- Location
- Upstate NY, USA
- Pronouns
- Fjf
Stygian.
An Undertow of Sand (Percy Jackson and the Cthulhu Mythos)
- Thread starter Shujin
- Start date
Oh but he is a baby, just a baby Elder God.
Yeah baby Percy is eerily knowing and doesn't have the shackles of Percy restraining himself to deal with. Combine that with his more blatant Eldritch nature and you get a very terrifying toddler.
Percy has a Name and that's 100% confirmed which is great. Also he had the betrayal issue even as a 2 year old.
Percy no matter the age remains a little shit.
Sam is probably among the first people he's talked to in English that isn't his mom.
So Percy is a kid but has his really dark moments that even Sam can tell aren't really okay for a human.
Percy's Dreaming House used to be really different.
I have a feeling that Percy is talking about Fate's male forms/Names.
Welp this whole thing was creepy as hell, also it's now confirmed that Fate warped Percy after his birth to better fit her purposes and that it was really painful.
Yeah I'm not sure if Fate loves Percy at this point even by Eldritch Education Mama standards.
All according to Fate's Keikaku. Pushing Percy into the Dreamlands to force him to grow isn't really surprising given that she's shown that she's willing to do stuff like it at a later date when she's gotten better at parenting.
This whole bit is made pretty ironic given what the audience knows.
Percy is an Eye Man.
Artemis is now aware there's an Elder God transforming Khione.
Oh I know about this Name, it's a really horrible story.
Luke's instant liking of Sam for his sheer disrespect towards the concept of gods is great.
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
"A cat is good, too."
I wondered if Sam might be related to a different Sam, but, that's likely a bit obscure...
Why should 'dancing in the Dreamlands' interest someone with an avatar called 'Ace Dreamer', and using an icon of the Ace of Pentacles, which is (allegedly) the tarot card for dreams? Well...
I'm waiting to see if Percy pulls someone or something out of the Dreamlands, into what is allegedly the 'real world'...
I wondered if Sam might be related to a different Sam, but, that's likely a bit obscure...
Why should 'dancing in the Dreamlands' interest someone with an avatar called 'Ace Dreamer', and using an icon of the Ace of Pentacles, which is (allegedly) the tarot card for dreams? Well...
I'm waiting to see if Percy pulls someone or something out of the Dreamlands, into what is allegedly the 'real world'...
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GuesssWho
To Assemble A Name From Scars
- Location
- People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I'm wondering when he'll become Eyeball Dragon I'R'L
I just looked it up and . . . yeah. Bit surprised it wasn't a reference to Arachne, but then again she was more the strangler there.
Glad this is back! Was worried it was dead. Excited for the ending of this arc & the continued derailment of canon.
Shujin
M. NightShujinlan
- Location
- New York, New York
I WILL finish this story dammit! The finish line is in sight!!Glad this is back! Was worried it was dead. Excited for the ending of this arc & the continued derailment of canon.
The finish line!?!?!?!
I thought we had awhile to go.
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
Yup. The 'finish line' of Book One.
((A number of authors have admitted that the number of Books in their Trilogies proves that counting isn't their strong suit...))
GuesssWho
To Assemble A Name From Scars
- Location
- People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Ah yes, like the increasingly inaccurate H2G2 trilogyYup. The 'finish line' of Book One.
((A number of authors have admitted that the number of Books in their Trilogies proves that counting isn't their strong suit...))
Shujin
M. NightShujinlan
- Location
- New York, New York
Nope!
In retrospect, this might have been a big part of the pacing issues some people mentioned if everyone was expecting Undertow to cover all 5 PJO books, then yeah I can see the concern of this story being several million words alone. But this is just the Lightning Thief Redux and nothing else.
It will be a series if I can swing it, but Undertow was planned to be by far the largest of the books. It's explaining the fusion, characters and the world setting for what is essentially a 6 way crossover of all 3 Riordanverse mythologies, OG mythology, Bloodborne and the Cthulhu Mythos that the rest of the books would be using. I really didn't see a way to have it shorter while setting that foundation and having room for the character development of someone like Luke ending the story tolerating Artemis and vice verse without putting in the leg work.
Everyone we met has their book 2 incarnations set up here. Jason being Celt-raised, what Annabeth's role will be, what Piper would be capable of, Nico's situation, etc would all come out of left field if I cut those events out. And I still have more that didn't fit in the main story in the Camp Half-Blood Tales that I'm behind on!!
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Shujin
M. NightShujinlan
- Location
- New York, New York
Ambition was Undertow of Sand's middle nameWhen you put it like that, it almost seems like a big project to take on all at once
- Location
- Oregon, USA
Her not telling him she loved him was definitely deliberate. Whether that was because she didn't love him then or because she was deliberately saving it for effect, I don't think we'll ever find out.
I'm not sure which is worse.
I'm not sure which is worse.
Mustapha Mond
World Controller, Western Europe
So, I've just read this whole story, and I'm really enjoying it. It's pretty great in my opinion.
Anyhow, I have some questions, as well as some comments about some things people have been discussing, both here and on Spacebattles. First though, I'm going to just quickly go over some Lovecraft Lore stuff in order to lay some groundwork for terms I'll be using and such. I mainly know the lore of Lovecraft's own corpus, and don't know much about the extended canon, or the Riordanverse, so I'll just be touching on the former.
I'll also just recommend a couple of really good videos on Lovecraft's classic lore, which do a good job cutting through some misconceptions, as well as containing some very interesting info, like the Other Gods' proclivity for dancing:
First, I want to clear up some misconceptions about Lovecraft's mythology. Now, obviously this is a AU/Fusioncross story, and the writer can take any Liberties whatsoever with the lore of either setting. I'm not doing this to try and "correct" the author. I just find this stuff interesting, and want to explain some of this classic lore stuff, and it's relevant to some of the questions I have.
Alright, all that stuff out of the way, and I have some question and comments about this story in particular.
First, I'm going to talk a bit about the Christian God in Lovecraft, as some people in this thread and over on Spacebattles seemed curious about that.
So, it's a bit ambiguous as to whether or not the Christian God exists in Lovecraft's Mythos, and there are two main arguments, one pro, one con.
On the con side, we have Randolph Carter. Randolph Carter is basically Lovecraft's own official self-insert in his own stories. He knows pretty much all a human can know about spooky stuff in this 'verse, and Randolph Carter does not believe in the God of the Christianity. for a lot of people, that's a one-and-done. If he doesn't believe in the God of Christianity, then he just doesn't exist.
However, on the pro side we have a story called Two Black Bottles, where an evil sorcerer uses black magic to try and control a town. However, when he tries to cast an evil spell on a church, the God of Christianity says "No", and it doesn't work. If we take this as written, and keep in mind that fact that Black Magic in this 'verse comes from the will of the Other Gods, that means that, not only does the Christian God exist, but he is powerful enough to defy the will of the Other Gods, which could potentially put him up there with the likes of Nodens and Nyarko-chan in terms of power.
Speaking of Nodens though, I'm now going to gush all over him, and then ask some questions about him in this story, as he's one of my favorite characters.
Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss, is a mysterious deity in the Lovecraft Mythos. He only shows up in two stories, The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath and The Strange High House in the Mist, so we don't know a lot about him, but what we do know is fascinating.
So, Nodens is a being opposed to the Other Gods, particularly Nyarlathotep, who he has a long-standing rivalry with. He is also allied with the Petty Gods of Earth, and attends their parties sometimes. He is, unlike pretty much everyone else in the setting, not afraid of the Other Gods. He shows up at the end of TDQoUK, and rescues Randolph Carter as he's fleeing from the Servants of Nyarlathotep, where he does one of the craziest things in this 'verse. The servants of Nyarly chasing Carter are Other Gods, and Nodens destroys them with a glance, and sends Nyarlathotep himself reeling in confusion in the process.
Let that sink in. Nodens is powerful enough to destroy Other Gods just by looking at them. He is crazy powerful. Also, frankly, the mere fact that he's managed to be a long-standing rival of Nyarly without getting destroyed, as would typically happen to anyone who opposes the Black Pharoh, was already proof of that.
Nodens is also Lord of the Nightgaunts. Nightgaunts are these creepy looking, rubbery, demon, man-bat things with no faces.
There are two interesting things about them. Firstly, the Petty Gods of Earth fear the Nightgaunts, despite the fact that they are nominally allied. So, Guys like Zeus and Ra are terrified of these things. Secondly, remember those Other God servants of Nyarlathotep from before? Well, Nightgaunts are able to make those guys flee in terror all on their own, and remember, these things are Nodens' servants.
In terms of raw power, Nodens is easily more powerful than Shub-Niggurath, and should have at least parity with Nyarlathotep. However, you can actually make a good case for Nodens being even more powerful than Nyarko-chan. Not only are Nodens' servants more powerful than Nyarly's, but Nodens is unafraid of the Other Gods in general. So, he's not just unafraid of Nyarly, but also of Nyarly putting together an Other God hit-squad to try and gang up on him. Of course, this could be because the Other Gods are terrible at working together, but the argument is there. And of course, it kind of makes sense that he wouldn't be too scared of Azathoth, despite being weaker than him, as Azathoth is kind of useless in a fight.
What all this means for this story is that, if Percy ever does come across Nodens, then he better freaking watch himself. Because Nodens isn't going to give two flying craps about "Mother Dearest" or her "Pranks".
One thing I would actually to see in this story is a demigod child of Nodens. I think it would be funny, if slightly cliche, if this child and Percy ended up becoming friends, much to both their parents chagrin. I also just thing the images of a little girl going on father-daughter hunting trips with Nodens, and giving Nightgaunts pet names as they babysit her, are kind of adorable.
Now, in real life, "Nodens" is a cognate names like "Nuada" and "Nudd", so in this story he's depicted as a Celtic Deity. However, from what the Author has said, it sounds like being a celtic deity is more "something to do on a Friday night" rather than who Nodens really is. does that all sound about right, @Shujin?
One thing that has weirded me out about this story is the way everyone acts like Percy is unprecedented and impossible, when Yog-Sothoth litereally had two demigod kids very recently. Heck, they even made the mortal newspapers! Do the Olympians just not know about them for some reason?
It also makes me kind of want to see more Demigod children of Yog as well, considering we already have a pretty good idea what they should look like. Having them be shy and nerdy, as their father is the god of nerds (as well as literally being all nerds who ever existed simultaneously), would be kind of fitting.
Also I recently learned that Catholic Saints apparently exist in the Riordanverse. Does that mean that we could have a cameo from Santa Claus?!
If so, can we get Santa to visit camp on christmas? Those poor kids definitely deserve it.
The Hounds of Tindalos were actually invented by a different author than Lovecraft named Frank Belknap Long, and Lovecraft himself only references them in passing in one of his stories, ironically the same one where the Mi-go are established as being able to time travel. I think it's likely that Lovecraft just included them as a fun shout-out, without really thinking about their lore implications. This is honestly kind of typical of him, as, for example, his depiction of Tsathoggua is totally different from Smith's. Personally, I don't regard the Hounds as being canon to Lovecraft's Mythos, at least not as Long envisioned them.
Actually, @Shujin, are we going to see any of the Great Race show up in this story? It would make sense for them to send some eye-witnesses to document the second Titanomachy.
Also, the Mi-go would be interesting. They serve Nyarly, and as much as Luke has become inured to Percy's weirdness, learning that his Mom has an inter-galactic empire at her beck and call might just break him. As for the Mi-go themselves, they might freak out at Percy, like having the president's baby dropped in your lap. Of course, being aliens, they might very well try to "hALP", put his brain in a jar, and fly him to the Void to be with his Mommy.
Anyhow, I have some questions, as well as some comments about some things people have been discussing, both here and on Spacebattles. First though, I'm going to just quickly go over some Lovecraft Lore stuff in order to lay some groundwork for terms I'll be using and such. I mainly know the lore of Lovecraft's own corpus, and don't know much about the extended canon, or the Riordanverse, so I'll just be touching on the former.
I'll also just recommend a couple of really good videos on Lovecraft's classic lore, which do a good job cutting through some misconceptions, as well as containing some very interesting info, like the Other Gods' proclivity for dancing:
First, I want to clear up some misconceptions about Lovecraft's mythology. Now, obviously this is a AU/Fusioncross story, and the writer can take any Liberties whatsoever with the lore of either setting. I'm not doing this to try and "correct" the author. I just find this stuff interesting, and want to explain some of this classic lore stuff, and it's relevant to some of the questions I have.
So, you'll often hear people categorize dieties in the Mythos into "Great Old Ones", "Elder Gods", and "Outer Gods", but this terminology was invented after Lovecraft's death by guys like Derleth and Chaosium, and doesn't have much precedent in Lovecraft's own writing.
Firstly, Lovecraft never uses the term "Outer Gods" in any of his fiction. The closest you get is "gods of the outer hells", but even that isn't usual. He also never uses the term "Elder God" the way Derleth does. Now, Lovecraft did use the term "Great Old One" in his works, but not as a way of describing a specific class of deities. It was actually just a catch-all term for ancient beings that once inhabited the Earth. It's actually only ever used specifically in Lovecrafts stories to refer to two sets of beings, the Spawn of Cthulhu, and the Elder Things, neither of which are gods, and the latter of which are a totally mundane and material race of aliens.
In Lovecraft's own fiction, he makes reference to two sets of deities. The first are what he calls the "Petty" or "Mild Gods of Earth". I just like to call these guys "The Petty Gods". The Petty Gods specifically include two pantheons: the Olympians, and the Egyptians. There are some oblique references in Lovecraft's stories to Norse, Hindu, and Buddhist stuff, but no explicit confirmation those pantheons exist. There is also a Petty God that Lovecraft himself invented called Nath-Horthath, who is worshipped in the dreamlands, and that's all we know about him. There are also Petty Gods from other planets, such as a Moon Goddess called Ale, so the Petty Gods of Earth aren't unique or anything.
The second set of deities are what Lovecraft refers to as "The Other Gods". Note: this is the official term used both by Lovecraft himself, and characters in setting. The Other Gods are a group of deities that live in what Lovecraft called "The Void" or "The Outside", which is a realm that lies beyond the Ultimate Gate and the Ordered Universe (which is the name of Lovecraft's multiverse of infinite timelines and universes), including guys like Cthulhu, Nyarko-chan, and Shubby. In addition, the Mayan gods also exist in Lovecraft's universe, but they are not Petty Gods, they are actually Other Gods. Also, to give you an idea of the pecking order here, Cthulhu is pretty low-tier as far as Other Gods go, but we actually have good reason to believe that Cthulhu is more powerful than all the Mayan gods put together, and all of the Other Gods are far more powerful than the Petty Gods too. Some people don't like the term "Other Gods", as they think it's lame. Fortunately, Lovecraft does sometimes refer to these entities as the "Ultimate Gods". You can use that if you think it sounds cooler, and still be faithful to Lovecraft's original lore.
The Other Gods also all smell really bad, and are hated by dogs, for some reason.
Now, the Petty Gods are opposed to the Other Gods, and anciently, when the Spawn of Cthulhu were waging war on the Atlanteans, the Olympian gods helped out by sinking the continent of Mu, where the Spawn of Cthulhu live, and where R'lyeh resides. The Other Gods then retaliated by sinking Atlantis. In recent times though, the Petty Gods were convinced to pack up and move to the dreamlands by the Other Gods, and are now said to be under the Other Gods' protection, for some reason. This is never really explained, though I reckon for this story at least, it has something to do with the Petty Gods being servants of the Other Gods who rebelled, like @Shujin explained, minus the whole part about them moving to the dreamlands.
There are also some oddball deities that don't fit in either category, such as Nodens, Hastur, and the Christian God (maybe, we'll get to that.)
Anyhow, onto the second misconception.
Firstly, Lovecraft never uses the term "Outer Gods" in any of his fiction. The closest you get is "gods of the outer hells", but even that isn't usual. He also never uses the term "Elder God" the way Derleth does. Now, Lovecraft did use the term "Great Old One" in his works, but not as a way of describing a specific class of deities. It was actually just a catch-all term for ancient beings that once inhabited the Earth. It's actually only ever used specifically in Lovecrafts stories to refer to two sets of beings, the Spawn of Cthulhu, and the Elder Things, neither of which are gods, and the latter of which are a totally mundane and material race of aliens.
In Lovecraft's own fiction, he makes reference to two sets of deities. The first are what he calls the "Petty" or "Mild Gods of Earth". I just like to call these guys "The Petty Gods". The Petty Gods specifically include two pantheons: the Olympians, and the Egyptians. There are some oblique references in Lovecraft's stories to Norse, Hindu, and Buddhist stuff, but no explicit confirmation those pantheons exist. There is also a Petty God that Lovecraft himself invented called Nath-Horthath, who is worshipped in the dreamlands, and that's all we know about him. There are also Petty Gods from other planets, such as a Moon Goddess called Ale, so the Petty Gods of Earth aren't unique or anything.
The second set of deities are what Lovecraft refers to as "The Other Gods". Note: this is the official term used both by Lovecraft himself, and characters in setting. The Other Gods are a group of deities that live in what Lovecraft called "The Void" or "The Outside", which is a realm that lies beyond the Ultimate Gate and the Ordered Universe (which is the name of Lovecraft's multiverse of infinite timelines and universes), including guys like Cthulhu, Nyarko-chan, and Shubby. In addition, the Mayan gods also exist in Lovecraft's universe, but they are not Petty Gods, they are actually Other Gods. Also, to give you an idea of the pecking order here, Cthulhu is pretty low-tier as far as Other Gods go, but we actually have good reason to believe that Cthulhu is more powerful than all the Mayan gods put together, and all of the Other Gods are far more powerful than the Petty Gods too. Some people don't like the term "Other Gods", as they think it's lame. Fortunately, Lovecraft does sometimes refer to these entities as the "Ultimate Gods". You can use that if you think it sounds cooler, and still be faithful to Lovecraft's original lore.
The Other Gods also all smell really bad, and are hated by dogs, for some reason.
Now, the Petty Gods are opposed to the Other Gods, and anciently, when the Spawn of Cthulhu were waging war on the Atlanteans, the Olympian gods helped out by sinking the continent of Mu, where the Spawn of Cthulhu live, and where R'lyeh resides. The Other Gods then retaliated by sinking Atlantis. In recent times though, the Petty Gods were convinced to pack up and move to the dreamlands by the Other Gods, and are now said to be under the Other Gods' protection, for some reason. This is never really explained, though I reckon for this story at least, it has something to do with the Petty Gods being servants of the Other Gods who rebelled, like @Shujin explained, minus the whole part about them moving to the dreamlands.
There are also some oddball deities that don't fit in either category, such as Nodens, Hastur, and the Christian God (maybe, we'll get to that.)
Anyhow, onto the second misconception.
There is this idea floating around that in Lovecraft's Mythos, all of reality is just a dream of Azathoth's. This idea has absolutely no basis in Lovecraft's own stories. Some people say that poem 22 from this collection says that Azathoth dreams reality, but it doesn't. It just says that he "muttered/Things he had dreamed but could not understand," that's it. People will also point to a character called Māna-Yood-Sushāī (who does dream reality), from a story by Lord Dunsany, as well as the fact that Dunsany was a strong influence on Lovecraft, but this is obvious nonsense. Lovecraft and Dunsany were two different writers, and Azathoth and Māna-Yood-Sushāī are two completely different characters.
It's not even confirmed in Lovecraft's corpus that Azathoth sleeps 24/7, for all we know, he could be drifting in and out of sleep. So, here's what we do know: Azathoth is the most powerful of the Other Gods; he resides in the center of the Void; he is lulled by the piping of the Other Gods' flutes; this piping music is what creates the laws of physics, so, Azathoth is constantly being blasted by music that can literally make physics exist, and it just makes him kind of sleepy; This music is actually older than the Other Gods; Azathoth is not this being's true name, it was made up by the writer of the Necronomicon; Nobody dares say Azathoth's true name aloud.
So, yeah. Azathoth does not dream reality.
The situation is actually far bleaker than that.
It's not even confirmed in Lovecraft's corpus that Azathoth sleeps 24/7, for all we know, he could be drifting in and out of sleep. So, here's what we do know: Azathoth is the most powerful of the Other Gods; he resides in the center of the Void; he is lulled by the piping of the Other Gods' flutes; this piping music is what creates the laws of physics, so, Azathoth is constantly being blasted by music that can literally make physics exist, and it just makes him kind of sleepy; This music is actually older than the Other Gods; Azathoth is not this being's true name, it was made up by the writer of the Necronomicon; Nobody dares say Azathoth's true name aloud.
So, yeah. Azathoth does not dream reality.
The situation is actually far bleaker than that.
So, some people believe that the Other Gods have some magically ability, where looking at their appearance is enough to automatically drive you insane, no matter what. And they will say silly things like "Oh, such-and-such character can't even fight the Other Gods at all, 'cause they'd take one look and go mad." This is simply not true. Yes, the Other Gods are freaky looking, and yes, some people have gone mad looking at them, but others haven't. It's all just about what you're mind can take. In one of Lovecraft's stories, a guy actually looks at Nyarlathotep's true form, and he does have to go to the hospital for a bit afterwards, but he's not driven crazy, and he doesn't die or anything.
The Other Gods don't have some weird passive ability that turns you crazy or kills you if you look at them no matter what. If you can handle what they look like, then you can look at them and be fine. Yeah, they could certainly drive you crazy with their reality warping powers if they wanted, but that's if they wanted. It's not automatic. They are plenty overpowered even without such an ability.
That being said, if the author of this story wants to give them something like that to make them more in-line with the whole "turn people to dust if they look at their true form" thing the Olympians have going on, then I can see the reasoning there, and am on board. I'm just saying that's not a thing in Lovecraft's own stories.
The Other Gods don't have some weird passive ability that turns you crazy or kills you if you look at them no matter what. If you can handle what they look like, then you can look at them and be fine. Yeah, they could certainly drive you crazy with their reality warping powers if they wanted, but that's if they wanted. It's not automatic. They are plenty overpowered even without such an ability.
That being said, if the author of this story wants to give them something like that to make them more in-line with the whole "turn people to dust if they look at their true form" thing the Olympians have going on, then I can see the reasoning there, and am on board. I'm just saying that's not a thing in Lovecraft's own stories.
Alright, all that stuff out of the way, and I have some question and comments about this story in particular.
First, I'm going to talk a bit about the Christian God in Lovecraft, as some people in this thread and over on Spacebattles seemed curious about that.
So, it's a bit ambiguous as to whether or not the Christian God exists in Lovecraft's Mythos, and there are two main arguments, one pro, one con.
On the con side, we have Randolph Carter. Randolph Carter is basically Lovecraft's own official self-insert in his own stories. He knows pretty much all a human can know about spooky stuff in this 'verse, and Randolph Carter does not believe in the God of the Christianity. for a lot of people, that's a one-and-done. If he doesn't believe in the God of Christianity, then he just doesn't exist.
However, on the pro side we have a story called Two Black Bottles, where an evil sorcerer uses black magic to try and control a town. However, when he tries to cast an evil spell on a church, the God of Christianity says "No", and it doesn't work. If we take this as written, and keep in mind that fact that Black Magic in this 'verse comes from the will of the Other Gods, that means that, not only does the Christian God exist, but he is powerful enough to defy the will of the Other Gods, which could potentially put him up there with the likes of Nodens and Nyarko-chan in terms of power.
Speaking of Nodens though, I'm now going to gush all over him, and then ask some questions about him in this story, as he's one of my favorite characters.
Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss, is a mysterious deity in the Lovecraft Mythos. He only shows up in two stories, The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath and The Strange High House in the Mist, so we don't know a lot about him, but what we do know is fascinating.
So, Nodens is a being opposed to the Other Gods, particularly Nyarlathotep, who he has a long-standing rivalry with. He is also allied with the Petty Gods of Earth, and attends their parties sometimes. He is, unlike pretty much everyone else in the setting, not afraid of the Other Gods. He shows up at the end of TDQoUK, and rescues Randolph Carter as he's fleeing from the Servants of Nyarlathotep, where he does one of the craziest things in this 'verse. The servants of Nyarly chasing Carter are Other Gods, and Nodens destroys them with a glance, and sends Nyarlathotep himself reeling in confusion in the process.
Let that sink in. Nodens is powerful enough to destroy Other Gods just by looking at them. He is crazy powerful. Also, frankly, the mere fact that he's managed to be a long-standing rival of Nyarly without getting destroyed, as would typically happen to anyone who opposes the Black Pharoh, was already proof of that.
Nodens is also Lord of the Nightgaunts. Nightgaunts are these creepy looking, rubbery, demon, man-bat things with no faces.
There are two interesting things about them. Firstly, the Petty Gods of Earth fear the Nightgaunts, despite the fact that they are nominally allied. So, Guys like Zeus and Ra are terrified of these things. Secondly, remember those Other God servants of Nyarlathotep from before? Well, Nightgaunts are able to make those guys flee in terror all on their own, and remember, these things are Nodens' servants.
In terms of raw power, Nodens is easily more powerful than Shub-Niggurath, and should have at least parity with Nyarlathotep. However, you can actually make a good case for Nodens being even more powerful than Nyarko-chan. Not only are Nodens' servants more powerful than Nyarly's, but Nodens is unafraid of the Other Gods in general. So, he's not just unafraid of Nyarly, but also of Nyarly putting together an Other God hit-squad to try and gang up on him. Of course, this could be because the Other Gods are terrible at working together, but the argument is there. And of course, it kind of makes sense that he wouldn't be too scared of Azathoth, despite being weaker than him, as Azathoth is kind of useless in a fight.
What all this means for this story is that, if Percy ever does come across Nodens, then he better freaking watch himself. Because Nodens isn't going to give two flying craps about "Mother Dearest" or her "Pranks".
One thing I would actually to see in this story is a demigod child of Nodens. I think it would be funny, if slightly cliche, if this child and Percy ended up becoming friends, much to both their parents chagrin. I also just thing the images of a little girl going on father-daughter hunting trips with Nodens, and giving Nightgaunts pet names as they babysit her, are kind of adorable.
Now, in real life, "Nodens" is a cognate names like "Nuada" and "Nudd", so in this story he's depicted as a Celtic Deity. However, from what the Author has said, it sounds like being a celtic deity is more "something to do on a Friday night" rather than who Nodens really is. does that all sound about right, @Shujin?
One thing that has weirded me out about this story is the way everyone acts like Percy is unprecedented and impossible, when Yog-Sothoth litereally had two demigod kids very recently. Heck, they even made the mortal newspapers! Do the Olympians just not know about them for some reason?
It also makes me kind of want to see more Demigod children of Yog as well, considering we already have a pretty good idea what they should look like. Having them be shy and nerdy, as their father is the god of nerds (as well as literally being all nerds who ever existed simultaneously), would be kind of fitting.
Also I recently learned that Catholic Saints apparently exist in the Riordanverse. Does that mean that we could have a cameo from Santa Claus?!
If so, can we get Santa to visit camp on christmas? Those poor kids definitely deserve it.
Yeah, the Hounds honestly feel pretty out of place in Lovecraft's Mythos. In Lovecraft's own corpus, time travel is a just a normal thing that lots of people do, and no one really makes much fuss about it. Dreamers can time travel at will casually, and often reincarnate backwards through time. The Great Race's whole shtick is time travel. The Mi-go are acausal beings that can time travel through sheer speed alone (so, yeah, the Mi-go are as fast as Archie Comics Sonic and DC speedsters), and Randolph Carter time traveled twice, once on his own, and once with Yog-Sothoth's help, who was totally cool with it (though, this story seems to be going with the Silver Key being Yog's, so he would have been helping both times I guess.) In general really, most entities "in the know", like the Mi-go and the Other Gods, seem to find the concept of linear time hopelessly quaint, and don't really take it very seriously.
The Hounds of Tindalos were actually invented by a different author than Lovecraft named Frank Belknap Long, and Lovecraft himself only references them in passing in one of his stories, ironically the same one where the Mi-go are established as being able to time travel. I think it's likely that Lovecraft just included them as a fun shout-out, without really thinking about their lore implications. This is honestly kind of typical of him, as, for example, his depiction of Tsathoggua is totally different from Smith's. Personally, I don't regard the Hounds as being canon to Lovecraft's Mythos, at least not as Long envisioned them.
Actually, @Shujin, are we going to see any of the Great Race show up in this story? It would make sense for them to send some eye-witnesses to document the second Titanomachy.
Also, the Mi-go would be interesting. They serve Nyarly, and as much as Luke has become inured to Percy's weirdness, learning that his Mom has an inter-galactic empire at her beck and call might just break him. As for the Mi-go themselves, they might freak out at Percy, like having the president's baby dropped in your lap. Of course, being aliens, they might very well try to "hALP", put his brain in a jar, and fly him to the Void to be with his Mommy.
What is this a reference to exactly?
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Shujin
M. NightShujinlan
- Location
- New York, New York
That is correct.
Probably because that didn't actually happen. It's a fusion work that goes both ways, which is why Hypnos is Shubby's darling little boy instead of an earthly god driven mad by the Gate. In Prophecies Always Come True chapter, PercyMom quotes the 'in strange eons, even death may die' and says it came from an amusing author she met once and that Selene's legacy (clear-sightedness) is a gift that keeps on giving. The Names 'Nyarlathotep' or 'Yog-Sothoth' means nothing in-universe, the fusion is that these beings are and always have been subjects of IRL mythology.
And the Riordanverse conceit is that said mythology is true.
Not this story, as it is almost complete and is just the Lightning Thief plotline. Next story, yes.
Hercules - Wikipedia
Mustapha Mond
World Controller, Western Europe
Aww, Dunwich Horror isn't canon?
Shujin
M. NightShujinlan
- Location
- New York, New York
Nope, sorry! Percy was inspired by Wilbur Whately, making him the 'NYC Horror', but I'm afraid Yog's boys (as well as the meteor that fell on a town called Arkham, etc) are not canon.
Mustapha Mond
World Controller, Western Europe
Hmm, but we could still have a more explicit Wilbur expy. Heck, he could straight up be named Wilbur Whateley, just port the events of the story forwards in time, give his mom Lavina a happy ending while we're at it.
I look forwards to it. Lovecraft has some of the coolest aliens, and I love characters who have that "so-big-brained-it's-dangerous" energy, like the Doctor, or Lex Luthor.
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Yeah it's not a one to one for either mythology or Cthulu stuff it's a mix.
Oh that's going to be really interesting.
Yeah Percy and Nico fill that role.
Mustapha Mond
World Controller, Western Europe
Actually, this image gets even funnier when your remember that by Mi-go standards Earth is the ass-end of nowhere. So, it's not even relatively important or urbane people finding the president's baby, it's freaking hicksville miner-town folk.
Makes me wonder who exactly is getting the brainswap treatment, and whether demigods would have an easier time overcoming the memory wipe at the end.
Also, another question @Shujin, what's up with the Mayan gods in this story? Are they Other (or, as you say, Elder) Gods in this? And are we syncretizing Aztec and Mayan mythology into "Mesoamerican mythology", or something like that?
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I just realised that technically nyx isn't really cheating on Erebus from a more conceptual level since every child born of night is also born of darkness
She's still screwing Hades's Dog though.
it's basically a threesome and considering great old ones can have kids by just mixing ideas about themselves together I'd say any children would have three parents
Mustapha Mond
World Controller, Western Europe
Where are you getting that from?