Questions about the lore

[Phobos]

OK, so I'm not an expert in Lovecraft, I actually barely know a couple of stuff about the Cthulu and Yellow Mythos and that's all. Therefore, I reached my own conclusions after playing this amazing game and I'd like a second opinion in case my conclusions are wrong. I'm dying for some answers, so if you have the courtesy enlighten me please!

WARNING: Possible spoilers below this line, you have been warned

1) What the hell where those bodiless robots that impersonated the scientists?
2) These reptile-things where actually different dimension beings or astronauts of some sorts?
3) What the fock is that floating thing that raises the mummies?
4) Which Elder is the one the reptiles worship and what kind of powers he had?
5) Why did the reptiles' civilization die out?
6) The Conariums are essentially devices that allow one's soul to travel through dimensions, space and time?
7) Why Conariums have this effect on human bodies?
8) Conariums are powered by the collective knowledge of dead people that are brought back with necromancy, true or false?
9) Basically the protagonist jumps from one dimension, space and time moment to another, hence the different stages?
10) What is that clock device on your hand?
Last and most important: 11) If you choose to enter the Conarium, why the hell are you reborn as a lizard? And where? And when?

Thanks in advance for anyone that will take his time to answer my questions!

[Groktar Jr.™]

I've read most of HPL's fiction at some point and just finished the game, so I thought I'd take a stab at this.

Originally posted by Phobos:

1) What the hell where those bodiless robots that impersonated the scientists?

In HPL's "The Whisperer in Darkness" - an alien race called the 'Migo' captures an occultist and puts his brain into a metal cylinder so that they can carry it easily during space travel. They can plug the metal cylinder into machines that allow it to speak and see.

http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/wid.aspx

I'm guessing this is an homage to that story and the robotic head was supposed to suggest that Frank Gilman's brain was actually removed from his body in reality and placed into the robot to make him stronger against the physically harmful effects of the conarium. When you speak to the robot (yourself), you are in another dimension where you perceive that you still have a body.

Originally posted by Phobos:

2) These reptile-things where actually different dimension beings or astronauts of some sorts?

The lizardmen/serpentmen appear in HPL but they are a minor mention, I think the main story that describes them is 'The Nameless City'.

http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/nc.aspx

In that story they are more about magic and worship of elder gods than tech, so if they have dimensional travel abilities they are probably granted by the entities they worship.

They also appear in a collaboration story 'In the Walls of Eryx'
as a race of lizardmen living on Venus definitely possessing advanced technology.

http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/iwe.aspx

Also there were a race of serpentmen created by Robert E. Howard (Conan the Barbarian) who was a correspondent of HPL. They also had some crossover connections with HPL's mythos in stories by Lin Carter and Clark Ashton Smith. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_Men

The main story this game is based off of 'At the Mountains of Madness' describes the city of the Elder Things race in Antarctica that was wiped out by the shoggoths they created. I don't think there is mention of lizardmen taking over and building upon the ruins in the original story, probably just the devs looking to create continuity with the darkness within games.

Originally posted by Phobos:

3) What the fock is that floating thing that raises the mummies?

Good question - they seem to be some kind of security system the lizardmen have set up , but I don't understand why the lizardmen feel a need to defend the ruins that they have already seemingly evacuated, maybe because they have left some tech like conariums or the portal behind?

Originally posted by Phobos:

4) Which Elder is the one the reptiles worship and what kind of powers he had?

In 'The Darkness Within 2' the prequel from the same devs, they worship Nyarlathotep who is a messenger that appears in many forms and generally enjoys creating chaos and death in preparation for the arrival of his boss, Azathoth, who is pure destruction or chaos.

In HPL's 'The Nameless City' it isn't clear which elder god they worship.

In the Chaosium RPG, they worship Yig who likes to turn people into
snakes.

Originally posted by Phobos:

5) Why did the reptiles' civilization die out?

Not sure whether they died out completely or if they used the conarium tech to send their minds to the same world that you arrive at in the end of the game. In HPL's 'The Shadow Out of Time' there's a race of aliens called the Yithians who use mindswapping tech like this to
gather knowledge throughout the universe. At one point they have an underground civilization in Australia but it is taken over by a race of Flying Polyps so they do a similar mass migration of minds to another planet. The Yithian's mindswapping is also the main subject of the Dark Corners of the Earth PC game.

Originally posted by Phobos:

6) The Conariums are essentially devices that allow one's soul to travel through dimensions, space and time?

Sounds right - although HPL's work was pretty atheistic thematically so I'd probably say 'mind' rather than 'soul'.

Originally posted by Phobos:

7) Why Conariums have this effect on human bodies?

There seem to be 2 forms of the Conariums, 1 being the 'ancient conariums' which were located at the places shown on the world map in the nameless city right before the shoggoth chase sequence, and the other being the modern conarium machines developed by Frank Gilman and Dr. Faust. The ancient conariums were supposed much more powerful but the effect was to expand the capabilities of the pineal gland in the human mind and add new senses and states of awareness.

Its basically taken directly from the HPL story 'From Beyond' where they use a machine to activate the pineal gland to gain awareness of other dimensions and discover hostile beings there.

http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/fb.aspx

There's a lot of mention of the pineal gland in sci fi and bogus science, also when a brain is cut in half, the lines of the pineal gland closely resemble an eye of horus, which is the Egyptian symbol that the devs use to represent the children of dis and the
lizardmen in the 2 previous games.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RxtRoxzVIRw/UP_OBqHxvKI/AAAAAAAAFZk/YCAOw4DdlzM/s1600/Pineal+Gland.jpg

Originally posted by Phobos:

8) Conariums are powered by the collective knowledge of dead people that are brought back with necromancy, true or false?

Not sure about the power source of ancient conariums, but the modern ones are probably just powered by electricity. The sequence in the cellar of the mansion with the bodies explains that the conarium had an effect of sharing the minds of everyone who was using it at the time, and they were able to use this on corpses as well. Faust was using the ancient conarium to gain arcane knowledge in general by delving into the minds of the dead men, which is taken from HPL's 'The Case of Charles Dexter Ward'. That also happens in the prequel Darkness Within games where the dead are resurrected from essential salts and interrogated for information on the location of artifacts.

Originally posted by Phobos:

9) Basically the protagonist jumps from one dimension, space and time moment to another, hence the different stages?

Yes, and also when you are in the base, you are in another dimension but still in the same location as the rest of the research crew, that's why you are able to pick up their distress messages in the radio room and their coats are still in their lockers. I think the entire events of the game occur within Frank's conarium 'trip', except for the ending where you do the mind transfer.

Originally posted by Phobos:

10) What is that clock device on your hand?

The clock device is a 'wearable conarium' built by Gilman/Faust, I guess its function is to communicate with the stationary conariums. The ones with the pretty lights that are sitting on tables (which are 'ancient conariums' or reconstructions of them.)

Originally posted by Phobos:

11) If you choose to enter the Conarium, why the hell are you reborn as a lizard? And where? And when?

I'm assuming the portal you enter in the end was created by the lizardmen as a mind transfer device they used en mass to leave antartica and travel to the star that was a different color on the star chart.

[Phobos]

@roeslerd you have been so much helpful, I truly thank you for sparing the time and effort to share your opinions with me. Your information have been enlightening and I think everything is more clear for me now! :)

[Wayfaerer]

Thank you @roeslerd for the super detailed explanations. I'm also barely versed in the Cthulhu mythos so many aspects were alien to me.

I also have several questions:

1. What happened to Dr. Faust? Why did he fail? Is it just that his body/mind couldn't take the stress while Frank's body/mind ban take it?

2. If Frank chooses to use the bowl next to Dr. Faust, does he just return to the past, or was it his dying memories?