The following RPG is a collection of roleplaying games which revolve around a central geographical location, namely the fictional town of Havenport, Massachusetts; and its surrounding townships. The following RPG's are inspired by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, but members need not be die hard, dedicated Lovecraft fans, as these RPG's are meant to exist in their own unique mythos world. Besides creating original characters members are encourage to re-work Lovecraft's mythos, deities and creatures in order to create a distinct mythos, members may use beings like Cthulhu as Lovecraft envisioned them, or they may create their own back stories, descriptions etc. Members can expect to participate in three unique and separate mythos worlds, these are:
Macabre RPG's
Macabre is a term applied to a type of artistic or literary works, characterized by a grim or ghastly atmosphere. In these works, there is an emphasis on the details and symbols of death. Themes are usually deliberate. The outstanding instances in American literature are Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, and Stephen King.
Examples of Lovecraft's Macabre stories:
The Beast in the Cave
ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/l/lovecraft/hp/beastThe Alchemist
ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/l/lovecraft/hp/alchemist/Dream Cycle RPG's
The Dream Cycle is one of the three major categories of the fictional works of H. P. Lovecraft. Although often overlooked for his Cthulhu Mythos, the Dream Cycle itself could be regarded as a separate mythos because of its consistent use of places and characters. However, it sometimes uses Mythos elements as well. The cycle is set in the Dreamlands, which is distinguished by the following elements:
a) A unique pantheon of Earth's gods, known as the Great Ones, and the Other Gods
b) A consistent milieu, including the Enchanted Wood, Ulthar, and Celephaïs
c) Recurring characters such as Randolph Carter, Richard Upton Pickman, and King Kuranes
Earlier stories in the Dream Cycle, such as "The Cats of Ulthar" and "The Doom that Came to Sarnath", are told as though they occurred in the real waking world. These stories are included in the Dream Cycle primarily because they contain locations and characters that are referenced in the context of dreams in later stories, such as The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.
Examples of Lovecraft's Dream Cycle stories:
The Doom that came to Sarnath
ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/l/lovecraft/hp/doom/index.htmlThe Other Gods
ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/l/lovecraft/hp/other/index.htmlCthulhu Mythos RPG's
Of the three genres of horror that Lovecraft worked in, his so-called "Cthulhu Mythos" (a term which Lovecraft did not invent) is by far the hardest to pin down. There are four basic tenants, you might say, in Lovecraft's works, these being:
1. The fundamental principle of cosmicism
Lovecraft was a "mechanistic materialist" who embraced the philosophy of cosmic indifferentism. He believed in a purposeless, mechanical, and uncaring universe that human beings, with their limited faculties, could never fully understand, and the cognitive dissonance caused by this leads to insanity. Another common theme in Lovecraft's work was the search for knowledge ending in disaster
2. An imaginary New England setting
A number of Lovecraft's stories take place in a fictional New England setting that is centered around the equally fictional Arkham; consequently, these tales may be part of what Lovecraft called his "Arkham cycle".
3. A pantheon of recurring "pseudomythological" entities
Lovecraft's central deities are Azathoth and Yog-Sothoth, both representing opposing cosmic principles. Azathoth, the "blind", "idiotic" ruler of the pantheon, occupies the literal center of the universe, whereas Yog-Sothoth, Azathoth's co-ruler, embodies the infinite, existing in all places and in all times. Next in the hierarchy of "pseudodieties" (essentially just powerful extraterrestrials) is Shub-Niggurath (whom Lovecraft mentions but never describes in his stories), representing some sort of pagan fertility god; not unlike the Greek god Pan. Attending Azathoth at his court are the Other Gods, mysterious beings that dance mindlessly around Azathoth's throne in cadence to the piping of a demonic flute, and Nyarlathotep, the avatar and messenger of Azathoth and the Other Gods. Nyarlathotep is the only being that can interact intelligibly with human beings, though he often manifests himself in human form to disguise his true appearance. These deities are served by terrestrial, non-human beings. Cthulhu is regarded as the priest of the gods, while Dagon appears to be his subordinate. The lowest tier consists of a race of ocean-dwelling humanoids, the Deep Ones, serving Cthulhu and Dagon, and a pair of extraterrestrial races, the Elder Things (along with their slaves, the shoggoths) and the Mi-go.
Thus, Lovecraft's "pseudomythology"—a term used by Lovecraft himself to describe the beings appearing in his stories—is the backdrop for his tales but is not the primary focus. Indeed, the focal point of his stories is often the fictional town of Arkham and not beings like Cthulhu.
Here are two lists, the first is a simple list, consisting of the names of the various beings within Lovecraft's works, these as for those members who wish to re-fashion the myhthos beings into unique creations of their own. The second list consists of mythos characters as created by Lovecraft himself, complete with a brief description of each, for those who wish to stick with the more traditional characters.
Original mythos beings:
1. Azathoth
2. Cthulhu (and the Cthulhi) "unavailable"
A scaled race of tripedial lithovores (gaining sustenance by eating and digesting rocks, soils, and metals) with stubby limbs, partly shell-covered bodies, with blueish-spines over a large portion. They are also mouthless. They propel themselves through space by means of sacks on their back and stomach, these send out small bursts of molecular nitrogen converted into a gas. This is an ability that isn't always needed as these creatures can astrally project their minds. Cthulhu himself has been described as immense, the Cthulhi being much smaller versions. They come from a low-gravity, mineral-rich world that has a single moon and many broken rings surrounding it. Their origins are mysterious for even their supposed home-world doesn't seem to be the place from which they were spawned.3. Karakal
4. Yog-Sothoth
5. Nyarlathotep
6. Shub-Niggurath
7. Lobon
8. The Lesser Other Gods
9. Hagarg Ryonis
10. Nath-Horthath
11. Oukranos
12. The Flying Polyps
13. Tamash
14. Zo-Kalar
15. Bokrug
16. The Deep Ones
17. Dagon
18 Elder Things
19. Mi-Go
20. Shoggoth
21. Magnum Innominandum "Great Not-to-Be-Named"
22. The Pyrexea (my original creations) "unavailable"
Tall plant-like beings which walk upright on two trunk-like legs; their bodies are a hybrid between a flower, tree and an animal. They have long stem-like bodies which brake into two separate stalks around the chest region; connecting again at the waistline. From there, long leaf-like growths hang down forming a skirt of sorts. Jetting out from the upper and lower portions of their stem-body are six inch spikes, their trunk-legs are visible toward their base; with the rest covered up by the skirt. Long flexible stalks serve as arms and at each of their ends are hands which resemble the gaping mouths of the Venus flytrap. Their heads are shaped like a dandy lion, but instead of soft, moist petals around the spongy center, there are short, inflexible leaves. These leaves are colored with a greenish tint which changes to a darker shad toward the tips. They have no mouths or even vocal cords, but they are able to communicate through telepathy. The Pyrexea are chroniclers of all knowledge, they know of Cthulhu, Elder Things, and the Other Gods. These other alien gods have a mutual knowledge of the Pyrexea but as simple chroniclers of knowledge they exist beyond their concern, for one of these groups to harm the Pyrexea would be the ultimate transgression. The knowledge that the Pyrexea possess has been passed to but a few initiates, humans or otherwise.Traditional mythos beings:
(Dream Cycle beings)
1. AZATHOTH (also appears in mythos stories)
"The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" was the first fiction by Lovecraft to mention Azathoth, "Outside the ordered universe is that amorphous blight of nethermost confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the center of all infinity—the boundless daemon sultan Azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time and space amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin monotonous whine of accursed flutes.
Lovecraft referred to Azathoth again in "The Whisperer in Darkness" (1931), where the narrator relates that he "started with loathing when told of the monstrous nuclear chaos beyond angled space which the Necronomicon had mercifully cloaked under the name of Azathoth." Here "nuclear" most likely refers to Azathoth's central location at the nucleus of the cosmos and not to nuclear energy.
2. YOG-SOTHOTH (see Cthulhu mythos)
2. OTHER GODS "THE LESSER"
Mysterious protectors of the Dreamlands' gods, the weak Great Ones. To disturb them or the Great Ones is foolish and is often disastrous. They are at the sway of Azathoth in his hyperdimensional court, which they rarely leave, forever piping and dancing to incomprehensible tunes.
3. NYARLATHOTEP
He is described as a "tall, swarthy man" who resembles an ancient Egyptian pharaoh. In this story he wanders the earth, seemingly gathering legions of followers, through his demonstrations of strange and seemingly magical instruments. These followers lose awareness of the world around them, the reader gets an impression of the world's collapse. Nyarlathotep subsequently appears in "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath" where he is again in the form of an Egyptian Pharaoh when he confronts protagonist Randolph Carter. In "The Dreams in the Witch House", Nyarlathotep appears to Walter Gilman and witch Keziah Mason (who has made a pact with the entity) in the form of "the 'Black Man' of the witch-cult," a black-skinned avatar of the Devil described by witch hunters. Finally, in "The Haunter of the Dark", he appears as a nocturnal tentacled, bat-winged monster which is identified as another form, or manifestation of, Nyarlathotep.
Nyarlathotep differs from the other beings in a number of ways. Most of them are exiled to stars, like Yog-Sothoth, or sleeping and dreaming like Cthulhu; Nyarlathotep, however, is active and frequently walks the Earth in the guise of a human being, usually a tall, slim, joyous man. He has "a thousand" other forms. Most importantly, while the Outer Gods and Great Old Ones are often described as unfathomable, rather than truly malevolent, Nyarlathotep delights in cruelty, is deceptive and manipulative. In this regard, he is probably the most human-like among them.
Most of the Outer Gods have their own cults serving them; Nyarlathotep seems to serve these cults and take care of their affairs in their absence. At the same time however, Nyarlathotep's name is spoken frequently by the Mi-Go in a reverential or ritual sense, indicating that they worship or honor the entity. Nyarlathoptep also protects the lesser gods of the earth. Nyarlathotep enacts the will of the Outer Gods, and is their messenger; he is also a servant of Azathoth, whose wishes he immediately fulfills.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyarlathotep3. GREAT ONES
The Great Ones are the "weak gods of earth" that reign in the Dreamlands. They are protected by Nyarlathotep.
a) Hagarg Ryonis, The Lier-in-Wait:
Usually appears as a huge, reptilian monster.
b) Karakal:
An elf-like humanoid.
c) Lobon:
Appears as ivy-crowned youth bearing a spear.
d) Nath-Horthath:
Chief god of Celephaïs.
e) Oukranos
River god.
f) Tamash:
Appears as a short, silver-skinned, ebon-haired, and bearded man.
g) Zo-Kalar:
God of birth and death.
4. BOKRUG
Bokrug (The Great Water Lizard) first appeared in Lovecraft's short story "The Doom That Came to Sarnath" (1920). The being is also part of Lovecraft's Dream Cycle. Bokrug is the god of the semi-amphibian Thuum'ha of Ib in the land of Mnar. The deity slept beneath the calm waters of a lake that bordered Ib and the city of Sarnath. When the humans of Sarnath cruelly slaughtered the populace of Ib and stole the god's idol, the deity was awakened. Each year thereafter, strange ripples disturbed the otherwise placid lake. On the one-thousandth anniversary of Ib's destruction, Bokrug rose up and destroyed Sarnath. Afterward, the Thuum'ha recolonized Ib and thenceforth lived undisturbed.
Cthulhu mythos beings:
1. CTHULHU "unavailable"
2. STAR SPAWN OF CTHULHU "unavailable"
3. AZATHOTH (see Dream Cycle beings)
4. YOG-SOTHOTH (also appears as a Dream Cycle being)
Yog-Sothoth is an "Other God" a cosmic entity of the fictional Cthulhu Mythos and the Dream Cycle. It is a being said to take the form of a conglomeration of glowing spheres. This fabulous and malign congery of iridescent globes is coterminous with all time and space yet is supposedly locked outside of the universe we inhabit. Lovecraft described it as "an All-in-One and One-in-All of limitless being and self — not merely a thing of one Space-Time continuum, but allied to the ultimate animating essence of existence's whole unbounded sweep — the last, utter sweep which has no confines and which outreaches fancy and mathematics alike."
5. SHUB-NIGGURATH
Of all the various gods and beings in the whole of Lovecraft's work, this particular being is by far the hardest to pin down. It should be noted that the attributes commonly associated with this being came from those writers who expanded upon the mythos, after the death of Lovecraft. Save for a few brief excerpts of various incantations, Sub-Niggurath hardly ever appears in Lovecraft's works. In fact the only description that he gibes of this being is found in one of his letters where he describes it as "an evil cloud-like entity" This vague piece of information concerning Shub-Niggurasth suggests (to me at least) that this entity belongs with other "cloud-like" beings such as Azathoth or Yog-Sothoth.
The fact that she appears in association with the pronouncing of incantations could suggest that Shub-Niggurath s a kind of arbiter of the gods, by which their power is called forth, in her name, as it were. Actual descriptions of Shub-Niggurath appear in the stories that Lovecraft ghost-wrote for other authors. Without making any judgments as to which of these should be regarded as canon I submit the following list of attributes associated with this entity in aforementioned works.
a) Shub-Niggurath, the All-Mother and wife of the Not-to-Be-Named-One. This deity was a kind of sophisticated Astarte"
The reference to "Astarte", the consort of Baal in Semitic mythology, ties Shub-Niggurath to the related fertility goddess Cybele, the Magna Mater mentioned in Lovecraft's "The Rats in the Walls", and implies that the "great mother worshiped by the hereditary cult of Exham Priory" in that story "had to be none other than Shub-Niggurath."
b) Shub-Niggurath apparently has monuments dedicated to her. One revision tale tells of a certain character who was the "High Priest of Shub-Niggurath and guardian of the copper temple of the Goat with a Thousand Young".
c) And that "the gods friendly to man could be arrayed against the hostile gods, and...that Shub-Niggurath, Nug, and Yeb, as well as Yig the Serpent-god, were ready to take sides with man" against the more malevolent Ghanatothoa.
d) Also, Shub-Niggurath is called "the Mother Goddess", and reference is made to "her sons", presumably Nug and Yeb.
Perhaps we can get a good debate going on with this particular being.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shub-Niggurath6. THE DEEP ONES
Lovecraft describes the Deep Ones as a race of undersea-dwelling humanoids whose preferred habitat is deep in the ocean. However, despite being primarily marine creatures, they can come to the surface and can survive on land for some time. All Deep Ones are immortal; none die except by accident or violence. They are said to serve Dagon, as well as Cthulhu. They are opposed by mysterious beings known as the Old Gods, whose powerful magic can keep them in check.
Lovecraft provides a description of the Deep One in The Shadow Over Innsmouth: "I think their predominant color was a grayish-green, though they had white bellies. They were mostly shiny and slippery, but the ridges of their backs were scaly. Their forms vaguely suggested the anthropoid, while their heads were the heads of fish, with prodigious bulging eyes that never closed. At the sides of their necks were palpitating gills, and their long paws were webbed. They hopped irregularly, sometimes on two legs and sometimes on four. Their croaking, baying voices, clearly used for articulate speech, held all the dark shades of expression which their staring faces lacked ... They were the blasphemous fish-frogs of the nameless design - living and horrible.
The Shadow Over Innsmouth tells of a bargain between Deep Ones and humans, in which the aquatic species provides plentiful fishing and gold in the form of strangely formed jewellery. In return, the land-dwellers give human sacrifices and a promise of "mixing"—the mating of humans with Deep Ones. Although the Deep One hybrid offspring are born with the appearance of a normal human being, the individual will eventually transform into a Deep One, gaining immortality—by default—only when the transformation is complete.
"Cyclopean and many-columned Y'ha-nthlei" is the only Deep One city named by Lovecraft, it is described as a great undersea metropolis located below Devil's Reef just off the coast of Massachusetts, near the town of Innsmouth. Its exact age is not known, but one resident is said to have lived there for 80,000 years.
7. DAGON
Father Dagon and, his consort, Mother Hydra are both Star-spawns of Cthulhu. Together with Cthulhu, they form the triad of gods worshiped by the Deep Ones. (The name is inspired by Dagon, the Semitic fertility deity.) This group of gods is referenced in At the Mountains of Madness where they waged a war against the Elder Things.
8. ELDER THINGS
One of the strangest of Mythos creatures, the Elder Things were the first extraterrestrial species to come to the Earth, colonizing the planet about one billion years ago. They stood roughly eight feet tall and had the appearance of a huge, oval-shaped barrel with starfish-like appendage at both ends. The top appendage was a head adorned with five eyes, five eating tubes, and a set of cilia for "seeing" without light. The bottom appendage was five-limbed and was used for walking and other forms of locomotion. The beings also had five leathery, fan-like retractable wings and five sets of branching tentacles that sprouted from their torsos. Both their tentacles and the slits housing their folded wings were spaced at regular intervals about their bodies.
The Elder Things were vegetable-like in shape, having radial symmetry instead of the bilateral symmetry of bipeds. They also differed in that they had a five-lobed brain. In terms of reproduction, multiplied using spores, although they discouraged increasing their numbers except when colonizing new regions. Though they could make use of both organic and inorganic substances, the Elder Things were carnivorous by preference. They were also amphibious. The bodies of the Elder Things were incredibly tough, capable of withstanding the pressures of the deepest ocean. Few died except by accident or violence. The beings were also capable of hibernating for vast epochs of time. Nonetheless, unlike other beings of the Mythos, the Elder Things were made of normal, terrestrial matter.
The Elder Things were apparently very skilled bio-engineers, and are credited with creating the Shoggoths among other organisms. They are noted for using the creatures in Wars against the Mi-go, Yithians and spawn of Cthulhu.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elder_Thing9. MI-GO
While the Mi-go are described being technically fungi, they bear a great resemblance to crustaceans, namely shrimp or crayfish. While the Mi-go are never actually seen by the protagonist in the original story, second-hand reports describe them as elongated creatures with segmented bands of muscles for a body and a mass of sensory cilia for a head, and a pair of ribbed wings that would not function in our atmosphere. These creatures are roughly man-sized, and are even capable of disguising themselves as humans via a mask and concealing clothing. The Mi-go are capable of learning and speaking human languages. The Mi-go have mastered various fields of science, and are especially adept at surgery, as can do things such as extensively modify their own bodies, or remove human brains while keeping both brain and body alive (this allows the Mi-go to transport Human allies off-world, as the brains can be allowed to see and communicate when hooked up to special machines) . The Mi-go apparently visit earth to secretly mine its mineral resources, and have set up outposts on the planet Yuggoth, a planet in our solar system equated with Pluto. The Mi-go are said to worship Yog-Sothoth, Nyarlathotep, and Shub-Niggurath, but to have little interest in religion as compared to scientific curiosity.
10. SHOGGOTH
Lovecraft writes them as massive amoeba-like creatures looking like they are made out of tar, with multiple eyes "floating" on the surface. They are described as shapeless and "protoplasmic", faintly self-luminous, with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front. They are also able to form limbs and organs at will. An average shoggoth measured fifteen feet across when a sphere, though the story mentions ones of much greater size.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoggoth11. MAGNUM INNOMINANDUM
Which means "Great Not-to-Be-Named" in Latin. According to H. P. Lovecraft, this being is the spawn of Azathoth and is associated with, and possibly the progenitor of, Yog-Sothoth. Little is known about this god, but it is considered to be extremely dangerous to sorcerers, hence its title "the unnameable" (archaic terminology, meaning not to be summoned or ritually named in an incantation).
