{{Otheruses}}{{pp-semi-protected|small=yes}}{{Otheruses}}{{pp-semi-protected|small=yes}}
{{Otheruses4|the Cthulhu Mythos creatures|the X-COM alien race|Deep One (X-COM race)}}
The
Deep Ones are fictional creatures in the
Cthulhu MythosThe Cthulhu Mythos is a shared universe created in the 1920s by American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. The term Lovecraft Mythos is preferred by some — most notably the Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi....
of
H. P. LovecraftHoward Phillips Lovecraft was an American author of horror, fantasy, and science fiction, known then simply as weird fiction....
. The beings first appeared in Lovecraft's novella "
The Shadow Over Innsmouth"The Shadow Over Innsmouth" is a novella by H. P. Lovecraft. Written in November-December 1931, the story was first published in April 1936; this was the only fiction of Lovecraft's published during his lifetime that did not appear in a periodical....
" (
1931The year 1931 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Cherokee playwright Lynn Riggs' play Green Grow the Lilacs premiers. It would later be adapted by Rodgers and Hammerstein as Oklahoma!....
). The Deep Ones are a race of frog-like, ocean-dwelling creatures with an affinity for mating with humans.
Numerous Mythos elements are associated with the Deep Ones, including the legendary town of
InnsmouthInnsmouth is a fictional town in the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, part of the Lovecraft Country setting of the Cthulhu Mythos.Lovecraft first used the name "Innsmouth" in his 1920 short story "Celephaïs" , where it refers to a fictional town in England...
, the undersea city of Y'ha-nthlei, the
Esoteric Order of DagonThe Esoteric Order of Dagon is a fictional cult in the Cthulhu mythos of H. P. Lovecraft.-Esoteric Order of Dagon in the mythos:Esoteric Order of Dagon was the primary religion in Innsmouth after Captain Obed Marsh returned from the South Seas with the dark religion circa 1838...
, and the beings known as Father Dagon and Mother Hydra. After their debut in Lovecraft's tale, the sea-dwelling creatures resurfaced in the works of other authors, especially
August DerlethAugust William Derleth was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first publisher of the writings of H. P...
.
Summary
Lovecraft provides a description of the Deep One in "The Shadow Over Innsmouth":
{{quotation|I think their predominant color was a greyish-green, though they had white bellies. They were mostly shiny and slippery, but the ridges of their backs were scaly. Their forms vaguely suggested the anthropoid, while their heads were the heads of fish, with prodigious bulging eyes that never closed. At the sides of their necks were palpitating gills, and their long paws were webbed. They hopped irregularly, sometimes on two legs and sometimes on four. I was somehow glad that they had no more than four limbs. Their croaking, baying voices, clearly used for articulate speech, held all the dark shades of expression which their staring faces lacked ... They were the blasphemous fish-frogs of the nameless design - living and horrible.
-
-
-
- The Shadow Over Innsmouth}}
Lovecraft describes the Deep Ones as a race of undersea-dwelling humanoids whose preferred habitat is deep in the ocean (hence their name). However, despite being primarily marine creatures, they can come to the surface and can survive on land for some time. All Deep Ones are immortal; none die except by accident or violence. They are said to serve the beings known as Father Dagon and Mother Hydra, as well as
CthulhuCthulhu is a fictional cosmic entity created by horror author H. P. Lovecraft in 1926, first appearing in the short story "The Call of Cthulhu" when it was published in Weird Tales in 1928....
. They are opposed by mysterious beings known as the
Old OneOld One may be a term used to refer to a god or other deity. Old Ones may also be a term used to refer to beings who co-existed with early humans according to many religions...
s, whose powerful magic can keep them in check.
Deep One hybrid
The backstory of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" involves a bargain between Deep Ones and humans, in which the aquatic species provides plentiful fishing and gold in the form of strangely formed jewellery. In return, the land-dwellers give human sacrifices and a promise of "mixing"—the mating of humans with Deep Ones. Although the Deep One hybrid offspring are born with the appearance of a normal human being, the individual will eventually transform into a Deep One, gaining immortality—by default—only when the transformation is complete.
The transformation usually occurs when the individual reaches middle age. As the hybrid gets older, he or she begins to acquire the so-called "Innsmouth Look" as he or she takes on more and more attributes of the Deep One race: the ears shrink, the eyes bulge and become unblinking, the head narrows and gradually goes bald, the skin becomes scabrous as it changes into scales, and the neck develops folds which later become gills. When the hybrid becomes too obviously non-human, it is hidden away from outsiders. Eventually, however, the hybrid will be compelled to slip into the sea to live with the Deep Ones in one of their undersea cities.
Father Dagon and Mother Hydra
Father Dagon and
Mother Hydra are both minor
Great Old OneA Great Old One is a type of fictional being in the Cthulhu Mythos based in the stories of H. P. Lovecraft. Though Lovecraft created the most famous of these deities, the vast majority of them were created by other writers, many after Lovecraft's death...
s; though it is possible that they are merely Deep Ones that have grown abnormally large. Together with Cthulhu, they form the triad of gods worshipped by the Deep Ones. (
Not to be confused with DagonDagon was a major northwest Semitic god, reportedly of grain and agriculture. He was worshipped by the early Amorites and by the inhabitants of the cities of Ebla and Ugarit...
, a SemiticIn linguistics and ethnology, Semitic was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages....
fertility deity.)
Mother Hydra is the consort to Father Dagon. The
Call of Cthulhu role-playing game suggests that Mother Hydra may not be a Great Old One at all, but merely a gigantic Deep One.
Y'ha-nthlei
"Cyclopean and many-columned
Y'ha-nthlei" is the only Deep One city named by Lovecraft. The name may have been inspired by the Lord Dunsany character "Yoharneth-Lahai", "the god of little dreams and fancies" who "sendeth little dreams out of PEGANA to please the people of Earth."
In "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", it is described as a great undersea metropolis located below Devil's Reef just off the coast of
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
, near the town of
InnsmouthInnsmouth is a fictional town in the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, part of the Lovecraft Country setting of the Cthulhu Mythos.Lovecraft first used the name "Innsmouth" in his 1920 short story "Celephaïs" , where it refers to a fictional town in England...
. Its exact age is not known, but one resident is said to have lived there for 80,000 years. .
In Lovecraft's story, the U.S. government torpedoed Devil's Reef in 1928 as part of a raid on the town of Innsmouth.
Other authors have invented Deep One cities in other parts of the ocean, including Ahu-Y'hloa near
CornwallCornwall is a county of England in the United Kingdom, forming the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain. It is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Taken with the...
and G'll-Hoo, near the volcanic island of
SurtseySurtsey is a volcanic island off the southern coast of Iceland. At it is also the southernmost point of Iceland. It was formed in a volcanic eruption which began 130 metres below sea level, and reached the surface on 14 November 1963. The eruption lasted until 5 June 1967, when the island...
off the coast of
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
.
Popular culture
- The movie Dagon
Dagon is a 2001 horror movie directed by Stuart Gordon and written by Dennis Paoli. Despite the title, the plot is actually based on H. P. Lovecraft's novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth rather than his earlier short story titled Dagon .-Plot:Two young American tourists, Barbara and Paul, seek help...
, inspired by "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", features Deep Ones hybrids as the primary antagonists. The Deep Ones hybrids in this movie resemble the more tentacled Cthulhu and lack the piscine features of the Deep Ones in the book. The movie moves the action to a small coastal town in Galicia in northwest SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
. The town is named Imboca ("boca" is the Spanish word for "mouth"), though the main characters are American tourists. One of them wears a sweatshirt from Miskatonic UniversityMiskatonic University is a fictional university located in the equally fictitious Arkham, set in the real-world Essex County, Massachusetts. After first appearing in the H. P. Lovecraft 1922 serial "Herbert West—Reanimator", the school appeared in numerous horror stories in the Cthulhu Mythos...
.
- The second season of Digimon
, short for , is a popular Japanese series of media and merchandise, including anime, manga, toys, video games, trading card games and other media. Digimon are monsters of various forms living in a "Digital World", a parallel universe that originated from Earth's various communication...
featured creatures that resembled the Deep Ones. Nicknamed the Digi-Deep Ones, they worshipped a greater being called Dagomon, their "Dark Undersea Master" (in the Japanese version, explicitly a god). Similar to their mating with humans, they attempted to capture Hikari Yagami in order for her to mate with Dagomon (Japanese version only) but failed due to the rescue by Takeru Takaishi, Patamon and Tailmon.
- Comic artist and author Mike Mignola
Mike Joseph Mignola is an American comic book artist and writer, famous for creating the comic book series Hellboy for Dark Horse Comics. He has also worked for animation projects such as Atlantis: The Lost Empire and the adaptation of his one shot comic book, The Amazing Screw-On...
is an avowed Lovecraft fan and his HellboyHellboy is a comic book character created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. He has appeared in a number of eponymous miniseries and one-shots, as well as some crossovers.The character is a demon who fights for the U.S...
and B.P.R.D. series feature multiple attempts by strange, god-like entities called the Ogdru JahadThe Ogdru Jahad are fictional characters in Mike Mignola's Hellboy comic. They are the Dragon of Revelation, and are destined to bring about the end of the world. Though the Ogdru Jahad are the ultimate antagonists in the series, they are not themselves active, their release from imprisonment...
to transform the population of Earth into frog-like beings almost identical to the Deep Ones. Abe SapienAbraham "Abe" Sapien is a fictional character in the comic book series Hellboy, created by Mike Mignola. He is identified as an Icthyo sapiens, similar to a merman....
, one of Mignola's characters is more physically similar to a Deep One, being part fish, but exhibits none of the malevolence generally associated with the creatures.
- Deep Ones are featured as adversaries in video games like Alone In The Dark
Alone in the Dark is a 1992 survival horror game developed by Infogrames. The game has spawned several sequels, as part of the Alone in the Dark series, and was one of the first survival horror games, after the 1989 Capcom game, Sweet Home...
, X-Com: Terror from the DeepX-COM: Terror from the Deep is a computer game, the sequel to UFO: Enemy Unknown , and the second part of the X-COM series. It was developed and published by MicroProse. Its interface is nearly identical to its predecessor, as is its graphics technology...
, NetHackNetHack is a single-player roguelike video game originally released in 1987. It is a descendant of an earlier game called Hack , which is a descendant of Rogue . Salon describes it as "one of the finest gaming experiences the computing world has to offer."The "net" element references that its...
, and, of course, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the EarthCall of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is a Lovecraftian horror first-person adventure game developed by Headfirst Productions and published by Bethesda Softworks in 2005, in conjunction with 2K Games. It is based on the works of H. P...
. In The Elder Scrolls IV: OblivionThe Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a single-player role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks and the Take-Two Interactive subsidiary 2K Games. It is the fourth installment in The Elder Scrolls action fantasy video game series. It was released on...
, the decrepit xenophobic town of Hackdirt has a strange cult dedicated to the "Deep Ones". In the underground section of the town, there are townspeople who bear striking resemblances to Deep One hybrids (most notably the enlarged eyes). The particular quest pertaining to the town is named "A Shadow over Hackdirt", in an obvious reference to Lovecraft.
- D&D's kuo-toa
In the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, the kuo-toa are fish-like monstrous humanoids that dwell in the Underdark.-Publication history:...
n race ostensibly based on Deep Ones. They are evil fish-men who typically worship Blibdoolpoolp, the "Sea Mother" whom they appease with human sacrifices. Some actually worship an ichthyoid demon prince named Dagon and interbreed with humans.
- The Murlocs of the Warcraft universe
Warcraft is a franchise of video games, novels and other media originally created by Blizzard Entertainment for the game Warcraft: Orcs & Humans....
are almost identical to the Deep Ones of Lovecraft's stories. They are a minor enemy in (And an unofficial mascot for) the popular MMO, World of WarcraftWorld of Warcraft, often referred to as WoW, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
, and recent updates on the game's website suggest that the Lovecraftian connections will be further explored, with the Murlocs worship of ancient aquatic "gods" being a primary feature. One particular quest involves slaying a murloc-worshipped being by the name of Dagun, the whole questline being strongly Lovecraftian. Also, they are said to be connected to Old Gods, Warcraft-universe's evil beings whose concept greatly resembles that of Great Old Ones.
- At a certain point in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, known in Japan as , is an action video game developed and published by Konami. The game was released on November 16, 2006 in Japan, and in the US on December 5, 2006 for the Nintendo DS handheld game console...
, the player has to fight a battle against an aquatic creature called 'Dagon', which is referred to in the 'Enemies' section of a menu as 'a creature of the swamp'.
- In the popular anime and manga Saint Seiya
, also known as Knights of the Zodiac, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masami Kurumada and serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1986 to 1991, and adapted into an anime TV series by Toei Animation from 1986 to 1989....
one of Hades' warriors is Niobe of Deep, and his armor when not being used takes the shape and pose of the illustration of the Deep Ones.
- In the Shadowgirls webcomic, Deep Ones appear rather often.
- In the CthulhuTech
CthulhuTech is a science-fiction and splatter-porn roleplaying game created by Wildfire LLC and published by Catalyst Game Labs that combines elements of the Cthulhu Mythos with anime-style mecha, horror, magic and futuristic action...
RPG published by Mongoose PublishingMongoose Publishing is a prolific British manufacturer of role-playing, miniatures, and card games, actively publishing material since 2001. Its licenses include products based on the popular science fiction properties Babylon 5, Judge Dredd, and Starship Troopers, as well as the fantasy title...
, the Deep Ones and the Esoteric Order of Dagon have become a powerful faction in the Strange Aeon, to the point that they field their own lovecraftian war machines.
- In the Book I of the Serenity Falls collection by James A. Moore, Writ in Blood, one of the protagonists, Jonathan Crowley has an encounter with a Deep One.
- Deep Ones are an important part of the Charles Stross
Charles David George "Charlie" Stross is a writer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. His works range from science fiction and Lovecraftian horror to fantasy. Stross was born in Leeds....
novel The Jennifer MorgueThe Jennifer Morgue is the second collection of stories by Charles Stross featuring Bob Howard, containing the title novel The Jennifer Morgue, the short story "Pimpf", and an essay titled "The Golden Age of Spying". The collection is a sequel to the stories published in The Atrocity Archives...
. They are stated as having involvement in, among other things, Minoan civilizationThe Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization which arose on the island of Crete. The Minoan culture flourished from approximately 2700 to 1450 BC; afterwards, Mycenaean Greek culture became dominant at Minoan sites in Crete...
, the Special Operations ExecutiveThe Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct warfare by means other than direct military engagement...
, and Project Jennifer"Jennifer" was the code name for the United States Central Intelligence Agency project to recover the sunken Soviet submarine K-129, one of the Soviet Union's GOLF II Class strategic ballistic missile submarines, from the Pacific Ocean floor in the summer of 1974, using the purpose-built ship...
. They are also responsible for the Bermuda TriangleThe Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean in which a number of aircraft and surface vessels are alleged to have mysteriously disappeared and cannot be explained as human error, piracy, equipment failure, or natural disasters...
and the Witch's Hole in the North SeaThe North Sea is a marginal, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf. The Dover Strait and the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north connect it to the Atlantic Ocean. It is more than long and wide, with an area of around...
are caused by the Deep Ones releasing methane clathrateMethane clathrate, also called methane hydrate or methane ice, is a solid clathrate compound in which a large amount of methane is trapped within the crystal structure of water ice...
from the sea floor, causing massive bubbles that sink ships intruding over their settlements. British Intelligence gives the Deep Ones the code name "Blue Hades". They are mentioned as being locked in a Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
type struggle against the ChthonianChthonians are fictional creatures in the Cthulhu Mythos. The species is the creation of Brian Lumley and was first featured in his short story "Cement Surroundings" —though the creature never made a direct appearance...
s.
- In Kim Newman
Kim Newman is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven—and alternate fictional versions of history...
's short story "Richard Riddle, Boy Detective", a Deep One is captured by English militia during the Napoleonic WarsThe Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts declared against Napoleon's French Empire and changing sets of European allies by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionized European armies and played...
. They first assume it to be an agent of Napoleon preparing for a French invasion, but later believe it to be a living dinosaur{{Otheruses}}{{pp-semi-protected|small=yes}}{{Otheruses}}{{pp-semi-protected|small=yes}}{{Taxobox|name = Dinosaurs|fossil_range = {{Fossil range|230|65|earliest=230|latest=0|PS=
Descendant taxon Aves survives to present.}}|image = field_dinos_2.jpg...
sent by SatanSatan is an embodiment of antagonism that originates from the Abrahamic religions, being traditionally considered an angel in Judeo-Christian belief, and a Jinn in Islamic belief...
to trick them into embracing Darwinian selection and repudiating God. The titular boy detective and his friends eventually free the Deep One, who slaughters its captors before thanking the children and returning to the sea.
Secondary sources
- —"Deep Ones", pp. 81–82. Ibid.
- —"Hydra (Mother Hydra)", p. 143. Ibid.
- —"Y'ha-nthlei", p. 340. Ibid.
Robert M. Price (ed.) Bloomfield, NJ: Miskatonic University Press.
External links