#Enoch is the eldritch creatures

[limetameta]

Enoch: How do I know if I love him?

Villagers: Well do you enjoy his company?

Enoch: Yes, so much, in fact, that I wish to destroy him. Cut him down. Keep his Lantern all to myself. Kill anyone who touches it. *tail beginning to move with anger just thinking of anyone holding his Beast's lantern*

Villagers: Enoch, you're smitten, kitten!

Enoch, pulling his ears back at their yelling: Oh no, am I? Goodness, how could I let this happen? What if he does not return my affection?

*****

Lorna: Auntie Whispers, why did the Beast threaten to starve me if I ever threw a rock at a cat? He has never been this cross with me, I shall think not. Ever!

Whispers, about to have that talk with little Lorna: When two eldritch creatures dance around each other's borders very often...

[doyouknowhowtowaltz]

How do you think the beast would react to a human Enoch or vice versa? Like they knew who each other and they’re both baffled on why their partner became human or some eldritch creature lol

I think there's a distinction between Enoch or the Beast meeting a human counterpart vs meeting the other who's been turned into a human.

An Enoch who's been turned into a human feels distinctly within the realm of Enoch's usual body-snatching shenanigans, so I'm not sure the Beast would find it particularly compelling, other than the fact I think he'd find it off-putting. Nobody wants to show up to date night and find their partner dressed as a hamburger. The Beast turned into a human is a different matter, I think he probably wouldn't go to Pottsfield at all, because I do think Enoch might be inclined to... forcibly naturalize the Beast as a human, and even if he didn't I think they'd be more concerned with getting the Beast back to his monstrous self.

When it comes to meeting a human counterpart I think the general rule of thumb is that Enoch finds all human!Beast's charming, but not in the same way as his Beast, and the Beast finds all human!Enoch's exhausting and extremely difficult to plant.

I think what would be really interesting to see would be an encounter between the Beast and one of the high-strung horror-types, like Warren or Blackwell. I think there's be a little uncanny valley on both sides of the conversation, and I love anything that forces the Beast to reflect on his place in the human psyche. The implication for the horror-types too, I think it would improve their art by making it 100 times more incomprehensible.

Also since it's in a similar vein to your question, I'll direct your attention to this question Miss Inky answered.

[castelleve]

I’ve been thinking about Enoch’s headspace and tbh? I think I’ve been going about his character wrong. I don’t dive into his solipsist-esque delusion as much as I should, and simply attribute his actions to narcissism when that is not the case. For him, his horrible actions are like choosing the rude dialogue options in a video game - there are no real consequences, and it’s funny. 

He genuinely believes he is the only ‘real’ person, and that everything around him is some odd simulation projected from his own mind, or maybe some kind of dream he can’t wake up from. He believes he is all that was, all that will be and all that will remain. His attempts to become God are both to affirm this delusion and at least at first, in some twisted way, keep the world from dying by keeping himself from dying. Though the ‘blessing’ of vampirism has dampened, if not completely destroyed, this more altruistic motive.

I do think the one exception to this is probably Henri, since Enoch is very aware that Henri is some creature beyond his comprehension. He likens them to some sort of dream-walking eldritch adjacent entity or something similar to an incubus that invades dreams. Neither are too far off the mark, given what henri actually is and can do.

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Fallout of Darkness -- More On The Nature of Ug-Qualtoth

I know that at least one new follower, @anotherisodope, has been waiting for me to tackle this one. I’ve already spoken on everyone’s favorite Fallout eldritch being previously -- namely while setting the stage for Victor and Alice to have a very bad time down in the Dunwich Borers quarry. My idea was that Ug-Qualtoth was responsible for the existence of the World of Darkness-style vampires in this verse, having “infected” the earliest members with a portion of its essence, giving them power and immortality in exchange for a blood thirst and having to hide in the darkness.

And then, I found “Fallout Lore: Ug-Qualtoth, The Krivbeknih and The Blackhall Family�� on YouTube, by Synonymous, which -- besides being a very good sum-up of Ug-Qualtoth’s “storyline” across Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 -- made a very good case for Ug-Qualtoth being a god of radiation, and closely linked to ghouls (specifically, using ferals as a kind of worshiper). I found it all fascinating, but I wanted to keep my idea of the god also being responsible for vampires. So after turning it over in my mind for a while, I came up with this:

Ug-Qualtoth is, essentially, “existence defying death and decay” -- the persistence of a creature beyond that which should have really killed it. It is closely tied to both blood and radiation, and is responsible for both World of Darkness vampires and Fallout ghouls, but in different ways:

Vampires are the result of Ug-Qualtoth observing early human civilizations and seeing two things happen very close to each other -- Caine accidentally killing his brother Abel in a rage after Abel’s offering to their God was deemed better than his, and being cast out and killed in turn; and Lilith, who had been ejected from the same community earlier for not being properly obedient toward said God or her husband, dying of starvation while desperately looking for a new home. Ug-Qualtoth was bored and decided to see what would happen if those two came back, and thus infected them with a portion of his essence, bringing them somewhat back to life. The two fled their terrified neighbors and found each other, and the pair eventually figured out how to talk to the dark power that had reanimated them via means of a blood ritual, using the blade that Caine had used to kill Abel (why yes, that IS Kremvh’s Tooth!). They got access to most of the Disciplines we know and love and the ability to pass them on to others in the Embrace in exchange for the blood thirst and the need to avoid sunlight. The two eventually went their separate ways, Caine founded Enoch, all that fun stuff. The clans and bloodlines and whatnot are the result of the essence of Ug-Qualtoth getting diluted with each generation/creation of a new clan (like the Tremere stealing it from the Salubri), meaning only certain powers and whatnot pass on “natively” with the Embrace. WoD!Ghouls and thin-bloods have the weakest connection, though if any of them could figure out how to speak to Ug-Qualtoth directly. . .

Ghouls (Fallout-style) meanwhile, are the result of Ug-Qualtoth getting trapped on Earth sometime during its dealings with the Blackhall family, just in time to be around when the bombs dropped. Its mere presence on the planet, and its link to radiation in this universe (deadly and yet fantastical), led to some people -- those ever-so-slightly more attuned to worlds and forces beyond the Earth -- getting the power to survive the bombs and the fallout and become ghouls. Ug-Qualtoth is able to more directly influence ferals, who have their higher reasoning stripped as they decay, and uses their crude “worship” as they gather around its sites of power to help sustain itself as it waits for the people it sensed with the right cosmic attunement to finally come along and free it. As for non-ferals? Well, it’s interesting -- the closer you get to where Ug-Qualtoth is buried in the Dunwich Borers quarry, the “healthier” they seem to be, as they’re closer to the source of the power that keeps them going. (AKA, I can use this to explain the reason non-enemy-fodder ghouls tend to look more and more photogenic as the series progresses!) None of them necessarily have any magical powers, but they DO have an almost supernatural toughness, and the ability to go without food and water for quite a while if necessary. I mean, yes, they can and will eat and drink, and generally get some use out of those actions, but such needs can get suspended if they’re stuck somewhere that isn’t exactly conducive to them.

You know.

Like a fridge.

. . .okay, yes, I DID just come up with this while I was writing it, but “Billy was kept alive in that damn fridge by the dark energies of the eldritch being nearby who was responsible for his ghoulification in the first place” is as good an explanation as any for that quest, right? Hell, maybe Billy has the same cosmic alignment Victor and Alice have and was the “backup plan” should they die before reaching the quarry. . .

Anyway! tl;dr -- Ug-Qualtoth is a god all about existing past that which would normally destroy you; vampires and creatures related to them are the result of direct infection by and bargains with this god; Fallout ghouls are the result of the god getting trapped on earth and some of its essence getting spread with the dropping of the bombs, being absorbed by people who then got the ability to survive the radiation and other places not conducive to life. Sound good?

[tyrantisterror]

To cut TVT some slack, Satan's an angel, and angels had plenty of eldritch traits before they were all white people with wings, right down to being brain-meltingly terrifying in their natural state. If ol' Lucifer also happens to look like a screaming, glowing, burning mess of eyes and wings and other bits, then I'd say he counts.

Ok, so, before I begin my response, let me preface that this is not meant to be an attack on you or anyone else, but rather a clarification of my understanding of both Abrahamic mythology AND what the “eldritch abomination” trope was originally defined as before it became reduced to “a monster, but scary.”  I write this because I’ve actually done a fair amount of research on both topics, and the misconceptions I see thrown around as fact SO OFTEN on the internet are just... very irritating to me.

First, the internet’s flanderization of the fearsome elements of Biblical angels is on par with Stephen Moffat’s flanderization of Sherlock Holmes’ rudeness.  Yes, Biblical angels often prefaced their interactions with humans by shouting “fear not,” and yes, one specific variety of Biblical angel was described as having lots of eyes - the Throne/Ophanim, which also is described as looking like “wheels within wheels,” which is admittedly a very trippy visual.  HOWEVER, the other two varieties of angels with explicit description are far less strange - Seraphim are humanoids that may or may not have some reptilian traits and sport six feathery wings.  That’s it, that’s how weird they get.  Cherubim are a bit stranger, being four-winged creatures with four heads - one human, one lion, one eagle, and one ox - and the legs of an eagle.  But both of those are on par with most mythological creatures - if a Seraph is an Eldritch Abomination, so is a minotaur, a harpy, a centaur, and a chimera.  The other named varieties of angels do not have specific descriptions of what they look like (or if they do, they’re highly obscure, since none of the books I have on the subject, including a few different translations of the Bible, The Lesser Key of Solomon, and The Book of Enoch, mention them), so while you could headcanon the idea that they are your Lovecraftian nightmare angels, there’s not really solid evidence for it.

There is the implication in some Biblical stories that the radiance of an angel’s form is more than a person can bear, but the same is also true of the Greek Gods.  It’s never said to be a matter of lack of comprehension, though, but more like sensory overload - the way you can’t look at the sun for too long without going blind.  Is the sun an eldritch abomination?  Fuck, it probably is on TV Tropes, isn’t it?

My biggest contention with the “Satan is an eldritch abomination” trope is that, back when the term “eldritch abomination” meant more than “a monster, but, like, scary,” eldritch abominations were defined as being UNKNOWABLE.  Their motives, nature, origins, all are supposed to be shrouded in mystery and beyond our comprehension.

But the nature, motives, and origin of angels and demons is, in Biblical lore, intensely fucking knowable and comprehensible.

Satan and all the demons have pretty simple motives!  They were jealous of God’s power and his favoritism of mankind, tried to usurp God, and got cast out for it.  Angels have simple motives too!  They were made to serve God’s will and act as his messengers and agents.  Pretty damn simple!

Their origins are simple and the same as everythine else in Abrahamic lore: God made them.  Pretty easy to digest!

Their nature, too, is fairly clear cut.  They are souls, much like the ones that inhabit human bodies, but do not need bodies of flesh and blood to travel from the afterlife to the mortal world (though in some apocrypha demons have to either inhabit corpses or conjur bodies made of smoke to walk among the living).  You could try to interpret that as being more weird and incomprehensible than it is, but that’s exactly what it would be - an interpretation, not canon.

And the real absolute bonkers fucking irony of this is that H.P. Lovecraft specifically set out to create a mythology that was antithetical to Christianity and various European mythologies- that the Eldritch Abominations trope he more or less defined was made in contrast to the world run by a benevolent God of the Bible or the worlds run by incredibly human gods one would find in Norse and Greek mythology.  That, UNLIKE God, angels, demons, the Olympians, the Aesir, etc., the Elder Gods and their agents are NOT as simple as black and white forces of good and evil, are BEYOND petty human concerns, and cannot be reduced to descriptions as SIMPLE as “a humanoid with six wings and some scales here and there.”  Even Cthulhu, one of the most easily visualized creatures in his canon, is explicitly said NOT to be as simple as most illustrations make him out to be - that “a humanoid with a cuttlefish for a head and dragon wings” isn’t ACTUALLY what he looks like, but the closest human words can come to vaguely describing his appearance.

These are different tropes, and that’s why they have different fucking names.  Satan isn’t an Eldritch Abomination, he’s a DEMON.  Cthulhu isn’t a demon, he’s an ELDRITCH ABOMINATION.  They’re different!  They look different, they work differently, they’re different tropes!  It’s like saying Godzilla is a Dracula, it makes no goddamn sense!

[ash-imagines]

maybe enoch with an SO who happens to be an eldritch abomination? thank!

When you've presided over a place infested with phantoms for as long as Enoch has, very few things will unnerve you. Your appearance doesn't scare him as much as it fascinates him. You are made up of colors and shapes he can hardly perceive and you speak in tones that make him dizzy, so you can't blame him for being a little intrigued. What does scare him, however, is the realization that he is not as powerful as he once he thought. Meeting with a creature from a dimension so different from the one he knows reveals his place in the grand scheme of things. He is far, far away from being the god he pictured himself as.

Aside from the existential crisis (which you were kind of expecting anyway, mortals understandably tend to freak out about this sort of thing) he enjoys your company. Conversations with you are never dull, to be sure. Obviously there's a lot to talk about. You two have a few things in common, which is refreshing considering the other mortals you've met have almost nothing in common with you. For one thing, he's the first mortal you've met that's even kind of been as tall as you. Not that it matters so much because shapeshifting is easy for you but it's nice to not have to. You've both got a thing for baking, and for being in charge. It's a fairly good match!

The elsen are less than excited about this development, though.

[obsoletesystem]

D&D Ask Meme

@wisdom-fangs​ asked me to do all the questions of this D&D ask post. So I did. 1. A favorite character you have played. I really like playing monstrous characters. Currently in Adventurers League, I play Frattek Venvaris, bugbear rogue/barbarian, who is a delightfully goofy character. But I also miss playing Bajur Mashoir, a very charismatic lizardfolk "voodoo" shaman, whose catchphrase was: "As you can see, I am an alligator, sir..." spoken in a thick southern brawl. 2. Your favorite character that someone else has played. During a one shot the guy that played an evil halfling warlock sacrificed himself to blow up the big bad with a block of dynamite. The true MVP. 3. Your favorite side quest. Idk. 4. Your current campaign. I DM a homebrew campaign, in which the party is stuck between sides in a war between the local Jarl and a fey duchess who has taken over a part of the woods. I also participate as a player in a slight homebrewed Salt Marsh campaign, in which I play a tiefling cleric of Pelor. She's got a Sad Backstory. 5. Favorite NPC. The Loathesome Gribble, an NPC in the game I DM, who is a very small tiefling sorcerer with an immense knife collection and a four-armed aasimar monk girlfriend. He is found in the most of unlikely places and his signature spell is "Gribble's Hand of Sand", which may or may be not magical, as it blinds a creature with sand, but the material component is just a handfull of coarse sand. 6. Favorite death (monster, player character, NPC, etc). The druid in our home game charged into giant stag form at a huge burning construct (The Burning Man from Burning Man, but moving), missed his attack, upon which the Burning Man rolled nat 20's on BOTH ITS ATTACKS. No advantage, no nothing, just two straight 20's. He grabbed the stag by its antlers, turned its head 360 degrees, and dropped a flaming, mutilated dwarf to the ground. 7. Your favorite downtime activity. I always like to do something that tells a little bit about the culture of the creature I play. When I was on haitus because of school, I described how Frattek had spend some time with his little bugbear niece, and had just returned from a fun little war (seeing as bugbears love to fight). 8. Your favorite fight/encounter. We had to fight a vampire spawn in a dank, dark basement, but it was light outside, and Frattek is incredibly good at grappling creatures, so we dragged the vampire out from his basement into the sunlit street, and then made a run for it as we had broken into a house. 9. Your favorite thing about D&D. Coming together with friends and not drinking (a lot) or smoking weed. I like doing those things too, but it is also fun to just hang out and play games where heavy drinking is not really handy. 10. Your favorite enemy and the enemy you hate the most. Dragons are the best, spellcasters are the worst. Spellcasting Dragons are the bees knees. My players, however, are going to hate a certain spellcaster very much. Once they find out... 11. How often do you play and how often would you ideally like to play? Usually once a week, but I'd love to be able to balance twice a week. One day as player, one day as DM. 12. Your in game inside jokes/memes/catchphrases and where they came from. "Name and occupation, please" comes from when we played Pathfinder, and one of the characters died, but I didn't want to get rid of him yet or he was set up to be reincarnated or some shit idk. Anyway, his soul arrives in purgatory, which turns out to be this bureaucratic office, where he has to stand in line for a long, long time, before arriving at a booth/desk type situation, in which an Ophanim angel (one of them burning wheels full of eyes) floats that asks with a bored sigh "Name and occupation, please". The player answered, and was set up for reincarnation, which involved shooting his soul from a cannon/drop tube into the unborn baby of a local woman. The child grows up unnaturally quickly, and because it has the soul of a mature orc barbarian, it is more than a little trouble. Nephertheless, the "Name and occupation, please" gag remained forever. 13. Introduce your current party. My Homeboys, the Lords of Okab Volal, are Nazreen, a wood elf ranger who missed her wolf, played by @tabula-wasa​, Tophr Thanestone, the previously mentioned dwarf druid who was murdered by a giant flaming effigy and subsequently reincarnated/put into the body of a frost elf woman (something he hasn't come to terms with) played by our bearded friend Glenn, and Adelon Vrena, half-elf bard/cleric/divine soul sorcerer a.k.a. Healer Supreme, who is really righteous but not above torturing a captive githyanki, and played by Arnaud. The Schadestenen (meaning "Damage Stones", as in dice), which is the OG Adventurers League group in the Spellenhoorn in Hoorn, consist of Aiden Rainbowscale (Albino orphan wood-elf monk/barbarian), Fjorgyn (dwarven cleric of Moradin, who died last week and still suffered from the Death Curse. RIP.), Frattek Venvaris (Bugbear barbarian/arcane trickster and gladiator/luchador, played by me), Gideon Thornton (cowardly Half-Orc Hexblade), Grommash Hellscream (Stereotypical Half-Orc Barbarian. Great guy.), Ruldra (disgraced Hobgoblin undead-hunting Ranger), Cadence (Powerful but stupid Half-elf Grave Cleric/Divine Soul Sorcerer who never learned how to read), Ullr (Arnaud's Gloom Stalker and Human Machine Gun), and Darin (half-elf ranger and Master Of Backflip). The Peeps from Salt Marsh, DMed by the guy that plays Darin, in which Arnaud plays William Wisenose, The Awfully Lucky Halfling Build (halfling wizard/bard/whatever), Cadence's player plays Sylver Ravenstar (half-elf bard/hexblade/run away princess), her friend plays Samm Enoch (Aasimar Bard and Very Handsome Man), Aiden's player plays Ankis (Aasimar Celestial Warlock and very secretive about both these facts because Back Story), and his friend plays Vena Malum (Human Bloodhunter, who is really buff and does that swirly thing with her falchions, and oh my...), Grommash's player plays Morgain of Astora (human paladin of Pelor, and companion/boyfriend/substitute son to my character), and I play Paytsarra Avèry (winged tiefling cleric of Pelor). Praise the sun. 14. Introduce any other parties you have played in or DM-ed. We had one party consisting of a drider, a very evil dwarf, a fire genasi, a gnome psychic, and a kenku ninja at one point. When the evil dwarf died, and I introduced the guy's new drow "medic", I knew I lost all cohesion of the group. 15. Do you have snacks during game times? My players do. I don't like snacks that much. 16. Do you play online or in person? Which do you prefer? In person. I tried playing online, and I think I would do again, but only if I'd have a really good headset. 17. What are some house rules that your group has? In the Salt Marsh campaign you double the value of the dice on a crit, which I think is disappointing. I just wanna roll a lot of dice :( 18. Does your party keep any pets? @tabula-wasa​'s ranger has a dire wolf...somewhere...

19. Do you or your party have any dice superstitions? Not that I know of. I do know some of my dice seem to roll better than others. 20. How did you get into D&D? How long have you been playing? I found a d&d character creation app on the web ages ago, and that sparked my interest. Later I joined a warhammer fantasy role play group with a friend I had been rp-ing online with a lot, but this was the real deal, at Arnaud's house. He dmed number of campaigns for us, and later he joined my pathfinder group which turned into a D&D 5th edition group. 21. Have you ever regretted something your character has done? Yeah. Frattek decided to be a hero and tried to assassinate an ogre torturer. He failed his shot. We had to fucking run. 22. What color was your first dragon? The first dragon I fought as a character was a young Red Dragon. Even at 5th level, we whooped its ass. He found himself in a cave, surrounded by fools, and we beat him to pulp. The first dragon I put in front of my players was a young White Dragon. It kicked their asses. 23. Do you use premade modules or original campaigns? I usually homebrew my own campaigns, but I have dmed some AL sessions. 24. How much planning/preparation do you do for a game? Not an incredible amount, but for my home game I prepare ideas months, even years, in advance. For DMs 25. What have your players done that you never could have planned for? A lot. The most notable was casting Dispel Magic on the demiplane-item the cultists were in... and then opening the demiplane underwater. 26. What was your favorite scene to write and show your characters. I had these zombies that always repeated the last thing they said before they died, which was cool and creepy. But the thing I really wrote out was the description of how an Astral Ship warps space around itself, and what that looks like from the people on the deck of the ship. 27. Do you allow homebrew content? If it's well written, absolutely, but there is a lot of shit out there. 28. How often do you use NPCs in a party? When it makes sense, but I try not to do that too often. 29. Do you prefer RP heavy sessions or combat sessions? I prefer RP sessions, but I am leaning more toward combat. On the other hand, I don't think it completely excludes each other nor should it. I am of the opinion that 30. Are your players diplomatic or murder hobos? Rather diplomatic, but they can definitely kick ass. For Players 31. What is your favorite class? Favorite race? I like casters, and I will always have an affinity for wizards, but arcane tricksters and eldritch knights are cool too. I like elves, and I like monstrous races; goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears. I like things that are pretty and scary, or creepy and goofy. 32. What role do you like to play the most? (Tank/healer/etc?) I usually mix a bit of tank and dps. I don't like being very frail, but I do enjoy doing a lot of damage in one shot. 33. How do you write your backstory, or do you even write a backstory? I tend to write a character from a concept, and then build out the backstory. How did this person become the person they are today? Even if you have something of a bugbear, or a hobgoblin, or a yuan-ti. They have had a childhood, they have role models, they have culture. But what is that? What defines a character? What makes them they way they are? I don't like playing monstrous races that have been adopted by a "better, nobler race" like humans and elves and dwarves. I get the appeal, but I also think it is a little trite, and a little condenscending, almost. I think a lot about what defines a monstrous identity, and being a Cultural Anthropologist, I think a lot about the way culture shapes the values and morality and thus also behaviour of a creature. Do hobgoblins tell their children bedtime stories? What are they about? How will a bugbear struggle in regular humanoid society, where his violent urges -natural to him- are equally, or even more excessively violently repressed and punished? Is this just for bugbears? Will they then look for each other, and find each other in their shared cultural/natural tendencies? Are there goblinoid lawyers or activist groups, that seek to protect other goblinoids from unjust treatment under laws that aren't theirs? How will your life be if you are a second or third or even fourth generation inhuman creature in a human society? Do they dream of returning to a society that is 'theirs'? And is there even such a thing? And if there is, will they actually fit in, or forever be an outcast, neither hob nor man? I tend to poke at such questions with my character backstories. 34. Do you tend pick weapons/spells for being useful or for flavor? Everything is useful, since everything is always situational. If you plan only for situations in which you are going to kill every living thing, then you shouldn't pick something like Rope Trick, or Magic Circle. But you do you. I very much dislike decoupling "flavour" from functionality. This is a game of make-belief, so everything you do is flavour. The mechanics are an abstraction of a fantastic reality, and though inherently important to the working of the game (without rules, it would merely be improvisation, which is also a kind of game, but schwa), it is all flavour. People that brag about how much average damage they can do with this or that specific build tire me. 35. How much roleplay do you like to do? All of the roleplay! But please let me punt goblins into the garbage sometimes!

[loganfeliciano]

Enoch, once a hunter, had seen to fortifcations of the town walls. Night began creeping steadily on the town, and soon the streets would be feeding ground. He hurried home to his wife and child. Upon barring the door, he turned to his eerily empty estate and called out, "Beth, where are you?" There was no reply. "Beth?" "I'm upstairs," she called out. He sighed with great relief as he climbed the steps. We would survive another night, he thought. He reached the door to his quarters and slowly began to open it. Only then did he see enlarged grinning bloodstained teeth greeting from the other side. "Whats wrong darling?," it spoke in the tone of his beloved Beth. He caught a glimpse in the room of two bodies, lifeless. Without a moment to collect himself, the monster erupted from the room, its large serpentile form pouring out of the darkness, teeth ajar and ready to devour. His instincts were still keen and he evaded, drawing his two blades. His wife and child were dead, and this thing was responsible. The Sanguis, is a particulularly crafty creature. Able to mimic voices and fool unwitting humans, even stone walls and barred doors do not guarantee the safety of humans. . . . #art #sketch #digitalart #fantasy #horror #fantasyart #eldritch #lovecraftian #magic #creature #monster #creaturedesign #nightmarefuel #instaart #instafollow #instagood #serpent #hunter #painting #paintingoftheday #purgareth #story #logan

[reignofaffliction-archive]

But this wasn’t how it was all supposed to happen, was it? Not in the ways that things were supposed to turn out at first. Her entire timeline had been interfered with and how everything had been changed and twisted so that she would come to realize certain things that another entity needed her to come upon. Kismet needed to make sure she was wrapped about its finger.

It started well before she was a twinkle in Isaac Bowin’s eye.To mess with forces well beyond your scope of knowledge as he did-- it got him into a lot of trouble. He was wise to recognize that he had done something foolish- but like in his past? It was far too late. Write your name in the book of Azathoth with your own blood. He had been instructed-- however the Black Pharaoh had other plans. But you could be free of it... write another name. Perhaps create one. Perhaps...

Courtney Anna-Marie Bowin

From the time before conception when it had first interacted with her soul-- when the creature had found her among the endless bounds of those waiting to be born and they had claimed one another. It knew her, how could it not have? She was the reason it was there-- but somehow she had also known it- and her soul began to burn all the more differently- all the brighter. She belonged to the creature the moment her father had written her name instead of his own.

But that wasn’t the only time, was it? 

As a child it watched over her-- it made sure that she was always protected and knew that someone was there to care for her. It was her best friend-- the handsome man that taught her so many things. Perhaps her father, Isaac, was the one to teach her how to play music-- but unlike the demonic source to his mind control and projectiles? Courtney had learned to use the magics of those like Kismet- how to tap into eldritch energies to do anything her father could-- and more. It would read her stories and soothe her to sleep- would ready her for what the future held for her. She relied on the creature-- and would have it no other way.

It was the doctor that helped her try and overcome the tragedy of losing her father. To embrace the monster that she would one day become as in the comforts her offered? The creature was also offering her a different way to handle things-- a way to become strong. She ‘killed’ the creature-- and she went home and cried- not because she had killed but because she enjoyed it.

Flash ahead a few more years-- fresh out of med school and taking a trip to Egypt. Not long into the trip at all- barely checked into her hotel and off to get a meal and she met her first love. The creature wearing another of its disguises-- there to spend time with the human it itself had found affection towards. For month inseparable-- but it wasn’t quite time for them to be together. It dragged her to the tomb of one of its favored faces for some sight seeing-- the tomb of Nephren-Ka. A site that her great great grandfather, Enoch Bowen, had discovered and was the driving force behind its focus on their bloodline. She loved it so strongly- and it was starting to understand what it felt-- but that’s why it needed to be ended. It attacked her- and she ‘killed’ it once again-- left the body in the tomb and went to escape it.

But then it would appear to her again in a small Romani village that she was visiting-- one that worshipped the creature. But scorned her as an outsider. It came to her as a female archaeologist, Marjory-- and when the people of the village came to hurt her? It protected her. They were together again, they were engaged after some time-- but when the woman tried to leave? Corey ‘killed’ her too and tried to forget what happened. Something told her it would be alright, though, it had been the right thing to do. Because now Marjory would always be with her.

It appeared again as a foray taking up the face and name of Hector Hall, one to wear the helm of Doctor Fate- something she couldn’t have known-- pretending to be a professor in one of the courses she took as a brush up before attending her residency. They were happy for only a short time- a short time that caused jealousy to rear its ugly head even as she saw him reject the interloper. She killed the poor girl- and when she told him what she’d done? He pretended to be afraid-- was so proud of her-- but the time wasn’t right. It whispered in her mind again- told her to take his life so he’d always be with her. How could she refuse?

She finished her warm up and began her residency-- knowing that once this was completed she would go on into a job offer she had with pharmaceutical giant Vulgate international. Something that she’d been ready for since leaving school- but she needed some time away from everything else. Time to allow herself to actually enjoy life- but perhaps this was where she’d belong. She met someone she thought she loved there-- her attending physician Vincent Papanak-- another face the creature wore to trick her. To be in her life and help shape her into the person it needed her to become. It got her addicted to drugs- it drove her into being a ravenous monster while it pretended to care- asked her to marry it again before shattering her heart. She broke into his home-- and as the voice of the creature whispered to her she helped the man to an overdose. Watched outside of his home for the EMTs-- and knew her’s always be with her.

It crept into her life yet again soon after-- as the man she worked for at Vulgate Jeremy Fisher- but then it was there doubly so. It came to her as the man she would marry-- a crime lord in Gotham city named Howard Phillips. They were a pair to be admired- especially as she had pulled her from the arms of her then ‘lover’, Lazlo Valentin. They were perfect for each other- something that the creature had to be proud of. It told her how it felt for the first time- even in concerns to the present time- it told her that it loved her. They were inseparable-- all until Jeremy had turned over her off the clock research in pharmaceuticals and black biology to the authorities. Howard was involved and rather than deciding to rot in prison-- he took his own life. Leaving her with everything-- including a broken heart.

She took her revenge against Jeremy- torturing and watching his slow death at the hands of one of her contagions. Something that she had at this point gained a great mastery of. Something that allowed for her to control just how he was going to suffer-- up until they dragged her to Arkham. Where the creature was there again as he doctor-- where it came to her as the friend that she had known as a child and had been in her dreams every night since as long as she could remember. It was there to tell her that she wouldn’t remember it anymore-- that this was how it needed to be.

And she forgot-- she didn’t remember the love of her life. She remembered the faces and their impacts- but not those of her best friend, Kismet-- under the disguises of Doctor Kismet and Nephren-Ka.

That was, of course, until it properly came to her in their time lines and treated her like a pawn- a slave. Until the time came where it realized what it had done in its future-- a repetitive loop to ensure that they would be together forever. It came clean of some of the things within their timeline as they began to grow closer to one another-- revealed some of the memories that it had taken from her. She was still unaware that it had been her husband previously- still kept a picture of the man at her bedside explaining to Kismet why. The only man she had ever truly loved-- outside of the creature itself.

If she only knew.

She knew of most of the faces- but couldn’t know it had changed her timeline for them to be together. But here she was now- rolling over to be greeted by those mismatched eyes of the creature she would be forever bound to. Her eyes glistened softly as her head tilted forward gently, “I love you Nyarlathotep-- my beloved Kismet-- I always have... and I always will.”

[doyouknowhowtowaltz]

Want to share my hc with you... bc I don't have anyone else to do so :~)

I took the fact that the Unknown is some kind of afterworld and decided that all eldritch creatures were humans once too, and their abilities somehow reflects their past. I decided that the Beast was quite tranquil wandering musician, getting inspiration from the moon, and Enoch - rather cruel rich landlord that always went against laws of ruling king and religion - by constantly taking off and burying thiefs and outlaws, that were hung for their crimes, in his own fields despite anxiety of his peasants. Once musician was falsely accused in witchcraft, and, standing with a noose on his neck in front of the crowd, he shouted out in despair and anger that he will return from darkness of death to take their children with him (the fact that he was hanged ot the tree and that his face was distort affected his futher form). Enoch buried him like the others, but his peasants, feared by "curse" of "warlock", attacked him and beat him to death with shovels and pitchforks. And than musician reborned to the Beast, bearing responsibility for his last words, and landlord reborned to Shepherd of peaceful dead, bearing responsibility for his actions

The theme of responsibility in this is certainly interesting, it also makes me wonder about what made the queen of the clouds what she is in your hc.

[doyouknowhowtowaltz]

BEHOLD!

AN AU!

Guardian “Angel” AU

The Beast, Enoch, and the Queen of the Clouds are guardian “angles”, creatures with very little relation to the biblical idea of an angel except perhaps in appearances. Guardian Angels have no defined hierarchy, they are simply semi-intangible eldritch beings that roam the earth. They all have an intrinsic pull that guides them to a mortal that they guard and protect from death. 

The Beast and Enoch are old friends, they enjoy one another’s company between wards, but when they feel the calling they typically break away to go and tend to their respective mortal charge. The Beast and the Queen of the Clouds are on the other hand, old enemies, and will fall into blatant animosity when confronted by one another. Enoch and the Queen of the Clouds are amicable, though Enoch’s friendliness to the Beast puts strain on their relationship.

The relevant timeline of this story starts with Gregory’s birth, at which the Beast adopts Gregory as his new charge. When the baby and his family return home the Beast finds that little Gregory has an older half brother, Wirt, who is under Enoch’s watchful eye.

They band together to keep the two brothers alive and well, acting as a tag team of sorts, looking after their charges. Talking to them, though their words are unheard, they are not unheeded, and they have quite a bit of influence when they’re careful. 

(On a side note, morality is a pretty loose thing for them, they don't care who gets hurt, who dies, etc, as long as their charges are alive and well.)

On the fateful Halloween night cannon takes place on everything plays out similarly, though with the added commentary of two eldritch beings trying to encourage Wirt into asking out Sara without being physically able to shake him by the shoulders.

They climb over the wall as they normally would, but it is Enoch’s intervention that moves them off the tracks, and it is the Beast who wakes Wirt up to go and grab his brother and stagger onto the shore. 

Life continues.

Enoch and the Beast continue their vigil. 

Now for some concept art

Bonus information:

- The Beast does in fact have arms, he just doesn't bring them out much. 

- The Beast cannot fly, he has no membrane between his wings, he can however dissolve in and out of shadows

- Enoch’s size changes to fit his needs, most of the time he’s taller than the Beast, but he is occasionally cat sized

- Enoch has no mouth and does not blink with his main eye, the eyes on his wings do blink though.

- Enoch’s body and individual limbs are only defined when he’s moving, when he’s still he’s just an rough shadow shape with a tail. 

   - Sometimes when Enoch moves he still doesn't separate into proper limbs and just glides as a shadow, usually only when moving short distances.

- Between the two of them Enoch is more tangible but objects still usually pass through him unless he focuses. 

- The Beast sings lullabies to put Greg to sleep when he’s a baby 

- They can show themselves to humans selectively, they don't really do that and between the two of them Enoch is way more likely to do so

- If Enoch and the Beast happened to get into a physical alteration Enoch is physically way stronger than the Beast, but the Beast’s eyes are hypnotic so it could go either way-

- For most guardian angels touching wings is taboo unless you’re in private

- Unlike most guardian angels, the Beast cannot feel his wings,  he can move them, but he physically cannot feel them.

- The Beast wings were also badly broken at one point and you can still see where they broke.

- Since they are mostly intangible they’re not great at stairs, they can get up to other floors other ways, but they’re just really not good at stairs

- The Beast is the one who encourages Wirt to join band, even though Wirt cant really hear him he still gets the impression that he should join band and does.

- Most guardian angels only work in pairs when they’re romantically involved, Enoch and the Beast aren't romantically involved... yet (I’m a beastnoch writer primarily, you can connect the dots)

- Thus far, the Beast is the only one who has encouraged blatant murder, he was unheeded because Wirt is a wimp. 

 - This is a fucking niche self indulgent AU that lets me think about morally gray eldritch husbands co-parenting very poorly.