“ | For Ubbo-Sathla is the source and the end. Before the coming of Zhothaqquah or Yok-Zothoth or Kthulhut from the stars, Ubbo-Sathla dwelt in the steaming fens of the newmade Earth: a mass without head or members, spawning the grey, formless efts of the prime and the grisly prototypes of terrene life... And all earthly life, it is told, shall go back at last through the great circle of time to Ubbo-Sathla. | „ | |
~ The Book of Eibon (CIRCLE: "Ubbo-Sathla") |
Ubbo-Sathla, also known as the Unbegotten Source and the Demiurge, is a fictional amorphous monster created by Clark Ashton Smith for his Cthulhu Mythos short story "Ubbo-Sathla", in which it is identified as a primordial entity dwelling in the interior of the Earth, the source of all life on our planet, and guardian of the tablets that preserve the knowledge of primal gods. In the role-playing game Call of Cthulhu, it is one of the ancient beings known collectively as the Outer Gods.
August Derleth identifies Ubbo-Sathla as the "source" and "the unforgotten beginning" of the Great Old Ones, who rebelled against the Elder Gods of Betelgeuse. (AWD: "The House on Curwen Street")
In the works of Lin Carter, Ubbo-Sathla is Azathoth's twin sibling, and the parent of Zushakon, Abhoth, Nyogtha, Yig, Atlach-Nacha, Byatis, and Han, among others. (EXP: "The Horror in the Gallery")
Overview[]
It is described as a huge protoplasmic mass resting in a grotto deep beneath the frozen earth. The being is of a monstrous fecundity, spontaneously generating primordial single-celled organisms that pour unceasingly from its shapeless form. It guards a set of stone tablets believed to contain the knowledge of the Elder Gods.
Ubbo-Sathla is said to have spawned the prototypes of all forms of life on Earth; though whatever its pseudopods touch is forever devoid of life. Ubbo-Sathla is destined to someday reabsorb all living things on Earth. Ubbo-Sathla possibly dwells in Y'qaa.
The being may also dwell in Mount Voormithadreth and may have spawned another of its residents, the being Abhoth, whose form and nature is very similar. This similarity has led some writers to speculate that Ubbo-Sathla and Abhoth are the same entity viewed at different epochs under different names. The tablets that Ubbo-Sathla guards have been oft sought by sorcerers, though no sorcerer has yet succeeded in acquiring them.