"The God of Nightmares, the Rust of the Wheel, the original eldritch horror... but you can call me Perry."
To humans and other mortals, Paraltos is a shapeshifting tormentor made of a nigh-incomprehensible amount of nightmare energy. It draws this energy from countless planes, seeking night terrors for inspiration and manipulating creative minds into spreading them far and wide, further strengthening its influence. Those who resist this scheme find themselves either Mind Raped into submission or physically consumed by their deepest fears.
...But to most other beings of its calibre, it's The Friend Nobody Likes. Whether because of its Laughably Evil personality, Motor Mouth habits, or dependence on mortal minds, Elder Gods and Great Old Ones alike look down upon it as a nuisance at best. Many have personal grudges against it for various reasons, some of which humans (at least, those who wouldn't Go Mad from the Revelation) may consider embarrassing. In our world, it has taken on a streamer named Bill as a primary host, and uses his stream to showcase and explore works with unholy and horror elements, often with a secondary goal of "getting even with" or "proving a point" to another god or Eldritch Abomination.
You can find its host's Twitch channel here
, a YouTube archive here, and their official Discord server here.
Tropes applying to Paraltos:
- Abnormal Allergy: By Eldritch Abomination standards, at least - reacts to strong radiation as though burned.
- Affably Evil/Faux Affably Evil: Generally the latter to mortals and the former to everyone else.
- All There in the Manual: It and Bill frequently provide more detailed explanations of its nature and story on the official Discord server.
- Berserk Button: Belittling its power or status as a god is a sure-fire way to wake up traumatised - or, failing that, not at all - the next morning.
- Black Comedy: As proficient in it as one would expect from a Laughably Evil Eldritch Abomination made of nightmares.
- Call a Human a "Meatbag": Or a "fleshsack," or anything in between. Preferred "monkey" before learning of the
Unfortunate Implications around that in this world. - Complete Immortality: As Long As There Are Nightmares, at least, and this certainly doesn't stop it from feeling pain.
- Dimensional Traveler: Has its tendrils in almost every plane of existence, resulting in No Fourth Wall.
- Do Wrong, Right: Frequently invokes this on antagonists, usually for flagrant Evil Overlord List violations or killing where it sees a more (from its perspective) "productive" solution.
- Eldritch Abomination: Its existence essentially parodies the very concept, which may be part of why it's so unpopular among more traditional ones.
- Emotion Eater: Fear, specifically through nightmares, on a cosmic scale; this is the base motive behind most of its actions.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: Explicitly avoids bigotry (of the human variety and in public, at least) as an angle of nightmare induction. It usually claims this is because things would be "too easy" otherwise, but the real reason is probably to avoid trouble with Twitch.
- Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: Zigzagged. It's generally friendly to anyone else with a penchant for chaos, sleep, and/or fear (such as poltergeists, Hypnos, and Leshy, respectively), but takes much less kindly to those more associated with mass death (like Fatalis) or who persistently get in its way (like Nyarlathotep).
- Expy Coexistence: Briefly applied while it played Remembrance of Shadows at DethI's behest.
- External Retcon: Some of its commentary veers into this territory for both the Cthulhu Mythos and many traditional mythologies - though, if
Bill's responses are any indication, at least some of this is just Self-Serving Memory or straight-up lies. - The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Inverted; Twitch viewers may spend channel points to harass it in various ways.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Among most other gods, Eldritch Abomination or otherwise.
- God of Evil: Believes humans would see it as this no matter how it presents itself or acts, and is more than willing to oblige for the fear factor.
- Hellish Pupils: Singular pupil, at least.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: Prone to mixing Cthulhu Mythos soundalikes both into and among conventional swears. Common examples include "Yog damn it" and "shogshit," as well as "fhtagn" in place of a Precision F-Strike.
- I Know What You Fear: Can manifest the nightmares of others in reality, usually as extensions of itself.
- Intercontinuity Crossover: Mainly as a consequence of No Fourth Wall, as described below.
- Laughably Evil/Motor Mouth: In a manner somewhere between Bill Cipher and Disney!Hades; it has described the former as "crazy," but otherwise claims to be on good terms with him.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: Subverted. It sees itself as a victim of Bad Powers, Bad People, but, as Bill has pointed out a few times, the real problem is its complete disregard for mortals' agency.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Quick to invoke this whenever anyone, in the game or in the audience, calls its power or cunning into question and/or drives it to Tranquil Fury. Arguably, the only time this has truly failed was against Leshy, which was justified considering his nature.
- Lovecraftian Superpower: Often grants these to the creatives who associate with it, mostly to help "spice up" their work.
- Lovecraft Lite: Being a cosmic-level nightmare entity who is Laughably Evil and (according to collaborator and fellow VTuber AurumSteel) has a noticeable Black Speech impediment.
- Meaningful Name: Its chosen English name is a corrupted portmanteau of paranoia and Ephialtes (the Greek daimon of nightmares).
- Named Like My Name: Viewers often call it a platypus because of its nickname. Bill finds this amusing; Paraltos does not.
- The Nicknamer: Big time. Some common examples are "Spyboy" for Bill, "Squiddy" for Cthulhu, and "Pyramid Head" for Nyarlathotep. Regular viewers are also subject to this.
- No Fourth Wall: In any direction. Aside from being a VTuber, it usually claims to have some kind of stake in the games it plays, often being acquainted with one or more characters thereof.
- Noodle Incident: Seems to have been through several within the Cthulhu Mythos. For example, Cthulhu refuses to speak with it after one involving Cthylla.
- Oculothorax: Its usual form, as pictured above.
- Pragmatic Villainy: A frequent justification for in-game deeds that could otherwise be considered benevolent:
- It will often go out of its way to minimize character deaths, reasoning that the dead don't dream and thus can't be used for its sustenance. (This only applies to permanent deaths; in other cases, it makes no such effort.)
- It aids Zagreus against Hades in an effort to access the former's nightmares (as it cannot enter the Greek underworld directly).
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Its availability for streaming is tied to Bill's, and it's prone to blaming lack thereof on various Cthulhu Mythos entities "muscling in on [its] goods" and interfering with Bill's life - if he's sick, for example, it will blame "Coily Kass" (Kassogtha, the Leviathan of Disease). Considering Bill himself has questioned this tendency on the official Discord server, it's unclear whether it's justified.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Cyclopean black mass of tentacles with dark red tips, seemingly inspired by the likes of Dark Matter and DethI.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: A common expression of its anger.
- Tom the Dark Lord: Initially invoked this among other gods with "Perry" as a nickname for itself. Viewers and Bill alike have since caught on, and it seems fine with this as long as no one draws parallels to a certain platypus.
- Tranquil Fury: The one sure sign it's truly pissed, usually accompanied by its eye turning red.
- Voice of the Legion: Has changed it multiple times for various reasons, but generally retains this quality.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Has yet to do this on stream, but can take on any form from another's nightmares or fears.
