[map making] - Cthulhu R'lyeh

[Pocus]

I would be interested in doing a small map for Doms II, as an exercice of style before engaging into a bigger map project.

The theme would be rather classical : a bad AI bother players while they tear each others happily. As the bad boy, I would like to change a little from Ermor, or Abysia (as in my Elric map), and goes with R'lyeh.

Basically, I would envision the map as a map where water plays an important part, with R'lyeh controlling most of it (xcom terror from the deep!).

The problem is that I'm rather void of any serious knowledge on Cthulhu mythos. I would like preferrably, instead of a bunch or URL, that players interested give me from 1 to xxx ideaq on provinces controlled by Rlyeh, with the following formating :

*Name of province* (generally a sea please), Cthulhu flavor>
*short background description of the province, max 3 lines*
*optional proposal of what there is in, speaking of sites and units*

Thats all, I can handle the rest, but any miscellaneous suggestion is welcome anyway.

Pocus.

[Humer]

Suggestion taken from a board game "Cults Across America": Pull a "Hollow World" (Dom I map), i.e. make R'lyeh control Dreamland (a different map), and link gates to Dreamland from some key locations on the map. Atlas Games has the rulebook .pdf for CAA on their website but, Alas, the URL fails me.

And remember: There's Shoggoth on Every Roof! http://www.cthulhulives.org/shoggoth/

Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn.
- Humer

[ywl]

Depends.

It's kind of hard to translate the Cthulu mythology of the book into your regular land-grabbing fantasy saga.

Cthulu mythology is not really your usual fantasy world. It's more a horror mythology. The original background was mainly in the New England (northeast) of the US during the late 19th century and early 20th century. The time when a pistol is the most powerful personal weapon, (machine guns didn't exist yet) and people travelled by horse-drawn coaches and train. There are later cyber-punk variations of the Cthulu mythology but I haven't read much of them.

According to my interpretation of the books, in Cthulu mythology, super-human beings (Outer-gods, or is it Elder-Gods?) are lurking at the edge of our dimension, and the fringe of our conscious. We are not forced to admit the presence of them except during the brief insight of insanity. The presence of them are so immense and aliened (a key description I got from the book) that a few glances are enough to drive any mortals insane. They don't come into our dimension unless called upon by some insane cultist, using the most obscure rituals. The struggles of the heroes of the fictions are merely vulnerable (bookish) types mortals trying to seal the gate before it's too late. Nothing short of a atomic bomb can touch them (details varied, depending on novels), not to mention your medieval weaponery in dominions. And a side notes, even though Cthulu is the most famous among these beings, he's just a pussy cat comparing to the real ones .

So, there would be no fight between the outer gods and us. No clash of armies. Just futile delay of the inevitable comings of them. Once they're here, we're all doomed.

Dreamland is basically a realm that is reached only during dream (when our denial of the other dimension is the lowerst?) - I'm only on-and-off reading those novels. Outer-gods (?) have a large presence there. It's also more similar to your normal fantasy world could be translated that into a Dominions map. But the fight in a Dominions game is not really the favor of the mythology (if you're looking for more just similarities between province names).

But on the other hand, you can always follow the D&D mythology of the Cthulu monsters - Illithids could be just another subterranean specie, like the Darkelves, hateful of the sun and any living beings under it.

Or we can just make up a Dominion Version of the story - the Nation of R'lyeh is trying to get to a special site called "The Void" (I would try to look for a better name though). Once they get it, the game is lost - heh, it's not a bad idea at all .

[Pocus]

thank you Ywl for these precisions. I know (I even played Call of Cthulu several time in my youth) that Lovecraft mythos dont fit very well with the idea of a war between big bad outer beings and mundane nations (well not so mundane, have you seen the magical zoo we can control?), but I want mainly to craft a map based on Rlyeh as the bad guys. So if somebody can give me a bunch of Cthulu names and some notions about the beings, then I'm fine with this.

[atul]

Originally posted by ywl:
And a side notes, even though Cthulu is the most famous among these beings, he's just a pussy cat comparing to the real ones .

Got even hit by a steam ship with noticeable effect in one short story, if I remember correctly. Such wimpyness, indeed.

Anyway, according to the mythos Cthulhu is supposed to be sleeping in sunken city of R'lyeh with his Starspawn servants 'until the stars are right' or something. At the same time coastal provinces are harrassed by Deep Ones, which serve the Starspawns (and also two beings known as Father Dagon and Mother Hydra).

I don't know if time-related events are scriptable in scenarios, but I wondered if following would be implementable: At first R'lyeh (at least those guys in the ocean) army would consist mostly of 'Deep ones' (different atlantian slave types, I'd guess), but after a set amount of time the stars are indeed right and R'lyeh capital is supplied with a huge horde of Illithids led by Great Cthulhu himself, and hell would truly break loose for other nations. Of course this could be told by opening story that it has just happened, I just happened to fancy the idea of impending doom.

As for the named sea provinces and themes for them, I don't think I remember of a lot of them portrayed in books I've read (which is not lot, by all means). Mostly sea would be the deep unknown. Sure, Deep ones have built cities there, but who is going to come back to tell about them?

Dreamland is basically a realm that is reached only during dream (when our denial of the other dimension is the lowerst?) - I'm only on-and-off reading those novels. Outer-gods (?) have a large presence there. It's also more similar to your normal fantasy world could be translated that into a Dominions map.

And of course in addition to extra dimensions the time travel is indeed a possibility. I liked the notion about using a map like Hollow World because different floors could indicate different dimensions and/or eras, as in FF8-stylish "to win this war we must win it across the time" or such.

About those names asked for. Well, to throw in a few (*flips open Call of Cthulhu 5th ed RPG rulebook*), the king of aforementioned Dreamland is called Nodens. He doesn't personally fight but summons nightgaunts (little like those ummm void demons (flying, poison attack, those guys) but with paralyzation attack instead of poison). Okay, he's supposed to be friendly towards humans but hey, you can't always win.

There's serpent people, degenerate barbarians when compared to their former glory (think of indep lizards compared to C'tis) worshipping their snakeman god Yig (Father of Serpents general generating sacred serpents, with a few fortified provinces for lizard prod?).

Most guys mentioned before would eat Dominions nations for breakfast if strict to Mythos, but if they are a bit downgraded for play balance, who complains?

There are more, I'm sure, but I'm running a fewer so better stop while I think I'm still making sense.

[ywl]

Originally posted by atul:

quote:

---

Originally posted by ywl:
And a side notes, even though Cthulu is the most famous among these beings, he's just a pussy cat comparing to the real ones .

Got even hit by a steam ship with noticeable effect in one short story, if I remember correctly. Such wimpyness, indeed.

---

In the original novel. But steamboat might be the most powerful machine H.P. Lovecraft could phantom . But as I said, Cthulu is relatively a pussy cat.

If I remember correctly, in another story, *not* by H.P. Lovecraft himself, the British navy used a massive explosive device (not mention specifically but probably ananlogue to an A-bomb) to put him to sleep once again in the Southern Pacific (near Singapore?) .

[Pocus]

I dont see the connection between this dream land and the Cthulu mythos, can somebody elaborate? Why for example some of the inhabitants of this land are friendly toward humans?

dont you have a glossary of nice looking words which could be used for naming provinces and special features?

[Gandalf Parker]

Doing a google on the words
cthulhu name generator
give alot of stuff.

But here is an absolute must-bookmark site you you

http://www.ruf.rice.edu/%7Epound/#pokethulhu

I have it jumping to the Pokemon-Cthulhu generator which is pretty funny and will probably suffice. But look a the other stuff there also.

[johan osterman]

Originally posted by Pocus:
I dont see the connection between this dream land and the Cthulu mythos, can somebody elaborate? Why for example some of the inhabitants of this land are friendly toward humans?

dont you have a glossary of nice looking words which could be used for naming provinces and special features?

I do not think Lovecraft himself made a clear distinction. The stories dealing with the dreamlands are more Dunsanian fantasy than horror. The same names and beings show up in the dreamlands that do in the Lovecraft stories taking place in the waking world. So there are references to the city Kadath both in the dreamlands story Dreamquest for unknown Kadath (if I recall the name correctly) and in the Mountains of madness where it is implied that Kadath lieas at the center of Antarctica. The tone of the stories not dealing with the dreamlands are generally darker.

Most of the Rlyeh's names are from lovecraftian stories, the others we made up and tried to make them sound somewhat similar. Quite a few were ripped from the encyclopedia mentioned below.

Obvious lovecraftian locations, besides sunken Rlyeh, of the top of my head are the Plateau of Leng, Kadath, the dreamland cities like Celaphias and Dylath Leen, the many pillared city of Irem, the planet Yuggoth, the star Formalhaut, the star Aldebran, Lake Hali. As far as I cab recall all except Lake Hali appear in original Lovecraft stories, Lake Hali might be from one of the latter writers continuing the mythos or from the Call of Cthulhu rpg. If you can find a copy of the rpg it should have plenty of names and places if you browse through it, otherwise besides Lovecrafts stories themselves Chaosium has produced a a somewhat cheesy Cthulhu encyclopedia that includes entries both from Lovecraft his followers and from various CoC rpg products.

[ October 09, 2003, 21:32: Message edited by: johan osterman ]

[Gandalf Parker]

[quote]Originally posted by johan osterman:

Obvious lovecraftian locations, besides sunken Rlyeh, of the top of my head are the Plateau of Leng, Kadath, the dreamland cities like Celaphias and Dylath Leen, the many pillared city of Irem, the planet Yuggoth, the star Formalhaut, the star Aldebran, Lake Hali. As far as I cab recall all except Lake Hali appear in original Lovecraft stories, Lake Hali might be from one of the latter writers continuing the mythos or from the Call of Cthulhu rpg.

And Miskatonic University with their team the Fighting Cephalapods! My wife is a total Cthulhu nut. She even has a Miskatnoic U bumber sticker.

MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY
Because getting a good education should involve some sacrifice.

/shout/ WHAT ARE WE GONNA?
/loud whisper/ you dont know....
/shout/ WHEN ARE WE GONNA?
/loud whisper/ you dont know....
/shout/ WHAT ARE WE GONNA?
/shout/ WHEN ARE WE GONNA?
/shout/ MISKATONIC U!
gooOOOOOO CEPHALAPODS!

You know what they say...
once you go cephalapod you will never go back.

(for those who dont know the Cthulhu series, all of the things I posted have a giggle meaning)

[ October 09, 2003, 21:40: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]