Picture Book: The Tale of the Eldritch Horrors Myth in Divine Tyranny | World Anvil

Picture Book: The Tale of the Eldritch Horrors

Welcome to Divine Tyranny! In a world where all-powerful gods live among mortals and play with their life for their own entertainment, Archivist Cécile is doing her best to go unnoticed. Unfortunately, the warring water and forging gods are now interested in the archives... Come read about Cécile and the world in which she lives!
Introduction to the story | Cécile | The Archivists | Novel upcoming

Table of Contents

The Tale of the Eldritch Horrors
by AmélieIS
 
At the begining of time, dark beings lived all over Earth.
They were called Eldritch Horrors.

 
They were very big and very hungry.
They ate everything and everyone around Them.

 
Nobody was safe.
Everyone on Earth was terrified.

 
People built temples for Them to make them stop.
But the Horrors ate them too!

 
Since begging the Horrors did not help, people begged the universe itself to save them.

 
And one day, the universe answered.
The gods were born.

 
But the Horrors were very hungry.
They immediately started to eat the gods too!

 
The new gods were very distressed.
They came together and decided to form an alliance.

Horror Myth 8.png

 
Together, they fought against the Horrors.
The fight was very long and very fierce.
But the Horrors' skin was too strong and they could not hurt Them!

 
Some of the gods stopped fighting.
Instead, they built prisons.
Very deep and very cold ones.

 
The alliance of the gods was powerful.
They won.

Horror Myth 11.png

 
They throw the Horrors in the prison.
But the Horrors swore revenge.

Horror Myth 12.png

 
The gods went through the kingdom to talk to everyone.
They said to be careful and to not listen to the Horrors.

 
However, the Horrors continue to rattle Their prisons and make a lot of noise.
They were going to escape!

 
But then, a small boy stepped forwards.
"My name is Jacques," he said. "And I'm going to help you."

 
"If the Horror's skin is so strong, we obviously have to hit Them from the inside!"

 
The gods were sceptical.
"And how are you going to go inside?" they asked.

Horror Myth 16.png

 
But Jacques said, "You're going to give me your magic, and I'm going to become a snack. Once the Horror eats me, I'll be inside It!"

 
And so, for one year, the gods fed Jacques with their magic.

 
And once they were done, Jacques went to the Horror and told It to eat him.
And It did.
But then, the meal made It very tired and It fell asleep!

 
Everyone was very happy and celebrated.

 
But after one year, the Horror woke up!

 
But again, someone said they would make themselves into a snack and save everyone.

 
Since then, every year, the gods ask if someone else wants to save us.
And every year, someone very nice says yes.
This is their generosity that is keeping us all alive.

   
 
You can find the adult explanation of the Eldritch Horror feeding ritual here:
       
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Comments

Author's Notes

All the images were made by me, apart from the RPG Awesome tentacle icon.


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Dec 24, 2022 17:50 by Dani

All those generous, nice people! XD Amelie, I love EVERYTHING about this.


You are doing a great job! Keep creating; I believe in you!
Luridity: Where love is love and life is lived. Contains NSFW content.
Now with serialized fiction on Ream!!
Dec 25, 2022 01:53 by Amélie I. S. Debruyne

Thanks! Yes, such nice people! Clearly the perfect role model for children! XD

Dec 24, 2022 18:24

This was awesome! I here the voice of Spock reminding us ...  

Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
— Spock


Graylion - Nexus   Roleplaying
not Ruleplaying
not Rollplaying
Dec 25, 2022 01:52 by Amélie I. S. Debruyne

Thanks! Yes, in a world were human sacrifices are necessary for the sake of the country, I thought there must be a way to explain all of that to children in a way that is not too horrifying XD

Dec 24, 2022 18:47

11 out of 10, best children story EVER


Creator of Araea, Megacorpolis, and many others.
Dec 25, 2022 01:51 by Amélie I. S. Debruyne

Those children gotta learn the right lessons! XD

Dec 25, 2022 07:10 by Bart Weergang

Love all about this XD

Dec 25, 2022 10:26 by Amélie I. S. Debruyne

Thanks <3 It was super fun to make!

Dec 26, 2022 11:54

Such a nice victims! I feel those gods are doing it on purpose -_-

Feel free to check my new world Terra Occidentalis if you want to see what I am up to!
Dec 27, 2022 13:43 by Amélie I. S. Debruyne

Well, you have to educate those children young and teach them proper values :p   Thanks for the comment :D

Jan 2, 2023 00:06 by Molly Marjorie

This is unbelievably adorable! ....and simulataneously unbelivably dark and horrifying. I feel my Call of the Cthulu game group would love it!   Possible typo: one page says "They throw the horrors into prison." throw should perhaps be threw?

Check out Natural Magic : a coming of age fantasy novel, because life is hard enough when you're fourteen, even without saving the world. Or listen to it in podcast form .
Jan 29, 2023 09:48 by Amélie I. S. Debruyne

Thanks! It was a lot of fun to make those cute drawings :D

Jan 12, 2023 12:35 by Koi

I adore everything about this, It's so well thought out and comes easily across as something that could fit in-universe.

Jan 29, 2023 09:50 by Amélie I. S. Debruyne

Thanks! Yes my idea was that you need something to explain the rituals to small children :p Brainwashing has to start young!

Jan 26, 2023 21:50

I felt mixed reading this one. Everything here is adorable. The gods are adorable, the kids are also adorable, but sad to see them meet unfortunate fates. I felt the dark comedy aura all the time and I love it! :D

Come visits Terraloga and the story of a fictional Ancient Roman trying to rule the world.

Jan 29, 2023 09:52 by Amélie I. S. Debruyne

Thanks! Yes, those poor children :( And in real life, I bet they were not as happy about dying as what's shown in the book :p

Jan 28, 2023 11:12 by Angantyr

I love the non-standard ways you come up with to create an interesting story. :D

This one took me back to the tales of Mulmunie and Sessinie but with more drawings and even more focused on the reception by kids. It gave me the characteristic chilly vibe of the cultural pressure forcing self-sacrifice for the well-being of society. Presenting it heroically and nobly mixes well with the child's need to impress/appease the environment. It's kinda scary how accurate that is, but within a world, with an Eldritch Horror, I would expect nothing less.

I've noticed that those, who self-sacrifice wear a medallion shaped similar to one of the gods. This is yet another element I like, particularly because the gods have the same shapes, so there is no room for interpretation, only the direct link. But this makes me wonder. Are the "human snacks" come forward as people from a specific faction or are they imbued with the power of that god specifically?

Moreover, since this is a Divine Tyranny setting, I feel there's a chance of the gods having an agreement with the Eldritch Horror to screw people over, but for that, I will have to read the adult version of the Feeding Ritual.



Thank you for an inspiring read!

Playing around with words and worlds
Jan 29, 2023 09:58 by Amélie I. S. Debruyne

Thanks :D Yes the brainwashing has to start young to train children into always following the gods without question, no matter what they ask out of you.   The amulets represent the fact that the children are mainly followers of the god represented by it. I think I'm going to make it so that the sacrifices have to regularly do the round of the different factions for some fairness - otherwise the gods will complain about always having to be the one to sacrifice their followers XD. Power imbuing could be something similar, done by all gods of the country but the main responsibility of the patron god of the future sacrifice.   I'm going to feature the local Eldritch Horror in the novel as an important plot point (at least that's part of the vague plans I have for now), so I'm going to have to keep some mysteries regarding the gods exact relationship with them :p

Mar 31, 2024 19:28

So cute and unsettling at the same time!

Hoo~ Hoo
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