Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey.
Zoth-Ommog is the third son of Cthulhu, a giant reptilian beast that was imprisoned
beneath the earth by the Elder Gods.
We already talked about his brother Ythogtha, and what might happen if he was real.
But what if Zoth-Ommog was real instead?
Would the effects be the same as those of his brother, or might we see different consequences?
Let’s explore.
Of course, if you haven’t seen our last video on Ythogtha, you can click the link
below, and if you want more What If videos, check out our “Biggest What Ifs” playlist
on the channel.
But for now, get ready, it’s time to ask the question: What if Zoth-Ommog was Real?
As with our other videos on the Cthulhu mythos, this will assume that Zoth-Ommog is the only
character from the mythos that exists.
Sorry Ythogtha, your bro will have to go it along.
Now let’s learn a little bit about this creepy creature.
Zoth-Ommog is something of a smorgasbord of scary.
He's described as having a cone-shaped body, a reptilian head with razor sharp teeth, resembling
that of a T-Rex, four thick, starfish-like arms covered in suckers, and a multitude of
tentacles bursting forth from it.
He is believed to be trapped under the sea floor, at the bottom of an abyssal trench.
He was imprisoned there by the Elder Gods, following their war with Cthulhu and his kin.
He has a large pair of wings that he could use to fly if he ever managed to escape his
prison.
Of course, without the Elder Gods, Zoth-Ommog would not have been trapped beneath the Earth,
but for the purposes of this video, we’ll assume he was anyway.
Spoilers: He may well escape.
One interesting aspect of Zoth-Ommog is his use of avatars.
He is able to create sentient statues on Earth, that he can use to enter the dreams of men.
This allows him to affect the world above, even when he remains imprisoned beneath, although
it seems that his powers are somewhat limited while using them through an avatar.
So, now that we know a bit about him, what would happen if Zoth-Ommog did exist?
Well first of all, it would be important to locate and destroy all of his statue avatars.
With the immense power he possesses, we would want to limit his ability to affect the world
as much as possible.
Otherwise, he might be able to sneak into the dreams of people near the statues, and
could use them to increase his own power, and possibly even escape his prison.
We should also touch on The Yuggs.
The Yuggs, a creepy species of large flatworms who worship Zoth-Ommog, would attempt to release
him from his prison.
They would be hard at work attempting to manipulate humanity into letting them out, by promising
great riches.
However, the Yuggs, and their leader, Ubb, were touched on in a previous video, so I
won’t go into detail on that aspect.
If you’d like to hear more about them, and their effects on the world, check out our
video entitled What if Ythogtha was real.
In the meantime, let’s assume that they were successful, and managed to release Zoth-Ommog.
What would happen if he managed to escape?
If Zoth-Ommog was released into the world, destruction would follow in his path.
With his immense size and strength, he could cause a huge amount of devastation, and would
be difficult to take down.
Lin Carter’s short story, The Return of Zoth-Ommog, told of one instance of the great
old one rising to the surface, on the island of Ponape (pawn-a-pay), and it was not a pretty
sight.
His cult had consumed the people of the island, with one captive relaying his experiences
through the story.
This saw his cult engaging in human and animal sacrifice in order to feed and appease the
giant behemoth, something that would likely come to pass if he actually existed.
This means that we’d not only have to deal with him, but also his cultists, who would
be working to further aid his rise to power.
One might think that once he arose, his cultists would be relatively useless, but that may
not be the case.
If he arose, humanity would need to act quickly in order to stop him, and the cultists could
potentially slow our efforts.
We would likely need to try to use nuclear weapons in order to kill him for good, but
would be hindered if cultists had managed to obtain high-level positions in government.
This, however, was touched on in our video What if Cthulhu was real, so I won’t go
into any more detail on that.
That said, even if we were not able to kill Zoth-Ommog, there’s a chance that humanity
would not be doomed.
While he has immense capacity for death and destruction, Zoth-Ommog is not so much with
the building and creating.
It’s fairly likely that he would keep a significant portion of humanity around in
order to keep the world in working order, and assure that he would be as comfortable
as possible.
Of course, many would still die, either to feed him or just for the fun of it, but humanity
would live on, albeit in a new subservient role.
We might even be forced to rebuild the earth to better suit him, full of non-euclidean
geometry and disturbing visuals.
If Zoth-Ommog decided he wanted followers, it would not be difficult to find them.
Not only would there likely be more than enough people who feared death enough to follow him,
but also because of his abilities to affect the minds of others.
And this isn’t only while they sleep; he can even affect one's mind while one is awake,
as we saw in The Return of Zoth-Ommog, when he invaded the minds of the main character
and his companions as they fled.
He can implant visions into the minds of others, often showing other worlds and dimensions,
which can lead to insanity.
However, Zoth-Ommog may have grown lazy and dependent in all his time trapped beneath
the earth, and may require help to ensure he was fed enough.
In this case, it’s even possible that we could fight back.
If he was unable to sufficiently keep track of humanity, we could figure out a way to
rid ourselves of the great tyrant, either by reactivating the nuclear silos, or learning
how to once again trap him beneath the Earth.
Of course, it’s possible that Zoth-Ommog would simply create avatars across the world,
which he could use to keep an eye on his servants everywhere, but considering the limited power
of these avatars, it’s possible that we could work around them.
At the end of the day, it’s likely that the Earth would be lost to Zoth-Ommog, but
who knows?
Maybe humanity would have an ace up its sleeve.
Because, in the words of Ian Malcolm Thank you for watching Life’s Biggest Questions,
I hope this was interesting and informative, and maybe even inspired you to look into it
further on your own.
If you liked this video, please thumbs up and subscribe to the channel down below.
While you’re down there, let me know what other creatures you’d like to learn about.
Until next time, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey with Life’s Biggest Questions, wishing you
the best of luck, on your quest for answers.