Talk:Atlach-Nacha/@comment-25035274-20170112053719/@comment-25035274-20170113044332

@Atrumratio

In case it wasn't obvious, while the full transformation may be temporary it is still pretty monstrous. So is the transformation induced by the Wendigo. And the man evidently retains the ability to transform at will (at least with the Wendigo; in the case of the Atlach Nacha it's triggered by the venom).

The Wendigo is not Lovecraftian. The Wendigo hails from Native American (specifically Algonquin) mythology.

Atlach Nacha is Lovecraftian only in the broad sense, in that it was created by a member of the Lovecraft Circle. It does not appear in the Cthulhu Mythos at all. It was created by Clark Ashton Smith for his Hyperborean cycle (who also created Tsathoggua, whom Lovecraft wound up borrowing a couple of times (though Lovecraft's vision for Tsathoggua was very different from Smith's)). Atlach Nacha specifically appears in the Smith story "The Seven Geases"; where it dwells under Mount Vormithadreth (the same mountain within which Tsathoggua lives). I'm actually rather fond of that specific story, which is really more of a dark fantasy story more than a traditional Lovecraftian horror tale.

And as Perentie noted, the Chaos Demons *were* presented as monsters; they were actually hinted as the most absolutely horrific, and most powerful, of monsters.

Now, with all that said? I'm not saying that monster transformations are a bad thing or that they should be removed from the setting. There are plenty of people into that sort of thing.

I'm simply saying that they are becoming more common.