Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia

by Harms, Daniel

  See Fishers from Outside; Gol-goroth; Quumyagga. (“The Fishers from Outside”, Carter; “The Seal of R’lyeh”, Derleth; “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, Lovecraft (O).)

  SHARNOTH. World beyond the universe that holds the court of Nyarlathotep. Those seeking it in the sky should look in the middle of five stars in the constellation Gemini. A formula from Tartary that involves inscribing five concentric flaming circles about the wizard will allow the user to travel there. Although all things may there be learned, the cost is great.

  (“Darkest Calling”, Conyers; “The Black Tome of Alsophocus”, Lovecraft and Warnes (O).)

  SHATHAK (also CHUSAX and ZISHAIK). Wife of the Great Old One Tsathoggua and mother of Ossadogwah. Her origins are unknown.

  See Tsathoggua. (“The Parchments of Pnom”, Smith (O).)

  SHINING TRAPEZOHEDRON (also CRYSTAL OF CHAOS). Artifact used in the worship of the Haunter of the Dark avatar of Nyarlathotep.

  The Shining Trapezohedron antedates most earthly life. A species of crustaceans that predated the mi-go created the artifact and brought it to earth. After a great war, the Elder Things destroyed its original owners and placed the Trapezohedron in a box of their own design, using its power to destroy the shoggoths during the rebellion. The serpent people brought it to Valusia, where they learned the secrets of illusion from it before one of that race bore it away to Lemuria to escape the constant infighting over the object. After some time on Lemuria, it came back to Atlantis in the keeping of King Kull, who used its power for his own ends but later cast it into the ocean. A Minoan fisherman found the artifact in his nets and sold it to the pharaoh Nephren-Ka, who kept it in the labyrinths of Kish, where Nitocris later found and used it.

  The Trapezohedron remained at Kish until 1844, when Professor Enoch Bowen’s archaeological dig unearthed it. The professor bore it back to his home in Providence, Rhode Island, where it became the sacred object of the Starry Wisdom cult. Following the cult’s dissolution in 1877, the Trapezohedron remained in the deserted Starry Wisdom church until 1935, when events connected with its disturbance prompted a local doctor to bear the artifact away and cast it into Narraganset Bay. It is believed that someday the Trapezohedron will be brought out of the waters and form the focus for a new Starry Wisdom cult.

  The Trapezohedron may be used in many ways. It serves as a window in which one may gaze on all time and space. If someone gazes at the Trapezohedron for any length of time and then plunges the item into darkness, Nyarlathotep’s Haunter of the Dark aspect will manifest itself nearby. It maintains a link with the gazer, seeking to possess his or her body and thereby remain in our world. The Trapezohedron’s last power is to accelerate any bodily metamorphosis, such as Deep One transformation which may be taking place in its viewer.

  Some have connected the Shining Trapezohedron with the magical stone known to alchemists as “Azoth”, Doctor John Dee’s shewstone through which he communicated with the angels, and the curious angles found in many haunted houses and temples.

  See Bowen, Enoch; Black Tome of Alsophocus; Dexter, Ambrose; Hounds of Tindalos; Kish; Nephren-Ka; Necronomicon (appendices); Nitocris; Nyarlathotep (Haunter of the Dark); Starry Wisdom; Yuggoth. (“Coming of Age”, Ballon; Strange Eons, Bloch; The Satanic Rituals, LaVey; “The Haunter of the Dark”, Lovecraft (O); “The Mirror of Nitocris”, Lumley; Other Nations, Marsh and Marsh; “The Prying Investigations of Edwin M. Lillibridge”, Price.)

  SHINY, ALBERT. Most famous of the shoggoth lords. The lords are the next stage in shoggoth evolution—smaller, more intelligent creatures able to maintain their shapes and masquerade as humans. As a research scientist and doctor, Shiny works toward the return of the Old Ones.

  (“Where a God Shall Tread”, Aniolowski, Isinwyll, and Hike (O); Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, Cook and Tynes.)

  SHOGGOTHS (also SHAGGOTHS). Entities created by the Elder Things as a servitor race billions of years ago. These beings were enormous black masses covered with whatever sensory organs and appendages their masters required. Shoggoths did not age and had astounding regenerative capabilities only slowed by extreme cold. These creatures were immensely strong and easily taught through hypnosis, building the great underwater stone cities of the Elder Things.

  After millions of years serving the Elder Things, the shoggoths had become more intelligent and contemptuous of their taskmakers. This discontent turned into rebellion in the Permian period 150 million years ago. Though the shoggoths were initially successful, the Elder Things suppressed the rebellion, re-trained the shoggoths, and continued to use them with more caution. During the insurrection, the shoggoth proved themselves able to survive out of water, but the Elder Things discouraged such adaptation. When the Elder Things departed the cold Antarctic for their last underwater city, it is believed they took their shoggoths with them.

  There have been some reports of shoggoth sightings in other places than in their normal Antarctic habitat (such as the Vale of Pnath), but thankfully these have been very rare. It is rumored that the deep ones make use of shoggoths in their schemes, and others of their kind protect the tomb of Cthulhu. Some cults, at least in the past, kept shoggoths in great underground pits and used them for initiations and disposing of enemies.

  Variant forms of shoggoths have sometimes been reported. Some of these have been more fixed in a particular shape, though their voracity and hardiness remain the same. After the decline of the Elder Ones, the mi-go in the Himalayas once bred a strain of shoggoths combined with their own genetic material. These ghols, as they were called, proved just as intractable as their ancestors, and the mi-go were forced to confine them in secret caverns.

  A breed known as the shoggoth lords has also come into prominence lately. Smaller and more intelligent than their fellows, they have enough control over their protoplasmic forms to imitate humans, and some have already infiltrated our cultures. Reports suggest that these are even more adept at changing shape than the larger ones, with at least one occasion of a lord forming wings. Another strain, once subjected to a rite requiring a pint of blood taken from a person every month for a year, can precisely imitate the donor.

  Kenneth Grant has linked the shoggoths with the Hebrew term, “beth shaggathai”, or house of fornication. This, along with Alhazred’s denial that shoggoths existed on earth save in drug-induced hallucinations, should impress upon the reader the foulness of these monsters.

  See Cult of the Skull; Elder Things; Ghooric Zone; Ibn-Ghazi; proto-shoggoths; Shining Trapezohedron; Shiny, Albert; Ubbo-Sathla; yuggs. (“A Case of Royal Blood”, Altman; “Weapon Grade”, Conyers; “Perilous Legacy”, DeBill; Nightside of Eden, Grant; “At the Mountains of Madness”, Lovecraft (O); “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”, Lovecraft; “The Transition of Titus Crow”, Lumley; A Guide to the Cthulhu Cult, Pelton; “Fat Face”, Shea; “Not What One Does”, Sunseri and Henderson; “Tomb of the Old Ones”, Wilson.)

  SHONHI (also STRONTI). Transgalactic world that the people of Yaddith visited often.

  [Uncorrected texts of Lovecraft’s stories (and Carter’s fiction) render this name as “Stronti”, but re-examination of the manuscript has confirmed the spelling “Shonhi.”]

  (“The Gathering-Place”, Carter; “Through the Gates of the Silver Key”, Lovecraft and Price (O).)

  SHREWSBURY, LABAN (1864-1938?). Miskatonic University professor of philosophy and anthropologist. Shrewsbury was born in Wisconsin, but spent much of his life in Arkham, where he occasionally taught at Miskatonic University. Professor Shrewsbury made himself a controversial figure with the publication of his first book, An Investigation into the Myth-Patterns of Latter-Day Primitives with Especial Reference to the R’lyeh Text. In 1915, shortly after the release of his book, Shrewsbury disappeared while walking upon a country lane near his hometown. He was given up for dead, and his collected notes on the latter nineteenth century were printed under the title Cthulhu among the Victorians.

  Twenty years after he had vanished, the professor reappear
ed, giving no account as to where he had been. Having taken up residence once again in Arkham, he began work on his next book, Cthulhu in the Necronomicon. Sadly, the professor never completed this volume. A mysterious fire gutted Shrewsbury’s house in 1938; the professor was presumed dead in the blaze. It is believed that he worked with the OSS during the Second World War but vanished mysteriously once again. A person of the same name, however, was teaching at Miskatonic University as late as 1987.

  The first section of Shrewsbury’s Cthulhu in the Necronomicon was published posthumously, and the Celaeno Fragments, a manuscript he transcribed, remains in the vaults of Miskatonic University.

  See Boyd, Claiborne; Celaeno; Celaeno Fragments; Cthulhu among the Victorians; Cthulhu in the Necronomicon; elemental theory; An Investigation into the Myth-Patterns …; Nameless City; Necronomicon (appendices); Phelan, Andrew; R’lyeh Text. (Cthulhu by Gaslight, Barton; “The House on Curwen Street”, Derleth (O); Keeper’s Compendium, Herber; Other Nations, Marsh and Marsh; “Stacked Actors”, Worthy.)

  SHUB-NIGGURATH (also THE BLACK GOAT OF THE WOODS WITH A THOUSAND YOUNG or SHUPNIKKURAT or possibly ISHNIGARRAB). Outer God of fertility. In the few times it has been summoned, Shub-Niggurath appeared as a great noxious cloud from which hoofed feet and tendrils constantly protruded and were re-absorbed. In the city of Harag-Kolath, it might appear as a dark bulk with myriad eyes. Shub-Niggurath has also assumed the shape of a cloaked figure whose face was hidden, but this was only an isolated instance.

  The residence of Shub-Niggurath remains a mystery. One location that has been hypothesized is the planet Yaddith, beneath the surface of which it resides with its dhole servitors. Others insist that the Black Goat of the Woods came to earth, building the city Harag-Kolath in a cavern beneath southern Arabia where it awaits the coming of its mate Hastur. (One source maintains that it lives beneath Mount Voormithadreth, but the description of it provided is much closer to that of Abhoth.) It is also possible that Shub-Niggurath remains at the court of Azathoth, or even in another dimension entirely. Nonetheless, it may be called in any woodland with a properly consecrated altar during a new moon, especially on May-Eve.

  Shub-Niggurath is usually referred to as female, but has also been known by the title “Ram with a Thousand Ewes.” One reference in the Cthaat Aquadingen says that the Outer God is both male and female. It is likely that Shub-Niggurath signifies the cosmic principle of fertility and childbearing, and attaching sex to any of the Outer Gods is problematic at best.

  Shub-Niggurath’s cults may be the most widespread of any Mythos entity. It is known to have been worshiped by the Tcho-tchos, Hyperboreans, Muvians, Greeks, Cretans, Egyptians, Druids, and the people of Sarnath, as well as by the fungi from Yuggoth, the dholes, and the Nug-Soth of Yaddith. Sicily was a stronghold of Shub-Niggurath’s cult during the ninth century, and the secret rites performed to it in its guise of Artemis of Ephesus are matters of legend. Others worshiped it in the guise of the Norse Heid and the Greek Hecate, and it may also have been propitiated in the guise of the Great Earth Mother around the world. For those who serve it, Shub-Niggurath bestows bountiful harvests and many children to its worshipers in exchange for blood sacrifices. Some authors’ references to Shub-Niggurath (including Ludwig Prinn) assert that there is some similarity between her bodily structure and our own, but the significance of this is uncertain.

  References to Hastur the Unspeakable indicate that Shub-Niggurath has mated or will mate with this Great Old One, producing the creatures known as the Thousand Young. From this union, or possibly another with Yog-Sothoth, it has spawned the little-known entities Nug and Yeb. Yig has also been referred to as her “brother and mate”.

  The milk of Shub-Niggurath, a substance with astounding mutagenic properties, has sometimes been found in the possession of cultists.

  See Brothers of the Yellow Sign; Cult of the Skull; Cultes des Goules; dark young of Shub-Niggurath; elemental theory; Ghatanothoa; Goatswood; gof’nn hupadgh Shub-Niggurath; Harag-Kolath; Hastur; hounds of Tindalos; K’n-yan; mi-go; moon-lens; Nug and Yeb; Outer Gods; Ram with a Thousand Ewes; Revelations of Glaaki; Sapientia Magorum; Scarlet Circles; serpent people; Sign of the Dark Mother; Tcho-tchos; Thousand Young; T’yog; Unspeakable Promise; Yaddith; Yog-Sothoth. (“No Pain, No Gain”, Adams, Isinwyll, and Manui; “The Dark Stairway”, Berglund and Weinberg; “Dreams in the House of Weir”, Carter; Visions from Yaddith, Carter; “Made of Meat”, Conyers; “The Lurker at the Threshold”, Derleth and Lovecraft; “Further Notes on the Necronomicon”, Hamblin; Necronomicon: The Book of Dead Names, Hay ed.; “The Whisperer in Darkness”, Lovecraft; “The Last Test”, Lovecraft and de Castro (O); “Out of the Aeons”, Lovecraft and Heald; The Transition of Titus Crow, Lumley; “Scales of Justice”, Mackey; Call of Cthulhu Rulebook, 5th ed., Petersen and Willis; “Lovecraft’s ‘Artificial Mythology’”, Price; Heir to Darkness, Rahman; The Gardens of Lucullus, Rahman and Tierney; “The Seed of the Star-God”, Tierney; Deities and Demigods Cyclopedia, Ward with Kuntz.)

  SHUDDE-M’ELL (also SHUDDAM-EL). Great Old One and leader of the cthonians. Shudde-M’ell appears as a huge cthonian and spends most of its time under the ground. At one time, a large number of Elder Signs imprisoned Shudde-M’ell beneath G’harne, but natural disasters and human theft of the warding-stones eventually freed him. The Great Old One still returns to the ruined city once every twenty-three years, to meet with its children.

  In Hyborian times, the priests of Stygia revered Shudde-M’ell under the name Shuddam-El. It is believed that his worship later traveled to Egypt, where it inspired the myths of the serpent Apophis. His worship by the builders of the prehistoric megaliths of England and some particularly decadent shamans of America’s Pacific Coast has been well documented. Today only the Jidhauas of Mongolia and possibly some African tribes near the site of G’harne revere Shudde-M’ell.

  See Cthonians; Elder Sign; G’harne; Haddath; Irem. (Call of Cthulhu Role-playing Game, Cook and Tynes; The Burrowers Beneath, Lumley; “Cement Surroundings”, Lumley (O); The Transition of Titus Crow, Lumley; “The Worm of Urakhu”, Tierney.)

  SHUGORON. See Nyarlathotep (Shugoron).

  SHUNNED HOUSE. House on Benefit Street in Providence known for its poor reputation. Constructed by Captain William Harris in 1763, the house might have been built over the remains of a graveyard not removed when the local government straightened the street. It soon became a place known for disease, death, and insanity, and the family moved out around 1782. Later generations rented out the place, but it was still known for the ill health of its inhabitants. After a series of deaths in 1861, the house was abandoned.

  In 1919, prominent local historian Elihu Whipple perished in an exploration of the house. This event was followed by a day when yellow gas filled the sky above College Hill. Shortly thereafter, the house was opened to tenants once again. It is unknown if these previous events were related.

  In more recent years, the Shunned House has been renovated and painted a bright yellow color. It has become the meeting place of a nest of ghouls, as well as a dwelling for vampires and other curious creatures.

  [The house described in Lovecraft’s story stands at 135 Benefit Street in Providence, Rhode Island.]

  (Low Red Moon, Kiernan; “The Shunned House”, Lovecraft (O).)

  SIGN OF EIBON. See Eibon, Sign of.

  SIGN OF KISH. See Kish, Sign of.

  SIGN OF KOTH. See Koth, Sign of.

  SIGN OF THE DARK MOTHER. Icon sacred to Shub-Niggurath that bears some resemblance to a three-headed goat. This may imply some linkage between the Black Goat of the Woods and the Greek deities Hecate and Demeter, both of whom were represented as three-headed fertility figures.

  See Shub-Niggurath. (“Dawn Biozyme”, Hike and Isinwyll (O).)

  SIGSAND MANUSCRIPT. Book written by a 14th century (or possibly 17th century) clergyman. It deals at length with different sorts of phantoms and monsters, their manner of attack, and the possible defences against them. A copy
is held at the Bodleian Library, and another was once in the possession of British ghosthunter Thomas Carnacki.

  (Ramsey Campbell’s Goatswood, Aniolowski and Sumpter; “The Gateway of the Monster”, Hodgson (O), “The Hog”, Hodgson, “Forgotten Futures IV: The Carnacki Cylinders”, Rowland.)

  SILBERHUTTE, HANK. Texan telepath recruited by the Wilmarth Foundation in 1966. The Foundation valued Silberhutte for his ability to detect the mental patterns of alien creatures, a talent that the Foundation used often as part of their battle against the Cthulhu Mythos. When it came to telepathic links with humans, Silberhutte’s powers failed him; the only exception was Juanita Alvarez, a native of Monterrey, with whom Silberhutte could initiate contact at will.

  After the disappearance of his cousin, a government surveyor, in Canada some years before, Silberhutte became obsessed with collecting the native legends about Ithaqua, the Wendigo. Due to his erudition in this field, the Texan was made the head of the Wilmarth Foundation’s efforts to track down this creature of the frozen north. It was during this endeavor that Silberhutte and the crew of his plane vanished on January 22, 1969. He maintained some sporadic telepathic contact through Ms. Alvarez in which he stated that he now lived in a place called “Borea”. This link cut off after a while, and the true fate of Silberhutte remains a mystery.

  (Burrowers Beneath, Lumley (O); In the Moons of Borea, Lumley; Spawn of the Winds, Lumley.)

  SILVER KEY. Key of tarnished silver five inches long, carved with indecipherable hieroglyphics. The Silver Key was forged in the land of Hyperborea many years ago. Legend links it to the lost city of Irem, but it is first recorded as being in the possession of a “Keeper of the Key” who dwelt in the Hashishim fortress of Alamut. The Crusader Geoffrey Carter killed his guards and stole away with it, passing it down through his family line. How much the family may have known about the Key is uncertain, but the reputed wizard Edmund Carter of Salem, Massachusetts used it to great effect. The Carter family passed down the key until the mystic Randolph Carter rediscovered it; he is believed to have taken it with him when he disappeared in 1928.