Who is your favorite Great Old One?

[Ravian]

Nyarly borrows from (a mediocre understanding of) Egyptian mythology and Colonial New England satanic/"witchcraft" folklore, as well. Just as Shub borrows from the maternal Goddess archetype (twisted horribly because Lovecraft could turn anything biological, from birth to death, into a horrifying concept), Nyarly's definitely based on the evil tempter/evil overlord archetype Lovecraft probably grew up learning about in Sunday school.

And from that line of reasoning one can also tie Yog-Sothoth to some of the Mystery Cult theologies. He is the gate and the Key to higher understanding, not sane understanding, but there's something almost gnostic about it.

On the counterpoint one could draw some demiurge archetypes out of Azathoth, as the creator of all and its eventual destroyer. It also helps that most cosmologies involving a demiurge often make the metaphor of those participating as dreamers in a mindscape.

[danzibr]

First let me say I'm not quite through the Necronomicon. So... there's lots of Lovecraft I haven't read.

I'll be one of the few to say Cthulhu. There's just something about him...

Plus I liked the game Cthulhu Saves the World.

[MLai]

First let me say I'm not quite through the Necronomicon. So... there's lots of Lovecraft I haven't read.

That's a "real" thing too?
But ofc with something open-source, eventually some overly ambitious writer would try to make a stab at it.
Lovecraft has become metacultural as all hell. I swear I learned about it as a kid in a non-literary medium. Didn't even know it was a Lovecraft thing. Well I didn't even know what Lovecraft was.

[Zaydos]

I first learned of the Necronomicon in the film Army of Darkness.

[danzibr]

That's a "real" thing too?
But ofc with something open-source, eventually some overly ambitious writer would try to make a stab at it.
Lovecraft has become metacultural as all hell. I swear I learned about it as a kid in a non-literary medium. Didn't even know it was a Lovecraft thing. Well I didn't even know what Lovecraft was.

It's a(n incomplete) collection of his stories.

I first learned of the Necronomicon in the film Army of Darkness.

Excellent.

[Marillion]

What is Mantorok from anyway?

Eternal Darkness, a Lovecraft-inspired game for the Gamecube. Mantorok is the Corpse God, an unfathomably powerful being who is nevertheless bound in chains, and is one of the four Ancient Ones vying for dominion over Earth.

Great game, too. As your character's sanity stat drained, the game would begin to mess with you. At first it would be small things, like walls appearing to breathe or hearing whispers and weeping juuuuust at the edge of perception. Then you enter the room you just left from the other side, the walls start to bleed, your head falls off, and you stumble around as a zombie for a minute before snapping to your senses. And those are the tame sanity effects!

[Raimun]

Abhoth. Because the only good "Great" Old One or Ancient One is a dead One.

I can't remember of the top of my head if I've personally killed any of the other "Ones" in Arkham Horror. Probably have but that was the most memorable one (or One ) because it wasn't an act of desperation. I planned to do it since the beginning of the game and at one point I actively stopped helping to seal the gates because I wanted it to appear, so that I could kill it. And I knew I could slay it, even I had to do it single handedly.

... Whaddya mean I didn't get the original intention of the thread?

[huttj509]

Eternal Darkness, a Lovecraft-inspired game for the Gamecube. Mantorok is the Corpse God, an unfathomably powerful being who is nevertheless bound in chains, and is one of the four Ancient Ones vying for dominion over Earth.

Great game, too. As your character's sanity stat drained, the game would begin to mess with you. At first it would be small things, like walls appearing to breathe or hearing whispers and weeping juuuuust at the edge of perception. Then you enter the room you just left from the other side, the walls start to bleed, your head falls off, and you stumble around as a zombie for a minute before snapping to your senses. And those are the tame sanity effects!

I personally fell for the flies...and the unplugged controller. The ones that got meta were brilliant.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Eternal Darkness:

"Okay, but what if the WHOLE GAME was like the Psycho Mantis boss fight?"

[Brother Oni]

Wasn't their a game coming out at some point that had you playing as an agent of one of the Elder Gods trying to take over a map? Can't remember the name though.

That Which Sleeps. Still in development after its successful Kickstarter, it's shaping up quite nicely.

I personally fell for the flies...and the unplugged controller. The ones that got meta were brilliant.

The 'deleting saved games' one got me.

[Maryring]

The best way to utterly terrify someone playing a game? Imply that they lost *all* progress just as they're nearing the end of the game. Eternal Darkness was a hidden gem for the GC, and a game I recommend to anyone a fan of cosmic horror stories.

[Spacewolf]

That Which Sleeps. Still in development after its successful Kickstarter, it's shaping up quite nicely.

That's the one pinned it to my favourites so I don't lose it again. Looks exciting compared to the last time I saw it.

[Wardog]

Some people talk about how Superheroes are this eras' new mythology, but the fact that most of them are still the intellectual property of some corporation limits that impact somewhat

That doesn't necessarily stop people.

That's a "real" thing too?

Available on Amazon.

[BeerMug Paladin]

Personally, I like Azathoth. The fact that it is boundless in power, and has no mind is interesting to me. Also, the heralds that play pipes for it. I've always figured that there must be some reason for that, perhaps as a means to keep it pacified, restrained or controlled? Maybe those mad musicians are worshippers of a sort, cultists?

It makes me wonder if the idea is that alien races are out there with cult-like devotion to horrors of the universe, like maybe at one point their societies were overtaken and successfully destroyed by cultists. Just like how in the rest of the Mythos, humanity is facing that problem.

I've always liked how some of the ancient unspeakable horrors are indifferent alien gods and some of them are essentially human-like, yet they're alien enough to still be rather horrific.

[Eldan]

That doesn't necessarily stop people.


Available on Amazon.

That's not even the only book by that name that's really out there. Several artists have stolen it too. I know there's a collection of H.R. Giger prints by that name, to take one example.

[HandofShadows]

Personally, I like Azathoth. The fact that it is boundless in power, and has no mind is interesting to me. Also, the heralds that play pipes for it. I've always figured that there must be some reason for that, perhaps as a means to keep it pacified, restrained or controlled? Maybe those mad musicians are worshippers of a sort, cultists?

If I remember correctly, they pipe players are there to keep Azathoth asleep/pacified. Because if it ever wakes up, all reality gets wiped out, including all the other gods.

[Brother Oni]

The best way to utterly terrify someone playing a game? Imply that they lost *all* progress just as they're nearing the end of the game.

You could also take a page out of CCP's book and cripple people's PCs by overwriting a critical OS file (the boot.ini incident). If repairing a Windows XP installation of someone who's not technologically competent doesn't fill you with dread, I don't know what will.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Azathoth or Yog Sothoth.

I think Nyarlathotep is likely to win this by a mile simply by having a personality, but really I do enjoy him as a villain and in particular his dynamic with Azathoth.

You have a limited definition of personality. You're basically saying 'the least Old One-y one'.

Ascribing personality to completely non-person things is a well known human passtime. Many people have collections of 'characterful' rocks for example.

Azathoth totally has a personality. Its not a human one, but he's a distinct idea that has character.

That's a "real" thing too?

Most people nowadays seem to mean the compelation published by Gollancz press (linked to by Wardog) because its the most available source of Lovecraft writings currently available in fashionable bookshops (aka the Gollancz Necronomicon, a name used only by me).

Several other books exist. My parents used to have a copy of what used to be the main one, the so called Simon Necronomicon. This is a 1977 New Age book that just stole the title from Lovecraft. Coincidentally the Giger Necronomicon was published in the same year. 2 years later, Ridley Scott ended up with a copy, leading to him inviting H. R. Giger in to collaborate on the production of Alien.

[factotum]

I like Nodens myself, but I think he's technically not a Great Old One so doesn't really count for the purposes of this thread...

[mangosta71]

Yog-Sothoth is my patron. I'm hoping to have him/it declared a saint, but I'm not sure how to get that process started. Is there, like, a petition or something?

[Zaydos]

I like Nodens myself, but I think he's technically not a Great Old One so doesn't really count for the purposes of this thread...

Dreamquest implies he is an outer god, Derleth retconned him into being an "elder god" but I'd still say he counts in that Great Old One wasn't really a well defined term in Lovecraft and while outer god was better Nodens fits the definition we know (outer gods are explicitly stronger than the other gods and Nodens is a god who is strong enough to send an outer god running, albeit the weakest one).

[Eldan]

Yog-Sothoth is my patron. I'm hoping to have him/it declared a saint, but I'm not sure how to get that process started. Is there, like, a petition or something?

If you mean catholic saint, they need "proven" miracles and the vatican will research it if they fit the other criteria. Technically would also have to be a catholic himself (though there's a few exceptions.)

[Closet_Skeleton]

Yog-Sothoth is my patron. I'm hoping to have him/it declared a saint, but I'm not sure how to get that process started. Is there, like, a petition or something?

I was about to answer that rhetorical question, but the literal answers are all religious.

Saints are dead people, Yog-Sothoth, being neither dead nor a person, inherently fails all the requirements. 'Living Saint' is a concept that pops up sometime in fiction, but the extra qualifier proves that normally; Saints are dead and that a live one would be a different category perhaps only tangentially related.

Why would you want to use a word that basically means something less than a god for a fictional entity that is already a god in its fictional context?

Clarke Ashton Smith's Tsathoggua turns up as Saint Toad in Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus! but is of course not a saint, just being called one incorrectly by human cultists. The same trilogy has a cameo of H.P. Lovecraft who shows up to express confusion that his fictional entities are somehow part of a real conspiracy.

[mangosta71]

Why would you want to use a word that basically means something less than a god for a fictional entity that is already a god in its fictional context?

Mostly because it would be a masterwork of trolling on a global scale.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Mostly because it would be a masterwork of trolling on a global scale.

The word you're looking for is 'hoaxing' and is pretty dull in reality. It can however be financially lucrative.
It was funny in 2001, its kind of pointless now.

Using a negative word like 'troll' in place of a neutral word like 'prank' is probably bad practice, it either dilutes the meaning of the word troll or in a serious sense makes nasty actions seem more neutral. 'Trolling' implies harassment and other nasty things that aren't fun for most of the people involved.