Nyarlathotep

Story:

* Memories of Dust (mentioned only)
* Eldritch Crescendo (first full appearance)

## **Nyarlathotep, The Crawling Chaos**

Despite being describes as an “outer god” in his native universe, Nyarlathotep has nothing in common with gods of Greavesoyl. He’s a completely alien creature, unlike any species that exists in the universe, being closer to The Originators than to any mortal being. As long as he remains in this world, he is bout by it’s rules, which limit his power greatly. Still, he is able to freely change his physical form at will to suit whatever goals he has at any given point and move through The Void (like Seenerl or Warper). His appearance and specific powers vary from form to form, and range from physical strength to instant matter and energy manipulation. In addition, he cannot actually be killed by anything nor anyone – if he is destroyed, he will reform back in his home universe.

Nyarlathotep has a twisted sense of humor. He enjoys insanity and chaos more than anything else in existence, and driving people to madness for his own amusement is most often his main goal. He very rarely kills someone, simply because he deems it too mundane. However, if he deems someone useful, or simply impressive, he’s willing to even support them “just to see what will happen”.

## **Story**

Beyond The Void, there is nothing. Beyond the nothing, are the Dreams. And beyond the Dreams… are the monsters.

The things out of this world, beyond understanding and beyond the concept of power, separated from each other by the infinite nothingness between their respective Dreams. In the very centre of his own Dream the formless sleeping creator Azathoth dreamed out all what surrounds him, all the stars, planets and galaxies, all of his children… and among them Nyarlathotep.

White Azathoth only existed and dreamed, Nyarlathotep moved and acted. He could do all except knowing what mortal being below him will do, and he took great pleasure in messing with their ways. He helped civilisations to rise, only to ruin them later. He ruined civilisations only to raise another on the previous one’s ashes. He haunted the dreams of influential mortals, he roamed their worlds disguised as one of them, and sometimes he would just prank them into madness.

He played with the universe far and wide, until discovering the nothingness around it. He poked it and tried to grasp it without results, but he refused let it go. Something must be beyond it.

Time went on, stars died and new one replaced them. Mortals evolved, died, evolved again, and started to become boring. Nyarlathotep himself did not change. He had all there was. With every passing eon he strayed further and further from Throne of Azathoth at the centre of the universe, finding more and more bizarre creatures to play with, and the same nothingness at the end of his road, no matter what direction would he take. With every passing eon there was less and less things in the universe he has not seen yet and with every passing eon the nothingness trapping him there was more and more unnerving.

Every time he reached it, he stared through it with hope and curiosity. Something must be beyond it.

He witnessed the heat death of the universe and how Azathoth dreamed it back into existence. And then again. And again, and again, until he lost count. Every time Nyarlathotep would reform back to life under the sleeping creator, unable to sleep himself. Nor, as he discovered by diving head first into a black hole, to die. Death was below him too. He had all there was, and all there would ever be, but he wanted more.

The nothingness at the end of the universe allured him so much, and finally he delved right into it to escape from the madness which slowly started growing on the back of his head. He walked through the nothingness until he found out that indeed, there was something.

There was a universe, surrounded by an endless gray corpse of another dreamer. There was a creature playing with the rules of it’s world inside. Mortal creature, unlike anything he ever saw before, whose dreams he could see from outside of it’s world. Nyarlathotep reached for the creature’s dreams, buying it out with promises of power just like so many times before. The creature showed him a way to it’s world, but at the last moment betrayed him out of fear for the mad chaos god who came across the nothingness. Before the way was closed, he managed to grasp a piece of matter and throw it back, implanted with a simple order to punish the traitor.

Nyarlathotep was furious, but remained in the gray corpse. He studied it. Poked it. He saw other strange creatures stranded there, and from them he learned how the dystopian dimension before him looks like, with every story making him more and more determined to visit the world. There were many ways inside. He just had to convince someone inside to open it for him.

His servant still roamed inside, breaking minds and drawing people to seek the way to the source, to Nyarlathotep. Some of the creatures he encountered managed to go back, with their minds tainted by the memories of dust and chaos they would spread. The power he granted to the traitor was being used again, letting him to infect the dreams of those who wielded it. And finally, someone who knew how to go back and forth in and out of his world spotted Nyarlathotep, laughing among the dust.

With plans set in motion it was just the matter of time before the chaos would crawl again.

## **In-game**

Nyarlathotep is a shapeshifting master of chaos, who defies a clear class categorisation more than any other specialist. His 4 different forms allow him to shine in various situations, and every one of them has it's strenghts and weaknesses. Depending on what he needs at the moment, he can be an enchanter, tank and melee or ranged damage dealer.

## **Trivia**

* Nyarlathotep originates from the works of H. P. Lovecraft, which makes him the very first non-original character in Songs of Greavesol universe.
* Nyarlathotep was teased for 3 months before his release, starting with Memories of Dust short story, followed by the Buried Horrors update and later by the Eldritch Crescendo series of stories.
* In the last story of Eldritch Crescendo series (Cry For the Abhorrent) his name was revealed for the first time, in the very last line.
* His Bout of Madness ability was named after a mechanic from Call of Cthulhu RPG.
* All of his form-dependent abilities were names after songs:
	+ Powerslaves after a song by Iron Maiden
	+ Reflections of Violence after a song by Andrew Hulshult
	+ Cry For the Weeper after a song by Sunn 0)))
	+ Court of a Chaos King after a song by King Crimson. This is the only ability name which deviates from it's namesake noticeably.
* His unique crowd control effect, Madness, has a different quote for every character in the game.
* If Nyarlathotep was real, he would play Genshin Impact in his spare time.