Ug-Qualtoth

Mentioned-only character
Ug-Qualtoth
Lore
Race	Supernatural being
Affiliation	Swampfolk Dunwich Borers LLC
Role	Alien entity/god
Gameplay
Quests	The Dark Heart of Blackhall
Mentioned in	Fallout 3 Point Lookout Fallout: The Roleplaying Game

“One of us, one of us. Ug-Qualtoth is returned //unintelligible//”— Dunwich Building terminal entries

Ug-Qualtoth is a mythical character revered as a supernatural entity by some in the wasteland, variously described as an eldritch being and a forgotten god.

An altar dedicated to the worship of this being, called the Dunwich Obelisk, resides in the virulent underchambers of the Dunwich Building in Fallout 3. Ug-Qualtoth is also the subject of worship by Obadiah Blackhall in the Fallout 3 add-on Point Lookout.

Background

“Sharp knife. Sharp knife to send him to deep temple. Flay and say my words. Abdul comes again, on the feast of the weaker. Feast for the Deep Temple. Born again, here. Alhazzared G’yeth G’yeth.”— Jaime Palabras, Jaime's personal journal: entry 09

Pre-War history

Little is known about who or what Ug-Qualtoth actually is. Most information regarding the figure is shrouded in layers of religious zeal, insanity, and mutation. It is known that the figure is worshipped as a deity in the region of Point Lookout, Maryland. Rumors pertaining to Ug-Qualtoth pre-date the War, though not necessarily by name.

Constance Blackhall was an unnaturally long-lived woman who led a cult at Point Lookout, both before and after the war. She acted as a priestess to the swampfolk and led them in rituals she divined from the Krivbeknih, an ancient book tied to Ug-Qualtoth. Her brother, Richard Dunwich, was an industrialist, and a noteworthy occult figure in his own right. His company, Dunwich Borers LLC, functioned as a front for his occult affairs, and also served as a means to conduct private archaeological digs. While his company raked in money by providing mining drills to megacorporations like Poseidon Energy, the funds were used to advance the cult's agenda. Their mining operations served as a cover for occult archaeological digs. The company's poor safety record also served to obscure what was de facto human sacrifice at Dunwich sites.

The Dunwich Building was erected in a remote location near Washington, D.C., and Richard was able to use his company's resources to excavate a cavern below the building. He ordered his his managers to grant unaffiliated staff early leave for the holidays, starting October 18, 2077. For the next week, he used new acoustic bore drills to search for something below the building. He broke through into a subterranean chamber on Saturday, October 23: The Great War.

What became of Richard Dunwich after he gained access to the obelisk is unknown. While he was breaking into the chamber, another similar discovery was made in Massachusetts: immediately before the Great War, a ritual was performed at the Dunwich Borers quarry, wherein several employees were apparently bound against their will and turned into feral ghouls. The employee Tim Shoots helped orchestrate the ritual by monitoring his co-workers. A blade called Kremvh's Tooth was left on an altar at this site, placed between two mini nukes at the bottom of a flooded shaft.

But, Dunwich and his corporate associates were far from the last to seek out the power of Ug-Qualtoth.

Post-War history

Nearly half a century later, the building continued to be visited by cultists of Ug-Qualtoth, or those who succumbed to its influence. As early as 2134 and as late as 2277, people lost their minds at the Dunwich Building, and raved that Ug-Qualtoth had "returned" to the "deep temple" where it was both born and died.

The reality of Ug-Qualtoth's boons appears to be self-evident: due to her possession of the Krivbeknih, Constance Blackhall lived an unnaturally long life in the irradiated swamplands of Maryland, and ruled the cult for generations. She only died when the book was stolen from her. By this time, the cult had permeated the culture of the locals in general, and the swampfolk in particular. Without the guidance of the Blackhalls, these beliefs lost coherence, and devolved into a set of performative chants and rituals, alienated from their original meanings.

Generations later, Obadiah, the last surviving Blackhall, was determined to recover the book. His ancestors' cult has faded into obscurity, but sites bearing the name Dunwich are still feared as places of corruption and death. He festers in isolation as the lord of Blackhall Manor, which houses a secret altar to Ug-Qualtoth behind the bookshelf in the billiards room.

The book re-emerged in the late 23rd century, recovered by Jaime Palabras' father, a Ranger from the mid-wastelands. They traveled to the Capital Wasteland, hoping to sell it to the scribes of the Brotherhood of Steel. He later abandoned his son in a derelict hospital one night. The scribes refused to buy the book, and the Ranger vowed to return the book to its source. Jaime picked up the trail, eventually tracking down his father and the Krivbeknih to the Dunwich Building. His father died with the book in his possession, and Jaime soon followed, becoming a ghoul and a guardian of Ug-Qualtoth's deep temple, awaiting a "feast" that would result in Ug-Qualtoth being "born again."

However, the Krivbeknih did not remain at the Dunwich Building, but found its way south, to Point Lookout, into the hands of the swampfolk, who promptly used it for ritual purposes. Obadiah Blackhall would shortly attempt to recover it, to reunite it with the Blackhalls and regain its boons, returning Ug-Qualtoth to the world through a ritual conducted at his manor. Marcella, a Christian missionary from the Abbey of the Road, would attempt to interfere with his plans. She believed that the only way to permanently destroy it was to bring it to the virulent underchambers beneath the Dunwich Building and press it against the obelisk. Doing so will cause the nearby ghouls to burst into flames.

Interactions with the player character

Interactions overview

Interactions
	This character is involved in quests.	The Dark Heart of Blackhall

Quests

• The Dark Heart of Blackhall: The Lone Wanderer can destroy the Krivbeknih on Ug-Qualtoth's altar, instead of giving it to Obadiah.

Notes

According to the Fallout 3 Official Game Guide, the Dunwich Obelisk shares its origins with the Krivbeknih, but only the screaming sound of Ug-Qualtoth can wield this power.

Appearances

Ug-Qualtoth is mentioned in Fallout 3, its add-on Point Lookout and the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game. Confirmed altars to Ug-Qualtoth appear in Fallout 3 and its add-on Point Lookout.

Behind the scenes

The portrayal and context of Ug-Qualtoth parallels several elements of the Lovecraft Mythos by H. P. Lovecraft:

• The Dunwich Building was named as a direct reference to Lovecraft's short story The Dunwich Horror. The name Ug-Qualtoth evokes Yog-Sothoth, one of the eldritch beings whose offspring wreak havoc on the eponymous village of Dunwich. Similarly, the role Ug-Qualtoth plays among the swampfolk is similar to that of the Whateley family, who were responsible for the eldritch offspring. This parallels a common motif in Lovecraft's works: Ancient, shunned, and frequently deformed families with dark ties inhabiting the dark corners of the world.
  • The Fallout 3 Official Game Guide includes an image captioned, "Ug-Qualtoth knows the gate. Ug-Qualtoth is the gate. Ug-Qualtoth is the key and guardian of the gate!" This is a quote from The Dunwich Horror which originally pertained to Yog-Sothoth.
  • Dunwich Borers is a pun on The Dunwich Horror.
  • A character named Adam Whateley would later find another buried obelisk in Winter of Atom.
• The descent into the depths of the Dunwich Building, along with the discovery of Jaime Palabras at the altar of Ug-Qualtoth, also resembles the plot of The Rats in the Walls. In it, the last member of the Delapore family restores the family's former manor in England, Exham Priory, and takes up residence there, only to discover a horrifying secret within its depths that drives him to madness.
  • This also bears some resemblance to aspects of Obadiah Blackhall's premise, namely Blackhall Manor.
• In the original version of Point Lookout, the tribe (known in cut content as the "Krvibi") worshipped Ug-Qualtoth, an apparent homage to similar themes in Lovecraftian works. Many if not all of these lines are still voiced in the game files. At some point, the story was revised so that the swampfolk were the group directly worshipping Ug-Qualtoth.
  • In the final version, the tribe worship the Mother Punga. Their religion is concerned with dream worlds, another famous Lovecraftian motif.
• Jaime utters the name "Alhazred" while raving, a name which can also be heard by the player in the ambience at the Dunwich Building, the Red Racer factory, the ritual site, and the sacred bog. In the fiction of the Lovecraft mythos, Alhazred is the author of the Necronomicon, a mythical book of morbid rituals. The Krivbeknih is a direct stand-in for the Necronomicon.
  • Winter of Atom would later introduce a pre-War occultist's revolver called the Magnum-nomicon.

Gallery

Sketch of the obelisk found in the Dunwich Building cut from Fallout 3 (also present in the files of Fallout: New Vegas)

Close up of the figure on the obelisk

Profile view

See also

• Ritual site, where Ug-Qualtoth is worshiped through sacrifice.
• Blackhall Manor, which also hides a bloody altar to Ug-Qualtoth.
• Dunwich Borers, another subterranean ritual space once owned by Richard Dunwich, where a strange art deco sculpture was found.
• The Interloper, whose lair hides a mysterious obelisk, as well as several unearthed art deco sculptures.
• The Buried City, where a similar obelisk is hidden.

References

Non-game

Fallout: The Roleplaying Game

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