Is My Monster an Eldritch Abomination?

So, I am thinking of writing something and it contains something ghastly. I also do not have a name for it. It is 40 to 100 feet tall(again, haven't decided). The ground under its feet crumbles, decays and fades away into oblivion. It is capable of destroying the earth, its roar can shake entire large mountain ranges. It just kills without remorse, without emotion(admittedly, taunting it does do something). It has a basic erect posture but a serpentine tail, clawed hands and feet, a large dragonlike head with small horns along its snout, a triceratops-like head crest, two appendages that aren't horns or anything part of an animal's anatomy right where the head crest begins and razor sharp teeth. If someone looks into its eyes that person is instantly paralyzed and sent into internal hell-like torture. The beast does have two arms and two legs, most of its red scaly torso is covered in armor. It is implied that the armor would have formed more if the being stayed sealed. It is really there to just destroy. It also can instantaneously learn languages, allowing it to humor the characters and can use energy weaponry but can also miss. If it is not an Eldritch Abomination, what sort of thing is it? What is the classification it matches the most?

That's not an Eldritch Abomination; a monster like that would technically fall under the far broader category of Person of Mass Destruction, or many other related tropes, such as The Dreaded. All Eldritch Abominations are monsters, but not all monsters are Eldritch Abominations. Those require you to build a certain mystique and mythos around the monster that seems otherworldly. It doesn't matter how scary the monster is. In order to be truly Lovecraftian, it can't just be scary, it has to be wrong.

Thank you for that. I was going for mass destructive demonic but needed to know for sure. It is gravely feared, the entire goal of the story is to keep it from being manifested. I am pretty fine with it not being an Eldritch Abomination. Now, if these further descriptions change anything tell me, if not just say that, too.

Agree with above. I dunno much about the trope, but when I think of a Eldritch Abomination, it's less of how terrifying the physical creature is, and more about its mystique and people's perception of it. Let's be honest, you described a downright fierce creature there, but it's a bit textbook-ish. It lacks a mythology, as said above.

IMO, if a cult starts worshipping it, if the heroes hear whispers of the terrible myths that surround it, then I think it's a step towards the Eldritch Abomination direction. There's needs to be something that's not just scary, but also incomprehensible. Like said above, it has to be wrong. I didn't get it at first , but I think he means it has to seem like it doesn't even belong in our world and its rules. I'm not sure where else to go from there, though.

edited 25th May '14 7:43:21 AM by Nadir

There are legends and myths behind it, that is how the main characters figure out the goals of the enemies. I have a very spoiler filled origin for it as well.

"Eldritch" is an extremely old word meaning "of the realm of Fairy," back when The Fair Folk were feared just behind Satan himself and arguably far stranger. To call a thing an "eldritch abomination" is to say that it is not of this reality, or of this way of looking at it; to behold that such a thing can be is like realising what would happen if pi equalled 2.5 and then seeing that new circle everywhere. What is can be no more. The system is broken. Nothing fits.

It is a violation of all that you knew or could ever know.