Cosmic Horror Story
- Thread starter CODE-D
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In the far flung reaches of the Andromeda galaxy lies a quiet little planet, orbiting a serene Red Dwarf. All life on this planet had ceased to be aeons ago, When the old star had started warming up, burning everything on the surface of the planet, except Gregor the space elf, who had survived by hiding in a walk in meat freezer. He was all alone but during the hot, dry nights thought he could still hear the ghostly souls of those who died, screaming in agony as they burned in the heat. He was right, and they killed and ate him.
THE END?
THE END?
I don't think it would too hard to write a cosmic horror story, space being the lonely and desolate place with the infinite unknown that it is. I would probably do something about an astronaut who goes on a trip to some nearby planet alone, he discovers violent aliens and the story would tell of his struggles and adventures while sharing the planet with the aliens etc. At the end he would kill himself out of fear, and we discover there weren't actually any aliens he was just insane
Turns out the universe is sentient and sneaks into astronauts' bedchambers in the night to eat them.
They try to build all kinds of blockades to keep the universe away, but they fail.
Only one of the astronauts manages to escape. He knows that to save the rest of humanity from impending doom, he needs to... Kill. The. Universe.
Cue action film sequel.
It ends with him getting the girl and flying off into the sunset in his spaceship with this song playing in the background:
They try to build all kinds of blockades to keep the universe away, but they fail.
Only one of the astronauts manages to escape. He knows that to save the rest of humanity from impending doom, he needs to... Kill. The. Universe.
Cue action film sequel.
It ends with him getting the girl and flying off into the sunset in his spaceship with this song playing in the background:
Using a keyboard, HA! Anyway, I'd focus on the traditional things - the humanity/protagonists being insignificant specks in the Universe and all that. I'll try to describe the dread of not being special and possibly alone. Maybe humanity develops space travel and finds worlds with life on them but nothing truly sentient or interesting. Just like finding a new patch of grass or a new species of ants - not that useful when we're trying to make contact and interract with other species.CODE-D said:
I don't know exactly. Perhaps Earth will be destroyed (natural disaster - a meteorite or something) and remaining humanity will have to move on to a world that doesn't give a fuck about them. Only to realise that this world will soon die/be destroyed and they have no way to stop it.CODE-D said:
I don't think so. Well, maybe some that choose to float in the endless, boundless space among nothingness and all that.CODE-D said:
None, really. The humanity will wink out of existence just like that. The "antagonist" will be just the utter apathy of the universe around them.CODE-D said:
I'm planning one as a freestyle Dungeons and Dragons story for my GF.
It starts off typical Sci-Fi, but then you have stuff like:
The "heralds" of the coming horrors breaking down society with ease, and turning civilizations against each other. (and considering one of the main races I'm making is a race of space dragons, whose bloodlust is only BARELY held in check...Yes, there will be massacres)
The end goal of these horrors has nothing to do with organic life. All they are actually interested in is arranging galaxies in a huge chain of perfect concentric triangles, and everything that doesn't fit is swept aside like the dust that it is.
Most technology and the main fuel source for the galaxy (which is actually a by-product caused by these horrors) becoming vastly unreliable.
And of course the heroes will need to go on the run from every major power in the galaxy, because the established order is easily twisted around to make the heroes look like the real threat.
That's just a few ideas I have, anyway.
Now, if I was writing an actual book or game or something and not just a fun DND kinda deal, then...
b) Interesting races, interesting stories between them, and give the "horrors" some alien agenda that makes no sense to humans in general. Also, the total breakdown of society faced with the coming horror.
c) Maybe a few. But by the end of the story there are only 3 possible outcomes. The first is that everyone dies, save a few lucky ones. The second is that the story ends with the protagonists giving up, knowing that the end is coming and there's not a damn thing they can do about it. Or, ending 3, they manage to hold off their doom, only to find out that it changed nothing. There will be more dooms to come, and no one will believe them.
d) Incomprehensible. Looking at one would show you nothing (or drive you nuts). In fact, the best thing I can think of is the horror being a simple idea. An idea that mutates and expands and consumes the minds of everyone it touches. Imagine how much scarier dead space would have been if instead of necromorphs on an empty dead ship, you were fighting "converted" humans, and you could never be sure which humans are normal, and which ones will turn on you the second you show your back.
It starts off typical Sci-Fi, but then you have stuff like:
The "heralds" of the coming horrors breaking down society with ease, and turning civilizations against each other. (and considering one of the main races I'm making is a race of space dragons, whose bloodlust is only BARELY held in check...Yes, there will be massacres)
The end goal of these horrors has nothing to do with organic life. All they are actually interested in is arranging galaxies in a huge chain of perfect concentric triangles, and everything that doesn't fit is swept aside like the dust that it is.
Most technology and the main fuel source for the galaxy (which is actually a by-product caused by these horrors) becoming vastly unreliable.
And of course the heroes will need to go on the run from every major power in the galaxy, because the established order is easily twisted around to make the heroes look like the real threat.
That's just a few ideas I have, anyway.
Now, if I was writing an actual book or game or something and not just a fun DND kinda deal, then...
a) Life must be completely pointless in the end. No "the humans are special". Hell, I wouldn't make ANY lifeform special. All are dust in the grand scale of things.CODE-D said:
b) Interesting races, interesting stories between them, and give the "horrors" some alien agenda that makes no sense to humans in general. Also, the total breakdown of society faced with the coming horror.
c) Maybe a few. But by the end of the story there are only 3 possible outcomes. The first is that everyone dies, save a few lucky ones. The second is that the story ends with the protagonists giving up, knowing that the end is coming and there's not a damn thing they can do about it. Or, ending 3, they manage to hold off their doom, only to find out that it changed nothing. There will be more dooms to come, and no one will believe them.
d) Incomprehensible. Looking at one would show you nothing (or drive you nuts). In fact, the best thing I can think of is the horror being a simple idea. An idea that mutates and expands and consumes the minds of everyone it touches. Imagine how much scarier dead space would have been if instead of necromorphs on an empty dead ship, you were fighting "converted" humans, and you could never be sure which humans are normal, and which ones will turn on you the second you show your back.
I'm make my monsters interdimensional.
You go mad from looking at them because what they represent isn't something great and unknowable from within our own universe, but something even more fundamentally wrong than that. They are from a whole different dimension, they are not allowed to exist in this place, yet somehow they are still here. Something primitive in your brain recognises that what they are cannot be, there is not space within this place for any of them, even the smallest, because when they are in a place, it is a place where even the air has been pushed aside to make room for them. They are a thing where a thing should not be.
Beyond that the story writes itself. Interdimensional rift, we survive only beause the rift closes itself, but we always know that if they could come through once, they could come through again.
You go mad from looking at them because what they represent isn't something great and unknowable from within our own universe, but something even more fundamentally wrong than that. They are from a whole different dimension, they are not allowed to exist in this place, yet somehow they are still here. Something primitive in your brain recognises that what they are cannot be, there is not space within this place for any of them, even the smallest, because when they are in a place, it is a place where even the air has been pushed aside to make room for them. They are a thing where a thing should not be.
Beyond that the story writes itself. Interdimensional rift, we survive only beause the rift closes itself, but we always know that if they could come through once, they could come through again.
It would be a classic Lovecraftian horror story, in spaaaaaaace! You see, there would be these astronauts, see? Some sort of scouting ship. They find this planet that has massive, abandoned cities all over it and weird energy readings coming from it. So, they go to investigate. Everyone has nightmares of this horrible, insanity inducing thing that lives beneath the city, but they press on, discovering it's secrets. It tells them the tales of ancient civilizations, forgotten gods, and an plague of insanity, all caused by opening a portal to some other world. They venture farther into the ruins, then accidentally release some cosmic horror. Few of the crew escape, and the survivors send it back to whence it came by ramming their ship into it's head. Only two men survive, one driven insane by what he saw (for he looked into the portal when it opened and discovered some terrible dark secret of the universe)...
THAT is well put. That's a perfect descriptor of what a cosmic horror should be. IE, something that shouldn't be.MelasZepheos said:
The writer in me wants to add things to your story, I hope you don't mind.aegix drakan said:
Everybody has done 'cosmic horror tears down society.' How about subverting it? Cosmic Horror from beyond the deepest veil of time and space unites society in their sole desire for survival. It would make it even worse when it made absolutely no difference. Obviously the cosmic horrors are going to win if everyone's infighting (hi Mass Effect 3, how's it going?) but if everyone was prepared, and fighting with everything they had, and the horrors still just plough through them like they aren't even an inconvenience?
Don't reveal why they're doing what they're doing or why they're doing it. ALl people should know is that suddenly BAM cosmic horros we have to fight. Try and think of it like humans vs ants. Ants walking along bringing food back to the colony, and then suddenly this huge unknowable thing crashes down in the middle of them, wiping out hundreds of workers in a single blow. It is immeasurably big, impossible strong, and even as you watch in horror another comes down, crushing another hundred ants. Soon the ant hill has been knocked over, thousands of lives lost and you never see the creature ever again. To the ant, you just ruined their entire ecosystem and they have no idea why. To you, you were walking through a field on a summer afternoon. See the difference in perspective when the attacked doesn't know what's going on?
For the point about the heroes going on the run, see point 1. The reason the heroes run is because they know there is nothing that can be done, not because they are attacked by their own ex-allies. It makes the story more interesting, because when other survivors meet them, they'll just assume that they were cowards, which would make it harder for them to think about rebuilding society or anything.
a. and b. I agree with, but I think the better option is survival. The ambiguity always makes cosmic horror stories better. Sure you could be an optimist and say that obviously they can rebuild society from the ashes, but the pessimist can assume that they all die, and the real downer ending is that it was entirely pointles (see above re. Ant hill) the few survivors who are left and directionless, without the means for supporting themselves, and weren't even granted the mercy of dying in the attack. Instead they have to forge ahead, knowing that humanity is ended and they are all that is left.
d. Absolutely agree with. Crucial to the cosmic horror story is unknowability. Lovecraft didn't write about creatures that messed around with humanity, he wrote creatures that didn't even notice huanity as they went by. It goes even beyond the ant metaphor and becomes like when humans walk on the floor. We are the floor, the cosmic horrors are just walking on us, that's how separate we are.
Well, good, that was what I was going for (well that, and At the Mountains of Madness). Was not feeling very creative with my cosmic horror stories today.DoPo said:
Ok, whoa, lots to get to here.
BTW, the reason my ideas for my DND story feel really loose and unrefined is because they HAVE to be. It's DND! The player can drastically change the story if they want to, so I have to have a LOT of wiggle room (I learned that the hard way the first time I tried to run a story).
But yeah, eventually you have the 3 major races (and the minor races that the heroes manage to win over) pool their efforts to stop the horrors...only for them to realize that the wave they're barely holding off isn't even the real one yet. The REAL one...Yeah, that one spells the end for everybody. It just passes by, and nothing exists anymore. I'm thinking of describing it something like....They look at a scan of their galaxy, and see this massive wall of static that seems to have no end that's approaching very, very fast.
Also there's one part I recently thought of where it's discovered that a horror is living inside a planet at some point, and it WILL eventually kill the entire planet and consume the whole thing, rocks and all.
In my case the only things siding with the horrors that notice and affect humanity are the heralds (a race of being that are trying to make the transition easier for the horrors). The horrors themselves don't know or care. The lesser/smaller ones are just living their animal-like lives, and the greater ones are only vaguely aware of these tiny little bacteria things that are in their way.
Sure, ideas are always welcome. I'm something of a writer myself, so I know the value of new ideas and constructive criticism.MelasZepheos said:
BTW, the reason my ideas for my DND story feel really loose and unrefined is because they HAVE to be. It's DND! The player can drastically change the story if they want to, so I have to have a LOT of wiggle room (I learned that the hard way the first time I tried to run a story).
That will end up happening, more or less, depending on what my player does. The other races will at some point be aware of the encroaching threat and will mobilize to stop it (especially if the player manages to win them over), but there's the factor of corrupted people in high positions who were converted/tempted by the heralds messing things up to "make the transition smoother" as the heralds would put it (not to mention there are a few other villains who are gumming up the works).
But yeah, eventually you have the 3 major races (and the minor races that the heroes manage to win over) pool their efforts to stop the horrors...only for them to realize that the wave they're barely holding off isn't even the real one yet. The REAL one...Yeah, that one spells the end for everybody. It just passes by, and nothing exists anymore. I'm thinking of describing it something like....They look at a scan of their galaxy, and see this massive wall of static that seems to have no end that's approaching very, very fast.
That's a good analogy. I think I'll try to work with that a bit. But I do eventually need to make it clear WHAT the horrors are doing (the triangle thing), but never WHY. The reason I need to reveal it is because the endgame takes place at the center of these concentric galaxy triangles. I'm still not sure what I'm gonna put there, though.
Also there's one part I recently thought of where it's discovered that a horror is living inside a planet at some point, and it WILL eventually kill the entire planet and consume the whole thing, rocks and all.
They're not on the run from the horrors. They're on the run from the "converted" officials who are convinced that the horrors will bring a new age. The heroes pretty much are just trying to fend off smaller horrors and stop the heralds from making and chance of fighting back useless. By the end, though, all hell breaks loose.
Yeah, definitely.
In my case the only things siding with the horrors that notice and affect humanity are the heralds (a race of being that are trying to make the transition easier for the horrors). The horrors themselves don't know or care. The lesser/smaller ones are just living their animal-like lives, and the greater ones are only vaguely aware of these tiny little bacteria things that are in their way.