| Yog-Sothoth | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real Name |
Yog-Sothoth |
|
First Appearance |
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1927) |
|
Original Publisher |
Weird Tales |
|
Created by |
H. P. Lovecraft |
Origin[]
Yog-Sothoth is a fictional cosmic entity and Outer God created by H. P. Lovecraft. He is a core part of the Cthulhu Mythos (which Lovecraft would refer to facetiously as "Yog-Sothothery"). Born of the Nameless Mist, he is the progenitor of Cthulhu, Hastur the Unspeakable, and the ancestor of the Voormi. He is also the father of Wilbur Whateley.
In the Dunwich Horror a lenghty quote from the Necronomicon is included about Yog-Sothoth:
"Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They have trod earth's fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread."
He is encountered by Randolph Carter in "Through the Gates of the Silver Key", the only Lovecraft story in which Yog-Sothoth seems to speak and says:
" "Randolph Carter", IT seemed to say, "MY manifestations on your planet's extension, the Ancient Ones, have sent you as one who would lately have returned to small lands of dream which he had lost, yet who with greater freedom has risen to greater and nobler desires and curiosities. You wished to sail up golden Oukranos, to search out forgotten ivory cities in orchid-heavy Kled, and to reign on the opal throne of Ilek-Vad, whose fabulous towers and numberless domes rise mighty toward a single red star in a firmament alien to your earth and to all matter. Now, with the passing of two Gates, you wish loftier things. You would not flee like a child from a scene disliked to a dream beloved, but would plunge like a man into that last and inmost of secrets which lies behind all scenes and dreams. What you wish, I have found good; and I am ready to grant that which I have granted eleven times only to beings of your planet - five times only to those you call men, or those resembling them. I am ready to shew you the Ultimate Mystery, to look on which is to blast a feeble spirit. Yet before you gaze full at that last and first of secrets you may still wield a free choice, and return if you will through the two Gates with the Veil still unrent before your eyes."
Public Domain Appearances[]
- The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1927)
- The Dunwich Horror (1928)
- The Last Test (1928)
- The Electric Executioner (1930)
- The Whisperer in Darkness (1930)
- Through the Gates of the Silver Key (1933)
- The Horror in the Museum (1933)
- At the Mountains of Madness (1936)