Can a Cosmic Entity Work As a Villain?

Especially if the main protagonist is a mere human? Has there been any works of fiction with this kind of set-up that has worked?

In theory anything can work as a villain, so long as you give them appropriate motivations and consistent characterization paired with quality writing.

To my knowledge, plenty of people have written cosmic entities well as antagonistic figures. Just reference the Cosmic Horror Story trope for examples.

I've seen plenty of "cosmic" style villains work over the years. The question is, can you give these guys a personality beyond just being "a cosmic entity"?

The thing about cosmic entities as villains (at least in the vein of H.P. Lovecraft and his Cthulhu mythos) is not that the cosmic entities are evil and actively opposing the protagonist(s). It's that cosmic entities are exactly that — Cosmic. They exist on a level as far above mortal man as mortal man exists above bacteria. They are barely aware that we even exist, and they don't give a rat's patootie about our existence. That is the entire basis of Cosmic Horror — that the forces that be are completely and totally alien to our way of thinking, and nothing we do can affect them in the slightest way, shape, or form.

The Humanx Commonwealth series has a cosmic entity as its Ultimate Evil. However, as important as it is to ultimately defeat this thing, each story (after its revelation) also has regular antagonists that are easier to relate to and characterize, generally serving as obstacles to the protagonists' attempts to move closer towards their larger goals. The Great Evil itself is never given any particular characterization or motives other than "consume everything that exists".

edited 10th May '18 8:57:02 AM by Fighteer

First Edition Scion has an interesting take on cosmic entities as villains (though it doesn't have mere humans as protagonists)

The Greater Titans are the main antagonists of the settings, each Greater Titan representing a concept like Fire, Darkness, Time, World, etc. However, the Greater Titans are not malevolent and are driven purely by a single drive: to spread their concept further. So Muspelheim wanting to burn the World to ashes isn't because it's evil, but because fire is supposed to burn things.

While the Greater Titans are vast and powerful, they have a hard time comprehending reality outside of their concepts. To get around this, they create avatars to help better define their desire to spread their concepts and understand the World. These avatars are what the gods call "Titans" and include beings like Aten, Gaia, Surtr, Mikaboshi, etc. The avatars are what the player characters will most likely interact with, and each one has their own defined personality, goals, and schemes. Each avatar is driven by what the Greater Titan wants, but said drive manifests differently in each avatar.

For example, the Greater Titan of Darkness, Soku-no-kumi, wants to spread darkness until it's everywhere. Its primary avatar Mikaboshi defines this goal as "destroy everything and bring about oblivion." Another one of its avatars, Erebus, defines the goal as "make everything live underground so they forsake the light and darkness becomes their everything." Yet another avatar, Huehueteotl, defines the goal as "blind everyone and take away their senses."

In short, while the Greater Titans are the cosmic entities that serve as antagonists, it's their avatars that the player characters have to deal with, and each avatar can be seen as another facet of the Greater Titan's "personality."

There are some examples. Votoms did something similar, as anime goes. For video games, Adventure Quest does it once in a while - although sometimes the 'villain' might be 'misunderstood.' Some villains have extreme powers or are 'god-like.' You could probably get away with something like that.

If you wish to in an orthodox Lovecraftian sense, that is more complex. As noted, such a fight would be quite unfair. Lovecraft is fairly strict about what his characters can know about cosmic entities, due to them displaying his worldview.

Villains often threaten to 'destroy the world' or the universe, so a villain with a cosmic role might not be too out-there.