The Elder Things

If you can say one thing about HP Lovecraft, he had a vivid, if rather twisted, imagination.

One of his most vividly described creations was this creature, described in the pages of his novella, "At the Mountains of Madness". The humans in this story variously refer to it as an 'Elder Thing' or an 'Old One', both of which are rather appropriate considering the fact that they predate most life on Earth and are pretty much like nothing on Earth. Except of course for echinoderms, which leads to them being alluded to as 'crinoid things of the primordial aeons' in another of Lovecraft's short stories.

These are actually my favorite creatures from his stories; I actually first encountered it as an illustration by Wayne D. Barlowe in his 'Guide to Extraterrestrials'. It was a rather accurate one, but lacked a few of the less obvious details. I based this illustration on a close reading of the description in the text, which is presented as a scientist's examination of one and thus quite detailed.