Talk:The Outsider/@comment-28301411-20190416004341/@comment-16533050-20190416020610

While I agree that there are definite Lovecraftian and Cthulhu-esque themes and flavors found throughout the universe, I feel these are more represented by the Void itself.

The madness that accompanies those who come into contact with runes and bonecharms, the odd mechanical "piping" noise that emanates from the same, even the odd rock-like forms of the Envisioned are all reminiscent of effects and ideas found in stories of Lovecraft, Robert Bloch, August Derleth, and Clark Ashton Smith.

The Outsider himself doesn't seem the source of this though. He's more a resident or a victim, rather than someone like Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos (who is my fave of the the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods). Nyarlathotep has a purpose, a goal. He gathers followers, enacts the wills of other Outer Gods and is often their messenger.

The Outsider has no preset motion or plan, unless you want to say his goal of removing himself from the Void, but it's not to gain power or propel the needs or desires of other. He also appears as he always was, unlike Nyarlathotep who usually appears not in his true form and actually has over 1000 forms.

Nyarlathotep is also the spawn of Azazoth, the Deep Dark at the center of the universe, and serves him. One could argue that the Outsider in a way is a spawn of the Void (if you want to compare the Void to Azathoth), but it isn't biological like with Nyarlathotep and Azazthoth. Also, the Outsider doesn't really "serve" the Void, insomuch as he is merely an unwilling resident. There's no communication, no plan of the Void that the Outsider fulfills. If anything, it was the cultists who long ago created the Outsider and in a way, he kinda serves their purpose as a symbol, of good or ill depending.

Also, the point of the whales was cleared up. Again, the whales are associated with the Void not him. It is merely humans within the Dishonored universe who associate him with such.