#fungi from yuggoth

[ebrithilbowser]

Looks like I also forgot to upload this one here. This is my own interpretation of Lovecraft's Mi-Go, with more inspiration from Ruthanna Emrys' description in her wonderful novel 'Deep Roots' than from Lovecraft's own texts, and also a hefty dose of artistic license.

[valhahazred]

The Fungi are trying.

[tomoleary]

Dan Day “Fungi from Yuggoth” Lovecraft game (1985) Source

[bluejohnhook56]

Fungi from Yuggoth

Howard Phillips Lovecraft

XXXVI. Continuity

There is in certain ancient things a trace

Of some dim essence—more than form or weight;

A tenuous aether, indeterminate,

Yet linked with all the laws of time and space.

A faint, veiled sign of continuities

That outward eyes can never quite descry;

Of locked dimensions harbouring years gone by,

And out of reach except for hidden keys.

It moves me most when slanting sunbeams glow

On old farm buildings set against a hill,

And paint with life the shapes which linger still

From centuries less a dream than this we know.

In that strange light I feel I am not far

From the fixt mass whose sides the ages are.

[hoodedfigure-no99]

This has been in my head for ages, it’s finally crawled (chaos) it’s way out

[hplovecraftmuseum]

Part 3 Lovecraft and animals: Unicorns - A white unicorn is featured with the heraldric shield of the royal family of England. Lovecraft fancied himself a loyal citizen of England his whole life. His father may have had actual English citizenship and was supposedly chided occasionally for his English accent. HPL himself did not affect the English accent and by his own admission spoke in a typical refined New England mode. ( by all accounts he had a very high, almost falsetto voice, however) As to unicorns: grotesque creatures with a single horn at the top of their heads are featured in Lovecraft's ghost written tale THE MOUND (unpublished during his lifetime). These lumbering beasts which are used for transportation and as a food source are called, gyaa-yoth by the proto- Indians living beneath the surface. Their pre-human civilization is called, K'n-yan. The gyaa-yoth are furry, and generally white except for a patch of black fur where a saddle would normally be. They are able to communicate with their decadent proto-human masters to some degree. If these creatures were meant to be the racial memories for unicorns then the human mind has certainly imagined them as far more delicate and graceful creatures as unicorns! Yeti, Abominable Snowman, Mi-go, - in Lovecraft's tale, THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS, we learn that the Fungi From Yuggoth creatures who now inhabit the remote hills of Vermont here on earth as well as the Himalayas of Tibet are the the true original source of all Yeti legends. Pink, crab-like, with multiple legs and crab-like claws, these alien entities also wear wings in some cases and have heads that are essentially formed from grotesque fungi. They are able to communicate with their own kind by displaying changing color patterns on the heads? Furry white or brown apes/ pink multi- limbed crabs with mushroom heads? Yeah, apparently human 'racial memory' is pretty sketchy! (Exhibit 411)

[kel-of-ulthar]

I've been dreaming, often, of being changed

I have one in particular that is still sticking in my mind.

In that dream, something had arrived from another planet. Or, perhaps not a planet. It was so different than us. Maybe it had soared here, through vacuum and ice, through the interstitial spaces of the galaxy. Had it sprayed out of some icy moon's frigid volcanoes, or snuck out of an acid pool in the rainforests of Venus? We did not know. It was hard to know anything.

Fungus, they called it. It caught everyone off guard. There's something faintly repulsive about a fungus, even the edible ones. The word conjures moisture, detritus, and rot. It repulsed many people. It was contentious. We didn't know what it did, after all, or what it could do. It was foolish to interact with something extraterrestrial, dangerous even.

Then people began to eat it. They were compelled to eat it. Consuming the fungus helped to propagate it. Before long, the majority of people had eaten the fungus, and avoiding doing so was becoming more difficult. I hadn't begun to, yet. We lived communally, like students in a dorm room, and meals were shared in public. My lover and I went to the cafeteria and found--everything they served contained the fungus. People whispered that it was even in the water now.

I felt to be on the outskirts of some great gathering, even when we were alone. If you ate of the fungus, you joined with a togetherness, a touching of minds. People talked about it in hushed whispers, about who had consumed enough that they had joined into a great becoming. They talked about who hadn't done it yet. They glowed with an otherworldly aura, not visible to the eye but perceptible all the same.

My lover had begun his changing. He grew more distant from me, in ways that I couldn't quite explain and he didn't seem to notice. He leaned more towards it and to others who had taken it. He told me, I must join him in that place, I must make this change with him. He said it was wonderful, and I believed him.

I filled my plate and I ate. Others gathered around me, took me by the hand. If I exercised, they said, sweat would force the spores out of solution and excrete them through my pores. This, they told me, was essential for the changing. I obliged. I ran up and down and up and down the stairs of the dormitories until I could hardly breathe. Exhausted, I paused, hands on my knees as I panted. Sweat dropped off my nose. The others descended the stairs behind me, circling, they patted me on the back, squeezed my shoulders and my fingers. Soon, they said.

Satisfied, I walked towards some common area, beyond which were great windows, reflecting green and sweet sky blue. My lover stood there, in the door to that beauty. I smiled at him, heart almost bursting with an impossibly sweet feeling, a sense of overarching love. But he didn't smile back. I faltered.

It was too late to stop what was to come.

[yarnzipangirl]

I have a somewhat wild theory

I don't think John was the King in Yellow.

Not 'isn't now'. Never was. And I've had a few different permutations of this theory for the last few months, mostly because the one line from the Witch really stuck with me:

"Why did you leave your kingdom in the first place?"

If that's not a smoking gun, I don't know what is.

(spoilers up to 51 onward) ETA: edited to add some new thoughts!!

Then you have Scratch and Lillith, who recombined with all the difficulty of hucking a stone through a portal. Scratch who had been separate for years, had a name, had a favorite. And yet, bim bam boom, Lillith restored, easy peasy.

Meanwhile the KiY tries it in the real world and can't, then brings them to the Dreamlands to try again.

But why? For one, why is Carcosa (and the King) in the Dreamlands? That's not their traditional location. Usually, they're in the real world, in the Aldebaran sector of space. It CAN be anywhere but that's not home base.

And for another: why did the King think he'd succeed in the Dreamlands when he didn't succeed before, while John and Arthur weren't even aware of the threat?

Then I was rereading The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath and:

While other gods might have authority or access to the Dreamlands, Azathoth doesn't. Azathoth.

Azathoth, who is Nyarlathotep's father and boss. Who is Nyarlathotep's responsibility to keep asleep and keep happy. Who's dream IS reality. Who, if he wakes up, all of reality ceases to exist so Nyarlathotep has to keep him sleeping.

That thing whose being makes up the Stones. Those Stones that Kayne has had the boys find two of but doesn't seem inclined to let them actually touch.

Now, just a reminder: we've heard about three stones. And those three stones are the body, the spirit, and the soul. See where I'm going with this? What's missing? What do you actually need to dream?

A MIND. A consciousness.

ETA: I keep the text there because that is how I originally wrote it but more thinking has me thinking that no, John IS the soul of Azathoth. The one stone we haven't seen, that Kayne doesn't seem to care about finding. The 'fractured' soul, of course. Why Kayne said he had "too much soul" for the King in Yellow in EP 40. Why Noel had to go: because he saw what John projected out looked like and it wasn't what Yellow looked like. And I wonder if the reason John didn't have his memory to start but he kept it after the second jaunt to the Dark World is because his memories are in the Spirit, the Grey Stone. After all, how would you be able to know anything but by accessing the memory of Azathoth?

Why did the King flee the Dreamlands when that portal opened? He didn't. But Azathoth's soul consciousness, trapped in the Dreamlands where it could never return so Nyarlathotep could muck about doing whatever the fuck he wanted, ran for it. And the King, sensing he'd fucked up and not wanting to be on Nyarlathotep's bad side... tried to retrieve the prisoner he was supposed to keep track of.

And failed. So he dragged him back to the Dream lands, figuring he'd tame him again since he has no power there but it didn't work. "John" fought him. So he threw him back into the Dark World, assuming that would be safe. But John didn't forget and built a Kingdom there. And Kayne had a Problem.

What does Kayne do every time he talks to John? Belittles him. Makes him think he's nothing. Calls him names. Tears him down.

-The Fungi from Yuggoth: XXII. Azathoth

And the part that *really* gets me is Kayne's so caught on John and Arthur, that whole 'only has eyes for you' bit... Azathoth's other name?

The Blind Idiot God

You know. A God with his eyes missing. And what does Yorick call John?

Not the King in Yellow. Never the King in Yellow, nor Hastur despite calling out Lillith and Kayne's traditional names. He calls him My King. Arthur is master. John is his king. A being that sees through the eyes of others calls John his King. ETA: And the eyes are the window to the soul.

Kayne treats Yellow as 'his guy' but not John. The way you would if someone was doing you a favor for a while. And someone you might punish for fucking your favor up. Yellow, who has the traditional rotting and corruption of the King inside Larson that hasn't happened at all to Arthur.

Big G. Been bugging me since Season 1.

John has no access to Arthur's dreams. Arthur has to tell him about them. And the one time he slept (Horig), he didn't dream.

ETA: Not to mention that the thing they've been seeking for the whole time, the most common fandom trope, is John gets a body. What is the Blackstone, guys?

I can keep adding on. But I think you get where I'm going with this.

So TLDR:

I think John Doe is a John Doe, his identity still unknown... and despite intense effort from the King and Kayne, despite it being inconvenient to Kayne, *not* the King in Yellow. Never was.

And everything else. And *that* is why Alia needed him to hope. Because as long as they believe in hope, there is a chance.

Instead, he is entirely his own. The Consciousness Soul of Azathoth. His belief shapes him.

Whether Kayne likes it or not.

[vintagerpg]

What Happened at Wyvern Rock? (2020, I think) feels like a companion to Other Magic. Perhaps that’s just because I bought them at the same time as part of the same collection. Perhaps because they are both illustrated with lovely woodcuts (though with very different styles). But I think thematically, too. Where Other Magick imports folk magic to RPGs, the stated intention of Wyvern Rock is to bring Strangeness to D&D.

Drew Meger defines Strangeness as an experience or encounter that seems to challenge or defy our underlying understanding of the real world. That seems a touch broad to me, but in practice, Meger is essentially talking about the specific sense of strangeness attached to UFO sightings, cryptids and the fog of mystical and quasi-scientific oddness that tends to surround both. UFOs and Grey Aliens and the Moth Man are concepts that feel very much rooted in the 20th century, but in a weird way, they work extremely well in the context of D&D.

The zine is mostly interested in the Greys and in portraying these aliens and building adventures around them, I can’t help but be reminded of Delta Green, where they, and the Fungi from Yuggoth that control them, work in a similar way. I would not have thought that recontextualizing alien abduction folkore into D&D would work so well, but then I was kind of dubious about Call of Cthulhu meets X-Files, and I love that game now, so really, what do I know?

The main zine is accompanied by a bit of fiction called On Tattered Wings. It’s a fun little bit of cryptids meet D&D cotton candy with some fantastic art. I love Meger’s fusion of UFOs, Lovecraftiana and D&D imagery generally, but it really comes together for me in the fiction zine.

[howlingdemon13]

Betelgeuse I was hugely inspired by a bunch of artists and fic writers in the fandom, as well as a few monster artists who specialize in combining different creatures into beasts that actually look cohesive. I’m not sure how well I was able to execute the vision here, but I’m really proud of it regardless! DiamondZ, nonbinary-arsonist, stinkyhorsebitch, and arbuzyansky were the main catalysts for this, so definitely take a peek at their work or give them a follow. I was initially going to submit this guy for a staff art show, but I don't want to rush the rest of it, so I'm just going to post what I have finished here. Design notes are under the cut.

In earlier drafts, I was looking into more serpentine-looking designs since Beetlejuice turns into a snake in the film. Some of the concepts I was leaning towards looked like either a lindworm or centipede, but I think mammalian fits Musicaljuice since he’s “softer” in a lot of aspects compared to his film counterpart. I may look into playing with a more snake/bug-like design in the future. Beetlejuice’s overall look is heavily inspired by Chalicotherium goldfussi, which were huge Miocene ungulates that are distantly related to things like rhinos and tapirs. Given that Beetlejuice is super old, I felt like an extinct animal was a proper fit. On a more personal level, I really like the way these guys look and it was easier to rework their body plan into something that looks carnivorous. That, and I wasn’t really vibing with other mammalian body plans, especially because I wanted something that was close in shape to a human without being apelike. Huge herbivores also have larger stomachs, which I feel is a better analogue to Beetlejuice’s body type. You’ll have to pry that man’s curves from my cold, dead hands. All his forms are chubby and soft, and I’ll fight you over it in the Denny’s parking lot. I also added some hyaenid traits, especially for the head shape and teeth. Hyenas are very social animals (like Beej, except no one can see him), and striped hyenas and aardwolves specifically have these tall crests of fur that run down their backs and back legs that they can raise and lower to communicate. I’d argue it’s fitting since Beetlejuice’s hair sticks up at odd angles and communicates his mood (intentional or not). And hyenas laugh. Granted they giggle when they’re stressed, but it still fits. I modeled his stripes off of both species as well. His hind paws, ears, and tail are all based off of those of opossums. Beej is very “trash animal”-coded, and I felt like the opossum traits would fit better with the Chalicotherium body than something like a raccoon or skunk. I felt a little bad about not giving him a ton of bug traits, so I tried to add mandibles, but they just weren’t looking right in earlier design drafts. I gave him a bunch of small eyes to compensate, but making him look buggy wasn’t the only reason for the extra eyes. We know from early drafts of the musical script that Beetlejuice’s last name is Shoggoth. These creatures are mentioned by Lovecraft in Fungi from Yuggoth and At the Mountains of Madness, but I’m not sure if this implies that Beej is a shoggoth, or if it more so refers to him being able to manifest multiple limbs/shapeshift/warp reality like one. In that same vein, the mouth in his chest is mostly to look scary and is just another fun little Lovecraftian trait that I felt was needed. Same to the tendrils, but that’s also a common fandom trait that is pretty much canon (to me) at this point. I might rb this with headcanons later on.

[preservationofnormalcy]

So, pertaining to the whole Florida situation, what's the expected "blast radius" of effects. I've had some weird fungus pop up on my counter, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's just a coincidence given the fact I'm over on the west coast.

It could be just a coincidence, but if the fungus in question seems like it’s eroding reality (you can tell because solid objects will seem “spongy” or worse you can just put your finger through it) you should also report that!

Fungi from Yuggoth is no joke!

[quibbers]

the autistic approach to music: -play a video game with music and like that music and listen to it for a little bit

-hear one part of a song you really like and play that part over and over and then get bored of

-don't listen to music in background

-not care who is popular, chappell roan? we are all meaningless bald apes in a vacuum. everything will succumb to the endless march of entropy. there is no escape, no solace, the sun will explode, and a far off civilization will discover our constructs of "rhythm" and "beat" and think it sounds awful, the universe will reach critical mass and collapse, and we don't care! we will die way before then, drowning in our own waste gases, working for a living but killing ourselves working(to quote Tuco the Rat), a speck on the universe, outlived by the outer gods, the elder ones, the great race of yith, the fungi from yuggoth, the flying polyps, and the blind idiot god azathoth, primordial chaos reigning in a void of agony and nothingness

[riotatthemovies]

BREAKING NEWS! THE LINE UP FOR THE OCT 8th SUPER SHORTS SHOWCASE OCT 8th SUPER SHORT FILM SHOW DOWN! 8pm at EYESORE CINEMA THE SHORTS (in order or size length and girth) 2025 Steel City Warriors by Luke Meneok 15mins Red Christmas by Shawn Winders 9 mins The Collected by Raymond Cara 9mins Evil Dinner by Jose Murzia 6 mins Witching Hour Woes by Duncan Kinzie 5 mins Fungi from Yuggoth by Daniel Alfredo Fernandez 5 mins Rat King Alba Dawson and Matilda Horton 3 mins Titanic on a Plane by Ross Ozarka 2 mins The Toothless Vampire 2 mins Kit meets the Space Vampire 2 mins Boo by Sebastian Llorach 2mins FOLLOWED BY at 10pm the Canadian FEATURE premier of COVEN OF THE BLACK CUBE!!! From the makers of Blood SIck Psychosis comes there new satanic sickness. You are not ready for this (viewers discretion advised, yadda yadda yadda) shorts show and the feature are each 3 dollars or a 5 dollar advanced ticket gets you both

[visually-corrupted]

"Night-Gaunts" from "The Fungi from Yuggoth" by H.P. Lovecraft. #spookyart #poetry #lovecraft

[hplovecraftmuseum]

Lovecraft and animals, Part 11: Crabs - Crabs or alien beings with crab features appear most clearly with The Fungi From Yuggoth. These 'space crabs' resemble crustaceans in that they are multi- limbed with legs that end in clippers or claws. Usually, they have heads formed of a mass of fungi-type material. The "Fungi' communicate with their own kind by displaying a variety of shifting colors on the toadstool cranial structure. They are capable of mimicking the voices of humans but the result often resembles a sort of buzzing insect tone. Al-Azif, the origional Arabic title of The Necronomicon, supposedly represents the droning sound of insects buzzing in the desert - flies buzzing around a corpse perhaps? The "Great Race" creatures featured in THE SHADOW OUT OF TIME have a large pair of crab-like claws at the ends of their extendable arms. Clicking these claws together in somewhat 'Morse Code' style is how they communicate with each other normally. Back to our mushroom/ crab friends: The Fungi from Yuggoth entities hail from Yuggoth (the 'planet' Pluto) which was first discovered around the time Lovecraft wrote THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS in which they appear. Ultimately, however, they come from some place in time and space far more distant. How these alien monsters made it to earth is a real puzzler. Lovecraft suggests that they fly from planet to planet on 'aether resisting wings', wings that only serve them clumsily here on earth? Considering the speed that they would need to travel at to reach something even so close as our own moon anytime in the near future renders that idea as pretty rediculous! Lovecraft was a dedicated Astrologer as a youth. He wrote articles on the subject for a local newspaper when he was a teen. HPL was also a welcome visitor to the Ladd Observatory near his home in Providence RI. Even he must have understood how preposterous the idea of flying on wings through space was. Still, Lovecraft disliked machines generally, so spaceships never really make a defined showing in his fiction. As a fiction writer Lovecraft frequently toyed with concepts that he would have found utterly absurd in real life. (Exhibit 419)

[another-rpg-sideblog]

From the Cthulhu Mythos chapter of the 1st edition AD&D Deities & Demigods manual (TSR, 1980).

The Fungi from Yuggoth first appeared in HP Lovecraft's novella The Whisperer in Darkness (1931).