The Defiler Edition
This thread is meant to discuss Lovecraft's Works and other related media like tabletop games, video games, etc
Previous Thread:
>>47581698
The Texts of Lore that Men were not meant to know:
http://www.eldritchdark.com
http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/
A good playlist about the gods and other entities of Lovecraft:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-aprpylMuCdnaFEYwTzAobqUZGxS1D5p
>I'll swallow your soul!
>Swallow this.
>Please create a new thread when the Bump Limit has been reached and we are in the Lower Pages.
>If you don't horrors beyond your comprehendsion will shitpost.
>>47707112
YOU MADMAN! YOU'VE DOOMED US ALL. THE DEFILER IS NOW FREED.
>>47707112
Wrong previous thread again, you should have named this "Why Can't We Get Things Right? Edition
Actual Previous Thread:
>>47660271
Could've made the thread a little earlier, so I'd been able to post updated version of the DnD Mythos thing from last thread, now with all the cleric domains (although without domain spells, as I plan to make some homebrew spells, some of which might end up as domain spells). But now I'm off to a con, so you'll have to wait until Sunday or Monday.
So, what homebrew stuff have you added to the mythos? I usually try to come up with new aliens and gods but have some of the same reference points as the standard mythos, because my players have mostly read lovecraft themselves. Better to keep them guessing what will happen next, because meta knowledge is unfortunately insidious.
>>47707391
Which con, might I ask?
>>47708698
Desucon. It's an anime convention, and in Finland, so I doubt I run into any of you. If you are there, if I'm not attending a lecture I'll probably be found hanging out in the game room.
>>47707112
What's a good place to start with Lovecraft? I know very little about it, apart from what's general knowledge and what I've seen around /tg/ now and then.
>>47710616
In my advice start with:
>colour out of space, the best books for alien and weird creatures
>Rats in the Walls, personal favourite and a good one for the madness theme
>Mountains of Maddness, gives the most backstory in terms of Lovecraft's universe
>>47710991
>colour out of space
My Niggerman. Years ago I read the entire works of Lovecraft in one book and that story was an amazing little treat somewhere in the middle. It was an amazingly creative idea for an alien life form, way ahead of its time. The story was legitimately spooky as fuck.
>>47710991
Eh, I personally think you should read Mountains of Madness last, or near to last. If only because it kind of demystifies a lot.
>>47712469
I believe he said it was his personal favorite as well. It's definitely at least in the top 5 of his best, probably competing for number one.
>>47712469
his work varies in quality pretty greatly. Colour out of Space being one of the best, both in terms of creativity of the alien, and in doing a good job describing the human element of the horror, with the growing helplessness of the family.
>>47710991
I'd add Shadow over Innsmouth, but at the end of that list. It's pretty classic.
>>47712574
>>47712496
>>47712484
>>47712469
>>47710991
So Colour out of Space, then Shadow over Innsmouth?
So adding this in there, but New Delta Green makes me pretty excited.
It goes a fair bit beyond just Lovecraft works, all of the Call of Cthulhu games have done a fair bit do this incorporating other works in the mythos, but DG also pulls in conspiracy theories and other bits to make it is own thing.
Which, btw, Lovecraft would probably be totally cool with, he worked with other writers and mixed their worlds and references together. He liked that shit.
Delta Green makes things a little bit more concrete and unified that Lovecraft did, as you kinda need to when making a setting, but I like that they do still spend some time to keep things vague and optional. Even when they go 'x is really this in our writting, but you can do other things, like this or this, or whatever you want'.
If my current main campaign group falls apart I'm making a DG campaign if it kills me.
>>47712608
Well SoI is a bit longer, all of the novellas a fairly short, but CooS and RitW are both very quick reads.
But yeah, those are great reads to start, you could easily finish all three in a day.
If you look in the right places they are free, because they came out before copyright laws shut that down.
>>47712608
I'd also suggest Haunter of the Dark, if only because it's comfy as shit.
I asked this in this other thread
>>47707281
but this one seems more active.
Which is better: Call of Cthulhu or Trail of Cthulhu? Is either better for certain types of games? I'm thinking of running a game in 1930s Appalachia.
>>47712831
"The Haunter of the Dark" is probably one of my favorite Lovecraft stories. I don't know how good of an introduction to his "Mythos" it is for people looking for that (since it doesn't really interact with or contribute to it that much), but it's a great read.
Regarding that Anon's original request for reading, I'd suggest grabbing one of the Penguin Classics collections--probably "The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories", if only because it was the first one published chronologically. They're cheap, pack a lot of content, and have extensive footnotes and appendices that shed some light on how the stories are related to each-other and to Lovecraft's life.
That sounds like a lot for an "intro", I know. But seriously, it's good shit. The stories themselves are slightly updated versions of the Arkham House versions, who were themselves corrected versions of the originally published stories (painstakingly done, based on hunting down the original manuscripts to figure out which textual errors, typos, and other fuck-ups were done by Lovecraft or added by the crappy magazines he was mostly employed by, among other tedious and boring things). This is a long way of me saying that they're easier to read and more accurate to Lovecraft's original writing than the published ones you'll find for free. Speaking for myself, that justified me paying money for them as opposed to just googling "The Works of H.P. Lovecraft" and reading the published versions off of a website.
In addition: the appendices were actually, written by the same guy who corrected the stories, S.T. Joshi. The man knows his shit, and they make for a good read themselves.
Dagon & Beyond the Wall of Sleep: the ones where his themes start to show.
Call of Cthulhu: the one where he gets its all together and working.
Color out of Space & Whisperer in Darkness: the best written ones.
Shadow out of time & Mountains of Madness: the ones he thought were his best.
Haunted in the Dark: him at his peak
Figure I should mention it here, the podcat HPpodcast has summaries and reviews of all Lovecrafts works, including the ghost written and cowritten ones, and some excellent readings.
Don't be discourage by the stuff on the front page requiring a paid subscription, that's for the stuff they did after they finished all of Lovecrafts works and started covering other stuff of similar themes. Last I checked the Lovecraft stuff is still free.
>>47714973
They are fantastic
Really their are so many good CoC and HPL podcasts.
Good friends of Kackson Ellis
Miskatonic university podcast
Skype of Cthulhu
Unspeakable Oath
Real talk, are the Skaven (and more specifically the Doom of Kavzar) meant to be a homage to Lovecraft?
>>47715130
not really.
There are some references, but not as an overall thing.
The Dark Heresy rule books have quite a few reference to Lovecraft as well, though those books are full of references and easter eggs.
>/ysg/ became a stable general
Feels good
ok but
ok but
ok but tgwhere the eldritch porn at?
>>47715683
The anime versions of eldritch gods or the actual good stuff?
My personal favorite is "Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath".
It's not his best work by any means, but it's kind of a grand tour. The ending might be considered a cop-out, but without spoiling, I think there's something melancholy about it that makes me forgive. Particularly given what I know of Lovecraft and what happened to his work afterwards.
>>47715683
>not fapping to ASG on /ysg/?
Why live?
>>47715804
I'm sure it's been mentioned before, but I've always thought it would make a great animated children's movie. Studio Ghibli style.
There's a CoC supplement for playing in the Dream Realm right?
>>47715734
there's good stuff?
So... Anyone have experience with trail of Cthulhu?
Looking for good PURIST style modules to run. Starting with The Watchers in the Sky.
>>47712469
>Niggerman
Wasn't that the name of Lovecraft's cat as well?
>>47715651
Saved
>>47717646
Why does that seem typical of Lovecraft to name his cat Niggerman?
>>47707112
>https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-aprpylMuCdnaFEYwTzAobqUZGxS1D5p
These videos are awful. The names are pronounced all wrong, and the narrator clearly doesn't understand significant concepts of the Mythos.
>>47718150
>ahgast I beheld the gibbering, shuddering nigger!
>Mup da doo didda
>po mo gub bidda be
>dat tum muhfugen
>bix nood!
>cof bin dub ho
>muhfugga
>>47718150
It was a childhood cat. His parents named it.
>>47718495
Even more typical.
>>47718261
This is why we need the black people eating penguins
>>47718163
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV_1P4YYczU
Better?
What the fuck is this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkPqFt5Z0RQ
>>47719221
Oh, sweet lord. There's is six of these?
>>47718163
>pronounced wrong
>not knowing that HPL himself constantly changed how he pronounced the names, to show they weren't really pronounceable by the human mouth, to keep the mythos intentionally amorphous, and just to fuck with people.
>>47719221
is there any point in that where it starts being remotely lovecraftian.
Cause I'm skipping through it, and all I'm getting is a black man talking about race.
>>47712961
Are you from Appalachia?
>>47719745
I have no idea.
And lo' the dark god, Nyarlathotep, cloaked in his masks bided his infinite time.
>>47719730
Does the narrator mispronounce Nyarlathotep? Because that can be, it's a human name.
>>47721166
Does Nyarlathotep have a true name?
I think you guys should see this.
>>47722739
Threadly Reminder that Derleth is a dead hack too.
So is that fat, fuck Cthulhu possibly the biggest threat in the Yog-Sothothery due to him wanting to wake up Azathoth?
So besides CoC and Delta Green what are some other good Cthulhu Mythos rpgs out there?
Tangently related to the thread, but: does anyone have that screencap about winning a CoC game purely by applying logic? Image quality was rather low and the plot was about (living?) dead that were put out on display at university's ceremonial dinner because of a tradition.
>>47722739
They forget how to spell aeons or something?
>>47707112
Y'golonac was always my favorite non-Lovecraft-created deity, he'd make a perfect antagonist for a game. Ramsey Campbell's stories are pretty underrated. I feel.
>>47723385
He'd actually would be a perfect BBEG
>>47723317
Perhaps they were testing our memory upon quotes?
/ysg/ is having a slow day. I blame the Flying Polyps.
>>47716141
Treat yourself to The Final Revelation, Graham Walmsey's purist anthology which includes a campaign frame that hangs the 4 of them together.
My normally very pulpngroup enjoyed it as a real palate cleanser, just be sure to explain the set up: no victories, enjoy going made and dying, don't try to "win" scenarios just ride the rollercoaster.
>>47723385
I have the idea for a Y'golonac campaign, having him resurrect famous serial killers and having the investigators take them down. Having several serial killer boss battles anyone?
>>47722957
Honestly, I imagine he is to Azathoth what we are to him.
It would kind of fit the Lovacraftian theme that even the mightiest Old Ones are but merest specks in the void.
>>47724294
Cultists can wake Azathoth as well. Both would destroy the Yog-Sothothery completely
And the gurgling madness /ysg/ spoke in the voice of many men.
"BUMP."
What diety or worshipable monster could i associate with the moon besides the moon beasts?
>>47725740
The Moon Cats.
>>47726104
Aren't they from Saturn though?
>>47726234
Yup, but Saturn Cats don't have a ring to it and besides they chill on the Moon's Dark Side
>>47719846
Tennessee, but not Appalachia.
>>47725740Flora
>>47723237
Trail of Cthulhu, Nemesis, Nights Black Agents... pretty much anything in the horror genre could be pressed into service.
I'm of the mind that horror works best with a rules light approach, and how the GM uses the rules (and intangibles like atmosphere, controlling information, etc) matter far, far more than the system itself.
>>47726658
I love that being the name of the Presence.
>>47726658
Flora (due to being inspired by him) would be a perfect child of Nyarlathotep
>>47727846
They could easily be aspects of each other.
>>47725740
The Moon Beasts are said to be infested with a hideous, five-legged parasite that clings to their facial tendrils and absorbs overspill and surface viscera as the beast feeds. To breed, the ticks crawl into the desiccated and tormented corpses the Moon Beasts leave behind, growing within the chest cavity. In this form, the ticks resemble bloated craniums, filled with sausage-like egg pods. At full maturity, the pods burst, releasing millions of tiny spores. Though most of the spores will inevitably perish, some find their way into the lungs of sentient beings, where they grow and wait to be consumed by a Moon Beast and complete its life cycle.
>>47728013
Like a Mask or an aspect of Azathoth as in sister or brother?
>>47723385
He feels too.
>>47728128
I feel as well.
>>47728051
Possibly both? I mean, Bloodborne isn't exactly compatible with classic Lovecraft (it's pretty much one, or the other, if you're building a setting). But the Big N's arrangement is supposed to be inscrutable. Masks, aspects, siblings, and mirror selves are all possible.
So, which way does the wind blow where you live?
Up here, it's always from the west, from the mountains. On a rare day it might blow from the north-west, carrying arctic cold or smoke from the latest forest fire. Even rarer, from the south-west, warmer and slower.
But when the wind blows from the east, perhaps one day in every two years, everyone is on edge for no reason they can explain. Flags fly backwards. The air tastes different. The scent of refineries and stockyards and slaughterhouses reaches places unused to it. The leaves in the park fall "wrong", the trees move "wrong", the dust flows "wrong"... and that's just the wind.
When you're used to a thing being one way, and it suddenly changes, your skin begins to crawl and you can't explain why.
>>47722691
There is literally no way we could pronounce it.
Why must everything be a constant general thread, started by people who have nothing pressing to say?
>>47730182
This is /tg/. Nobody's ever had anything pressing to say.
>>47730182
Generals are generally pretty good. At best they give you a group of people who are knowledgeable about a topic; at worst they keep people from spamming the exact same thread five times a day.
>>47726273
>Saturn Cats don't have a ring to it
>>47722957
Never heard that he wanted to wake Azathoth up, just that he was the high priest of Azathoth. Azathoth seems to want to stay asleep, so there's no reason for his priests to want to wake him up.
>>47721166
>Does the narrator mispronounce Nyarlathotep?
Yes. The preferred pronunciation is "nee-ar-lot-hoe-tep", although "nii-ar-lat-hoe-tep" is also acceptable. Remember that "Nyarlathotep" is pseudo-Egyptian. In the Egyptian language there is no "th" sound and "hotep" is actually a word (it means "to be at peace" or "is at peace"). So, the "th" in the middle of the name should never be pronounced with the English "th" sound, and the "hoe-tep" should always be distinct.
>>47733140
To quote Solaris, why does it have to /want/ anything?
>>47733556
Well, Azathoth has dreamed the universe into existence. Fantasy usually flows from desire or compulsion. Therefore, it's reasonable to conclude it wants the universe to exist.
>>47734357
Maybe he just likes hydrogen, and living things are more or less an accidental byproduct of his symphonic dream of stellar fusion?
>>47733304
except it was made up my HP Lovecraft who likely had no idea how Egyptian words were actually pronounced.
For example, the author of the Necronomicon, is named Abdul Alhazred, which is not how an an arabic name would be written. It contains the definite article 'al' twice.
So using actual linguistic guides to create a 'correct' pronouciation of HPL names is also wrong. Because he made them up and didn't know those linquistic guides.
The best way to know you are wrong about the correct way of pronouncing an mythos name, is to think that your way is the only correct one.
I've been playing around with a sort of Lovecraftian Space-Opera. The basic premise is that, advancing into the twentieth century, the dark secrets of the world have started to come into the light. Herbert West's more reputable experiments have become part of the medical mainstream, and improved upon (and the less reputable parts have become part of many dictator's arsenals (and also improved upon)), subsequent expeditions were able to bring live Elder Things back to civilization (resulting in several wars over control of Antartica), irregular diplomatic contact has been established with the Mi-Go and the Great Race of Yith, serums have been developed that can change a human into a Deep One and then back again, millions of people walk the 'near' Dreamlands as an escape from their dreary waking lives, the lucky parts of Germany are merely radioactive.
So, when "Big Green" (there is a general superstition that naming calls, so most people don't) began to rouse from his slumber again, the governments of the world both recognized the signs for what they were, and had established plans for planetary evacuation.
The year is now 21XX, and no sane humans remain on Earth. (What's left is not sane, or not human, or not either.) Humanity is scattered across the Solar System and some of the near stars, each one with its own opportunities and dangers.
Despite the loss of the homeworld, humanity is generally confident. They've faced a great existential threat, and not just survived but thrived, procreated; they're on many worlds now, not just one.
They are probably going to be horribly disabused of this confidence.
So, I have two questions for you. First: my knowledge of Lovecraft is spottier than I'd like. I know something about the Mi-Go, the Elder Things, but I don't know much about what 'minor' beasts populate Lovecraft's solar system. What am I missing?
Second, I've only got fuzzy ideas for most of the solar system and beyond, so further input would be great.
>>47734818
What I've got so far:
>THE EARTH
Cthulhu's influence is still limited and does not extend beyond the near side of the moon. He is not yet fully manifest; the stars are *almost* right, but not quite yet. There are still, surprisingly, a lot of humans on Earth; many who heard Him most clearly in their dreams refused evacuation, and the rest of mankind were happy to leave them to their fate. More room and the evacuation barges. They kill and revel and are eaten by the thousand and are generally deliriously happy, because they have seen The Truth and it is /glorious/.
Occasionally, they try to build rockets to bring The Truth to the rest of blind humanity, which generally explode. Cthulhu himself isn't interested; if he cannot feel and eat their dreams, they might as well not exist for him.
>ORBIT
Within Cthulhu's mental influence. There's still a lot of stuff in Earth orbit; fueling stations, hydroponics, magnetic launch arrays, gravity wheels. Most of it stripped of everything useful and sabotaged in the final stages of the evacuation, to make it harder for Earth-bound cultists to follow, but there are still pockets of air and such.
More importantly, there are great artificial reefs, habitats created to capture, cultivate, and harvest the many varied and bizarre creatures of space. They weren't very successful, but armed with strange sciences those cultists which made it into orbit have made them bloom. Earth Orbit is an immense jungle, with a small but growing population of cultists. They build ships out of orwood and space-foam, powered by insectile solar-sails and harnessed dream-whales, and plot campaigns of piracy.
>THE MOON
The near side of the Earth is under the influence; the far side is not. However, the near side is not filled with cultists; experimental psionic-suppression technologies were deployed, and were successful. You know, if you call 'causing the population to degenerate into drooling sub-humans as a side effect' to be successful.
>>47735102
>THE MOON, CONTINUED
The near-side population persists, maintaining the robust life-support systems by rote and religious rite. Ominously, there are some people who have maintained their intelligence, but they have done so by horrific methods- consuming the alchemically-prepared brains of their fellow man. Using their superior intelligence, they prey upon the moron population. The more degenerated of these ghouls, slowly losing their intelligence despite their best efforts, act as simple predators, kidnapping victims and dragging them into deep, unused tunnels to feast. The more intelligent have set themselves up as god-kings, dispensing technical knowledge and governmental decree in return for a steady stream of sacrifices.
The Dark Side of the Moon remains free of influence; the people there are dour, somewhat paranoid, industrious with the meticulous obsessiveness of the veteran spacefarer. They maintain walls and defenses against the light side of the moon, in preparation for the day when the psychic wards finally fail, or the ghoul-kings start getting a hunger for fresh, un-damaged brains. They have yet to be tested.
There are millions of miles of tunnels, extending all the way into the dead core of the moon. Only a fraction of the system has been explored, so so far the impression has been of deadness. Except for the occasional wild lunar fauna, nothing. If there's anything left of the tunnel's former occupants, they're down deep. Mostly they've been walled off, but unsavory sorts (naturally) make use of it, and the dark-side nations make periodic military sweeps to make sure the ghouls aren't using the tunnels to get in.
(Pic related is part of the tunnels; they seem at least sort of alive, but all tests have indicated nonsentience. Exploration continues.)
>>47729115
Underrated post
>>47735497
>THE ICETEROIDS
Techniques for cryogenic-chemical extension of life were already well advanced by the time development of space began in earnest. The problem with this method of longevity was, of course, that it required that the user remain chilled below freezing. Refrigeration systems were distressingly failure-prone; the Antarctic was, for obvious reasons, right out; the Arctic bore its own hazards. The eternally-frozen worldlets of the outer system beckoned.
Now, these Grey Enclaves are collectively one of the largest human settlements in space, having only grown larger and larger as cryonic longevity became more accepted. The fact that such icelets are staggeringly uninteresting to everyone, and thus devoid of annoying prior inhabitants, only enhanced the appeal.
Such immortality is not without its drawbacks, of course. The people of the Grey Enclaves tend to be slow physically and mentally (not unintelligent, they just take longer to complete an action or thought), conservative, at times verging on senile, at times slightly autistic. (Or perhaps simply a bit alien.)
Given the amount of exotic chemicals involved in the preservation process, it's probably a miracle that they don't get more unhinged.
>THE ELDER THINGS
Twenty-two of them had been found, excavated, revived, and retrieved before the evacuation of Earth put a permanent end to digging. (Increasing Shoggoth attacks had forced a hiatus several years previously.) They are a resentful of having to feel gratitude towards monkeys for their rescue, resentful for having to give up their technological secrets in exchange for a colony of their own, resentful that any attempt to retake their lost homelands will have to wait for millennia yet, at best. There is contention among the group, whether to set out among the stars on their own in search of remnants of their empire... (cont.)
>>47734818
>>47735102
>>47735497
>>47735925
I love it, you sir are now dubbed Flash Gordon.
>>47728252
Mirror selves would be interesting because Flora is rather benevolent.
>>47729115
Please at least you don't walk upstairs and end up in your basement.
>>47734406
Nyarlathotep is either his dreamself or his soul, so its reasonable to concluded that everything exists to suffer as his playthings.
>>47735925
>THE ELDER THINGS, CONTINUED
... whether to wait the million years for Cthulhu to return to his slumber, then make a return to Antartica- or to remain with humanity, and manipulate the monkeys into doing all the heavy lifting? So far, monkey-manipulation has been winning by default.
On humanity's side, the Elder Things are valued sources of information, even if they haven't been everything hoped for. Sure, on the scientific side there have been flesh-melting ray guns, excellent genetic engineering (or rather, manipulating primordial life-stuff; much better suited to creation of life ex nihilo than modification of existing life-forms, and with the example of the Shoggoth rebellion not used to anything like its full potential), "solar" sails that harness currents of dark energy, sorcerous wards against the more common threats. On the diplomatic side, there have been explanations as to how Mi-Go think, the opening of steady communications with the Great Race of Yith... but their knowledge of current galactic affairs is a geologic age out of date. Even the long-dead (hopefully) tunnels of the Moon are too recent for them to shed any light. And the hoped-for ultra-magic turbo-nukes are nowhere on the horizon.
Perhaps the relationship between Man and Thing will one day collapse into bitter war and mutual extinction. Most likely, they will eventually go their own ways, to their own destinies. But maybe- just maybe- this is the start of a beautiful friendship.
As their first discoverer said of them- "After all- they were men!"
>Mi-Go
The Mi-Go have their outpost on the tenth planet of Yuggoth, out beyond the Kuiper belt on an orbit tilted fifty degrees from the ecliptic, where everything else in the solar system orbits. It may be entirely artificial, it may be a captured interstellar wanderer, it may be that all conventional theories about how solar systems coalesce from dust are wrong. (cont.)
>>47735949
Aww, thanks!
>>47734735
Interestingly enough it could be a corruption of the Mad Arab's name and the most popular version translates to "the servant of the Great Devourer"
>>47734818
There are cats who are servants of the Outer God Bast
The Ghouls, Flying Polyps and Dimensional Shamblers would be a start for Mythos related creatures known here.
Nyarlathotep is highly important to the Universe so he should play some part.
>>47736298
No problem Flash.
>>47735801
Thanks.
>>47736217
Nah, my house only has one story.
Admittedly, it's not always the same story...
>>47736446
Ever wonder why the neighbors have such big lips and love scarfs?
>>47736298
Just their base-world raises worrying questions, and none of the Elder Things were astrophysicists. (Flying through space under their own power without need of ships as they do, they seem oddly incurious about questions of the shape of the universe, except where said shapes result in Elder Gods trying to eat their brains)
Mi-Go originally hail from a strange lightless dimension (human theorists talk about a possible link with dark matter and dark energy- the Elder Things shrug) and view their outposts in our universe as hardship postings. They are not the best of their race, which is perhaps why they raided Earth for tens of thousands of years without ever once thinking of manipulating the monkeys into doing the heavy lifting.
(Digression: diplomacy and trade as a whole seems an oddly fallow field. There are gods and worshippers, servitors and masters, bitter foes- but no trade, no allies. The Great Race of Yith traded information with humanity with years, but haphazardly; they projected their minds into random individuals and consumed information, and those random individuals sometimes remembered something of the Great Race, but the idea of formalizing that relationship never occurred to them until it was proposed to them. The Elder Things at times shared Earth with other species, but there appears to have been no meaningful contact.
An exploitable blind spot? A uniquely human advantage? Or are there Very Good Reasons for this lack of communication?)
The Mi-Go want two things from humanity: rare metals (gold, platinum, palladium, iridium, radium, etc.), and brains. Nobody's quite sure what /exactly/ what they want with the metals. Maybe even the same things humans do. The brains (which they transfer into durable mechanical 'brain cylinders'- immortality, of a sort), they want for their brains- the Mi-Go are, as a species, rigid and uncreative thinkers, and are smart enough to seek out other points of view. (cont.)
>>47736465
No, why? Has wondering about your neighbors brought you anything but trouble
>>47736606
Yeah, I suppose that those Esoteric Dagon chaps said I shouldn't be that nosy.
>>47736602
This makes the Mi-go as alien as they should be.
Nice work.
>>47736602
>MI-GO, CONTINUED AGAIN
The fact that these brains can be equipped with cyborg bodies and used to do the grunt-work, reducing the number of Mi-Go that have to be posted to this light-poisoned dimension.
There are, in fact, millions of humans in Mi-Go service. They've been raiding for tens of thousands of years, and while they aren't the most creative sorts, one of them realized that if they grabbed the reproductive organs as well, they could grow more humans on-site. It took several thousand years to work out all the kinks in the process, but now?
The reproductive organs are the last fleshy part of each Mi-Go cyborg left; upon birth, everything but the genitals are removed, the brain transferred immediately to its mechanical substrate. Humanity outside the solar system is a machine species.
Some of them still remember they once had a home planet. Some of them are trying to return.
In trade for these brains and metals, the Mi-Go offer many trinkets- all incomprehensible. Anything that humans might learn to duplicate on their own, they demand ludicrous prices for. And they certainly understand the concept of 'sell guns cheap and gunpowder dear.' (For a race that seems entirely foreign to trade, they're good at it- humanity suspects brain-cylinder advisors, perhaps even other humans long gone native.)
Yuggoth itself is off-limits to all humans, except the ones they take. (Mostly volunteers, since humanity can now shoot at them almost effectively. And there are volunteers- especially among those who have had encounters with the Goat of a Thousand Young, forsaking the flesh in exchange for immortality seems like a good deal.)
>>47736721
>>47736870
>>47736721
I recall one very vivid description of them, of a Mi-Go 'scientist' performing vivisection after vivisection of human subjects, each time getting faster and faster, more and more precise, and each time learning nothing- it had no actual goal in performing these actions, just an idea that this is what it was Supposed To Be Doing, so it will keep on vivisecting humans until the end of time, never even thinking that perhaps it should be doing- even that it /could/ be doing- something else. And the entire species is like that. Can't remember where I saw it, sadly.
And, sadly, I should stop here- I have things to be doing in the morning tomorrow.
>>47713325
expanding on this "the book of Eibon" is a great collection in the wider Yog-Sothothery, as well as explaining how the writers used historical forms of literary traditions to shape their interpretations of eachother's work. Pseudoepigraphy is a great thing to understand whenever you're interpreting a canon. Scriptural, occultic or narrativistic.
That one book made a much better GM of me, just because I can find cracks in settings to seed stories.
Would recommend.
>>47736884
Ciao Flash, seeya soon I hope.
>>47736309
I love those translations and such in universe.
Like the Nylarthotep one has been taken further from 'hotep' meaning 'at peace' to the whole thing meaning 'there is no peace beyond the gate'.
But that's stuff future authors wave in, HPL just put down shit that he thought sounded cool, with a scattering of knowledge and lots of racial prejudices.
I love that other authors have woven stuff into the mythos, and the mythos into other things. HPL would have loved that this happened, given that he actively did this during his life.
The bit I try to stop is where people try to insist on an absolute right interpretation or pronunciation or whatnot. There isn't any, there never was any, and if you are looking for authorial intent, HPL not only didn't intent any, he actively worked against it.
Have your favorites, compare your favorites and other options and the values of each, but stay away from creating orthodoxy.
>>47736951
That's why we all love the Yog-Sothothery because it's changes as we view it. Also I love the Nyarly translation.
Does the Yog-Sothothery have any good smut?
>>47729115
Chicago area?
>>47736249
source?
>>47734735
"hotep" being an Egyptian name suffix was a well-known cliche even in whichever antediluvian epoch HPL inhabited. It is almost certainly pronounced "Nyar-lot-hoe-tep," the "nyar" being one syllable.
>>47737826
It's mostly speculation from how he's called the Heart and Soul of the Outer Gods as well as sometimes being similarly described to Azathoth at times.
Why does Y'golonac appear to be your average fa/tg/uy?
>>47734818
Got your Pluto for ye breh.
http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/ghooric.htm
>>47736602
>they want metal and brains
>they use the metal for unspeakable blasphemies of which we cannot conceive
>they use the brains as advisors
Love it.
>>47736870
>Humanity outside the solar system is a machine species.
I thought you said earlier we made it to the nearer stars on our own?
>>47738679
>A Mi-go with a brain in a jar bro named Brian
http://www.comicsbeat.com/alan-moores-secret-qa-cult-exposed-part-i-you-wont-believe-what-they-asked-him/
Neonimicon was shit, but The Courtyard was good and Providence is fantastic, and this is mostly about HPL, worth a read.
>>47738752
Unfortunately Moore hates Lovecraft.
>>47738762
There's a whole bit there where he read four bookshelves of bios, criticism, etc. and came out with an appreciation for the man.
>>47738800
>While all of the above writers have provided inspiration as benchmarks to aspire to in the writing of Lovecraftian material, to ape their writing styles would be as great a mistake as to imitate the highly individual and person-specific style of Lovecraft himself. For my money, Lovecraft is still the best example of ‘Lovecraft done right’, but the thing to pay attention to is not the reproduction of Lovecraft’s antiquarian tendencies or the desire to add some more tentacled exhibits to the fast-expanding menagerie of ‘The Cthulhu Mythos’, a creation of Derleth’s that Lovecraft always seemed ambivalent about. Don’t simply reproduce Lovecraft’s adjectival cascades unless you understand why he was using them as a deliberate alienating technique, such as the combination of three forms that Cthulhu doesn’t quite look like, the aside that the Colour out of Space was only a colour “by analogy”, or the description of Wilbur Whateley’s liquefying body as having so many different textures and surfaces that it is impossible for the reader to put together a coherent picture in his head – which was precisely Lovecraft’s intention.
>>47738810
He's one of us now.
>>47738827
He goes on to dismiss Derleth even more, and praise Ligotti. I bet he posts on this thread.
Songs for Lovecraft: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na1OdO30Yp8
The Dreamlands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLRjFWDGs1g
Nyarlathotep's theme from the Queen Discourse for Lovecraft movie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woFfdOhnyhM
Battle Theme for most Eldritch Horrors
Any ideas from you guys?
>>47738838
But I like Cthugha.
>>47738844
>Battle Theme for most Eldritch Horrors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6vCZdcp6hE
The baby is you.
>>47738875
That's more sound effects
No Anime Posters in a while.
>>47738844
He calls out to the Black King
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqnPEIvqTDM
>>47738996
I am fine with either.
>>47707112
I thought you guys would be interested to hear what Azatoth's flutists sound like !
http://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-have-recorded-the-spooky-sounds-of-13-billion-year-old-stars
>>47739341
sexy beasts that they are
>>47739341
This is weirder than the Bloop.
>>47739351
Toot?
>>47739341
>>47739351
>>47739048
(doots eternally)
>>47739351
>>47739369
I think it's amazing.
>>47739375
Toot.
>>47739378
Doot doot.
>>47739421
You're in /ysg/ weird is cool.
>>47739421
Clarke's Yhoundeh?
>>47739341
>http://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-have-recorded-the-spooky-sounds-of-13-billion-year-old-stars
That freaked the shit out of my cat...
>>47739791
May Bast bless the poor thing.
>>47707112
I never played Dark Souls but i love loftcraftion horror.
Will i like Bloodborne?
>>47739958
Yes, but they have slightly unrecognizable horrors but they each have Lovecraftian equivalents.
>>47739958
I'd say probably. The Lovecraftian themes are pretty well done, and it avoids the usual problem of Lovecraftian video games where the horror is minimized because you're fully capable of smacking its shit. Like most FROM Software games, the DLC adds a ton to the game. Note that it's not a Mythos game, but a Mythos-inspired game.
Also worth noting is that Bloodborne might have the steepest difficulty curve of any Souls games. It's nothing unmanageable, but it's definitely noticeable.
>>47740026
So if you wanna play git gud.
I originally read all of Lovecraft's works in chronological order of release. I think I regret doing so, I barely remember anything from it.
It sort of disappoints me that Lovecraft is mostly remembered for a pantheon that he didn't really write all that much about. I find everything outside the Cthulu mythos tends to be a lot more interesting.
>>47707136
>>47739096
...Does he have profile photos, by any chance?
>>47740816
Here's one with meme magics.
Also are you coming onto Lovecraft?Good taste if so.
>>47740920
Whoops,
>>47740816
Try this on for size?
>>47737274
Bumping
Nyarlathotep is pining for the Elk Godess.
>>47737818
No, much further north. Much, much further.
Lord Nomic is back, so here's the updated version fo the DnD Yog-Sothothery thing I made before the weekend.
I remove the start-thing until I figure what exactly I should do with it (either try copying 4th editon's star pact, in which case I'd probably just make it a separate document, or try to do a "Polaris"/"Beyond the Walls of Sleep" inspired warlock patron, where the "patron" is actually the warlock using rituals to tap into the knowledge of his past lives).
Got domain abilities made for the cleric domains, although some probably need work. I also fear they might be a little too generic (most of them aren't particularly tied to the Cthulhu Mythos), although I intent to make some spells that some of the domains may get as domain spells to make them a bit more Mythos-eye.
>>47741362
Have you put your anti-Flying Polyp sigils up yet?
>>47741402
>>47740756
>Cthulhu Mythos not Yog-Sothothery
Cthulhu is an ant
We need a Coldsteel bio for Nyarlathotep
>>47742332
Dislikes: Randolph Carter (we all know you graduated by sucking dick, you faggot)
>>47742332
Made by 1TruexxxChaosxxxAzathoth
>>47741464
I put up solar panels.
I mean, they don't absorb light from /our/ sun, but it does power the whole house. Really efficiently, as it turns out.
Just don't ask what we made the panels out of.
>>47738634
Interesting.
>>47738679
Thank you.
>>47738688
I haven't decided on the exact extent of human extrasolar colonization, except that it's small and reliant on a couple of unique artifacts; no great shipyards turning out warp-ships yet. The Mi-Go servitor-cyborgs are the largest demographic of extrasolar humanity, even if bio-humanity is almost completely unaware of them.
>THE DEEP ONES
The 'original' Deep Ones remained on Earth, to greet the rising of their gods from the deep; just as well, since their relationship with humanity had been frosty at best, since the whole 'depth-charged a city' thing. However, these ancient degenerates were not the only Deep Ones around by the time of the evacuation. Through the combination of genetic engineering and some Elder Thing techniques, methods were found to trigger the transformation even in humans with no Deep One ancestry. Many of the great pre-exodus engineering projects- the Mid-Atlantic Mining Project, the Gulf Stream generators, the Pacific aquaculture, would have been impossible without aquatic workers.
Of course, there are few large bodies of liquid water elsewhere in the solar system. Most of the 'New Deep Ones' were surgically reverted to human in the exodus. Those who could not leave the oceans behind have gone to the great internal seas of Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. They have quickly begun drifting away from the rest of humanity.
>GANYMEDE
Ganymede's vast internal ocean contains more water than Earth's, but for all that seems oddly lifeless. Earth's oceans had Deep Ones and ruins and dead gods and the occasional stray Shoggoth, but Ganymede's have only seafloor worm- and crab-men. They have no metals or chemistry, only minor sorceries, are difficult to talk to, and are occupying all the prime real estate.
Some of them have formed cults worshipping the invading sea-humans in a desperate attempt to propitiate them and stay their wrath. It isn't working.
(cont.)
>>47742126
authors have limited control of their creation after publishing, especially the creation is now in the hands of many.
Meaning is use, and people use 'cthulhu mythos' and know what it means.
You can try to change it if you want, but it's a move in the language game that I'm not going to make.
>>47743363
I thought Europa was the moon with the internal ocean?
>>47743533
It is yeah(well we hope so anyway, plenty of evidence there is though)
Alright guys! Investigation time! Roll up a few investigators with a focus on science and medicine.
>author
>clergy
>detective
Well... I guess I can work with this...
>>47707112
I'm using Randolph Carter as the head of the imperial museum of Eldritch and weird. I need a name for his secretly cultist assistant shots going to hire the PCs to do... Well, things. Suggestions, pls?
>>47743363
>GANYMEDE, CONTINUED
There are rumors of ruins, gods, and cults, but aren't there always? Ganymedan authorities certainly deny them vigorously.
>EUROPA, CALLISTO
No idea. Here we reach the current limits of my imagination; ideas would be appreciated.
>MARS
The current seat of humanity, and perhaps an unwisely-chosen one. Mars is an undead world; brief (relatively; ten thousand years or so) springs coming about every half-a-million years, during which all its creatures awake from their long hibernation. Spores bloom, the sandworms emerge from resin-sealed rock hives, insects seem to spontaneously generate in the muds left behind by flash flooding.
Sensor posts sample air and water, checking to see if it is time for the Martian cities to unfold from their timeless cocoon-dimensions. Not yet. Not quite.
Humanity's brash terraformation of the Red Planet, tides of short-lived blob-creatures washing out from the spawning-vats for their bodies to fertilize the soil, ice-caps melting under artificial suns, have triggered this cycle early. From the cellular level on up, Mars has become a biological battleground, as Earth life and terraforming synth-life struggle against ancient and hardy Martian pioneer species. Vast mats of decay are everywhere, where mutual allergic reactions have resulted in mass death, followed by frantic blooms of decomposers which then die off in turn. In such conditions of frantic competition, speciation and hybridization has already begun. Looked at one way, it's an ecological catastrophe; looked at another, this is the liveliest Mars has ever been.
>>47743533
My quick Wikipedia research indicated that there are several moons with internal oceans, Ganymede and Europa among them.
>>47743950
>MARS, CONTINUED
Minds vast, cool, and unsympathetic have taken notice. The Martian vanguard, swathed in sterilizing energy-fields and flexible body-suits for protection against foreign micro-organisms, investigates these interlopers. Will they leave when Mars once more enters its long winter, or are they here to stay? Is there any risk of them stumbling across the hidden wormholes to Mars' sleeping cities? Can they safely be waited out as the Martians have done many threats before, or does Something Have To Be Done?
Humans on Mars report indistinct nightmares of waking up in cold and sterile rooms, while mechanical arms scrape their skin and an unseen voice asks bizarre and meaningless questions, only to wake up again still in their beds. Others find themselves coming out of a trance in the middle of nowhere, having apparently walked on their own dozens of miles into the wilderness.
This is not necessarily evidence of some larger force. The psychic shock of the Exodus has resulted in a lot of odd behaviors. But still, the Governments-in-Exile and the Human League grow suspicious.
And, in their stasis-cocooned cities, the Martians begin to stockpile weapons.
The Martians are tentacled, round, mechanically adept, and disdainful of sorcery and biology. They are somewhat atrophied physically, having to ingest blood directly due to their lack of a digestive system and preferring to use mechanical exoskeletons or telepathically-operated drones outside their warm shallow pools. They had contemplated invasions of Earth multiple times in the past, but each time decided against it; they are, in their cool and intellectual way, intensely prideful, and refuse to bow the metaphorical knee to any god; the profusion of gods to be found on Earth, even mostly dead or petty, decided them against it each time. (Nyarlathotep enjoys playing with them, testing their anti-theism to its limits, but has so far refrained from testing it to destruction.)
>>47740026
I actually had a much easier time with Bloodborne than any of the Souls games. Something about Bloodborne being much more fast paced made the combat more manageable for me.
Are there any other games, books, movies, whatever that manage to combine Lovecraftian and Gothic horror themes as well as Bloodborne?
>>47744401
not fighty games that I know of, but there are other sorts of games.
Sunless Sea does a fair bit of this, but mixed in with some bits of silliness and just weird shit. Amnesia has elements. Shadows Over Innsmouth, the first part at least, is a pretty decent retelling of the lovecraft tale.
>>47743940
>>47743950
>>47744284
Are these based off of the H.G Wells Martians?
Really Good stuff Flash,needs more rip and tear.
>>47743940
Whoops, didn't respond to this one,Nyarlathotep in disguise watching over Carter.
>>47743090
Huh, I just stab a few PIGS and sprinkle the blood on an altar to create power.
>>47744284
>THE DREAM
(I'm not very familiar with Lovecraft's dream works. More suggestions would be appreciated.)
Before the revelations of the twentieth century, being able to travel into the Dream-lands was a rare skill- perhaps one in a million, at absolute most. Through the twentieth and twenty-first, the number grew as techniques disseminated and were advanced; however, the many risks of the Dreamlands put a cap on the number. After the Exodus, now, people find themselves in the Dream without ever meaning to go there.
Fortunately, mankind is not without allies. The cats of Earth are veteran dream-walkers, and now provide much-needed guides to the confused and lost. As it was in ancient Egypt, it is now a heinous crime to harm a cat. And, throughout the dreams of the Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, major cities gain counterparts in the Dream as sudden new dreamers carve out lives in both worlds.
Expeditions launched by the Moon to Saturn in an attempt to wipe out the Moon-Cats at their source have universally been embarrassing failures.
(What happens when someone dies in the Dream, anyway? I don't actually know.)
Anyway, that's about all I have for locations. I have some half-formed musings on inter-dimensional and interstellar colonization, but nothing concrete. Input would be appreciated.
If anyone's still interested, I could go on about technology and culture and whatnot.
>>47744829
Yes, they're based on H. G. Wells Martians, because why mess with the classics?
>>47744829
>>47744856
For a Fantasy game. Carter's an expy, cultist subordinate will be dmpc/questgiver. Just a fan of meaningful/ flavorful names.
>>47745384
>questgiver
... Until they discover enough to realize that his money is no good unless they still have a world to spend it in.
Anyone here have some of the old pdfs of the Mythos gaming periodical The Unspeakable Oath?
I'm looking for The Unspeakable Oath #23.
>>47739341
>http://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-have-recorded-the-spooky-sounds-of-13-billion-year-old-stars
Someone should make a flute remix with this notes to make an actual Azatoth Flutist track
>>47746801
Like the Inspector Gadget Flutist?>>47745384
I suggest the Mad Arab himself
>>47745211
You've read the Dream Quest of the Unknown Kadath I presume. And please do ramble on Flash. Maybe do the Servitors of the GOOs and the Outer Gods on Earth, oh and the Cults, you haven't touched upon them!
>>47748114
I can't quite make it through it, actually. I'm currently taking another bash at it. But, since you asked:
>CULTS
Through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the greatest daily threat to mankind was not the actions of any god or alien, or even the mortal servitors of same; the greatest threat was rogue states, dictators, and ambitious generals, summoning up strange horrors for use against enemies foreign and domestic. The early twentieth century feared outcasts lurking in the dark corners of the earth, inbred and degenerate hillbillies serving inbred and degenerate gods. By the time of the Second Great War, this seemed quaint and naive.
The nuking of Berlin was really more of a mercy kill than anything else.
Post-Exodus, with the effective end of most national rivalries, cultists in the dark places of the solar system have once more displaced cultists in the halls of power. The Cthulhu cults are not as powerful as might be expected; with their god already manifest, they tend to travel to join him on Earth. Other cults have stepped in to fill the gap; the worship of Azathoth, for instance, seems to be trying to fill the gap left by the collapse of the Abrahamic religions. However, their rituals are focused on ensuring that it remains asleep, so that it continues dreaming the universe, and are thus generally ignored.
The current largest grouping of really dangerous cults are those of Shub-Niggurath, the Black Goat of a Thousand Young; with society and the government already encouraging extensive colonization, Prodigious Breeding, and experimenting with genetic engineering and alchemical modification of humanity, worship of gods of horrible fecundity seems only the next logical step. These cults are especially powerful on Mars, taking on nomadic lifestyles among the endless rot-marshes. With the heat of decomposition and rugged landscape foiling aerial and orbital detection, such communities escape detection for decades.
>>47748692
>However, their rituals are focused on ensuring that it remains asleep, so that it continues dreaming the universe, and are thus generally ignored.
I'd think this would make them heavily donated to.
>>47748692
>CULTS, CONTINUED
Beyond these largest cults... well, there are lots of gods.
The cult situation is not helped by the increasing ambivalence on the matter. The universal knee-jerk anti-theism surrounding the Exodus is gradually fading. No government now will espouse freedom of religion, but- there are plentiful examples, from mankind's own archeological record and what little is known of wider galactic community, that worship of at least certain gods and civilization are not mutually exclusive. Perhaps, instead of fighting the inevitable or simply drifting into one camp or the other, humanity should make a conscious decision as to who to worship?
Such thoughts gain little traction, but they've been voiced.
And that's before all of the real weirdness is factored in. A faded manuscript for a play appears in your inbox, having never gone through the post system or touched a human hand; the return address says it came from your house, a week in the future. A sculptor wakes up finding himself in his workshop, a perfect statue of himself before him. It opens its eyes and smiles.
Humanity reassures itself that everything is ultimately comprehensible, even if not currently comprehended. Every cult, no matter how lunatic, ultimately has a cause; someone learns of a god and is overcome by the conviction that it should therefore be worshipped. But sometimes, even this thin narrative cannot apply.
Sometimes, things just happen. Sometimes, those things kill people.
>>47748692
>inbred gods
Aren't the Outer Gods horribly inbred
>Prodigious Breeding
Oh my~
>>47746801
>flute remix with these notes
seconding this
>>47748907
This is insanely top tier Flash.
>>47748990
>>47746801
We'd need a Drum Beat as well.
>>47749059
We need someone who knows sampling and mixing
Also, have a bit of music for inspiration/atmosphere about ancient mysteries and invocations to forgotten gods
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vk-hLS78o8
I really love their work and I think they should be better known
>>47749141
Should I ask /mu/?
I think that the Cenobites from the Order of The Gash could serve as good servants of Y'golonac. Not sure how well that meshes with him though. Thoughts?
>>47749325
>Pinhead and Y'golonac crossover
I need this so bad
>>47749141
Drum beats you say?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxeoLhLdqnQ
>>47749353
>>47749141
We need these mixed. NOW.
>>47748876
Well, 1. In the present age, humanity is uncomfortable with worship in general, and 2. it's virtually certain that none of their rituals actually work.
>>47748907
>FIGHTING CULTS
In general, controlling cults is easier in the Exodus era, despite all the other difficulties. Surveillance is much easier in the cramped hive-like communities mankind finds itself forced into, and a more educated population can recognize the warning signs and report suspicious behavior to their Block Wardens.
(Life in the Exodus bears a great resemblance to the Soviet Bloc at times; ubiquitous surveillance, everyone a potential informant...)
The computer was still invented as well; CCTV cameras and other automated surveillance systems are also common.
Beyond that, there are military expeditions into the tunnels of the Moon, the Martian hinterlands, and other places cults might gather, as much symbolic as practical.
Finally, there is disinformation; a wanna-be cultist without any true lore is harmless. The real Necronomicon has many copies by now, but fake Necronomicons are even more common, with 'rituals' that will kill the caster, knock the caster out and call the police, make a lot of bright lights and loud noises, dump the caster naked in the Dungeon Dimensions...
The wise would-be cultist has disposable minions to try any unfamiliar rituals first.
Anything you'd like me to cover next?
>>47749406
Inner-Stellar relationships?
ELDRITCH
PORN
WHERE
>>47749655
Is our thirst for smut of the dark nameless horrors to never be quenched?
I'm sorry to report that the trees are melting.
Please seek shelter immediately.
>>47722691
The Crawling Chaos is probably a truer name than Nyarlathotep, but even then, it/he/she is capable of and sometimes does directly speak to humans, so unlike a lot of the other mythos entities, a good bit of knowledge is directly from the source.
>>47749848
Bother, not again.
>>47749851
That was an epiphet/title though, not an actual name.
>>47749896
>>47749848
Please move to higher ground.
It won't save you, but the view will be better.
>>47749916
Can we at least have one last smoke?
Also created a thread on /mu/:
>>>/mu/65625982
>>47749896
It's an epithet, but it's not impossible that Nyarlathotep's own hand was the one that wrote it down.
>>47749634
Largely covered in the Mi-Go and Elder Thing sections; in the time period I'm focusing on, colonization outside the solar system has only just begun. Nonetheless,
>MANKIND OUTSIDE THE SOLAR SYSTEM
All the governments of man are in agreement- long-term survival lies in expanding as far and fast as possible. However, this plan is constantly complicated by the fact that interstellar travel is really fucking hard. The immortal Elder Things were mostly content to travel sub-light under their own power, using FTL ships only in emergencies. The Mi-Go utterly refuse to sell their secrets of dimensional travel. The Great Race of Yith prefer to expand through time rather than space. And everyone else mankind has met so far were degenerate howling murder-cultists. Independent research into wormhole geometries has been slow-going.
Thus, most colonization has been inter-dimensionally. The one attempt to create a link directly to the lightless dimension the Mi-Go call home ended in miserable failure; the Mi-Go know when someone attempts to violate their space. Everyone involved just... vanished.
The Mi-Go have far more capabilities than they have ever revealed.
Other dimensions are simply too alien for humans to exist; gravity is instantaneously smashing, chemical bonds just dissolve, people's brains start just straight-up vanishing out of their skulls, without a single other mark on them. (Most potential dimensional travelers are in the same boat; for every Mi-Go who flits between dimensions and Outer God who exists in any or all of them at once, there are a million species that will never venture outside their home plane.)
Still, there have been successes. The home plane of the Dimensional Shamblers was identified, carpeted in arcano-nuclear weapons, and then flooded with bio-mechanical drones- confirmed Shambler attacks have dropped off to almost nothing. Inhabitable dimensions have been found, even if they're very unlike Earth. (cont.)
>>47750055
>However, this plan is constantly complicated by the fact that interstellar travel is really fucking hard.
I kekked.
Also rip Shamblers.
>>47710616
http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/sources/taleshpl.aspx
>>47750002
Yes, you will probably smoke before it ends.
>>47750239
Shut up Horrorterror and go back to Homestuck.
>>47718163
>read Lovecraft
>meet other people who read some of his work, too
>everyone pronounces shoggoth "show goth"
>always pronounced it SHAW-gith
>never tell them I'm a fan of his work because I'm afraid of pronouncing something wrong
I had this same affliction with FFXI's zone names.
>>47750298
There are no correct pronunciations, brah.
>>47750298
>>47750325
Or even correct spellings.
>>47750239
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHLw2lyLnA8
I'm going... to smoke you.
>>47750239
>>47750055
This is also one of the things I was hoping to crowd-source, since I don't have that many ideas of my own. Coming up with entire solar systems, especially in a universe as densely and variously populated as Lovecraft's, is hard. Feel free to pitch in with your own ideas.
>MANKIND OUTSIDE THE SOLAR SYSTEM, CONTINUED
There is the perpetually-lit dimension, where all atoms resonate with strange sourceless energies and emit photons as a result, which then decay back into nothingness over the light-years. There are no shadows, and- because of alternate atomic spectra- all of the colors are different. Thoon and Ulm dominate the palette. It's headache-inducing until you get used to it, but chemistry works the same, so crops can be grown and eaten. The sun and stars are utterly black, the only colorless thing in the universe. The night sky is white.
There is the hyperbolic dimension- in layman's terms, the space there is saddle-shaped. The geometries of R'Lyeh were very similar, a fact that has not gone unremarked. The Elder Things have indicated that hyperbolic geometry is not universally indicative of soul-eating gods, but. Initial exploration seemed to emerge in an underground cavern; further exploration revealed it to be an artificial structure, floating in a space comparable to a kelp forest, scaled up to light-years. The structure is occasionally littered with corpses, of different species and ages; humanity is not the first to discover this place. Things die, but nothing decays.
A vast flat plane, with a source of light at the center. Time accelerates as you get closer to the center, and light thus gains thermal energy as it travels outward- slowing, conservation of energy is maintained. There are thousands of concentric rings of vegetation, fans and walls of plant matter surrounding the central light.
>>47750298
SHAW-goth
>>47750442
Lemme World Build and ponder for a bit
>>47750442
>CONTINUED AGAIN
Waste and decomposition heat from the inner layers is blueshifted back into visibility; the backside of each ring grows, for the slow-growing ancient vegetation of the next ring to feed off of.
There are vast, non-physical intelligences- Boltzmann brains- congregating near the center, taking advantage of the accelerated time to think and plan faster than their enemies in their home space, and to harvest the time-energies. Occasionally, someone intersects with one of these brains- an overwhelming moment of psychic contact. Most eventually recover.
Most extra-dimensional colonies are small- despite rhetoric about spreading out across the universe, most people's hindbrains insist that, even in the face of gods, there is safety in numbers.
Meanwhile, plans at normal-space colonization continue. Most planning revolves around STL missions. Cryogenics is already well-understood enough for a couple of missions to have been sent out even before the Exodus, but they sere slow; fifty years later, the Alpha Centauri mission has only just arrived. (Preliminary report: one of the moons has been polished mirror-smooth and engraved with strange runes of no known occult significance, and the innermost planet appears to have partially exploded geologically recently. The Elder Things speak of mantle-dwelling life, whose methods of traveling from world to world naturally require going through the crust. Explosively.)
These methods are not perfect; in addition to the slowness of these ships, there are psychic predators in the interstellar vastness. The ships' wake-shifts reported back disturbing dreams in cryosleep; some never woke up at all, for no apparent reason. The ships were layered in warding runes, and there is evidence this helped, but it wasn't perfect.
>>47750863
>CONTINUATION 3
Alternative methods of projecting and protecting a crew across such gulfs of time and space are being investigated; one of the current front-runners is using cloning vats and hypnotic knowledge-injection to grow a crew at the other end of the trip. The main difficulty is cramming enough of human culture into a hypnotic command to ensure actual human beings come out the other end.
The current cutting edge of interstellar exploration therefore focuses on pure fucking magic.
Individual astrologers, with careful preparation, elaborate mechanisms, exotic materials, and gigantic balls, can project themselves to distant worlds. At the most basic level, this is simple astral projection, although mere intangibility hardly negates all threats; at its most complex, the astronaut can bring things back with them when they return. If the recall mechanisms work properly.
General observations of local space:
Lots of Shoggoths. The Elder Empire was vast, and its servitors numbered in the trillions; even after a hundred million years, there are still hundreds of thousands left. Earth's Shoggoth colony is both relatively small and relatively docile; most Shoggoths in the wider galaxy are just ravening all over the place.
Beyond that? There are mile-high black pyramids over there, humming with arcane energies and completely sealed; in the Dream, they are merely the centerpieces for vast pleasure-palaces, guarded by immense beasts like sprinting mountains. There, similar pyramids, cold and dead, their defenders skeletons and palaces dissolved like cotton candy in the rain. There, immense tidal stresses cause the entire atmosphere to heave, carving endless parallel grooves in the world and filling the air with dust like shrapnel. There, millions of maggot-men labor endlessly on featureless statues, continuing on long after they should have died of exhaustion and acknowledging no distraction. There, there, there, there, and there, boring airless rock.
>>47751270
So, what's next?
>>47750442
>There is the perpetually-lit dimension, where all atoms resonate with strange sourceless energies and emit photons as a result, which then decay back into nothingness over the light-years. There are no shadows, and- because of alternate atomic spectra- all of the colors are different.
Look up quantum foam and Hawking radiation.
>>47750462
SHAW-g'th
>>47751932
Look, I think real physics isn't particularly relevant here. It just has to be moderately real.
>>47752115
Space is defined by the number of particle-antiparticle pairs pop into existence and annihilate each other. Calling them anti-particles is actually a misnomer; gauge symmetry antiparticles have energy and mass. These have negative energy and negative mass.
So in a volume of space there's a given number of these pairs which exist for barely more than a Planck second before ceasing to exist anymore.
On the edge of a black hole's event horizon, one of this pair will sometimes be captured. Since it's impossible for a particle of negative mass and energy to exist, this is the particle which will be captured by the black hole. The black hole will decrease in mass and energy while appearing to emit a particle.
What if there's a universe where negative mass and energy isn't necessarily impossible?
>>47752331
Look, if you like this kind of speculative physics fiction, check out Greg Egan, because he's better at this than either one of us will ever be.
http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/ORTHOGONAL/E3/ArrowsOfTimeExcerpt.html
Or:
http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/SCHILD/00/SchildExcerpt.html
But for the purposes of actually running a game? It's too much to worry about. Good luck getting 3-4 players to understand or care about the math you had to do to create part of the setting, when the end result is "it causes san los, damage, and it's hard to move around in".
Focus on the /results/, from the POV of someone who doesn't understand the /why/.
>>47750442
>>47750863
>>47751270
This guy is doing it right. Speculative physics with /practical/, visible results.
>>47752331
>What if there's a universe where negative mass and energy isn't necessarily impossible?
What makes you think it is? Nothing about theories of relativity or the standard model necessarily forbids negative mass or negative energy and even if they did, we already have some pretty damn good indications that they aren't the entire truth. And then you get weird shit like Casimir effect and Hawking radiation, not to mention the whole dark energy thing.
>>47752395
Dark energy isn't negative, it's positive.
>>47752445
What makes you so sure of that? Last I checked, we don't have the slightest clue of what dark energy actually IS, only that it's some kind of force or field forcing the space to accelerate its expansion.
>>47752483
We don't know what it is but we know that if it were negative energy it would be doing negative work, therefore slowing the universe's expansion.
>>47752506
But positive energy is already doing precisely that. It's called gravity.
>>47744284
> the Human League
you were working for the mi-go as a brain in a jar
when i met you
>>47752544
No. Shut up. I am Greg Egan.
>>47743950
>>47744284
What about Venus? HPL actually wrote a story set there ("Walls of Eryx"), although the Venus descipted there isn't really compatible with our modern understanding of the place (it's the standard early 20th century description, which is like Earth but hotter and with CO2 atmosphere).
Other things about the dolar system he mentioned that I can remember was insectoid philosophers living on one of the moons of Jupiter at some point in time in "Beyond the Walls of Sleep".
>>47754002
Perhaps Venus was terraformed by elder spoops.
>>47750442
>>47750863
>>47751270
You have this oddly formal writing style talking about highly complex ideas followed with slang/profanity. I personally think Lovecraft's works could have benefited from a fuck or two.
>>47751270
>There, there, there, there, and there, boring airless rock.
To modern instruments, yes.
I added a new warlock patron, as well as some spells. Writing non-damaging spells is kind of hard though, since there's no guidelines on what their level should be (so a lot of these might be either too weak or too powerful). If anybody has some good ideas for spells, I'd like to hear them.
>>47754002
I'll have to check those out.
>>47749896
I don't think Nyarlathotep is even Nyarlathotep's name.
Hotep is commonly combined with the name of a god or other figure. See Amenhotep (Aka Akhenaten), Sebekhotep, Rahotep, Mentuhotep, etc.
These theophoric names include Hotep (which usually means peace) to mean "<Insert God's Name Here> is satisfied".
It's mentioned that the suffix was added during Nephren-Ka's reign, so it's quite likely that Nyarlat was the original god; Nephren-Ka was the Pharaoh's throne name, and Nyarlathotep was his birth name.
His reign was just so monstrous and terrible that people said he was himself his god; and his name became used as the name of his own deity.
>>47756829
The Call of Cthulhu rulebook says that Nyarlathotep is a contraction of "ny har rut hotep" which means "There is no peace (safety, rest) at the gate"
>>47756892
Yeah, but I'm not too sure on some of their translations.
>>47754002
All right, here's what I've got. Tentative and on-the-spot; any further ideas would be appreciated.
>VENUS
Venus is by any measure a hell-world, with standing lakes of molten lead and constant sulphuric-acid rains. Initial surveys indicated there would likely be nothing of interest on the planet; even for the awesome material sciences of the Elder Things and their contemporaries, conditions on Venus would be unkind to their relics. The Elder Things reported that they had never had any interest in Venus, and knew of no past or present civilizations which did; likewise the Mi-Go. A series of probes was launched, but there was no expectation they would find anything of interest.
So when one crashed into an invisible dome on the way down, it took everyone by surprise.
Additional probes revealed that the area covered by the dome extended nearly a hundred square miles, and about three miles up; that the dome extended below as well as above ground; and most bafflingly of all, that it seemed to impede Venus' weather conditions not at all. It was impermeable to the probes and, seemingly, only the probes.
When the probes discovered an ingress, a block of 'semi-solid air,' this mystery was solved; its apparent permeability was an illusion, and the interior was indeed fully shielded from the elements. Naturally, more questions arose.
The dome seems to be some kind of nature preserve. It is also a fairly conventional tesseract, each 'face' of the 4D structure comprising a hundred-mile area of the same dimensions as the exterior dome, and each one consisting of a single biome. The majority of environments seem to be of the same planet- red sun, constant winds, high CO2, very long day- but some others have been discovered. The source of the weather is disputed; some say there are mechanisms in the dome, others say that the environments were somehow 'transposed' from their original planet, and are still connected to it. (cont.)
>>47757360
>VENUS, CONTINUED
There are no signs of the original builders; some archeological relics have been found, but they're of hunter-gatherer level, and of uncertain age; the artificial environment makes conventional dating techniques uncertain at best.
Debates on whether to terraform this internal environment have been interrupted by the discovery of empty chambers, filled with water and sterile soil. The colonization of these segments has already begun; the environmental systems (however they function) aren't activated, but fusion reactors have been affixed to the tops of the domes to provide heat and light.
Some people are worried. The only way humanity could have discovered this construction, concealed as it was, was by running into it; the probe which did so was blown far off course. Was it just coincidence? Or did someone intend for them to find it?
Sometimes, when the colonists are alone, they swear they feel someone standing behind them, or that they hear laughter. But there is never anyone there.
So, what do you want me to cover next?
>>47756829
It's also implied that Nyarlathotep gbased his "Black Pharaoh" form on Nephren-Ka, who may have been the first human to summon him. So it might be that that name should only be used to refer to that particular form, but over time it's come to be the general name for the Messager and Soul of the Outer Gods.
>>47757609
Nyarlathophis (the Greek translation) has been used to refer to a specific incarnation before.
I've been trying to brush up on my writing skills lately, posting this here in case anyone else enjoys it.
"I had been stumbling over the hills for some unknown number of days, the sky had become grey, making day indistingishable from night, and even if it wasn't I'm not certain I could have noticed in my stupor. I don't know what I'm seeking, what I'm headed for; just what I'm running from. A plague came to my village, I saw it take everyone I know, save myself. I don't know how I've kept walking, days must have passed by now surely and I've eaten and drank nothing, yet every time I tire my legs feel driven by some energy, likely fear, although I'm not sure of what. I wish I could lend the same strength to driving out the whispers. They've been following me since my village, a thousand voices debating in tongues I don't recognize, although I walk alone I feel surrounded by strangers. As a crest one of the blighted hills I see the lake I know to be near the next town over from my own, although its waters remained murky they now shone like quicksilver and seemed to shift and cause the light which entered them to bend and twist. As I reached its banks I felt the strength which had propelled me here leave and I fell to my knees. Suddenly the voices which had plagued me spoke in a word I could finally understand.
"drink"
>>47759128
cont.
I was, as you can understand, not eager to do so, then I remembered how the plague had taken those infected, how the decay of death had come to them while they still lived and sensed that the same fate awated me if I refused. I was reminded of what my father used to say 'no sense delaying the inevitable', and I drank. At doing so the whispers reached a creshendo until my own voice was drowed out, a mere murmer from the corner of my head. All at once I felt them, everyone who The Sickness had touched, I heard all the voices of the countless people, animals, plants, of the land itself, all that which shared our disease. Then I turned my attention back to my own body, peering at it in curiosity, it saw, across the lake, the town. I knew that their people would be the next to join our chorus, this democracy of the virus and the toxin. No sense delaying the inevitable."
>>47757528
>>47757360
What does everyone do for fun?
Any pop culture that emerged?
>>47759142
>>47759128
Noice as hell, was the virus intelligent?
>>47739341
>>47746801
>>47748990
>>47749059
>>47749141
>>47749273
>>47749353
>>47749373
I'm going to ask a musician friend of mine about the viability of this shit, I'll take note of the videos and ideas and get back to this thread or make another one if anything comes up
You should do the same if you can as well, I think we might be on to something
