The name Lloigor was first used by August Derleth in his story "The Lair of the Star-Spawn". In that story, Lloigor was one of the two godlike entities (the other being Zhar) worshipped by the Tcho-tcho. Derleth sent the story to Lovecraft, who later referred to the Tcho-tcho in his own writings, but did not use Zhar or Lloigor.
Colin Wilson wrote a Mythos story called "The Return of the Lloigor", where lloigor were a type of creature, not a singular entity. These lloigor were "vortices of energy" that sometimes took the form of reptile-like monsters. They could drain life energy from human beings or cause painful mutations; they had once used this ability to punish human slaves when they had ruled an empire in Mu. They needed to work through human slaves because the Earth, being a younger planet than their original home, had a nature essentially hostile to the deeply pessimistic lloigor. Oddly, these lloigor were associated with Ghatanothoa (an entity from 'Out of the Aeons' by H. P. Lovecraft and Hazel Heald), not Derleth's god 'Lloigor'.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Magic in Lovecraft's Works: Part 1, Early Stories
This is the first post of two or three where I will discuss how Lovecraft treated magic in his fiction. In this post, I will deal with stories from 1925 and earlier.
In "The Alchemist", one of Lovecraft's very early stories (1908), the narrator's line is haunted by an ancient curse which kills each member of the family at a certain age. It turns out, though, that this is actually the actions of an ancient wizard who has used the alchemical Elixir of Life to prolong his own life, so that he can slay each member of the family in various means (arrows, poison, etc.). The Elixir of Life is not further explained.
The Terrible Old Man in the story of the same title (1920) seems to be a wizard of some sort as well, since he has bottles which seem to contain trapped souls: "in each a small piece of lead suspended pendulum-wise from a string. And they say that the Terrible Old Man talks to these bottles, addressing them by such names as Jack, Scar-Face, Long Tom, Spanish Joe, Peters, and Mate Ellis, and that whenever he speaks to a bottle the little lead pendulum within makes certain definite vibrations as if in answer", and he unleashes some form of wrath on the robbers who attack him (implicitly these same pirate ghosts, since the corpses are "slashed as with many cutlasses").
"The Other Gods" (1921) refers to "spells and barriers" wielded by the gods of Earth, and "unknown magic" used by the titular Other Gods.
"The Festival" (1923) includes a passage from the Necronomicon which states "happy is the tomb where no wizard hath lain, and happy the town at night whose wizards are all ashes. For it is of old rumour that the soul of the devil-bought hastes not from his charnel clay, but fats and instructs the very worm that gnaws". It seems that some users of magic can survive death in a horrible form, just as the ancient ancestor in the story does.
"The Horror at Red Hook" (1925) includes a series of rites which reanimate a very dead corpse to complete the ritual; it's implied that some dark entity is being summoned.
"He" (1925) includes an explanation of the workings of magic: ""To - my ancestor," he softly continued, "there appeared to reside some very remarkable qualities in the will of mankind; qualities having a little-suspected dominance not only over the acts of one's self and of others, but over every variety of force and substance in Nature, and over many elements and dimensions deemed more universal than Nature herself." The story also includes a horde of ghosts of ancient magic-users, and an (apparently summoned) slime monster.
So, to summarize:
-magic can be used to trap souls and summon ghosts and other dark entities
-some users of magic can survive bodily death, either as worm-creatures or ghosts
-the gods, especially the Other Gods, can wield powerful reality-altering magic
-ritual is apparently important in at least some types of magic
-the working principle behind magic seems to be the imposition of will to alter reality
In "The Alchemist", one of Lovecraft's very early stories (1908), the narrator's line is haunted by an ancient curse which kills each member of the family at a certain age. It turns out, though, that this is actually the actions of an ancient wizard who has used the alchemical Elixir of Life to prolong his own life, so that he can slay each member of the family in various means (arrows, poison, etc.). The Elixir of Life is not further explained.
The Terrible Old Man in the story of the same title (1920) seems to be a wizard of some sort as well, since he has bottles which seem to contain trapped souls: "in each a small piece of lead suspended pendulum-wise from a string. And they say that the Terrible Old Man talks to these bottles, addressing them by such names as Jack, Scar-Face, Long Tom, Spanish Joe, Peters, and Mate Ellis, and that whenever he speaks to a bottle the little lead pendulum within makes certain definite vibrations as if in answer", and he unleashes some form of wrath on the robbers who attack him (implicitly these same pirate ghosts, since the corpses are "slashed as with many cutlasses").
"The Other Gods" (1921) refers to "spells and barriers" wielded by the gods of Earth, and "unknown magic" used by the titular Other Gods.
"The Festival" (1923) includes a passage from the Necronomicon which states "happy is the tomb where no wizard hath lain, and happy the town at night whose wizards are all ashes. For it is of old rumour that the soul of the devil-bought hastes not from his charnel clay, but fats and instructs the very worm that gnaws". It seems that some users of magic can survive death in a horrible form, just as the ancient ancestor in the story does.
"The Horror at Red Hook" (1925) includes a series of rites which reanimate a very dead corpse to complete the ritual; it's implied that some dark entity is being summoned.
"He" (1925) includes an explanation of the workings of magic: ""To - my ancestor," he softly continued, "there appeared to reside some very remarkable qualities in the will of mankind; qualities having a little-suspected dominance not only over the acts of one's self and of others, but over every variety of force and substance in Nature, and over many elements and dimensions deemed more universal than Nature herself." The story also includes a horde of ghosts of ancient magic-users, and an (apparently summoned) slime monster.
So, to summarize:
-magic can be used to trap souls and summon ghosts and other dark entities
-some users of magic can survive bodily death, either as worm-creatures or ghosts
-the gods, especially the Other Gods, can wield powerful reality-altering magic
-ritual is apparently important in at least some types of magic
-the working principle behind magic seems to be the imposition of will to alter reality
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Aliens on Earth -- Part 2: Revisions
In the last post, I covered the aliens in H. P. Lovecraft's solo work. Moving to his revisions and co-authored stories, the picture gets muddier.
In "The Mound" a race of humans or semi-humans is found in vast caverns under Arizona. Despite their human appearance, though, they claim to have been brought to Earth by Cthulhu. Even they have begun to doubt it at this late date, but they do have strange idols of a metal not found on Earth to back up their beliefs. The rest of humanity is descended from them, and their history seems to cover a vastly greater span of time than that of surface humans - "they knew of the outer world, and were indeed the original stock who had peopled it as soon as its crust was fit to live on." If taken literally, this would mean that their species is billions of years old. I frankly don't think this can be harmonized with Lovecraft's other writings: it seems like they would have shown up in the histories of the Yithians or Elder Things, not to mention all the references to "pre-human" this, that, or the other. It can work, though, if we take "as soon as its crust was fit to live upon" as hyperbole, putting their arrival on Earth sometime in the late Cenozoic (though it might have to be earlier, if they were in fact brought by Cthulhu; the geological period of R'lyeh's sinking is unclear).
In "Out of the Aeons", Ghatanothoa is the god of a race from Yuggoth (that is, Pluto) that came to Earth "before the birth of terrestrial life" and built great cities and fortresses, but then died out. Ghatanothoa, apparently being immortal, is the only survivor, but he may not actually be of that race. It seems that this species is not the Mi-Go/Fungi from Yuggoth from "The Whisperer in Darkness", since the Mi-Go seem to have arrived later in Earth's history, and "The Whisperer in Darkness" says that Yuggoth was once inhabited by another species before the Mi-Go arrived. We are not told why this species settled Earth; but if they were natives of Pluto, Earth would not be far away.
"The Challenge from Beyond" describes a cube used for mental transmissions and transfers by the centipede-like Yekubians; but these had no special interest in Earth until they struck it by accident, having scattered the cubes across all of space where they would hopefully land upon inhabited worlds. Later they made mental contact with the Yithians, and Earth became more interesting to them.
So, in summary: The only species whose reasons to choose Earth are uncertain are the Elder Things, earlier Yuggoth creatures, and Yithians: and all of these have credible reasons. The excessive number of species doesn't seem so excessive after all...
In "The Mound" a race of humans or semi-humans is found in vast caverns under Arizona. Despite their human appearance, though, they claim to have been brought to Earth by Cthulhu. Even they have begun to doubt it at this late date, but they do have strange idols of a metal not found on Earth to back up their beliefs. The rest of humanity is descended from them, and their history seems to cover a vastly greater span of time than that of surface humans - "they knew of the outer world, and were indeed the original stock who had peopled it as soon as its crust was fit to live on." If taken literally, this would mean that their species is billions of years old. I frankly don't think this can be harmonized with Lovecraft's other writings: it seems like they would have shown up in the histories of the Yithians or Elder Things, not to mention all the references to "pre-human" this, that, or the other. It can work, though, if we take "as soon as its crust was fit to live upon" as hyperbole, putting their arrival on Earth sometime in the late Cenozoic (though it might have to be earlier, if they were in fact brought by Cthulhu; the geological period of R'lyeh's sinking is unclear).
In "Out of the Aeons", Ghatanothoa is the god of a race from Yuggoth (that is, Pluto) that came to Earth "before the birth of terrestrial life" and built great cities and fortresses, but then died out. Ghatanothoa, apparently being immortal, is the only survivor, but he may not actually be of that race. It seems that this species is not the Mi-Go/Fungi from Yuggoth from "The Whisperer in Darkness", since the Mi-Go seem to have arrived later in Earth's history, and "The Whisperer in Darkness" says that Yuggoth was once inhabited by another species before the Mi-Go arrived. We are not told why this species settled Earth; but if they were natives of Pluto, Earth would not be far away.
"The Challenge from Beyond" describes a cube used for mental transmissions and transfers by the centipede-like Yekubians; but these had no special interest in Earth until they struck it by accident, having scattered the cubes across all of space where they would hopefully land upon inhabited worlds. Later they made mental contact with the Yithians, and Earth became more interesting to them.
So, in summary: The only species whose reasons to choose Earth are uncertain are the Elder Things, earlier Yuggoth creatures, and Yithians: and all of these have credible reasons. The excessive number of species doesn't seem so excessive after all...
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Aliens on Earth: Part 1 (Lovecraft)
One of the big mysteries about the Cthulhu Mythos universe is – why are there so many alien species on Earth? What is it about our planet that has attracted at least five major alien species (the Mi-Go, the Antarctic Elder Things, the Flying Polyps, the Yithians, and the spawn of Cthulhu) in Lovecraft’s works alone, plus many others in other Mythos stories?
Well, nobody really knows, but here are my speculations:
If we look just at Lovecraft’s work, we see that aliens show up for several reasons. Earth is simply one of many planets the Mi-Go visit, useful for mining as well as occasional studies of humans. Their interstellar civilization is said to include not only a major base on Pluto/Yuggoth, but other star systems, other galaxies, and even worlds “beyond the last curved rim of the universe” (The Whisperer in Darkness). Thus, it’s not too surprising they use Earth. We’re not particularly special to them, just one of countless worlds, and a relatively unimportant one at that – there don’t seem to be permanent Mi-Go colonies on Earth.
The Yithians arrived to escape a gigantic cataclysm that destroyed their original world, Yith– it isn’t clear they had much choice in where to go. However, Yith is described as “trans-galactic” (Shadow out of Time); if it’s on the other side of the galaxy, surely we weren’t the nearest acceptable planet? The Yithians could only move their minds, so they needed a planet with an intelligent species. If the Mythos universe is so full of aliens, though, that doesn’t seem too difficult. Perhaps the Cone-Beings they took over were simply easier to control than other species in our galaxy. This does make sense; many Mythos creatures have exceptional mental abilities and might be able to prevent or repel a Yithian mind’s takeover attempt.
The Elder Things, Flying Polyps, and spawn of Cthulhu engaged in full colonization of the Earth, but at separate times. The Elder Things arrived first, before terrestrial life; their colonies centered in Antarctica and the surrounding seas. At some uncertain later point, Flying Polyps arrived and dominated much of the Earth until defeated and trapped underground by the Yithians. The spawn of Cthulhu arrived much later. During long and inconclusive wars with the Elder Things, they seem to have mostly been restricted to a continent which no longer exists, which eventually vanished, trapping them: “all the lands of the Pacific sank” (At the Mountains of Madness). The Yithians and Elder Things left in control of the Earth engaged in wars, but apparently rarely.
The Deep Ones and the Nameless City’s reptilian beings seem to be natives to Earth, though they do form two additional sentient races. It is not clear that the Deep Ones are older than primitive forms of humanity, so they may have arrived on the scene after most of the alien species had departed or been trapped. The Nameless City reptiles seem to have remained in their own area, far from the Yithians and Polyps centering in Australia, the Elder Things centering in Antarctica, and the Cthulhu spawn in the Pacific.
Well, nobody really knows, but here are my speculations:
If we look just at Lovecraft’s work, we see that aliens show up for several reasons. Earth is simply one of many planets the Mi-Go visit, useful for mining as well as occasional studies of humans. Their interstellar civilization is said to include not only a major base on Pluto/Yuggoth, but other star systems, other galaxies, and even worlds “beyond the last curved rim of the universe” (The Whisperer in Darkness). Thus, it’s not too surprising they use Earth. We’re not particularly special to them, just one of countless worlds, and a relatively unimportant one at that – there don’t seem to be permanent Mi-Go colonies on Earth.
The Yithians arrived to escape a gigantic cataclysm that destroyed their original world, Yith– it isn’t clear they had much choice in where to go. However, Yith is described as “trans-galactic” (Shadow out of Time); if it’s on the other side of the galaxy, surely we weren’t the nearest acceptable planet? The Yithians could only move their minds, so they needed a planet with an intelligent species. If the Mythos universe is so full of aliens, though, that doesn’t seem too difficult. Perhaps the Cone-Beings they took over were simply easier to control than other species in our galaxy. This does make sense; many Mythos creatures have exceptional mental abilities and might be able to prevent or repel a Yithian mind’s takeover attempt.
The Elder Things, Flying Polyps, and spawn of Cthulhu engaged in full colonization of the Earth, but at separate times. The Elder Things arrived first, before terrestrial life; their colonies centered in Antarctica and the surrounding seas. At some uncertain later point, Flying Polyps arrived and dominated much of the Earth until defeated and trapped underground by the Yithians. The spawn of Cthulhu arrived much later. During long and inconclusive wars with the Elder Things, they seem to have mostly been restricted to a continent which no longer exists, which eventually vanished, trapping them: “all the lands of the Pacific sank” (At the Mountains of Madness). The Yithians and Elder Things left in control of the Earth engaged in wars, but apparently rarely.
The Deep Ones and the Nameless City’s reptilian beings seem to be natives to Earth, though they do form two additional sentient races. It is not clear that the Deep Ones are older than primitive forms of humanity, so they may have arrived on the scene after most of the alien species had departed or been trapped. The Nameless City reptiles seem to have remained in their own area, far from the Yithians and Polyps centering in Australia, the Elder Things centering in Antarctica, and the Cthulhu spawn in the Pacific.
Friday, December 19, 2008
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.
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.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
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?
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?
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)