Dhole
A dhole is a creature in HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Known by a few different names, bhole, dol, etc., dholes are gigantic worm-like creatures that play a fairly minor role in the original Lovecraft stories but have been used extensively in the second phase of the Cthulhu Mythos.
Physical Features
Let’s go straight to the source for a typically Lovecraftian description of a bhole, which is basically a dhole that lives in the Dreamlands:
“Bholes are known only by dim rumour from the rustling they make amongst mountains of bones and the slimy touch they have when they wriggle past one. They cannot be seen because they creep only in the dark.”
That description comes from The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by HP Lovecraft. The physical features of a dhole are hard to describe because the creatures themselves are amorphous, slimy, and have rarely been seen.
From descriptions in Cthulhu Mythos texts, we know that dholes are large. They often “rear up” several hundred feet, so they must be gigantic. They’re described as slimy and worm-like, are known to completely avoid daylight, and are covered in a slime that hides their physical features.
For an idea of what Lovecraftian artists think dholes look like, take a look at Michael Komarck’s vision of a dhole.
This version of a dhole looks a lot like a typical earthworm except with hideous fangs and a massive body.
Based on Lovecraft artist interpretations and the few sections of Lovecraft’s original stories where dholes and bholes are mentioned, I imagine Komarck’s image of a dhole to be fairly accurate to what Lovecraft was hoping to describe. If the mouth on Komarck’s beast was even less recognizably mammalian, he would probably have drawn a truly nightmarish beast, but somehow the mouth on this dhole makes it almost cute if you look at it just right.
References to Dholes in the Cthulhu Mythos
The first reference to a dhole comes in the Lovecraft novella The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, which was written between October, 1926 and January, 1927:
“Now Carter knew from a certain source that he was in the vale of Pnath, where crawl and burrow the enormous bholes; but he did not know what to expect, because no one has ever seen a bhole, or even guessed what such a thing may be like.”
Another reference to the dhole family (this time a Dreamland version called a bhole) comes from a classic Lovecraft collaboration, “Through the Gates of the Silver Key” with E. Hoffmann Price:
“Below him the ground was festering with gigantic Dholes, and even as he looked, one reared up several hundred feet and leveled a bleached, viscous end at him.”
This is classic Lovecraft, from the viscous texture of the creature to its immense size and lack of humanizing features. The fact that a dhole or bhole lives mostly underground and must emerge from the earth to be seen by humans is also classic Lovecraft.
More About Dholes
Large worm-like creatures are a common trope in fantasy, science fiction, and horror. From Lovecraft's dholes and bholes to the massive sand worms in Frank Herbert’s Dune universe to the horrific worms in the classic horror-fantasy comedy Beetlejuice, big worms pop up everywhere.
Part of the appeal of dholes to Lovecraft fans is the typically Lovecraftian fascination with the abject, with things that are detestable, ugly, and even dangerous to look at. Lovecraft’s monsters are often described as being so horrible that they’d test the sanity of the average human, and a giant earthworm over 400 feet long with fans dripping acidic goo fits that bill nicely.
But dholes are useful to the Cthulhu Mythos for other reason. For Call of Cthulhu RPG players and game keepers, the dhole offers a new possibility for gaming. Dholes are described in both the Cthulhu Mythos stories and the Call of Cthulhu game rules as digging gigantic tunnels all over the earth, providing a new setting for games in the underground terrain where the dholes live. They’re also essentially immortal, at least against the weapons of most humans, thanks to their massive size and attack ability. That also gives Mythos writers a classic literary tactic: the problem that can’t be solved, the immovable force for characters to meet.
Dholes are Lovecraftian to the core, devoid of eyes or other human features, of mythic size and demonic temperament. They are perfect creatures for the Cthulhu Mythos because they live out of sight of humans, are much larger than humans (emphasizing the lack of control of humans over their world), and because they look really cool. A giant scary earthworm that can crush several city blocks in a single move? Perfect for a heavy metal album cover or a Call of Cthulhu RPG adventure.
The Dhole in Cthulhu RPGs
Dholes have been a part of Cthulhu Mythos RPG games since the games first appeared, and new editions of these games have clarified and improved the original dhole to make it more true to the Mythos itself.
These days, dholes in Call of Cthulhu are serious business. Their massive size (the 5th edition of Call of Cthulhu lists them at an average of 208 feet long) and acidic goo spit make them formidable opponents for any of the human characters of the Call of Cthulhu game. Dhole characteristics in Call of Cthulhu have also been adapted to match smaller sand worms in Dune fantasy gaming.
Whether it’s called a dhole or a bhole, you should probably head for the hills if one of these gigantic frothy worms crosses your path. Dholes aren’t deities, like other creatures in the Cthulhu Mythos, but they certainly possess powers normally reserved for gods and god-like monsters. The dhole doesn’t occupy a large place in Lovecraft’s original writings, but the creatures offer such rich possibilities that other writers in the Mythos have increased their visibility.