You could walk out of Miskatonic University with two PhDs and a “Great job!” sticker from your teacher and still be fuzzy on the difference between the Outer Gods and the Great Old Ones.
So many writers, game developers, and other storytellers have added to the Cthulhu Mythos that even the worshippers of Cthulhu would need a Lovecraftian Deities for Dummies just to get through their evening service.
was it the Blackness From the Stars or the Nameless Mist?”
Lovecraft’s own writings contain somewhat vague and inconsistent descriptions of his deities, which, in the age of the internet, leads to speculation on a scale that would make a shoggoth whimper like a frightened chihuahua.
So if you’ve been reading and researching but still feel like you’re stumbling through Innsmouth at 3 am with a half-dead flashlight, use this short guide to help you in your quest to becoming go-to private investigator for the Lovecraftian occult.
Bear in mind this isn’t the be-all-end-all of opinion pieces on the subject, and there are many more resources out there that may disagree with this one.
Overall, the underlying theme of the Mythos is the inability of humanity to grasp their utter irrelevance in the face of ancient and eldritch powers, so maybe some distinctions in regard to these cosmic sovereigns are best left unexplained.
Or maybe not, who the hell knows?
Basic Description
Outer Gods
The Outer Gods can be described as fundamental facets of the universe that are alive—basically a god with a physical body. They represent aspects such as time and reality, though they’re not necessarily bound by those aspects.
For example, Azathoth is the ruler of the Outer Gods and his influence over the universe has almost no limits. H.P. Lovecraft’s short story, “The Dreams in the Witch House”, states that Azathoth “…rules all time and space from a curiously environed black throne at the centre of Chaos.“
It’s also said that he “…blasphemes and bubbles at the centre of all infinity….“ You don’t want to show up at his party without some seven-layer dip.
Great Old Ones
The Great Old Ones can be characterized as the classic “gods among men”, more akin to demigods than the all-powerful deities, the cosmic Outer Gods.
Instead of representing aspects of the universe, Great Old Ones are generally more physical beings that once ruled the earth and were worshipped as gods. Where the Outer Gods don’t care an ounce of space dust for humans, the Great Old Ones seem to get an ego boost from making humanity slave away and shine their tentacles.
Physical Boundaries
Outer Gods
The Outer Gods are not bound by the concept of what we puny humans understand as “mortality”. They are beyond mortality, as they can even exist outside of reality itself.
Remember, that doesn’t make any sense because it’s not supposed to. The Cthulhu Mythos, you’ll find, is like a riddle from Alice in Wonderland, except instead of ravens and writing desks there’s human-headed creatures with rat bodies eating their way out of people’s chests.
The Outer God’s physical forms are not bound to this universe. As already stated, there’s not much that keeps them restrained to this reality, therefore they’re able to freely move within and without it.
“Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth.”
Great Old Ones
In The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft, Cthulhu’s head is rammed by a boat, after which:
“There was a bursting There was a bursting as of an exploding bladder, a slushy nastiness as of a cloven sunfish, a stench as of a thousand opened graves, and a sound that the chronicler would not put on paper.
Although Cthulhu instantly begins regenerating his head (“recombining” as Lovecraft writes), it’s speculated that afterwards he sank back into the sea.
From this we can see that the Great Old Ones (or at least Cthulhu) can be affected and possibly even hurt by man-made instruments. While the realities of this world would probably never affect an Outer God, the Great Old Ones appear to share our reality and a certain level of our mortality.
This is not an excuse to go Cthulhu-hunting.
The Great Old Ones also seem to be restrained to a single location, usually Earth. Cthulhu has been (and apparently still is) trapped and slumbering in the sunken city of R’lyeh, as the famous chant states “In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”
Rhan-Tegoth, the Great Old One from Lovecraft’s “The Horror in the Museum”, was also in hibernation for millions of years, while Cthulhu’s firstborn son, Ghatanothoa, was sealed inside a mountain on the lost continent of Mu.
Spectral Influence
Outer Gods
Again, the word “limit” seems to mean about the same to an Outer God as the word “No!” does to your house cat—not a damn thing.
The influence these beings can have over humans is evidently uncapped. If Shub-Niggurath wanted you to give her Thousand Young a bath, cut off your pinkie, then make her a sandwich, she’ll make you do it whether you like it or not.
Great Old Ones
The Great Old Ones often influence people using dreams and mind control, but there appears to be a limit to their power.
From “The Call of Cthulhu”:
“In the elder time chosen men had talked with the entombed Old Ones in dreams, but then something had happened. The great stone city R’lyeh, with its monoliths and sepulchres, had sunk beneath the waves; and the deep waters, full of the one primal mystery through which not even though can pass, had cut off the spectral intercourse.”
So whether the “primal mystery” of the sea is another alien lifeforce or just a bed of wet kelp, it’s strong enough to cut off even Cthulhu’s influence over the minds of men.
Now what?
If you’re sitting there reading the works of Lovecraft and trying to decide whether an entity is an Outer God or a Great Old One, ask yourself, “Can this being reshape the universe? Or can it reshape the world?”
If it’s the former, it’s probably an Outer God, the latter, a Great Old One.
To reiterate, however, it’s not that simple.
Lovecraft wrote that Cthulhu’s parent is the Great Old One, Nug, who is the offspring of Yog-Sothoth and Shub-Niggurath, who are both Outer Gods.
So are Great Old Ones just the descendants of the Outer Gods? It’s never explicitly stated, though it’s led to the theory that a Great Old One is any being younger than an Outer God.
Also, in later Mythos writings, the Outer Gods are trapped outside of our plane of existence, which implies there is a limit to their power.
So, if you really want to drill down to the truth of the matter, I advise you to instead finish your meal, pay your check, leave here and never mention this to anyone again.
Otherwise, you’ll spend the next vigintillion years trying to understand something that was not meant for us to understand, until you’re finally enveloped by the Nameless Mist and disappear in a burst of ellipses and italics.
Read your stories. Wear your stories.
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