Amnesia 9/Amnesia - Issue 09 (1993-02-01)(Eclipse)(Disk 2 of 2).adf/ARTICLES/h.p.love

Text File | 1993-01-31 | 10KB | 144 lines

H.P.Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos      human  mind  to  correlate   all  its
         By: Arc/Eclipse                  contents.  We live on a placid island
                                          of ignorance in  the  midst of  black
Well,now that chaos is rampant in the     seas of infinity and it was not meant
age   of    distrust,    what    with     that  we  should   voyage  far.   The
confrontations,     and     impulsive     sciences, each  straining  in its own
habitats,  and so on, on and on south     direction, have  hitherto  harmed  us
of heaven, I was wondering: why can I     little;  but  some  day  the  piecing
never find  a  pen when I need one? I     together  of  dissociated   knowledge
mean I have to  use  this crappy word     will open up  such  terrifying vistas
processor and  printer, and  I  could     of  reality, and  of   our  frightful
have written  on  the  back of a used     position therein,that we shall either
bus ticket instead and lost it.  That     go mad from the  revelation  or  flee
reminds  me,  I  must   put   all  my     from the deadly  light into the peace
addresses  and   phone   numbers   in     and safety of a new dark age."
some sort of book.........but anyway,
I  was  going  to  tell  you how cool     H.P. Lovecraft was born in  90  and
H.P. Lovecraft is, but  you  probably     died in 37. During  his 47 years he
already know. No?  Well, here  is  my     wrote  a  large  collection  of short
all  time   favourite  H.P. Lovecraft     stories  and  novellettes.  The  vast
paragraph (a pretty famous one):          majority  of   these   works   became
                                          collectively  known  as  the   Cthulu
"The  most   merciful  thing  in  the     mythos.   It  is   a  highly  complex
world,I think,is the inability of the     mythology  concerning  races of gods,
and  races  which inhabited the Earth     place in the universe.
millions  of  years  ago.  The mythos
goes something like this:                 2 Billion years  ago the Elder things
                                          landed on Earth, which  was an almost
The universe is ruled  by  the  Outer     lifeless  planet at that time.   They
gods.   These are a  race of god-like     bred animals which later evolved into
beings who have little or no interest     dinosaurs, and mankind.They also bred
in humanity.   They are controlled to     the shoggoths, to serve as slaves.
an   extent   by   Nyarlathotep,  the
embodiment of the  souls of the Outer     Later,Cthulu, the  most  important of
gods.   He  is  the only outer god to     the  Great old  ones,  and  his  star
take interest  in  human affairs, and     spawn, landed, and started a war with
delights  in   causing   madness  and     the Elder things.  The great old ones
insanity.   He is also the only outer     are hugely powerful beings,though not
god  to  have  a  true   personality.     gods, who  practice  black  magic and
Azathoth  is  the  ruler of the outer     built gigantic cities, the remains of
gods, and exists at the centre of the     which  can  still  be  found  in  the
material universe.   Azathoth is both     shifting sands of the  Sahara and the
blind and idiotic, and  a  "monstrous     frozen polar extremes.  Cthulu made a
nuclear   chaos".   His   urges   are     truce with  the  Elder things after 4
fulfilled by Nyarlathotep. His second     million years of war. However, as the
in  command  is  Yog-Sothoth, who  is     moon was ripped from the planet,  the
locked in another dimension.  It  can     continent  of  R'lyeh, home of Cthulu
transport  anything  to  any time and     and his spawn, was  plunged  into the
sea.   However, the  spells of Cthulu     cults on Earth.
perserved  them  and now they lie, in
living  death,  waiting   for   their     Cthulu: (Kuh-thoo-loo)
worshippers  on  Earth  to waken them
from  their  long  slumber. The Elder     Cthulu is,in his physical form,a huge
things  continued  to live, and after     anthropoid  being   with   wings  and
the arrival  of several lesser races,     tentacles on his head. He can change,
and   many   wars  with  them,  their     to  a  certain  degree, his  physical
civilization  was  all  but destroyed     appearance,  such  as the size of his
when their  servants, the  shoggoths,     wings, or tentacles. Cthulu rose from
revolted,and after a war of survival,     his sleep in 1925, but was trapped in
leaving them with no slave beasts,the     the  remains  of  his  cities as they
Elder things  start  to  decline, and     sank beneath the waves again.
their  cities are mostly destroyed by
various geological cataclysms.            THE OUTER GODS

THE GREAT OLD ONES                        The outer gods take  little  interest
                                          in the affairs of humanity.  They are
These are  immensely powerful beings,     mostly   idiotic   manifestations  of
who are immortal, and  do not inhabit     energy.
our dimension completely.   They  are
only partially composed of matter,and     Azathoth: (AZ-uh-thoth)
therefore cannot  be  killed.   Many,
especially Chtulu, are  worshipped by     Azathoth  is  the  ruler of the outer
gods, and  the ruler of the universe.     Yog-Sothoth: (YAHG-sau-thauth)
It is a seething mass of energy,which
lives  at the centre of the universe,     Yog-Sothoth  is  locked  outside  the
where the gods dance around it to the     material  universe, and  can  only be
sound of a monotonous pipe.It is both     summonned here  by the use of certain
blind and idiotic, and always follows     spells, found  in the NECRONOMICON, a
Nyarlathothep's  advice.  It is know-     famous occolt tome,a copy of which is
ingly   worshipped   only    by   the     kept  at  the  library  of Miskatonic
criminally insane.                        Universary, Arkham, Massachusetts. It
                                          holds the power to travel between the
Nyarlathotep: (NIGH-ar-LATH-oe-tep)       planes, and  can  transport humans to
                                          anywhere  in  space, time,  or  other
Nyarlathotep is the messenger of the      dimensions.   It  has been called the
gods,and is the only outer god with a     Key and the Gate. It is worshipped by
true personality. He serves Azathoth,     old wizards and the insane.
and enjoys creating madness and
insanity, far more than death and         THE ELDER GODS
destruction. He has over a thousand
forms, only a few of which have ever      The Elder  gods  are  rivals  to  the
been recorded. One is an Egyptian-        outer  gods  and  are  generally more
looking human, another is a great         benign to humans then the outer gods.
faceless beast, which has one blood       Many are similar to the Olympian gods
red tentacle in place of a face.          of ancient Greece.

Nodens: NOE-denz                          such  as  the  Yithians, and the Migo
                                          (Fungi from Yuggoth).  The fungi from
Nodens appears  as  an  old  man, who     Yuggoth have small mining colonies on
rides a chariot of a sea shell,pulled     earth,and are capable of spaceflight.
by unicorns  or  some  other beast of     They will not harm humans unless they
earthly legend.  He has been known to     come too close to their colonies.They
take  humans  for  rides  across  the     are physically weak,and a small armed
galaxy, and back.                         force easily  could  wipe  out  their
                                          colonies. However,more would come,and
Bast: BAST                                they could easily conquer  the  Earth
                                          if they so desired.  They are capable
Bast   is   a  cat  goddess,  who  is     of prodigious biological and surgical
represented  as  a woman with a cat's     skill, and  can  remove the brains of
head.   She  does  not play much of a     humans, and  place   them   in   life
role  in  the  affairs  of  humanity,     sustaining metal containers, to  take
except   perhaps   when   someone  is     them through  the  vacuum of space to
especially cruel to  cats.   She  was     their planet, Yuggoth,known to humans
worshipped  in  Bubastis,  in  Egypt.     as Pluto.
She  is  worshipped  by all cats, and
possibly a few humans.                    The Great Race Of Yith

INDEPENDANT RACES                         The Yithians are an  alien  race, who
                                          projected their minds into the bodies
There are other less important races,     of  a  prehistoric  race  of  conical
beings, whose  minds  were  exchanged     Also, one of his short  stories, "The
with those of the  Yithians, and  the     Outsider" appears in  this issue.
minds  of  the conical race were left
to die in strange alien bodies.  They
gathered knowledge of  the  universe,     Article by : Arc/Eclipse
and could exchange  minds with beings     Clipart by : Arc/Eclipse
from all periods of time,and had come
to know the entire history of Earth,
and what  was  to  be.  However, they
projected  their  minds  far into the
future, to escape  the destruction of
their civilization  by  a  mysterious
race of alien beings, known  only  as
the flying polyps.   Their minds came
to  occupy  the  bodies of a race far
into   the    future,   beyond    the
destruction of the human race.

This is  a  small piece of the Cthulu
mythos.   The works of H.P. Lovecraft
can be bought in omnibus volumes, and
there  is  a  roleplaying   game   by
Chaosium based on his works.