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The Cthulhu Mythos and the writings of H. P. Lovecraft

Overview | Links

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      Overview      

Sarchimus gave a great overview in a post on the Runesword messageboard. Rather than blathering on (as an ardent fan is wont to do), I'll just quote him:

Speak no more the Name of THE OLD ONE, for fear of What thou might conjure...the delicate mind of Man was not meant for such things! Actually if you really don't know, go to a bookstore and look for "H. P. Lovecraft" in the Fiction (Horror) stacks. Lovecraft started writing around the turn of the century, and died in 1937. A number of his colleagues continued a few of his ideas post-mortem, which evolved into a complex collection of inter-related horror stories. Lovecraft (who was, in real life, a pretty troubled soul) had a unique approach to horror fantasy. The common theme in all of his novels and short stories is that there is a realm coinciding with ours, which we cannot ordinarily see or have contact with. Depending on the story, someone, somehow, inevitably dabbles with science or the occult, and finds a way to open a window into that realm, populated with all sorts of creatures usually too horrific to behold. The end result is naturally always catastrophic, even if only for the dabbler who winds up going completely insane simply from the realization that such horrors are ALWAYS all around us (even travelling *through* us all in their dimension). Lovecraft wrote quite a lot of such stories, and a few have been made into cheezy horror flicks ("Reanimator," and a truly frightening one called "From Beyond"). As for Cthulu specifically, that Picture Copyright © by Bernie Wrightson .  This sketch comes from an article in Fangoria Magazine, about the aborted project of a Stuart's Gordon movie based of Escape from Innsmouth. name refers to a mythical creature (one of many supposedly ancient races that once ruled the earth) that supposedly *sleeps* deep beneath the ocean somewhere, waiting to wake up and anihilate the earth, generally for no other reason than to be chaotic and scary--another common theme with Lovecraft is that the horror has no real purpose; terrible things just happen simply because they are the embodiment of Insanity itself. The Big C sorta looks like a giant human squid. The clever thing that Lovecraft did was create a vast amount of peripheral hype to support his stories. Many of them take place in real New England towns (or imaginary ones that seem real enough to be believable). He was decades ahead of "The Blair Witch Project." He actually wrote an entire book of spells called the Necronomicon, and published it under a pseudonym in order to invent a non-existent religion surrounding Cthulu and some of the other "Old Ones." To this day there are still people who are convinced the Necronomicon is a real document, as genuine as the Bible. More recently, there is a RPG based on his writings, which is probably the source of much of Count0's source material for his tome. If you can find an original printing of the AD&D "Deities and Demigods," (1980) there is a whole section in it devoted to the Cthulu Mythos, with illustrations of various creatures and more explanations. Lovecraft's estate sued TSR over it, apparently, and later printings had the entire section removed. Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulu R'lyeh wagh'nagl fhtagn! "In his house in R'lyeh dead Cthulu waits dreaming."

[Actually, while I've been a huge Lovecraft/Mythos fan for almost 15 years now and have enjoyed RPGs for almost as long, I've never had the fortune to play the Call of Cthulhu RPG. I've only met a handfull of people face-to-face who have even heard of Lovecraft. Thank the Old Ones for cyberspace! - Count0]

      Links to the Old Ones     

 

Cthulhu from Ad&D Deities And Demigods, by Earl OtisStart Stone Protected!A Latter-Day Lovecraftian's Library -- by Robert M. Price and Edward P. Berglund. Mr. Price is both an eminent Lovecratian scholar and an inspiration to armchair Cthulhu hunters in this world and many others.

Start Stone Protected!The Cthulhu Mythos - A Guide

Start Stone Protected!MythosWeb -- Your online guide to the fiction of the Cthulhu Mythos

Start Stone Protected!Mythos Online -- Wierd tales of the Lovcraft mythosFearful Passage, by Nick Smith

Start Stone Protected!H. P. Lovecraft -- A lavish biography and bibliography of the Grand Old Gent. Unfortunately, it's in Swedish.

Start Stone Protected!The Arkham House Price Guide -- Beyond Books guide to the much sought-after early published tomes of HPL.

Start Stone Protected!The Cthulhu Mythos on the Internet -- a vast compedium of online resources.

Start Stone Protected!Reader's Guide to the Cthulhu Mythos -- by Edward Berglund

Start Stone Protected!Thousand Young.com -- This domain is intended as a store house of lovecraftian information and serves as a preservation of his ideas, creations and legacy.

Start Stone Protected!De Web Mysteriis -- Fools ! You have no idea of the horrors crawling in the darkness of the ignorance of human beings. I was like you once, a long time ago. It was before I found some evidence of Their existance. You thought Old Myths couldn't resist to Science and Technology. You were wrong.

Start Stone Protected!Necronomicon Press

from The Horde, by CazaStart Stone Protected!Glossary of Cthulhu Mythos Terms --A searchable database Compiled by Chris Jarocha-Ernst.

Start Stone Protected!Delta Green Case Histories -- Fiction based on the X-Files style modern suppliments to Call of Cthulhu. Very cool stuff.

Start Stone Protected!Delta-Green.com -- Did I mention I love this stuff?

Start Stone Protected!Lovecraftian Tales -- fanfiction

Start Stone Protected!The Fungi from Lovecraft's refrigerator - My new favorite time-waster! Arrange virtual Lovecraftian refrigerator magnets.

 

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I see you

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wagn'nagl fhtagn.

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