Long time ago, eons before man first walked on the surface of Earth, 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 Earth.

They are nowadays known as The Great Old Ones by the very few people that know of them. The first ones to arrive on Earth were the creatures known as Elder Gods. The Elder Gods dominated Earth, 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 Earth. 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 Earth.

When man finally evolved on Earth, 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 Earth 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 the 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.