Elder Gods
- Elder Gods (1): In August Derleth stories.
- Elder Gods (Misc): In stories by other authors.
Elder Gods (1): In August Derleth Stories
In August Derleth stories, the Elder Gods (1) are a benevolent race of super-powerful aliens who vanquished and imprisoned a set of related, but evil, beings called the Great Old Ones (3).
Derleth referred to the Elder Gods (1) by several different terms in various stories, and sometimes even within the same story. His names for them included: Elder Gods; Elder Ones (4); Old Ones (7); Ancient Ones (3); Great Old Ones (4). Most of these names can also have different, or even opposite, meanings when used in different stories. For further information about these names, see Elder Gods and Great Old Ones: God Terminology in Derleth's Mythos Stories.
A Common Culture
The Elder Gods (1) were part of the same alien culture as the Great Old Ones (3).
. . . a completely alien culture . . . involving ancient Elder Gods and . . . Old Ones [Great Old Ones (3)] who bore such names as Cthulhu, Hastur, Yog-Sothoth, Shub-Niggurath, and Nyarlathotep. [Space]
The Oldest Gods
In some references, it appears that the Elder Gods (1) are the most ancient beings in the universe:
Most ancient of all, the Elder Gods, the forces of good were nameless . . . [Sandwin]
However difficult it was to summarize, it would appear that the first inhabitants of outer space were . . . the Elder Gods, at a remote time. [Valley (online text)]
An old priest implied that the Elder Gods (1) are older than the Great Old Ones (3):
The five-pointed star has great power, an older power than that which created the thing on Vömma. It is a weapon used eons past, when the Elder Gods fought and conquered the hosts of evil for possession of Earth-so the priest has told me. [Spawn]
Dr. Jean-Francois Charriere apparently believed that the Elder Gods (1) and Great Old Ones (3) are equally ancient:
. . . ancient Elder Gods and their terrible, unceasing conflict with equally primeval Old Ones [Great Old Ones (3)]. . . [Survivor (online text)]
Other references simply say that the Elder Gods (1) and Great Old Ones (3) are both very old, without specifying which is eldest:
It was then that he had his first vague knowledge of the Elder Gods . . . and of those others, mad genii of evil [Great Old Ones (3)] who inhabited outer space before the world was born. [Depths (online text)]
. . . elder beings of incredible age, old gods who once inhabited not only earth but the entire universe, who were divided between forces of ancient good and forces of ancient evil . . . [Sandwin]
Marius Phillips thought that the Elder Gods (1) might have been preceded by another benevolent group, confusingly called the "Great Old Ones (4)," although he confessed that they and the Elder Gods might be the same:
. . . the Great Old Ones [(4)], who were first among the universes, and the Elder Gods, who fought and vanquished the rebellious Ancient Ones . . . [Seal (online text)]
. . . the Great Old Ones [(4)] and the Elder Gods, who may, for all I could figure out, have been the same . . . [Seal (online text)]
Origin and Location
The Elder Gods (1) are from very far away:
. . . the Elder Gods, who presumably inhabited the cosmos many light-years away . . . [Island]
The Elder Gods (1) originated near the star Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion:
. . . the Elder Gods who ruled from Betelgeuse . . . [Curwen][Lurker]
He spoke of beings whose very names were awesome—of the Elder Gods who live on Betelgeuse, remote in time and space . . . [Dweller]
. . . the Elder Gods on distant Betelgeuse. [Sandwin]
. . . great beings . . . who were called the Elder Gods and lived on Betelgeuse . . . [Valley (online text)]
According to one story, the Elder Gods (1) came from both Betelgeuse and Rigel (another star in Orion):
Eons ago, a strange race of elder beings lived on Earth; they came from Rigel and Betelgeuse to take up their abode here and upon other planets. [ Lair]
The Elder Gods (1) may also have been associated with stars in the constellation Taurus, where they battled the Great Old Ones (3):
. . . the [Great Old Ones (3)]—almost inconceivable beings of dread who had fought against the Elder Gods in their far place among the stars of Orion and Taurus, and had been expelled to alien stars and planets . . . [Keeper]
At some point, the Elder Gods (1) returned to their home near Betelgeuse, which apparently is also known as Glyu-Vho:
"and return’d to that place from whence they had come, Namely, Glyu-Vho, which is among ye stars, and looked upon Earth from ye time when ye leaves fall to that time when ye ploughman becomes habit’d once again to his fields." [Lurker]
. . . the Elder Gods, who exist near the star Betelgeuse . . . [Sky]
Betelgeuse is the location from which the Elder Gods (1) can come, even today, to intervene against the Great Old Ones (3):
“And Cthulhu and Hastur shall struggle here for the haven while Great Orion strides above the horizon, with Betelgeuse where the Elder Gods are . . ." [Hastur]
. . . low in the east the gleaming eye of Betelgeuse as Orion rose into the autumn night. [Hastur]
On Earth, the Elder Gods (1) may be associated with some northern locale (perhaps Mnar, because the star-stones are associated with Mnar?).
From the frozen and impenetrable fastnesses in the far and unexplored northlands and from beyond, from the far reaches of the sky, had come a greater power . . . [Depths (online text)]
Range
The Elder Gods (1) and/or the Great Old Ones (3) once inhabited our whole universe:
. . . powerful Ancient Ones [Great Old Ones (3)], elder beings of unbelievable evil, old gods who once inhabited the earth and all the universe as we know it now, and perhaps far more—old gods of ancient good [Elder Gods (1)], and forces of ancient evil . . . [Beyond2]
Names
The Elder Gods (1) are mostly unnamed, with the exception of Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss.
The Old Ones [Elder Gods 1] are nameless . . . [Hastur]
Most ancient of all, the Elder Gods, the forces of good were nameless . . . [Sandwin]
As in many cultures, the Elder Gods were not often named . . . [Seal (online text)]
Yet it was not uninteresting, though it represented a familiar pattern. . . Did it matter whether you called it God and the Devil, or the Elder Gods and the Ancient Ones, Good and Evil or such names as the Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss, the only named Elder God, or these of the Great Old Ones [Gable (online text)]
Nodens the Leader
It appears that Nodens plays some kind of singular role among the Elder Gods (1):
Then shal They [the Great Old Ones (3)] return . . . & togeth’r shal take possession of Earth and all things that live upon it, & shal prepare to do battle with ye Elder Gods when [Nodens] ye Lord of ye Great Abyss is apprised of their return’g & shal come with His Brothers to disperse ye Evill. [Lurker]
Based on this passage, Nodens might be the overall leader of the Elder Gods, or he might have a more limited role like a watchman or a military commander. Note that the other Elder Gods are referred to as his "Brothers" rather than as his children or his followers.
Benevolence
The Elder Gods (1) are good and benevolent.
. . . those representing good, who were the benevolent Elder Gods. [Island]
. . . the Elder Gods, the forces of good . . . [Sandwin]
. . . the Elder Gods, who were beneficent . . . [Gorge]
The Elder Gods (1) goodness is a contrast to the Great Old Ones (3), who are evil.
Appearance
The Elder Gods (1) are of great size:
. . . great beings, not in human shape, who were called the Elder Gods . . . [Valley (online text)]
The Elder Gods (1) appear as pillars, columns, or towers of fire or light:
Holmes heard a great wind come from the north, and in its wake he saw gigantic pillars of fire. . . [Depths (online text)]
The entire sky began to glow with a weird purple light, and in the ray that descended from above I saw a file of beings even stranger than the Star-Warriors. They were great, writhing pillars of light, moving like tremendous flames, colored purple and white, dazzling in their intensity. These gigantic beings from outer space descended swiftly, circling the Plateau of Sung . . . [Lair]
. . . They were tak’n by Those Whom They Defy’d and hurl’d into banishment . . . until ye Earth was free of Them, and Those Who Came in ye shape of Towers of Fire, return’d whence They had come . . . [Lurker]
And this explained at the same time the weird stories of the columns of fire seen over the lake, stories that the papers reported the morning after our adventure. . . he saw gigantic pillars of fire writhing and flaming in the night. . . [Depths (online text)]
The Elder Gods (1) are represented in the Elder Sign that appears on the star-stones of Mnar:
. . . one stone bore a decoration . . . in the rough shape of a star, in the center of which there appeared to be a caricature of a single giant eye; but it was not an eye, rather a broken lozenge in shape with certain lines suggestive of flames or perhaps a solitary pillar of flame. [Lurker]
On the other hand, the design on the dislodged stone was curiously antipodal—a star as opposed to a circle, a lozenge and a pillar of flame or some such representation. [Lurker]
He opened a drawer in his desk as he spoke, and took from it two leather bracelets or arm bands, appearing at first to be wrist-watches, but proving to be leather bands holding an ovoid grey stone, on which had been carven a curious design—a rough star of five points, centered with a broken lozenge framing what appeared to be a pillar of flame. [Lurker]
The Elder Gods (1) can emit death rays:
. . . from these pillars had come stabbing, blinding rays of annihilation and death! [Depths (online text)]
. . . from them great rays of stabbing light shot out toward the hidden fastnesses below. And at the same time, the earth began to tremble. Shuddering, I put out my hand to touch Fo-Lan’s arm . . . “The Ancient Ones [Elder Gods (1)] themselves have come!” he cried out. [Lair]
The Elder Gods (1) can also use lightning-like appendages to grasp things:
. . . the brilliant explosion of light that seemed to emanate from the eastern sky like a bolt of incredibly powerful lightning; a tremendous discharge of energy in the shape of light, so that for one awful moment everything was revealed—before lightning-like appendages descended as from the heart of the blinding pillar of light itself, one seizing the mass in the waters, lifting it high, and casting it far out to sea, the other taking that second thing from the lawn and hurling it, a dark dwindling blot, into the sky, where it vanished among the eternal stars! [Hastur]
Star-Warriors
The Elder Gods (1) are served by a lesser race called the Star-Warriors:
They are the Star-Warriors sent by the Ancient Ones [Elder Gods (1)] from Orion. Up there they listened to my plea, for they know that Lloigor and Zhar and their evil spawn are deathless to man; they know that only the ancient weapons of the Elder Gods can punish and destroy. [Lair]
Golden Mead
One of the Elder Gods' (1) inventions is a certain potion, called golden mead, with transcendent properties:
The golden mead of the Elder Gods renders the drinker insensible to the effects of time and space, so that he may travel in these dimensions; moreover, it heightens his sensory perceptions so that he remains constantly in a state bordering upon dream . . . [Curwen]
I remembered later Professor Shrewsbury’s comment about the strange properties of the golden mead, which was certainly, I am now convinced, no invention of man’s, properties never conceived by mankind but brought from some far place, even perhaps, from out of this world, from the hidden places in the cosmos where the Ancient Ones [Great Old Ones (3)] still lurk . . . [Keeper]
. . . after having partaken of a golden mead which rendered them insensible to the effects of time and space and enabled them to travel in these dimensions, while at the same time heightening their sensory perceptions to an unheard-of extent, they set out for Celaeno . . . [Sky]
Instant Interventions
The Elder Gods (1) can travel from Betelgeuse and arrive on Earth almost instantly if summoned correctly.
Dr. Fo-Lan spent months learning how to summon them the Elder Gods telepathically:
“Nightly for many months I have tried to call for help with the force of my mind, have tried to get through the cosmos to those who alone can help in the titanic struggle before us. Last night I found a way, and soon I myself will go forth and demand the assistance we need. . . . I am suggesting that by telepathy I will summon help from those who first fought the things imprisoned below us.” . . .
Dimly, intelligence began to come to me. “Last night,” I murmured, “out there on the plateau, I saw a white line wavering into the sky.”
Fo-Lan nodded. “That was the way,” he said, “made visible by the power of my desire. Soon I shall travel it.” [Lair]
However, when the time was ripe for the Elder Gods' (1) intervention, Fo-Lan's summon brought the Star-Warriors almost instantly and the Elder Gods just minutes later.
Jordon Holmes was able to summon the Elder Gods (1), not through telepathy, but through a prayer translated to English from the Latin of the monk Clithanus. The prayer may have ultimately originated in "the secret words, the words know only to [the holy ones], translated by them into this language from the ancient gibberings in which the Elder Gods had given them the potent words." Again, the Elder Gods (1) began arriving very quickly, apparently during Homes' second recital of a fairly short prayer. [Depths (online text)]
On at least one occasion, the Elder Gods (1) arrived suddenly to intervene on Earth, apparently without even being summoned. When Hastur the Unspeakable and Cthulhu were struggling for possession of the body of Paul Tuttle, one of the Elder Gods appeared to cast them back into their prisons:
. . . a titanic struggle for mastery interrupted only by the brilliant explosion of light that seemed to emanate from the eastern sky like a bolt of incredibly powerful lightning; a tremendous discharge of energy in the shape of light, so that for one awful moment everything was revealed—before lightning-like appendages descended as from the heart of the blinding pillar of light [an Elder God] itself, one seizing the mass [Cthulhu] in the waters, lifting it high, and casting it far out to sea, the other taking that second thing [the Hastur-possessed body of Paul Tuttle] from the lawn and hurling it, a dark dwindling blot, into the sky, where it vanished among the eternal stars! And then came sudden, absolute, cosmic silence, and where, a moment before, this miracle of light had been, there was now only darkness and the line of trees against the sky, and low in the east the gleaming eye of Betelgeuse as Orion rose into the autumn night. [Hastur]
The Elder Gods' (1) ability to travel so quickly from distant Betelgeuse may be explained by the following passage, which discusses one of the Great Old Ones (3) called Cthugha. The Elder Gods and Great Old Ones (3) are evidently kin, and so can be expected to share some of the same capabilities:
“. . . You have before you the clear inference that Cthugha has his abode on Fomalhaut, which is twenty-seven light-years away, and that, if this chant is thrice repeated when Fomalhaut has risen Cthugha will appear to somehow render this place no longer habitable by man or outside entity. How do you suppose that could be accomplished?”
“Why, by something akin to thought-transference,” replied Laird doggedly. “It’s not unreasonable to suppose that if we were to direct thoughts toward Fomalhaut that something there might receive them—granting that there might be life there. Thought is instant. And that they in turn may be so highly developed that dematerialization and rematerialization might be as swift as thought.” [Dweller]
There is a limitation on this mode of transport: apparently the home star (Fomalhaut in the case of Cthugha, or Betelgeuse in the case of the Elder Gods (1)) needs to be above the horizon. Possibly the mass of Earth blocks thought transference; or the impediment could arise from the oceans that cover most of Earth's surface, since HPL previously established that the oceans form a barrier to telepathy:
In the elder time chosen men had talked with the entombed Old Ones in dreams, but then something had happened. The great stone city R’lyeh, with its monoliths and sepulchres, had sunk beneath the waves; and the deep waters, full of the one primal mystery through which not even thought can pass, had cut off the spectral intercourse. [HPL Call ([online text)]
Invoking the Elder Gods
Apparently it can be useful to invoke the Elder Gods (1), not just to summon their presence, but to enlist their aid in some kind of lesser spell. Thus, Laban Shrewsbury invoked the "assent" of the Elder Gods when calling up the spirit of Abdul Alhazred:
"Him who knows the place of R’lyeh; him who holds the secret of far Kadath; him who keeps the key to Cthulhu; by the five-pointed star, by the sign of Kish, by the assent of the Elder Gods, let him come forth." [Keeper]
And Mankind
As we have seen, there are instances of the Elder Gods (1) intervening after being summoned by humans. The narrator Sharp credited them with deliberately protecting humanity:
It was the Elder Gods, sweeping down with the wind from the north, avenging mankind, destroying forever the brood of Cthulhu, the horror from the depths! [Depths (online text)]
Actually, there is little to show that humanity is a central interest for the Elder Gods (1). Their conflict with the Great Old Ones (3) predates the existence of humanity by millions of years. Further, some human cults are actually allied with the Great Old Ones (3). The Elder Gods' (1) withdrawal to Betelgeuse also suggests they have limited interest in earthly affairs. If the Elder Gods (1) intervene when called, it may well be to protect themselves from another resurgence of the Great Old Ones (3). Or the Elder Gods (1) may be in the habit of protecting local sentient races anywhere in the universe where the Great Old Ones (3) stage a breakout; in which case, humanity may be only one of many races that fall under the protective umbrella of the Elder Gods (1).
And the Great Old Ones (3)
For much more information about the struggle between the Elder Gods (1) and the Great Old Ones (3), see the article Cthulhu Mythos.
Elder Gods (misc): In Other Writers
In stories by other authors, aside from Derleth, the term "Elder Gods" has more varied and general meanings.
"Elder God" is an epithet of Lord Krang. [RHB Tomb]
Horatio Lear believed in dark legends that Elder Gods once ruled the antediluvian deep. Lear believed also that that the Elder Gods have incarnated in a species of super molluscs that lie dormant in the sunken city of Flann. These molluscs are commanded by Cthulhu, awaiting the time to rise again and rule. They have incredible power and Lear believed that if he helped them, some of their power would be transmitted to him. Lear apparently derived his beliefs from books such as Dwellers in the Depths, Hydrophinnae, and Unter Zee Kulten. [CJ Acquarium]
According to the Necronomicon, there were Elder Gods that came before the modern demons. [DAW Review (online text)]
Gordon Whitney read of elder gods in the Book of Eibon, the Necronomicon, and the Eltdown Shards. These elder gods apparently included dread Cthulhu, unspeakable Tsathoggua, and fiendish Avaloth. These gods reigned in a mythical era and bent all things to a callous, inhuman purpose. The elder gods continued to walk the earth after the coming of mammalian life, and plagued the early ancestors of humanity. [RFS Warder]
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