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How can building doorways to neighboring dimensions be discouraged?

Erebus

Troubadour
Azathoth is an ancient entity that exists as a hive mind across seven separate dimensions which are linked to each other. These dimensions border a lower eight dimension known as the mortal plane. The seven revolve around the eight, the latter of which contains the known universe and all its inhabitants. The ultimate goal of Azathoth is to re-unite with its separate pieces in order to make itself whole. To accomplish this, each piece must individually descend to the lower plane, and wait for the other shards of itself to arrive. Once all seven pieces are within the same plane, they can fuse themselves together to create Azathoth's original form and complete the deity's goal. This would allow him to ascend back up to the astral realm as one being. However, as eldritch beings exist outside our realm of existence, they have no concept of the passage of time. As such, they are blind to the movement of our reality, unable to determine what period of history that they enter. Since eons can pass in the blink of an eye to them, it makes it very difficult for the deity to coordinate amongst its various shards, drawing out its goal across thousands of years.

All of this makes the deity's goals more convoluted, full of hiccups and adding to the amount of things that could go wrong. The complexity of all these steps drastically slows down its time frame, and makes its goal more expensive, requiring much more time and energy than should be necessary. It would be far simpler to build a doorway between the seven dimensions that it exists across, uniting each of its pieces quickly without fuss and drastically cutting down on time and possibilities of screwups. The plan it had adopted would be the equivalent of going from New York to New Jersey through Texas, despite the former two being right next to each other.

Why would descending to a lower plane of existence be essential to assemble itself?
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
I hate to ask, but if they are not aware of the passage of time, why would be quicker about it matter to them?

Why would it be required, cause the laws of the deity universe make it that way. Perhaps its along the lines of moving from the spirit world to the physical one. The device needs to be physical.
 
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ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
Azathoth is an ancient entity that exists as a hive mind across seven separate dimensions which are linked to each other. These dimensions border a lower eight dimension known as the mortal plane. The seven revolve around the eight, the latter of which contains the known universe and all its inhabitants. The ultimate goal of Azathoth is to re-unite with its separate pieces in order to make itself whole. To accomplish this, each piece must individually descend to the lower plane, and wait for the other shards of itself to arrive. Once all seven pieces are within the same plane, they can fuse themselves together to create Azathoth's original form and complete the deity's goal. This would allow him to ascend back up to the astral realm as one being. However, as eldritch beings exist outside our realm of existence, they have no concept of the passage of time. As such, they are blind to the movement of our reality, unable to determine what period of history that they enter. Since eons can pass in the blink of an eye to them, it makes it very difficult for the deity to coordinate amongst its various shards, drawing out its goal across thousands of years.

All of this makes the deity's goals more convoluted, full of hiccups and adding to the amount of things that could go wrong. The complexity of all these steps drastically slows down its time frame, and makes its goal more expensive, requiring much more time and energy than should be necessary. It would be far simpler to build a doorway between the seven dimensions that it exists across, uniting each of its pieces quickly without fuss and drastically cutting down on time and possibilities of screwups. The plan it had adopted would be the equivalent of going from New York to New Jersey through Texas, despite the former two being right next to each other.

Why would descending to a lower plane of existence be essential to assemble itself?

First, an unconventional avatar of this entity is central to my 'Empire' series, sent to the material plane because...'events' attracted the entities attention and it wanted to keep tabs on/constrain things.

Second, and more on point: you are postulating the existence of an entity scattered across different dimensions, each with its own physical/magical laws (presumably, otherwise there's no point in having that many dimensions). This is also the answer to your question:

Azathoth must assemble itself on the mortal plane because that is the only plane where the physical laws permit this to happen. The assembly requires links to each of the other dimensions, and the mortal plane is the only place that happens. As to time and energy spent on this effort, that would be utterly meaningless to Azathoth. Likely some other entity (one obvious candidate, also central to my series)

More interesting question is:

Did Azathoth separate itself? (Possible, given the classic Lovecraftian description)

Or

Did some other entity or group thereof separate Azathoth? (Which implies series power)

Also the small matter of what Azathoth will do upon being assembled. Destroy the mortal realm? (a theme I find a bit worn) Set itself up as god-emperor? (also a bit trite) work a few astonishing acts of power (create new races, worlds, or some such) and then depart? Or take up an obscure existence in the material realm?
 

Queshire

Auror
I mean, different dimensions having different physical laws does nicely dovetail with the feeling of cosmic horror, but there's plenty of reasons to have different dimensions with the same laws of physics. Like, in D&D the various planes mostly serve the role of being the homeland for various elementals, angels, devils and demons.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
I mean, different dimensions having different physical laws does nicely dovetail with the feeling of cosmic horror, but there's plenty of reasons to have different dimensions with the same laws of physics. Like, in D&D the various planes mostly serve the role of being the homeland for various elementals, angels, devils and demons.

I would submit that the elemental plane of Air is far more hospitable to humans than the elemental plane of fire, plus the various 'outer planes' in AD&D at least did impose restrictions on what humans could accomplish (nothing permanent in Limbo for example).

Even allowing for uniformity in physical laws between these dimensions, though, the notion that Azathoth could be assembled only in a place that touched all of them (the mortal plane) remains valid - it would be the only place all the respective pieces could 'meet.'
 

S J Lee

Inkling
Umm...pretty sure that name is taken already. Careful you don't get into trouble if someone notices. Adjust the spelling?
Azathoth | Villains Wiki | Fandom
There is a reason Metallica spelled "Kthulhu" with a K on their second album's song titles. But moving on...
====================
The "how can a being/force that does not experience the passage of time do ANYTHING "in time" ?" is an old theological question the likes of Aquinas wrestled with. Who created God? "He existed in a timeless state, time is just one of his inventions" .... BUT he "decided" to create time, which DOES imply a specific moment in time... you see the problem...

Atheist physcists have the same problem. Quantum fluctuation rules might "replace" god and create universes "out of nothing" because empty qauntum states tend to fluctuate ... but WHEN should this happen, despite there being "no time" when no universes exist. Why did the universe get created 13 billion years ago, not 130 billion years ago? MEaningless questions, or important ones? Tricky!

Suffice it to say very smart theologians AND scientists have wrestled with this and cannot really expain it. Don't sweat it....

The question is, what makes for a better story? You can create any rules you like, but don't have rules that result in a weak sotry, that is all...?
 

S J Lee

Inkling
Yes, of course. BUT it may not be that simple...

The basic Cthulhu mythos tales by HPL are probably something anyone can now publish with impunity ... BUT if you use, or are seen to use, something someone ELSE has worked on AFTER HPL's basic tales, then you could indeed be in for a world of hurt. My understanding of why Metallica used "Call of Kthulhu" was because Chaosium and their Cthulhu mythos RPG DID INDEED claim copyright/trademark rights over the phrase "Call of Cthulhu" - something above and beyond the mere title of one of HPL's tales...and THAT Chaosium RPG name was NOT public domain. Now, Metallica were not selling a roleplaying game ... and one of those pre 1964 stories by HPL was indeed called "Call of Cthulhu" - but, even so, Metallica's manager and lawyers told them (I presume) to take no chances. What does that tell you? Metallica back in "Ride the Lightning" times were not the uber-millionaires they are today....

So, if some other writer of horror has done something with the name "Azathoth" AFTER HPL's death, and "your Azathoth" is infringing on his new Azathoth work, it could get very messy...saying "but Azathoth is public domain" may not be a sufficient defence. And people can sue anyway and tie you in knots, if they have money and no real case. Remember those romance writers and the hassle they got into when a litigious writer of romance insisted SHE had copyright/trademark of the work "Cocky" in romance genre titles? But if the OP is already way ahead of me and has done all his/her research, more power to him/her!

H. P. Lovecraft - Wikipedia
Can anyone write Cthulhu Mythos material?

--- "Chaosium, publishers of the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game, have a trademark on several Lovecraftian phrases and creations, including "The Call of Cthulhu", for use in game products. Another RPG publisher, TSR, Inc., original publisher of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, included in one of that game's earlier supplements, Deities & Demigods (originally published in 1980 and later renamed to "Legends & Lore"), a section on the Cthulhu Mythos; TSR, Inc. later agreed to remove this section from subsequent editions because of Chaosium's intellectual property interests in the work."
 
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