Great Old Ones
Created: February 2017
| Updated: February 2017
This article uses material from the Great Old Ones article on the Lovecraft wiki at Fandom and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.
Great Old Ones
Overview
The Great Old Ones are a group of unique, malignant beings of great power. They reside in various locations on Earth, and once presided over the planet as gods and rulers.
Classification
The Great Old Ones are to be distinguished from the more cosmically placed entities such as Azathoth, Nyarlathotep and Yog-Sothoth, and from races such as the Cthonians, the Deep Ones, the Elder Things and the Mi-go. Yet this distinction is unclear at times, in part because the terminology is not always consistent; for instance, Nyarlathotep, despite his marked interest in Earth and its culture, is generally considered to be an Outer God instead of a Great Old One. On the other hand, Hastur has several avatars and is generally based in outer space, but he is still considered a Great Old One. There are conflicting accounts on what the proper classification for Shub-Niggurath would be.
Very few people dispute that Azathoth and Yog-Sothoth are Outer Gods instead of Great Old Ones, although some accounts make them ancestors of a few Great Old Ones.