Skyrimis packed full of references to the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Its last DLC, Dragonborn, saw the inhabitants of the isolated town of Raven Rock fall under a mysterious trance-like state that was leading them to build strange obelisks, with only the faintest memory of doing so. While someThe Elder Scrollsquests are full of surface-level Lovecraft allusions like this, the series' metaphysical lore makes the connection explicit. The same can be said for Obsidian’s upcoming first-person fantasy RPG,Avowed.
The cosmology ofAvowedis just as bizarre asThe Elder Scrolls, and clearly takes some influence from Lovecraft’s work. However, the metaphysical side ofAvowed’s lore — first created by Obsidian over the twoPillars of Eternitygames — has a far more explicit role to play to in the franchise’s plotlines. Here’s howSkyrimandAvowedconnect to Lovecraft, and why fans can expectAvowed’s Lovecraftian influences to have a bigger influence on the game’s tone and story.
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Blind Idiot Gods
There’s been much speculation that Obsidian hopes to useAvowedto targetThe Elder Scrolls' top spot in the first-person fantasy RPG market. The studio made a similar move withThe Outer Worlds, a satirical sci-fi RPG directed by the original creators of theFalloutfranchise. LikeSkyrim,Avowedis set in a world with a cosmology deeply influenced by Lovecraftian mythos.
Skyrimhas a few explicit Lovecraft references. The Daedric princeHermaeus Moraappears in the Dragonborn DLC as a shifting mass of eye-like orbs, inky darkness, and tentacles. Lovecraft fans will see the similarities between Hermaeus Mora’s design and descriptions of Yog-Sothoth, who is described as a group of “malignant globes.” Mora’s domain, esoteric knowledge, is also strongly tied to Lovecraft’s themes.
The deepestThe Elder Scrolls-Lovecraft connections, however, require a broader view of the entireElder Scrollscosmology.Morrowind’s “36 Lessons of Vivec” reference CHIM, a hotly-debated term inThe Elder Scrollscommunity. CHIM can summed up as a state of enlightenment and godlike power which comes from someone in theTESuniverse realizing they are merely a product of the constantly shifting, involuntary dreams of a being known as the “Godhead,” while maintaining the strength to assert their individuality anyway.
CHIM and the Godhead may rarely be touched upon inThe Elder Scrollsgames, but “the mantlings of an uncaring godhead” are explicitly mentioned inHermaeus Mora’s Black Book"Waking Dreams of a Starless Sky." The Godhead has many similarities to Lovecraft’s “Blind Idiot God” Azathoth.
Azathoth is an unimaginably powerful being who exists outside the Lovecraft universe and dreams reality while “lulled by the thin monotonous piping of a demoniac flute.” While theDragonborn DLCdived deeper into the broaderThe Elder Scrolls-Lovecraft connections than most other entries in the series, the Lovecraftian connections to the world ofAvowedare far more explicit.
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Avowed And Lovecraft
The gods of Eora, the setting ofAvowed,have some surface-level Lovecraftian influence. Wael is the god of mysteries, dreams, and revelations, resembling both the dreaming Godhead and Hermaeus Mora inThe Elder Scrolls. Wael is covered in eyes and mouths resembling the malignant globes of Azathoth. However, there’s one main difference between the role Lovecraft’s influence plays in Tamriel and Eora that changes everything.
Lovecraft’s Azathoth andThe Elder Scrolls' Godhead are both consciousnesses that exist beyond reality. Lovecraft’s other powerful beings like Cthulhu are still ultimately subject to the subconsciousness of the Blind Idiot God, whileTamriel’s Nine Divinesare still just figments of the Godhead’s dreaming.
In bothThe Elder Scrollsand Lovecraft, the idea of an immensely powerful being simply dreaming the universe plays on the existential dread that the universe, despite containing consciousness, doesn’t have any real direction or agency, and is chaotically amoral. However,Avowed’s world imagines a very different kind of existential dread - discovering that there are no gods at all.
InPillars of Eternityit is revealed that the entire pantheon of Eora, including Wael, were inventions of an ancient society known as Engwith.The Engwithansbecame masters of soul science, and set out to answer the metaphysical questions of the universe. One day, however, they discovered a simple, horrifying truth - there was nothing out there. No gods, not even a Godhead or an Azathoth imagining the universe by pure accident. Faced with that unbearable reality, the Engwithans set out to sacrifice as many souls as necessary to create gods of their own. They succeeded.
Lovecraftian Dread
While the Godhead is rarely relevant inThe Elder Scrollsgames, the fact that the gods of Eora were created by the Engwithans is absolutely vital to the story of bothPillars of Eternitygames. WhileAvowed’s idea of man-made gods ultimately diverges from Lovecraft’s idea of the all-encompassing Blind Idiot God, the existential dread that infuses Lovecraft’s work is a far more important theme in the universe ofAvowedthan it is inThe Elder Scrolls.
The discovery that the gods were man-made has been made several times in Eora’s timeline, before being stamped out by Engwithan Inquisitions.Avowedappears to take place several hundred years beforePillars of Eternity, based on the medieval technology seen in the trailer compared to the early modern tech used inPillars of Eternity1and2. In theory, this could mean that the entire plot ofAvowedtakes place without the player character ever realizing that the gods were created in Engwith, though that seems unlikely considering the story ofPillars of Eternity.
Either way, the fact thatAvowed’s gods were inventions of mortals and there is no true higher power that created the universe taps in to a Lovecraftian sense of dread. That dread will likely be infused intoAvowed’s plot in a way that the Godhead and CHIM are unlikely to ever play a central role in anElder Scrollsgames. How exactlyAvowedplans to handle its story remains to be seen, but the creeping existential unease that hangs overAvowed’s universe will almost certainly be felt, and could be one of the key ways the game’s tone distinguishes itself fromThe Elder Scrollsseries.
Avowedis in development for PC and Xbox Series X.
