Yog Sothoth research

Yog-Sothoth

“I last Night strucke on ye Words that bringe up YOGGE-SOTHOTHE, and sawe for ye firste Time that fface spoke of by Ibn Schacabao in ye ———.” (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward)

“Rais’d Yog-Sothoth thrice and was ye nexte Day deliver’d.” (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward)

“He was soon disliked even more decidedly than his mother and grandsire, and all conjectures about him were spiced with references to the bygone magic of Old Whateley, and how the hills once shook when he shrieked the dreadful name of Yog-Sothoth in the midst of a circle of stones with a great book open in his arms before him.” (“The Dunwich Horror”)

“Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They have trod earth’s fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread.” (“The Dunwich Horror”)

“Imagination called up the shocking form of fabulous Yog-Sothoth—only a congeries of iridescent globes, yet stupendous in its malign suggestiveness.” (“The Horror in the Museum”)

“It was an All-in-One and One-in-All of limitless being and self—not merely a thing of one Space-Time continuum, but allied to the ultimate animating essence of existence’s whole unbounded sweep—the last, utter sweep which has no confines and which outreaches fancy and mathematics alike. It was perhaps that which certain secret cults of earth have whispered of as YOG-SOTHOTH, and which has been a deity under other names; that which the crustaceans of Yuggoth worship as the Beyond-One, and which the vaporous brains of the spiral nebulae know by an untranslatable Sign...” (“Through the Gates of the Silver Key”)

http://www.hplovecraft.com/creation/bestiary.aspx

Having such strong keywords like Gate, Key and Guardian. I had a definite image  wanted to portray with this Old God. Picking out other keywords from wiki's and this text i gathered up another of my keyword list:

YOG-SOTHOTH -

• gate
• bygone magic
• key
• guardian of the gate
• fabulous
• iridescent globes
• maglin
• suggestiveness
• space time
• all in one
• essence
• fancy
• mathmatical

Medieval gate guard? london tower? guard to the king.

My ideas were to have him in a medieval setting, its a good setting which a lot of people enjoy and can visually relate too easily. I began going through Google image search as I have done with my other researched images, looking at Beserker Knights, Gate Knights, Portcullis Gates, Yog Sothoth himself and an array of Fantasy Knights, creating my desired mood board:

With that set up i moved on to some concept sketches, as i didnt have a clear image in my head on how i wanted him to turn out

The thick central torso is what i was aiming for, along with chunky arms, and some sort of gate or shield present. I had the idea of two halves of a gate on each arm/fist, so when he threw his fists down in defence it made a fully functioning blockaid.

another idea was to have him holding a gate, or even better yet, becoming the gate.

I decided on the middle picture, with the small head and sloping shoulders, with comically tiny feet, as he wouldnt need them being a gate n all.

I wanted him to be a construct, a magic entity that looked like it was created.

half knight on one side, half fleshy gaseous bubbles on the other, as Yog is frequently mentioned to have a gaseous state, an iridescent globe like essence, which i wanted to include in his middle, the gate which would be hollow apart from glowing gassy orbs.

I also wanted to give him a war torn appearance, like he had bested thousands of champions and still standing.