T H E S I X
When metaphysical types (as well as others) colloquially refer (in hushed tones) about the Six they refer to the Six predominant, prevailing, most manifest and most active Primordial cosmic horrors.
The One – Kothlothlu
If hatred, destruction, fire, death, war, iron, fear, cruelty had an elemental, singular manifestation, it would be Kothlothlu. Kothlothlu is by far the most combative, inconquerable force and was very powerful and manifest in The Great War, during which its influence resulted in a war in the Eastern Continent that spread pretty much everywhere and decimated 90% of the population in both central Dreamlands and the Eastern continent. Kothlothlu was eventually metaphysically deconstructed in these regions by the Great Ones and the Dragons (and – arguably – the direct influence of The Other Five), at incalculable cost.
The Second – Shub Niggurath
Shub Niggurath is a pervasive, universal manifest natural inclination unifying procreation, mutation, collectivity, hive mind, slime, life, lust, secrecy and subtlety. Shub Niggurath is manifest here and there, largely through intermediaries with a penchant for insane types of sexual perversion. The servitor horrors of Shub Niggrath tend to rather conspircious for the archmagi, so the infestation is regarded as “manageable”.
The Third – Tsathoggua
Tsathoggua is one of the smallest manifest of The Six, but no less feared, unifying qualities of mutation, persistence against all odds, resilience, plague., intransigience, alternatives, stench, death, rebirth. After the Great War for several centuries the manifestations of Tsathoggua ere associated with The Republican Movement — and thus treachery in the Kingdom has a connotation of pandemic diseases.
The Forth – Nyarlathotep
Nyarlathotep is a most powerful manifestation of the elements fire and air, signifying progress, exceptions, elusiveness, magic, ambition, ego, pride, hysteria, mania, noise, brightness. Nyarlathotep is not prominent in the central Dreamlands although quick-to-burnout pockets of the minions of Nyarlathotep occasionally flare up for a decade and then just as quick die out. Many of the more powerhungry wizards take shortcuts dabbling with the considerable power of Nyarlathotep.
The Fifth – Yog Sothoth
Aguably the most passive yet the most cosmically universal, Yog Sothoth is a universal force or entity that is most strongly associated with time, space, eternity, the alien, the incomprehensible, contemplation, apathy, patience, revelation, visions, gothic, the arcane, the pondorous, the slow, the unassailable, mysteries. Currently there are a few pockets of influence of Yog Sothoth of which Byzanthium is the most well-known.
The Sixth – Cthulhu
A relative local cosmic horror of transcendant and eternal proportions, Great Cthulhu is associated with the abyssal, dreams, hierarchy, power, loyalty, devotion, tyranny, tradition, conservatism, the endless sea, eternity, insanity, secretiveness, conspiracies. Great Cthulhu is a type of absolute divine hierarch such as a Stalin or Kim Yun Il elevated to absolute godhood. The followers of Cthulhu are always 100% dedicated at all levels to Him, to the point that even the merest disagreement that Cthulhu might not be all that Great will make them respond in insane disbelief.
Obviously there are many more similar transcendantal horrors of cosmic proportions (such as Azathothh…) but in the Dreamlands these six are (or recently were, in case of Kothlothlu) the most manifest.
The Zero – Azathoth
Outside the ordered universe [is] that amorphous blight of nethermost confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the center of all infinity—the boundless daemon sultan Azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time and space amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin monotonous whine of accursed flutes.