Hounds of Tindalos

Beings from before life began, who exist in angular time and normally cannot enter curved time, where we reside.

Their existence is the result of an un unspeakable deed that was done in the beginning. They are symbolized in the myth of the Fall: the tree, the snake, and the apple; as well as in an obscene form that is occasionally found engraved on ancient tablets.

All the evil in the universe is concentrated in them. Yet they are not evil in our sense, for where they dwell there is no thought or moral, no right or wrong. There is only the pure and the foul. They are that which fell away from cleanliness at the beginning of time. They hunger for that part of humans that is pure, that is descended from a curve that emerged from the primal deed without stain.

They have no bodies, or possibly they have lean, hungry bodies. They are lean, hungry and athirst. A pungeant, nauseating odor becomes noticeable when they are nearby. They move slowly through outrageous angles.

It appears that they are no threat to us normally. However, if they should happen to catch the scent of a human, they can then pursue their victim through any angled objects that happen to be nearby. They scented Halpin Chalmers when he saw them in a vision while under the influence of the Liao drug. Afterward, Chalmers tried to evade them by smoothing all the corners in his room with plaster. This strategy worked until an earthquake dislodged the plaster.

Chalmers called these beings the Hounds of Tindalos, but didn't explain the origin of the name. Tindalos might be the place where the Hounds originate, or Tindalos might be a being who is their leader or their creator.

The Hounds left a bluish slime on Chalmer's body. The scientist James Morton examined the slime and concluded that it was from an unknown form of life that lacks all enzymes, and thus potentially is immortal. [FBL Hounds (online text)]

Thomas Granville saw the Hounds of Tindalos in a painting that came to life at the home of a researcher into consciousness-expanding drugs. To Granville they appeared vaguely wolf-like, with blazing eyes and clashing jaws; but their forms changed rapidly as they moved, as if reshaped from moment to moment by all the evil in the universe. [FBL Gateway]

The Ice-Goddess Ythillin spoke of the Old Ones (misc) as including the Hounds of Tindalos. [FBL Gift]

Pseudo-Akeley told Albert Wilmarth the essence, though not the source, of the Hounds of Tindalos [HPL Whisperer (online text)].

A little man said the Book reveals the ultimate source of the Hounds of Tindalos, "who live in a chaotic, nebular universe at the very rim of space, and who are in league with" the Outer Ones (2) [HH Guardian].

Winfield Phillips read about the Hounds of Tindalos in manuscripts that Seneca Lapham had borrowed or photocopied from Miskatonic Library [AWD Lurker].

Aka: Canis Tindalos.

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