Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia

by Harms, Daniel

  When certain words are spoken as the key is held up to the setting sun and rotated nine times, this device can physically transfer its user to any time desired. If the bearer is worthy, it may also be used to unlock the Ultimate Gate which ‘Umr at-Tawil guards. Through the use of an enchantment also created in Hyperborea, the powers of the key can be greatly increased.

  See Irem; ‘Umr at-Tawil. (“The Silver Key”, Lovecraft (O); “Through the Gates of the Silver Key”, Lovecraft and Price; “The Lord of Illusion”, Price.)

  SILVER TWILIGHT. See Masters of the Silver Twilight.

  SIMON OF GITTA (c. 10-?). Samarian wizard and warrior who lived at the time of Christ. A tax collector slew Simon’s parents, and Simon killed him in turn. His Roman captors were so impressed with his fighting skills that they sent him to the gladiatorial arena at Fidenae. After the destruction of that place in a great cataclysm, Simon escaped to Rome itself, but was forced to flee once again. He is known to have spent time studying magic in Persepolis and Alexandria, and rumor has it that he even had a hand in the deaths of the emperors Tiberius and Caligula. Though he claimed that his abilities in magic were only sleight-of-hand, his reputation within the Empire was great, and he came to serve Emperor Claudius.

  [Simon of Gitta is based upon a real-life individual named Simon Magus, whose Gnostic sect competed with the early Christians.]

  (“The Dragons of Mons Fractus”, Tierney; “The Fire of Mazda”, Tierney; “The Pillars of Melkarth”, Tierney; “The Ring of Set”, Tierney (O); “The Scroll of Thoth”, Tierney; “The Soul of Kephri”, Tierney; “The Sword of Spartacus”, Tierney.)

  SINCAUL, CYPRIAN. San Francisco sculptor whose talented yet decadent work is well-known among fans of the weird. Though his early work was mediocre, Sincaul blossomed into an artist whose work became infamous for its hideousness. It is rumored that Sincaul destroyed a sculpture that was to have been his masterpiece after the mental breakdown of one of his models.

  (“Out of the Ages”, Carter; “The Hunters from Beyond”, Smith (O).)

  SIXTH SATHLATTA. Formula found in the Cthaat Aquadingen, which reads as follows:

  Ghe’phnglui, mglw’ngh ghee-yh, Yibb-Tstll,

  Fhtagn mglw y’tlette ngh’wgah, Yibb-Tstll,

  Ghe’phnglui mglw-ngh ahkobhg’shg, Yibb-Tstll;

  THABAITE! - YIBB-TSTLL, YIBB-TSTLL, YIBB-TSTLL!

  The Ptetholites were the creators of the Sixth Sathlatta, and it may be used in many ways. If inscribed upon a wafer of flour in its original Ptetholite characters and used in conjunction with the Hoy-Dhin formula from the Necronomicon, it may be used to call the Black upon one’s enemies. Saying it once before sleep will allow the chanter to contact Yibb-Tstll in dreams. If thirteen say the formula on any “First Day” of a calendar year, Yibb-Tstll himself will be summoned. However, if at least seven of the callers are not “adepts”, and unless they erect the Naach-Tith Barrier for protection, Yibb-Tstll may effect his horrible “reversals” upon them.

  See The Black; Cthaat Aquadingen; Ptetholites; Sathlattae; Yibb-Tstll. (“The Black Recalled”, Lumley; “The Horror at Oakdeene”, Lumley (O).)

  SIXTYSTONE. See Ixaxar.

  SKAI. River of the Dreamlands. The river Skai springs from the slopes of Mount Lerion, passes by the towns of Hatheg, Nir, and Ulthar, and empties into the Southern Sea.

  See Atal; Hatheg; Lerion; Nir; Ulthar. (“The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, Lovecraft (O).)

  SKINLESS ONE. See Nyarlathotep (Skinless One).

  SMALL CRAWLER. See Nyarlathotep (Small Crawler).

  SMITH, JAPHET. Reputed agent of the Cthulhu cult who was assigned to find Claiborne Boyd. Though some say he died in Peru a short time thereafter, he has been sighted since then.

  (“The Gorge beyond Salanpunco”, Derleth (O); Other Nations, Marsh and Marsh.)

  SMITH, MORGAN. Expert on black magic and author of Sign of the Skull, considered a landmark in the field. Smith was the son of a wizard who promised him as a body to Nyarlathotep, and he has been attempting to avert that fate for three hundred years using a ring bearing the god’s seal. Smith spends a considerable amount of time in Arkham but travels a great deal.

  See Witch-house. (“The Dark Stairway”, Berglund and Weinberg; “Sword of Seven Suns”, Berglund; “The Flying Horned One”, Weinberg (O); “Meet Morgan Smith”, Weinberg.)

  S’NGAC. Being of violet gas that dwells somewhere near Deneb, or perhaps beyond the edge of the universe where there are no objects with form. S’ngac knows many of the universe’s secrets, and warned Kuranes away from Nyarlathotep and the home of his “cousin” Azathoth. He may also transport a person with him through the universe, though it is unwise to travel all the way to Azathoth’s court with him. S’ngac might have come to earth on an asteroid that landed near Arkham in 1927, but if this is true, he returned to the stars soon afterward. The gaseous entity fears the Elder Gods for some unspecified reason.

  (“The Color from Beyond”, Cabos; “Celephaïs”, Lovecraft (O); “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, Lovecraft.)

  SNIRETH-KO. Dreamer who at one time prepared the incense and wine for the temples of Ulthar. He lost his faith and made a bargain with a creature called the “Keeper of Dreams”. He is believed to have traveled far, even to the moon’s dark side, but in the end a strange doom overtook him.

  (“The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, Lovecraft (O); “Passing of a Dreamer”, Myers.)

  SONA-NYL. The “Land of Fancy” located in the Dreamlands near the Basalt Pillars of the West. It is said that dreams are made here and sent on to receptive minds.

  See Southern Sea. (“The White Ship”, Lovecraft (O); The Clock of Dreams, Lumley.)

  SONG OF YSTE. Mythos tome of great antiquity. A family of magicians named Dirka, whose ancestry has been supposedly traced back to the earliest humans, passed down The Song of Yste to modern times. These Dirkas are said to have translated this volume into the three languages of the dawn of humanity, then into Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Elizabethan (or Middle?) English.

  Among other things, The Song of Yste discusses the mysterious entities known as the adumbrali.

  See adumbrali. (“The Abyss”, Lowndes (O).)

  SORCERIE DE DEMONOLOGIE. Book by the Comte Jean-Louis de Hammais. The original was written in Middle French, but the first printing in 1872, which featured many disturbing woodcuts, was an Old French translation. Ezekiah Mortison translated the book into English during the 1890s, though his belief that it was a fictional work interfered somewhat with the rendering. A better English translation was made by Pierre de Hammais, a professor of linguistics at the University of Nyingtove and the Comte’s son, and published by the university press. Despite its recent date of publication, the book is quite rare, though Miskatonic University and Nyingtove own copies.

  Among the topics of this book are Nyarlathotep, Yomagn’tho, the dreams of Cthulhu, and a crystal that allows a person to view different times.

  (“The Crystal”, Berglund; “Dream-Sendings”, Berglund; “The Feaster from the Stars”, Berglund; “Huitloxopetl IV: Vision of Madness”, Berglund (O); “Wings in the Night”, Berglund; “The Thing in the Library”, Berglund and Burnham; “The Dark Stairway”, Berglund and Weinberg; A Guide to the Cthulhu Cult, Pelton.)

  SOTHOTH. Outer God subservient to Azathoth. According to the Sussex Manuscript, this being created the Great Old Ones, including Ulthar, and they acknowledged it as their master.

  In Baron Frederic’s manuscript, Sothoth is said to have created Yog-Sothoth, so the two are not one and the same. Elsewhere it is stated that Sothoth, along with Ubbo-Sathla and Abhoth, created our solar system, and possibly the universe, though many consider this to be apocryphal.

  See Ulthar. (A Guide to the Cthulhu Cult, Pelton; The Sussex Manuscript, Pelton (O).)

  SOUL CHANT OF SEBEK. Ritual used in Egypt to ward off the attacks of hostile crocodiles. Modern occultists sometimes use it as an aid for concentration during their rites.

  (�
�The Suicide in the Study”, Bloch (O); “The Curse of the Crocodile”, Tierney.)

  SOUL OF CHAOS. First of four novels published at the expense of Edgar Henquist Gordon.

  (“The Dark Demon”, Bloch (O); “The Winfield Heritance”, Carter.)

  SOUTHERN SEA. Dreamlands ocean that borders on Dylath-Leen and Sona-Nyl. The sea contains a mysterious sunken city and the isle of Oriab. The Granite Pillars of the South mark the edge of this ocean to the south.

  See Baharna; Dylath-Leen Oriab; Skai. (“The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, Lovecraft (O); The Complete Dreamlands, Williams and Petersen.)

  SPACE-MEAD. Golden liquid used by those who travel between the stars. The mead insulates the drinker from the detrimental effects of space travel, leaving them in a dream-like state for the entire journey. It remains up to the person who drinks the mead to provide a means of interstellar transportation; byakhee are a particularly favored method. If not used for this purpose, the mead often provides the drinker with visions of events happening far away which have an impact on them.

  According to some, those who drink space-mead do not actually leave this world. Rather, their physical bodies are left in some place on this planet, while their astral selves make the journey to the stars. This makes these expeditions no less dangerous, however.

  See byakhee. (“The House on Curwen Street” (O), Derleth; “The Keeper of the Key”, Derleth.)

  SPECTRAL HUNTER. Magical creature created through a sorcerous rite. A magician transforms a willing victim into a human-shaped monster with shark-like teeth, a thin, rubbery body, and pincers for hands. The spell also binds the hunter’s soul to a particular item. Once created, the hunter can never travel more than a mile from that focus. The Hotethk tribe of California once knew this spell, but that group is now extinct.

  (“Devil’s Canyon”, Carnahan (O); Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, Cook and Tynes.)

  SPELLMAN, MARTIN. (c. 1912-) Would-be writer who became a nurse at Oakdeene Sanitarium in 1935. The events of the night of January 1, 1936 drove him insane, causing him to be incarcerated in the same institution. In 1974, an overdose of medication left him with brain damage, and later a sniper killed him as he exercised in the sanitarium’s yard. Spellman’s notes on the Cthaat Aquadingen are now on file at Miskatonic University.

  See Oakdeene Sanitarium. (“Not to Force the Rhymes”, Adams; “The Horror at Oakdeene”, Lumley (O); Ex Libris Miskatonici, Stanley.)

  SPHERES OF NATH. Device of the Elder Things mentioned in the notes of Professor Gordon Walmsley. According to this noted cryptographer, the Elder Things, knowing that their days of empire would soon come to an end, installed one of these devices in each of their cities and outposts. When turned on, the device would destroy all traces of that particular location, including any artifacts borne away by outsiders, and transport the entire complex to a site beneath the ocean. The Nazis are rumored to have found such a device during their Antarctic expeditions, but it is believed to have been destroyed with their base.

  Whether there is any connection between this device and the land of Nath is unknown.

  See Elder Things; Nath. (“An Item of Mutual Interest”, Glancy; “In the Vaults Beneath”, Lumley (O).)

  SSATHAAT SCRIPTURES. Book on the god Yig. A 17th century Native American monk wrote the Scriptures, which tells of Yig’s worship and his mighty battles against those creatures that would intrude upon his chosen land of Oklahoma. It contains rites to the snake-god and a spell that might stop time on a limited basis.

  (“The Snakefarm”, Ambuehl; “The Caller from Oklahoma”, Mackey (O).)

  SSS’HAA (also SSSAAA). Leader of the Valusian serpent people and high priest of Yig. He led the faithful of Yig from their former home in Yoth to the caverns beneath Mount Voormithadreth.

  (Thongor and the Wizard of Lemuria, Carter (O); “The Vengeance of Yig”, Carter; “Zoth-Ommog”, Carter.)

  STANFORD, CARL. One of the most important sorcerers in the Masters of the Silver Twilight. He may have gained some fame as an occultist at one point, though the details of this have been lost.

  [Carl Stanford Petersen was the author of the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game.]

  (“Worms”, Harrigan; “The Hermetic Order of the Silver Twilight”, Hutchinson (O).)

  STANZAS OF DZYAN. See Book of Dzyan.

  STAR-SPAWN OF CTHULHU (also CTHULHI). Beings that came to earth with Cthulhu and dream with their master in the corpse-city of R’lyeh. Despite their ability to mold their form at will, they always resemble their master to some degree; indeed, they may all be descended from him.

  The Cthulhu-spawn arrived on earth many eons ago, building a great city on the newly-risen continent of R’lyeh. The Elder Things of the Antarctic resisted this incursion, but the star-spawn beat them back into the ocean. Peace was finally declared, and both races settled back into their cities. In the end, however, R’lyeh sank beneath the waves, trapping Cthulhu and all of his spawn. Presumably the Cthulhi will awaken with their master when R’lyeh rises above the ocean. A few of these beings may still be free.

  See Cthulhu. (“At the Mountains of Madness”, Lovecraft (O); The Transition of Titus Crow, Lumley; Call of Cthulhu Rulebook, Petersen and Willis.)

  STAR-STONES OF MNAR. Grey-green rocks from the land of Mnar with the Elder Sign carved into them. (Their power comes not so much from the Sign, however, as from the power inherent in each stone.) Holding a star-stone may protect a person from the minions of the Great Old Ones, but not the Great Old Ones themselves. The Elder Gods themselves may have created these stones, as they are often found near the tombs of some of the Great Old Ones.

  Star-stones are usually where they are for a good reason and should not be disturbed if found. Each year, dozens of paranormal investigators are injured or killed because they ignore this simple rule. Not only might the stones’ removal allow an evil force to break free, the Elder Gods have been known on occasion to punish those who move large numbers of star-stones from their proper places. Acquisition of star-stones should be left to seasoned veterans of preternatural struggle who (it is hoped) know what they are doing. Miskatonic University has been conducting experiments in mass-producing star-stones with some success.

  The Sussex Manuscript maintains that there are three different kinds of star-stones: the regular kind, a polished oval stone useful against “kings” (lesser Great Old Ones?), and a jewel with fire in its heart which guard the tombs of the Great Old Ones themselves. No one has observed the latter two varieties, so they may not exist.

  [Stones very much like these first appear in “At the Mountains of Madness”, but there they serve as decorations and currency for the Elder Things and are not associated with protection or Mnar.]

  See Circles of Thaol; Elder Sign; Kish; Mnar. (The Burrowers Beneath, Lumley; “The Doom of Enos Harker”, Carter and Cornford; “The Lurker at the Threshold”, Derleth and Lovecraft; “At the Mountains of Madness”, Lovecraft (O); The Sussex Manuscript, Pelton.)

  STAR VAMPIRES. Species of interstellar beings who most commonly appear when summoned. Star vampires are completely transparent, save for a brief time after they drink the blood of a victim. Then they appear as masses of sharp talons and waving suckers.

  A star vampire may be summoned by reading a book with the spell (such as De Vermis Mysteriis) at night under a cloudless sky. Rumor has it that star vampires are now colonizing this planet, and are responsible for many mysterious livestock deaths.

  (“The Shambler from the Stars”, Bloch (O), Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, Cook and Tynes; Call of Cthulhu Rulebook, Petersen and Willis; S. Petersen’s Guide to Cthulhu Monsters, Petersen et. al.)

  STARKWEATHER-MOORE EXPEDITION. Expedition to Antarctica undertaken as a follow-up to Miskatonic’s Pabodie Expedition. Professor William Dyer of Miskatonic University strongly protested against it, but his tales of a stone city built by an alien race only served to encourage these new explorers.

  The Starkweather-Moore Expedition, led
by adventurer James Starkweather and Professor William Moore of Miskatonic, departed New York on September 6, 1933. Their expedition was plagued by sabotage and malfunctions, but they eventually returned to the site of the Pabodie expedition. When the team arrived, they reported that any alien ruins that might have existed had collapsed into an underground network of caverns. The expedition had to return with no evidence of prehuman intelligences.

  [An earlier Call of Cthulhu supplement states that the Starkweather-Moore Expedition, led by Professor Eustace Blake, left Bremen on December 20, 1931. I have no solution to this conundrum.]

  See Elder Things; Pabodie expedition. (Alone Against the Dark, Costello; Beyond the Mountains of Madness, Charles and Janyce Engan; “At the Mountains of Madness”, Lovecraft (O); “In the Vaults Beneath”, Lumley.)

  STARRY WISDOM CULT. Group of devotees of Nyarlathotep who met in Providence, Rhode Island between 1844 and 1877. Professor Enoch Bowen, a well-known expert on the occult and archaeology, founded the cult after his return from an expedition in Egypt. The congregation, which met in the old Free-Will church, swelled as time went on. In 1863, the Starry Wisdom Church had over two hundred members. A branch church opened for a brief while in Townshend, Vermont, and missionary efforts to Arkham began. Even after the death of Bowen in the 1860s, the church continued under the leadership of a Dr. Raymond Flagg.

  The nature of the cult’s worship was kept a secret, but several rumors began to be circulated. According to some sources, the cult owned a sacred artifact known only as the Shining Trapezohedron, which Professor Bowen had brought with him from Egypt. By gazing upon this sacred object, the members could call up a being known as the Haunter of the Dark, who shared dread secrets with the faithful. This being could only be summoned in absolute darkness; if it were exposed to light for any period of time, it would be banished. The cult’s rituals consisted of obeisances to this object, sprinkled with pseudo-Egyptian mysticism.