Nyarlathotep

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Pray to all space you do not meet him in his thousand other forms.

"A tall, slim figure with the young face of an antique Pharaoh, gay with prismatic robes and crowned with a golden pshent that glowed with inherent light . . . that regal figure; whose proud carriage and swart features had in them the fascination of a dark god or fallen archangel, and around whose eyes there lurked the languid sparkle of capricious humour."

– H.P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos, is arguably the best known of the Outer Gods created by H.P. Lovecraft for his Cthulhu Mythos. Unusually for an Outer God, Nyarlathotep is actively aware of humanity and even takes something of a direct interest in us. Unfortunately, he's a manipulative dick. Basically, think of him as Lovecraft's take on Satan and you've pretty much got him in a nutshell. His most unique defining trait is that he has countless Avatars, each with its own unique name, title and horrific appearance. The three most common of these are:

• A tall, dark-skinned, handsome Egyptian pharaoh - How he usually appears in Lovecraft's stories
• A winged creature with a three-lobed eye - From "The Haunter of the Dark", by Lovecraft
• A three-legged humanoid with a single giant tentacle where its head should be - Popularized by the Call of Cthulhu RPG

Much like how Shub-Niggurath appears as the final boss of Quake, the spiritual successor Dusk has Nyarlathotep as the final boss.

Pathfinder

Nyarlathotep
Upside-down Ankh (pharaoh) Featureless Face (sphinx) winged circle (haunter)
Aliases	Crawling Chaos, Faceless Sphinx, Haunter of the Dark, Black Pharaoh
Alignment	Chaotic Evil
Divine Rank	Outer God
Pantheon	Dark Tapestry
Portfolio	Conspiracies, Dangerous Secrets, Forbidden Magic
Domains	Chaos, Evil, Knowledge, Magic, Trickery, Air, Darkness Subdomains: Arcane, Divine, Memory, Thought, Deception, Thievery, Cloud, Wind, Loss, Night
Home Plane	Kadath, Leng, Dreamlands
Favoured Weapon	Quarterstaff (pharaoh) Punching dagger (sphinx) Dagger (haunter)

The three avatars used by Pathfinder's Nyarlathotep are the Black Pharaoh, the Haunter of the Dark, and the Faceless Sphinx, the last of which is identical to the form of the demon lord Areshkagal. While most sages agree there is some connection between the two deities, none have definite explanations.

Gallery

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  Call of Cthulhu

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  Pathfinder

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  Dust 1947

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  Outer Entity Nyarla from Yu-Gi-Oh

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  Dusk (Video Game)

See also

• Tzeentch, his Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 equivalent