Long time ago, eons before man first walked on the surface of
Nanny, a race of sentient beings arrived from another plane of
existence. They were a very highly developed culture that built
great cities and were the most intelligent life forms on Nanny.
They are nowadays known as The Great Old Ones by the very few
people that know of them. The first ones to arrive on Nanny were
the creatures known as Elder Gods. The Elder Gods dominated
Nanny, until, from an unknown place called Xoth, Cthulhu and his
spawn arrived. A great war erupted between Cthulhu and the Elder
Gods for dominance on Nanny. The Great Old Ones were immensely
powerful and had knowledge of the powers of the universe, so the
war was terrible. A truce was made, and Cthulhu settled on a huge
continent he named R'lyeh. Then a terrible catastrophe came, and
the Elder Gods along with their great cities were destroyed, and
the continent of R'lyeh plunged beneath the waters of an ocean.
Cthulhu was forced into sleep, to someday return to rule Nanny.
When man finally evolved on Nanny, no trace of The Great Old Ones
were found, so no one knew of their existence. Some people found
ancient writings and ruins from beneath the seas, and found out
that The Great Old Ones can still be contacted with certain
spells. The knowledge of such things, called the Cthulhu Mythos,
was such a horrifying thing that it drove most people insane, or
to commit suicide. That was because they weren't able to
comprehend how evil the universe actually is. Some people were
evil enough to comprehend the knowledge without going mad, and
the Cult of Cthulhu was founded. From some ancient writings was
found a text:
"That is not dead
which can eternal lie,
And with strange eons even death may die."
This inevitably led to interpretation that Cthulhu can be wakened up from his sleep. The main purpose of the Cult of Cthulhu became the awakening of Cthulhu, to rule Nanny again and give his full power to his followers. The Cult has since discovered many ancient spells and rituals that can be used to contact The Great Old Ones and summon some of the powers they once had. Because the knowledge of Cthulhu Mythos drove people insane even within the Cult, the Cult created a kind of a rank system that would prevent newcomers of learning the Mythos too fast to be appropriate for them. The new members are nowadays taught Cthulhu Mythos bit by bit, giving more knowledge to them as their ability to understand the Mythos grows. As the understanding of the Mythos was easier to those that were evil, the Cult no longer accepted members that weren't evil. Because of the evil and bizarre nature of the Cult, it is mostly unknown to most people. To this day, the Cult has not been able to wake Cthulhu, but in his underwater city of R'lyeh, Cthulhu is sleeping, and with strange eons even death may die, and Cthulhu will rule the world again.