How do I write/describe/characterize true eldritch abominations beyond mortal understanding?
Focus on their effects on people and the environment without actually describing them.
>>46335617
Don't describe or characterize them.
>>46335638
This
Also, listening and / or reading more H.P. Lovecraft
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=h.p.lovecraft
You don't "characterize" a Eldritch abomination. The PCs shouldn't be able to interact with them in any meaningful way, and the most attention a Cthulu or a Hastor should give to the players is obliviously destroying their cities while taking a stroll.
As for describing them I tend to avoid comparisons to more mundane animals. It's not exactly terrifying if your abomination boils down to "person with a fuck ton of eyeballs"
Get addicted to heroin u fop
describe them in other ways, like a taste in your mouth or a sensation in your body.
>>46335617
You don't. You describe the phenomena they cause.
Optional: Then you add that the characters are getting a headache trying to figure out an inconsistency in what they're seeing. As they're reacting to the phenomena as you described them you drop some clues that the description is incorrect.
Give them a discernable motivation for something completely beyond the perspective of humans.
Like "outlast entropy, shit I'm pretty bad at creativity, good thing I can infect these weird flesh things with components of myself and watch what they do to get ideas".
Meanwhile the world tears itself apart from the actions of psychotic superhumans with horrifying powers.
Or "I want to breed" so it begins compelling humans to bond together in ways that allow their flesh and psyches to fuse together into a nascent abomination themselves.
"I want to kill my cousin", so the eldritch thing grants the humans a new and varied amount of things to kill modeled off aspects of its cousin to get inspiration for counters
Meanwhile mankind is under siege by eldritch monsters
>>46335819
I'm seeing a bit of Worm there.
>>46335617
You don't.
Just don't try it.
I know. I tried.
To this day im thinking about some cool stuff i could write about 'the things beyond' in my Mage campaigning.
I mean the fucking thing is on the tin.
How do you want to describe something beyond mortal understating for mortal players.
You go around it. Try to think some fucked up and complex ideas into a game, describe phenomena and effects of the eldritch abominations on humans.
>>46335873
>Just finish Worm
>Read this
Talk about a small world.
>>46335617
Contradictions over contradictions, make them realize that they can't understand it
>>46336760
It's a worm thread now
>>46336760
>>46335873
Whats "Worm?"
>>46336877
Teen titans * Enders game * mean girls
>>46336877
A sort of web novel. Follows a girl who gets the power to control insects and spiders and all that icky garbage. Really gets creative with it.
>>46336922
>>tfw a space corpse ghost tries to grow into the world
:(
>>46336957
What I want to know is what Noelle would've been if she took the full thing.
>>46336922
Did I find the right site?
>>46335617
"Among the agonies of these after days is that chief of torments- inarticulateness. What I learned and saw in those hours of impious exploration can never be told- for want of symbols or suggestions in any language. I say this because from first to last our discoveries partook only of the nature of sensations; sensations correlated with no impression which the nervous system of normal humanity is capable of receiving. They were sensations, yet within them lay unbelievable elements of time and space- things which at bottom possess no distinct and definite existence. Human utterance can best convey the general character of our experiences by calling them plungings or soarings; for in every period of revelation some part of our minds broke boldly away from all that is real and present, rushing aerially along shocking, unlighted, and fear-haunted abysses, and occasionally tearing through certain well-marked and typical obstacles describable only as viscous, uncouth clouds of vapors."
***
"Screamingly sentient, dumbly delirious, only the gods that were can tell. A sickened, sensitive shadow writhing in hands that are not hands, and whirled blindly past ghastly midnights of rotting creation, corpses of dead worlds with sores that were cities, charnel winds that brush the pallid stars and make them flicker low. Beyond the worlds vague ghosts of monstrous things; half-seen columns of unsanctifled temples that rest on nameless rocks beneath space and reach up to dizzy vacua above the spheres of light and darkness. And through this revolting graveyard of the universe the muffled, maddening beating of drums, and thin, monotonous whine of blasphemous flutes from inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond Time; the detestable pounding and piping whereunto dance slowly, awkwardly, and absurdly the gigantic, tenebrous ultimate gods the blind, voiceless, mindless gargoyles whose soul is Nyarlathotep."
>>46337039
Yep. Get ready, it's long.
>>46337039
That's it. Starts slow. There's a podcast if that's more up your alley
>>46337221
The sound of weird lyric melody was what aroused me. Chords, vibrations, and harmonic ecstasies echoed passionately on every hand, while on my ravished sight burst the stupendous spectacle ultimate beauty. Walls, columns, and architraves of living fire blazed effulgently around the spot where I seemed to float in air, extending upward to an infinitely high vaulted dome of indescribable splendor. Blending with this display of palatial magnificence, or rather, supplanting it at times in kaleidoscopic rotation, were glimpses of wide plains and graceful valleys, high mountains and inviting grottoes, covered with every lovely attribute of scenery which my delighted eyes could conceive of, yet formed wholly of some glowing, ethereal plastic entity, which in consistency partook as much of spirit as of matter. As I gazed, I perceived that my own brain held the key to these enchanting metamorphoses; for each vista which appeared to me was the one my changing mind most wished to behold. Amidst this elysian realm I dwelt not as a stranger, for each sight and sound was familiar to me; just as it had been for uncounted eons of eternity before, and would be for like eternities to come.
>>46337242
Finally found good art of Bitch. Well, of her dogs. Thanks anon.
>>46337221
>>46337302
>> I know, I'll reference hp Lovecraft out of context!
A lot of DMs do this for some reason. It's not a good idea. The spook should be in the conflict
>>46337848
What's out of context about HP Lovecraft in a thread about Eldritch horrors, Anon?
You don't show the beginning or end of an eldritch being's powers, motivations, actions, forms, or anything else about them. Eldritch abominations are like frightful and inexplicable experiences that logically can't have happened, but which can't be forgotten either, leaving you to wondering whether there's a whole gamut of vast inexplicableness beyond your ken, or, in the best of cases, whether you're psychotic.
>>46338307
Or, think of an eldritch experience as a sudden gust of wind: you know that the wind blew, but you know nothing about the meteorological, hydrological, etc. circumstances or explanations behind what happened, you only know that you experienced a gust of wind. That's the level of understanding you're operating on.
>>46335617
It doesn't always look the same, and may not even look the same to two people looking at it at the same time.
This thread is relevant to my interests because i'm running WHFRP and i'll want to eventually include encounters with chaos, but I never want interactions with magick or daemons to ever become trivial.
Any tips on this score?
>>46338686
Warhammer Chaos is so comprehensive it's funny, it's like the anti-Lovecraft.
Even Lovecraft says the beings in his tails are indescribably horrific to behold, then proceeds to describe how they look in the next breath. I don't think you need to be overly concerned with how you do this.
>>46335762
>>46335788
These are great suffestions though
>>46338686
You don't have a lot of shots at this. Once your players get used to it the effect is gone.
Be urgent but unclear. Be inconsistent in your descriptions but not completely incoherent. Give them room to maneuver but leave doubt about it being the right choice. Inflict seemingly avoidable damage and threaten with seemingly unavoidable damage.
>>46337026
Probably something like Satyrical considering the other half of the vial was Balance formula
>>46338720
Not to the average peasant. As a force in the world, players with perfect knowledge can understand The Four, yes, but I feel that to the common folk the winds of magick, daemons and the occult should be baffling, incomprehensible, horrifying and intangible forces.
>>46338023
You're just posting a story. That doesn't show you how to transpose into a game
>>46339009
I'm not the one who posted the story, Anon, I just wanted to know why you thought relevant posts weren't relevant.
"it slid through the ceiling like hot oil. screaming darkness from it's many eyes as it's face jumped into the farmers chest. blood spilled onto the floor as it's fingers frantically scraped along the walls and it's tongues lashed wildly through the air."
all you have to do is poorly explain things that don't actually make sense
>>46335617
You literally don't, that's kind of the fucking point. You can't characterize them because they are by definition uncharacterised. They're eldritch. Beyond the scope of the mortal mind. Characterising something inherently attempts to bring it down to a level that a reader can understand, which is the opposite of what you want to do.
You describe the absence of things, or the effect they have on what is around them, or throw your readers for a loop with almost non-contextual/non-sequieter depictions. If you are trying to describe an eldritch being by itself, you have fucking failed. If you describe it as a mass of eyes and tentacles and mouths, you need to fucking kill yourself because THAT IS NOT HOW IT FUCKING WORKS
ATRRGDFDGSD
>>46338784
Something else that gets me is that we never saw any real outrage against Mannequin. Think about. Someone has the answers, the potential to solve world hunger, to put us on the moon.
And he hides it away, simultaneously killing those who could make the difference. Were I Armsmaster I'd have lost my shit.
>You have players roll for perception
>Each player character sees a different thing depending on what they roll.
>Lowest success lets characters see familiar yet oddly functioning body parts reaching out of the darkness
>Middling successful rolls reveal the hideous body that the parts are attached to
>Characters that got the best rolls see the body is only the physical appendage of an ethereal greater form
>>46335617
Describe sensations, not specifics. Being vague enough to suggest an outline, but not enough to do a detailed sketch from. The worst part of Lovecraft's monsters were when he, like, gives detailed descriptions of the Yith's dimensions and proportions.
"What skitters towards you causes your nose to wrinkle in unconscious and fundamental rejection of its very matter. It bristles with a million tiny protrusions, with one long, curling extension from its semi-vertebrate frame. The thing makes a queer, high-pitched rumbling sound as it slides its rough flank against the windowsill."
What did I just describe?
Use weird yet consistent description of it's anatomy during combat or outside of it:
It gracefully unhinges it's jaw to get a better a look at you through it's omniscience sphere
It unfolds it's wings to release more starving souvenirs from the prison cells in it's patterned feathers
It coughs repeatedly which pries loose pieces of marble from the polished floor and sends the shards heavensward
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/12130366/
Start here.
As you will soon discover, there's no need to describe the undiscribable and explain the unexplainable if you play your cards right.
>>46336922
>Follows a girl who gets the power to control insects and spiders and all that icky garbage
Sounds like the movie Phenomena.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXyRsOJo0fo
>>46341895
These are very good.
>>46342227
Yup it's even got a knife villain
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_kELMhSRoxU
>>46335617
how can one describe what cannot be seen?
>>46342446
In all seriousness, it's the effects of what an eldritch abomination has on the environment that causes horror, what you don't see. think of cloverfield. you almost never saw anything of the monster until the very end. the buildup was awesome seeing how it reduced the city to a ruin from a personal pov.
>>46341857
>>46338720
Most of that is bad writing and a near psychotic desire to describe every single part of the setting whether its relevant or not.
Not to mention a lot of chaos's more "unknowable" parts like chaos undivided or the idea of the major chaos gods just being the manifestations of some far larger and infinitely more powerful force got shaved off in order to make chaos easier for GW's target demographicchildrento understand.
>>46335617
just scream or make noises when people ask what they see
>>46343101
If they ask for more info, you just punch them in the face.
Repeat if they keep asking
There are a couple of approaches, none of them easy to translate to a game. In a story you can direct the reader: make them wonder, withhold information, show what you want to show. In an RPG, the description will always to some extent serve to tell players how they can interact with the thing.
"It's not so tall you can't climb."
"It's too dark to read clearly."
"Look, this is basically a 'cut scene' because you can't interact profitably with this and I'll stop/save you before you try."
Whatever you say, the players will press you for details, which undermines the mood, because the implicit question following all the descriptions and questions will always be, "what do your characters do now?"
So to describe something the characters have no hope of understanding while still conveying something to the players is a tall order.
One thing you can do is make the players not want to know. Horror invokes the most primitive, visceral reactions in a reader. It's not just fear of some terrible danger, but also dread of something inevitable, creepiness or suspense about something that may or may not be dangerous, disgust at something fundamentally unpleasant to our mind's eye, and despair at what's occured (or int he case of Lovecraft, that becomes known). The goal of a horror writer is to use the reader's brain to get at their guts.
That's the sort of talents you'll have to tap into here, and that's very tough for an RPG.
>>46343441
So I got a little carried away there. Let's circle back around to the "how".
1) Ideally, the thing is horrific to the players. That makes them not want to dwell on it too much. This is a tricky line to toe, because you want the players to be a bit uncomfortable, but not so much that it just breaks them out of identifying with the story altogether. For example, a lot of amateurs jump right to body horror like gore or rape because 1) that's edge-lord level Eeee-vil right there, and 2) it makes most people uncomfortable. It's an example of a terrible idea because most people just stop asking "what's wrong with the character" and instead asks "what's wrong with this writer?"
2) Barring that, the answers must elude the players. The best way to do this is to make the actual threat elude the players for as long as possible, building up suspense all the while. Eventually, you have to open the "scary door" When you do, you don't want to say "and behind it is a 50 foot centipede!", because inevitably people will say, "oh thank God. I was worried it was a 200 foot iguana." The threat you create will never live up to the threat they imagine.
>>46343530
3) You've got to break them out of their comfort zone. This is something an RPG can actually do well.
Let's digress in D&D history a bit: when Arneson wanted to drag players our of his dungeon and send them to a remote province, he pulled out the Wilderness Adventure board game. When Gygax wanted to throw his players for a loop, he warped them into the wild west and started using Boot Hill rules without telling them. Greenwood once described a seafaring card game he built so his players could play-out the odd cruise down the coast, sung a deck of cards to generate pirate or sea monster encounters. The Birthright campaign setting at one point devolves into risk.
There are a few good lessons. One is not to reinvent the wheel or make one game into a piss-poor version of another game. Just play the other game. The other is that unusual character situations feel more unusual when you similarly put the players off guard. Don't let the fight with the Elder Evil be the same as a fight with an ogre.
>>46341087
Because all the outrage went towards the Simurgh. She essentially killed (forgot his name), the scientist who could do good shit, and turned him into Mannequin - the crazy serial killer.
That's her whole thing. She uses bullshit telekinesis and precognition to scramble people's brains. Getting mad at her victims instead of her is like getting mad at a dead person because a necromancer raised up their skeleton to attack people.
>>46343774
That's one way to look at it, but you can reach out and really throttle Mannequin if you wanted to. You can't hurt Simurgh the same way.
>>46344377
That'd be more common if Mannequin's fate was something less common, but millions of people have been fucked over like him. It's harder to blame someone who suffered the same fate as your friends, family, and countrymen when there's afakeperson going around causing it all as a face you can look at and hate. Blaming Mannequin over Simurgh requires some massive mental gymnastics if a person also think quarantining the attacked cities is a good idea, and there are very few people in the setting who don't support that. And most of the ones who don't like quarantines are in support of outright killing everyone instead.
>>46335617
Have you ever watched some video where for a few seconds you could absolutely make out what you were seeing before realizing, "Oh it is just X or Y..." but running backward or upside down or something? To recognize what you're seeing your brain needs to have a pretty good idea of what it's about to see. In lack of any understanding your eyes would jump from a moving piece to another, drift away a second later unable to keep focus on anything while struggling to get a fix onto something, but you would be unable to see the whole picture, in some sort of simultagnosia (give a quick look at the wiki page for agnisia). You wouldn't even be able to realize you have anything right in front of you, it would be weird, blurry... and oh, oh shit my eyes feels funny... why are my eyes bleeding?
Lovecraft wasn't so far off the mark with its description of diverse elements of an indescribable whole.
"The gnashing of teeth in the back of your skull, the feeling of a fever behind your eyes, your hands curled around raw meat, the blood leaking between your fingers."
This is the way I described being around demigods. It simply feels different than mortals. Depends entirely on the demigod, but it is often very visceral feelings.
>>46341087
The simurgh mindfucked him, made him into a monster, the real mannequin, the man who wanted to end world hunger and dreamed of mankind reaching the stars is long dead, all that is left is a angry ghost mindfucked by the simurgh, I pity him.
In a similar way to what other people suggest: These things are so far removed from anything a human has ever experienced, that the senses break down trying to interpret the input. Either because like >>46345283, where the sensing organs themselves malfunction, or >>46345249
where the brain attempts to understand it, but was never meant to, and thus short-circuit, coming up with nothing, possibly getting permanently hurt in the process.
It walked with a jerking halted step as though it had long observed humans walk but didn't full grasp its application.
But, as it drew nearer a maddening buzzing sound filled the air as I fought desperately to resist the urge to claw at my inner ears I was assailed by its odour the smell of human waste and sweat ravaged my sense it did the unspeakable, in my dazzed and confused state against any control of my own motor functions I had stumbled into its path and caught it's horrible attention..
No description could do it true justice, in a sound that felt like a razer blade being dragged across my eyeball, a croaking sound imitating voice it's breathe akin to a thousand sepulchres venting their sulfurous noxious gases, it spoke..
"Ey mate for a spare ciggey?"
To this day I have never been able to take public transit, the mental shock is too great for my senses and I now scream hysterically when ever someone asks for change
If you describe them, try to give a description that doesn't make sense, and you can't actually visualise. In my games, Death is described as having wings that fill the entirety of the sky, no matter where you look. Once there was a demon that was described as two straight lines that produced an enclosed shape.
>>46348536
Ooh, those are good ones.
I'm a fan of colours that don't exist for descriptions.
>>46335617
Have an aneurysm in the middle.
>>46335617
Do not describe what's supposed to be indescribable
In the vein of worm, you could do a similar thing. The entity might look pretty normal, if not a bit strange, but you could then reveal that bit of the entity is really a slam limb in a massive being, beyond understanding.
>>46350702
*small limb
Fuck me I suck at typing.
>>46335617
>How do I write/describe/characterize true eldritch abominations beyond mortal understanding?
As you look upon the creature, you feel your toes swell and your giggles snap into twelve pieces. A putrid scent refreshes you from timeless absurdity. Unbeknownst, nihilism scoffs your tabard. The angles, the angles sing and ring and pull you into their murky depths, tittering like schoolgirls drinking the fresh blood of an innocent man. Smiling, they beckon you into obsidian pools.
Become conversant in Cuil derivations and then Cuil otherwise normal things.
