Elder Gods
Created: February 2017
| Updated: February 2017
This article uses material from the Elder Gods article on the Lovecraft wiki at Fandom and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.
Overview
The Elder Gods have human-like appearance and they are benevolent in nature. In different parts of the world such as Egypt, Mesoamerica, and the Mediterranean they were worshipped by ancient humans. Nowadays, they are remembered as the gods in just about every ancient race, including Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Aztec, and many others.
Mythos History
In post-Lovecraft stories, the Elder Gods oppose the Outer Gods and the Great Old Ones. August Derleth attempted to retroactively group the benevolent deity Nodens in this category (who acts as deus ex machina for the protagonists in both "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" and "The Strange High House in the Mist").
Robert M. Price postulated that a "Reformist" group of Elder God worshippers had tampered with many Mythos books to make them more pro-Elder God in tone. Reformist Theology of the “benign” Elder Gods as creator beings and the “evil” Old Ones as rebellious slaves who were imprisoned after a “war in heaven” to protect Mankind.
After Derleth's death the writers have moved away from this Duelist notion, either ignoring the Elder Gods or suggesting that they have an agenda as inimicable to mankind as the Great Old Ones themselves.
As for Great Old Ones, Joseph S. Pulver mentions in his "Nightmare Disciples" (2006) a series of original Elder Gods, though lacking of any description about their true form. The story introduces entities as Adaedu, Alithlai Tyy, Dveahtehs, Eyroix,Ovytonv, Urthuvn, Xislanyx and Xuthyos-Sihb’Bz. Others have a cult title as Othkkartho (Sire of the Four Titans of Balance and Order), which is said to be Nodens's son, and Zehirete, who is The Pure and Holy Womb of Light. Sk’tai and Eppirfon are brothers and the former (female) has been Cthulhu's second bride who bore him a son, T'ith, now dead, murdered by Cthulhu himself.
Another Elder God with no description is Walter C. DeBill, Jr.'s Paighon, an extra-galactic entity which now dwells in Earth's core, said to be inimical of the Outer God Ngyr-Korath and its servitor Ymnar.