Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia Read online

  2) Another type of being known as a “Dhol” exists. This creature looks like a black, quadrupedal animal that is able to secrete poison from its body. Usually, a Dhol possesses a living creature, such as a farm animal or even a human, to perform its mission. A Dhol-possessed being becomes extremely hostile, often attacks or kills other creatures for no apparent reason, and might even have a poisoned claw or bite. Whenever it desires, the Dhol moves from one body to another, leaving its former host dead. This sort of Dhol may be connected with the Little People of Welsh legend, and is believed to play a role in their most important ceremonies.

  See Green Book. (The Ceremonies, Klein; “The White People”, Machen (O).)

  D’HORNA-AHN ENERGIES. Energy beings that communicate through humming. The wizards of Mu seem to have used such beings to create spatial pockets to protect the user from the dangers of space travel. This protection has been known to fail at crucial times, however.

  (“The Book of Gates”, Carter; “Something in the Moonlight”, Carter; The Transition of Titus Crow, Lumley (O); Elysia, Lumley.)

  DIE UNAUSSPRECHLICHEN KULTEN. See Unaussprechlichen Kulten.

  DIMENSIONAL SHAMBLERS. Humanoid creatures with wrinkled hides and huge claws. Shamblers live in the same alternate dimension in which Yog-Sothoth dwells. Wizards often summon them to earth using a ritual that requires a dagger of pure metal, but shamblers occasionally appear spontaneously in our dimension. When shamblers encounter humans, they usually grab a victim and vanish with them. Little meaningful interaction with this species has occurred.

  (“The Horror in the Museum”, Lovecraft and Heald (O); Call of Cthulhu Rulebook, 5th edition, Petersen and Willis; S. Petersen’s Field Guide to Cthulhu Monsters, Petersen et. al.)

  DIRKA. Family who protected the mystical work The Song of Yste down through the ages. The “Dirka song” is a spell that causes the death of a person in an unspecified manner.

  See Song of Yste. (“The Abyss”, Lowndes; Annals of Arkya, Lowndes (O).)

  DOELS. Flesh-eating creatures living in a dark dimension that only mystical voyagers may visit. Often confused with dholes (which see).

  (“The Hounds of Tindalos”, Long (O); H. P. Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Nightside, Long.)

  DOLS. See dholes.

  DREAMLANDS. Alternate dimension accessible through a person’s dreams. Earlier in life, most people can enter the Dreamlands at will, but as adulthood approaches, this gateway closes for the majority of these dreamers. Only a few adults have been able to enter this land again, through the use of certain narcotics or simply by searching their dreams. Some physical portals between the Dreamlands and the waking world do exist, but these gateways are few and often found in dangerous locales in both realms.

  A journey to the Dreamlands typically begins with the dreamer descending the Seventy Steps of Light Slumber to the Cavern of Flame, where they will meet the high priests Nasht and Kaman-Tha. If the two priests find the dreamer worthy, they may then continue down the Seven Hundred Steps of Deeper Slumber to the Enchanted Wood. After avoiding the dangers of this wood, the dreamer is free to roam the lands of dream.

  Waking-worlders are the Dreamlands’ greatest heroes. These individuals may create entire cities in their dreams, and many take up residence in the Dreamlands following their deaths in the waking world. This dimension’s most famous individuals include King Kuranes, who dreamt of the timeless city of Celephaïs; Etienne-Laurent de Marigny, the New Orleans mystic; and Randolph Carter, whose quest to the home of the gods on unknown Kadath is one of the Dreamlands’ greatest legends.

  Usually, the name “Dreamlands” is only applied to that dimension visited by humans, but other dreamlands do exist. Such worlds as Saturn, Jupiter, and Pluto have their dream-reflections as well, which are visited by the respective denizens of those bodies. Persistent dreamers may reach these lands from Earth’s Dreamlands, but such visits may prove quite dangerous to the unprepared traveler.

  The influence of Cthulhu and the other Great Old Ones in the Dreamlands is minimal, though these beings do possess some power over this realm. Out of all the Mythos, Nyarlathotep holds the most power in this land. The main deities of the Dreamlands are the gods of earth, or the Great Ones, who are weak beings that mortals may overcome or outwit, yet who do take part in mortal affairs on rare occasions. These gods used to dance on the highest peaks of the Dreamlands, but as humans began to climb their beloved mountains, they withdrew to their home in Kadath in the Cold Waste, to be ruled by Nyarlathotep. Only Randolph Carter ever ascended Kadath, and his journey was fraught with the greatest perils.

  [Many of Lovecraft’s tales later said to be “Dreamlands” stories, including “The Doom that Came to Sarnath”, were actually set in the distant past and incorporated into the Dreamlands later. Some authors, especially Lumley, have placed locations from these earlier stories in the waking world.]

  See Abhoth; Atal; Baharna; Barzai; Bethmoora; bholes; Bokrug; Carter, Randolph; Cathuria; Celephaïs; Cerenerian Sea; Cold Waste; Crystallizer of Dreams; Cthaat Aquadingen; dholes; Dreamlands; Dylath-Leen; Elder Gods; Elder Sign; Eldin the Wanderer; Elton, Basil; Enchanted Wood; Fourth Book of D’harsis; Ghadamon; ghasts; ghouls; Gleeth; gods of earth; gugs; Hagarg Ryonis; Haon-Dor; Hatheg; Hatheg-Kla; Hero, David; Hlanith; Ilek-Vad; Inganok; Kadath; Kadatheron; Karakal; Kiran; Kled; Koth; Koth, Sign of; Kuranes; Leng; Lerion; Lobon; Lomar; Marigny, Etienne-Laurent; Nasht and Kaman-Tha; Nath-Horthath; Nir; Nithy-Vash; Nodens; N’ste-Kaambl; Nyarlathotep; Oorn; Ooth-Nargai; Oriab; Other Gods; Oukranos; Parg; Pickman, Richard Upton; Phillips, Ward; Pnath; Sarkomand; Sansu; Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan; Seven Hundred Steps of Deeper Slumber; Seventy Steps of Light Slumber; shantaks; Skai; Sona-Nyl; Southern Sea; Tamash; Tanarian Hills; Thok; Thran; Ulthar; vooniths; wamps; Yibb-Tstll; Zo-Kalar. (“Celephaïs”, Lovecraft; “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, Lovecraft; “The Silver Key”, Lovecraft (O); The Clock of Dreams, Lumley; “The House of the Worm”, Myers; “The Three Enchantments”, Myers.)

  DU NORD, GASPARD. Wizard who dwelt in Averoigne, a part of modern-day France, during the thirteenth century. Born of a well-to-do family, du Nord earned his father’s displeasure through his study of the magical arts. For a year, he studied under the sorcerer Nathaire, but he eventually left his master due to the wizard’s repugnant acts. He then took up residence in Vyones, where he continued his experiments. In 1281, Gaspard du Nord rendered Vyones a great service by dispelling one of Nathaire’s mightiest works of sorcery. Having done this, du Nord earned himself immunity from any persecution by the church and was able to live peacefully until his death.

  Gaspard du Nord is best remembered for translating the Book of Eibon from Greek to French later in his life. (Other estimates have placed this translation in the twelfth century or around 1240, but this is impossible from what we know of his age.) No one knows where du Nord obtained the Greek volume or why he decided to translate it, however. Some claim that du Nord was a member of Tsathoggua’s cult, and that he called the dread god twice. The second time, the god foretold the sorcerer’s death.

  See Averoigne; Book of Eibon; Selections de Livre d’Ivon. (Selected Letters V, Lovecraft; Cthulhu Live: Lost Souls, Salmon et. al.; “The Colossus of Ylourgne”, Smith (O); “Ubbo-Sathla”, Smith; Ex Libris Miskatonici, Stanley.)

  DUNWICH. 1) (originally NEW DUNNICH) Town in north central Massachusetts, a few miles east of Aylesbury. Dunwich was founded in 1692 by a group of settlers who left Salem just before the infamous witch-trials, along with former inhabitants of the Merrymount (later Mount Dagon) community. Members of the Whateley family later built a large number of mills in the area, and Dunwich prospered until a tragedy in 1806 caused the mental collapse of George Whateley, the owner of these industries. From that time onward, the Dunwich economy spiralled downward as more people left the area to look for jobs outside town.

  Today, Dunwich is mostly deserted. Over the years, the remaining population has become so inbred and degenerate that during the Fir
st World War, the township was unable to meet its quota of recruits for the draft. Crimes of the most hideous nature occur on a regular basis, though the townspeople attempt to keep outsiders out of their affairs as much as possible. Some branches of the Whateleys and Bishops have remained above the town’s degradation. For the most part, however, the people of Dunwich are uneducated and depraved.

  During the late summer of 1928, a strange calamity occurred which has since been dubbed “the Dunwich Horror”. On August 3, a Dunwich resident named Wilbur Whateley, noted by his neighbors for his magical delvings and unnatural size, was killed while trying to obtain the Necronomicon from the Miskatonic University library. A month later, the horror began in Dunwich. A mysterious blast destroyed Wilbur Whateley’s unoccupied house, and tales of the disappearances of cattle and people began to filter out of the township. When Henry Armitage, Miskatonic University’s librarian and a long-time correspondent of Whateley, heard of what was occurring in Dunwich, he set out for Dunwich along with Professors Rice and Morgan. On September 15, they performed an exorcism on Sentinel Hill, bringing the horror to an end. Following these events, all of the signs to Dunwich were torn down, and the town was nearly forgotten.

  Although the scenery in the surrounding countryside is breathtaking, there is little else to attract the casual visitor to Dunwich. Archaeologists and geologists know Dunwich for the stone circles which top many of the nearby hills, as well as mysterious underground noises heard around Walpurgis and Halloween.

  [Lovecraft found the name “Dunwich” in Arthur Machen’s novel N, according to Robert M. Price. It refers to an actual town in Great Britain that the sea washed away.]

  See Armitage, Henry; Aylesbury Pike; Billington, Richard; Hoadley, Abijah; Miskatonic River; Sentinel Hill; Sesqua Valley; Whateley, Wilbur; Whateley, Wizard. (“The Lurker at the Threshold”, Derleth and Lovecraft; Keeper’s Compendium, Herber; Return to Dunwich, Herber; “The Dunwich Horror”, Lovecraft (O).)

  2) Town in the Flint Hills of Kansas. Dunwich was founded in 1833 by the Reverend Ezekiel O’Sullivan, who received a vision of a golden city to the west. He led some of the people from the New England Dunwich to the new land. The townspeople of Dunwich avoided most of the nearby communities, and the town took a neutral stance during the Civil War. In 1893, the entire population of Dunwich vanished over the space of a few days. (“The Seven Cities of Gold”, Burnham.)

  DWELLER IN DARKNESS. See Nyarlathotep (Dweller in Darkness).

  DWELLERS IN THE DEPTHS. Book on Cthulhu and his minions. Dwellers was the work of Gaston Le Fe, who, according to the book’s introduction, died insane. It was later published in both French and English editions.

  This book details the race of aquatic beings known as deep ones and hints at the monstrous entities which they often worship.

  (“The Aquarium”, Jacobi (O); “Fischbuchs”, Ross.)

  DYER, WILLIAM. (c. 1875-?) Professor of geology at Miskatonic University. Dyer is especially remembered for his leadership of the University’s 1930-31 Pabodie Expedition to Antarctica, as well as his role in the 1935 trip to the pre-human ruins in the deserts of Australia. He might have been involved in OSS operations during the Second World War, though it is unclear in what capacity he worked.

  See Danforth; Emeritus Alcove; Pabodie Expedition; Peaslee, Nathaniel; Starkweather-Moore expedition. (“To Arkham and the Stars”, Leiber; “At the Mountains of Madness”, Lovecraft (O); “The Shadow Out of Time”, Lovecraft; “Stacked Actors”, Worthy.)

  DYLATH-LEEN. Basalt city on the Dreamlands’ Southern Sea. Dylath-Leen is unpopular with its neighbors, due to the mysterious black galleys that dock there to sell their cargoes of rubies in exchange for slaves from Parg.

  See Parg; Southern Sea. (“The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, Lovecraft.)

  DZYAN, BOOK OF. See Book of Dzyan.

  E

  E-POH. Leader of the Tcho-tcho people of the Plateau of Sung. E-poh is over seven thousand years old. He was able to take over the cult of Lloigor and Zhar by promising his followers access to the black lotus drug, a decision which might have begun the Tcho-tcho’s degeneration. E-poh may have been destroyed along with the city of Alaozar. E-poh is considered by some to be the Tcho-Tcho Lama of Leng, though this identification might not be accurate.

  (“Lair of the Star-Spawn”, Derleth and Schorer (O); Miskatonic University, Johnson et. al.; “Dope War of the Black Tong”, Price.)

  EFFIGY OF HATE. See Nyarlathotep (Effigy of Hate).

  EIBON. Sorcerer and author of the Book of Eibon, known as “the Unfathomable”. Eibon was born to Milaab, the Keeper of the Archives for the king of Iqqua, in the same year that the people of Hyperborea deserted Commoriom. Milaab was a student of the rituals of Tsathoggua who died after the priests of Yhoundeh exiled him and his family to the wilderness of Phenquor. Eibon was only seven at the time of his father’s death, but he never forgave the priests of Yhoundeh.

  Zylac, a wizard who owed his father many favors, bore Eibon away to his tower of black gneiss by the sea on the peninsula of Mhu Thulan. Eibon studied under Zylac, who many considered to be the greatest mage of his day. Following the death of Zylac from a botched incantation when Eibon was twenty-three, Eibon left this tower, wandering the land in the company of his friend Zaljis. After nine years and many adventures, he returned to Zylac’s tower and took up permanent residence there.

  Eibon derived much of this power from a pact with Tsathoggua, whom he worshiped in return for greater magical ability. The great wizard once penetrated the caverns beneath Mount Voormithadreth to see his master sleeping on his throne. The legends of his works are legion. One Hyperborean tale tells how Eibon looked through a magical viewing portal to the future to see the Earth being destroyed by some huge celestial body. His response was to construct two great webs across space in which to trap the entity. Then he planned to freeze the Earth in time, so that it would never be destroyed. These accounts have probably been exaggerated; even so, Eibon was one of the greatest sorcerers who ever lived on this planet.

  Two contradictory tales are associated with Eibon’s end at the age of one hundred and thirty-two. According to the first, Eibon’s tower exploded one starry night; the Book of Eibon was found in the ruins, but the great magician’s body was never recovered. The more-commonly accepted account, though, relates that Eibon fled from the persecution of the priests of Yhoundeh through a door made of a mysterious metal and emerged on the planet Saturn. This account, included in the book itself, then tells how Eibon foresaw his end and conveyed his magical books, including his famous Book, to his former pupil Cyron of Varaad.

  One scholar has recently suggested that Eibon is not a real person at all, and derives from a Greek word meaning “to trickle down.” This derivation does not explain the numerous references Eibon makes to himself within his book.

  See Book of Eibon; Book of K’yog; Book of Night; Cykranosh; Haon-Dor; Hyperborea; Life of Eibon; Mhu Thulan; Pharol; Ring of Eibon; Rituals of Yhe; Rlim Shaikorth; Eibon, Sign of; Koth, Sign of; Voormish Tablets; Voormithadreth; Xiccarph; Yhoundeh; Zylac. (“Tsathoggua”, Carter; The Life of Eibon according to Cyron of Varaad, Carter; “The Utmost Abomination”, Carter and Smith, Spawn of Azathoth, Herber; Selected Letters V, Lovecraft; “The Coming of the White Worm”, Smith; “The Door to Saturn” (O), Smith; Ex Libris Miskatonici, Stanley.)

  EIBON, BOOK OF. See Book of Eibon.

  EIBON, SIGN OF. Glyph resembling a three-legged swastika. It aids the user in escaping the notice of the minions of Nyarlathotep, but not that of the Crawling Chaos himself.

  See Eibon; Nyarlathotep. (Masks of Nyarlathotep, DiTillio and Willis (O).)

  EIHORT. Great Old One known as the God of the Labyrinth. Eihort is a huge white oval mass with innumerable legs and eyes. It lives in a maze beneath an abandoned house in Camside, England, but can create gates that lead to other parts of the world.

  Eihort telepathically contacts visitors to its labyrinth and asks if they wish to become its
servant. If they answer no, Eihort crushes them. If a victim says yes, Eihort paralyses him or her and channels immature members of its brood into his or her body. Since this process includes a form of hypnosis, the person may not remember what happened upon waking.

  At first, an infested person seems normal, but soon visions of horrific alien events begin. After a while, these visions increase in intensity and duration. Finally the Bargainer bursts open, with hundreds of Eihort’s tiny spawn emerging and running away.

  Few people make the Bargain with Eihort.

  We Pass from View by Roland Franklyn contains a curious reference to Eihort. According to this self-styled prophet, an initiate of his cult must be cremated so that the person’s soul can escape. Otherwise, if the initiate is buried, the soul will remain in the body, and burrowing monsters will drag the believer’s corpse down beneath the earth to Eihort’s feast. (Franklyn himself, sad to say, was not cremated.)

  See Camside; Revelations of Glaaki. (“Before the Storm”, Campbell (O); “The Franklyn Paragraphs”, Campbell; “The Pale God”, Ross.)

  EI’LOR. Old One resembling a vast growth of weeds with prehensile vines. It may be called to Earth to germinate here via incantations in the Ei’lor Fronds.

  (“The Star-Seed”, Ambuehl (O); “Ei’lor”, Gruetzmacher.)

  EINSTEIN FORMULA. Spell developed by Halpin Chalmers using the works of Albert Einstein. It may protect from Hound of Tindalos attacks, but it also has a number of dangerous side effects. No copy of this incantation is known to have survived its inventor.

  (“The Wild Hunt”, Ballon; “The Hounds of Tindalos”, Long (O).)

  ELDER BEINGS. See flying polyps.

  ELDER GODS. Beings opposed to the Great Old Ones. The Elder Gods supposedly live somewhere near Betelgeuse, or in an alternate dimension known as Elysia, or even in a place called the Hourless House in the realm of dreams.