Other Gods

Of dreamlands. Gods of the outer hells, who guard the feeble gods of earth. They snatched Barzai the Wise up into the sky when he attempted to view Earth's gods (that is, the Great Ones [1]) [HPL Other (online text)]. The high priest of Celephaïs said that the Other Gods from Outside subject Earth's Gods to strange protection. Kuranes warned that the Other Gods had strange ways of protecting Earth's Gods from impertinent curiousity. [Kadath (online text)]

Dwellers in the Void

The Other Gods live in the black ultimate void where broods the daemon sultan Azathoth. They dance slowly, awkwardly, and absurdly to the pounding and piping that accompanies Azathoth. [Kadath]

Soul and Messenger

Their soul and messenger is the Crawling Chaos Nyarlathotep. Though the Other Gods are mindless [Kadath, Nyarlathotep (online text)], Nyarlathotep appears as a cultured and devious being [Kadath], suggesting that he is either the smartest of the bunch, or else that the Other Gods form a sort of corporate mind, far greater than the individuals who compose it. On this theory, Nyarlathotep could be the name for any form that the Other Gods manifest in order to communicate their will.

Space Larvae

In the empty space beyond the Basalt Pillars of the West, the larvae of the Other Gods lurk; they are shapeless black things with slimy paws, blind and mindless, given to leering or pawing at any passersby. Though said to be mindless like the adults of their kind, they are curious and have singular hungers and thirsts. Carter also encountered these larvae when the shantak bird was carrying him toward the void of Azathoth. [Kadath]

Eldritch Followers

Devotees of the Other Gods and Nyarlathotep include the gugs, who reared stone circles and made strange sacrifices. Eventually, however, the gugs committed an abomination that caused Earth's Gods to banish them to caverns below. (It seems curious that worshippers of the powerful Other Gods could be banished by the "week and feeble" Gods of Earth.) Another devotee is the high-priest not to be described, who dwells in the remote and prehistoric monastery on Leng. [Kadath]

The Other Gods are not feared by the night-gaunts, since the night-guants' only lord is Nodens. Nor do the ghouls serve the Other Gods, for ghouls have no masters. Yet the Other Gods can control both night-gaunts and ghouls when they must. [Kadath]

Signs of Their Presence

The Other Gods from Outside left their seal upon earth's primal granite at least twice: once in antediluvian times, as recorded by a drawing in the Pnakotic Manuscripts, and once on Hatheg-Kla after they took Barzai the Wise [Other, Kadath]. When men living in a valley near Mt. Ngranek angered Earth's Gods, the latter spoke to the Other Gods, who drowned the valley in sinister lava. That valley is overlooked by a carven face of Earth's Gods, but it is not clear whether the carving was made before or after the valley was laid waste; it is conceivable that the Other Gods left the face as a sign of warning, much as they did the seal on Hatheg-Kla. [Kadath]

Some places in dreamland have known the presence of the Other Gods. Thus, certain white hemispherical buildings on curious knolls in Leng's northward reaches are unpleasantly associated with the Other Gods and Nyarlathotep in common folklore. And when Carter reached Kadath, he felt the presence of the Other Gods there. After Earth's Gods were lured away by Carter's fabulous sunset city, only the Other Ones from outer space held sway on unremembered Kadath; though Earth's Gods were later returned to Kadath by Nyarlathotep. [Kadath]

The Earliest Gods

The host at the Strange High House in the Mist hinted that the Other Gods are the oldest gods. He spoke of "the dim first age of chaos before the gods or even the Elder Ones [Great Ones (1)] were born, and when only the other gods came to dance on the peak of Hatheg-Kla in the stony desert near Ulthar, beyond the river Skai." [Mist (online text)]

Great and Terrible

The Other Gods are also referred to as the ultimate gods [Nyarlathotep (online text)].

Nyarlathotep told Carter to "remember the Other Gods; they are great and mindless and terrible, and they lurk in the outer voids. They are good gods to shun". [Kadath]

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