Great Old One

The Great Old Ones are a group of unique, malignant beings of great power in the fictional cosmology of the Cthulhu Mythos. Cthulhu, H. P. Lovecraft's famous creation, is described as a Great Old One. They reside in various locations on Earth, and once presided over the planet as gods and rulers.
==In Lovecraft's Fiction==
Lovecraft uses the phrase "Great Old Ones" in just two of his stories. Unlike his successors, Lovecraft uses the term to refer to the races later writers would identify as the Cthulhi and the Elder Things, not to his pantheon of alien gods.
In "The Call of Cthulhu," it's how the captured Cthulhu cultists refer to the entities they worship:They worshipped, so they said, the Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky. Those Old Ones were gone now, inside the earth and under the sea; but their dead bodies had told their secrets in dreams to the first men, who formed a cult which had never died. More information on the Great Old Ones comes from Old Castro, one of the few sane members of the cult:These Great Old Ones, Castro continued, were not composed altogether of flesh and blood. They had shape—for did not this star-fashioned image prove it?—but that shape was not made of matter. When the stars were right, They could plunge from world to world through the sky; but when the stars were wrong, They could not live. But although They no longer lived, They would never really die. They all lay in stone houses in Their great city of R’lyeh, preserved by the spells of mighty Cthulhu for a glorious resurrection when the stars and the earth might once more be ready for Them. Castro looks forward to a time when humanity will "become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy."
In At the Mountains of Madness, the discovery of traces of evolutionarily advanced creatures in Antarctic sediments a billion years old prompts the Miskatonic University biologist Lake to "whimsically recall the primal myths about Great Old Ones who filtered down from the stars and concocted earth-life as a joke or mistake."
Dyer, the story's narrator, later declares that the starfish-headed crinoids known as the Elder Things are. . . above all doubt the originals of the fiendish elder myths which things like the Pnakotic Manuscripts and the Necronomicon affrightedly hint about. They were the Great Old Ones that had filtered down from the stars when earth was young—the beings whose substance an alien evolution had shaped, and whose powers were such as this planet had never bred.
==Classification==
In the broader Cthulhu Mythos, the Great Old Ones are often distinguished from the more cosmically placed entities such as Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, and Yog-Sothoth--known as the Outer Gods--and from alien but less godlike creatures such as the Chthonians, the Deep Ones, the Elder Things, and the Mi-Go. Yet this distinction is unclear at times, in part because the terminology is not always consistent; for instance, Nyarlathotep, despite his marked interest in Earth and its culture, is generally considered to be one of the Outer Gods instead of a Great Old One. On the other hand, Hastur has several avatars and is generally based in outer space, but he is still considered a Great Old One. There are conflicting views on the proper classification for Shub-Niggurath.
Very few people dispute that Azathoth and Yog-Sothoth are Outer Gods instead of Great Old Ones, although some accounts make them ancestors of a few Great Old Ones. This has led to the theory that "Great Old One" is the term for everything younger than Cthulhu and Tsathoggua, and "Other God" or "Outer God" to be everything older.
==List of Known Great Old Ones==
===Lovecraft's Works===
*Bokrug (: "The Doom that Came to Sarnath", : "The Sister City")
*Chaugnar Faugn (: The Horror from the Hills, : "The Horror in the Museum", : "The Return of Hastur", : "The Fishers from Outside")
*Cthulhu (: "The Call of Cthulhu", : "The Plague of St. James Infirmary", "Dead Leaves Fall")
*Ghatanothoa (: "Out of the Aeons", : "The Return of the Lloigor", "The Thing in the Pit", Downward to Darkness, "Destroying Paradise, Hawaiian Style" (RPG adventure), Atomic-Age Cthulhu)
*Gloon (: "The Temple", : Mansions of Madness, "Inheritance")
*Gobogeg (: At the Mountains of Madness, : "Cthulhu Wars")
*Hastur (: "Haïta the Shepherd", "The Yellow Sign", : The Whisperer in Darkness, : "The Return of Hastur", The Lurker at the Threshold, : "The Feaster from Afar", "The Seed of the Star-God", "The Voice of Zarnak", "The City of Yellow Lights")
*Juk-Shabb (: "The Challenge from Beyond")
*Mormo (: "The Horror at Red Hook", : Trail of Cthulhu,"The Betwixt")
*Nug (: "The Last Test", : "Out of the Ages", "To Clear the Earth", "Black Fire", "The Strange Doom of Enos Harker")
*Oorn (: "The Hoard of Wizard-Beast", : Mad Moon of Dreams)
*Rhan-Tegoth (: "The Horror in the Museum", : The Lurker at the Threshold, : "The Acolyte of the Flame", "Perchance to Dream", "The Return of Rhan-Tegoth")
*Shaurash-Ho (: Selected Letters 4.633)
*'Umr At-Tawil (: "Through the Gates of the Silver Key")
*Yeb (: "The Last Test", : "Out of the Ages", "To Clear the Earth", "Black Fire", "The Strange Doom of Enos Harker")
*Yig (: "The Curse of Yig", : "The Vengeance of Yig", "Scales of Justice")
===August Derelith's Works===
*Cthugha (: "The House on Curwen Street", "The Dweller in Darkness", : Elysia, "The Black Mirror")
*Ithaqua (: "The Wendigo", : "The Thing that Walked on the Wind", "Ithaqua", : "Born of the Winds", The Clock of Dreams, Spawn of the Winds, In the Moons of Borea)
*Sho-Gath (: "The God-Box")
*Zhar and Lloigor (: "The Lair of the Star-Spawn", "The Sandwin Compact", : "The Thing in the Pit", "The Sussex Manuscript", "Meet Me on the Other Side")
*Zvilpogghua (: The Lurker at the Threshold, : Return of the Manitou, "Strange Manuscript Found in the Vermont Woods")
===Lovecraft Circle Works===
*Apocolothoth (: "The Tree Men of M'bwa")
*Atlach-Nacha (: "The Seven Geases", : The Philosopher's Stone, "Atlachnaphobia")
*Basatan (: "The Master of the Crabs")
*Byatis (: "The Shambler from the Stars", : "The Room in the Castle", "The Beard of Byatis")
*Ghizguth (: "From the Parchments of Pnom", : "October Surprise")
*God of the Red Flux (: "The Tree Men of M'bwa")
*Gol-Goroth (: "The Children of the Night", "The Gods of Bal-Sagoth", "The Scarlet Citadel", : "The Fishers from Outside", "Free the Old Ones", The Black Drop)
*Han (: "The Shambler from the Stars")
*Hziulquoigmnzhah (: "The Door to Saturn", "From the Parchments of Pnom")
*Iod (: "The Secret of Kralitz", "The Hunt", "The Invaders")
*Krang (: "The Tomb of the God", "The Fidelity of Ghu")
*Mordiggian (: "The Charnel God", : "Identity Crisis", "Ghoul-hand Duke", "Reflections of Dust and Death", "Dead in the Water", "Nekros Nomos Ikonos")
*Nyaghoggua (: "Nyaghoggua", "The Abyss")
*Nyogtha (: "The Salem Horror", : "The Horror in the Gallery", "The Stairs in the Crypt", "The Acolyte of the Flame", "Photo Essay")
*Quachil Uttaus (: "The Treader of the Dust", : "The Keeper of the Dust")
*Rlim Shaikorth (: "The Coming of the White Worm", : "The Horror in the Gallery", "The Light from the Pole")
*Sebek (: "The Secret of Sebek")
*Sfatlicllp (: "From the Parchments of Pnom", : "Voormi Hymn of Deliverance", "The Epistles of Eibon", "Fear in a Bottle")
*Shathak (: "From the Parchments of Pnom")
*Shista (: "The Fidelity of Ghu")
*Sthanee (: "Nyaghoggua", "When Sthanee Wakes")
*Thasaidon (: "The Tomb Spawn", "Xeethra", "The Dark Eidolon", "The Infernal Star", : "Wizards of Hyperborea", "Star Spawn of Hyperborea")
*Thog (: "The Slithering Shadow")
*Tsathoggua (: "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros", "The Door to Saturn", "From the Parchments of Pnom", "The Seven Geases", The Black Book of Clark Ashton Smith, : The Illuminatus! Trilogy, "The Old One", "The Round Tower")
*Vulthoom (: "Vulthoom")
*Zstylzhemghi (: "From the Parchments of Pnom", : "The Throne of Achamoth", "October Surprise", "The Minions of Zstylzhemgni")
*Zushakon (: "The Dark Demon", "The Bells of Horror", : "The Descent into the Abyss", "Dead of Night")
===Expanded Mythos Works===
*Abholos (: "Devourers in the Mist" (RPG adventure), Stunning Eldritch Tales: Trail of Cthulhu Adventures)
*Alala (: "The White People", : "The Plain of Sound", The Voice Of The Animals (Worlds Of Cthulhu))
*Ammutseba (: Lost Stars, Secrets of Kenya)
*Amon-Gorloth (: "Les Yeux d'Amon" Casus Belli #101)
*Aphoom-Zhah (: "The Horror in the Gallery", "The Light from the Pole", "The Acolyte of the Flame")
*Arwassa (: "The Asylum")
*Ayi'ig (: "A Movement in the Grass")
*Aylith (: "Twilight Memories (RPG adventure)")
*Azi Dahaka (: Call of Cthulhu RPG)
*Baoht Z'uqqa-mogg (: "Mysterious Manuscripts (RPG supplement)" [Thomas M. K. Stratman] The Unspeakable Oath #3, "This Village Was Made for Us")
*B'gnu-Thun (: "The Stalker in the Snows", "Correlated Contents")
*Bugg-Shash (: "Demoniacal", : "The Kiss of Bugg-Shash", "Elysia", "Rising with Surtsey")
*Byagoona (: "The Bane of Byagoona")
*Chor-Tal ((: "Ron Shiflet")
*Coatlicue (: "The Rattle of Her Smile", "Fiesta for Our Lady")
*Crom Cruach (: "Downward to Darkness", "Worse Things Waiting")
*Cthaat (: "The Plague of St. James Infirmary", "Dead Leaves Fall")
*Cthaeghya (: "October Surprise")
*Cthylla (: The Transition of Titus Crow, "In His Daughter's Darkling Womb", "In the Hall of the Yellow King")
*Ctoggha (: "The Forgotten God")
*Cyäegha (: "Darkness, My Name Is", "Sufficient Unto the Days")
*Cynothoglys (: "Sweet Despise", "The Prodigy of Dreams")
*D'numl (: Nightmare's Disciple)
*Dhumin (: "The Burrower From the Bluff")
*Dygra (: "The Stalker in the Snows", "Correlated Contents")
*Dythalla (: "Dythalla", "Lord of Lizards", "The Bane of the Byagoona", "The Stalker in the Snows")
*Dzéwà (: "The Insects from Shaggai", "The Lord of the Jungle (RPG adventure)" Shadow Over Filmland)
*Eihort (: "The Franklyn Paragraphs", "Before the Storm")
*Ei'lor (: "Ei'lor", "Correlated Contents", "The Star-Seed", "The Seed from the Stars")
*Ghadamon (: "Pickman's Student (RPG adventure)", "The Offspring of the Tomb")
*Gi-Hoveg (: "The Advent of Uvhash", "The Stalker in the Snows", "Correlated Contents", "The Inheritor")
*Glaaki (: "The Inhabitant of the Lake", "Ghost Lake", "Invocation from Beyond", The Last Revelation of Glaaki)
*Gleeth (: "Isles of Suhm-Yi", Mad Moon of Dreams)
*Gog-Hoor (: "A Spectacle of a Man")
*Golothess (: "You Are Cordially Invited")
*The Green God (: "The Horror Under Warrendown")
*Groth-Golka (: "The Fishers from Outside", The Black Drop)
*Gtuhanai (: "Forces of Change")
*Gurathnaka (: "Parting the Veil")
*Gur'la-ya (: "The Skull of Gur-la'ya", "Destiny")
*Gzxtyos (: "Star Pods")
*Hastalyk (: Malleus Monstrorum (RPG supplement))
*H'chtelegoth (: "The Stranger & H'chtelegoth", "Blood Red Moon")
*Haiogh-Yai (: "The Outsider", "The Stalker in the Snows", "Correlated Contents")
*Hnarqu (: "Tentacles")
*Idh-yaa (: "Out of the Ages")
*Inpesca (: "The Cyprus Shell")
*Istasha (: "The Star-Seed", "The Stalker in the Snows")
*Janai'ngo (: "The Thing in the Library")
*Kaalut (: "The Horror of the Heights", : "Genuine Article")
*Kag'Naru (: Challengers of the Unknown #81-87)
*Kassogtha (: Nightmare's Disciple)
*Kaunuzoth (: "The Moore Dam Monster")
*Klosmiebhyx (: "October Surprise")
*K'nar'st (: "The Portal of K'nar'st")
*Kthaw'keth
*Kurpannga (: H. P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands (RPG supplement))
*Lam (: The Magical Revival, Outer Gateways, Malleus Monstrorum)
*Lexur'iga-serr'roth (: "The Brown Tower")
*Lythalia (: "The Star-Seed", "The Stalker in the Snows")
*M'basui Gwandu (: "Ngiri's Catch")
*Mappo No Ryujin (: Secrets of Japan)
*Miivls (: Nightmare's Disciple)
*Mnomquah (: "The Sorcerer's Book", "Mnomquah", Mad Moon of Dreams)
*Mortllgh (: Kingdom of the Blind)
*Mynoghra (: "Wings in the Night")
*Nctosa (: Nightmare's Disciple)
*Nctolhu (: Nightmare's Disciple)
*Ngirrth'lu (: "The Stalker in the Snows")
*Northot (: "Night Terrors", "Le Retour de Northot")
*Nssu-Ghahnb (: tentacules.net)
*Nycrama (: "Priestess of Nycrama")
*Ob'mbu (: Nightmare's Disciple)
*Othuum (: "Rising with Surtsey", "Othuum")
*Othuyeg (: "Demons in the Flesh", "Solar Pons and the Cthulhu Mythos", "The Seven Cities of Gold", "People of the Monolith: Stone of Death")
*Pharol (: "Shaggai", "The Acolyte of the Flame")
*Poseidon (: "Name and Number")
*Psuchawrl (: "Out of the Jar")
*Ptar-Axtlan (: "Confessions in Darkness")
*Quyagen (: "The Thing in the Library", "The Seven Cities of Gold", "People of the Monolith: Stone of Death" (1997), "Mhu Thulanese Invocation to Abhoth")
*Q'yth-az (: "An Early Frost")
*Raandaii-B'nk (: From the Deep and Beyond)
*Ragnalla (: "Ragnalla", "The Stalker in the Snows", "Correlated Contents")
*Raphanasuan (: "What Hides and What Returns")
*Rhagorthua (: The Witch Cycle Part II: A Handful of Dust)
*Rhogog (: "Sacristans of Rhogog")
*Rh'Thulla (: Challengers of the Unknown #83)
*Rokon (: "The Snake-God of Shonhi")
*Ruhtra Dyoll
*Rynvyk (: Nightmare's Disciple)
*Saaitti (: "The Hog")
*Scathach (: "October Surprise")
*Sedmelluq (: Imagon)
*Set (: Nameless Cults)
*Shaklatal (: Utatti Asfet)
*Sheb-Teth (: "Once Men (RPG adventure)")
*Shlithneth (: "Cthulhu Britannica: Avalon - The County of Somerset (RPG adventure)")
*Shterot (: Les Années Folles: Investigations dans la France des Années 20 (RPG supplement))
*Shudde M'ell (: "Cement Surroundings", The Burrowers Beneath, The Transition of Titus Crow, "The Worm of Urakhu", "Big Nasty")
*Shuy-Nihl (: "Madness in Haiti", "The Stalker in the Snows", "Correlated Contents")
*S'tya-Yg'Nalle (: "Whiteout")
*Summanus (: "What Dark God?", "The Fairground Horror")
*Swarog (: "Jahrhundertsommer")
*T'ith (: Nightmare's Disciple)
*Thamuth-Djig (: The Clock of Dreams)
*Tharapithia (: "The Shadow in the Crimson Light")
*Toth (: "Usurped")
*Th'rygh (: Verboten! Operation Faust)
*Tulushuggua (: Sinkhole)
*Turua (: Utatti Asfet)
*Uitzilcapac (: "Le Maître des Souffrances (RPG adventure)")
*Ult (: Nightmare's Disciple)
*The Unimaginable Horror (: The Tower of Zhaal)
*Ut'Ulls-Hr'Her (: Nightmare's Disciple)
*Vhuzompha (: "The Stalker in the Snows", "Correlated Contents", "Beast of Love")
*Vibur (: "The Menace From Sumatra")
*Vile-Oct (: "Chronicles of Nibiru: A Plague of Demons")
*Vn'Vulot (: Nightmare's Disciple)
*Volgna-Gath (: "The Stalker in the Snows", "The Sculpture")
*Voltiyig (: "The Thing in the Library", "Images in Stone")
*Vthyarilops (: "The Likeness")
*The Worm that Gnaws in the Night (: "Shaggai")
*Xalafu (: "The Life and Death of Zebros Santiago")
*Xcthol (: "Ravenstone Sanitarium (RPG material)")
*Xinlurgash (: "The Mysterious Millionaire", "An Ancient Summoning")
*Xirdneth (: "Dythalla", "The Star-Seed", "The Stalker in the Snows", "The Maker of Illusions")
*Xitalu (: IZOMBIE #22-28)
*Xotli (: Conan of the Isles)
*Xoxiigghua (: "Une Ombre Couleur Sépia (RPG adventure)")
*Xu'bea (: Nightmare's Disciple)
*Yamath (: The Wizard of Lemuria)
*Yegg-Ha (: "An Item of Supporting Evidence")
*Y'golonac (: "Cold Print", "Two Minutes on High", "Love's Lonely Children", "No Pain, No Gain", "Plutonic Relationship")
*Yhagni (: "The Parasite and the Moirommalit")
*Yhashtur (: "Servants of the Coils")
*Y'lla (: "Correlated Contents", "The Deep-Lord Awakens")
*'Ymnar (: "From the Sea", "He Who Comes at the Noontime")
*Yog-Sapha (: "The Thing in the Abyss")
*Yorith (: "The Oldest Dreamer")
*Yoth-Tlaggon (: "Mask of Yoth-Tlaggon")
*Ysbaddaden (: "October Surprise")
*Ythogtha (: "Out of the Ages", The Transition of Titus Crow, "The Thing in the Pit", "Perchance to Dream")
*Yug-Siturath (: "The Devil in You")
*Zathog (: The Winds of Zarr, "From Beyond the Stars")
*Zindarak (: "Doctor Dexter")
*Zurvan (: Worse Things Waiting)
*Zoth-Ommog (: "Out of the Ages", The Transition of Titus Crow, "The Horror in the Gallery")
*Z'toggua (: "Z'toggua", "Ch'g-Ghral", "Shog-E'yahg")
===Mythos-Adjacent Works===
*Animus (: The Web Planet)
*Aucturn (: Entombed with the Pharoahs)
*Celestial Toymaker (: The Celestial Toymaker)
*Etepsed Egnis (: "Etepsed Egnis", "A Core Unto Itself", "The Gemstone From Out of Space")
*Grace (: The Chaos Pool)
*Guardians of Time (: The Celestial Toymaker)
*Hecuba (: The Queen of Time)
*Icthultu (, DC Animated Universe: "The Terror Beyond")
*Kathulos (, Marvel Comics: "Marvel Premiere")
*M'nagalah (, DC Comics: Swamp Thing #8, Challengers of the Unknown, The Trenchcoat Brigade, The All-New Atom, : "The Tugging", Nightmare's Disciple)
*M'nthster (, The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror XXIV", "Halloween of Horror", The Simpsons: Tapped Out)
*Mhar (: Spires of Xin-Shalast)
*Nestene Consciousness (, Doctor Who: "Spearhead from Space")
*Orgesh (: Descent into Midnight)
* Shuma-Gorath (, Marvel Comics: "The Curse of the Golden Skull", "Marvel Premiere", "Conan the Barbarian", "Strange Tales", "Doctor Strange", "Mighty Avengers", "Invaders Now!", "Marvel Knights 4", "Journey Into Mystery", "Realm of Kings", "The Thanos Imperative", "Doctor Voodoo: Avenger of the Supernatural", "Marvel Super Heroes", "Marvel vs Capcom", "Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter")
*Xhamen-Dor (: Wake of the Watcher)
==In Popular Culture==
*In the Marvel Multiverse, the Great Old Ones (also known as the "Many-Angled Ones") are often confused with the Outer Gods (Azotharoth and Yog-Sothoth) and Other Gods (Nyarlathotep), leading to them being classified in the same group. H. P. Lovecraft of Earth-616 wrote about the True Fairies as the Old Ones.
*The Great Old Ones also appear in the Doctor Who franchise. It must be taken into account that the notion of the Outer Gods doesn't exist in the Whoniverse. Therefore, those that are in the Cthulhu Mythos are listed as Great Old Ones instead. Likewise, the so-called "Elder Gods" in this franchise are the most active Great Old Ones in the universe, often playing cosmic games among themselves.
*In the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen universe, the Great Old Ones (collectively known as the Lloigor) are the individual components or manifestations of an "idea-colony" known as Yuggoth: a metaphysical hive-mind that also functions both as a place and a deity. Despite being part of a greater whole, each of these manifestations has a name, distinct attributes, and an elemental species that serves them. (: "Allan and the Sundered Veil")
==Gallery==
de:Die Großen Alten
es:Primigenios
Category:Great Old Ones
Category:Characters Originating From Lovecraft Circle Works
Category:Extra-Dimensional Characters
Category:Extraterrestrial Characters