Are Deep Ones evil? There has been a lot of complicated discourse about a variety of creatures, whether it's drow, most notably, but also even orcs and goblins. I wanted to talk about those, but decided to instead talk about creatures like Deep Ones. Are Deep Ones evil? For that matter, is Cthulhu evil? Is Dagon evil?
There isn't much point to belabor Dagon; in the story, the sailor flees. Cthulhu — sure, his "dream self" chases after the narrator (who again, is fleeing) and his people might have destroyed the Elder Things' civilization (partially). Ok, Cthulhu might be a warmonger, but he's asleep, and Lovecraft says he's beyond such petty concepts of human morality. Let's just focus on a more relatable being — the Deep Ones. (What about the drow? Hold on.)
While I do think that some Lovecraftian creatures are evil, we have to evaluate each creature or entity based on the little writing that we have access to. This is not to ignore that the mere existence of these beings is often harmful to humans. We have to look at the behavior of the creatures and see if the behavior of the creatures takes joy in the suffering of other beings, if they are depriving others of their own inherent freedoms, etc. Obviously we could go deeper, but this isn't a philosophy class; let's focus on your average everyday Deep One.
If a Deep One were to go around torturing humans — I guess maybe luring them to the water and drowning them or something — I think it would be fair to say that they're evil. However, I don't think we see that. In fact, you see Deep Ones making deals with the humans in the Innsmouth story.
Ok, I've been challenged on the Innsmouth story. Let me lay out some more assumptions. My assumption is that morally the Deep Ones make a deal with the humans and expect the humans to pay up. What seems horrible to the humans, is probably appreciated by their immortal hybrid children. Why are they deep ones even doing this? We don't really know. It sounds like a lot of work, and of course, after the humans are fed and rich, they back out of the deal. It's a bad deal, and if it was a deal made by humans, it would be evil. But it's a deal by fish people and it's potentially even how they procreate, whatever the reason is, I doubt it's "for the LOLs." The villagers made the deal, they were happy with the deal, heck their hybrid grandchildren ultimately end up immortal in Y'ha-nthlei. Sure, you or I might think looking like a Deep One is a horrible existence, but presumably not the fish people, Plenty of people would do far more to become immortal than be forced to eat sushi for the rest of their lives. It's the humans who are the "evil" ones in this scenario, trading their youth without their consent for gold (and food).
Ok, again, sure they don't have an "urgent" reason to breed for numbers, but I would argue that to not procreate is to eventually allow your civilization to disintegrate. When you're immortal, and you lose a member here and there to various beings, to not replace those lost members is losing out on contributions for potentially millennia. And you're right on the agents on land, because you have an upcoming problem of humans who are becoming ever more technologically adept and without eyes on land, you might be surprised when suddenly humans are invading your space.
Regardless, their behavior doesn't seem to be inherently for the intent of being evil, Machiavellian schemes, or doing anything specifically against humans. I think that Deep Ones, like most Lovecraftian creatures, just exist doing their indecipherable things. So in my opinion, my internal head canon, the Deep Ones aren't inherently malicious. And that is the way that I am approaching Deep Ones.
Not Being Evil, Does Not Mean Safe
They are not evil, but you still do not want to meet one in the middle of the night because chances are, whatever it is doing, your awareness of it is a threat. Maybe it's scouting or something and thinks you being aware of it will bring other humans with weapons or something. If it thinks that you are endangering it, it will probably kill you. But not out of malice — no, it will kill you purely out of self-preservation. Deep Ones could probably have forced themselves on humans and taken what they wanted, but they made deals. Deep Ones could be going around massacring more towns, but instead are providing gold and food. They punished the humans who tried to back out of it, but instead of saying it's because they're "evil," I think it's because they simply don't care about humans much at all.
So, are Deep Ones evil? Let me know. Post in the comments.
Oh wait — I said I'd bring up the drow, right? I've been circling around a concept called essentialism and have completely ignored free will. Essentialism is saying that an entire group is inherently evil (often associated with the concept of a cosmic axis), but that deserves its own entire article. The origin of this article was me trying to explain to my wife how we generally no longer accept "innate evil" in even fantasy species, which she scoffed at. Rejecting essentialism isn't to say we aren't willing to write the drow as mostly evil due to their totalitarian society strongly influenced by an insane murder goddess (she's a spider goddess, but you know, she seems inordinately preoccupied with killing) — but that we write them as evil solely due to their upbringing and not some fundamental genetic trait.
If you want more exploration of the drow, Deep Ones, or even whether Cthulhu is truly "beyond our concept of morality" as Lovecraft says, let me know! Otherwise, until then, keep on reading!
