Tsathoggua
Encyclopedia
Tsathoggua is a fictional supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...

 entity in the Cthulhu Mythos
Cthulhu Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...

 shared fictional universe. He is the creation of Clark Ashton Smith
Clark Ashton Smith
Clark Ashton Smith was a self-educated American poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Swinburne...

 and is part of his Hyperborean cycle
Hyperborean cycle
The Hyperborean cycle is a series of short stories by Clark Ashton Smith that take place in the fictional prehistoric setting of Hyperborea . Various elements in Smith's cycle have been borrowed by H. P. Lovecraft, most notably the "toad-god" Tsathoggua...

.

Tsathoggua (or Zhothaqquah) is described as an Old One, a godlike being from the pantheon. He was invented in Smith's short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros
The Tale of Satampra Zeiros
"The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" is a short story written in 1929 by Clark Ashton Smith as part of his Hyperborean cycle, and first published in the November 1931 issue of Weird Tales...

", written in 1929 and published in the November 1931 issue of Weird Tales
Weird Tales
Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....

. His first appearance in print, however, was in H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....

's story "The Whisperer in Darkness
The Whisperer in Darkness
"The Whisperer in Darkness" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft. Written February–September 1930, it was first published in Weird Tales, August 1931. Similar to "The Colour Out of Space" , it is a blend of horror and science fiction...

", written in 1930 and published in the August 1931 Weird Tales.

Description

The first description of Tsathoggua occurs in "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros", in which the protagonists encounter one of the entity's idols:
Later, in Smith's "The Seven Geases" (1933), Tsathoggua is described again:
Robert M. Price
Robert M. Price
Robert McNair Price is an American theologian and writer. He teaches philosophy and religion at the Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary, is professor of biblical criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute, and the author of a number of books on theology and the historicity of Jesus, including...

 notes that "Lovecraft's Tsathoggua and Smith's differ at practically every point." Lovecraft, dropping Smith's bat and sloth comparisons, refers to the entity in "The Whisperer in Darkness" as the "amorphous, toad-like god-creature mentioned in the Pnakotic Manuscripts and the Necronomicon and the Commoriom myth-cycle preserved by the Atlantean
Atlantis
Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....

 high-priest Klarkash-Ton"(—the priest's name was Lovecraft's nickname for Tsathoggua's creator.

Later, in "The Horror in the Museum
The Horror in the Museum
"The Horror in the Museum" is a short story ghostwritten by H. P. Lovecraft for Hazel Heald in October 1932. The story has been reprinted in several collections, such as The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions.- Plot :...

", a story ghost-written by Lovecraft, he writes,
He also mentions it in "At the Mountains of Madness
At the Mountains of Madness
At the Mountains of Madness is a novella by horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in February/March 1931 and rejected that year by Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright on the grounds of its length. It was originally serialized in the February, March and April 1936 issues of Astounding Stories...

", in a paragraph mentioning several other gods.

Dwelling

Tsathoggua dwells deep beneath the earth in N'kai. Tsathoggua once dwelt inside Mount Voormithadreth in Hyberborea, but left after the continent iced over.

Formless spawn


The basin ... was filled with a sort of viscous and semi-liquescent substance, quite opaque and of a sooty color.... [T]he center swelled as if with the action of some powerful yeast [and] an uncouth amorphous head with dull and bulging eyes arose gradually on an ever-lengthening neck ... Then two arms — if one could call them arms — likewise arose inch by inch, and we saw that the thing was not ... a creature immersed in the liquid, but that the liquid itself had put forth this hideous neck and head, and [it was now forming arms] that groped toward us with tentacle-like appendages in lieu of claws or hands! ... Then the whole mass of the dark fluid began to rise [and] poured over the rim of the basin like a torrent of black quicksilver, taking as it reached the floor an undulant ophidian form which immediately developed more than a dozen short legs.

—Clark Ashton Smith, "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros"


Tsathoggua's will is carried out by the formless spawn, polymorphic entities made of black goo. They are extremely resilient and very difficult to dispatch. Formless spawn can take any shape and can attack their targets in nearly every conceivable way. They are surprisingly flexible and plastic-like, and can quickly flow into a room through the tiniest of cracks. They attack by trampling their targets, biting them, or crushing them with their grasp. The Call of Cthulhu
Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game)
Call of Cthulhu is a horror fiction role-playing game based on H. P. Lovecraft's story of the same name and the associated Cthulhu Mythos.The game, often abbreviated as CoC, is published by Chaosium.-Setting:...

roleplaying game's entry on Formless Spawn also claims that they are powerfully acidic in substance and can dissolve human flesh with even a slight touch.

Formless spawn often rest in basins in Tsathoggua's temples and keep the sanctuary from being defiled by nonbelievers.

In his story At the Mountains of Madness
At the Mountains of Madness
At the Mountains of Madness is a novella by horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in February/March 1931 and rejected that year by Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright on the grounds of its length. It was originally serialized in the February, March and April 1936 issues of Astounding Stories...

, H. P. Lovecraft states that "[a] few daring mystics have hinted at a pre-Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....

 origin for the fragmentary Pnakotic Manuscripts
Pnakotic Manuscripts
The Pnakotic Manuscripts is a fictional manuscript in the Cthulhu Mythos. The tome was created by H. P. Lovecraft and first appeared in his short story "Polaris"...

, and have suggested that the devotees of Tsathoggua were as alien to mankind as Tsathoggua itself."

The formless spawn appear as adversaries in the video game Quake.

Voormis

A race of cave-dwelling humanoids who worship Tsathoggua. They are the primary focus of a "posthumous collaboration" short story by Lin Carter
Lin Carter
Linwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin.-Life:Carter was born in St. Petersburg, Florida...

 after Clark Ashton Smith's
Clark Ashton Smith
Clark Ashton Smith was a self-educated American poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Swinburne...

 death, The Scroll of Morloc (First published in 1976, The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 2
The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 2
The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 2 is a 1976 anthology of fantasy stories, edited by Lin Carter. It was first published in paperback by DAW Books....

, and again in 1980 in Lost Worlds (Lin Carter)). They are referred to as the Voormi (plural: Voormis) in H. P. Lovecraft's
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....

 fictional manuscript The Pnakotic Fragments
Pnakotic Manuscripts
The Pnakotic Manuscripts is a fictional manuscript in the Cthulhu Mythos. The tome was created by H. P. Lovecraft and first appeared in his short story "Polaris"...

. The Voormis
Voormis
The Voormis are a fictional race of cave-dwelling humanoids who worship Tsathoggua.-Description:The Voormis are the primary focus of a "posthumous collaboration" short story by Lin Carter after Clark Ashton Smith's death, The Scroll of Morloc...

 considered themselves the chosen minions of Tsathoggua and his direct descendants.

...for it was commonly believed that their supreme pontiff and common ancestor had been fathered by none other than Tsathoggua himself during a transient liaison with a minor female divinity who rejoiced in the name of Shathak
— Lin Carter and Clark Ashton Smith, "The Scroll of Morloc"


Now the Voormis had, from their remotest origins, considered themselves the chosen minions of Tsathoggua, the sole deity whose worship they celebrated. And Tsathoggua was an earth elemental ranged in perpetual and unrelenting enmity against the Rhan-Tegoth and all his kind, who were commonly accounted elementals of the air and were objects of contempt to those of the Old Ones, like Tsathoggua, who abominated the airy emptiness above the world and by preference wallowed in darksome and subterranean lairs.
— Lin Carter and Clark Ashton Smith, "The Scroll of Morloc"


The Voormis
Voormis
The Voormis are a fictional race of cave-dwelling humanoids who worship Tsathoggua.-Description:The Voormis are the primary focus of a "posthumous collaboration" short story by Lin Carter after Clark Ashton Smith's death, The Scroll of Morloc...

 are described as three-toed, umber-colored, fur-covered humanoids though they are carefully differentiated from their traditional enemies (the shaggier-haired but superficially similar Gnophkeh
Gnophkeh
The Gnophkehs are a fictional race in the Cthulhu Mythos. They are humanoid cannibals described as being covered in coarse, matted hair with large protruding ears and proboscidean noses. They originally lived in Hyperborea and worshiped the Great Old One Rhan-Tegoth. But Rhan-Tegoth eventually...

s who worshiped the Great Old One Rhan-Tegoth). Both of them are further differentiated from true humans. The Voormis communicate by dog-like howls.

They reside in a continent in Hyperborea which will be known in the future as Mhu Thulan. Specifically in cave systems under the four-coned extinct volcano named after them - Mount Voormithadreth, the tallest peak in the Eiglophian mountains. Their ancestors (as described by Carter's narrative) were originally thralls of the Serpent-people who escaped after the continent of the latter sank to the sea. They are shamanistic and apparently begun dwelling underground in an effort to imitate their deity, Tsathoggua, under the leadership of the eponymous Voorm.

By dwelling subterraneously, it should perhaps be noted here, the Voormis were but imitating the grotesque divinity they worshipped [sic] with rites we might deem excessively sanguinary and revolting. As it was an article of the Voormish faith that this deity, whom they knew as Tsathoggua, made his abode in lightless caverns situated far beneath the earth, their adoption of a troglodytic mode of existence was to some extent primarily symbolic. Their eponymous ancestor of their race, Voorm the arch-ancient, ahd quite early in their history promulgated a doctrine which asserted that their assumption of a wholly subterranean habit would place them in a special relationship of mystical propinquity with their god, who himself preferred to wallow in the gulf of N'kai beneath a mountain to the south considered sacred by the Voormis.
— Lin Carter and Clark Ashton Smith, "The Scroll of Morloc"


The Voormis established a thriving culture in the surface Hyperborea before the coming of humans. Their civilization eventually fell into demise. With constant warfare with their archenemies, the Gnophkeh
Gnophkeh
The Gnophkehs are a fictional race in the Cthulhu Mythos. They are humanoid cannibals described as being covered in coarse, matted hair with large protruding ears and proboscidean noses. They originally lived in Hyperborea and worshiped the Great Old One Rhan-Tegoth. But Rhan-Tegoth eventually...

, they grew smaller and smaller in number until the remnants retreated to the highest slopes of the Eiglophian mountains. They were hunted for sport by later human settlers.

Family tree

Smith literally wed Lovecraft's creations to his own gods, which seem to be molded more like the Greek pantheon
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

 than the cosmic group of Lovecraft's fiction. Indeed, he assigned outlandish familial relationships to his gods — for example, making the Saturnian being Hziulquoigmnzhah the "uncle" of Tsathoggua — and ascribed this bizarre family tree to the Parchments of Pnom, Hyperborea's leading "genealogist
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...

 [and] noted prophet".

According to Pnom, Tsathoggua is the spawn of Ghisguth and Zystulzhemgni. He is the mate of Shathak and the parent of Zvilpogghua.

Cxaxukluth

Cxaxukluth (or Ksaksa-Kluth) is a Great Old One and is the "son" of Azathoth
Azathoth
Azathoth is a deity in the Cthulhu Mythos and Dream Cycle stories of H. P. Lovecraft and other authors. Its epithets include Nuclear Chaos, the Daemon Sultan and the Blind Idiot God.-Inspiration:...

 by spontaneous fission. His progeny are Hziulquoigmnzhah and Ghisguth. He is the grandfather of Tsathoggua.

Cxaxukluth dwells on Yuggoth
Yuggoth
Yuggoth is a fictional planet in the Cthulhu Mythos. H. P. Lovecraft himself said that Yuggoth is the then newly-discovered planet Pluto. However, other writers claim that it is actually an enormous, trans-Neptunian world that orbits perpendicular to the ecliptic of the solar system.-In the...

. His immediate family lived with him for a while, but soon left because of his cannibalistic appetites.

Ghisguth



Ghisguth (or Ghizghuth or Ghisghuth) is the son of Cxaxukluth and the brother of Hziulquoigmnzhah. He is the mate of Zstylzhemghi and the father of Tsathoggua.

Hziulquoigmnzhah

Hziulquoigmnzhah (also Ziulquaz-Manzah) is the son of Cxaxukluth. He is also the brother to Ghisguth and the uncle of Tsathoggua.

His appearance is much like his nephew, but he has an elongated neck, very long forelimbs, and very short, multiple legs. He has had many homes including Xoth (possibly Sirius B), Yaksh (Neptune
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times...

), and Cykranosh
Cykranosh
Cykranosh is the fictional name for the planet Saturn in the Cthulhu Mythos. Cykranosh is the creation of Clark Ashton Smith and is part of his Hyperborean cycle...

 (Saturn), where he resides to this day.

Knygathin Zhaum

Knygathin Zhaum is the child of Sfatlicllp and a Voormi
Voormis
The Voormis are a fictional race of cave-dwelling humanoids who worship Tsathoggua.-Description:The Voormis are the primary focus of a "posthumous collaboration" short story by Lin Carter after Clark Ashton Smith's death, The Scroll of Morloc...

.

He repopulated Hyperborea after humans deserted the cities of Uzuldaroum and Commoriom. Athammaus tried to execute him by beheading, but because of his preternatural heritage, such attempts proved unsuccessful and only served to aggravate him. As a descendant of Cxaxukluth, Knygathin Zhaum reproduced by fission and thus created an Azathoth
Azathoth
Azathoth is a deity in the Cthulhu Mythos and Dream Cycle stories of H. P. Lovecraft and other authors. Its epithets include Nuclear Chaos, the Daemon Sultan and the Blind Idiot God.-Inspiration:...

ian strain among the Hyperborean Voormi
Voormis
The Voormis are a fictional race of cave-dwelling humanoids who worship Tsathoggua.-Description:The Voormis are the primary focus of a "posthumous collaboration" short story by Lin Carter after Clark Ashton Smith's death, The Scroll of Morloc...

.

Sfatlicllp



Sfatlicllp is the daughter of Zvilpogghua. She is the wife of a Voormi and their offspring is Knygathin Zhaum.

Sfatlicllp was likely born on Kythanil and may have procreated the formless spawn once on Earth. She probably dwells in N'kai with Tsathoggua.

Ycnágnnisssz

Ycnágnnisssz is the being from the dark star Xoth who spawned Zstylzhemghi by fission.

Zstylzhemghi

Zstylzhemghi (Matriarch of the Swarm) is the offspring of Ycnagnnisssz, the wife of Ghisguth, and the mother of Tsathoggua.

Zvilpogghua

Zvilpogghua (the Feaster from the Stars) is the son of Tsathoggua and Shathak, and is the father of Sfatlicllp. Zvilpogghua was conceived on the planet Yaksh (Neptune).

Zvilpogghua is known to the American Indians as Ossadagowah. He usually takes the form of an armless, winged, bipedal toad with a long, rubbery neck and a face completely covered in tentacles. He currently dwells on Yrautrom, a planet that orbits the star Algol.

Other appearances

In 1975, Tsathoggua made a cameo in The Golden Apple, book two of The Illuminatus! Trilogy
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
The Illuminatus! Trilogy is a series of three novels written by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson first published in 1975. The trilogy is a satirical, postmodern, science fiction-influenced adventure story; a drug-, sex-, and magick-laden trek through a number of conspiracy theories, both...

, by Robert Shea
Robert Shea
Robert Joseph Shea was an American novelist and former journalist best known as co-author with Robert Anton Wilson of the science fantasy trilogy Illuminatus!. It became a cult success and was later turned into a marathon-length stage show put on at the British National Theatre and elsewhere. In...

 and Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson , known to friends as "Bob", was an American author and polymath who became at various times a novelist, philosopher, psychologist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, civil libertarian and self-described agnostic mystic...

, where he was also referred to as Saint Toad.

The Tsathoggua Cycle

In 2005, Chaosium published a Cthulhu Mythos anthology
Cthulhu Mythos anthology
A Cthulhu Mythos anthology is a type of short story collection that contains stories written in or related to the Cthulhu Mythos genre of horror fiction launched by H. P. Lovecraft...

 edited by Robert M. Price
Robert M. Price
Robert McNair Price is an American theologian and writer. He teaches philosophy and religion at the Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary, is professor of biblical criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute, and the author of a number of books on theology and the historicity of Jesus, including...

 called The Tsathoggua Cycle, which comprised the original Clark Ashton Smith stories featuring Tsathoggua, along with tales by other authors in which the entity has a starring role. The short story collection includes:
  • "From the Parchment of Pnom" by Clark Ashton Smith
  • "The Seven Geases" by Clark Ashton Smith
  • "The Testament of Athammaus
    The Testament of Athammaus
    The Testament of Athmmaus is a short story by Clark Ashton Smith that is part of his Hyperborean cycle. It was published in the October 1932 issue of Weird Tales.-Synopsis:...

    " by Clark Ashton Smith
  • "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros
    The Tale of Satampra Zeiros
    "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" is a short story written in 1929 by Clark Ashton Smith as part of his Hyperborean cycle, and first published in the November 1931 issue of Weird Tales...

    " by Clark Ashton Smith
  • "The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles" by Clark Ashton Smith
  • "Shadow of the Sleeping God" by James Ambuehl
  • "The Curse of the Toad" by Loay Hall and Terry Dale
  • "Dark Swamp" by James Anderson
  • "The Old One" by John Glasby
  • "The Oracle of Sadoqua" by Ron Hilger
  • "Horror Show" by Gary Myers
    Gary Myers (writer)
    Gary Myers is an American writer of fantasy and horror. He is a resident of Fullerton, California. His first book, The House of the Worm, was a collection of Cthulhu Mythos stories in the fantasy manner of H. P. Lovecraft and Lord Dunsany; it was published by Arkham House in 1975 and is now out...

  • "The Tale of Toad Loop" by Stanley C. Sargent
  • "The Crawling Kingdom" by Rod Heather
  • "The Resurrection of Kzadool-Ra" by Henry J. Vester III

See also

  • Lin Carter
    Lin Carter
    Linwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin.-Life:Carter was born in St. Petersburg, Florida...

  • Cthulhu Mythos
    Cthulhu Mythos
    The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...

  • Hyperborean cycle
    Hyperborean cycle
    The Hyperborean cycle is a series of short stories by Clark Ashton Smith that take place in the fictional prehistoric setting of Hyperborea . Various elements in Smith's cycle have been borrowed by H. P. Lovecraft, most notably the "toad-god" Tsathoggua...

  • H. P. Lovecraft
    H. P. Lovecraft
    Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....

  • Clark Ashton Smith
    Clark Ashton Smith
    Clark Ashton Smith was a self-educated American poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Swinburne...

  • The Mind Parasites
    The Mind Parasites
    The Mind Parasites is a science fiction horror novel by author Colin Wilson. It was published by Arkham House in 1967 in an edition of 3,045 copies. It was Wilson's first and only book published by Arkham House.The book is based on H.P...


Web sites

(Online version of the "Introduction" to The Book of Hyperborea ISBN 0-940884-87-9.)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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