Birth/Death. The date of the character's birth and death (if known) appears in parentheses below the character's name. Ambivalent dates are denoted by a question mark.
Description. A brief description of the character follows next.
One of the few completely human residents of Innsmouth. Despite very advanced age, he apparently does not die a natural death, but is dealt with in the uproar set off by the narrator. See "The Shadow Over Innsmouth".
A character from August Derleth's 1952 story "The Black Island". Upon being given the Elder Sign by Shrewsbury, he feels an unpleasant sensation from it, and soon realizes that he has Deep One ancestry.
A New York City resident who after a head injury becomes obsessed with the playThe King in Yellow, even producing a translation. He is institutionalized at an asylum for the criminally insane after he tries to kill his brother's fiancée.
Mystic, esteemed writer of horror fiction, and the victim of a gruesome, unsolved murder. He was born in Partridgeville, New York and was a graduate of Miskatonic University, class of 1918. Later he became the Curator of Archaeology at the Manhattan Museum of Fine Arts in Brooklyn. After Chalmers' death, his fiction became hugely popular. His most famous work is The Secret Watcher (London's Charnel House Press). Posthumous publications about Chalmers include The Collected Letters of Halpin Chalmers and Halpin Chalmers: Voyager of Other and Many Dimensions, a biography by Fred Carstairs.
Cimmerian chief, worshipper of Tsathoggua, and body-swapped victim of the Great Race.
Crow, Titus
(1916–1968?)
Crow is the protagonist of a series of Mythos stories written by Brian Lumley, first appearing in 1970's "Billy's Oak". He is a British occult researcher and psychic dedicated to combating the Cthulhu Cycle Deities. See Titus Crow.
Crucian, Robert
(1972-????)
Introduced by writer Jason Bengston, a former military police officer, and part-time librarian. See Robert Crucian.
Vermont folklorist who recounts the legend of a race of strange beings that dwelt beneath the Vermont hills. See "The Whisperer in Darkness".
Davies, Chandler
(?–May ? 1962)
In the writings of Brian Lumley, a renowned British artist and friend of Titus Crow. His macabre paintings are legendary; foremost is his piece Stars and Faces. After his mistress burned his latest work, G'harne Landscape, he went mad with rage and was confined to Woodholme Sanitorium, where he died shortly thereafter.
De la Poer, Thomas
(c. 1855–?)The last of the De la Poer family, who, after rebuilding the infamous Exham Priory (the hated seat of his ancestors), moving in and exploring its cellars, went mad and died in Hanwell Asylum. See The Rats in the Walls.
Son of Étienne-Laurent de Marigny and New Orleans mystic. In the 1930s, his father sent him to England, where he became the inseparable colleague of Titus Crow.
Title of a Frencharistocrat and the fictional author of Cultes des Goules, inspired by the ancestral form of Mythos author August Derleth's name. The fictional writer is first mentioned in Robert Bloch's 1935 story "The Suicide in the Study", which calls his book "ghastly". Lovecraft uses the name in two 1935 stories, "The Shadow Out of Time" and "Haunter of the Dark", the latter of which calls d'Erlette's work "infamous". Derleth himself refers to d'Erlette in "The Adventure of the Six Silver Spiders" (1950) and "The Black Island" (1952).
Eddy C. Bertin's 1976 "Darkness, My Name Is", presenting the Comte's given name as Francois-Honore Balfour, describes Cultes des Goules as "rather disappointing because its author had possessed more fantasy than knowledge about the hideous things he was writing about."
Ambrose Dexter removed the Shining Trapezohedron and a group of dangerous grimoires from the Church of Starry Wisdom after the death of Robert Blake; when trying to get rid of the stone was possessed by the Haunter, and became a human puppet for Nyarlathotep to live within as a nuclear scientist. See "The Haunter of the Dark".
Wizened leader of the Tcho-Tcho people, possibly killed when Alaozar was destroyed by the Elder Gods. He was well over seven thousand years old and led the cult of Zhar and Lloigor.
Companion of David Hero on his adventures in the Dreamlands. In the waking world, he was Leonard Dingle, a professor of psychology and anthropology and dream researcher. After he died, he became a permanent resident of the Dreamlands and remains one of its greatest figures. He now serves at the pleasure of King Kuranes of Celephaïs.
Elton, Basil
(c. 1870–?)
Custodian of the North Point Lighthouse and traveler of the Dreamlands. He lost his dream-self during his quest for unknown Cathuria.
Exior K'Mool
Third most powerful wizard of Theem'hdra, after his master Mylakhrion and Teh Atht. Like his former master, he tried to attain immortality by making a bargain with the Great Old Ones. However, his home and the ruined city of Humquass were destroyed when Nyarlathotep arrived to deal with him in person.
F
Feery, Joachim
(?–1934)
Occultist and author of Notes on the Cthäat Aquadingen and Notes on the Necronomicon.
In the writings of Ramsey Campbell, the leader of a cult in Brichester, England in the mid-1960s. In January 1964, he published his cult's dogma in We Pass From View (True Light Press). Among the claims made in the book is that the deceased must be cremated in order for the soul to be reincarnated. Otherwise, the "burrowers of the core may drag off his body from the grave with him still in it to the feast of Eihort."[1] The late Roland Franklyn himself, alas, was not cremated.
G
Geoffrey, Justin
An English poet who died in a lunatic asylum. Some years before, his already frail psyche had been warped by looking for too long at the Black Stone of legend near the village of Stregoicavar. He never witnessed the annual, nocturnal rite of 24 June. The narrator in "The Black Stone" mentions that if he had, he would have become insane much earlier. His poetry is used as prelude in The Thing on the Roof and his backstory was explored in the unfinished story, The House. Here it was revealed that Geoffrey came from a family of merchants with no interest in art or poetry. The fragment suggests that Justin's insanity began when, as a child, he went to sleep one summer night beside a long-abandoned, sinister-looking farmhouse. Afterwards, he developed an increasingly violent temper (in contrast to his family's well known friendliness and sociability) as well as the habit of sneaking out of the house late at night to go exploring. Justin left home at the age of 17, after reluctantly completing high school. The Thing on the Doorstep reveals that Geoffrey was a correspondent of Edward Derby and gives the year of his death as 1926. See "The Black Stone"
In Robert Bloch's [1936] short story "The Dark Demon", Gordon is a failed writer of horror fiction who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. His morbid writings (such as "Gargoyle", "The Principle of Evil", Night-Gaunt, and The Soul of Chaos) were said to drive away readers and publishers alike.
Grimlan, John
(March 10, 1630?–March 10, 1930)
Made a pact with Malik Tous, the Prince of Darkness, for 250 years of life.
Gustau, Thelred
(?–1972)
Published Legends of the Olden Runes, based on translated documents written by Teh Atht, preserved in a golden box cast up by the eruption of Surtsey. Disappeared in a mysterious "explosion."
H
Hero, David
A Dreamer, in the Dreamlands. Once mortal, he died and was reborn in the Dreamlands.
A Norwegian sailor who encounters Cthulhu. Unlike his companions, he manages to survive both physically and mentally, and returns home – only to be murdered most subtly by a member of the Cthulhu cult. "The Call of Cthulhu".
K
Kant, Ernst
Klarkash-Ton
Atlantean high-priest credited with recording the "Commoriom myth-cycle" of ancient Hyperborea. (The name is Lovecraft's pun for his friend and correspondent Clark Ashton Smith.)
An inquisitive reporter for the Providence Telegram who disappears in 1893 – as it turns out, inside the Free-Will Church where the Church of Starry Wisdom sect holds its services. His remains are discovered by Robert Blake when he investigates the abandoned building. See The Haunter of the Dark
LLanfer, (Doctor) Cyrus
(?–c. 1950)
A chief librarian of Miskatonic University Library who first appears in August Derleth's "The Return of Hastur". After graduating from the university in 1902, he became the assistant director of the library and later took over Henry Armitage's post some time before 1936. He is noteworthy for compiling "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", a huge catalog of the arcane books kept in the Special Collections department.
Luveh-Keraphf
The mad high priest of Bast during Egypt's 13th Dynasty and writer of the Black Rites. The name is Robert Bloch's homage to Lovecraft.
Scientist and travel-companion of von Junzt. Wrote the foreword to Unaussprechlichen Kulten as well as The Secret Mysteries of Asia, with a Commentary on the Ghorl Nigräl.
Mylakhrion
Most powerful wizard of Theem'hdra. He attained immortality by making a bargain with the Great Old One Cthulhu. He was killed by Cthulhu after attempting to renege on the agreement. Lived in Humquass and Tharamoon.
N
Nephren-Ka
The Black Pharaoh, an insane pharaoh who secured the Shining Trapezohedron for Egypt, but after being convinced by the resident Haunter of the Dark, he had a lightless temple created to hold the stone and the deity within. That temple became a center of abominable happenings, and the rites carried out there were so monstrous the temple was destroyed and the Pharaoh's name was struck from all records and monuments. The Pharaoh was controlled by the cruel god Nyarlathotep, of whom the Haunter of the Dark was likely an avatar.
P
Peaslee, Nathaniel Wingate
In Lovecraft's "The Shadow Out of Time", a professor of Political Economy at Miskatonic University and one-time victim of the Great Race of Yith. See "The Shadow Out of Time". He was killed in the epilogue of The Transition of Titus Crow in the aftermath of Project X's unsuccessful attempt to kill Cthylla.
A fictional Greek scholar from Constantinople, Byzantine Empire. In 950AD, Philetas translated Al Hazred's Kitab Al Azif into Greek and gave it the title Necronomicon.
Phillips, Ward (1)
First president of the institution later known as Miskatonic University and one of the three instructors at the school. In 1693, he donated the first books to what would become Miskatonic's famed library.
Phillips, Ward (2)
Reverend of the Second Church (later First Baptist Church) of Arkham and author of Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the New-England Canaan. See The Lurker at the Threshold.
Renowned Bostonpainter infamous for his ghoulish works. In 1926, he vanished from his home (though years later he resurfaced as a ghoul in the Dreamlands). See "Pickman's Model".
In Henry Kuttner's "The Salem Horror", an alleged witch and self-proclaimed high priestess of Nyogtha in Salem, Massachusetts. She died mysteriously before the Salem witch trials began. Fearing she had cursed the town, superstitious colonists drove a stake through her heart before burying her. She may be a descendant of Ludwig Prinn.
She rose from the dead to summon Nyogtha and attack the protagonist of The Salem Horror.
A telepath from Texas with the ability to sense the minds of alien beings. In 1966, he joined the Wilmarth Foundation to help fight the Cthulhu Cycle Deities (the Great Old Ones). He is introduced in Brian Lumley's The Burrowers Beneath and reappears on his own in Spawn of the Winds and In the Moons of Borea as well as a guest-appearance in Elysia.
Miskatonic Library benefactor, collector of the Tuttle Celaeno Fragments and the R'leyh Text.
T'yog
In "Out of the Aeons", ghostwritten by Lovecraft, T'yog is high priest of Shub-Niggurath and sorcerer in the province of K'naa in ancient Mu. He sought to challenge the power of Ghatanothoa by confronting the god in its lair on Yaddith-Gho. To protect himself from the god's medusa-like ability, he prepared a special scroll. T'yog was defeated when Ghatanothoa's priests replaced his scroll with a fake.
Came to and disappeared in Chorazin, N.Y., and his diary was found in 1935. See The Diary of Alonzo Typer
U
Undercliffe, Errol
(c. 1937–1967?)
Enigmatic writer of horror fiction in Brichester, England. He disappeared in 1967 after looking into the death of Roland Franklyn. His stories appear in two collections: The Man Who Feared to Sleep and Photographed by Lightning. His correspondent Ramsey Campbell (whose story "The Stocking" Undercliffe dismissed as "elaborately pointless") paid tribute to him in Demons by Daylight, and noted that a Korean director, Harry Chang, was to film some of Undercliffe's stories under the title Red Dreams.
A man who prepared the Latin edition of the Necronomicon during the eleventh century. See Ole Worm.
Y
Yakthoob
In Lin Carter's 1971 short story "The Doom of Yakthoob", the title character is a wizard who apprenticed the young Abdul Alhazred. He perishes horribly during an ill-fated summoning of a demon.
Z
Zamacona Y Nuñez, Panfilio De
(c. 1512–?)
In the 1940 Zealia Bishop short story "The Mound", ghost-written by Lovecraft, Zamacona Y Nuñez is a Spanish conquistador who accompanied Coronado on an excursion into the New World. After Coronado turned back in 1541, Zamacona continued into what is now Oklahoma searching for a lost city of gold. Instead, he discovers the underground realm of K'n-yan.,
After living with the increasingly inhuman people of K'n-yan for a few years, he attempts escape, but is betrayed by a pack-beast. A second attempt ends horribly with him captured, and made into a mutilated zombie monster guarding the mound entrance referred to in the story's title.
A wizard of Hyperborea, ancient even in Eibon's time, who sought through a mysterious cloudy crystal, the secrets guarded by the mindless Ubbo-Sathla, spawner of all earthly life. He and the crystal both disappear.
References
Citations
^Ramsey Campbell, "The Franklyn Paragraphs", p. 71, Cthulhu's Heirs.
Price, Robert M (1993). "About 'Documents in the Case of Elizabeth Akeley'". In Robert M. Price (ed.). The Hastur Cycle (1st ed.). Oakland, CA: Chaosium. ISBN1-56882-009-7.
Stratman, Thomas M. K., ed. (1994). Cthulhu's Heirs (2nd ed.). Oakland, CA: Chaosium. ISBN1-56882-013-5.
