Bholes

Are they the same things as Dholes, or not? It is hard to tell. Lovecraft sometimes changed the spelling of Mythos terms (”Cthulhu” normally vs. “Tulu” in ‘The Mound’, for example), so the different spelling isn’t necessarily important.

Dholes show up in “Through the Gates of the Silver Key”, where they are infesting the planet Yaddith. The native inhabitants are fighting a long and losing war against the Dholes, which will lead eventually to the extermination of all the planet’s life as the Dholes ravage the hapless world, burrowing through its crust. Dholes are incredibly large (one “reared up several hundred feet”, which implies that its total length must be much greater). They are apparently “bleached, viscous” giant worms, or perhaps slugs better fit a soft viscous body.

Bholes are found in the Dreamlands, in “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”. They are also large subterranean dwellers, but we know nothing of their form, as they have never been seen (living only in pitch darkness). They appear not to be fully as large as Dholes, or Randolph Carter probably wouldn’t have been able to climb out of reach of the Bhole.

I believe they are probably intended to be the same creature, but nothing is conclusive. Bholes do seem smaller, but whether this is simple variation or whether Lovecraft just decided to make them bigger for “Through the Gates of the Silver Key” is unknowable. ‘Bhole’ is clearly the better name, though, as a dhole is a kind of wild dog found in India.

Shaggoths? Shuggoths? Shoggoths!

How can a creature be both my favorite and my least favorite? I don’t know, but these guys come close. In their original incarnation - “At the Mountains of Madness” and other Lovecraft works - they were awesome. Ancient, shapeless amoeba-blob servitors created by the Elder Things and later used by the Deep Ones. Things created to serve, but rebellious nonetheless. In their creation may lie the origins of all earthly life.

So what’s the problem? Number one, the tendency to misspell the name (dating back to a typo as “shaggoths” in the magazine version of one of Lovecraft’s stories). Sure, that was confusing - but it was also well over 70 years ago, so I think we could get it right by now. I particularly hate “shaggoth” because it sounds like a monster made out of fur or shag carpet.

But the biggest problem is how role-playing game design has made them so powerful that it’s ludicrous for them to fulfill in-game the roles they filled in the original stories! And since many people get their exposure to the Cthulhu Mythos through gaming, shoggoths have become UBERSHOGGOTH! Which is just wrong.

A particularly egregious example is the d20 Call of Cthulhu game. In that game, shoggoths (with a challenge rating of 21) are ranked as more powerful than hunting horrors (CR 20), star-spawn of Cthulhu (CR 14), and even several frickin’ Great Old Ones - Dagon and Hydra (CR 14) and Glaaki (CR 17) - who are statted as, literally,demigods. When created servants are more powerful than demigods, you’ve got a problem.

It’s not unique to d20, though - that game just provides a convenient mechanism to measure relative power.

So where’s the actual story evidence that shoggoths are Teh Uberbeast? Well, in “Mountains of Madness” they rip the heads of Elder Things, who have been established to be super-tough; it’s hard even to cut the skin of Elder Thing corpses for dissection. So, they’re really strong. They also make people go nearly insane from fright at seeing them - but the characters were already disturbed from their previous experiences, and unarmed and thus unable to defend themselves. It’s also said that they were broken to the saddle by armed Elder Thing riders - probably unlikely given the stats, because under the rules shoggoths could kill ARMIES of Elder Things, largely because of their annoying immunity or high resistance to practically everything. Where is *that* from in the stories? And how can the Deep Ones keep them around (in “Shadow over Innsmouth’) if they’re really significantly more powerful than the progenitor/gods of their species?

Two Deep Ones

The Deep One picture below is based on the descriptions in “Dagon” and “The Shadow over Innsmouth” by H. P. Lovecraft, but focusing on the carven images in “Dagon”. It is portrayed as a humanoid wielding a harpoon as in “Dagon”, but fish-gilled and froglike to fit the “fish-frog” mentions in “Shadow”. This is closer to how I tend to imagine Deep Ones. To be interfertile with humanity — and produce fertile offspring! — means that Deep Ones must be genetically very close to humanity. Their gills are probably artificially engineered, either by some spawn of Cthulhu freed from imprisonment or from an ancient human civilization; in the Cthulhu Mythos setting, there have been many advanced civilizations - human and alien - before ourselves. Besides the gills, the other differences are genetically minor: webbed feet, partially webbed hands, claws (which might be merely narrow claw-like nails). The Deep One in this picture is slightly disproportioned and has only two toes on each foot; disabilities that would be impairing on land by limiting movement would not be so in the sea.



The next image (black and white) is more like the common depictions of Deep Ones. This type of Deep One draws on “Shadow over Innsmouth” but ignores the more human-like descriptions in “Dagon”. (Deep Ones are sometimes illustrated - the d20 Call of Cthulhu gaming book an especially egregious example - with heavy, armor-like scales over their entire bodies. This is incorrect. Lovecraft clearly states in “Shadow” that Deep Ones are mostly ’slimy and slippery’, with scales only on ‘the ridges of their backs’.)
Perhaps this bulkier, frog-like Deep One is a blubber-heavy adaptation to cold waters, while the beings of “Dagon”, dwelling in tropical seas, did not need it.
I imagine (if any scientific justification is desired) that Deep Ones can grow to enormous sizes because - as water dwellers whose weight does not pull on their bodies - genetic abnormalities that cause gigantism are not selected against, as they would be on land.

What this blog is

This blog will contain my posts on science fiction, fantasy, and horror-related subjects. There will be reviews, or thoughts about, books I’ve read; my amateurish art; role-playing game material; and almost anything else.

As the title suggests, there will be Cthulhu Mythos material — so check your sanity at the e-door!