Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia

by Harms, Daniel

  As time went on, different scribes added on to the Manuscripts; two definite additions, one from the Voormis and another from a Zobnarian scribe, have been identified. The first portions of the manuscript are written with a curious sort of cuneiform and dot-group glyphs, which bear resemblance to many patterns carved in stone that have been found throughout the world. (They are especially similar to the fifty-foot symbol found at the peak of Mount Hatheg-Kla after Barzai’s disappearance.) Some linguists say that humans are completely unable to decipher these versions, but a number of individuals claim to have read or translated the book.

  The Manuscripts originally appeared in scroll form. All editions of this version are said to be lost, though one may still exist in the Temple of the Elder Ones in Ulthar and some parchment fragments at Miskatonic University may also come from this source. Greek and English translations (the former is known as the Pnakotica) were made in later times. Although it is rumored that an anonymous translator published an English edition in the late 15th century, others hold that this document has only been circulated in the original manuscript form. One source has it that the copy in Ulthar is the last in existence, but other copies have been found at Miskatonic University, the University of Tokyo, the Providence Church of Starry Wisdom, and the New York Public Library. An expurgated photostat is held at the British Museum. A few commentaries, including The Pnakotic Manuscripts: A New Revised Study (1922), Werner’s A Study of Pnakotic Writings (1938) and Schwarzwalder’s Analysis of the Manuscript of the Pnakotoi (1895), are available to scholars.

  This volume contains information about the Great Race of Yith, the nature of Chaugnar Faugn and Yibb-Tstll, the journey of Sansu to the top of Mount Hatheg-Kla, the fall of Zobna, the battles of the people of Lomar against the Voormis, the knowledge of the ghouls, rituals of Rhan-Tegoth’s worship, and the location of Xiurhn. A map within provides the locations of Leng, Yian-Ho, and other mythical places, though much research must be done to establish how it corresponds to modern landmarks.

  It is said that the Pnakotic Manuscripts have some sort of Guardian, and those who would read this work must pay the Guardian’s price. This Guardian may be entirely fanciful or merely symbolic, but the reader should beware.

  See Barzai; Celaeno Fragments; G’harne Fragments; Hatheg-Kla; Kish; Lomar; Pnakotic Pentagon; Pnakotus; Sansu; shan; Zanthu Tablets. (“The Acolyte of the Flame”, Carter; “Zoth-Ommog”, Carter; “Perilous Legacy”, DeBill; “Pursuit to Kadath”, Gallagher; Keeper’s Compendium, Herber; “Ulthar and Beyond”, Herber; “At the Mountains of Madness”, Lovecraft; “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, Lovecraft; “The Other Gods”, Lovecraft; “Polaris”, Lovecraft (O); Selected Letters V, Lovecraft; “The Haunter of the Dark”, Lovecraft; “The Shadow out of Time”, Lovecraft; “The Horror in the Museum”, Lovecraft and Heald; “The Diary of Alonzo Typer”, Lovecraft and Lumley; The Burrowers Beneath, Lumley; “The Asylum”, McCall; “Xiurhn”, Myers; “Principles and Parameters”, Patterson; “The Shunpike”, Price; “The Warder of Knowledge”, Searight; Ex Libris Miskatonici, Stanley; The Keep, F. Paul Wilson.)

  PNAKOTIC PENTAGON. Warding sigil said by Ludvig Prinn to be efficacious against intrusions by beings from outside during the use of Liao. In addition, the people of Hyperborea used the Pentagon to seal the tombs of wizards and prevent them from coming forth again. Drawn reversed, it allows the Great Old Ones to take hold on our world once more, albeit in minor ways.

  The source of this sign may in fact be the Pnakotic Manuscripts. Seals like this might have been used in the city of Pnakotus to protect against the incursions of the flying polyps.

  (Delta Green: Denied to the Enemy, Detwiller; “The Stairs in the Crypt”, Carter and Smith; “The Invaders”, Kuttner (O); “Oh, Baleful Theophany”, Pugmire.)

  PNAKOTUS. City built by the Great Race millions of years ago in the Australian desert. Its name, bestowed by later races, roughly translates as “City of the Archives.” According to von Junzt, this city lent its name to the Pnakotic Manuscripts, which the Yithians brought to this city. The city existed up until World War II, at which time it may have been destroyed.

  See Pnakotic Manuscripts, Pnakotic Pentagram. (“Zoth-Ommog”, Carter (O); Delta Green: Denied to the Enemy, Detwiller.)

  PNATH, VALE OF (also PNOTH). Valley located in the Dreamlands’ underworld. The Vale is filled with the gnawed bones tossed into this great crevasse by the ghouls who feast on a nearby plateau. Gigantic worm-like creatures known only as bholes (or dholes) that no one has ever seen, as well as other less pleasant beings, inhabit the Vale. Nightgaunts delight in leaving hapless travellers in this place. Unless the ghouls deign to help them, the bholes will sense the person’s movement and come to the surface to engulf them.

  See bholes; Book of Eibon; ghouls; Nath; nightgaunts; shoggoths. (“The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, Lovecraft; “To a Dreamer”, Lovecraft (O); “The Summons of Nuguth-Yug”, Myers and Laidlaw.)

  PNOM, PARCHMENTS OF. See Parchments of Pnom.

  PNOTH. See Pnath, Vale of.

  POLAR STAR. (also ORACLE OF AMMON and EYE OF ZEUS). Diamond that supposedly has powers over the dead. Legend connects with Alexander the Great, who thought of himself as a god after touching it. The gem later passed into the Punjab area of India, where it changed hands many times. The gem passed into the hands of a Dutch captain whose ship was lost at sea. In 1904, it reappeared, and the American millionaire Albert Cosgrave bought it. The gem vanished when the airship on which it was being transported went down over the Atlantic in 1929.

  (“The Wild Hunt”, Ballon, “De Schip Zonder Schaduw”, Wimble (O).)

  POLYNESIAN MYTHOLOGY, WITH A NOTE ON THE CTHULHU LEGEND-CYCLE. Book by Harold Hadley Copeland published in 1906 by Miskatonic University Press. Most of the subject matter is conventional, but Copeland includes an appendix describing legends of the Deep Ones and their worship of Cthulhu. (Contrary to what some have said, this was not Copeland’s first book.)

  (“Out of the Ages”, Carter (O); “Fischbuchs”, Ross; Ex Libris Miskatonici, Stanley.

  POLYPOUS RACE. See flying polyps.

  PONAPE FIGURINE. Nineteen-inch jade figurine representing the god Zoth-Ommog. Although the use of jade suggested a Chinese origin, its style was completely alien to that culture. A diver found this statuette in the waters off Ponape in 1909 and it later came into the possession of the archaeologist Harold Hadley Copeland. It was passed on to the Sanbourne Institute after his death. The press was quick to blame the bouts of insanity among its caretakers upon a “curse”. The statuette vanished following a break-in at the Institute in 1929 and has not been seen since. Those seeking further information on the figurine’s religious significance should consult Copeland’s The Ponape Figurine (1910).

  See Hodgkins, Arthur. (“Out of the Ages”, Carter (O); Ex Libris Miskatonici, Stanley.)

  THE PONAPE SCRIPTURE. Manuscript researched or discovered by Captain Abner Ezekiel Hoag in the Carolines circa 1734. During his travels, Hoag discovered a book written on parchment made from palm leaves and bound in the wood of a long-extinct cycad. According to legend, the high priest of Ghatanothoa, Imash-Mo, and his successors wrote this book in the hieratic Naacal tongue. Not knowing the language himself, Hoag received help from his servant Yogash in translating the volume’s contents. (Some have stated that Hoag wrote the book himself based on his conversations with natives of Ponape, but the existence of the original argues otherwise.) When he attempted to have the volume published, he met with condemnation from the religious leaders of the time, who were especially concerned with the references to Dagon found in the Scripture.

  The book did not see print until after Hoag’s death, but by that time had been surreptitiously circulated in occult circles for quite some time. Hoag’s granddaughter Beverly Hoag Adams published the Ponape Scripture in an abridged and error-ridden edition. The original can still be found at the Kester Library in Salem. Harold Hadley Copeland was probably the most knowledgeable scholar on
the Ponape Scripture; his book The Prehistoric Pacific in Light of the ‘Ponape Scripture’ (1911) cites it in some detail, and Miskatonic University Press published his annotated translation of the Scripture in 1907.

  The Scripture seems to have been written by a Cthulhu cultist seeking to convert the natives of the region to his service. It tells of the lost continent of Mu and the mighty wizard-priest Zanthu. The Ponape Scripture is known to have influenced the practices of the Esoteric Order of Dagon.

  See Copeland, Harold Hadley; Idh-yaa; Naacal; Zanthu. (“The Dweller in the Tomb”, Carter; “The Fishers from Outside”, Carter; “Introduction” to Dreams from R’lyeh, Carter; “Out of the Ages”, Carter (O); Keeper’s Compendium, Herber; Miskatonic University Graduate Kit, Petersen et. al.; Kingsport, Ross; Ex Libris Miskatonici, Stanley.)

  POSEIDONIS. Last isle of Atlantis to sink beneath the ocean, and the home of such mighty wizards as Malygris. Its high temple is supposedly seen by lost ships sailing in the Atlantic.

  [To the best of my knowledge, this name originally appeared in the works of Madame Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Movement. According to her, the isle sank around twelve thousand years ago. Poseidonios, a Stoic philosopher who suggested that Plato’s Atlantis might not be a myth, may have been the inspiration for this name.]

  See Atlantis, Rituals of Yhe. (“The Strange High House in the Mist”, Lovecraft (O); “The Death of Malygris”, Smith.)

  POTT, JOHANNES HENRICUS. Author of an untitled Latin manuscript which the publishers in the German city of Jena rejected. Scholars who have read his book speculate that he might have read The Revelations of Glaaki and the Book of Iod. Handwritten copies of his book have circulated secretly among certain cults. Ultimate Press at one time considered publishing this volume, but whether they actually followed through is unknown.

  This book is said to contain some sort of “immortality” formula (which may not be complete enough to be performed with the information in the book alone) and a powerful exorcism, as well as the rather curious notion that deformed entities reside in all darkened places.

  [Johannes Heinrichus Pott was a real-life professor of law at the University of Jena. His Specimen Juridicum de Nefando Lamiarum cum Diabolo Coitu, a book dealing with demonic births and pacts with the devil, was published in that city by Oerlinghaus in 1689. I have not been able to find rumors of any other manuscript he wrote.]

  (“The Star-Seed”, Ambuehl; “Cold Print”, Campbell; “The Mine of Yuggoth”, Campbell (O); “A Word from the Author”, Campbell.)

  POWDER OF IBN-GHAZI. Magical dust that allows the user to see the invisible for the space of ten heartbeats.

  (“The Dunwich Horror”, Lovecraft (O).)

  PRAESIDIA FINIUM. See Frontier Garrison.

  PREHISTORIC PACIFIC IN LIGHT OF THE “PONAPE SCRIPTURE”, THE. Book by Harold Hadley Copeland published in 1911 by Harold Hadley Copeland, based on his readings of the Ponape Scripture at the Kester Library in Salem and his archival delvings at Harvard and Miskatonic. Though Copeland was able to draw a number of parallels between the Scripture and the mythology and archaeology of the Pacific isles, this book destroyed Copeland’s reputation among scholars.

  The book discusses the links between archaeological sites and the infamous lost continent of Mu. It also discusses the cults of Cthulhu and the deep ones that may be found today in the region.

  (“The Dweller in the Tomb”, Carter (O); “The Fishers from Outside”, Carter; “Zoth-Ommog”, Carter; Ex Libris Miskatonici, Stanley.)

  PREHISTORY IN THE PACIFIC: A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION. Harold Hadley Copeland’s first book, published in 1902. Refraining from the speculating that characterized his later works, it remains a classic in its field. It contains little of interest to the Mythos scholar.

  (“The Dweller in the Tomb”, Carter (O); “Out of the Ages”, Carter.)

  PRINN, ABIGAIL (?-December 14, 1690). Reputed witch from Salem and descendant of Ludwig Prinn. Abbie Prinn often boasted of her service as high priest to a strange god, a statement that led to her mysterious death just before the witch-trials began. Prinn is believed to have cursed Salem before she died; perhaps to avert her anger, the colonists buried her with a stake through her chest.

  (“The Salem Horror”, Kuttner (O); “Wilbur Whateley Waiting”, Price.)

  PRINN, LUDWIG (also LUDVIG) (?-1542). Sorcerer whose most famous work is the book De Vermis Mysteriis.

  Prinn is said to have been the child of Flemish trading delegates visiting Constantinople. He later declared that he had lived for centuries and was the sole survivor of the Ninth Crusade; though it is true that there is an entry for a Ludwig Prinn among the records of that Crusade, this claim is probably unfounded. Even if his tales of his past exploits were untrue, Prinn did make many trips throughout the world of his time. He spent much time as a captive of Syrian warlocks in the Jebel Ansariye, learning from their dealings with the djinn. He also made trips to Alexandria, spoke with the priests of the Black Pharaoh Nephren-Ka, and dwelt for a time in the ruins of the city Chorazin on the Sea of Galilee.

  At the end of his career, Prinn returned to his homeland of the Flemish countryside, taking up residence first in Bruges, next in Ghent, and finally in a pre-Roman tomb in a forest near Brussels. In the nearby towns, many said that the eccentric hermit had dealings with invisible familiars. In 1540, the Inquisition imprisoned Prinn on charges of sorcery; whether this was due to the rumors or to his sympathy with Islam is debatable.

  While imprisoned, Prinn wrote the book De Vermis Mysteriis. Somehow, in the dead of night, he managed to smuggle the volume past his guards to be published. Shortly thereafter, he was executed. Legend has it that he escaped, with his last reputed location being New York City.

  See Byatis; Chorazin; De Vermis Mysteriis; Deep Ones; Irem; Jerusalem’s Lot; Liao; Necrolatry; Nyarlathotep; Order of the Sword of Saint Jerome; Pnakotic Pentagon; Prinn, Abigail; Saracenic Rituals; Shub-Niggurath. (“Darkness, My Name Is”, Bertin; “The Shambler from the Stars”, Bloch (O); Keeper’s Compendium, Herber; “Lord of the Worms”, Lumley; Ex Libris Miskatonici, Stanley; “The Heart of the Matter”, Webb.)

  PRODIGIES IN THE NEW ENGLAND CANAAN. See Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the New-English Canaan.

  PROTO-SHOGGOTHS. Material the Elder Things derived from Ubbo-Sathla to form their shoggoth servitors. Some of this material has survived to the present day, where it is used in scientific experiments of the mi-go and humans alike. Proto-shoggoth matter melds easily with other living matter, often enhancing its capabilities and making it hardier and more difficult to destroy.

  (“At the Mountains of Madness”, Lovecraft (O); “The Asylum”, McCall; “Convergence”, Tynes.)

  PTETHOLITES. Prehuman tribe that worshiped the Great Old Ones, especially Ithaqua, and who often called down demons upon their enemies. The legends of Hyperborea state that the Ptetholites sent their summonings against Edril Ghambiz of Esipish. Unfortunately, Edril sent the magic of the tribesmen back upon its callers, possibly causing the unknown doom that overtook these people in the end. The only records left behind by the Ptetholites were the Broken Columns of Geph, as well as the Sixth Sathlatta, which they invented.

  See The Black; Broken Columns of Geph; Sixth Sathlatta. (“The Caller of the Black”, Lumley (O); “The Horror at Oakdeene”, Lumley; Spawn of the Winds, Lumley.)

  PTH’THYA-L’YI. Female deep one and daughter of Mother Hydra who is almost three hundred thousand years old. For the last eighty thousand years, she has lived in the city of Y’ha-nthlei. She has mated with Father Dagon, a union which many believe will result in the birth of a new species of Cthulhu’s minions.

  (“Casket of the Sea Queen”, Landwehr; “The Shadow over Innsmouth”, Lovecraft (O).)

  Q

  QUACHIL UTTAUS (also the TREADER OF THE DUST). Great Old One (?) who usually appears as a shriveled human mummy, four feet tall, with stiff and immovable limbs. The Treader has some control over time, and its appearance is signa
led by local temporal anomalies: everything within a limited area ages at an accelerated rate. After many “years” have passed within this space, Quachil Uttaus arrives, riding down from the sky on a beam of grey light. Any person it touches will turn into dust instantaneously. Sometimes Quachil Uttaus alights upon the person’s remains, leaving two tiny footprints in the dust. It is from this habit that Quachil Uttaus derives its title.

  Quachil Uttaus is mentioned in no book save the Testament of Carnamagos, which is the only source of his summoning formula. This volume also contains a method by which a sorcerer may make a pact with the Treader by saying the words “Exklopios Quachil Uttaus.” Quachil will arrive and then twist the caster’s spine in exchange for making him or her immortal. If the Forbidden Words are said again near a bargainer, Quachil Uttaus will come and destroy his one-time servant.

  A being very similar in appearance and nature to Quachil Uttaus was worshiped in Egypt under the title Ka-Reth, the Keeper of the Dust.

  See Testament of Carnamagos. (“The Keeper of the Dust”, Brennan; “The Condemned”, Herber; “The Treader of the Dust”, Smith (O).)

  QUAMIS. See Misquamacus.

  QUEEN IN RED. Book by Martin Davies, a man who died in 1870. The work deals with a woman wearing red who has appeared many times in history and art, sowing destruction in her wake wherever she appears.

  See Nyarlathotep (Queen in Red). (“Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence”, Pearlman (O); “The Queen in Red”, Ross.)

  QUUMYAGGA. Sire of the shantaks, and the greatest of Groth-Golka’s servitors. At one time, this creature dwelt beneath Mount Voormithadreth. It may be Quumyagga who dwells within the innermost dome of the great palace of Inquanok and troubles the dreams of those who gaze too long upon that edifice.

  See Groth-Golka; shantaks. (“The Fishers from Outside”, Carter; “Zoth-Ommog”, Carter (O); “The Descent into the Abyss”, Carter and Smith.)