#yig

[thecreaturecodex]

The Great Game: Outer Gods and Great Old Ones

As the deities that are most physically tied to the Material Plane, it is perhaps unsurprising that the various entities collected together as “Outer Gods” and “Great Old Ones” have been paying attention to the Great Game. The allegiances of some of the prominent members of these pantheons are as follows:

Abhoth The Unclean God is patron of disease and fecundity, and knows how these two things are tied together. More are born than can survive, and many of those that die fall to disease before anything else. As such, Abhoth is well versed in ecology, and knows that Lamashtu is overpopulating Golarion with her monsters. Abhoth’s followers seek to spread plagues among monstrous species in order to keep their numbers down, and as such, Mormo counts Abhoth as an ally.

Azathoth The Primal Chaos does not seem to have noticed the Great Game, or much of anything that has happened on Golarion in centuries. This is probably for the best. If any of his attention were to be turned onto the conflict, it could easily become a disaster for both parties…something that Nyarlathotep is hoping for, and working to make happen.

Bokrug The Water Lizard fondly remembers Mormo from before the evolution of true mammals, and they have hunted and sparred together and even mated in the past. Bokrug may be difficult to rouse from his slumber, but his ire is terrible when provoked, and is likely to be directed at the followers of Lamashtu.

Cthulhu The Dreamer in the Deep has dreamt of Golarion, and one or two of his star-spawn have come there. But he cares not for the Great Game; he has his own stars that need to be right once again. A star-spawn of Cthulhu is a dangerous agent of its own right, and one more likely to support Lamashtu than Mormo.

Hastur The King in Yellow respects Lamashtu and her ravenous appetites. Although he has his own plans to absorb chunks of Golarion, or the whole world if he can, into the Nightmare Kingdom of Carcosa, he is at least nominally on the Mother of Monster’s side. As long as their cultists can keep sharing the same sybaritic festivities.

Ithaqua Ithaqua is more concerned with consuming anyone on either side that he can sink his talons into. The Wind Walker is slightly more favorably minded towards Lamashtu than Mormo, but any relationship between their cults is likely to be a tenuous one that could break down into ravenous hunger at any point.

Mhar Mhar wants off of Golarion. He sees a change in the status quo as the best way of achieving that goal, and is resentful of lamia clerics of Lamashtu for helping Karzoug the Runelord to build a palace on his surface and deface him. Mhar’s release would likely be devastating for Mormo’s goals of making Golarion a richer and more diverse ecosystem. But on the other hand, volcanic ash and lava rock makes for excellent fertilizer, and his eruption might not be as destructive as he hopes it will be.

Nhimbaloth As a devourer of souls and a corrupter of wild things, Nhimbaloth is an ally of Lamashtu. Of course, she does respect Mormo’s goals of eating Lamashtu as a fellow apex predator. But Nhimbaloth thinks that the Goddess of Predators is too arrogant and needs to be taken down a peg. Nhimbaloth would happily eat Mormo herself if given half a chance, and for that reason, Mormo keeps a wide berth of Nhimbaloth’s home world, Voidbracken.

Nyarlathotep The Crawling Chaos is delighted by this galaxy spanning conflict, and on the surface is playing both sides. Lamashtu is his real dog in the fight, as he views Lamashtu as being more likely to lead Golarion to ruin, cracking open and releasing Rovagug. That would be a fun show to watch, seeing how the Rough Beast would react after eons of imprisonment. The Mask of Nyarlathotep that is most actively involved is the Black Pharaoh, whose cults are pushing technological advances into the hands of demon cultists and dangerous maneaters.

Orgesh The Faceless God is technically on Lamashtu’s side, although not by any direct aiding or abetting. Orgesh wants to fight Mormo himself. And is sending his chardra to pick fights with her worshipers, and is gunning for her most powerful servitors himself, in the hopes of getting Mormo’s attention. Worst case scenario, Orgesh will be killed and be able to respawn on another planet. Unless Mormo gets sick of his interference, and starts doing research on a way to kill him for real before setting her sights higher.

Shub-Nugganoth* The Goat of the Woods views Lamashtu as a kindred spirit, and the two of them have indeed collaborated on the spawning of horrors in the past. They are doing so again, notably through the personage of one of the Goat’s most powerful mortal worshipers in Avistan, a fleshwarping-obsessed alchemist named Doctor Agatha Shiny. Doctor Shiny and her creations are actively hunting down Mormo’s allies in order to transform them into blasphemous horrors, or just murder them.

Tsathoggua Saint Toad knows what it’s like to be forgotten and abandoned. He is a supporter of Mormo, if only because she’s the underdog in this fight, and Tsathoggua has a soft spot for underdogs, as much as he would deny that. Mormo knows that the Father of Night is a fickle and somewhat dangerous ally, so doesn’t rely on his help, but does appreciate his guidance and wisdom.

Yig The Father of Serpents calls Mormo “sister”, and the Goddess of Predators calls Yig “brother” in return. This may be an actual genealogical relationship, it may not be. But Yig is among Mormo’s closest allies, and the two are active collaborators. Those colonies of serpentfolk who worship Yig are hotspots for burgeoning cults of Mormo, as they see the two ophidian Old Ones as a way to reclaim some of the lost glory of the Age of Serpents without relying on the increasingly unstable Ydersius.

Yog-Sothoth The Key and the Gate views things on a vast, cosmic scale, even more than the other Outer Gods. As such, the safety and long term stability of the galaxy is his highest priority (after all, it has to collide with another galaxy in approximately 1.2 billion years, and then enough of it has to be around to decay into degenerate matter as the universe shifts past its stelliferous era. So anything that dramatically accelerates that process, or might get large portions of the galaxy pulled out of the Material Plane altogether, are not ideal outcomes for Yog-Sothoth. As such, he supports Mormo, but is doing so in a subtle way—opening portals in the right places, weakening planar boundaries—rather than sending his children to fight en masse.

*This is the name I am going to be using for that particular Outer God in the future. Clearly the same entity that has been developed into a character by Mythos authors over the last 100 years, but doesn't have a racist slur built into the name.

[macabrecabra]

LOVECRAFTOBER: DAY FOURTEEN: Yig: Father of Serpents

Affiliation: The Court of Shub-Niggurath Yig only cares about snakes. Yig only commits snake crimes on behalf of the snakes of the world. One day Yig is going to make sure snakes inherit the earth. If you don't like snakes you can go leave because snakes are superior to everything else. Yig says so.

As far as great old ones go, Yig just stays in their own corner and is a crabby snake enthusiast with a perchance for going on hungry rampages in the fall. Bloodthirsty munchies if you will. For the sake of snake kind.

All snakes are hissy meow meow and Yig knows it so get on the same page and join the snake cult already!

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Yig was fun to design, but hard! The head design took a lot of tries to get to look right! The bottom half...instead of going classic naga or snake man, went with the whol body is made up of hundreds of writhing snakes, hiding what is below.... eldritch snake god!

[trve-grimdark]

Yig is the father of serpents and protective of his children. Visiting his wrath on all who would kill a snake. Scholars and Philosophers question if Yig is a parallel personification to Set, the ancient serpent of paleo earth.

[ghoul-mortician]

Yig cults and Snake Handlers would be mortal enemies guys.

[redacted-metallum]

Yig!!!

BIG SNAKE DADDY!!!!

He's neat, but working the conspiracy and sneeple (snake people) angle of him is. Dicey. Similar to the deep ones there's some. Uh. Dogwhistles wrapped up in that.

You could do some really neat things with snake handling evangelical preachers and Yig, but Chaosium beat me to it with the pulp campaign Two-Headed Serpent lmao. Highly recommend watching those stream vods, it's a good time.

[hplovecraftmuseum]

Lovecraft and animals, Part 7: Snakes - Snakes did not become particularly important in Lovecraft's tales until fairly late in his career (since Lovecraft considered himself a gentleman amateur 'man of letters', using the term 'career' might have been distasteful for him). The 'Father of all serpents' first appeared in his ghost writing/revision work. THE CURSE OF YIG and THE MOUND, both featured references to 'Yig'. Though there was some uncertainty as to who really coined the name (Lovecraft or his client) in his letters to other writer friends Lovecraft claimed that he himself came up with the name and concept of Yig. Yig is never actually featured in any Lovecraft story in the same way as Great Cthulhu. We do not get a detailed discription of him either. We might assume that since the stories that carry his name most abundantly are connected to the American West and it's pre - Anglo inhabitants that Yig is perhaps the original entity around which all First Nations Snake-God myths were born. The Aztec diety Quetzalcoatl would be a prime example. A snake-like bundle of hair that can move about even after it is cut from a woman's head shows up in the particularly dreadful tale, MEDUSA'S COIL. Lovecraft penned this abomination for Zealia Bishop but the story did not see publication until after his death. (1940. Weird Tales) Of all Lovecraft works written for clients seeking to develop a career as professional writers, MEDUSA'S COIL has got to be one of the most rediculous! Still, Lovecraft injects references to Cthulhu - called Clooloo here, as well as Shub-Niggurath and R'lyeh. Interestingly Lovecraft also makes mention here of the author of the fabled book, Les Chants de Maldoror, also known as Maldoror by a young Frenchman who called himself 'Comte de Lautremont'. Les Chants de Maldoror was written between 1868 and 1869 and was highly influential for the Surrealist School of artists and poets of the 1930s. Lovecraft admitted in letters that he had read parts of Maldoror on several occasions. HPL also knew of Salvador Dali's early works. Apparently Lovecraft was not particularly impressed with Surrealism in general, however. Lastly Lovecraft makes a passing reference to 'the serpent-men of Valusia in one of his later tales. This brief mention was a tip of the hat to Lovecraft's writer pal, Robert E. Howard. Howard and Lovecraft never met, but they corresponded by mail for many years until Howard's death by suicide on June 11, 1936. Howard is best known today for his virtual 'invention' of the Sword and Sorcery genre of imaginative writing. He was the creator of the famed barbarian King, Conan. Lovecraft made mention of a number of his writer friend's fictitious gods and monsters as his own mock mythology/cosmic religion developed, most importantly Clark Ashton Smith's whom Lovecraft admired greatly. (Exhibit 415)

[synth-ai]

[ask-cthulhu-mythos-au]

DOODLESSSSS

DOOOOODLES

[corvusium]

Tezcatlipoca, the Smoking Mirror, and Yig, Father of serpents.

I know like they have nothing in common except for Yig being somewhat inspired by other Aztec gods but I had to go to insane lengths to make these two related for worldbuilding reasons

[darkersoul]

Yig.

Yig!

Yig interests me because he's from my neck of the woods. I think he's neat because he's a God you can interact with, and isn't as malignant as others. He's certainly a deity you can deal with, if not reason with. A lot of Mythos entities are chaotic, where Yig has a decently lawful bent.

I haven't got any great story ideas for him, but I can definitely see him cropping up in some way in the future. He's got a great aesthetic and identity, but not much scope. I haven’t got a take on him yet like I do Ghatanothoa, Nodens, Tsathoggua, or Atlach-Nacha. He'll get there eventually, hopefully.

[darkestdrawings]

[enfantrenard-list]

【TRPG・CoC】イグ【神話生物】

[doctorslippery]

(via Yig, Father of Serpents : ImaginaryImmortals)

[whereserpentswalk]

Also Lovecraft is probably important to bring up here, because indigenous deities don't feel Lovecraftian by accident. Lovecraft was a white supremacist who actively based his villains and evil gods off of fears of non-Christian and especially non-white religions. His elder gods were actively part of the way white supremacist culture sought to rebrand non-Christian and non-western religion as evil and spooky, especially during a time when a lot of people were becoming interested in spirituality outside of a Christian context.

Most Lovecraft gods are based on fears about nonwestern religion, just like how most of his more humanoid races are based on fears of anyone he deemed to be racially impure. Dagon has his name taken from a middle eastern god, and the main "threat" he poses to humanity is having them marry outsiders and convert to an outside faith. As much as modern culture has made them a generic Satan cult, the cult of Cthulhu in the original story was very specifically rooted in fears of nonwhite people having loyalties to precolonial faiths. Yig is the most explicit, he's a god whose worshipped by native tribes in universe (not irl for clarification) and who punishes white people for destroying nature, which in most fantasy stories would make him a morally grey protector of nature, but to Lovecraft that makes him 100% evil.

Lovecraft wrote stories meant to make white people think of native gods as evil demons who are out to get you. If you see a native god and think "spooky Cthulhu monster" you fell for that propaganda.

[artistassinideas]

Comisión Ayi'ig:

Una comisión de Fiverr. Esta vez es Ayi'ig, hija de Yig y Yidhra de los Mitos de Cthulhu.

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Ayi'ig commission:

A Fiverr commission. This time it's Ayi'ig, daughter of Yig and Yidhra from the Cthulhu Mythos.