Magnum Innominandum

The Magnum Innominandum (also known as the Nameless Mist, Nyog'Sothep or N'yog-Sothep) is a fictional deity from the Cthulhu Mythos. It was first mentioned by H. P. Lovecraft in the Selected Letters.

Overview[]

The Nameless Mist is an Outer God, who is the progenitor of several other cosmic entities, including the Yog-Sothoth. It is older than everything, except for its creator Azathoth and its siblings, the Unnamed Darkness and Nyarlathotep .

Its powers include possible omnipresence, reality warping, acausality, space-time manipulation, immortality and incorporeality.

Behind the Mythos[]

The Magnum Innominandum idea came to Lovecraft during a Roman dream he recalled in three letters, one of those being incorporated into The Horror from the Hills and another posthumously published as "The Very Old Folk". It was also mentioned in The Whisperer in Darkness, alongside many Mythos concepts such as Hastur, the Yellow Sign and Yog-Sothoth. The incantation "Tibi, Magnum Innominandum, signa stellarum nigrarum et bufaniformis Sadoquae sigilum" from De Vermis Mysteriis was penned by Lovecraft for Robert Bloch's "The Shambler from the Stars".

Lovecraft also mentioned the "Not-to-be-Named One" in "The Mound" as husband of Shub-Niggurath (this has led to the theory that the Magnum Innominandum and the Nameless Mist are two separate entities, and the Magnum Innominandum is Yog-Sothoth). He also introduced "Him Who is Not to Be Named" along with other names such as Shub-Niggurath or Nyarlathothep (though Yog-Sothoth is not named in the invocation).

Lovecraft mentioned the Nameless Mist in a Family Tree of Azathoth. The Nameless Mist was given the name "Nyog'Sothep" and "N'yog-Sothep" by later authors.

The Magnum Innominandum and The Nameless Mist were also unified as the same entity by later writers, including Lin Carter and the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game.