Y'golonac - All About All

Y'golonac

Y'golonac (the Defiler) is a fictional deity in the Cthulhu mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. He is the creation of Ramsey Campbell and first appeared in his short story "Cold Print".

Y'golonac in the mythos

Beyond a gulf in the subterranean night a passage leads to a wall of massive bricks, and beyond the wall rises Y'golonac to be served by the tattered eyeless figures of the dark. Long has he slept beyond the wall, and those which crawl over the bricks scuttle across his body never knowing it to be Y'golonac; but when his name is spoken or read he comes forth to be worshipped or to feed and take on the shape and soul of those he feeds upon. For those who read of evil and search for its form within their minds call forth evil, and so may Y'golonac return to walk among men . . .
—Revelations of Glaaki, Volume 12^{[1] (http://www.allaboutall.info/article/Y%27golonac#endnote_Campbell-204)}

Y'golonac is a Great Old One and is the god of perversion and depravity – not just "average" human perversions or depravities, but any that can be conceived of by a sentient being (sane or otherwise). His demeanor is much like that of Nyarlathotep, but he is much more perverse and sadistic. Y'golonac can sometimes be summoned merely by reading his name (not necessarily aloud; just reading it is sufficient) in the Revelations of Glaaki.

Y'golonac is imprisoned behind a wall of bricks in unknown ruins, possibly in the less travelled regions of the Dreamlands. His true form is uncertain, but when he posesses a human host to manifest, he appears as a grotesquely obese man, lacking a head or neck, with a mouth in the palm of each hand.

When Y'Golonac is summoned, he offers to grant the summoner the dubious honor of becoming one of his human hosts, or being killed instantly. It is possible that the headless humanoid form is just a mere avatar, and his true unthinkable form exists hideously behind the wall of bricks.

References

• Campbell, Ramsey. "Cold Print" (1969) in Cold Print (1st ed.), New York, NY: Tom Doherty Associates, Inc., 1987. ISBN 0-812-51660-5.

• Harms, Daniel. "Y'golonac" in The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (2nd ed.), pp. 339–40. Chaosium, Inc., 1998. ISBN 1-56882-119-0.

Notes

1. ^  Campbell, "Cold Print", pp 204.