Gothic vs Lovecraft - Part V: The Mortals: The Third Equation

The Gothic has passion.
The Eldritch has physics.
But mortals?
Mortals have audacity.

We were never meant to survive between two cosmic empires.
We are soft, short-lived, and easily corrupted by either side.
And yet — we persist.
We meddle.
We improvise.
We refuse to stay in our assigned narrative lane.

Mortals are the only beings in creation who can look at a universe ruled by monsters, math, and meaninglessness and say,
“Not today.”

And the reason both sides fear us — quietly, politely, strategically — is because we keep proving that equations can break.

How Mortals Play the Two Forces

Mortals survive not by strength or wisdom, but by a trait the cosmic orders lack: contradiction.

Where a Gothic creature is bound by story…
Where an Eldritch entity is bound by law…
Mortals can commit the most dangerous act in the universe:

They can change their minds.

They can betray a prophecy.
They can reject a destiny.
They can decide — in one terrible moment — to stop being what everyone said they were.

This flexibility makes us invisible to cosmic calculus.
A vampire knows the limits of sin.
A cosmic auditor knows the limits of entropy.
But no one knows the limits of a mortal with a bad idea and a free afternoon.

How Mortals Survive

Mortals don’t outfight gods.
They outmaneuver them.

They survive by leaning into the paradoxes that neither cosmic faction can resolve:

• Mortals lie.
  Eldritch beings cannot process falsehood.
  Gothic beings cannot help but believe it.
• Mortals improvise.
  Gothic beings hate chaos.
  Eldritch beings cannot react fast enough.
• Mortals love.
  Gothic beings envy it.
  Eldritch beings cannot compute it.
• Mortals hope.
  This is the only known substance that corrodes both cosmic equations.

But most importantly:

Mortals win by caring about things bigger than themselves.

Art. Justice. Stubbornness. Someone they shouldn’t have saved.
These irrational attachments become shields against entropy and lures against damnation.

No god understands a mortal who refuses to quit.

How Mortals Win (When They Aren’t Supposed To)

The impossible victories share the same pattern:

1. A mortal learns something they shouldn’t.
2. They decide not to be afraid.
3. They do something profoundly stupid and incredibly brave.

This is the mortal superpower:
We break the universe out of spite.

A Gothic tyrant can be undone by a mortal who forgives them.
An Eldritch auditor can be defeated by a mortal who refuses to acknowledge the audit.
A prophecy can collapse because a mortal refused to read it.

Every time a human chooses a future no equation predicted, the cosmos shudders.

Prominent Mortals Who Proved It

The history of humanity is a list of people who said “no” at the right moment.

Not all are heroes.
Not all survived.
But each broke a cosmic rule:

·       Gilgamesh — Proved the Eldritch wrong by seeking meaning in a meaningless cosmos.

·       Hypatia — Chose knowledge even when the Gothic demanded obedience and the Eldritch demanded silence.

·       Joan of Arc — Told Heaven and Earth what her story would be, not the other way around.

·       Ada Lovelace — Wrote the first spell to command machine logic, terrifying the Eldritch long before it woke.

·       Houdini — Escaped traps the Gothic designed and illusions the Eldritch believed unbreakable.

·       Nikola Tesla — Heard the cosmic background noise and tried to answer it back.

·       Frida Kahlo — Painted pain into myth, proving mortals could turn suffering into creation.

·       Alan Turing — Outthought both Gothic deception and Eldritch inevitability, broke a war, and redefined intelligence.

·       Toni Morrison — Wrote the kind of truths that even cosmic beings avoid reading too closely.

These mortals are not saints or warriors.
They are proof that free will is a glitch in the universe — and that glitches can rewrite the code.

Where Player Characters Fit In

Player characters are the newest generation of anomaly.

They are mortals who:

·       ask the questions cosmic beings avoid;

·       go to places that should not exist;

·       meddle with stories and sciences older than time;

·       and keep choosing to care, even when caring is lethal.

A PC’s destiny isn’t to serve the Gothic or Eldritch sides.

Their destiny is to tilt the cosmic equation.

To introduce variables the universe never planned for.

To stand in the narrowing space between meaning and entropy and carve out a third outcome:

Creation.
Compassion.
Chaos.

And this is why both cosmic factions both fear and desire heroes:

PCs are the unpredictable force the cosmos cannot calculate, correct, or contain.

They are the next name on the list of mortals who make gods nervous.

PLOT HOOKS: The Mortal Equation

1. The Prophecy That Won’t Stay Put

A Gothic oracle wrote a prophecy about the PCs… and it keeps rewriting itself every night.
At first only small details change. Then entire destinies vanish. Then one night it says:

“They choose neither damnation nor oblivion. They choose something new.”

Quest: Find who—or what—is altering the prophecy and why the Eldritch are terrified of it.
Twist: The PCs’ free will is breaking the cosmic script faster than the gods can patch it.

 

2. The Human Who Outsmarted a God (and Needs Backup)

A mortal scholar has done the unthinkable: embarrassed an Eldritch Auditor at its own accounting ritual.
Now the Auditor wants revenge and will erase the scholar’s entire family tree to fix the ledger.

Quest: Protect the scholar long enough to turn their insight into a weapon.
Reward: An “Exemption Slip” from cosmic accounting—usable once to negate a supernatural consequence.

 

3. The Gothic Wants a Heart; The Eldritch Wants a Brain

An immortal Gothic lord discovers that a PC carries a rare trait:
the ability to feel guilt without being controlled by it.
An Eldritch entity simultaneously detects that the same PC can observe paradox without going mad.

Both sides try to recruit (or kidnap) them.

Quest: Escape both factions while exploring why this PC is so cosmically unique.
Endgame: PCs may found a third faction — The Variable Cult.

 

4. The Dreamlands Emergencies Hotline

The Dreamlands Lounge has a single mortal phone number written behind a bathroom mirror.
It rings one night.

Vincent Price’s ghost tells the PCs the Dreamlands are collapsing and only mortals can fix it:

“Cosmic beings can dream, dears, but they cannot imagine.”

Dungeon: A surreal nightclub heist where ideas are literal objects.
Hook: PCs must steal imagination back from The Content Mill.

 

5. Houdini’s Lockbox

A dusty lockbox is found. The label simply reads:
“To be opened only when gods forget themselves.” – H. Houdini
Both cosmic factions immediately mobilize.

Quest: Open the box.
Inside: Something Houdini stole from an Eldritch god — an object that should not exist and doesn’t obey normal physics OR narrative logic.

The Gothic want it to restore meaning.
The Eldritch want it destroyed.
Mortals can actually use it.

What it does is your choice.

6. The Museum of Human Audacity

A hidden museum appears overnight:
dedicated entirely to mortals who challenged cosmic powers.

But the exhibits are shifting.
Some are unfinished…
Some are missing…
And one wing includes glass cases labeled with the PCs' names—empty, waiting.

Quest: Determine who built the museum and why the PCs are “reserved exhibits.”
Twist: It’s curated by a being who believes the PCs will one day break the universe’s final rule.

 

7. A Mortal Saint Goes Missing

A legendary mortal — someone who once outwitted both cosmic equations — has vanished from all records.
Even the Gothic immortals panic.
Even the Eldritch Archivists are confused.

This mortal was the proof that free will is real.

Quest: Track them across fractured timelines, dreamscapes, and cosmic bureaucracies.
Curveball: The mortal did it to hide the one flaw in the system that mortals can exploit.

 

8. The Eldritch Lawsuit

A Lovecraftian being files a lawsuit against the PCs for “reality contamination through narrative improvisation.”
It has legally binding evidence of every moment the party acted outside destiny or physics.

Quest: Win a case in the Court of Absolute Truth.
Assist: A Gothic lawyer who feeds on righteous indignation and hasn’t lost a case since 1478.
Victory Condition: Prove mortals deserve the right to unpredictability.

 

9. The Mortal Who Refuses to Die

Someone in a quiet village has died seven times this month.
And keeps getting up again.
Not undead. Not cursed. Just… stubborn.

Why it matters:
Both cosmic factions are terrified: this mortal is proof the universe’s math is failing.

Quest: Escort or study the anomaly before the factions “fix” the problem.
Twist: The mortal’s immortality spreads—starting with the PCs.

 

10. The Bargain Neither Side Understands

A dying child makes a wish so heartfelt it reaches both cosmic spheres.
The Gothic offers a miracle.
The Eldritch offers a bargain.
Both offers are refused by a third, unexpected entity: the child themselves.

Quest: Help the child attain a future they choose — one which breaks both cosmic contracts.
Outcome: PCs witness the creation of a new cosmic power: a mortal deity of defiance.

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