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A number of supernatural characters appear in the Cthulhu Mythos. While many of these beings have godlike qualities, they do not fit the standard categories (that is, Outer God or Great Old One). Nonetheless, they are noteworthy for their infrequent or sometimes singular appearances in the mythos.
Green God
The Green God was created by British author Ramsey Campbell for his short story "The Horror Under Warrendown" (1995).
The Green God resembles one of the giant, cephalic statues of Easter Island, the Moai, albeit one completely covered with vegetation. The plants, however, do not grow separately from the statue, but are in fact part of the Green God itself. The god can extend vine-like tentacles to capture a victim or to give a communion offering to a worshipper. The Green God appears to represent fertility or evolution, similar to the Cthulhu Mythos "goddess" Yidhra.
The god possesses a strange mutagenic ability: anyone who partakes of its flesh (i.e., the vegetables that grow from its plant-like overgrowth) will eventually transform into a grotesque, rabbit-like mutant. These mutants worship and serve the god, and are dedicated to tricking others into joining their cult by offering them fresh vegetables harvested from the Green God.Campbell, The Horror Under Warrendown, Made In Goatswood, pp. 253–68.
- Connection to E'ilor
While the Green God is unnamed in Campbell's story, a similar plant-like deity named E'ilor is mentioned in the short story "Correlated Contents" by James Ambuehl. Both of these deities receive brief mention in the multi-volume grimoire Revelations of Glaaki. E'ilor dwells in a large cavern deep beneath a small farming village in the Severn Valley. Like the Green God, E'ilor possesses vine-like tentacles which can be used for capturing prey or offering communal sacrifices. It is not known whether Ambuehl had meant to imply that E'ilor is the Green God, though it would certainly appear so.
Magnum Innominandum
Magnum Innominandum means "Great not-to-be Named" in Latin. It is also known as the Nameless Mist and N'yog-Sothep.
According to H.P. Lovecraft, this being is the spawn of Azathoth (making it on par with the Magnum Tenebrosum and Cxaxukluth) and is associated with, and possibly the progenitor of, Yog-Sothoth. It is also associated with Hastur. Little is known about this god, but it is considered to be extremely dangerous to sorcerors, hence its title "the unnameable" (archaic terminology, meaning not to be summoned or ritually named in an incantation).
Mlandoth and Mril Thorion
Mlandoth and Mril Thorion were created by Walter C. DeBill Jr., but were suggested years earlier by Clark Ashton Smith. According to the cycle surrounding these beings, they are a sort of cosmic Yin and Yang, whose meeting resulted in the creation of all things (although the terrible Azathoth is usually attributed to this). Their joinings routinely create and destroy matter and entities. One of the beings created in this way was the inimical Outer God Ngyr-Khorath.
Pharol
Pharol is a powerful and dangerous demon that looks like "a black, fanged, cycloptic thing with arms like swaying serpents."Carter, "Shaggai", The Book of Eibon, p. 206. The entity normally dwells in another dimension—a "seething and sub-dimensional chaos" beyond the mundane universeIbid, p. 207.. The wizard Eibon of Hyperborea sometimes summoned Pharol to query him for arcane information.Harms, "Pharol", p. 238, The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana. Daniel Harms believes that Pharol was invented by C. L. Moore, Henry Kuttner's wife, since the being appears in many of her stories.
Servitors of the Outer Gods
The Servitors of the Outer Gods are the servants of the powerful Lesser Outer Gods that swirl, writhe, and dance endlessly before the throne of Azathoth at the center of the universe. The Servitors play the insane flute tunes and drum beats to which the Outer Gods dance. Though they have no fixed shape, they are described as looking something like a toad and an octopus. These extradimensional beings can be summoned to Earth to assist in worship and other occult ceremonies of cultists of the mythos.
Xexanoth
Xexanoth appears only once in Clark Ashton Smith's "The Chain of Aforgomon" (1935), where it is summoned by the main character. Xexanoth is apparently the bane and mortal enemy of the time god Aforgomon. Since Aforgomon is likely an avatar of the Outer God Yog-Sothoth, Xexanoth may be an Elder God or Outer God.
Xiurhn
Xiurhn is the creation of Gary Myers and is also the name of the short story, "Xiurhn" (1975), that introduces the entity.
Xiurhn is a curious being. His soul is contained in a large, tempting jewel. Those unscrupulous enough to steal it suffer the fate of having their own souls placed into jewels. Xiurhn then carves off those parts to his own liking, transforming them into archetypes of what is left over.
Xiurhn's physical appearance is quite terrible. He is portrayed as a winged, slothlike fiend with a hideous, pulpy face. Xiurhn serves the Outer God known as the Magnum Tenebrosum and dwells in the Vale Which Is the Night in the Dreamlands.
References
- Ambuehl, James. "Correlated Contents" in Shards Of Darkness, Mythos Books.
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- Aniolowski, Scott David. The Creature Compendium, Chaosium Publications.
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Notes
"Cthulhu Mythos supernatural characters"