Terror from Beyond

Terrors from Beyond (or just "Terrors") are from H.P. Lovecraft, "From Beyond (fiction)"; there are also some similarities to William Hope Hodgson's abnatural horrors from the Carnacki the Ghost Finder (fiction) stories.

Description

Still from "From Beyond (1997 short)" by Ken Avenoso & Andrew Migliore..

Indescribable shapes both alive and otherwise were mixed in disgusting array, and close to every known thing were whole worlds of alien entities.... Foremost among the living objects were inky, jellyfish monstrosities which flabbily quivered in harmony with the vibrations from the machine. They were present in loath some profusion, and I saw to my horror that they overlapped; that they were semi-fluid and capable of passing through one another and through what we knew as solids. These things were never still, but seemed ever floating about with some malignant purpose. Sometimes they appeared to devour one another, the attacker launching itself at its victim and instantaneously obliterating the latter from sight.
— H.P. Lovecraft, "From Beyond (fiction)"

"Terrors from Beyond" refers to any of a bewildering variety of creatures that exist in parallel to and within three-dimensional space as we understand it, ranging in size from microscopic microorganisms, to vast titans equivalent to whales, and perhaps even larger beings. The Terrors are loosely comparable to strange earthly animals, taking forms that such entities are practically limitless, potentially more numerous than any earthly life, but typically take the form of blobs, eel-like, worm-like, or fanged-jellyfish-like creatures, though it is conceivably possible that some of these entities might have some form of crude or even sophisticated intelligence. It's possible that some of these entities might cast spells on at least an intuitive or instinctive level, or at least have "natural" abilities that are comparable to magical spells. These entities are normally immaterial and invisible, creeping through three-dimensional matter without being detected, but there are ways to reveal the Terrors, including the Tillinghast Resonator (which uses a combination of light and vibrations to reveal the unknown world of the Terrors), and the Powder of Ibn-Ghazi. The Terrors are otherwise usually unaware of each other, though beings on the material plane, through technological, magical, psychic, or other means, do sometimes draw the attention of the Terrors, subsequently disappearing, being torn to shreds, dissolved, incinerated, or meeting some other strange doom in the jaws or alien clutches of the Terrors.

Heresies and Controversies

• compare/contrast with William Hope Hodgson's Outer Monstrosities, Aeiirii and Saiitii, the abnatural outer horrors which plague the titular character in the Carnacki the Ghost-Finder (fiction).

Associated Mythos Elements

• races - these are similar in concept:
  • Elemental
  • Outer Monstrosities, Aeiirii and Saiitii
• tomes and artifacts:
  • Tillinghast Report (describes the Terrors in psychotic detail)
  • Powder of Ibn-Ghazi (can reveal the Terors)
  • Tillinghast Resonator (reveals the existence and/or summons/materializes the Terrors)
  • Electric Pentacle (provides some protection from the Terrors)
• character:
  • Crawford Tillinghast

References

• fiction: "From Beyond (fiction)"
• scenarios:
  • "Little Slices of Death"
  • "Bleak Prospect"
• film:
  • From Beyond (1986 film)
  • "From Beyond (1997 short)"
  • "From Beyond (1999 short, Swedish)"
  • "From Beyond (1999 short, Canadian)"
  • "From Beyond (2006 short)"
  • "From Beyond (2014 short)"
  • "From Beyond (2015 short)"
  • "From Beyond the Beyond (2016 short)"
  • The Asphyx (1973 film)
• sourcebook: Malleus Monstrorum