Cthulhu Mythos and Esoterrorists
So there is this ttrpg called Fear Itself and Esoterrorist right? Written by Robin D. Law who created the gumshoe system for Trail of Cthulhu and Fall of Delta Green, great games and great system.
In the universe of Fear Itself and Esoterrorists, since they are a shared universe lets call in the Outer Dark mythos. The reason for that is because there is this supernatural force called the Outer Dark. It is the veil between conventional mundane reality where things like physical and material laws exist and the otherside being looser realities, the possibility of having supernatural insight and abilities. The only way for this to be achived is by loosing this veil or barrier, and to do this you must create or cater around belief or consensus reality. Here is where the esoterrorists come into play, they want powers beyond scope and are willing to do anything to obtain it. They believe that strong emotions like fear and superstition/paranoid are good conduits to this Outer Dark and so they promote conspiracy theories and hoaxs to create insight into this reality. The downside to this is that it allows ODEs or Outer Dark Entities to seap through and take shape into various forms. Much like the Fears or Entities from the Magnus archive, they take shape of common or unconscious fears and anxieties. These fears are basically violent incursion on reality and deeply enjoy pain and suffering, they feed on fear and will do anything to prolong it. So naturally these Esoterrorists usually end up worshipping these fears in a cult like structure to ensure they can achive there desired goal as long as they ODE gets what it wants.
In the Esoterrorists game and universe the player characters are a group know as the OV or the Ordo Veritatis (Order of Truth?) these are investigators and agents who actively fight against esoterrorists and contain or bind ODEs, to do that they must demystify the being, find or study its weaknesses, or simply put it down the old fashion way with various ballistic options.
What does this have to do with the Cthulhu Myhtos? Well the Cthulhu mythos is popular for many reasons, one of those being the tabletop roleplaying community and its various games on the subject, Call of Cthulhu and Delta Green being prominent examples. What I like so much about Modern Cthulhu stories and games is how there recontextualize the mythos to modern beliefs and various folklores and urban mythologies that exist either obscure or common. Lovecraft I think is a better writer then people give him credit for because he created characters and worlds where egyptologists and genealogists are common enough for specific eldritch abominations to exist based on there specific fears and anxieties.
Of course Nyarlathotep was once a vessel for a forbidden and cursed pharaoh, in an western egyptologist brain that has been infected by a alien memetic virus that would only make sense.
Of course a sea captain from the turn of the century and from an imperial core nation that has no knowledge or sense of Micronesian folklore or beliefs would think of local spirits and deities as monsterous sea beasts. When you see a leviathan during your time in the merchant navy and your mind is so wretched from war you imagine a civilization of fish people that are waiting and hunger for the surface dwellers to tire themselves from endless conquest.
These characters see horrors that can not be appropriately translated and so the closest analog they have is horrific monsters and that allows the veil to weaken and this invites demons into there homes. This is where I think the Outer Dark and the Cthulhu Mythos meets.
I would be interested to see how modern internet creepypastas and monster are shaped by modern fears and anxieties. In a unrelated tangent I have always seen Trevor Hendersons Siren Head as being a manifestation of alienation that is common in modernity, a creature or being of which you can not tell apart from light poles, electrical wires, or cell towers. Something that stalks you and studies your behavior, you are both alone and hunted in your own neighborhood or city scape. Maybe something I could use for a Esoterrorists game or Fear Itself?
