving all the wall spaces free for decorative treatment. Lighting, in the case of the land inhabitants, was accomplished by a device probably electro-chemical in nature. Both on land and under water they used curious tables, chairs and couches like cylindrical frames - for they rested and slept upright with folded-down tentacles - and racks for hinged sets of dotted surfaces forming their books. Government was evidently complex and probably socialistic, though no certainties in this regard could be deduced from the sculptures we saw. There was extensive commerce, both local and between different cities - certain small, flat counters, five-pointed and inscribed, serving as money. Probably the smaller of the various greenish soapstones found by our expedition were pieces of such currency. Though the culture was mainly urban, some agriculture and much stock raising existed. Mining and a limited amount of manufacturing were also practiced. Travel was very frequent, but permanent migration seemed relatively rare except for the vast colonizing movements by which the race expanded. For personal locomotion no external aid was used, since in land, air, and water movement alike the Old Ones seemed to possess excessively vast capacities for speed. Loads, however, were drawn by beasts of burden - Shoggoths under the sea, and a curious variety of primitive vertebrates in the later years of land existence.
—H.P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness
In "The Dreams in the Witch-House", the central character is sent through a dimensional portal to a planet in a triple star system (with a yellow, red, and blue star) located "between Hydra and Argo Navis", and populated by Elder Things.
[edit] History
On Earth, the Elder Things built huge cities, both underwater and on dry land. They may be responsible for the appearance of the first life-forms on Earth, including the entity known as Ubbo-Sathla (although sources differ in this regard). They bio-engineered the dreaded shoggoths to be their all-purpose slave race. Eventually, however, the shoggoths rebelled—an event that hastened the decline and ultimate collapse of their civilization.
They are known to have warred against the star-spawn of Cthulhu, the Great Race of Yith, and the Mi-go. Despite these conflicts, it was the gradual cooling of the planet during the last ice age that spelled their doom. Retreating to their undersea cities deep in the ocean, they would thereafter have no further dealings with the outer world. Their last surface city, located on a high plateau in the Antarctic, remains frozen in ice. The ruins of this city were discovered in 1931 by two members of an Antarctic expedition from Miskatonic University.
[edit] Other Appearances
Elder Things (as Old Ones) were one of the species detailed in Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials. In it, Wayne Barlowe retcons that, instead of the working off of the aether (a concept that had finally been discredited since Lovecraft's time), the wings of the Elder Things work off solar wind, essentially transforming them into solar sails. The appearance of them in the Guide was later used in the supplemental materials that came with Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: At the Mountains of Madness.
The story "To Mars and Providence" from War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches equated the Elder Things with the Martians from The War of the Worlds.
In the novella A Colder War the technology of the Elder Things (who are referred to by the CIA as "Predecessors") is central to the plot, and Stephen Jay Gould examines the remains of one.
Elder Things are referenced but do not appear in Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth.
The Doctor Who novel The Taking of Planet 5 by Simon Bucher-Jones is set in the Elder Thing city, though it is a fictional construct based explicitly on At The Mountains Of Madness. The Elder Things are featured here.
An Elder Thing, along with a Mi-go and a Cthulhu cult, appear in the "What Ho, Gods of the Abyss?" section of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier. In it, Bertie Wooster's Aunt Dahlia is possessed by the cult, but are saved by Thomas Carnacki and the other members of the League.
In the first editon of the Dungeons and Dragons game, the original version of the Deities & Demigods book presents Elder Things as one of the example monsters of the Cthulhu Mythos, but are given the name "Primoridal Ones".
[edit] References
- Harms, Daniel (1998). "Elder Things", The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, 2nd ed., Oakland, CA: Chaosium, pp. 99–100. ISBN 1-56882-119-0.
- Lovecraft, Howard P. [1936] (2005). "At the Mountains of Madness", At the Mountains of Madness: The Definitive Edition. New York, NY: The Modern Library. ISBN 0-8129-7441-7 (paperback). Introduction by China Miéville.
- Petersen, Sandy. Call of Cthulhu, 5th ed., Oakland, CA: Chaosium. ISBN 1-56882-148-4.
[edit] Notes
- ^ The term "Old Ones" should not be confused with the Great Old Ones. This is a separate group and is described as being enemies of the Elder Things in At the Mountains of Madness.
- ^ Harms, "Appendix D: Timeline of the Cthulhu Mythos", The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, p. 384.
