Nyarlathotep

Nyarlathotep
Artist's rendition of Nyarlathotep
First appearance	"Nyarlathotep"
Created by	H. P. Lovecraft
Information
Title	Crawling Chaos God of a Thousand Forms
Family	Azathoth (father) Nameless Mist (sibling) Darkness (sibling)

Nyarlathotep is a name used for various characters in the works of H. P. Lovecraft and other writers. The character is commonly known in association with its role as a malign deity in the Cthulhu Mythos fictional universe, where it is known as the Crawling Chaos. First appearing in Lovecraft's 1920 prose poem of the same name, he was later mentioned in other works by Lovecraft and by other writers and in the tabletop roleplaying games making use of the Cthulhu Mythos. Later writers describe him as one of the Outer Gods.

Although the deity's name is fictional, it bears the historical Egyptian suffix -hotep, meaning "peace" or "satisfaction."

In the work of H. P. Lovecraft

In his first appearance in "Nyarlathotep", he is described as a "tall, swarthy man" who resembles an ancient Egyptian pharaoh.^[1] In this story he wanders the earth, seemingly gathering legions of followers, the narrator of the story among them, through his demonstrations of strange and seemingly magical instruments. These followers lose awareness of the world around them, and through the narrator's increasingly unreliable accounts the reader gets an impression of the world's collapse.

Nyarlathotep subsequently appears as a major character in "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath" (1926/27), in which he again manifests in the form of an Egyptian Pharaoh when he confronts protagonist Randolph Carter.

The twenty-first sonnet of Lovecraft's poem-cycle "Fungi from Yuggoth" (1929/30) is essentially a retelling of the original prose poem.

In "The Dreams in the Witch House" (1933), Nyarlathotep appears to Walter Gilman and witch Keziah Mason (who has made a pact with the entity) in the form of "the 'Black Man' of the witch-cult," a black-skinned avatar of the Devil described by witch hunters.

Nyarlathotep is also mentioned in "The Rats in the Walls" as a faceless god in the caverns of earth's center.

Finally, in "The Haunter of the Dark" (1936), the nocturnal tentacled, bat-winged monster dwelling in the steeple of the Starry Wisdom sect's church is identified as another form, or manifestation of, Nyarlathotep.

Though Nyarlathotep appears as a character in only four stories and two sonnets (which is more than any other of Lovecraft's gods), his name is mentioned frequently in other works. In "The Whisperer in Darkness" Nyarlathotep's name is spoken frequently by the Mi-Go in a reverential or ritual sense, including dressing as a man, indicating that at its end the whisperer is him, and in "The Shadow Out of Time" (1936), the "hideous secret of Nyarlathotep" is revealed to the protagonist during his period spent in pre-cambrian earth by Khephnes, another prisoner of the Great Race.

Despite similarities in theme and name, Nyarlathotep does not feature at all in Lovecraft's story "The Crawling Chaos", (1920/21) an apocalyptic narrative written in collaboration with Winifred V. Jackson (aka Elizabeth Berkeley).

Inspiration

In a 1921 letter to Reinhardt Kleiner, Lovecraft related the dream he had had — described as "the most realistic and horrible [nightmare] I have experienced since the age of ten" — that served as the basis for his prose poem "Nyarlathotep". In the dream, he received a letter from his friend Samuel Loveman that read:

Don't fail to see Nyarlathotep if he comes to Providence. He is horrible — horrible beyond anything you can imagine — but wonderful. He haunts one for hours afterward. I am still shuddering at what he showed.

Lovecraft commented:

I had never heard the name NYARLATHOTEP before, but seemed to understand the allusion. Nyarlathotep was a kind of itinerant showman or lecturer who held forth in public halls and aroused widespread fear and discussion with his exhibitions. These exhibitions consisted of two parts — first, a horrible — possibly prophetic — cinema reel; and later some extraordinary experiments with scientific and electrical apparatus. As I received the letter, I seemed to recall that Nyarlathotep was already in Providence.... I seemed to remember that persons had whispered to me in awe of his horrors, and warned me not to go near him. But Loveman's dream letter decided me.... As I left the house I saw throngs of men plodding through the night, all whispering affrightedly and bound in one direction. I fell in with them, afraid yet eager to see and hear the great, the obscure, the unutterable Nyarlathotep.^[2]

Will Murray has speculated that this dream image of Nyarlathotep may have been inspired by the inventor Nikola Tesla, whose well-attended lectures did involve extraordinary experiments with electrical apparatus and who some saw as a sinister figure.^[3]

Robert M. Price proposes that the name Nyarlathotep may have been subconsciously suggested to Lovecraft by two names from Lord Dunsany, an author he much admired. Alhireth-Hotep, a false prophet, appears in Dunsany's The Gods of Pegana and Mynarthitep, a god described as "angry" in his "The Sorrow of Search".^[4]

Summary

Nyarlathotep differs from the other beings in a number of ways. Most of them are exiled to stars, like Yog-Sothoth and Hastur, or sleeping and dreaming like Cthulhu; Nyarlathotep, however, is active and frequently walks the Earth in the guise of a human being, usually a tall, slim, joyous man. He has "a thousand" other forms, most of these reputed to be maddeningly horrific. Most of the Outer Gods have their own cults serving them; Nyarlathotep seems to serve these cults and take care of their affairs in their absence. Most of them use strange alien languages, while Nyarlathotep uses human languages and can be mistaken for a human being. Most importantly, while the other Outer Gods and Great Old Ones are often described as mindless or unfathomable, rather than truly malevolent, Nyarlathotep delights in cruelty, is deceptive and manipulative, and even cultivates followers and uses propaganda to achieve his goals. In this regard, he is probably the most human-like among them.

Nyarlathotep enacts the will of the Outer Gods, and is their messenger, heart and soul; he is also a servant of Azathoth, his father,^[5] whose wishes he immediately fulfills. Unlike the other Outer Gods, causing madness is more important and enjoyable than death and destruction to Nyarlathotep. It is suggested by some that he will destroy the human race and possibly the earth as well.^[6]

The Nyarlathotep Cycle

In 1996, Chaosium published The Nyarlathotep Cycle, a Cthulhu Mythos anthology focusing on works referring to or inspired by the entity Nyarlathotep. Edited by Lovecraft scholar Robert M. Price, the book includes an introduction by Price tracing the roots and development of the God of a Thousand Forms. The contents include:

• "Alhireth-Hotep the Prophet" by Lord Dunsany
• "The Sorrow of Search" by Lord Dunsany
• "Nyarlathotep" by H. P. Lovecraft
• "The Second Coming" (poem) by William Butler Yeats
• "Silence Falls on Mecca's Walls" (poem) by Robert E. Howard
• "Nyarlathotep" (poem) by H. P. Lovecraft
• "The Dreams in the Witch House" by H. P. Lovecraft
• "The Haunter of the Dark" by H. P. Lovecraft
• "The Dweller in Darkness" by August Derleth
• "The Titan in the Crypt" by J. G. Warner
• "Fane of the Black Pharaoh" by Robert Bloch
• "Curse of the Black Pharaoh" by Lin Carter
• "The Curse of Nephren-Ka" by John Cockroft
• "The Temple of Nephren-Ka" by Philip J. Rahman & Glenn A. Rahman
• "The Papyrus of Nephren-Ka" by Robert C. Culp
• "The Snout in the Alcove" by Gary Myers
• "The Contemplative Sphinx" (poem) by Richard Tierney
• "Ech-Pi-El’s Ægypt" (poems) by Ann K. Schwader

Table of forms

Nyarlathotep has many forms (some literature refers to these forms as Masks and claims that he has a thousand of them) and is thus known by different avatars.

Overview

This table is organized as follows:

• Name. This is the name of Nyarlathotep's form.
• Region. This is the geographical location where Nyarlathotep's form is active.
• Description. This entry describes Nyarlathotep's form.
• Notes. This field contains additional information.
• References. This field lists the sources that contain references to Nyarlathotep's form. If the source is a story, it is denoted by a two-letter code—the key to the codes is found here. If the reference is listed as rpg it means a role-playing game was the source, with specifics included in a footnote.

If an entry appears in bold, this means that the reference introduces Nyarlathotep's form.

Table

Popular culture

• In Haiyore! Nyaruko-san, a series of romantic comedy-parody light novels,^[18] Nyarlathotep is the title character, going by the nickname Nyaruko and taking the form of a teenage girl with long silver hair and emerald green eyes. An alien of the Nyarlathotepian race, she claims that her people served as the inspiration for Lovecraft's writings; whether Nyaruko is the "real" Nyarlathotep or not is unclear, though in the first volume she says "People call me Nyarlathotep, but I have a real name."

• In Charles Stross' novels The Fuller Memorandum and The Apocalypse Codex, the containment of Nyarlathotep in a parallel universe and the attempts of cultists to free "the Black Pharaoh" is the main focus of the plot.

• A 13-minute short film version of Nyarlathotep^[19] was released in 2001, directed by Christian Matzke.^[20] It was re-released on DVD in 2004 as part of the H. P. Lovecraft Collection Volume 1: Cool Air.

• "The Dark Eternal Night" from Dream Theater contains numerous references to locations and imagery described in the short story Nyarlathotep.

• Nyarlathotep appears in the Megami Tensei series as a recurring demon, the two forms he most commonly uses is based on "The Haunter in the Dark", used in Shin Megami Tensei: Persona, and "Howler in the Dark", used in Persona 2. He takes center stage as the main antagonist of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona and Persona 2: Innocent Sin. Nyarlathotep and other Cthulhu Mythos creatures are presented as creations of humanity's collective unconsciousness, with Nyarlathotep representing humanity's destructive potential.

• M, a major character in the visual novel Shikkoku no Sharnoth who initially uses the codename of James Moriarty, is revealed near the end of the story to be a manifestation of Nyarlathotep.

• Nyarlathotep is a boss in the game Cthulhu Saves the World.

• Nyarlathotep is the main antagonist in the story Johannes Cabal: The Fear Institute.

• Alan Moore's Neonomicon utilises Nyarlathotep in the form of Johnny Carcosa, a masked drug dealer who frequents Cthulhu-themed clubs and occult shops. His manner of converting new followers is to place them in a vegetative state, subsceptible to "Aklo" - words related to Lovecraft's work, which alter the consciousness of those who listen to them. In Moore's story, he serves the allegorical role of the Archangel Gabriel at the Annunciation, informing the protagonist that she has been impregnated and will soon give birth to Cthulhu.

References

• Harms, Daniel. "Nyarlathotep" in The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (2nd ed.), pp. 218–222. Oakland, CA: Chaosium, 1998. ISBN 1-56882-119-0.

Notes