The Gods and Their Followers

[Croft]

Hello to any and all, I'm hoping maybe some people can help me with this, please.

As the title suggests, I would simply like to know what creatures and beings worship/associate/belong to which gods.

I am by no means an expert, but a dear fan of Lovecraft's work and the mythos. I don't exactly have the time to read through every story, but the only correlations I can think of at the moment are Cthulhu and his Star Spawn. Anything close to relation would help as well, like Dagon/Mother Hydra/Deep Ones to Cthulhu. I believe Deep Ones might worship Cthulhu but I could be wrong.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[trystero]

I think it's difficult to establish firm connections, since Lovecraft didn't usually take a systematic approach, but the associations that come to mind for me include:

• "The Whisperer in Darkness" shows the Mi-go associating with (or worshipping?) Nyarlathotep.
• "The Shadow over Innsmouth" states that the Deep Ones worship Cthulhu, and also mentions Mother Hydra and Father Dagon, possibly as ancestor deities (?).
• The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath mentions that the night-gaunts' ruler is Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss, and also notes that Nyarlathotep is the "soul and messenger" of the Other gods which surround Azathoth.
• At the Mountains of Madness mentions Tsathoggua's "formless star spawn", and also the "fabulous prehuman spawn of Cthulhu" ("a land race of beings shaped like octopi").

I'm sure I'm missing some, but that's a start.

[Croft]

Thanks trystero! Definitely helps. I've been working on a little project, and the more I can find the better. 

I realize this may actually be sort of difficult, as the creatures are mostly written non-specific. I guess the next best thing would be general speculation, based on the context of the stories. So, if it looks like one thing might not have a specific god associated with them, I'd love to hear who people think they would likely fall under.

Edited November 4, 2015 by Croft

[Baulderstone]

To some extent, it's risky to put everything in religious terms of worship. There are cults in Lovecraft's story, but there is frequently the sense that some of this stuff is just ignorant cargo cult worship. Reading The Call of Cthulhu I get the sense that Cthulhu is this powerful alien entity, and humans do worship him as a god, but I don't get the sense that he really gives a crap. In The Dunwich Horror, the Whateleys are tapping into some kind of force, but seeing Yog-Sothoth as a god seems just a way to deal with the concept. A lot of the religious nature is just humans projecting a system onto a universe they don't understand. 

Basically, once you have everything in the Lovecraftian Universe carefully organized and understood, it isn't a Lovecraftian universe anymore. That's just my opinion though. I lean towards the approach take in Trail of Cthulhu where every god is is described with a long list of differing and often contradictory theories on what it is. 

[trystero]

Some of the creature/god associations are from non-HPL stories, like the chthonians and Shudde M'ell from Brian Lumley's The Burrowers Beneath, or the fire vampires and Cthugha from August Derleth's "The Dweller in Darkness".

And some creatures are associated only with other creatures, such as the Old Ones (Elder Things) creating the shoggoths, or the conflict between the Great Race of Yith and the flying polyps.

(Oh, and I left out another reference from The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, in which "hunting-horrors" appear to serve Nyarlathotep. They're described as "formless", though, so I'm not sure they're really the same as CoC's Hunting Horrors.)

[Croft]

2 hours ago, Baulderstone said:

To some extent, it's risky to put everything in religious terms of worship. There are cults in Lovecraft's story, but there is frequently the sense that some of this stuff is just ignorant cargo cult worship. Reading The Call of Cthulhu I get the sense that Cthulhu is this powerful alien entity, and humans do worship him as a god, but I don't get the sense that he really gives a crap. In The Dunwich Horror, the Whateleys are tapping into some kind of force, but seeing Yog-Sothoth as a god seems just a way to deal with the concept. A lot of the religious nature is just humans projecting a system onto a universe they don't understand. 

Basically, once you have everything in the Lovecraftian Universe carefully organized and understood, it isn't a Lovecraftian universe anymore. That's just my opinion though. I lean towards the approach take in Trail of Cthulhu where every god is is described with a long list of differing and often contradictory theories on what it is. 

Oh I understand that, I don't mean to take away anything from the important mysteries and vagueness of the mythos by any means. I just want to understand further in the aspects of simple relations between Lovecraftian beings and notable Old Ones, Outer Gods, Elder Gods, etc. Just any examples that join them in the most basic of ways.

2 hours ago, trystero said:

Some of the creature/god associations are from non-HPL stories, like the chthonians and Shudde M'ell from Brian Lumley's The Burrowers Beneath, or the fire vampires and Cthugha from August Derleth's "The Dweller in Darkness".

That's exactly what I mean, yeah. Even if it's non-Lovecraft, just as long as it's part of the major contributors to the mythos, like Howard and Derleth for example.

A Gug for instance; I can't seem to find anything relating it to the gods, other than being native to the Dreamlands. Well the Great Ones rule over the Dreamlands, and Nyarlathotep rules over them, so he's the closest I could just barely associate Gugs with. Byakhee though, apparently serve Hastur or at least are rode by his followers, so I'd definitely be placing them with Hastur.

I'm organizing this in the idea of a game anyways, basically I hope to have at least 4 gods with 3 creatures associated with each. I'd like it to be as accurate to the mythos as possible, because I think a list like this could be useful to more people.

[trystero]

You may want to take a look at Cthulhu Wars...

https://petersengames.com/downloads/

...which similarly organises Great Old Ones and other critters into "factions" for game play. Specifically, the faction listing on p. 6 of the main rulebook gives you the run-down on who's associated with whom in that game. (But note that not all of these associations are canonical by any means.)

[Croft]

Thank ya, I'll definitely look into it. I'm sure it will be useful, but I'd definitely prefer to have some more canonical associations. Of course, this isn't likely with beings like Elder Things for instance, who I assume really have no affiliation with any of the gods.

[Simlasa]

On 11/4/2015, 2:13:05, Croft said:

Byakhee though, apparently serve Hastur or at least are rode by his followers, so I'd definitely be placing them with Hastur.

I've seen that mentioned in the rulebooks, but where does the name 'Byakhee' and their relation to Hastur come from? I seem to recall that the weird creatures in The Festival are considered to be Byakhee but I don't remember that name being used in that story.

[trystero]

12 hours ago, Simlasa said:

I've seen that mentioned in the rulebooks, but where does the name 'Byakhee' and their relation to Hastur come from? I seem to recall that the weird creatures in The Festival are considered to be Byakhee but I don't remember that name being used in that story.

You're correct; the creatures in "The Festival" are not named. Wikipedia says:

Quote

Byakhee appear in Anders Fager's short stories "Miss Witts' great work of art" and "The Queen in Yellow". They are described as huge bat-like birds somehow associated with the city of Carcosa.

I haven't read these stories, but it appears that they're the source of the Hastur linkage: byakhee <-> Carcosa, Carcosa <-> Hastur, therefore byakhee <-> Hastur by the transitive principle.

[Simlasa]

Interesting. I've never heard of Fager.

Like a lot of Mythos nomenclature it seems a bit arbitrary (we must have names and hierarchies!). I do prefer it to be a bit more mysterious than it is sometimes presented in CoC materials.

Edited November 16, 2015 by Simlasa