Reply #33: Lovecraft Mythos. Cthulhu.

[NuttyFluffers]

check out any of Lovecraft's works, any writers inspired by him, and the items from Chaosium and Green Ronin (particularly Delta Green).

cthonic is greek reference to 'of the earth.' cthonic deities refers to earth dieties many societies had before having astral deities. concepts like sphinx, titans, etc. previously dealing with death and rebirth, eternal cycle of life, undying, reincarnation -- later vilified by cults and religions by astral deities. these cthonic deities were then incorporated in the concept of demons, evil, hell, underworld, horrors as a counterpoint against the lofty greatness of cults' astral deities.

taking this well known concept (at the time) Lovecraft, during the Edwardian era, wrote horror stories about long dead, hidden, suppressed alien gods. and the greatest horror about them was the dispassionate antipathy of the human condition. the horror was that the universe was a cold, disordered, unfair, and often cruel place that had no special place for man -- we were playthings to greater powers and there's no one to save us, and all we work at is futile in the face of such an uncaring and omnipotent universe.

my History 101 notes, Miskatonic U. at Arkham. :P