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When cultists summon Eldrich Abominations, they aren't actually summoning them
What they are actually getting is the equivalent to a an Eldrich Abomination's answering machine. An image appears (the more simplified and comprehensible avatar of the eldritch) it addresses the summoner and asks them what they want. Most of the real Eldrich Abominations are still slumbering, and have never encountered a human, and whose forms really are Inconceivable.
A lot of the Eldrich Abominations aren‘t as malevolent as they seem.
Much as we all adore Lovecraft, there’s no denying he was a viciously racist human being, and since most of his First-Person Narrator protagonists tended to be author self-inserts they shared a lot of his views. Just look at how Herbert West’s assistant describes Buck “Harlem Smoke” Robinson in Herbert West: Re-Animator. Now imagine how someone who holds such fear and contempt for a different branch of their own species would react to even the most benevolent Starfish Alien.
Not that that we should start fitting Cthulhu for a pair of leather pants, mind, but most of what we know about the various Mythos beasties comes second hand from potentially Unreliable Narrators of one kind or another. Sure the cultist Castro rants about how the Dread Cthulhu will “teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom“, but then again, Castro was freaking insane. Maybe Cthulhu will bring about the end times when he awakens, or maybe he’ll just fly off into space and never return, or perhaps the world would just get better.
Most of the really big things, the ones that don't even notice other beings and could accidentally knock a large planet out of orbit, are spaceships from Organic Technology.
Because the reality-warpin' wunz go fasta. Some of the creatures really are living beings in their own right, or carry "passengers" like parasites or symbionts, but a good many of them (particularly the ones that just spend hundreds or thousands of millennia floating around in space) are the organic shipsof much smaller species that may have actually bioengineered the ships beyond mere symbiosis. This is supported by The Colour out of Space, where the meteorite seems to be carrying living tissue inside the pockets and Humans Could Have Been Interpreted As Cthulhu. If you find it far-fetched, imagine the Shee ark crash-landing in industrial England or modern New York City, and compare the probable results to The War of the Worlds or Cloverfield.
Nyarlathotep was actually a god of kawaii long ago
Because his name starts with "Nya".
The DCU, The Marvel Universe, The Mortal Kombat multiverse/universe, The Whoniverse, the various Transformers continuities and of course the Cthulhu Mythos (not to mention the near endless continuities that are either part of or Thought to be connected to it) share a common multiverse or possibly some kind of "Ultraverse" or "Megaverse" that contains multiple multiverses.
Homo sapiens sapiens is the result of Old Ones (or one of their servant races) impregnating hominids in the distant past
This explains why Humans Are Cthulhu. Those who physically appeared more like EldritchAbominations than non-threatening hairless apes were likely put to death at birth.
The Cthulhu Mythos is not a single universe, but an entire multiverse.
Every single work of fiction which makes reference to the Mythos (be it a major reference, such as the inclusion of a Lovecraftian deity, or a minor reference, such as a mention of the Necronomicon) is part of this multiverse. Cosmic beings like Azathoth, Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu have avatars in many universes simultaneously, so they have the experience of existing in billions of places at once. Apparent contradictions between Lovecraft-inspired works can be explained by the simple fact that they do not take place in one single 'Verse, but many adjacent ones.
Cthulhu is the Could-have-been-king.
And his spawn are his army of meanwhiles and never-weres. At least I didn't say he was a time lord.
Ephraim Waite transgendered himself.
Anyone who's trans can tell you how incredibly uncomfortable it is to be in a body that's the wrong sex. This would explain "Asenath's" infamous comment about women's brains being inferior - Ephraim just couldn't figure out what was wrong here. Although considering Asenath was a Half-Human Hybrid that would eventually mutate, he was gonna eventually end up with a body that was both the wrong sex and the wrong damn species. Kinda makes you wonder how well he thought this out.
The Old Ones are Archailects
They were created by some of the many seemingly extinct species whose ruins have been found. Terragen transapients and archai think in ways that are incomprehensible to nearbaseline humans and modosophont xenos are almost as "alien". Just think what a xenoarchailect would be like.
Ghroth known as Hellstar Remina .
Take a look at the image!
Think about it: Do you really want for God to exist just to have a purpose in life? Did you really think your life would be more meaningful and significant if gods existed? No, instead your life will be even more meaningless and insignificant, because what's the point in life if we are completely overshadowed by them, while our lives and choices and just everything are decided by the Powers That Be anyway, whether we like it or not?
Cthulhu is really an overzealous real estate developer
Knowing that the sunken city of R'yleh would one day be valuable property, he attempted to keep it safe by starting a rumor that it was haunted. He paid artists and other creative people to come up with stories about seeing the city in their dreams and make sculptures of monstrous creatures. To spread the word further, he and the other members of his agency dressed up as cultists and performed made-up rituals. This eventually got out of hand, and he was forced to spend all of his money on a giant puppet. This is why the so-called god was able to be defeated by a ram to the head with a boat. If there is anything Scooby-Doo has taught us, it's that this type real estate development is the source of all monsters.
Chuck Norris is Cthulhu
This all stemmed from a very simple idea- replace all instances of the name Chuck Norris in Chuck Norris Facts with Cthulhu.
The Deep Ones are masters of biotechnology.
This would explain the Half Human Hybrids & the immortality, which otherwise defy the laws of nature.
Herbert West, Re Animator's Re-Agent is somehow related to the Elder Things.
The Elder Things have the ability to come back to life, much like Herbert West tried to do for humans. It may be the West somehow got ahold of specimens of them & attempted to adapt their vital fluids for human use, or perhaps the Elder Things' ability to revive is artificial, created using a perfected version of the Re-Agent, based on the same scientific principles which West simply discovered independantly.
H.P. Lovecraft was right and there is proof!
...I'll...just...get back to you on that...
H.P. Lovecraft's stories were all personal accounts
No wonder the poor bastard was so screwed up.
H.P. Lovecraft's stories were all completely fictitious.
I know this one's tough to swallow, but hear me out. The protagonists are often clear author stand-ins and the world reflects Lovecraft's personal philosophy. My theory (which was rejected AGAIN for dissertation!) is that H.P. Lovecraft was a mere mortal who lived during the early twentieth century and wrote works of fiction for pleasure, philosophical exposition, and profit. Naturally, we need to fear nothing from the mind-blasting horrors described in H.P. Lovecraft's work. After all, mathematicians deal with non-Euclidean geometry all the time. The cake is your friend...
EAT IT!!!
EAT IT NOW!!!
Nonetheless, Lovecraft's writing is *C0MPL3T3LY* fictitious. Hey, wait a minute...
The troper who wrote the above theory is from Innsmouth.
The "hey wait a minute" was their humanity resurging briefly before being once more subsumed by their unholy fishman side, which wants to keep up foolish plains apes in the dark.
Lovecraft is actually Edgar Allen Poe
Like Charles Dexter Ward's grandfather, EAP used a dark ritual to ensure that one day a reincarnation would be born, and then EAP's spirit could take over his body. Alternatively, same theory, but with Lord Dunsany rather than EAP.
Lovecraft was an opium user.
Opium does give you some pretty weird dreams.
The Elder Sign is just the Elder Things' logo.
There's nothing mystical about it. Eldrich critters just tend to avoid it because the Elder Things managed to kick most of their asses, aside from the Shoggoths.
Lovecraft was the actual Eldritch Abomination
The Outer Gods, while beings of great power, are not cosmic horrors. While humanity is not their primary concern, they still have the best intentions towards us. The Outer Gods make sure everything in the universe keeps running smoothly and if they were only the only Powers in the universe, then it would be a paradise. However, there is a group of Powers who don't want a smoothly running universe. To aid in this, they needed to make humanity distrust the Outer Gods. What better way of doing this then painting in the worst light and outright lying about their intentions? H. P. Lovecraft (which isn't the entity's real name, of course) infiltrated humanity to do just this.
Herbert West is the Narrator's Tyler Durden analogue.
HP Lovecraft had some kind of mental disorder
Perhaps a form of schizophrenia- something that'd make him obsessive, paranoid (enhancing his racism), socially inept and having a seriously overactive imagination. I failed Psychology, so I can't pin it down.
HP Lovecraft, were he alive today, would be an avid troper.
Obsessive. Paranoid. Socially inept. Overactive imagination. Sound like anyone? TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life.
The Narrator of "Herbert West - Reanimator" is West's Beholden.
The Narrator is basically West's all-purpose Igor, and after medical school, seems to be the only person who "gets" what West is trying to do at all. As West Transgresses more and more, he becomes more and more erratic, eventually more or less self-destructing at the hands of the reanimated marvels he abandoned. The narrator seems like an unusually faithful sidekick for one working with a crazy man, as well as a little too understanding. He can see why and how West does what he does, if not achieve the same results himself. West could certainly get another, better assistant, but is bound to this one particular person.
Cthulhu was sealed away by the Elder Things.
It is mentioned they fought against Cthulhu & his minions in Mountains of Madness. The Cthulhu cult's mantra "when the stars are right" doesn't refer to anything astrological, but rather the Elder Things' distinctively shaped heads & that they made a mistake sealing him away & should let him out & join in worshiping him.
Wilbur Whateley's father is not Yog Sothoth but Azathoth.
Consider the fact that he & his "brother" are similar to Azathoth & Nyarlathotep, who are said to be different aspects or components of the same entity. One is vaguely humanoid & intelligent, while the other is a blobby, apparently mindless tentacle monster, whereas Yog Sothoth is said to resemble a cloud of bubbles. The Whately family probably just got confused due to their similar names, or possibly due to the fact that their copy of the Necronomicon was the infamously poorly translated English edition.
The "humans" are small mammals from after the next Ice Age. We are the Great Old Ones.
We ruin our world and flee to hibernate with our advanced technology under the sea. The stories are told from the perspective of some small non-human mammals that pick up where we leave off. The reader is given familiar terms so as not to spoil the big reveal, and to suggest commonalities. When HPL writes "London" the reader is meant to assume "large coastal capitol city full of small non-human mammals".
Azathoth and Yog-Sothoth are the same entity.
Both are depicted as the all-powerful forces sustaining the universe and have never been established as separate. The simple explanation is that all the power in the universe is divided between Azathoth, who contains and sustains it in its rawest form, and Yog-Sothoth, who is pretty much the manifestation of Azathoth's will, actually using the power for stuff.
Uwe Boll is actually Nyarlathotep, and is attempting to drive us all insane with his movies.
And agreeing to stop making videogame movies if the petition gets enough signatures? That's part of an elaborate Xanatos gambit to get movie rights to every videogame in existance, and thus drive fans into utter despair. And then he'll move on to making anime movies...
The "things" that the De La Poer ate were not humans... but just barely
The narrator's term to describe the creepy creature he saw on the cave is "swineherd". That word was unknown to me, though I could imply the meaning from analogy(shepherd => sheep, thus swineherd => swine, pigs), so it must be important for the understanding of the story. Near the end, the team of scientists find many skeletons in the grotto under the castle that are actually quadrupedal. The horrible conclusion is that the creatures being raised as cattle by the De La Poer were actually pigs, mutated into human-like creatures, whose evolution was accelerated by artificial selection and quick disposing of the unwanted individuals(for eating, of course). If the artificial selection of more human-like pigs was perpetrated due to pity or if it was the original objective of the family, though, is a mystery best unsolved...
Nyarlathotep is to Dream Land as Azathoth is to the real world.
Azathoth is said to be the avatar or focal point of the cosmic forces of the physical world. As such, he is a force of nature & therefore mindless. Some sources say that Nyarlathotep is Azathoth's disembodied consciousness, however. This could be because he is the avatar of Lovecraft's Dreamlands, a world made from the collective unconscious of all intelligent life, in a way, the "consciousness" of the universe. Since intelligent life is so rare in the vast cosmos he is so much smaller & less powerful than Azathoth, but infinitely more versatile & dangerous. This also handily explains why he is the most humanlike of Lovecraft's Cosmic Horrors, because in a way he is part human.
All other Cosmic Horrors exist because of humanity.
Humanity itself is the top dog Cosmic Horror. The only reason the others seem so powerful is because we locked our powers away and made ourselves forget. All the other ones want us back, so they are using cultists as a means to an end.
Lavinia Whateley was a victim of tentacle rape.
I cannot see any other reason as to how the Dunwich horrors actually came to be.
The Elder Things created the Shoggoths by reverse-engineering Shub-Niggurath's young.
Would explain the similarities. Plus, some Mythos sources have identified the Shoggoths as followeers of Shubby, although this is admittedly suspect, since Lovecraft himself never mentioned the connection IIRC.
H.P. Lovecraft was the son of a Cosmic Horror
The Dunwich Horror was semi-autobiographical. It was also the reason for his racism-he was just barely able to avoid disgust and fear towards human beings who looked like him, but was unable to do so towards anyone different. His dislike of seafood was due to his unknowing identification with sea creatures. His stories were mixes of fact and fiction.
Nyarlathotep is the real mind behind the My Immortal fan fiction as an attempt to drive the entire internet insane.
I feel like I lost some of my sanity rating just reading the page on it.
Cthulhu's power is directly linked to the existence of humanity.
Cthulhu is one of the most 'normal' of the various Lovecraftian horrors, but one of the most popular, and treated as one of the most powerful. The ability to actually perceive the physical form of the horrors is directly linked to their power. The more esoteric entities lack power over human beings because the humans can't properly process them. What can we process? Big ol' squid-dragons. Advantage: Cthulhu.
Azathoth is a supermassive black hole.
We know that Azathoth is blind and mindless, and lurks at the center of the universe. Lovecraft grew up in a time when "the universe" meant the Milky Way galaxy, which (we now know) has a supermassive black hole at its center. Azathoth is described as "blaspheming", yet Lovecraft was an athiest, so it's hard to say what would constitute "blasphemy" in his reckoning ... unless, that is, it's warping physics and the nature of reality, blaspheming against all that is reasonable, which black holes do by their very nature (Black holes are one of the most prominent examples of actual Lovecraftian Eldritch Abominations in Real Life). Azathoth is also said to "bubble", but what he bubbles in the void of space isn't specified; the event horizon of a black hole, however, is a spherical border not unlike a giant bubble. As for the "piping" that tunelessly serenades the Big A, it's possible that the Milky Way black hole releases pulses of radiation into intergalactic space (i.e. it's a quasar), creating a rhythmic, tuneless "beat" that even tone-deaf Lovecraft could've interpreted as music.
In short, Azathoth is Lovecraft's unwitting anticipation of the discovery of a supermassive black hole at the core of the Milky Way: an indestructible, mindless creator and destroyer of our galaxy, as it's what drew material together to make it and what will gobble up its remnants when it dies. If stars, planets and constellations are named for their semblence to god-figures from mythology, then "Azathoth" is the perfect name for that big hungry mutha at the galactic core.
Eric Zahn was the Fiddler on the Roof.
Before moving to that creepy rooming house in Paris, he lived in Anatevka, where he stood on top of people's houses and played to keep Azathoth from coming and wiping out the village. Sadly, this technique didn't prove nearly as effective against the Cossacks.
"Noyes" from The Whisperer in Darkness is Nyarlathotep.
A suspicious yet standard-looking ominous fellow getting involved in rituals with the Mi-Go with a calm demeanor and higher-than-average knowledge about entities like Shub-Niggurath? Who could it be?
The reason the protagonist of The Music Of Eric Zahn can never find the Rue D'Auseil again is because Azathoth erased it from existance.
After Zahn stopped playing, Azzy got bored with it and wiped the place out. But since he's an eldritch god thing who controls space and time, when Azathoth destroys something, not only does he end its future, he wipes out its past as well. There never was a Rue D'Auseil, hence why it doesn't show up on any maps and why nobody remembers it. As to why the narrator does, maybe Azzy's just messing with him.
The Magna Mater from Rats in the Walls is actually Shub Niggurath.
Also, the voodoo sect the guy's cousin joined is the one from Call Of Cthulhu. No reason other than it'd tie it into the Cthulhu Mythos.
HP Lovecraft is not really a nihilistic Nietzsche Wannabe
Okay, this might be more of a Poison Oak Epileptic Tree, but Lovecraft is actually just acting some of his nihilism so that he can make and write his stories better and more memorable. You know, fully understanding and comprehending a fictional universe by acting them as though they are real experiences. He was just living his life as though it was a work of art. Well, if he was truly that of a nihilist, then the probability of him collapsing from the revelation increases. After all, a meaningless story is fun but easily disposable, but a philosophic story that questions our existence is more memorable and interesting. Remember how the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion became famous due to its philosophic mindscrewyness?
Danforth from At the Mountains of Madness didn't really go crazy.
He was killed by a Shoggoth and replaced. His apparent insanity is due to the creature not figuring out how to imitate human behavior convincingly. His repetitive babbling is the Shoggoth repeating things it heard the real Danforth say. After all, the ancient tablets told of the Shoggoths disguising themselves as Elder Things, why not people?
Shadowgirls theory about Lovecraft is true
Shadowgirls, webcomics that makes big use of Cthulhu Mythos, has recently finished short story revealing that Lovecraft was a member of secret society of writers, who were gathering the knowledge about all kind of supernatural like aliens, vampires, werewolves or eldritch abominations and publishing them as fiction. If they would reveal their knowledge as truth, nobody would believe them, but if they claimed to made it up, their knowledge would survive in collective human memory as tropes - we know that stake and sunlight kills a vampire and silver bullet is fatal to the werewolf, because we read about it in books. Lovecraft himself has passed informations about how to deal with at last some of creatures his characters encounters - The Dream-Quest Of Unknown Kadath describes how to survive encounters with many creatures inhabiting Dream World and even how to get saved from Nyerlaotheph. His stories where monstrosities cannot be stopped serves as a warning for people so then can recognize early signs of those creatures when they see them and run.
The things in the tomb in "The Statement of Randolph Carter" were parasprites.
"Curse these hellish things—legions—My God!"
Shoggoths are the central creature linking all the Cthulhu Mythos.
Here's the reasons why:
The Elder Things/Old Ones of Antarctica created the Shoggoths as servitors- who rebelled.
In regards to Deep Ones or other followers of Cthulhu, the Esoteric Order of Dagon use Shoggoths for some of their plans. (The Shadow Over Innsmouth)
In regards to the Outer Gods/Great Old Ones, the cultists who worship Shub-Niggurath in Chesuncook, Maine have a whole pit of Shoggoths. ("The Thing on the Doorstep")
What about the Dreamlands? Didn't Abdul Alhazred say that Shoggoths only existed in the dreams of druggies?
The pantheon is dead.
It turns out that the conqueror of the Great Old Ones weren't the Elder Gods, or even man...it was time itself. All of those Great Old Ones said to be lying dormant in some far-distant place? Chances are, if they weren't dead to begin with, they have died of old age by now. Their myths, meanwhile, still resonate with the few alien races still alive in the universe. We all are tricked into believing the eldritch abominations of the universe still threaten our existence, when there is nothing threatening our existence at all.
By whatever standards Eldritch Abomination have. Supposedly humans shouldn't even blip on most of the Mytho's radar, yet Nyarly is obsessed with them; changing them, dominating or destroying them. He purposely deals with them and actively works to change human society. He is not Above Good and Evil; indeed, his behaviour is Human, All Too Human. See, the Go Mad from the Revelation thing is two-way. Nyarlathotep set his perceptions on a radically different species (humans) and the perspective is driving him bonkers.
The Great race of Yith are timelords.
Well some one had to say it. They are probably a future form of the timelords. They have mastered time travel. I can imagine, after the events of the end of time in doctor who. The time lords,were dying out on the time locked time war, so in order to survive they found a way to trasnfer their minds, towards time and space into other lifeforms, not mention they have a lot of knowlege about alien spcies acroos the universe inclunding humanity.
Lovecraft and subsequent writers explicitly portray them as having a nauseating fish odor. Actually, it's only DEAD fish that smell. Which means . . . "Iä! Iä! BRRAAAIIINNNS!"
Fitting the theme of a universe that has no meaning, Nyarlathotep would be the final step of evolution of every single being in existence
Nyarly is the Soul or the Telepatic representation of the Outer Gods and if you think about it for a moment you will notice that the Outer Gods(the most powerful beings in all Lovecraft Mythos and therefore the most aliens in mind and body) end up making a creature that its not so different from the human way of thinking. So no matter how alien, bizzare or godlike you are, you will always manifest your "Soul", "Essence" or "Mind" as a creature that wants only suffering and madness spread all over every plane of existence just for fun. Meaning that even gods and lowly earthlings cant escape him because they are all the one and the same, the sense of self-identity and morals are just masks for the very "soul" that drives every motivation you make and fits perfectly with a universe with no meaning or salvation. If the so called god who is omnipotent and benevolent its a blind retard that created the universe by accident then evolution in mind and body (the tool that all the creatures uses to achieve adaptation over the enviroment) its also flawed and meaningless because all change will always lead into being like Nyarlathotep in the end and worse yet there is no escape from it because like every aspect that the Outer Gods represent (Radiation, Childbearing, Time and Space) its a necessary aspect that keeps reality from falling apart, unchanging, constant, absolute.
Yog-Sothoth is one of the many beings which Rassilon thrust out of the way in some manner or other in order to ensure the dominance of the Time Lords.
Nightmare Moon is Cthulu.
Locked some place cold and dark (Moon/Depths of Ocean), incredible powers, will escape when the stars are right, treated as myth by the local civilization (Ponyville/Everyone who hasn't been involved in anything) but known by foreigners (Zecora/cults) and people who read far too much (Twilight/?), it's form is sort of comprehensible but aspects are well beyond what people can grasp (Mane and fact she's an Alicorn / Giant octopus-dragon-man Starfish Alien).
Nyarlathotep is, among other things, more or less the god of trolling
Sowing chaos, check. For the Evulz, check (well, sort of). Likes messing with people, check. Dickishness, check. Sockpuppets, check.
Contrary to popular belief, you can Punch Out Cthulhu
Which may explain how he got knocked out by a boat. This is the actual reason why Cthulhu drives you insane: it's a defense mechanism. Cthulhu knows that squishy little mortals may try to nuke it to oblivion, but thanks to its psychic powers, people are too insane to attack it. Granted, it would still take a lot of force and psychological willpower to kill it, but it still is possible.
There are many Cthulhus
Well, they aren't necessarily all named Cthulhu, but there are more like "him". Cthulhu is basically the queen of the hive (his spawn) that settled on earth. Other hives with similar queens live on other planets.
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alternative title(s): HP Lovecraft
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