Lloigor is afictional deity and afictional race in theCthulhu Mythos. The entity first appeared inAugust Derleth andMark Schorer'sshort story "The Lair of the Star Spawn" (1932), and has been used in subsequent fictional works by others though often departing from the original concept. The Lloigor are also referred to as theMany-Angled Ones, apparently beginning withGrant Morrison'sZenith, and some subsequent works use variations on this term in lieu of the name Lloigor.
August Derleth andMark Schorer originally created a being called Lloigor in theirshort story "The Lair of the Star-Spawn" (1932). Lloigor and its brotherZhar, together referred to as the Twin Obscenities, were typical pseudo-Lovecraftian tentacled monstrosities identified as two of theGreat Old Ones. Derleth referred to Lloigor in several other writings, "The Sandwin Compact" (1940) in particular. It was apparently awindelemental that possessed the ability to somehow draw its sacrificial victims to it, perhaps throughteleportation.
Colin Wilson borrowed the name for "The Return of the Lloigor" (1969), but his creatures are very different from Derleth's. The Lloigor[1] take the form of invisiblevortices ofpsychic energy, though they may sometimes make themselves manifest as great reptilian beasts, akin to the legendarydragons. In the distant past, the Lloigor came from theAndromeda Galaxy to the continent ofMu and used human slaves as their labor force. When their power dwindled, the Lloigor retreated below ground and left their former slaves to their own devices. Eventually, these early humans migrated from Mu and populated the earth.
In modern times, the Lloigor are too weakened to pose any real threat to humanity. Nonetheless, they can drawpsychic energy from sleeping humans in nearby towns or villages — the victims so affected awaken feeling drained or ill, yet regain all lost vitality by nightfall — with which they can perform strange,preternatural feats, such as causing mysterious explosions oraltering the flow of time.
InThe Illuminatus! Trilogy (1975), the lloigor are mentioned as the gods of the aboriginal natives of thePeople's Republic of Fernando Po, as well as the original gods ofAtlantis. Here, the term appears to be synonymous withGreat Old One—for example,H. P. Lovecraft's creationYog-Sothoth is called a lloigor.
The term Lloigor is again equated with Great Old Ones inAlan Moore'sLeague of Extraordinary Gentlemen, in the final chapter of "Allan and the Sundered Veil;" here, both terms are used to describeIthaqqa, a single facet of the self-aware idea known as "Yuggoth". InThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier,Nyarlathotep is referred to as an emissary of the Lloigor when he is sent to negotiate a truce withthe Blazing World at the end of the comic. InThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume IV: The Tempest, aDemogorgon appears and is identified as a Lloigor.
A race of creatures known as Lloigor was the subject of the song "Lloigor" by the atmospheric black metal bandDark Fortress. The song references "A thousand young", most likely referring to the thousand young ofShub-Niggurath. However, the verse of each song refers to a single entity. The Lloigor are also referred to as Yuggoth, a single entity. This is the first connection between Shub-Niggurath and Yuggoth made in this way.
Scottish comics writerGrant Morrison used the Lloigor as the primary villains (possessing the bodies and minds of various superhumans on various parallel earths) in hisZenith series for theBritishcomics anthology2000 A.D. The names directly corresponded to the names of Lovecraft's Great Old Ones.[2][3] The name "Iok Sotot" and his epithet "Eater of Souls" came fromThe Illuminatus! Trilogy where it referred to Yog-Sothoth. They are referred to as "many-angled ones" (possibly the first use of this moniker) and appear to be entities who exist in a space with more dimensions than our own. As a result, when they manifest in our universe they appear as disconnected floating body parts — notably eyes and tentacles — belonging to some larger beast that is complete in the higher dimension, similar to how a three dimensional being would appear inflatland as its parts pass through the plane of that two-dimensional world. The many-angled ones plan to impose rigid geometrical order on the whole universe, essentially reducing it to clockwork.[4] A number of British authors, often those who had previously written for2000 AD, have since included the Many-Angled Ones in their works under that name.
The many-angled ones were mentioned inCharles Stross'sThe Atrocity Archives. This work features the usual appearances by "nameless horrors of the abyss," which may or may not be many-angled ones. It is specifically stated – on multiple occasions – that "the many-angled ones live at the bottom of theMandelbrot set".[5]
TheDCcomic bookHitman, byGarth Ennis, briefly featured demons called "The Multi-Angled Ones", similar in concept to the Many-Angled Ones ofZenith. These beings killed most of the dysfunctionalsuperhero teamSection 8.[6]
The many-angled ones also appear inSimon R. Green's Secret History series of booksThe Man with the Golden Torc (2007),Daemons Are Forever (2008), andThe Spy Who Haunted Me (2009).
In theMarvel Comics cosmic crossover event "Realm of Kings," written byDan Abnett andAndy Lanning,Quasar travels through a time/space rift to an alternate earth with multipleLovecraftian elements being part of the everyday reality of that world. There Quasar meets the Revengers, that world's counterparts to the Avengers, who received their powers from the Many-Angled Ones in exchange for adoration and worship from the heroes. That world'sIron Man states that the Many-Angled Ones have outgrown their reality and need a new place to feed and be worshiped. They intend for Quasar to show them the way to his Earth. The Many-Angled Ones are opposed on this Earth by the heroes who believe in pure science, such as theVision. They later become the antagonists ofThe Thanos Imperative miniseries, and it is stated thatShuma-Gorath is one.[volume & issue needed]
In the 2010 remake of the video gameSplatterhouse, scripted by2000 AD writerGordon Rennie, the Many-Angled Ones is one of the names for the demonic race known as the Corrupted.