Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia

by Harms, Daniel

  (“Those Beneath the Waves”, Arnold; “Casting the Stone”, Pocsik; “Blood from a Stone”, Wellman (O).)

  N

  NAACH-TITH. See Barrier of Naach-Tith.

  NAACAL. Language spoken on the lost continent of Mu. This tongue may have originated in Hyperborea and was the sacred language of the priests of Mu. It later served as the basis for Mayan hieroglyphic writing. Naacal is now known only to a handful of lamas in the Himalayas, and can be split into two dialects, the common and the hieratic, or “priestly”. The originals of the Ponape Scripture and the Zanthu Tablets were written in hieratic Naacal. The author James Churchward wrote an unpublished guide to the language, the Naacal Key.

  [James Churchward first mentioned the Naacal people in The Lost Continent of Mu. According to Churchward, tablets inscribed in their language were located at temples in India and Tibet and told the history of Mu. Very few people take Churchward seriously any more, but the authors of the Cthulhu Mythos were happy to appropriate his language and mention it in their stories.]

  See Cthaat Aquadingen; Glyu’Uho; Naacal Key; Ponape; Zanthu Tablets. (“The Dweller in the Tomb”, Carter; “The Fishers from Outside:, Carter; “The Ring of the Hyades”, Glasby; A Resection of Time, Johnson; “Out of the Aeons”, Lovecraft and Heald; “Through the Gates of the Silver Key”, Lovecraft and Price (O).)

  NAGAAE. Amphibious creatures living somewhere in western Germany. A nagaae has the body and hind legs of frog with four arms like those of a human. Each has two bulging eyes and a slit with two forked tongues for a mouth. The nagaae move by pushing themselves along with their two hind feet, leaving wide furrows in their wake.

  The nagaae are the servitors of the Great Old One Cyäegha and often attend its rituals. See Cyäegha. (“Darkness, My Name Is”, Bertin (O).)

  NAGGOOB. Personage known as the “Father of Ghouls”, and head of the servitors of Nyogtha. Though some claim that he is the leader of all ghouls, it seems more likely that he is the head of a small faction that dwells beneath the Plateau of Leng. Naggoob is believed to have presided over the coven-meetings of the Salem witches.

  (“Zoth-Ommog”, Carter (O); The Complete Dreamlands, Wiliams and Petersen.)

  NAMELESS CITY. Ruins buried somewhere in the deserts of Arabia, near Hadramaut. At one time the city lay beneath the ocean, but it came to the surface after a cataclysmic buckling of the earth’s crust. A species of reptilian humanoids, possibly a branch race of the deep ones or the serpent men, populated the city. These creatures are believed to have been aquatic, since their power was still great when the city lay on the seacoast but declined as its climate became drier.

  The creatures of the city created an advanced civilization and settled several other outposts when the land was still rich and green. A major cataclysm destroyed their surface dwellings, causing them to live underground. When humans appeared in the Middle East and constructed the city of Irem, the reptiles fed on their people and inspired numerous cults that the people of Irem tried desperately to ferret out.

  In the end, conflict erupted between the dwellers in Irem and the Nameless City, causing the reptiles to collapse the city of Irem. The remaining reptiles withdrew further to their deepest cavern-temples, carving through the rock to an underground paradise their prophets had promised them. All the inhabitants of the Nameless City departed to this subterranean world, leaving their city uninhabited. The squabbling remnants rest in that underground world, waging war between the clans over the preserved bodies of their ancestors. Today, only a few walls and cavern shrines remain to show their might.

  Though it has been empty for centuries, the natives of this region still shun the Nameless City. Before he wrote the Necronomicon, Abdul Alhazred spent much time here. According to Professor Shrewsbury, the forces of evil took Abdul Alhazred to this city following his illusory “demise” in Damascus.

  [Though it has become customary to place the Nameless City beneath Irem in Mythos fiction, the descriptions of both from Lovecraft’s fiction make this unlikely. Given that most of these are the descriptions of heat-crazed madmen, perhaps some reconciliation is possible.]

  See Abdul Alhazred; Irem; Kara-Shehr; Mnomquah; That is not dead … (“The Keeper of the Key”, Derleth; “The Lurker at the Threshold”, Derleth and Lovecraft; “A History of the Necronomicon”, Lovecraft; “The Nameless City”, Lovecraft (O); “The Return of the Deep Ones”, Lumley; Alhazred, Tyson; Necronomicon, Tyson.)

  NAMELESS CULTS. See Unaussprechlichen Kulten.

  NAMELESS MIST (possibly also MAGNUM INNOMINANDUM). Being spawned by Azathoth which in turn gave rise to Yog-Sothoth in the Hour of the Spiral Wind from Nith. It is served by the gugs.

  See gugs; Magnum Innominandum; Yog-Sothoth. (“Dreams of the Black Lotus”, Carter; “The Shadow from the Stars”, Carter; Selected Letters IV, Lovecraft (O).)

  NAOTALBA. 1) High priest of Yhtill in the play The King in Yellow. See King in Yellow. (“The Repairer of Reputations”, Chambers (O); “Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?”, Ross.)

  2) King of Carcosa who sent the “record-keepers” out from the library of Celaeno to the far corners of the earth to disseminate the knowledge of the Great Old Ones. See King in Yellow. (“The Repairer of Reputations”, Chambers (O); House of the Toad, Tierney.)

  NASHT AND KAMAN-THA. Two mysterious individuals dressed as Egyptian priests. They are never encountered outside of the Cavern of Flame at the Dreamlands’ entrance. Nasht and Kaman-Tha seem indistinguishable, though some consider Nasht to have a greater understanding of the waking world. The two decide whether a visitor is worthy to enter the lands of dream, and they may be asked about the Dreamlands and the ways of its gods. Some people of the Dreamlands revere Nasht and Kaman-Tha as gods, but it is unclear whether they number among the Great Ones or merely serve as their priests.

  See Dreamlands; Seventy Steps of Light Slumber. (“The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, Lovecraft (O); “Passing of a Dreamer”, Myers; H. P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands, Petersen et. al.)

  NATH. Location known as the Land of the Three Suns. The history of this place is detailed in the Chronike von Nath. Nath may be identical with the infamous Vale of Pnath, but the descriptions of the two places seem greatly different. Another possibility is that it is a world home to the Elder Things. One dreamer records such a world as having three suns, and documents of that race speak of artifacts known as the “Spheres of Nath.”

  See Chronicles of Nath; Pnath; Spheres of Nath; Tunneler Below. (“Dreams in the Witch-House”, Lovecraft (O); “The Tree on the Hill”, Lovecraft and Rimel; “In the Vaults Beneath”, Lumley.)

  NATH-HORTHATH. Great One who is the chief god of Celephaïs. His temple in that city is turquoise, and its eighty priests have lived there for ten thousand years. In Hyperborean times, he was the god of the moon, who observed all dreams, protected humans from nightmares, and gave guidance to rulers. Nath-Horthath’s statues show him with two faces, and lions are sacred to him. Sometimes he will send forth a black, shadowy lion to help those especially favored by him.

  See Nithy-Vash. (“Wizards of Hyperborea”, Fultz and Burns; “Celephaïs”, Lovecraft (O); “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, Lovecraft; H. P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands, Petersen et. al.; “Kadath/The Vision and the Journey”, Winter-Damon.)

  NAVISSA CAMP. Town in Manitoba that grew out of a trading post near the Olassie Trail. In 1930, Navissa saw the reappearance of three individuals, two living and one dead, who had vanished from Stillwater the year before. Both died shortly thereafter, and the investigating constable himself vanished, to reappear dead nearby after ten days.

  (“Born of the Winds”, Lumley”; “The Thing that Walked on the Wind”, Derleth (O).)

  NECROLATRY (“Worship of the Dead”; also NECROLOGY). Book written by Ivor Gorstadt and published in the year 1702 in Leipzig. The Hoag family of Kingsport once held a copy of Necrolatry, which is now presumably in the library of Miskatonic University.

  The book deals with people
who have revealed the workings of secret cults and who have paid the price. A great deal of space is spent on Ludwig Prinn and Abdul Alhazred. Other sources indicate that the book may hold some sort of incantations as well.

  (“Introduction” to Dreams from R’lyeh, Carter; “The Last Ritual”, Carter (O); Ex Libris Miskatonici, Stanley.)

  NECRONOMICON. See appendices.

  NEPHREN-KA (also known as the Black Pharaoh). Mythical ruler of ancient Egypt. The earliest such figure, mentioned in the Necronomicon, was a lord of Acheron buried in a shroud containing the secrets of Nyarlathotep. Little more is known about him, however.

  Most scholars are in firmer agreement that Nephren-Ka was the last pharaoh of the Third Dynasty. Legend has it that Nephren-Ka was a mighty sorcerer, the greatest of Egypt’s priest-kings. He made a deal with Nyarlathotep in the lost city of Irem, and upon his return revived the worship of that god in that land (indeed, some even considered him to be Nyarlathotep’s avatar) and ruled the land as pharaoh. During his reign the priesthoods of Bast, Anubis, and Sebek flourished. The Black Pharaoh is also credited with the discovery of the Shining Trapezohedron.

  There was great discontent within the populace due to these changes, and soon thereafter the people of Egypt were in revolt. In the end, Sneferu, the founder of the Fourth Dynasty who had received aid from the goddess Isis, prevailed over the Dark Pharaoh. Nephren-Ka made his way toward the coast, in order to escape to a “western island.” Enemy forces cut him off, however, somewhere near the site of modern-day Cairo. The evil pharaoh and his priests vanished, having buried themselves in an underground vault whose location has remained a secret to this day. Baffled, Sneferu declared the Black Pharaoh dead and had Nephren-Ka’s name stricken from all records and monuments.

  In the depths of his hidden funeral vault, Nephren-Ka sacrificed one hundred victims to Nyarlathotep. In exchange for this gift, the Mighty Messenger bestowed the gift of prophecy upon his servant. Nephren-Ka spent the last days of his life drawing the future of the world on the walls of his tomb.

  The Sixth Dynasty saw the rise of Queen Nitocris, who revived the worship of Nyarlathotep. Some say that another (or possibly the same?) Nephren-Ka appeared at the end of that dynasty, the child of Nitocris and Nyarlathotep. We have virtually no information about his reign, however.

  During the Eighteenth Dynasty, Amenhotep IV (or Akenaten) found the remains of Nephren-Ka and magically called up the dead wizard. Nephren-Ka influenced the young pharaoh, convincing him to transform his land’s religion into the disguised worship of his own gods. Nephren-Ka soon realized that the time for his resurgence was not right, and returned to his tomb, leaving Akenaten’s reign to fall.

  No one knows what happened to the remaining followers of the Black Pharaoh. Some say they were pushed south into the swamps beyond the Sudan. Others assert that the cultists traveled to Britain. A third school of thought holds that the magicians remained in Egypt, carrying on their worship in secret.

  The tomb of Nephren-Ka likewise remains a mystery. Comtemporary records state that the Collapsed Pyramid at Meidum and the Bent Pyramid of Dahshur were both built for the internment of Nephren-Ka and that he rests in the Bent Pyramid. No explorers of this pyramid have found any trace of his remains, however. It has been suggested that seven thousand years after his death, the Black Pharaoh will rise again.

  [Bloch mentions “biblical times” and The Book of the Dead in “Fane”, which places the dark pharaoh’s life some time around the Twentieth Dynasty. Subsequent authors have placed him in the Third, Sixth, Fourteenth, and Eighteenth Dynasties.]

  See Bast; Black Pharaoh; Bowen, Enoch; Hadoth; Hutchinson, Edward; Kish; Nitocris; Nyarlathotep (The Beast, Black Wind); Prinn, Ludwig; Saracenic Rituals; Shining Trapezohedron. (Cairo Guidebook, Anderson; “Fane of the Black Pharaoh”, Bloch; “The Strange Doom of Enos Harker”, Carter and Price; “The Papyrus of Nephren-Ka”, Culp; Masks of Nyarlathotep, DiTillio and Willis; “The History of Nephren-Ka”, Harris; Keeper’s Compendium, Herber; “The Haunter of the Dark”, Lovecraft; “The Outsider”, Lovecraft (O); “Ghoul’s Tale”, Price.)

  NEPHREN-KA NAI HADOTH. See Hutchinson, Edward.

  NESTAR MOBEDAN MOBED. Self-proclaimed Zoroastrian prophet of the sixth century. He and his followers mocked the excesses of the more orthodox priests, departing into the wilderness soon thereafter. Twenty years later, they returned in great numbers to Nestar’s home city, which they assaulted in order to attain and immolate the Tower of Gold, as they called the priests’ temple. The city guard slew Nestar, however, and most of his worshipers were captured and killed.

  The remnants of Nestar’s followers returned to their secret dwellings in the hills, where they discovered Nestar’s letters of instruction to his people. Following his commands, the majority of the cult emigrated to India and Russia, where they live to this day. It is rumored that other branches survive elsewhere, but this has not been confirmed.

  See Cthugha. (“This Fire Shall Kill”, Bishop (O); Keeper’s Compendium, Herber.)

  NEW DUNNICH. See Dunwich.

  NEW WORLD INCORPORATED. One of the largest international companies of the Twenties, involved in advanced technology, shipbuilding, and munitions. NWI came into prominence due to the hard work of Edward Chandler, a prominent businessman and philanthropist who perished in an accident in 1929. The company reorganized as New World Industries in the Fifties and moved to Bermuda in the Seventies. More recently, it has branching out into the latest areas of information processing and bioengineering. Even though turnover is high, NWI is known for its supportive attitude toward its employees.

  (“Worms”, Harrigan; Fungi from Yuggoth, Herber (O); “Dawn Biozyme”, Isinwyll and Hike.)

  N’GAH-KTHUN. 1) Pre-human city in which the high temple of the Elder God Ulthar was built. Once every thousand years, the rulers and priests of all of Earth’s empires would come here to the ritual of B’kal to call the avatar of Ulthar to our world.

  See Ultharathotep. (“The Whisperer in Darkness”, Lovecraft (O); The Sussex Manuscript, Pelton.)

  2) The leader of the mi-go. (“Zoth-Ommog”, Carter (O).)

  N’GAI, WOOD OF. The most sacred of all of Nyarlathotep’s places of worship, said to be located somewhere in Wisconsin.

  See Nyarlathotep (Dweller in Darkness); Rick’s Lake. (“The Dweller in Darkness”, Derleth.)

  NGRANEK. 1) Dormant volcano located on the southern isle of Oriab in Earth’s Dreamlands. Its peaks are rugged and bare, and only lava-cutters collecting rock to make their famous carvings climb it. The place has a bad reputation, for many have vanished without a trace while climbing Mount Ngranek. On the mountain’s far side, the earth’s gods carved a huge stone face before they returned to their homes on Kadath. See Oriab; vooniths. (“The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, Lovecraft (O).)

  2) God of the dark worshiped by a small cult of ghouls, who take the carved face on Mount Ngranek to be his image. (The Complete Dreamlands, Williams and Petersen (O).)

  NGYR-KHORATH. Being that haunted the spaces in which our solar system was formed. It came to consciousness when earth began to spawn life, thereby developing a virulent hatred for it. At this point, the being Paighon came from the Andromeda Galaxy and beat back Ngyr-Khorath’s foul schemes. Ngyr-Khorath may only achieve its goals by contacting susceptible individuals and urging them to aid in its destruction of all life. This can occur through the minds of those using hallucinogens to have visions of the solar system, though the god has had little success in this regard so far. He may also manifest through an offshoot or avatar called ‘Ymnar who can contact its cultists without inducing immediate madness. Von Konnenberg asserts that Ngyr-Khorath is but a manifestation of a force he calls Mlandoth.

  See Book of Thoth; Chronicles of Thrang, Uralte Schrecken. (“The Barrett Horror”, DeBill; “Ngyr-Khorath”, DeBill (O); “Where Yidhra Walks”, DeBill.)

  N’HLATHI. Centipede-like beings that inhabit the Valley of Dreams at the base of the Purple Mountain
in Elysia. They spend most of their time hibernating in tunnels behind metal doors bearing glyphs which even Elysia’s greatest sages are unable to decipher. These creatures are undoubtedly intelligent, but attempts to communicate with them have been futile. Once every ten thousand years, the poppies bloom in the Valley of Dreams, and the N’hlathi emerge to feed upon their seeds, returning afterwards to their homes to hibernate once more. The only time when this cycle is known to have been broken was during the Great Old Ones’ uprising.

  (Elysia, Lumley; The Transition of Titus Crow, Lumley (O).)

  NIGHTGAUNTS. Species found in both the Dreamlands and the waking world. Anatomically, they are much like humans, save for their whale-like skin, huge bat-wings, horns, and a blankness where their faces should be. (How these beings are able to sense their surroundings without the proper organs has not been determined.) Most are black in color, though one rare white one was reported. Sometimes they carry tridents, but otherwise they bear no tools or weapons.

  Nightgaunts are usually found in desolate places, as far from humanity as possible. If a traveler intrudes upon their territory, the nightgaunts ambush and carry them through the air, tickling their victim with their large barbed tails if they struggle. Those who continue to fight back are dropped from a great height; those who do not are taken to strange and dangerous places, and then abandoned there (in the Dreamlands, the Vale of Pnath is a particular favorite.) Some say that even if the nightgaunts are defeated, they will return to the victim later until their mission of terror is satisfied.

  Nightgaunts are said to follow Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss, but are allied to some degree with the ghouls, Yibb-Tstll, Yegg-ha, and the Lords of Luz, a realm beneath the mountains separating Inganok from Leng. It has been suggested that the nightgaunts are native to the Dreamlands’ Great Abyss, and that those which serve other entities than Nodens and the ghouls were captured as infants and raised by these beings. The nightgaunts have formed alliances at times with other beings, and in at least one instance have willingly served a human master.