- 63
- 19
I say "new" but it is just incredibly obscure and comes from a letter to Clark Ashton Smith on the 17th October, 1930, and can be found in the book "Dawnward Spire, Lonely Hill" by Hippocampus press. The context is of a sculpture CAS sent HPL and becomes a frequented in-joke amongst them as "the Nameless Eikon". I will post below the relevant information. Bold text is my own emphasis
Temple of Azathoth, That
Which gibbers mindlessly in
Darkness at the Centre of
Ultimate Chaos. Hour of
the Thin Piping of the Daemon
Flutes, in the Year of N'gah.
[17 October 1930/CAS]
Dear Klarkash-Ton:--
You have by now, I trust, received evidence of the safe arrival of the unnameable eidolon at the Temple of Azathoth, & of the ecstatic gratitude felt by all the priests therein. That it is a relique of aeons older than Cthulhu none would for a moment deny; & the general disposition is to account it none other than Tsathoggua. One very aged pontiff, upon whose forehead is branded a sign which no living man can interpret, & whose statements about his own length of years are wholly incredible, goes so far as to link the image with primal Azathoth, the mindless Lord of Nighted Chaos who is the father of all other horrors & is coeval with the Ultimate Abyss itself; but so audacious a guess is looked upon with fear by most of the priests, to whom even a faint thought of Azathoth is menacing & disquieting........
and from another letter on the 7th of November
Dear Klarkash-Ton:-
Still it broods.....cryptically, expectantly.......& each morning with that disquieting suggestion of furtive & unperceived nocturnal activity, The fear grows on me that it may be Azathoth Itself - if so, I pray to Māna-Yood-Sushāī that the craftsman on Yaddith, who made it ere ever it was brought to earth & the ancient realm where Lemuria was some day to be born, had the mercy to depart just enough from hideous truth to prevent all of the god from entering & acting through it. Time will tell. If it is the monstrous Lord of Chaos, I shall sooner or later hear from It's terrible & malign messenger Nyarlathotep.........
and a little tidbit from the 18 of November
...... Into my debate as to whether lt be Tsathoggua or the Ultimate Chaos Azathoth, has crept a monstrous third possibility. Can it be that frightful & inscrutable YOG. SOTHOTH, to pronounce whose name aloud is instant damnation? God ! Jet me think no more of that ! ....... And may Pegaiia shield me from ever learning what is said in those rumbling, chanting tones I hear -or dream I hear-as I climb up out of the wells of night.
From this information we can take away the following:
-Ultimate Chaos (also the name given to his realm, implying he is more or less his realm personified),
- Lord of Nighted Chaos
Temple of Azathoth, That
Which gibbers mindlessly in
Darkness at the Centre of
Ultimate Chaos. Hour of
the Thin Piping of the Daemon
Flutes, in the Year of N'gah.
[17 October 1930/CAS]
Dear Klarkash-Ton:--
You have by now, I trust, received evidence of the safe arrival of the unnameable eidolon at the Temple of Azathoth, & of the ecstatic gratitude felt by all the priests therein. That it is a relique of aeons older than Cthulhu none would for a moment deny; & the general disposition is to account it none other than Tsathoggua. One very aged pontiff, upon whose forehead is branded a sign which no living man can interpret, & whose statements about his own length of years are wholly incredible, goes so far as to link the image with primal Azathoth, the mindless Lord of Nighted Chaos who is the father of all other horrors & is coeval with the Ultimate Abyss itself; but so audacious a guess is looked upon with fear by most of the priests, to whom even a faint thought of Azathoth is menacing & disquieting........
and from another letter on the 7th of November
Dear Klarkash-Ton:-
Still it broods.....cryptically, expectantly.......& each morning with that disquieting suggestion of furtive & unperceived nocturnal activity, The fear grows on me that it may be Azathoth Itself - if so, I pray to Māna-Yood-Sushāī that the craftsman on Yaddith, who made it ere ever it was brought to earth & the ancient realm where Lemuria was some day to be born, had the mercy to depart just enough from hideous truth to prevent all of the god from entering & acting through it. Time will tell. If it is the monstrous Lord of Chaos, I shall sooner or later hear from It's terrible & malign messenger Nyarlathotep.........
and a little tidbit from the 18 of November
...... Into my debate as to whether lt be Tsathoggua or the Ultimate Chaos Azathoth, has crept a monstrous third possibility. Can it be that frightful & inscrutable YOG. SOTHOTH, to pronounce whose name aloud is instant damnation? God ! Jet me think no more of that ! ....... And may Pegaiia shield me from ever learning what is said in those rumbling, chanting tones I hear -or dream I hear-as I climb up out of the wells of night.
From this information we can take away the following:
- Nyarlathotep is outright confirmed to also be the messenger of Azathoth itself (never explicitly stated but very obvious, given he is messenger to the Other/Ultimate Gods as well. Also Azathoth seems to be considered to have enough consciousness on it's own to act by itself through this eidolon, so his "mindless" aspect probably means lack of sense/reason rather than not being conscious at all)
- Azathoth is "coeval" with the Ultimate Abyss (also know as Ultimate Chaos). "Coeval" meaning existing at the same time (even though this place is outside time.....?)
- Azathoth confirmed to be the father of all other horrors, which adds more weight to the infamous "genealogy" letter which put Azathoth at the top (sorry Yog-Sothoth)
- More epithets for Azathoth himself:
-Ultimate Chaos (also the name given to his realm, implying he is more or less his realm personified),
- Lord of Nighted Chaos
