Inventing The Mythos

[@SlimeBlueMS]

Your work is indistinguishable from Lovecraft's. What essentially started as a fanfic has become official lore, you're an inspiration for every fanboy. Thank you so much for everything Sandy

[@mandilarator]

HPL would be really proud of Sandy's creations! He is definitely up there along C.A. Smith, Robert Bloch and others in Lovecraft's circle. On a lighter note, the comment on the librarian of Caelano being "so creepy that would make Cthulhu want to give back an overdue book" made me cry with laughter. And when he mentioned Satyrs, I instantly remembered Sandy's CoC scenario "Panacea" from Petersen's Abominations, which everyone should check out!

[@Rizimar]

In the next video, Sandy will reveal that he was Lovecraft all along

[@Julian_The_Apostate]

It must be interesting to have people go up to you and talk to you about all the things they love about HPL's books and have half of what they say be something you actually created.

[@SandyofCthulhu]

I try not to correct them but agree that Lovecraft's great.

[@ArkhamReporter]

Your contributions and impact to the Mythos is legendary at this point. Thank you Sandy!

[@Wolfphototech]

*The less one knows of something .* *The easier it is to fear it .*

[@derekmino3663]

Featherless bipeds WITH BROAD FLAT NAILS. *throws plucked chicken*

[@MaxWriter]

Read "Notebook Found in an Abandoned House" in middle school. It scared the hell out of me. It sounds like you approached this logically in a way that made sense for most of the stories and I, for one, appreciate that. Thanks for the information.

[@SandyofCthulhu]

yes, it's by Robert Bloch and though the tree-like monster there is supposedly a shoggoth I used part of its description for the Dark Young.

[@unperson5713]

The difference between horror and science fiction is the level of detail divulged to the media consumer. “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown” HPL “In the world of ideas, to name something is to own it. If you can name an issue, you can own the issue.” Thomas L. Friedman

[@roninbadger7750]

lovercraft lore is great for this reason. People build off of it. Its become a meme. which is fantastic. There are a great portion of people who haven't read a single word published or written from HPL but know of the mythos of chtulhu.

[@johnstorm9314]

If there's anyone qualified to add to the Mythos, it's you, Sandy. Keep at it.

[@tazmokhan7614]

Pretty sure the forefathers of Cthulhu writings would be proud of y our creation of not only a new Great Old One and its addition to the pantheon that is the Great Old Ones but also the fleshing out of the entire Mythos itself and by doing that giving it clarity to everyone who reads the old writing and plays the game, in a way you are our founder of Cthulhu in TTRPG, and how many TTRPG companies have licensed your work and added to your legacy? I for one ( for what it worth) am very proud of you and your accomplishments in this area and i know for certain you will go down in TTRPG history as the Father of Cosmic Horror TTRPG.

[@erichinkle7347]

Great video! I love what you did with Bloch's monster from 'Notebook'. And the Yothans sound great; maybe they're related to the reptile men from the Nameless City? With the Martense clan, though, I always thought they were supposed to be ghouls. And that the satyrs came from or were inspired by Machen's 'Great God Pan'. Though they were pretty freaky even in that story. Or were implied to be.

[@sirguy6678]

To miss quote the bard “An elder being by any other name would still be as horrifying” 🤣

[@jarrod6670]

You definitely know a lot about this subject, and some say you are a Great Old One. Thanks Sandy (featherless biped)!!

[@SandyofCthulhu]

GOBO

[@SlimeBlueMS]

@@SandyofCthulhu great old bald one?

[@AlecG]

well done, you made up some of the coolest monsters in the game. Awesome work!

[@maximilianobartomucci6044]

I love all of your videos, but these ones where you reveal part of your creative process are by far my favorite. I kinda already imagined you considered a lot of the monsters mostly as your own interpretations/additions on the mythos, and mainly as guidelines on how to make different types of creatures for the system, and expected us GMs to customize or replace them as we pleased. I really liked most of them just as they were (and I really love the particular selection of creatures you did), but still made a couple of changes in a few for my CoC games. For instance, I never made the Dimensional Shamblers be humanoid (I made them more similar to the star vampire in general shape), and depicted the Hounds of Tindalos as creatures with not even a slight resemblance to actual hounds. I hope to be able to show, and gift, some of my art to you one day, as I'd love to know what you think of my interpretations.

[@chriscotgrove9674]

You're a legend, sir. I have no doubt at all that Grandpa Theobald would love your interpretations of his work.

[@kylenetherwood8734]

I watched this for entertainment, but this turned out to be an invaluable resource.

[@jacobhope6164]

Wow! I loved playing Call of Cthulu when I was in Jr. High and High School! I was inspired to read H.P. Lovecraft after playing my first session. Thank you so much for your contributions. I believe I have you to thank for my love of the genre.

[@wbbartlett]

Finding the Mythos via CoC I find it fascinating to hear about Sandy's substantial contributions to it. After HPL & Derleth, Sandy is probably the next most significant contributor and the one responsible for Cthulhu's rise into modern pop culture. Cheers, Mr P.

[@RabbitEngineering]

Love these insights! Thank you for sharing and keep the great videos coming.

[@verticalflats2816]

I don't think hpl would be as popular without you and your efforts. I am having a hard time resisting calling you great old Bald one.

[@rolandkatsuragi]

I had no idea you were such a big contributing factor the Lovecraft mythos.

[@pillager6441]

Like the dark young fits in so well

[@alexconner3958]

Dude, you made the Quake Shambler?? That is one of my favorite monsters ever! Would looove a Quake 1 remake with all these Lovecraftian horrors in modern fidelity!

[@sirguy6678]

Excellent video and great thought analysis! You could have named every monster “ Bill” - Bill a horrible and indescribable monster with 4 pages of description

[@fulvousmacshiddenhobbyworl5567]

Wasn't there a description of a horde of Dark Young in Lovecraft's story "The Mound" or am I mistaken? I recall the protagonist hiding from a mob of stampeding creatures in the night when reading I had imagined your description of the dark young. I can confirm a cult in the story worshipped Shub-Niggurath. I have your new 5e book en route and am very excited to digest all of the art, stories, stat sheets and your contributions to the Mythos!

[@andresmicalizzi5420]

This video has been really educating! I love CoC and a lot of games that have spun off of that, and drank from Lovecraft's work and yours! Thanks for your work over this years!

[@joshuamontoya-fk5ei]

I am glad someone like Sandy creates masterpiece after masterpiece. These are great monsters and outer God names and mythologies . H.P. L. Would be proud .

[@AlegraGilgamesh]

Re: Your creation the Dark Young, FYI it also appears on the PS1 game Koudelka (and a Gug), and In the Mouth of Madness (Barely visable in the film itself, but seen completely in a behind the scenes FX interview with the company involved in the film (Dont have name of the show sorry, was broadcast in the UK around 1995).

[@krinkrin5982]

In the anime Overlord, the main character sacrifices a lot of people to summon three Dark Young.

[@AluVixapede]

If I ever make first contact with what I think is a real, actual alien, I'm going to literally say "We're the featherless bipeds :)" They'll be like "we watched that video too" (It'll be really, really awkward from that point on.)

[@romulusnuma116]

Very interesting to hear so many names and monsters I only know because of you

[@chadrobert116]

So much intellectual properties allowed to be used, pretty neat.

[@osoewert6439]

This might be -nah, it is - one of my favorite videos you've done.

[@alexanderbeta-werburghii6176]

I love what you've done Sandy [as an HPL reader and a CoC player since the 80's] and I've read most of the influencers and and influenced writers of HPL. In my opinion one just has to compare more modern Mythos additions like Brian Lumley, to see how right you got it.

[@osoewert6439]

Great video, Sandy. I'm loving the history here.

[@JaketheCultist]

Another amazing production! It's been years since I read the first (maybe it was the second?) edition of CoC, so if the Servitors were there, I have forgotten about them, can you do a video on the servitors and azathoth?

[@SandyofCthulhu]

The servitors were totally there.

[@JaketheCultist]

@@SandyofCthulhu Look, I just want some danke lore about the servitors and Azathoth from your perspective, I feel Azathoth is often overlooked and it seems that Thomas Ligotti is the only person who ever ran wild with the Deamon Sultan lol. Thomas Ligotti is awesome btw, I'm sure you already know this :P

[@nickdavison268]

Absolutely fascinating. Thanks.

[@joedredd1168]

As a massive Tolkien fan, I really appreciate the Palantír reference. :)

[@chrissouthey5748]

I agree with the philosophy on the Mythos. I've even started a thread on the Yogsothoth.com forums asking people to share their additions, then maybe we as a community could expand on them

[@robertcanuti750]

Its just intrinsic to myth and fantasy, that they are the product of interaction with something that is not understood. Each cultural or personal encounter creates a new apprehension of whatever elements of the Unknown are experienced. And so each encounter generates a "new" entity or concept which our brains label and categorize as best they can in the face of the inexplicable. Theoretically, entities which you apparently invented, named, or incorporated from other fiction may already be represented by more than one name unconnected ostensibly in the more directly related and self referential Cthulhu Cycle materials. In other cases, they almost surely are (shantaks/hunting horrors could even be "mature" faceless flyers or byakhee, and so on). People love the whimsical ideas of catalogues and indexes of beings with names and bios and know sighting locations... But the truth is that there is no such thing as a "vampire" or a "kobold" or a "dragon". Those are constructs invented by men to explain something they knew little to nothing about. We will never know what a dragon really is as we are- only a dragon knows what a dragon is. For all its usefulness and illuminative properties, science has done all of us the great disservice of teaching us to assume that all things are what and as we have named them...

[@H-HWJvN]

Apropos of your own contribution to the Mythos, Mr. Petersen, I noticed that Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos (for 5E) is out of stock (just checked Amazon.com), and some guys are trying to sell the book for an outrageous price. Is there any change it receives a new printing?

[@arthurpetersen1783]

It's on sale (and should be in stock) on Petersen Games' website right now: petersengames.com/the-games-shop/cthulhu-mythos-for-5e/

[@SandyofCthulhu]

it's in print on our website petersengames.com and you can even get it at a discount if you also get the sagas.

[@Skullkan6]

Where did Tulzscha come out of The Festival? I take it that's also where the Servitor came from but I have become strangely obsessed with that particular god and I am curious.

[@thespence6]

If I remember correctly, Tulzscha is the eternal green flame that extends to the center of the earth. And I believe the Servitors are in several other stories as well

[@Exar_Kun]

Hi Sandy I love all the amazing work you do and have done for the Mythos!! Question tho about the “flying worms” didn’t Fritz Lieber introduce them? They play a huge part in his story “Terror From The Depths”.

[@AaronLitz]

Cool!

[@rafaelmoretti403]

Now I am half way to madness. Thanks for nothing, sandy. 😂

[@tedankhamenbonnah4848]

Have you ever read any Samuel Butler, Sandy? His Erewhon has a very Lovecarftean feel - for a social satire.

[@Loehengrin]

I always thought that the darkyoung were based on Wilbur Whatley's brother.

[@SpectrumDT]

Question: Whence comes the name "star-spawn" for Cthulhu's race? AFAIR Lovecraft used "star-spawn" once to refer to the Elder Things but never to Cthulhu's race. Did you arbitrarily assign them this name?

[@FirstLast-ew1st]

The phrase "the worse than formless star spawn" is used to describe creatures associated with Tsathoggua in At the Mountains of Madness. Presumably this referred to the liquid monster found at Tsathoggua's abandoned temple in The Tale Of Satampra Zeiros, which at the time was Tsathoggua's only other appearance. The hyphenated "star-spawn" is used later by Dr Dyer to describe the Old Ones towards the end of AtMoM, so it's more like a pseudo-archaic term for extraterrestrials in general. I think the fact that in AtMoM, Cthulhu's race are constantly called Cthulhu spawn might have something to do with why they get saddled with the term.

[@singletona082]

'Scary enough to make Cthuhlu give back an overdue book' PFFtaaahahaha. But no, really. Stealing books is kind of a dick move. Stealing from a library is *definitely* a dick move. Don't do it.

[@ethanjoyce2810]

Who would win, kthanid or cthulhu? I've heard kthanid is the "kind/good cthulhu" so I think it'd be interested to see if they were to, for what ever reason, go toe to toe. What is your opinion, as an expert?

[@arthurpetersen1783]

Sandy is not a fan of Kthanid

[@Skullkan6]

Cthulhu wins.

[@SandyofCthulhu]

Kthanid is one invention I have zero truck with.

[@gearmachine_4885]

I have to say, Brian Lumley’s work really doesn’t fit into that whole Mythosverse

[@SandyofCthulhu]

@@gearmachine_4885 I do like the Cthonians

[@gearmachine_4885]

Did you trademark all your ideas or did everyone who used them, thinking it was lovecrafts work, just accidentally ignore the copyright?

[@SandyofCthulhu]

Maybe Chaosium trademarked them. My theory was that I wanted to emulate Lovecraft and let everyone use these critters.

[@cinderheart2720]

Huh, why can't I see any of the comments? Anyways, great video.

[@bradmajors390]

First.

[@gearmachine_4885]

to go mad are all those who looketh upon the great old one!

[@Katesloveslave]

So I don't know how much you get into Japanese anime, but you should really check out the series called Overlord. In the last season during one of the episodes a lich that's the main character summons dark Young.