

I need to have a reason to buy the cultists get something out of it besides just death or insanity. Yes, people do stupid shit in reality all the time, however, you can find motives for that, such as bigotry or otherwise being enslaved to a harmful belief system. Most cultists in eldritch horror are in this infuriating middle ground where there's no reason, logical or otherwise, that can possibly justify their worship, which just makes them tedious cannon fodder, not meaningful antagonists in their own right.

Since I don't like human antagonists to be indistinguishable from mindless cannon fodder, this is something I find very frustrating about Eldritch Horror. However, the main reason I dislike it now is because, for the most part, it makes any worshippers of the deity impossible to sympathize with, or otherwise empathize with. Eldritch entities like this can work, however, I think it's very difficult to come up with ideas in this space that haven't already been topped, as it were. Unknowable motives don't really solve this problem, as too often, that isn't distinguishable from something that is just overtly malevolent, or apathetic. So, with that in mind, do we have many examples of this? I bring it up because I find the traditional Eldritch Abomination kind of boring at this point because it's either straightforwardly malevolent, or, apathetic.

Rather, they're just apathetic to the point of causing destruction, harm to humanity, ect., For what I mean by that, a lot of Cthulhu entities aren't intentionally malevolent. For another example, this thread on page 4 has one from the video game Stellaris.Ģ. For an example of this, I've heard interpretations of the Borg that are along these lines, and I feel like an unknowable monstrosity could work this way. Rather, I'm talking about an entity that thinks it is being benevolent, but doesn't realize how horrific what it's doing is, or otherwise is doing horrific things for, what the entity thinks, is for the best. I do not mean the Eldritch abomination is harmless or lacking in threat.
