"A monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind. This this... was of a somewhat bloated corpulence... It lumbered slobberingly into sight and gropingly squeezed its gelatinous green immensity through the black doorway... A mountain walked or stumbled."--H.P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"
Cthulhu dwells in the corpse city of black R'lyeh, sunken deep beneath the surface of the Pacific, sleeping in a living death, but someday the city will rise and he will wake, freed to raven and slay across the world.
Known Avatars: Cthulhu.
Other Titles: Great Cthulhu, Master of R'lyeh.
"Utterly alien landscape... Foreground a deep lake. Hali? In five minutes the water began to ripple where something rose. Facing inward. A titanic aquatic being, tentacled. Octopoid, but far, far larger--ten--twenty times larger than the giant Octopus apallyon of the west coast. What was its neck alone easily fifteen rods in diameter. Could not risk chance of seeing its face." --August Derleth, "The Gable Window"
Hastur the Unspeakable dwells near the star Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus. He is connected with the mystic Lake of Hali, the Yellow Sign and Carcosa, as well as the things that dwell therein.
Known Avatars: The King in Yellow, The Feaster from Afar, The High Priest Not to be Described.
Other Titles: The Unspeakable One, The Ruined King, The Tattered King, Him Who Is Not To Be Named, Assatur, Astur, Kaiwan, The King in Yellow.
"Somehow, the thing was like a giant plant, with innumerable roots, pale and swollen, that ramified from a bulbar bole. This bole, half hidden from view, was topped with a vermillion cup like a mostrous blossom; and from the cup there grew an elfin figure, pearly-hued, and formed with exquisite beauty and symmetry."--Clark Ashton Smith, "Vulthoom"
Vulthoom dwells in a deep cavern on Mars, though its reach is far and wide through dreams and lives in an endless cycle of a thousand years of sleep followed by a thousand years of activity.
Known Avatars: The Dream Weaver
Other Titles: Gsarthotegga, The Dream Weaver, The Sleeper of Ravermos.
"A tall, slim figure with the young face of an antique pharaoh, gay with prismatic robes and ceowned with a pshent that glowed with inherent light... the fascination of a dark god or fallen archangel, and around whose eyes there lurked the languid sparkle of capricious humor."--H.P. Lovecraft, "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath"
Nyarlathotep is the messenger, heart and sould of the Outer Gods. More than the other Gods, he has the most understandable personality and claims to have a thousand different forms. To him, causing madness and insanity ios more important and enjoyable than mere death or destruction.
Known Avatars: The Wailing Writher
Other Titles: The Masked God, Nyarlathotep of a Thousand Masks.
"Iä! Iä! Shub-Niggurath! The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young!"-- H.P. Lovecraft, "The Whisperer in the Darkness"
A perverse god of fertility, but not of motherhood. Served by a race of lesser beings called the Dark Young.
Known Avatars: Keeper of the Moon-Lens
Other Titles: The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young, The All-Mother, Shupnikkurat.
