In This Section
The Universe According to Lovecraft
The Cthulhu Mythos is not just a collection of monsters and magic spells - it's a complete cosmological framework that redefines humanity's place in the universe. Imagine discovering that everything you thought you knew about reality, history, and the nature of existence was not just wrong, but laughably, pathetically incomplete. The Mythos presents a universe where humanity is neither the pinnacle of evolution nor the center of cosmic attention, but rather an accidental byproduct in a reality dominated by beings so ancient and powerful that our entire civilization is less significant than bacteria growing in a petri dish.
The Anthill Analogy
Consider how ants understand human civilization. They might observe our roads as mysterious flat territories, our buildings as inexplicable geometric mountains, and our daily activities as random natural phenomena. To them, we are forces of nature - incomprehensible, unpredictable, and indifferent to their existence. This is humanity's relationship to the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods of the Mythos. We build our anthill civilizations on the surface of a reality controlled by beings whose smallest actions can reshape our world, and whose very existence challenges the foundations of our sanity.
The Architecture of Cosmic Horror
The Mythos operates on multiple levels of reality, each more incomprehensible and threatening than the last. Understanding this hierarchy is crucial for both players and Keepers, as it determines the scope and scale of threats that investigators might face.
The Cosmic Hierarchy Explained
Azathoth - The Nuclear Chaos
Role: The mindless ruler of the Outer Gods, seated at the centre of infinity
Nature: Neither good nor evil, but a blind, idiot force that sprawls at the centre of all things, surrounded by mindless dancing gods and the thin, monotonous piping of daemonic flutes
Threat level: Absolute but remote - Azathoth does not notice humanity, and only the maddest sorcerers try to call it
Description: Lovecraft calls Azathoth the "blind idiot god" and the "nuclear chaos": a seething, formless power at the heart of creation. A popular later idea holds that the universe is Azathoth's dream and would end if it woke; that comes from later writers and fans, not from Lovecraft, but it suits many tables.
In game terms: Azathoth is more a cosmic principle than an entity investigators can meaningfully interact with. Its existence provides context for the ultimate meaninglessness that underlies Mythos horror.
The Outer Gods - Cosmic Principles
Role: Fundamental forces of reality operating on universal scales
Nature: Abstract beings that embody cosmic concepts like time, space, fertility, and knowledge
Threat level: Civilization-ending - their attention alone can reshape reality
Yog-Sothoth - The Key and the Gate
Domain: Time, space, and dimensional barriers
Manifestation: Appears as a congeries of iridescent globes, constantly shifting
Significance: Coterminous with all time and space; the Necronomicon passage in "The Dunwich Horror" names it the gate, the key and the guardian of the gate
Cult activity: Sorcerers like the Whateleys of Dunwich seek to open the way for it and its spawn
Nyarlathotep - The Crawling Chaos
Domain: Deception, madness, and human manipulation
Manifestation: Takes many forms, often appearing human to better interact with and corrupt mortals
Significance: The messenger and soul of the Outer Gods, and the one that takes an active, mocking interest in humanity
Unique trait: Often serves as the direct antagonist in scenarios, using cults and individual corruption to achieve unknowable goals
Shub-Niggurath - The Black Goat of the Woods
Domain: Fertility, life force, and biological corruption
Manifestation: Lovecraft never describes her; the game pictures a vast, cloudy mass of tentacles, mouths and hooves
Significance: "The Goat with a Thousand Young"; her Dark Young, tree-like horrors, haunt remote woods
Cult activity: One of the most widely worshipped Mythos deities, honoured with rites in lonely groves and hilltops
Great Old Ones - The Ancient Rulers
Role: Beings who once ruled Earth and will rule it again
Nature: Immensely powerful but not omnipotent; currently imprisoned or dormant
Threat level: Regional to global catastrophe when awakened
Game significance: These are the entities most likely to be central to major campaign arcs
The Great Old Ones: Earth's Former Masters
The Great Old Ones represent a more tangible but no less terrifying threat than the Outer Gods. These beings once ruled the Earth during prehistoric eons, before being imprisoned or forced into dormancy by cosmic events, elder seals, or their own alien lifecycles. Their eventual return is not a matter of if, but when.
Cthulhu - The High Priest of the Great Old Ones
Physical Description
Cthulhu is described as a gigantic entity with an octopus-like head, a scaly, rubbery body, and prodigious clawed feet. His most distinctive feature is the mass of writhing feelers around his face. Rudimentary wings sprout from his back. His size is deliberately vague but consistently mountainous: in Lovecraft's story, the sailor Johansen, who saw him stir when R'lyeh briefly rose in 1925, could only compare him to a walking mountain.
Current Status and Location
Cthulhu lies in a death-like sleep in the sunken city of R'lyeh, somewhere in the South Pacific. He is not truly dead, as death has no meaning for beings of his nature, but exists in a state between life and death. R'lyeh occasionally rises above the waves when "the stars are right," allowing brief periods when Cthulhu can exert influence over the world.
Prophetic Significance
Cthulhu's awakening is prophesied to herald the return of the Great Old Ones' dominion over Earth. When he rises, human civilization will end not through war or catastrophe, but through the complete irrelevance of human concerns in the face of cosmic reality.
Game Statistics (for reference - not meant to be fought!)
Sanity Loss: 1d10/1d100 to see Cthulhu
Special Abilities: Regeneration (even scattered, he re-forms), dreams sent to sensitive people across the world
Cult: Secret and worldwide, like the Louisiana swamp cult raided by Inspector Legrasse in Lovecraft's story
Other Notable Great Old Ones
Hastur - The Unspeakable
Domain: Madness, artistic corruption, and forbidden performance
Manifestation: Often appears as, or through, the King in Yellow, a figure from the play of the same name that drives readers mad
Location: Lost Carcosa, beside the Lake of Hali, often placed near the star Aldebaran
Cult activities: Art galleries, theaters, and academic institutions where forbidden works are studied
⚠️ Where he comes from: Hastur, Carcosa and the play come from Robert W. Chambers's The King in Yellow (1895). Lovecraft only mentions Hastur in passing; later writers and the game built him into a Great Old One, sometimes called "Him Who Is Not to Be Named."
Dagon and Hydra - The Deep Ones' Masters
Domain: The oceans and their hybrid children
Manifestation: Gigantic versions of the Deep Ones, ruling from underwater cities
Location: Various underwater cities, most notably below Innsmouth
Cult activities: Coastal communities that interbreed with Deep Ones, maritime cults
Threat: Represents the corruption of humanity through hybridization and the loss of surface world dominance
Ithaqua - The Wind-Walker
Domain: Cold, wind, and the Arctic wilderness
Manifestation: A giant humanoid figure composed of wind and ice
Location: The northern forests and the Arctic, particularly during blizzards and extreme weather
Cult activities: Isolated trading posts and logging camps, Arctic expeditions gone wrong
Origin: Created by August Derleth, drawing on Algernon Blackwood's story "The Wendigo"
Methods: Snatches victims into the sky, carrying them across vast distances before dropping them or transforming them
Yig - The Father of Serpents
Domain: Snakes, reptiles, and prehistoric knowledge
Manifestation: Usually appears as an enormous serpent or through snake-human hybrids
Location: The American plains and Southwest; "The Curse of Yig" (Lovecraft with Zealia Bishop) is set in Oklahoma
Cult activities: Rural folk who fear and appease the snake-god, serpent-people remnants, herpetological research
Curse: Takes terrible vengeance on those who harm his children, the snakes - in Lovecraft's tale the curse brings madness and a monstrous birth
Servitor Races and Other Beings
Between the cosmic entities and humanity exist various races of beings. Some serve the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods, some were created as servants, and others, such as the Mi-Go and the Great Race of Yith, pursue their own alien goals with little regard for any god or for us.
Major Servitor Races
Deep Ones
Appearance: Amphibious humanoids with fish and frog-like features, webbed hands and feet, bulging eyes
Origin: Ancient sea-dwellers who serve Father Dagon, Mother Hydra and great Cthulhu
Relationship to humanity: Seeks to interbreed with humans, creating hybrid offspring that eventually transform fully into Deep Ones
The Deep One Hybrid Transformation
This is one of the most insidious threats in the Mythos - the gradual transformation of a hybrid over a lifetime, as described in "The Shadow over Innsmouth":
- Childhood: Appears fully human
- Adulthood: The "Innsmouth look" creeps in - narrow head, flat nose, bulging unblinking eyes, rough and scabby skin, creases at the neck
- Later life: The change speeds up at different ages for different people; the worst-affected hide indoors
- Full Transformation: The hybrid takes to the sea and joins the Deep Ones beneath the waves
Horror element: Investigators might discover they have Deep One ancestry and face an inevitable transformation
Locations: Underwater cities worldwide, most famously connected to Innsmouth
Abilities: Never die of old age (only violence kills them), at home in the deep sea, strong and numerous
Mi-Go (The Fungi from Yuggoth)
Appearance: Pinkish, crustacean-like beings with fungoid flesh, membranous wings, several pairs of jointed limbs and a convoluted, ellipsoid head; they fly through space on their wings
Origin: Extraterrestrial race with an outpost on Yuggoth, a planet at the rim of the solar system that Lovecraft's story links to the newly found Pluto; highly advanced scientifically
Relationship to humanity: View humans as interesting specimens for experimentation and study
Mi-Go Activities on Earth
- Mining operations: Extract rare minerals needed for their technology
- Scientific research: Study human biology and consciousness
- Brain extraction: Can remove human brains and keep them alive in cylinders for transport
- Infiltration: Work through human agents, and are masters of deception, faking letters and even voices, as in "The Whisperer in Darkness"
Unique horror: The Mi-Go represent the fear of scientific advancement without ethics, treating humans as laboratory subjects
Locations: Remote mountain regions such as the Vermont hills, underground installations, temporary bases
Technology: Advanced beyond human understanding, including space travel and consciousness transfer
Shoggoths
Appearance: Massive, amorphous masses of black, bubbling protoplasm, with eyes forming and unforming on their surface
Origin: Artificially created by the Elder Things as multipurpose servants and laborers
Current status: Most of their creators are dead, leaving Shoggoths largely uncontrolled
The Shoggoth Rebellion
One of the most terrifying aspects of Shoggoths is their gradual development of intelligence and independence:
- Original purpose: Mindless tools capable of forming any needed shape or structure
- Gradual awakening: Over eons, developed basic consciousness and resentment
- The rebellion: Eventually turned against their Elder Thing creators
- Current threat: Survivors still lurk in the ruins and the deep places, and some cults and sorcerers try to bind them
Metaphor: Represents the fear of created beings surpassing and turning against their creators
Abilities: Can form any limb or organ it needs, crushing strength, regeneration, and mimicry of its old masters' piping cry, "Tekeli-li"
Locations: Antarctic ruins, deep ocean trenches, underground caverns
Ghouls
Appearance: Humanoid but elongated and monstrous, with canine features and rubbery skin
Origin: A race of their own, but humans who feed on the dead can slowly become ghouls
Society: Live in underground communities, often beneath cemeteries and cities
Ghoul Communities
- Location: Extensive tunnel systems beneath major cities
- Diet: Primarily corpses, but will kill for fresh meat when necessary
- Intelligence: Retain human-level intelligence but with alien priorities
- Changelings: Ghouls are said to swap their young for human babies, as in "Pickman's Model"
Investigation hook: Characters might discover that missing persons are being taken underground for transformation
Relationship to surface world: Generally avoid humans but sometimes recruit or transform individuals
Special note: Some ghouls maintain enough humanity to be potential allies; in "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" the painter Pickman, now a ghoul, helps Randolph Carter
Forbidden Knowledge: The Tomes of Truth
Knowledge in the Mythos is not neutral - it is alive, infectious, and dangerous. The great tomes of Mythos lore are not simply books containing information; they are repositories of cosmic truth so alien and terrible that human minds cannot process them without fundamental alteration. Reading these books is like staring directly into the face of an incomprehensible universe.
The Great Grimoires
The Necronomicon
Author: Abdul Alhazred (the Mad Arab)
Original title: "Al Azif" (referring to the sound made by insects at night, believed to be the howling of demons)
History: Written in Damascus around 730 CE, translated into Greek as "Necronomicon" in 950 CE, and into Latin by Olaus Wormius in 1228
Game Effects of Reading
- Sanity Loss: Severe; the Keeper Rulebook gives each version of the tome its own figures
- Mythos Knowledge Gain: One of the largest Cthulhu Mythos gains of any tome; full study takes many weeks
- Spell Access: Contains numerous spells for summoning and binding entities
- Special Knowledge: Detailed information about Great Old Ones and their servants
⚠️ Reading Warning: Every point of Cthulhu Mythos gained lowers the reader's maximum Sanity (99 minus Cthulhu Mythos), so deep understanding leaves less room to stay sane
Notable Contents
- The genealogy of the Great Old Ones
- Rituals for contacting Outer Gods
- Maps of other dimensions and hidden locations
- The prophecy of Cthulhu's return
- Instructions for creating protective wards
De Vermis Mysteriis (Mysteries of the Worm)
Author: Ludwig Prinn
Written: By Prinn, who was executed for sorcery in Brussels; the book appeared in Cologne in 1542. Robert Bloch invented it in the 1930s
Focus: Sorcery, familiars and summonings, and lore Prinn claimed to have gathered in the Near East
Specialized Knowledge
- The "Saracenic Rituals" chapter on Egyptian and Arab sorcery
- Familiars, invisible servitors and how to call them
- Necromantic rituals and communication with the dead
- A spell that summons an invisible horror from the stars, as Bloch's "The Shambler from the Stars" shows to fatal effect
The King in Yellow
Nature: A play rather than a scholarly work
Danger: The first act seems harmless; reading the second act brings madness or doom
Content: A two-act play from Robert W. Chambers's stories, set in lost Carcosa
⚠️ EXTREME CAUTION REQUIRED
Unlike other tomes, "The King in Yellow" is designed to be psychologically contagious. Even partial reading can trigger obsessive behavior, hallucinations, and the compulsion to stage the play or share it with others.
- First Act: Appears to be a normal, if strange, play
- Second Act: Reveals truths about Hastur and Carcosa that shatter sanity
- Performance: In many games, staging the play draws the attention of Hastur himself
The Pnakotic Manuscripts
Origin: Pre-human; often linked to Pnakotus, the city of the Great Race of Yith
Age: Unthinkably old - said to predate humanity
Content: Earth's true history from a non-human perspective
Unique Perspectives
- The rise and fall of pre-human civilizations
- The war between the Elder Things and the Star-spawn
- Detailed timelines of cosmic cycles and returnings
- Maps of ancient cities and hidden locations
- Prophecies written from outside linear time
Places of Power: Mythos Locations
Certain locations on Earth (and beyond) serve as focal points for Mythos activity. These places are where the barriers between dimensions are thin, where ancient entities once ruled, or where cosmic forces have left permanent marks on reality.
Sunken Cities
R'lyeh - Cthulhu's Tomb-City
Location: South Pacific Ocean; in Lovecraft's story, the sailor Johansen's account places it near 47°9' S, 126°43' W
Description: A city of impossible geometry that rises above the waves when "the stars are right"
Danger: Even approaching R'lyeh can drive sailors mad; landing on it during its emergences can result in direct contact with Cthulhu
Architecture: Non-Euclidean structures that hurt to perceive, built of vast, greenish stone blocks whose angles seem to shift
Y'ha-nthlei - Deep One City
Location: Beneath the waters beyond Devil Reef, off Innsmouth, Massachusetts
Description: Underwater metropolis of the Deep Ones, connected to the surface through underwater tunnels
Significance: Center of Deep One operations on the East Coast, where human-Deep One hybrids are taken for their final transformation
Cursed Towns
Innsmouth, Massachusetts
Surface appearance: Decaying New England fishing town
Hidden reality: Community largely composed of Deep One hybrids
History: Made a pact with the Deep Ones in the 1840s for fishing prosperity in exchange for interbreeding
Current status: Raided by federal agents in the winter of 1927-28; the government keeps the details quiet
Visiting Innsmouth:
- Local inhabitants have distinctive "Innsmouth look" - bulging eyes, rough, scabby skin
- Whole streets stand empty and rotting; the old Masonic Hall now houses the Esoteric Order of Dagon
- Strange jewelry featuring deep-sea motifs is common
- Visitors are watched carefully and may be followed
Dunwich, Massachusetts
Character: Isolated rural community in decline
Significance: Site of the Whateley family's attempts to summon Yog-Sothoth
Features: Ancient stone circles, the destroyed Whateley farmstead, and areas of persistent supernatural activity
Ongoing threats: Remnants of dimensional rifts, occasional creature sightings, corrupted local folklore
Ancient Ruins
The Nameless City
Location: Arabian Peninsula, hidden in the desert
Age: Predates human civilization by millions of years
Original inhabitants: Reptilian beings whose history is painted on the walls of its tunnels
Current status: Ruins where the spectral builders still seem to stir, and where Abdul Alhazred is said to have dreamed his famous couplet
Dangers: Extreme heat, structural collapse, supernatural guardians, and madness-inducing hieroglyphs
The Antarctic City
Builders: The Elder Things (also called Old Ones)
Discovery: Found by the Miskatonic University Antarctic Expedition of 1930-31, in "At the Mountains of Madness"
Contents: Vast laboratory complexes, murals depicting Earth's true history, and surviving Shoggoths
Significance: Reveals that humanity is neither the first nor most important intelligent species on Earth
Using the Mythos in Your Game
The Cthulhu Mythos is a toolkit, not a rigid canon. Different Keepers emphasize different aspects depending on their group's preferences and the themes they want to explore. The key is maintaining the sense of cosmic insignificance and incomprehensible threat while still creating engaging gameplay.
Principles for Mythos Integration
Less is More
The most effective Mythos encounters hint at vast cosmic horror rather than fully revealing it. A glimpse of Cthulhu's tentacle is more terrifying than a detailed battle with the entity himself.
Build Gradually
Start with mundane mysteries that slowly reveal supernatural elements. This mirrors the investigators' own journey from skepticism to horrified belief.
Investigation progression:
- Missing person case
- Strange witness accounts
- Historical patterns
- Supernatural evidence
- Mythos revelation
Make Knowledge Dangerous
Every piece of Mythos knowledge should come with a cost. Characters become more capable of understanding and fighting cosmic threats, but less capable of maintaining their humanity.
Ways knowledge becomes dangerous:
- Sanity loss from learning terrible truths
- Attracting unwanted attention from entities
- Becoming unable to relate to normal people
- Developing obsessive, self-destructive research habits
Maintain Human Scale
Even when dealing with cosmic entities, focus on human-scale consequences. How does the threat of Cthulhu's return affect specific individuals and communities?
Human-scale impacts:
- Families torn apart by cult recruitment
- Communities corrupted by supernatural influence
- Individuals struggling with inherited curses or transformations
- The personal cost of fighting incomprehensible enemies
Try It at the Table
✅ Activity One: Entity Encounter Design
Design an encounter with a Mythos entity that emphasizes horror over combat:
Entity: A lone Deep One that has come ashore
Setting: Small coastal town during a storm
Goal: Create fear and investigation opportunities without direct combat
Consider: How do the investigators first become aware of it? What evidence does it leave? How can they deal with it without fighting?
✅ Activity Two: Forbidden Knowledge Integration
Plan how a character might discover Mythos knowledge through their profession:
Character: Dr. Sarah Mitchell, marine biologist
Discovery method: Deep sea research expedition
Challenge: How does she gradually realize what she's found?
Design progression: What does she find first? How does each discovery lead to the next? What's the final revelation?
✅ Activity Three: Location Development
Create a Mythos location that could serve as a campaign centerpiece:
Base concept: An old mansion with a dark history
Mythos connection: Previous owner was a scholar of forbidden knowledge
Current status: Recently inherited by an investigator
Develop: What's hidden in the house? What ongoing threats exist? How does the location evolve as investigators explore it?
✅ Activity Four: Cult Design
Design a modern cult that serves a Mythos entity:
Entity served: Hastur (The King in Yellow)
Modern context: Art gallery and theater community
Recruitment method: Through "exclusive" performances and art showings
Questions to answer: How do they identify potential recruits? What do new members experience? What's their ultimate goal?
Themes and Philosophical Implications
Cosmic Insignificance
The central theme of the Mythos is that humanity occupies no special place in the universe. We are not the crown of creation, but an accidental byproduct in a reality governed by forces that neither know nor care about our existence.
The Danger of Knowledge
Unlike most fictional universes where knowledge is power and understanding brings triumph, the Mythos presents a reality where some truths are too terrible for human minds to process safely. Curiosity becomes a tragic flaw rather than a virtue.
The Illusion of Progress
Scientific and social progress, viewed from a Mythos perspective, are temporary illusions. Human civilization is a brief flicker between cosmic ages when other beings ruled the Earth and will rule it again.
Transformation and Loss of Humanity
Many Mythos threats don't simply kill - they transform victims into something no longer human. This represents the fear of losing not just life, but identity and connection to the human community.
The Mythos and Modern Anxieties
Scientific Discovery
The Mythos reflects real anxieties about scientific advancement revealing uncomfortable truths about human nature and our place in the universe. From evolutionary theory to quantum physics, science has repeatedly challenged human-centered worldviews.
Environmental Concerns
Themes of ancient powers stirring beneath the earth and in the oceans resonate with modern environmental anxieties about awakening forces beyond human control.
Globalization and Cultural Change
The fear of transformation and loss of human identity reflects anxieties about rapid cultural change and the erosion of traditional identities in a connected world.
Information Overload
The concept of dangerous knowledge takes on new relevance in an age where access to information can be overwhelming and where some knowledge (about violence, conspiracy theories, etc.) can indeed be psychologically harmful.
Embracing the Cosmic Perspective
The Cthulhu Mythos offers both horror and strange comfort. Yes, it suggests that humanity is insignificant in cosmic terms and that terrible entities exist beyond our understanding. But it also provides a framework for confronting the genuinely frightening aspects of existence - meaninglessness, mortality, and the limits of human knowledge - in a fictional context where brave individuals can still make meaningful choices.
The investigators in Call of Cthulhu may not be able to save the world or defeat cosmic entities, but they can protect individuals, preserve knowledge for future generations, and maintain their humanity in the face of inhuman truths. Sometimes, that's enough.
Remember: the Mythos is vast and unknowable, but you don't need to understand all of it to tell compelling stories within it. Start small, build gradually, and always keep the focus on how cosmic horror affects the people at your gaming table.
"We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far." - H. P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"