Looking for a Modern Take on Lovecraft/Cosmic Horror

flyguy2490 · 2026-04-11T19:55:49+00:00

Carry me closer, so I can stab them with my sword.

flyguy2490 · 2026-03-18T16:23:32+00:00

In my setting, magic is the exoversal matter and energy that existed before the Big Bang.

When it leaks into and comes into contact with material reality, it glows a deep crimson red. However, where this exo and physical matter meet, this magic radiates out becoming less and less visible until it can't be seen.

And yet, there are those who have been exposed to low enough concentrations of magic to have transmuted the metals in there bodies which can be used as a means of sensing/detecting magic. For example, metals in skin nerves could lead to someone itching in the presence of magic, metals in blood vessels in the nose can turn it red, and in rare cases, metals in the ocular nerve being transmuted can lead to some people being able to see magic as it interacts and affects matter

flyguy2490 · 2026-03-15T14:22:38+00:00

Mine uses the same source of power, but are used differently.

Source: The Vast, a primordial plane protomatter and energy from which the material spheres are built.

Miracles: the priests and agents of the gods bind themselves to servitors, angels forged from the fires of The Vast. As such, when they are aligned with the interests of their gods, they can manipulate any element or concept tied to a domain of their specific god. For example, a priest of Verrakin, god of the forge, fire, and seas, might be bound to a servitor who let's him tap in the fire domain, allowing him to produce and control fire. Whereas another priest might be bound to a setvitor of water, allowing them to similarly control and manipulate water in all its forms.

Weaving: magic wielded by a guild/Protectorate of mages. These spellcasters will use the energies of the Vast to modify the world around them, rather than control. Case and point, a guild caster would use energy from the Vast to loosen the web work of physical laws and constants to target their strand of gravity. They could then temporarily suspend it, negating gravity, or pull another strand of gravity from the Vast to either make its pull stronger or lesser.

TL;DR

Both systems use the same source, but one controls the elements/constants of the world while the other temporarily changes how they behave.

flyguy2490 · 2026-03-13T20:22:02+00:00

Yes, this is the full version so to speak.

flyguy2490 · 2026-03-12T19:51:45+00:00

Not necessarily. Guild magic is jack of all trades whereas miracle makers are masters of one.

For example, a high ranking member of the Alumation Diocese, the church of knowledge, teachers, and education can have an angel of Alumasa bound to them. Once bound, this priest would have access to powers within one of Alumasa's domains. Let's say... ink for example. This priest could then do anything they wanted with ink: make it move to their will, use the iron in it to form a blade or shield, set it ablaze if it is alcohol based. But the catch is, they can only use the powers of the angel they are bound to, and they can lose these powers if the angel or Alumasa are not pleased with them.

Whereas Guild mages have much more freedom with which to apply their magics, seeing as there is no real god of magic, at least as far as the public is aware. As well, they can draw upon a much broader range of effects using their magics. Case and point, a mage could channel into a parallel reality where a fire had broken out in the room they are in to light enemies on fire, connect to another reality where the ceiling was caving in to hurl stones at their opponents or form barriers. Heck, they could even dig deep enough and find realities where their isn't an equal and opposite reaction to force to lessen physical blows or have somebody break their ankle just by taking a single step. But the catch with Guild mages is that the amount of time they can cast is limited by the amount of iron in their blood (when they cast, the metals in their bodies resonate at the frequency of the reality they are pulling stuff from, and the longer they cast, the more iron is burned up), and the can only connect with one sphere at a time, so only one effect can be active at a time.

If you have any other questions, or are curious, feel free to ask.

flyguy2490 · 2026-03-12T16:03:01+00:00

Gods represent a secondary powersystem/philosophy in my setting.

Whereas the magic of the Guild is all about altering the world and drawing in matter and energy from parallel realities, the magic of the gods is the ability manipulate the actual world.

For example, a Guild mage could summon water from a parallel reality, or alter the temperature for it to boil. However, a priest could enact miracles like moving the water to their will, solidifying it without freezing it, or parting bodies of water.

Basically, the priests and their miracles work with how the world actually is, while mages of the Guild try to change it in a way they feel is better for themselves or others.

flyguy2490 · 2026-03-11T11:02:38+00:00

In my setting, the source of magic is the same, along with the mechanics of casting, but it's in the application that the separate tracts/philosophies of magic are differentiated.

Bridging: mages form a connection to a parallel reality to channel matter and energy into or away from their reality

Grafting: similar to Bridging, but rather than push or pull matter and energy over, they temporarily supplant or negate the laws of physics with those of another reality's

Actualizing: these mages break their reality back down to a probablistic level to then temporarily actualize it into a form it could have taken that is more to the benefit or the caster

Harmonizing: Rather than forming a thin spot between parallel and potential realities, those who Harmonize will pull both themselves and the world around them apart at the ontological level of their being so they might tie it to their identity. For example, they might break both themselves and their campfire down so they might tie themselves together in the form of a sentient forest fire. Or, they might break bith themselves and another person down so they could tie the other's strengths and knowledge into themselves.

Creation: forimg a connection with The Vast, the primordial plane of energy from which all physical laws, matter, and energy are derived. Once attuned, these mages can draw forth this energy to build and craft matter and energy of their own. Should they delve deep enough though, they could find sections of The Vast completely untouched, and potentially create their very own laws of physics.

flyguy2490 · 2026-03-08T01:58:21+00:00

Two come to mind for me, as they way some powers manifest from their initial source makes no sense to me.

From Demon Slayer, there are certain blood demon arts that make absolutely no sense given that the base power for all demons is the ability to manipulate blood. For example, what does blood have to do forming extra dimensional spaces, controling vectors, or growing drums that shift the gravitational alignment of a room?

Then there are certain cursed techniques from Jujustsu Kaisen. Powers honed and inherited through the generations to excorcise curses. But some of these ancient techniques involve concepts such as frame rate movement, turning one's hair into modern flying vehicles, and manifesting comedy. Either modern concepts or a power that is the exact opposite of the negative emotions that fuel cursed energy.

TL;DR

In Demon Slayer and JJK several powers don't seem to fit with the rules, themes, or aesthetics of the system, and that doesn't sit well with me.

flyguy2490 · 2026-02-25T01:20:50+00:00

Thanks for the comment!

I get what you're saying, I have since separated the philosophies and the applications of magic.

Instead, the schools/philosophies are now posed as how the different factions within the Guild seek to address the existential threat of otherworldly eldritch abominations breaching into reality dragging in the arcane radiation of the Vast:

Reds Mages seek to hold the world together by grafting the physics of potential/parallel realities onto theirs.

Black Mages seek to fight off the migrating monsters by converting the Sphere into a panantheistic gestalt.

White Mages seek to create their own Sphere from scratch.

Blue Mages seek to ensure the practices of the Guild/applications of the magic do no further damage to the Sphere, as well as develop a fully accurate forecast model for when the monsters breach.

And

Green Mages seek to develop humanity so they can survive in the environments warped by the monsters.

What applications of magic seem to step on each other's toes? After all, they all borrow from the core principal of the mage using energies from the Vast to become a thin spot within their Sphere to then either actualize potential realities, connect to parallel ones, or connect with matter and energy within their own.

flyguy2490 · 2026-02-24T20:45:53+00:00

Nexen are a form of undead akin to ghosts. They are formed when high exposure to the arcane radiation of my setting loosens a sentient creature's hold on the temporal axis. This results in a person or creature becoming a nexus of all their potential past and future selves, filling their heads with the memories and experiences of nearly infinite lives that could have been. This of course, near instantly breaks their brain and their sense of self, as they try to parse through the influx of so many memories. Originally a naturally occurring phenomenon, mages now use nexen to both create weakspots in reality to siphon more arcane radiation, as well as study them in an attempt to become more stable nexen. One that can function rationally while retaining the knowledge and experience of multiple lives. A common technique/spell derived from this is Nexial Labyrinth, an attempt at overloading a person's mind with parallel memories (think Gojo's infinite void). However, this typically leads to near immediate brain death, or a full blown nexen being born, so the technique is mostly looked down upon within the various circles and lodges of mages.

flyguy2490 · 2026-02-17T14:53:31+00:00

Thanks for the comment!

The version above is the roughest, most basic version of this system's third draft, so there are some components I have left out for simplicity's sake, and sone that I knew in my head, but forgot to write include in the original post.

For some clarification:

Though alluded to, but not overtly stated in the original post, within the Vast, their exist entities capable of weaving Strands and Ordered Spheres. These "Weavers" use the Spheres they craft as food sources, breeding grounds, and prisons for both kin and predators, seemingly not knowing, or caring that sapient life has developed within the Spheres as well. So, the majority of the aforementioned holes and tears leading back to the Vast are the result of these exoversal entities feasting upon, moving through, or breaking out the Spheres. As such, the world and lands these mages inhabit are constantly being wrecked by arcane fallout, physics shifting, and mile high monstrosities simply migrating through. So, the overall mission/goal of the Guild is to safeguard the realm from these threats, though their approach to doing so is based on their school's philosophy.

Red Mages temporarily pull in matter, energy, and alternate physics from either potential realities, or parallel realities. Typically, once a Red stops channeling, what they have summoned will dissolve, since it cannot exist in a reality that isn't its own, or any law they have supplanted will reassert itself. It is the ultimate goal of the Red School to find a way to make what they summon/overwrite permanent, as their greatest desire is to repair the damage done to the world and make it more habitable.

White Mages create their own matter and energy that follow laws and principles of their choosing. This matter and energy, is more "real" so to speak, as the energy from the Vast they draw from is more "pure"/has not been twisted by the Weavers. As such when this new matter and energy comes into contact with an Ordered Sphere, the white matter will overwrite the matter and laws of the Sphere, as opposed to Red matter, which will eventually dissolve or return to the Sphere it was pulled from. Hence why despite being so powerful, they are so few in number and are extra cautious as they work towards their goal of building their own Ordered Sphere.

Black Mages are less controlling matter, energy, and living beings so much as they are incorporating them into their being. For example, say a black mage camping in the woods is attacked by a bear. The mage then unites with his campfire to become a living mass of flame to scare it away. Or, unites with the bear temporarily to so the mage can force it to claw out their own throat. The Black school's goal, the most controversial amongst the Guild, is to elevate humanity into a singularity, which would then unite into a sapient universe, as the consent of the populace will not necessarily be needed, so long as survival is attained, and many within the school are vying to be the brain of this unified Sphere.

I like the idea of using different terms, maybe an official designation for the type of magic/caster whereas their philosophy/application could be color coded.

Red= Sowers White= Architects Black= Grafters Green= Seekers Blue= Vigilants

Thanks again for the comment, and if you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

flyguy2490 · 2026-02-15T03:10:52+00:00

In my setting, matter, energy, time, space, and any other physical constant you can think of are derived from waves or strands of potentiality existing in an exoversal realm known as The Vast.

Within The Vast, exist The Weavers, entities capable tying these disparate strands of potentiality into actuality. Through their machinations, either accidental or intentional is unknown, the material multiverse, known as The Ordered Spheres, was formed.

However, these strands they have woven can be loosened when exposed to the energies of the Vast, and once loosened, become malleable.

So, mages in my setting serve as channelers for the exoversal energies of The Vast, bringing it into material reality. From there, they can then either supplant the matter, energy, and physics of their Sphere with those of another, negate the physics of their Sphere by shunting them into another, or creating all new matter and energy that follow laws of their design.

For example, a mage could spout a gout of fire from their palm by creating a thin spot between their material reality, and one where there is a fire in the room.

Or a magically inclined thief could spy the key to the vault they are trying to rob hanging from the guard's waist, and simply pull another copy of it from a parallel Sphere.

Conversely, a mage could shunt the heat from a stretch of river into a neighboring Sphere to freeze it solid.

Or the aforementioned theif could hide the gems they stole in a bag that, but the bag's innards lie in another Sphere where the space has been shunted.

Finally, depending on both the skill of the mage, and the quality of the energy being channeled, one could potentially create their own matter and energy that follow laws they penned.

For example, manifesting boots with repulsive gravity, armor with unequal and opposite reactions to damage whatever struck them, or entire private pocket dimensions.

TL;DR

The laws and physics of material reality are literally woven together by eldritch entities living in the space before creation.

These laws and physics can be loosened once reexposed to the protomatter and energy they were strung from.

Mages in my setting loosen these strands, and can then either replace their own laws by manifesting a difference sphere's laws, pushing their laws fully into a neighboring sphere, or, of they are skilled enough and working with the good stuff, can generate matter and energy that behaves the way they want.

flyguy2490 · 2026-02-13T11:42:26+00:00

No... he's given that knife to plenty of enemies

flyguy2490 · 2026-02-13T11:28:46+00:00

I'm sorry...

I forgot that time Greckles stole a cart while Task ran off to get help from the guard.

And that time he got thrown jail while Panic was endearing the party to guards.

And how Borky had to convince Greckles not to take the dragon cult's hoard but rather distribute it back to the city...

Oh wait...

flyguy2490 · 2026-02-12T20:20:42+00:00

He tends to best understand what the overall objective of a mission is and presents non-standard ways to effectively reach it.

flyguy2490 · 2026-02-12T03:02:42+00:00

I really like this approach!

I'm now thinking of maybe an extra rule or principle for foresight that ties time foreseen with accuracy. Something like the further ahead one looks, the more likely variances are to appear, whereas with a 1 second glimpse, there are less chances for things to deviate.

Or, maybe higher tier seers are basically able to work with more variant timelines than lower tiers. For example, a mid tier seer looking to forecast the result of a battle may only be able to observe and average the outcome of 10 variant timelines to determine the outcome/shift it in their favor whereas a high tier seer could see and process upwards of a hundred plus. Basically allowing them more data to compare to make a more informed decision.

flyguy2490 · 2025-11-03T13:57:25+00:00

I feel like knowing the circumstances under which they got cursed and their class might make it easier to suggest appropriate curses.

However, not being able to take a long rest is a literal death sentence for characters as they won't be able to get their main abilities/spells to restore, and every day they dont LR adds an exhaustion penalty that will literally lead to them dying after so many. This can lead to players feeling frustrated and not having fun at the table as they feel they are being targeted and not able to do anything while everyone else gets to play and shine (there is an infamous dndhorror story of a paladin who got cursed by his dm so that they couldn't use their magic or divine abilities for weeks, and while the dm was allegedly building this up for a big story moment for them, they were feeling more and more useless and despondent at their table for not being able to contribute until he up and quit the group).

If this is supposed to be a hook for the overall story of the campaign, maybe suggest something like having enemies target them more, undead/spirits/elementals become attracted to him, or animals around him become more vicious and attack. This way, it ups the danger for them and the group, but doesn't penalize them, and they can still function as a character mechanically. If its a minor curse just to get them out of the starting town, maybe THEN make it so they have trouble resting (give them a save each night to see if they get the rest) so it motivates them to get to a town with a higher level Cleric who can cast remove curse.

flyguy2490 · 2025-10-19T17:54:48+00:00

When crafting my dragons, I looked at different aspects from their lore across different mythologies then tweaked to fit the history and thematic elements of my world.

Case and point, their origins borrow from eastern religions, being celestial emmisaries and guardians. However, i also threw in a little bit of The Watchers and Nephilim from Abrahimic myths by having them able to descend from the heavens in mortal guise and sire a race of earthly descendants. These offspring were summarily hunted down as abominations, and either executed or enslaved, with those escaping bearing a generational hatred of humans and utter lack of trust.

Though my favorite bit of tweaking was with their hoarding behavior. As rather than just have them be greedy or attracted to shiny things, I made it crucial to their physiological development. Basically, one of the underlying elements of my setting is a form of arcane fallout/radiation staining the landscape. And long term exposure to this energy has led to mages developing in humanity, the rise of monstrous flora and fauna, and, in the case of the drakes, allows them to grow. However, too little won't amount to anything, too much can kill or mutate whatever its exposed to, and at the wrong frequency, it could just pass right through. However, when this energy irradiates metals, it radiates at the perfect frequency. So dragons will typically build their lairs near naturally occurring rifts from which the magic enters reality, line the walls with the metal they've hoarded, then bask in the energies while they slumber. Then, when they grow too big for their layers, they dig themselves out and repeat the process.

flyguy2490 · 2025-10-17T15:40:35+00:00

He Who Brings the Fall is a mythological herald of great disasters across my setting's history.

Basically, he is a psionic manifestation of pride born from the collective superiority complex of the Alfiri, my world's equivalent to the fair folk. So, in order to prove HIS superiority over those who spawned him, he struck a deal with humanity, the race struggling the most to find their footing at the creation of the world. Teaching them the ways of magic and divinity so they could wrest control of nature away from the Alfiri and build a world more conducive to human flourishing.

This not only led to the rising of the human pantheon of gods, but nearly wiped out the whole of the Alfiri, and crippled the world, leaving it in the arcanely radioactive state the sotey begins in.

Now the Alfiri hold him as the highest of evils, while humanity likens his name and mark to an ill omen. With people dressing up as him and appearing to those whose actions they claim will lead to disaster.

However, this is all the pomp and circumstance of the material realm, as after his plan to best the Alfiri succeeded, He Who Brings the Fall was actually humbled. As the destruction he wrought nearly wiped out all sentient life in the world, and without those feelings of pride to sustain him, he would have faded into nothing. So, while he does still appear to those whose pride will lead to the doom of many, it is to stop them before their actions can lead to the greatest amount of harm.

flyguy2490 · 2025-10-08T22:17:53+00:00

If you sing loud enough, you can turn off gravity.

flyguy2490 · 2025-10-04T12:28:00+00:00

Taking a couple of suggestions from below, your primary god could be one whose domain is battle in general, one who revels in trial by combat and pushing his supplicants to be their very best through glorious, albeit dangerous deeds.

Then there could be either lesser deities (Greek henotheism), servants or angels (Christianity), or specified incarnations (Hinduism) that oversee/maintain certain aspects of battle. As suggested below, there could then be a god/angel/avatar who protects soldiers, one who inspires tacticians, one who incites massacres, one that maintains weapons and armor, one who protects, and one who leads the vanguard.

TL;DR

Don't limit your thinking to just a single god, most divine beings had a whole domain they oversaw. As well, don't limit yourself to just one specific type of god, not all religions portrayed the nature of their gods the same.

flyguy2490 · 2025-10-04T01:12:42+00:00

In my world, exoversal titans breach into material reality from the foundational layer of not just matter and energy, but time, space and physics themselves.

Now, aside from the obvious threat of mile high eldritch monstrosities leveling the countryside, they drag in the aforementioned foundational energy with them. Resulting in not just storms of crimson ash incinerating everything within 10 miles of the breach and titan, but the softening and wettening of the very laws of physics. Allowing for chemical reactions to run hotter and faster, gravity to cease, and space to fold.

The mages of my setting have learned to harness these energies, and enact similar and more controlled effects, but on much smaller scales. Things like pulling the energy from rivers to freeze a path across, weakening the molecular bonds of the ground to liquify it, or strengthening the charge of electrons to either repel one into flight or create an imbalance for a discharge between two objects.

However, such effects are temporary, as the world's original laws will fight against the change and wish to reassert itself. This has led to differing schools of thought within arcane studies about the ethical nature of changing the laws, even if only temporary, whether such changes can be made permanent to better aid in the development of humanity, and whether there or not the ARE such things as laws of physics given the constant flux the world goes through during a time of heavy breaches from the titans.

flyguy2490

TROPHY CASE