The Cosmos is a Nightmare: A Lovecraft Lore Primer

Support us and get episodes early: https://www.patreon.com/c/AcceptableLosses

Join our Discord: https://discord.com/invite/nhX9NJ3EW7

Merch: https://shop.orchideight.com/collections/acceptable-losses

In this episode of Acceptable Losses, we stare into the cosmic abyss with special guest TheAmberKing for a complete primer on Lovecraftian lore! If you’ve ever been confused about the difference between a Great Old One and an Outer God, or just want to know why everyone is so afraid of tentacles, this is the episode for you. We break down the cosmic hierarchy, from the sleeping dread of Cthulhu and the maddening presence of Hastur, all the way up to the ultimate nightmare entities residing outside of our reality: Nyarlathotep, Shub-Niggurath, Yog-Sothoth, and the Blind Idiot God at the center of the universe, Azathoth.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:12

Welcome everyone to another episode of Acceptable Bosses Podcast, where usually Kiriath sends us screaming, shitting, pissing, and crying ourselves through a grim dark world. But today it is going to be the Amber King that sends us all through this crazy grim-dark world. But before we get into the all that, I guess you know what? Kirioth is gonna tell you about the Patreon, aren't you, Kirioth?

SPEAKER_02 0:36

I am, because we've got one. If you go to patreon.com slash acceptable losses, you can sign up, and if you opt to support us in that way, you will get early access to main episodes. Plus, there are Patreon exclusive episodes up there as well. Allegedly shorter. Although, frankly, the one that you get right now, so if you go to patreon.com and you sign up to the uh sign up to the Patreon, you can get one for free. So you don't need to, you know, give us anything. You get like a taster of what you're in for with the Patreon itself. And it's an episode we uh we put out very recently covering the film threads. So you get that as a lovely gift, as a thank you for following us on Patreon, and this is fifty-four minutes of absolute misery. So if you like the sound of that, then you can find more stuff like that over there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:28

It's uh it's a bit of a doozy. So be warned. It's it's uh, you know, it's uh hey, what if literally everything went wrong in the Cold War? How do the British handle it? Spoiler alert, not well.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

No, it's not great. It's it's not if you're in Sheffield at that time, you well, the chances are by the time the bombs drop, you won't be in Sheffield anymore because you will be gone. But there are a few people who survive, and we follow them in 54 minutes of pain. So yeah, if you go over to Patreon and check it out, then you can listen to that for free.

SPEAKER_03 2:07

Yeah, survive is a strong word, but we've also got merch over at Orchid8.com. There is probably a link in the description, there's probably a QR code on the screen. You like sci-fi, right? Then you should love that you like sci-fi shirt. The coin is still there, the wall scrolls there, there's a bunch of great stuff. Check it out right now. Oh, oh, hang on, and there's a new shirt.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

And we have a new shirt. A new new shirt? A new new shirt. Wait, what's a new new shirt? What's the new new shirt? Now, furiously heading over to the shop. Oh, it's the weeb for Lincoln shirt.

SPEAKER_03 2:48

Weeb for Lincoln shirt is live, brother. You need that. You need it, I need it, we all need it. Be a weeb for Lincoln. Buy the acceptable losses shirt today at shop.org8.com. Hell yeah. How how are you doing? Are you a weeb for Lincoln?

SPEAKER_00 3:10

I am brother, I am overstimulated right now.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

I can't remember what the hell was that.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

What did I stutter? You know the concept of like, was it camels or other things? They put their head in the sand. This is what I feel is warranted in this situation. Like, what is happening?

SPEAKER_03 3:31

I don't know what you mean. It's just it's a great new shirt for us here at Acceptable Losses.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

It's an it's a nice design. Weeb for Lincoln is a sentence I'd not thought to utter in my existence, to be honest. So wow. Real uh real interesting life we've led so far to this very moment.

SPEAKER_02 3:51

There's a you might never get just gonna have to go listen to the Shadow Run episode, and then that'll make it. I was gonna say make it make sense. I mean, within a certain parameter of making that statement make sense, but it it will elucidate slightly.

SPEAKER_03 4:07

Yeah, if you were an ethereal dragon, wouldn't you also be a weeb for Lincoln? Maybe I love how that cleared nothing up and just like fried more brains. Yeah, yeah, excellent. Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 4:25

Anyway, how you doing, Al? What what a what what's you what you in for?

SPEAKER_00 4:30

I'm good, man. It's good to see you guys again because uh I've brought an offering to acceptable loss acceptable losses. I've brought you guys a I've seen some of the other episodes, I've seen that we like to make people depressed on here with you know uncomfortable universes and things that will ruin dreams, make nightmares reality. And I've decided it's time to bring the OG of this genre in some sense. Trying to bring something that I think quite a lot of people maybe have heard of, or in some way have dabbled a little bit. I've brought a sort of a primer, in case we do more maybe in the future, but we're gonna tackle Lovecraftian horror.

SPEAKER_03 5:12

We're gonna delve into the Cthulhu mythos itself. Let's go. I'm I'm so I've always known about like Cthulhu. I knew a little what is it, like the king in the yellow or something. But like I I never knew like the mythos behind it. I always knew like, oh yeah, don't wake up Cthulhu because Cthulhu is dreaming our reality, and if Cthulhu wakes up, we're fucked. But I don't know anything about it, like, beyond that. So I'm I'm kind of psyched to learn like the actual like lore behind this Lovecraftian stuff.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

It's kind of a hobble together. It it I'm sure it never had any plans to begin as some kind of joined universe in the same way like Warhammer or anything else that we typically enjoy or like Star Wars. This was more of like this came about through the writings of the author HP Lovecraft, who okay. I before we do dive into like, because we're gonna go through some of the entities particularly, because this is the interesting part, but I will I will give a bit of a primer to give the uninitiated some help. By the way, for I was gonna ask about Kirioth, what's your any knowledge you have so far before we delve in?

SPEAKER_02 6:26

I I have got a significant chunk of the way through his like his sort of completed works. You know, if you go into like Kindle store, there's I think maybe like three versions of it, and I've got one of those, and I'm most of the way through it, but I have to admit, a little part of me struggles a bit with the not like the writing style, there's there's a lot of uh of like heavy description that I get kind of bogged down in when it comes to environments and the like, but at the same time, I'm not a massive fan of horror, but I am a massive fan of cosmic horror. Like he's being the sort of forefather of that one particular genre that I like out of all the genres of just horror in general. I really, really like his stuff, but it's not hugely accessible, I find. So I'm massively excited for this because it's it's something where I can read a bit and then I have to go away and do something else and read something else, and then come back to it. And yeah, the the interest is there, but the I'm trying to think of the best way to put it, I haven't managed to get far enough in to be hugely knowledgeable, if that makes sense.

unknown 7:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

I think I think most people will, even myself, like I was a fan of Lovecraft and Horror before Warhammer, and that's how I kind of got into Warhammer. So it's it's also a thing where I think it's better in concept than it necessarily is on the page for a lot of the works. But it can be said that it's almost impossible to imagine the sci-fi genre without what is foundation foundationally established in Lovecraftian themes and horror. So if anyone's well, if we're ready, I can get straight on into it and deliver some of the interesting lauded bits if everyone is gassed to go. Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:13

Absolutely gassed, primed, and ready to go.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Yeah, like a like an orc who believes there needs to be more gas in the chamber, we're gonna hold on to our beliefs, you know, so tight with white knuckles, because this is gonna be a bit of a ride. So, as a sort of primer for the audience, Lovecraftian horror. It's a it's a early genre of horror in itself, but it was very, very different for the time, and even then, I guess I said earlier, you can't imagine like everything's almost like a knockoff of it, like going forward in science fiction. And it obviously does come from the author HP Lovecraft, who does reside well, resided in Providence, Rhode Island. He is the m he is the mastermind of it, but he will borrow entities and other creatures from other writers that incorporates into what was eventually called the Cthulhu mythos. And he is a we will acknowledge he's a bit of a spicy fella in his history.

SPEAKER_03 9:12

Spicy is definitely one way to put it.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

Yeah, not get into everything, but more about we will just he also develops the idea of what's called cosmism or cosmicism or something along those lines. It's one of those words, pick your favourite. It's this idea, it's spawn from his life. That's particular like a particular type of fear. And very, very briefly, because again, it's not about him necessarily, but he was a sickly, and I'll be honest, ugly looking man. So, quite frankly, very ugly. So this guy over his life developed a very strong sense of fear from things outside of his comfort zone. We're just gonna rip the band-aid off. He didn't like people from different cultures just straight up. And he but he was mostly afraid of the insignificance of humanity in the scale of the universe. I do have a quote, DK, which is I won't lie, it's a bit hard to read because it's written in a slightly older language, but I have a quote here that if you are able to give it away.

SPEAKER_03 10:21

Before that, I was just gonna say it's kind of interesting that like he had like a fear of the insignificance of humanity in like the greater world. Because like everybody knows that like in terms of like a universal scale, we are not even a drop in the bucket. We are like maybe a small molecule of a drop in a much bigger bucket. But I don't know, like for me, it's like, well, it's not something to be scared of, it's just you know, you're still alive, you still won the genetic lottery to exist. It's still I guess it's different for everybody, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:53

Like it's you know, it's very 21st century in that mindset, but as uh Shy has rightly pointed out, in 1890 slash early 1900s, it's this is not like science is not quite at that level yet where we have that understanding of like, you know, what is a black hole or something. Ah I have to say, this is a different time, right? Very, very different era. And this is a joke he has said, which I hope will set the vibe for what we'll be going forward.

SPEAKER_03 11:23

All right. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hi hitherto harmed us little, but someday the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. It does go hard, I won't lie.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

It's and there's a proper like w when you say a fear of the unknown, I think it's quite easy to sometimes think that a fear of the unknown is like, oh, I've never been to this place before. I'm a little concerned about what it's like. He seemed to be completely afraid of just the idea of us not knowing everything, but also being afraid of the fact that if we find out more, we might discover things that we don't like, or discover things that we do like, but like too much, and would therefore ruin us. Like every part of not knowing everything seemed like it was completely unfathomable to him, and he just assumed that it would be terrible no matter what we discover, it's going to be bad. We're either gonna go insane or we're going to run from the things that we've been seeking, which is a really extreme level of paranoia, like universe scale paranoia almost.

SPEAKER_03 12:48

Yeah. Wasn't that like uh an idea that uh Stephen Hawking had where well it's not the same, but he hated the idea that we were like sending out signals into deep space because he worried that, like, well, what if someone receives them and what if they're not the happy, fun little green aliens looking for peace that we thought, and they are actually just horrible, and they want to come and conquer our wonderful little green planet for resources. We should only be receiving messages because paranoia of the unknown. Someone's out to get us. There's stuff out there that we don't know when someone might try and kill us.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

It reminds me of um in three three body problems, they call it like the uh the dark forest concept of when you shouldn't let your civilization be known to the greater universe because basically it lets the other sentient races know that you're a threat. So therefore, everyone exists in this dark forest where they are essentially trying to hide the fact that there is sentient life because otherwise you'll be I I think if in their books, like you'll be folded into smaller dimensions with dimension weapons. So that's horrific. But obviously, that kind of builds off of some Lovecraftian work there. But as as Kiro said, it's pretty spot on, which is Lovecraft's work is the fear of the unknown. It's or the analogy he often goes to is could you imagine being stranded in the middle of the ocean at night? And you can't see like you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 14:18

Like you can't see anything. Anything, you can't see any potential threats, you can't see what's coming, where you're going. That's fair. Also, sh I said William Shatner, who was acting in Star Trek for ages on all kinds of fun space adventures, absolutely hated the real space. Following his 2021 Blue Origin spaceflight, William Shatner described his experience not as a joyous adventure, but as a profound, overwhelming encounter with death and emptiness that left him with a deep, lasting sadness for the earth.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Because it almost puts things into a perspective of meaninglessness, which is kind of what this is touching on, where eventually, like in the analogy of the you're in the middle of the ocean, you could either delve deeper into the sea and you might just discover things that make you feel even more powerless and insignificant. And Lovecraft's work at this time is a sort of rebellious take on religious doctrine, which often puts mankind at the centre of the vast cosmos. You know, they used to think, even obviously long before that, that, you know, basically everything rotated around the earth rather than the sun. It was like humans are, you know, gods, special people. We are made in the image of gods, our lives are watched over by with benevolence from these creatures. And Lovecraft in Horror says, this is completely untrue. It supposes that mankind is not some god-crafted race, but just some accident of evolution. The universe does have gods, but they are so far beyond our understanding and so far from what we would call benevolence that for us to even glimpse them, it would drive one insane. So it is pretty bad. I have another quote quickly here for Kirioth, if you want to uh it's a very it's a shorter part, it's the final piece that c like clicks together in the one that DK has said earlier. I've put that in the chat there.

SPEAKER_02 16:18

Okay. So the most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

Probably heard that one before as well. It's quite his well known because Lovecraft supposes that there is safety only in ignorance, for if humanity was to find out the truth of the universe, it would shatter the ego that blankets and comforts it. Humanity should basically, you know, not go anywhere. And if you did know everything, you would go insane. Fear and ignorance is a mercy for humans. And yeah, as and he creates this universe based on this type of and we're gonna go through some of I'm sure Kira has maybe familiar with some of these ones, but for the audience and DK, actually there's a there's a few iconic ones, which we are gonna touch on, but we're gonna talk through the entities of Lovecraft and Horror, because they are just the taste of the madness involved in this kind of world perception. And it is proved like a lot of these stories, you don't really see the entities. It's that thing with horror of like you in your mind will construct what they look like, or in some way you will see what they can do, but so seeing them is almost you know, it's not really viable, although there have been in artistic interpretations since then, which we will probably talk about.

SPEAKER_03 17:49

But especially the kind of horror where your imagination does all the heavy lifting, right? Like um I think in isn't it the original Texas chainsaw massacre? You never actually see any of the gore or the torture. You just hear the chainsaw and you hear the screaming, and your mind kind of does the rest of the heavy lifting. So that that makes sense, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

I think it reminds me of like someone said there's nothing more terrifying than a glowing pair of eyes in the dark. So if you don't know what they're attached to. Yeah, could be nothing, could be literally worse than well, your imagination will do worse. But we wouldn't be shadow on the wall. Yes. We're gonna begin though with the great old ones. So these are entities in the Cthulhu mythos slash Lovecraftian horror verse, and but these are not quite the most powerful entities. These are the offspring of what are called the outer gods, which we'll talk about more towards the end. And the outer gods are considered the most powerful entities in the universe, but the do not underestimate the great old ones. I think Shahizin put some images here of like the concepts of how some of these creatures do look in interpretations, which is it is no angel, it is no, you know, lovely, baefic angel that looks beautiful. This is God and it's ugly.

SPEAKER_03 19:12

That is just an amalgamation of screaming mutated flesh.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

Yes. Gosh. Yeah, for most of them, that's pretty like that's a pretty accurate like interpretation of what they are. But we're gonna begin with the classic Cthulhu, or we're supposed to choke apparently when we're we're saying it in a Lovecraft interpretation. He says, like you basically choke when you're saying like that. I don't know, but I'm not gonna throw my hat in the ring and give it a proper go, because that's just embarrassing. It's weird.

SPEAKER_03 19:42

When you said it like that immediately, I was like, that sounds kind of like how you would like whenever you hear it would see like a horror movie that has like a big thing that has tentacles, that's kind of the sound you think of is like that sort of slimy, writhing, wriggling sound.

SPEAKER_02 19:58

And I was like, That makes sense for Cthulhu. The idea of the name as well being like so not what you're supposed to be able to pronounce as a human being that you can't you can't properly do it, you choke on it, as opposed to being able to articulate it properly, is also extremely metal, and I like that idea as well.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

It's not for in like human interpretation of it is designed to be completely incomplete. It's it's almost a fumbling child's attempt at actually trying to say trying to say the real thing or understand the real thing. And Cthulhu's probably the one that most people have heard of. He's often appearing in many genres. Shao to uh, you know, I'm sure there's like kawaii versions of Cthulhu or something. Oh, guaranteed. Yeah, but he is more terrifying inverse, and he is in the book Call of Cthulhu, which again could be its own episode to be fair, but more as like a description or like understanding what this creature is. Cthulhu is a descendant of the outer gods who has resided upon Earth for millions and millions of years, and it resides inside the sunken city known as Relay or Riley, Riley, I sometimes joke to people. It's called Riley, but it's actually like Relay. And Relay itself is like a bizarre architectural, like a lot of these things, like these places, they don't quite have human like words to quite characterize and get them across to people. But like it just like even when looking this up again, I have to double check myself. Someone said it's non-Uclidean geometry, which I don't even know what that means.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

But there's that's used a lot in is it is it mountains of madness where it comes the the phrase non-Euclidean comes up a lot.

SPEAKER_03 21:51

I've I've heard it, but I don't I also don't really understand non-Euclidean or psychople cyclopic.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Plian, which I get Shisbury found a plion. Shires found a good representation of here. It's that if anyone's uh just for the audio listeners, if anyone's seen those artworks where like the staircases all go off in different directions, there's no sense of gravity in one space. That's probably the best way to describe it to someone.

SPEAKER_03 22:19

What's that artist's name? I keep forgetting her name. Oh, it's MD Esher, is that it? Esher, yes. I kept thinking Aster for some reason, but that's yep.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

It's a show like the like each structure or place within, you know, which is highly obviously affected by like other mythos or entities in some sense, it doesn't conform to what human understanding should be, which is obviously the is the common theme throughout the horror. Like no, nothing is playing by the rules. And like relay itself, which is uh called the sunken city, is deep like below the earth. It's obviously probably filled with water or worse at this point. And it's it the space itself is obviously its designs are not anything reminiscent of what human structures could be. It is disgusting and yet beautiful at the same time. It's a place where like little offspring of Cthulhu sort of randomly float and live within. And it Cthulhu itself, as a creature, this is where it gets difficult because again, we're trying to we are only ever hearing throughout the stories the human version of what they could best describe it as, not what it actually looks like. And there's some really great, fantastic artworks which uh Shy's putting in here, but I'll describe them as well as I can for you, you lovely audio people, which is it describes a towering humanoid octopus-like entity with dragon-like wings. And even though technically most of these entities can all shape shift, this is the iconic form that it's most well known as basically the face of the Cthulhu Mythos, which is yeah, Cthulhu Mythos. Everybody knows what some depiction of Cthulhu looks like, right? Yeah, even the HP Lovecraft hand-drawn version of it, which is actually turn in the call of the Cthulhu book, they have little idols that are like crafted by insane cultists who this is their version of their interpretation of what they think it looks like. And this is obviously like a major plot point in many of the different stories where it appears. And to even make a view of it, to understand that you to look at it too long, it can drive people mad. And then when if if anyone was unlucky enough to glimpse Cthulhu, there's a ver I remember in the Call of the Cthulhu book, it does happen where some of the I think some of the sailors on a ship they view the entity and most of them just die of fear on the spot.

SPEAKER_03 24:55

Yeah, that's that's fair. I mean, if you saw this thing and you gazed at it too long, yeah. I I yep, mm-hmm. I get it 100%.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

Yeah, it's it's one of those things where it's more terrifying in person, but also in a sense, like the again, this is the best approximation that people have for it. Like it's like in in more accurate terms, it's less of a like you know, a muscled squid man and more of a I I think I had uh a little bit of help here, which was that it's considered a bloated waterlogged corpse with an octopus head in some sense. Yeah, thank you to Possible for helping me with that part. Yeah. Again, it's implied the true form of Cthulhu is incomprehensible. It is a massive was a common theme amongst Love Crappy and stuff is the tentacles, I'll be honest. It is the tentacles. Thank you for anime for ruining that for everybody.

SPEAKER_03 25:57

What you haven't you haven't you haven't played Sucker for Love, where you actually romance a female anime version of Cthulhu?

SPEAKER_00 26:06

DK, I missed the person I was before you said that.

SPEAKER_03 26:10

It's actually quite a good visual novel, to be fair. No, no, that no, no, no, no, no. I'm telling you, after this episode, uh you give me your steam, I'll I'll gift it to you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:26

I spit on your steam gift. No, but um, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

So basically, Cthulhu is an entity. Well, supp you know, it mostly is in it's supposedly in a death-like state in this within the city of Riley, and you know, Mr. Relay, sorry, not Riley, and it will awaken when the stars are right, and in this death-like state, Cthulhu invades the dreams of mankind. He whispers to those in asylum wards, and one day Riley I keep saying Riley every time I wanted to say it, yeah, Relay and him will rise up and all will go insane. Again, mostly his appearances are within the book called Call of Cthulhu by Lovecroft, and it's m-again, because he's you don't often see his entities, most of his appearances are like in small snippets where like just glimpsing it for one moment is basically the end, and most of it we only see his influence through various cults that spread up across the world and try to spread his symbols and his belief in lovely Cthulhu. But yeah, he is uh also at one point someone does like throw a boat into his chest, but he cannot be killed. But they think they defeased him, but they did not. All these entities are basically immortal, so threw a boat into his chest?

SPEAKER_03 27:48

Like, honestly straight in.

SPEAKER_02 27:51

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:52

Okay. Cause in for some reason in my brain, I was I was picturing like some psycher nonsense where they were just, you know, f literally flinging a boat, and I was like, huh. But yeah, I mean I guess it should have been pretty obvious that they just rammed him with the damn thing, and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

I am surmising a lot there, but yeah, essentially that is like that's kind of again, you they don't get too much of these entities. So this will be like a do you you know, we're not gonna have like a full long episode in each one, but sure. Because they are often as like they are the background fuel for these madness. But that is Cthulhu.

SPEAKER_02 28:26

I'm trying to remember whether this is something that's actually in core Cthulhu or is it or was it the Dunnich heart that I'm sure there's a mention somewhere of like just the weight of years being a significant factor as well. Like just how ancient the the the being or the entity is is like a contributing factor to just how insane people go trying to make sense of it. It's not just a case of, well, this doesn't conform to reality. It's also like this is so impossibly old. Just like just seeing it, you know that it's impossibly old to such an extent that it's completely incomprehensible. I'm trying to remember if that's actually in what Lovecraft wrote, or if that's in something else that I've read that has got Lovecraft stuff in it, either way, it it's another sort of added factor of kind of cosmic horror of just things being so indefinably ancient that they are beyond understanding, which is also quite prime sort of Lovecraft paranoia style stuff.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

Oh, definitely, because uh it's adding to the horror of that everything you think mankind knows. We are a blink in the eye of these great entities. Like we are a blip in their history, and they'll be around a lot longer than we we are. So, yeah, it's a pretty uh again, it's it's very hard to because it's it's that thing of once you describe more of it, it becomes less of the actual Lovecraftian horror. The whole point is like you're meant to fill in so many of the gaps in your mind about how truly terrifying these creatures are. But speaking of something that's a bit more, maybe like even a bit more Warhammer related, almost in some sense, we have the next one which is called Hasta. You might have heard of Hasta before, who he has an alias, often people know, which is the King in Yellow. And I have another quote for you, DK, if you are ready. Read this entry into Haster.

SPEAKER_03 30:29

This is the thing that troubles me, for I cannot forget Carcosa, where black stars hang in the heavens, where the shadows of men's thoughts lengthen in the afternoon, when the twin suns sink into the lake of hail, and my mind will bear forever the memory of the pallid mask. I pray God will curse the writer, as the writer has cursed the world with its beautiful, stupendous creation, terrible in its simplicity, irresistible in its truth, a world which now trembles before. The king in yellow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:04

This guy is uh funny enough, the inspiration for my own channel name, which is obviously Amber King. So this was the King in Yellow.

SPEAKER_03 31:12

Okay, okay, cool, cool, cool. Hell yeah. We're getting the we're getting the Amber King lore. Love to see it, love to see it.

SPEAKER_00 31:18

Yeah, because it was a even some of my earlier god, like you know, when you watch some of your earliest videos on YouTube and you want to throw up, this is my earliest ones, are like Lovecraft stuff. So Haster itself is an entity that is mostly known as the King in Yellow, and it would obviously inspire the Warhammer King in Yellow stuff, if anyone has read later Eisenhorn novels. It's actually not originally a creation of Lovecraft, but another writer called Ambrose Pierce, who, although basically Lovecraft accepted that the entity Haster is a part of the Cthulhu mythos. And though it only like kind of is in reference at some points about much of Lovecraft's works, he says like there are other entities, like the nameless mist, the darkness, and then Haster and other ones. And with Pier also, with with uh Beers' work, like Hasser itself is it's again, like I I have to say, like probably you know, get people getting out their their drinks counter, Hasser Hasser's true form is not known, but it is through the King in Yellow archetype that we are most familiar with him, slash how he like appears in many of the stories. And the entity, the reason, like we said the part at the beginning here, which is Haster holds dominion of a realm of utter madness known as the City of Dust, which they call Los Carcosa, which sits next to twin suns that can either you know set before or behind or in front of the the city itself next to a lake called Lake Harley. And whenever there's interactions with Hasta slash the King in Yellow, it's mostly about toying with humanity through madness. And he has a little symbol called the yellow sign, which they often ask in like the books, like, have you seen the yellow sign? Because once you see the yellow sign, your sanity just starts to erode. Like the concept of the entity is actually represented in a symbol that people can see on book covers or they like carve it into places. He's a he's again, and most of the time that you will come across the king in yellow is through some of the books, which is basically basically people have a stage play. There's a book written about a stage play called The King in Yellow, and you actually like in different stories, you read parts of it, and it seems pretty mundane, but the practice is like when people read more of it, they start to lose like touch with their sense of reality. So, like in like surmising I won the stories pretty quickly, there's a guy who thinks he's like the new Emperor of America or something, and at some point, like characters and other ones, like they look someone looks in a mirror and they see themselves decorated in finery and gold, and they look the image of a king, whereas in fact they'll be wearing like a tin foil hat. Like that's the thing. Like they and then they start to think, they go like extreme paranoia comes across. They think people like are hunting them, and they think the king in yellow is like coming. And I mean, I'm not gonna lie, there are some stories where the king in yellow, once people have seen the yellow sign, they think they're just being hunted by him. Huh. And they are.

SPEAKER_03 34:47

So it's pretty Oh, so they're not so not they're not actually like this. Isn't a fanatical unjust paranoia. This is like, no, he's actually coming for you. You're actually being actively hunted. Like this is a justifiable paranoia.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

But but are you though? Like that's it. It's the reality is bent. Do you know like what you see is real? Like, it's kind of uh you can get a sense that it's obviously not one of Lovecraft's originals because it's not him making the same point, but it very much slots into the universe quite well in the sense of, you know, just the curse of madness itself. But he is a I think artworks that often depict the king in yellow can be very like intriguing. They're often depicting him as like a sort of entity that is dressed in long flowing yellow rows with like little tentacles and other parts, like screeching out in some places, and he is a figure of you know, instead of the other ones are where like it's a figure of madness or like it's a thing beyond your comprehension. This is a thing that likes to play with humans. This is a thing that knows it is stronger and more powerful. In fact, there's even like some of the video games about like like Cthulhu mythos or other ones. I can't remember the name of the one, but there's the one where like you're in um basically a city, like a sort of a sunken city vibe to it. And there's straight up, like in the intro, you see a guy wearing like a suit. I think is he in yellow or he has like a yellow tie. So it's implied like he often is like a nice manipulator. You're playing like a nice person who's like, Oh, I mean, you know, hello, and he's and then you've seen him, you know, like he's there, like, oh god, that's the guy who could like ruin my entire sanity. This is mm-mm mm-mm. No.

SPEAKER_03 36:33

Uh so he loves jerking people around. This isn't like oh man, I wanna I'm I'm all hands off. He wants to be hands-on and he wants to really like toy with you and screw with you and manipulate you and m actually make you actively go insane. Like he is he is going to fiddle with your reality.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

Whereas like Cthulhu is like, well, you you could strong choice of word there, fiddle.

SPEAKER_03 36:59

Okay. Alright, alright. Whereas Cthulhu seems a little more hands-off unless you go looking for him.

SPEAKER_00 37:07

Yeah, this is Cthulhu's also like weird enough, they think he's some kind of priest for the outer gods, like whatever their version of a priest is for the outer gods in that universe. Boy, imagine that being your priesthood. Yeah. Or like Bahasters is also one of the great old ones. There are some other entities, but they a lot of them kind of don't have the same, like, I guess, presence in the mythos. There is ones like Dagon, who I think I would like to say for another time, because he actually has a proper story that's related to him, which is Shadows of a Innsmouth, I remember off the top of my head, which is a weird thing about fish people. I'm not joking, they're people who turn into fish. Um it's wild, that story.

SPEAKER_03 37:50

It's really, really good, but it's it's crazy. I mean, with everything we've already heard, is it really unbelievable that there's a story where people turn into fish? I mean, that's just a good that's just a grim fairy tale, right?

SPEAKER_00 38:04

It's weirdly related to um what I think Lovecraft would call crossbreeding. So we're not gonna go there with that. Whatever he means. Oh, I see. Yes. Well, yeah, that's it's related to his his fear and horror again of outside thing, anything outside understanding, outside peoples as well. Like he was such a sort of neurose individual in that sense. But yeah, Haster is one where often people like to pay homage in some sense to like the king in yellow, because it's as like a name and a concept, he's quite interesting. But again, like you will never really like a lot of these ones are we're choosing a lot of the ones which have like basically people know of these ones, but they're so like if you look at the extended universe of Lovecraft and horror, there's so many add-ons that people have done which are really good, but these are the actual like strength, like strong ones indeed. Oh yeah, this is like what is uh what does Shy put in the thing there? Would you guys like to read that one out?

SPEAKER_03 39:02

If there's well, I'll I'll read the first one, sure. Shy said, I love this quote for Cthulhu, how he works as the po as opposed to the Yellow King's deliberate fuckery. At the proper time, the secret priest would take great Cthulhu from his tomb to revive his subjects and resume his rule of earth. Then mankind would have become as the great old ones, free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and reveling in joy. Then the liberated old ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with the Holocaust of ecstasy and freedom.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:47

God damn, that's that is that's that's just that's just chaotic madness. That is that is just an ecstasy and joy in watching everyone kill themselves.

SPEAKER_02 39:59

But there's also like a a sort of a plan. There's kind of a it's a it's an inconceivable plan, but there is sort of a plan there. Also, this is something that's really in with that quote for for like Thulu, it also kind of highlights the whole like Earth and humanity is still the centre of the universe, even if the universe is filled with unspeakable horrors, because it's still Earth-centric. It's still like it's Earth and it's mankind, it's just everything else is probably, you know, horrific and we don't want to know anything about it in case it turns out to be bad. It's that he's still kind of got the thing of like, well, we are the centre of the universe, it's just it's a horrific universe, which makes the paranoia thing just way worse.

SPEAKER_00 40:59

Yep. Yeah, I believe there's uh Shire's put a lovely uh read the next part here of what Shire's put a nice play here.

SPEAKER_02 41:08

So so contrast with with the Cthulhu bit there, Haster is like, Camilla, you sir you sir should unmask stranger. Indeed? Cassilda, indeed, it's time. We have all laid aside disguises, but you, stranger, I wear no mask. Camilla terrified aside to Cassilda, no mask.

SPEAKER_05 41:31

No mask No mask It's like, oh, that's your face.

SPEAKER_00 41:39

Yes. Or the no bitches, I believe. Yeah, the pallid mask, which is part of the play. But speaking of speaking of another manipulator of humanity, we're now gonna venture into not the great old ones, but to the outer gods themselves, the actual like the big ones. Big dogs. It's gonna get a bit weirder, as we've already had weird. The first one is Nyalathotep. Or that is the best they they have such crazy names in these ones. Nyalathotep is one of the oldest beings in the known universe. It is an empty power. Guys, right, guys.

SPEAKER_03 42:23

I am I'm I'm I I I don't mean to go back to the the visual novel thing, but like I remember this name because it's depicted as a cat girl.

SPEAKER_00 42:33

I know, yeah. And this guy unfortunately has also suffered the um I believe you can romance Nayalahatep in something. God's sake. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:43

Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm just gonna spell it. I'm gonna slightly redirect away from romancing the outer gods to say that if if you're a big fan of like ambient like ambient music or ambient background noise music, that sort of thing, there is there is a a label or a an artist called Cryo Chamber who did a series of albums and songs named after like the outer god like some of the outer gods and some of the great old ones. And it's incredible if you're running like a cosmic horror campaign for a TCRPG because it's like half an hour of a time of alarming, horrible space noises, and it's brilliant. Just just pulling it out as a distraction from the visual novel. It's really good. Just a alarming spatial ambient music? It's yeah, it's sick. Like it kind of depths of space sounds, occasional like click. Like it's I I don't know how to describe it. You kind of need to just listen to it, but it's it's it's very, very good. The ambience or the ambiance.

SPEAKER_00 43:50

Speaking of uh someone who creates a terrible ambiance, though, because this guy is I've I put him next to Hasta because they they s in some way show. Share some similarities, which is although Niil Arthap is an outer god, he is by far one of the most powerful beings in the entire universe, which they they far outside the uh the power of the great old ones. And he's probably the most prevalent entity within the mythos because he is what Haster wishes he could be. He is the ultimate shapeshifter. Sorry, Niall Arttep is the ultimate trickster, and he's one of the few who chooses to interact with the quote lesser races, you know. Good old bit of love for our thoughtful there. I have a small quote, Kiryoth, if you want to read this one out, just as a little foray into uh these these depictions of Nyail Nyarloth the the crazy man, like they're wild.

SPEAKER_02 45:01

I was desperately clinging on to the pronunciations that Al's given so far, and then you just did that, and I know I'm gonna screw it up now reading this out.

SPEAKER_03 45:10

Yeah, I mean I was I was I was trying to remember how to say it and it just completely left me, and I didn't know.

SPEAKER_02 45:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And where Narhtep went, rest vanished, for the small hours were rent with the screams of nightmare. Almost full of things.

SPEAKER_01 45:30

Holy shit.

SPEAKER_02 45:32

It's so heavy for a short sentence.

SPEAKER_03 45:35

Yeah, that's a short quote, but God, that hits hard. Golly.

SPEAKER_00 45:40

It's one of those things where if you at some point realized what was next to you, you would scream until your brain inverted in on itself and you melted into a puddle. Nile Tep itself is it is like being next to Satan, I guess, in some sense, but worse. Nile Leftep often does appear in many of the stories in like human avatars. There's one in like Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, which is one of the stories, and he appears as like some kind of ancient pharaoh. He is I hate to say this part. He's often, unfortunately, represented in Lovecraft's version as a noir man. Take that interpretation as you will. It was of the time.

SPEAKER_03 46:25

So like like noir, like N-O-I-R, or like what As in the very black. Yes. Oh, oh, I see. I okay, gotcha, gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 46:39

But I mean like obsidian levels. So it is what a s what a funky choice there, Mr. HB Lovecraft. But yeah, in many of the stories, whenever you come you a lot of times you don't realize you're talking to Nialarthatep. He is an invader of not like the physical verse but dreams, and he is often seen traversing dreamscapes and dimensions thought impossible to mankind's understanding. He may have been notorious figures throughout history. He just loves toying with humanity, not in the same way that has to hunt people or like wishes to drive them to madness. No, Latitet wishes to simply be a manipulator in the truest sense. And if you ever truly understood like it was him, as I was saying earlier, he has the power to like wipe out a solar system with a thought. Like he could do but like that's like that's you again, but your mind cannot comprehend that level of fear of being like if you pissed him off too much, it's like all life is gone.

SPEAKER_03 47:45

Yeah, it would be an inconsequential thing for him to just blot out the Milky Way or something, and it's like that's that's a lot. That's that's a that's yeah, that's incomprehensible.

SPEAKER_00 47:56

Yes, it's you're again with the Love Karate thing is you cannot wrap your head around like it is the most terrifying thing in the universe and it just looks like a a person. But strangely enough, he's a he takes interest in the various cults of the other gods. He seems to like play some kind of messenger or like helper in some sense for their twisted madness. And often within verse they consider him the most as in like he's the most understandable to humans because he's willing to interact with people. But as of course, his true form is not known to being the most, you know, shapeshifting of all of them. But as Shai's lovely put in some of the uh things here, but I'll say for the uh audio listeners, he is described as a towering humanoid of multiple gnawing voids, multiple limbs and tentacles, and with a face of a unending and never closing more of horror. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 48:57

That dad is a crazy arch.

SPEAKER_00 49:00

That is wild. That's what he's wild. He could be the size of a regular person or the size of an entire galaxy. Like this creature is the fact like you know he could interact with a normal person is kind of that thing where you go, I like again, unfathomable levels of just like I again. That's the whole point. You lack words to truly get this across to people. Uh the the next one, I don't know if I'm allowed to say this on YouTube because uh I'll put it in the chat to see what you guys think. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 49:37

I knew which one it was gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 49:38

We're gonna call him Shub. We're gonna call him Shub, maybe for this section. The goat, yeah. Shub, hmm, Roth.

SPEAKER_03 49:50

Justified. Yeah, alright, that's fair.

SPEAKER_00 49:52

Yes, this is a creature, but it's also an outer god, and it is simply it was spawned from a creature known as the darkness. Like that's it, that's all you know of that thing. The darkness, uh alright. It is known as the perverse fertility god of the mythos, often called or described as like the black goat of the woods with a thousand young, or that may not even necessarily like that could be entities of her. It's a apparently it's a she. It is she is described as an as an enormous mass of extruding writhing black tentacles and slime-dripping mouths with short writhing goat legs. Um it could also be like the things that we've seen in universes, so like if you people have seen in other descriptions or other different like often Shub is in often it makes an appearance in other universes at times or other again, unfortunately, in anime in some places. I don't know what they do with that stuff. But it could also be that the manifestations we see are not the real thing, but they're often like it could be a greater part of the whole in some sense. And like the black goat avatar isn't you know what you would express expect it to be. They often call it the mother, because it's a curse. And many cultures worship like that could be worshiping other fertility gods, may in fact just be worshiping an allegory or a more tasteful than human interpretation of Mrs. Shub. But the problem with this thing is this thing is like it is a mockery of human like fertility, like it's a mockery of fertility and life itself. It either subsumes or spits out new vile creations everywhere it treads. It is a it takes its blessings and like you know, scatters them, you know, with basically it creates things from itself. It's you know, in some rebellion against, you know, religious, I guess, thinking or iconography. And that it is, it is a uh what's the word of where it's not like male and female, but it's just itself and it can respawn again. It's a asexual? Asexual, yeah, some kind of asexual spawning as a rebellion against the idea of perfect coupling. It's uh creatures that it often spawns, it's dark young, are again in some ways similar, which are like towering beasts of riding tentacle masses, which are the ones which you have a bit further up, which are like the ones on you know goat legs and they can often be spawned and thrown out in multiple stories. Like we see them in universe, there are people who do pray to shove for fertility, and then are very sad at what they receive in the end because they the blessing is the you know, if you were like, Oh, we you know, please, please help us, you know, we wish to be pregnant or something, and then you'll see exactly what you you know what you prayed for. So this thing is truly a horrific, you know, it is and everything it does as well, is is like unplanned. It is a it is chaos itself, it is a horrific version of whatever beauty can be taken from the idea that it's meant to represent. And then moving on to a slightly less controversially named one.

SPEAKER_03 53:30

Does does the goat interact with humans at all? Or does it just kind of roam around just spitting out weird not all of Lovecraftian things?

SPEAKER_00 53:41

Not all the entities are on Earth. They're just they're often where people tune with them. They're like they're in the outer universe. To them, Earth isn't very important like at all. There are other species as well, like there's there's other sentient life in the Lovecraftian mythos, and in fact, humanity is only around for like again, like a blink of a short time.

SPEAKER_05 54:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:02

So it's it it's not quite, you know. I don't know if there's like I don't know if there's as many direct interactions, but it's more of a there's this thing out there and it's a goal.

SPEAKER_03 54:14

So it's just it's just roaming around out there somewhere. It doesn't necessarily care about earth and humanity, but it's this big writhing mass of tentacles and mouths and shit, is just roaming out there somewhere, spitting out children en masse because haha, I'm an affront to God. Great.

SPEAKER_02 54:32

Or at least that's what it looks like to humans who see it. Also, uh I'm I'm pretty it's on Earth there's humans are just like one species of a few. Like there's been a few cycles of sentient life raising up on Earth and then dying out or evolving into what which story is it? Where it's I'm sure there's there's a bunch that have been like that have like evolved to be able to go back and forth in time or something.

SPEAKER_00 54:59

I forget what they're called. Or there's ones which like invade into people and they like possess them and then they're like they're like carriers as well. I can't remember the name of those ones, but I know what you mean. And then oh yeah, Sharia's right. And after humanity, there is giant bugs. So uh the the bug people who also learn gods, so lovely, you know. The great race. Wow, so that's another controversial take, isn't it? Oh, the great race of the race of yith. Oh, there's so many. There's another other gods, like there's yith and yog, which makes me laugh. Speaking of that, there's uh another one here called Yog Sothoth. Oh, thank you, Shah. Shah's got a lovely image of the great race of Yith.

SPEAKER_02 55:41

Yes, because of the weird like triple I set up. Yes. I as soon as she as soon as that was in, I was like, I remember the description of them now. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 55:52

So many questions about the the yith, so many questions.

SPEAKER_00 55:56

There's no comfort at all in this universe. There's nothing like there's nothing beautiful ever in this one. And there's a the next entity is called Yogg Sothoth, and DK, I have one more quote here, which is often the incantation people have for when Yogs of Thoth appears or is known.

SPEAKER_03 56:18

Alright. Yog Sagoth knows the gate. Yogsagoth is the gate. Yogsagoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yogg Sagoth. He knows where the old ones broke through of old and where they shall break through again. He knows where they have trod Earth's fields and where they still tread them, and why no one can behold them as they tread.

SPEAKER_00 56:47

This one is a yeah, this one is the weird one. So Yogsathoth itself is described as the keeper of all knowledge. Humans this is one of the few ones where humans cannot, like, in any sense truly perceive it. And if you were, it is described as a mass of floating orbs, eyes, maybe tendrils. Uh if anyone played good old Skyrim, it is likely the inspiration of Hermaeus Mora. If anyone remembers that from good old Skyrim, you know, wasting away hours on that game, days. That's me. But Yogg's Thoth is a creature that exists, unlike the other entities which can be in the universe, or like again, they kind of travel throughout time and not necessarily always throughout time, but throughout the space of the verse, Yoggz of Thoth exists in its own dimension outside of reality. It exists in like a fourth-dimensional perspective where it observes all of time and possesses all scraps of knowledge and every secret in the known universe. And compared to the other entities, technically I mean, isn't it's not as much of a thing. It's more of a living force. It's a a writhing mass of corruption, it is a perversion of nature itself. Like the idea of like, oh, you know, there is some kind of like knowledge god around there, or other, you know, some kind of like there's a pool of something you could delve into. This is like the version of that, but it is terrifying. And if if Yogs of Thoth is contacted by cults who desire knowledge, it will sometimes grant that gift, but that gift is given for what the curse it truly is. For once things are learned, it cannot they cannot be unlearned. Unlearned, yep. And once one knows the secrets of the universe, it will, as Lovecraft, I believe he had said earlier, which is it will drive you basically insane. You will probably either wish it was he said he didn't you will either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. Because as with the theme of Lovecraft and horror, it is better to not know to known.

SPEAKER_03 59:15

Yeah, and of course um the the fear of knowledge is is crazy because there's there's an RPG I play where there's literally like this race, like they're fucking immortal, and like they discover like literally all knowledge, and they're like, uh-oh, we know everything, but we also know exactly when the universe is gonna end because we're all heading inevitably to the heat death of the universe, and we can't stop it. And boy, we're immortal, and we are now looking and researching ways to kill ourselves because it is way better than knowing about the inevitable doom that we are screaming and running towards.

SPEAKER_00 59:51

Yeah, and as Shy is rightly said, like, it's often a source of like the magic inver-Oy, I say magic, it may be drawing on either the power of the entity, or more likely just drawing on some kind of secrets of the universe in some sense. There's parts where like it Yogsoth is often the source of forbidden technology. Shout out to Miskatonic univ university in the universe, which most undoubtedly must draw from some part, and even in the the Dunnage horror story, there's uh there's part again, I don't have maybe say that for another time, but Yogs of Thoth is also like when like in uh very briefly just a dip a dip the toe in, I say, or dip the dip the tentacle in, shall we say, to uh no the dungeon no dipping tentacles into anything.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:42

You you keep your tentacles away from save that for the visual novel. That is an image. Save that for the cat girl, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:50

There is a part in one of the novels where a father asks the entity to impregnate his daughter. Oh I mean, you don't see the thing happen, don't worry.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:02

Oh no, I'm just saying that sounds like the worst idea ever. Like, not even the imagery of it, but why would you Are you crazy, man?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:09

Why would you take his dad of the year mug away from him, confiscate it right now. You don't deserve that mug.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:17

Someone is not invited to my bar mitzvah, you know, so this guy this guy he he uses and parts of the Necronomicon and other bits to which is a thing of Lovecrafty and horror, the Necronomicon. And he this results in a set of twins who one is you know a human mother, the other fathomless entity. Funny enough, resulting in one very ugly man who's uh Wilbur Whaitley. So uh that is a very funny sorry, I had a motorbike outside. I saw that again. Yeah, resulting in one very ugly man, Wilbur Whaiteley. Just a straight up ugly dude who grows really fast in the story.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:02

I mean, he looks normal enough, like you know, it well, in at least in that artist depiction, he looks relatively normal.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:10

And the other one is a towering invisible entity that is has to be kept in the barn because it starts eating cattle. And when it starts to be revealed by like magic or in the story, like and then it they see what it really looks like, it starts to scream for help. Oh my god. It screams for help in English, like help me, help me, and then it's like you know, slightly defeated. But on if you can even defeat these things, you know, it's like again, like the knowledge of this creature creating this by like how can the human frame even contain what is the unbending and twisting, you know, writhing chaos that it is the the entities of this universe.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:52

So this yeah, yes, that picture Shy just posted the depiction of that thing that they tried to keep in the barn.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:00

Mm-hmm. For the audio listeners, do you want to describe it, Kirioth?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:05

Just for the uh the people Yeah, Kirioth, you describe it. I'm not, I I don't even know where to start.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:11

You've got you've got a a huge kind of lump of flesh, which at some point might have been a human head, because you can s there's a nose and a couple of eyes, you can see the the brow at the top, but then instead of going down to a mouth, it just continues into this big bulbous, fleshy orb with a bunch of horrific mouths and eyes sticking out of it. There's sort of odd tendrils that look like they have mouths on the ends. Yeah, like tentacles with with a with a with a with a mouth and a jaw on the end of them, and then that kind of flares out at the base into a bunch of kind of elephant-esque legs, but you've also got a ton of tentacles dangling down as well. And so when that thing starts screaming for help, I mean you could probably try. Or run. Run also works.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:08

Run sounds good. Also, nice job describing it. Better than I would have done.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:12

Yeah, grab his uh grab his tentacle and twist it, you know. But um that's even awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:18

Yeah. Wait, did you say they killed this thing? Uh if there's even a lot of things. Like you said, you can't really kill these things per se.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:28

Yeah, but like, what did they do with it? Shy's right, they kind of banish it. I mean, even then, like when like in the book Wilbur Whaitley is also implied to like his body at one point, and they think he dies and he just his body melts away. It's like we don't again, maybe there'll be a episode on that at some point if you guys wanted to, but it's m- It's just none of it is right. Like it doesn't make any it is not designed to conform to like a normal story in some extent. Which I I think a lot of them unfortunately fall down that track. Like again, I I think the concept of the horror itself is a lot better than necessarily some of the novels, although I did really like Mountains of Madness and Call of Cthulhu is enjoyable, but it's obviously it's the early foray into a genre of horror, so it's you know, it's like that thing of you understand like it's a bit, you know, if you watch an old horror movie, it's not as scary as like a modern one. So but the the concept is a very fascinating one though. There's the last entity that we will have time for in this one, because we're gonna fit finish with a bit of a bang, and I have the last quote here, which I believe it's Kyrioth. Would you give this one a go? For this is the entity known as Azatoth.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:52

Oh hell yeah. There were in such voyages incalculable local dangers, as well as that shocking finding. Final peril which gibbers unmentionably outside the ordered universe, where no dreams reach, that last amorphous blight of the nethermost confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the centre of all infinity, the boundless demon sultan Azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable unlighted chambers beyond time amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin, monotonous whine of accursed flutes.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:34

Wow, what a dapper lad. Jeez. You're thinking, what the hell was just said? Because this is where we kind of get to the crescendo of Lovecraftian entities in some sense. There's a lot more, again, for Lovecraftian lore itself, we could obviously there's a lot more detail to go into, but as a this is like the endgame concept here. Azutoth is the the god of the mythos. He is known as the blind idiot god whose form has no single interpretation that human language could fathom. He is the father deity of every single deity in the mythos, and he is the manifestation of the end. He is basically you know like the concept in Warhammer, which is like chaos, or like you know, the chaos entities in some sense, but shove them all together into one thing, that is what it is meant to be. Imagine all four chaos goals of Warhammer as one entity. But it gets a bit more of a Lovecraftian twist because he i i it is it again, like you you struggle to find the words to kind of get across what it is. It is uh describes like a lobotomized sterile concept of a being. He it does not truly care for anything because it is madness itself, it's madness manifest, and it is the complete inversion of basically the religious doctrine of you know the the importance of life in the universe. This is the avatar of the uncaring oblivion, and this entity resides in a space between spaces called the Court of Azatoth, which can be visited apparently by some of the entities, but not many of them, because supposedly there are these like these strange creatures that are they're called the amorphous flute players, and they play a tune that keeps Azatoth asleep permanently because if Azatoth were to awaken the universe would end because it gets worse, it gets worse, but for all of creation is simply a dream of Azatoth. It is nothing is real in the Lovecraft mythos mythos, like there is no like everything is Azathoff and his name is rarely spoken for if cultists were to learn of Azutoth truly and were to discover the truth that their existence is a lie, they could be wiped from existence, removed from the dream. Yeah. So there's I mean as I kind of round up to the sense of like these like big entities here, you're probably noticing, like, as I've mentioned a few times, they are like perversions of religious stories that Nialothtep is considered a messenger of the gods like Michael, Archangel Michael, but he is uncaring in the sense of for the greater perspective or you know, any kind of random, you know, imposed will. He is simply just his own thing. Shub, we will affectionately name, is a perversion of any fertility deity, like you know, Mary or I can't remember one from Greek mythology, but otherwise, is a it is the instead of life being sacred and caring, it is un you know, uncaring life, you know, shot out and splutted out with un with not a single ounce of you know affection or love. It is simply creation that is perverse. Yogs of Thoth is a perversion of any god of knowledge, like Angel Uriel or uh ones from any other pantheon. It is a simply is an entity of chaos rather than any sense of like guided knowledge or thing you can tap into. And the ultimate heresy, the ultimate smack from Lovecraft and the universe is Azathof. A god who has made creation by accident and cares nothing for the lives that live within it.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:05

That is the kind of thing that is quite the inverse of just like God, right? Where God cares for all of its creations and loves them. Azatoth is just like, I don't give a fuck, and if I wake up, you're all dead.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:16

He doesn't even know that he's doing this.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:20

It's in a way, it's it's kind of it's more it's more fun and interesting than just going, oh yeah, the instead of the benevolent creator, it's oh well God is real and he hates us, start of thing. Instead, it's something that has really no concept of the existence that it's made in the first place, and everything within that existence comes from the fact that there's no overview, there's no like drive or directive, there's no intention, it's just a mad thing has essentially dreamed something insane, and because it's being dreamed, it's real, and so now humanity gets to deal with it.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:05

Yay.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:07

Which I think it's it was I when obviously I sort of rounding it out, which is in love cross perspective, like at the time he's writing these stories, and obviously he's a very terrified and nervous and deeply uh problematic human being in some sense.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:24

His this is also the time when scientific discoveries happen at a more rapid pace. Understanding of the universe is becoming more apparent. I'm not saying like there's any big, you know, atheistic movements, but it's more of a once you learn more, you lose something else in some sense. And particularly with Lovecrafty and horror, these entities are designed to sort of settle into the fact that again, everything, your life, everything is completely unimportant, accidental, meaningless, and the ultimate meaninglessness is the fact that it is all a dream in some sense.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:08

Everything is just an accidental dream that the creator doesn't even know they did.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:14

Crazy. I very much enjoy the juxtaposition of the fact that all of the forms of at least the interpretations of Lovecraftian entities and horrors, they are so much more like they are generally quite terrifying. Like a lot of the stuff when you get further along, you realize Cthulhu isn't that scary looking compared to some of the big players in the game. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:37

Um and honestly, Cthulhu isn't even like as scary as like the big players. Like we you said, like Cthulhu's kind of just maybe what they would consider a priest. And like, yeah, it does some terrifying stuff, but not quite to the scale of like Azatoth or like the other like bigger gods. Like I didn't think I was gonna be like, oh yeah, you know, Cthulhu's gonna be the big hallmark thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:03

And it's like, actually, Cthulhu not that's the like the mad scale of of that of that kind of of that mythology, is that Cthulhu has the ability to drive people insane or have them simply die from looking at him or looking at it, and comparatively, small fry. Like when you look at the other some of the more powerful, some of the stronger entities, and when you scale it all the way up to Azithoth, it's it's not just like oh well Cthulhu's properly terrifying and can cause literal death from madness, it then scales all the way up to Cthulhu and the people that are being scared to death by its sheer presence, is a dream of something that doesn't even know it's dreaming it. And that scale is it's insane and obviously borderline inconceivable, which is you know what he was going for, but it's just yeah, it's it's kind of when you sort of dip your first like dip your toe or tentacle into the myth, I'll just like, oh my god, Cthulhu is absolutely horrifying. And then you start reading more, and it's like, oh, can we go back to when Cthulhu was the worst thing you knew about from this universe? Because oh no.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:22

It's it's funny how like the higher the scale goes, the more you're like, oh yeah, it would have been better if I didn't know. Like that sort of idea of blissful ignorance of not knowing is like, oh yeah, it it would be better to not know that, like, you know, it was all a dream. I used to read Word Up magazine, right? So, yeah, fair. Fair.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:43

As uh Shire says, Cthulhu isn't actually a god. He's like he's a descendant of Athens in some sense, but he's just in race of like the star spawn, or he has like his own like spawn, he has weird certain creatures, like ones like Cothilla, supposedly his daughter, who he will use to be reborn in if he ever truly dies, or other like it gets weird in like the extended universe parts of it, but I think you the whole part of Lovecraft in horror in some sense, the horror it leaves you with is a sense of numbness. I think, as you guys are saying at the end here, and even redirecting back to the original quote which says, We shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. The idea that the dark age itself is the comfort, the ignorance is so much more comfortable than ever knowing the absolute truth of what you know what's out there well what lies beneath you know what's in the ocean's depths, so to say. Again, back to the original concept. Which I I again, and since Lovecraft and horror has existed, people have taken the concept and done very well with it. Because the idea of the, as we were saying at the beginning, to bring it almost like full circle, the idea of the unknown is quite well played into like human fear because it's paranoia and anxiety, which is obviously there's nothing there's no louder voice than the voice of fear. So it's a again, I wouldn't necessarily recommend everyone to go start reading every one of the books because I don't know if as a writing style it holds up to more of like the modern stuff that we read. It's very slow, very descriptive, I think, as you were saying, Kiryotha. It's very how do you describe it, Kiryotha, as you were saying earlier?

SPEAKER_02 1:17:34

It's very like uh I I can't remember exactly what I said now, but I it's there's there is there's like there's an overabundance of description at certain points when it comes to especially especially places when it talks about like non-Euclidean geometry, you could you know get a decent feel for what it is after maybe a paragraph or two, but he really likes to hammer home just how inconceivable something is, and so you get this like layering of it couldn't possibly be conceived by the mortal mind, but here's an attempt to make it seem conceivable, but it's not conceivable. So here's another attempt to make it seem inconceivable. It's like multi-layered of like you say, a little bit cumbersome at times. The thing is, for I would say that for every for every page that you sit there going, I get it, it looks really weird. Can we please move on? There are also there's also a moment which is incredibly effective in describing, you know, the horror or the fear of someone perceiving something that they are not supposed to see or simply are incapable of processing. So like it it's this weird mix of the reason I've I struggle to get through it and the reason I've only got I think I'm probably like 75% through the kind of completed works or whatever the compilation is that I've got is because it's a case of extremely dense, extremely descriptive, then things that are incredibly gripping that you want to keep reading, but it's it's like stop-start storytelling, and sometimes it can just get a little it can get the pacing is not what you'd expect from like modern writing, I think at the end of the day. It's it's it's old and it reads as old, but the concepts are so good and they're so compelling that it it kind of makes up for it in the overall experience.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:39

It also very much again for other parts of you do more Lovecrafty and themed because I think the expanded universe, even though it's not necessarily all written by HP Lovecraft, the expanded universe of Lovecraft and horror is very good and they dabble very well into the fascination with the grotesque in some sense. I think a part of maybe most people who are into science fiction have at least some kind of fascination with things that are beyond the mundane human experience, so you know, be it adventure or you know, or horror in some sense. I don't know, I because DK, you've uh I don't know you obviously weren't as familiar, but what do you think is more like do you walk away with it being like, man, like do I almost want to know less about this stuff?

SPEAKER_03 1:20:32

Oh, just just from like learning about it today, I I kind of want to know more. Because like everything is just so out there and so like, you know, I I I kind of want to know all the little finer details and like all the like crazy powers and all of the I don't know if I want to say like depictions and stories about them and just see all the crazy wacky shit that like their dimension does. So I mean it I mean if you told me all of this stuff was like, oh yeah, no, this is real. Do you want to learn more about these real star entity gods that are out there? Fuck me. I I don't want to know any more. I I learned too much. But from just an entertaining story point, I'm just like, hey yo, feed me more.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:18

Uh yeah, Shy says his writing is a oh is uh is probably a bit problematic by today's norms. Yes, but if you can stomach it for it or if he there, I'm uh dyslexica's fire, by the way. So there's someone else might take over, but if you can stomach it, it does have some really good writing. All of his work's now in the public domain. Yeah, people go check that out. Luckily, yeah, he's uh he he uh even at the time I believe someone had did say, like, this guy's a bit of an arsehole.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:47

Oh, yeah, which is even even by the standards of his time, he was not seen as a great person at all. Like he was he was vilified even by much lighter standards than what we have today, and that's that's saying something. Like he was a person.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:06

It's yeah, he'd and he he was also this is the thing as well. When you say someone is a complicated person, he he he was he was a complicated person. Like he's a nice way of putting it as well, to be fair. He was he was not well, you know, which obviously isn't an excuse for anything, but it's also something that that undoubtedly had an impact on his outlook. But for just for for Shy's recommendations, The Shadow Over Innsmouth is really good. The Mountains of Madness, again, really, really good. The case of Charles Charles Dexter Ward, also I'd on to the add on to that is the the Dungeon horror as well. Like I feel like those those four are very approachable, very kind of easy to get into, and I think structurally they're the ones that are like most sound if you're just looking for a like a good story. I think all four of those actually colour out of space as well, I think.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:04

Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath is quite the uh the trip, but I would say also for the in some sense what in some people may say like what resonates particularly about the writing is that it's tackling an uncomfortable subject of primal human fear of the unknown, which is a thing, it is a retreat into the worst kind of paranoia in some sense. It is a is a paranoia without any bravery, uh, which makes it so fascinating, but also like in some way you you hate to like even like it feels uncomfortable to even be in that sort of mindset, which is what makes it so fascinating for people to revisit even you know a hundred years later. And uh I can I can end on the last I well bringing it back into a full circle moment on the the vibe sort of ending part here, which is of course, the most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. Because I I still think it hits hard.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:23

Uh everything. Especially especially after everything we've learned today. That is that is a solid endpoint. That is it, don't get much better than that for full circle moments.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:35

Yes, yep. It is a it is a curse to exist any po any point or any place within the Lovecraftian horror and the Cthulhu mythos. What a horrific creation. Well done, sir. Yeah. Crazy.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:53

All right. Well, Mr. the Amber King. Thank you for this voyage down. I was gonna say, Pardon me, I was gonna be like, oh yeah, this happy voyage, and I was like, nope, nope. But thank you for oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you want to shout yourself out?

SPEAKER_00 1:25:14

Yeah, uh I have a channel that delves into Warhammer lore, specifically on piecing together and delving into the characters of Warhammer lore, and I also am on a podcast doing the entire horror's heresy and maybe some more soon. We'll see about that. I'm also on Lore Crimes with the guys who we say silly stuff like gooning or whatever. Yeah, I'm proud of that.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:42

I'm on a podcast with the lore crimes guys, and we say silly stuff like gooning.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:49

It's a bit of a lighter end. I don't make many uh any mentions to any certain characters' cats as well. But uh Say goodbye, Kiri.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:03

Bye.