The following tables and lists feature elements of the Cthulhu Mythos, that are often shared between works within that fictional setting.
The Cthulhu Mythos were originally created by writer H. P. Lovecraft in his horror short stories, although the term itself was coined later by August Derleth. Many writers, both during Lovecraft's lifetime and after, have added stories and elements to the Mythos. There is no central co-ordination of these stories nor any oversight of the Cthulhu Mythos in general. Becoming part of the Mythos can be based on personal opinion and inclusion of these elements.
Contents |
Tables appearing under these entries are organized as follows:
(includes a table listing all the Great Old Ones in the mythos)
The Great Old Ones are powerful, ancient creatures worshipped by deranged human cults. Many of them are made of an unearthly material with properties unlike normal matter. A Great Old One's influence is often limited to the planet where it dwells. If it is based on a planet outside the solar system, it can only extend its influence to Earth when the star of its planetary system is in the night sky. In such cases, the help of cultists performing various rituals may be required.
(includes a table listing all the Outer Gods in the mythos)
The Outer Gods have unlimited influence, unlike the Great Old Ones, and function on a cosmic scale.[1] They include a subgroup known as the Lesser Outer Gods, or Other Gods.
(includes a table listing all the Elder Gods in the mythos)
The Elder Gods oppose the Outer Gods and the Great Old Ones. Many consider them to be non-Lovecraftian, because they introduce a good versus evil dichotomy into the cosmic indifference of Lovecraft's fiction.[2] However, others argue that these beings have no more concern for human notions of morality than the beings they oppose, and that humanity and the human world are beneath their regard.[3]
The Great Ones are the so-called "gods" of the Dreamlands, but they are not as powerful as the Great Old Ones and are not even as intelligent as most humans. However, they are protected by the Outer Gods, especially Nyarlathotep.[4]
| Name | Epithet(s), Other name(s) |
Description | References |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alala |
|
Being made of living sound that dwells in the Gulf of S'glhuo; Possibly unimaginably hideous. | PL, WP |
| Beast of Averoigne |
|
A seemingly supernatural being which is recorded as having descended upon the French principality of Averoigne, particularly Vyones and Ximes, from an ominous red comet which appeared in the sky in 1369. It has no true body of its own, but needs to take possession of the body of another to feed, transfiguring and horribly reshaping the host's body. Resulting form is that of a pitch-black semi-humanoid figure, surrounded by a hellish nimbus of changing, fiery light, dimly revealing its shape. The limbs sway and writhe like boneless serpents, and grow sharp, hard claws. The neck similarly extends to a serpentine length and flexibilty, whereas the head turns flat and reptilian, earless and noseless. | BA |
| Broodlings of Eihort | Gestalt Servants of the God of the Labyrinth | The Broodlings of Eihort are gestalt beings made up of millions of the tiny white spidery brood of the Great Old One Eihort. A broodling looks like a deathly pale, totally hairless human. | rpg |
| Brown Jenkin |
|
A mysterious rat-like creature with a human-like face. The being was said to be the familiar of Keziah Mason. Probably a Rat Thing - see below. | DW, PY |
| Desh (Lesser and Greater) |
|
Desh is the name given by Hyperboreans to those creatures living in a near but alternate dimension. Existing in many different forms, these creatures float through the invisible spaces around us, as unaware of our presence as we are of theirs. Although the varieties of Desh may be unlimited, only two forms are described (Lesser and Greater). Although of solid matter, they are semi-transparent, continually fading in and out of view. | rpg |
| Droom-Avista | The Jester | True form not described, but likely a great demon to be invoked as a genie | JD |
| The Dunwich Horror | Son of Yog-Sothoth, Bugg-Shaggog | An invisible egg-shaped monster of a gelatinous consistence, covered in tentacled suckers and "feet like hogsheads", with a mostly human face. | DH, LC |
| Father Dagon and Mother Hydra |
|
Both appear as abnormally large Deep Ones. | DA, DB, RD, SI |
| Fthaggua | Lord of Ktynga | Appears as a bluish ball of energy. Fthaggua is the lord and leader of the fire vampires, and dwells with them and their god Cthugha on or near the star Fomalhaut. | FV, HG |
| Fishers from Outside |
|
The Fishers from Outside are much more avian in appearance than shantaks, though having one leg and a glaring Cyclopean eye and hideous, hooked, fang-lined beak. They are the servitors of the obscure Great Old One Groth-Golka, acting as proxies for their sire by accepting human sacrifices and worship by cultists. Fishers brood in caverns on the Moon and are also sometimes connected with worship of the lunar Great Old One Mnomquah. Their sire is the hideous Quumyagga. | FO |
| Fosterlings of the Old Ones |
|
The Fosterlings of the Old Ones are the mutant offspring of matings with human females and Outer Gods or Great Old Ones. Through a special ritual the Outer God or Great Old One sends a dream which reaches into the womb of a pregnant woman, altering the
genetic structure of the unborn fetus. Born, the child spends many years as a normal human until one day it transforms into something more closely resembling its alien parent. |
FC |
| The Four Horsemen of Nyarlathotep[5] |
|
These characters feature in the comics series Fall of Cthulhu as servitors of Nyarlathotep and should thus be regarded as Million Favoured Ones. They are in order: Sysyphyx (The Scourge of Atlantis; she is a multi-eyed shape-shifting worm, but she may also appear as a fat, cyanotic red-headed fat woman); Gr'nuk of Volkunast (a ravenous winged demon), The Masked Mute (She appears as a young girl with innumerable masks to display her mood, since her true face has to be of indescribable horror) and Gith (Father of Pestilence,Champion of Damnation; he appears as a banded man with blue flames in place of the eyes). |
|
| Fungus Vile |
|
A kind of parasitic life form, neither really plant nor animal in nature, able to infect any organism it comes into contact with. It is suspected that this material originated on cold Yuggoth and subsequently spread through the cosmos with the mi-go. | rpg |
| Gnoph-Keh |
|
Appears as huge gnophkeh — possibly an avatar of Rhan-Tegoth or an independent entity. | HM |
| The High Priest Not to Be Described |
|
Humanoid wearing a silken mask. | CE, DQ |
| Knygathin Zhaum |
|
Appears as a hairless, quasi-humanoid Voormi; Final form of no discernible species. | PN, TM |
| K'thun (female) and Noth-Yidik (male) |
|
Abhorrent, malodorous beings whose mating spawned the Hounds of Tindalos. | HM, MT |
| The Lurker in the Star Pool |
|
One of the Million Favored Ones of Nyarlathotep, possibly one of the Outer God’s offspring. For aeons it has dwelled in the Star Pools, and today is in the servitude of the Floating Horror cult. Highly mobile, the Star Pool Lurker has large membranous wings for flying and webbed appendages for swimming or walking on land. The creature's full appearance is confusing to behold as it appears to be a mass of multiple independent wriggling and squirming monstrosities. | AP |
| Magnum Innominandum[6] | Great Not-to-Be-Named, The Nameless Mist, N'yog-Sothep, Milk of the Void | According to H. P. Lovecraft, this being is the spawn of Azathoth (making it on par with the Magnum Tenebrosum and Cxaxukluth) and is associated with, and possibly the progenitor of, Yog-Sothoth. It is also associated with Hastur. Little is known about this god, but it is considered to be extremely dangerous to sorcerers, hence its title "the unnameable" (archaic terminology, meaning not to be summoned or ritually named in an incantation. | rpg |
| Million Favored Ones |
|
Beings said to be Nyarlathotep's spawn. | MF, WD |
| Mlandoth and Mril Thorion | The Source, The One |
Unknown. | WY |
| Mr. Shiny |
|
Mr. Shiny (or Albert Shiny) is a shoggoth lord and an unusually intelligent and purposeful one, capable of controlling his body shape so as to pass for human. Controlling his body in this manner requires continuous mental effort. | rpg |
| Our Ladies of Sorrow |
|
Our Ladies of Sorrow-or the Three Mothers-are three powerful entities, and three of Nyarlathotep’s Million Favoured Ones. They are: Mater Lachrymarum ("Our Lady of Tears"), the eldest, followed by Mater
Suspiriorum ("Our Lady of Sighs") and finally the youngest Mater Tenebrarum ("Our Lady of Darkness"). They have inspired many legends, including that of the triple goddess, the fates, the gorgons, and Shakespeare’s three weird sister-daughters of darkness (witches). |
VC, rpg |
| Pharol the Black |
|
Appears as a black, fanged demon with tentacles instead of arms. | AG, HY? |
| The Shaping Tree |
|
A hideous tree-like horror with branches like rat's tails and weird pustules. It is able to transform human male victims into jelly amorphous vectors of strange broodlings. The Shaping Tree is located in Australia and is likely related to Shub-Niggurath. | FS3 |
| Sho-Gath | The God-Box | A smoky entity with the travesty of a human face, entrapped into a box. | GO |
| Sss'haa |
|
Leader of the serpent people of Valusia. | HG, TH, VY |
| Ubb | Father of Worms | Leader of the planarian-like Yuggs. It is a large aquatic, chthonian-like entity, pale gray and slug-like with a large suckermouth full of horn-like teeth and ringed with tentacles. Ubb dwells in the cold fastness of the Pacific Ocean with the rest of its race. The yuggs are said to guard their god, the Great Old One Zoth-Ommog, whose tomb, legend tells, lies at the bottom of a abyssal trench near the island of Ponape. | OA, PI, UV, TP |
| The Five Vaeyen |
|
Quintet of vulture-like statues that both guard and sequester the Great Old One Cyäegha | DM |
| Wilbur Whateley |
|
Mostly-human twin of the aforementioned Dunwich Horror. | DH, LC |
| The Worm That Walks | The Putrefied Horror | A loathsome being, looking like a human corpse decayed into tones ofgreen, black, and blue, witk dripping pieces offlesh hanging from it. Prodigious claws or talons dangle from this apparition's fingers, and from the undead monster's eye sockets stare lidless, ban, eyeballs. | rpg |
| Wuthoqquan's Bane |
|
A large, shapeless beast lurking in the sewers of Commoriom. | WQ |
| Xathagorra | The Chaos Spawn | Vile, multiform creature with a vast wingspan. | CH |
| Xexanoth | Bane of Aforgomon | Unknown. | CM |
| Xiurhn | Guardian of the Dark Jewel | A slothlike, winged thing with a terrible face. | XI |
| Yegg-Ha | Lord of Nightgaunts | A huge, faceless humanoid with tiny wings. | IE, TC, WI |
| Zoth Syra & Yoth Kala | Queen of the Green Abyss | Both appear as shapeless, multi-limbed marine horror, with hypnotic beckon. The latter, Yoth Kala, also bears a whip-like appendage endowed with a single, spherical eye. | GR |
| Name | Description | References |
|---|---|---|
| Adumbrali | Extradimensional beings that appear as orbs of darkness. | AB |
| Aihais | Humanoids from Mars. | VU |
| Alskali | Hairless, cyclops-like hypnotic beings witk dead-gray skin and huge hands and feet. They are servants of Nyarlathotep. | rpg |
| Antehumans | Slender, tall, gaunt proto-humans of great intelligence. | EB, SG |
| Antareans | Tall, multicolored tripod-beings with a strange crest and three eyes. They are greatly advanced space travelers with a strict caste system. | PC |
| Beings of Xiclotl | Horrifying, oddly plant-like, carnivorous giants. | IS |
| Bholes | Gigantic, worm-like creatures that inhabit the Earth's Dreamlands. | DL, DQ |
| Blupes | Translucent, bluish, oval-shaped creatures that can float through the air. | DL |
| Brothers of Chaugnar Faugn | Beings that resemble smaller versions of Chaugnar Faugn. | HF |
| Byakhee | Resemble bat-like, hornet-like human corpses. | FE, GS, HC, WS |
| Cats from Saturn | Cat-like beings from the Dreamlands with abstract, multi-hued bodies. | DL, DQ |
| Cats from Uranus | Like those from Saturn, but far more hideous. | DL |
| Chakota | A hideous entity composed of dozens of human faces set into a thickly cylindrical, worm-like mass of sickly, purple-veined muscle.[7] | rpg |
| Children of the Sphinx | Sub-cult of the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh. | n/a[8] |
| Children of the Wind | Foul entities dwelling regions susceptible to high winds. In one account, the creatures haunt a mysterious placein the desert near Syria, known only as the City of the Seven Winds. They may also be connected with Irem, the City of the Pillars. | SS3 |
| Chthonians (The Burrowers Beneath) |
Gigantic, squid-like worms. | BU, CS, YA |
| Colour out of space | Appears as a shapeless, plastic entity glowing with the colors of an unknown spectrum. | CO, CT |
| Crawling Ones (The Worms that Walk) |
Appear as humans made out of tiny worms. | FE |
| Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath | Appear as ropy, black tentacles on a pair of stumpy, hooved legs. | MK, NF |
| Deep Ones | Ocean-dwelling humanoids that appear to be half-frog and half-fish. | AW, BU, DO, GS, HC, HG, RD, SA, SI |
| Dholes | Gigantic, worm-like creatures. | DR, TG, WP |
| Dimensional Shamblers | Dimension-hopping humanoids with rough, leathery bodies and huge claws. | HM |
| Doels | Tiny, extradimensional, flesh-eating creatures. | HN |
| Dwellers in the Depths | The Dwellers in the Depths are a race of truly horrible amphibious creatures who serve the Great Old Ones, particularly those associated with water: Cthulhu, Dagon, Hydra, Ythogtha and Zoth-Ommog. They appear as eyeless, bloated horrors with eight tentacular arms and four legs. In place of eyes there is only one sponge-like organ in the center of the forehead and mouth appear toothless, but endowed of tiny tentacles | RB |
| Elder Things (Old Ones) |
Appear as five-sided, oval-shaped barrels with starfish-like appendages at each end. | AM, IV, PW |
| Fire vampires | 1. (Flame Creatures of Cthugha) Appear as tiny points of light that ignite everything they touch. | DD |
| 2. (Fire Vampires of Fthaggua) Appear as bursts of crimson lightning that set fire to sentient beings. | FV, HG | |
| Fishers from Outside | Enigmatic, prehistoric, flying race associated with Gol-goroth and the shantaks. | FO |
| Flying polyps | Appear as floating, semi-visible, polypous horrors capable of controlling great winds. | PW, ST, SY, WF |
| Formless spawn of Tsathoggua and Knygathin Zhaum | Appear as gelatinous, shape-shifting, black goo. | MO, TZ |
| Name | Description | References |
|---|---|---|
| Ghasts | Fearsome, underground-dwelling humanoids with kangaroo-like legs that inhabit the Earth's Dreamlands. | DQ |
| Ghouls | Corpse-eating, canine-like humanoids. | DQ, IC, PM |
| Gn'cht'tyaacht | A tree-dwelling humanoid some seven feet in height, but thin and lanky with a long pointed head, huge claws and sharp teeth. | rpg |
| Gnophkeh | 1. Six-legged, furry, rhinoceros-like creatures with an affinity for cold climes. | HM, LT, SM |
| 2. Hairy cannibals that once dwelt in Lomar. | PO | |
| Gnorri | Resemble mermen with possibly one or two additional arms. | SK |
| Gof'nn hupadgh Shub-Niggurath | Transmogrified, once-human cultists of Shub-Niggurath. | ML |
| Great Race of Yith | Resemble tall, rugose cones with four appendages: two claws, a trumpet-like limb, and a yellow, globe-like organ. | CF, PW, SO, ST, SY |
| Gugs | Horrifying, furry giants of the Dreamlands with a mouth that opens sideways. | DQ |
| Gyaa-Yothn | Quasi-human, rhinoceros-like quadrupeds used as beasts of burden by the denizens of K'n-yan. | MO |
| Haemophores | Small, vampiric creatures with webbed hands and feet. | DL |
| Hounds of Tindalos | Extradimensional horrors that can enter our universe through any three-dimensional corner. | EL, HN, MT, TC |
| Hunters from Beyond | ? | |
| Hunting Horrors | Resemble huge, immaterial serpents with bat wings. | DQ, LT |
| Hyperboreans | A race of early pre-humans. | DS, SG, TZ, UB |
| K'n-yan, Natives of | Technologically and psychically advanced humanoids who dwell underground. | OE, MO |
| Kyresh | Vicious, wolven creatures of the Dreamlands. | YG |
| Larvae of the Outer Gods | Protean beings spawned by the Outer Gods. | DQ |
| Lamp-Efts | Resemble small, flying iguanas. | DL |
| Leeches of Yoh-Vombis | Parasitic Martian creatures. | |
| L'gy'hx, Natives of | Cube-shaped, multi-legged, metallic beings that inhabit the planet L'gy'hx (Uranus). | IS |
| Lloigor | Beings that may alternately appear as vortices of energy or dragon-like dinosaurs (Ghatanothoa may be a particularly powerful one). | IU, RL |
| Men of Leng | Satyr-like beings that inhabit the Plateau of Leng. | DQ |
| Mi-go (Fungi from Yuggoth, Outer Ones) |
Resemble human-sized, winged crustaceans with globular heads covered with cilia. | AM, DE, DT, GU, PF, OW, WD |
| Miri Nigri | Amphibious humanoids created by Chaugnar Faugn. Ancient Progenitors of the Tcho-tcho people. | HF |
| Moon-beasts | Plump, toad-like humanoids. | DQ, MD |
| Name | Description | References |
|---|---|---|
| Nagäae | Toadish servants of Cyäegha. | DM |
| Nameless City, Denizens of | Alligator-like, seal-like humanoids. | NC |
| New Great Race of Yith (Coleopterous Race) | Resemble human-sized beetles. | ST |
| Nightgaunts | Faceless, bat-like humanoids. | DQ, HE, OK, WI |
| Nioth-Korghai | 1. Extraterrestrial, carnivorous monster held in captivity by King Ossaru in Zothique. | TB |
| 2. Extraterrestrial, aquatic creatures that feed on the life-force of human beings. | PS | |
| Ny'ghan Grii | Luminous spherical, cycloptic creatures from another dimension. They move by floating or crawling and are accompanied by thick fog and icy cold. | IN |
| Rat-Things | Tiny, rat-like creatures with human-like faces. | DW |
| Sand-dwellers | Appear as sand-encrusted, skeleton-like humanoids with large claws. | GW |
| Serpent Men | Serpent-like humanoids. | HG, HK, IU, OW, SG, |
| Servants of Glaaki | Undead zombies that serve the being Glaaki. | IL |
| Servitors of the Outer Gods | Beings of varied form that dance mindlessly about Azathoth's throne at the center of the universe. | AZ |
| S'glhuo, Denizens of | Tall, bluish humanoids with blank eyes and boneless fingers; actually entities made of living sound. | PL |
| The Shan (Insects from Shaggai) |
Resemble large insects. | IS, QU |
| Shantaks | Elephantine, reptilian birds of the Dreamlands. | DQ, FO, RY |
| Shoggoths | Resemble gigantic amoebae with numerous floating eyes. | AM, GC, NE, PG, SI, TC, TN |
| The Space-Eaters | ? | PE |
| The Spawn of the Green Abyss | The Spawn of the Green Abyss appear as a bluish slime with various and shifting features: Shoggoth-like entities, but highly evolved and intelligent. They inhabit the seas and oceans of the Earth, dwell in aquatic societies ruled by a queen called Zoth Syra. | GR |
| Spiders of Leng | Giant purple spiders that inhabit the Plateau of Leng. | DL |
| Star-spawn of Cthulhu (Cthulhi) |
Resemble smaller versions of Cthulhu himself. | AM, PW, TC |
| Star vampire (Shambler from the Stars) |
Invisible, levitating, vampiric horror with a myriad of suckers and two huge claws. | SF |
| Tcho-Tcho people | Mutated humanoids descended from the Miri-Nigri. | BK, EH, LS, BH |
| Thuum'ha (Beings of Ib) |
Green, toad-like humanoids with gelatinous bodies and emerald eyes | BM, DC, SM3 |
| Voonith | Huge lizards of the Dreamlands. | DL |
| Voormi | Yeti-like bipeds that inhabit Mount Voormithadreth in Hyperborea. | AF, SG, SM, TM |
| Xo Tl'mi-go | Pale, eyeless, leech-mouthed, and sterile hominids. | CK |
| Yaddith, Natives of | Humanoid inhabitants of the planet Yaddith that resemble a cross between mammals and reptiles. | DR, HG, TG, VI |
| Yekubians | Technologically-advanced, centipede-like beings that inhabit the planet Yekub. | CF |
| Y'lagh | A race of aquatic humanoids endowed with flippers and tentacles, servitors of Cthulhu. | SY2 |
| Yuggya | 1. (Yuggs or Yuggya) Beings that resemble white, planarian-like flatworms. | OA, WI |
| 2. (Yuggya) The offspring of a mating between a Yugg and a Deep One hybrid. | PI, WF | |
| Zoogs | Creatures of the Dreamlands that resemble small, elfin rodents. | DQ, HE |
| Name | References |
|---|---|
| Black Brotherhood | SE |
| Brotherhood of the Beast | n/a[9] |
| Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh | n/a[10] |
| Brothers of the Yellow Sign (Cult of the Yellow Sign) |
IU, WD |
| Chesuncook Witch Coven (Cult of the Skull) |
DK, TN |
| Chorazos Cult | UT, RN |
| Church of Starry Wisdom | GA, HD, HI, SD, SE, DE |
| Cult of Cthulhu | CC |
| Cult of Bubastis | |
| Cult of the Bloody Tongue | n/a[11] |
| Esoteric Order of Dagon | SI |
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The Cthulhu Mythos incorporates many historical, astronomical, and mythological elements from the real world.