Lovecraftian Influence on Blood

[BEAST]

Out of curiosity, which H.P. Lovecraft stories supposedly inspired the character of Caleb, and the nature of BLOOD's story?

I recall from the original Monolith BLOOD site that the creators claimed some inspiration from Lovecraft, because of the moral ambiguity of his main characters.

It's very cool that they would credit Lovecraft with that idea, but having read a whole bunch of Lovecraft stories, I can't find any characters that might of inspired Caleb, or who are morally ambiguous heroes.

I mean, there's a creepy sailor in one story who preys upon immigrant thieves who is slightly Caleb-like, and a man who turns from a ordinary guy into a hereditarily insane cannibal the next day in "The Rats in the Walls."

Herbert West is more so an amoral character than morally ambiguous.

It is possible that the creators meant to say that Lovecraft's characters are amoral rather than morally ambiguous, though I think I recall them calling Lovecraft's characters having questionable morality.

Before reading Lovecraft, I did expect him to write stories that could have had direct influence on BLOOD, but I found that what I've read was far more cerebral and cosmically disturbing elements (with very original monstrosities) then BLOOD has.

So which specific stories or ideas of Lovecraft's influenced BLOOD itself?

[Tchernobog]

Well, Blood took its inspirations from many sources, including but not exclusively Lovecraft. As far as I am aware Caleb is more inspired by characters such as Eric Draven from The Crow and of course Ash from Evil Dead. I would not overstate Lovecraft when it comes to Blood, he certainly had a huge effect on the horror genre and for Blood as well, but Blood was a play on old horror films more than anything else. You can find a list of references included in Blood, which includes ones to Lovecraft, from this article:

http://blood.wiki-site.com/index.php/Re ... s_in_Blood

If you want a really Lovecraftian styled adventure, play Penumbra or Amnesia: The Dark Descent by Frictional Games. The engine that powers those games even bears his initials (HPL), and at least Penumbra I highly recommend, as I have not played Amnesia yet. You can see my post about it here:

viewtopic.php?t=2312

[BEAST]

Thanks Tchernobog,

For some reason, I also had thought that Caleb resembled in some ways Spawn by Todd McFarlane as well as The Crow. With The Crow, I can definitely see the parallel: man and true love are brutally murdered, man resurrects again as a twisted clown-like angel of death killing his enemies one by one.

Originally, before I understood Blood's story, when I read Spawn's story, I thought Spawn and Blood's story were similar. The parallel in my mind was: man enjoys killing amorally for the ominous organization which relies on questionable ethics, and has ties to indescribable evil. The hero wants out, because he can't bear to kill anymore people. The organization betrays him, and he returns, with the help of a demonic being, to become a satanic footsoldier who fights for good instead of evil.

There are some parallels, except Caleb doesn't feel guilt in what he does, and never tries or attempts to recind his membership with the Cabal (that was Ophelia's husband's big mistake), and he doesn't do anything to directly or indirectly defy Tchernobog. He only fights against him when Tchernobog kills him then resurrects him. Caleb didn't have to make a deal with another dark god or demon, because he had already made his pact with Tchernobog, and this connection was enough for Tchernobog to just kill him then bring him back to life at whim.

I do feel that elements from Spawn could be borrowed for other BLOOD projects, as well as that from The Crow.

Back on the subject of Lovecraft, I've seen videos of Penumbra, and I think it's the most advanced horror game created. Another Lovecraft influenced game that I've been recommended to is Eternal Darkness, which is considerably very good.

DARKSEED definitely is a Lovecraftian game. The voice acting is terrible, but the H.R. Giger visuals are awesome. I feel that the game is pretty much in the vein of AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS, with the Elder Things being the villains this time (AKA The Ancients), and the alien world lying underneath the artificially pleasant light dimension in California, instead of underneath the bowels of Antartica.

At least that's my feeling about the game.

[Tchernobog]

I should warn you not take me as too much of an authority on horror works, I was only really introduced to most of this stuff through Blood in the first place. Assuming the developers did read Spawn it seems to me more than possible that it could have had an influence on the game, or at least some of the back story about the Cult itself.

I was also thinking that Blood II had some influences from Lovecraft in some ways, with Tchernobog's dimensional powers taking up a greater importance, plus the Ancient One seems kind of Cthulhu like. As I said I am not an authority though, I have never actually read any Lovecraft, but I have heard a great deal about it.

Amnesia is I am told a bit on an advancement in terms of the horror game experience over Penumbra, I can not really judge until I have played it, but it certainly was impressive enough to warrant the critical Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame to praise it, with his main complaint being that it makes "me poo my pants." Speaking of Yahtzee, his own Chzo Mythos gets very Lovecraftian by the end of it. If you ever are in the mood of for playing freeware games you may want to give it a whirl.

[zZaRDoZz]

@BEAST
Blood's environments and themes are far more influenced by Lovecraft than the actual story or characters.

The horror at Redhook contains some references to robed cultists, along with their gold, art work and practices. These are the fabled worshipers from the terrible plain of Ling, which is referenced in some of HPL's work.

[Tchernobog]

You probably have a point about Blood's environments being somewhat Lovecraft inspired, which in some ways is probably a greater homage to his work than basing anything specifically on any one story or character, since he was biger on creepy or unnerving environments and atmosphere than anything else. Speaking once again second hand of course, I should really read some Lovecraft at some point...

[zZaRDoZz]

zzardozz quote:
terrible plain of Ling, which is referenced in some of HPL's work...

And for folks at home playing the home version of transfusion forum, that's plateau of Leng, not plain of ling...