Cthulhu Mythos Cosmology

==Introduction==
In this blog, we'll be checking the Cosmology of the Cthulhu Mythos, but only relying on H.P Lovecraft's writings, in other words, we will not use the Extended Canon, but only Lovecraft's original Canon.
==The Physical Universe==
From the very first section of the Mythos is the Physical Universe, for an example in the short story "The Trap" An occultist Wizard by the name of Axel Holm was able to create a 4-D dimensional mirror that will suck anyone into it nearby, like a miniature blackhole inside this mirror, space and time as a concept do not exist, preventing anyone from aging as long as they are inside of the mirror. what makes this seemingly minor 4D feat important for scaling the cthulhu mythos? It's important because all Dimensions inside of the Cthulhu Mythos can be accessed to via reflection:
So in the Physical World, there are an infinite number of universes, and each having infinite size and infinite-spatial dimensions:
From The Whisperer in Darkness, the universe is implicitly described as an “ingenuine infinity,” but still infinite; it is simply a lower infinity in the perspective of the “genuine infinity”, and the space-time continumm recognized by men is just an infinitesimal part of an infinite sea:
In essence, there are infinite higher spatial dimensions in each universes, with everything in a lower-dimensional space being derived from an infinitesimal portion of something in a higher dimension, the latter of which corresponds to "substance and reality," while the former is "shadow and illusion." This hierarchy, as mentioned before, has no end, and extends up to the "dizzy and reachless heights of archetypal infinity" (We'll see what this archetypal infinity is soon):
Within the universe, there is also what can be called the "ultimate" infinity:
Furthermore this "archetypal" and "ultimate infinity" can denoted a "true" or a "prime" infinity that is the origin point of all possible infinities, so lets take an example, lets say that there is an infinite dimensional structure, however, that infinite dimensional structure can be denoted as aleph null, but the thing is that aleph null is a copy of what true infinity made, and then there is aleph 1, aleph 2, aleph 3 and etc, it will surpass and reach all larger cardinals and will surpass them ad infinitum, however, even these infinities are still copies of that ultimate infinity which is basically the source for these higher infinite-dimensional structures, therefore, denoting that the term "ultimate infinity" is basically is a philosophical interpretation of infinity which is similar to absolute infinity.
It's established that each hierarchy of universes is endless, and that each universe contains universes of its own. This is extended even further with each hierarchy of universes being contained within mere pebbles in an even larger hierarchy of universes. Until it exceeds any possible number of all these hierarchies, including an infinite or uncountably infinite number:
All hierarchies of universes are but atoms within a super-cosmos, which goes on and on:
A being from a higher dimension transcends all the concepts and boundaries of the lower one:
These dimensions also have impossible structures (Which may fall to extended modal realism):
As well as impossible paradoxes and contradictions (Which also might refer to extended modal realism):
In the Physical Universe, mathematics/science are the same as magic. So when Occultists/Witches Like Axel Holm in "The Trap" and Keziah Mazon "The Dreams of the Witch-House" preform magic they are in reality playing around with higher mathematics.
So with all of this, I believe the Physical Universe should be at least 1-A+ or High 1-A, possibly 1-T+ 
== The Infinite Voids ==
Beyond all of the Physical Universe is what is called "The Void" (No relation to the Ultimate Void) a place that transcends all of the dimensionality, concepts and the entire space-time continum of the Physical Universe. Source: The Challenge from Beyond" A mega collab project of several Sci-Fi writers including HPL Robert E Howard, Frank C.L Moore, Abraham Merritt, and Frank Benlknap Long.
There an infinite amount of said Voids:
== The Great Old Ones==
The Great Old Ones are a group of unique, powerful and malignent beings that transcend the entire Physical Universe:
As they cannot be properly described, and are eldritch contradictions of all matter, force, and cosmic order:
Those Great Old Ones exists in an infinite hierarchy:
==The Dreamlands==
The Dreamlands or Dream Realm are a setting in a world that people enter through their dreams. It is a vast, alternate dimension or universe, with lands, seas, creatures, civilisations, and an extensive Underworld.
Hypnos, an Elder God, accompanied by his follower, the narrator, travel beyond dreams, infinitely ascending in hierarchies and realms beyond matter, time, and space. The Realms that Hypnos and his follower traverse are impossible to describe with any form of words or language. They eventually face the First Gate, stating that the previous sensations of infinity they experienced were nothing in comparison to it:
Even a single Dream from the Dreamlands is beyond the Great Old Ones:
Hypnos and the Narrator travel through the various Layers of the Dreamlands with each layer being seen and treated like it was a mere fictional dream compared to the former. Continuing on both Hypnos and the Narrator transcend limitless vacau beyond all thought and entity passing through barrier after barrier of an infinite hierarchy of layers and with each perception of infinity they pass through they are filled with joy.
These Dreamlands are most likely the other dreamlands region that are talked about in "Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath" a region so vast that since time only 3 other human dreamers were able to transverse these regions with 2 out of the 3 having gone mad after ascending through the black gulfs of infinite layers that is the infinite dreamlands hierarchy.
Why are Hypnos and the Narrator doing all of this? The Reason is that Hypnos wants to be the ruler of the Entire Universe and to be the lord of all living things:
As the narrator leaves the Dreamlands and re-perceives the material world, his sense of infinity reverts to a local scale, corroborating these "limitless vacua" he and Hypnos ascended through as higher levels of infinity.
Like the Physical Universe, the Dreamlands exists on an infinite hierarchy of infinite layers of the dreamlands and as shown earlier in "Hypnos" they possess a Reality>Fiction transcendence as each time you ascend to a higher plane into the dreamlands the previous one is the seen as a mere dream:
Hypnos was able to reach the First Gate, but the mere sight at the creatures that resided there turned him insane, those were the Outer Gods:
Beyond the Dreamers are the Men of Leng and things called Moon-Beasts, they can enslave Dreamers:
Higher up on the pecking order are the Cats of Ulthar, which are just talking cats the zoogs and cats are regular enemies with a predator prey dynamic:
Right above The Cats of Ulthar we having beings like the Moon-Beasts who the Cats of Ulthar fear (Notedly they did ignore this fear when they rescued Randolph carter from the Moon-Beasts after he was kidnapped by the men of leng):
Next after the beings like the Moon-Beasts we have the Great Ones (Not to be confused with the great old ones) who are said to be unidimensional and walk in-between spaces. The Great Ones are so powerful that even Cthulhu himself can barely even see them:
After the great ones we reach the Nightguants who even the Great Ones fear. The Nightguants who are the servants of Nodens the Lord of the Abyss in his never ending war against Nyarlathotep (Sidenote: On who is Nodens we do not know if Nodens is a Great one or a Arch-Dreamer all we know is that he is an archaic deity in the dreamlands and he is the nemesis to Nyarlathotep)
==The Court of Azathoth and the Ultimate Chaos==
Now with that out of the way let's begin with the Ultimate Chaos, it's generally believed that what Hypnos saw, was the Court of Azathoth or the Ultimate Chaos, and by being gazed at and witnessing the outer gods he was drove to madness, and his eventual demise.
However Hypnos is not the only dreamer to have reached the Court of Azathoth. Kuranes the Arch-Dreamer was also said to have made it past the barrier, and reached the ultimate chaos. And not only that Kuranes is one of the few dreamers who not only survived the ultimate chaos but kept his sanity intact. (This feat alone puts him well above Hypnos a being who easily transcended the entire dreamlands with little to no effort.
Including Kuranes among these lucky few who survived the Ultimate Chaos is the Arch-Dreamer Randolph Carter. In "Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" in which Randolph Carter in his journey to find The Great Ones reached Kadath only to find the city empty. however to his surprise a giant procession occurs and outcomes an Egyptian like pharaoh to greet him. As he is Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos:
Nyarlathotep informs Carter that the Great Ones had left their thrones of Kadath in order to live In Randolph Carter's Golden City.
After explaining this to Randolph Carter, Nyarlathotep makes a "deal" with Randolph Carter that he will provide him with Shantak (A bat bird creature thingy) in order to meet the Great Ones and return them back to Kadath:
Randolph Carter believing he was being taken to the Great Ones in his golden city heads onto the Shantak only too realize too late that he is being brought to the Court of Azathoth, and is currently stuck inside of the Ultimate Chaos:
However Randolph Carter in a desperate gamble to save himself jumps off the shantak. In which he experiences a similar Dreamland like limitless infinite vacua that Hypnos traveled through in the dreamlands.
Randolph Carter fell through this abyssal vacua for an eternity, to the point that he got to see entire Aeon's go by, he saw universes become born and then decease, he saw all things become unreckoned kalpas before being spat at as matter and light were born anew as space, comets, suns. and worlds sprang into a primordial big bang, teaming with life, civilizations and gods, only to watch it wither away and see the cycle begin anew, in an endless infinite loop of reincarnation perpetuating the agony birth and death and rebirth.
Additionally it is said in "Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" when Randolph Carter speaks to a couple of priests on the whereabouts of the great ones and they inform Carter that The Court of Azathoth is outside of the Physical universe and is a place that no dreams can reach, "that last amorphous blight of nethermost confusion which blasphemies and bubbles at the centre of all infinity" and that Azathoth is said to gnaw hungrily in inconceivable unlighted chambers beyond time:
Again this confirmed once again when Randolph Carter is flying on the Shantak to the ultimate chaos that Azathoth and his court resides in unhallowed pits where no dreams can reach:
The Court of Azathoth is where you can find, The Other Gods, Sometimes referred to as the Outer Gods or the Ultimate Gods (Shub-Niggurath, Nyarlathotep, Cxaxukluth, Ycnágnnisssz, Ubbo-Sathla, Abhoth, Yhoundeh, D'endrrah, Noth-Yidik, Xexanoth, the Nameless Mist, the Darkness, Tru'nembra, and more), here they dance while play an unholy incomprehensible mess of flutes, drums, and whines to keep the daemon sultan docile. Additionally you could find some of Nyarlathotep's Minions like the Haunting Horrors these werid flying worm monsters that serve as Nyarlathotep's pitbulls.
Furthermore on the Court of Azathoth in "The Dreams of the Witch-House" Walter Gilman is bathing and while he is he reflects on the true nature on the ultimate chaos regarding it as an "Ultimate Blackness" above all other abysses (the Dreamlands) where all fixed suggestions of form were absent, and contains alien curves and spirals of ethereal vortexs, in which these ethereal vortices obey laws foreign to another known type of mathematics and physics in any conceivable cosmos:
This would be consistent with the idea that the Ultimate Void is being infinitely beyond the Dreamlands as the infinite transcendent hierarchy of the infinite layers of the sentient blackness, that an Ultimate Blackness would naturally surpass, this "ultimate blackness" can only be referencing the Court of Azathoth because he outright states the Name Azathoth as he calls him the lord of time and space who rules at the center of chaos on top his black throne.
It's heavily implied if not outright stated that Nodens and his Nightguants are able to reach the Court of Azathoth because they were able to save Carter while he was falling in the Ultimate Void from the Haunting Horrors. But there really is no reason to go to the Ultimate Void. Because it's just that, an infinite void of churning chaos and monsters as they dance around Azathoth as he sits on his throne as lord of all things while his servants play their chaotic flutes:
==The Gates==
The Physical Universe, the Voids and the Dreamlands are only a small wholeness compared to the infinity that is the First Gate:
The Gates are ineffable, beyond dimensions, time, and the human mind:
It was also described as a realm beyond consciousness, reality, and comprehension:
There is an infinite multiplicity of those gates, each one transcends the latter:
Despite Randolph Carter reaching the Court of Azathoth and back, his connection to the Dreamlands starts to fade away and all but dissapears by the age of 30, as the mundane physical world rings the magical imagination he had in his younger years dissipate to nothingness:
In order to reclaim his ability to dream once he follows the advice of his long dead grandfather who informs in his sleep about the story of how their ancestor Edmund Carter after escaping the Salem witch trials placed a sliver key inside of a box that had been handed down by their ancestors for generations in order to reconnect with the dreamlands:
Carter with the sliver key in hand enters the Snakeden (a cave inside of his childhood home that aids in deep sleeps to connect to the Dreamlands) and enters the world of dreams once more:
Once Carter completes the ritual and crosses the sliver gate he is completely awestruck on the realm he is now finds which contains a trans-dimensional extension of the earth as he is now in the prescence of the Ancient Ones who function as the guardians of the Sliver Key:
Chief among these Ancient Ones is the dreaded Guide Known as Umr-At-Tawil who is stated to be beyond the Court of Azathoth as "all these Blacknesses are lesser then HE who guardeth the Gateway":
despite his inclinations to return to his world of dreams Randolph Carter has found a realm that transcends its entirety as the blasphemous infinity fills his mind:
As Randolph carter is dealing with this the world shifts as giant masses of towering stone appears made in alien and incomprhensinble designs and disposed to laws of unknown inverse geometry as a light of unassignable color filled the sky in contradictory directions they defy logic and it played over almost sentiently over what seemed to a curved line of geographic hiergloypthical pedestals more hexagonal than otherwise and summonted by cloaked, ill-defined shapes finally the Ancient Ones appear before Carter with the Guide the redereth of the prolonged life Umr-At-Tawil Appears and offers Carter the ability to continue his journey to the Ultimate Gate:
Once Randolph Carter accepts to take Umr-At-Tawil as his guide the Anicent ones offer his a pedestal to sit on as they accept him into his own, as they begin what could only be called by the human imagination as a chant as the Anicent ones channel their power to enter an even greater dream to ascend to the Ultimate Gate:
Randolph Carter is then pushed through immeasurable depths as if he was trapped inside of vast expansive sea in a terrible pit of silence, only for the silence to be ushered out by a voice that was not a voice and produced in a language that was not of physical sound or articulate words. Upon hearing the advice of the voice he realized that the Sea he was trapped in was actually the ultimate gate and he had just past through it. When Randolph Carter passes through the Ultimate gate.
The feeling is the equivalent passing through a measureless gulf Randolph Carter felt triumphant only to turn backwards awestruck to see that there wasn't just one gate or two or even three gates that he past through but an entire multiplicity of gates behind him that the former immeasurable depths of that rose-tinctured sea was:
==The Ultimate Void and the Outer Gods==
The Ultimate Void is beyond the Ultimate Gate, where the Archetypes, the true form of the Outer Gods reside, they reside beyond the hierarchy of Gates. They are described as outside the physics and mathematics of any conceivable cosmos:
They are beyond the utmost reach of any human imagination, and resides within the abysses through the Gates:
The Outer Gods transcend any conception of being, size, and boundaries:
There are an infinite amount of said Outer Gods:
Azathoth, one of the most significant Outer Gods, is the ruler of all time and space from his black throne at the center of chaos, and is the ruler of all things as well:
==Misconceptions about Azathoth==
So the common idea that Azathoth dreams the cosmos into existence and will destroy it when he wakes up is a misconception.
As has been known for quite a while, by now, this whole concept is quite frankly pure headcanon that has little basis to actually back it up. For reference, this is the excerpt that serves as the primary piece of evidence supporting it:
As we can see, there is not much suggesting that all of existence is Azathoth's dream in here, especially when this quote is viewed in a vacuum and with no preconceived notions in mind. Instead, it just says that Azathoth lies dormant in the center of the Ultimate Void, and mutters the contents of his own dreams, which are things that even he cannot understand, which isn't evidence for all of reality being Azathoth's dream.
Eldrich entities existing in a state of "dreaming" is a common motif in Lovecraft's stories, as shown with Cthulhu's "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" (In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming) and the Ancient Ones partaking in cosmic dreams; there's no reason for Azathoth to be any different.
Ample evidence exists for him existing on the same general level as his servants despite being superior to them; the Outer Gods play music and dance around him, Nyarlathotep strikes his head, and he's only tiered higher than them due to additional context regarding the Ultimate Mystery and Supreme Archetype.
==The Ultimate Mystery and the Supreme Archetype==
Once he crossed that final frontier that was the ultimate gate. Carter was horrified to the realization that he was not one single being but many, He discovered that he was not only Himself from all parts of his life from boyhood to where is now. There were Carters in every possible part of earth's history incorporating all possible biological forms. Human, non-human vertebrate and invertebrate, conscious and mindless, with some even exhibiting traits that no "earthly logic" could explain. 
All of these Carters were equally himself as they exist in every single possible planet, galaxy and universe. Faced with this realization Carter reeled in the despair that this loss of identity had brought upon him:
However the horror of this revelation quickly dissipates as it turns to wonder when the "All In One" and "One in All" appears before him. It's physical manifestation addressed it in prodigious waves that smote burned and thundered energy from them. speaking in the similar rhythmic chants the ancients ones had done beforehand with it's flickering as a monstrous light. Leaving Randolph Carter in pure awe at it's all encompassing ineffable magnitude. The Being praises Randolph Carter for instead of abandoning this Endeavor to return to his idolized dreamlands he chose to continued his path in learning the ultimate mystery, in which the being presents the opportunity for Randolph carter to choose what he desires:
Carter, Accepts the proposal of the BEING as he marches forward to understand the ultimate mystery. He was shown just how small the gods of earth (Great Ones) are in comparison to the wider world. He was enlightened on just how fractional that world he once like all other men proclaimed to be reality. He finally understood why he was able to exist at the same time as his past selves and all the other Carter's that he discovered when he crossed that final frontier of the Ultimate Gate:
Randolph Carter is revealed that all things are just a fragment cut from an archetypal infinity, as all things are derivations and fragmentary pieces of it's dizzy and reachless heights. This archetypal infinity would represent a type of true infinity that is separated from all bad infinities as because it is the archetypal infinity, all things would be a mere derivation or copy of said archetypal infinity We're later given additional confirmation that the world of men (the Physical Universe) and of the gods of men (the Dreamlands) are merely an infinitesimal phase of an infinitesimal thing (the Court of Azathoth) which all make up the small 3-Dimesional wholeness of what man hails as reality:
This one is from the Supreme Archetype's article of this Wiki:
In Lovecraft's Selected Letters, he elaborates on the theme of the ultimate reality being forever beyond human conception. Due to Humanity's local and limited range of sense-equipment. The Absolute reality is forever beyond us, we cannot form even the vaguest conception of what such a thing could be like, for we have no means to envisage it, apart from its subjective aspects that reside within our own limited range of understanding. with all these finite explanations and reasoning being mere shadows whose substance and nature we can never hope to approximate stating that we have only an extremely fragmentary and illusionary specialized projection of it and can form no idea of any principle of reference by which to define or envisage the absolute reality apart from the few sensory manifestations of it that we are in fact capable of understanding. All we can do is to judge the relationships which those manifestations bear toward one another and accept our fractional vision as having some fixed proportion of relationship to whatever inconceivable whole may be there.
A basic restatement that due to mankind's finite capabilities we can never hope to comprehend the ultimate reality.
==Conclusion==
The Lovecraft Universe is an interesting horror one be it in terms of power or writing, it is a very complex and powerful one, and while using any Tiering System, be it of this Wiki or any other one like VSBW or CSAP, it is easily among the most powerful franchises of all fiction.
 
Category:Awaiting Evaluation