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Cthulhu Mythos: Difference between revisions
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An informal and, appropriately, chaotic [[Shared Universe]] that squarely defines the [[Darker and Edgier|darkest and edgiest]] of genres, [[Cosmic Horror Story|cosmic horror]]. It was started unintentionally by [[H.P. Lovecraft (Creator)|HP Lovecraft]] and his circle of peers (informally called the 'Kalem Club') who belonged to the embryonic [[Fandom]], at that stage less about [[Speculative Fiction]] but more about writing short amateur "weird" stories for the 'pulp' magazines, at least for Lovecraft.
Lovecraft had already incorporated small elements of [[Robert W Chambers (Creator)|Robert W Chambers]]' earlier ''[[The King in Yellow]]'' and the writings of [[Arthur Machen (Creator)|Arthur Machen]] by way of [[Shout
The actual term [[Cthulhu Mythos]], depending on how you define it, post-dates Lovecraft's death, at which time H. P. Lovecraft's work got seized and expanded on by August Derleth. Lovecraft called his budding mythology "Yog-Sothothery".
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* [[Science Fiction]]: Several of the various monsters are given scientific (or quasi-scientific) explanations and origins.
* [[Scrapbook Story]]: Most famously, the original ''Call of Cthulhu'' story does this, and other writers have followed suit.
* [[Shout
** References to the Mythos is also common in popular culture.
* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]: Most of the time, so cynical you could use the scale as a trebuchet, competes with Warhammer 40k for the title of most Cynical popular body of fiction.
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* [[Too Many Mouths]]: One of the classic eldritch abomination traits. In a particularly corporeal case, the Great Old One Y'golonac ([[Running Gag|you fool]], [[Speak of the Devil|you've doomed us all!]]) has them on his palms.
* [[Tomato in The Mirror]]: Several stories involve the protagonist discovering something unpleasant about his heritage.
* [[Tome of Eldritch Lore]]: Most notably the ''Necronomicon'', but also ''De Vermis Mysteriis'', the ''Pnakotic Manuscripts'', the... well just [[wikipedia:Cthulhu Mythos arcane literature|look at the list.]] Name-dropping one of these is a stock horror [[Shout
* [[Town With a Dark Secret]]: Oh so many, from ''Innsmouth'' to ''Jerusalem's Lot'' to ''Temphill''...
* [[Tuckerization]]: In addition to all the Author Avatars and Shout Outs, the Lovecraft Circle tossed out references to their pals:
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** The Cthonians ''dissolve in water.'' Justified: Considering the Cthonians are able to survive intense heat and pressures, can borrow underground, and have telepathic powers capable of controlling people's minds, the fact that Earth is mostly water may be the only reason why they haven't wiped humanity out.<br /><br />Not a particularly exploitable weakness for the bigger ones though. Shudde-M'ell (the chief Chthonian) is described as ''a mile long'', so immersing him in water would be ... pretty challenging.
** Water isn't good for the Great Old Ones according to ''The Call of Cthulhu'', either - it blocks their telepathic powers completely, trapping them to their lairs both physically and mentally, until R'lyeh rises again.
** The Haunter in the Dark, one of Nyarlathotep's many forms, is extremely weak against light. Granted, it comes from a dimension where no visible light exists (and where it would presumably be invincible), and it can't be killed, only banished back to that dimension, but still, it's an [[Eldritch Abomination]] that can kept at bay with ''a flashlight''! But you'd better hope [[Ten
*** In [[Robert Bloch]]'s story "The Shadow From the Steeple" (considered [[Fanon Discontinuity|out of canon by some]]) [[It Got Worse|it gets better]]: after a ''serious'' blunder by a university professor attempting to contain it, {{spoiler|it [[Grand Theft Me|takes over his body]], therefore becoming almost unaffected by light, changes the man's field of expertise to theoretical physics, then joins the Manhattan project so we'll succeed in creating a weapon that could actually annihilate us. It's also an avatar of the god Nyarlathotep, [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|The Crawling Chaos]].}}
** ''Call of Cthulhu'' itself offers one. You may be surprized that, despite being an ancient and unspeakably powerful entity able to drive to insanity with nary a glance, Cthulhu is just as vulnerable as anything else to being rammed with large objects.
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