Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia

by Daniel Harms

  SUSSEX MANUSCRIPT.

  See Cultus Maleficarum; Necronomicon (appendices).

  SWAMI CHANDRAPUTRA

  See Chandraputra, Swami.

  T

  * * *

  TABLETS OF NHING

  Set of inscriptions kept on the planet Yaddith. It is unknown just what is contained within them, for no human has seen a copy.

  See Yaddith. (“Through the Gates of the Silver Key”, Lovecraft and Price (O).)

  TAMASH

  Great One once revered in Sarnath and Hyperborea. He appears as a small man with silver skin and black hair and beard. He is the patron of wizards, and often casts bizarre illusions. Tamash is dedicated to alleviating pain, and enjoys unbelievable tales, especially those that are true. Tamash is often attended by six daemons.

  (“Wizards of Hyperborea”, Fultz and Burns; “The Doom that Came to Sarnath”, Lovecraft (O); “The Maker of Gods”, Myers; H. P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands, Petersen et. al.)

  TANARIAN HILLS

  Purple rises of the Dreamlands that hold many gateways to the waking world and other realms of dream. Beyond these hills lie the valley of Ooth-Nargai and the city of Celephaïs.

  See Celephaïs. (“Celephaïs”, Lovecraft (O); “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, Lovecraft.)

  TARRA KHASH

  Warrior of Theem’hdra. Tarra Khash was born among the steppes of Hrossa, but was cast out from his people due to a tribal feud and forced to wander the world. Through his adventures with the lamia Orbiquita and the wizard Black Yoppaloth of Yhemnis, he became the Primal Land’s most famous hero.

  See Theem’hdra. (“Kiss of the Lamia”, Lumley; Sorcery in Shad, Lumley; “Told in the Desert”, Lumley; “Treasure of the Scarlet Scorpion”, Lumley (O).)

  TAWIL AT-’UMR

  See ‘Umr at-Tawil.

  TCHO-TCHO LAMA OF LENG

  See High Priest Not to be Described.

  TCHO-TCHOS

  Group of people encountered in such far-flung places as the Andaman Islands, Malaysia, and Tibet. They are usually thought of as dwelling near the Plateau of Leng in central Asia, though others have suggested that the center of their influence is the Plateau of Sung in Burma.

  At the beginning of time, the Tcho-Tcho’s god Chaugnar Faugn created a race of dwarfs known as the Miri Nigri from the flesh of prehistoric reptiles. The mating of the Miri with Chaugnar’s human worshipers gave rise to the Tcho-Tchos. This strange race of dwarves then migrated to the east from their former home in the Pyrenees, carrying Chaugnar to his new dwelling place. By the second century, they had become the Tochoans, a people living in what is today Afghanistan and the surrounding regions. An alternate history tells of how the Tcho-Tchos came to this world out of the Great Abyss to the Dreamlands city of Sarkomand, and then to the Plateau of Sung. According to this legend, the Tcho-tchos may have been servants of the Elder Gods sent to guard Zhar and Lloigor who degenerated with the passage of time and the influence of the black lotus. It is uncertain whether these stories are compatible.

  At any rate, even orthodox anthropologists suggest that the Tcho-Tchos are genetically disparate enough from most humans that they may have diverged from our genetic line as long ago as Homo erectus. Some even say that the Tcho-Tcho are so genetically diverse that they require special rituals in order to mate, though little evidence of this exists.

  Though the Tcho-Tchos were once widespread throughout eastern Asia, more recently they have dwindled to only a few isolated groups, most prominently in Malaysia and Cambodia. All nearby tribes despise their Tcho-Tcho neighbors. Most anthropologists believed until recently that the Japanese had exterminated all of them in 1932, as Edward Roberts stated in his Tcho-Tcho: Fact or Fiction? Tcho-Tcho tribes lived in Indochina and were armed by the CIA during the Vietnam War, but in 1970–71 the U. S. secretly bombed every known or suspected Tcho-Tcho village in the area. A few years ago, however, certain congressmen passed measures allowing the immigration of forty thousand Tcho-Tchos to the United States. These immigrants seem determined to keep their native traditions alive in this new land, creating criminal triads and holding their ceremonies in secret.

  Besides Chaugnar, Tcho-Tchos also worship Zhar, Lloigor, Shub-Niggurath, Hastur, and Atlach-Nacha. They also engage in cannibalism, as well as other unpleasant rites that allow their agricultural methods to yield abundant crops.

  See Alaozar; black lotus; Chaugnar Faugn; E-poh; Leng; Miri Nigri; Nyarlathotep (Shugoran); Shub-Niggurath; Tsang; Unaussprechlichen Kulten. (Malleus Monstrorum, Aniolowski; “The Curse of Chaugnar Faugn”, Barton; “Behind the Mask”, Carter; “The Strange Doom of Enos Harker”, Carter; “The Doom of Enos Harker”, Carter and Cornford; “Goat-Mother”, Comtois; “Made of Meat”, Conyers; Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, Cook and Tynes; “Lair of the Star-Spawn”, Derleth and Schorer (O); Delta Green, Detwiller, Glancy, and Tynes; Delta Green: Countdown, Detwiller et. al.; “The Curse of the Toad”, Hall and Dale; “The Andaman Islands”, Herber; “Dawn Biozyme”, Isinwyll with Hike; “Black Man With a Horn”, Klein.)

  TCH’TKA

  See Gray Weavers.

  TEH ATHT OF KLUHN

  Second-greatest wizard of the primal land of Theem’hdra, said to have been descended from the mighty Mylakhrion. The manuscript entitled Legends of the Olden Runes, discovered in a curious golden box after the creation of Surtsey, is attributed to him.

  See Broken Columns of Geph; Exior K’mool; Legends of the Olden Runes; Theem’hdra. (Elysia, Lumley; “Introduction” to The House of Cthulhu and Other Tales of the Primal Land, Lumley (O); “Mylakhrion the Immortal”, Lumley.)

  TEKELI-LI

  Word that is often spoken by the shoggoths, though on occasion such beings as Hastur have voiced it as well. It is mentioned in Arthur Gordon Pym’s bottled manuscript as a word spoken by the people of an uncharted Antarctic isle and a cry of the huge white birds that inhabit the pole.

  [In Poe’s story, the word “Tekeli-li” was a cry the natives of the Antarctic gave when anything white was seen. It may have been taken from the title of a play called “Tekeli” in which Poe’s mother acted. What this has to do with shoggoths is uncertain.]

  (“The Return of Hastur”, Derleth; “At the Mountains of Madness”, Lovecraft; “The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym of Nantucket”, Poe (O).)

  TEMPHILL

  Town in the Cotswolds, east of Brichester. The town’s original name was “Temple Hill”, due to the rites conducted on a hill near the town’s center in ancient times.

  The founders of Temphill were a group of ex-Templars who, after King Edward II dissolved their order in 1307, travelled to this area, bearing documents that their Order had discovered in Palestine. Although these former knights attempted to assimilate themselves into the local religious community, they were not entirely successful. Accusations of heresy and witch-burning were commonplace for hundreds of years thereafter.

  In the early 19th century, a necromantic cult existed among the people of Temphill. According to legend, the worshipers convened in huge caverns beneath the graveyard on the hill, where they disinterred and reanimated the dead for the purpose of mating with them and having children with supernatural powers. The cult collapsed after a while, but it is still rumored that most of Temphill’s population still visits the church on the hill on Halloween and Christmas Eve.

  See Goatswood. (“The Church in High Street” (O), Campbell; “The Horror from the Bridge”, Campbell; “The Curate of Temphill”, Cannon and Price.)

  TEMPLE OF THE TOAD

  Fane located somewhere in the jungles of Honduras. A Native American civilization that had decayed centuries before the Spaniards arrived built the Temple as the focus of a gate to Tsathoggua’s dimension. Within the Temple’s crumbled columns rests a throne, upon which sits the mummified remains of the temple’s former high priest. A necklace bearing a gem carved into the shape of his god still encircles the mummy’s neck. According to von Junzt’s Unaussprechlichen Kulten, this gem is the key to the
temple’s treasure.

  Only three explorers have ever visited the Temple of the Toad: Juan Gonzales, a Spanish explorer who visited the temple in 1793; Friedrich von Junzt, author of Unaussprechlichen Kulten; and Tussmann, an archaeologist of some note. Tussmann brought something back with him from his trip to the temple, but he died shortly thereafter, and no trace of any such items was found. A secretive cult now protects the Temple from outsiders – including the faithful of Tsathoggua.

  (“The Thing on the Roof”, Howard (O); Cthulhu Live: Lost Souls, Salmon et. al.)

  TERRIBLE OLD MAN

  Individual, known to a few as Captain Richard Holt, who lived on Water Street in Kingsport.

  Holt’s family had lived in Kingsport for generations. In his youth, he traveled to the Far East, where he had learned much of the mystical traditions of that region, and to Hungary, where he visited the Black Stone. The locals whispered about the curious carvings in his yard and the bottles with lead pendulums inside with which he held conversations at night. He paid for his purchases at the local shops with gold and silver coins, yet he had no trouble with thieves after one attempted break-in. Few visit him in his house, as he dislikes visitors.

  By modern times, Holt has vanished. His house remains intact, and many still fear the statuettes that remain on his lawn.

  (“The Strange High House in the Mist”, Lovecraft; “The Terrible Old Man”, Lovecraft (O); “The Fungal Stain”, Pugmire; “A Phantom of Beguilement”, Pugmire; Kingsport, Ross et. al.)

  THE TESTAMENT OF CARNAMAGOS

  Book by a Cimmerian oracle named Carnamagos, said to have bartered away his soul for knowledge. (Others attribute it to the Hyperboreans, claiming that the first copy was in the Tsath-yo language). The first recorded copy was discovered in a Graeco-Bactrian tomb in the year 935, along with a copy of the Book of Eibon. A monk translated the book into Greek and penned two copies in the blood of a half-demon monstrosity. The fate of the original is unknown, and the Inquisition is thought to have destroyed one of the two copies during the thirteen century.

  A person who owns the Testament should beware the curious temporal effects that accompany its reading. As a person reads the book, they and their surroundings age at a highly accelerated rate. Although this is not necessarily fatal, it can be dangerous and very unpleasant. In addition, those who have desired death should also avoid reading the invocation of Quachil Uttaus, for this being sometimes comes unbidden to such people.

  The Testament contains many records of events in both the past and future. It deals in some detail with Quachil Uttaus, gives information about the evil star Yamil Zacra, and contains an incantation to disintegrate a dead body. One section purports to describe Alexander the Great’s solution to the Gordian knot, but this might be a later addition to the text.

  See Quachil Uttaus. (History and Chronology of the Book of Eibon, Carter; “The Condemned”, Herber; “The Gordian Knot”, Price; “The Mythos Collector”, Sammons; “The Infernal Star” (fragment), Smith; “The Treader of the Dust”, Smith; “Xeethra”, Smith (O).)

  THALARION

  City with high grey walls, enormous spires, and a carved stone gate called Akariel. Thalarion is the City of a Thousand Wonders, but all who dwell inside are either madmen or demons. The city’s founder was a King Thal, whose armies were unstoppable due to the magic he found at Thalarion’s site, but who came to a grisly end nonetheless. The eidolon Lathi, who some describe as a woman with the lower body of a termite and others as being even more horrible, rules the city. The bones of those who have gazed upon Lathi lie unburied on the streets of Thalarion. Nonetheless, seekers after the truth often camp outside its walls, hoping for a glimpse of its beauty.

  See Great Trees, Sansu. (“Thalarion: City of a Thousand Wonders”, Bock; “The White Ship”, Lovecraft (O); Hero of Dreams, Lumley.)

  THALE

  1) Character in the play The King in Yellow; 2) According to Hali, the second king to blazon the Yellow Sign upon his cloak.

  See King in Yellow. (“The Repairer of Reputations”, Chambers (O); “Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?”, Ross; House of the Toad, Tierney.)

  THASAIDON (possibly also TISAIDA and THAZAIDON)

  God who represents the principle of evil. He was worshiped in Mu, though his worship will reach its height in Zothique. Taking the form of a mace-wielding warrior in full armor, he attempts to seduce mortals to his cause. The power and prestige of his victims does not matter to Thasaidon, but all of them will regret their decision in the end.

  An incantation called the “Skull of Thasaidon” causes all that view a spectral demonic visage to stare uncontrollably at it.

  Thasaidon might be another form of Nyarlathotep; though no explicit link exists, their portfolios and modus operandi seem similar.

  (“Star-Spawn of Hyperborea”, Fultz; “The Dark Eidolon”, Smith; “The Infernal Star”, Smith; “The Tomb-Spawn”, Smith (O); “Xeethra”, Smith.)

  THAT IS NOT DEAD WHICH CAN ETERNAL LIE, AND WITH STRANGE AEONS EVEN DEATH MAY DIE

  Couplet that appears in the Necronomicon of Abdul Alhazred, but that some scholars attribute to Klarkash-Ton. Many take it to refer to the Nameless City, but others have suggested a double meaning with reference to the Great Old Ones.

  See Alhazred, Abdul; Great Old Ones; Necronomicon (appendix). (“The Call of Cthulhu”, Lovecraft; “The Nameless City”, Lovecraft (O); “The Sussex Manuscript”, Pelton.)

  THAT WHICH RELENTLESSLY WAITS OUTSIDE

  See Yomagn’tho.

  THAUMATURGICAL PRODIGIES IN THE NEW-ENGLISH CANAAN (also PRODIGIES IN THE NEW ENGLAND CANAAN or THAUMATURGICAL PRODIGIES IN THE NEW ENGLAND CANAAN)

  Book by Reverend Ward Phillips of the Second Church in Arkham, Massachusetts. Two editions were published: the first in 1794, and a second expurgated publication in Boston in 1801.

  Several years after the second edition was printed, Reverend Phillips became involved in a dispute with Alijah Billington, who lived just outside Arkham. This feud seemed to center upon accusations made in Prodigies against Alijah’s ancestor Richard Billington. Shortly thereafter the Reverend tried to buy up all the copies of his book and burn them.

  This book deals with the strange happenings and supposed wizards of New England, but with especial focus upon the Arkham and Salem areas. One chapter deals with the myths of the Abenaki Native Americans. What separates this from other works such as Cotton Mather’s Wonders of the Invisible World is that Phillips’ tales have an air of authenticity the other volumes lack.

  [Lovecraft was actually the creator of Thaumaturgical Prodigies, though it never showed up in his work. Derleth found his notes and used them, changing the date of publication from 1697 to 1801. As far as I can tell, the substitution of “New England” for “New-English” comes from Sandy Petersen.]

  See Billington, Alijah; Phillips, Ward. (“The Winfield Heritance”, Carter; “The Lurker at the Threshold”, Derleth and Lovecraft (O); “Das entsetzlich einsam gelegene Haus im Wald”, Heller; Keeper’s Compendium, Herber; “The Auction”, McCall; Call of Cthulhu Rulebook, 5th ed., Petersen and Willis.)

  THEEM’HDRA

  Continent that existed before the age of dinosaurs. In its time, it was home to many powerful wizards, including Mylakhrion, Exior K’mool, and Teh Atht. Tarra Khash was one of its most famous heroes.

  See Broken Columns of Geph; Exior K’mool; Gleeth; Khrissa; Legends of the Olden Runes; Mnomquah; Mylakhrion; Sathlattae; Tarra Khash; Teh Atht; Yibb-Tstll. (“The House of Cthulhu”, Lumley (O); “Name and Number”, Lumley.)

  THEMYSTOS’ ISLAND

  Island in the Miskatonic River in Arkham, closest to the Garrison Street Bridge. It is deserted, featuring only tall grass and rows of monoliths of unknown origin. The place has a dark reputation, often being associated with legends of Keziah Mason and tales of a stone altar where the devil held his sabbats. In more recent times, it has seen the activities of various cults. Its name is known only to a few, who claim Themyst
os is a worm-like being seen on the island on occasion.

  (“The Colour out of Space”, Lovecraft (O); “The Dreams in the Witch-House”, Lovecraft; Other Nations, Marsh and Marsh.)

  THERON MARKS SOCIETY

  Society founded in Arkham by a mysterious man named Theron Marks in 1920. The Society was a part-time group dedicated to destroying evidence of the Mythos. Despite its high rate of mortality and insanity, the Society survived well into the 1930s.

  (“Theron Marks Manual”, Stalin (O).)

  THING IN THE YELLOW MASK

  See Nyarlathotep (Thing in the Yellow Mask).