An anthology by Japanese writer Asamatsu Ken originally published in 1999. Based on the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft, the book's main premise is that the Nazis sought various forms of occult assistance in fighting the Second World War, bringing them into ill-advised contact with the Great Old Ones and similar beings.
Stories in Kthulhu Reich:
- "The Corporal's Self-Portrait": A Japanese man in the 1990s has several encounters with a young art student named Hirata who has very outlandish views about race, reincarnation and the occult.
- "The Mask of Yoth-Tlaggon": In 1937, Japanese agent Tatekawi Goto is sent to Nazi Germany to gather support for Germany joining the war against the Soviets and becomes embroiled in the occult schemes of Heinrich Himmler and Rudolf Hess.
- "In the Wasteland of Madness":note A kind of sequel to the previous story in which a Wehrmacht squadron on an expedition to Antarctica gradually realize that the purpose of the expedition is a lot less mundane than they were led to believe.
- "April 20th, 1889": As Jack the Ripper stalks the streets of London, occultist S.L. Mathers begins to suspect that the murders have an occult connection.
- "A Feast for the Children of the Night": A Wehrmacht unit supporting the invasion of Ukraine encounter strange creatures while passing through Romania.
- "Gigantomachia 1945": As the war in Europe draws to a close, First Lieutenant Erich Berger is ordered to help mysterious Nazi V.I.P. "Herr Saga" escape to Argentina.
- "Dies Irae": Claus von Stauffenberg starts having doubts about the Nazi regime, in particular Hitler's links to Tibetan occultist Teppa Tsanpo.
Tropes:
- Argentina Is Nazi Land: The protagonists of "Gigantomachia 1945" are ordered to help Herr Saga (actually Reinhard Heydrich) escape to Argentina in a U-Boat at the end of the war.
- Artistic Licence – History:
- The Nazis did not refer to themselves as "Nazis" as they do on several occasions in some of the stories, particularly "The Mask of Yoth-Tlaggon". The officially used term was "National Socialist", of which "Nazi" was an insulting portmanteau used by political opponents.
- "Dies Irae" appears to suggest that the 20 July plot consisted solely of eleven people (Stauffenberg, the eight men he meets with when he first learns of the plot, Carl Goerdeler and Albrecht Haushofer). In reality there were around 200 people involved in the plot. It also claims that all of the men Stauffenberg meets with in the story were executed after the plot failed, but in fact one of them, Franz Halder, avoided execution. For that matter, neither Halder nor Gunther von Kluge were directly involved in the plot in Real Life, although Kluge did have some knowledge of it and Halder had been involved in previous plots by Oster and Canaris. And in reality the plot failed because Heusinger's aide nudged the briefcase containing the bomb to the other side of an oak table leg, inadvertently shielding Hitler from the blast, whereas in this version the fictional character of Major May moves it to the other side of the room, then jumps on it to shield Hitler after being warned about the bomb by Tsanpo.
- Back from the Dead: "Herr Saga" is actually Reinhard Heydrich brought back to life with eldritch magic.
- The Bad Guy Wins: A few of the stories end with the eldritch horrors winning.
- "The Corporal's Self-Portrait": a reincarnated Hitler becomes a rising star in politics and is on the way to taking over Japan.
- "April 20th, 1889": Westcott and Nyarlathotep complete the ritual to kill five women, ensuring Hitler's rise to power the following century.
- "A Feast for the Children of the Night": Countess Katarina successfully manipulates the protagonists into releasing the children of Tsathoggua to ravage the countryside once again.
- "Dies Irae": In a Foregone Conclusion, Hitler survives Stauffenberg's attempt on his life and ramps up his persecution of political opponents although it's ultimately subverted as the true villain of the story, Teppa Tsanpo, is killed in the attempt.
- Bolivian Army Ending: "In the Wasteland of Madness" ends with the two surviving protagonists preparing to suicidally ram their plane into the hordes of shoggoths with the mask of Yoth-Tlaggon in tow, after first leaving a record of their experiences behind.
- Cosmic Horror Story: Unsurprising given the subject matter, although "Dies Irae" is the only one that really focuses on man's cosmic insignificance to any great degree.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
- Goto and Clara manage to decapitate the immortal wizard Klingen Mergelsheim at the climax of "The Mask of Yoth-Tlaggon"; whilst this doesn't actually kill him, it does appear to drive him off for the time being.
- Stauffenberg accomplishes this accidentally in "Dies Irae", as the bomb that was meant to kill Hitler ends up killing Teppa Tsanpo after being moved to the other end of the table. The Allied military also manage to wipe out Tsanpo's monstrous kin in a firefight at the end of the war.
- Downer Ending: Most of the stories have one, except for "The Mask of Yoth-Tlaggon" and "Gigantomachia 1945".
- "The Corporal's Self-Portrait": Hirata, who the protagonist realizes is actually Hitler reincarnated, becomes a major political figure and is well on the way to taking over Japan and enacting a Final Solution against non-Japanese ethnicities.
- "In the Wasteland of Madness": Everyone except Richter and Heinrich is killed, and the two of them end the story preparing to commit suicide in order to stop the eldritch horrors they've uncovered from crossing the mountains.
- April 20th, 1889": In a Foregone Conclusion, Mathers fails to prevent the Ripper from claiming his fifth and final victim which is revealed to be the culmination of a ritual to ensure the rise of the Nazis and The Holocaust.
- "A Feast for the Children of the Night": Katarina plays the protagonists like a fiddle, manipulates them into wiping out the nearby village and unleashing the children of Tsathoggua on the world, and the story ends with Lieutenant Weil being slowly devoured alive by the children.
- "Dies Irae": Zig-zagged; although Teppa Tsanpo and his fellow monstrosities are all destroyed, Stauffenberg fails to kill Hitler, who uses the plot as an excuse to crack down even harder on dissent, ramps up his genocide of the Jews even further and has Stauffenberg and all his fellow plotters executed.
- Eaten Alive: The fate of the protagonist of "A Feast for the Children of the Night", who ends his story being slowly devoured alive by the monsters. This fate also befalls several Argentine sailors and Saga/Heydrich at the jaws of Dagon in "Gigantomachia 1945".
- Eldritch Abomination: Several created by Lovecraft or his circle make an appearance or are mentioned, including Nyarlathotep, Dagon, Tsathoggua and Cthugha (although Cthulhu himself only appears in a dream by Stauffenberg).
- Final Solution: The original final solution is underway at the time of "Dies Irae" and is apparently part of some kind of ritual to harvest the victim's life force.
- Foregone Conclusion:
- In "Dies Irae", the fact that the 20 July plot fails should not be a surprise to any readers familiar with it.
- More generally, the fact that the Nazis lost the war in Real Life means that none of their dealings with eldritch horrors are actually going to affect the outcome of the war as much as they hope.
- Readers familiar with Jack the Ripper will know that Mathers' attempts to stop him from claiming a fifth victim will fail.
- Fourth Reich: The ultimate goal of evacuating "Herr Saga" to Argentina, where he intends to resurrect the Reich while pretending to be Hitler.
- Ghostapo: Many of the stories involve the Nazi's research into the occult and attempts to harness it for their own gain.
- Historical Hero Upgrade:
- Rudolf Hess' ill-fated peace mission is implied to be a genuine Heel–Face Turn as a result of wearing the Mask of Yoth-Tlaggon, when in reality it was an act of shameless opportunism to convince Britain to help Germany conquer the remainder of Europe and the Soviet Union.
- "Dies Irae" shows Franz Halder and Gunther von Kluge to be active participants in the plot to kill Hitler on July 20. In reality Halder had no knowledge of the plot, although he had participated in the earlier Oster Plot at the start of the war, and Kluge's involvement consisted of being aware of the plot and not trying to stop it.
- Historical Villain Upgrade:
- There is absolutely no evidence that the real William Wynn Westcott was Jack the Ripper or that he wanted to see the Jews or the French exterminated.
- The Nazis are unsurprisingly shown as being even worse than in real life. Not only do they try and take over the world and commit genocide, they make pacts with Eldritch Abominations, think nothing of having their own men killed, practice Human Sacrifice (which the Holocaust is implied to be an industrialized form of), plot to create a Fourth Reich in Argentina, harvest the souls of Jews for dark rites, plague their own people with nightmares to keep them in line, and "Dies Irae" even implies that they turn murdered Jews into ration meat.
- "Gigantomachia 1945" has Reinhard Heydrich return from the dead as "Herr Saga", a dark sorcerer who massacres the crew of random ships to stave off the wrath of Dagon, leeches off the U-Boat crew's life force and plots to steal Hitler's identity and establish a Fourth Reich in Argentina. Needless to say, this is Asamatsu Ken's invention and did not really happen as far as we know.
- Human Resources / Human Sacrifice: "Dies Irae" reveals that the Holocaust is a combination of the two, with millions of people being killed both as dedications to the Old Ones and to somehow harvest their blood, skin and life force to create elemental spirits.
- Humanoid Abomination: Teppa Tsanpo, a Tibetan mystic whose influence Hitler comes under in "Dies Irae", appears human on the outside, but a photograph Rommel shows to Stauffenberg reveals his true appearance:''A white, conical head. Blood-red tentacles by the hundreds and thousands sprouting from the tip of the cone. And there, that faceless visage was right next to Himmler's. The shoulders and arms protruding from the robes were covered in silver scales. And the fingers of its right hand, just visible, were webbed.
- Stauffenberg also begins to see similar creatures everywhere as he walks the streets, with a good portion of the German population including his wife appearing to him as humanoid creatures with giant crab pincers for hands. How much of this is actually real and how much is Through the Eyes of Madness is unclear.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Downplayed as there's definitely some eldritch magic going on, but it's unclear how many of the eldritch occurrences in "Dies Irae" are actually real and how many are a result of Stauffenberg and potentially other German citizens going insane from paranoia and implied hallucinogens in their rations.
- Mundane Horror: "Dies Irae" takes a foray into this at around the halfway mark as Stauffenberg begins seeing Humanoid Abominations everywhere and continues going about his day like nothing is happening, to the point of casually directing a Gestapo agent to arrest one and nonchalantly continuing on when the man is killed.
- Nazi Protagonist: The protagonists of roughly half the stories are members of the Wehrmacht, SS or Nazi Party.
- Noble Demon: Klingen Mergelsheim, who spares the three Wehrmacht soldiers who accidentally released him out of gratitude (although they end up shooting each other in a panic anyway), refrains from wreaking havoc on Berlin after his release despite having reason and ability to do so and leaves Goto and Clara in peace after finding them to be a Worthy Opponent.
- No Name Given: The protagonist of "The Corporal's Self-Portrait" is referred to only as "A".
- Offscreen Karma:
- Although Himmler and Hess end "The Mask of Yoth-Tlaggon" both still alive, the epilogue mentions their real-life fates of being captured by the British and respectively committing suicide and being sentenced to life imprisonment.
- In a throwaway line in "April 20th, 1889", Westcott mentions that he banished Nyarlathotep after killing Mary Kelly.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Not surprising given the subject matter. Not only do the main villains include Hitler, Himmler and Heydrich, none of whom were exactly known for their progressive racial views, but Jack the Ripper/W.W. Westcott in "April 20th, 1889" dreams of a world where the Jews are exterminated, the "hated French" are conquered and white Germanic Christians rule over all.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: The protagonists of "In the Wasteland of Madness" have literally been reassigned to Antarctica as punishment for offences ranging from murder to criticising the regime. Subverted as this is just a cover and they're actually there for the important job of trying to find a way to take control of the shoggoths for military purposes.
- The Secret of Long Pork Pies: In "Dies Irae", the regime introduces new ration meat to the public. They claim it's lamb meat, but Stauffenberg has doubts about this after finding a gold tooth in his cut of meat, implied to have come from Jews in the concentration camps. This is the final straw that leads him to try and kill Hitler (however, it's unclear if this is actually real, as it's heavily implied that Stauffenberg is going insane due to a combination of paranoia, his psyche being warped by Nazi magic, and the rations possibly being drugged with hallucinogens.)
- Serial Killer: In addition to Jack the Ripper, Wilhelm Blaski (Weber in the reprinted version) of "In the Wasteland of Madness" has been Reassigned to Antarctica (literally) in order to avoid embarrassment for the regime after he was arrested for killing five prostitutes.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: Claus von Stauffenberg slowly goes insane due to a combination of paranoia and gaslighting by the Nazis, hallucinating that his wife is a Humanoid Abomination and that giant rats are talking to him about his plans to kill Hitler. He also may or may not imagine that the new ration meat the regime has started producing is actually human flesh.
- Unreliable Narrator: It becomes increasingly clear over the course of "Dies Irae" that Stauffenberg is not the most mentally stable of narrators and how much of what he sees is actually real becomes questionable as the story goes on.
- We Didn't Start the Führer: He came about because of a blood sacrifice ritual presided over by Nyarlathotep.
- Worthy Opponent: Klingen Mergelsheim views Goto and Clara as this after they manage to decapitate him.
