Sandy petersens cthulhu mythos (1) 187

Azathoth Cult
No one in their right mind ever wants Azathoth to

stark depression, or descend into dementia, violence, or

come to their world, as such a calamity would lead to

paranoia. They frequently see visions and hear voices,

nothing but destruction. Also, Azathoth itself is blind,

sometimes real, but other times just from their own

idiotic, and incapable of caring about any kind of

minds. Regardless of its apparent form, their lunacy is

worship process, let alone responding to it. Azathoth is

also channeled into service of the Blind Idiot God.

essentially the bleak, impersonal nature of the universe
made into awful, living reality.

itself out, typically when the authorities wipe out its

Those who want Azathoth’s favor typically go

members, but it can cause great damage during its

about it by worshiping the Crawling Chaos instead.

duration. If the cultists manage to awaken Azathoth,

But there exist occasional outbreaks of those who

and bring it into dire reality in our dimension, it can

worship Azathoth directly, despite the lack of obvious

ravage entire lands or even continents. In the worst-

benefits. Perhaps a servitor of the Outer Gods (see page

case scenario, a whole solar system can be destroyed by

371) orchestrated the irrational worship or perhaps a

an uncontrolled spread of Azathothic knowledge.

mortal found a secret she should not have seen, but it
only takes one spark for the madness of Azathoth to
begin to spread.
The cult of Azathoth, by definition, is composed
of lunatics, and will usually call attention to itself
eventually. Awareness of Azathoth that spreads too
far starts to contaminate people. Madwomen begin
to dance frantically in the street. Lunatics shriek and
gnash their teeth. Those already insane start to focus
their madness on Azathoth and the uncaring, hostile
universe around them. This sudden outbreak of

contagious madness in a region may come as the result
of one of the Crawling Chaos’s plots reaching fruition
or of Azathoth being summoned to the area and staying
too long. It has no understandable purpose other than
its own propagation: insanity for its own sake.
Other Mythos cults have insane individuals in their
service, but they usually make an effort to conceal their
madness, either by caution or isolation. In an epidemic
of Azathoth worship, those affected make no effort
to hide their growing psychosis. They may believe
they are someone else and loudly proclaim their true
identity, experience severe mood swings of mania and

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Usually, the spread of the Azathoth cult burns

Azathoth Cult Gifts
‘‘ Manifest Lunacy: Each worshipper’s madness
is amplified and strengthened by Azathoth. For
example, a cultist with multiple personalities
that generally manifest only as different voices
or occasional dissociative episodes might have
each personality become a distinct person (via
illusory or shapechanging magic), wearing
unique costumes and having their own separate
class levels. If a cultist hallucinates voices, those
voices become actual physical entities that can
take action (at least similar to unseen servants
but potentially as servitors of the Outer Gods;

see page 371). If a cultist is withdrawn and
comatose, she becomes rock-like and impossible
to harm or otherwise stimulate (as iron body).
Each case is unique and profoundly unsettling.
‘‘ Treasures: Cultists can generally access Abhoth
slime, gates, and flutes of the servitors.