H P Lovecraft, page 51
because of this the Hyperborean cultists of Tsathoggua turned toward Mount
Voormithadreth during their worship of the Great Old One. There were darker
rumors that even more hideous beings dwelt under Voormithadreth.
See Abhoth; Atlach-Nacha; Eibon; Haon-Dor; Shub-Niggurath; Sss'haa,
Tsathoggua; voormis. ("Shaggai", Carter; "The Seven Geases", Smith (O).)
VORVADOSS. Entity known as the Flaming One, the Troubler of the Sands, or
the Lord of the Universal Spaces. Vorvadoss appears as a cloaked and hooded
figured surrounded by green flames, and has a face veiled in silver mist and
black eyes with tiny flames dancing inside. Vorvadoss sometimes referred to as
Vorvadoss of the Gray Gulf of Yarnak (or Bel Yarnak), where law decreed that
only the Sindara of Bel Yarnak might worship him. The people of Mu revered
Vorvadoss at the peak of the mountain Nergu-K'nyan, and many considered
him to be the mightiest of earth's gods.
The Book of Iod mentions that Vorvadoss is neither a Great Old One nor
Elder God, leaving his position to be decided on a case-by-case basis. In one
invocation of Vorvadoss, the being seemed to be beneficent toward humanity,
though in such matters, it is difficult to be certain.
See Book of Iod. ("The Star-Seed", Ambuehl; "Wizards of Hyperborea", Fultz
and Burns; "The Eater of Souls", Kuttner (O); "The Invaders", Kuttner.)
VULTHOOM. Being said to be one ofYog-Sothoth's sons. Vulthoom resembles
a many-rooted plant with a gigantic trunk and a huge blossom at the top hold-
ing the semblance of a tiny fairy-like creature. Vulthoom dwells in the cavern
of Ravormos on Mars.
Millions of years ago, Vulthoom fled to Mars in its ether-ship from a conflict
with more powerful entities. Upon its arrival on the red planet, it subjugated
the natives of that world using its vast knowledge of science and technology.
After a while, Vulthoom tired of its worshipers and retired beneath the ground
into the caverns of Ravornos. Over several centuries, the people forgot the true
nature of the extraterrestrial visitor, eventually believing that Vulthoom was
the devil and his home in Ravornos was actually the underworld. Soon, the
THE CTHULHU MYTHOS ENCYCLOPEDIA
3 0 3
VYONES TO WALL OF N A A C H - I I T H
majority of the Aihai people had dismissed Vulthoom as a legend.
A cult dedicated to Vulthoom managed to survive among the lower classes
According to this group, Vulthoom still lives; though the creature is not im-
mortal, its lifespan is immeasurable. The monster dwells within the caverns of
Ravornos, where it undergoes a cycle of a thousand years of activity, followed by
a thousand years of rest. Vulthoom may bless those who are especially faithful
with the same longevity, falling asleep when Vulthoom does so and awakening
at the same time as their master. When awake, these servants plot to expand
the worship of their master across Mars and to other worlds.
According to the Revelations ofGlaaki, Vulthoom is only a child of the race
upon which the legends of vampires are based.
See Yog-Sothoth. ("The Inhabitant of the Lake", Campbell; "Zoth-Ommog",
Carter; "Vulthoom", Smith (O).)
VYONES. See Averoigne.
304
THE CTHULHU MYTHOS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Y Y
W A I L I N G WRITHER. See Nyarlathotep (Wailing Writher).
WAITE, ASENATH (1905-1932). Daughter of Ephraim Waite and an unknown
mother. Asenath Waite grew up in the Innsmouth home of her father. Follow-
ing his madness and death, she became a ward of the principal of Kingsport's
Hall School and later attended Miskatonic University.
It was at Miskatonic that Asenath met Edward Derby, poet and author of
Azathoth and Other Horrors. The two became attracted to one another and mar-
ried shortly thereafter. During their marriage, Asenath became Derby's tutor in
the magical arts. Although on the surface their union was happy, those close to
Derby noticed a shocking change in his personality during this period.
Around three years after the marriage, Asenath disappeared; Derby insisted
that his wife had gone on an extended vacation, and no one thought anything
amiss. Later, after her husband had been confined to an asylum, her body turned
up just outside the house of Daniel Upton, Derby's close friend, having been
left there by persons unknown.
See Cult of the Skull; Derby, Edward Pickman; Upton, Daniel; Waite,
Ephraim. ("The Thing on the Doorstep", Lovecraft (O).)
WAITE, EPHRAIM. Resident of Innsmouth, Massachusetts, who many con-
sidered to be a wizard of some power. Waite is an old Innsmouth name, but
according to rumor, Ephraim Waite was originally Khemosh Ephraim ben-Dan-
iel of New York, a young man interested in diabolism, who changed his name
and moved to Innsmouth. Ephraim supposedly could control the weather and
perform other mystical feats, and he often traveled to Miskatonic University to
consult that institution's occult holdings. He was known for solving many mi-
nor crimes among the locals and participated in rites of the Cult of the Skull.
In his later years, Waite took a wife whose face no one ever saw and who
disappeared shortly after she bore his daughter Asenath. When his daughter
was in her early teens, Ephraim lost his mind, and Asenath confined him in
the attic of their Innsmouth residence. Ephraim died not long following his
imprisonment. Some suspected poison, but most of Innsmouth's residents had
no misgivings about Asenath, and no one ever charged her with his death.
See Derby, Edward; Waite, Asenath. ("The Thing on the Doorstep", Love-
craft (O).)
WALL OF NAACH-TITH. See Barrier of Naach-Tith.
J L E I , u u n u u n 1 U v v t r A S 5 T K U M V I E W
WALMSLEY, GORDON (OF GOOLE). One-time Professor-Curator of the
Wharby Museum in Yorkshire, and author of the landmark work Notes on
Deciphering Codes, Cryptograms, and Ancient Inscriptions. His aid in decipher-
ing such inscriptions as the Phitmar Stone and the Geph Columns Characters
proved invaluable. This famous expert on cryptography was murdered in his
rooms near the museum, a crime that remains unsolved. Walmsley is best
remembered for his work at translating the G'harne Fragments, an effort
which was at first considered ludicrous but which has aided later scholars
immeasurably.
See Book of Dzyan; Brick Cylinders of Kadatheron; Broken Columns
of Geph; Geph Transcriptions; G'harne Fragments; Spheres of Nath. ("The
Fairground Horror", Lumley; "In the Vaults Beneath", Lumley; "Rising with
Surtsey", Lumley; "The Sister City", Lumley (OJ; The Transition of Titus Crow,
Lumley.)
WALTERS, HARVEY. Reporter for Enigma magazine during the 1920s. Walters
obtained a master's in journalism from Miskatonic University, after which
he moved to New York City. Walters was involved in the investigation of the
mysteries of Castle Kriegs and possessed a gem that summoned a Hound of
Tindalos when examined.
("Juggernaut", Henderson; Call of Cthulhu Rulebook, Petersen and Willis
(O).)
WAMPS. Creatures living in the graveyards and necropoli of the Dreamlands'
surface world. A wamp has an egg-shaped body and nine pale legs that appear
to be splashed with scarlet. A wamp's head features two large ears, a short
wrinkled snout, and blank spaces where eyes should be.
Wamps spontaneously generate from the same rotting corpses on which
they feed. Their practices are hideous in the extreme, so much so that ghouls
do not feed from the graveyards of the upper Dreamlands, for fear of encoun-
tering these monstrosities.
[The Call of Cthulhu game wedded Smith's creation with the wamps men-
tioned, but never seen, in Lovecraft's "Dream-Quest".]
("The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath", Lovecraft; H. P. Lovecraft's
Dreamlands, Petersen et. al„ S. Petersen's Field Guide to Creatures of the Dream-
lands, Petersen et. al., "The Abominations of Yondo", Smith (O).)
WARD, CHARLES DEXTER (1902-1928?). Young antiquarian of Providence,
Rhode Island. Ward received his high school education from the Moses Brown
School, but was at the same time a self-trained historian of prodigious ability
who spent most of his time researching his ancestor Joseph Curwen. To further
his ends, he skipped college, instead spending a great amount of time travel-
ing among the libraries of Europe. After his return to the United States, Ward
3 0 6
THE CTHULHU MYTHOS ENCYCLOPEDIA
W A L M S L E Y , G O R D O N T O W E PASS FROM V I E
b e c a m e more and more eccentric, eventually being committed in early 1928.
On April 13 of that year, Ward vanished from his room at the institution and
was never heard from again.
("The Case of Charles Dexter Ward", Lovecraft (O).)
WARDER OF KNOWLEDGE. Being mentioned on the nineteenth Eltdown
Shard. The translation is somewhat garbled at this point, but seems to contain
a ritual for summoning this entity. It seems that the proper procedure for
returning the Warder to its home spheres is missing from the Shards, so cau-
tion is advised.
See Eltdown Shards. ("The Warder of Knowledge", Searight (O).)
WARREN, HARLEY. South Carolina occultist and friend of Randolph Carter.
He first came to distinction in the years 1916-18, when he was a member of
a Boston society dedicated to the investigation of psychic matters. Following
the first World War, Warren took up occult studies of a more personal nature,
accompanied by the Boston mystic Randolph Carter. In December of 1919,
Warren vanished while on an expedition in the Big Cypress Swamp of Florida.
The police held Carter, who had accompanied him at the time, but they allowed
him to go free when no definite evidence linking him to Warren's disappear-
ance could be found.
See Carter, Randolph; Hiamaldi. ("The Statement of Randolph Carter",
Lovecraft (O); "Through the Gates of the Silver Key", Lovecraft and Price; The
Transition of Titus Crow, Lumley.)
WATCHERS ON THE OTHER SIDE. First novel by Nayland Colum. Colum's
book met with some success in the popular market during the Forties, and the
author was writing a sequel when he vanished.
What exactly this novel contained is unknown, but Colum may have had
some sort of link through his dreams to the Great Old Ones, adding unusual
concepts to his work.
("The Keeper of the Key", Derleth (O).)
WE PASS FROM VIEW. Volume published by True Light Press in 1964. Its
author and publisher, Roland Franklyn, was the leader of a small cult based in
Brichester, England. Rumor has it that most copies of the book disappeared
from Franklyn's house before they could be distributed. In the years follow-
ing the author's death in 1967, many of the remaining copies have also gone
missing.
In his book, Franklyn set forth the dogma of his sect. One of his strange
doctrines was that a reincarnated soul could exist in more than one body at a
time. To get in touch with these other incarnations, the author instructs the
initiate to use hallucinogenic drugs and chants to such beings as Daoloth and
THE CTHULHU MYTHOS ENCYCLOPEDIA
W E B B , W I L L I A M C H A N N I N G T O W H A T E L E Y , ( W I Z A R D ) E L E Z E R
Eihort. Furthermore, for the soul to be reincarnated after death, a persons
body must be cremated, lest the burrowers of the graveyards drag the corpse
below to the feast of Eihort.
See Brichester; Eihort; Franklyn, Roland. ("The Franklyn Paragraphs"
Campbell (O).)
WEBB, WILLIAM CHANNING. Professor of Anthropology at Princeton who
contributed to the study of the Cthulhu cult.
Webb made a tour of Greenland in search of runic inscriptions in 1860.
There he found a cult dedicated to a squid-god to which they chanted and made
human sacrifices. In 1908, when Legrasse visited the American Archaeologi-
cal Society meetings in Saint Louis, Webb was able to confirm the similarity
between the cults Legrasse investigated in New Orleans and those he observed
in Greenland.
Webb later joined Legrasse on his later delvings into the Cthulhu cult, and
he met his end while accompanying his friend to Nepal in 1925.
("Nothing To Fear but Dust", Henderson; "Patiently Waiting", Henderson;
"The Call of Cthulhu", Lovecraft (O).)
WENDIGO. 1) Title of the Great Old One Ithaqua. In one reference, the Wen-
digo is referred to as Ithaqua's cousin. ("The Windigo", Blackwood (O); "The
Thing that Walked on the Wind", Derleth; "The Seal of R'lyeh", Derleth.)
2) Hypothetical species of which Ithaqua is a member. It is believed that by
mating with humans, a wendigo can beget others of its own kind. Two wendigos
were once sighted together, but the creatures engaged in a tremendous battle
that ended only when one of the combatants perished. The existence of other
such beings may explain the reference in which the Wendigo who controls the
shantaks is called the "cousin" of Ithaqua. See Ithaqua. ("Born of the Winds",
Lumley (O); S. Petersen's Field Guide to Cthulhu Monsters, Petersen et. al.)
3) Transformed servitor race created by Ithaqua out of those he captures.
These appear much like Ithaqua himself, but are of lesser size and power. ("The
Windigo", Blackwood (O); Alone against the Wendigo, Rahman.)
[The Wendigo comes from the tales of the Cree and Ojibwa of the Great
Lakes region, who call the spirit the witiko or windigo. These monsters are
human-like spirits who are taller than the mightiest trees and live at the North
Pole, coming south to catch and devour humans. According to legend, when
two Wendigos meet, they join in a titanic battle that ends in the destruction of
one or both of the monsters. The myths also say that the Wendigo sometimes
touches the mind of a human. Such people usually become obsessed with
cannibalism, becoming so dangerous to their family and neighbors that they
are often slain by their tribe. There has been considerable debate as to whether
"windigo psychosis" ever existed, as no European has witnessed a case dem-
onstrating these symptoms.
3 0 8
T H E CTHULHU MYTHOS ENCYCLOPEDIA
W E B B , W I L L I A M T H A N N I N G T O W H A T E L E Y , ( W I Z A R D ) E L E Z E
When Derleth felt that the Mythos needed Great Old Ones of all four ele-
ments, he included the Wendigo Ithaqua as one of them. Since then, it has been
popular to circumscribe Ithaqua's range to the far north—though the mythical
Wendigo's range was further to the south.]
WENDY-SMITH, SIR AMERY (?-1937). Archaeologist who was well known
in his field as the author of On Ancient Civilizations and the inventor of the
Wendy-Smith test for the dating of artifacts. His title is a matter of some
controversy; some say he was knighted in 1901, while others hold that he was
actually a baronet. Wendy-Smith's earlier accomplishments, however, have been
greatly overshadowed by his eccentric behavior later in life.
Near the end of his career, Wendy-Smith worked to translate the G'harne
Fragments, a set of writings taken from the jungles of Africa by the explorer
Windrop. His research in this direction culminated with a journey to the lost
city of G'harne, during which the other members of the expedition were killed
in an earthquake and only Wendy-Smith escaped to civilization. It is believed
that this tragedy affected Sir Amery's mind, this condition forcing him to retire
after his return. Wendy-Smith died in 1933 when his cottage on the Yorkshire
moors collapsed. His nephew, Paul, wrote an account of the scientist's last days
that was discovered after his own house in Marske, Yorkshire was destroyed.
See G'harne; G'harne Fragments. (Keeper's Compendium, Herber; Beneath
the Moors, Lumley; The Burrowers Beneath, Lumley; "Cement Surroundings",
Lumley (O); "In the Vaults Beneath, Lumley.)
WEST, HERBERT (c. 1880-1921). Brilliant doctor and humanitarian. West
attended Miskatonic University Medical School and rendered Arkham great
service during the typhoid epidemic of 1905. West went on to establish a clinic
for the poor factory-workers of Bolton, Massachusetts, and even volunteered
for medical service with the Canadians in World War I. His disappearance from
his home in Boston is still unsolved.
Rumors of Doctor West's experiments with the revivification of the dead
have been matters of popular rumor, but the author wishes to assure his readers
that these are only scurrilous efforts to impeach a dead man's character.
See Meadow Hill. ("Herbert West—Reanimator", Lovecraft (O).)
WHATELEY, LAVINIA (c. 1878-1926). Albino daughter of Wizard Whateley,
and mother of Wilbur. Lavinia gave birth to Wilbur in 1913, but began to grow
