Cthulhu Mythos Portfolios
I'll preface this reply by saying that I am very well versed in the Cthulhu Mythos, having read every story HPL wrote that I've heard of, and many of the stories by other writers in the "Lovecraft Circle" and those used as bases for the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game. I also use the Far Realm heavily in my recent D&D campaigns, and one of my two current games features characters who are actually
crusading for the Far Realm. Of course, while I do have the background, others with similar backgrounds may have differing opinions; the below represents my opinion on the subject.
Upper_Krust said:
I'm probably not well read enough in Cthilhu lore to countermand CoC d20 to any great degree.
CoC doesn't assign Portfolios to the Mythos deities in any significant way; the closest it comes is in the case of the Outer Gods such as Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, Shub-Niggurath, and Yog-Sothoth. That said, the way Hastur is portrayed in typical CoC lore I can't honestly see him as being anything other than Madness, probably Double Madness. His primary association, other than the star Aldebaran, is the play
The King in Yellow, which has the attribute of driving insane anyone who reads it or sees it performed. Entropy doesn't really come into it where he's concerned, or at least no more than it does for any generic Mythos entity.
Upper_Krust said:
Although I generally take the idea that Azathoth (Algol) is an Old One. Therefore, since he is meant to be the most powerful of the Cthulhoid Beings Nyarlothotep could not be a First One/Entropy.
I see Nyarlothotep perhaps more akin to a Greater Power.
FWIW, CoC agrees with you in relative power levels, as I suspect would Lovecraft himself if he bothered with such things as Divine Ranks (though he most likely wouldn't, preferring to leave the entity undefined and unknown for the greater fear factor). I say that because Nyarlathotep is defined in his stories as the
herald and
servant of the Outer Gods- it's not even really clear if he's supposed to actually be one himself. Clearly, he's weaker than any of them, but being by far the most intelligent (essentially being their mind and soul, somehow) he's also by far the most active of them in the affairs of the rest of the cosmos. Nyarlathotep I'd peg as being Chaos and Entropy, probably with Madness as a third if he's gotten an extra Portfolio somehow.
Azathoth should be Double Entropy, or perhaps Chaos and Entropy though that's stretching it mightily (his alignment should properly be True Neutral since he's an "INT -" creature- pretty much mindless- but being what he is and where he's from a Chaotic Neutral alignment is arguable). Again, if he's somehow acquired more than two Portfolios I'd go with Madness as a third, and possibly Fire or Sun as another since he's supposed to be a "nuclear chaos" (usually interpreted by modern authors and game designers as a living nuclear explosion).
Other Mythos entities can be assigned similarly. It's an interesting fact that once you really look hard at what the entity represents, very few if any will have the Madness Portfolio without going with three or more Portfolios somehow. This is actually well in keeping with the Mythos stories, because in those stories the madness induced by the presence of the Mythos is not by intention of the Mythos beings themselves- it's simply a result of the human mind being too weak/bound up in its rules and traditions to deal with the fact of their existence any other way.
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
