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Outer Gods
Nyarlathotep
Nyarlathotep
Appears in: Nights In Lonesome Arkham | The Dreams of Lonely Stars | Sangue Serenissima | Empty Memories and Cold Graves | Stories Never Told
"Madness and the void's wild vengeance are my only gifts to the presumptuous."
Image by shamiana
. Used with permission.
. Used with permission.The Crawling Chaos, the emissary of the Outer Gods, and the voice of Azathoth. The Big Bad of Nights In Lonesome Arkham.
- A God Am I: He's an Outer God and well cognizant of that fact.
- Abusive Parents: As much as Azathoth can be defined as "abusive," Nyarlathotep was wrought into existence by the random whim of an all-powerful deity who expected Nyarlathotep to feed it without ever rewarding Nyarlathotep's efforts or even validating his existence, never even giving him a name which causes Nyarlathotep endless despair.
- Aliens Are Bastards: He's an alien being from beyond time and space, and he is hands down the most evil of the lot who delights in torment and suffering.
- All According to Plan: Things have a way of going exactly as he wants it, especially when it turns out everything in Dreams of Lonely Stars went precisely as he desired.
- Arch-Enemy: Considers Hardestadt one of his more personal enemies, and Hardestadt returns it.
- Ax-Crazy: Under that polite veneer, he's fucking insane and relishes torturing and killing others.
- Bad Boss: On a good day, he'll abandon you to be killed by the heroes. On a bad one, he'll let a Great Old One eat you.
- Berserk Button: The mere subject of Nyarlathotep's name and how much he obsesses over it is a big trigger for him, especially given that he never actually had a name himself until he gave himself one. Even saying his name if he doesn't give permission can provoke a violent reaction. Also, as Sangue Serenissima reveals, he does not take attempts to leave his services well.
- Big Bad: Of Nights in Lonesome Arkham.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He'll act friendly and pleasant while he's plotting your gruesome demise.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Averted. He loves to monologue about his plans except he's actually lying the entire time about what those plans actually are. Hardestadt only realizes it when their minds are linked at the end.
- Broken Pedestal: Strange aeons of serving an uncaring, idiot god like Azathoth have completely shattered his loyalty to Azathoth and the Outer Gods.
- The Bully: At his core, Nyarlythotep is just a big bully who derives joy from psychologically tormenting and damaging people.
- The Chessmaster: He plays a mean game. He's too old and smart not to anticipate most possibilities and generally stays a step ahead.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: His hobby with the minds of others.
- The Corrupter: Nyarlathotep delights in twisting the minds of others to darkness and evil.
- Creepy Souvenir: He keeps glass baubles in his castle in Kadath...later revealed to be filled with the perpetually suffering souls of his victims.
- Dark Is Evil: He's associated with darkness in shadows and is hands down the single most evil being in all Kindness of Devils thus far.
- Deadpan Snarker: He's possessed of a really dry sense of sarcasm, such as when archangel Michael bathes him in flame? "Sweet Shub-Niggurath, what is with this family and fire?"
- Didn't See That Coming: He didn't see Hardestadt would be shielded from Azathoth while throwing them into Azathoth's realm.
- Disproportionate Retribution: He turns a Deep One into a living part of the scenery just for delaying him for a few seconds. Also, saying his name when he doesn't deem you worthy can result in horrific repercussions, like having your tongue turned into maggots.
- The Dragon: Is this to Thomas Nero while posing as Taylor Hapten in The Dreams of Lonely Stars.
- Dragon with an Agenda: He's this to the Outer Gods, secretly intending to usurp them and reign over the cosmos.
- The Dreaded: Almost everyone who knows of Nyarlathotep is terrified of him and with good reason. There's even a rhyme about him: "Lurking in shadow, haunting every step, bringer of chaos: Nyarlathotep."
- Driven to Madness: His bread and butter, easier for him since he's already a horrific Eldritch Abomination who's true form is capable of driving entire civilizations and planets to ruin and insanity.
- Eaten Alive: His final fate, being eaten alive by Azathoth.
- Eldritch Abomination: His true form is a shifting mass of tentacles and shadow barely perceivable to a human being.
- Empty Promise: He's the king of the empty promise. Whatever he swears to gift you? It isn't worth it.
- Evil Counterpart: To Hardestadt. Both are children of incredibly powerful cosmic beings, both had their lives touched by Aleviel, and both made her ideals their reason for existence. While Hardestadt wishes to bring them to fulfillment, Nyarlathotep wishes to repudiate them. While Hardestadt dedicates his life to helping others Nyarlathotep dedicates his to destroying them. It's made more apparent by Nyarlathotep's seemingly unconscious fondness for assuming Hardestadt's form.
- Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: He finds the suffering of others to be hysterical and after he forces Emma to flash back to her torture at Jacobs' hands, his response is a "...too soon?"
- Evil Is Hammy: Nyarlathotep is very, very fond of eloquent, elaborate To the Pain speeches almost every time he opens his mouth.
- Evil Is Petty: Willing to exterminate countless realities and torment Hardestadt eternally to spit on the grave of an angel he felt let down by.
- False Friend: Played up being helpful to Pharaoh Semerkhet in Egypt and Randolph Carter on his Dream Quest. Did not mean any of it.
- Fatal Flaw: Nyarlathotep is arrogant, but not without cause. He's still exceptionally good at reading situations and not letting it get in his way. His obsession over having an adequate challenge as well as his seeming pathological fixation on breaking Hardestadt and proving he's the better one, however, is what ultimately leads to his defeat.
- Faux Affably Evil: Pleasant and refined at times before the mask slips and you see the seething hatred and limitless cruelty beneath.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Inverted. Nyarlathotep does this sometimes, but usually he seems to take forms that make someone else as uncomfortable as possible, appearing to Hardestadt as Erin and Pharaoh Semerkhet and using the form of Rich Jacobs' father when he's annoyed with him.
- Foe Romance Subtext: Nyarlathotep's attitudes towards Hardestadt are almost lustful at times, propositioning him at least twice in female form, one in Erin's shape.
- For the Evulz: Accounts for a lot of what Nyarlathotep does, fittingly enough. He says it himself very clearly to the terrified Stefano de Cortly in Empty Memories and Cold Graves, that his agony will happen for three reasons: "Because I want to. Because I enjoy it. And because I can."
- Friendly Enemy: He makes a show of this, but it's hollow. He loves teasing Hardestadt and acting like an old friend, but Hardestadt despises him and Nyarlathotep, under this, holds Hardestadt in utter contempt, viewing him as something to break in order to validate his own existence.
- Freudian Excuse: Him being denied attention and respect from Azathoth after all the things he's done for him caused him to despise the Outer Gods.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Though that still doesn't excuse his extreme sadism, cruelty, and love for toying with humans' fears and emotions, and he is flatly called out for this.
- Hate Sink: Easily one of the most despicable villains Hardestadt has faced. Nyarlathotep has pretty much dedicated his entire existence to tormenting Hardestadt and destroying entire civilizations.
- Greater-Scope Villain:
- Serves as this in The Dreams of Lonely Stars, having been disguised as Taylor Hapten the entire time.
- Could also be considered one for Sangue Serenissima, as he was the one to inspire Eliphas Coyte to become a Neverkind and cause untold amounts of deaths.
- I Have Many Names: He has many, many titles: Black Wind, Dark Lurker, Haunter in the Dark, Bloody Tongue, Black Pharaoh, Crawling Chaos...but the only name he acknowledges as his true self is Nyarlathotep.
- Insistent Terminology: He refuses to stop calling Hardestadt by the name of Daemon.
- It's All About Me: Nyarlathotep tends to measure things entirely in how it relates to his wishes and desires.
- Jerkass Gods: On a good day he'll pop up, kill everything you love and drive you insane. On a bad one...well, get ready to suffer forever, for no greater reason than Nyarlathotep enjoys it.
- Karmic Death: His plan to summon the Outer Gods so he can feast on them is negated when he himself is eaten by Azathoth.
- Kick the Dog: One of his pettier and cruel touches?
Hardestadt: [Aleviel] gave her life for me!
Nyarlathotep: As I said. For nothing.
- Manipulative Bastard: He's very good at playing people and leading them down the paths he wishes.
- Monster Clown: Poses as one (though he's technically a jester) in The Dreams of Lonely Stars during a flashback.
- Narcissist: He utterly adores himself and considers himself the grandest thing alive.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Taking in so much angel power meant Hardestadt was able to use it against him due to his better claim to it. It also meant Azathoth saw him as a tasty little snack at the very end.
- No Biological Sex: Nyarlathotep is technically genderless and freely switches between the pronouns of he, she and it depending on its form and mood. However, he ultimately seems to prefer male ones.
- Oh, Crap!: He's subjected to this when he realizes just how powerful Aleviel is and how he's grievously miscalculated how he matches up to her. He also suffers this when he realizes Hardestadt is safe from Azathoth and he isn't with a very soft "oh no."
- Omnicidal Maniac: His final goal is to annihilate all reality, save the few pieces he keeps alive to torture for all eternity.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When he drops the mask to grow enraged, this is a bad, bad sign.
- Parental Neglect: Azathoth doesn't ever bother to communicate with, praise or offer him any affect. Of course Azathoth is completely incapable of these things.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: What he does to Stefano de Cortly is horrific, clearly saying he's going to torture the man for ages. As Stefano was an abusive marital rapist, this isn't exactly one of his more unforgivable crimes.
- Perpetual Smiler: It's rare he doesn't have a satisfied little smirk on his face.
- Playing with Fire: A flashback in The Dreams of Lonely Stars shows him burning an entire party of people.
- Rage Against the Heavens: Delivers a massive one to his mindless, idiot father.Nyarlathotep: “Father! It is my turn now! Your child has risen greater than you ever were, greater than the false god! The child you never knew, the child you never named! I am NYARLATHOTEP, father! And now your child will surpass you!”
- Sadist: Oh boy. Nyarlathotep's never just satisfied with just destroying an entire world and offering up its populace to Azathoth. Nyarlathotep delights in making them hurt first, driving them to the brink and utterly destroying them before offering up their mad souls to oblivion.
- Say My Name:
- Goads Hardestadt into saying this during the confrontation with the Deep Ones.
- His final word also counts:Nyarlathotep: ALEVIEEEEEEEL!
- Shapeshifter: He constantly alters his form, almost on pure reflex.
- Stalker with a Crush: After Aleviel defeated him the first time and gave him hope of a better life, he began stalking her for reasons he himself couldn't realize, growing to believe in her until her death made him despise her. He's even worse with this when it comes to Hardestadt, obsessively toying with him over the course of centuries.
- The Starscream: No longer content with being the Outer Gods' pawn and utterly hateful of his mindless father, Nyarlathotep's true plan to use Aleviel's power to break the lock on creation and devour the Outer Gods to reign supreme over all existence.
- Time Abyss: Nyarlathotep is old. Old to the point that trillions of years doesn't seem very much to him. Strange Aeons indeed.
- To the Pain: Nyarlathotep is rarely satisfied with merely killing someone.
- Troll: The only thing he likes more than hurting someone is fucking with them for laughs.
- Underestimating Badassery: He has a bad habit of not quite taking Hardestadt as seriously as he should, especially at the end.
- Villain Has a Point: His sneering description of Hardestadt as bound by an oath he cannot fulfill is sadly not inaccurate.
- Villainous Breakdown: Nyarlathotep edges closer and closer to the brink the further his plans are waylaid, but it's not until Hardestadt draws him into Azathoth's realm — while hiding himself from Azathoth. Nyarlathotep completely flips after Azathoth converges on him, screaming and protesting the entire way through and his last word being a furious screech of Aleviel's name.
- Villainous Valor: He doesn't have problems with standing and fighting when he has to, even if it's often his last resort.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: It's implied he once craved recognition from Azathoth for all his work. The mindless Azathoth, however, is not even capable of acknowledging his existence, let alone praising him for anything.
- Worthy Opponent: He considers Hardestadt this ever since Hardestadt gave him the first defeat he ever had in Thinis. Hardestadt by contrast, has nothing but pure hatred for him. Unfortunately, being Nyarlathotep's worthy opponent is no better than earning his hatred and may even be worse given how he fixates on breaking him.
Azathoth
Azathoth
Appears in: Nights In Lonesome Arkham
The Mindless Sultan, the Nuclear Chaos, the Cold One. Azathoth is the chief god of the Outer God pantheon, and a terrifying, formless mass that devours existence as it comes to it. The 'parent' of Nyarlathotep.
- Above Good and Evil: It simply has zero notion of any notion of morality whatsoever.
- Abusive Parents: Towards Nyarlathotep, creating him for the purpose of servitude and never acknowledging nor rewarding him. Of course, Azathoth is incapable of these things.
- Almighty Idiot: Azathoth is completely mindless, but also the most powerful being in the setting except for God.
- Eldritch Abomination: A massive, formless mass of flesh, teeth and tendrils that can snake through entire worlds. Looking at it too close can drive you irreparably insane.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Technically the force of evil behind Nyarlathotep, being far more powerful than him and never stops hunting for new dimensions to prey upon.
- Hell Is That Noise: Always surrounded by strange creatures playing eerie, tuneless sounds on their flues.
- Horror Hunger: Azathoth is always, always hungry.
- Top God: The chief of the Outer God pantheon, and the most powerful.
- Truly Single Parent: The 'father' of Nyarlathotep, who was spawned from Azathoth with full form and mind.
Yog-Sothoth
Yog-Sothoth
Appears in: Nights In Lonesome Arkham
The Key Beyond the Gate. An Outer God synonymous with time and space, with a borderline omniscient knowledge of all things.
- Above Good and Evil: Human and celestial morality mean absolutely nothing to Yog-Sothoth.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Human morality does not ascribe to Yog-Sothoth, being utterly alien and cold.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: The Cthulhu in this case, as Erin repeatedly snarks at Yog-Sothoth. It simply ignores her.
- Eldritch Abomination: A slightly friendlier example than most, but Yog-Sothoth's form is utterly alien and almost incomprehensible, often choosing to appear via strangely glowing spheres.
- Karma Houdini: It's not really possible to punish it for anything. Yog-Sothoth is far beyond the power of the heroes to affect, and doesn't fully exist in the same dimension or plane of existence, so it faces no consequences for what it does to Erin. Sort of. After a conversation with God, Yog-Sothoth is forced to realize it was wrong about a great deal, and that there are forces it doesn't comprehend, giving it a taste of loneliness and despair for a brief moment.
- Lack of Empathy: Remains in Erin's head, but demonstrates zero sympathy or remorse over what it's doing to her mind.
- Light Is Not Good: Yog-Sothoth appears with shining, iridescent spheres to announce itself, and it is not a good guy.
- Mission Control: Remains in Erin's mind on her dream quest in the Dreamlands to give her occasional advice. Not that it's always helpful...
- The Omniscient: Yog-Sothoth knows everything in creation. Although it's possible to break the script.
- Parental Neglect: The parent of the Outer God Hastur. They don't have a warm relationship and seem to consider the parentage wholly irrelevant (though Erin does note perhaps a bit of pride from Yogs to Hastur at one point.)
- You Can Not Grasp The True Form: Yog-Sothoth's true form would drive human beings irreparably insane, so it appears and speaks in other forms.
Great Old Ones
Ithaqua
Ithaqua
Appears in: Nights In Lonesome Arkham | Under The Cold Moon
The Great Old One of the cold and hunger. The White Silence, the Wind Walker, the king of Borea and the prince of snows. Ithaqua is unleashed by Nyarlathotep in Canada.
- An Ice Person: Uses cold magic and snow.
- Big Bad: The one who's arranging Siegfried's actions in Under the Cold Moon.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Like most Great Old Ones, it operates on an alien morality system. But it understands revenge very well.
- The Bus Came Back: Makes a sudden return in Under the Cold Moon after getting its eldritch ass kicked by Hardestadt and Azmodan from the previous story.
- Eye Scream: A victim of this when Hardestadt slashes out its eye.
- Fate Worse than Death: When Cthugha is unsummoned, it drags Ithaqua with it to its world of Formahlaut....a place of endless fire. It's mentioned Ithaqua will eventually get back to Borea, but it's going to be burning endlessly for years until then.
- Godzilla Threshold: Serves as this, necessitating the summoning of Cthugha to counter it.
- Grim Up North: Its cage is located in Canada, but it tends to have its influence most felt in cold, northern areas.
- Horror Hunger: Perpetually hungry for blood and flesh.
- It's Personal: It really holds a grudge to Hardestadt for taking its eye and helping to lock it back up.
- Kaiju: It's battle with Cthugha from Under the Cold Moon almost resembles a Godzilla battle.
- Leitmotif: Lyrics to Black Sabbath's Snowblind appear at the end of his chapters.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: A terrifying beast with crimson eyes.
- Scars Are Forever: Even for Great Old Ones. Ithaqua keeps the scar Hardestadt gave it over its eye well over a year later.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The can being its realm of Borea. Siegfried is working to free him as part of his plan, but Under the Cold Moon ends with Ithaqua being sucked into another "can" by its nemesis, Cthugha.
- Slasher Smile: It tends to flash these with its enormous sharp teeth.
- Walking Spoiler: While a standard obstacle for Hardestadt's gang to overcome, he plays a much bigger role in Under the Cold Moon, with his return acting as a plot twist.
Cthulhu
Cthulhu
Appears in: Nights In Lonesome Arkham | The Dreams of Lonely Stars
The lord of R'yleh, one of the most well-known Great Old Ones. Makes several brief appearances in Nights in Lonesome Arkham.
- Big Bad: For The Dreams of Lonely Stars, though his cult-leader, Nero, is the one who moves the plot along.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Old One, above good and evil, so on and so forth
- Combat Tentacles: A whole face full of them.
- Demoted to Extra: For the face of the mythos, Cthulhu gets comparatively little screentime, particularly next to Ithaqua.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Locked up in R'yleh.
- Telepathy: It seems to have a measure of telepathic power, and staring too long at where it's looking back? You'll feel it in your mind, doing very bad things to your sanity.
- Villains Do The Dirty Work: Is the one to eat Rich Jacobs after Emma throws Jacobs to the Old One. Being eaten by Cthulhu does not seem the kinda thing you come back from.
Y'golonac
Y'golonac
Appears in: Only A Lonely Heart | Empty Memories and Cold Graves | Children of Valentine | Stories Never Told
"It's no fun if you stop when they tell you to stop! That's. Not. How. This. Works."
The Defiler, the Pale Spider, the Insatiable Violation. Y'golonac is a twisted, all-too human monster who lurks in the Dreamlands and governs perversion and violation. The main villain of Only A Lonely Heart.
- Big Bad: The main villain of Only A Lonely Heart.
- Body Horror: those Y'golonac possesses find themselves twisted all about into monstrous forms, and its avatars become headless, bloated things.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Averted. Unlike its brethren, Y'golonac is far, far too human and understandable.
- Brown Note: Saying its name will bring it forth. Even reading its name risks drawing it out.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Y'golonac glories in its nature, even gloating "I am Y'golonac, rapist of billions!"
- Defiled Forever: Y'golonac truly believes that once you have been raped or violated, you belong to it forever.
- Eldritch Location: Turns the house into one after revealing his true colors, the house now containing walls that close in and turn, meaty-looking creatures with mouths, and even a replica of Eliphas Coyte.
- Fat Bastard: A repulsive, obese figure who is also a complete and total dick.
- Fate Worse than Death: Nobody, nobody, wants to allow Y'golonac to catch them. What awaits them if it does is considered one of the most horrific fates in the entire Teraverse.
- Hate Sink: He's a sadistic rapist and bully without a single redeeming quality and, unlike his fellow Great Old Ones, doesn't have the excuse of Blue-And-Orange Morality.
- Jerkass: Already a vile rapist, Y'golonac is also a sadistic bully, taunting Hardestadt about his victims and the rapes of people he knows and cares for.
- Louis Cypher: Played With. Duvalier, the name of the man who sought Y'golonac out, just so happened to have a similar name, making it fitting that the Defiler himself would later possess him.
- Post-Rape Taunt: Gives a nasty one to Hardestadt concerning Eliza, who had been a victim of marital rape at the hand of her husband...which goes right to Y'golonac's domain.
- Serial Rapist: Y'golonac's hat. Y'golonac is the Old One of depravity and carnality, that rapes anything it gets its hooks into. It even states "it's no fun if you stop when they tell you to stop! That's not. How. This. Works."
- Token Evil Teammate: The Great Old Ones are all alien and unknowable. Except Y'golonac, who's a vicious sadist.
- Troll: Y'golonac's host body dies while it's teasing Hardestadt after an entire story of callous mockery, though it leaves on a very disturbing note. When Hardestadt protests he's never been raped, Y'golonac asks if he is quite certain of that without further elaboration.
- Wham Line: Delivers one of the biggest of the series when Hardestadt claims he's never been violated: "Oh. Are you quite certain of that?"
Cultists
Thomas Nero
Thomas Nero
Appears in: The Dreams of Lonely Stars
"I have spent decades agonizing over my answer. Do not think you can overcome that in mere hours."
The leader of the cult of Cthulhu, seeking to summon the eldritch being to earth. He serves as Big Bad of The Dreams of Lonely Stars.
- Affably Evil: He's a really friendly guy despite being an evil cult leader who wants to destroy the world.
- Anti-Villain: Cared for his wife and daughter, whose deaths continue to haunt him and his motives, while apocalyptic, are borne of a desire to spare the world further suffering.
- Benevolent Boss: Despite being an apocalyptic cult-leader, Nero truly cares about the cultists serving him, treating them more like dear friends than disposable henchmen. He subverts You Have Failed Me by asking his enforcer to do better in the future, and though he kills many of his followers as part of his ritual to summon Cthulhu, those followers volunteered for it and Nero mourns their deaths.
- Big Bad: It's his plots that drive The Dreams of Lonely Stars, despite the presences of Cthulhu and Nyarlathotep it's his will and machinations that it advances by.
- Celebrity Resemblance: Appears to be modeled after Christopher Lee.
- The Chessmaster: Since Nero is an elderly sorcerer going up against the son of Lucifer, he outthinks Stadt rather than outfights him. Throughout the story, Nero is ten steps ahead of everyone else, to the point that even Stadt admits that he's impressed by him.
- Death Seeker: In the end it's implied all he wanted was to die having been proven wrong about the inevitability of the end of the world.
- Disposable Vagrant: Lampshaded. Nero orders his followers to only sacrifice people who's death won't be missed by others. This is actually down to moral qualms rather than simple pragmatism. He doesn't want to cause more people to suffer than is "necessary."
- Dragon-in-Chief: While subordinate and eclipsed in power by Cthulhu, the latter is trapped in another dimension and unable to reach Earth without all the scheming and plotting Nero is doing.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His wife and daughter, who died decades prior to the events of his story, but whom he still mourns as if they only died yesterday.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Despite his apocalyptic aspirations he can't bring himself to murder children in an orphanage as a sacrifice.
- Evil Old Folks: He's fairly old and the story's villain. Though he's only an old sorcerer, Nero is a tougher opponent than most of Stadt's non-human rogues, purely because he's smarter.
- Face Death with Dignity: He accepts his death at the hands of Hardestadt by closing his eyes in silence.
- The Fettered: Just when it seems like Nero is going to murder an entire orphanage to further his plans, it turns out that the threat was just a ruse to manipulate Stadt. Nero's inner narration has him thinking it strange that, despite his apocalyptic ambitions, he still has moral lines he won't cross.
- The Heavy: Nero ultimately answers to Cthulhu, but since the eldritch deity can't manifest on earth on his own, Nero's the one who's trying to summon him.
- Human Sacrifice: One part of his job that he's fairly uncomfortable with. Cthulhu needs sacrifices so Nero has his followers ritualistically kill those who are least likely to be missed.
- I Am Not Your Father: The story seems to be building up to the reveal that Nero is Maggie's father and that he needs her to summon Cthulhu. While the latter is correct, Nero reveals that he's not her father. Cthulhu is.
- Pet the Dog: Handing a young orphan named Victoria his daughter's music box.
- Sinister Minister: Played with. While he's the leader of a wicked cult, he himself is a pretty decent man.
- Straw Nihilist: After meeting Cthulhu, he believes that life is suffering and the end of the world is inevitable, so he may as well summon a god that will wipe out mankind in the blink of an eye rather than wait around for one that'll torture everyone first.
- Together in Death: He's reunited with his wife and daughter in the afterlife after his death.
- Tragic Keepsake: Nero still has his daughter's music box. He gives it away to an orphan girl near the end of the story.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Nero wants to destroy the world in order to end people's suffering. Part of this is due to coming face-to-face with Cthulhu and discovering that Lovecraftian gods exist. Nero figures the end of the world is inevitable, so he may as well summon one that'll end all life in the blink of an eye, rather than give a different eldritch god the chance to get free and torture all humanity.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: He's a kindly old man permanently scarred by the loss of his wife and child, and is in service to the eldritch god that killed them as a means of granting the human race a Mercy Kill.
- Worthy Opponent: After being outmaneuvered by him, yet again, Stadt admits he's impressed by Nero, thinking he's one of the smartest opponents he's fought against.
- Would Hurt a Child: As part of his ritual to summon Cthulhu, Nero plans to sacrifice an entire orphanage. It's later revealed the entire thing was a ploy to manipulate Stadt. No matter how far he's fallen, he won't murder children.
