It's H.P. Lovecraft's birthday today! The weird fiction he spawned was a big influence on Cultist Simulator, so we're running a giveaway where you can win LOTS OF FREE THINGS!
How to enter and all details here, and there's 10% off all the Etsy shop for the duration of the giveaway, too. |
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NOOK OF SPOOK: WHAT'S WITH THE CRABS?
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You know we like the tarot in this studio, and one of my favourite cards is The Moon. But I've always wondered what that weird lobster's doing at the bottom, crawling threateningly out of a pond. Not very Artemis, is it?
Well, apparently it IS. Interchangeable in most myths between lobsters, crabs and (in this case) crayfish, the crab-creature is actually more spiritual than you think. Crabs were eaten by the Spirits of Drought in Chinese mythology, were used in ancient Thai rain ceremonies, and a giant ur-crab even dredged up the earth from the bottom of the sea in Munda creation myth.
The Moon's crayfish is most likely a reference to the crab as an avatar of primordial forces, scuttling unpredictably from unknown depths onto the shore. The Moon's associated with deception, magic, and a liminal state where things aren't quite reliable. I certainly wouldn't rely on a crab.
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READING REC: DESOLATION ROAD
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One of AK's literary touchpoints for Fallen London, Sunless Sea and particularly Cultist Simulator, Desolation Road’s about the terraforming of Mars, sort of. Picaresque but never annoying and blindingly original, it's Pratchett-meets-Neal-Stephenson at a Zelazny cosplay party.
One character, Mr Jericho, is the kernel of an idea that ultimately became the Exile DLC. And it has what is quite possibly the most lovely depiction of death I've ever read - which also got me into house plants. READ AND YOU WILL UNDERSTAND. 💔
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