Eldritch Lore (free to a good home or best offer) · 8:44pm Oct 18th, 2016
One of the things that made the Cthulhu Mythos the Cthulhu Mythos was a collection of shared elements that were reused by multiple authors. Gods, places, ideas, eldritch tomes and more, these sketched out the shared and fictional mythology that, however tenuously, held the Mythos together.
When developing At the Mountains of Discord, I came up with my own set of such elements, often semi-ponified versions of Lovecraft canon concepts. I thought I'd collate them together here.
Feel free to take a few and drop them in a story if you wish. Use them however you want, and don't worry about consistency with my or other writers works. Lovecraft surely didn't and it worked out fine for him!
The October Codex
This dread tome details an eldrich history of the world, completely at odds with established science and morality. Initially dismissed as morbid mythology by the few scholars who even knew it existed, an even smaller number have come to realise that among its mad ramblings and hideous insights, the true secret history of the world is laid bare. Reading it is a disquieting experience, but its true danger lies in realising its mad words are mostly true.
The October Codex was written by the mad zebra Abdul Alhaizum while wandering the deserts of Saddle Arabia under the influences of heat, dehydration, unsettling knowledge and alkaloidal plants. The exact time is uncertain but certainly Pre-Classical at the latest, for that great unicorn, Star Swirl the Bearded, is known to have undertaken a purge of all copies bar his own.
The October Codex is, of course, my version of the Necronomicon. It is named after the (real world) Roman festival of Equus October, which involved killing a horse.
The Eohippus Fragments
The fragments are older than the October Codex and possibly not even a unified work but rather a product of subsequent curatorship. They describe a history before even pre-history and, as much as any central narrative can be determined, detail a cosmic war between the Elder Things and the Mi-go, a fungoid race of fearsome and terrible power.
Black Hymns of the Discordian Sect
The hymns of a group of Discord worshippers in the far off Marrow Hills, as recorded by the pony Wayward Leaf. Appears to present a strange and certainly heterodox view of the Elder Things which paints them as machine worshippers and technological fetishists.
At the Mountains of Discord
A short novel written by Twilight Sparkle upon her return from the Uncharted North and warning against any return to that cryptic place. It details an icy kingdom ruled by sleeping monsters, just waiting to be awoken such that they might swallow the world.
Yeb-Ineat
Yeb-Ineat, Eternal Hive and Flesh Spinner. A Great Old One and spawn of Shub-Niggurath, she came from space and made war on the Elder Things during the pre-history of the world. Depicted as a voluminous cloud of cancerous growths, chitinous appendages, pseudopodial extremities and bug like eyes, she is a terrible horror with the power to psychically suborn and biologically improve all who oppose her.
She was broken in her war against the Elder Things but not destroyed. Shattered fragments of Yeb-Ineat yet exist in the forgotten corners of the world, broken yet yearning.
Malkart
Malkart is a star spawn of the alien god Cthulhu, who lies dead but dreaming on a far distant world. He rules from his abysal palace at the bottom of the deepest ocean, supported by a court of sea ponies.
Cthulhu fhtagn, Shoo-Shoo-bee-doo!
Discord
The local and primary manifestation of Nyarlathotep, soul and messenger of the Outer Gods, on Equestria. While locked away in stone as Discord, Nyarlathotep's ability to interact with Equestria was greatly diminished, if not completely removed.
Other names include: Draconequus, Spirit of Disharmony, The Faceless God, Howler in the Dark, the Black Pharaoh and the Crawling Chaos.
Windigos
Spawn of the Great Old One Ithaqua, the Wind-Walker. They are great horse shaped spirits with blue corpse flames burning in their eyes.
The Horror in the Storm
A terror that dwells in the Uncharted North, the Horror in the Storm is a grotesque hybrid of horse and storm, disfigured and disgusting yet also mesmeric in the fashion of crystals. It is kin to Windigos and Ithaqua but far greater than the former and closer to its father in power. Perhaps even a Great Old One in its own right, if perhaps among the least in that fearsome order.
Ring of Hue'min'I'tep
A mythical ring set around the world by the Elder Things when time was young, to demonstrate their ownership of it. Twilight Sparkle has come to believe it was not a metaphor but rather a literal (if not solid) ring of satellites and other space infrastructure.
I wonder if anypony has researched the possibility that Chrysalis and the changelings are fragments or spawn of Yeb-Iniat.
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The idea was at the back of my head, yes. Have a best pony