Talk:Tsathoggua

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Edited the page to remove a number of factual errors, most regarding Howard's dubious use of the character, and to place emphasis on Tsathoggua as a fictional creation with divers hand affecting its 'history.' Also put more emphasis on Clark Ashton Smith, Tsathoggua's creator and the author who used him most.

[edit] Family tree

Devilot, my apologies for not responding to your note. Let me respond here.

The "genealogy" of Tsathoggua strikes me as the ultimate in Cthulhucruft, if I may coin a term. It's a letter from one writer friend to another where he rattles off a bunch of nonsense words, clearly in a spirit of fun. With the exception of I think one "uncle" who appears in The Door to Saturn, none of these mock-Cthulhoid creatures show up in any literary work--they are the literary equivalents of doodles that were the harbingers of nothing.

One of my major concerns in working on WP's Cthulhu Mythos articles is that we maintain an out-of-universe perspective. (See WP:WAF.) From an out-of-universe perspective, it's really not worth making note of which particular typewriter keys CAS hit when he was trying to amuse HPL. From an in-universe perspective, of course, these are all ancient, terrible entities, and therefore of great significance, but that's the approach that WP wants us to avoid.

How about if we keep the intro in some form and get rid of the entity-by-entity subsections? Nareek 00:48, 3 October 2006 (UTC)


  • Actually, at least two of these guys appear in other literature. Knygathin Zhaum appears in a short story by CAS called "The Testament of Athammus" link title. Zvilpogghua appears in further stories I know of: one's called the Feaster in the Stars, written by Lin Carter- I also believe he was referenced under his name Ossadagowah in the Lurker at the Threshold, and in another story by CAS.