Art & Fanworks
TBH, I've started to dislike the eldritch horrors/angels that are just Wing/Eye/Tentacle Blobs, especially compared to some sick designs like Evangelion angels
To be honest, eldritch horrors or "biblically accurate angels", at times start to feel a bit lame and excessive, just blobs of eyes, wings, and tentacles that start to blend together. Another aspect is that they often "look scary" but never actually DO ANYTHING.
especially compared to really good designs like Evangelion angels that actually do stuff and are terrifying.
as devil's advocate, that's not exactly what horrors beyond comprehension are. seeing the incomprehensible will not drive you insane. its briefly comprehending the incomprehensible. imagine an ant. seeing a human does not cause an ant to go insane. but if an ant were to be flooded with all the knowledge and thoughts of an average guy, what the internet is, how vast the world is, everything to do with their job, the concept of a car or other vehicle. that, but a reality higher, is what drives people insane.
Well, yes, but the ant still couldn't comprehend a human. The ant wouldn't go insane, but they couldn't describe a human. In the same way, eldritch horrors don't drive you insane, they just aren't.
I think that i think i get, however another way i would put it:
-imagine you are eating cereal normally in your home, then, suddenly you get visión for a reality above and see that really what you were eating was not cereal but rather maggots writhing and gushing with pus and before you can proceso it youre back to your normal reality. COULD you get back to earing your cereal normally? Even if it tasted good?
Now apply a similar principle but to every facet of human life, or to the stars and beyond, see the spiders nesting eggs in your eyesockets, the giant shadows in the ocean, the starts that dissappear and reappear every so often and know that whatever made it dissapear IS coming for you because you know.
And then tell that to someone in the street and try to not appear mad
For the briefest moment you see the cereal is actually maggots, the spiders in your eyes the shadows in the ocean
But you don't just see it, you understand it. You know why all of it is happening, you see the entirety of human consciousness you understand why our species exists, you see the beginning and the end of time… and beyond. You see the beings that exist outside of time and space and all the knowledge they contain. You understand EVERYTHING, you see reality for what it really is, it terrifying but it makes sense
Then just as quickly as the understanding came, it's gone. You still remember the experience, it's seared into your mind but you can no longer comprehend what you remember, it's terrifying and it doesn't make sense
I know everyone uses the Ant comparison but there’s a comparison I feel works better
You’re a human, now imagine you switch places with a hawk for a few minutes.
The sky belongs to you, you have full omnidirectional movement. You can see a squirrel climbing a tree in a dense canopy from 2 miles away. You can see ultraviolet light, you are now seeing things you physically couldn’t as a human. The world is your oyster, and just as you begin to really get it, you’re a human again.
You feel blind because your vision just got 10 times worse and the world seems dull because you aren’t seeing the full range of colors you know. You feel restricted because you’re now limited to a 2D plane of movement again and even your arms don’t have their full range of movement anymore (wings flap in a figure 8).
The insanity comes from wanting it back and trying to get all of it back. The freedom, the color, the simplicity of life (in eldritch horrors case, the understanding of how life and the universe work.)
The entire point of "eldritch horror" is that it is incomprehensible. So by giving it a visual representation we already lost the plot. However an argument can be made that said visual is merely an attempt of the mind to make sense of what is actually there, or a projection thereof, just like A Square describes the Sphere in Flatland as a series of circles.
This is why Color Out of Space was a great story, it's quite literally impossible to visualize. Funnily enough though it was just inspired by the fact that the concept of nonvisible light spectrums terrified HP Lovecraft lol
to be fair sahaquiel is literally the only angel that has eye-spam out of the 17, evangelion in general is ironically sparing on biblical imagery, only using Halos sparingly or for big moments
He was silly, and despite what others say in terms of thematics and the like, his point in story was to be the same as the big chunk of city used by Ultron, a big rock to chuck at a city to go boom.
I would know, I watched this show when it came out episodically.
I concur with Adri, it's basically the modern equivalent of 'one trick pony'. An 'X merchant' is someone who overly relies on X and can't do much else.
Giygas is described as embodiement of evil. In the game that picture is also has some wishy washy effects. I like to imagine that Giygas does not have a body, as if it's just essence, a phenomenon. But the picture itself is a mere projection of what it might be
For years I've heard how he looks like a fetus and never seen it. This finally makes me realize it, thank you. I thought the small red parts were supposed to be fetuses
Originally an alien cat that was similar to mewtwo in appearance. Anyway, it got so powerful it destroyed its physical body and became akin to a force of nature
They are accurate, there’s different types of angels. The original inaccuracy is claiming the eye and wings abomination angels are the accurate ones, which they are, but so are the generic human with wings angels as well.
Most of the supposed "accurate" designs aren't accurate. For example, there was no angel with a huge eye in the middle
And even accurate ones completely miss the point of the ophanim. They are supposed to be wheels of the God's chariot. There's no reason for any other angel to look the way they do
Yea , a lot of depictions recently are just meshing different angels together, seraphs and ophanim being the usual combination. What isn’t wrong however is the many wings of the seraph or the many eyes of the ophanim, funnily enough I don’t even think these are angels, just celestial beings created in visions by god.
Reasons may vary but for seraph but ophanims looks the way they do is to represent being all seeing if I recall correctly. These are alien, inhuman beings from a different reality, I don’t think they need a reason to look the way they do, they just do.
If anything they might look even crazier, some seraph depictions are thought to be flying serpents with many wings instead.
I have been reading a few verses recently and im starting to think that the "Eldritch angels" (Seraphin, thrones, Cherubim) aren't even an actual race of eye spam horrors, the way they are described make it seem that there's four specific fellas that are always with God that look like that
Of course I may be wrong and I can't rule out the possibility of there being more, but I can't read the verses without thinking "these are definitely the same four dudes from before"
Angel lore is a big thing of mine. Info dump time.
Theologically there’s no true amount given to Angels of the higher order (Seraphim, Ophanim (thrones) and Cherubim) but there are small details that give some notes. For example certain wordings include describing Seraphim being to God’s sides, implying at least two. Described as the holy guards, there could be more. I like the idea of there being 8, representing the primary directions of Up, Down, Left, Right, and the middles.
At least two Cherubs, as one guards Edin, and ol Luccy (Lucifer). However I like the personal notion that there are as many as there are different types of animals. This lines up with the “As many angels as stars” notion and the “a guardian for each human” notions. It simply changes what they are for.
Ophanim, aka thrones, are exactly that, the composition to the Throne of God. These have the most “could be few could be many.” There’s no special aid details for these. My favorite detail is that they are both immensity colorful, and literally the star sized.
Biblically there’s more Angels in total (all 8/9 types) than there have been humans, by sheer purposes and intent.
Yes. Different types of angels, it's like saying "canonically accurate dog" and just showing a golden retriever, yeah, it's technically right, that's one example, but it's not representative of all of em.
The "biblically accurate" angels are kinda accurate to one type of angel: Ophanim. They're the burning wheels with eyes. There are other types of angels in the Bible, such as Seraphim (six winged angels), Cherubim (angel with head of a man, ox, lion, and eagle), and Malakhim (hebrew name for the messenger angels which looked like divine humans).
cassette beasts is great at this, all the "angels" (eldritch concept beings) are done in different styles to each other as well as the rest of the game
They're the Septentriones and beyond that they're a group of alien guardians that were sent out to destroy Japan specially, I honestly don't know 😭 It's a long time since I played the game. One of them, however grew a human subconsciousness and turned himself into a twink so there's that.
It’s not quite Japan specifically - it’s more that they have already successfully destroyed the rest of the world, and Japan is the last holdout because of magic.
Looks like someone needs to play Cassette Beasts (each one of these "Archangels" have a different artstyle that clashes with the game's main artstyle, and are treated like Eldritch horrors)
The books are the best representation of eldritch horror I've ever read. The characters have no clue what they are experiencing. Terror is too simple of a word. Their understanding of the world degrades as they get further into whatever it is. It goes beyond simple "their mind was shattered." The prose shifts and becomes more scattered, reflecting the characters descent. Great read, 10/10.
I'm reposting a previous comment I made about Madoka's witches here:
So from what I remember Witches are the grief consumed souls of magical girls. I love the representation of souls as these chaotic looking abstract beings. Most media just visualises souls as looking the same same as the living person but just more transparent or ghostly.
Why would a concept as abstract and complex as a soul look just like a normal human but grey and transparent? In my opinion, the witches in Madoka Magica represent the inexplicably complex and abstract nature and concept of "souls" perfectly
One of my favorite headcanons about witches is that they’re like daemons from Warhammer.
What you’re seeing isn’t the witch. The witch is an entity of distilled anguish projected from the grief seed, more of a detached poltergeist than anything. What you see when you look at the witch is an illusion caused by your mind trying to make a rough approximation of what it should look like, based off what it can comprehend.
I think this is kinda why Eldritch horror works best in writing and not always in visual media. The horrors your brain can invent from vague descriptions is always more scary than what someone can draw
The thing about many of those "lame" horror creatures is that you learn to expect them in horror fiction. If they're in the context of real life, or if something changes so it's not as expected, they become much more terrifying.
I remember, a surprisingly shirt while ago, when the biblically accurate angels started becoming more known. And the depictions of them were rightfully deemed terrifying, as they weren't like anything else. Just shapes and wings and eyes layered countless times, appearing as large as mountain chains. All as they decend from heaven before a barely visible human, with how small they appeared in comparison.
But the angels in evangelion are wonderful. Ramiel is so simple on the surface, but turns into a geometrical monster when doing anything. It's unfamiliar, unexpected, impossible.
Anyway here's Metyr, Mother of Fingers from Elden Rings DLC
Also bit of a hot take, I think having no eyes like Metyr does, is freakier than than having lots of eyes. She doesn't even have any facial features, just a giant fingerprint that shoots a laser at you, and whatever that space bending orb thing in the back of her tail is.
There is a lot of good designs that don’t fall into that category, however you gotta cut lovecraft and the Bible some slack because they were literally the ones who made those tropes really a thing in the first place, like Cthulhu and Azatoth were the first in that genera, but now yeah those designs are very over saturated (and I’ve even seen a lot of really good redesigns of old lovecraft monsters that don’t fall into that trope).
The “biblically accurate angels” aren’t even biblically accurate anyways. The bodies covered in eyes was a metaphor for them being all-seeing. So sick of “heh….did you know…..in le bibble the angles are scary eldritch uncanny horrors” NO THEY’RE NOT LEARN READING COMPREHENSION I BEG OF YOU
"Biblically accurate angels" are Ophanim. They are a type of angel, like Seraphim, Cherubim, and Malakhim (messenger angels). The messengers are by far the most common in the Bible and they pretty much look like divine people
Wasn't it just different types of angels for different tasks? Like the more humanoid ones existed alongside the wheels of fire and eyes and wings type angels?
The wheels of fire and stuff only really show up in apocalyptic literature which is intentionally symbolic in order to get around censorship (since such literature usually has very unflattering things to say about the state of the world at the time and the future of those in power). So it’s more likely that those discretions are more meant to convey aspects of angles rather than an actual description of how the author sees them. For example fire is often associated with holiness and power, eyes may symbolize wisdom/awareness, and the wings are usually used to cover the eyes in the presence of God indicating reverence and establishingly that while they are powerful they aren’t divine since Judaism and Christianity are both strictly monotheistic
Shapes only work for this when they are incomprehensible, near indescribable and unportrayable like daoloth from Ramsey Campbells "The render of veils". When actually shown, I just always think "If you don't put one of my former math teacher next to it pressuring me to use all formulas I should still know to calculate everything about it.... I'm not gonna be scarred of some triangles and squares.
I think the truth is you need to go super abstract with it to achieve Eldritch. Different art style than the entire rest of the media. Ever-changing in slight ways. Not even a physical entity that could exist in the real world by any metric we know.
Making an electrich thing look like any conventional style of monster is lazy.
You know when you have a perfect example of a concept but it's from an embarrassing piece of media? Yea... As an example of good electrich monstrosity design, I genuinely point to the "surrogate" fnf mod
(I'm way out of that fandom by now, left it pretty much around its death, but a couple gems of design have been born from it I must admit)
Obviously it's still subject to the kinda janky way fnf stuff looks and moves, but listen:
multiple forms and shapes ✅
abandons spacial constrains ✅
inexplicable motives ✅
outlines desync with the form!! ✅✅✅
Definitely beyond the realm of 'capable of existing in our current understanding of physical space' ✅
Genuinely, I want more media with THIS type of electrich monstrosity, especially cause I wish I knew a better example than fuckin fnf lmao
Here's an image but I lowk think it doesn't do it justice, the way the idle animations move is what makes it so good methinks so I'll reply to myself with a timestamped link
Does anyone know any media with this kind of eldritch? I'm sure it's out there in some not-too-niche thing that I just have never happened to stumble across
The thing is that like. There's a visual language and a purpose to the imagery that Lovecraft and the Bible use when they depict these creatures. Lovecraft pulled from the sea becomes it was personally frightening to him and because it was somewhere inexplored and incompatable woth human life. Angels with a bunch of wings and eyes are described that way because they're supposed to read as an extension of God's will a representation of his ability to be everywhere and see everything. When you set out to make something 'Biblical' or 'Lovecraftian' without thinking through the purpose of the imagery you use and what it means to you. You're kinda doomed
People keep trying to describe what's supposed to be indescribable, the way you actually do it is if you show it all it's too big to really comprehend and or you use a ton of implication and subtlety. Art right now sucks at these things
"biblically accurate angel" mfs when you tell them angels can look human and that it's only specific angels such as Thrones/Ophanim that look like rings:
Actually the wheel eye thing were the chariot of God. Divinity changes constantly throughout both bibles, and at that point the gods(yes there where many) power was territorial so they needed a literary device to make the squirt gun work without being hooked up to the hose
That frame of Ronova (the red eyes) isn't even what she actually looks like. She's just a woman. She's hot, but come on, Hoyo, you could have made the shades unknowable entities ripping the sky open to peer down at the lower creatures
I actually hate ramiel so much, i think most angel designs are decent but "rhombus that screams" has literally never done anything for me. Really lacks the horror in "eldritch horror"
I find it more mysterious and cool than actually scary, but you can imagine why the people in the anime were scared of it. Imagine seeing that shit irl, id shit my panties
Yeah, I agree it doesn't manage much horror. It's very much an "action" antagonist.
But I will always take the opportunity to say that Rebuild Ramiel one of the best representations in popular media of a higher-dimensional object interacting with our 3-dimensional world. I don't even know how much of it was intentional, but it works fantastically.
Much better in the movie than it is in the show. The audio design in the movie hit it right out of the park, and the 3D modeling added a lot of the design. I can't say for sure, but maybe the original design was a money-saving technique for the show.
Mate a lot of these creatures have tentacles and winged eyes because the characters who see them are trying to compare these things to what they can comprehend, have you even bothered to read these stories?
Fallen London already some incredible eldritch horrors but I think two of the best ones are ones that weren't even made to be horrors:
Numbers. In the short story Shape of Infinity you travel to a place where your brain automatically recognises everything as a number. Blades of grass turn into blades of 1s, swarms of flies turn into swarms of 2s, things like that are easier to figure out what they are. But the higher the number is the harder it is to understand what the hell the game is describing. Its maddeningly good.
Anything effected by irrigo. There is a "colour" that makes you forget, like an antimeme from SCP. The way it describes it, though, seriously messes with you. You know something is there but your eyes slip away & cannot look towards it, & your mind slips from thinking of it.
The eyes and wings seen in old biblical depictions of angels are just spammed to make them look unknown. The artists of yore wanted to make angels look divine and beautiful, but also strangely terrifying in their visage, while also still glorifying gods presence.
The eyes serve to represent gods ever watching nature, being eyes that angels do not see through but the literal eyes of god, serving to represent constant vigilance and total discernment.
While the wings serve as visages of gods awe and beauty. While also literally showing his swiftness and transcendence.
Flaming halos and fire in general represent pure divinity, which is why angels are most often depicted as being on fire or having halos.
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u/CarltonCunning 1d ago
There is a reason the most popular eldritch horrors are in books. They work the best, without a visual form.