Nyarlathotep

Nyarlathotep (the Crawling Chaos) is a fictional character in the Cthulhu Mythos. He is the creation of H.P. Lovecraft and first appeared in his prose poem "Nyarlathotep" (1920). The being is one of the cosmic Outer Gods and appears in numerous stories by Lovecraft. Nyarlathotep is also featured in the works of other authors, as well as in role-playing games based on the Cthulhu Mythos.

Inspiration

In a 1921 letter to Reinhardt Kleiner, Lovecraft related the dream he had had--described as "the most realistic and horrible [nightmare] I have experienced since the age of ten"--that served as the basis for his prose poem "Nyarlathotep". In the dream, he received a letter from his friend Samuel Loveman that read:

Don't fail to see Nyarlathotep if he comes to Providence. He is horrible--horrible beyond anything you can imagine--but wonderful. He haunts one for hours afterward. I am still shuddering at what he showed.

Lovecraft commented:

I had never heard the name NYARLATHOTEP before, but seemed to understand the allusion. Nyarlathotep was a kind of itinerant showman or lecturer who held forth in publick halls and aroused widespread fear and discussion with his exhibitions. These exhibitions consisted of two parts--first, a horrible--possibly prophetic--cinema reel; and later some extraordinary experiments with scientific and electrical apparatus. As I received the letter, I seemed to recall that Nyarlathotep was already in Providence.... I seemed to remember that persons had whispered to me in awe of his horrors, and warned me not to go near him. But Loveman's dream letter decided me.... As I left the house I saw throngs of men plodding through the night, all whispering affrightedly and bound in one direction. I fell in with them, afraid yet eager to see and hear the great, the obscure, the unutterable Nyarlathotep.

Will Murray suggests that this dream image of Nyarlathotep may have been inspired by the inventor Nikola Tesla, whose well-attended lectures did involve extraordinary experiments with electrical apparatus, and whom some saw as a sinister figure.

Robert M. Price proposes that the name Nyarlathotep may have been subconsciously suggested to Lovecraft by two names from Lord Dunsany, an author he much admired: Alhireth-Hotep, a false prophet from Dunsany's The Gods of Pegana, and Mynarthitep, a god described as "angry" in his "The Sorrow of Search".

Summary

Nyarlathotep differs from the other beings in a number of ways. Most of them are exiled to stars, like Yog-Sothoth and Hastur, or sleeping and dreaming like Cthulhu; Nyarlathotep, however, is active and frequently walks the Earth in the guise of a human being, usually a tall, slim, joyous man. Most of them have their own cults serving them, while Nyarlathotep seems to serve them and take care of their affairs in their absence. Most of them use strange alien languages, while Nyarlathotep uses human languages and can be mistaken for a human being. Finally, most of them are all powerful yet purposeless, yet Nyarlathotep seems to be deliberately deceptive and manipulative, and even uses propaganda to achieve his goals. In this regard, he is probably the most human-like among them.

Nyarlathotep enacts the will of the Outer Gods, and is their messenger, heart and soul; he is also a servant of Azathoth, whose wishes he immediately fulfills. Unlike the other Outer Gods, causing madness is more important and enjoyable than death and destruction to Nyarlathotep. In this sense, he strongly resembles the traditional role of the devil.

In the recent d20 revision of the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game, Nyarlathotep's involvement in human affairs is expanded. According to the Necronomicon, Nyarlathotep will play some part in the End Times. It is stated that he will allow Nyogtha to wipe the Earth clean in preparation for the return of the Great Old Ones, although it does not specify how Nyarlathotep will accomplish this. It also fails to mention when this will occur, but presumably it would be after the fall of Zothique some 5,000 years in the future.

Table of forms

Nyarlathotep has many forms (some literature refers to these forms as Masks and claims that he has a thousand of them) and is thus known by different avatars.

Overview

This table is organized as follows:

• Name. This is the name of Nyarlathotep's form.
• Region. This is the geographical location where Nyarlathotep's form is active.
• Description. This entry describes Nyarlathotep's form.
• Notes. This field contains additional information.
• References. This field lists the sources that contain references to Nyarlathotep's form. If the source is a story, it is denoted by a two-letter code—the key to the codes is found here. Otherwise, the source is denoted as follows:
  • rpg means a role-playing game and includes a footnote to the source.
  • MofN means the Masks of Nyarlathotep web site.

If an entry appears in bold, this means that the reference introduces Nyarlathotep's form.

Table-a (A–D)

Nyarlathotep's forms

Name	Region	Description	Notes	References
Ahtu	Congo	Appears as a gelatinous mass extruding golden tentacles.	Ahtu's cult in Africa is comprised of human worshipers of no hope, driven to insanity by being ill-treated and forced into encroachments by rulers and exploiters. Self-mutilation is a sign of the cult: all have amputations and terrible scars from near-fatal whippings and beatings. However, New World worship more resembles voodoo rituals. He can be called by a magical, golden bracelet, which is kept separated into two halves to prevent accidental summonings.	rpg, UD
Black Man	England	Appears as a hooved, hairless, swarthy man.	Nyarlathotep is worshipped by witch covens in this form.	DW, FG
Black Pharaoh	Egypt	Appears as a haughty Egyptian pharaoh wearing a brightly colored robe.	The Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh worships Nyarlathotep in this form.	DQ, rpg
Black Wind	Kenya	Manifests as a devastating storm.	—	IK, rpg
Bloated Woman	China (Shanghai)	Initially appears as a dainty maiden behind a fan, though the fan casts an illusion masking the true form of a large bloated tentacled humanoid who eats brains.	The Order of the Bloated Woman worships Nyarlathotep in this form.	rpg
Crawling Mist	Dreamlands	Appears as a putrid, living fog.	—	EL
Dark Demon	—	Appears as a larger version of the Black Demon yet more treacherous.	Those who study the black arts are sometimes contacted by this avatar. In return for entering their bodies, the Dark Demon promises them great rewards. Unfortunately, Nyarlathotep never makes good on this promise.	KD
Dark One	California, Louisiana	Appears as a pitch-black, eight-foot-tall, faceless man who can walk through any physical barrier.	—	MK
Dweller in Darkness	Wood of N'gai	This avatar wails as it forms and reabsorbs random appendages. It has no face, but can take any shape it pleases for short time periods.	—	DD'
Howler in the Dark	Wood of N'gai (somewhere in northern America)	Appears as a hideous, howling giant with a tentacle in place of a face.	—	DD

Table-b (E–M)

Nyarlathotep's forms

Name	Region	Description	Notes	References
The Faceless God	Ancient Egypt	Appears as a winged, faceless sphinx.	This avatar has the ability to send its worshippers back through time.	FG
The Floating Horror	Haiti	Appears as a bluish, red-veined jellyfish-like creature.	—	AP
The Haunter of the Dark	Australia; Providence, Rhode Island; Yuggoth	A bloated, batlike creature with a single, burning, three-lobed eye which appears able to kill by fear alone. This avatar is destroyed by light.	Its most important cult is the Church of Starry Wisdom, based in Providence, which can summon the avatar using the Shining Trapezohedron. It is also worshipped by some modern Aborigines. Its other epithets include Face Eater, Father of All Bats, Dark Wing, Sand Bat, and Fly-The-Light.	CD, HD, rpg, S5
L'rog'g (also Lrogg), Bat God of L'gy'hx	The planet L'gy'hx (Uranus)	Appears as a two-headed bat (debatable).	Avatar worshipped by the cuboid inhabitants of L'gy'hx and by a group of renegade Shan.	IS, rpg
Messenger of the Old Ones	—	Appears as an enormous black mass that seems to creep across the sky.	This form is manifest only during occasions of cosmic importance, such as the awakening of Cthulhu.	rpg, WA
Mr. Skin	Los Angeles	Eight-foot-tall, pale silver, faceless imitation of a pimp.	This avatar, appearing in the Los Angeles area, is closely associated with certain worshippers of Shub-Niggurath.	MK

Table-c (N–W)

Nyarlathotep's forms

Name	Region	Description	Notes	References
Shugoran	Malaysia	Appears as a black human-like creature playing a horn.	This form is worshipped by the Tcho-tcho. They sometimes summon this avatar to punish offenders.	BH, rpg
The Thing in the Yellow Mask	Dreamlands	A creature clothed in yellow silk.	This avatar is only known to manifest in the city of 'Ygiroth in the Dreamlands. Some claim that it is the lone occupant of the remote, unnamed monastery on the Plateau of Leng (see High Priest Not to Be Described).	CE, FY, YG
The White Man	New England	Appears as a blonde man in a shiny white robe.	—	NS

Quotations

And it was then that Nyarlathotep came out of Egypt. Who he was, none could tell, but he was of the old native blood and looked like a Pharaoh. The fellahin knelt when they saw him, yet could not say why. He said he had risen up out of the blackness of twenty-seven centuries, and that he had heard messages from places not on this planet. Into the lands of civilisation came Nyarlathotep, swarthy, slender, and sinister, always buying strange instruments of glass and metal and combining them into instruments yet stranger. He spoke much of the sciences - of electricity and psychology - and gave exhibitions of power which sent his spectators away speechless, yet which swelled his fame to exceeding magnitude. Men advised one another to see Nyarlathotep, and shuddered. And where Nyarlathotep went, rest vanished; for the small hours were rent with the screams of a nightmare.
—H.P. Lovecraft, "Nyarlathotep"

What his fate would be, he did not know; but he felt that he was held for the coming of that frightful soul and messenger of infinity's Other Gods, the crawling chaos Nyarlathotep.

—H.P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

There was the immemorial figure of the deputy or messenger of hidden and terrible powers - the "Black Man" of the witch cult, and the "Nyarlathotep" of the Necronomicon.

—H.P. Lovecraft, "The Dreams in the Witch House"

There are references to a Haunter of the Dark awaked by gazing into the Shining Trapezohedron, and insane conjectures about the black gulfs from which it was called. The being is spoken of as holding all knowledge, and demanding monstrous sacrifices.

—H.P. Lovecraft, "The Haunter of the Dark"

Popular culture

Literature

Nyarlathotep sometimes appears or is referred to in literature outside the Cthulhu Mythos genre of horror:

• In Stephen King's The Stand and his Dark Tower series of books, the character Randall Flagg was known (among many other names) as Nyarlathotep. His short story "Crouch End" features the name spelled "Nyarlahotep".
• The children's horror writer Brad Strickland used Nyarlathotep as the main antagonist in his book The Wrath of the Grinning Ghost.
• Nyarlathotep is a student in Harry Turtledove's short story "The Genetics Lecture."

Comics

• Magic spells in the comic book Conan the Barbarian feature invocations to "Nyarla Thotep".
• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Loki summons Nyarlathotep, "tearer of souls, ripper of flesh".
• Nyarlathotep (also called Priest of the Ether, Chaos Made Flesh, etc.) is a character in the webcomic Friendly Hostility.

• Ethan Kostabi in the Caballistics, Inc. series has been hinted to be Nyarlathotep.
• In The Unspeakable Vault of Doom[1], Nyarlathotep regularly appears as what looks like a living tentacle with arms and legs.
• Is briefly featured, along with other Great Old Ones, in the dream world the lead characters visit in Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October.

Music

• German heavy metal band Rage has a song titled "The Crawling Chaos", a song seemingly about the destruction of the earth by Nyarlathotep, on their 1995 album Black in Mind.

• Italian heavy metal band Bejelit has a song titled "Haunter in the Dark", based on the story of the same name, from their Bones and Evil EP.

Games

Nyarlathotep appears in the Persona series of PlayStation games as a god symbolic of the destructive potential of Carl Jung's collective unconsciousness; and as "Nylonathatep, the laddering horror" in the Discworld game Discworld Noir; and as the Thing Outside Time and Space in the trading card game Hecatomb.

Demonbane

Nyarlathotep is the main antagonist of the Demonbane series which spans games, comics, novels, and a TV series, in which it is trying to free its father Azathoth from the Shining Trapezohedron. It has taken on four named forms so far: Nya, an owner of a mysterious bookstore filled with dangerous grimoires, Nyarla, a maid to Augusta Derleth, Father Ny, the leader of the Church of Starry Wisdom, and the Tick-Tock Man, technology incarnate. It has also taken on the forms of an unnamed black man "from Egypt", and a talking black rat, among others. Its "true" form is depicted as a great shadow filled with fangs and claws and tentacles with three flaming eyes.

References

• "Nyarlathotep". Retrieved February 21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Masks of Nyarlathotep". Retrieved January 25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• Harms, Daniel. "Nyarlathotep" in The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (2nd ed.), pp. 218–222. Oakland, CA: Chaosium, 1998. ISBN 1-56882-119-0.

Role-playing game material

• Aniolowski, Scott D. (1990). "The Sundial of Amen-Tet". Lurking Fears. Lockport, NY: Triad Entertainments.

• Aniolowski, Scott D. (1994). Ye Booke of Monstres. Oakland, CA: Chaosium. ISBN 1-56882-019-4.

• Detwiller, Dennis (1997). Delta Green: A Call of Cthulhu Sourcebook of Modern Horror and Conspiracy. Tynes Cowan Corp. ISBN 1-887797-08-4. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

• Diaper, John (1983). The Arkham Evil. Theatre of the Mind. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

• DiTillio, Larry (1987). "City beneath the Sands". Terror Australis. Oakland, CA: Chaosium. ISBN 0-933635-40-0. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

• DiTillio, Larry (1996). Masks of Nyarlathotep. Oakland, CA: Chaosium. ISBN 1-56882-069-0. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

• Gillian, Geoff (1991). "Regiment of Dread". Tales of the Miskatonic Valley. Oakland, CA: Chaosium. ISBN 0-933635-83-4. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

• Gillian, Geoff (1991). Horror on the Orient Express. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

• Hallet, David (1991). "Eyes for the Blind". Dark Designs. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

• Hamblin, William (1983). "Thoth's Dagger". Different Worlds #27.

• Herber, Keith (1990). "Dead of Night". Arkham Unveiled.

• Herber, Keith (1984). The Fungi from Yuggoth.

• Herber, Keith (1991). Return to Dunwich.

• Johnson, Sam (1997). A Resection of Time. Oakland, CA: Chaosium. ISBN 1-56882-095-X.

• Lyons, Doug (1989). "One in Darkness". The Great Old Ones. Oakland, CA: Chaosium. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

• Petersen, Sandy (1982). "The Rise of R'lyeh". Shadows of Yog-Sothoth.

• Petersen, Sandy (1990). "The Ten Commandments of Cthulhu Hunting". The Cthulhu Casebook. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

• Ross, Kevin (1997). Escape from Innsmouth (2nd ed. ed.). Oakland, CA: Chaosium. ISBN 1-56882-115-8. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)

• Williams, Chris (1997). The Complete Dreamlands (4th ed. ed.). Oakland, CA: Chaosium. ISBN 1-56882-086-0. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

External links

• "Nyarlathotep", the original prose poem by H. P. Lovecraft