Cthulhu Mythos biographies

The following fictitious biographies showcase the most important characters in the Cthulhu Mythos.

Overview:

• Name. The name of the character appears first.
• Birth/Death. The date of the character's birth and death (if known) appears in parenthesis below the character's name. Ambivalent dates are denoted by a question mark. (Note: ca. is the abbreviation for "circa".)
• Description. A brief description of the character follows next.
• References. Finally, the stories in which the character makes a significant appearance or otherwise receives important mention appear below the description. A simple two-letter code is used—the key to the codes is found here. If a code appears in bold, this means that the story introduces the character.

Contents:	A B C D E F G H I J K L M N P R S T U V W Y Z
	References—Notes

A

Alhazred, Abdul

(655?–738)

The infamous "mad Arab" credited as the author of Al-Azif (the Necronomicon). He is first mentioned in Lovecraft's "The Nameless City". See Abdul Alhazred.

Ref	AS, DY, MQ, NC, OU, TZ, XM, YN

Akeley, George Goodenough

The son of Henry Wentworth Akeley. See "The Whisperer in Darkness".

Akeley, Henry Wentworth

Vermont folklorist and correspondent of Albert Wilmarth who becomes involved with the Fungi from Yuggoth. See "The Whisperer in Darkness".

Allen, Zadok

(c. 1831–1926?)

One of the few completely human residents of Innsmouth. See "The Shadow Over Innsmouth".

Angell, George Gammell

(1857–November 23, 1926)

A Professor Emeritus of Semitic languages at Brown University who researches the worldwide Cthulhu cult. See "The Call of Cthulhu".

Armitage, Henry

(1855–1939/1946?)

A librarian at Miskatonic University who confronted the Dunwich Horror. See "The Dunwich Horror".

Atal

Resident of Ulthar in the Dreamlands. See "The Other Gods".

B

Barzai (the Wise)

Barzai is high-priest of the Gods of Earth (the Great Ones) in Ulthar and one-time teacher of Atal. See "The Other Gods".

Billington, Alijah

Alijah Billington is the heir to Richard Billington's estate in the early 19th century. See The Lurker at the Threshold.

Blake, Robert Harrison

A fictional horror writer. See Robert Harrison Blake.

Blayne, Horvath

(c. 1925–1948)

A character from August Derleth's 1952 story "The Black Island".

Bowen, Enoch

Bowen is a renowned occultist and archaeologist who lived in Providence, Rhode Island. See "The Haunter of the Dark".

Bran Mak Morn

(?–c. 210)

In the fiction of Robert E. Howard, the last king of the Picts. See Bran Mak Morn.

C

Carter, Randolph

(1873-1928?)

Boston author, occultist, and legendary "dreamer". See Randolph Carter.

Castaigne, Hildred

A New York City resident who after a head injury becomes obsessed with the play The King in Yellow, even producing a translation. He is institutionalized at an asylum for the criminally insane after he tries to kill his brother's fiancée.

Ref	RP, TY

Castro

An aged sailor and Cthulhu cultist. See "The Call of Cthulhu".

Chalmers, Halpin

(1891–July 3, 1928)

Mystic, esteemed writer of horror fiction, and the victim of a gruesome, unsolved murder. He was born in Partridgeville, New York and was a graduate of Miskatonic University, class of 1918. Later he became the Curator of Archaeology at the Manhattan Museum of Fine Arts in Brooklyn. After Chalmers' death, his fiction became hugely popular. His most famous work is The Secret Watcher (London's Charnel House Press). Posthumous publications about Chalmers include The Collected Letters of Halpin Chalmers and Halpin Chalmers: Voyager of Other and Many Dimensions, a biography by Fred Carstairs.

Ref	HF, HN, LH, WI, XM

Chandraputra, Swami Sunand

Disguise of Randolph Carter.

Ref	EH, OE, TG

Clarendon, Dr. Alfred

An American physician who go dreamed of conquering fever and ended up a murderous servant of inhuman powers.

Ref	LA

Colum, Nayland

A London writer who vanishes from a ship bringing him home from Arabia. See The Trail of Cthulhu.

Copeland, Harold Hadley

(c. 1860–May 15, 1926)

A scholar who appears in the fiction of Lin Carter, starting with "The Dweller in the Tomb". See Xothic legend cycle.

Corsi, Bartolomeo

A 12th century Florentine monk and body-swapped victim of the Great Race of Yith.

Ref	ST, WF

Crom-Ya

(15,000 B.C.)

Cimmerian chief, worshipper of Tsathoggua, and body-swapped victim of the Great Race.

Ref	ST, SX

Crow, Titus

(1916–1968?)

Crow is the protagonist of a series of Mythos stories written by Brian Lumley, first appearing in 1970's "Billy's Oak". He is a British occult researcher and psychic dedicated to combating the Cthulhu Cycle Deities. See Titus Crow.

Curwen, Joseph

(1663–1771)

In Lovecraft's novel The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Curwen is a necromancer who comes back to corporeal existence through his descendant Charles Dexter Ward.

Ref	CA, XM

D

Danforth

Graduate student at Miskatonic University who accompanies the ill-fated Pabodie Expedition to Antarctica. See At the Mountains of Madness.

Davenport, Eli

Vermont folklorist who recounts the legend of a race of strange beings that dwelt beneath the Vermont hills. See "The Whisperer in Darkness".

Davies, Chandler

(?–May ? 1962)

In the writings of Brian Lumley, a renowned British artist and friend of Titus Crow. His macabre paintings are legendary; foremost is his piece Stars and Faces. After his mistress burned his latest work, G'harne Landscape, he went mad with rage and was confined to Woodholme Sanitorium, where he died shortly thereafter.

Ref	BU, FH, IE, RS

De la Poer, Thomas

(c. 1855–?)

Ref	RW, XP

De Marigny, Étienne-Laurent

New Orleans occultist.

Ref	CD, EK, TG, LW, TY, XM

De Marigny, Henri-Laurent

(1923–)

Son of Étienne-Laurent de Marigny and New Orleans mystic. In the 1930s, his father sent him to England, where he became the inseparable colleague of Titus Crow.

Ref	BU, MR, NN, TC

Derby, Edward Pickman

(1890–1933)

Poet and husband of Asenath Waite. See "The Thing on the Doorstep".

Ref	HZ, RZ, TN

d'Erlette, Comte

Title of a French aristocrat and the fictional author of Cultes des Goules, inspired by the ancestral form of Mythos author August Derleth's name. The fictional writer is first mentioned in Robert Bloch's 1935 story "The Suicide in the Study", which calls his book "ghastly". Lovecraft uses the name in two 1935 stories, "The Shadow Out of Time" and "Haunter of the Dark", the latter of which calls d'Erlette's work "infamous". Derleth himself refers to d'Erlette in “The Adventure of the Six Silver Spiders” (1950) and “The Black Island” (1952).

Eddy C. Bertin's 1976 "Darkness, My Name Is", presenting the Comte's given name as Francois-Honore Balfour, describes Cultes des Goules as "rather disappointing because its author had possessed more fantasy than knowledge about the hideous things he was writing about."

Dewart, Ambrose

A reclusive descendant of Alijah Billington and scholar in Arkham. See The Lurker at the Threshold.

Dexter, (Doctor) Ambrose

Ambrose Dexter removed the Shining Trapezohedron and a group of dangerous grimoires from the Church of Starry Wisdom after the death of Robert Blake; when trying to get rid of the stone was possessed by the Haunter, and became a human puppet for Nyarlathotep to live within as a nuclear scientist. See "The Haunter of the Dark".

Du Nord, Gespard

Wizard in 13th century Averoigne. He is believed to have translated the Greek version of the Book of Eibon into French c. 1240.

Ref	S5, UB, XM, YL

Dyer, William

(c. 1875–?)

Professor of geology at Miskatonic University and leader of the disastrous Pabodie Expedition to Antarctica in 1930–31. In 1935, he accompanied an expedition to Australia's Great Sandy Desert to search for the ruins of a primordial civilization.

Ref	AM, AR, ST

E

E-poh

Wizened leader of the Tcho-Tcho people, possibly killed when Alaozar was destroyed by the Elder Gods. He was well over seven thousand years old and led the cult of Zhar and Lloigor.

Ref	LS, WB

Eibon

Renowned wizard of Hyperborea, author of the Book of Eibon, and worshiper of Tsathoggua.

Ref	AG, CW, DS, LE, S5, UA, XM

Eldin the Wanderer

(?–1979)

Companion of David Hero on his adventures in the Dreamlands. In the waking world, he was Leonard Dingle, a professor of psychology and anthropology and dream researcher. After he died, he became a permanent resident of the Dreamlands and remains one of its greatest figures. He now serves at the pleasure of King Kuranes of Celephaïs.

Ref	HE, IR, MD

Elton, Basil

(c. 1870–?)

Custodian of the North Point lighthouse near Kingsport and traveler of the Dreamlands. He lost his dream-self during his quest for unknown Cathuria.

Ref	DQ, IP, UW

Exior K'Mool

Third most powerful wizard of Theem'hdra, after his master Mylakhrion and Teh Atht. Like his former master, he tried to attain immortality by making a bargain with the Great Old Ones. However, his home and the ruined city of Humquass were destroyed when Nyarlathotep arrived to deal with him in person.

Ref	EL, SB

F

Feery, Joachim

(?–1934)

Ref	AU, FH, IE

Franklyn, Roland

(?–1967)

In the writings of Ramsey Campbell, the leader of a cult in Brichester, England in the mid-1960s. In January 1964, he published his cult's dogma in We Pass From View (True Light Press). Among the claims made in the book is that the deceased must be cremated in order for the soul to be reincarnated. Otherwise, the "burrowers of the core may drag off his body from the grave with him still in it to the feast of Eihort."^[1] The late Roland Franklyn himself, alas, was not cremated.

Ref	CP, FP, NK

G

Geoffrey, Justin

An English poet, who died in a lunatic asylum. Some years before, his frail psyche had been warped by looking too much at the Black Stone of legend near the village of Stregoicvar. He never witnessed the annual, nocturnal rite of 24 June. The narrator in The Black Stone mentions that if he had, he would have become insane much earlier. See "The Black Stone"

Gilman, Walter

(?–May 1, 1928)

See "The Dreams in the Witch House".

Gordon, Edgar Hengist

In Robert Bloch's [1936] short story "The Dark Demon", Gordon is a failed writer of horror fiction who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. His morbid writings (such as "Gargoyle", "The Principle of Evil", Night-Gaunt, and The Soul of Chaos) were said to drive away readers and publishers alike.

Grimlan, John

(March 10, 1630?–March 10, 1930)

Ref	IG, WB

Gustau, Thelred

(?–1972)

Ref	UC

H

Hero, David

Ref	HE, MD, IR

Hoag, (Captain) Abner Exekiel

(1697–?)

A sea captain in the Lin Carter story "The Dweller in the Tomb".

Hutchinson, Edward

Ref	CA

I

Ibn Schacabao

Wizard mentioned in the Necronomicon.

Ref	BU, FE, PL

J

Johansen, Gustaf

A Norwegian sailor who encounters Cthulhu. See "The Call of Cthulhu".

K

Kant, Ernst

Ref	AU, OK, MR

Klarkash-Ton

Atlantean high-priest credited with recording the "Commoriom myth-cycle" of ancient Hyperborea. (The name is Lovecraft's pun for his friend and correspondent Clark Ashton Smith.)

Ref	S3, SX, TG, WD

Keane, Abel

An assistant of Laban Shrewsbury who mysteriously disappeared. See The Trail of Cthulhu.

Kirowan, (Professor) John

Ref	CN, IG, UR

Kuranes

A king in the Dreamlands, originally a hobo in the waking world. See Kuranes.

L

Lapham, Seneca

A professor of Anthropology at Miskatonic University who investigated the death of Ambrose Dewart. See The Lurker at the Threshold.

Legrasse, John Raymond

In Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu", Legrasse is a New Orleans police inspector who investigated the Cthulhu cult. See "The Call of Cthulhu".

LLanfer, (Doctor) Cyrus

(?–c. 1950)

A chief librarian of Miskatonic University Library who first appears in August Derleth's "The Return of Hastur". After graduating from the university in 1902, he became the assistant director of the library and later took over Henry Armitage's post some time before 1936. He is noteworthy for compiling "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", a huge catalog of the arcane books kept in the Special Collections department.

Ref	EH, HC, RH, XM

Luveh-Keraphf

High priest of Bast during Egypt's 13th Dynasty and writer of the Black Rites. The name is Robert Bloch's homage to Lovecraft.)

Ref	MA, MN, TK

M

Marsh, Obadiah

Ref	RY

Marsh, Obed

A sea captain and the founder of the Esoteric Order of Dagon in Innsmouth. See "The Shadow Over Innsmouth".

Mason, Keziah

See "The Dreams in the Witch House".

Misquamacus

See The Lurker at the Threshold.

Morgan, (Professor) Francis

Professor of Medicine and Comparative Anatomy (or Archaeology) at Miskatonic University who helped defeat the Dunwich Horror. See "The Dunwich Horror".

Mülder, (Doctor & Professor) Gottfried

Ref	HG, HV, LL

Mylakhrion

Ref	EL, KL, LD, SB, YI, YY

N

Nephren-Ka

The Black Pharaoh, an insane pharaoh who secured the Shining Trapezohedron for Egypt, but after being convinced by the resident Haunter of the Dark, he had a lightless temple created to hold the stone and the deity within. That temple became a center of abominable happenings, and the rites carried there were so monstrous the temple was destroyed and the Pharaoh's name was struck from all records and monuments. The Pharaoh was controlled by the cruel god Nyarlathotep, of whom the Haunter of the Dark was likely an avatar.

Ref	EH, HD, IK, MN, NP, OS

P

Peaslee, Nathaniel Wingate

In Lovecraft's "The Shadow Out of Time", a Professor of Political Economy at Miskatonic University and one-time victim of the Great Race of Yith. See "The Shadow Out of Time".

Phelan, Andrew

(c. 1910–1938?)

One-time assistant of Laban Shrewsbury. See The Trail of Cthulhu.

Philetas, Theodorus

(c. 950)

A fictional Greek scholar from Constantinople, Byzantine Empire. In 950AD, Philetas translated Al Hazred's Kitab Al Azif into Greek and gave it the title Necronomicon.

Phillips, Ward (1)

First president of the institution later known as Miskatonic University and one of the three instructors at the school. In 1693, he donated the first books to what would become Miskatonic's famed library.

Ref	WI, XM

Phillips, Ward (2)

Reverend of the Second Church (later First Baptist Church) of Arkham and author of Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the New-England Canaan. See The Lurker at the Threshold.

Phillips, Ward (3)

Aged writer of pulp fiction in Providence, Rhode Island and friend of Randolph Carter. (The character is based on Lovecraft, hence the name.)

Ref	LZ, TG, UW

Phillips, Winfield

(1907–1937)

Ref	HG, LT, UV, WI

Pickman, Richard Upton

(1907–1937)

Renowned Boston painter infamous for his ghoulish works. In 1926, he vanished from his home (though years later he resurfaced as a ghoul in the Dreamlands). See "Pickman's Model".

Ref	DQ, H2, PM, SE

Pott, Johannes Henricus

Ref	AE, CP, MY

Prinn, Abigail

(?–December 14, 1690)

In Henry Kuttner's "The Salem Horror", an alleged witch and self-proclaimed high priestess of Nyogtha in Salem, Massachusetts. She died mysteriously before the Salem witch trials began. Fearing she had cursed the town, superstitious colonists drove a stake through her heart before burying her. She may be a descendant of Ludwig Prinn.

Ref	SH, WW

Prinn, Ludwig

(?–1542)

Sorcerer and author of De Vermis Mysteriis.

R

Rice, (Professor) Warren

Professor of Classical Languages at Miskatonic University and a member of the famous trio that defeated the Dunwich Horror. See "The Dunwich Horror".

S

Schrach, Gerhard

Ref	BU, CD, HE, ND

Shrewsbury, Laban

(1864–1938?)

An anthropologist and professor of philosophy at Miskatonic University who disappeared for twenty years, only to be presumed killed in a house fire shortly after his reappearance. See The Trail of Cthulhu.

Silberhutte, Hank

A telepath from Texas with the ability to sense the minds of alien beings. In 1966, he joined the Wilmarth Foundation to help fight the Cthulhu Cycle Deities (the Great Old Ones). He is introduced in Brian Lumley's The Burrowers Beneath and reappears on his own in Spawn of the Winds and In the Moons of Borea as well as a guest-appearance in Elysia.

Sincaul, Cyprian

In Clark Ashton Smith's "The Hunters From Beyond" (1932), Sincaul is a renowned San Francisco sculptor with a reputation for producing morbid works. He also appears in Lin Carter's "Out of the Ages".

Smith, Japhet

An agent of the Cthulhu cult. See The Trail of Cthulhu.

Smith, Morgan

Occult scholar and author of the seminal Sign of the Skull.

Ref	DK, WV, YH

Surama

Humanoid teacher and collaborator of Dr Clarendon. Surama was perhaps a serpent man.

Ref	LA

T

Thurston, Francis Wayland

The grand-nephew of George Angell, who discovers the secret of the Cthulhu Cult while going through his late uncle's papers. See "The Call of Cthulhu".

Tuttle, Amos

Ref	RH, XM

T'yog

In "Out of the Aeons", ghostwritten by Lovecraft, T'yog is high priest of Shub-Niggurath and sorcerer in the province of K'naa in ancient Mu. He sought to challenge the power of Ghatanothoa by confronting the god in its lair on Yaddith-Gho. To protect himself from the god's medusa-like ability, he prepared a special scroll. T'yog was defeated when Ghatanothoa's priests replaced his scroll with a fake.

He also appears in Lin Carter's "The Thing in the Pit".

Typer, Alonzo Hasbrouch

Ref	GT, JG, YT

U

Undercliffe, Errol

(c. 1937–1967?)

Enigmatic writer of horror fiction in Brichester, England. He disappeared in 1967 after looking into the death of Roland Franklyn. His stories appear in two collections: The Man Who Feared to Sleep and Photographed by Lightning. His correspondent Ramsey Campbell (whose story "The Stocking" Undercliffe dismissed as "elaborately pointless") paid tribute to him in Demons by Daylight, and noted that a Korean director, Harry Chang, was to film some of Undercliffe's stories under the title Red Dreams.

Ref	ER, FP, NK, UN

Upton, Daniel

(c. 1884–?)

Ref	AR, RZ, TN

V

Von Junzt, Friedrich Wilhelm

The author of the Unaussprechlichen Kulten (Nameless Cults). See The Black Stone.

W

Waite, Asenath

(1905–1932)

In Lovecraft's "The Thing on the Doorstep", she is the daughter and victim of Ephraim Waite.

Waite, Ephraim

In Lovecraft's "The Thing on the Doorstep", he is the father of Asenath Waite who later possessed her body.

Walmsley, Gordon (of Goole)

Ref	FH, IV, RS, SC, TC

Ward, Charles Dexter

(1902–1928?)

See The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

Warren, Harley

Occult friend of Randolph Carter and victim of unknown forces.

Ref	AC, TC, TG

Webb, William Channing

An explorer and professor of Anthropology at Princeton University who encountered the Cthulhu Cult in Greenland. See "The Call of Cthulhu".

Wendy-Smith, Sir Amery

(?–1933)

Ref	BM, BU, CS, IV

West, Herbert

Miskatonic University medical student who experimented with the reanimation of corpses. See "Herbert West--Reanimator".

Whateley, Lavinia

(c. 1878–October 31, 1926?)

Albino daughter of Noah Whateley. See "The Dunwich Horror".

Whateley, (Wizard) Noah

(?–August 1, 1924)

Backwoods farmer and reputed sorcerer. See "The Dunwich Horror".

Whateley, Wilbur

(February 2, 1913–August 3, 1928)

Son of Lavinia Whateley and Yog-Sothoth. See "The Dunwich Horror".

Wilmarth, Albert N.

Folklorist and assistant professor of English at Miskatonic University who investigated strange events in Vermont. See "The Whisperer in Darkness".

Wormius, Olaus

A man who prepared the Latin edition of the Necronomicon during the eleventh century.

Ref	HG, YN

Y

Yakthoob

In Lin Carter's 1971 short story “The Doom of Yakthoob”, the title character is a wizard who apprenticed the young Abdul Alhazred. He perishes horribly during an ill-fated summoning of a demon.

Z

Zamacona Y Nuñez, Panfilio De

(c. 1512–?)

In the 1940 Zealia Bishop short story "The Mound", ghost-written by Lovecraft, Zamacona Y Nuñez is a Spanish conquistador who accompanied Coronado on an excursion into the New World. After Coronado turned back in 1541, Zamacona continued into what is now present-day Oklahoma searching for a lost city of gold. Instead, he discovers the underground realm of K'n-yan.

Zanthu

Ref	DT, RF, TP, WF

Zarnak, (Doctor) Anton

Ref	CR, DN, PD, WB

Zon Mezzamalech

Ref	UB

References

• Harms, Daniel (1998). The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (2nd ed.). Oakland, CA: Chaosium. ISBN 1-56882-119-0. 

• Pearsall, Anthony B. (2005). The Lovecraft Lexicon (1st ed.). Tempe, AZ: New Falcon. ISBN 1-56184-129-3. 

• Price, Robert M. (Candlemas 1982). "The Borrower Beneath (Howard's Debt to Lovecraft in 'The Black Stone')". Crypt of Cthulhu #3: a Pulp Thriller and Theological Journal 1 (3). http://www.clare.ltd.new.net/cryptofcthulhu/borrowerbeneath.htm.  Robert M. Price (ed.), Bloomfield, NJ: Cryptic Publications. URL accessed on October 22, 2005.

• Price, Robert M (1993). "About 'Documents in the Case of Elizabeth Akeley'". In Robert M. Price (ed.). The Hastur Cycle (1st ed.). Oakland, CA: Chaosium. ISBN 1-56882-009-7. 

• Stratman, Thomas M. K. (ed.) (1994). Cthulhu's Heirs (2nd ed.). Oakland, CA: Chaosium. ISBN 1-56882-013-5. 

Notes

1. ^ Ramsey Campbell, "The Franklyn Paragraphs", p. 71, Cthulhu's Heirs.