Hard Space Redux

[Golan2072]

Somewhat more elaborated Mythos magic ideas

I've posted about these before, but here are the somewhat more elaborated ideas for how Mythos magic works in this setting.

In a nutshell, under this system, anybody can attempt to learn spells by studying Mythos tomes; anybody can attempt to cast any spell. And there are no spell points or "hard" daily "spell slots".


HOWEVER:

1. Learning spells has a Sanity cost. So does studying the tomes to begin with. Learning also requires an INT throw to successfully learn; failure means you need to repeat studying it, again - with a Sanity cost. The more powerful the spell, the harder the INT throw to learn it.

2. Spells take time to cast; in many cases, hours. "Combat" spells, which are often weaker, usually take two full combat rounds to cast, and concentration might be broken if the sorcerer received damage while casting the spell.

3. Spellcasting requires an Occult skill throw. Fail or roll "snake eyes" (there is no automatic success in spellcasting), you'll get the spell's integral "miscast" result. The stronger the spell - the nastier the miscast.

4. The really powerful spells damage your Sanity on failure and/or on success (Commune with Cthulhu at your own peril!). So you can technically attempt to cast any number of spells a day as you'd like, and a totally clueless layman can try to learn and cast magic (with the usual DM-3 Unskilled Penalty), but the limiting factor is the risk you're taking (a very, very powerful limiting factor), as well as casting time. Cast as many times as you dare and as the casting time allows you - at your own peril!

Yes, this means that even skilled sorcerers will sometimes fail in spellcasting - at least once in every 36 spells (on average - the chance of "snake eyes"). This is H.P. Lovecraft's legacy we're talking about here - not Dungeons & Dragons. Sorcerers do not cast powerful magic casually. They may use weak spells more often, as the risks of failure for them might be bearable, but no no one takes powerful summoning and necromantic magic lightly.

This, of course, leads to all sorts of sorcerous disasters (read: adventures), as - for example - some utterly unskilled fool is just bound to try casting that 6th Circle earth-shattering summoning spell, unleashing something horrid upon the local colony!

The above were just initial thoughts and ramblings. I'll write up a more coherent magic system later on.

 

[Whipsnade]

... the AF has both Americas and its center is in Brazil and Argentina, almost untouched in the war.

Which means the AF is going to be the weakest and least cohesive bloc. The AF is also very likely to have been the last bloc formed.

Brazil and Argentina are not going to work together willingly and, seeing as they were almost untouched by WW3, nothing has happened to change their minds. Their "partnership" in the AF will be one of expediency, even more so than the various partnerships within the UN and IC. Both nations will have reluctantly formed the AF only because they were faced with the growing power of the UN, IC, and corporations.

The "We hate each other only a little less than we hate everyone else" nature of the AF will make for great adventure fodder. Double, triple, quadruple, and more "crosses" will be the norm.

Getting back to my fellow native of Providence, the AF might - might, mind you - have a leg up in the "Cthulhu-tech" compared to the other blocs and corporations. Consider the following:

• The Andes are Mi-Go territory
• Sunken R'lyeh is somewhere west of Chile.
• Antarctica is close by
• The Deep Ones are active off the US Northeast coast, in the Caribbean, and Polynesia.
• Brazil's huge role in the Atlantic Slave trade mean all types of African myths, cults, knowledge, and beliefs will have been transmitted
• The Caribbean's and US' role in the same trade mean transmission occurred there too
• The Amazon and jungles of Mesoamerica are Ground Zero for human sacrifice and "unspeakable cults"

While the two other blocs will various control bits of Lovecraftian geography like central Africa, the Arabian peninsular, the Himalayas, and so forth, the AF will more of that territory than anyone else.

While the AF's internal fault lines will allow it to make much use of that advantage is another question.

 

[Ulsyus]

The areas less devastated by the war, especially Latin America and Africa, are the world's new breadbaskets. They too have suffered a decline in productivity due to fallout, bioweapon spread, and climate instability, but they have a level of agriculture and less Wilds.

Add to that hydroponics, and you cover the world's food need.

The population is much smaller; not only because of the staggering WWIII death toll (or the immediate post-war famine) but by post-war effects, such as significantly increased infant mortality, dramatic fall of the life expectancy, and much lowered fertility. Within three generations, the world has only three billion residents.

A drop to three billion people is staggering in the scale and scope of disaster that would occur, but would it only be that much?

The drop in population would be asymmetrical across the globe. It could be that more advanced nations could weather the storm better as long as they weren't heavily involved in conflicts which diverted resources away from otherwise protecting and supporting their populations. Second world nations (which happen to be the most populous, making up well over half the world's population) could suffer most grievously and so lead to a population drop greater than what you mentioned.

That said, even if the population across the globe was halved, that'd still leave a pretty significant number of humans left for the rest of the universe to deal with.

 

[Golan2072]

Which means the AF is going to be the weakest and least cohesive bloc. The AF is also very likely to have been the last bloc formed.

Brazil and Argentina are not going to work together willingly and, seeing as they were almost untouched by WW3, nothing has happened to change their minds. Their "partnership" in the AF will be one of expediency, even more so than the various partnerships within the UN and IC. Both nations will have reluctantly formed the AF only because they were faced with the growing power of the UN, IC, and corporations.

The "We hate each other only a little less than we hate everyone else" nature of the AF will make for great adventure fodder. Double, triple, quadruple, and more "crosses" will be the norm.

Indeed. I might even have two rival agricorps in the AF, one Brazilian and one Argentine. Same niche, fierce competition and rivalry.

And don't forget the significantly weakened US, which might still have its own interests and resent being on the second seat in the AF.

Getting back to my fellow native of Providence, the AF might - might, mind you - have a leg up in the "Cthulhu-tech" compared to the other blocs and corporations. Consider the following:

• The Andes are Mi-Go territory
• Sunken R'lyeh is somewhere west of Chile.
• Antarctica is close by
• The Deep Ones are active off the US Northeast coast, in the Caribbean, and Polynesia.
• Brazil's huge role in the Atlantic Slave trade mean all types of African myths, cults, knowledge, and beliefs will have been transmitted
• The Caribbean's and US' role in the same trade mean transmission occurred there too
• The Amazon and jungles of Mesoamerica are Ground Zero for human sacrifice and "unspeakable cults"

While the two other blocs will various control bits of Lovecraftian geography like central Africa, the Arabian peninsular, the Himalayas, and so forth, the AF will more of that territory than anyone else.

While the AF's internal fault lines will allow it to make much use of that advantage is another question.

On the other hand, some of the more conscious and well-organized Mythos threats will have an easy time playing these fault lines to further their horrid goals. The Mi-Go equivalents come to mind, as well as cults, Deep Ones, and various secret societies (MJ-12 ala Delta Green?).

 

[Golan2072]

A drop to three billion people is staggering in the scale and scope of disaster that would occur, but would it only be that much?

The drop in population would be asymmetrical across the globe. It could be that more advanced nations could weather the storm better as long as they weren't heavily involved in conflicts which diverted resources away from otherwise protecting and supporting their populations. Second world nations (which happen to be the most populous, making up well over half the world's population) could suffer most grievously and so lead to a population drop greater than what you mentioned.

That said, even if the population across the globe was halved, that'd still leave a pretty significant number of humans left for the rest of the universe to deal with.

Indeed, this will be asymmetrical, though the new "breadbaskets" will prefer to keep their population low or at least contained in the arcoblocks to maximize agricultural land. It might be easier to emigrate to off-world colonies than to Argentina or Brazil.

Earth is still crowded over its carrying capacity; this is a major cyberpunk/horror trope. Vast overcrowded urban Blight. Tightly-packed arcologies. The Wilds, on the other hand, are thinly populated.

 

[Whipsnade]

And don't forget the significantly weakened US, which might still have its own interests and resent being on the second seat in the AF.

Even better. Three nations in the AF bloc who are only partnered together because of the threat posed by the UN and IC. blocs.

On the other hand, some of the more conscious and well-organized Mythos threats will have an easy time playing these fault lines to further their horrid goals.

But of course! The only reason anyone would have a leg up on "Cthulhu-tech" is because the "tech" wants a leg up on them!

 

[epicenter00]

Hey Golan2072, I've enjoyed reading through your ideas here but two questions / ideas:

1) Reading through the history, one thing leapt out at me: Why does there need to be a WW3 in your setting? It seems ... unnecessary and kinda "20th century meme" to me. Like in 2300AD (which sounds like a baseline inspiration for your setting), a nuclear war as necessary since it was an extension of the Twilight: 2000 universe and it caused significant damage to the game setting - the nuclear war didn't really have a huge influence on 2300 itself and in fact the technologies were more 2150-2200 except that humanity basically lost an entire century because of the nuclear war. But beyond basing things on the T2k, there was little about 2300 that required a nuclear war in the past. Given your setting occurs so long after WW3, it doesn't really feel like it has an influence on your universe that you can't get another source, especially because it appears the nuclear war doesn't set humanity back all that many steps - it just stirs things up a bit. Rampant uncontrolled climate change and increasingly insolvent governments dominated by corporate power are two more relevant themes I think that would create the present of that world you're talking about as well.

2) I feel that having the Cthulhu mythos creatures on Earth all along saps a lot of the fun from the idea of your setting. The issue with mythos cultists and so on is that they're a conspiracy. And the problem with conspiracies is that it's hard to believe they haven't been outed after all this time or why aren't they in charge by this point? I think it'd be more believable if the mythos things were stuff people out there in the Big Dark. Perhaps they've brought some stuff back to earth so now there's cultists or something. But again, why haven't they been outed / rule everything?

 

[Golan2072]

1) Reading through the history, one thing leapt out at me: Why does there need to be a WW3 in your setting? It seems ... unnecessary and kinda "20th century meme" to me. Like in 2300AD (which sounds like a baseline inspiration for your setting), a nuclear war as necessary since it was an extension of the Twilight: 2000 universe and it caused significant damage to the game setting - the nuclear war didn't really have a huge influence on 2300 itself and in fact the technologies were more 2150-2200 except that humanity basically lost an entire century because of the nuclear war. But beyond basing things on the T2k, there was little about 2300 that required a nuclear war in the past. Given your setting occurs so long after WW3, it doesn't really feel like it has an influence on your universe that you can't get another source, especially because it appears the nuclear war doesn't set humanity back all that many steps - it just stirs things up a bit. Rampant uncontrolled climate change and increasingly insolvent governments dominated by corporate power are two more relevant themes I think that would create the present of that world you're talking about as well.

I used WWIII for three main reasons:

1. Add a breaking point between the current (2018) political situation and Earth's geopolitical situation in 2120/2170. The war shuffled things, especially if you see the later ideas inspired by the discussions here and on the SFRPG boards.

2. Bankrupt governments. A prolonged, devastating war, with no clear victory, would do the job. Especially in the case of superpowers.

3. Make much of Earth a hostile environment. This serves two purposes. The first is creating desperation to go to the colonies, going as far as colonists risking their lives in nasty Traveller Low Berths.; the second is adding a post-apocalyptic dimension to the setting, as well as sharpening the divide between the arcology-dweller corporate drone salarymen and the masses outside the arcology walls.

2) I feel that having the Cthulhu mythos creatures on Earth all along saps a lot of the fun from the idea of your setting. The issue with mythos cultists and so on is that they're a conspiracy. And the problem with conspiracies is that it's hard to believe they haven't been outed after all this time or why aren't they in charge by this point? I think it'd be more believable if the mythos things were stuff people out there in the Big Dark. Perhaps they've brought some stuff back to earth so now there's cultists or something. But again, why haven't they been outed / rule everything?

Hmmm... Great point!

How did Lovecraft and his co-authors explain this? Or was that a constant flaw in their Mythos design?

So, you propose I take the Event Horizon/Alien(s)/Dead Space route and make the Mythos stuff off-world in origin, without long-term alien presence on Earth, at least in modern days?

 

[BwapTED]

What Mythos design?


That's August Derleth. HPL never referred to a Cthulhu Mythos.

HPL called it 'Yog -Sothery' and treated it as the good fun it was.


Anyway there's no flaw (of that kind) in the original works.
Humans' encounters with the strangeness are recorded--that accounts for many of HPL's stories.

What gets harder to swallow comes decades later, with other writers and with game designers doing pastiches and derivative work. Then we can wonder why all the deep sea explorations, satellite images of Earth, Antarctic explorations, and digitization and computer network sharing of old texts hasn't revealed more of 'The Mythos' than some scientists and occultists and rural folk knew or experienced in the 1920s and 1930s.

I don't think one needs to borrow everything from HPL or from a later 'expanded Cthulhu Mythos' to make a good, fun 'cosmic horror' game.
Just pick the stuff that works best and ignore everything else. And add your own materials.


All IMHO and YMMV

 

[Whipsnade]

What Mythos design? That's August Derleth. HPL never referred to a Cthulhu Mythos.

Beat me to it.

Anyway there's no flaw (of that kind) in the original works. Humans' encounters with the strangeness are recorded--that accounts for many of HPL's stories.

Beat me to it again.

Lovecraft had his creatures being on Earth all along. Most of Lovecraft's creatures have been on Earth longer than humans have existed and humans have disastrously interacted with them for longer than recorded human history. What's kept those interactions from becoming general knowledge is the fact that A) such interactions usually destroy the humans involve and B) nearly all the humans who survived those interactions and stayed more or less sane wisely chose not to disseminate their knowledge.

Lovecraft's entities are on Earth, so why not follow his lead? You can explain that humanity increasingly awareness of them is thanks to the incidents and artifacts interstellar travel has provided.

 

[epicenter00]

How did Lovecraft and his co-authors explain this? Or was that a constant flaw in their Mythos design?

So, you propose I take the Event Horizon/Alien(s)/Dead Space route and make the Mythos stuff off-world in origin, without long-term alien presence on Earth, at least in modern days?

It's not a flaw, it's just how HP Lovecraft designed it (I don't really read the other "Mythos" authors for the most part).

For the most part, Lovecraft wrote his stories as stand-alone stories (eg; one did not significantly build on the others except as the odd reference here and there). So something like one of Shub-Niggurath's spawn rampaging around rural West Viriginia (I think it was or was it upstate New York?) might be something that'd make the news and so on, but that kind of implication is mostly dismissed as "well something weird happened in the Middle of Nowhere but there's no reporters there so it just makes a footnote in the papers, if that." What we consider normal and familiar is right on the cusp of being torn wide open - that's a requirement of Lovecraft's writing as his horror was not really about utterly inexplicable ultradimensional beings or people making bargains with beings older than time (it's become that way as a function of the CoC RPG and its D&D-like need to confront monsters I'd argue). Instead the horror functioned on this anti-knowledge platform that our normal world was just a thin, fragile veneer of something like pond scum over murky waters infinite depth and utterly uncaring in its power and that learning more about our world would inevitably reveal to us the true horror we lived in and that we should just be grateful and happy in what we have now.

I'm saying more from a meta point of view it makes sense if the Mythos stuff is off-world in a future setting:

In Lovecraft's writings, places that are outside the imagined familiarity of Anglo-American (and Anglo) urban haunts are written to be the alien other. In his story "The Street" he tells the tale of how immigrants moved into a beloved American street in some city and their alien ways and beliefs eventually made the street destroy them. His mythos cultists are immigrants, sailors who have traveled widely and picked up weird beliefs, strange reclusive eccentrics, and people (inbreds) in rural parts of America or small towns. The really weird stuff always pops up in places that are outside of the direct experience of those in urban American settings - the sea, Antarctica, the Himalayas mountains ... and places like West Virginia or Upstate New York (for those unfamiliar with the US, these kinds of places are considered very deeply rural by most people in the US). Mythos objects tend to be stuff brought back from alien cultures like India, Native America, or Africa either in the form of anthropological artifacts or curios by travelers.

I won't get into the xenophobia implicit in all of that, except as a jumping off point: On a future Earth, with its increasing interconnectedness, satellite mapping and so on, the whole of the Earth could be considered the spiritual successor to "the Anglo-American haunts" of HP Lovecraft's stories; the people on Earth can be considered pretty weird but familiar and natural -- the real weirdness is Out There. In the future, satellite mapping, high-speed travel, the internet ... and a long history of natural resource exploitation driving people out to increasingly remote areas could make the Earth a known quantity; it's increasingly difficult to hide weird things when all the people who claim to have seen weird things can get together and talk about it and the occasional mainstream scientific skeptic who peers into it is confronted by actual artifacts and reproducible weirdness as opposed to voltmeters being used to find poltergeists and tinfoil hat rabbitholes. It seems to me it's only a matter of time that someone is going to be able to produce the extraordinary evidence to back up an extraordinary claim (the Elder Things have a huge city in Antarctica!) and since we're extrapolating from the present, it seems increasingly unlikely there's going to be places on our Earth where such things can be hidden - a few years back a large passenger plane could vanish somewhere in the ocean in SE Asia, but for how much longer?

In this respect, outer space would become the new "alien other" replacing "anywhere that isn't a white anglo-saxon protestant neighborhood." Hick towns become the remote off-world mining colonies. Swarthy sailors become free traders who've spent a bit too long in the fringes. The academics of Miskatonic University ... well they don't change too much except that department is about xenocultural studies.

This brings me to cults and conspiracies. Pretty much every power conspiracy theory only works at a skin-deep level of linking convenient facts together - if you scratch deeply in any given bit of proof you'll find a much more plausible explanation. As a result, the idea of a conspiracy is that out to gain power remaining secret for any period of time beggars belief. They would have either achieved their goal by now, they'd have been conclusively outed, or they would have fallen apart. A conspiracy in the government that had existed for fifty years is more than likely to have met one of these fates. A conspiracy for a hundred years beggars belief that they haven't been discovered, died out, or achieved its goals and turned the world into a dystopia. In this case, CoC has in my opinion been negatively influenced by RPGs; yes there are secret cults in Lovecraft's writings, but they tend to actually just be groups that'd be happy to be left alone, though they might be doing criminal things like sacrificing travelers or something, but they're often ... pleasure cults (yes pleasure cults - join the Deep Ones, when Cthulhu comes back you'll be able to do whatever your heart desires unshackled from morality!), not out to rule the world (eg; Innsmouth's residents mostly wanted to be left alone to practice their terrible faith ... but they had no "Political Action Wing" dedicated to controlling the US government from behind the scenes or trying to kill everyone in New York to summon Cthulhu -- that's a CoC RPG thing, IMO). Such a secret cult is easy to imagine - they mostly keep to themselves, don't make big waves, stick to sacrificing drifters and other people that won't be missed.

 

[BwapTED]

Beat me to it.



Beat me to it again.

Lovecraft had his creatures being on Earth all along. Most of Lovecraft's creatures have been on Earth longer than humans have existed and humans have disastrously interacted with them for longer than recorded human history. What's kept those interactions from becoming general knowledge is the fact that A) such interactions usually destroy the humans involve and B) nearly all the humans who survived those interactions and stayed more or less sane wisely chose not to disseminate their knowledge.

Lovecraft's entities are on Earth, so why not follow his lead? You can explain that humanity increasingly awareness of them is thanks to the incidents and artifacts interstellar travel has provided.

Heck, maybe people detected the Deep Ones and subsequently killed them all.


Think about it. Humans with advanced military tech, during an era of high international tensions or all out world war, discover undeniable proof of a hostile race of humanoid aliens living in the oceans. And it goes public..
Meeting the ichthyoids is scary and gross. And they want our women! On top of all this, they have been doing secret deals with certain foreign nationals, and the US gov';t seems to have known about them for decades and kept mum...


Dude, those fish boys are fried.

China is gonna genocide the creeps. Or the Russians. Somebody will if the Yanks don't do it first.

They were too deep for 1920s subs. These are 21st century subs, baby.

Muwahahahahaha!


But I do agree with Epic. Off-planet is the way to go.

 

[Whipsnade]

But I do agree with Epic. Off-planet is the way to go.

Epicenter is correct in that the conspiracy aspects derived by others from Lovecraft's writings have blown completely out of proportion. While CoC and similar RPGs are mostly responsible for this conspiracy "bloat", later authors have had a hand in it too.

Despite our interconnectedness, satellite mapping, and all the rest, there are still "out of the way" places and "low profile" peoples on 2018 Earth. In Omer's setting with it's Blights and Wastelands, there will be even more and despite the advanced technologies.

If the creepies and crawlies, plus the cults that interact with them, are more interested in laying low while enjoying their "hobbies" than taking over governments, there's no reason they can't be present on Earth. While there is more of them and their tools out there, a few of them and a few of their tools can still be here.

 

[BwapTED]

Well, if I were doing this and I wanted to put 'Mythos' stuff on Earth, I'd say WW3 woke up a lot of Things that should have been left sleeping, and the Earth powers had to used WMD in a big way to prevent an extinction level event for homo sapiens.
Earth is now such a horrible place now that everyone's fleeing who can get out.

But that's getting pretty far afield from Omer's concepts of 'space travel is risky, space is deadly, and there's Weird Stuff out there.'

 

[Whipsnade]

Well, if I were doing this and I wanted to put 'Mythos' stuff on Earth, I'd say WW3 woke up a lot of Things that should have been left sleeping, and the Earth powers had to used WMD in a big way to prevent an extinction level event for homo sapiens.
Earth is now such a horrible place now that everyone's fleeing who can get out.

That's one way to spin it though, as you correctly write, it's somewhat far afield from the concepts behind Omer's fascinating setting.

I believe that Lovecraft's original conceits like "Odd cults and practices by overlooked peoples in overlooked places which occasionally come to limited official attention" and "Myths and forgotten/suppressed tomes which occasionally hint at the truth but are laughed by mainstream academics" still can work. So, Innsmouth doesn't mean the US government or even some small part of it knew about or still knows about the Deep Ones. During that period some of the states making up the US were forcibly sterilizing "feeble minded" and other "undesirables" so the raid could have simply been an anti-smuggling operation with an eugenics component added. At the time, one or two men may have know about or suspected Deep One influence and were able to arrange for the submarine to torpedo Devil's Reef, but they took that knowledge to their graves while perhaps leaving behind cryptic notes rather than filing a report with some Bureau of Yog -Sothery.

Having the Deep Ones, artifacts and remnants of the Old Ones, cults worshiping the Great Old Ones, and cryptic hints regarding the Outer Ones on Earth doesn't necessarily lead to the Laundry, Delta Green, and all the rest. The artifacts, sightings, and incidents which have been accumulating ever since humanity began traveling between the stars are only now suggesting to some people that Earth itself needs to be closely examined.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Heck, maybe people detected the Deep Ones and subsequently killed them all.


Think about it. Humans with advanced military tech, during an era of high international tensions or all out world war, discover undeniable proof of a hostile race of humanoid aliens living in the oceans. And it goes public..
Meeting the ichthyoids is scary and gross. And they want our women! On top of all this, they have been doing secret deals with certain foreign nationals, and the US gov';t seems to have known about them for decades and kept mum...


Dude, those fish boys are fried.

China is gonna genocide the creeps. Or the Russians. Somebody will if the Yanks don't do it first.

They were too deep for 1920s subs. These are 21st century subs, baby.

Muwahahahahaha!


But I do agree with Epic. Off-planet is the way to go.

Sounds a bit like The Salvation War series*, but against Cthulu Mythos entities instead of against both sides of Judeo-Christian Armageddon.


*haven't actually read it, but ran across it on TV Tropes.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheSalvationWar
The basic premise is that a sorta-hard-science version of Revelations kicks off, but an apocalypse appropriate for the Bronze Age isn't quite capable of handling modern military technology...

 

[Golan2072]

Everyone - thanks for the comments! They have been very thoughtful and got my creative juices flowing.

I think that any far-reaching overall conspiracy will detract from the setting. A major revelation of the Mythos to general public on Earth will also be detrimental to the setting's feel and to horror. If the Mythos becomes public knowledge, you either have an Aeon War ala CthulhuTech or "monsters as pests" ala The Witcher. This defeats the purpose of space being a mysterious, cold, and dark place and moves the focus to the Aon War/monster extermination.

I like the description given above of the Mythos' general premise of it being outside the "comfort zone" of the writer's culture. In this case, focusing it on space is indeed a good idea. There are nasty things out there. Our "island of ignorance" is Earth - once the Sciences allows us to leave it, we begin to find very, very disturbing truths.

As for Mythos on Earth, I think I will indeed take Lovecraft's approach of keeping it in "the dark corners of the Earth". An insular cult here, an isolated fishing village infested with Deep One blood there. Rare esoteric "magic" learned from equally rare tomes often ending up in the would-be sorcerer killing himself by miscasting; almost all magic is not overt by any means (no fireballs!) and the effects of a successful spell can often be "explained" otherwise. Several small-scale alien (Antediluvian) sites deep beneath the ocean or under the Antarctic ice sheets, eventually to be found in the 21st or 22nd centuries. Cthulhu, if he does exist on Earth (maybe R'lyeh is on another world?), is in deep sleep.

No Delta Green, no MJ12. No Aeon War.

Think Event Horizon, Alien(s), and Dead Space - the horrors are off-world and associated with star travel.

 

[kilemall]

If the creepies and crawlies, plus the cults that interact with them, are more interested in laying low while enjoying their "hobbies" than taking over governments, there's no reason they can't be present on Earth. While there is more of them and their tools out there, a few of them and a few of their tools can still be here.

Or, could be different perspective.



If you have a lifespan measured in billions of years, you may not be 'playing' for small stakes or just terrifying the local sentients.


One thought that comes to mind- they got stuck here on Earth, and have been poking and prodding humans to find their lost interstellar tech- then they are going to 'hitch a ride' and we're going to be the ferrymen that allows them to resume their spread.

 

[Golan2072]

One thought that comes to mind- they got stuck here on Earth, and have been poking and prodding humans to find their lost interstellar tech- then they are going to 'hitch a ride' and we're going to be the ferrymen that allows them to resume their spread.

That's the reason there will be Deep One colonies among the stars - hybrids will start spreading through passage on starships, and hybrids eventually transform into mature Deep Ones...

 

[Whipsnade]

No Delta Green, no MJ12. No Aeon War.

That's good to read because...

That's the reason there will be Deep One colonies among the stars - hybrids will start spreading through passage on starships, and hybrids eventually transform into mature Deep Ones...

... it sets up that bit of horror.

As they move out into first the Solar system and then other systems, humans are going to come across undeniable proof of aliens in the form of artifacts, ruins, and occasional encounters with live specimens. Even humanity's FTL drive is a side effect of the fumbling, "black box understanding only", use of recovered alien artifacts.

Humans are going find signs of a prior and present alien presence in the Sol system and in all the systems around Sol, so it's going to be logical to start looking for the same on Earth itself.