Ramsey Campbell deities
The Ramsey Campbell deities are fictional supernatural entities created for the Cthulhu Mythos universe of shared fiction by British horror writer Ramsey Campbell.
Daoloth[edit]
[The image of Daoloth] was not shapeless, but so complex that the eye could recognize no describable shape. There were hemispheres and shining metal, coupled by long plastic rods. The rods were of a flat grey colour, so that he could not make out which were nearer; they merged into a flat mass from which protruded individual cylinders. As he looked at it, he had a curious feeling that eyes gleamed from between these rods; but wherever he glanced at the construction, he saw only the spaces between them.
—Ramsey Campbell, "The Render of the Veils"
Daoloth (The Render of Veils or The Parter of Veils) dwells in dimensions beyond the three we know. His astrologer-priests are said to be able to see the past and the future and even how objects extend into and travel between different dimensions.
Daoloth's indescribable shape causes viewers to go mad at the sight of him; thus, he must be summoned in pitch-black darkness. If not held within some kind of magical containment, he continues to expand and expand—perhaps even at an infinite rate. Those enveloped by the god are transported to utterly bizarre and remote worlds, usually perishing as a result. Daoloth's worship is rare on earth.
One request that can be made to Daoloth, magically contained, is to view things as they really are, not as our veiled senses perceive them. The sight is more than one can bear.
Eihort[edit]
Eihort (God of the Labyrinth) first appeared "in person" in Ramsey Campbell's short story "Before the Storm" (1980). However, the being was first mentioned in Campbell's "The Franklyn Paragraphs" (1973) and "Cold Print" (1969)
Eihort lives within a network of tunnels deep beneath the Severn Valley, in England. It appears as a "bloated blanched oval, supported on a myriad of fleshless legs" with eyes continuously forming in its gelatinous body. When it captures a human, it offers the captive a "bargain". If the captive refuses, Eihort rams the victim violently to death. If the captive accepts the offer, the horror implants its immature "brood" inside the victim's body. The brood will eventually mature, and kill their host. According to the Revelations of Glaaki, after the fall of humanity, Eihort's brood will be born into light.[1]
"Ei" and "Hort" are nouns of the modern German language, "Ei" meaning "egg" and "Hort" meaning "hoard".
Glaaki[edit]
See Gla'aki.
Ghroth[edit]
[A] nineteenth century British cult believed in [a] comet-god who sang to the stars and planets as it passed by them in its orbit. They said it destroyed those worlds it passed, by waking up demons or ancient gods ... who slept on each world.
—Kevin A. Ross, "The Music of the Spheres"
Ghroth (the Harbinger) resembles a small, rust-colored planet or moon with a single, gigantic red eye which it can close to avoid detection. Ghroth drifts throughout the universe singing its siren song, the Music of the Spheres. As it swings by a planet, any Great Old One or Outer God sleeping there is awakened by the song. This usually results in the extinction of all life on the planet or perhaps even the utter destruction of the planet itself.[2]
Ghroth is believed to be responsible for the periodic mass extinctions that wiped out 90% of all life on earth, including the extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous era. It may also have caused the destruction of the planet Shaggai, the homeworld of the intelligent, insect-like Shan.[3] For this reason, Ghroth is also known as Nemesis, or the Death Star, named after the Nemesis Hypothesis, first proposed by American astronomers David Raup and Jack Sepkoski.
Appears in "The Tugging" (The Disciples of Cthulhu, DAW books, 1976)
The Horror Under Warrendown[edit]
The Horror Under Warrendown was created by British author Ramsey Campbell for his short story of the same name (1995).
The Horror, which lives under Campbell's invented village of Warrendown in Campbell's Severn Valley setting, resembles one of the giant, cephalic statues of Easter Island, the Moai, albeit one completely covered with vegetation. The plants, however, do not grow separately from the statue, but are in fact part of the Horror itself. It can extend vine-like tentacles to capture a victim or to give a communion offering to a worshipper.
The Horror possesses a strange mutagenic ability: Anyone who partakes of its flesh (i.e., the vegetables that grow from its plant-like overgrowth) will eventually transform into a grotesque, rabbit-like mutant. These mutants worship and serve the Horror, and are dedicated to tricking others into joining their cult by offering them fresh vegetables harvested from it.[4]
While the Horror is unnamed in Campbell's story, it was given the name "The Green God" in the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game.
A similar plant-like deity named E'ilor is mentioned in the short story "Correlated Contents" by James Ambuehl. Like the Horror, E'ilor dwells in a large cavern deep beneath a small farming village in the Severn Valley, and possesses vine-like tentacles which can be used for capturing prey or offering communal sacrifices. Both of these deities receive brief mention in the multi-volume grimoire Revelations of Glaaki.
Y'golonac[edit]
Y'golonac (the Defiler) is the god of perversion and depravity. Noted for having a very human understanding of morality, Y'golonac is the only Great Old One to be actively evil. A headless, bloated corpse with mouths on his palms, Y'golonac is sealed behind a brick wall but can be inadvertently summoned by reading his name.
References[edit]
- ↑ Harms, "Eihort", Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, p. 96.
- ↑ Kevin A. Ross, "The Music Of The Spheres", Made In Goatswood, pp. 211–222.
- ↑ Daniel Harms, "Ghroth", The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, pp. 118–9.
- ↑ Campbell, The Horror Under Warrendown, Made in Goatswood, pp. 253–68.
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