I am reading Donald Tyson’s Alrhazred right now, a very good book, and it got me to thinking about cultists and Azathoth and other mythos related things. In the end my thoughts turned towards Oklahoma and that Azathoth monument that seems to have appeared out of nowhere. When I think of the Midwest I think of cattle, and Indians, and calm quiet folk who live the good life. I do not generally think of cultists but that is probably a mistake on my part. Was it not Lovecraft who used such rural areas to generate the fear inspiring stories who was so fond of writing. He knew New England but the true basis of the stories alwars seems to resolve around rural areas.
The monument in question was reported on by KFOR news and simply stated, “In the Year of Our Lord 2012 Creer Pipi claimed this land for Azathoth.” According to the news report, no one knew where it came from and though it appeared to me to be art, the art district it appeared in was going to trash it.
I spent some time researching the monument and found little. The best I can make of it is that it is one of several things. 1, a hoax perpetrated by fans of Lovecraft, 2. an actual monument put in place by deranged cultists, 3. an elaborate hoax put on by the owner of the property, or last but not least, 4. something put in place by gamers like me. Whomever it was is not coming forth so I want to look at this thing from a gamer’s perspective.
In a game setting we could use this story to push the bounds of sanity. The monument could have been placed by some group who is trying to set up a spiritual conduit to Azathoth and/or other beings of a vast cosmic nature. New monuments could appear across the country eventually leading our heroes to what may in fact drive them to the brink of the abyss.
You could assume that spells have been linked to the monument and any who attempt to move it will become sick and eventually die. Creer Pipi is interesting because it appears to be a name but from what I can find it may actually be a statement in and of itself. “Believe in Excrement” is one possible translation. Perhaps it is a hoax and Creer Pipi is the artist telling is that the monument is a huge load of Bull Shit.
Whatever the case may be this type of news is the kind of wonderful craziness that can inspire a good GM to create truly amazing stories for his players. Taking actual news stories like this and that story of the man who ate the homeless person’s face, can give you the kind of fodder needed to make your campaigns come to life.
I read somewhere that the thought of Azathoth coming to town might be bad for tourism but with all of the fans of Lovecraft out there, I wonder if this little monument will actually drive the tourism traffic up in this obscure part of America. Only time will tell and provided that this is not the time that the Stars are Right, then time may actually tell us nothing at all. Here is hoping for something else this fun and interesting to appear in the news.
