The Cthulhu Mythos
From The Yellow Site
The Cthulhu Mythos is a term used to describe a whole genre of stories that are united by references to the same characters, places, books or creatures, many of these creatures being worshipped as gods. In particular, Cthulhu is the most well-known (and apparently worshipped) of these gods.
Cthulhu, and many of these other elements, were created by H. P. Lovecraft.
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[edit] An All-Encompassing Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos is a term that includes, amongst the wealth of material that has been encompassed by the term, The Hastur Mythos and The Carcosa Mythos, terms I've kept distinct here because the latter is the main concern of this wiki, being focussed on The King In Yellow (both the play and the entity) and The Yellow Sign. Hastur, of course, is a part of that, but 'he' also manifests in other ways.
[edit] The Role Playing Game
The Call of Cthulhu RPG has been one of the more coherant guides to the Cthulhu Mythos, in that it attempts to create a structure to the Mythos, to establish connections between different factions, and to present them in a way that helps rather than confuses. Many of the terms and clarifications about elements contained within the Mythos are due to this game, and it's numerous supplements.
[edit] Major Elements of The Cthulhu Mythos
[edit] Strange Gods
The following gods are perhaps the most prominant gods known through the Cthulhu Mythos, being much like universal forces rather than figurative god-like figures. They are known as The Outer Gods, a definition popularised by the role-playing game.
Three entities fit into this category:
Furthermore, they are served by a being that works from behind a thousands masks:
[edit] False Idols
There are many alien gods worshipped by strange cults on this planet (and elsewhere). Many of them are worshipped as part of a pantheon of gods, as dictated by locality and beliefs. Cthulhu is the most infamous of these beings from the stars, known colectively as The Great Old Ones (again, a definition popularised by the role playing game), but there are many more.
Here are a few of the more widely-recognised ones:
