A Far Out Rant

[molonel]

Hear hear!

I always pegged Cthulhu and Azathoth as the warm and snuggly, misunderstood type.

Kind of like Barney, or the Care Bears.

 

[frankthedm]

Reading through these posts (and a rather cool story), I am wondering how folks see the realm visited in the movie Event Horizon. Far realm, or a layer of the abyss?

I'd lean twards Abyss in D&D terms, with enough madness to be an Obyrith dominant layer. Nothing far realmy enough happened, but plenty of evil and chaos. It has that lovecraftian vibe to it of bad places outside of our reality. but going there does seem to have less profound effects that a far realm visit tends to have.

And I felt the movie was just fine.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Event Horizon-I loved that movie, and I always thought the vibe was perfect for the abyss. Some deep forgotten layer still ruled by obryliths where things were more elementally apocryphal than most.

As for Far Realms-I don't tend to use it, but I'd essentially treat them as not having alignment in mechanical terms. Of course they're something I view as completely irrational to conventional reality not purely destructive. Thus you'd be as likely to encounter one that was effectively neutral or good as evil, but no matter which you encountered it would be equally nonsensical and insane in nature.

"I always pegged Cthulhu and Azathoth as the warm and snuggly, misunderstood type. Kind of like Barney, or the Care Bears." The Care Bears? Barney? No they're misplaced torture devices from a particularly sadistic level of the abyss.

 

[S'mon]

The Far Realms isn't Evil. It isn't about Evil. Fiends are Evil. The Far Realms may be based on Lovecraft's work, but it's not Evil taken up to 11 in the Spinal Tap way.

I don't think HPL ever thought of Cthulu and co as 'evil' that was a later interpolation. They're hostile, not evil. This works for the Far Realms too. When the fishermen accidentally dredge up some weird life form from the ocean depths, and it gasps and dies on their boat, are they evil? The weird life form probably would think so. Likewise humans and Far Realms 'fishermen'.

 

[Infernal Teddy]

The Far Realm and it's inhabitants are not evil - they do not normally even comprehend our existance. We are as uncomprehendable to them, as they to us. Most of these "creatures" count (in my game, at least) as forces of nature (And as what else would one count the likes of Cthulhu, unless you've been rading too much of the Vault).

The Horror of the mythos is not the power and the evil of the creatures, but our own insignificance.

 

[S'mon]

BTW I don't have a problem with saying that (a) the Far Realms are not objectively evil, in the way a demon or devil is and (b) agreeing with Hussar that a Far Realms entity should register as evil to D&D Alignment-based magic. It seems perfectly reasonable both that

(a) Alignment is a human (or human-deity) construct, with no relevance to the Far Realm, and

(b) the human Multiverse will register a Far Realm incursion as Evil.

 

[Kestrel]

Check out Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness. Very lovecraftian, even got the squidies

(Would make a fun Far Realm plot for a game too)

 

[WhatGravitas]

Event Horizon-I loved that movie, and I always thought the vibe was perfect for the abyss. Some deep forgotten layer still ruled by obryliths where things were more elementally apocryphal than most.

Ditto. The stuff there thrived too much on human fear, despair and the whole bunch of a human concept of evil. However, I'd rather say it's not a forgotten, but an average layer of the abyss, or the abyss will appear too tame.

I really like that idea, that Far Realms stuff is not evil, but hostile - but still registered as evil, since it poses a threat to conventional alignment. Then the True Strike ability of the Farspawn/pseudonatural would be their equivalent to "Smite Evil"... I like that.

 

[molonel]

I'm not evil. Just misunderstood.

 

[Qualidar]

I think if you're going to use the Far Realms effectively, you have to leave the D&D alignment ghetto behind. The Abyss is the ultimate evil: the Balor explaining how the PC's actions have inadvertently destroyed the souls of every infant on their planet because they failed in their quest. The far realm is having your role-playing of the Balor's monologue interrupted with a phone call that someone you love has just been diagnosed with cancer. There is "evil", and there is far, far worse.

~Qualidar~