Gla'aki

Gla'aki (often written as Glaaki) is a fictional character in the Cthulhu Mythos. Gla'aki first appeared in "The Inhabitant of the Lake" (1964), an early story by Ramsey Campbell. Recently this being featured in Campbell's The Last Revelation of Gla'aki (2013).

Gla'aki in the mythos

In Cthulhu Mythos fiction, Gla'aki is a Great Old One and dwells within a lake in the Severn Valley near Brichester in England (though he has been reported in other lakes around the world). Gla'aki has the appearance of an enormous slug covered with metallic spines which, despite their appearance, are actually organic growths. Gla'aki can also extrude tentacles with eyes at the tips, allowing him to peer from underneath the water. It is believed that he came to the Earth imprisoned inside a meteor. When the meteor landed, Gla'aki was freed, and the impact created the lake wherein he now resides.

Gla'aki is an ancient and wise creature with vast knowledge of the other beings which are active in Britain's Severn River Valley, such as Y'golonac, the Denizens of S'glhuo, Shub-Niggurath, Eihort, and Byatis. The cult's holy book, known as The Revelations of Gla'aki, was written by his cult, which gleaned sorcerous knowledge from their master. While the original text was reportedly written in eleven loose-leaf notebooks by various unidentified contributors, the 1865 edition, published by the Matterhorn Press of Highgate, is contained in nine volumes, described as "edited, organized and corrected". A small edition printed exclusively for subscribers, is now extremely rare.

Gla'aki's cult

By driving one of his spines into a victim, and injecting a special fluid, Gla'aki can turn the unfortunate into an undead slave. However, if the spine is broken off before the fluid is injected, the victim dies anyway, but is at least spared the fate of becoming one of Gla'aki's slave. The injected fluid produces growths throughout the victim's body that allow Gla'aki to manipulate the subject's corpse.

Many people come to serve Gla'aki willingly, in exchange for the promise of eternal life. What they don't realize is that he makes good on his promise by driving his spines into them, turning them into undead slaves.

The Green Decay

As time passes, the undead creatures become increasingly sensitive to sunlight, and even begin to suffer damage from it. The servants of Gla'aki refer to this condition as the Green Decay. By the time an undead slave becomes prone to this, it no longer looks or acts like a normal human being.

References

• Campbell, Ramsey (1987) [1964]. "The Inhabitant of the Lake". Cold Print (1st ed.). New York, NY: Tom Doherty Associates. ISBN 0-8125-1660-5. 
• Harms, Daniel (1998). "Glaaki". The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (2nd ed.). Oakland, CA: Chaosium. pp. 119–20. ISBN 1-56882-119-0. 
• "Notes on the Revelations of Glaaki". Mythos Tomes. Retrieved 2013-03-29.