"And it was then that Nyarlathotep came out of Egypt. Who he was, none could tell, but he was of the old native blood and looked like a Pharaoh. The fellahin knelt when they saw him, yet could not say why. He said he had risen up out of the blackness of twenty-seven centuries, and that he had heard messages from places not on this planet. Into the lands of civilization came Nyarlathotep, swarthy, slender, and sinister, always buying strange instruments of glass and metal and combining them into instruments yet stranger. He spoke much of the sciences - of electricity and psychology - and gave exhibitions of power which sent his spectators away speechless, yet which swelled his fame to exceeding magnitude. Men advised one another to see Nyarlathotep, and shuddered. And where Nyarlathotep went, rest vanished; for the small hours were rent with the screams of a nightmare."

- H.P. Lovecraft, Nyarlathotep.

"What his fate would be, he did not know; but he felt that he was held for the coming of that frightful soul and messenger of infinity's Other Gods, the crawling chaos Nyarlathotep."

- H.P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadeth.

"There was the immemorial figure of the deputy or messenger of hidden and terrible powers - the "Black Man" of the witch cult, and the "Nyarlathotep" of the Necronomicon."

- H.P Lovecraft, The Dreams in the Witch House.

"There are references to a Haunter of the Dark awaked by gazing into the Shining Trapezohedron, and insane conjectures about the black gulfs from which it was called. The being is spoken of as holding all knowledge, and demanding monstrous sacrifices."

- H.P. Lovecraft, The Haunter of the Dark.

And at the last from inner Egypt came
The strange dark One to whom the fellahs bowed;
Silent and lean and cryptically proud,
And wrapped in fabrics red as sunset flame.
Throngs pressed around, frantic for his commands,
But leaving, could not tell what they had heard;
While through the nations spread the awestruck word
That wild beasts followed him and licked his hands.

Soon from the sea a noxious birth began;
Forgotten lands with weedy spires of gold;
The ground was cleft, and mad auroras rolled
Down on the quaking citadels of man.
Then, crushing what he chanced to mould in play,
The idiot Chaos blew Earth's dust away.

- H.P. Lovecraft, Fungi from Yuggoth - Sonnet XXI.

"A tall, lean man of dead black coloration but without the slightest sign of negroid features; wholly devoid of either hair or beard, and wearing as his only garment a shapeless robe of some heavy black fabric."

- Unknown.

 

Manifestations

Ahtu (Congo) - appears as a huge mound of viscous material with several golden tentacles sprouting from its central mass. Ahtu's worshipers are usually deformed or mutilated natives. He is called by using a golden bracelet usually separated into two parts, to prevent Ahtu from being summoned by accident.

All-Seeing Eye

Beast (Egypt) - This form manifests itself only at one particular place in Egypt. It was the focus of a revolutionary cult in the Fourteenth Dynasty.

Black Demon - a black-furred, snouted monster which is destroyed by light. The being may be controlled by a summoner using certain talismans, though the user runs the risk of being attacked himself.

Black Man

Black Messenger of Karneter

Black One

Black Pharaoh (Egypt) - a hairless man with dead black skin and hooves for feet. He is connected with the witch-cults of Western Europe.

Black Wind (Africa?) - a great storm that can destroy crops, forest, and houses for miles around when it manifests.

Blind Ape of Truth

Bloated Woman (China) - appears as a huge, obese woman with five mouths and many tentacles. It carries the mystical Black Fan, with which it hides its unseemly bulk from humans until it has ensnared them.

Bringer of Pests (Egypt) - Worshiped in Egypt's Twelfth Dynasty, this manifestation can only be described as a horde of huge spitting supernatural locusts. It is worshiped today by a group known as the Knights of the Silver Twilight.

Dark Demon - appears much as the Black Demon but is larger and more cunning. It sometimes calls to those steeped in studies of black magic, promising them glory if they will allow it to enter their bodies. Of course, no reward comes to those possessed by this form of Nyarlathotep.

Dark God, Dark One

Demon Messenger

Dweller in Darkness

Earth Creature

Effigy of Hate (Africa) - worshiped by one African tribe, to which it manifested itself through their war totems. This form is known to have some control over time.

Elder One

Faceless God (Egypt) - In the elder days of the Egyptian civilization, Nyarlathotep was worshiped in the form of a winged sphinx with a featureless head which bore the triple crown of a god. The Faceless God was known to manifest itself through its idols. This cult was later suppressed by the other priesthoods, becoming nearly forgotten in the millennia following its dissolution.

Faceless One

Father of the Million Favored Ones

Floating Horror (Haiti) - manifests itself through the body of a specially prepared host. It appears as a red veined, jellyfish-like floating organism of a bluish color. This avatar is connected with certain fringe voodoo cults.

God of the Bloody Tongue

God of Resurrection

God of the Desert

Haunter of the Dark

Howler in the Night

Lord of the Desert

Many-Legged Goat

Master of Evil

Mighty Messenger

Mr. Skin (Los Angeles) - an immaculately dressed pimp. Unlike some other "Black Man" forms, this is wholly and unmistakably human. He is closely associated with a cult of Shub-Niggurath.

Narla (anywhere) - An extremely sophisticated and detailed virtual reality simulation of a very beautiful white woman, this form invades VR systems. Her appearance is designed to distract the (typically male) system administrator long enough for her to wrest total control of the system from him.

Narlato

Narlotep

Night Messenger

N'hyarlothatep (Hasse? Kuttner?)

Old God

Prince of Darkest Dark

Secret One

Shugoron (Malaysia) - a black humanoid figure represented as playing a sort of horn. This being is revered by the Tcho-tcho people of Malaysia.

Skinless One (Mesoamerica) - In the guise of a flayed, skinless corpse, Nyarlathotep was worshiped among the Aztecs, to whom he was known as Xipe Totec.

Small Crawler (India) - a dwarfed human figure with four arms and three tentacles for legs. Little else is known of him, except that he is mentioned in the Cthaat Aquadingen.

Stalker Among the Stars

Thing in the Yellow Mask (Dreamlands) - an entity draped in yellow silk. Its only known manifestation occurred within the abandoned city of 'Ygiroth on Mount Lerion.

Wailing Writher - A column of whirling black tentacles and screaming mouths, it is alluded to in some Hindu tales.