Lore of Zhul’thar, the Veil-Warden

Zhul’thar’s name comes from a proto-language spoken by the Serpent Men of Valusia, a pre-human race in the Mythos who worshipped entities beyond the stars. In their tongue, “zhul” meant “the veil” or “the threshold between worlds,” while “thar” signified “to rend” or “to unmake.” The apostrophe marked a sacred pause, a moment of reverence for the entity’s power to dissolve reality.

When human cultists, like the Order of the Unraveled, rediscovered Zhul’thar’s name in a fractured obsidian tablet, perhaps the shard from The Shimmering Veil, they adapted it into their rituals. The name’s pronunciation is lost, but its syllables carry a psychic weight, resonating with Zhul’thar’s fractal tendrils and the hum that unravels identities.

Lastly, the name has echoes in ancient human myths, misheard by Sumerian priests as “Zul-Tar,” a demon of liminal spaces, or by medieval alchemists as “Jhulthar,” a forbidden word in grimoires. These are distortions of Zhul’thar’s true essence, which defies human language.

While Zhul’thar is my creation, its components draw from Semitic Languages. “Zul” resembles Arabic dhul, e.g., Dhu al-Qarnayn, meaning “possessor of two horns,’ though I admit this is a stretch.

The name Zhul’thar is nestled in fantasy tropes as well. The “-thar” echoes names like Bolthar or Galthar in sword-and-sorcery, common in pulp fiction Lovecraft read. The structure also mirrors his love for alien phonetics.

Zhul’thar is an Outer God or a lesser Great Old One, existing in the interstitial spaces—the “membranes” that separate dimensions, realities, and states of being. It is neither neither within nor outside existence, embodying the paradox of being both nowhere and everywhere.

Zhul’thar is the guardian of thresholds, but not in a protective sense; it hungers to dissolve boundaries, merging all realities into a singular, chaotic non-state. Its presence warps causality, making a time loop or fracture in its vicinity, and its fractal tendrils are said to be extensions of the universe’s unraveling threads.

Zhul’thar’s form is a hypnotic, ever-shifting void that pulses with iridescent, impossible colors—hues that make observers’ eyes ache and bleed. Its fractal tendrils extend infinitely, branching into patterns that defy mathematics, sometimes coiling into vaguely humanoid or arachnid shapes before dissolving back into the void.

Those who gaze too long report seeing their reflections within Zhul’thar distorted into versions of themselves that never were or should not be. Its “voice” is a low, resonant hum that feels like a heartbeat in the listener’s skull, carrying whispers in no known language.

Zhul’thar’s influence is subtle but devastating. It doesn’t seek worship in the traditional sense but draws followers through dreams or fleeting glimpses of its tendrils in mirrors, shadows, or the corners of the eye.

Its cult, the Order of the Unraveled, believes Zhul’thar holds the secret to transcending existence by unmaking the self and reality. Members engage in rituals where they systematically erase their identities—burning personal records, shedding names, and mutilating their faces or memories to become “blank vessels” for Zhul’thar’s will.

These rituals often involve chanting fractal-like mantras that induce trances, during which cultists claim to see the “Veil” and hear Zhul’thar’s whispers. Prolonged exposure drives them to madness, with some spontaneously dissolving into shimmering dust as if claimed by the entity.

Zhul’thar is a rogue fragment of Yog-Sothoth, the Key and the Gate, or perhaps a rival entity that seeks to undermine Yog-Sothoth’s dominion over dimensional boundaries. The Necronomicon contains a cryptic passage warning of “the Warden that gnaws at the seams of All,” which scholars debate as a reference to Zhul’thar.

Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos, may amuse itself by spreading Zhul’thar’s influence, using its cults as pawns in its incomprehensible schemes. Tied to rare celestial events, like the alignment of unseen stars, during which the Veil thins, Zhul’thar’s tendrils breach reality more visibly.

Like most entities in the Cthulhu mythos, Zhul’thar is beyond mortal destruction; however, its influence can be interrupted. Symbols or incantations that reinforce boundaries—such as elder signs or rituals of dimensional anchoring—can temporarily repel its tendrils.

However, these measures often provoke Zhul’thar’s attention, inviting worse consequences. Its cultists are vulnerable when their rituals are interrupted before completion, as their partial unraveling leaves them psychologically fragile.