The R'lyeh Rest Resort

Now with more Alliteration!

Alright, now there have been plenty of talk about how writers new to the horror or sci-fi genres have been using one of this sites most favourite, huggy-wuggy tropes: The Eldritch Abominations. Thankfully, most Tropers haven't given these newbies a hard time, in fact I'm, once again, impressed as to how understanding and helpful this community can be to those in need. Of course, a big hand should also go out to those new to this trope. It takes guts to show off what you've done and you shouldn't be discouraged should you find your fellow Tropers helping you out.

That's where this Thread comes in. Here, we can discuss your abominable creations in detail with others and work out the kinks so you can use them to their full potential! More experienced writers with this trope can even offer essays should they ever feel so inspired.

Now that the niceties are out of the way, lets get on with the show!

Alright lets get this off the right way, one of the biggest problems I see with most Eldrtich Abominations are their descriptions. For the most part they are creative, but they also fall into certain traps, notably applying logical biology their forms. The thing about EA's is that they defy logic and comprehension. They should drive those who look upon them mad or to death. In short, they plan shouldn't be able to exist.

In order to illustrate this point, I asked a friend of mine to develop one of his own. I simply told him what an Eldritch Abomination and let him get to work. Needless to say, the results speak for themselves:

A colossal human skull, charred jet black, whose crown is wreathed in a multitude of forever burning wings, Alber-Sloargth, the Prince of "Things-that-can't-be-defined" floats upon a miasma of ink inhabited by colonies of fly-like monstrosities. His ear-deafening roar sends those who listen mad with lust as his tongue, itself a horse with a beautifully decorated helmet of hellenic design for a head, flails fiercely, barely contained within it own mouth. A stench of ammonia emanates and the shadows take on perverse life of their own everywhere The Prince of "Things-that-can't-be-defined" goes.

As you can see, nothing about Alber-Sloargth makes a lick of sense biologically. He just shouldn't exist, so much so that the natural world doesn't even seem to accept him.

I think I've had enough to say, so with that being said, the resort is open for business! Have fun!

How about a thing (or creatures) that are a bit more subtly impossible? What does that mean? Well, rather than just having a being as described that you can immediately tell is completely outside the bounds of logic or possibility, what about something which at first appears to be explainable, but there are aspects of it that defy reason? I think Eternal Darkness did a pretty good job with this one. Many of the critters in that game somewhat resembled creatures found here on Earth, only twisted. A gigantic gorilla-sized monstrosity with three faces? Sure, that's not normal but it's also not impossible. It is however described in several post-mortem autopsy reports that despite how these creatures appeared they lacked things like critical organs that would be needed to keep them alive, and that fact, among others, drove the scientist who had performed the autopsies to the brink of madness.

I can understand the role sheer alienation plays in this, but I still think we need something familiar, perhaps just to trip our atavistic instincts (teeth, claws etc) to keep us in the whole thing. Think of how animals came about. Animals were designed in very specific ways. They were crafted by evolution to be perfectly adapted to their role as carnivores, herbivores etc. by giving them physical traits that better suited the niche they filled. In short, they made sense, and for very good reasons. Sharp teeth, logically, made sense if the creature was a carnivore, because that tool was by it's nature best suited for tearing in to meat. We, for the same reason, recognize sharp teeth to be threatening.

Now, something can be terrifying because it doesn't make sense, but I think there is merit in drawing fear from something that looks alien, but also looks like it's perfectly capable of killing the shit out of you.