It was RED...

Spike Valance’s Cthulhu Mythos – Perse, The Bitch Goddess (Great Old One)

“[…]Her hood is down, and Melda sees she is not even close to human, she is something other, something beyond human understanding. In the moonlight her face is ghastly and full of knowing. […]. The breeze blows apart the snakes of her hair; Melda sees the third eye in Perse’s forehead; sees it seeing her, and all will to resist is snuffed out in an instant […]”

Stephen King, Duma Key.

First of all I have to thank who’s pointed me out this terrific supernatural abomination born from the wicked typewriter (or keyboard) of Stephen King which has quite got all of the “necessary qualifications” to be included in Cthulhu Mythos (as well as a patent reference to Lovecraft in the story introducing her). She is introduced in Stephen King’s novel “Duma Key” (2008) and, believe it or not, I’ve took 3 days only to “devour” the book (>700 pages!) to know more about her: though nearly one third or less of book pages were enough for the plot in a nutshell, it was really worth reading. Parts in italic are personal considerations or original additions to character’s fact sheet (links to Great Old Ones too).

Perse (abbreviation for Persephone, Queen of the Underworld in Classical Mythology) is a maddening entity manifesting as a feminine figure wrapped in crimson robes aboard a ghost ship with a crew of damned souls. Her face is ghostly pale and shows three hollow eyes and twisted mouths making impossible to discern clear features. She uses to contact severely injured subjects with hidden artistic talents inducing them depicting highly realistic vistas at first, then alterations of reality and/or living premonitions of devastating horrors.

Perse shows several affinities with at least three Mythos entities, Hastur the Unspeakable, Nyarlathotep and Cthulhu of course, especially due to her link to seawater. May she be Hastur’s illegitimate bride? Cthulhu’s step-sister? Nyarlathotep’s girlfriend? We’ll never know (perhaps).

She is associated to red colour and marine depths of Gulf of Mexico and this leads me, as mad hagiographer of Cthulhu Mythos , to infer two things:

1) Perse’s got to have arrived on Earth between Triassic and Jurassic times, when Gulf of Mexico began to form and a severe mass extinction occurred (oh, the coincidence…).

2) Perse is likely bound to some dazzling red star, possibly a garnet orb located in not visible skies of Southern Celestial Pole. I choose Epsilon Octantis, a bright red giant star of Southern Celestial Pole similar to Aldebaran, which is Hastur’s alleged abode according to August Derleth. The reason I’ve chosen Octans constellation? It has to remain a mystery…hehehe…

*Oouuuu, you nasty man…*

Perse belongs Stephen King. Artwork and original additions to me.