God of Evil vs. Eldritch Abomination

Which is scarier?

Which can be more evil?

Which do you think is more interesting overall?

Both depend on how they are played, and on what scale you play them.

An eldritch abomination implies higher degree of incomprehensibleness whereas an innately evil deity implies higher scale of power. But none are guaranteed to the the case; the abomination might very well be something more down-to-earth and explainable and understandable, and the evil deity might very well be handicapped in their control over human affairs or whatever there is for them to influence. Not to even mention the possibility for some entity to be both an abomination and a deity of some sort; after all, who's to say what is and what is not a deity? Not like we actually have a scale with which to measure any contenders to the title.

With the evil ... well, we do judge what is evil with what we have and what we experience. Any entity that is not human isn't something we can judge as far as being evil or not goes. I mean, yes, we can say that we classify one or the other as evil, and we have the right to be morally repulsed by what they do and whatnot; but we can't really judge them evil any more than a vegetarian has a right to judge a wolf evil for gaining sustenance from meat: not at all, in other words.

And as for which is more interesting, I point up to the point I'd just attempted to made, and add that it also depends on the genre and on all the other elements of the story because often what exactly the creature is doesn't matter as much as what you do with it does.

edited 11th Nov '15 1:09:55 PM by Kazeto

Let me start by saying that the villain you use will depend, first and foremost, on what tone you want to set in your story. But before I get to that, let's look at the strengths and weaknesses of both the God of Evil and the Eldritch Abomination:

What you have to understand about the God of Evil is that it's a character, just like any other. It has wants, needs, fears, loves, and other human elements that will shape its personality. When done well, a God of Evil has a definable goal: "Get revenge on the Good gods." "Wipe out the mortal races." "Destroy the world." But it doesn't stop there — like any kind of plan, there has to be a reason for the God of Evil to take those steps. Why get revenge on the Good gods? Because they picked on him in the Ancient Times and he wants to be the one on top now. Why wipe out the mortal races? To make room for his own creations! Why destroy the world? So he can start over from a clean slate. Those are only a few surface-level examples, but it should illustrate my point. Not only that, but the God of Evil can be persuaded. The heroes (or whatever) can reason with him. Get him to see their side. Compromise. It might not be easy to do, but it can be done.

The big thing the Eldritch Abomination has going for it is incomprehensibility. Inhumanity. The Eldritch Abomination is detached from "the world as we know it." It doesn't care what the mortal races are doing. It doesn't recognize the gods. It just is. Like an earthquake toppling a city. Like a hurricane battering the coast. Like a bear grabbing a salmon to feed its cubs, or a leech that grabs onto the nearest source of blood and just feeds. Put simply, the Eldritch Abomination best played as a natural disaster or the embodiment of pure instinct, but with a flavor that can be best described as "other." (Or, if you're so inclined, you could play it with a Starfish Alien Mind.)

Now to my main point: Which one works better? It depends on the type of story you want to tell. Do the heroes prefer to blast their way through a conflict? Have them blast through an Eldritch Abomination. Do they solve their problems by being smart and working together? Have them reason (or at least try to reason) with the God of Evil. (You could also reverse those.) What I mean is, the "evilness" of either villain depends a lot on what goals the heroes have, and which obstacles would challenge them the most.

Now, what's my personal preference? I really want to see an Eldritch Abomination that has a clear goal that can do good things for the world, but that the puny mortals just can't understand, and so they assume the Eldritch Abomination is just being a jerk and so they try to kill it.

(Yes, I lean hard on the White-and-Grey Morality. Why do you ask?)

Problem is, there's a lot of overlap. There shouldn't be, if you want to be strict about the definition of Eldritch Abomination, but few outside of This Very Wiki really give a whit. To the contrary, giving Satan a Lovecraft-themed makeover is a pretty common thing — see the Chaos Gods or Giygas. (Not saying they aren't effective, though. Seriously, fuck Giygyas.)

edited 11th Nov '15 6:40:03 PM by KillerClowns

Something I didn't consider, but also very important.

I've thought of Gods as sort of like Eldritch Abominations - humans are just pawns to them, out lives or emotions don't matter. Do /we/ care if we step on hundreds of bacteria on the way to the resturant? No, we just want to eat.

Based on the actual Biblical description of Satan, would HE count as an Eldritch Abomination?

The traditional view of Satan, yes, would be a mixture of Eldritch Abomination (for when he turns into his One-Winged Angel form in the apocalypse, also his angellic form as Lucifer) and Humanoid Abomination (his tempting form in the desert with Jesus, the numerous tales of him assuming human form).

Though he's a bit of a low-key one, compared to The Man Upstairs, who makes Yog-Sothoth look like a whipped dog.

edited 13th Nov '15 9:55:16 AM by Gaon

So how does Christianity compare to Lovecraft in terms of eldritch horror?

The devil of Revelations would actually fall under Animalistic Abomination, as a seven-headed, ten-horned dragon.

edited 13th Nov '15 7:13:13 PM by AmbarSonofDeshar