The Apocalypse According to Lovecraft

The end of the world according to H P Lovecraft naturally involves death, chaos, eldritch cosmic monstrosities, and tentacles. We’ll be focusing on two harbingers of doom for Humankind: Cthulhu + the Old Ones and Nyarlathotep.

CTHULHU & THE OLD ONES

This is what the dreaded Necronomicon says about the Old Ones and their ultimate goal:

'The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, the Old Ones shall be. (...) Man rules now where They ruled once; They shall soon rule where man rules now. After summer is winter, after winter summer. They wait patient and potent, for here shall They reign again' 

The Dunwich Horror

This clearly does not bode well for Humankind.

Cthulhu is the Great Old Ones’ High Priest, and they’ve all been on Earth for millions of years. Travelling from the dark cosmos, they arrived on our world well before the first humans were born. Their being and abilities are dependent on specific star alignments, which haven’t been right in a very long time. To make matters worse, the great city of R’lyeh is currently in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. However, 'that is not dead which can eternal lie and with strange aeons even death may die' ...

Before R’lyeh went the way of Atlantis, Cthulhu and the Great Old Ones used to talk to chosen humans through dreams, gathering followers. These followers grew into a cult and even after they were cut off from their masters, they kept their memory alive and carried on with the appropriate rituals, which, by the way, involve human sacrifice. But how will they know the time has come to release Cthulhu and the Old Ones from their tombs? Well, in typical apocalyptic fashion, this awakening will be preceded by society descending into lawless, amoral chaos. And then:

'the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom'  

The Call of Cthulhu

Sure, Cthulhu’s first attempt at resurrection and the restoration of R’lyeh didn’t go very well – he got temporarily sploshed by a yacht and they both sunk back into the ocean. However, it’s clear that that is not the end and that his followers will keep trying to bring them back and plunge the world into chaos and death.

Lovecraft saw humans as ultimately insignificant in the vastness of the cosmos, and Cthulhu and the Old Ones seem to be the personification of that belief. They’re Earth’s dimly remembered past, they’ve spent more time on it than humans did, they’re capable of things humans can only dream of, and they’re massive. They’re not just green-skinned humans with weird foreheads, they’re wholly alien, beyond human notions of good and evil. Humankind’s rule of Earth, far from being the achievement it’s believed to be, is merely a blip in the planet’s ancient History.

NYARLATHOTEP

He also promises death and destruction for Humankind, but he has a very different style. Unlike Cthulhu and the Old Ones, who communicate from afar, the Crawling Chaos prefers a more hands-on approach. He’s also the only one of Lovecraft’s cosmic creations to show signs of having a personality and even seems to enjoy his work of messing with humans. Perhaps a little bit too much. We like to think of him as a cosmic twitter troll.

Nyarlathotep behaves like a classic trickster during his interaction with Randolph Carter in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, but when it comes to his role as harbinger of doom, there’s something of the Antichrist about him. In the eponymous prose poem that introduced the character, he appears out of nowhere and inspires adoration and awe in everyone who meets him. He also brings visions of a dystopian future filled with darkness and ruined cities. (The proper reaction to his show is of course to lose your sanity and fall into a cosmic abyss) The Nyarlathotep/Antichrist comparison is even more obvious in Fungi from Yuggoth, which connects his coming with the return of R’lyeh. It's also here that Lovecraft gives his readers a more specific apocalyptic scenario:

And at the last from inner Egypt came

The strange dark One to whom the fellahs bowed;

(...)

Soon from the sea a noxious birth began;

Forgotten lands with weedy spires of gold;

The ground was cleft, and mad auroras rolled

Down on the quacking citadels of man

This is all very epic and matches Cthulhu and the Great Old Ones’ prophesied return. However, things don’t end there:

Then, crushing what he chanced to mould in play,

The idiot Chaos blew Earth’s dust away

Cthulhu and the Old Ones’ triumphant return doesn’t seem to last long before Azathoth messes everything up for everyone. As mighty as they are, they too are part of this Universe and are therefore at the mercy of the idiot daemon sultan. And you just know Nyarlathotep is going to enjoy the spectacle because he’s clearly an asshole.

THE END

No ancient aliens, no Four Horsemen, no elaborate Final Judgement, just a mindless omnipotent entity squishing everything without even realizing what they’re doing. It’s an inglorious ending for Humankind, but given what’s going on in present times, we must say that the notion of idiocy being our doom feels quite appropriate.