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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Trepelano" data-source="post: 1931114" data-attributes="member: 6473">I know this will sound like a cop-out, but, in truth, the question brought up in this thread is not meant to be answered - that is part of the atmosphere of the game.Lovecraft used this notion of insanity as a very shrewd tool to create a sense of horror.  Rather than explain how the knowledge causes insanity, he merely shows us that it does.  Its like the gruesome cannabilistic ritual that takes place off-screen.  The reader's (or the player's) mind develops its own sense of dread through its own wonder and imaginination that an author (or GM) could never duplicate through explaination or detailed description.The fact that we debate its cause is, I think, the ultimate example of its effectiveness. We are driven by morbid curiousity to understand what could cause such a consequence, and are left a bit horrified nd frightened by the mere fact that we DO NOT KNOW.    We can see that the secret knowledge causes such dire effects, but are standing on the wrong side of the veil to explain it.I firmly believe that leaving such questions unanswered you do more to create the true lovecraftian horror ambience in your game than if you attempt to detail it.  It is for the player's to mull over and wonder.  Consider that all the information available to the GM is only a bare scratch of the surface of the "true reality".  Even as you impart necessary information to the players you should always hint that there is more information that their characters are getting that you, the GM, are not detailing.   Basically, they should come to understand that the information that the GM's and the players have from the rulebooks are merely a pale shadow, a hazy reflection of the truly horrible secrets of the universe.</blockquote>

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