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Horrorterrors, also referred to as the outer gods, are mysterious eldritch creatures that reside in the Furthest Ring. They are enormous and extremely powerful, but their motives and agenda are unknown. These creatures are getting massacred
by Lord English (as confirmed here), causing them to reach out to Sburb players. They whisper to the dreamers of Derse during the eclipse and have asked both Rose and Dave for help. This connection to the horrorterrors serves as a Derse player's advantage, equivalent to Skaian Clouds on Prospit. Feferi's lusus, Gl'bgolyb, is referred to as an "emissary" to them.
Their current goal seems to be preventing their deaths at the hands of Lord English, but beyond that they have a mysterious and suspicious agenda, their involvement in Sburb remaining unknown to this day. They seem to be opposed to the creation of new universes (although this may only apply to the humans, who created the universe Lord English was born in), but also to the complete destruction of reality, meaning that their goal may simply be stagnancy and entropy. The horrorterrors are inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos, and their being referred to as outer gods parallels Lovecraft's "Outer Ones" and "Great Old Ones".
On Earth, the Squiddles are stated to be a subconscious re-imagining of the horrorterrors and other beasts residing in the Furthest Ring, with the character Skipper Plumbthroat possibly representing Lord English.
- “Squiddles I guess are a sort of candy coated representation of the outer gods. (...) They were not necessarily conjured into existence by the gods, via dark conspiracy either. It's more likely that humans created them as an echo of their subconscious awareness that these gods exist, and present them through this cute, approachable facade.”
- — Andrew Hussie
The horrorterrors are referred to numerous times as the outer gods, leading to the possibility that they are, in fact, the players that created the troll universe, and now exist as its gods. Hussie has frequently joked about this idea, but confirmed nothing.
Known horrorterrors include Fluthlu, Nrub'yiglith, and Oglogoth.
Gl'bgolyb was confirmed in the book commentary to be an actual horrorterror. She was given to Alternia by Doc Scratch and is a lusus to the heir to the Alternian throne.
Horrorterror in Aradia's pesterquest route
Gl'bgolyb in Feferi's pesterquest route
Hierarchy[]
The Horrorterrors are led by the Noble Circle of Horrorterrors, an omniscient, omnipotent order of the elite few, made up of the largest and most powerful Horrorterrors.
Below them is the pantheon of Middling Gods, which cater to the whims of the Noble Circle.
Below are the Smaller Gods, in servitude of the Middling Gods. The first and smallest of these is Oglogoth, who is shown to dwarf Nrub'yiglith who himself dwarfs Fluthlu, an outer god many times taller than a city. The size of the horrorterrors in the Noble Circle, then, must be unfathomably enormous.
There are also horrorterrors below these levels, and much smaller in size. Little to nothing is known about the structure of their society (if one exists) or of the way they interact. Horrorterrors have thus far only been shown floating seemingly aimlessly in paradox space, or communicating with players.
Known Horrorterrors[]
Fluthlu[]
“FLUTHLU, FOUL PATRICIAN OF MISERY. To hear his mammoth belly gurgle is to know the Epoch of Joy has come to an abrupt end.”
- Main article: Fluthlu
Fluthlu is a creature that appears in Problem Sleuth as well as a horrorterror found in Rose's Grimoire for Summoning the Zoologically Dubious. He is drawn in comparison to a city, which he dwarfs. Even so, he is the smallest of the creatures shown in the Grimoire, many times smaller than Nrub'yiglith, who himself is tiny compared to Oglogoth, smallest of the Smaller Gods. The size of the horrorterrors in the Noble Circle, then, must be unfathomably enormous.
Fluthlu's name is obviously derived from Cthulhu, though they have few similarities in appearance, since Cthulhu is a biped with wings and Fluthlu appears to be just a blobbish form with various extremities and facial features scattered around his body.
Nrub'yiglith[]
“NRUB'YIGLITH, SHAMEBEAST KING OF GROTESQUERY, WRITHE-LORD OF THE MOIST BEYONDHOOD. Hearing his melodious chirps and tongue-clicks causes one's bones to explode.”
Nrub'yiglith is found in Rose's Grimoire for Summoning the Zoologically Dubious. He is seemingly of a higher order than the better known Fluthlu; a size comparison reveals that, even next to to the already gigantic Fluthlu, he is monstrously huge. However, he is also shown to be tiny in comparison to the "smallest of the Smaller Gods," Oglogoth. He bears a resemblance in both name and appearance to Gl'bgolyb, Feferi's lusus (with an equally unpronounceable name). His name also bears a resemblance to the names of several eldritch beings from H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, such as Shub-Niggurath, "The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young," and Yig, "Father of Serpents," as well as "the Twin Blasphemies," Nug and Yeb. This matches Fluthlu's obvious allusion to Cthulhu himself.
Oglogoth[]
“OGLOGOTH, THE DEEP ONE”
Oglogoth is found in Rose's Grimoire for Summoning the Zoologically Dubious. The Grimoire describes him as “OGLOGOTH, THE DEEP ONE”. Whenever he grinds his teeth, all the children of a random galaxy somewhere will frown continuously for a nine thousand year span. He is the first and smallest of the SMALLER GODS, appointed in servitude of a vile, unfathomable pantheon of MIDDLING GODS which caters to the whims of the Noble Circle of Horrorterrors, an omniscient, omnipotent order of the elite few, forever cloaked in the darkness of the Furthest Ring.
He dwarfs Nrub'yiglith, who in turn looms over Fluthlu, so the scale of this creature is near unimaginable, and he is apparently the smallest of the smaller gods. Good thing the Grimoire is in the hands of a young lady with such a good head on her shoulders.
He is the patron of the fearsome Thorns of Oglogoth, which Rose obtains by combining her Needlewands and the Grimoire.
Gl'bgolyb[]
- Main article: Lusus#Gl'bgolyb
Gl'bgolyb, known as “EMISSARY TO THE HORRORTERRORS”, was the shared lusus of all Alternia's fuchsia bloods, including Feferi Peixes and her ancestor the Condesce, and was brought to Alternia by Doc Scratch as a “sentience-warming gift.” Gl'bgolyb frequently whispers prophecies of the "world's end" and of uniting the two races to her charges.[citation needed]
If Gl'bgolyb's voice is ever raised above a whisper, trolls would start dying. The psychically susceptible lower castes would die first, and if the horrorterror raised her voice to a shout, every troll on the planet sans the fuschiabloods would perish. Worst of all, if she were to ever get "really upset", she might release "the Vast Glub", a psychic shockwave that would exterminate every single troll in the galaxy sans the fuschiabloods. Gl'bgolyb eventually unleashed the Vast Glub while Karkat was attempting to get Sollux into The Medium, killing him. Doc Scratch stated that the Vast Glub was Gl'bgolyb's "swan song", implying that after releasing the Vast Glub it would die, implied to be via meteor.
Player Contact[]
Iä! Iä! Fluthlu Fhtagn!
The Horrorterrors helped Rose with her plan to destroy the Green Sun with the Tumor. Since they likely knew that the Tumor wouldn't destroy it, it is unclear what their goal was.
When a player goes to sleep after their dream self dies, they are free to come into close contact with the horrorterrors via the afterlife. Feferi, due to her positive connection with Gl'bgolyb, manages to talk them into "glubbing up" a series of stabilized dream bubbles that serve as a communication tool between the trolls and the kids, as well as the dead and the living. Vriska believes that the Horrorterrors only created the dream bubbles to give Lord English something to kill other than them.
Jack Noir and PM stand in awe by two wounded horrorterrors.
As Jack Noir and the prototyped Peregrine Mendicant flew through the Furthest Ring, they seem to be able to come into physical contact with the horrorterrors, but are either possibly unable to interact with them or too busy fighting to concern themselves with them.
Grimdarkness[]
Grimdark Rose.
On LOHAC, Rose was persuaded by Doc Scratch to ask the magic cue ball if the horrorterrors were evil. The response was lines of meaningless incoherent text (except for the phrase "Oglog M'Rubbit," a callback to Problem Sleuth
). Upon viewing this answer, she went Grimdark, an uncontrollable and horrifying process described as going “completely off the deep end in every way”. This physically caused Rose to develop darkened skin, glowing eyes and a thorny black aura reminiscent of the horrorterrors' tentacles, and begin speaking in an incomprehensible language.
During her fight with Jack she seemed to be able to manifest her aura into actual physical thorns.
This can be interpreted as Rose losing control over the dark magic she received from the Circle. It could also be the result of a sudden surge of power granted her by the horrorterrors, or simply a natural side effect of comprehending the morality of incomprehensible eldritch beings. Rose died shortly thereafter and was replaced by her dream self, yet the physical changes were not present on her dream self.
The word "Grimdark" seems to have originated in the table-top game Warhammer 40,000, and evolved into a memetic phrase.
It is currently speculated that a parallel to this power through the use of a combined cherub Juju is Trickster Mode, as seen when Jane caused a world-changing explosion and flew away shortly after engaging the transformation. While Rose's Grimdarkness is black, frightening, and out of control, Jane's Trickster Mode appears to be the exact opposite, being bright, silly, and even more so out of control. Also as Grimdarkness is “the fabled blackdeath trance of the woegothics”, Trickster Mode is called “the fabled peachbirth trance of the jokebollocks”.
Hussie has also mentioned that Rose's grimdark transformation is meant to complement Kanaya's transformation into a rainbow-drinker, both being absurd transformations granting their characters magic powers that are both silly yet somewhat awesome. This link is, however, merely one of appearance, and Kanaya's being a rainbow drinker is unlikely to have anything to do with the horrorterrors.
Trivia[]
- Andrew Hussie has frequently joked that the session that created the Alternian universe was played by 48 Squiddles and that he shall reveal these characters and/or kill them soon. It should be noted that the Alternian universe has a 48 sign horoscope
suggesting that the Sburb session that created it did indeed have 48 players. However, whether the horrorterrors are the previous players (or the offspring of those players) and creators of the Alternian universe or simply game constructs like denizens and carapacians is yet to be seen. - Their blood color, as seen in Caliborn: Enter and the first part of Openbound, lies between Eridan's and Gamzee's, with the hue being closer to Gamzee's.
- The horrorterrors have names similiar to the names of lovecraftian monsters.
- According to Vriska, all maps of the Furthest Ring were made by “some ancient eldritch chucklefuck”.
