| “ | There was an almost globular torso, with six long, sinuous limbs terminating in crab-like claws. From the upper end a subsidiary globe bulged forth bubble-like; its triangle of three staring, fishy eyes, its foot-long and evidently flexible proboscis, and a distended lateral system analogous to gills, suggesting that it was a head. Most of the body was covered with what at first appeared to be fur, but which on closer examination proved to be a dense growth of dark, slender tentacles or sucking filaments, each tipped with a mouth suggesting the head of an asp. On the head and below the proboscis the tentacles tended to be longer and thicker, marked with spiral stripes--suggesting the traditional serpent-locks of Medusa. | „ |
| ~ Description of Rhan-Tegoth. |
Rhan-Tegoth, AKA The Terror of the Hominids and He of the Ivory Throne, is a Great Old One appearing in the Cthulhu Mythos, making his debut in The Horror in the Museum by H.P. Lovecraft and Hazel Heald. It is an ancient god said to reside in the Arctic. It is said to be needed to awaken the other Great Old Ones at the end of days.
Overview[]
Rhan-Tegoth came to Earth from space centuries ago during the Pliocene epoch, and resided in what is now Alaska, worshipped by the prehuman Gnophkeh and doing battle with Rlim Shaikorth and Aphoom Zhah for control of Earth. Ultimately, Rhan-Tegoth was defeated by the Elder Gods, and slumbered for 3 million years upon its ivory throne before it was discovered by George Rogers using a description of Rhan-Tegoth's location in the Pnakotic Manuscripts. Rogers found Rhan-Tegoth sitting on the ivory throne and, upon realising that it was still asleep, removed it in a crate with the help of his manservant Orabona and brought it to his museum.
At the museum, Rhan-Tegoth, though technically still dormant, psychically influenced Rogers and drove him insane, forcing him to procure sacrifices for it. Rogers kept Rhan-Tegoth hidden away from visitors while he experimented with attempts to sacrifice various creatures to Rhan-Tegoth, over Orabona's protests. Eventually, Rogers succeeded in sacrificing a dog to the Great Old One, and began forcing others to spend the night in his wax museum in the hope of sacrificing them, although they always ended up running away before he could do so due to hallucinations brought about by close proximity to Rhan-Tegoth. Ultimately, Rogers attempted to sacrifice his acquaintance Stephen Jones to Rhan-Tegoth after the latter doubted his sanity, but was stopped by Orabona, who sacrificed him instead, causing him to become part of the exhibit. The police then stopped Rhan-Tegoth from being shown to the public due to its grotesqueness after close proximity to Rhan-Tegoth during the initial exhibition caused several people to faint, and Orabona moved it back to where Rogers had kept it.
Whether Rhan-Tegoth is still there is unknown, as it was supposedly sighted in Sheffield in the 1980s, and in Massachusetts in the 1990s.
