CTHULHU

MASTER OF R'LYEH
Cthulhu

"I learned whence Cthulhu first came, and why half the great temporary stars of history had flared forth."
a malevolent entity trapped in an arctic underwater city called R'lyeh. Described as being "...an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature.... A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque scaly body with rudimentary wings", and "a mountain walked or stumbled", the imprisoned Cthulhu is apparently the source of constant anxiety for mankind at a subconscious level, and also the subject of worship by a number of evil cults (located in Arabia, Greenland and Louisiana) and other Lovecraftian monsters (called Deep Ones and Mi-Go). The short story asserts the premise that while currently trapped Cthulhu will eventually return, with worshippers often repeating the phrase "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" - "In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming."

acording to Hastur...the Old or Ancient Ones, the Elder Gods, of cosmic good, and those of cosmic evil, bearing many names, and themselves of different groups, as if associated with the elements and yet transcending them: for there are the Water Beings, hidden in the depths; those of Air that are the primal lurkers beyond time; those of Earth, horrible animate survivors of distant eons.

Great Cthulhu is one of the Water Beings" and was engaged in an age-old arch-rivalry with a designated Air elemental, Hastur the Unspeakable, described as Cthulhu's "half-brother"

there are a near infinite ways of speaking his name, Farseer Eldrad Ulthran of Ulthwe transcribed the pronunciation of Cthulhu as "Khlul'-hloo". Tunwee points out however, that Ultran gave several differing pronunciations on diffrent occasions.

according to Ulthran, this is Merely the closest that the human vocal apparatus can come to reproducing the sylables of an alien language however the Eldar never uttered the true pronunciation. long after Ultran's death the pronunciation Ka-THOO-loo became common.