3H.P.Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos1 human mind to correlate all its 2By: Arc/Eclipse1 contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black Well,now that chaos is rampant in the seas of infinity and it was not meant age of distrust, what with that we should voyage far. The confrontations, and impulsive sciences, each straining in its own habitats, and so on, on and on south direction, have hitherto harmed us of heaven, I was wondering: why can I little; but some day the piecing never find a pen when I need one? I together of dissociated knowledge mean I have to use this crappy word will open up such terrifying vistas processor and printer, and I could of reality, and of our frightful have written on the back of a used position therein,that we shall either bus ticket instead and lost it. That go mad from the revelation or flee reminds me, I must put all my from the deadly light into the peace addresses and phone numbers in and safety of a new dark age." some sort of book.........but anyway, I was going to tell you how cool H.P. Lovecraft was born in 218901 and H.P. Lovecraft is, but you probably died in 219371. During his 47 years he already know. No? Well, here is my wrote a large collection of short all time favourite H.P. Lovecraft stories and novellettes. The vast paragraph (a pretty famous one): majority of these works became collectively known as the Cthulu "The most merciful thing in the mythos. It is a highly complex world,I think,is the inability of the mythology concerning races of gods, and races which inhabited the Earth place in the universe. millions of years ago. The mythos goes something like this: 2 Billion years ago the Elder things landed on Earth, which was an almost The universe is ruled by the Outer lifeless planet at that time. They gods. These are a race of god-like bred animals which later evolved into beings who have little or no interest dinosaurs, and mankind.They also bred in humanity. They are controlled to the shoggoths, to serve as slaves. an extent by 2Nyarlathotep1, the embodiment of the souls of the Outer Later,3Cthulu1, the most important of gods. He is the only outer god to the Great old ones, and his star take interest in human affairs, and spawn, landed, and started a war with delights in causing madness and the Elder things. The great old ones insanity. He is also the only outer are hugely powerful beings,though not god to have a true personality. gods, who practice black magic and Azathoth is the ruler of the outer built gigantic cities, the remains of gods, and exists at the centre of the which can still be found in the material universe. Azathoth is both shifting sands of the Sahara and the blind and idiotic, and a "monstrous frozen polar extremes. Cthulu made a nuclear chaos". His urges are truce with the Elder things after 4 fulfilled by Nyarlathotep. His second million years of war. However, as the in command is Yog-Sothoth, who is moon was ripped from the planet, the locked in another dimension. It can continent of R'lyeh, home of Cthulu transport anything to any time and and his spawn, was plunged into the sea. However, the spells of Cthulu cults on Earth. perserved them and now they lie, in living death, waiting for their 3Cthulu: (Kuh-thoo-loo)1 worshippers on Earth to waken them from their long slumber. The Elder Cthulu is,in his physical form,a huge things continued to live, and after anthropoid being with wings and the arrival of several lesser races, tentacles on his head. He can change, and many wars with them, their to a certain degree, his physical civilization was all but destroyed appearance, such as the size of his when their servants, the shoggoths, wings, or tentacles. Cthulu rose from revolted,and after a war of survival, his sleep in 1925, but was trapped in leaving them with no slave beasts,the the remains of his cities as they Elder things start to decline, and sank beneath the waves again. their cities are mostly destroyed by various geological cataclysms. 2THE OUTER GODS1 2THE GREAT OLD ONES1 The outer gods take little interest in the affairs of humanity. They are These are immensely powerful beings, mostly idiotic manifestations of who are immortal, and do not inhabit energy. our dimension completely. They are only partially composed of matter,and 3Azathoth: (AZ-uh-thoth)1 therefore cannot be killed. Many, especially Chtulu, are worshipped by Azathoth is the ruler of the outer gods, and the ruler of the universe. Yog-Sothoth: (YAHG-sau-thauth) It is a seething mass of energy,which lives at the centre of the universe, 3Yog-Sothoth1 is locked outside the where the gods dance around it to the material universe, and can only be sound of a monotonous pipe.It is both summonned here by the use of certain blind and idiotic, and always follows spells, found in the 3NECRONOMICON1, a Nyarlathothep's advice. It is know- famous occolt tome,a copy of which is ingly worshipped only by the kept at the library of Miskatonic criminally insane. Universary, Arkham, Massachusetts. It holds the power to travel between the 3Nyarlathotep: (NIGH-ar-LATH-oe-tep)1 planes, and can transport humans to anywhere in space, time, or other Nyarlathotep is the messenger of the dimensions. It has been called the gods,and is the only outer god with a Key and the Gate. It is worshipped by true personality. He serves Azathoth, old wizards and the insane. and enjoys creating madness and insanity, far more than death and 2THE ELDER GODS1 destruction. He has over a thousand forms, only a few of which have ever The Elder gods are rivals to the been recorded. One is an Egyptian- outer gods and are generally more looking human, another is a great benign to humans then the outer gods. faceless beast, which has one blood Many are similar to the Olympian gods red tentacle in place of a face. of ancient Greece. 2Nodens: NOE-denz1 such as the Yithians, and the Migo (Fungi from Yuggoth). The fungi from Nodens appears as an old man, who Yuggoth have small mining colonies on rides a chariot of a sea shell,pulled earth,and are capable of spaceflight. by unicorns or some other beast of They will not harm humans unless they earthly legend. He has been known to come too close to their colonies.They take humans for rides across the are physically weak,and a small armed galaxy, and back. force easily could wipe out their colonies. However,more would come,and 3Bast: BAST1 they could easily conquer the Earth if they so desired. They are capable Bast is a cat goddess, who is of prodigious biological and surgical represented as a woman with a cat's skill, and can remove the brains of head. She does not play much of a humans, and place them in life role in the affairs of humanity, sustaining metal containers, to take except perhaps when someone is them through the vacuum of space to especially cruel to cats. She was their planet, Yuggoth,known to humans worshipped in Bubastis, in Egypt. as Pluto. She is worshipped by all cats, and possibly a few humans. 2The Great Race Of Yith 1 2INDEPENDANT RACES1 The Yithians are an alien race, who projected their minds into the bodies There are other less important races, of a prehistoric race of conical beings, whose minds were exchanged Also, one of his short stories, "The with those of the Yithians, and the Outsider" appears in this issue. minds of the conical race were left to die in strange alien bodies. They gathered knowledge of the universe, 2Article by1 : 3Arc/Eclipse1 and could exchange minds with beings 2Clipart by1 : 3Arc/Eclipse1 from all periods of time,and had come to know the entire history of Earth, and what was to be. However, they projected their minds far into the future, to escape the destruction of their civilization by a mysterious race of alien beings, known only as the flying polyps. Their minds came to occupy the bodies of a race far into the future, beyond the destruction of the human race. This is a small piece of the Cthulu mythos. The works of H.P. Lovecraft can be bought in omnibus volumes, and there is a roleplaying game by Chaosium based on his works.