The cosmic entity Yog-Sothoth is said to take the form of a conglomeration of glowing spheres. It is an all-knowing deity, which means it knows the past, present, and future. Yog-Sothoth is coterminous with all time and space, yet is supposedly locked outside of the universe we inhabit. “It was an All-in-One and One-in-All of limitless being and self—not merely a thing of one Space-Time continuum, but allied to the ultimate animating essence of existence’s whole unbounded sweep—the last, utter sweep which has no confines and which outreaches fancy and mathematics alike. It was perhaps that which certain secret cults of earth have whispered of as YOG-SOTHOTH, and which has been a deity under other names; that which the crustaceans of Yuggoth worship as the Beyond-One, and which the vaporous brains of the spiral nebulae know by an untranslatable Sign…” Yog-Sothoth sees all and knows all. To “please” this deity could bring knowledge of many things. However, like most beings in the mythos, to see it or learn too much about it is to court disaster. Some authors state that the favor of the god requires a human sacrifice or eternal servitude. According to the genealogy H. P. Lovecraft devised for his characters, Yog-Sothoth is the offspring of the Nameless Mists, which were born of the deity Azathoth. Yog-Sothoth mated with Shub-Niggurath to produce the twin deities Nug and Yeb, while Nug sired Cthulhu through parthenogenesis. In Lovecraft’s short story “The Dunwich Horror”, Yog-Sothoth impregnates a mortal woman, Lavinia Whateley, who then gives birth to twin sons: the humanoid Wilbur Whateley and his more monstrous unnamed brother. Yog-Sothoth has some connection to the mysterious Old Ones mentioned in “The Dunwich Horror” (1929), but their nature, their number, and their connection to Yog-Sothoth are unknown. Nonetheless, they are probably allied to him in some way, since Wilbur Whateley, the half-human son of Yog-Sothoth, tried to summon them so that they could control Wilbur’s more tainted twin and make it reproduce. At the end of Lovecraft’s last story “The Haunter of the Dark”, the protagonist Robert Blake calls on Yog-Sothoth to save him from the eponymous malign entity that he has let loose.
Appearance List “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” in Weird Tales (May and July 1941, written 1927), “The Dunwich Horror” in Weird Tales (Apr 1929), “Through the Gates of the Silver Key” (1934) by H. P. Lovecraft and E. Hoffmann Price in Weird Tales (Jul 1934), “The Haunter of the Dark” in Weird Tales (Dec 1936)
Description The cosmic entity Yog-Sothoth is said to take the form of a conglomeration of glowing spheres. It is an all-knowing deity, which means it knows the past, present, and future. Yog-Sothoth is coterminous with all time and space, yet is supposedly locked outside of the universe we inhabit. “It was an All-in-One and One-in-All of limitless being and self—not merely a thing of one Space-Time continuum, but allied to the ultimate animating essence of existence’s whole unbounded sweep—the last, utter sweep which has no confines and which outreaches fancy and mathematics alike. It was perhaps that which certain secret cults of earth have whispered of as YOG-SOTHOTH, and which has been a deity under other names; that which the crustaceans of Yuggoth worship as the Beyond-One, and which the vaporous brains of the spiral nebulae know by an untranslatable Sign…” Yog-Sothoth sees all and knows all. To “please” this deity could bring knowledge of many things. However, like most beings in the mythos, to see it or learn too much about it is to court disaster. Some authors state that the favor of the god requires a human sacrifice or eternal servitude. According to the genealogy H. P. Lovecraft devised for his characters, Yog-Sothoth is the offspring of the Nameless Mists, which were born of the deity Azathoth. Yog-Sothoth mated with Shub-Niggurath to produce the twin deities Nug and Yeb, while Nug sired Cthulhu through parthenogenesis. In Lovecraft’s short story “The Dunwich Horror”, Yog-Sothoth impregnates a mortal woman, Lavinia Whateley, who then gives birth to twin sons: the humanoid Wilbur Whateley and his more monstrous unnamed brother. Yog-Sothoth has some connection to the mysterious Old Ones mentioned in “The Dunwich Horror” (1929), but their nature, their number, and their connection to Yog-Sothoth are unknown. Nonetheless, they are probably allied to him in some way, since Wilbur Whateley, the half-human son of Yog-Sothoth, tried to summon them so that they could control Wilbur’s more tainted twin and make it reproduce. At the end of Lovecraft’s last story “The Haunter of the Dark”, the protagonist Robert Blake calls on Yog-Sothoth to save him from the eponymous malign entity that he has let loose.
