Nyarlathoblog

There. I named it. The blog is no longer What the Fuck Should I Name This Thing?; it is now Nyarlathoblog. Other names I considered: The Blogging Chaos, The Blogs in the Witch House, The Blogging of Unknown Kadath, The Blogger of the Dark.... They're all (poor) plays on words of H. P. Lovecraft stories about Nyarlatotep (with the exception of the Blogging Chaos).

Nyarlathotep wanders the earth and gathers legions of followers, often by invading their dreams. The followers lose awareness of the world and eventually end up as his servants and/or part of his ever-growing army. I figured it was a good theme because you will no doubt be enthralled and mesmerized by my unending genius and will end up serving me.

A series of Lovecraft's short stories are about Nyarlathotep, including "The Haunter of the Dark." As you may or may not be aware, I wrote the Burning Shadows song, "Haunter of the Dark" way back in 2000 or so. (Little known fact: I played bass on that song on Into the Primordial.) The story and song are centered around a man who unwittingly summons the Haunter, an avatar of Nyarlathotep. However, the Haunter is banished by light. This would be fine if the city didn't keep having power outages during thunderstorms. The Haunter kills the protagonist.

The stories that involve Nyarlathotep are: Nyarlathotep (1920), The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (1927), the 21st sonnet of Fungi From Yoggoth (1930), The Dreams in the Witch House (1933), and The Haunter of the Dark (1936). Other authors wrote about or were inspired by Nyarlathotep, including Robert Bloch (best known for writing Psycho) and Robert E. Howard (who wrote the Conan series).

What his fate would be, he did not know; but he felt that he was held for the coming of that frightful soul and messenger of infinity's Other Gods, the crawling chaos Nyarlathotep.
—H. P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath