Deep One (Cthulhu mythos) (Redirected from Y'ha-nthlei)
The Deep Ones are fictional beings in the Cthulhu mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. The creatures first appeared in Lovecraft's short story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". They are a race of frog-like, ocean-dwelling creatures with an affinity for mating with humans.
Numerous mythos elements are associated with the Deep Ones, including the legendary town of Innsmouth, the undersea city of Y'ha-nthlei, the Esoteric Order of Dagon, and the beings known as Father Dagon and Mother Hydra. Following their introduction by Lovecraft, the sea-dwelling creatures would resurface (so to speak) in the works of other authors, including Brian Lumley's novella The Return of the Deep Ones.
Deep Ones in the mythos
I think their predominant colour was a greyish-green, though they had white bellies. They were mostly shiny and slippery, but the ridges of their backs were scaly. Their forms vaguely suggested the anthropoid, while their heads were the heads of fish, with prodigious bulging eyes that never closed. At the sides of their necks were palpitating gills, and their long paws were webbed. They hopped irregularly, sometimes on two legs and sometimes on four. I was somehow glad that they had no more than four limbs. Their croaking, baying voices, clearly used for articulate speech, held all the dark shades of expression which their staring faces lacked.
—H.P. Lovecraft, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth"
The Deep Ones are a race of undersea-dwelling humanoids, whose preferred habitat is deep in the ocean (hence their name). However, despite being primarily marine creatures, they can come to the surface and can survive on land for some time. All Deep Ones are immortal; none die except by accident or violence. They serve the beings known as Father Dagon and Mother Hydra, as well as Cthulhu. They are in some ways opposed by the Old Ones, whose power and magic can keep them in check.
Deep One hybrid
On occasion, Deep Ones will make deals with humans. In exchange for human sacrifices, Deep Ones will bestow various gifts such as gold jewelry or, if the humans are sea folk, the guarantee of plentiful fishing. But eventually they will demand "mixing"—the mating, perhaps forced—of themselves and humans. The offspring of the pairing is immortal. Unfortunately, it is a faustian bargain, because although the Deep One hybrid is born with the appearance of a normal human being, the individual will eventually transform into a Deep One, gaining immortality—by default—only when the transformation is complete.
The transformation of a hybrid into a Deep One usually does not occur until the individual reaches middle age, though some hybrids have been known to develop sooner. In any event, the transformation always follows the same pattern. As the hybrid gets older, it begins to take on more and more attributes of the Deep One race: The ears shrink, the eyes bulge and become unblinking, the head narrows and gradually goes bald, the skin becomes scabrous as it changes into scales, and the neck develops folds which later become gills. When the hybrid becomes too obviously non-human, it is hidden away from outsiders. Eventually, however, the hybrid will be compelled to slip into the sea and will then go live with the Deep Ones in one of their undersea cities.
In the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game, the Deep Ones' unusual mating habits are attributed to the fact that as the population in a given undersea city increases, fertility decreases, because female Deep Ones begin eating their young.
Father Dagon and Mother Hydra
Father Dagon and Mother Hydra are both minor Great Old Ones; though it is possible that they are merely Deep Ones that have grown abnormally large. Together with Cthulhu, they form the triad of gods worshipped by the Deep Ones. (See Dagon, a Semitic fertility deity.)
Mother Hydra is the consort to Father Dagon. The Call of Cthulhu role-playing game suggests that Mother Hydra may not be a Great Old One at all but is in fact just a gigantic Deep One. It is also possible that she holds a titular position for the city that happens to have the largest and nastiest Deep One in its civilization.
Innsmouth
The (fictional) town of Innsmouth is a coastal village located in Essex County, Massachusetts, between Newburyport and Arkham. Founded in 1643, Innsmouth was once a great trading center and port of call for ships from across the world. The War of 1812 brought an end to the town's prosperity when many of its sailors turned to privateering and were subsequently killed in raids against the British fleet. As a result, sea trade fell off considerably and most of the town's income came primarily from mills built along the Manuxet River. The town also relied on dwindling revenues from Captain Obed Marsh's increasingly profitless ventures in the Indies.
In 1840, Obed Marsh started a cult in Innsmouth known as the Esoteric Order of Dagon, basing it on a religion practiced by certain Polynesian islanders he had met during his travels. Shortly thereafter, the town's fishing industry experienced a great upsurge. Records indicate that in 1846 a mysterious plague struck the town, causing mass depopulation. In reality the deaths were caused by the Deep Ones themselves following the cessation of sacrifical rites in exchange for gold and fish in accordance with their compact with Obed Marsh's after he and his followers were arrested. The cult activity susequently resumed and the interbreeding policy greatly increased, resulting in numerous deformities. Consequently, Innsmouth was shunned for many years, until 1927 when it came under investigation by Federal authorities for alleged bootlegging.
Y'ha-nthlei
"Cyclopean and many-columned Y'ha-nthlei"¹ is by far the most prominent Deep One city. It is a great undersea metropolis located below Devil's Reef just off the coast of Massachusetts, near the town of Innsmouth. Its exact age is not known, but it is probably thousands of centuries old².
In 1928, the U.S. government torpedoed Devil's Reef as part of a raid on the town of Innsmouth (the press attributed the raids to Prohibition-era "war on liquor", but certain hints suggested that a darker purpose was at work). Years later, Devil's Reef was bombed yet again by Delta Green (in 1953) and the Wilmarth Foundation (in 1974). Despite these repeated attacks, it is likely that the Deep Ones' great metropolis is still thriving.
Deep One cities doubtless exist in all the oceans of the world. At least two other undersea metropoli are known of: Ahu-Y'hloa near Cornwall and G'll-Hoo in the Northern Sea near Surtsey.
¹ "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", Lovecraft.
² "For eighty thousand years Pht'thya-l'yi had lived in Y'ha-nthlei" (ibid). By inference, Y'ha-nthlei is probably much older.
Esoteric Order of Dagon
The Esoteric Order of Dagon was the primary religion in Innsmouth after Captain Obed Marsh returned from the South Seas with the dark religion circa 1838. It quickly took root due to its promises of expensive gold artifacts and fish, which were desired by the primarily-fishing town.
The central beings worshipped by the Order were the Deep Ones, Father Dagon, Mother Hydra, and, to a lesser extent, Cthulhu. The Deep Ones were seen largely as intermediaries between the various gods, rather than as gods themselves. Even so, the cultists sacrificed various locals to the Deep Ones at specific times in exchange for a limitless supply of gold and fish.
The Esoteric Order of Dagon (which masqueraded as the local Masonic movement) had three oaths which members had to take. The first was an oath of secrecy, the second, an oath of loyalty, and the third, an oath to marry a Deep One and bear or sire its child.
The Esoteric Order of Dagon was seemingly destroyed when one of Obed Marsh's lost descendants sent the U.S. Treasury Department to seize the town. As a result, the town was more or less destroyed, and the Order was thought disbanded.
Esoteric Order of Dagon in Media
Movie
The movie Dagon features the Deep Ones and the Esoteric Order of Dagon appears as the primary antagonists. It is inspired in "The Shadow Over Innsmouth".
However, the movie moves the action to a small coastal town in Galicia, in the northeast of Spain. The town is named Imboca ("boca" is both the Galician and the Spanish word for "mouth"), thou the main characters are American tourists. One of them wears a sweatshirt from Miskatonic University.
References
- Harms, Daniel. "Dagon" in The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (2nd ed.), pp. 73. Chaosium, Inc., 1998. ISBN 1-56882-119-0.
- —"Deep Ones", pp. 81–82. Ibid.
- —"Esoteric Order of Dagon", pp. 103–4. Ibid.
- —"Innsmouth", pp. 149–50. Ibid.
- —"Hydra (Mother Hydra)", pp. 143. Ibid.
- —"Y'ha-nthlei", pp. 340. Ibid.
- Lovecraft, Howard P. "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" (1931) in The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre, (1st ed.), Ballantine Books, 1982. ISBN 0-345-35080-4.
- Lumley, Brian. The Return of the Deep Ones (1984) in The Whisperer and Other Voices, St. Martins Press, 2003. ISBN 0-312-87802-8.
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