The Great Old Ones Rebel
[August Derleth's Cthulhu Mythos]

Long ago, the Elder Gods (1) and Great Old Ones (3) lived in harmony, but the latter were subservient to the former:

All had apparently existed in harmony at one time . . . [Island]

Eons ago, a strange race of elder beings [Elder Gods (1)] lived on Earth; they came from Rigel and Betelgeuse to take up their abode here and upon other planets. But they were followed by those who had been their slaves on the stars [Great Old Ones (3)] . . . the evil followers of Cthulhu, Hastur the Unspeakable, Lloigor and Zhar, the twin Obscenities, and others. [Lair]

In his stories, Derleth does not explain why the Great Old Ones (3) rebelled. But in his essays, Derleth ascribed the following quote to Lovecraft:

. . . all my stories, unconnected as they may be, are based on the fundamental lore or legend that this world was inhabited at one time by another race who, in practicing black magic, lost their foothold and were expelled, yet live on outside, ever ready to take possession of this earth again . . . [August Derleth, "A Master of the Macabre," reprinted in Essential Solitude: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth: 1932-1937, New York: Hippocampus Press, 2013, p. 779]

It appears that this quote did not actually originate with Lovecraft, but was invented or misremembered by one of Lovecraft's correspondents, Harold Farnese. [David E. Schultz, "The Origin of Lovecraft's 'Black Magic' Quote," reprinted in S. T. Joshi (ed.), Dissecting Cthulhu, Lakeland, FL: Miskatonic River Press, 2011.] Nevertheless, Derleth seems to have believed Farnese and accepted that the quote originated with Lovecraft himself. The quote is ambiguous, but it can be read as implying that some superior beings caught the Great Old Ones (3) practicing black magic, and decided to "expel" them as a punishment. Derleth even paraphrases this quote in one of the stories:

It was a mythology of belief in primal inhabitation of earth by another race of beings who, because of certain dark practises, lost their foothold on earth and were expelled by “Elder Gods” . . . [Lurker]

Whatever the motivation, the Great Old Ones (3) rebelled at some point:

The mythos . . . turned on a conflict between beings known as the Elder Gods, who presumably inhabited the cosmos many light-years away, and lesser beings called the Ancient Ones or the Great Old Ones  . . . [Hastur]

. . . an ancient series of beliefs in Elder Gods and Ancient Ones [Great Old Ones (3)] and a conflict between them, between the Elder Gods and such creatures as Hastur and Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu. [Valley]

However difficult it was to summarize, it would appear that the first inhabitants of outer space were great beings, not in human shape, who were called the Elder Gods and lived on Betelgeuse, at a remote time. Against these certain elemental Ancient Ones, also called the Great Old Ones, had rebelled . . . [Valley]

. . . those who dared set themselves against the Elder Gods . . . those who warred upon the Elder Gods, the Great Old Ones  . . . [Curwen]

Finally, and most important, according to the surgeon’s notes, was a completely alien culture which was as old as earth, nay, older, involving ancient Elder Gods and their terrible, unceasing conflict with equally primeval Old Ones [Great Old Ones (3)] who bore such names as Cthulhu, Hastur, Yog-Sothoth, Shub-Niggurath, and Nyarlathotep . . . [Survivor]

. . . the Great Old Ones who fought against the Elder Gods  . . . [Lurker]

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