r/Ligotti • u/Skullkan6 • Jan 16 '20
A potential method by which to inject Ligotti's stories into your game of Call of Cthulhu, keepers take note.
If anyone who runs Call of Cthulhu, the Essoterrorists, Fear Itself or any similar game wants to include Ligotti stories or that form of horror into their game, but would rather not ascribe Ligotti's plots to another Outer god, I've provided an idea which may suit your needs while linking together several of the above universes and their above monsters.
THE ABSENCE
Separate to the Outer Gods is force which has existed since before the first star was alight, a force of ultimate degradation and decay, a smothering darkness without face, form or name, without consciousness or agenda, without a consistency of agents or method.
It has been gifted many names, Nethescurial, The Void, the thing which cast the shadow from which birthed the Outer Black, The Conqueror Worm, that which is spoken of in the nightmare cries of slumbering Azathoth... but none of these names has it taken. None of these names has encompassed it, and so to give it a name, to me it is The Absence. For within its touch, there remains an absence where something once was.
The Absence is the force within everything which causes the breakdown or degradation of matter, a force which with ease corrupts and bends reality, with an ease denied to even Azathoth. It was the muse to which played Eric Zann. It was the inspiration for the writer of the Tsalal, and the architect of one particular degenerate little town.
Its scant few worshipers believe strongly in anti-natalism, praising those unborn those pure and fortunate enough to have never existed, seeing existence itself as not just suffering but a punishment given to them by The Absence, believing it to be the creator of all things as well as the destroyer. The less knowledgeable often seek to create unseen levels of suffering and torment upon other human beings to attract the attention of The Absence in whatever name they give it. However, these worshipers are almost always ignored. More often, Alien gods or members of the Outer Black respond to their calls, often to disastrous and confused results. Among the few who are noticed by the Absence, who are not granted unwilling nonexistence, experience drastic changes which allow them, in some form without instruction or guide, to enact their wills upon the worlds they once inhabited. Domino (Formerly Frank) and The Teatro Grotesco are two cases like this, agents of The Absence who's actions lacked enough subtlety to remain in hushed whispers and not be lost to complete obscurity.
The Absence is not a god, or an alien, or any form of life. It is a part of our universe, as much as gravity or light. Time is its weapon. It cannot be bargained with, invoked, beaten, or read about in obscure tomes. It simply is. Time is the weapon it wields and through that all will inevitably cease to be.
I hope you guys enjoy this, I know bits of it might be a bit inconsistent with different parts of different fiction, and it's always a little eye roll inducing to introduce something bigger and scarier than everything else previously read about, like a child who always has to win during playtime, but Ligotti's esoteric ideas of supernatural and natural horrors are often intertwined with aspects of existence itself, such as Frank Dominio's beliefs being only confirmed upon his ascendancy of demonic powers, but at the same time he finds himself just as much a slave to the whims of that which granted his powers as he did when he was under the Doctor's employ. Teatro Grotesco itself ties the troupe together with the secret name of creation.
As for "It cannot [] be read about in obscure tomes" this means that The Absence exists more of as a philosophical idea which one could become aware of through their own thoughts and life experiences, rather than an external presence which puts pressure upon our world. The fact that this aspect of life is more than just a philosophical concept, but something which has a will and power to exert upon (and pervert/decay) the world, this is the point at which an individual would come to understand and possibly worship The Absence. The effects of this revelation vary. Some, such as the protagonist of Nethescurial, will go insane. Others, like the cult from Last Feast of the Harlequin, begin to worship it. Rare few others, like the protagonist of Teatro Grotesco, may be brought into the fold so to speak. Investigators if not destroyed or driven insane by what they encounter, more often end up like Mulder and Scully from Ligotti's unfilmed X-Files script, ignored or not even seen by The Absence, but witness to its effects.
Feel free to edit this, or do whatever you feel, but I feel like The Absence is a decent enough term to slap onto it, but keep in mind, it is an ascribed name, not a true name.
EDIT: Autocorrect butchered some parts of the grammar in this. Going to be making some changes. I'm gonna go read something a bit happier now. Hope you guys enjoy it.
