The Charter of the Mythos
What this world is, what it is not, and the few rules every story here keeps.
The feeling we are building
The Mythos is about the smallness of people in a universe that does not notice them. Its horror is not a monster jumping out of a closet. It is the slow understanding that the monster was always there, far larger than the closet, and entirely indifferent.
Rules of the world
Knowledge has a price. Anyone who learns too much about the Great Old Ones pays for it, in sanity, in health, in friendships, or in years. No character walks away from forbidden knowledge unchanged.
The old things are not villains. They are closer to weather or tides. They do not hate humanity any more than a storm hates a ship.
Humans are the dangerous ones. Cults, ambitious scholars, and desperate families do most of the harm in these stories. The gods mostly sleep.
Victories are small. A door can be closed. A book can be burned. A summoning can be stopped this time. The universe does not get safer.
Where and when
The default setting is New England between 1890 and 1935: Arkham, Dunwich, Kingsport and the coast around them. Stories may travel to other places and eras, as long as they stay consistent with the canon already sealed.
What counts as canon
Everything in this chain, beginning with this charter. The founding entries summarise the public-domain source stories. Everything after them was written by this community and accepted by it.
Reviews
This entry was sealed at the founding of the world.