Cthulhu, Lovecraft and demons

[Lameth]

I am running a traditional four color urban fantasy horror game. Kitchen sink. Secret histories. Highlights of themes of Buffy'ish, The Conjuring, the exorcist and Supernatural tv shows, x-files, Dresden file, etc. My magic is path/book with some instant stuff. Very Dresden Magic aspects with heavy details and describing of rituals, components, and effects.

My question is I truly love aspects of lovecraft and it's mythos. I am slowly blending stuff into the world, at least in my head not in the game yet. How can the Abrahamic religions and their aspects like demons (dark spirits) and angles (spirits of light) co-exist with the mythos? One theory I heard is one can not exists with the other, they basically cancel each other out. Are there "demons" in the mythos? I mean true demons? I have the concept of exorcism already in the game, and the concept of possession.

Thoughts?

Thanks

[sir_pudding]

The "gods" of Earth are just demiurge-like beings pretending to be gods in the Dreamlands, when they aren't out-right masks of Nyarlathotep.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

The "gods" of Earth are just demiurge-like beings pretending to be gods in the Dreamlands, when they aren't out-right masks of Nyarlathotep.

But from a human perspective, Nyarlathotep is for practical purposes demonic. It's sometimes said of the Mythos universe that 'good and evil' are meaningless human constructs. Well, even if that's true, from the human POV it's equally true to say that the Mythos universe is a crapsack universe ruled by evil. Whether it's objectively evil or not doesn't make a heck of a lot of difference to the mortal who realizes that either way, there's no hope.

From the perspective of an individual human, it doesn't make much difference whether Nyarlathotep is 'cosmically' a demon or a god or neither. It's nasty whatever it is. Its offspring at Dunwich are monsters that have to be destroyed, from the human perspective, whatever they see themselves or each other as being.

Does it really matter whether Charles Dexter Ward or his ancestor are using sorcery, or science mistaken for sorcery, in their activities? The upshot is the same.

There are plenty of demons in Lovecraft. There just isn't much in the way of a counterforce to it. There might be a few creatures that might be amenable to working with humans against the nasties, but nothing is ever said for sure.

(Something got called up in The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward that helped the mortals. It's motives and nature were never clear.)

[Flyndaran]

To my view, Nyarlathotep is the only really evil monster of Lovecraft as he cares about humans, about hurting humans. The rest are more like "living" disasters akin to hurricanes or novae.

[Lameth]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

To my view, Nyarlathotep is the only really evil monster of Lovecraft as he cares about humans, about hurting humans. The rest are more like "living" disasters akin to hurricanes or novae.

ya I get how it fits within the mythos itself. My question is more how can you fit the mythos into more demonic like horror styles like lets say The Exorcist or The Conjuring 2. Themes of demonic forces at work in a world where exorcism and real magic can be conjured up my mortals, or where there is such thing as "holy rituals" that might keep vampires at bay, or banish a ghost?

I have real monsters on my world, from vampires to ghosts, so only having one Omni creature [Nyarlathotep] as all of them, or avatars of him, really does not work.

But when you have a world that lets say has a major demon in it [ie Belem], how does this fit into the mythos?

Or does it not really matter and its all simply evil that the human mind will never comprehend but tries to by finding solace in names, ranks, titles, and cosmology?

Can that "demon" that he perceived by the PCs as from the Pit itself summon up a Nightgaunts ?

Are there earthly monsters of the flesh, then spiritual creatures like Demons and Faeries, then comic "gods" like Bast and Hecate, then after that it moves into the Mythos?

Things like that, basically I'm trying to seek a way to interweave them but only in the background that the PCs will probably never know the truth.

[sir_pudding]

Everything ever dreamed is in the Dreamlands. Demons, angels, gods, heroes, all of them.

[Lameth]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Everything ever dreamed is in the Dreamlands. Demons, angels, gods, heroes, all of them.

So are you basically saying that a "demon" may simply be a creature that breaks from the Dreamlands into the real world? And the Dreamlands may be "hell" and "heaven" as well?

[Tyneras]

I've never really liked Lovecraft's dreamland, mostly because it was far too consistent and lacking anything I'd consider dream-like. If it's just another universe humans (and cats and ghouls and other things) can access through sleep and other means, then it'd make perfect sense that the denizens (good, bad and neutral) could access earth by reversing the process or opening a gate of some fashion to enter bodily. Thus heaven, hell and many other places could all exist in what Lovecraft called the dreamlands.

[Flyndaran]

Servitor species aren't uncommon in the mythos. And they don't have to obey the overly simplified laws of reality as humanity believes.

Monstrous hybrids can be one offs or progenitors of small to large groups too. The Whateley twins, from The Dunwich Horror, show two types of threats; humanoid intelligent and invisible behemoth.

[Lameth]

Originally Posted by Tyneras

I've never really liked Lovecraft's dreamland, mostly because it was far too consistent and lacking anything I'd consider dream-like. If it's just another universe humans (and cats and ghouls and other things) can access through sleep and other means, then it'd make perfect sense that the denizens (good, bad and neutral) could access earth by reversing the process or opening a gate of some fashion to enter bodily. Thus heaven, hell and many other places could all exist in what Lovecraft called the dreamlands.

I agree. I prefer the strange, odd, and almost acid trip concept of a land of dreams. Akin to the astral of the Mage games of white wolf, or its horizon Realms.