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Great Old One: Difference between revisions
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The terms of "Old Ones", "Great Old Ones", or "Elder Gods" for a group of ancient, eldritch entities is a hallmark of fiction associated with the {{w|Cthulhu mythos}}, an anarchic shared universe which sprang primarily from the writings of [[H. P. Lovecraft]]. | The terms of "Old Ones", "Great Old Ones", or "Elder Gods" for a group of ancient, eldritch entities is a hallmark of fiction associated with the {{w|Cthulhu mythos}}, an anarchic shared universe which sprang primarily from the writings of [[H. P. Lovecraft]]. | ||
Lovecraft himself used the term of "Great Old Ones" only twice. While the second, which equated them with the [[Elder Thing]]s (as echoed in ''[[The Taking of Planet 5 (novel)|The Taking of Planet 5]]''), is hard to reconcile with later usage, his first and most influential was in ''{{w | Lovecraft himself used the term of "Great Old Ones" only twice. While the second, which equated them with the [[Elder Thing]]s (as echoed in ''[[The Taking of Planet 5 (novel)|The Taking of Planet 5]]''), is hard to reconcile with later usage, his first and most influential was in ''{{w|The Call of Cthulhu}}''. There, they are described as a group or race of powerful interstellar beings, not made of conventional matter, who can rampage from planet to planet when the stars align, but are currently dormant on Earth in a buried city, awaiting the stellar alignment which will allow them to rise again; [[Cthulhu]] himself is the greatest of these Great Old Ones, interchangeably referred to as "Old Ones". | ||
Over the years, however, the terms of "Great Old Ones" or "Old Ones" began to be used more broadly in the expanded Cthulhu mythos as a catch-all terms for the more distinctly otherworldly and omnipotent entities described in others of his works, such as [[Nyarlathotep]], [[Azathoth]] and [[Yog-Sothoth]], for whom Lovecraft favoured the term of "the [[w:c:lovecraft:Other Gods|Other Gods]]"; one passage of Lovecraft's ''Dunwich Horror'' relates Yog-Sothoth to "the Old Ones", though it does not seem likely that he thereby intended to make him one of them ("[Yog-Sothoth] knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again"). Later works within the expanded mythos instead tended to use the name of [[w:c:lovecraft:Outer Gods|Outer Gods]] for this class of being, generally continuing to depict them as a rank of being superior to the mere "Old Ones" represented by [[Cthulhu]]. Meanwhile, the term of [[w:c:lovecraft:Elder Gods|Elder Gods]] was introduced to the Mythos in 1932's ''[[w:c:lovecraft:The Lair of the Star-Spawn|c:lovecraft:The Lair of the Star-Spawn]]'', cowritten by August Derleth and Mark Schorer. Therein, it was used interchangeably with "the Great Old Ones" and "the Old Ones". Later works by Derleth and others, however, would solidify a controversial view within the Mythos of the "Elder Gods" as a specific group of deities equal in power to, distinct from, and at war with, the "Outer Gods" and their "Great Old One" followers. | Over the years, however, the terms of "Great Old Ones" or "Old Ones" began to be used more broadly in the expanded Cthulhu mythos as a catch-all terms for the more distinctly otherworldly and omnipotent entities described in others of his works, such as [[Nyarlathotep]], [[Azathoth]] and [[Yog-Sothoth]], for whom Lovecraft favoured the term of "the [[w:c:lovecraft:Other Gods|Other Gods]]"; one passage of Lovecraft's ''Dunwich Horror'' relates Yog-Sothoth to "the Old Ones", though it does not seem likely that he thereby intended to make him one of them ("[Yog-Sothoth] knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again"). Later works within the expanded mythos instead tended to use the name of [[w:c:lovecraft:Outer Gods|Outer Gods]] for this class of being, generally continuing to depict them as a rank of being superior to the mere "Old Ones" represented by [[Cthulhu]]. Meanwhile, the term of [[w:c:lovecraft:Elder Gods|Elder Gods]] was introduced to the Mythos in 1932's ''[[w:c:lovecraft:The Lair of the Star-Spawn|c:lovecraft:The Lair of the Star-Spawn]]'', cowritten by August Derleth and Mark Schorer. Therein, it was used interchangeably with "the Great Old Ones" and "the Old Ones". Later works by Derleth and others, however, would solidify a controversial view within the Mythos of the "Elder Gods" as a specific group of deities equal in power to, distinct from, and at war with, the "Outer Gods" and their "Great Old One" followers. | ||
