Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos
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Cosmic Horror?
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Nicair Claden
The Iron Heart
Not to sound pompous but having read Lovecraft's complete work and having attempted something like this before I feel I can help. Any ideas?
[member="FN-2826"]
[member="FN-2826"]
Darth Abyss
Eldritch
[member="FN-2826"] I'm also always up to help with any sort of Eldritch Lovecraftian Horror story.
Edit: Cause I got some time, here the small 1×1 of tropes and themes appropriate for Cosmic Horror:
Edit2: Also know that this is neither complete nor mandatory. Instead of trying too hard to make it Lovecraftian, try to put your own spin on things and rather use the concepts and themes as something to build up on, not as the actual building blocks of your story. Pointing you at the game Bloodborne, as Fromsoft did a great job at transforming the [member="Mythos"] (Sorry I had to).
The Insignificance of Mankind: This often gets represented through the actual characters of your story. They shouldn't be shining heros on an epic quest, but rather just normal people either involuntarily involved or caught in their curiosity of something far greater then themselves, which in the end will in most cases end up dead or mad due to the powers they meddle with. Their sense of agency can be entirely unrelated to the supernatural element of your world. Common occupations are Detectives, Artists, Scientists and journalists, but honestly pretty much everything goes.
The inevitability of Fate, and Heritage: Tieing in with my above point, actors in a cosmic horror story aren't really paragons of free will. Fate, be it from a higher power or merely born from the inescapable curiosity of man, is a driving force. The sins of your forefathers aren't erased, they weight on you even generations later and are often used reason for becoming involved with the incomprehensible in the first place.
It's also interesting to note that despite the existence of fate, and god like entities, the world view of cosmic horror is still very nihilistic. While those things are there, they don't have a higher meaning, they exist because they do, end of story.
Incomprehensible: Probably the biggest staple of Cosmic Horror. The old gods, the universe, all beyond the narrow scope of humanity is outside of that scope because we can't not fathom, not even barley grasp their nature and form. Man's insignificance comes from being compared to that. Your characters will go mad if the dig to deep, their mind unable to deal with the darkest truths of their world. Yet at a point just between the begin of the journey and their final descend into madness there is a short timeframe in which they might gain a sense of true insight before their mind is gone. The old gods of your world should be utterly different then the gods of fantasy and mythology. They rarely interfere with reality, mainly because they don't care about humanity at all. Some of the more malevolent of the them might see humans as playthings, but when in doubt it's best to avoid giving them to much of a comprehensible personality, or a clear sense of agency. The characters don't understand them, and neither should the reader, to an extent.
Pro Tip: Keep things vague, the more details you add to the things your characters can't understand, the less the reader will feel intimidated by them.
Might going to add to this at a later point lol.
For now some additional writing tips:
Be detailed in your description of the mundane, and vague in your description of the cosmic to further underline the differences between those worlds. Also try to make the world outside the cosmic as real and believable as possible. Alien Gods feel far less significant in a world filled with aliens lol.
Also don't explain the nature of your world. Heavy exposition on the cosmic will take away its magic, and the readers understanding of it should be shaped by the observations made by the characters of your story. Besides that, try to not make the whole cosmic thing to obvious. A sceptics tale of slowly being forced to accept the truth of his world is more convincing then a story that just drops that truth on you.
Myths and legends are a core of this kind of story as well. Both characters and reader have to accept that it is nigh impossible to know what's real and what is fabrication. They can be used to describe the old gods, without actually describing them. Deliberately dropping false information as author can be helpful if these myths and legends turn out as just that at a later point, further underlining that these beings can't be understood the way the human mind would like them to.
Some final notes on actual plot and story:
From personal observation I think that stories that have a strong investigative tone work best. Research journals, diaries, and everything similar are a good starting point. The cosmic rarely should be the core from the beginning, a more mundane task that turns out to be linked to it helps to anchor your world in reality. Legends, mtyhs, observations and discoveries should feel like tiny pieces of a enormous puzzle, very slowly falling into place to detail the rough outline of the nature of your world.
Edit: Cause I got some time, here the small 1×1 of tropes and themes appropriate for Cosmic Horror:
Edit2: Also know that this is neither complete nor mandatory. Instead of trying too hard to make it Lovecraftian, try to put your own spin on things and rather use the concepts and themes as something to build up on, not as the actual building blocks of your story. Pointing you at the game Bloodborne, as Fromsoft did a great job at transforming the [member="Mythos"] (Sorry I had to).
The Insignificance of Mankind: This often gets represented through the actual characters of your story. They shouldn't be shining heros on an epic quest, but rather just normal people either involuntarily involved or caught in their curiosity of something far greater then themselves, which in the end will in most cases end up dead or mad due to the powers they meddle with. Their sense of agency can be entirely unrelated to the supernatural element of your world. Common occupations are Detectives, Artists, Scientists and journalists, but honestly pretty much everything goes.
The inevitability of Fate, and Heritage: Tieing in with my above point, actors in a cosmic horror story aren't really paragons of free will. Fate, be it from a higher power or merely born from the inescapable curiosity of man, is a driving force. The sins of your forefathers aren't erased, they weight on you even generations later and are often used reason for becoming involved with the incomprehensible in the first place.
It's also interesting to note that despite the existence of fate, and god like entities, the world view of cosmic horror is still very nihilistic. While those things are there, they don't have a higher meaning, they exist because they do, end of story.
Incomprehensible: Probably the biggest staple of Cosmic Horror. The old gods, the universe, all beyond the narrow scope of humanity is outside of that scope because we can't not fathom, not even barley grasp their nature and form. Man's insignificance comes from being compared to that. Your characters will go mad if the dig to deep, their mind unable to deal with the darkest truths of their world. Yet at a point just between the begin of the journey and their final descend into madness there is a short timeframe in which they might gain a sense of true insight before their mind is gone. The old gods of your world should be utterly different then the gods of fantasy and mythology. They rarely interfere with reality, mainly because they don't care about humanity at all. Some of the more malevolent of the them might see humans as playthings, but when in doubt it's best to avoid giving them to much of a comprehensible personality, or a clear sense of agency. The characters don't understand them, and neither should the reader, to an extent.
Pro Tip: Keep things vague, the more details you add to the things your characters can't understand, the less the reader will feel intimidated by them.
Might going to add to this at a later point lol.
For now some additional writing tips:
Be detailed in your description of the mundane, and vague in your description of the cosmic to further underline the differences between those worlds. Also try to make the world outside the cosmic as real and believable as possible. Alien Gods feel far less significant in a world filled with aliens lol.
Also don't explain the nature of your world. Heavy exposition on the cosmic will take away its magic, and the readers understanding of it should be shaped by the observations made by the characters of your story. Besides that, try to not make the whole cosmic thing to obvious. A sceptics tale of slowly being forced to accept the truth of his world is more convincing then a story that just drops that truth on you.
Myths and legends are a core of this kind of story as well. Both characters and reader have to accept that it is nigh impossible to know what's real and what is fabrication. They can be used to describe the old gods, without actually describing them. Deliberately dropping false information as author can be helpful if these myths and legends turn out as just that at a later point, further underlining that these beings can't be understood the way the human mind would like them to.
Some final notes on actual plot and story:
From personal observation I think that stories that have a strong investigative tone work best. Research journals, diaries, and everything similar are a good starting point. The cosmic rarely should be the core from the beginning, a more mundane task that turns out to be linked to it helps to anchor your world in reality. Legends, mtyhs, observations and discoveries should feel like tiny pieces of a enormous puzzle, very slowly falling into place to detail the rough outline of the nature of your world.
Nicair Claden
The Iron Heart
I'd like to thank [member="Darth Abyss"] for the guide as well. Very cool and well done. I do have a character I'm trying to get involved that could benefit well from a little madness. If you want to look at [member="Jack-ei"] as a possible delver-into-the-dark you are more than welcome to.
[member="FN-2826"]
[member="FN-2826"]
Jerot Proga
New Member
I would recommend buying a Lovecraft anthology or reading more of his stuff online so that you get a good feel for his tone and themes. His work is in the public domain so most, if not all, of his stories should be free online. Personally my favorites include: The Call of Cthulhu, The Rats in the Walls, The Colour Out of Space, and At the Mountains of Madness. I've found some of his work and be hit-or-miss, and of varying quality.FN-2826 said:
From there (depending on how involved you want to get) you can check out some of his contemporaries and influences. Lovecraft was famous for writing volumious correspondence letters to his circle of writing friends who would often borrow ideas from, and play off each other. Clarke Ashton Smith was a poet who also wrote similar tales of comic horror, but he was closer to the fantasy side of things than Lovecraft. Lovecraft was also friends with Robert E. Howard, who is most famous as the creator of Conan the Barbarian, and who also wrote several Lovecraftian stories.
There are also modern authors who continue the trend if you're curious as to how the genre has evolved.