Cosmic Horror Story: Difference between revisions

Take one step away from the comforts of home, and you will find [[Paranoia Fuel|terror and madness]] on every corner—dark cults, hideous monstrosities, truths so [[Nightmare Fuel|terrible]] that [[Go Mad From the Revelation|none may comprehend them and remain sane]]. Demons gibber in the tunnels beneath your feet. Parasites crawl in your food, drink and stomach. Ghosts hover unseen and unheard around you. The vile essence of an alien disease lurks in the recesses of your own family tree, a genetic time bomb just ''waiting'' [[Involuntary Transformation|to]] [[Body Horror|go]] [[And I Must Scream|off]]....

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'': While it mainly focuses on Existential crisis, the setting has archetypes of cosmic horror stories in it. A post-apocalyptic [[Crapsack World]] where{{spoiler|, because man meddled with the underlying order of creation and other [[Things Man Was Not Meant to Know]],}} half of the population has died and the remainder are in the process of being annihilated by the [[Eldritch Abomination|Ang]][[Mind Rape|els]] (Quite a few old super robot shows did feature mysterious, alien villains with very lightly defined motivations; cue the relentless attacks of the Angels, alien (or not) assailants on whose motives, constituents or psychology we have a little idea of, simply malevolent [[Mac Guffins]] to enable the story to [[Genre Deconstruction|play]] with 'giant robot' tropes. They also happen to get progressively creepier, and more unexplainably eldritch as the show progresses. Most importantly, there is an emphasis on showing the fear and uncertainty that comes with fighting an enemy that is just plain undefinable).

* A ''[[Donald Duck]] comic'' features this as its story. Donald tries out for a singing competition organized by a renowned musician, and gets successfully recruited by having his voice altered by an apparent twin of said musician. It’s revealed that {{spoiler|the entire world [[Schrodinger's Butterfly|is actually the dream]] of an ancient cephalophoid monster which slumbers in a city at the bottom of the sea, and the two twins are manifestations of the monster’s conflicting subconscious desires to continue sleeping or wake up, which Donald’s voice will make it do. When the creature does just that the rest of the world vanishes as it no longer creates the world-dream, and everything in its vicinity shapes itself into its image, resulting in Donald and his nephews growing tentacles and stick eyes. It’s eventually put back to sleep, but the story ends on a rather dark note as Donald contemplates everybody's existence as mere parts of the creature’s imagination}}.

* ''[[The Shape of the Nightmare to Come]]'' takes regular ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' and cranks up the Cosmic Horror elements to max. The Ophilim Kiasoz destroys entire star systems simply by passing through them, and no one knows just what it is. The Nex, [[Ultimate Evil|of which virtually nothing is known]], drives people mad by just mentioning it. The former [[God-Emperor]] becomes the [[God of Evil|Chaos God]] of '''[[Lawful Evil|Order]]'''. And before all of that, the New Devourer (which manages to ''make the Tyranids retreat'') eats more than '''one third''' of all life in the galaxy. The whole 1st segment reads like it was written by Lovecraft himself.

* ''[[Event Horizon]]'', in which {{spoiler|"[[Hell]]"}} is the easiest way for the characters to describe [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|hyperspace]], but some elements suggest it just might be far, far worse. Then you consider the fact that ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' fans like to think of it as a ''prequel''...

* ''[[Possession]]'', a film by Andrzej Zulawski which maps Cosmic Horror Story onto a disintegrating marriage.

* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' is ''[[Crapsack World|even worse]]''. Not only is Chaos even more of a threat (powerful daemons in ''Warhammer'' can devastate armies; powerful daemons in ''40K'' can devastate '''star systems'''), there are also the [[Nigh Invulnerability|implacable]] legions of the Necrons and their [[Physical God|C'tan]] masters, and the [[We Have Reserves|limitless]] [[Horde of Alien Locusts|Tyranid hordes]] controlled by its immortal [[Hive Mind]]. Indeed, it's often noted that humanity still survives despite [[The World Is Always Doomed|the galaxy always being doomed]] not because of anything they do, but because the various unstoppable, incomprehensible menaces keep ''getting in each others' ways''.

* The same Swedish company also released ''[[Mutant Chronicles]]'', whose basic premise is somewhat similar to that of ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'', if on a much smaller scale (humanity still hasn't expanded beyond the solar system); although depending on the [[Game Master]]'s choices for his own campaign, [[Lovecraft Lite|it could be entirely possible for the players]] [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|to rip]] [[Big Bad|the Dark Soul]] [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|a new one]] [[Earn Your Happy Ending|if they try hard enough]]. [[Hope Spot|Or not]].

* The premise of a [[Sugar Bowl]] world with Cosmic Horror Story influences is almost as brain-breaking as Cthulhu himself is, but the ''[[Kirby]]'' series pulls it off in the last few levels and bosses of each game. With [[Alien Geometries]] for levels, [[Eldritch Abomination]]s for bosses, and [[Nightmare Fuel]] ahoy. The [[Kirby of the Stars|anime]] actually implies that Kirby is a ''[[Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?|good]]'' [[Eldritch Abomination]].

* ''Shadow of the Comet'', ''Prisoner of Ice'' and the better-known ''[[Alone in The Dark]]'', by Infogrames, are all in the same Cthulhu Mythos-haunted world, with several direct Lovecraftian references, including [[Tome of Eldritch Lore|the Necronomicon and De Vermis Mysteriis]]. The name of the mansion from the first ''Alone In The Dark'', Derceto, is revealed in-game to be an alias of [[Mother of a Thousand Young|Shub-Niggurath]], the Mythos' equivalent of a fertility deity...

* ''[[Earthbound]]'' morphs into one of these for the final boss fight.

* While the Zerg of [[Starcraft]] are not a cosmic horror themselves, we have yet to have seen their creators, the Xel'Naga. Kerrigan and her insane extermination/assimilation war may yet be the lesser evil in this story.

** [[Starcraft II|The sequel]] only makes things worse. Not only are the main factions unsure about the Xel'Naga, but now ''their'' ancient enemy seems to have his own plans for the galaxy. It does ''not'' help that his first appearance was in a strongly Lovecraft inspired comic.

** Considering that the picture takes on the form of [[Earthbound|Giygas]] when Mario jumps through...

* ''[[Homestuck]]'': Andrew Hussie cites ''[[Earthbound]]'' as an inspiration, and ''oh boy'' does it show. Entire universes are created for the sole purpose of recruiting players for a game, one which violently destroys the players' home planets. Victory at the game results in (at best) one's home planet being recolonized, and the creation of a new universe—both of which will eventually be host to new instances of the game. And that's when things go right. The protagonists have accidentally rendered the game [[Unwinnable]], by enabling the [[Big Bad]] to obtain the powers of a [[Physical God]]. Now, the only way to defeat him is to reset the universe—which will pave the way for the arrival (albeit, in a different universe) of a time-travelling demon who feeds on dead universes. In any case, given the way that [[Stable Time Loop]]s work in this story, the protagonists may already be doomed to fail. And in case all that's too subtle, the comic takes an acrobatic [[Precision F-Strike|fucking]] pirouette off the handle and into the deep end with [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004748 "Jade: Wake up"], where the Lovecraft-inspired Noble Circle of [[Eldritch Abomination|Horrorterrors]] make their on-screen debut. And then we find out that the Horrorterrors need the protagonists' help, because ''[[It Got Worse|something is killing them]]''.