History Literature / AColderWar

* EarthThatWas: [[spoiler:In the epilogue of the story, there was a passing mention of an expedition from XK-Masada back to Earth to 'salvage whatever they could' before the sands of time wipe them out forever, all but confirming Earth and most of Humanity didn't make it through the Great Old Ones apocalypse]].

** And then of course, we have the Soviets blatantly violating the Dresden Agreement by showing and using their 'Servitors' (i.e. Shoggoths) and 'Project Koshei'. Really, who would had thought awakening a certain K-Thulhu should WWIII potentially [[spoiler:and actually did]] break out was a HORRIBLE idea?

** Right about the time all hell broke loose, Saddam managed to open a gate and summoned ''Hastur'' to wipe out his enemies, leading to Iran, who had acquired warheads by then, to nuke Iraq off the map. And THEN the Soviets fired off 'half the Uralskoye SS-20 grid' towards the Middle East for good measure. By the time the radioactive dust settled, everything 'from the Nile to the Khyber Pass' had been reduced to smoking holes in the ground.

* FictionalGenevaConventions: The Dresden Agreement of 1931 which [[EvenEvilHasStandards even Hitler dared not violate.]] Unfortunately escalating Cold War tensions make the Soviets less inhibited.

** Right about the time all hell broke loose, Saddam managed to open a gate and summoned ''Hastur'' to wipe out his enemies, leading to Iran, who had acquired warheads by then, to nuke Iraq off the map. And THEN the Soviets fired off 'half the Uralskoye SS-20 grid' south for good measure. By the time the radioactive dust settled, everything in the Middle East from the Nile to the Khyber Pass had been wiped out.

** Iran is prepared to send suicide pilots armed with Israeli nuclear weapons through the gates that the Iraqis are trying to open. [[spoiler:When the gates finally do open, the Soviets respond by nuking the entire Middle East.]]

* FateWorseThanDeath: Everybody the eater of souls devours is still conscious. In its own words:
-->[[spoiler:"There is life eternal within the eater of souls. Nobody is ever forgotten or allowed to rest in peace. They populate the simulation spaces of its mind, exploring all the possible alternative endings to their life. There ''is'' a fate worse than death, you know.'']]

* InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves: A congressman suggests that the reason for the AbsentAliens trope is that intelligent life tends to kill itself off by meddling with the LostTechnology of the Old Ones. [[spoiler:He's proved right when World War 3 breaks out just moments after he pointed this out.]]

* SurvivorGuilt: By the end of the story Roger (and likely everyone else at XK-Masada) is in a permanent {{BSOD}}. [[spoiler:He contemplates suicide, but realises it won't make any difference if they really are trapped in the mind of the Eater of Souls.]]

* FateWorseThanDeath: Lampshaded

* StupidJetpackHitler: The Nazis retrieved K-Thulu from the ruins of a SunkenCity in the Baltic, with UsefulNotes/JosefMengele running experiments [[TestedOnHumans with concentration camp prisoners]] to find out [[BrownNoteBeing how much exposure you could get without going insane.]]

InspiredBy ''Literature/AtTheMountainsOfMadness'', the story foreshadows the themes explored by Stross in a post-ColdWar world in ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles''.

** 300 megatons worth of H-bomb doesn't alter the course of K-Thulu either.

* CapturedSuperEntity: The Soviet Union has rudimentary control over at least four shoggoths, enough to use them as weapons of war in Afghanistan. They also have Cthulhu (or K-Thulu, as it's referred to here) sealed up in a bunker with the exit facing towards Western Europe. As in ''Literature/TheCallOfCthulhu'' the eponymous godlike superentity is not imprisoned by any means--[[DontWakeTheSleeper only sleeping]]. [[spoiler:When the Soviets get nervous about US activity and poke him hard enough to wake him up, they hope he'll obliterate NATO. Instead K-Thulu consumes indiscriminately, murdering the world and bringing about arguably the darkest ending in the entire Mythos.]]

* LostTechnology: The Soviets are using shoggoths, while the US is making use of a PortalNetwork of {{Cool Gate}}s linked to alien worlds.

An {{alternate history}} novelette by Creator/CharlesStross which asks: "What would the ColdWar between the U.S. and the Soviet Union have been like if it had been set in the Franchise/CthulhuMythos, with both sides stock-piling {{Eldritch Abomination}}s and meddling with ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow?"

** The unnamed congressman notes that the [[BlatantLies supposedly decommissioned]] weapons that Oliver North has been placed in charge of make a nuke look like a bow and arrow.

* EvilIsNotAToy: UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein tries to summon and bind Yog-Sothoth to attack Iran. It doesn't end well for him or the Middle East in general.

** Iran is prepared to send suicide pilots armed with Israeli nuclear weapons through the gates.

* {{Precursors}}: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Jay_Gould Stephen Gould]] is delivering a lecture on some recent Palaeozoic fossils and artefacts. When he shows them a fossil of one of the "Old Ones" Roger thinks, "he's found a Predecessor, god help him."

* DomedCity: XK-Masada, a city on an alien planet built beneath a mile-high dome designed by Buckminster Fuller, to enable continuity of government in case of World War 3.

* GhostPlanet: [[DomedCity XK-Masada]] (accessed through a portal gate in the basement of the Executive Office Building) is built on an alien world nearing the end of its tectonic life with the ruins of a long-disappeared civilization. The RuleOfSymbolism is obvious to everyone. [[spoiler:EarthThatWas has long since become this trope after K-Thulu is let loose.]]

* LostTechnology: The Soviets are using shoggoths, while the US is making use of a PortalNetwork of {{Cool Gate}}s.

* MindScrew: [[spoiler:Did Roger escape to XK-Masada with Ollie North, Reagan, and other high-ranking US officials, or is all of this just another iteration of their deaths being played out in the mindscape of Yog-Sothoth, meaning that humanity is well and truly extinct?]]

** 300 megatons worth of H-bombs doesn't stop Cthulhu either.

* XMeetsY: RedScare meets Franchise/CthulhuMythos. Or as [[https://www.sffaudio.com/review-of-a-colder-war-by-charles-stross/ this reviewer]] put it, "Imagine Creator/DavidCronenberg directing ''Film/DrStrangelove'' based on a script by Creator/HPLovecraft."

An {{alternate history}} novelette by Creator/CharlesStross which asks: "What would the ColdWar between the U.S. and the Soviet Union have been like if it had been set in the Franchise/CthulhuMythos, with both sides stock-piling {{Eldritch Abomination}}s and meddling with ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow?" InspiredBy ''Literature/AtTheMountainsOfMadness'', the story foreshadows the themes explored by Stross in a post-ColdWar world in ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles''.

An {{alternate history}} novelette by Creator/CharlesStross which asks: "What would the ColdWar between the U.S. and the Soviet Union have been like if it had been set in the Franchise/CthulhuMythos, with both sides stock-piling EldritchAbominations and meddling with ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow?" InspiredBy ''Literature/AtTheMountainsOfMadness'', the story foreshadows the themes explored by Stross in a post-ColdWar world in ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles''.

An {{alternate history}} novelette by Creator/CharlesStross which asks: "What would the ColdWar between the U.S. and the Soviet Union have been like if it had been set in the Franchise/CthulhuMythos, with both sides stock-piling EldritchAbominations and meddling with ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow?" InspiredBy ''Literature/AtTheMountainsOfMadness'', the story foreshadows the themes explored by Stross in a post-ColdWar world in ''Literature/TheLaundryArchives''.

* CapturedSuperEntity: The Soviet Union has rudimentary control over at least four shoggoths, enough to use them as weapons of war in Afghanistan. They also have Cthulhu (or K-Thulu, as it's referred to here) sealed up in a bunker with the exit facing towards Western Europe. As in the original "The Call of Cthulhu," the eponymous godlike superentity is not imprisoned by any means--[[ DontWakeTheSleeper only sleeping]]. [[spoiler:When the Soviets get nervous about US activity and poke him hard enough to wake him up, they hope he'll obliterate NATO. Instead K-Thulu consumes indiscriminately, murdering the world and bringing about arguably the darkest ending in the entire Mythos.]]

* ItIsInYourNatureToDestroyYourselves: A congressman suggests that the reason for the AbsentAliens trope is that intelligent life tends to kill itself off by meddling with the LostTechnology of the Old Ones. [[spoiler:He's proved right when World War 3 breaks out just moments after he pointed this out.]]

An {{alternate history}} novelette by Creator/CharlesStross which asks: "What would the ColdWar between the U.S. and the Soviet Union have been like if it had been set in the Franchise/CthulhuMythos, with both sides stock-piling {{Eldritch Abomination}}s and meddling with ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow?" InspiredBy ''Literature/AtTheMountainsOfMadness'', the story foreshadows the themes explored by Stross in a post-ColdWar world in ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles''.

!!This story has the following tropes:

* CapturedSuperEntity: The Soviet Union has rudimentary control over at least four shoggoths, enough to use them as weapons of war in Afghanistan. They also have Cthulhu (or K-Thulu, as it's referred to here) sealed up in a bunker with the exit facing towards Western Europe. As in ''Literature/TheCallOfCthulhu'', the eponymous godlike superentity is not imprisoned by any means--[[DontWakeTheSleeper only sleeping]]. [[spoiler:When the Soviets get nervous about US activity and poke him hard enough to wake him up, they hope he'll obliterate NATO. Instead K-Thulu consumes indiscriminately, murdering the world and bringing about arguably the darkest ending in the entire Mythos.]]

** The bunker where K-thulhu is sleeping is at UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}}.

* InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves: A congressman suggests that the reason for the AbsentAliens trope is that intelligent life tends to kill itself off by meddling with the LostTechnology of the Old Ones. [[spoiler:He's proved right when World War 3 breaks out just moments after he pointed this out.]]

* StupidJetpackHitler: The Nazis retrieved K-thulhu from the ruins of a SunkenCity in the Baltic, with UsefulNotes/JosefMengele running experiments [[TestedOnHumans with concentration camp prisoners]] to find out [[BrownNoteBeing how much exposure you could get without going insane.]]

* CapturedSuperEntity: The Soviet Union has rudimentary control over at least four shoggoths, enough to use them as weapons of war in Afghanistan. They also have Cthulhu (or K-Thulu, as it's referred to here) sealed up in a bunker with the exit facing towards Western Europe. As in the original "The Call of Cthulhu," the eponymous godlike superentity is not imprisoned by any means--[[DontWakeTheSleeper only sleeping]]. [[spoiler:When the Soviets get nervous about US activity and poke him hard enough to wake him up, they hope he'll obliterate NATO. Instead K-Thulu consumes indiscriminately, murdering the world and bringing about arguably the darkest ending in the entire Mythos.]]

An {{alternate history}} novelette by Creator/CharlesStross which asks: "What would the ColdWar between the U.S. and the Soviet Union have been like if it had been set in the Franchise/CthulhuMythos, with both sides stock-piling {{Eldritch Abomination}}s and meddling with ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow?" InspiredBy ''Literature/AtTheMountainsOfMadness'', the story foreshadows the themes explored by Stross in a post-ColdWar world in ''Literature/TheLaundryArchives''.

An {{alternate history}} novelette by Creator/CharlesStross which asks: "What would the ColdWar between the U.S. and the Soviet Union have been like if it had been set in the Franchise/CthulhuMythos, with both sides stock-piling EldritchAbominations and meddling with ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow?" InspiredBy ''Literature/AtTheMountainsOfMadness'', the story foreshadows the themes explored by Stross in a post-ColdWar world in ''Literature/TheLaundryArchives''.

* CapturedSuperEntity: The Soviet Union has rudimentary control over at least four shoggoths, enough to use them as weapons of war in Afghanistan. They also have Cthulhu (or K-Thulu, as it's referred to here) sealed up in a bunker with the exit facing towards Western Europe. As in the original "The Call of Cthulhu," the eponymous godlike superentity is not imprisoned by any means--[[ DontWakeTheSleeper only sleeping]]. [[spoiler:When the Soviets get nervous about US activity and poke him hard enough to wake him up, they hope he'll obliterate NATO. Instead K-Thulu consumes indiscriminately, murdering the world and bringing about arguably the darkest ending in the entire Mythos.]]

* ItIsInYourNatureToDestroyYourselves: A congressman suggests that the reason for the AbsentAliens trope is that intelligent life tends to kill itself off by meddling with the LostTechnology of the Old Ones. [[spoiler:He's proved right when World War 3 breaks out just moments after he pointed this out.]]