Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia Page 11

  (“The Incantation of the Elder Sign”, Carter, Derleth, and Schorer; “The Passing of Eric Holm”, Derleth (O); “Something from Out There”, Derleth; “The Horror from the Depths”, Derleth and Schorer; “Fischbuchs”, Ross; “The Mythos Collector”, Sammons.)

  COPELAND, HAROLD HADLEY (c. 1860-May 15, 1926). Leading anthropological authority on Pacific cultures, as well as co-founder and president of the Pacific Area Archaeological Association. Copeland studied at Cambridge and graduated from Miskatonic University in 1881. He traveled extensively in Asia during the 1890s, and his travelogues gained a small measure of popularity. Copeland’s first scholarly work, Prehistory in the Pacific: A Preliminary Investigation with References to the Myth-Patterns of Southeast Asia, established his reputation in the field of anthropology when it was published in 1902.

  In 1906 Copeland completed his second volume, Polynesian Mythology, with a Note on the Cthulhu Legend-Cycle. Even here, Copeland’s material remains on solid scientific ground, but this book also shows the first signs of what was to become an obsession with obscure myth-cycles, manifested even more strongly in his translation of the Ponape Scripture (1907).

  Copeland’s preoccupation with lost civilizations came to the fore in his next two works, The Ponape Figurine (1910) and The Prehistoric Pacific in Light of the ‘Ponape Scripture’ (1911). The former dealt with a mysterious statuette the Professor had come across in his travels, while in the latter he asserted that the continent of Mu, which occultists believe to lie sunken beneath the Pacific, had actually existed. To support his hypothesis, Copeland cited the colossal stone ruins found on many Pacific islands, the similar myth-patterns of the widely-scattered people of the region, and the Ponape Scripture, a work discovered on the isle of Ponape in 1734 by Captain Abner Ezekiel Hoag. The Prehistoric Pacific was derided in the scientific community, and Copeland was forced to step down from the presidency of the Pacific Area Archaeological Association.

  In 1913, Copeland, accompanied by his colleague Ellington, set off for the mountains beyond the Plateau of Tsang in central Asia. The Copeland-Ellington expedition met with disaster; Ellington died in the first few days, most of the group’s bearers perished or deserted, and Copeland was not heard from until three months later. When he was discovered in Mongolia, he raved about the things he had seen and carried ten stone tablets that he vowed had been inscribed with the words of the Muvian high priest Zanthu. Three years later, he released the Zanthu Tablets: A Conjectural Translation. Shortly after its release Copeland was confined to a San Francisco sanitarium, where he later slit his throat. He left his estate, including all his notes and a sizable collection of Polynesian artifacts, to the Sanbourne Institute of Pacific Antiquities.

  See Blaine, Henry; Hodgkins, Arthur; Lesser Old Ones; Polynesian Mythology …; Ponape Figurine; Ponape Scripture; Prehistoric Pacific in Light of the “Ponape Scripture”; Prehistory in the Pacific; R’lyeh Text; Sanbourne Institute; Tsang; Yuggya Chants; Zanthu Tablets. (“The Dweller in the Tomb”, Carter (O); “Out of the Ages”, Carter; “Zoth-Ommog”, Carter; A Resection of Time, Johnson; Ex Libris Miskatonici, Stanley.)

  CORDELIA. Possible character in the play The King in Yellow. Some accounts of the play give her a prominent role, while others do not mention her at all.

  (“In Memoriam”, Johnson and Price; “Cordelia’s Song from the King in Yellow”, Starrett (O).)

  CORSI, BARTOLOMEO (c. 1176–c. 1274). Florentine monk of the Franciscan Order who lived during the twelfth century. During a bout of insanity following a Yithian mind transfer, Corsi was imprisoned by the local authorities, who believed him to be supporting the Holy Roman Emperors. Having received a message from an eastern envoy calling for leniency for Corso, Pope Innocent IV freed and exiled him to the isle of Stromboli. Corsi returned to Florence in 1266, where he wrote the Harmaticon, a book which displayed his unorthodox views on the nature of sin. It is possible that he might have met the young Dante Alighieri while there, as some portions of the Inferno bear some resemblance to what is known of the Harmaticon.

  (“The Shadow out of Time”, Lovecraft (O); Other Nations, Marsh and Marsh.)

  CRAWLING CHAOS. See Nyarlathotep.

  CREGOIVACAR. See Stregoicavar.

  CROM-YA. Cimmerian chief who lived seventeen thousand years ago and worshiped Tsathoggua. He may have become the Cimmerian god Crom.

  [“Crom-Ya” may be a reference to Robert E. Howard’s “Crom”, an indifferent god of the mountain revered by Conan. The name Crom is derived from Crom Cruach, “The Lord of the Mound”, a Celtic god to whom human sacrifices were reputedly made.]

  (“The Shadow out of Time”, Lovecraft (O); The Sussex Manuscript, Pelton.)

  CROW, TITUS (1916-1969?). British occultist and psychic who dedicated his life to the study of the paranormal, especially the Cthulhu Mythos.

  Titus Crow was born on December 2, 1916, into a well-to-do London family. He inherited his love of learning from his father, an archaeologist of some note, and attended the University of Edinburgh. He seems to have been well-known enough, even at an early age, that the young Henri-Laurent de Marigny was sent to England by his father with only a letter of introduction to Crow.

  During World War II, the War Department hired Crow as an adviser on the occult and the Third Reich, and asked for his help in breaking the German military’s codes. After the war, the occultist Julian Carstairs employed Crow as his private secretary for a brief while. Though Carstairs would vanish shortly thereafter, he was nonetheless impressed enough with the young Crow to leave most of his estate to him.

  Using these funds, Titus Crow purchased a country estate, Blowne Manor, and began his probing into the occult in earnest along with de Marigny. The two of them investigated the runestone of Ragnar Gory-Axe, the death of the industrialist Sturm Magruser, and the whereabouts of a certain Transylvanian nobleman. He became one of the country’s greatest occultists and the possessor of a noteworthy occult library. In his last years, Crow joined Miskatonic University’s Wilmarth Foundation in their assault upon the Great Old Ones, and for a brief while became the head of the Foundation’s British operations.

  Crow’s life came to an end when occult forces destroyed Blowne Manor on October 4, 1969, though some reports suggest otherwise. Interested readers should turn to Dr. Ryan Millbue’s Titus Crow: A Memoriam.

  See Cthaat Aquadingen; Cultes des Goules; Davies, Chandler; Frontier Garrison; Geph Transcriptions; G’harne Fragments; Legends of the Olden Runes; Marigny, Henri-Laurent; Tiania; time-clock; Yian-Ho. (“Titus Crow: A Sketch of His Life”, Harris; “Billy’s Oak”, Lumley (O); The Burrowers Beneath, Lumley; “Inception”, Lumley; “The Lord of the Worms”, Lumley; “Name and Number”, Lumley; “Titus Crow vs. Dracula”, Lumley; “The Viking’s Stone”, Lumley; Miskatonic University Graduate Kit, Petersen and Willis.)

  CRYSTAL OF CHAOS. See Shining Trapezohedron.

  CRYSTALLIZER OF DREAMS. Yellow egg-shaped item which periodically emits a whistling noise. The Revelations of Glaaki states that the Crystallizer can be used to view far-off places (such as the world of Tond) in dreams, as well as allowing its possessor to perceive higher dimensions. According to some, the Crystallizer allows its user to bring items or creatures back from the Dreamlands to the waking world for a brief while. The user must always be cautious to avoid the Crystallizer’s guardian, a creature like a translucent jellyfish that is a servant of Hypnos.

  See Revelations of Glaaki; Tond. (“Mysterious Manuscripts”, Aniolowski et. al.; “The Inhabitant of the Lake”, Campbell (O); “The Render of the Veils”, Campbell; H. P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands, Petersen et. al.)

  CTHAAT AQUADINGEN. Mythos tome by an unknown early medieval author. The origin of the word “Cthaat” is unknown; it might be a reference to the Kthatans, who predate the speakers of Naacal, or to a god of darkness and water not noted elsewhere than this book. “Aquadingen” is a mixture of German and Latin meaning “things of the water.”

  The book’s history has
been a matter of considerable controversy. Some say that the Cthaat Aquadingen is only one in a series of similar books of forbidden lore collected in Northern Europe around the year 400, as the manuscripts found within this volume bear great resemblance to those in the other volumes (see Codex Dagonensis for more on this matter). A few state that the book was originally a German text, while others maintain that the first copies were a mixture of Gothic and R’lyehian. The more recent copies of this book are in English, and at least one Hindi copy has turned up. The author Edward Roberts is purported to have issued Cthaat Aquadingen: A Translation, though few references to that volume have been found.

  Only five copies of the Cthaat Aquadingen exist (supposedly). The British occultist Titus Crow owned one of these, bound in human skin and with two of the most sensitive chapters bound separately. This one was probably destroyed when wind-demons demolished Crow’s home in 1969. The British Museum has repeatedly denied possessing any copy of this work, though it has been suggested that the restricted collections hold one in secrecy. One copied manuscript and partial translation is kept at Oakdeene Sanitarium in England, and the Great Library of the Dreamland possesses this book as well.

  The Cthaat Aquadingen holds information about Yibb-Tstll, as well as the Small Crawler aspect of Nyarlathotep. It also contains certain Tsathogguan rituals, the Sixth Sathlatta, a spell to dismiss Bugg-Shash, and information on the Barrier of Naach-Tith. One of the rites within claims to bring immortality, so long as the caster consumes the flesh of the dead and their own body. As its title implies, though, the Cthaat Aquadingen is mainly focussed on myths dealing with water spirits, and various spells used in their invocation.

  See Barrier of Naach-Tith; the Black; Codex Dagonensis; Codex Maleficium; Codex Spitalski, Feery, Joachim; Hoy-Dhin; Mad Berkley’s Book; Notes on the Cthaat Aquadingen; Nyarlathotep (Small Crawler); Nyhargo Dirge; Sathlattae; Sixth Sathlatta; Spellman, Martin. (“The Plague of St. James Infirmary”, Asamatsu; Masks of Nyarlathotep, DiTillio and Willis; “The Curse of the Toad”, Hall and Dale; Keeper’s Compendium, Herber; “Ulthar and Beyond”, Herber; “Billy’s Oak”, Lumley; The Burrowers Beneath, Lumley; “The Cyprus Shell”, Lumley (O); “The Horror at Oakdeene”, Lumley; “The House of the Temple”, Lumley; “The Kiss of Bugg-Shash”, Lumley; “The Return of the Deep Ones”, Lumley.)

  CTHONIANS (or CHTHONIANS). Race of subterranean burrowers resembling short-tentacled, eyeless squids, which are led by a gigantic member of their species named Shudde-M’ell. These beings were imprisoned near the African city of G’harne, but escaped their bondage and spread throughout the world by tunneling through the earth’s crust. The cthonians move by burrowing through rock, using a process that seems to melt the stone through which they travel. By use of a similar ability, the cthonians may create earthquakes and subsidences wherever they desire. In fact, the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 has been credited to this species.

  The cthonians possess amazing telepathic powers. Not only are they able to communicate with each other (and psychically sensitive members of other species) telepathically, they can also overpower a person’s will to chain him or her to one place or confuse his or her senses. Fortunately, the cthonians only use the latter ability when they or their young are threatened, or sometimes against those who have made themselves nuisances to the species.

  The life cycle of cthonians is quite lengthy. A female only lays a few eggs at a time. As a consequence of this, cthonians are quite protective of their eggs (which appear to be spherical mineral formations) and young, and will go to great lengths to rescue them if they are removed from their nests.

  Cthonians are vulnerable to very few substances. High-powered explosives only hurt them slightly, and due to their tunneling activities, extremes of temperature do not affect them. On the other hand, the Tikkoun Elixir, the ankh, the Vach-Viraj chant, and especially the Elder Sign, can be of some use against these beings. Radiation or immmersion in water can also cause serious damage to cthonians. Cthonians are quite intelligent, however, and unlikely to put themselves into a position where they might be in danger. Their telepathic contact with each other makes it unlikely that any strategy will work twice.

  The cthonians are not known for their technology, though some believe that curious devices on the ocean’s floor might have belonged to them at one time.

  See Elder Sign; G’harne; Kagwamon K’thaat; Lesser Old Ones; Marigny, Henri-Laurent; Shudde-M’ell; Tikkoun elixir; Vach-Viraj chant; Wilmarth Foundation. (“The Statue of the Sorcerer”, Edwards and Eliot; The Burrowers Beneath, Lumley; “Cement Surroundings”, Lumley (O); “The Jennifer Morgue”, Stross.)

  CTHONIC REVELATIONS. See Chthonic Revelations.

  CTHUGHA. Great Old One who takes the form of a huge airborne conflagration. Cthugha was the first of the Great Old Ones to come to the earth, which was still molten at the time. As the planet cooled, Cthugha and his children retreated beneath the surface until the Elder Gods expelled him. Cthugha now dwells in a small star called Korvaz near Fomalhaut, though a possible gate to his home may exist in a palace within a volcano in an alternate reality.

  Cthugha has been classified as a fire-elemental, in his case an appropriate label. Some say Cthugha participated in a war between the Great Old Ones and Elder Gods, during which he was irradiated and became permanently insane. Enmity exists between Cthugha and Nyarlathotep.

  The priests of Stygia revered Cthugha, and his worship later became entwined with that of the Carthaginian gods Melkart and Moloch. The most famous cult dedicated to Cthugha was that of Nestar Mobedan Mobed, a Zoroastrian prophet who lived during the sixth century. Cthugha is usually served only by his attendant fire-vampires, and beings called the “Jinni” which may or may not be the same as the former.

  If a person wishes to summon Cthugha, the following chant must be repeated three times when Fomalhaut is over the horizon:

  Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthugha Fomalhaut n’gha-ghaa naf’l thagn! Iä! Cthugha!

  Some sources hold that the caller should have a fire nearby as well, though this is not always the case. Those who would summon Cthugha should be cautious; the calling up of one of his servitors alone is believed to have caused the Great Fire of London in 1666, and those unable to dismiss the Great Old One may find themselves unpleasantly surprised. The Tunguska explosion has been attributed to Cthugha, though others argue Azathoth was responsible.

  See Aphoom Zhah; elemental theory; fire vampires; Fthaggua; Letters of Nestar; Nestar Mobedan Mobed; Nyarlathotep; Yamath; Yomagn’tho; Zegrembi Manuscript. (“This Fire Shall Kill”, Bishop; “The Dweller in Darkness”, Derleth; “The House on Curwen Street”, Derleth (O); “The Black Mirror”, Glasby; “The Nameless Tower”, Glasby; Elysia, Lumley; Call of Cthulhu Rulebook, 5th edition, Petersen and Willis; “To What Green Altar”, Sunseri; “The Pillars of Melkarth”, Tierney; Deities and Demigods Cyclopedia, Ward with Kuntz.)

  CTHULHI. See Mu, star-spawn of Cthulhu.

  CTHULHU (also KUTULU or KTHULHUT or THU THU or TULU). Great Old One resembling a bat-winged, clawed, octopus-headed humanoid. Cthulhu sleeps in a deathlike trance beneath the Pacific Ocean, but he will one day awaken to rule the world.

  Records of Cthulhu’s origins are fragmentary, but it seems that he originated on the world of Vhoorl in the twenty-third nebula. He later traveled to the green double star of Xoth, where he mated with a creature named Idh-yaa to produce the Great Old Ones Ghatanothoa, Ythogtha, and Zoth-Ommog. From here, Cthulhu, his children, and a species known as the star-spawn flew to Saturn, descending to Earth from there.

  Upon their arrival, Cthulhu and his retinue took up residence on a continent in the Pacific Ocean, on which they built the great stone city of R’lyeh. At first, Cthulhu’s spawn encountered resistance from the Elder Things, who had dwelt on the earth for millions of years before Cthulhu’s coming. Following a war in which Cthulhu’s spawn destroyed all of the Elder Things’ land cities, the two species declared peace and agreed not to interfere with eac
h other. Following this arrangement, Cthulhu enjoyed many years of freedom on this world, but soon he fell into a period of deep hibernation.

  During these millions of years, humanity slowly evolved. According to later doctrine, Cthulhu spoke to these new beings in their dreams, telling them where to find the statues in his image he had brought down from the stars and instructing them in the proper worship of the lord of R’lyeh. In this way, the cult of Cthulhu began.

  One day, disaster struck black R’lyeh. It may have been the vengeance of unknown deities, changes in the stars, or the moon being ripped from the earth (though evidence suggests that Cthulhu’s followers might have had a hand in this). The time of this catastrophe is also uncertain; according to cult doctrine, this happened after the founding of his first cults, but others suggest that it occurred long before humanity’s rise. No matter the cause or time, the city of R’lyeh sank beneath the Pacific Ocean, trapping Cthulhu and all of his spawn. The water blocked most of their telepathic signals, cutting off all contact with their worshipers except through occasional dreams. Cthulhu was helpless to do anything but wait until the stars came right, when he would be freed from his prison.

  Since then, Cthulhu’s tomb has emerged from the water from time to time, freeing Cthulhu for a brief while. These have only been short respites for the Great Old One, for each R’lyeh has sunk back beneath the sea after a few days or weeks. A day will come, however, when the black city will not return to the sea floor. Cthulhu will then raven and slay across the world, ushering in a new age.

  The pioneering work of Professor Angell and his successors has given us much information about this secretive organization. Cthulhu’s cults are quite widespread; traces of his worship have appeared in Haiti, Louisiana, the South Pacific, Mexico, Arabia, Siberia, K’n-yan, and Greenland. The deathless priests who lead the cult live somewhere in the mountains of China, but the cult’s true center is or was located somewhere in the Arabian desert near Irem. For the most part, this cult has remained secret, but the Hawaiian islanders still tell legends of Kana-loa, the evil squid-god who was imprisoned in the underworld. Cthulhu’s rites are often performed near the ocean or a large body of water, and Halloween is considered to be one of his high holy days.