Category:Eldritch Abomination: Difference between revisions

{{IndexTrope}}

[[File:Shub Niggurath by higherdepths 8951 6391.jpg|link=Cthulhu Mythos|frame|Well, hi there! My name's [[The Unpronounceable|*sound of all joy being torn from your very soul*]], but [[Bathos|ya'll can just call me Shubby]]. <ref>Image credit: Shub-Niggurath by Jason Juta www.jasonjuta.com</ref>]]

{{quote|''There was a darkness ''[[Void Between the Worlds|outside reality]]'', they say -- a darkness full of ''things''. Hungry, ''nasty'' things with no shape or form, not as long as they were ''out there''.''|'''[[Kurt Busiek]]''', "Storms of the Heart," ''[[Astro City]]''}}

How to describe these grotesque mockeries of natural law? There are no words that can encompass such disgusting foulness, not in English or any other human tongue. They are The '''''Other.''''' The Inconceivable. [[Starfish Aliens|Alien]] [[You Cannot Grasp the True Form|beyond comprehension]], their sole existence [[Go Mad From the Revelation|is an affront to all reason]]. We could speak of [[Brown Note|painfully dissonant noises and nauseating colours]], [[Freud Was Right|ichor-dripping vermiform tentacles and abyssal yonic voids]], or complex [[Everybody Hates Mathematics|mathematical]] [[Alien Geometries|geometries]], but those are mere superficialities. Monstrous and sick though these stigmata are, they do not define the abominations; they are merely among some of the more common symptoms of their underlying wrongness.

Eldritch Abominations are not simply creatures that look horrible on a metaphorically cosmic scale. They are alien, madness-inducing [[Reality Warper|reality warpers]] who literally '''are''' horrible on a cosmic scale. Eldritch is not just anything that looks like an ugly mashup of different kinds of [[Body Horror]]. What actually defines the Eldritch Abominations (or as we [[Puny Earthlings|puny Homo sapiens]] can only define them) is their defiance of natural law, as humans understand it. They are the things that should not be, the ultimate aliens. It is this that makes them abominable, and it is this that horrifies and [[Go Mad From the Revelation|reduces to gibbering madness]] all but the strongest of those who encounter them. Such laws as they do obey, such as [[When the Planets Align]] or [[Sealed Evil in a Can]], are their nature, not ours.

They are native to the genre known as [[Cosmic Horror Story]], but they are not confined to it. [[Lovecraft Lite|Mild examples]] can be found throughout the [[Horror]] and [[Fantasy]] genres. Greater abominations can occur in almost any type of fiction, so long as enough [[Cosmic Horror Story]] tropes are used. Usually they derive, at least in inspiration, from [[Mythopoeia|Lovecraft's work]].

Physically, Eldritch Abominations range from [[Uncanny Valley|almost]] [[Humanoid Abomination|human]], [[Starfish Aliens|through big ugly monsters]], to the [[You Cannot Grasp the True Form|unimaginably]] [[Mind Screw|bizarre]]. Generally, the weirder they look, the more powerful they are, but this isn't a universal rule. Here, the "ugly" in "big, ugly monster" doesn't just mean that it's horrible to look at -- it means that there's [[You Cannot Grasp the True Form|something about it, about the way it looks]], or the [[Alien Geometries|spaces through which it moves, that violates every law of reality]] as you know it. "Big" doesn't just mean that it could use the Empire State Building as a toothpick -- it means that the...thing doing just that is only the barest fraction of the monster's true form, the 3-dimensional tip of a multidimensional iceberg. Eldritch abominations are perhaps the biological equivalent of [[Absolute Comparative]]: they are uglier, they are bigger, and they are more powerful than anything else in existence. Some abominations are so eldritch that even lesser abominations find them abominable. Some look approximately human, but just [[Brown Note|reading their name]] condemns you to [[Mind Rape]]. If you see one of these in the flesh, it's too late to run.

The most eldritch of the abominations come from [[Eldritch Location|Beyond]]. Whether they are from [[Cosmic Horror Story|beyond the stars]], [[Time Abyss|before the dawn of time]], or [[Alien Geometries|a place incomprehensible to humans]], they are alien to this universe and its laws. The creatures may actually outnumber humanity -- trillions may dwell in the Stygian abysses far below the ocean waves, trillions of trillions may drift between the stars -- but they prefer wild and lonely places, where people seldom tread.

[[Lovecraft Lite|Slightly milder abominations]] can get an exemption, provided the reality-screwing does not override all of their rules and set a permanent stellar battle that anything that gets close dies horribly over a long period of time with so much excessive [[Mind Rape]] ([[Serial Escalation]], anyone?) that [[Brain Bleach]] ''will'' be necessary. They are also typically the descendants of greater abominations or the work of mad wizards or mad scientists who harnessed another dimension's powers. These include some of the rarer varieties of undead, so long as they are rare and the product of ill-advised breeding programs.

This trope has some overlap with [[Starfish Aliens]]. However, Starfish Aliens aren't necessarily horrific or unnatural; they're alien only because they evolved in a different environment than humanity and can be helpful or neutral, whereas Eldritch Abominations have a deep ''wrongness'' to them, no matter where you find them. For example, while Starfish Aliens are usually willing to take on a [[A Form You Are Comfortable With]] to avoid breaking your mind if they can, most Eldritch Abominations won't even acknowledge/realize you have one to break (and the rest either can't or won't care).

Eldritch Abominations will rarely be seen by people; showing them too often can make them seem less unfathomable and closer to basic [[Starfish Aliens]].

No self-respecting fantasy RPG seems to do without one or more of these (except some of the Evil Witchking [[Our Liches Are Different|villain variety]], and even then, not always). Typically, Eldritch Abominations in Video Games [[Degraded Boss|aren't depicted]] as [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|omnipotent and implacable]]. But if they were, [[A Worldwide Punomenon|one of their attacks would take out ALL of your]] [[H.P. Lovecraft|H.P]]. And destroy your computer, [[Interface Screw|or at least delete the game]], in the process.

Note that while normally used as an Antagonist, Eldritch Abominations can [[Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?|be helpful or neutral]], though most of them are [[Above Good and Evil|way beyond]] the whole [[Character Alignment|alignment system]] and are [[Blue and Orange Morality|merely uncaring or incomprehensible]], treating Earth as at best a colorful plaything and [[Insignificant Little Blue Planet|at worst...]]they're [[Mad God|absolutely insane]] [[Omnicidal Maniac]]s.

If an [[Eldritch Abomination]] exists in a story where the primary antagonist is of a more human scale, it's probably the [[Bigger Bad]]. See [[God of Evil]], [[Demon Lords and Archdevils]], [[The Legions of Hell]], and [[The Fair Folk]] for supernatural horrors that are knowingly malevolent rather than simply alien and amoral.

When their appearance is [[Uncanny Valley|uncomfortably human-like]], see [[Humanoid Abomination]] (or, perhaps, [[The Fair Folk]]), but never expect them to be any nicer, though. When humans are regarded as ''this'' by non-humans, this is a case of [[Humans Are Cthulhu]].

Remotely related to [[Ludicrous Speed]], which will break your brain in a similar fashion. Also, [[Our Monsters Are Weird]], [[Eldritch Location]], and [[Divide by Zero]], which often overlap with this, thanks to their nature.

See [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]], when one of these abominations has their ass handed to them.

Once again, please note that a character/creature merely being extremely ugly is not, in and of itself, an example of this trope.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Cosmic Entity]]

[[Category:Otherness Tropes]]

[[Category:Native American Mythology]]

[[Category:Tropes of Legend]]

[[Category:These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know]]

[[Category:Obviously Evil]]

[[Category:Bigger Is Better]]

[[Category:Cosmic Horror Story]]

[[Category:Older Than Dirt]]

[[Category:Alien Tropes]]

[[Category:Lovecraftian Tropes]]

[[Category:Index of Fictional Creatures]]

[[Category:Steampunk Index]]

[[Category:Villains]]

'''Category:Eldritch Abomination'''

[[Category:Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant]]

[[Category:No Real Life Examples, Please]]