What is a Mi-Go?

[Cyclone231]

Okay, not sure this is the right forum, although I think it is, considering that H.P. Lovecraft wrote books, and that's what this forum is about (in part).

But I have a couple of questions:
1) How does Mi-Go society work?
2) What are the principles that Mi-Go morality built on?

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mi-Go

There's the wiki article on the subject, I'm sure that can answer your questions.

[Cyclone231]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mi-Go

There's the wiki article on the subject, I'm sure that can answer your questions.

That was the first thing I checked. All it says is:
• There are three castes.
•*Their morality is alien and seems malicious to humans.

[Jerthanis]

It's the purple member of Team Go, from Kim Possible. He's called that because of his extreme vanity and selfishness. His power is to shrink (and return to his normal size) which is a power constantly lampooned for its worthlessness in the episodes he appears. He's the brother of Shego, Hego and Wego. He and his siblings got their powers when a rainbow hued meteorite landed in their backyard.

[Sundog]

That was the first thing I checked. All it says is:
• There are three castes.
•*Their morality is alien and seems malicious to humans.

That's pretty much all we know. The Mi-Go live on Yuggoth (Pluto), are fungal in nature, and tend to take human brains and stick them in bottles, still alive and thinking.

Like much of Lovecraft's aliens, they are too alien for us to comprehend their thought processes or ideals - in order to understand why they do what they do, we should have to be insane.

[Winterwind]

Considering the general themes of Lovecraft, I strongly suspect the answer to both of your questions might actually be "Whichever screws mankind the most".

[Somebloke]

That was the first thing I checked. All it says is:
• There are three castes.
•*Their morality is alien and seems malicious to humans.

That's because that's all that Lovecraft wrote about them.

[Winterwind]

I just checked whether the Chaosium Call of Cthulhu RPG core rulebook holds any further information on the Mi-Go, but there is little information to be found there beyond what that Wikipedia entry already states. There is a sentence implying that their technology might have some kind of connection to the Outer Gods, and there are a couple of examples for their technology, but beyond that, I haven't found anything new, most definitely not on their ethics and society.

[WalkingTarget]

*puts on Lovecraft-nerd hat*

Within Lovecraft's writing, there isn't much description of Mi-go "society" or "morality" (at least with regards to each other, they seem to have no qualms about taking humans apart).

One can make the assumption, based on the chant to Shub-Niggurath in The Whisperer in Darkness, that they worship the Great Old Ones so that they "have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all... shouting and killing and revelling in joy" (assuming that there's cross-story transparency so that you can take a line from The Call of Cthulhu).

The whole point of much of what he wrote is that this stuff is scary (or whatever) ultimately because it's strange and not explained (if not outright "unknowable").

Of course, there are other sources that have made extrapolations that I find compelling in and of themselves (even if there's not really a lot of support within Lovecraft). Of all of the post-Lovecraft bodies of Mythos-related work, I wholeheartedly recommend the Delta Green material by Pagan Publishing (both their role-playing supplements to the CoC game and their fiction anthologies). They have an interesting take on the Mi-go that you might find interesting.

[Solo]

Okay, not sure this is the right forum, although I think it is, considering that H.P. Lovecraft wrote books, and that's what this forum is about (in part).

But I have a couple of questions:
1) How does Mi-Go society work?
2) What are the principles that Mi-Go morality built on?

For your feeble, human mind to comprehend the Mi-go would be like an ant comprehending the vastness and greatness of the human society surrounding it.

It cannot be done without driving you MAD!

MAD!

MAD I SAY! MAD!

[Winterwind]

For your feeble, human mind to comprehend the Mi-go would be like an ant comprehending the vastness and greatness of the human society surrounding it.

It cannot be done without driving you MAD!

MAD!

MAD I SAY! MAD!

Mad? Mad? Well, what's wrong with Mad?
Seems you've got a bad mad in your head.
Does it matter how sane? No, that makes me laugh,
Be it mad, insane, or psychopath.
Now sometimes you're up and sometimes you're down.
When you find that you're down,
Well, just look around,
You don't need a mind, sanity's for vain,
Get your head in the wrong place and, hey, screw your brain.

[comicshorse]

The impression I always got was that the Mi-Go weren't actually evil so much as scientifically ruthless. That is to say they wouldn't kill anybody for fun but would happily vivesect someone if they thought it would advance their scientiific knowledge one iota.

[WalkingTarget]

The impression I always got was that the Mi-Go weren't actually evil so much as scientifically ruthless. That is to say they wouldn't kill anybody for fun but would happily vivesect someone if they thought it would advance their scientiific knowledge one iota.

That's a popular position to take. The Delta Green example I mentioned paints them as actually fascinated with humans. Us going from steam engines and telegraphs to nuclear weapons and space flight in something like 50 years was incredible, and they are depicted as being utterly and completely logical and the human mind's ability to be irrational and make leaps of intuition is what they're interested in (and they're more than willing to do all sorts of nasty experiments to try to figure us out).

[Winterwind]

That's a popular position to take. The Delta Green example I mentioned paints them as actually fascinated with humans. Us going from steam engines and telegraphs to nuclear weapons and space flight in something like 50 years was incredible, and they are depicted as being utterly and completely logical and the human mind's ability to be irrational and make leaps of intuition is what they're interested in (and they're more than willing to do all sorts of nasty experiments to try to figure us out).

Interesting take on. But isn't this a bit too favourable towards the human race to be keeping true with Lovecraft's themes?

[Closet_Skeleton]

Interesting take on. But isn't this a bit too favourable towards the human race to be keeping true with Lovecraft's themes?

To a degree it is. The Mi-Go are not Doctor Who. Their interest in humans is completely heartless and they don't consider them special.

[WalkingTarget]

True, not especially Lovecraftian, but it's a reason for them to be studying us in the first place (you'd think that if they're able to carry living brains around in jars there's not a lot left for them to understand about us biologically so there has to be another reason). It's not like they're especially nice to us anyway.

Spoiler

Show

They are in control of the "greys" and the government conspiracy to cover up the existence of extraterrestrials is part of the main experiment they're conducting on humans. The government has no idea that the aliens they think they're dealing with are just remote-controlled constructs and the story they've been given is a complete fabrication. One of the "secrets" that they let slip "accidentally" is what looks like a mathematical problem (within the context of the game it counts as a spell) that, when solved, essentially causes spontaneous existence failure of the subject. This is a method of making sure that the humans who are clever enough to be dangerous don't become problems.

They do truly horrible things to people in the published scenarios and fiction, there is just a little motivation given to their actions. Delta Green is obviously non-canonical, but I think it's one of the better-thought-out additions/interpretations of Lovecraft's work in a modern context.

[Fascisticide]

Morals?

[Fascisticide]

I don't see Mi-Go as evil, or even with bad intentions towards humans. In "The Whisperer in Darkness", their offer to bring some humans to Yuggoth seemed very friendly... that they need to get rid of the body is just a side effect, but after all, what good is a body when all you really need to be yourself is your brain? The body is just an obstacle keeping us humans from travelling the stars, the Mi-Go kindly offer to get us rid of it so we can be free to travel with them and learn all those things they can teach us.

Also, they seem like one of the few alien races who are as insignificant as us humans, mere dust that will cease to exist almost as soon at it appeared in the infinity of space-time. As such, Mi-Go and humans could probably relate to each other, which would explain why Mi-Go have taken an interest in humans, if only as guinea pigs.

[Dervag]

The catch is that the Mi-Go are significantly farther along than we are in terms of their power as a species, just as are the Deep Ones and the Old Ones (distinct from the Great Old Ones).

All three races are 'human-level' in that we can imagine human beings eventually developing their level of technology, but they are far beyond us technically and have physical powers greatly exceeding our own.

So while they seem to fit into more or less the same universal niche we do ('first-level' intelligent beings that can't play hob with the laws of physics or eat planets or anything like that, and that rely heavily on technology), they're much better at it than we are.

[Winterwind]

Plus, they worship the Great Old Ones and the Elder Gods, which indicates they have a much better understanding of how the universe truly works and who really holds all power. That might be an even larger advantage than their technological edge.