Yog-Sothothery: Family Tree of the "Gods"

Shuma-Gorath. A name-drop by REH fleshed out not by another mythos author, but by Marvel comics. Sure, it LOOKS like a rip-off of Cyaegha, but it his first comic appearance predates "Darkness, My Name Is." Of course, fingers are pointed by clueless fans of "that racist asshole," HPL, but to say a tentacled eye is an inspired idea is the statement of a fucking idiot. Hence, there are three of these fucking things: Cyaegha, Othuyeg, and Shuma-Gorath. There is actually a fourth, black with a red eye, created by Duane W. Rimel that is summoned by free jazz, but thats a whole other issue.

 First, some definitions:

THE CTHULHU MYTHOS, Ver. 1: This term NEVER EXISTED until Derleth came up with it. These "Cthulhu Mythos" are the strict, "I get to tell you what counts" kind that created the elemental system and had the elder gods actually mean something. During the ascension of Ramsey Campbell (who just wrote stories and ignored the over-arching implications of his additions to the "mythos" and therefore avoided the issue all-together), Brian Lumley, and Lin Carter, Derleth's great wisdom was assumed to be right, and Lin and Brian (BL, of course, is just awful anyways, his blind faith in this obsurd vision of the "mythos" isn't what made his stories awful, but it didn't help) added to the existing framework, and this then became the evolved Cthulhu Mythos. But then, trouble was a-brewin'.

THE DERLETH MYTHOS: Sos some guise figure that maybe Derleth was a bit off his rocker with the Pokemon-style attribute types thing, among others, and rebuttled basically all of the framework he had set up in order to organize his "Cthulhu Mythos." When the artificial infrastructure of what, up until then, had been seriously considered the geniune canon (shudder) collapsed, that pre-existing set of traditions has been called the "Derleth Mythos." Tierney was one of the guys who pressed this notion. Because of this, Lin and Brian sort of stuck to their guns, and RLT definitely USED the Derleth Mythos as it's own developed mythology, but after this generation the Derleth Mythos becomes a stagnant group of stories decribing the parts invented by Derleth that have fallen out of use because they're just too silly.

TIERNEY GNOSTIC MYTHOS: Tierney set up this name, half as a way to make fun of the "Mythos Wars," in which he used aspects from any cosmology he could think of, and just lumping them all together. For simplification's sake, this is just how RLT refered to Yog-Sothothery, which I haven't gotten to yet, so don't worry about it.

THE CTHULHU MYTHOS, Ver. 2: This is what is widely considered to be the "real" mythos, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Really, it does a good job of connecting all the stories with minimal inventions, but the problems with this iteration of the "mythos" are: 1.) It invents systems that were not there before, just like the last version/Derleth Mythos. These are not as bad as the elemental thing, and in many cases to actually seem to be the rule, but, as we know, no two people see Yog-Sothothery the same way, and there WILL BE inconsistincies. Hence, inventing anything as a rule for all the stories is foolish. 2.) Canon. First of all, no human being should have the balls to say "it doesn't count" ever, let alone with something with only the absence of an infrastructure to unite it. Whenever you say "this IS mythos" or "this ISN'T mythos," thats when you know somebody fucked up big time. It shouldn't need to be said, ever, whether or not a story has anything to do with GOOs and OGs, as whenever there is doubt, it's usually about a very obviously mythos story that doesn't bother to make direct references because not all authors can be bothered to stop the narrative to write down a list of stupid sounding names. The founders of the new mythos are still making a judgment statement about what the mythos is instead of letting it speak for itself, which is, again, the exact same problem the Derleth Mythos had. 3.) This is a big one now, because actual mythos literature has completely moved away from the Cthulhu Mythos and back into a normal setting (thanks to people like Robert M. Price, and... all the other new guys), but all the last holdouts on the outdated "mythos" crap don't write stories anymore. Scott David Aniolowski and his cronies write for, get this, the tabletop rpg "Call of Cthulhu." Yeah, thats right. They no longer contribute, and yet their stupid non-game is more influential to the general mythos audience tham RMP, DC, JA, RAL, SCS, TL, or whoever else is out there fighting the good fight. Video games count because they are, like literature, artistic CREATIONS, where not only a narrative, but a branching, interactive narrative must be constructed along with the visuals and the soundtrack, but a tabletop rpg is a bunch of numbers, doesn't do anything for you, and it doesn't matter if you even read the rules, because it's just a bunch of nerds sitting at a table pretending to be clerics. So, you know what? Fuck 'em.

THE HASTUR MYTHOS: This is a YS like subset of mythos that concern only and EVERY iteration of the big H there has ever been. Again, the contradictions and implications of connecting everything from El Viento to the Darkover series makes just this little subsection more Yog-Sothothery-y than the relatively boring and uninventive Cthulhu. Hastur, it seems, is FAR more interesting than most thing. Consequently, he is one of my favorites (and one of the reasons yellow is my favorite color.)

YOG-SOTHOTHERY: Now, this is what you probably think that the "Cthulhu Mythos" means. What Lovecraft wanted to do was to create an "artificial mythology" that worked like one of our older pre-modern pantheons, but invented so that there would be no source, just a bunch of recurring alien names that you swear you've seen somewhere before, but haunt you only in the misty veil of dreams. In the beginning, this pretty much meant everything HPL, REH, FBL, and CAS ever wrote, plus occasional little tales from E. Hoffman Price, Richard F. Searight, and Donald Wandrei. It wasn't until Derleth did his Zhar and Lloigor tale in 1932 that the notion of any sort of organization was seriously entertained. The family tree, which I am going to get to, I swear, is just an example of conventionalizing Yog-Sothothery (the name HPL used to refer to his artificial mythology, and NOT a pre-existing infrastructure with rules and regulations) to make it MORE LIKE an older, more established mythology. Of course, these guys love them some monsters, so they were taken to heart by all means, but the intent is what is important. How many other modern mythologies have freakin' family trees? Godzilla-Minya/Biollante (clone)-Space Godzilla, and that's it. Don't get me wrong, had HPL lived longer, there would have been much more deliberate meddling, but the point here is that we have four wildly different styles being used to describe the same thing in roughly equal terms without relying on consistencies, because the whole point was to make it like a pre-human fragmentary myth-cycle, which would be by it's very nature quite confusing. This mythology is all-inclusive, and is supposed to be used as a setting or compliment to the setting. There are no rules, only suggestions.

Bugg-Shash. Monster from a story by David Sutton about a fictional industrial/expiremental/dadaist/psychedelic/apocalyptic-folk record from the late 1970's that, when played, summons said monster. It was awesome, but then Brian Lumley wrote a sequel and fucking ruined it. He DID give it a name, and made it the cousin of Yibb-Tstll, so at least we got something out of it.

So about the family tree:
1. For the most part, the relationships are infered by titles created by cultists, and therefore speculation. That said, until we get a back story from a more reliable POV, this is all we have to go on.
2. Great Old Ones are contained within a single universe (in multiple dimensions, for sure, but ultimately one universe). They are subject to that universes physical laws and are therefore flawed versions of Outer Gods, and due to their instability, most can be killed with a blue flashlight (long story). Outer Gods, then, are like "multiversal cancers," which grow outside universes themselves. Fun fact: There are dimensions of "time-time" in objective reality evident in the fact that, somehow, there was a "before the big bang." This is big time super physics, though, and it would hurt most people's heads, and yet we have the math to prove it. Imagine then, how insane it is that Yog-Sothoth, who is coterminous with all (our) time and space, was born AFTER Azathoth, who is as old as our universe. True story. Outer Gods do not make sense as a rule.
3. The relationships and "begottings" are not literally "Cthulhu humps Idh-yaa," although sometimes they are. I feel I need to stress that the terms used in the tree are relative to these completely non-sensical creatures we are talking about because I constantly here the sentiment that making a tree is somehow "wrong" because a family tree is "anthropocentric." Now truly, what more insane statement can there be than that? Humans invented sexual reproduction? I don't fucking think so, dumbass. Welcome to Earth, bitch. Regardless, I said it, so there, happy?
4. The tree here is not devoid of thoeries. I have kept them to a minimum, and only where I really needed/could seamlessly and believably integrate it. I will point these out, though, so no worries.
5. Yog-Sothothery contradicts itself, sometimes on purpose. Cxaxukluth IS NOT Yeb, you moron, Lovecraft was being obtuse on purpose. Or, did you expect a racist to NOT be an asshole? Guess again, Lovecraft is a racist AND an asshole.

But enough, time for the tree!

Ghatanothoa, DONT LOOK AT HIM! This is when he fought Ultraman Tiga, turned the guy into stone, and then the children believed really hard and Tiga was revived some how in, I'm not joking, "Glitter Mode." Though the rpg lists him as 50 meters tall, Ultraman has him at a more respectable and imposing 200 meters. Ghatanothoa, if you'll remember, is a bad ass monster who can kill you if you look at him. I like the upside-down face, but otherwise this seems to be his "i'm bigger, but you can look at me for longer" form.

The tree starts with Mlandoth and Mril-Thorion. These two beings combine and split every eons of cycles and form new spawn, matter, and other things. In a creationist view, this is god, but anyone with a sufficient mythos % will tell you that infinity is infinite, and something had to create Mlandoth AND Mril-Thorion, plus they aren't responsible for everything.

I had an elaborate system here that explained the Half-Brother with the splitting and reforming. It happens like so:

SPLIT
Mlandoth forms Azathoth
Mril-Thorion forms Ubbo-Sathla
JOIN
They form the Half-Brother
SPLIT
Mlandoth forms Nyarlathotep
Mril-Thorion forms Yidhra
JOIN
They form Ngyr-Khorath, Ngyr-Khorath buds off (or whatever) 'Ymnar

The problem is that Nyarlathotep is said by HPL to be the son of Azathoth, and Yidhra the daughter of Ubbo-Sathla. This directly contradicts the Necronomicon, and I would hate to think that Donald Tyson didn't do ENOUGH research when he made Nya and Aza best bros, but that seems to be the case.

But then what about the Half-Brother? Nyarlat has one parent, and I can't for the life of me think of any other thing Azathoth would "screw" to make Nyarlat's 1/2 bro. Maybe a human or otherwise mortal cultist is the only possible thing, which would match up with the Half-Brother being some insane malformed worthless piece of shit who does nothing but kill whatever Nyarlathotep sends it to. In this revision, we have one split (Azathoth and Ubbo-Sathla) and one join (Ngyr-Khorath).

A perfect image of Hastur, feaster from afar for sure, and possibly the form that lurks beneath the lake of Hali in, uh, that one timeline. In the Darkover timeline, it is for sure the dragon, but I don't think they know that yet. This is his default "monster" form, while the dragon is kind of a special thing.

AZATHOTH
Via Binary Fission:*
Nameless Mist/Nyog'Sothep/Magnum Inominandum
Nyarlathotep
Night/Drog-N'Lyth/Magnum Tenebrosum
By a fissionary/budding process:
Tulzscha
Tru'nembra
Suc'Naath
Singer from Dhol
Mantorok?
Cxaxukluth
Cthalpa?
Yibb-Tstll
Ghroth
Ogdru Jahad
Anything else in the court
By "Seed of Azathoth":
Dho-Spawn
Xathagorra
Everything else, like Ghadamon, is from the rpg, and doesn't count (boo-yaa!)
From boning some cultist:
Nyarlathotep's Half-Brother

*These three are different, and we know Ubbo spawn GOOs when he splits, while Aza uses "seeds," so just reverse it to set Nyarlat, Night, and Mist apart from the court. This might even make Half-Brother just a bud and not a binary fission thing, but, eh.

UBBO-SATHLA
Normal fissionary process:
Abhoth
Hydra?
Many-Thing?
Binary Fission (opposite of Azathoth, when he splits he forms GOOs):*
Zathog
Inpesca
Shudde M'ell
Nyogtha
Bugg-Shash
Zuchequon
Han
Through Spawn-Based Descent:**
Yidhra
Yig
Chaugnar-Faugn

*Shudde M'ell is said to be the child of Ubbo-Sathla via binary fission, which is more specific than Lumley really needed to be. But since he was, it sets up why Ubbo has more GOO kids than OG ones, because he split first, than bud off the spawn, then...
** Ubbo-Sathla is said to be indirectly responsible for all life on Earth, which is obviously untrue unless you're already insane. The story goes that the Elder Things (Old Ones) created Shoggoths and Earthlings by playing with the tissue of Ubbo's spawn, hence why he's on Earth in the first place. By extension, this make Chaugnar-Faugn and Yidhra the children of Ubbo. Yig is also there, but I don't have a direct source, so I don't know why. Yidhra is Ubbo's Nyarla, so the theme makes sense, it's just not the case. Either way, Ubbo is STILL responsible for these three, if not Earthlings. Whoops, I mean "NOT Earthlings."

Shubbie in her "tree" form. Fun fact: it's supposed to have three heads and WAY more legs than that. Isn't she pretty?

MIST - Yog-Sothoth, Yad-Thaddag, Noth-Yidik?, Daoloth??, Crimson Queen
Yad-Thaddag's family beyond being the Kthanid clone of Yog isn't spelled out. I would guess other "elder gods," like Nodens, Isis, Vorvadoss, N'tse-Kaambl, and Bast(?) somehow spawn from him.
Noth-Yidik mated with Chthon (K'thun) to produce the Hounds of Tindalos, which is wierd, and may mean they made a being that spawned them, or Noth spawned them, and had another kid with Chthon, and the two got confused.
The crimson queen mothered Los, the crimson king, with a human, who is also the father of the guy from the Dark Tower books. She came from the mists that are beyond reality or whatever the fuck. He's silmutaneously referencing his older story with the nameless mist, connecting the two, which is cool. Cooler than anything that guy's ever written.
NYARLATHOTEP mates with Yhoundeh - Sebek, Mary/Masked Mute, Lurker in the Star Pools
Someone even says in the comic about Mary (which isn't her real name) that they don't think it works like that. Nyarla is way too human for his own good, though, and they basically smash you over the head with it (both Mary and Nyarlathotep tell the audience this themselves several times), so it stays. Mary is better than Sebek anyways.
NIGHT - Shub-Niggurath, Ycnagnnisssz, Tsalal
The first of the Xoth pairings, the Xoth system was the true eden for Outer Gods/GOOs. Ycnag and Shub have a presence at the same time, implying Night is somehow involved (the timeline is really involved, but I waded through it so you wouldn't have to, Ycnag is VERY important to the timing of events on the Xothic system, so we know more about her "family" than we do about her!).
Tsalal is the darkness behind reality, or whatever, but it isn't Night, so, naturally, it's one of the children of the Night (heheh).
Ycnagnnisssz - Zstylzhemghi, Idh-yaa, Baoht Z'uqqa-Mogg
Idh-yaa is like, duh, and Baoht, while not technically counting, needs to be there for the whole Shaggai thing to go down in the larger picture, since the Shan ARE it's progeny, and the Shan absolutely count.
Zstylzhemghi w/ Ghisguth - Vulthoom, Tsathoggua
Vulthoom - E'ilor/Green God?
Tsathoggua w/ Shathak - Golgoroth, Zvilpoggua
Golgoroth - Thog
Zvilpoggua - Sfatlicllp
Sfatlicllp w/ Voormis - Knygathin-Zhaum
Idh-yaa w/ Cthulhu - Ghatanothoa, Ythogtha, Zoth-Ommog, Cthylla
Ythogtha - Othuum?
Zoth-Ommog - Ubb
Cthylla (artificial insemination with a balloon robot) - Cthynhi
Tsalal - Cyaegha, Othuyeg, Shuma-Gorath, Free-Jazz Cyaegha*
*Until someone acknowledges that Duane Rimel created Cyaegha first, I'm counting it as a different monster.

YOG-SOTHOTH - Hastur, (w/ Lavinna Whateley) Son of Yog, Wilbur Whateley
Yog-Sothoth + Shub-Niggurath - Nug, Yeb
Yog-Sothoth + Nug - Cthulhu, Kthanid, Kassogtha
Cthulhu (via mutating influence on Deep One child) - Dagon
Cthulhu (blood on the floor) - Rhogog
Cthulhu w/ Kassogtha - Nctosa, Nctolhu
Yeb - Mnomquah, Groth-golka
See, originally I thought Golgoroth and Groth-golka were bros, and to facilitate HPL's idea of Cthulhu and Tsathoggua being cousins, I put a Tsathoggua LIKE thing under Yeb. Turns out Gol is Tsath's son. Then I found out Mnomquah was Groth-golka's brother, not Golgoroth, but there was no reference to their parent(s), hence, I just left them there.
Mnomquah w/ Oorn - Bokrug
GOOs aren't like humans, they don't see "sex" as an activity, because it isn't, as far as we know. There's no telling HOW they get it on, and I don't care to know. So, it wouldn't make sense to have a mate unless you spawned something. Mnomquah lives on the moon, Ibians came from the moon, and so did the Ibian-like beings of the Nameless City, plus Bokrug looks like Mnomquah, so done deal.

SHUB-NIGGURATH - Beast of Babylon, Chthon?
Shub-Niggurath + Yig - Byatis
Shub-Niggurath + Hastur - Zhar, Lloigor, and Ithaqua, and an unnamed tripl... oh, whoops, you can't have a tiplet if it's THE FOURTH CHILD you fucking morons. ITHAQUA is the triplet. Get over it, damn.
Shub-Niggurath w/ Human - Mother of Pus (I know, it shouldn't count but it's just so cool sounding)

Tulzscha - Cthugha
This has been just assumed forever, there's no reason not to just come out and say it.
Cthugha - Fthaggua, Aphoom-Zhah
Aphoom-Zhah - Rhan-Tegoth, Gnoph-Kehs
OR
Aphoom-Zhah - Rhan-Tegoth
Rhan-Tegoth - Gnoph-Kehs, Voorm (not even a real thing)
I've seen it both ways with no confirmation either way in anything I've read. So, there.
Cxaxukluth - Hziulqouigmnzhah, Ghisguth/Ghizguth
Ghisguth w/ Zstylzhemghi - we've been over this
Cthalpa - Denderrah, Chthon?, Shterot (Denderrah isn't stated as, but just to simplify)
About Chthon: isn't given a source by LC, used as one of Shubbie's generals in Quake, is an actual lava-man, so associations with Shub and Cthalpa are obvious. Not known if either is the parent, or which one takes precedence, since one didn't get Shub right and the other is a french rpg supplement.
Mantorok - Ulyaoth, Xel'lotath, Chattur'gha (again, simplify)
Ogdru Jahad - Sadu-Hem/Behemoth, Urgo-Hem, Katha-Hem, Conqueror Worm, Sammael
Sammael is the spawn of Nergal specifically, none of the others are given a "component parent."

ABHOTH - Atlach-Nacha, Zyhume
Zyhume - Yhoundeh
Yhoundeh w/ Nyaralthotep - we know already
Many-Thing - Red Flux (lives in Many's dimension, duh)
Yig - Coatlicue, Set
Yig w/ Shub - covered
YIDHRA w/ Yig - Ayi'ig (how did they ever think of that name?)

A perfect image of Tsathoggua. Except... well, he's missing some toad legs, and I don't think he has that many eyes, but everything else is 100% perfect. You forgot he was also a line with legs, didn't you?

Ngyr-Khorath - 'Ymnar

Oorn, Shathak, and Sysyphyx don't have a parent. Sysy is from atlantis, Shathak must have met Tsath on Cykranosh, might be FROM Kythanil, and then took Zvil back there. Oorn... who cares?

Let's look at the list of non-grouped entities:
Ammutseba
Beast in the Pit (dream monster, might be glorified nightmare and not GOO, or literal nightmare, kin of Night)
Black Flying Thing from the Vale that REH Never Named
Cynothoglys (Mordiggian's son or vice versa would work, perhaps put them both under Yibb-Tstll)
Dweller in the Gulf (Some relation to Vulthoom? Could be associated with Lam, who is also from Mars)
Eihort (fuck if I know)
Glaaki
Y'golonac
Gith (so, you cut off the face of a jackal and then glowing eyes? what the hell?)
Gog-Hoor
Hoppwood Tenant (it NEEDS to be in the tree)
Iod
Juk-Shabb
Lam (might fit in around Hastur or Yog, associated with other martian monsters?)
M'Nagalah (and it's two bros, maybe tie into Mordiggian/Cyno, or straight from Azathoth)
Mordiggian (son of Cyno or vice versa, also Yibb, again)
Pharol
Quachil-Uttaus (sounds like a Yog-baby to me)
Q'yth-az (Daoloth? He got two question marks being Mist's kid, so even that wouldn't be much of a link)
Quumyagga (had to come from Nyarlathotep or another dream monster, HAD TO)
Rlim Shaikorth (arctic guy, son of Ithaqua maybe?)
Sedmelluq (ANTarctic guy, I really wanna say Ubbo-Sathla, maybe Rlim, or something from Yuggoth)
Sho-Gath
Sthood (another dream only one)
Summanus
Yegg-Ha
Tharapithia
The Beach (so weird, but I can't help but think it's more of an Ubbo thing than a spawn of Azathoth)
Yomagn'tho (some relation to Cthugha?)

More later? Don't bet on it.