Nyarlathotep

Nyarlathotep is the main antagonist in the ***Persona 2*** trilogy.

#### *History*

*Nyarlathotep* was known to many as The Crawling Chaos, The God of a Thousand Forms, The Dweller in Darkness, The Faceless God, The Floating Horror, The Haunter of the Dark or many others, is an *Outer God* in the *Cthulhu Mythos*. He is the spawn of *Azathoth*. Like many of the well known Old Ones, he was created by *H. P. Lovecraft*.

Nyarlathotep differs from the other deities in the Mythos in a number of ways. Most of the Outer Gods are exiled to the stars, like *Yog-Sothoth* and Azathoth, and most of the Great Old Ones are sleeping and dreaming like *Cthulhu*; Nyarlathotep, however, is active and frequently walks the Earth, actively seeking to agitate the universe into madness, woe, and discord. He has been known as a manipulative, charismatic and cruel entity who enjoys bringing chaos to the many worlds he walks.

#### *Appearances*

* *Persona 2: Innocent Sin* :Antagonist,Final Boss as **Great Father**
* *Persona 2: Eternal Punishment* :Antagonist,Final Boss
* *Persona 2: Hope Harmony* :Antagonist,Used by **Steve Silverman** during Third Semester
* *Persona: Tsumi to Batsu*
* *Persona 2: The End of Seven Sisters High School - Innocent Sin Arc* :Antagonist, Used by **Richard Fox**
* *Persona 2: The End of Seven Sisters High School - Eternal Punishment Arc :*Antagonist,used by **Shiori Miyashiro** and **Monaca Ishigami**
* *Persona 2: The End of Seven Sisters High School - Hope Harmony Arc*

#### **Profile**

##### ***Persona 2** **Trilogy***

Nyarlathotep is the main antagonist of the *Persona 2* trilogy. An extremely manipulative, charismatic and cruel entity born from the human consciousness, he and Philemon are acting on a bet to see if humanity will become enlightened or ultimately destroy itself.

He is described as the destructive side of Humanity's collective unconscious, and as such, the living embodiment of Mankind's collective evil; every thought, action or feeling that derives in experiencing the desire to bring harm to others or oneself in any form fuels Nyarlathotep's existence.

His reason for providing the human race with the means to drive itself to destruction is given as a bet between him and Philemon, who holds that they instead will ascend to a greater destiny.

In order to rig things in his favor to end humanity, he gave Sumaru City the ability to spread Rumors which are events that would become true when being spread by people, effectively allowing him to alter reality as he wishes.

He manipulates an organization in each part of the trilogy to fulfill his objective, being the corrupted child playgroup Masked Circle in *Innocent Sin*, the political group New World Order in *Eternal Punishment* and the agency Assassination Specialized Execution Foundation in *Hope Harmony*.

In either case, his final goal is complete and utter world destruction, which he deliberately advances the progress of in order to display to Philemon that people will ultimately guide themselves to their own ruin.

#### ***Persona*** ***2: Innocent Sin***

He appears as Jun Kurosu's late father (Akinari Kashihara), and the Fuhrer, who was supposedly revived by rumors. Due to his charisma and self confidence compared with his real counterpart, he acts as an ideal substitute parent for Jun.

#### *Music*

Nyarlathotep in Persona 2 trilogy has a musical theme titled False Kashihara (偽橿原) which shares the same motif with Philemon's. The arrangement uses eerie pads, stronger tom drums and a human scream sound effect with strong reverberation.

The final battle theme against Nyarlathotep in three *Innocent Sin*, *Eternal Punishment* and *Hope Harmony* continues to develop the same motif which shares the same choir phrases in the opening movie music and Order of the Holy Lance battle theme from the Innocent Sin OST.

At the same time in *Hope Harmony*,after the protagonist unleashed the strongest power to recover the original reality and destroyed Steve's ideal reality, the theme uses tense and dark arrangements for using the scenes of Steve unleashed his Nyarlathotep power to destroy the world for payback against the Armed Angel Agency.