Editing Cthulhu Mythos (section)

===Second stage===
Price denotes the second stage's commencement with August Derleth, with the principal difference between Lovecraft and Derleth being Derleth's use of hope and development of the idea that the Cthulhu Mythos essentially represented a struggle between good and evil.<ref name="Bloch" />{{rp|9}} Derleth is credited with creating the "Elder Gods". He stated:

{{bquote|As Lovecraft conceived the deities or forces of his mythos, there were, initially, the Elder Gods.... These Elder Gods were benign deities, representing the forces of good, and existed peacefully...very rarely stirring forth to intervene in the unceasing struggle between the powers of evil and the [[Race (fantasy)|races]] of Earth. These powers of evil were variously known as the Great Old Ones or the Ancient Ones....<ref>{{Cite book |last=Derleth |first=August |title=The Cthulhu Mythos |date=1997 |publisher=Barnes & Noble Books |isbn=0760702535 |location=New York |page=vii |author-link=August Derleth}}</ref>}}

Price said the basis for Derleth's system is found in Lovecraft: "Was Derleth's use of the rubric 'Elder Gods' so alien to Lovecraft's in ''At the Mountains of Madness''? Perhaps not. In fact, this very story, along with some hints from "The Shadow over Innsmouth", provides the key to the origin of the 'Derleth Mythos'. For in ''At the Mountains of Madness'' is shown the history of a conflict between interstellar races, first among them the Elder Ones and the Cthulhu-spawn."<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Price |first=Robert M. |date=June 23, 1982 |title=The Lovecraft-Derleth Connection |url=http://crypt-of-cthulhu.com/lovecraftderleth.htm |url-status=dead |magazine=Crypt of Cthulhu |issue=6 |pages=3–8 |issn=1077-8179 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130217054944/http://www.crypt-of-cthulhu.com/lovecraftderleth.htm |archive-date=February 17, 2013}}</ref>

Derleth said Lovecraft wished for other authors to actively write about the Mythos as opposed to it being a discrete plot device within Lovecraft's own stories.<ref name="Connors" />{{rp|46–47}} Derleth expanded the boundaries of the Mythos by including any passing reference to another author's story elements by Lovecraft as part of the genre. Just as Lovecraft made passing reference to Clark Ashton Smith's ''[[Cthulhu Mythos arcane literature#Book of Eibon|Book of Eibon]]'', Derleth in turn added Smith's [[Outer God#Ubbo-Sathla|Ubbo-Sathla]] to the Mythos.<ref name="Price" />{{rp|9–10}}

Derleth also attempted to connect the deities of the Mythos to the [[Classical element|four elements]] (air, earth, fire, and water), creating new beings representative of certain elements in order to legitimize his system of classification. He created "Cthugha" as a sort of fire elemental when a fan, Francis Towner Laney, complained that he had neglected to include the element in his schema. Laney, the editor of ''[[The Acolyte (fanzine)|The Acolyte]]'', had categorized the Mythos in an essay that first appeared in the Winter 1942 issue of the magazine.

Impressed by the glossary, Derleth asked Laney to rewrite it for publication in the Arkham House collection ''Beyond the Wall of Sleep'' (1943).<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Price |first=Robert M. |date=June 23, 1985 |title=Editorial Shards |magazine=Crypt of Cthulhu |issue=32 |page=2 |issn=1077-8179}}</ref> Laney's essay ("The Cthulhu Mythos") was later republished in ''Crypt of Cthulhu #32'' (1985). In applying the elemental theory to beings that function on a cosmic scale (e.g., [[Yog-Sothoth]]) some authors created a fifth element that they termed ''aethyr''.{{Citation needed|date=December 2016}}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Derleth's elemental classifications
|-
! Air
! Earth
! Fire
! Water
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
| style="padding:0em 0.75em;" | [[Hastur]]<br />[[Ithaqua]]*<br />[[Nyarlathotep]]<br />[[Zhar (Great Old One)|Zhar and Lloigor]]*
| style="padding:0em 0.75em;" | Cyäegha<br />[[List of Great Old Ones#Nyogtha|Nyogtha]]<br />[[Shub-Niggurath]]<br />[[Tsathoggua]]
| style="padding:0em 0.75em;" | [[List of Great Old Ones#Aphoom-Zhah|Aphoom-Zhah]]<br />[[Cthugha]]*<br />Yig
| style="padding:0em 0.75em;" | [[Cthulhu]]<br />[[Deep One#Father Dagon and Mother Hydra|Dagon]]<br />[[Ghatanothoa]]<br />[[Deep One#Father Dagon and Mother Hydra|Mother Hydra]]<br />[[Xothic legend cycle#Zoth-Ommog|Zoth-Ommog]]
|-
| colspan="4" style="font-size: 90%;" | * Deity created by Derleth
|}