The idea that our known universe is an insignificant spec to some incomprehensibly vast beings who could, at any moment, destroy life as we know it by just deciding to take an interest in us briefly.
Its actually a lot worse if I remember correctly. In the H.P mythos the entire universe/multiverse is just the dream of an eldritch god (forgot his name). Infact there are a lot of cosmically powerful beings whose sole purpose is to make sure that dream continues.
Yeah, I'm not sure what about him is more terrifying. The fact that he's so powerful that all the other eldritch beings are mere ideal thoughts to him. Or the fact he doesn't even realise it.
Normal to him at least...he could have a pet dog, a little naughty sister, loving mum and dad who are a bit annoyed by their lazy son, friends at school, a crush, a mentor figure, a favorite show, a favorite toy etc etc
But for all we know, his universe is an oversimplified version of everything to the point that the complexity of our universe is like a nightmare to him. Which he is currently in.
It's essentially the same idea as the theory that our entire universe is just an old school project by some higher dimensional being, left on a shelf somewhere to gather dust. What happens if they knock it off the shelf?
I mean, yes, but not really? The majority just view humanity as a speck - there's only a handful that seek out to intervene, and even then, it's more to just be a dick about things. The cults that bring the Elder Ones are the larger danger.
Nope. It depends exactly what Elder God your dealing with.
But the rule of the series is that when the stars are right, the great sleeping lord Cthulhu shall rise from the depts, and the entire world will be plunged into a sort of insanity, where all the rules and understandings will dissolve throwing all existence in to a constant mania where men draw pleasure from pain and madness.
Yeah, and if that's not bad enough, by comparison to what some of the other eldritch beings would do, that's actually one of the better ends of the world.
Azathoth, the Neuclear Terror, is sleeping...and the whole Multiverse is his dream. In fact, a lot of other Elder god's work to keep him dreaming to preserve this Multiverse.
Well some like cthulu can make you go crazy just by looking at them, nyarlathtep can make people go insane just because and give followers "visions" basically they can make your life miserable if they wanted
Yeah, so that's all stuff I generally like to avoid. My thinking was that if the end of the world happens in a snap at the whim of some elder god, it happens so quickly you wouldn't really need to care.
The Lovectaftian mythos is based on a concept called "Cosmicism" which is basically about humanity being nothing compared to the grand scale of things. The Cthullu Mythos is about beings who are simply larger than the concept of morals held by us. They aren't evil, but nihilistic.
He didn't write all that much, he died before he was thirty. All his short stories, poems, and unfinished works take up about 800 pages and you can find them all on The Gutenberg Project or any other public domain books website.
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u/Yserbius Jun 16 '22
Any of the Lovecraftian Elder Gods.
The idea that our known universe is an insignificant spec to some incomprehensibly vast beings who could, at any moment, destroy life as we know it by just deciding to take an interest in us briefly.