| “ | The dark form ran toward him with incredible swiftness. When it came near he saw that there was a kind of face on the squat ebon body, low down amid the several-jointed legs. The face peered up with a weird expression of doubt and inquiry; and terror crawled through the veins of the bold huntsman as he met the small, crafty eyes that were circled about with hair | „ | |
| ~ Clark Ashton Smith , "The Seven Geases" |
Atlach-Nacha is a being created by Clark Ashton Smith for his short story "The Seven Geases"; it has since been referenced and elaborated upon by August Derleth, Colin Wilson, Brian Lumley, Lin Carter, Laurence J. Cornford, James Ambuehl, Ran Cartwright, and many others.
Description[]
Atlach-Nacha resembles a giant spider with an anthropomorphic face capable of some human expression. It dwells in a cave system beneath Mount Voormithadreth, in the now extinct Arctic kingdom of Hyperborea. There, it spins a great web, bridging the many caverns of the underworld together. In its original appearance in the short story "The Seven Geases", Atlach-Nacha dwelt between the lairs of Tsathoggua and the antehuman sorcerer Haon-Dor.
According to later Chaosium material, Atlach-Nacha's web is a bridge between the Dreamlands and the waking world. It is believed that when the web is complete, the end of the world will come.
According to the fiction of Lin Carter, it is served by the "Gray Weavers". A burial ritual in the Book of Eibon references this god.
In Other Media[]
- Doom: in the megawad Strange Aeons, the Spinner in Darkness is revealed to be the primary antagonist, tricking the player character into traveling across the Dreamlands to free it from its prison.
- Sundered: Atlach-Nacha is referenced by name in the Thunder Lotus-produced game; when the player corrupts an ability that allows them to run up walls they will then instead turn into a purple anthropomorphic spider and climb the walls instead. This corrupted ability is known as "Atlach-Nacha's Grip"
- World of Horror: Alternately referred to as "Atorasu-Nasa" and "Cthac-Atorasu," this iteration appears as one of the game's possible Old God major antagonists threatening to cross the veil into the player character's reality in the city of Shiokawa, Japan. Its mere presence as the active Old God in a given playthrough disables the player's option to flee from any combat encounter, and should the "Doom progress" bar representing the enemy cult's summoning ritual be filled completely, the player character will be unable to prevent the ritual in time, and Cthac-Atorasu's "insatiable hunger" will be unleashed upon the hapless residents of the seaside city.
Appearances[]
- "Atlachnaphobia" (1998, James Ambuehl)
- "The Scuttler in the Dark" (1999, R. S. Cartwright)
- "Reeling Back" (2017, Tom Lynch)
Gallery[]
- Main article: Atlach-Nacha/Gallery