Cthonian

Chthonian
Biographical information
Home	Earth's Core Beneath Derceto Manor
Status	Unknown
Physical description
Species	Chthonian

The Cthonian is a great burrowing worm-like creature that lives in the tunnels beneath Derceto Manor. It is a powerful monster and the only one who resists Ezechiel Pregzt and can not be defeated (nevertheless, it disappears along with all the other monsters upon Pregzt's demise; whether it is destroyed, or simply departs, is unclear). The creature has long tentacles it uses to pull its prey into its mouth.

Events of Alone in the Dark

The Cthonian acts as an enemy and obstacle in the tunnels, and as a mean to destroy obstructing boulders. He can be found early on in the game by crawling through a hole in the attic leading to the tunnels.

Strategy

There is no way to defeat the Cthonian, and it deals an incredible 50 damage with a single attack, which is enough to kill Edward Carnby or Emily Hartwood instantly unless they have used every available health item in the game and taken no damage up until meeting it. Thus, it must be evaded at all cost and lured into moving to destroy the boulder blocking the path, but the player must not stay in place or the creature shall devour them.

It attacks with its long tentacles. Before attacking it bunches up its body, telegraphing its movement. When lured to the boulder, the player must wait for the Cthonian to pass.

By moving fairly rapidly between the Chthonian Tunnels and the Underground Piers, the player can trigger a glitch which shows the Chthonian in the distance, either stretched out across the screen or at normal proportions yet overlapping the 2D background (see the video here[1]). The glitch is purely visual and does not affect gameplay.

Trivia

• In Greek mythology, 'Chthonian' refers to a being that inhabits the underworld; they are considered to be the dark, shadowy counterparts of the Olympians.
• In the Cthulu Mythos, Chthonians are described as immense squids, with elongated worm-like bodies coated with slime. Despite their squid-like appearance, chthonians are land-dwellers and are even harmed by water. Chthonians are powerful burrowers, live for more than a thousand years, and are protective of their young. It is said that a chanting sound accompanies every chthonian, and that by such they can be detected while underground and unseen.
• While part of the Cthulhu Mythos, Chthonians are not explicitly Lovecraftian in origin. Rather, they first appear decades after H.P. Lovecraft's works, and are described in detail in the story The Burrowers Beneath.
• Apparently the Chthonian attack does not eliminate the player in the same way that a death fall (as with the collapsing bridge or the weak floor) or the Great Old One does, and the player's body is dragged to the altar in front of Ezekiel Pregst by one of the ghouls.
• The Cthonian's attack animation demonstrates one of the tricks to overcome the limitations of polygon graphics in 1992, which was simply to use the tetrahedrons making up the "teeth" in the mouth (the tentacles) and move the tip vertices towards the player character model for a "stabbing" effect. While this lacks the flexibility associated with tentacles, it was more than adequate to produce a threatening effect.

Emily Hartwood has an early encounter with the Chthonian.