Brown Jenkin

Brown Jenkin

Region of origin: Arkham, Massachutsetts, United States

A rat with a human-like face, Brown Jenkin was a small creature that haunted Arkham residents in their homes at night and in particular was seen around the “Witch House,” where he served as a familiar to Keziah Mason, both of them in the service of the dark gods Nyarlathotep and Azathoth. He nursed on Mason’s blood and assisted her in her arcane rituals and human sacrifices. Brown Jenkin could speak in human tongue, supposedly fluent in all languages. There’s some thought Lovecraft based Jenkin at least in part on Gef the Mongoose, the story of whom would have been hitting the tabloids around the time Dreams In The Witch House was being written, but there was no hard confirmation of this I could find.

Originally posted on Tumblr on October 14, 2016

Moon Beasts

Moon Beasts

Region of origin: The dark side of the moon, the Dreamlands

Inhabiting the hidden black forests and swamps of the Dreamlands’ moon, the toad-shaped, albino Moon Beasts were cruel, foul creatures that often utilized more human-like intermediaries in their dealings with the Dreamlands’ other inhabitants. Those dealings usually involved slavery, traveling between the moon and their Dreamland settlements in black ships, trading rubies they harvested in exchange for prisoners forced into servitude.

Originally posted on Tumblr on October 13, 2016

Mi-Go

Mi-go

Region of origin: Outside the curved cosmos of space and time

Crustacean-like beings that are in actuality more closely related to terrestrial fungus, the mi-go are cosmic collectors, travelling from planet to planet and taking samples of the indigenous sapient species by way of removing their brains and hooking them into specimen jars capable of mechanical speech and locomotion. Interplanetary travel was achieved by entering a state of suspended animation to survive the frozen depths of space while they glided on sail-like wings. The mi-go had a major settlement on Pluto, also known as Yuggoth, and visited Earth at several epochs in its history, establishing small outposts away from human civilization.The mi-go were made from matter and even atomic frequencies alien to Earth and were unable to be captured properly on film, but still were shown to be able to be warded off by bullets all the same.

Originally posted on Tumblr on October 12, 2016

The Flying Polyps

The Flying Polyps

Region of origin: Outside of the solar system

The nickname for an unnamed race of multi-dimensional beings that arrived on primordial Earth intent on colonizing it as they had with several other planets including Neptune and Pluto; they were driven out of the oceans by the Elder Things and instead dominated the land for several hundred million years until the arrival of the Great Race of Yith decimated their numbers and forced them underground. The polypous creatures lacked any kind of recognizable sensory organs or propulsion, floating on unseen currents and drifting in and out of the material plane, leaving large circular footprints with unseen appendages. Their minds were completely alien to the point that the Yithians’ honed psychic abilities were useless, instead driving them away with electrical weaponry which disrupted their forms. Eventually the remaining polyps rose up against the Yithians in a conflict that overthrew the Great Race’s hold on the planet but at a great cost to their own numbers, with the survivors retreating further into subterranean ruins and dens where they continue to exist to the present.

Originally posted on Tumblr on October 11, 2016

Shantak-birds

Shantak-birds

Region of origin: Inganok

Scaly flying beasts compared in size to elephants, the shantak were avian creatures the native peoples of Inganok could utilize to carry them over the otherwise impassible mountain ranges that separated their country from the neighboring plateau of Leng and beyond. Nodens, ancient god and Lord of the Great Abyss, regularly hunted wild shantak and as a result the shantak have became natural enemies of the nightgaunts, winged humanoid creatures who served as emissaries of Nodens.

Originally posted on Tumblr on October 10, 2016