Tsathoggua

An amorphous and toad-like god-creature [HPL Whisperer (online text)].

He is said to be great in girth, very squat and pot-bellied. He has a huge, toad-shaped head. His sleepy lids are half-lowered over his globular eyes, from which trickle a phosphor-like glow. The tip of a queer tongue protrudes from his fat mouth. His whole body is covered with short, dark, fine fur, giving the impression of a bat or sloth. [CAS Seven (online text); Tale (online text); Door (online text)]

However, Tsathoggua can apparently change his form, for he is known as "plastic" [HPL Gates (online text)] and "amorphous" [HPL Aeons (online text)].

Tsathoggua is sluggish by nature. Even when ravenously hungry, he will not arise from his place, but waits in divine slothfulness for the sacrifice. He seems to drink the blood of his victims rather than eating their flesh; for Ezdagor sent someone to Tsathoggua as a "blood-offering," and the previous victim appeared to be a "lean husk," which is suggestive of something that was drained, rather than eaten whole. [CAS Seven (online text)]

Origin and Oldest Cults

According to Clark Ashton Smith, Tsathoggua as born in a foreign universe [CAS Door (online text)]. Tsathoggua's father was Ghizguth, and his mother was Zstulzhemgni. Ghizguth's androgynous parent Cxaxukluth brought them from a distant star system to Yuggoth. There, Tsathoggua lived with his parents in inner caverns to avoid the cannibalistic tendencies of Cxaxukluth. After a long while, Tsathoggua moved to Cykranosh (Saturn). [CAS Pnom] According to H. P. Lovecraft, Tsathoggua was descended from Nug, and Tsathoggua's descendents included Clark Ashton Smith. [HPL Family (online text)]

Tsathoggua came from Cykranosh to Earth in years immediately following the earth's creation [CAS Seven (online text)], when the earth was still no more than a steaming morass [CAS Door (online text)]. However, Ubbo-Sathla was already present on Earth before Tsathoggua arrived [Ubbo (online text)].

Tsathoggua, travelling through another dimension than the familiar three, first entered the Earth by means of the lightless inner Gulf of N'Kai; and he lingered there for cycles, during which his ultraterrestrial origin was not suspected. [CAS Pnom]

Albert Wilmarth said that Tsathoggua's home was black, lightless N'kai [FL Terror2]. The Outer One masquerading as Henry Akeley said that Tsathoggua came from black, lightless N'kai: the deepest level of a system of caverns beneath Oklahoma [HPL Whisperer (online text)]

Dark, variable spawn came down with Tsathoggua from elder worlds and exterior dimensions where physiology and geometry had both assumed an altogether inverse trend of development. [CAS Testament (online text)] These seem to have become the worshippers of Tsathoggua in N'kai: amorphous lumps of viscous black slime that took temporary shapes for various purposes.They had peculiar senses to make up for the complete darkness of their abode, and had a great civilisation. [HPL Mound (online text)]

A few daring mystics have suggested that the devotees of Tsathoggua were as alien to mankind as Tshathoggua itself. On viewing the Antarctic city of the Old Ones, Prof. Dyer was reminded of the Hyperborean legends of Tsathoggua and the "worse than formless" star-spawn associated with that semi-entity [HPL Mountains (online text)]. Based on the description, it seems likely that Dyer was thinking of the black slime worhsippers of Tsathoggua in Nkai.

Yog-Sothoth told Randolph Carter that entities from the double planet Kythanil flew to earth and worshipped Tsathoggua [HPL Gates (online text)]. These could be the same as the "star-spawn" mentioned by Dyer and the slime creatures in N'kai.

Later, Tsathoggua established himself in caverns nearer to the surface (presumably Yoth and K'n-yan), and his cult thrived [CAS Pnom].

The cult of Tsathoggua become popular among the Old Ones of K'n-yan, and almost rivalled the ancient cults of Yig and Tulu. The city of Tsath was named after Tsathoggua. One branch of the Old Ones of K'n-yan carried the cult to the outer world, where one of the images found its way to a shrine in Olathoë, in the Arctic land of Lomar [HPL Mound (online text)].

However, the people of K'n-yan eventually abandoned the worship of Tsathoggua. The circumstances are unclear, because much of Tsathoggua's legend was later forgotten or misunderstood by the dwellers in the red-litten Caverns of Yoth and blue-litten Caverns of K'n-Yan. By the time of the Spaniard Zamacona's visit, Gll'Hthaa-Ynn believed that only the statues of Tsathoggua, and not Tsathoggua himself, had ever emerged from the inner world. [HPL Mound (online text)]

Gll'-Hthaa-Ynn also said that the people of K'n-yan abandoned the Tsathoggua cult after an expedition to N'kai found some of the black slime creatures. [HPL Mound (online text)]

In any case, after the coming of the ice, Tsathoggua returned to N'Kai. [CAS Pnom]

One of Tsathoggua's temples was later turned into a shrine of Shub-Niggurath. During Zamacona's visit, Gll'-Hthaa-Ynn detoured to show Zamacona an ancient, deserted temple of Tsathoggua. [HPL Mound (online text)]

God of the Hyperboreans

200,000 years ago, lost Hyperborea knew the nameless worship of black amorphous Tsathoggua [HPL Aeons (online text)]. Originally, this worship was probably rendered by the beings from Kythanil, since Yog-Sothoth told Randolph Carter that those beings worshipped Tsathoggua in primal Hyperborea [HPL Gates (online text)].

Later, the worship in Hyperborea was apparently taken up by the primate forbears of humanity; for, among the minds held captive by the Great Race were three from the furry "pre-human" Hyperborean worshippers of Tsathoggua [HPL Time (online text)].

During the human era, the people of Hyperborea also worshipped Tsathoggua, who was fabled to reside below Mt. Voormithadreth. During worship at his black altars, the devotees always faced in the direction of Voormithadreth. At that time, the sorcerer Ezdagor sent Ralibar Vooz to Tsathoggua as a sacrifice. Tsathoggua decided not to feast on Ralibar Vooz, but instead sent him onward as an offering to Atlach-Nacha. [CAS Seven (online text)].

Later in Hyperborean history, the thief Satampra Zeiros visited a shrine of Tsathoggua in the suburbs of ruined Commoriom, the former capital of Hyperborea. By the time of Satampra Zeiros, the people of Hyperborea had ceased to worship Tsathoggua; but it was rumored that jungle beasts visited his abandoned temples and uttered inarticulate prayers to him. [CAS Tale (online text)]

The temple visited by Zeiros had a basin filled with a foetid black slime. This slime turned out to be a living being that could change shape at will, and which pursued Zeiros and his associate. [CAS Tale (online text)] This being was probably one of the fissional spawn of Knygathin Zhaum [CAS Pnom], but could have been Tsathoggua himself, or possibly one of the slime-creatures from Kythanil.

By the time of the Hyperborean sorcerer Eibon, Tsathoggua's worship had lapsed, and he was driven to lead a wholly subterranean existence. Eibon worshipped him as Zhothaqquah, and found him to be a very truthful deity. [Door (online text)]

God of the Outer Ones

It appears that Tsathoggua is one of the entities worshipped by the Outer Ones. Thus, Tsathoggua was mentioned in a litany recited in a Vermont cave on May-Eve by an Outer One and a human [HPL Whisperer (online text)]. Since the Outer Ones colonized Yuggoth (Pluto) where Tsathoggua lived for a time, Robert M. Price has speculated that the Outer Ones picked up the worship of Tsathoggua on Yuggoth. [Robert M. Price (ed.), The Tsathoggua Cycle. Chaosium Publications, 2005.]

Cult Survivals

Tsathoggua is mentioned in the Pnakotic Manuscripts, the Necronomicon, and the Commoriom myth-cycle preserved by the Atlantean high-priest Klarkash-Ton [HPL Whisperer (online text)].

In medieval France, Brother Ambrose witnessed a manifestation of Sodagui (Tsathoggua) that was raised by Azédarac, Archbishop of Averoigne [CAS Holiness (online text)].

Prof. John Kirowan admitted the former existence of the Tsathoggua cult, but doubted that it survives today [REH Children (online text)].

According to the Rajah of Jadhore, Ganesha was worshipped as Tsathoggua long ago [RB Elephant (online text)]. However, the differing appearance of the two deities (elephant-headed versus toadlike) makes this identification doubtful.

Megalithic ruins in Uganda were said to have been an outpost of Tsadogwa. [HPL Winged (online text)]

Tsathoggua as an Earth God

David, nephew of Asa Sandwin, recalled reading of Tsathoggua and Yog-Sothoth as leaders of the elemental earth powers [AWD Sandwin]. According to Horvath Blayne, Tsathoggua was a god of earth, and one of the Ancient Ones who rebelled against the Elder Gods [AWD Island].

According to books such as the Sussex Manuscript, Celaeno Fragments, and Cultes des Ghoules, Tsathoggua is waiting in N'kai [AWD Gorge]. Passages from the Necronomicon mention Tsathoggua [AWD Keeper ]; according to some such passages, Tsathoggua shall come again from the black-litten caverns of N'kai within the earth [AWD Curwen; Lurker].

Modern Scholars and Encounters

The Indian wise man Misquamacus said that Ossadagowah was a child of Sadogowah (Tsathoggua) [HPL Sorceries (online text), AWD Lurker].

After wreaking vengeance on a rival, Daniel Morris wrote "Praise the Lord Tsathoggua!" Morris may have learned of Tsathoggua from the Book of Eibon. [HPL Man (online text)]

Rogers' Museum had a figure of black, formless Tsathoggua [HPL Museum (online text)]. Stephen Jones imagined the figure of Tsathoggua elongating itself from a toad-like gargoyle to a long, sinuous line with hundreds of rudimentary feet [HPL Museum (online text)].

A letter from Henry Akeley mentioned Tsathoggua [HPL Whisperer (online text)].

Tony Alwyn read of Tsathoggua in the forbidden texts at Miskatonic University library [AWD Beyond2].

A dictaphone recording made at Rick's Lake, Wisconsin, recorded a voice neither human nor bestial, which uttered praise to many elder beings, including Tsathoggua [AWD Dweller ].

The late Amos Tuttle's papers included references to Tsathoggua [AWD Hastur].

While pondering an invocation to the Warder of Knowledge in the Eltdown Shards, Gordon Whitney recalled references from other works to the unspeakable practices of the Tsathoggua cult [RFS Warder].

Boys in the late Elmer Harrod's house heard the name Tsathoggua chanted from underground [JVS Dead].

A tiny man told Dr. Wycherly that the Book reveals whence obscure and loathsome Tsathoqquah came, and why [HH Guardian].

Name Variants

Tsathoggua is also known as Sadogowah [AWD Lurker], Sadoqua [RB Shambler (online text)], Sodagui [CAS Holiness (online text); AWD Lurker], Tsadogwa [HPL Winged (online text)], Tsathoqquah [HH Guardian], Zhothagguah [AWD Lurker], and Zhothaqquah [CAS Door (online text), Ubbo (online text)].

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