Shub-Niggurath

Shub-Niggurath, also known as The Black Goat of the Woods (sometimes translated as "The Black Goat of the Woods and his Thousand Young" or "The Black Goat of the Woods and His Thousand Offspring") is one of the fictional deities in H.P. Lovecraft.

Indeed, despite being an Outer God, Shub-Niggurath is never described in any of Lovecraft's stories, but is frequently mentioned or called upon in incantations. Popularly and by many of the fans of Lovecraftian literature, Shub-Niggurath is considered an evil fertility deity, described as an enormous nebulous mass from which black tentacles protrude, mouths from which saliva falls, and short and twisted goat's feet.

Both Stephen King and Terry Pratchett have referred to Shub-Niggurath in their works. Terry Pratchett generally parodies the gods created by Lovecraft as the things of the Dungeon Dimensions. For example, Images in Action (1993) has "Tshup Aklathep, The Infernal Star Toad with a Million Kindred", who kills his victims by showing them images of his children.

Their presence in popular culture

Shub-Niggurath also makes an appearance as the final boss of the first-person shooter Quake, where she takes on her role as a fertility deity, being the mother of the monsters that appear throughout the game.

In the massively multiplayer online role-playing video game World of Warcraft, there are entities of infinite evil called the Old Gods. Of them, it is speculated that Y'Shaarj is based on this character from Lovecraftian stories.

Mexican death metal band Shub Niggurath took their name from this mythological creature.

There is also a Colombian brutal death metal band by the name of Niggurath.

The Spanish independent film Subb Niggurath from VooR Productions is about this Lovecraftian deity.

In the current game South Park: The Fractured but Whole, Shub-Niggurath is fed the black inhabitants of South Park by the local police serving as one of the game bosses; she can throw bombs shaped like deformed fetuses that explode, devouring those in range of her attack and killing them with a single blow.

In the Japanese series Overlord (light novel), the protagonist Ainz Ooal Gown has a high-level spell called "Iä Shub-Niggurath", which creates a black cyclone that kills everything in its path. find in range, and summons a series of monsters called the "Dark Goat" very similar to Shub-Niggurath based on lives sacrificed in the cyclone.

In the rhythm game Pump It Up, Prime version 2, there is a song named Shub Niggurath.

In Marvel Comics he is depicted as Shuma-Gorath, an all-powerful cosmic entity who destroys galaxies with his aura alone. He is the main enemy of Dr. Strange and has faced The Avengers, Howard Duck, among others.

In the Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken (That Time I Became a Slime) light novel series, the protagonist Rimuru Tempest gains an ability called the God of Harvest, Shub Niggurath.