List of Great Old Ones

This is a compendium of the lesser known Great Old Ones of the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft.
In Joseph S. Pulver's novel Nightmare's Disciple several new Great Old Ones and Elder Gods are named. The novel mentions D'numl Cthulhu's female cousin, T'ith and Xu'bea, The Teeth of the Dark Plains of Mwaalba. Miivls and Vn'Vulot, are said to have fought each other in southern Gondwanaland during the Cretaceous period, whereas Rynvyk, regarded as one of the mates of Cthulhu's sister Kassogtha, likely matches with Cthulhu itself or a similar entity. Kassogtha would have sired Rynvyk three sons (one named Ult) and Rynvyk himself currently rests in a crimson pool in the Hall of Tyryar (likely another name or dimension of R'lyeh), whose portal is located somewhere in Norway.
Aphoom-Zhah (the Cold Flame) debuted in Lin Carter's short story "The Acolyte of the Flame" (1985)—although the being was first mentioned in an earlier tale by Carter, "The Horror in the Gallery" (1976). Aphoom-Zhah is also mentioned in Carter's "The Light from the Pole" (1980), a story Carter wrote from an early draft by Clark Ashton Smith. Smith later developed this draft into "The Coming of the White Worm" (1941).
Aphoom-Zhah is the progeny of Cthugha and is worshipped as the Lord of the Pole because he dwells, like Ithaqua, above the Arctic Circle. Aphoom-Zhah frequently visited Hyperborea during the last ice age. His legend is chronicled in the Pnakotic Manuscripts.
Aphoom-Zhah appears as a vast, cold, grey flame that freezes whatever it touches. The being came to Earth from the star Fomalhaut, briefly visiting the planet Yaksh (Neptune) before taking up residence in Mount Yarak, a legendary mountain atop the North Pole. When the Elder Gods tried to imprison him beneath the pole, Aphoom-Zhah erupted with such fury that he froze the lands around him. Aphoom-Zhah is believed to be responsible for the glaciation that eventually overwhelmed Hyperborea, Zobna, and Lomar.
Aphoom-Zhah likely spawned Gnoph-Keh, Rhan-Tegoth, and Voorm. Though no human cult worships this being, Aphoom-Zhah is revered by the Gnophkeh, the Voormi, and his own race of minions; the spectral Ylidheem.
In Clark Ashton Smith's short story The Seven Geases (1934), Atlach-Nacha is the reluctant recipient of a human sacrifice given to it by the toad-god Tsathoggua.
Atlach-Nacha resembles a huge spider with an almost-human face. It dwells within a huge cavern deep beneath Mount Voormithadreth, a mountain in the now vanished kingdom of Hyperborea in the Arctic. There it spins a gigantic web, bridging a massive chasm between the Dreamlands and the waking world. Some believe that when the web is complete, the end of the world will come, because it will create a permanent junction with the Dreamlands, allowing monsters to move freely into the waking world.
Atlach-Nacha probably came to Earth from the planet Cykranosh (Saturn) with Tsathoggua. Because of its appearance, Atlach-Nacha is often referred to as the Spider-God(dess) and is believed to be the regent of all spiders. Furthermore, the giant, bloated purple spiders of Leng are thought to be its children and servitors.
There is a disagreement about its gender. In Smith's original story, Atlach-Nacha is referred to as a male, but in later stories by other authors, it is implied to be a female.
Basatan is a sea-god, also known as the Master of the Crabs. This deity possesses a ring with supernatural powers, and may be associated with the constellation Cancer.
Bokrug (The Great Water Lizard) first appeared in Lovecraft's short story "The Doom That Came to Sarnath" (1920). The being is also part of Lovecraft's Dream Cycle.
Bokrug is the god of the semi-amphibian Thuum'ha of Ib, in the land of Mnar. The deity slept beneath the calm waters of a lake which bordered both Ib and the city of Sarnath. When the humans of Sarnath cruelly slaughtered the populace of Ib and stole the god's idol, the deity was awakened. Each year thereafter, strange ripples disturbed the otherwise placid lake. On the one-thousandth anniversary of Ib's destruction, Bokrug rose up and destroyed Sarnath (so utterly that not even ruins remained). Afterwards, the Thuum'ha recolonized Ib and henceforth lived undisturbed.
Chaugnar Faugn (The Elephant God, The Horror from the Hills) was created by Frank Belknap Long and first appeared in his novel The Horror from the Hills (1931).
Chaugnar Faugn (or Chaugnar Faughn) appears as a horribly grotesque idol, made of an unknown element, combining the worst aspects of octopus, elephant, and human being. When Chaugnar Faugn hungers, he can move incredibly quickly for his size, and use his lamprey-like "trunk" to drain the blood from any organism he encounters.
Chaugnar Faugn came to Earth from another dimension eons ago, possibly in a form other than the one which he later assumed. Upon arriving, he found the dominant lifeforms to be only simple amphibians. From these creatures, he created the Miri Nigri to be his servitors. The Miri Nigri would later mate with early humans to produce hybrids that would eventually evolve into the horrid Tcho-Tcho people.
Cthugha is a fictional deity in the Cthulhu Mythos genre of horror fiction, the creation of August Derleth. In Derleth's version of the Cthulhu Mythos, Cthugha is a Great Old One, an elemental spirit of fire opposed to the Elder Gods. Derleth set its homeworld as the star Fomalhaut, which had featured in Lovecraft's poetry. He first appeared in Derleth's short story "The House on Curwen Street" (1944). Cthugha resembles a giant ball of fire. He is served by the Flame Creatures of Cthugha. Fthaggua, regent of the fire vampires, may be his progeny. He has at least one other known progeny, the being known as Aphoom-Zhah.
Cthylla (the Secret Daughter of Cthulhu) is a fictional character in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft. Cthylla was created by Brian Lumley, who originally mentioned her in his Titus Crow novel The Transition Of Titus Crow (1975), though he never actually described her. Tina L. Jens, however, depicted Cthylla as a gigantic winged-octopus in her short story "In His Daughter's Darkling Womb" (1997).
Cynothoglys (The Mortician God) first appeared in Thomas Ligotti's short story "The Prodigy of Dreams" (1994). The being appears as a shapeless, multiform entity with a single arm used for catching those who summoned her, and bringing them a painless, ecstatic death. In ancient times, she once held a small cult in Italy, which paid her homage rather than worshiping her, since actual worship would be the same as summoning the god. They considered her to be no mere Cloacina, but the mortician of all creatures, even the gods themselves.
The Dweller in the Gulf appears in a short story of the same name by Clark Ashton Smith, first published in 1932. The Dweller in the Gulf lives deep beneath the surface of the planet Mars, but may have originated elsewhere. It is worshipped exclusively by a blind, troglodyte sect of the Martian race, the Aihai, and can be ritually summoned by the stroking of its idol.
The Dweller resembles a massive, eyeless, soft-shelled tortoise, but has a triangular head and two whiplike tails. At the ends of its tails are two bell-shaped suckers used for the ceremonial—usually forced—removal of its discoverer's eyes, turning them into the deity's blind, mute servitors.
Eihort (God of the Labyrinth) first appeared "in person" in Ramsey Campbell's short story "Before the Storm" (1980). However, the being was first mentioned in Campbell's "The Franklyn Paragraphs" (1973) and "Cold Print" (1969)
Eihort lives within a network of tunnels deep beneath the Severn Valley, in England. It appears as a "bloated blanched oval, supported on a myriad of fleshless legs" with eyes continuously forming in its gelatinous body. When it captures a human, it offers the captive a "bargain". If the captive refuses, Eihort rams the victim violently to death. If the captive accepts the offer, the horror implants its immature "brood" inside the victim's body. The brood will eventually mature, and kill their host. According to the Revelations of Gla'aki, after the fall of humanity, Eihort's brood will be born into light.
"Ei" and "Hort" are nouns of the modern German language, "Ei" meaning "egg" and "Hort" meaning "hoard".
Gloon first appeared in H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Temple" as a Dionysian statue. Whether Lovecraft intended the statue to be anything other than the centerpiece of a piece of weird fiction is debatable. In 2004, Chaosium released an expanded bestiary to the Mythos which included the entity of Gloon, attributing some non-canonical eldritch and limacine attributes to the entity, a counterpoint to its outwardly pleasing and homoerotic aesthetic. Author Molly Tanzer's novelette "The Infernal History of the Ivybridge Twins" expanded upon Gloon's cult and mythology.
See Brian Lumley deities.
Nug (The parent of Cthulhu) and Yeb, the Twin Blasphemies, are the spawn of Shub-Niggurath and Yog-Sothoth. Nug is the parent of Cthulhu and the parent of Kthanid via the influence of Yog-Sothoth. Nug is a god among ghouls, while Yeb is the leader of Abhoth's alien cult. Both Nug and Yeb closely resemble Shub-Niggurath.
The names Nug and Yeb are similar to the names of the Egyptian sibling gods Nut and Geb, members of the Heliopolitan Ennead.
Nyogtha (The Thing That Should Not Be) appears in Henry Kuttner's short story "The Salem Horror" (1937). According to the story, the Necronomicon refers to Nyogtha as "the Dweller in Darkness"—an epithet used by August Derleth in the story of the same name to refer to Nyarlathotep; thus, it may be that Nyogtha is yet another of Nyarlathotep's nigh-endless avatars. Nyogtha appears as a shapeless, dark mass.
In his short story "Path of Corruption," Steve Berman has a group of New Orleans-based hustlers worshipping Nyogtha.
In the 1965 horror film Dark Intruder Nyogtha is mentioned towards the end as part of an invocation uttered by Professor Malaki to various demons, along with Goetic demons such as Astaroth and Asmodeus.
Oorn is mentioned in the book Mad Moon of Dreams (1987) by Brian Lumley. She is the wife of the reptilian Mnomquah. She has the form of a huge tentacled mollusk, with snaking appendages that can spew digestive fluid on things she wishes to eat. Like her husband, her only true worshippers are the Men of Leng and the Moon-beasts. A temple devoted to Oorn and Mnomquah is near Sarkomand in the Dreamlands.
Quachil Uttaus can reduce all living tissue he comes into contact with to dust (and is therefore similar to another of Smith's characters, Ubbo-Sathla). Quachil Uttaus is usually associated with age, death, and decay. Summoning this god is considered lethal, if one even subconsciously entertains thoughts of suicide.
Rlim Shaikorth appears as a huge whitish worm with a gaping maw, and eyes made of dripping globules of blood. One of Rlim Shaikorth's avatars is known as the White Worm and is part of Smith's Hyperborean cycle.
The White Worm travels on a gigantic iceberg called Yikilth, which it can guide across the ocean. In its colossal ice-citadel, the White Worm prowls the seas, blasting ships and inhabited land masses with extreme cold. Victims of the White Worm are frozen solid, their bodies appearing eerily white, and remain preternaturally cold—they will not melt nor warm even when exposed to fire. (The Coming of the White Worm, 1941)
A weakened, amphibious, chimaera-like being that crushed its victims and sucked their blood. Revived and worshipped by the mad wax artist George Rogers.
The Bearer of the Cup of the Blood of the Ancients, taking the form of a black leafless oak tree, hot to the touch, that bears Cthulhu's blood.
Shudde M'ell is a creation of Brian Lumley, featured in his novel The Burrowers Beneath (1974). It is "a great gray thing, a mile long, chanting and exuding strange acids... charging through the depths of the earth at a fantastic speed, in a dreadful fury... melting basaltic rocks like butter under a blowtorch." Shudde M'ell is the supreme regent of the chthonians, a horrifying race of burrowing creatures, and is probably the largest and most malignant member of his kind. According to some legends, he was once imprisoned beneath G'harne, but is now free to wander the earth with his kin.
Summanus (Lord of Hell, Monarch of the Night, The Terror that Walketh in Darkness) is the creation of Brian Lumley — who based the Great Old One on the Roman deity of the same name — and first appeared in Lumley's short story "What Dark God?" (1975). The god appears as a mouthless human with whitish tentacles hidden under his clothing. He can use these tentacles to siphon blood from his victims.
Summanus had a following in Roman times, but if he is worshiped today, his cult is even more secretive. The rites needed for the proper worship of Summanus are found in the Tuscan Rituals.
The Unimaginable Horror appears in CT Phipps' Cthulhu Armageddon (2016) sequel The Tower of Zhaal (2017). It is a mammoth version of the creature from The Colour Out of Space that destroyed the Kastro'vaal civilization. It proceeded to arrive on Earth in primordial times before it was imprisoned in the oceans by Cthulhu's people. From there, it escaped and destroyed much of the Yitian civilization before being imprisoned again by a member of their race called Zhaal. The creature would remain imprisoned well after the rest of the Great Old Ones had arisen and only briefly escape before being restored to its imprisonment. It is written about in a book called The Unimaginable Horror that reveals details about the Tower of Zhaal and its origins.
Vulthoom appears in the Clark Ashton Smith story of the same name, first published in the September 1935 issue of Weird Tales. The being is also known as Gsarthotegga and The Sleeper of Ravormos.
In the story, Vulthoom is the Martian Aihai's equivalent of Satan. Though most rational people believe him to be a myth, he is nonetheless greatly feared by the lower class. In truth he is a mysterious being, from another universe, exiled by his fellow inhabitants, and lying in wait on Mars in the underground city of Ravormos. He took over Mars in ages past and plans to conquer Earth as his next trophy. Because of his vast intellect, and advanced technology, he seems godlike, but is in reality merely a very powerful alien who must rest for millennia at a time. While under the influence of the hallucinogenic perfume of an alien blossom, one man envisioned Vulthoom as a gigantic otherworldly plant, but the being's true form is unknown.
The DC Comics character Power Ring is associated with an entity named Volthoom. An entity sharing this name, who may or may not be the same Volthoom, appears as a major villain in Geoff Johns' Green Lantern stories.
The Worm that Gnaws in the Night (the Doom of Shaggai) appears in Lin Carter's short story "Shaggai" (1971). The being is portrayed as an enormous, worm-like entity. It was first observed by the wizard Eibon, who chanced upon it on a journey to the planet of Shaggai. To his amazement, Eibon discovered that the massive worm was the "Dweller in the Pyramid" mentioned by the demon Pharol, when questioned by Eibon (about a cryptic passage in the Pnakotic Manuscripts), and that once the Shan of Shaggai made the mistake of summoning it, they could not control or even send it back. Even the Elder Gods could not deal with it. The worm, to Eibon's horror, was slowly eating away at the vitals of Shaggai and he subsequently made a hasty return to Earth. Shaggai, however, eventually suffered a different fate from something that crawled over the edge of the universe, as related in Campbell's "The Insects from Shaggai".
Yag-Kosha is described as a telepathic being with an elephant head, from outer space and being the last survivor of a group of refugees.
Yag-Kosha appeared in the story "The Tower of the Elephant", from Robert Ervin Howard (the creator of "Kull" and "Conan, the Barbarian"). The Tower of the Elephant was best known for being portrayed in the comic book Conan the Barbarian#4.
Yba'sokug is a great beast that is said to be come to devour the world, sending depravity before him in the form of his heralds. He is depicted as a froglike creature with a great multitude of eyes. Yba'sokug is worshiped fervently by "the lonely and the tired".
Yibb-Tstll (The Drowner) is an obscure god, said to watch at the center of all time as the universe revolves. Because of this insight, only Yog-Sothoth is said to be wiser. Its blood, the Black, is a weapon which takes the form of black snowflakes that stick to and smother a victim. This is stated in The Caller of the Black. The god's touch causes an instant change in the person affected—this change is usually fatal but occasionally brings some benefit.
Yibb-Tstll is sometimes described as an immobile, dark, tentacled entity with a pulpy, alien head, detached eyes, and large bat wings under which countless Nightgaunts suck black milk from its innumerable breasts. In Brian Lumley's short story "Rising with Surtsey" (1971), the narrator proclaims: "... I wanted to bound, to float in my madness through eldritch depths of unhallowed black blood. I wanted to cling to the writhing breasts of Yibb-Tstll. Insane...". Yibb-Tstll makes its major appearance in The Horror at Oakdeene.
Having a close connection to the Great Old One Bugg-Shash, so should Yibb-Tstll be regarded as a Great Old One – specifically in the Drowners group introduced by Brian Lumley, parasitic alien entities which thrive by vampyrizing the Great Old Ones themselves – though in RPG materials she is classed as "Outer God".
Yig (the Father of Serpents) first appeared in the story The Curse of Yig which was created by Zealia Bishop and almost completely rewritten by H. P. Lovecraft. He is a deity that appears as a serpent man, serpent with bat like wings, or as a giant snake. Although Yig is easy to anger, he is easy to please as well. Yig often sends his serpent minions, the children of Yig, to destroy or transform his enemies. He is associated with the Serpent Men.
To Native Americans, Yig is regarded as "bad medicine". He is also alluded to in western American folklore. He is identified with the Mesoamerican deity Quetzalcoatl, and may be a prototype for that god and other serpentine gods worldwide. Some authors identify him as the Stygian serpent god Set's father, and from Robert E. Howard's Conan stories, and also with the Great Serpent worshiped by the Serpent People of Valusia from Howard's Kull stories.
Yig is the subject of a song by the shock rock band GWAR entitled "Horror of Yig", which appears on their album Scumdogs of the Universe. The band The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets, famous for their Lovecraft references, also refers to Yig in a song titled "Yig Snake Daddy".
Yig is the name of a deity in the Arcanis Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. Yig was once (and may still be) worshipped by the Ssethregorean Empire, a group dominated by various lizard and snake-like beings. Yig in this mythos is a female deity, but still strongly associated with serpents, suggesting the name is not a coincidence.
Despite being spoken of on only a few occasions in Lovecraft's work, Yig is one of the Ancient Ones included in the Arkham Horror boardgame, appearing alongside Ancients such as Cthulhu and Nyarlathotep, proving his popularity.
Zathog appears in Richard Tierney's novel The Winds of Zarr (1971), as well as in his short story "From Beyond the Stars" (1975). After warring with the Elder Gods, Zathog, eager for revenge, entered into a compact with the brutal Zarr. The Zarr controlled most of the galaxy where they dwelt, and desired to conquer the rest of the universe. In return for helping him free his brethren, Zathog promised to give the Zarr the ability to travel through time and space.
Zushakon (or Zuchequon or Zul-Che-Quon) debuted in Henry Kuttner's short story "Bells of Horror" (1939). The being is the son of Ubbo-Sathla, procreated by binary fission. Other sources, however, consider him the progeny of Shub-Niggurath and Hastur.
Zushakon is the god of death to the Mutsun tribe of California. Zushakon has an intense hatred of light and will slay anyone who exposes one of his sacred artifacts to it. He can be summoned by the ringing of three specially consecrated bells. His arrival is heralded by the rapid darkening and chilling of the surrounding environment and the sound of flapping, as if produced by very large wings, steadily increasing in volume. Furthermore, all creatures nearby suffer an irritation of the eyes that is so severe, they are compelled to literally gouge them out. Upon his arrival, the surrounding shadows darken, thicken, swirl, and finally clot into his dreadful shape. It is not known whether the clot of darkness that forms is merely a gateway or the actual entity himself.
According to the famed occult detective Doctor Anton Zarnak, who witnessed Zushakon's arrival during an unsuccessful attempt to exorcise him from a client, Zushakon is an earth elemental, and can be repelled by bright lights or by summoning the fire god Cthugha. The victim, who died during the struggle, had dug up a mound that contained the remains of a Mutsun shaman. Inside, he found an obsidian tablet and a carving of a hooded, possibly winged, humanoid figure surrounded by toad-like beings prostrate in worship before it. Inscribed on the tablet was an ancient, now-extinct script promising death to anyone who exposed the contents of the barrow. It is likely that the winged figure in the carving is Zushakon himself.
After he departs, Zushakon may return yet again during the first earthquake or solar eclipse following an earlier, successful summoning of him.