"The Elder Sign? Isn't that thing, in the eyes of the Great Old Ones..."
Before the Mysterious Lord could finish blurting out his words, he froze on the spot...
The Elder Sign, also known simply as the Sign.
It referred to a seal of power created by the deities among the ancient beings, some of whom had banished or exiled Great Old Ones!
When ordinary Great Old Ones saw someone holding that kind of seal, they generally took a detour without another word!
But that wasn't because the Great Old Ones feared the seal!
It was purely because those seals had been imbued with special rules and powers by the Elder Gods.
In the eyes of the vast majority of Great Old Ones, those things were just like the excrement of beings on the level of the Elder Gods!
Even looking at them made them sick!
To give a very simple example.
As a Great Old One, upon seeing an interesting mortal, one might normally prod them with a few tentacles or a little power.
Then one would drive them mad, or forcibly turn that somewhat interesting mortal into a servant of the ancient beings.
But it was like a human seeing a fly that had just crawled out of a toilet. Even if that fly's wings were already soaked through, the human would never consider crushing it under a shoe.
The principle was exactly the same.
No matter how interesting a mortal was, even if his art transcended worldly conventions, the moment he brought out an Elder Sign...
However elegant his art might be, to the Great Old Ones, he was still a maggot smeared in shit!
At most, the chamber pot he lived in had a gilded rim!
So...
For Azathoth to do this to Ghatanothoa, who was