Extraterrestrial places in the Cthulhu Mythos 1.1 Abbith A planet that revolves around seven stars beyond Xoth. It is inhabited by metallic brains, wise with the ultimate se- crets of the universe. According to Friedrich von Junzt’s Unaussprechlichen Kulten, Nyarlathotep dwells or is im- prisoned on this world (though other legends differ in this regard). 1.2 Aldebaran Aldebaran is the star of the Great Old One Hastur. 1.3 Algol Double star mentioned by H.P. Lovecraft as sidereal The double star Algol. This infrared imagery comes from the place of a demonic shining entity made of light.[1] The CHARA array. same star is also described in other Mythos stories as a planetary system host (See Ymar). The following fictional celestial bodies figure promi- nently in the Cthulhu Mythos stories of H. P. Lovecraft and other writers. Many of these astronomical bodies 1.4 Arcturus have parallels in the real universe, but are often renamed in the mythos and given fictitious characteristics. In ad- Arcturus is the star from which came Zhar and his “twin” dition to the celestial places created by Lovecraft, the Lloigor. Also Nyogtha is related to this star. mythos draws from a number of other sources, includ- ing the works of August Derleth, Ramsey Campbell, Lin Carter, Brian Lumley, and Clark Ashton Smith. 2 B Overview: 2.1 Bel-Yarnak • Name. The name of the celestial body appears first. See Yarnak. • Description. A brief description follows. • References. Lastly, the stories in which the celes- 3 C tial body makes a significant appearance or other- wise receives important mention appear below the description. A simple two-letter code is used—the 3.1 Celaeno key to the codes is found here. If a code appears in bold, this means that the story introduces the celes- Celaeno is one of the seven stars of the Pleiades. On tial body. its fourth planet is the Great Library of Celaeno, which houses stone tablets containing secrets stolen from the Great Old Ones and Elder Gods. Professor Laban Shrewsbury spent some time here, transcribing the li- 1 A brary’s knowledge in his notebook—a manuscript that would later be known as the Celaeno Fragments. 1 2 8 L 3.2 Corona Borealis 7.1 K’gil’mnon Sky field mentioned in H.P. Lovecraft's "Hypnos" An undefined realm, possibly a distant ammonia planet (1922).[2] orbiting a dying star, home of the Great Old One Kaalut. 3.3 Cykranosh 7.2 Korvaz The Hyperborean name for the planet Saturn is A star located near Fomalhaut (likely TW Piscis Austrini) Cykranosh. It was the home of the god Tsathoggua before where the Great Old One Cthugha is imprisoned.[5] he came to Earth, though several of his relatives, includ- ing his uncle, Hziulquoigmnzhah, still dwell there. 7.3 Kr’llyand 4 F A jungle planet orbiting a binary star system, composed of a green star and a dead one (likely a black hole), 4.1 Fomalhaut likely matching with Yifne and Baalblo. Kr’llyand was the homeworld of the plant-like Great Old One Ei'lor, which once was a dead star like its neighbor Mirkalu, but Fomalhaut is the main star of Piscis Austrinus, a bright after Elder Gods banished Ei'lor there, the seed of the white-blue main sequence star. It is orbited by a planet Great Old One was sown and spread fertilizing the dead where the Great Old One Aphoom-Zhah was born and planet.[6] near lies the star Korvaz, where the Great Old One Cthugha is imprisoned. 7.4 Ktynga 5 G Ktynga (or Norby’s comet) is the name of a bluish comet that is currently near the star Arcturus. The comet is un- 5.1 Glyu-Uho usually hot and has strange properties, such as the ability to travel faster than light. [3] Glyu-Uho (or Glyu-Vho or K'Lu-Vho) is the name for On the surface of the comet is a huge building wherein Betelgeuse in Naacal (the language of Mu), and is the star dwells the being Fthaggua and his servants, the fire vam- where the Elder Gods came from to battle the Great Old pires. Fthaggua and his minions can guide the comet to Ones (though it may actually be the place where a gateway travel between the stars, and will visit our solar system leads to Elysia, the dimension where the Elder Gods are four centuries from now. thought to live). 7.5 K'yi-Lih 6 H A dark-litten and mist-shrouded planet from whence 6.1 Haddath comes N'rath-Gol, a minion of Nyarlathotep. Haddath (also Haddoth or perhaps Urakhu) is a fiery planet, possibly found near the “eye” of the constellation 7.6 Kynarth Hydra, and is believed to be inhabited by the chthonians. Shub-Niggurath is thought to have once dwelt here. A mysterious celestial body located past Yuggoth (or Pluto?) on the edge of the solar system. 6.2 Hyades 7.7 Kythanil Hyades is the sky field where the city of Carcosa and its [7] planet are located. The planet-host star of Carcosa is de- Kythanil (or Kythamil or Kthymil) is a double planet scribed as “twin Suns”, making it then a Solar-type binary orbiting the star Arcturus and is the place where star.[4] Tsathoggua’s formless spawn came from. 7 K 8 L 11.2 Pleiades 3 8.1 L'gy'hx 11.2 Pleiades The planet Uranus. It is inhabited by metallic, cube- Stellar regions where star Celaeno is located. Pleiades shaped beings with multiple legs. These creatures wor- are also mentioned as the stellar abode of the Great Old ship a minor deity known as L'rog'g (possibly another as- One Gtuhanai and the mysterious alien race of the Aartna pect of Nyarlathotep), whose rituals require a yearly sac- too.[8] rifice in the form of the excising of the legs from a native. When the Insects from Shaggai (the Shan) arrived, the natives of L'gy'hx initially tolerated them and allowed 12 R them to build a huge city. After two centuries, the na- tives even came to see the Shan as co-rulers of the planet. In time, many Shan eschewed the veneration of Azathoth 12.1 Rigel and began to worship the L'gy'hx deity L'rog'g. But when some natives of L'gy'hx likewise turned to the worship The second star of Orion constellation Rigel is mentioned of Azathoth, the event prompted the priests of L'rog'g by August Derleth as one of the sidereal realms of the to start an inquisition, inflicting gruesome punishments Elder Gods along with Betelgeuse. on the heretics. Relations with the Shan soured quickly as a result, and the priests of L'rog'g demanded that all temples of Azathoth be removed from L'gy'hx. A small group of the Shan, still faithful to the Azathoth sect, left 13 S L'gy'hx, teleporting themselves and their deity’s temple to the planet Earth. 13.1 Shaggai Shaggai (or Chag-Hai) is a planet orbiting twin green 9 M suns and is the homeworld of the Shan, or Insects from Shaggai. Lovecraft first mentioned Shaggai twice in The Haunter of the Dark, but gave no details, save that it was 9.1 Mirkalu further out in the cosmos than Yuggoth. The Shan’s planet was destroyed eight centuries ago, pos- A dead planet or failed star (a brown dwarf) mentioned sibly by Ghroth the Harbinger. The being known only as in the Ei'lor Fronds as neighbor of Kr’llyand. The Worm that Gnaws in the Night also resides here. 9.2 Mthura 13.2 Shonhi Dark planet inhabited by crystalline beings and the Shonhi (also Stronti[9]) is a transgalactic world frequented dwelling place of the Great Old One Q'yth-az. The Nug- by the denizens of Yaddith. It has been visited by the Soth of Yaddith journeyed to this world in hopes of find- Great Old One Yig and orbits three suns.[10] ing a magical formula that would defeat the Dholes. 14 T 10 O 14.1 Thuggon 10.1 Ogntlach A planet where the Insects from Shaggai dwelt for a while. See Yith They initially believed the planet was uninhabited; but when their slaves began disappearing, they soon discov- ered the terrible truth. They left shortly thereafter. 11 P 14.2 Thyoph 11.1 Pherkard A huge planet that broke apart to form the asteroid Star Pherkard (or Gamma Ursae Minoris) is mentioned as belt. According to the G'harne Fragments, the event was the stellar abode of the flaming Outer God Yomagn'tho. caused by a “seed of Azathoth". 4 18 X 14.3 Tond 18 X Invented by Ramsey Campbell. A mysterious planet be- 18.1 Xandra lieved to be part of our solar system, though the predom- inant view places it in a binary star system near Baalblo A putative Solar System planet located millennia ago in (a dark star, either a brown dwarf or more likely a black the Main Asteroid Belt and destroyed by “warring forces hole) and its companion Yifne (a green sun). The being from Yuggoth and Shaggai”.[12] Glaaki is believed to have visited this world en route to Earth. Tond is the setting for all Campbell’s tales of Ryre the Swordsman, gathered in his collection Far Away and 18.2 Xecorra Never (Necronomicon Press, 1996). It is also the locale of both versions of The madness from the vaults (Crypt A dark star, homeworld of the Zorkai, bat-winged of Cthulhu #43) ravenous horrors which serve the Great Old One Hastur.