Shoggoth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A shoggoth (or shaggoth[1]) is a fictional monster in the Cthulhu Mythos. The being first appeared in H. P. Lovecraft's novella At the Mountains of Madness (1931).

A Shoggoth as seen in the game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
A Shoggoth as seen in the game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

Contents

[edit] Description

“ It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train – a shapeless congerie of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter. ”
 
— H. P. Lovecraft, At The Mountains of Madness

The definitive description of shoggoths comes from the above-quoted story. In it, Lovecraft writes them as massive amoeba-like creatures looking like they're made out of tar, with multiple eyes "floating" on the surface. They are described as "protoplasmic", lacking any default body shape and instead being able to form limbs and organs at will. The size of an average shoggoth measured 15 feet across when a sphere, though the story mentions ones of much greater size.

Although intelligent to some degree, Mythos media most commonly shows them dealing with problems using their great size and strength. For instance, the original one mentioned in The Mountains of Madness simply rolled over and crushed giant albino penguins that were in the way as it pursued the characters.

The shoggoths are considered one of the more terrible things present in the Mythos. The character of the Mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred, found the mere idea of their existence on Earth terrifying.

[edit] Origin and history

The shoggoths were created by the Elder Things as living bioengineered construction equipment. Being amorphous, they could take on any shape needed, making them very versatile within their aquatic environment. Though able to "understand" the Elder Things' language, they had no real consciousness and were controlled through hypnotic suggestion.

The shoggoths built the underwater cities of their masters. Over millions of years of existence, some shoggoths mutated and gained independent minds. Some time after this, they rebelled. Eventually, the Elder Things succeeded in quelling the insurrection, but thereafter watched them more carefully. By this point, exterminating them was not an option as the Elder Things were fully dependent on them for labor and could not replace them. It was during this time that, despite their masters' wishes, they demonstrated an ability to survive on land.

Within the Mythos, the existence of the shoggoths possibly led to the accidental creation of Ubbo-Sathla, a god-like entity supposedly responsible for the origin of all life on Earth, though At The Mountains of Madness brings up the possibility of the Elder Things being the creators, having made early life as discarded experiments in bioengineering.

[edit] Other connections

When the Elder Things retreated to the oceans, they brought the shoggoths with them and eventually let them develop the ability to exist on land out of desperation. In contrast to their failing society, the shoggoths began to imitate their art and voices, taking over the cavern city underneath Antarctica and creating a twisted imitation of the society of their masters.

Aside from their main appearance in the Mountains of Madness story, shoggoths also appear in other Mythos stories, often as servitors or captives to powerful cults and entities. They are known to endlessly repeat "Tekeli-li",[2] a cry that their old masters used.

[edit] Other appearances

 This article or section may contain poor or irrelevant examples.
Articles should only contain pertinent examples.
Please improve the article or discuss proposed changes on the talk page.
You can edit the article to add more encyclopaedic text. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for further suggestions.
  • Shoggoths appear as acidic recoil inflicting monsters in the online game Wyvern.
  • Shoggoths with approximate radial symmetry are available as plush figures produced by Toy Vault.
  • A Shoggoth is mentioned in the 'exit screen' (Being the text you receive when prompted to exit the game) in both Quake and Daikatana.
  • In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game system, the shoggoth is referred to as a gibbering mouther. The shoggoth also could be considered the basis of the ooze family of creatures, or more specifically the black pudding. Much like the shoggoth, the black pudding is tar-like in appearance as well as amorphous. The glossary entry for puddings in the computer game NetHack quotes and cites the eyewitness description of a shoggoth in Lovecraft's original story.
  • In the table top strategy game Warhammer Fantasy Battle, in the armies of Chaos, Dragon Ogre Shaggoths are ancient creatures of titanic proportions, being dragon ogres who have endured for centuries rejuvenating in lightning storms.
  • In the board game Arkham Horror, the Shoggoth is one of the many monsters from Cthulhu and the H. P. Lovecraft books that roam the streets of Arkham.
  • A Shoggoth appears in The Real Ghostbusters episode, The Collect Call of Cathulhu, In the episode, it is summoned by cultists to combat the Ghostbusters, however it is swiftly defeated by a spell from a Cthulhu historian.
  • Creatures matching the physical description of shoggoths, named with the alternative spelling of "shuggoths," appear toward the end of the novel Frek and The Elixir by Rudy Rucker.
  • Author Neil Gaiman has written several short stories based in the Cthulhu mythos, one of which takes place in the town of Innsmouth where a wandering American tourist is treated to several pints of "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar" ale.

[edit] References

  • Burleson, Donald R. (1983). H. P. Lovecraft, A Critical Study. Westport, CT / London, England: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-23255-5. 
  • Harms, Daniel (1998). "Shoggoths", The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, 2nd ed., Oakland, CA: Chaosium, pp. 273–4. ISBN 1-56882-119-0. 
  • Lovecraft, Howard P. [1931] (1985). "At the Mountains of Madness", in S. T. Joshi (ed.): At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels, 7th corrected printing, Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. ISBN 0-87054-038-6.  Definitive version.
  • Pearsall, Anthony B. (2005). The Lovecraft Lexicon, 1st ed., Tempe, AZ: New Falcon Pub. ISBN 1-56184-129-3. 

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ This spelling appears in the original Arkham House printing for "The Thing on the Doorstep" (1937), though the definitive manuscripts show that the proper spelling is in fact "shoggoth". (Burleson, H.P. Lovecraft, A Critical Study, footnote #14, p. 195.)
  2. ^ This cry is a reference to the Edgar Allan Poe novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, which is cited in At the Mountains of Madness. (Pearsall, "Poe, Edgar Allan", The Lovecraft Lexicon, p. 332.)

[edit] Further reading

  • Gaiman, Neil. "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar". A young American tourist on a walking tour of the British coastline stops for a meal at a pub in Innsmouth, weirdness ensues.