Yig

Yig (the Father of Serpents) is a deity in H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos. He appears as a serpent man, serpent with bat-like wings, or as a giant snake.

Yig first appeared in the story "The Curse of Yig," which was created by Zealia Bishop and almost completely rewritten by Lovecraft. Although Yig is easy to anger, he is easy to please as well. Yig often sends his serpent minions, the children of Yig, to destroy or transform his enemies.

To Native Americans in Lovecraft's story, Yig is regarded as "bad medicine". He is also alluded to in western American folklore. He is identified with the Mesoamerican deity Quetzalcoatl, and may be a prototype for that god and other serpentine gods worldwide. Some authors identify him as the Stygian serpent god Set from Robert E. Howard's Conan stories, and also with the Great Serpent worshiped by the Serpent People of Valusia from Howard's Kull stories.

Yig is the subject of a song by the shock rock band GWAR entitled "Horror of Yig", which appears on their album Scumdogs of the Universe. The band The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets, famous for their Lovecraft references, also refers to Yig in a song titled "Yig Snake Daddy".

Yig is also the name of a deity in the Arcanis Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. Yig was once (and may still) be worshipped by the Ssethregorean Empire, a group dominated by various lizard and snake-like beings. Yig in this mythos is a female deity, but still strongly associated with serpents, suggesting the name is not a coincidence.

Despite being spoken of on only a few occasions in Lovecraft's work, Yig is one of the Ancient Ones included in the Arkham Horror board game, appearing alongside Great Old Ones such as Cthulhu and Nyarlahotep.