< Cthulhu Mythos

Cthulhu Mythos/WMG


When cultists summon Eldrich Abominations, they aren't actually summoning them

What they are actually getting is the equivalent to a an Eldrich Abomination's answering machine. An image appears (the more simplified and comprehensible avatar of the eldritch) it addresses the summoner and asks them what they want. Most of the real Eldrich Abominations are still slumbering, and have never encountered a human, and whose forms really are Inconceivable.

A lot of the Eldrich Abominations aren‘t as malevolent as they seem.

Much as we all adore Lovecraft, there’s no denying he was a viciously racist human being, and since most of his First-Person Narrator protagonists tended to be author self-inserts they shared a lot of his views. Just look at how Herbert West’s assistant describes Buck “Harlem Smoke” Robinson in Herbert West: Re-Animator. Now imagine how someone who holds such fear and contempt for a different branch of their own species would react to even the most benevolent Starfish Alien.

Not that that we should start fitting Cthulhu for a pair of leather pants, mind, but most of what we know about the various Mythos beasties comes second hand from potentially Unreliable Narrators of one kind or another. Sure the cultist Castro rants about how the Dread Cthulhu will “teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom“, but then again, Castro was freaking insane. Maybe Cthulhu will bring about the end times when he awakens, or maybe he’ll just fly off into space and never return, or perhaps the world would just get better.

  • So it's essentially "The way we see bugs on the sidewalk is the way the Elder Gods see us"?
  • This is more-or-less heavily implied by the man himself. While said unspeakably alien "Gods" were certainly not pleasant to deal with and were tied to various "dirty" races, we have virtually no reason to believe that most of them have any real concept of us as... anything sentient. The "bugs on sidewalk" analogy is usually the most frequent, but to some degree it is more like humanity is even smaller than that in their eyes (bacteria, perhaps). Aside from Nyarly, most of the Elder Gods show us all the hate and contempt we would a mangy, probably diseased cat that has moved into our house IF that. For all we know, they may be wonderful... um, things in their relations to one another. They are just so impossibly more powerful and alien than us that we can't understand them nor them us, and thus they walk over us when they are in the way.

Most of the really big things, the ones that don't even notice other beings and could accidentally knock a large planet out of orbit, are spaceships from Organic Technology.

Because the reality-warpin' wunz go fasta. Some of the creatures really are living beings in their own right, or carry "passengers" like parasites or symbionts, but a good many of them (particularly the ones that just spend hundreds or thousands of millennia floating around in space) are the organic shipsof much smaller species that may have actually bioengineered the ships beyond mere symbiosis. This is supported by The Colour out of Space, where the meteorite seems to be carrying living tissue inside the pockets and Humans Could Have Been Interpreted As Cthulhu. If you find it far-fetched, imagine the Shee ark crash-landing in industrial England or modern New York City, and compare the probable results to The War of the Worlds or Cloverfield.

Nyarlathotep was actually a god of Kawaii long ago

Because his name starts with "Nya".

  • Wait a minute, is that a Japanese word up there? No wonder...
  • Confirmed?

The DCU, The Marvel Universe, The Mortal Kombat Multiverse/universe, The Whoniverse, the various Transformers continuities and of course the Cthulhu Mythos (not to mention the near endless continuities that are either part of or Thought to be connected to it) share a common multiverse or possibly some kind of "Ultraverse" or "Megaverse" that contains multiple multiverses.

Homo sapiens sapiens is the result of Old Ones (or one of their servant races) impregnating hominids in the distant past

This explains why Humans Are Cthulhu. Those who physically appeared more like EldritchAbominations than non-threatening hairless apes were likely put to death at birth.

  • If the above is true, then this troper is inclined to suspect Nyarly of being the one responsible since it'd certainly explain a few things. Plus the identity of the Million Favoured Ones has never actually been revealed beyond them being Nyarlathotep's progeny and them being us would be a pretty good Tomato in the Mirror moment.

The Cthulhu Mythos is not a single universe, but an entire multiverse.

Every single work of fiction which makes reference to the Mythos (be it a major reference, such as the inclusion of a Lovecraftian deity, or a minor reference, such as a mention of the Necronomicon) is part of this multiverse. Cosmic beings like Azathoth, Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu have avatars in many universes simultaneously, so they have the experience of existing in billions of places at once. Apparent contradictions between Lovecraft-inspired works can be explained by the simple fact that they do not take place in one single 'Verse, but many adjacent ones.

Cthulhu is the Could-have-been-king.

And his spawn are his army of meanwhiles and never-weres. At least I didn't say he was a time lord.

  • Yog-Sogoth very well could be a time lord.
    • Yog-Sothoth is what the Time Lords worship.

Ephraim Waite transgendered himself.

Anyone who's trans can tell you how incredibly uncomfortable it is to be in a body that's the wrong sex. This would explain "Asenath's" infamous comment about women's brains being inferior - Ephraim just couldn't figure out what was wrong here. Although considering Asenath was a Half-Human Hybrid that would eventually mutate, he was gonna eventually end up with a body that was both the wrong sex and the wrong damn species. Kinda makes you wonder how well he thought this out.

  • He didn't have options available. He needed someone of high intelligence and weak will, and his daughter was the only one available.

The Old Ones are Archailects

They were created by some of the many seemingly extinct species whose ruins have been found. Terragen transapients and archai think in ways that are incomprehensible to nearbaseline humans and modosophont xenos are almost as "alien". Just think what a xenoarchailect would be like.

Ghroth known as Hellstar Remina

Take a look at the image!

Lovecraftian Fiction is actually a Deconstruction of God and Theism.

Think about it: Do you really want for God to exist just to have a purpose in life? Did you really think your life would be more meaningful and significant if gods existed? No, instead your life will be even more meaningless and insignificant, because what's the point in life if we are completely overshadowed by them, while our lives and choices and just everything are decided by the Powers That Be anyway, whether we like it or not?

Cthulhu is really an overzealous real estate developer

Knowing that the sunken city of R'yleh would one day be valuable property, he attempted to keep it safe by starting a rumor that it was haunted. He paid artists and other creative people to come up with stories about seeing the city in their dreams and make sculptures of monstrous creatures. To spread the word further, he and the other members of his agency dressed up as cultists and performed made-up rituals. This eventually got out of hand, and he was forced to spend all of his money on a giant puppet. This is why the so-called god was able to be defeated by a ram to the head with a boat. If there is anything Scooby-Doo has taught us, it's that this type real estate development is the source of all monsters.

  • And he would have got away with it if it wasn't for you meddling kids

Chuck Norris is Cthulhu

This all stemmed from a very simple idea- replace all instances of the name Chuck Norris in Chuck Norris Facts with Cthulhu.

  • Outer Space is only outer because it doesn't want to be on the same planet as Cthulhu.
  • There is no evolution- only a list of creatures Cthulhu allows to live.
  • Cthulhu does not sleep. He waits.

Ia! Ia! Chucthulhu fhtagn!

The Deep Ones are masters of biotechnology.

This would explain the Half Human Hybrids & the immortality, which otherwise defy the laws of nature.

  • Immortality doesn't defy the laws of nature (which are really more like guidelines) - Hydra is immortal. although of course it is a very simple cnidarian and not a frog/fish ruler of the Deep Ones.
    • That we know of.

The Elder Things have the ability to come back to life, much like Herbert West tried to do for humans. It may be the West somehow got ahold of specimens of them & attempted to adapt their vital fluids for human use, or perhaps the Elder Things' ability to revive is artificial, created using a perfected version of the Re-Agent, based on the same scientific principles which West simply discovered independantly.

H.P. Lovecraft was right and there is proof!

...I'll...just...get back to you on that...

  • May I suggest you look in Astoria, Oregon? It is surrounded by tall hills of dark pines, frequently rainwashed. Until November, 1922, the entire town was built on planks, with the tide moving under the city (basically a dark dripping, fishy smelling maze under there). Then the whole place mysteriously burnt down (maybe that was the only way to contain the evil). Plus the local Chinook legends about the Star People who came down from outer space and settled in undersea villages, becoming the Salmon People. In one legend, the first wave of Star People went undersea because they were hiding from the bad star people.

H.P. Lovecraft's stories were all personal accounts

No wonder the poor bastard was so screwed up.

H.P. Lovecraft's stories were all completely fictitious.

I know this one's tough to swallow, but hear me out. The protagonists are often clear author stand-ins and the world reflects Lovecraft's personal philosophy. My theory (which was rejected AGAIN for dissertation!) is that H.P. Lovecraft was a mere mortal who lived during the early twentieth century and wrote works of fiction for pleasure, philosophical exposition, and profit. Naturally, we need to fear nothing from the mind-blasting horrors described in H.P. Lovecraft's work. After all, mathematicians deal with non-Euclidean geometry all the time. The cake is your friend...

EAT IT!!!

EAT IT NOW!!!

Nonetheless, Lovecraft's writing is *C0MPL3T3LY* fictitious. Hey, wait a minute...

The troper who wrote the above theory is from Innsmouth.

The "hey wait a minute" was their humanity resurging briefly before being once more subsumed by their unholy fishman side, which wants to keep up foolish plains apes in the dark.

Lovecraft is actually Edgar Allen Poe

Like Charles Dexter Ward's grandfather, EAP used a dark ritual to ensure that one day a reincarnation would be born, and then EAP's spirit could take over his body. Alternatively, same theory, but with Lord Dunsany rather than EAP.

    • That last one doesn't work very well because Dunsany OUTLIVED Lovecraft by 20 years.

Lovecraft was an opium user.

Opium does give you some pretty weird dreams.

    • Alternately, like that guy from Dagon, he used morphine a lot. Or maybe he just had really freaky dreams. Something he ate?
    • He didn't need any drugs. He didn't even drink alcohol, disliking the effect of losing control - a gentleman must keep his dignity at all times. He just naturally had some really, really weird dreams.
    • However, he DID do LSD...
      • Not possible. Lovecraft died in 1937. LSD wasn't created until 1938.
      • Possibly having something to do with his mother's mental illness - even if he hadn't inherited genetic tendencies, this along with his family losing their fortune gave him a really crappy childhood.

The Elder Sign is just the Elder Things' logo.

There's nothing mystical about it. Eldrich critters just tend to avoid it because the Elder Things managed to kick most of their asses, aside from the Shoggoths.

  • And the Elder Things were just a frighteningly effective corporate entity.
  • Yet, it's hard to ignore how the Elder Thing's special ability to pick up a fight with any species other than their own with ridiculous ease managed to be their own downfall.
  • Actually, you're right about it not being an arcane symbol of magic, but you're wrong about it being a logo. It's really just an ideographic symbol in the Elder tongue, and it translates roughly to, "I can't believe I ate the whole thing." They never really meant for it to be their sign at all, it was just misinterpreted as such.

Lovecraft was the actual Eldritch Abomination

The Outer Gods, while beings of great power, are not cosmic horrors. While humanity is not their primary concern, they still have the best intentions towards us. The Outer Gods make sure everything in the universe keeps running smoothly and if they were only the only Powers in the universe, then it would be a paradise. However, there is a group of Powers who don't want a smoothly running universe. To aid in this, they needed to make humanity distrust the Outer Gods. What better way of doing this then painting in the worst light and outright lying about their intentions? H. P. Lovecraft (which isn't the entity's real name, of course) infiltrated humanity to do just this.

  • Alternately, he didn't have an agenda, he just wanted to write some stories. As above they were personal accounts, but not from the angle you'd expect...
  • I don't know, it sure would explain his superhuman vocabulary....

Herbert West is the Narrator's Tyler Durden analogue.

  • It would explain a lot.
    • Indeed.

HP Lovecraft had some kind of mental disorder

Perhaps a form of schizophrenia- something that'd make him obsessive, paranoid (enhancing his racism), socially inept and having a seriously overactive imagination. I failed Psychology, so I can't pin it down.

  • I'm not sure where your signs and symptoms are coming from - in all the biographies and letters I've read, I haven't seen the slightest hint of paranoid behavior and he had an awful lot of friends for a socially inept person. While his letter writing was out of hand and his dreams were rather bizarre (writing while dreaming! dreams with a novel-like complexity!) this certainly doesn't seem symptomatic of anything. The only time in his life when he could be said to have a mental disorder was when he was deeply depressed (and nearly a hermit) from 18-23 after grieving the loss of family members and his childhood home. For a guy who had both parents wind up in an insane asylum (well... one was because of syphilis) he would up surprisingly normal.
    • Well if he had any mental disorder grounded from his life it's certain he had night terrors: which may have been the inspiration for The Call of Cthulhu and his Cosmic Horror Stories. Maybe he also had depression, considering his strong Nihilist beliefs and the "nervous breakdowns" he suffered due to the loss of his grandfather's estate and failure to become an astronomer...


HP Lovecraft, were he alive today, would be an avid troper.

Obsessive. Paranoid. Socially inept. Overactive imagination. Sound like anyone? Tropes Will Ruin Your Life.

  • It's conceivable. He did keep his social life mainly in the form of writing while he was alive. Stephen King has speculated that if he lived in modern times, "he would likely exist most vibrantly in various internet chatrooms."
  • Plus he wasn't that socially inept. He had a lot of friends and, finances permitting, went to visit them all the time. One of the reasons he stayed in New York as long as he did was because he had friends there.

The Narrator of "Herbert West - Reanimator" is West's Beholden.

The Narrator is basically West's all-purpose Igor, and after medical school, seems to be the only person who "gets" what West is trying to do at all. As West Transgresses more and more, he becomes more and more erratic, eventually more or less self-destructing at the hands of the reanimated marvels he abandoned. The narrator seems like an unusually faithful sidekick for one working with a crazy man, as well as a little too understanding. He can see why and how West does what he does, if not achieve the same results himself. West could certainly get another, better assistant, but is bound to this one particular person.

Cthulhu was sealed away by the Elder Things.

It is mentioned they fought against Cthulhu & his minions in Mountains of Madness. The Cthulhu cult's mantra "when the stars are right" doesn't refer to anything astrological, but rather the Elder Things' distinctively shaped heads & that they made a mistake sealing him away & should let him out & join in worshiping him.

  • This may also explain the need for the Cthulhu cult & the Half Human Hybrids. If all life native to Earth is descended from the Elder Things' biotechnology, perhaps only humans would be able to deactivate the barriers keeping Cthulhu in check, while aliens like the Cthulhu Spawn would be kept out by some kind of biotmetric lock.

Wilbur Whateley's father is not Yog Sothoth but Azathoth.

Consider the fact that he & his "brother" are similar to Azathoth & Nyarlathotep, who are said to be different aspects or components of the same entity. One is vaguely humanoid & intelligent, while the other is a blobby, apparently mindless tentacle monster, whereas Yog Sothoth is said to resemble a cloud of bubbles. The Whately family probably just got confused due to their similar names, or possibly due to the fact that their copy of the Necronomicon was the infamously poorly translated English edition.

    • ...and the giant thing crying "HELP ME! FATHER! YOG-SOTHOTH" was what?
      • That was the giant thing crying for his father's help against Yog-Sothoth. =)
    • The idea of Azathoth as a giant tentacular blob and Yog-Sothoth as a cluster of bubbles comes from August Derleth, not Lovecraft himself, so he wouldn't have followed those descriptions before they were even invented. Azathoth is supposed to be an "atomic chaos", not an organic being at all, while Yog-Sothoth ought to be impossible to describe - the elements in his sons give a hint to what he might be like as an Earthly life-form, but not what he really is. Wilbur writes in his diary that once the world has been "cleansed", he would be given a new body, more suitable for the new conditions.
      • Actually, Lovecraft first described Yog-Sothoth as a congeries of iridescent globes in "The Horror in the Museum."
      • Lovecraft did not write that story, he only proofread it. Derleth loved mislabelling his works as Lovecraft's own for some reason.

The "humans" are small mammals from after the next Ice Age. We are the Great Old Ones.

We ruin our world and flee to hibernate with our advanced technology under the sea. The stories are told from the perspective of some small non-human mammals that pick up where we leave off. The reader is given familiar terms so as not to spoil the big reveal, and to suggest commonalities. When HPL writes "London" the reader is meant to assume "large coastal capitol city full of small non-human mammals".

  • Then how come they look like squids and such
  • The WMG that could be written by Lovecraft himself! Great twist. And, uh... I'd better go eat some small mammals.

Azathoth and Yog-Sothoth are the same entity.

Both are depicted as the all-powerful forces sustaining the universe and have never been established as separate. The simple explanation is that all the power in the universe is divided between Azathoth, who contains and sustains it in its rawest form, and Yog-Sothoth, who is pretty much the manifestation of Azathoth's will, actually using the power for stuff.

  • But Azathoth is said to be present at the center of the universe, while Yog-Sothoth is present at all points in space and time. And even if you count him as the 'will' of Azathoth, they are still not the same entity for the same reason Nyarlathotep is not the same entity as either of them.
    • Doesn't the centre of the universe also count as a point in space and time?
      • Is the central point of a sphere a point on it's surface?
  • Wait a minute: Azathoth + Yog Sothoth = God.
    • YHWH is what would happen if they ever had a child.

Uwe Boll is actually Nyarlathotep, and is attempting to drive us all insane with his movies.

And agreeing to stop making videogame movies if the petition gets enough signatures? That's part of an elaborate Xanatos gambit to get movie rights to every videogame in existance, and thus drive fans into utter despair. And then he'll move on to making anime movies...

  • Anime movies? NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! *goes mad from the revelation*

The "things" that the De La Poer ate were not humans... but just barely

The narrator's term to describe the creepy creature he saw on the cave is "swineherd". That word was unknown to me, though I could imply the meaning from analogy(shepherd => sheep, thus swineherd => swine, pigs), so it must be important for the understanding of the story. Near the end, the team of scientists find many skeletons in the grotto under the castle that are actually quadrupedal. The horrible conclusion is that the creatures being raised as cattle by the De La Poer were actually pigs, mutated into human-like creatures, whose evolution was accelerated by artificial selection and quick disposing of the unwanted individuals(for eating, of course). If the artificial selection of more human-like pigs was perpetrated due to pity or if it was the original objective of the family, though, is a mystery best unsolved...

    • Lovecraft's original intention was almost certainly for them to be humans so degenerate and bred for maximum meat production that they resemble pigs more than anything else. Really, the chances are that if you saw a deformed, filthy, morbidly obese human crawling on all fours, you'd think of pigs as well.
    • One of the scientists points out that the quadruped were originally bipedal; the text says "...some of the skeleton things must have descended as quadrupeds through the last twenty or more generations." In the next paragraph, the story mentions the quadrupeds being kept, together with the occasional "bipedal recruits", in the stone pens the explorers see.

Nyarlathotep is to Dream Land as Azathoth is to the real world.

Azathoth is said to be the avatar or focal point of the cosmic forces of the physical world. As such, he is a force of nature & therefore mindless. Some sources say that Nyarlathotep is Azathoth's disembodied consciousness, however. This could be because he is the avatar of Lovecraft's Dreamlands, a world made from the collective unconscious of all intelligent life, in a way, the "consciousness" of the universe. Since intelligent life is so rare in the vast cosmos he is so much smaller & less powerful than Azathoth, but infinitely more versatile & dangerous. This also handily explains why he is the most humanlike of Lovecraft's Cosmic Horrors, because in a way he is part human.

    • I think this is partly subverted in the end of Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, where he executes his ultimate dick move and almost destroys Randolph Carter's sanity by tricking him into riding a Shantak into the court of Azathoth. This sorta proves that Azathoth exists in both the dreamlands and the real world, so it brings some doubt into the theory.
    • Azathoth is mentioned right up front and all the way through Dream-Quest, along with his inconceivable, unlighted chambers, his disco, and the Other Gods whose soul and messenger is Nyarlathotep.

All other Cosmic Horrors exist because of humanity.

Humanity itself is the top dog Cosmic Horror. The only reason the others seem so powerful is because we locked our powers away and made ourselves forget. All the other ones want us back, so they are using cultists as a means to an end.

Lavinia Whateley was a victim of tentacle rape.

I cannot see any other reason as to how the Dunwich horrors actually came to be.

  • The Whateleys were a crazy family of worshippers, and willingly set Wilbur and his brother's conception up?
    • They were, but it still can't have been too pleasant experience, when even her much crazier father was apparently half-mad with fear when she gave birth - as well as the fact that she was the one to get cold feet and became afraid of her inhuman sons.

The Elder Things created the Shoggoths by reverse-engineering Shub-Niggurath's young.

Would explain the similarities. Plus, some Mythos sources have identified the Shoggoths as followeers of Shubby, although this is admittedly suspect, since Lovecraft himself never mentioned the connection IIRC.

  • Well, The Thing in the Doorstep does imply that the Shoggoths (or "Shaggoths" as they are called in the story) are somehow involved with the Witch-Cult that invokes the name of Shub-Niggurath. Ofcourse it's just as possible that the people giving them names just didn't make much difference between two amorphous blob-creatures disregarding their different origins, if they even know about them.

H.P. Lovecraft was the son of a Cosmic Horror

The Dunwich Horror was semi-autobiographical. It was also the reason for his racism-he was just barely able to avoid disgust and fear towards human beings who looked like him, but was unable to do so towards anyone different. His dislike of seafood was due to his unknowing identification with sea creatures. His stories were mixes of fact and fiction.

Nyarlathotep is the real mind behind the My Immortal fan fiction as an attempt to drive the entire internet insane.

I feel like I lost some of my sanity rating just reading the page on it.

Cthulhu's power is directly linked to the existence of humanity.

Cthulhu is one of the most 'normal' of the various Lovecraftian horrors, but one of the most popular, and treated as one of the most powerful. The ability to actually perceive the physical form of the horrors is directly linked to their power. The more esoteric entities lack power over human beings because the humans can't properly process them. What can we process? Big ol' squid-dragons. Advantage: Cthulhu.

Azathoth is a supermassive black hole.

We know that Azathoth is blind and mindless, and lurks at the center of the universe. Lovecraft grew up in a time when "the universe" meant the Milky Way galaxy, which (we now know) has a supermassive black hole at its center. Azathoth is described as "blaspheming", yet Lovecraft was an athiest, so it's hard to say what would constitute "blasphemy" in his reckoning ... unless, that is, it's warping physics and the nature of reality, blaspheming against all that is reasonable, which black holes do by their very nature (Black holes are one of the most prominent examples of actual Lovecraftian Eldritch Abominations in Real Life). Azathoth is also said to "bubble", but what he bubbles in the void of space isn't specified; the event horizon of a black hole, however, is a spherical border not unlike a giant bubble. As for the "piping" that tunelessly serenades the Big A, it's possible that the Milky Way black hole releases pulses of radiation into intergalactic space (i.e. it's a quasar), creating a rhythmic, tuneless "beat" that even tone-deaf Lovecraft could've interpreted as music.

In short, Azathoth is Lovecraft's unwitting anticipation of the discovery of a supermassive black hole at the core of the Milky Way: an indestructible, mindless creator and destroyer of our galaxy, as it's what drew material together to make it and what will gobble up its remnants when it dies. If stars, planets and constellations are named for their semblence to god-figures from mythology, then "Azathoth" is the perfect name for that big hungry mutha at the galactic core.

Eric Zahn was the Fiddler on the Roof.

Before moving to that creepy rooming house in Paris, he lived in Anatevka, where he stood on top of people's houses and played to keep Azathoth from coming and wiping out the village. Sadly, this technique didn't prove nearly as effective against the Cossacks.

"Noyes" from The Whisperer in Darkness is Nyarlathotep.

A suspicious yet standard-looking ominous fellow getting involved in rituals with the Mi-Go with a calm demeanor and higher-than-average knowledge about entities like Shub-Niggurath? Who could it be?

  • Someone who participates in a ritual which celebrates the impending coming of Nyarlathotep, as explicitly told in the story? Why would the Mi-Go order him to collect information to give to Nyarlathotep, if he was the deity himself? To quote directly:

(Buzzing Voice):...go out among men and find the ways thereof, that He in the Gulf may know. To Nyarlathotep, Mighty Messenger, must all things be told. And He shall put on the semblance of men, the waxen mask and the robe that hides, and come down from the world of Seven Suns to mock...
(Human Voice):(Nyarl)athotep, Great Messenger, bringer of strange joy to Yuggoth through the void, Father of the Million Favoured Ones, Stalker among...

The reason the protagonist of The Music Of Eric Zahn can never find the Rue D'Auseil again is because Azathoth erased it from existance.

After Zahn stopped playing, Azzy got bored with it and wiped the place out. But since he's an eldritch god thing who controls space and time, when Azathoth destroys something, not only does he end its future, he wipes out its past as well. There never was a Rue D'Auseil, hence why it doesn't show up on any maps and why nobody remembers it. As to why the narrator does, maybe Azzy's just messing with him.

The Magna Mater from Rats in the Walls is actually Shub Niggurath.

Also, the voodoo sect the guy's cousin joined is the one from Call Of Cthulhu. No reason other than it'd tie it into the Cthulhu Mythos.

HP Lovecraft is not really a nihilistic Nietzsche Wannabe

Okay, this might be more of a Poison Oak Epileptic Tree, but Lovecraft is actually just acting some of his nihilism so that he can make and write his stories better and more memorable. You know, fully understanding and comprehending a fictional universe by acting them as though they are real experiences. He was just living his life as though it was a work of art. Well, if he was truly that of a nihilist, then the probability of him collapsing from the revelation increases. After all, a meaningless story is fun but easily disposable, but a philosophic story that questions our existence is more memorable and interesting. Remember how the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion became famous due to its philosophic mindscrewyness?

    • I cant tell if this was a joke or not because if youve read his letters its clear he never was a Nihilistic Niezsche Wannabe its also clearly he wasnt a nihilist he had philosophical beliefs he held to firmly, the only remarks he ever really made that implied he was one was when he was suffering severe depression after the death of his mother.

Danforth from At the Mountains of Madness didn't really go crazy.

He was killed by a Shoggoth and replaced. His apparent insanity is due to the creature not figuring out how to imitate human behavior convincingly. His repetitive babbling is the Shoggoth repeating things it heard the real Danforth say. After all, the ancient tablets told of the Shoggoths disguising themselves as Elder Things, why not people?

  • Exactly where in the novel it is mentioned that the Shoggoths could disguise themselves as Elder Things? They are way, way too large for such a feat, and descriptions are only given to their imitation of their masters' voices and writing, nothing about their physical forms.

Shadowgirls theory about Lovecraft is true

Shadowgirls, webcomics that makes big use of Cthulhu Mythos, has recently finished short story revealing that Lovecraft was a member of secret society of writers, who were gathering the knowledge about all kind of supernatural like aliens, vampires, werewolves or eldritch abominations and publishing them as fiction. If they would reveal their knowledge as truth, nobody would believe them, but if they claimed to made it up, their knowledge would survive in collective human memory as tropes - we know that stake and sunlight kills a vampire and silver bullet is fatal to the werewolf, because we read about it in books. Lovecraft himself has passed informations about how to deal with at last some of creatures his characters encounters - The Dream-Quest Of Unknown Kadath describes how to survive encounters with many creatures inhabiting Dream World and even how to get saved from Nyerlaotheph. His stories where monstrosities cannot be stopped serves as a warning for people so then can recognize early signs of those creatures when they see them and run.

The things in the tomb in "The Statement of Randolph Carter" were parasprites.

"Curse these hellish things--legions--My God!"

Shoggoths are the central creature linking all the Cthulhu Mythos.

Here's the reasons why:

The Elder Things/Old Ones of Antarctica created the Shoggoths as servitors- who rebelled.
In regards to Deep Ones or other followers of Cthulhu, the Esoteric Order of Dagon use Shoggoths for some of their plans. (The Shadow Over Innsmouth)
In regards to the Outer Gods/Great Old Ones, the cultists who worship Shub-Niggurath in Chesuncook, Maine have a whole pit of Shoggoths. ("The Thing on the Doorstep")
What about the Dreamlands? Didn't Abdul Alhazred say that Shoggoths only existed in the dreams of druggies?

The pantheon is dead.

It turns out that the conqueror of the Great Old Ones weren't the Elder Gods, or even man...it was time itself. All of those Great Old Ones said to be lying dormant in some far-distant place? Chances are, if they weren't dead to begin with, they have died of old age by now. Their myths, meanwhile, still resonate with the few alien races still alive in the universe. We all are tricked into believing the eldritch abominations of the universe still threaten our existence, when there is nothing threatening our existence at all.

Humanity is driving Nyarlathotep insane.

By whatever standards Eldritch Abomination have. Supposedly humans shouldn't even blip on most of the Mytho's radar, yet Nyarly is obsessed with them; changing them, dominating or destroying them. He purposely deals with them and actively works to change human society. He is not Above Good and Evil; indeed, his behaviour is Human, All Too Human. See, the Go Mad from the Revelation thing is two-way. Nyarlathotep set his perceptions on a radically different species (humans) and the perspective is driving him bonkers.

    • As for why he's set his perceptions on us, well, going by the works in which he appears he's been trying to make us do ourselves in for a very long time and so far hasn't suceeded in doing so. Basically he's bored and we're a challenge.

The Great race of Yith are timelords.

Well some one had to say it. They are probably a future form of the timelords. They have mastered time travel. I can imagine, after the events of the end of time in doctor who. The time lords,were dying out on the time locked time war, so in order to survive they found a way to trasnfer their minds, towards time and space into other lifeforms, not mention they have a lot of knowlege about alien spcies acroos the universe inclunding humanity.

The Deep Ones and their half-human spawn are zombies!

Lovecraft and subsequent writers explicitly portray them as having a nauseating fish odor. Actually, it's only DEAD fish that smell. Which means . . . "Iä! Iä! BRRAAAIIINNNS!"

  • Considering the Deep Ones are (possibly) aliens, that fishy smell might just be their B.O.
    • Nah, I think the story makes it pretty clear they're another species native to Earth. ("Seems that human folks has got a kind a' relation to sech water-beasts - that everything alive come aout o' the water onct an' only needs a little change to go back agin." "Can it be possible that this planet has actually spawned such things. . .") Lovecraft's aliens are REALLY alien.

Wilbur is Wilbur.

Because they're both the runt of the litter and they live on a farm.

Fitting the theme of a universe that has no meaning, Nyarlathotep would be the final step of evolution of every single being in existence

Nyarly is the Soul or the Telepatic representation of the Outer Gods and if you think about it for a moment you will notice that the Outer Gods(the most powerful beings in all Lovecraft Mythos and therefore the most aliens in mind and body) end up making a creature that its not so different from the human way of thinking. So no matter how alien, bizzare or godlike you are, you will always manifest your "Soul", "Essence" or "Mind" as a creature that wants only suffering and madness spread all over every plane of existence just for fun. Meaning that even gods and lowly earthlings cant escape him because they are all the one and the same, the sense of self-identity and morals are just masks for the very "soul" that drives every motivation you make and fits perfectly with a universe with no meaning or salvation. If the so called god who is omnipotent and benevolent its a blind retard that created the universe by accident then evolution in mind and body (the tool that all the creatures uses to achieve adaptation over the enviroment) its also flawed and meaningless because all change will always lead into being like Nyarlathotep in the end and worse yet there is no escape from it because like every aspect that the Outer Gods represent (Radiation, Childbearing, Time and Space) its a necessary aspect that keeps reality from falling apart, unchanging, constant, absolute.

  • Why would evolution in an universe without meaning actively direct life-forms towards a single point? Evolution doesn't work that way. Also, the while the Lovecraftian Other Gods are meant to act as personifications of the blind forces of physics, having there be specific gods for things like radiation or childbearing would be rather anticlimactic, and would rob them from much of their mystique and alienness.
    • Evolution is a weird word today but what i meant is that even living being adapt very slowly towards a better future for their species in the end it wont change the fact that they still will be as insane and twisted in their inner desires as Nyarlathotep. Thus making the universe a place where you cant rely on your god because its to apathetic to care or because its a mindless and also a place that even if you adopt a Anti-Nihilistic view upon the world trying to live and help others now that there is no one to help us in the cold and infinite space it STILL wont change anything at all, because the weak minded will always be overwhelmed by their desire of destruction and madness. Thus this illusion called "Evolution" or "Progress" meaningless because our decisions are just as smart as running in circles over and over and over, moving constantly but never reaching any other shape beyond a circle forever. If Nyarly manages to be the most humanlike creature of all the pantheon even if he is the Soul or Mind of this godlike creatures that are supposed to be too alien to grasp, its because even them are meaningless and have become prisioners of a principle of the universe that being like Nyarly at the very core. For the "Having gods for specific thing would be Anticlimatic" opinion i could say that maybe that its part of the charm in the "go mad from the revelation". Maybe the true is THAT anticlimatic and lame that you will go in denial and in anger like a madman. Even if that wasnt the case it wont change the fact that some of the forces of physics are actually pretty alien on their own that all that is missing is that they were sentient but even that could be debatable considering that our perception of reality its too small that even if we do consider something as non sentient we may as well be very wrong.
  • So what you mean is that being the Anthropomorphic Representation of the Soul or Telepathic powers of the Outer Gods isnt his function, but instead the function that Lovecraft had for him is a Take That to evolution and intelligent design? by declaring that the gods manifested him as a monstruosity that manipulates and changes forms or "masks" for his own amusement just like a lowly life form? Also, i believe that the concepts of the Outer Gods being related to cosmic scale principles was after Lovecraft writings and made into the Call of Cthulhu RPG. But even if none of them have any purpose, Nyarlathotep still seems like a pretty odd creation on their part enough to question if they are really that different they from us
    • The Other Gods as representations of the abstract forces of the universe is a concept that originates in the prosaic poem Nyarlathotep, the first introduction of the character, even though the Other Gods as entities had not been quite fleshed out yet. In it Nyarlathotep is presented as an immortal but human scientist who brings terrifying truths of the universe to the hapless masses. The term "Other Gods" is not present, only the idea of the blind forces of the physics as the true deities of this world:

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.

    • Incidentally, the second explanation of the original WMG is contradictory with the original text; how can Nyarlathotep be the "peak" of all evolution is evolution is an illusion? In any case, the idea of Nyarlathotep as a trickster-bully who messes with humans for his own amusement is an idea of later authors. In Lovecraft's own work Nyarlathotep is always an intermediary between our "normal" world and the cosmic horrors. When you try to pass the boundaries of the human existence, you have to deal with him in some shape or form. This concept is present in The Dreams in the Witch-House, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, The Haunter of the Dark, and is even implied in The Whisper in Darkness.
      • Evolution Its an illusion made by the humans by their inability to fully comprehend the very fabric of reality around that concept. For them, its a method that ensures that a species will always find a way to adapt to their environment and survive in the long run. In the grand scale of things however it doesnt mean anything because its like taking 1 step forward and 1 step back over and over. All decisions are, at the very core, driven by the desire of spread suffering and the only thing changing is actually how our bodies manage to convince us into do actions of this kind without our conscious mind detecting them as such. However, like you said, this will only apply if the original works around Nyarlathotep actually had him being a "for the evulz" kind of mentality. It must have been the Character Sheet from the Cthulhu Mythos page that made me believe this interpretation of Nyarly when i was looking for further answers. And begs the question, what tropes are from the original writings and what are the tropes made by other authors??
      • Sorry, but this still fails to make sense to me. If the purpose of evolution is to spread suffering, then evolution is not without purpose, and is in fact goal-driven, unlike real-life evolution which is simply perpetuation of genetic patterns that prove succesful in action. As for Nyarlathotep, his characterization as an evil trickster mostly stems from his presentation in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath where he guards Earth's gods in Dreamlands against mortal intrusion, but clearly holds these gods in contempt at the same time, and demonstrates some creative cruelty in disposing of the main protagonist, Randolph Carter. However, this is only one aspect of Nyarlathotep, and it is still performing a role of guarding the border between mundane and the otherworldly, rather than actively pursuing people to torment.

Yog-Sothoth is one of the many beings which Rassilon thrust out of the way in some manner or other in order to ensure the dominance of the Time Lords.

Nightmare Moon is Cthulu.

Locked some place cold and dark (Moon/Depths of Ocean), incredible powers, will escape when the stars are right, treated as myth by the local civilization (Ponyville/Everyone who hasn't been involved in anything) but known by foreigners (Zecora/cults) and people who read far too much (Twilight/?), it's form is sort of comprehensible but aspects are well beyond what people can grasp (Mane and fact she's an Alicorn / Giant octopus-dragon-man Starfish Alien).

Nyarlathotep is, among other things, more or less the god of trolling

Sowing chaos, check. For the Evulz, check (well, sort of). Likes messing with people, check. Dickishness, check. Sockpuppets, check.

Which may explain how he got knocked out by a boat. This is the actual reason why Cthulhu drives you insane: it's a defense mechanism. Cthulhu knows that squishy little mortals may try to nuke it to oblivion, but thanks to its psychic powers, people are too insane to attack it. Granted, it would still take a lot of force and psychological willpower to kill it, but it still is possible.

There are many Cthulhus

Well, they aren't necessarily all named Cthulhu, but there are more like "him". Cthulhu is basically the queen of the hive (his spawn) that settled on earth. Other hives with similar queens live on other planets.

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