Thanks to the massive lobe of their brain devoted to the biological arts and sciences, elder things are highly skilled at biological engineering and have synthesized many life-forms.. Th
Trang 1their everyday lives, as their natural flexibility and
ability to fly, swim, travel through space, and crawl
rapidly mean they don’t need mechanical transportation
or medical appliances
Thanks to the massive lobe of their brain devoted to the biological arts and sciences, elder things are highly
skilled at biological engineering and have synthesized
many life-forms The dread shoggoths themselves
originated with elder thing science
Society
Because the elder things reproduce through spores, and
then only occasionally and circumstantially, they have
no biological basis for families or romance They live
together with other like-minded elder things as “groups”
in large dwellings All items are kept in the center
of their huge rooms, with all the wall spaces free for
decorations Though they can freely move and perceive
in complete darkness, they prefer electro-chemical
lighting They have some basic furniture, particularly
favoring book racks and display cases, though they rest
and sleep upright with folded tentacles
Their writing system is a series of raised or depressed dots, though they can also reproduce it with simple
black and white patterns
Elder thing communities engage in commerce with other such communities or other organisms of similar advancement (the fungi from Yuggoth, Yithians, or starspawn for instance) Mere humanoids typically have little to offer them They use small flat stone counters, five-pointed and inscribed, for money Elder things must eat, so they maintain farms, as well as land and undersea ranches, and conduct other agricultural activities They are known to keep dinosaurs, whales, and other prehistoric creatures Typically, elder things live in their cities, while agricultural experts among them fly out to their lands to tend crops and domestic animals The incredible speed of this flight means they don’t have to stay on their farms all the time Long ago, they used shoggoths to protect their farms and work as beasts of burden, and in more recent times they have taken to taming other monsters for this purpose Use of the shoggoths is a dangerous proposition for the elder things Periodically, the enslaved shoggoths rise up, and usually when this happens, they wipe out much of local elder thing society While the elder things are able to re-tame and control shoggoths with their magical, technological, and scientific prowess, they are always aware of the danger these creatures represent
“Six feet end to end, three and five-tenths feet central diameter, tapering to one foot at each end Like a barrel with five bulging ridges in place of staves Lateral breakages,
as of thinnish stalks, are at equator in middle of these ridges In furrows between ridges are curious growths – combs or wings that fold up and spread out like fans
which gives almost seven-foot wing spread Arrangement reminds one of certain monsters of primal myth, especially fabled Elder Things in [the] Necronomicon.”
—H.P Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness