michaelshelleys:

michaelshelleys:

the closest things on earth we have to old eldritch abomination gods are the sun, the ocean and nuclear radiation

the sun:

• unfathomably ancient, here before all of us and will outlive us all by billions of years
• its light is so strong that prolonged exposure can burn or blind you even from millions of miles away
  
• also emits invisible rays of energy that can pass through your skin like it’s nothing and lead to the growth of tumors which cause a wasting disease that consumes your healthy cells until you die
• once worshipped as a god by various religions and cults who made sacrifices to appease it
• will eventually expand as it burns out and dies and consume us in a desperate attempt to extend its lifespan
  
• ‘screams’ as a warning before emitting solar flares

the ocean:

• an enormous, singular mass that’s constantly heaving and tossing its bulk against the land we build our homes on and gradually ‘eating away’ at it
• also extremely old and likely to outlast any of our lifespans
  
• countless people, ships and even entire landmasses have vanished into its depths, never to be seen or heard from again
• so vast and dangerous that it’s still mostly uncharted, and less is known about its deepest areas to us than our solar system
  
• full of teeth and tentacles and enormous storms and even more unknown terrors none have ever returned from to tell the tale of that can and will consume you without thought or reason
  
• also worshipped as a god in the past and often characterized in myths and legends as an vengeful, merciless entity
  
• those who sail on it tend to be deeply superstitious and respect its power with a reverence bordering on awe
• a single strike from the superstorms it brews on a regular basis can devastate vast areas of civilization
  
• will eventually rise and consume us

nuclear radiation:

• can rip straight through your body with zero resistance, causing long-term and irreparable damage, and cannot be completely blocked out, only ‘shielded’ by thick barriers of lead and concrete
• radioactive waste is so toxic that it’s buried deep underground and/or entombed within a ‘sarcophagus’ of multiple layers of shielding to prevent it from escaping and infecting the ground we grow and raise our food on, the water we drink and the air we breathe
• areas where it has escaped or been set loose and leaked into its surroundings are evacuated and abandoned for hundreds of miles, and anything that survives within them is shunned as a carrier of the infection and contained in ‘exclusion zones’
  
• also capable of outlasting us by many centuries, to the point that people have considered setting up intimidating architecture and writing unsettling cryptic messages to warn future generations not to seek out or disturb it in areas it is concentrated in that sound like biblical accounts of our smiting at the hands of a malevolent god
  
• volatile and unpredictable, many accidents that have occurred while handling it are a result of a combination of our lack of knowledge about its abilities and hubris

i wonder if the sun and ocean would resent radiation since radiation is a man made eldrich horror