| “ | Ph’nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh, wgah’nagl fhtagn. (In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.) | „ | |
| ~ Chant of the Cthulhu Cult , "The Call of Cthulhu" |
The Cthulhu Cult, alternately referred to as the Cult of Cthulhu, are the mortal worshippers of the Great Old One Cthulhu.
Origin & Beliefs[]
The cult believes that their worship will one day result in the return of Cthulhu, and that when he awakens they will be able to throw all notions of morality and compassion aside, transforming the world into a landscape of violence and bloodshed. They claim to possess carven idols given to them by the Great Old Ones in times long forgotten, and their high priests use these to keep the memories of their masters alive.
Organisation[]
According to a Louisiana cult elder named Castro, he had "talked with undying leaders of the cult in the mountains of China." He believed that "the centre" of the cult, however, "lay amid the pathless deserts of Arabia, where Irem, the City of Pillars, dreams hidden and untouched." Small "cells" of the cult exist in remote parts of the world; many of their members are seamen who travel from port to port, and thus can be found in nearly any location.
Several cells have been identified by both the authorities and individual investigators, and for the most part their members appear to be humans, although often they are deformed from extended interbreeding, and possibly their spiritual closeness to their god.
Greenland[]
Discovered by Professor Webb of the American Archaeological Society in 1860 on the west coast of Greenland, this group were described as a group of "diabolist Eskimos". They were feared and reviled by the other tribes of the area.
Louisiana[]
Hidden away in the backwoods of Louisiana, these deformed humans came to the attention of Inspector Legrasse of the New Orleans police after reports surfaced of the disappearance of several locals. The cult was smashed by law enforcement officers who killed five and captured 47 (two of whom were later hanged) of the estimated 100 worshippers, who were believed guilty of mutilating and sacrificing the abductees in orgiastic rituals to their dark god, represented by a white polypous thing that dwells yet deeper in the swamps.
The South Pacific[]
A small group of cultists described as "a curious group of half-castes" with an "evil reputation" operated the Alert, a heavily-armed steam yacht, out of Dunedin, New Zealand. They were all killed when they attacked the crew of the Emma after they refused to comply with the Alert's demands.
In the Expanded Mythos[]
- "The Hidden": Scott T. Goudsward's short story depicts a cult who call themselves The Hidden enacting a ritual to awaken Cthulhu.
- Cults of Cthulhu: A sourcebook for the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game focused on the Cthulhu Cult in various eras and settings. The book also expands on the undying leaders of the cult, using the collective label, "the Deathless Masters."
- Ghouls of the Miskatonic: Graham McNeill’s novel tells of a Cthulhu Cult whose members kidnap young women to feed to their ghoul servants.