I have always admired Lovecraft’s writing style, if not the man himself. He shows horror in a way that resonates with me, bringing up fears from deep parts of my mind that I didn’t consciously acknowledge, but were always there.
Some of his work is clearly gothic and inspired by Poe, such as The Outsider, Rats in the Walls, The Terrible Old Man, Pickman’s Model, etc. In these stories, the horror is personal, it is you or your kin that are tainted by the darkness. You can’t escape because it is your family, your friends, or yourself that embody the evil of the world.
The other side of Lovecraft’s legacy is his Cthulhu mythos. He, and authors in his circle, bought about a growing collection of stories of cosmic horror, showing that the vast uncaring universe is populated with things that humanity would rather not know about. Great incomprehensible beings move through the cosmos, bleakly indifferent to our sufferings, or meandering lives, our very existence on this planet. These stories awaken a deep feeling of insignificance, as if we are an animal in a small box, trying to not be noticed by the large, strange predators that stalk nearby. I have made my first addition to the mythos cycle in the form of Xulub’s Festering Corpse.
The short story is available for free, and is released under the Public Domain, meaning anyone can use the story or the elements introduced in it for whatever they want, commercially or otherwise. If you want to create stories based on Xulub’s Festering Corpse, you may do so! If you want to include Xulub in a video game, use it without fear of copyright restriction. This adds to the lovecraftian entities in the Public Domain, along with the work of Lovecraft, Chambers, Frank Belknap Long’s Hounds of Tindalos, and others to continue the expansion of the Cthulhu Mythos.
Soon, I will be publishing a story based on the chapultenoks introduced in Xulub’s Festering Corpse, written by a family member of mine. He was inspired by the original Xulub story and sought to try his hand at writing horror instead of his usual science fiction. This story delves into what exactly makes these strange twisting growths so hideous, and I am quite excited to unveil it.
To the extent possible under law, D South has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to Xulub’s Festering Corpse. This work is published from the United States.
The art for Xulub is from reddit user al666in, who started a Public Domain Lovecraftian project known as Necronomica which has been inactive as of late, so the art is not public domain yet as far as I know