A Deep One is a fictional character in the Cthulhu Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. The beings first appeared in Lovecraft's short story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" (1931). 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 Innsmouth, the undersea city of Y'ha-nthlei, the Esoteric Order of Dagon, 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 DerlethThe Deep Ones are a popular fixture in Derleth's Cthulhu Mythos fiction, appearing in about half of his tales. ("Derleth's Use of the Words 'Ichthic' and 'Batrachian'", Crypt of Cthulhu #9.).

Summary

I think their predominant colour 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.
—H.P. Lovecraft, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth"

The Deep Ones are 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 serve the beings known as Father Dagon and Mother Hydra, as well as Cthulhu. They are opposed by mysterious beings known as the Old Ones, whose powerful magic can keep them in check.

Deep One hybrid

On occasion, Deep Ones will make deals with humans. In exchange for human sacrifices, Deep Ones will bestow various gifts such as gold jewelry or, if the humans are sea folk, the guarantee of plentiful fishing. But eventually they will demand "mixing"—the mating, perhaps forced—of themselves and humans. The offspring of the pairing is immortal. Unfortunately, it is a faustian bargain, because although the Deep One hybrid is 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 of a hybrid into a Deep One usually does not occur until the individual reaches middle age, though some hybrids have been known to develop sooner. In any event, the transformation always follows the same pattern. As the hybrid gets older, it begins to take 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 and will then go live with the Deep Ones in one of their undersea cities.

In the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game, the Deep Ones' unusual mating habits are attributed to the fact that as the population in a given undersea city increases, fertility decreases, because female Deep Ones begin eating their young.

Father Dagon and Mother Hydra

Father Dagon and Mother Hydra are both minor Great Old Ones; 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. (See Dagon, a Semitic 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 is in fact just a gigantic Deep One. It is also possible that she holds a titular position for the city that happens to have the largest and nastiest Deep One in its civilization.

Y'ha-nthlei

"Cyclopean and many-columned Y'ha-nthlei"Lovecraft, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". is by far the most prominent Deep One city. It is a great undersea metropolis located below Devil's Reef just off the coast of Massachusetts, near the town of Innsmouth. Its exact age is not known, but it is probably thousands of centuries old"For eighty thousand years Pht'thya-l'yi had lived in Y'ha-nthlei" (ibid). By inference, Y'ha-nthlei is probably much older..

In 1928, the U.S. government torpedoed Devil's Reef as part of a raid on the town of Innsmouth (the press attributed the raids to Prohibition-era "war on liquor", but certain hints suggested that a darker purpose was at work). Years later, Devil's Reef was bombed yet again by Delta Green (in 1953) and the Wilmarth Foundation (in 1974). Despite these repeated attacks, it is likely that the Deep Ones' great metropolis is still thriving.

Deep One cities doubtless exist in all the oceans of the world. At least two other undersea metropoli are known of: Ahu-Y'hloa near Cornwall and G'll-Hoo in the Northern Sea near Surtsey.

Popular culture

The movie Dagon features the Deep Ones and the Esoteric Order of Dagon appears as the primary antagonists. It is inspired by "The Shadow Over Innsmouth." The movie moves the action to a small coastal town in Galicia, in the northwest of Spain. 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 University.

Deep Ones are also featured as adversaries in the video game Alone In The Dark.

In Oblivion, the decrepit xenophobic town of Hackdirt has a strange cult dedicated to the "Deep Ones".

The second season of Digimon featured creatures that resembled the Deep Ones. They (nicknamed the Digi-Dark Ones) also served/worshipped a greater being called Dragomon, who was their Dark Undersea Master, and appears to be based off Cthulhu.

The game X-Com 2: Terror from the Deep includes Deep Ones as an alien adversary.

See also

• The Loveland Frog, a cryptid resembling a smaller and less fish-like version of the Deep Ones

References

Primary source

• Definitive version.

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.

Notes