There was a darkness outside reality, they say — a darkness full of things
. Hungry, nasty
things with no shape or form, not as long as they were out there.
The Other. The Alien. The Inconceivable. The Eldritch Abomination is a type of monster defined by its disregard for the natural laws of the universe as we understand them.
They are grotesque mockeries of reality
beyond comprehension whose disturbing otherness cannot be encompassed in any mortal tongue. Humans suffer
Brown Note or
Go Mad from the Revelation effects just from witnessing their
Alien Geometries. Reality itself
warps around them. Any rules that they do follow are
beyond our understanding.
Native to
H. P. Lovecraft’s
Cosmic Horror Story genre, the Eldritch Abomination has become a mainstay of
horror and
fantasy works, along with numerous others that
derive inspiration from Lovecraft. They are often used as a
Bigger Bad,
Mad God,
Evil God or
Sealed Evil in a Can. As they are defined by existing outside reality as we conceive it, most also come from somewhere “beyond”: beyond the stars or
before the dawn of time or
outside our universe.
Physically, the Eldritch Abomination is only defined by seeming
somehow “off”, hinting at their
incomprehensible nature. They can range from
humanoid to
animalistic to
physically impossible to
inconceivably bizarre. However, common physical characteristics include similarities to
internal organs,
genitalia,
animals with tentacles, or
celestial bodies.
Subtrope of
Our Monsters Are Different and
Our Monsters Are Weird. For Eldritch Abominations with a specific appearance, see
Humanoid Abomination and
Animalistic Abomination. For specific storylines involving Eldritch Abominations, see the
Did You Just Index Cthulhu? page. Compare to
God of Evil and
Starfish Aliens.
Thanks to the nature of this trope, potential
Real Life examples are very vague and questionable at best. So
No Real Life Examples, Please!
Also, please note that a monster being
really weird or ugly is not, in and of itself, an example of this trope. The monster must
break the established internal logic of the work.
Examples
