This page is for the Great Old Ones Pantheon deities that are playable in Smite. The entirety of any God's lore can be found on the official Smite website.
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General Tropes
Great Old Ones Pantheon General Tropes
Great Old Ones Pantheon banner artwork
Great Old Ones Pantheon trademark icon
The deities and mythological characters of outer space and other dimensions originating from Lovecraftian horror books which are playable in SMITE. The Cthulhu Mythos page deals with and can provide beneficent information about their original counterparts.- Above the Gods: The Great Old Ones push the envelope with their power and threat. These beings don't run on our natural laws and serve only their own agenda. With their very sight or presence they cause mortals to go crazy or die, which is a testament of how dangerous they are to the world and they make some of the gods look downright pathetic. Though this does not mean the Great Old Ones have it easy, especially given quite a few of their opponents are also very old and powerful magic beings as well as experienced with slaying otherworldly ancient immortals just like them.
- Always Chaotic Evil: While the other pantheons have their fair share of evil characters, they are overall on the side of humankind and the world. However, almost every single one of the Great Old Ones are xenophobic and hostile beings who would happily annihilate the universe, and Cthulhu's dialogue implies that they are even antagonistic to each other. The ones that are the closest to being nice work under Blue-and-Orange Morality.
- Cosmic Horror Story: The whole game's plot has been turned into this trope with Cthulhu's inclusion.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The Great Old Ones can be attacked and defeated in-game. Granted, the majority of the tropes in the Index about Cthulhu can apply in this game as well: You can taunt Cthulhu (but he can easily fight back against it), you can get utterly drained just to punch him, or as Cthulhu player, you can be genuinely impressed at other players. Lore-wise, the ones who canonically punched out Cthulhu himself were the Norse draconic god Jormungandr and the Babylonian primordial draconic goddess Tiamat.
- Egocentric Team Naming: The pantheon banner and trademark icon have Cthulhu's design on them due to being the first character released from this pantheon. Granted, this pantheon is called after the whole Cthulhu Mythos.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Great Old Ones are deific extraterrestrial and interdimensional entities beyond the capacity for mere mortal humans to comprehend or oppose. Cthulhu, the first revealed Great Old One, is actually one of the weakest of his ilk.
- Genre Refugee: The other pantheons and characters in Smite are from ancient mythologies, religions, and works of literature that have become legend, while the Great Old Ones come from a bunch of books written in the early 20th century.
- Lovecraft Lite: As terrifying and eldritch as they are, the Great Old Ones' opponents here are much stronger than the usual regular humans they encounter; including mythological deities, world-endangering monsters, heroes who have slain world-endangering monsters, and spirits just as ancient and alien as the Great Old Ones themselves. It’s telling that you can not only punch out Cthulhu (and lore-wise done by Jormungandr and Tiamat), but kill him repeatedly in just one game.
- Omnicidal Maniac: The Great Old Ones are indifferent at best and deliberately destructive at worst, possess a nihilistic disregard of lesser beings, and would gladly corrupt or destroy everything in existence.
- Outside-Genre Foe: While some of the Smite cast are beings of considerable power, few of them are or have experience fighting otherwordly horrors.
- Time Abyss: The Great Old Ones are cosmic entities older than the Earth itself, and ruled the Earth long before humanity emerged and gave rise to the other pantheons in the game. That is except for Tiamat, who was happy to remind Cthulhu who his elder is.
Warriors
The Great Old Ones has no Warriors so far.
Guardians
Cthulhu, the Great Dreamer
"Sleeping under the water, descending from the sky, lingering in the minds of the mortals... I wait, I watch, I hunger..."
Voiced by: Adin Rudd
Molten Destroyer Skin Voiced by: Imari Williams
Toon Mania Skin Voiced by: Brendan Blaber
The high priest and harbinger of the Great Old Ones, Cthulhu is immediately noticeable with the distinct features of a cephalopod-like head, humanoid body, and dragon-like wings. While Cthulhu is most often dreaming away in the underwater kingdom of R'lyeh, his eldritch presence still corrupts humanity, being both an object of cultish worship and the source of mankind's subconscious anxiety. However, once he awakens from his slumber and walks in the moral plain, he is able to break the minds of anyone, or at least any mortal, that encounters him.
As a Guardian, Cthulhu aims to obliterate his foes both physically and mentally with a CC-heavy fighting style.
- His passive ability Prey on Fear will cause his abilities and the final attack of his basic attack chain to apply a stacking Torment debuff to enemy Gods. When reaching four stacks of Torment, the God will become Insane, begin to hallucinate, and become vulnerable to Sanity Break. Cthulhu gains increased Power for each insane God near him. Insanity's duration can be refreshed by anything that applies Torment (with the exception of Sanity Break)
- His first ability, Sanity Break, sends out a cone of energy. Enemies hit by it gain a stack of Torment (two if they're facing Cthulhu), damaged, gain an Attack Speed debuff, and deal reduced damage to Cthulhu for a few seconds. If a god is rendered Insane by Prey on Fear, Sanity Break will also inflict Fear and increase the ability's damage reduction for the remainder of the match.
- Cthulhu's second ability, The Mire, will have him create a field that inflicts a light slow on enemies inside it. After the vile pool's creation, a portal will open up in the sky and drop two balls of corruption on the field. When a ball lands, the pool's size will increase and enemies standing on the field will be damaged while gaining a stack of Torment. The first ball will inflict a stronger slow on enemies in the field on impact, while the second ball will root them.
- For mobility, he can use his third ability, Rushing Terror, which has him rush forward with two projectiles following behind. Enemies hit by Cthulhu directly will be stunned and pushed aside usually directly into one of the projectiles. Each hit will apply a stack of Torment.
- Cthulhu's ultimate, Descend Into Madness, will have him release a damaging shockwave before growing into a massive shadow, increasing his HP as well as gaining new abilities for the duration. The sheer horror of the sight will rapidly apply Torment and Sanity Break's attack speed and damage reduction to enemies near him, the rate increased farther if they gaze upon his monstrous visage.
- The ultimate form's first ability (which also replaces his basic attack) is Sever, which launches a set of projectiles that shred enemy protections.
- The ultimate form's second ability, Devastate, is an explosive blast that knocks up enemies.
- The ultimate form's final ability is Transfuse, which sacrifices Cthulhu's health to damage enemies and empower his allies, healing them and increasing their Power and Movement Speed. Transfuse won't damage Cthulhu if his health is low, but its supportive power will be reduced.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The massive size Cthulhu grows to is, to quote the developers: "the largest [...] in Smite history to remain in the traditional play space while scaled up.".
- Black Speech: One of Cthulhu's voice likes has him recite the infamous R'lyehian chant "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!"
- Breath Weapon: Cthulhu's first ability, Sanity Break, has him exhale a cone of dark energy that inflicts Torment on his enemies.
- Cast from Hit Points: Transfuse sacrifices Cthulhu's HP to heal and empower his allies. If Cthulhu is at less than 20% HP, it won't remove any of his remaining health but its efficacy will be halved.
- Cthulhumanoid: Cthulhu is the originator of this trope, with his reveal trailer presenting him as a humanoid being with an octopoid head.Cthulhu: I am a celestial being! Octopus. The insolence!
- Destroyer Deity: Cthulhu is one of three gods of destruction SMITE's developers are looking to add to the game.
- Extra Eyes: Cthulhu has extra eyes on the elbow and finger joints of his wings.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: In one of his jokes, Cthulhu addresses the player, berating them for thinking this was just a game, before claiming he's already in your mind.Cthulhu: You. Yes, you. You really believe this is just a game? The game is in your mind. I am in your mind! Embrace Cthulhu!
- Infectious Insanity: In Cthulhu's reveal trailer, his awakening drives the citizens of Ancient Greece into a gibbering frenzy. This is factored into his "Prey on Fear" passive, where certain attacks inflict a stack of Torment on his foes. Accumulating four stacks of Torment will inflict the Insane status effect — where affected gods will hallucinate serrated tentacles and floating eyeballs; and Cthulhu's power will also be boosted for every nearby enemy driven insane.
- Madness Mantra: His official lore description has the narrator undergo Sanity Slippage until they're ranting about how Cthulhu will Curb-Stomp Battle the other gods, chanting "Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!" between every paragraph.
- Man Behind the Man: Cthulhu's dialogue with Baba Yaga reveals that he was responsible for her insanity.
- Medium Awareness: One of his Joke quotes has him address the person playing SMITE and demand they worship him.
- Mythology Gag: One of Cthulhu's jokes has him lamentingly recall the ending of The Call of Cthulhu, where he awakened from his death-like slumber... only to be headshot by a boat and sucked back down into R'lyeh as it sank.
- One-Winged Angel: His ultimate causes him to grow into a massive purple, black, and red version of himself, referred to as his true form. This transformation also alters his moveset.
- Power Echoes: Cthulhu's voice is deep and reverberating, emphasizing his nature as a sinister cosmic entity.
- Puny Humans: Cthulhu holds no respect for ascended mortals, as he says to Mulan.Cthulhu: Still a mere mortal. You should learn to fear that which you can not comprehend.
- Red Right Hand: Cthulhu's right arm is larger than his left one, has bone spikes protruding out of it, and his hand is even colored red.
- Shout-Out: One of Cthulhu's achievements, "Whispers Of The Old Gods", is a reference to Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft's third expansion — where Warcraft's resident cosmic horrors have run amuck.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Cthulhu was imprisoned in a deathlike sleep within the Sunken City of R'lyeh, with his reveal trailer showing him breaking free and attacking Ancient Greece. His death quotes indicate that rather than actually dying he's just being returned to his eternal slumber. In "Odyssey: Perilous Seas" it's revealed that in a previous Cycle of the world, Cthulhu clashed with the apocalyptic Norse dragon-god Jormungandr but was defeated and sealed away.
- Silliness Switch: His Toon Mania T5 skin turns him into a whimsical Looney Toons-style cartoon character, complete with Toon Physics, who takes on a Cowboy, aviator or greaser persona depending on what ability he uses. His Dread President skin is just his normal self but dressed as Uncle Sam and asking for people to vote for him.
- Sinister Minister: As exposited in his promotional update VOD, Cthulhu serves as the high priest for even more powerful and otherwordly Great Old Ones.Cthulhu: There are far worse things in this universe than myself. Watching and waiting.
- The Starscream: One of his item purchase quotes has him wonder if it might prove useful for when the "others" awaken, indicating that he intends to betray the other eldritch gods.
- Straw Nihilist: One of Cthulhu's voice-lines has him sneer that mortals and other gods live on placid islands of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity — paraphrasing one of H.P. Lovecraft's quotes.
- Thinking Up Portals: Cthulhu's second ability, The Mire, has him conjure a vortex of darkness and writhing tendrils in the sky, which vomits out a pool of black ichor. Enemies caught in the Mire are slowed by the first hit and rooted by the second, leaving them vulnerable to attacks.
- Winged Humanoid: Cthulhu sports a pair of draconic wings in addition to an anthropoid body. He uses the serrated claws tipping them as part of his melee combo; and does a gliding dash with his third ability, Rushing Terror.
- Worf Effect: In Tiamat's reveal trailer, Cthulhu is just about to deliver the finishing blow on Zeus when Tiamat casually re-imprisons him.
Mages
The Great Old Ones has no Mages so far.
Assassins
The Great Old Ones has no Assassins so far.
Hunters
The Great Old Ones has no Hunters so far.
