Design Diary: Why Bokrug Made the Cut for Cthulhu Wars' Great Old One Pack 2

Who Is Bokrug, and Why Does He Get a Colossal Miniature in Cthulhu Wars?

Bokrug is a neutral Great Old One in Cthulhu Wars, a vengeful lizard-god pulled from H.P. Lovecraft's 1919 story "The Doom That Came to Sarnath." He isn't tied to a single faction. Any of the game's four core factions can recruit him, and he ships in Great Old One Pack 2 with his own colossal miniature and spellbook, alongside Atlach-Nacha, Father Dagon, and Ghatanothoa.

I get asked about this pick a lot. Cthulhu Wars already has Cthulhu himself, Hastur, Shub-Niggurath. Why spend a whole sculpt on a god most people have never heard of? That's the question this diary answers.

Why I Picked an Obscure Entity Over a Bigger Name

Depth sells. That's the short version. Everyone who buys a Lovecraft-themed game already knows Cthulhu. They picked up the box because of that name, or because a friend showed them a green octopus-headed miniature and they had to have one too. What keeps a collector coming back for the third and fourth expansion is the feeling that the world underneath the famous name goes deeper than they realized.

Bokrug does that job. He's not a background cameo from a Cthulhu story, he's the entire point of one of Lovecraft's earliest weird tales, a story most Cthulhu Wars owners have never actually read. When a Great Old One Pack ships an entity like this, that's not padding. That's an invitation. Somebody unboxes a lizard-god miniature, looks him up, and finds a piece of Lovecraft's fiction they'd never have opened otherwise. I've watched that happen at conventions more than once, and it's one of my favorite things about running a Great Old One line rather than a plain faction list.

A practical design reason matters too. A colossal Great Old One needs a distinct silhouette on a crowded table. A serpentine, reptilian figure reads completely differently next to the aquatic curves of Father Dagon or the spider-legged sprawl of Atlach-Nacha. Bokrug earns his spot on the sculpting list the same way every Great Old One does: distinct mythos, distinct shape, distinct reason for a faction to want him at their side for a game.

What's the Story Behind Bokrug in Lovecraft's Fiction?

Revenge, patient and total. In "The Doom That Came to Sarnath," Lovecraft writes of the amphibious Thuum'ha people of the city of Ib, on the shore of a lake in the land of Mnar, who worship a water-lizard idol called Bokrug. Invaders from the nearby city of Sarnath slaughter the people of Ib and carry off the idol as a trophy. A thousand years later, on the exact anniversary of that massacre, Bokrug rises from the lake and wipes Sarnath from the map so completely that later travelers can't find so much as a ruin, according to the entity's entry in Wikipedia's list of Cthulhu Mythos deities.

Lovecraft wrote the story in 1919, and it first saw print the following year, well before he built out the wider mythos that later gave us Cthulhu and the Necronomicon. It's one of his "Dunsanian" tales, closer to a dark fable than the cosmic horror people associate with his later work. You can read the full plot summary and publication history on Wikipedia's page for "The Doom That Came to Sarnath" if you want the source material before you meet the miniature.

That's the story I wanted a piece of Cthulhu Wars to carry: patience, judgment, a debt that comes due no matter how long it takes. It's a smaller, older kind of horror than a world-ending Great Old One like Cthulhu, and it deserved its own figure rather than a footnote.

Is Bokrug a Faction in Cthulhu Wars?

No. Bokrug is a Great Old One, not a faction, and getting that distinction right matters if you're shopping for Cthulhu Wars expansions. Factions are the playable sides of the game. The core O4 box ships four of them: Great Cthulhu, Crawling Chaos (Nyarlathotep), Black Goat of the Woods (Shub-Niggurath), and Yellow Sign (Hastur, the King in Yellow). Each faction has its own cult, starting units, and spellbook, and each is a full player slot at the table.

Great Old Ones are a separate class entirely: neutral, colossal figures sold in standalone Great Old One Packs, each with an individual spellbook. Bokrug lives in Pack 2. Any faction, whether core or an expansion faction, can recruit him for a match rather than owning him outright, and he doesn't belong permanently to anyone. That's true of every entity across both Great Old One Packs, Pack 1's lineup of Abhoth, Chaugnar Faugn, Cthugha, Mother Hydra, and Yig included. If a description calls Bokrug a faction, it's got the categories mixed up.

What Else Ships in Great Old One Pack 2?

Bokrug shares the box with three other colossal entities: Atlach-Nacha, Father Dagon, and Ghatanothoa. Each one gets its own spellbook and its own reason to make the cut, and each has enough going on to deserve a dedicated write-up rather than a paragraph here. What ties all four together is the same design goal behind Bokrug: neutral, cross-faction figures pulled from corners of the mythos that reward players who go looking past the obvious names. If you want the full roster comparison, our Great Old One Pack 1 vs. Pack 2 guide breaks down which pack to grab first.

How Do You Add Bokrug to Your Cthulhu Wars Collection?

Bokrug comes in Great Old One Pack 2, currently listed at $34.99 and in stock on the Petersen Games site (re-verify pricing and availability on the live product page, since both can change). You'll need the Cthulhu Wars core game first. The O4 Edition ships with the four core factions, plus the map, dice, and units you need to actually field a recruited Great Old One during a game.

In-stock orders process within 48 hours. US orders ship via USPS Ground Advantage, typically 2 to 5 business days in transit. Canadian orders ship via DHL Ground, typically 3 to 7 business days in transit. Rates are calculated at checkout based on destination, weight, and size.

If you already own the core box and a faction or two, Pack 2 rounds out your Great Old One roster without committing to a whole new player slot. Four neutral entities, one purchase, compatible with whatever's already on your shelf.