Combining Greyhawk & Lovecraft Deities

[Starbeard]

I'm trying to come up with some parallels or alter egos between the Greyhawk and Lovecraftian pantheons. The only trouble is that I'm not terribly familiar with Greyhawk as a world setting, and I'm not very good at keeping all of the Lovecraft stuff straight in my head, so any ideas or inspiration would be helpful.

So far I've decided that I'd like Shub-Niggurath in there as a major evil cult, either as Zuggtmoy or possibly Lolth. I think Zuggtmoy might be the better fit, since she's all fungusy and I the only description I can find about her true form is in The Temple of Elemental Evil module, which says she's got four pseudopods.

Nyarlathotep definitely should be a major cult figure, but I can't decide who his avatar should be. Iuz? Maybe he's even got two or three Greyhawk avatars.

Any other ideas? And what about the good or neutral gods? Ate there any Lovecraftian elements that I can tack onto them as well?

[scottenkainen]

The Elder Elemental God is definitely Lovecraftian. There are hidden temples to the EEG in very remote areas, like the Hall of the Fire Giant King.

I didn't think demigods had avatars. Nyarlathotep could be an avatar of Tharizdun instead.

In a past campaign of mine, I had the Dunsany gods as an older generation of gods now sleeping. Nyarlathotep (though I called him Petothalran in my campaign) was an active avatar representing all the sleeping gods, though activities of the PCs began to wake up some of them, like Sish.

[stevemitchell]

Nyarlathotep has a thousand guises or avatars in Lovecraft (and Bloch, and Derleth), of which about 990 remain unidentified, so you can certainly plug him in wherever you would like. He is especially useful as the initiator-god worshipped by black magic cultists and witches. Plus the god of the Fungi from Yuggoth, if you want to drag them in from Dragon #12.

Tharizdun is actually derived from Clark Ashton Smith's Thasaidon, the Lord of the Seven Hells. Although, come to think of it, Smith stated that many of the Old Ones had been "reborn" in far-future Zothique under new names and guises, so maybe Thasaidon is the Nyarlathotep of Zothique.

[grodog]

Some additional reading that's worth digging into:

- RJK on HPL @ lordofthegreendragons.blogspot.com/2009/03/phnglui-mglwnafh-cthulhu-rlyeh-waghnagl.html
- RJK on Tharizdun's origins @ www.canonfire.com/cf/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=getit&lid=183 which is reprinted in whole in the Chaotic Henchmen reprint of Dark Druids @ www.chaotichenchmen.com/p/dark-druids-by-robert-j-kuntz.html
- RJK on the Cthulhu Mythos in "Advent of the Elder Ones: Mythos vs. Man in the Lake Geneva Original Campaign, 1973-1976" in AFS#2 (OOP for the moment) @ hallsoftizunthane.blogspot.com/2012/12/afs-issue-2-is-released.html

Rob alludes to further HPL-inspired gods in Bottle City (from Black Blade), as well as in the Maure Castle adventures (in Dragons 112, 124, and 139; see also the Paizo boards @ paizo.com/threads/rzs2h0bz?More-Maure-Mysteries and paizo.com/threads/rzs2ncjv?And-the-true-name-of-Y-is for some teasers/hints from Rob), and the El Raja Key Archive @ www.tlbgames.com/collections/archive offers more Lovecraftian lore research options, too.

All of the in-print products I mention above will be available from Black Blade in our booth if you're attending GaryCon or NTX this year, too: www.facebook.com/BlackBladePublishing/

Allan.

[foxroe]

Ralishaz ==> Azathoth
Wastri ==> Tsathoggua (CAS, not strictly HPL)

[scottenkainen]

Jan 24, 2018 1:07:24 GMT -6 grodog said:

(snipped)
- RJK on HPL @ lordofthegreendragons.blogspot.com/2009/03/phnglui-mglwnafh-cthulhu-rlyeh-waghnagl.html

I got the impression this first link was written by a guest-blogger?

[grodog]

Oops, you're right, Scott: that was James Maliszewski's post. Rob's follow-up is at lordofthegreendragons.blogspot.com/2009/03/mood-in-original-campaign-essay-into.html

Allan.

[Starbeard]

Wow, great suggestions. Those RJK links are a great read.

Tharizdun : Nyarlathotep is a good idea. From what little I own (the box set, ToEE, From the Ashes), he seems to be a bit of a Cthulhu vibe as well, at least in his 'sleeping' period.

I do like the idea of Nyarlathotep having multiple manifestations, ranging from important personages to demigods and deities, and not all of them would necessarily be evil from the perspective of us mere mortals. Pholtus could be one of his masks as easily as Wee Jas or Nerull.

[Starbeard]

I've already revealed Nyarlathotep to my players. Long ago they had accidentally summoned his 'Man in Black' form when fooling around with a magic artifact, and he introduced himself as a true neutral being from a godlike race who wander the dimensions seeking cosmic balance. He voiced interest in some of their own personal quests, and became a patron of sorts for them, even doing a good deed here and there, until they managed to really walk into his trap and screw things over. He was then revealed to be none other than Nyarlathotep himself, and while the party managed to escape his wrath by forfeiting their henchmen, they now have a rather big enemy.

So far he and Tsothaggua are the only classic weird deities I've thrown in. We began with Greyhawk deities, each introduced piecemeal as needed, and so far the only gods who have become fully entrenched into our campaign are St Cuthbert, Ulaa and the Elder Elemental God.