NYARLATHOTEP
Crawling Chaos and Messenger of the Old Gods
Nyarlathotep … the crawling chaos … I am the last … I will tell the audient void …
Nyarlathotep, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, 1920
It is understood in the land of dream that the Other Gods have many agents moving among men; and all these agents, whether wholly human or slightly less than human, are eager to work the will of those blind and mindless things in return for the favour of their hideous soul and messenger, the crawling chaos Nyarlathotep.
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, 1927
Nyarlathotep brings chaos and the end of order. His means are manipulation, deception, deceit and betrayal. No other Great Old One interferes so much in the affairs of men. For millennia Nyarlathotep has walked the land in the guise of his avatars, whether as an Egyptian pharaoh, a dark-skinned man, a formless cloud, or in even more nightmarish apparitions.
Whether Nyarlathotep is thereby advancing the goals of the Great Old Ones, whose messenger he is, or following his own agenda, is, by human standards, completely incomprehensible. He seems to delight in those whose last spark of sanity he robs with his game and leaves to a cruel fate. The greater the despair on the part of the people, the more fulfilling the crawling chaos. Not a few report about having seen the Great Old One in human form in high offices or at the top of influential organizations – mostly he has a captivating outer appearance and is exceedingly well off.
| AVATARS OF THE CRAWLING CHAOSNyarlathotep – the mighty messenger, He-who-is-in-the-abyss and is said to reside on a world of Seven Suns, the father of the One Million Minions – he has numerous avatars and also takes on the appearance of humans, clad in robes and a wax mask. Some appearances attributed to him are as follows: Egyptian Pharaoh: Tall slender man with a youthful face, colorful robes and a golden ancient Egyptian double crown on his head. He has the charisma of a fallen angel, a capricious glint in his eye and his voice is soft when he speaks. In part, he even uses the name Nyarlathotep in this form, and it is in this form that he is known in the Dreamlands. Hunter from the Dark: The being that dwells in the Shining Trapezohedron is also considered an avatar of Nyarlathotep, who has promised secret knowledge to those who are willing to listen for eons. Black Man: Called upon by the witches, he appears as a tall, slender man with pitch-black skin and no hair or beard. He wears a shapeless robe of heavy black cloth. He appears to have hooves instead of feet, and for the most part he does not speak, but makes himself understood with gestures. High Priest-Who-Must-Not-Be-Described: He resides in a monastery on the plateau of Leng and is also considered by some to be Nyarlathotep’s avatar. |
SPECIAL POWERS
Great Old One: The being is so powerful that it exists and acts outside the human imagination system. Therefore, it does not have values and the game master freely decides the consequences of a direct contact with this being. However, an encounter usually means certain death or madness for humans.
Avatars of crawling chaos: Nyarlathotep often does not appear in his true form. Instead, he walks among humans in various disguises and plays his game in secret. When he does use another guise, Loss of Sanity and Unnatural Knowledge usually occur once he drops his mask.
Trickster: Nyarlathotep breaks rules, creates conflicts, provokes and manipulates. He is ambivalent, good one moment and showing the true horror under his mask the next.
Unnatural Knowledge (+1d20): An encounter with this entity necessarily increases the player character’s Unnatural Knowledge by +1d20 points. The player character then simultaneously loses sanity points equal to this amount and suffers the usual consequences. No Sanity Check protects against this trait. Unnatural Knowledge occurs immediately after the regular Sanity Check and regardless of its result.
Yog-Sothothery: The role of crawling Chaos, who on the one hand is a messenger of the other gods and on the other hand seems to pursue his own goals, offers almost unlimited material for human drive and action. Haven’t the job offers of late been far too good? Does the foreign business partner really not want anything in return for this extraordinary deal? And what’s the catch in this simple favor someone asks of you? Nyarlathotep works in small ways as well as large, and his goals are so obscure that only crawling chaos can penetrate them.
NYARLATHOTEP, Crawling Chaos and Messenger of the Old Gods
Sanity Loss: 1d10/1d100 (see also Unnatural Knowledge).
This creature description is translated from the German version published by FHTAGN-RPG.
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