Thrall of Cthulhu

Thralls of Cthulhu are from Brian Lumley's "The Fairground Horror".

Description

He was quick then to be on his feet and away from the thing that now lay twitching out its life upon the sawdust floor—the thing that had been his brother — which now, where the top of [his] head had been, wore a cap of writhing white worms of finger thickness, like some monstrous sea-anemone sucking vampirishly at the still-living brain!
— Brian Lumley, "The Fairground Horror"

Thralls of Cthulhu were once mortal human worshipers who have been corrupted through years of psychic and ritual contact with Cthulhu and its kind. The result in its advanced stages is bloated, crouching, light-sensitive, greyish, doughy, gelatinous, empty-yellowish-eyed clawed, amphibious, immortal, and to greater or lesser degree mad. The creatures generally retain the ability to speak, but in a soft, gurgling, stomach-churning voice and, being formerly-human cultists, some Thralls are also able to cast spells.

Heresies and Controversies

• Thralls can be compared to Deep Ones, may be identical to them. (YSDC)
• The Cult of Cthulhu may entomb these repulsive, insane, undying Thralls in cells where the Thralls might serve as guards for cult temples and compounds, and some of the more backwards and isolated cults might instead choose to worship the Thralls as effigies of their high-priest andgod, Cthulhu itself. (YSDC)

Associated Mythos Elements

• deity: Cthulhu
• cult: Cult of Cthulhu

References

• fiction: Brian Lumley, "The Fairground Horror"
• sourcebook: Malleus Monstrorum