I do indeed think Lovecraft got his idea from the Norse god - and Lovecraft was able to spell so he wrote it N + Oden and not with that cursed 'i' - which is a spelling abomination only comparable to the spawn of Shub-Niggurath. ...another good video btw.
@Adam Zahavi Sorry Adam, I am not a shabby speaker of Swedish and Norwegian as I speak quaint dialects of both languages, my ability to write in either is exact. And the name is written Oden. You are correct on the spelling for Loke. They usually get Freya spelled right, she's a counterpart to Venus. She is sometime confused with Frigg, the wife of Oden, but is a separate entity.
It's both hilarious and terrifying how in-character it would be for Nyarlethotep to disguise himself as a whole pantheon of semi friendly deities just to mess with us.
He’s just trying to do his best at existing he probably had a dissociative episode and accidentally created all these versions of himself sometimes it happens
It would stand to reason that Nyarlathotep would on occasion interfere on our behalf. If we are his favorite toys then it stands to reason that he would take offense if anything wanted to ruin his fun by killing his toys. For this he might take the form of Nodens or something else. Which would make the mythos dualistic in the sense that Nyarlathotep's interests could conflict with other beings in the mythos. In its own strange way keeping existence in balance. I like that idea!
I absolutely agree, and in fact, when I last ran the Call of Cthulhu campaign "Masks of Nyarlathotep", I had Nyarly masquerade as Nodens on a couple occasions.
Of course there's also no reason why Nodens couldn't be both things; that is to say, Nodens exists as his own entity, the true Elder God, but Nyarlathotep sometime disguises itself as Nodens for its own unknowable reasons. Maybe that's why Nodens kills shantaks and whatnot, to spite Nyarlathotep.
Nyarlethotep is like A Hunte in the Forest, a sadistic one porbably, the other entities would be more like a construction agent who wants to build a Mall over the Forest or someone who simply spills some toxic waste. So he basically owns our Asses.
That is why Nyarlathotep is my favourite, because I could totally see it pretending to be friendly and helpful just to mess with people or further it's goals
Elder Gods would view humans similarly to how a head of state would view a specific species of lawn grass. He may notice it. He may put his feet in it and realize it feels good. He will never know anything about it, will never attribute anything to the grass more than the passing thought, he will not remember it. He will not hesitate to walk on, alter or even destroy the grass; it’s inconsequential.
I can see Nyarlathotep going out of his way to make humans and other races believe in some form of other gods that contest the great emptyness embodied by the Great Old Ones and the like. Especially going as far as to kill his own followers to prove a false point. The art of the con is a beautiful thing.
i like the idea of the elder gods helping humans. it gives the mythos hope, and hope can be what keeps people going, moving forward. but it still feeds into the horror of lovecraft, as what is more horrifying than having hope you can fight the inevitable when in the end you never had a chance.
Your idea reminds me a little bit of when I tried to imagine my own Lovecraft-influenced horror story, which was kind of like a mixture of “The Seventh Seal”, “Resident Evil 4”, homages to a few exorcism movies, and homages to the Cthulhu Mythos, if anyone is curious to read it... My general premise is that the setting takes place in Medieval Spain shortly after the crusades. A young exorcist of the Catholic Church that formerly served as a squire in the crusades, the knight he used to fight alongside, a few peasants, and a group of Moors have to basically team up to help stop a Spanish cult from taking over all of Christendom and possibly the world. It would be revealed that the cult’s founder was a Spaniard who traveled to the Middle East, secretly acquired the original Necronomicon, and started his own ever-expanding cult back home that worships the Lovecraftian deities. During one ritual in an attempt to contact the great old ones, the cult ended up being visited by Nyarlathotep, who tricked them into infecting themselves and their victims with tentacled mind-controlling parasitic creatures, dug up from ancient caverns in the mountains. Nyarlathotep promised that these prehistoric monsters will bring “unity” to all of humanity and make the whole world ready to summon Yog-Sothoth and receive eternal life via transcendence. So one of the hypothetical character arcs would involve the priest character facing the knowledge that reality is much larger than he ever imagined and having his faith in God tested to its limits (like encountering the plague of monstrous creatures one might not imagine a benevolent God creating, witnessesing some corruption within his own Church that compounds the impending doom and leaves him disillusioned, and feeling the “Problem of Evil” full force), until his own mental state reaches its breaking point in typical Lovecraftian style. However, my idea is that it would be much more ambiguous what the truth is and the exorcist would go mad from the UNCERTAINTY of it all, rather than a clear cut revelation that all life doesn’t matter, which would at least give definite closure. For instance, before the main story begins, the young exorcist would encounter a demon that calls himself Nyarlathotep and appears as the shadow man, during one of his missions. He apparently vanquishes it, but not before it warns him of a scourge “older than your Adam and Eve” that is soon to be unleashed. He later finds out that the new cult he is fighting was once visited by an entity appearing in the form of a faceless god and also calling himself Nyarlathotep, and is plagued by nightmares as the climax nears, where Nyarlathotep appears to him in a dream, shows how small he really is in the cosmos to toy with him, and reveals his desire to manipulate all of humanity into madness and death for amusement. The parasitic creatures used by the cult present an otherworldly threat that appears to act like demonic possession, but shows no aversion to holy water, prayers, etc. forcing the priest and the other characters to use more scientific/physical means of fighting/curing them. In the end, he and the group manage to stop the cult from unleashing the cult’s plague across Christendom, but he ends up a crippled man haunted by so many questions. Did he really defeat Nyarlathotep that one time by invoking God, or was it part of Nyarlathotep’s act to toy with him and provide false hope? If Nyarlathotep was another fallen angel all along, could all this instead be a ploy to sow doubt in his mind? Was the benevolent God he knew ever involved in this ordeal, or is it the indifferent amoral Azathoth whom the one true God really is? If the universe and what lies beyond are really that unimaginably vast and potentially even full of alien worlds, would it show off the glory of God even more and give humanity some much needed humbling, or would it simply confirm that humanity is a worthless spec in a sea of indifference? Did they truly earn a lasting victory when they defeated the cult’s army, or are their efforts just delaying the inevitable, until the great old ones and outer gods finally come for real to claim the Earth. The traumas/disillusionments he endures over the course of the story and his unanswered questions drive him mad in the epilogue.
I get the impression Lovecraft intended Nodens to just be a part of his Dream Cycle fantasy stories rather than his Cthulhu Mythos stories. For perspective, Nodens was introduced riding alongside King Neptune in the Strange High House on the Mist.
well, they kill us with deseases, so i guess they deserve it. (yes, i know the message wasn't that, and yes, i know bacteria do this to survive, but then again. i guess most people also want to survive.)
My personal belief is that, Elder Gods are merely beneficial to Humankind, and not allied to us. They do not want to help us thanks to the kindness of their being, but merely because going against the Outer gods and the Old ones is in their interest. It just happen that their interest coincide with ours. Them taking human-like appearance, or forms that proscribe to concept that are understood in a easier way to us than what other creature of the Mythos have a tendency to show, is just a way to make us more at ease... therefore easier to manipulate, to use. Nodens of all the Elders strike me as the most proactive. He "seem" to be a hunter, if the concept of "hunting" can even be ascribed to an Elder god. He kill minions of the Outer gods like they were nothing, but also for fun it seem. He strike me more as an opposition to Nyarlathotep, more than anything, as the later and his minions make for the better hunt. They are clever after all. Where Nyarlathotep plot and amuse himself through the multitude of demise humans might face in their lifetime, Nodens plot and hunt them, ending them, their plot, and existence. If the horror Nyarlathotep unleash on us can scar a man for life, and even his death, Nodens scare those same horror and slay them, maybe for sport, maybe for another goal that is unknown to us. As for his use of Nightgaunts, well... Imagining them like hunting dog might be a good parallel for their use to this mysterious entity. In the end, I do not think their exact nature truly matter. Elder gods help humans. That is a fact. An unsettling fact, full of mystery as to the why it happen, but a fact nonetheless. They are not a force of good, or evil for that matter. Such concept can not be ascribed to anything coming from the mythos. But, contrary to many other forces of this same mythos, they are "Helpful" instead of "Harmful". That is the difference between an Elder god, his minions, and the rest of their kin.
You know I have never really got why most fans see the whole great old ones vs the elder gods not very Lovecraftian, I choose to look at it as not so much as good vs evil but order vs chaos
i can dig an order VS chaos thing alot better then good VS evil which is a little over done, our best guess at nyarlothotep's motivations would put him in the order category even though hes definitely not "good"
I can't remember where but I read somewhere that the Elder gods came from a different dimension, left for some reason saw the horrors of our universe and then cast spells that made the old gods sleep.If that is the case then that maybe another reason why people believe these entities to be good.Personally I'll take the entity whose indifferent to my existance over the ones who maybe malevolent.
MyLatin1 you can believe whatever you want. It’s kind of the point that we can’t fully understand them, and that we can apply whatever we want to make it more understanding to our tiny minds
While the idea of Nyarlethotep being the Elder Gods in disguise has merit, I do find it contrasts with a few lore bits about Nodens fight with exactly Nyarlethotep and the existence of the dreamlands. But I will say it is definitely a possibility, and would be ever so heart crushing. Just like Nyarlethotep likes it.
Well, I like the idea of some lovecraftian entities being... not good but at least “relatable”, maybe they are not actually good, but still, I don’t think it’s unlikely for some of them to feel sympathy for humans, maybe the same way we relate to animals or bugs, which makes sense to me. After all, all cosmos is related, so someone must protect the “ecosystem”, in a way or another.
I personally like the idea of Nodens the hunter. An elder god who hunts the great old ones and their servants and is only truly “on humanity’s side” because the enemy of my enemy is my friend. He has a respect for humans who fight against things greater and more terrifying than themselves as a respect between two hunters. But if mankind was more interesting or deadlier, you can bet we would be the prey of his next hunt.
I feel that having Nodens being good and the Great Old ones being evil goes against the entire mythos. Cthulu, Hastur, Azathoth etc are not good or evil, they are just are.
The concept of good and evil is relative to conscious thought. Killing another creature capable of conscious thought is when it would start to be considered evil. Killing any creature without reason, or simply for the entertainment of doing so, would likely also be considered evil. Thus most of the characters in Lovecraft's mythos would count as evil, which makes sense because they're supposed to invoke horror. You don't really scare people much while championing the cause of good, mostly because you're unlikely to harm them without reason. Lovecraft did a great job of creating powerful, horrific beings for his stories, but he did it for the sake of horror, not for some edgy "what is good and evil" debate.
@@underworldgod9917 I just passed highschool Anyway, I was just intrigued by the mythos and don't know anything relevant about it. This playlist was the first proper introduction about the mythos to me. Those statues tho, is it true? If it is, I request you to send me a link please 🙏
Twist it in a way, and good itself can become horrific, it is all a matter of perspective and clever writing. The elder gods can be salvaged as a concept, if one abandons their preconceived notions of the nature of mortality, and make good *itself* a concept that cannot be understood.
In my opinion, this just heads down the road of dismal nothingness. Most humans in the stories view the gods as evil, because they tend to harm humanity in some way. The humans view the gods as bacteria, not the other way around.
NetherWalker perspective is irrelevant. Good and evil are absolute concepts greater than any Outer god from the depths of our most depraved imaginations.
@@Quincy_Morris I'd have 2 disagree. Good and Evil are never absolute concepts, and most of the time it is a matter of percpective and relation 2 the Philosophy of 1 Person.
I am so glad that I found out about Lovecraft's creations from the Entity archetype in Yugioh. Though I wish they called Elder Entity Norden actually Nodens.
To me i like the idea of the Elder gods, but the idea of good and evil is what we put on them. Are the elder gods purely good No more than the great old once are purely evil. They are both above that as we are just lesser than ants to both. I like to believe the Elder gods are just fighting the Great old ones in the cosmic war and are just used by both. We humans would view them as good because we believe that they are here to help us, i.e elder signs or even more direct help. However, they are far and forgetful and again fighting a cosmic war so will they come to help. Only if it serves their purpose. So in short I don't think it ruins HP Lovecraft Mythos but enhances it, and can even add more dread as you are given a false hope and are abandon by something that could be your only hope and come to realize you really no more than the spec of dust we really are.
Joe Hill The way I see the Elder Gods have more in common with us then any other being in the Cthullu Mythos. Therefore they sympathetic to our plight and have our interest in heart. They can relate to us, while the Great Old ones and Outer Gods can't. They aren't good guys just as the Outer Gods aren't bad guys. They just understand humanity and wish to protect it. To some I guess you could say that's quite evil, and to others you could say that's good. Like it or not, a form of Good and Evil do exist in our universe. It's a spectrum, but it's where things such as laws come from. We don't kill because it hurts our society, just like we don't steal because it's taking something that doesn't belong to us. However, in the theoretical context of the Cthullu universe this isn't true, because our mere existence could be seen as evil from the perspective of the Great Ones and Outer Gods, or they might not even care due to how insignificant we truly are. This in a way makes us more Alien to the Outer Gods than they could ever be to us. The Elder Gods are in a very unique situation, they're above humanity, but not to the point where they aren't able to understand us.
Jonathan Morgan This right here. The Elder Gods are closer to humanity, and therefore they're sympathetic towards us. The Outer Gods don't care about humanity, and in order to prescribe to our moral code you'd have to.
I like the idea of more positive entities, to offer some form of levity, value and prudence so we are not completely lost. But yeah for the most part, hopeless and dismay is the more favorable aspect of Lovecraftian horror. BTW, to answer your question with the bacteria... that depends if they have enough of a functioning consciousness to feel pain and torment, let alone distinguish good from evil. For me, I like to think of the Elder Gods, not as purely good, but at least a greater good than the other dieties, ones who are more benevolent and perhaps do give life on earth some place in the universe, but are still not perfect beings themselves.
I think fans of the Cthulhu Mythos should recognize Nodens, the other Elder Gods, and their purpose because they represent a few things that still work with the overall mythos. 1. They represent how the gods of the old religions are the weakest of the 3 types (Outer Gods, Old Ones, and Elder Gods), and it puts into perceptive how the great products of human religion pale in comparison to the even greater beings of the universe. 2. (Spoilers for Bloodborne) After seeing TheExploringSeries' recent Bloodborne video, he shows how Gherman can very easily live in a world with greater beings even than himself. I interpreted it as Gherman opposed the Moon Presence (who may stand in for Nyarlathotep), but only because the Old One allows it. Keep in mind that it makes the player replace Gherman as the guide to help other hunters, meaning the Moon Presence creates its own opposition. 3. Much like how Nyarlathotep enjoys toying with humanity, Nodens could take interest in wanting the respect and worship of humanity. It's like if someone wanted to become the god of a lesser species, they could either rule by fear or gain true praise and admiration, I believe Nodens seeks the latter.
Wolfgod 64 the products of human religion? Wait are you trying to say that religion creates gods? That’s literally the opposite of how religion works. I swear people don’t understand the basics of what religion is.
@@Quincy_Morris How do you know for sure? If there are any gods at all, it's not impossible that they spring into existence after enough people believe in them. Certainly it could work that way in a (as far as we know) fictional universe like the Mythos.
Derleth took that one description of R.C. being saved by Nodens and used it to shape this idea of a war between Elder Gods and Great Old Ones. While I never really cared for D.'s ideas and writing, it's a notion that could have some merit. So long as you don't try and follow the idea that the E.G. are benign protectors of humanity. If I am to accept this notion as part of the Mythos, I would say that the conflict is more like the Titanomachy of Greek legends. (Which according to most sources occurred before mankind became a significant presence on Earth.)
I think one of the post below has it right. It's not that Nodens is a good or person-friendly god, but has animosity toward Nyarlathotep. Also, he may not like human beings in general, but may have had a certain fondness for R.C. Best elucidation of this lies in the existing myths from the ancient world. Few of the gods of Sumeria, Babylon, Greece, Rome, liked or loved humanity. Not in the sweeping, inclusive way that we might want. But they definitely had human beings that they took an interest in and supported. (And sometimes betrayed.) A lot of people say that Lovecraft's work was a totally new creation. Without taking anything away from H.P. I have to say that this isn't really true. His mythos basically took the darkest aspects of already existing gods and condensed them into new forms, with new names.
It could be that the Elder Gods are actually the "gods of Earth" that were the driving idea in Lovecraft's story "The Other Gods". If that were the case, they would be far weaker than the Outer Gods and actually under their protection. I like the theory of them being Nyarlathotep too, because that would almost make it like Derleth's restructuring of the mythos was just a plan by Nyarlathotep to trick humans into having false hope!
When the Elder gods are described as being 'protected' by the 'the Other Gods' I always took that as being 'protected' euphemistically in the same way one is 'protected' by a gangster or a prisoner is 'protected' by his jailer. I always read the final paragraph of Drem-Quest Of Unknown Kadath to imply the Elder Gods were prisoners of Nyarlathotep.
Chinaboatman That's what I thought too, since in the final paragraph Nyralathotep called them the "mild gods of earth" which would make sense with Nodens being the Celtic god, Baset being Egyptian, and Hypnos being Greek.
I feel like Nodens is just beyond us in a sense where we are too small in an infinitely complex universe to truly "help". It'd be like if we went to Mars to save a dying species of bacteria from another alien race who was accidentally killing them.
Nodens is written about by Lovecraft and is canon, but he is not classified in the existing hierarchies. I do not accept Derleth's classifications, and the Lovecraftian beings need not conform to classifications.
I did notice that you used a piece from bloodborne's soundtrack(that piece's name is "the first hunter")and what you did was pretty cool since bloodborne and H.P. Lovecraft's works does have similarities
My personal favorite theory is that Nodens is an aspect of Nyarlathotep created for the dark God’s amusement. After all what is a chess game with no opponent?
I never really liked the idea of good and evil in the Cthulhu mythos. The mythos always seemed to be more gray and translucent. As if to twist and warp our views as we looked into it. Wars between good and evil deities are all fine and well. They just made little sense in cosmic horror settings. When thinking about the Nodens and other "good" deities, I always entertained the idea that they were the same entities as the outer gods. That they were a sort of twisted split personality. That they pitted against themselves unknowingly. That in the grand scheme of things humans are still part of an incomprehensible "war", from which there is no escape nor an end nor a meaning to their short pointless existence. Of course this sort of Nihlism isn't one I have in real life. Just one I like to apply regarding the Lovecraftian Universe's useless attempts to classify that which is unclassifiable.
The idea of there being 'good' gods to combat the 'evil' outer gods does fly in the face of the whole point of the universe, but I really like the idea of there being gods that more match our traditional notion of the word next to these alien sacks of mucus. I brings up a lot of questions about where these beings actually come from, what their real form is, and really the fact that they've taken faces that look like ours make them more terrifying and uncomfortable than those who slither around lookin' like jellied squid in a lot of ways. It also adds some extra terror to the outer gods and old ones by virtue of the fact that these recognizable gods are not greater than them, but are in fact equal to or even below these other beings.
I like to think the Elder Gods, Outer Gods, and Great Old Ones are all morally ambiguous, but since the Elder Gods don't cause nearly as much trouble for humanity as the other two groups, humans simply interpret them as being "good". But it doesn't mean they really are good.
Elder Gods either outright ignore us or manipulate us to their own ends. Noden sounds to me like a microbiologist who finds us bacteria like creatures interesting and useful to his design the difference between with him and Nyarlathotep being that Noden approaches mortal affairs in a tactful manner while Nyarlathotep is just an epic troll. Not really good vs evil more like reason vs madness/order vs chaos.
@@misere390 it's not beyond our comprehension though. He literally just wanted to fuck with people. Also he had a job to wake the sleeping Gods, but he never did it because he enjoyed fucking with people that much
Nuada of the silver hand was a high king of Ireland , leader of the Tuatha Dè Danann ( the people of the goddess Danu) the Tuatha Dè Danann are Deities themselves, seems lovecraft lifted that wholesale from Irish Mytholy/ history
Isn’t Nuada (probably failed on the spelling) the name of the elf prince in Hell Boy The golden Army? I wonder what the connection is, if there even is a connection. I’m not sure how/why I even remember his name since it’s been several years since I watched that movie. 🙂✌️
Personally, i think Nodes was a curious adding to the mythos, Lovecraft always invited other writers to join his universe, and yes, Nodens is not like anyother entity in the Lovecraftverse, but i kind of like him. However, something that i read many times is that he fucking HATES humanity, Nodens is not on ourside because he likes to, he just helps humans because the only thing he despises more than humanity is Nyarlathothep, and by helping humans, he can indirectly fuck with Nyarlathothep (?). Great video tbh, i really like what you do on this channel.
Nodens is like a lot of angels. Angels are not necessarily good and do not always care for humans. It is a mistake to think there is no danger in working with celestial spirits.
The way I see it taking it from the hunter point of view: He could just be using humans to help him with his hunt not caring whither or not the humans lives or dies. Think about it if he can get his game by seemingly helping humans it doesn't matter he did a "good" thing: its a hunter and his game...And the humans might just be the bait they use.
I mean its not that bad to have a being or beings that seem to assist humans as long as you make it complex and don't make then come in rarely to assist right..... Sees the rest of the comment section: You guys are hopeless
Ikr? If they help us, and hate what cares not for us, what use have we to suspect them, there is a horror all its own in that. A creature that "cares", but does it? A concept that itself seems to escape human compression.
3:02, YES. If they were capable of putting name to us (which we evidentally have with elder gods) or had any sort of brain that could define good and evil, then yes, bacteria would define us as evil. We are capable of defining good and evil, saying that you can’t apply such concepts to entity simply because we don’t fully understand it or because it is far beyond us in power is idiotic.
Y'know Caleb from RPPR had a great take on one of the Elder Gods, Bast, in a Delta Green campaign. She took the original party as her servants on Earth to hunt Mythos shit, the killing of which would feed her. The players could sense Mythos-esque radiation through her favor and would be compelled to destroy it. Of course on the surface this sounds all kinds of awful in a Mythos sense, I mean they're some fancy gadgets away from being G.I Joe, well get this: Bast wants them to kill ANYTHING tainted by the Mythos, because she's a predator, and a fucking lion doesn't care if it's Mother Theresa or Jared Fogel it's about to pounce on when it's hungry. The whole campaign became about the concept of a food chain within the Mythos with the players as Bast's 'Teeth' so to speak, which became more and more fucked up with time until most of the party ended up dead, on the run, one turned into a serial killer only able to quell the hunger in his soul by killing someone, and one guy ended up being a servant of Hastur forever hunting in Carcosa. ...oh also Bast at one point used one of them to make out with a form of Nyarlathotep as part of an extradimensional hatefuck. Not a pleasant experience for that guy.
I'm late for the party I guess, just wanted to nod on your choice of music. Gehrman and the Moon Presence are very appropriate comparison to Nodens and Nyarlathotep.
Nodin sound like a fake name that Odin came up when he was trying to sneak into a party where he wasn't invited.
no Odin
Not odin
Bouncer: Odin?
Odin: I am no Odin.
Bouncer: Noden?
Odin: yes
I do indeed think Lovecraft got his idea from the Norse god - and Lovecraft was able to spell so he wrote it N + Oden and not with that cursed 'i' - which is a spelling abomination only comparable to the spawn of Shub-Niggurath.
...another good video btw.
@Adam Zahavi Sorry Adam, I am not a shabby speaker of Swedish and Norwegian as I speak quaint dialects of both languages, my ability to write in either is exact. And the name is written Oden. You are correct on the spelling for Loke. They usually get Freya spelled right, she's a counterpart to Venus. She is sometime confused with Frigg, the wife of Oden, but is a separate entity.
It's both hilarious and terrifying how in-character it would be for Nyarlethotep to disguise himself as a whole pantheon of semi friendly deities just to mess with us.
He aint that smart
Kind of like Lucifer.
He’s just trying to do his best at existing he probably had a dissociative episode and accidentally created all these versions of himself sometimes it happens
@@underworldgod9917 like you would know.
@@underworldgod9917 yeah pretty much, he isn't really intelligent unlike Sauron.
It would stand to reason that Nyarlathotep would on occasion interfere on our behalf. If we are his favorite toys then it stands to reason that he would take offense if anything wanted to ruin his fun by killing his toys. For this he might take the form of Nodens or something else. Which would make the mythos dualistic in the sense that Nyarlathotep's interests could conflict with other beings in the mythos. In its own strange way keeping existence in balance. I like that idea!
I absolutely agree, and in fact, when I last ran the Call of Cthulhu campaign "Masks of Nyarlathotep", I had Nyarly masquerade as Nodens on a couple occasions.
I think it makes sense. Why else would Cthulhu be K.O.'d by a boat ramming him were it not for some outside intervention making it stick?
Of course there's also no reason why Nodens couldn't be both things; that is to say, Nodens exists as his own entity, the true Elder God, but Nyarlathotep sometime disguises itself as Nodens for its own unknowable reasons. Maybe that's why Nodens kills shantaks and whatnot, to spite Nyarlathotep.
Nyarlethotep is like A Hunte in the Forest, a sadistic one porbably, the other entities would be more like a construction agent who wants to build a Mall over the Forest or someone who simply spills some toxic waste. So he basically owns our Asses.
Maximilian L Playing on the irony that sport hunters do more to actually protect the environment than environmentalists do.
"I must converse with the elder gods" - raiden
And I thought I was the only that thought of Mortal Kombat when I heard the words "elder gods." I guess I was wrong.
@@dark_bolt Imagine a MK - Lovecraft crossover.
@@azizella2778 It would be the best thing ever.
That is why Nyarlathotep is my favourite, because I could totally see it pretending to be friendly and helpful just to mess with people or further it's goals
He's immortal and nigh-omnipotent. He could just as easily be bored and trying to entertain himself.
I personally feel that the Elder Gods are not “pro-human” or “good,” but are just “anti-Old Ones”
Like a gang war
I always assumed that the Elder Gods and Old Ones were basically Order vs Chaos.
I happen to be that too
This sounds like a cosmic version of "Ok Boomer" going on
Elder Gods would view humans similarly to how a head of state would view a specific species of lawn grass. He may notice it. He may put his feet in it and realize it feels good. He will never know anything about it, will never attribute anything to the grass more than the passing thought, he will not remember it. He will not hesitate to walk on, alter or even destroy the grass; it’s inconsequential.
I can see Nyarlathotep going out of his way to make humans and other races believe in some form of other gods that contest the great emptyness embodied by the Great Old Ones and the like. Especially going as far as to kill his own followers to prove a false point. The art of the con is a beautiful thing.
i like the idea of the elder gods helping humans. it gives the mythos hope, and hope can be what keeps people going, moving forward.
but it still feeds into the horror of lovecraft, as what is more horrifying than having hope you can fight the inevitable when in the end you never had a chance.
Your idea reminds me a little bit of when I tried to imagine my own Lovecraft-influenced horror story, which was kind of like a mixture of “The Seventh Seal”, “Resident Evil 4”, homages to a few exorcism movies, and homages to the Cthulhu Mythos, if anyone is curious to read it...
My general premise is that the setting takes place in Medieval Spain shortly after the crusades. A young exorcist of the Catholic Church that formerly served as a squire in the crusades, the knight he used to fight alongside, a few peasants, and a group of Moors have to basically team up to help stop a Spanish cult from taking over all of Christendom and possibly the world. It would be revealed that the cult’s founder was a Spaniard who traveled to the Middle East, secretly acquired the original Necronomicon, and started his own ever-expanding cult back home that worships the Lovecraftian deities. During one ritual in an attempt to contact the great old ones, the cult ended up being visited by Nyarlathotep, who tricked them into infecting themselves and their victims with tentacled mind-controlling parasitic creatures, dug up from ancient caverns in the mountains. Nyarlathotep promised that these prehistoric monsters will bring “unity” to all of humanity and make the whole world ready to summon Yog-Sothoth and receive eternal life via transcendence.
So one of the hypothetical character arcs would involve the priest character facing the knowledge that reality is much larger than he ever imagined and having his faith in God tested to its limits (like encountering the plague of monstrous creatures one might not imagine a benevolent God creating, witnessesing some corruption within his own Church that compounds the impending doom and leaves him disillusioned, and feeling the “Problem of Evil” full force), until his own mental state reaches its breaking point in typical Lovecraftian style. However, my idea is that it would be much more ambiguous what the truth is and the exorcist would go mad from the UNCERTAINTY of it all, rather than a clear cut revelation that all life doesn’t matter, which would at least give definite closure.
For instance, before the main story begins, the young exorcist would encounter a demon that calls himself Nyarlathotep and appears as the shadow man, during one of his missions. He apparently vanquishes it, but not before it warns him of a scourge “older than your Adam and Eve” that is soon to be unleashed. He later finds out that the new cult he is fighting was once visited by an entity appearing in the form of a faceless god and also calling himself Nyarlathotep, and is plagued by nightmares as the climax nears, where Nyarlathotep appears to him in a dream, shows how small he really is in the cosmos to toy with him, and reveals his desire to manipulate all of humanity into madness and death for amusement. The parasitic creatures used by the cult present an otherworldly threat that appears to act like demonic possession, but shows no aversion to holy water, prayers, etc. forcing the priest and the other characters to use more scientific/physical means of fighting/curing them. In the end, he and the group manage to stop the cult from unleashing the cult’s plague across Christendom, but he ends up a crippled man haunted by so many questions. Did he really defeat Nyarlathotep that one time by invoking God, or was it part of Nyarlathotep’s act to toy with him and provide false hope? If Nyarlathotep was another fallen angel all along, could all this instead be a ploy to sow doubt in his mind? Was the benevolent God he knew ever involved in this ordeal, or is it the indifferent amoral Azathoth whom the one true God really is? If the universe and what lies beyond are really that unimaginably vast and potentially even full of alien worlds, would it show off the glory of God even more and give humanity some much needed humbling, or would it simply confirm that humanity is a worthless spec in a sea of indifference? Did they truly earn a lasting victory when they defeated the cult’s army, or are their efforts just delaying the inevitable, until the great old ones and outer gods finally come for real to claim the Earth. The traumas/disillusionments he endures over the course of the story and his unanswered questions drive him mad in the epilogue.
@@markcobuzzi826now thats a story i would read
I like that you used the Yu-Gi-Oh! card in your slideshow. Made me chuckle a bit.
Just about to comment the same lol
Doomed100 same lol
yeah same LOL, Elder Entity Norden is the name of the card.
Well, the inspiration of the card probably was the Nordens, I mean, there is literally a card named Azathoth, but spelled differently.
well it is part of an archetype based on lovecrafts works
You thought it was Nodens, but it was I, Nyarlathotep!
Hm... doesn't quite have the same ring to it.
NANI!?
Necrikus NYYYOOO!
Necrikus SON OF A BIIIIIIIIITCH!!!
CHEEESAAAAAAAR
No matter what fandom I turn to, always, always, always. Is this a Jojo reference?
"Does bacteria consider us evil when we wash our hands with soap?" - Wow, that was fucking deep!
I get the impression Lovecraft intended Nodens to just be a part of his Dream Cycle fantasy stories rather than his Cthulhu Mythos stories. For perspective, Nodens was introduced riding alongside King Neptune in the Strange High House on the Mist.
i Draw All the shit I’ve heard of going down in the mythos and of course this had to be the strangest. At least it’s awesome.
You forgot to mention that he leads you special summon any level 4 or lower monster from your graveyard when he is special summoned.
Jey096 so Op
Sad it’s banned but it’s for the better
bruh XD
===))))
"Does bacteria consider us evil when we wash our hands with soap?" You, sir, are a genius!
Apparently, you guys haven't watch The Amazing World of Gumball.
well, they kill us with deseases, so i guess they deserve it. (yes, i know the message wasn't that, and yes, i know bacteria do this to survive, but then again. i guess most people also want to survive.)
comrade lenin not all bacteria cause disease
Much of the bacteria you wash your hands of is completely harmless
@@emmettdonkeydoodle6230 ok, you got me there.
S. M. Mannix evil and good are absolute concepts. And no matter our whims, desires or opinions good and evil are unchanged.
Hearing The First Hunter play in the background makes me so happy
The "Abyss" can also refer to the subconscious, i.e. dreams, i.e. the Dream World.
dwellyn what I was thinkin
Is that gherman's theme from bloodborne in the background?
Yes it is.
Nice choice! It's my favorite OST in the game :D
Yep
After seeing his Bloodborne video, it's understandable as to why he chose the song.
Was about to say the same thing.
My personal belief is that, Elder Gods are merely beneficial to Humankind, and not allied to us. They do not want to help us thanks to the kindness of their being, but merely because going against the Outer gods and the Old ones is in their interest. It just happen that their interest coincide with ours.
Them taking human-like appearance, or forms that proscribe to concept that are understood in a easier way to us than what other creature of the Mythos have a tendency to show, is just a way to make us more at ease... therefore easier to manipulate, to use.
Nodens of all the Elders strike me as the most proactive. He "seem" to be a hunter, if the concept of "hunting" can even be ascribed to an Elder god. He kill minions of the Outer gods like they were nothing, but also for fun it seem. He strike me more as an opposition to Nyarlathotep, more than anything, as the later and his minions make for the better hunt. They are clever after all.
Where Nyarlathotep plot and amuse himself through the multitude of demise humans might face in their lifetime, Nodens plot and hunt them, ending them, their plot, and existence.
If the horror Nyarlathotep unleash on us can scar a man for life, and even his death, Nodens scare those same horror and slay them, maybe for sport, maybe for another goal that is unknown to us.
As for his use of Nightgaunts, well... Imagining them like hunting dog might be a good parallel for their use to this mysterious entity.
In the end, I do not think their exact nature truly matter. Elder gods help humans. That is a fact. An unsettling fact, full of mystery as to the why it happen, but a fact nonetheless. They are not a force of good, or evil for that matter. Such concept can not be ascribed to anything coming from the mythos. But, contrary to many other forces of this same mythos, they are "Helpful" instead of "Harmful".
That is the difference between an Elder god, his minions, and the rest of their kin.
You know I have never really got why most fans see the whole great old ones vs the elder gods not very Lovecraftian, I choose to look at it as not so much as good vs evil but order vs chaos
i can dig an order VS chaos thing alot better then good VS evil which is a little over done, our best guess at nyarlothotep's motivations would put him in the order category even though hes definitely not "good"
+slendy9600 no I don't really se nyarlothotep being a being of order, I think he is power hungry though
Well supposedly there has to be a balance between the 2.
Conflict is more interesting.
Simply having only evil powerful forces that can’t be stopped isn’t interesting or realistic.
@@Quincy_Morris The ancient gods arent evill, they just exist and do their own thing
I can't remember where but I read somewhere that the Elder gods came from a different dimension, left for some reason saw the horrors of our universe and then cast spells that made the old gods sleep.If that is the case then that maybe another reason why people believe these entities to be good.Personally I'll take the entity whose indifferent to my existance over the ones who maybe malevolent.
MyLatin1 you can believe whatever you want. It’s kind of the point that we can’t fully understand them, and that we can apply whatever we want to make it more understanding to our tiny minds
While the idea of Nyarlethotep being the Elder Gods in disguise has merit, I do find it contrasts with a few lore bits about Nodens fight with exactly Nyarlethotep and the existence of the dreamlands.
But I will say it is definitely a possibility, and would be ever so heart crushing. Just like Nyarlethotep likes it.
Well, I like the idea of some lovecraftian entities being... not good but at least “relatable”, maybe they are not actually good, but still, I don’t think it’s unlikely for some of them to feel sympathy for humans, maybe the same way we relate to animals or bugs, which makes sense to me. After all, all cosmos is related, so someone must protect the “ecosystem”, in a way or another.
Raiden
“I must discuss with the Elder Gods, they will know what to do”
I personally like the idea of Nodens the hunter. An elder god who hunts the great old ones and their servants and is only truly “on humanity’s side” because the enemy of my enemy is my friend. He has a respect for humans who fight against things greater and more terrifying than themselves as a respect between two hunters. But if mankind was more interesting or deadlier, you can bet we would be the prey of his next hunt.
"after all, does bacteria consider us evil when we wash our hands with soap" thats some deep shit right there.
I feel that having Nodens being good and the Great Old ones being evil goes against the entire mythos. Cthulu, Hastur, Azathoth etc are not good or evil, they are just are.
holy shit the end gave me goosebumps!
IFKR holy shit, that was good.
The concept of good and evil is relative to conscious thought. Killing another creature capable of conscious thought is when it would start to be considered evil. Killing any creature without reason, or simply for the entertainment of doing so, would likely also be considered evil. Thus most of the characters in Lovecraft's mythos would count as evil, which makes sense because they're supposed to invoke horror. You don't really scare people much while championing the cause of good, mostly because you're unlikely to harm them without reason.
Lovecraft did a great job of creating powerful, horrific beings for his stories, but he did it for the sake of horror, not for some edgy "what is good and evil" debate.
It's not fiction. How disabled are you?
@@underworldgod9917 you believe that all this is real?
Like genuinely?
@@sanjeevkumarporia6883 it is thinly veiled as fiction. Archaelogists discovered statues of Nodens in England. Are you still in 2nd grade?
@@underworldgod9917 I just passed highschool
Anyway, I was just intrigued by the mythos and don't know anything relevant about it.
This playlist was the first proper introduction about the mythos to me.
Those statues tho, is it true? If it is, I request you to send me a link please
🙏
@@sanjeevkumarporia6883 You are not ready for the truth. Go on believing it's fiction and asking for links instead of watching my channel.
Twist it in a way, and good itself can become horrific, it is all a matter of perspective and clever writing. The elder gods can be salvaged as a concept, if one abandons their preconceived notions of the nature of mortality, and make good *itself* a concept that cannot be understood.
"Twist it in a way and Good itself becomes horrific." That sounds like something that Lao Tzu would say to H.P Lovecraft. I love it.
In my opinion, this just heads down the road of dismal nothingness. Most humans in the stories view the gods as evil, because they tend to harm humanity in some way. The humans view the gods as bacteria, not the other way around.
NetherWalker perspective is irrelevant. Good and evil are absolute concepts greater than any Outer god from the depths of our most depraved imaginations.
@@Quincy_Morris I'd have 2 disagree. Good and Evil are never absolute concepts, and most of the time it is a matter of percpective and relation 2 the Philosophy of 1 Person.
Love that Ghermans theme is in the bg~
I just thought I stumbled upon an old series summon made but to find that the series is still going is awesome. Subscribed
I am so glad that I found out about Lovecraft's creations from the Entity archetype in Yugioh. Though I wish they called Elder Entity Norden actually Nodens.
Love the Gherman theme in the back ground! Also, great video series!
To me i like the idea of the Elder gods, but the idea of good and evil is what we put on them. Are the elder gods purely good No more than the great old once are purely evil. They are both above that as we are just lesser than ants to both. I like to believe the Elder gods are just fighting the Great old ones in the cosmic war and are just used by both. We humans would view them as good because we believe that they are here to help us, i.e elder signs or even more direct help. However, they are far and forgetful and again fighting a cosmic war so will they come to help. Only if it serves their purpose. So in short I don't think it ruins HP Lovecraft Mythos but enhances it, and can even add more dread as you are given a false hope and are abandon by something that could be your only hope and come to realize you really no more than the spec of dust we really are.
There are those who step on the anthill, those who step over the anthill, and those who don't see the anthill to begin with.
From the perspective of Humans, only Humans can be purely good because Good to us means what is best for us. Nobody cares for our good except us.
I love your explanation, Joe Hill.
Joe Hill
The way I see the Elder Gods have more in common with us then any other being in the Cthullu Mythos. Therefore they sympathetic to our plight and have our interest in heart. They can relate to us, while the Great Old ones and Outer Gods can't. They aren't good guys just as the Outer Gods aren't bad guys. They just understand humanity and wish to protect it. To some I guess you could say that's quite evil, and to others you could say that's good.
Like it or not, a form of Good and Evil do exist in our universe. It's a spectrum, but it's where things such as laws come from. We don't kill because it hurts our society, just like we don't steal because it's taking something that doesn't belong to us.
However, in the theoretical context of the Cthullu universe this isn't true, because our mere existence could be seen as evil from the perspective of the Great Ones and Outer Gods, or they might not even care due to how insignificant we truly are. This in a way makes us more Alien to the Outer Gods than they could ever be to us. The Elder Gods are in a very unique situation, they're above humanity, but not to the point where they aren't able to understand us.
Jonathan Morgan
This right here. The Elder Gods are closer to humanity, and therefore they're sympathetic towards us. The Outer Gods don't care about humanity, and in order to prescribe to our moral code you'd have to.
I like the idea of more positive entities, to offer some form of levity, value and prudence so we are not completely lost. But yeah for the most part, hopeless and dismay is the more favorable aspect of Lovecraftian horror.
BTW, to answer your question with the bacteria... that depends if they have enough of a functioning consciousness to feel pain and torment, let alone distinguish good from evil.
For me, I like to think of the Elder Gods, not as purely good, but at least a greater good than the other dieties, ones who are more benevolent and perhaps do give life on earth some place in the universe, but are still not perfect beings themselves.
i like gherman's theme in the background, its a good touch to the video!
even though it has been 3 years since these came out they are still amazing to watch when your waiting for a scp episode
I think fans of the Cthulhu Mythos should recognize Nodens, the other Elder Gods, and their purpose because they represent a few things that still work with the overall mythos.
1. They represent how the gods of the old religions are the weakest of the 3 types (Outer Gods, Old Ones, and Elder Gods), and it puts into perceptive how the great products of human religion pale in comparison to the even greater beings of the universe.
2. (Spoilers for Bloodborne) After seeing TheExploringSeries' recent Bloodborne video, he shows how Gherman can very easily live in a world with greater beings even than himself. I interpreted it as Gherman opposed the Moon Presence (who may stand in for Nyarlathotep), but only because the Old One allows it. Keep in mind that it makes the player replace Gherman as the guide to help other hunters, meaning the Moon Presence creates its own opposition.
3. Much like how Nyarlathotep enjoys toying with humanity, Nodens could take interest in wanting the respect and worship of humanity. It's like if someone wanted to become the god of a lesser species, they could either rule by fear or gain true praise and admiration, I believe Nodens seeks the latter.
Wolfgod 64 the products of human religion?
Wait are you trying to say that religion creates gods? That’s literally the opposite of how religion works.
I swear people don’t understand the basics of what religion is.
@@Quincy_Morris How do you know for sure? If there are any gods at all, it's not impossible that they spring into existence after enough people believe in them. Certainly it could work that way in a (as far as we know) fictional universe like the Mythos.
Nodens= Zeus served by Xenomorph....
But seriously though, this God is actually quiet cool and unique, so it's a great change in the mythos
Derleth took that one description of R.C. being saved by Nodens and used it to shape this idea of a war between Elder Gods and Great Old Ones. While I never really cared for D.'s ideas and writing, it's a notion that could have some merit. So long as you don't try and follow the idea that the E.G. are benign protectors of humanity. If I am to accept this notion as part of the Mythos, I would say that the conflict is more like the Titanomachy of Greek legends. (Which according to most sources occurred before mankind became a significant presence on Earth.)
I think one of the post below has it right. It's not that Nodens is a good or person-friendly god, but has animosity toward Nyarlathotep. Also, he may not like human beings in general, but may have had a certain fondness for R.C.
Best elucidation of this lies in the existing myths from the ancient world. Few of the gods of Sumeria, Babylon, Greece, Rome, liked or loved humanity. Not in the sweeping, inclusive way that we might want. But they definitely had human beings that they took an interest in and supported. (And sometimes betrayed.)
A lot of people say that Lovecraft's work was a totally new creation. Without taking anything away from H.P. I have to say that this isn't really true. His mythos basically took the darkest aspects of already existing gods and condensed them into new forms, with new names.
It could be that the Elder Gods are actually the "gods of Earth" that were the driving idea in Lovecraft's story "The Other Gods". If that were the case, they would be far weaker than the Outer Gods and actually under their protection. I like the theory of them being Nyarlathotep too, because that would almost make it like Derleth's restructuring of the mythos was just a plan by Nyarlathotep to trick humans into having false hope!
sasugakirin But Nyarlythotep isn't real.
OR IS HE?!?!?!
When the Elder gods are described as being 'protected' by the 'the Other Gods' I always took that as being 'protected' euphemistically in the same way one is 'protected' by a gangster or a prisoner is 'protected' by his jailer.
I always read the final paragraph of Drem-Quest Of Unknown Kadath to imply the Elder Gods were prisoners of Nyarlathotep.
Chinaboatman That's what I thought too, since in the final paragraph Nyralathotep called them the "mild gods of earth" which would make sense with Nodens being the Celtic god, Baset being Egyptian, and Hypnos being Greek.
Chinaboatman That's a very interesting thought
I feel like Nodens is just beyond us in a sense where we are too small in an infinitely complex universe to truly "help". It'd be like if we went to Mars to save a dying species of bacteria from another alien race who was accidentally killing them.
Holy shit. That last sentence gave me chills
Been wat hung this series for writing inspiration thanks much appreciated
a lovecraftian entity without tentacles? MADNESS!
I here that song in the background. How dare you touch my “Feels bad” box!
When this series came out 4 years ago it put me in a funk that I think I’m just now starting to come out of
No one:
Not even a soul:
Me: "I must consult with the Elder Gods"
Excellent use of the First Hunter song, by the way
Amazing videos. Old youtube comments have people be fascinated so easily also. Just a few words at the end
The most interesting part is that you used the GREAT bloodborne theme "THE FIRST HUNTER" in that video
I always upvote for Lovecraft videos with Bloodborne music! :D
Nodens is written about by Lovecraft and is canon, but he is not classified in the existing hierarchies. I do not accept Derleth's classifications, and the Lovecraftian beings need not conform to classifications.
I did notice that you used a piece from bloodborne's soundtrack(that piece's name is "the first hunter")and what you did was pretty cool since bloodborne and H.P. Lovecraft's works does have similarities
Is it just me or did that ending give anyone chills?
My personal favorite theory is that Nodens is an aspect of Nyarlathotep created for the dark God’s amusement. After all what is a chess game with no opponent?
YOU NEED TO COVER THE NECRONOMICON (Book) in future :D
doesnt matter how low it is, I recognize gehrmans theme anywhere
I never really liked the idea of good and evil in the Cthulhu mythos. The mythos always seemed to be more gray and translucent. As if to twist and warp our views as we looked into it. Wars between good and evil deities are all fine and well. They just made little sense in cosmic horror settings. When thinking about the Nodens and other "good" deities, I always entertained the idea that they were the same entities as the outer gods. That they were a sort of twisted split personality. That they pitted against themselves unknowingly. That in the grand scheme of things humans are still part of an incomprehensible "war", from which there is no escape nor an end nor a meaning to their short pointless existence. Of course this sort of Nihlism isn't one I have in real life. Just one I like to apply regarding the Lovecraftian Universe's useless attempts to classify that which is unclassifiable.
That beautiful First Hunter in the background.
I like the addition of Gehrman the first hunter's soundtrack.
The idea of there being 'good' gods to combat the 'evil' outer gods does fly in the face of the whole point of the universe, but I really like the idea of there being gods that more match our traditional notion of the word next to these alien sacks of mucus. I brings up a lot of questions about where these beings actually come from, what their real form is, and really the fact that they've taken faces that look like ours make them more terrifying and uncomfortable than those who slither around lookin' like jellied squid in a lot of ways. It also adds some extra terror to the outer gods and old ones by virtue of the fact that these recognizable gods are not greater than them, but are in fact equal to or even below these other beings.
I like to think the Elder Gods, Outer Gods, and Great Old Ones are all morally ambiguous, but since the Elder Gods don't cause nearly as much trouble for humanity as the other two groups, humans simply interpret them as being "good". But it doesn't mean they really are good.
~gasp~
Yu-Gi-Oh! I can't wait to build that deck.
Not gonna lie, the ending gave me chills
Elder Gods either outright ignore us or manipulate us to their own ends.
Noden sounds to me like a microbiologist who finds us bacteria like creatures interesting and useful to his design the difference between with him and Nyarlathotep being that Noden approaches mortal affairs in a tactful manner while Nyarlathotep is just an epic troll.
Not really good vs evil more like reason vs madness/order vs chaos.
Dude this is sooo interesting. I love the Cthullu mythos
2:51
I agree with you with all of them except Nyarlathotep. He's just objectively evil
He's chaotic. His actions are beyond our scope of comprehension
@@misere390 it's not beyond our comprehension though. He literally just wanted to fuck with people. Also he had a job to wake the sleeping Gods, but he never did it because he enjoyed fucking with people that much
The endless dark void where no light is said to be no existent not even a dim flicker.
Rides a large seashell, pulled by legendary creatures.
Dolphin in the corner.
all i can picture while hes talking is Gerhman fighting Cthulu-style beasts with tentacles :D
Nuada of the silver hand was a high king of Ireland , leader of the Tuatha Dè Danann ( the people of the goddess Danu) the Tuatha Dè Danann are Deities themselves, seems lovecraft lifted that wholesale from Irish Mytholy/ history
At the start Gehrman's theme was playing, and me as a bloodborne fan just screeched.
Isn’t Nuada (probably failed on the spelling) the name of the elf prince in Hell Boy The golden Army? I wonder what the connection is, if there even is a connection.
I’m not sure how/why I even remember his name since it’s been several years since I watched that movie. 🙂✌️
The plottwist is near obvious when you take a second look at his servitors
How could this be the work of anything else but Nyarlathotep
HA! Thanks for including the Yugioh card. I can't wait until the rest of the Lovecraft set is released.
RIP Norden and my Lovecraft Deck
it's all Nyarlathotep now
For some reason I always felt that Derelth's Elder Gods always felt a little too 'clean' and wishy washy compared to the rest of the Mythos.
Nodens looks like the Christian and catholic depiction of god, he also looks like Poseidon and Zeus too.
I like the idea of good. deity in the Mythos who oppose Azathoth and his minions and designs
Personally, i think Nodes was a curious adding to the mythos, Lovecraft always invited other writers to join his universe, and yes, Nodens is not like anyother entity in the Lovecraftverse, but i kind of like him. However, something that i read many times is that he fucking HATES humanity, Nodens is not on ourside because he likes to, he just helps humans because the only thing he despises more than humanity is Nyarlathothep, and by helping humans, he can indirectly fuck with Nyarlathothep (?). Great video tbh, i really like what you do on this channel.
Nodens is like a lot of angels. Angels are not necessarily good and do not always care for humans. It is a mistake to think there is no danger in working with celestial spirits.
The way I see it taking it from the hunter point of view: He could just be using humans to help him with his hunt not caring whither or not the humans lives or dies.
Think about it if he can get his game by seemingly helping humans it doesn't matter he did a "good" thing: its a hunter and his game...And the humans might just be the bait they use.
"...pulled by legendary creatures." Legendary creatures such as griffins, unicorns, and dolphins.
Silver is God's daughter, God is Gold!!
I mean its not that bad to have a being or beings that seem to assist humans as long as you make it complex and don't make then come in rarely to assist right.....
Sees the rest of the comment section:
You guys are hopeless
Ikr? If they help us, and hate what cares not for us, what use have we to suspect them, there is a horror all its own in that. A creature that "cares", but does it? A concept that itself seems to escape human compression.
yipkin knights Well hello there
3:02, YES. If they were capable of putting name to us (which we evidentally have with elder gods) or had any sort of brain that could define good and evil, then yes, bacteria would define us as evil. We are capable of defining good and evil, saying that you can’t apply such concepts to entity simply because we don’t fully understand it or because it is far beyond us in power is idiotic.
Where Extra History has "It was Walpole", Exploring has "It was Nyarlathotep"
Marduk our protector against the the old gods
Anybody else notice the YuGiOh card "Elder Entity Norden", at 0:11, and 2:35?
Yugioh brought me here, great work and very informative
Y'know Caleb from RPPR had a great take on one of the Elder Gods, Bast, in a Delta Green campaign. She took the original party as her servants on Earth to hunt Mythos shit, the killing of which would feed her. The players could sense Mythos-esque radiation through her favor and would be compelled to destroy it. Of course on the surface this sounds all kinds of awful in a Mythos sense, I mean they're some fancy gadgets away from being G.I Joe, well get this: Bast wants them to kill ANYTHING tainted by the Mythos, because she's a predator, and a fucking lion doesn't care if it's Mother Theresa or Jared Fogel it's about to pounce on when it's hungry.
The whole campaign became about the concept of a food chain within the Mythos with the players as Bast's 'Teeth' so to speak, which became more and more fucked up with time until most of the party ended up dead, on the run, one turned into a serial killer only able to quell the hunger in his soul by killing someone, and one guy ended up being a servant of Hastur forever hunting in Carcosa.
...oh also Bast at one point used one of them to make out with a form of Nyarlathotep as part of an extradimensional hatefuck. Not a pleasant experience for that guy.
Man, I'd love to play in a game run by Caleb. I've run some of his No Security scenarios and he seems like an incredibly creative guy.
0:13 is yugioh card art also! It’s a super busted card that got banned XD
My favourite instant fusion target!
I like the "bacteria" reference.
Since canon is so loosely defined in this mythos, I can just disregard the elder gods, if I want, right?
I'm late for the party I guess, just wanted to nod on your choice of music. Gehrman and the Moon Presence are very appropriate comparison to Nodens and Nyarlathotep.
Gherman's theme? I like it.