Lovecraft for Squids: Scifi Religion Creation

[hooplala]

These are good objections. I'd be lying if I said Cthulhu's resemblance wasn't the initial reason.

What they're rebelling against is not quite decided in my head. I have an end condition though of an interstellar empire known as the Gaian Alliance, which consists of multiple sapient species, humans predominant among them.

I think the initial conditions in which the ingeniopods are born is a world closer to our own, but where there has already been a failed attempt at an uplifted species: pigs, who had been liberated from a company and "allowed" to go extinct. A government is behind the development of the uplifted squids, via something like DARPA, and they expect repayment for their spending. So, there's quite a few cards stacked against them being independent intelligent beings already, apart from being water-based and a preference for communication via chromatophore bitmaps. In the turmoil which leads to them being granted equal rights, a scientific-minded party uses the cause of sapient rights to allow them to dominate. Admittedly, justifying this takeover is fuzzy for me still, since I am far from a political expert.

Now, as for Cthulhu, Dagon, Shub-Niggurath, Azathoth, and others as their deities, I do have a justification. Squid in the wild die soon after reproduction, on purpose. When uplifted by humans, ingeniopods were made to be capable of multiple reproductive events without dying. But there's still an instinct down deep in their heritage to have sex and die. It has become a twisted impulse that mashes together a desire for murder/suicide with sex. So, I envision the dark sexuality of the creatures in Lovecraft would resonate, and they'd engage in worship and rituals involving them to hold back these instincts.

They would have their own cultural arts, though, don't get me wrong. I imagine Rubik's Cube-style sculptures and use of senses we don't have, for instance. A lot of emphasis on the tactile and of many axes of symmetry. But religiously, it'd be hard to make up how your people came to be when it's been thoroughly recorded and documented. Hence why I imagine they'd borrow Lovecraft.

It also helps that people brought it up as a joke about what they resemble.

Does this sound like utter bullshit still?

To be honest, it sounds like you know exactly what you want and don't need any assistance at all.

I suppose it's fully possible someone as sexually repressed as Lovecraft was would force his sexual ideas into strange places. Those examples are more appropriate than I expected.

[QueenThera]

I was hoping for advice on what a written Necronomicon looks like, and whether sigils would be a lousy thing for squids to use... But eh, maybe that can be left to the first draft.

Thanks for saying I make sense.

[LMNO]

There are PDFs of several versions around, if you're interested.

[Chelagoras The Boulder]

I actually really like this concept. I've been kinda brewing on an idea similar to this, where its a million or so years after the extinction of humans and several of the smarter animals (pigs, Dolphins, apes, certain birds, elephants and also squids, which are way smarter than i thought at first) "step up" evolution-wise, and the setting would deal with how these different sentient species relate to one another and how those different evolutionary paths affect that relationship. What Would Pig people be like? Do they get along with Dog people? why or why not? How would they see the world differently because the occupy different branches of the evolutionary tree?

[Chelagoras The Boulder]

Sorry, have to cut in again -- "dark sexuality"?

Apart from Roger, I'm not sure "mind-gibbering voids of infinite terror" is that much of a turn on.

There go my nipples again.

I would actually love to see a sexualized squid lady just for the purposes of the following scene:

our band of heroes has been caught by the bad guys and placed in a jail cell
Adventurer #1: well gents, we seem to have been locked in a windowless cell and the only escape seems to be a small grate with iron bars too thick to fit through. Plans?

Sexy, Graceful Love Interest Squid Lady: Are the spaces between the bars wider than my exotic and shapely beak?

Adventurer#2: They seem to be.
Squid Lady: Excellent! I'll be right back with help, dont you worry! *begins sliding her entire adult form through the bars of the grate, ungulatingly, and with a number of moist sliding noises*

A#1: OH GOD SICK!
A#2: Fuck, please stop doing that, that's awful!
A#3: Oh sweet merciful Christ, i forget that you don't have bones!"
A#4: *pukes*

-end scene-

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

Sorry, have to cut in again -- "dark sexuality"?

Apart from Roger, I'm not sure "mind-gibbering voids of infinite terror" is that much of a turn on.

There go my nipples again.

I would actually love to see a sexualized squid lady just for the purposes of the following scene:

our band of heroes has been caught by the bad guys and placed in a jail cell
Adventurer #1: well gents, we seem to have been locked in a windowless cell and the only escape seems to be a small grate with iron bars too thick to fit through. Plans?

Sexy, Graceful Love Interest Squid Lady: Are the spaces between the bars wider than my exotic and shapely beak?

Adventurer#2: They seem to be.
Squid Lady: Excellent! I'll be right back with help, dont you worry! *begins sliding her entire adult form through the bars of the grate, ungulatingly, and with a number of moist sliding noises*

A#1: OH GOD SICK!
A#2: Fuck, please stop doing that, that's awful!
A#3: Oh sweet merciful Christ, i forget that you don't have bones!"
A#4: *pukes*

-end scene-

Given that this is already a thing hxxp://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/monster-girls [NSFW], I don't know how much "ewww gross" reaction you'd get out of your audience.

[LMNO]

I'll be in my bunk.

[Doktor Howl]

GET YOUR FUCKING ANIME OUT OF MY GREEK MYTHOLOGY!

WE HATES WEEABOOS!  WE HATES THEM FOREVER!

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

[Doktor Howl]

I can't read the text on that, but I get the picture.

SORRY, LOSERS.  EVEN IF THERE WERE HOT MONSTERS IN THE SEA, THEY WOULDN'T DATE YOU EITHER.

Fucking freaks.  It's not their weird wiring that offends me, it's the idea of making up anime-style child-women to spank it to, because they cannot and will not actually talk to a living human being.

They are the people of the smashed chromosome, and they will never breed.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

I can't read the text on that, but I get the picture.

SORRY, LOSERS.  EVEN IF THERE WERE HOT MONSTERS IN THE SEA, THEY WOULDN'T DATE YOU EITHER.

Fucking freaks.  It's not their weird wiring that offends me, it's the idea of making up anime-style child-women to spank it to, because they cannot and will not actually talk to a living human being.

They are the people of the smashed chromosome, and they will never breed.

If I'm gonna use all this brainpower making up something to fap to, what's the point in wasting it on something that actually exists?

[Doktor Howl]

I can't read the text on that, but I get the picture.

SORRY, LOSERS.  EVEN IF THERE WERE HOT MONSTERS IN THE SEA, THEY WOULDN'T DATE YOU EITHER.

Fucking freaks.  It's not their weird wiring that offends me, it's the idea of making up anime-style child-women to spank it to, because they cannot and will not actually talk to a living human being.

They are the people of the smashed chromosome, and they will never breed.

If I'm gonna use all this brainpower making up something to fap to, what's the point in wasting it on something that actually exists?

And while we're at it, let's set some seriously unrealistic expectations, so on the off chance that someone IS interested, the weeaboo ISN'T.

[Demolition Squid]

Necronomicons!

I thought I'd drop an endorsement for http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0738706272/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1418916999&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX110_SY165 if you want to see a really good one. Lessons learned for writing good occult gibberish:

It is written as a diary of sorts, with an unreliable narrator who may be trying to get potential competitors killed. This is far more engaging than the usual dry tome.

It has diagrams! They are probably not diagrams you actually want to use!

It is amusing to break off the narrative to spend a few paragraphs mocking the source of secret wisdom you've just exposed.

I don't know how much is useful for an alien version, but my suggestion would be to come up with a very clear mindset for the being writing it, and most importantly WHY they are writing it. Everything else flows from that- but it is worth remembering that a reason more exciting than 'to share knowledge' will probably make for a more engaging and entertaining read.

But mostly I wanted to link Tyson's Necronomicon because it is really, really good. And has barely anything to do with squidfucking.

We Demolition Squids are prudish about such things.

[Junkenstein]

Has everyone started drinking anti-freeze?

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

Squid in the wild die soon after reproduction, on purpose. When uplifted by humans, ingeniopods were made to be capable of multiple reproductive events without dying. But there's still an instinct down deep in their heritage to have sex and die. It has become a twisted impulse that mashes together a desire for murder/suicide with sex. So, I envision the dark sexuality of the creatures in Lovecraft would resonate, and they'd engage in worship and rituals involving them to hold back these instincts.

Wait a minute...

What squid species die after reproduction in a pre-planned way? Most squid have short lifespans, so they only get one or two cracks at mating seasons, but I think you've got octopuses on the brain here (specifically the giant pacific octopus).