Playing With / Eldritch Abomination

Basic Trope: A bizarre entity that defies the established rules of a work's universe.

• Straight: Sro'vru, an incomprehensible monster from the void outside physical reality, emerges from a hole in space-time to feed on human sanity.
• Exaggerated:
  • A bizarre monster is portrayed entirely through incomprehensible and nonsensical nonsequiturs.
  • The monster itself is confused by its own existence and can't comprehend itself.
  • Not even God can comprehend it!
  • Even simply ''looking'' in its general direction causes the viewer's brain to hemorrhage in trying to comprehend it.
  • Sro'vru is an Eldritch Abomination even for other Eldritch Abominations.
• Downplayed:
  • Utterly weird monsters and extremely strange alien beings who are questionable despite being well-known in the galaxy.
  • Sro'vru is an otherworldy entity from outside the universe and which defies known science and is beyond all comprehension... but attempting to study it isn't psychologically damaging in the least. Just confusing and futile.
  • Lovecraft Lite
  • Starfish Aliens
  • Our Monsters Are Weird
• Justified:
  • The "abomination" possesses advanced technology or powers which makes it functionally an incomprehensible monster.
  • The being comes from another universe/place which functions under different laws of physics than ours.
  • The being has More than Three Dimensions, and thus is incomprehensible to our three-dimensional cast.
• Inverted:
  • Humans are incomprehensible monsters to other beings.
  • Exposure to Sro'vru causes people to reach enlightenment.
  • Sro'vru is an Eldritch Wonder and a benevolent god, but keep in mind Holy Is Not Safe and Good Is Not Soft.
  • Sro'vru is a harmless, benign eldritch being. When it begins to take on a corporeal, comprehensible form, it becomes dangerous and malevolent.
• Subverted:
  • As it turns out, the Sro'vru actually follows a lot of scientific rules.
  • The Sro'vru itself is perfectly mundane and follows the same rules as everything else. It just is deeply unsettling to humans and humans only. The Greys wonder why humanity freaks out like that in the Sro'vru's presence. It may be an Uncanny Valley or some forgotten history.
  • The Sro'vru's insanity has a more mundane explanation. The insanity is just because of its toxic spores causing brain damage. Somebody in a hazmat suit can even pet the Sro'vru and be just fine.
• Double Subverted:
  • ...just not the rules of our Universe's science.
  • ...Although the rules either don't make sense or contradict each other, such as Sro'vru only being able to exist during certain conditions, but those same conditions are capable of killing it.
• Parodied:
  • Sro'vru turns out to have harmless or ridiculous goals.
  • Following Double Subversion 2, Sro'vru disappears in a Puff of Logic from the contradictory rules.
  • The work is told from the POV of Sro'vru and it sees itself as a friendly tourist in humanity's world not intending any harm, yet still, humanity freaks out from it's mere presence much to it's confusion.
• Zig Zagged: The Elder One was just a trick... orchestrated by another incomprehensible monster. But the only witness was an escapee from an insane asylum... But is he really insane?
• Averted: Sro'vru is a completely comprehensible monster with logical rules.
• Enforced: "If the monster has clear goals and rules, it’s just another monster. Lets make it unclear how it works so it’s even scarier."
• Lampshaded:
  • "Why can't monsters from outside reality ever just adhere to laws of physics or maybe just common sense!?"
  • You Cannot Grasp the True Form!
• Invoked: A monster tries to make itself appear like an incomprehensible monster.
• Exploited: A character creates or fakes an incomprehensible monster to benefit themselves.
• Defied: A hard to comprehend creature strives to make itself understandable.
• Discussed: "There are no words to describe the sight before me. Such things shouldn't exist."
• Conversed:
  Bob: You can't really have an incomprehensible monster in a work of fiction. I mean you can't describe something you can't comprehend.
  Alice: Well what about Uhluthc in Mad Mountains? He was pretty freaky.
• Implied: There are many tales of the incomprehensible monster, and solid evidence to support its existence, but the heroes haven't encountered it and word of mouth can't agree on a description - or describe the monster at all.

• Deconstructed:
  • The incomprehensible monster is in such defiance of our universe's rules that it can't function properly in our universe.
  • The Incomprehensible Entity has a mind completely alien to humans and operates on Blue-and-Orange Morality. It isn't evil, just... different. Its behavior is thus just as likely to be beneficial to humans as detrimental; there just doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it that a human could make sense of.
  • Just because a being is bizarre or incomprehensible doesn't mean it's powerful in any way.
  • Upon entering our reality, the being is immediately forced to adapt to our laws of physics and becomes a very big, very gross animal that can only shamble around slowly, can't communicate because of its alien language, and is mostly useless all-around. It ends up either suffocating in space, getting eaten by a group of other animals, or becoming a tourist attraction / research subject for humans.
• Reconstructed:
  • The monster's explicit goal in our universe is removing its inability to function properly / be comprehended / etc.
  • Humans are just as alien and incomprehensible to Sro'vru as Sro'vru itself is to Humans, and it is thus largely futile and/or psychologically unhealthy for either group to spend much effort trying to cognitively process the other.
• Played For Laughs:
  • Since the monster is incomprehensible, humans perceive it as silly or inane things, like a taco that poops ice cream.
  • Since the monster is incomprehensible, humans can't tell it's not actually a threat, since it’s actually six inches tall.
• Played For Drama:
  • The very existence of the incomprehensible monster will destroy reality.
  • Just perceiving the incomprehensible monster drives other characters insane.
  • The incomprehensible monster is in Angst as no one other than itself can feel the pain.

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IA IA IA Eldritch Abomination FHTAGN!!!

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