Cthulhupunk: The Most Baffling TTRPG Setting Ever Written

0:19 Welcome everyone to another episode of the Acceptable Losses Podcast, where usually Kirioth tries to ruin my day. But today, I'm gonna make Kirioth tell you not only about the Patreon, but also about our very successful merch campaign, whether you're on Patreon or YouTube right now. Go ahead, Kirioth.

0:39 You you absolute You piece of shit. What the hell is what?

0:49 Right before I'm just gonna just kind of add a context for for those of you listening. Right before we started, DK was like, I've got a great intro lined up. I've just wrote it.

1:01 That's right. Just give it to me. I didn't write anything, man. I was just like, I bet Kiereth is gonna have a great time explaining this stuff.

1:09 God damn. That is that is disgusting. That is deceitful. I can't believe it. I've been led astray. All right.

1:16 One might say you've become an acceptable loss.

1:20 That is absolute trash behaviour. Holy shit. Okay. This is how you know we're friends. Well, yeah. You should maybe swear repeat at me before the two minutes is an achievement. So if you're listening on Patreon, then you still have time to pledge to receive the acceptable casualty hoodie. It's the hoodie that we are making via Makeship.

1:46 We have reached the goal. The hoodie is going to go into production, but there's only a few days left. In fact, as of recording, there's like four days. So by the time you hear this, yeah, you've got about that amount of time to head over using the link and to sign up for your own incredibly cool hoodie.

2:03 Once that time has gone down, that's it. You're out. So if you're on YouTube, you missed it, unless you listened to all the other times we said to go and pledge for it and you didn't, in which case, I mean that frankly, that's your fault. Luckily, we do have the other really good merch, which you can find at Orchid 8.

2:19 So if you follow that link, you can find T-shirts, you can find the Wall Scroll. They're all fantastic. Go and check them out. Also, whilst you're on the subject of checking stuff out, you should get Patreon exclusive episodes. They're ad-free. You also get the Discord, loads of stuff. Go and check it out.

2:34 Oh, there's 22 Patreon episodes now. I will say I think September's batch of Patreon episodes were I I really enjoyed all of them, even more than usual.

2:44 Yeah, they were all really good.

2:46 Yeah. I I I concur with your statement. We've got a solid lineup for this month, so go over there, check it out. Oh yeah, also I I mean I am biased because I write them, so there is that. But you know.

2:59 Yeah, but they were they are also executed very well, just like that intro. Hey, you didn't stumble for a second. All all that swearing, all that cursing. And really all I all I really did was give you a spotlight for you to shine in and well done, let's go. Round of applause for Gyrioth.

3:20 I've also just Shy said, writes Patreon episodes. I think they're really good. To be fair, I think that is a better sales pitch than I write them and this is the only good month so far. I think I think saying they're all good, but this month's were especially so. I'm I'm more inclined to check that out than someone who goes, yeah, I mean, they're there.

3:43 I don't like them.

3:44 As someone who is relatively unbiased, other than I'm on this damn thing and hope it works out. They were pretty good though. I I had a I had a lot of fun with the Patreon episodes uh this month. So I will I will I will give you my ticket of agreement.

4:02 And that's from someone who actively sabotaged me literally moments ago. So they must be good.

4:08 Was it actually sabotage if you thrived in the moment? This is this is an American football quarterback seeing his rookie wide receiver on a on a on a slant route, and he's just like, you know what? I believe in my guy, and just wham. And you you caught it, you you took her down for a touchdown. Well done, Kyriath.

4:31 You understood none of that because you're British.

4:34 You may as well have been you may as well have just like been speaking another language for all that meant to me. But I uh yeah, I d I do. I appreciate the compliment if that's what that was.

4:47 Basically, yes.

4:51 I I don't think I am.

4:53 I don't think that's accurate. I mean, I'm not gonna sit here out in my age, but I I don't think that's correct. At least maybe. We'll find out off mic.

5:05 So Kyriath, now that you have thoroughly shined and scored a touchdown, what are we doing today, eh?

5:13 Today's different. Today is a unique episode of Acceptable Losses because when we do these, I either read them through beforehand, go through, check everything, if there's something that I think you will preempt, I'll make a little note of it. And if there's anything that I fully don't understand, I'll try and, you know, look it up, make sure I've got a bit of a bit of extra to go along with Possum's script.

5:38 I mean, if I've written the episode, then obviously I've written it, so I I know it back to front. Sometimes you will take over and host or will have a guest. This is an episode where I have no idea what this is, other than the name. I know that we are covering Cthulhu Punk. It says it right there at the top of the script that Possum sent to me.

5:58 And apart from that, I have read nothing. I'm going into this as blind as you are, primarily because we we reckon that's the the way to experience this. So they're learning together.

6:12 Alright, but you you've read the script. Like you know what this or is this is this is not your first read through of the script, is it? It is.

6:20 I have nothing apart from I've I've read a paragraph, which was a sample that Possum sent me, and uh and the title, and that's it. Oh shit, this is gonna be good, dude.

6:36 Because I'm like, oh dude, what are you talking? Like, I've done plenty of uh Possum scripts where like I just I just review the script a couple days in advance, and you know, every now and then I'll make a couple edits here and there. Nothing big, like, or maybe I'll look up something that doesn't make sense.

6:50 That's not a big You ain't read it at all, brother. Strap in everyone, let's go.

6:57 I'm not joking. I have felt really weird and off about this recording all day because I've I've felt all day like there's something I should have done and I have not done it. It feels so weird not to go through it a couple of times. I always do it, and this time held off. Held off so we could just go through what hopefully will be some madness together.

7:21 To be fair, that does give very Lovecraftian vibes of this unsettling feeling permeating over your entire being, hopeful that the end of the world doesn't happen. So, you know what? Let's roll, dude.

7:36 Very uh very Cthulhu appropriate. The the great unknown.

7:41 I said it's fine. That's how Brickie does all adric episodes he leads. Damn. He's not even here to defend himself, and you you you blew his ass away, Shy. That's that is unkind, unfair, and I am totally here for it.

8:00 Okay, so Cthulhu Punk. We've got a uh a story for an introduction, which which Possum has called Annie, are you okay? Unlike unlike other introductions, we are going to start with the ongoing narrative provided through the chapters of this book. Possum has stated that we will understand why. Now, this is the one bit that I've read.

8:25 So after this, it's all it's all complete unknown. J Boy walks into a seedy club. He tries his best to maintain his cool, but something bothers him. He best keep a bro a good brave face though, as he has some important people to meet. As he walks through the club, the dance floor is almost completely empty.

8:44 Almost. A bunch of fry brains are out on the dance floor dancing to music made by spook cultists. The bassoon that rips through the song sounds like a polar bear being skinned in a tin bucket.

8:59 What the fuck? Right. What's going on, man? Alright, keep keep going, I guess.

9:07 I sure the mention of bassoon has just taken me out immediately because why what club is is playing music that heavily features the bassoon? Well it was gonna happen bassooner or later. Oh, I hate that I actually really like that. Okay, so J Boy goes over to his usual table and his two associates are there.

9:34 Shash looks a bit preoccupied, and Boosh is yet again so drunk that he can't stay awake, his blue wig and makeup looking more dishevelled than usual. Jay Boy is looking for Annie Dol or Annie as he likes to call her. Shash laughs at him and says that she went out dancing with a group of citizen soldiers.

9:54 Boosh sits up and has a bit of a different story. Annie doesn't talk to him anymore because he refused to teach her in the ways of some arcane and forbidden knowledge that he knew and she didn't. Annie went looking for it herself, and now she's gone. A drunk friend of theirs named Brighty, sitting one table over, calls over, saying that everyone disappears at some point.

10:15 The only things that are guaranteed in the universe are death and isolation. But what No taxes in this universe? Oh, I tell you what, wouldn't that be nice, no taxes? I mean, you know, I I'd settle for the cure for death first, but taxes are a close second.

10:34 Hey, listen, man, I'll pay my taxes if I don't have to live in a Cthulhu-controlled hellscape dystopian. Um, totally fair.

10:43 Call me crazy, but uh yeah. Boosk gently touches a pendant hanging from around his neck of a crooked star and says softly that he wishes that what she said was true. A few hours pass and all four of the folks from the club are in Jay Boy's cramped flat. Boosch and Brighty, I'm really struggling with with the with Boosk as a word, by the way, uh are taking taking stims in an attempt to sober up and are making sandwiches out of real meat and topping it off with a nice glass of capy.

11:16 Jay Boy isn't done asking Boosch questions and thinks he's hiding something. He is, in fact, hiding something. Annie didn't vanish, she found a new teacher, but he doesn't know where this teacher is. Jay Boy is pissed. He knew that Boosch filling her head with cultist beliefs was a bad idea, especially since the pro gov has increased cracking down on these activities.

11:36 Boosk envies Jay Boy for having an uncomplicated mind. That is quite the quite the back-handed goblin. People like him and Annie have developed a hunger for forbidden knowledge, and once the hunger pains strike for that, it's hard to satiate. He says that he may not know who Annie's new teachers are, but he knows they're dangerous.

12:00 But Jay Boy has no reason not to search. J Boy tells them that he's gonna find Annie and it's up to them whether they want to come or not, and they refuse to let him go alone. Brighty oils up her claws and checks the magazine that's implanted in her cybernetic arm, and Shash puts a f Okay, alright, we're just skipping past that.

12:21 Okay, cool. Alright, oh sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick.

12:27 You've got to make sure you've you've reloaded your arm before you go out, okay? Yeah, you gotta oil that shit up, dog, of course. And uh and Shash puts a 45 caliber pistol in his belt. Boosh takes off his wig and makeup and dresses down in black jeans and a white shirt. He reveals the last place he saw Annie, an east side commune with Zen Buddhist separatists.

12:53 Zen Buddhist separatists, eh? Okay, um I don't what is happening?

13:05 Despite assumptions, they are not pacifists and are heavily armed. Oh the Zen Buddhist separatists are heavily armed.

13:16 I'm not I'm not they will apparently they will shoot you. I mean interesting. Maybe maybe they are Buddhists who find Zen in, you know, killing you.

13:29 That's their happy place, I guess. It's difficult to meditate, but not impossible, depending on where you are. Annie had no interest in Zen, so this must be a front. J Boy hesitates only for a second before ordering everyone to roll out. We cut to a dark room clad with carved wood, lacquer screens and incense.

13:51 A man provides the group with green tea and tells them to sit. The group begins to ask him questions, but he confirms that he is not the master of this house. The man points to a thin screen and a faint odour of corruption emanates from behind it. An entity speaks with a low voice and condescendingly refers to the four friends as humans.

14:10 He has some information they seek, but it's complex. You see, a tribe known as the Cho Cho invaded the vaults of the creature and its associates. They murdered some individuals with fire and stole secrets. In retaliation, the creature stole some secrets from them, including the name of their master and the creatures they serve, as well as where they conduct ceremonies, which is where Anyadol is.

14:34 The creature says he will give Boosh the information out of spite. He knows how much the Chocho would hate for humans to have it, and wait, and sorry, and b and Boosh has a pair of WYSI goggles, so he can access it.

14:50 WYSI goggles, gosh, I'm I'm assuming there's a like I I gotta believe that's like a cyber tech like goggle thing. You know, like the it's gone lens, like a like a like a sort of Jordy vibe with the with the visor that's got like the heads-up display on it. It's gotta be something like that, right? It Surely.

15:07 Surely that's what it is. Unless it's like short for wizard, so it's more of a magic thing. Because we've already had reference to forbidden like knowledge and stuff. That's true. The fact that it could be either is a is a bit mental. Um which Boosh does. Using his WYSI goggles, he's able to secretly access a secure back end network called what idiot what eliminate.

15:34 Oh no. Okay, hang on. I don't know.

15:36 What are Elinet?

15:40 Oh my. That was you know what? I guess a plus two for me.

15:44 Um maybe what what El Oh boy. I guess what Elet? What Ellie net? Yeah, I got it.

15:54 That that word stunlocked me. I couldn't process it.

15:58 Um I was I was about to go into the British accent, but I'm trying to do it less, you know. I was uh Wall telly net. You know, I was just going for something like that. Because the telly, I was like, oh, watching a bit of telly. And uh sorry, viewers, sorry, sorry. Next time I'll tone it down and do it in an orc thing.

16:19 I I think just just keep at it and just just make it louder every time.

16:25 Oh man, there's a viewer right now that's so pissed at you, dude. Don't encourage him.

16:31 I have been informed that it is my fault, so um so uh he uh he accesses a secure backend network called Washellinet, which we'll we'll come back to at the very end. And while utilizing this network, he's able to determine that Annie is tied to a group that focuses on starry wisdom. This group practices in arcane and ancient rituals for entities like Sathogra, Cthulhu, and Azatoth.

16:59 So we are straightforward. Alright, here we are. Yep, straight in. Um Boosh narrowly avoids watchdogs within the backdoor network and tells his friends that Annie's situation is dire and they need to act fast. The group breaks into what seems to be a church, but it's anything but that. There are no seats, and at the front of the pulpit of emptiness is a black altar in front of iron doors.

17:22 The walls around it are carved with Babylonian script, and in English the following phrase is crudely written That is not dead, which can eternal lie, and with strange eons even death may die. Classic. Classic quite that one. The group makes their way to the altar and sees strange squiggly lines on the top of it.

17:42 They squirm and swirl into what may be words, but Boosk looks away. He yells that he can't read it and that he won't even try. Suddenly, the room fills with a strange faint hum, and the group looks on in horror as half of Brighty's head disintegrates into cascading red mist. Oh boy. Yuck. R. IP Brighty, we've we barely knew ye.

18:07 Yeah, I was gonna say, d do we know Brighty well enough to tell him to rest in peace? Like, I don't I don't know. And in this universe where we're doing Cthulhu telecoms, I guess. Uh his soul might still be alive somewhere, being flayed and tortured for all time. Does that happen in Cthulhu stuff?

18:29 Is there a huge amount of soul consumption? That's actually something that I don't really know. I don't know.

18:34 I may have just boss babied a little bit, but I'm not actually gonna say the words.

18:39 We'll let's uh let's move on. Um so yeah, the head disintegrates into cascading red mist. A sniper shot. The surviving members of the group duck for cover and shoot into the darkness, but there's silence. Boosh appears holding a bloodstained weapon and says that he killed the sniper with a hairpin. Wow.

19:01 That's some John Wick shit right there. How close was the sniper?

19:05 Let's yeah, yeah, I I I don't know. I I'm like I said, I'm I'm just imagining some John Wick shit, you know. They saw him kill the thing with a pencil, you know? Killed a sniper with a hairpin.

19:20 It's like the absurd version of that.

19:23 Oh, it's like uh uh Colin Farrell in um um the live action version of Daredevil where he's he's dead shot and he's he's just he's just chucking paper clips at people and he gets the guy in the throat and the forehead a bunch of times and kills him. That's what it would that's what I'm imagining. Oh my god.

19:44 Is it wait, is it dead shot or is it uh I don't know.

19:48 Something like that. It's like Deadshot, sure shot, it's something like that. It's yeah, it's some it's it's one of those. Now that's gonna annoy people.

19:56 I'm sorry everyone, I'm not a comic book guy. I just watched the movies, I'm sorry.

20:02 And of all the films to remember, that one.

20:05 I mean, that's a pretty memorable one. Jennifer Garner in it, as Electra, even. Bullseye, that's Bullseye!

20:14 Oh my god, we were I was the first shot's the one that Will Smith played, right? That's the other one.

20:19 Oh right. He gets that gun and suicide squad. He's like, you don't even know what you guys just did. That's right. It's a bullseye cad. I'm LARPing again.

20:32 Well no, we're not bringing back LARPing. It's not happening. So uh he looks at the other doors and says that they're sealed on the other side. J Boy looks at Brighty's corpse and feels sick, but then he looks to Boosch. He asks what they should do, and Boosch simply says further in. As they continue walking inwards, they find themselves standing on the edge of a massive brick lined hole which is slightly illuminated with neon lights.

20:57 There's nothing leading down into the hole. No ladder, no rope, nothing. Jay Boy kicks a brick over the side of the edge, and the group never hears it hit the bottom. Shash is not standing with J Boy in Boosh. He saw something and he refuses to enter the room itself. He stands crouched in the doorway, singing softly to himself with crossed arms and closed eyes.

21:18 Here we go, here we go, we're getting into the we're getting into the weird stuff of the book.

21:22 Here we go, here we go, here we go, we sure are.

21:28 He's terrified. But of what? As Jay Boy looks around the room, he finds a hat right at the edge of the hole. Bush picks it up and confirms the worst. It's Annie's hat. Jay Boy looks at him and asks him what he knows. Is this the end? How far does this pit go? Boosh looks at him gently and softly says it goes all the way down.

21:52 Oh great, that's lovely.

21:53 I I I thought we were gonna totally get hit with a it just it never ends, it goes on forever or something, 'cause it's you know. Some weird Cthulhu um Lovecraftian just hellscape hit that literally just never ends and you just fall for all eternity.

22:10 I feel like I'd prefer that to just it goes all the way down because all the way down creates a lot more vague and weird and unsettling that way, isn't it? Is it all the way through the world? And so you could end up on the other side? Is it does it do what like what you said we're kind of going into nothing, but it's just permanently falling?

22:35 There's just there's so many options, and none of them are good. It goes all the way down. The weight of these words doesn't hit J-Boy because the silence is broken by something else. Music. Strange music. He isn't sure if anyone else hears it, but it sounds like it's emanating from the hole. Along with the music is a phrase, a chanting that only gets louder.

22:59 And you know what? Oh I'm gonna I'm gonna put this in and you can read this just this very small quote. Okay.

23:09 Oh it's Tikelly Lee, Tikelli, or I'm I don't even know if I'm saying that right, but it's Tikellili, Tekelly Lee, Tekelly Lee. Oh no. Oh, we don't like that. They're back.

23:26 They're back in a weird way.

23:28 Oh, we don't like that. Oh no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

23:35 Everything went so well the last time they showed up.

23:38 Oh yeah, dude. Yeah. Oh no. All right. Good to see you guys again, I guess.

23:48 So that is uh essentially the the introductory narrative for Cthulhu Punk, which is a setting created for the generic universal role-playing system, better known as Gurbs. Gurps as a role play system is designed to be almost fully modular, and you can play any genre within it and not change the system whatsoever.

24:08 Each GURPS book is either a setting or a resource book, and you can just plug and play as you see fit.

24:14 The uh the structures oh I was about to say Shah said uh wait before you go, I would like you to say this leveling written setting introduces you to J Boy, Frybrains, Spook Tunes, Heyo Per Yenny, Anyadoll, Shash, Platoon of Nurks, Snortfakes, and of course Booshk, whose makeup looks like finger painting by one of the less gifted members of the special class.

24:43 In the first half of the first page, this book was doomed from the goddamn start.

24:50 Does it seriously say one of the less members of the of the R, you know, begins with R, ends in D.

24:57 Oh Wow. Wow.

25:00 Oh boy. So this was made in like what's gonna say like the 90s, I want to say. 80s, no? Could be eighties, could be eighties too. Oh my god, what is that cover? I mean, to be fair, it's not bad art, it's just what? It's just batshit. It's just I'm sorry, what?

25:27 GURPS. We have a guy we have a guy with a cybernetic implant in his head and arm wearing uh what is essentially just Mad Max you know, wasteland armour. A gun that I'm not a gun expert, but it looks kind of it looks futuristic, but in that we don't really know what the future of guns looks like. Way with what also what looks just like some sort of is that just a combat knife on his belt?

25:56 Like part of him looks so normal and the rest looks insane, and then we've got the horrible ghost dog.

26:04 Am I crazy for thinking that that pump action doesn't look like it has enough space to pump?

26:10 Oh, I mean, uh it's probably best that we don't even get into whatever that weapon is supposed to be.

26:15 It looks like it might be attached to it looks like it might be attached to like a well, I guess that's not a flamethrower per se, but like that bottom part looks odd.

26:24 You know what, Shy? I I think I think you're right. That does look like the arm and the uh and the implant are basically just drawn over a different bit of artwork. Like it really does look like that. Now you've mentioned it.

26:42 I mean, who knows? It it could be. It definitely Oh man, I hate that I didn't see that and I was like, oh no, yeah, that's just you know, and and now that you've said that, it's like, um I am cool. It could be questioning everything now. Oh, truly, this is uh this this truly is a um Lovecraftian Cthulhu episode.

27:07 Truly dear, you promised PCAR you have delivered. I'm gonna say I feel I feel like we I feel like we kind of uh breezed right past the platoon of nooks. Like we we we didn't even we didn't even stop to register platoon of nooks. Or the snortfikes. Or the snort fakes. I mean we we got utterly blindsided by the finger painting by one of the less gifted members of the class.

27:37 Um and okay, yeah, well I do love that this book was doomed from the goddamn start. It's the first half of the first page having all of that is mental. At least we know it's boot tunes. We know that there's bassoon in it. So we've got some we've got some uh like context for that at least.

27:59 Yeah. Lovely.

28:01 So each GURPS book is either a setting or a resource book. You can plug and play as you see fit. The structures of the settings, like technology level and other things, can determine what entities from various resource books can be used for which settings, but it's fairly fluid. You can play cowboys, you can play aliens, you can play cowboys and aliens.

28:21 One of the most impressive things done within the GURPS system was done courtesy of Jeff Koch and Chris McCubbin. They both successfully took the notoriously dense and standalone rule systems of the World of Darkness games, specifically Vampire the Masquerade, Werewolf the Apocalypse, and Mage the Ascension, and made them work for GERPS, releasing award-winning source books for all three.

28:43 Chris McCubbin is notable for writing some of the most versatile and well-received books in the GERPS line, so he was the perfect pick for a source book that would seemingly do the impossible. Combining the Lovecraft mythos with a cyberpunk dystopia in 1995. 1995 Ah, that kind of tracks, honestly. For some reason, I would have placed that cover art before then, but I I don't know whether that's necessarily just because I've decided that if it's that kind of if it's if it's got that kind of aesthetic, it can't have been it can't have been later than that.

29:22 But I don't really know where I picked that up from.

29:26 I could see that. I definitely could see that being being dropped into the the 90s, the mid-90s. Yeah. I don't know why, but it it reminds me of like a choose your own adventure cover for a book.

29:37 Do you remember those books? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I I mostly remember always ending up with terrible endings because apparently I was very bad at choosing my own adventure.

29:49 Oh, sorry, you decided to open the door and you were immediately shot and stabbed. Go back to the beginning of the book. What the hell? Is it the goosebumps ones?

30:00 Nah, goosebumps weren't choose your own adventure. There were a couple, I think, that were there? Like not not all of them, but I'm sure I had a goosebumps one that was like sort of choose your own adventure, but I I never got anything good out of that book. I was mostly just like, why do people do this?

30:16 Just read a read a proper book.

30:19 Yeah, yeah. I mean I mean a goosebumps was always peak in in the 90s, brother. There's no series better than goosebumps. Anyway, continue.

30:28 That's why you hold the page and look and look up against the shitty end. Quit quick saving. In the choose your own adventure. So yeah, uh, in in 1995, Cthulhu Punk would come out, and today we're going to go through it. You might be thinking that this is going to be absolutely absurd, and Apostle reassures us, my friends, you have no idea.

30:54 I was gonna say after that intro, yeah, right? No, there was no doubt this was gonna be fucking weird. Oh boy.

31:05 This is like any great adventure into a dark dystopian future, we're going to go through a timeline to see the point of divergence between our world and this world of Cthulhu punk. Normally these points of divergence occur within the last hundred or so years, but Cthulhu punk means business. So the timeline, a beginning.

31:24 Two billion years ago, the elder things arrived on Earth and established their first colony in the Antarctic.

31:33 Wow, that's uh that's an antiara level hit of uh time travel there. That's wow. All right, cool. Our story begins two billion years ago. Jesus.

31:48 Oh god. Holy shit. They uh they use organic materials to create the primal shogoth known as Ubu Sathla to create the slave shogoth to help create life on Earth. The party is ruined 1.4 billion years ago when Great Cthulhu and Isporn travelled from Zoth to Earth, beginning a war with the Elder Things and establishing the Great City of Rulier.

32:10 After millions of years of fighting, a truce is reached between the two factions, but this truce is hampered by the creation of the Moon, which sinks the city of Rul, I always I stumble over every time Rulier, and plunges the Society of Elder Things into anarchy for 300 million years. About 750 million years ago, the flying polyps land on the planet and establish a colony in Australia or on Australia, while harvesting odd cone-shaped entities as their primary source of food.

32:40 Over the next few million years, life begins to evolve on the planet, and the elder things attempt to re-establish their foothold by setting up colonies and cities in places like South America, Africa and England. Four hundred and eighty-five million years ago, the minds of the great race of Yith travel through time and space and inhabit the bodies of the cone entities that have been harvested in Australia by the flying polyps.

33:03 Quickly, these Yithians subjugate the polyps and imprison them deep in the subterranean vaults of Australia and build even greater cities on the ruins of the polyp civilization.

33:15 Okay.

33:16 A lot to unpack there. Yeah, that is we are we are really we this is Oh boy. It seem it seems like they are just kind of going through every Lovecraft story and going Yeah.

33:31 I was like, we've talked about the city and the the thing and the 300 million years of craziness and the old ones and the elder ones and the and the city and the moon. I was like, I've heard all this stuff before, but we're going at just breakneck speeds here.

33:48 Yep. Yep. Once again, life continues to evolve as per usual until about 275 million years ago when the serpent folk began to build civilizations. They establish a city in Volusia around the Mediterranean Sea, and in the east, known as the Nameless City. They are the first true sentient race on Earth that was not from the stars, and it seems they may have been a divergent evolution.

34:12 The Elder Things begin to have a very bad time within a short period. The Migo fungi from Yogoth land on the planet and establish a presence deep in the Appalachian Mountains and go to war with the Elder Things that only stops because the megacontinent of Pangaea breaks up. The Yithians fight the Elder Things on the landmass connecting Africa and Australia, and the Shogoths rebel against their masters, forcing the collapse of the Elder Things society.

34:38 The Serpent People's Advanced Society begins to collapse thanks to climate change and meteor bombardments that will eventually kill the dinosaurs, and the minds of the Yithians escape the cone-shaped creatures and opt to possess the minds of a species on Earth far in the future, long after the total extinction of the human race.

34:57 What? What just what just what just what just happened? The yithians left by time travelling again, but the far future instead of the past. Yeah, man, totally. I was gonna say, the Ichthians are like that's not something they've made up. The Iythians are a love craft thing and they are somewhat.

35:19 Oh yeah. I I I am sure this is all canon to love crap, but it just it's it's it's it's boy, this is a lot to process in such a we we're not even an hour in, and I'm like, who's the who's the what's uh where's the dis what's they're they're they're here, they're gone, they're warring, they're not warring.

35:35 Elder things gone. Now they're teleporting to the distant future. I boy, it's oh my goodness. They just come out every Love Caster in the timeline and it doesn't really work. Yeah, it just it just feels like my my brain is being trash compacted by Lovecraftian lore at the moment. I know what you're gonna say.

35:52 What brain, DK? Trust me, it's there, it's getting compacted.

35:58 That's I think that's that's maybe that's something that I had a misconception about until I actually read Lovecraft stuff was that like, oh, you know, you hear Lovecraftian and you hear it enough, and you think that every book or every story is set in exactly the same universe or like the same timeline or whatever.

36:14 And that that's not actually the case. So just taking everything out of all of his stuff and going, and shove that into the blender, put that in there as well. We'll take this and we'll shove that in on top of that. Yeah, you push it down a bit. We we can fit the lid on if we try really hard.

36:36 They're trying to stretch that one last button on the jeans that you haven't worn since college, and it's like, come on, god damn it, you can fit anyway. Yeah. I have no experience with that. I have zero experience with with that event that I just mentioned. I I you know yeah, yeah, I couldn't be uh Kiryath, please take us away from here.

37:03 So with the uh with the Yithians going into the far future, the polyps are free. They fight back against their cone-shaped masters, but since the Yith mines have left them, they're essentially fighting back against cattle, resulting in a genocide.

37:18 Yay! We've reached the genocide point in our acceptable losses episode. Hooray. It's only a matter of time. Um bingo card that one. The acceptable losses bingo card. Genocide happens. Well what a horrible bingo card. Oh, yeah, dude. Genocide is like the freebie middle square.

37:45 Oh no. Your free space. Never. So five million years before the events of today, the Elder Things only have two remaining cities, one in South America at the very tip of the continent, and one in Antarctica. Seeing the cooling of the world as inevitable, they build one final city deep in the Antarctic Ocean and seemingly vanish.

38:09 The earliest pre-humans begin to appear across the world, including the Hyperborea, which form a civilization in Greenland and begin worshipping Sathogua, the sleeper slash great furry toad. Literally every picture of it for decades has been the most ridiculous thing ever, so uh Shy is going to have a field day with this bit.

38:30 Unfortunately, the Hyperbore are wiped out at about 1.7 million years ago, leaving Sathogua alone and hungry. But don't worry, humanity is beginning to fully develop now. Unfortunately, the continent of Mu, a strange megacontinent in the Pacific Ocean, would sink, much like the continent of Atlantis in the Atlantic Ocean.

38:52 Oh my god. Well that great furry toad is bloody hell. Yeah, he he do look hungry. Or they do look hungry. Okay, when Possum said great, I was thinking like one of those just really big toads you see in the Amazon or whatever. Not not like not large building size. Look at the look at the size of the bats around it.

39:15 Oh yeah, it is I I when when you said great furry toad, I was like, oh yeah, this thing is probably like um I don't know, the size of a small apartment block. So yeah, I was expecting What is that?

39:30 Wait, is this is that second one still? I think they're all the great furry toad. Wow. I think they're all the great furry toad.

39:38 It's just so weird because the the the first one shy post, I was like, oh yeah, that's that that's giving toad energy. The other two give bat energy to me. Like all the rest of them kind of make me think like some kind of nocturnal bat instead of uh toad.

39:52 The one that's about to eat a person, that that just looks like a like an obese bat with wingless arms. I mean the ears, especially. Yeah, definitely. It's giving very unbatman vibes.

40:10 Oh my god, that last one is Oh boy, that's insane. That is nightmare fuel. Don't look at that one before you go to sleep. Oh boy. Well, I guess if you look at that before you go to sleep, you're not going to sleep. Yikes. Need to stay up and do an assignment.

40:30 No, just get some coffee, dude. It's way easier. Yeah, fair, fair. Um so yeah, the uh the the continent of moo would sink and uh no Atlantis also sinks. But yeah, it's uh Moot point, this city. I'm in two minds. Um just just continue, just ignore it. It's fine. We're moving on. Have you have you have have you heard of the continent of Moo?

41:09 Just out of interest. Um before this, no.

41:13 I don't think we've covered it because the education system sucks. Well, sorry. I was like, oh, is it a fictional city? And I'm like, uh-oh. He said the American education system is shit, and I'm like, uh-oh. Is it not? Uh is it oh, oh boy, it's a it's a historical oh boy. Well, that's uh that'll be it for me signing off.

41:35 I'll be honest, I don't actually know either way either. Phenomenal. Okay, good. I was like, oh great. This is another DK is an uneducated cur moment. Oh great. Wonderful, fantastic. But if you also don't know what it is, I'm like, okay, good.

41:53 I'm I'm I I I feel like it's not real, but I could be totally wrong. So I'm happy to admit ignorance on that. I'm not really up on my mega continent from you know, I'm just I'm just not I I just you know, if I had that knowledge once, it's gone. It's been replaced with something probably like knowing how to fill out a tax return or something boring.

42:14 Um I'd much rather have mega continent structures be necessary than tax uh hundred percent. So uh speaking of weird education, the book proceeds to uh throw at possums something that they'd never heard before. Thirteen thousand years before Australia, the first ever boomerang is made in Poland. Why no no idea why that's in there.

42:46 Very random thing to throw in the book, but uh possum kept going back to it. They couldn't help themselves.

42:52 It's very I mean I I I I very returned. Oh lovely. Yeah, I mm-hmm mm-hmm.

42:58 I I read it and then I was like, no, oh you slip you nearly slipped one past me there, but and but uh it turns out that there is some historic truth to it. So that's the same thing.

43:10 Yeah. Why put it in there? Yeah, I understand.

43:17 Maybe maybe it's something that the author learned, and they were like, I gotta share this with the world, guys. You gotta know about the boomerang.

43:23 They learnt that. They learned that the day before writing that page. And they've gotta find somewhere to put it in here. I gotta put this down there. I've gotta get that in there.

43:34 It was really putting pressure on their brain. They're like, I gotta get it out, I gotta release the pressure.

43:41 Shy is not having it. Shy's like, Shy's said, I don't think that's true at all. Hang on.

43:46 Yeah, I I I can't, I I always I I I don't know. Apparently Shy looked it up and Shy said, No, that is true. What the fuck? It all caps. I didn't I didn't believe it at first either. I thought it was just a cheeky thing that was put in here until until Kieran was like, oh yeah, there's some historical truth to it.

44:06 And I was like, what? According to reports, the oldest European surviving boomerang boomerang, which was found in a cave in Poland in 1985, dates back about 40,000 years old. First one in Australia is dated 10,000 years old.

44:23 That's what wild. Yeah. I actually can't like it's not that I it's not that I didn't think Possum was correct in in having looked that up, but it's just I just don't I would have pegged that as being not cru, not true. Um yeah, also it's not it's not Lovecraft nor cyberpunk. So Child's just crashing out now.

44:45 Shy, can you please make sure to can you please make sure to screen cap your reaction of who cares? Not Lovecraft, not Cyberpunk, why are we here? What are we doing? Make sure to splice that in. Because something about that in all caps has has me reeling, dude.

45:03 Oh God. Okay, let's uh let's let's let's let's move on from the the the boomerang fact.

45:11 Um fun fact for your daily cyberpunk uh uh Lovecraft life, a fact that is neither of those things.

45:23 Possum even said, see, aren't we all learning stuff today? Great. I don't I don't know that great might be a word that at least one of us isn't gonna use for that for this section. So we absolutely learned something. We did, we learned something. Um around 10,000 years ago we begin to see more of the traditional worship of the mythos in Western Europe and Africa.

45:46 Uh, Parcel knows that DK was concerned that it wouldn't be mentioned, but the contents of the continents of Thurian and Lemoria would sink about 10,000 years ago after the defeat of King Kull of Thuria.

46:00 So that the fuck would I care about that? I was like, oh, surely this is some like oh d stupid weeb reference. DK likes anime or something. I was like, what?

46:14 That had nothing to do with anything. What the hell, Possum?

46:22 Oh, I feel like I feel like he somehow got you there. Also, I had no idea Wow, wow, that's insane. I had there's an album I really used to like by a band called Theorion, which was called Lemoria, and uh I had no idea that it was a a thing that really was. Okay, okay, that's that's crazy. I I had no idea.

46:42 Anyway, brace yourself. The timeline then suddenly jumps to 1996, where Boris Yeltsin is assassinated in Russia, forcing Russia to withdraw from the Commonwealth of Independent States.

46:52 What are you talking about?

46:56 What are you talking about?

46:58 We just learned about where the damn boomerang came from, and now we're we're we we fast forwarded to the 90s where Boris Yeltsin is getting assassinated.

47:07 Two two continents sank 10,000 years ago and now it's 1996 and Boris Yeltsin's dead. What is this jump?

47:16 Why does it go to why that? What are you talking about? I now fully understand why Plasma's like, don't look it up. Don't read this beforehand. Also, now there's a there's a there is a shifty part of me that's like, I wonder if this isn't just an elaborate year early April Food State show.

47:34 This is crazy. That's the most insane time skip we've ever had on this on this show.

47:41 What is happening? DK, I want you to know one thing why Lemuria is important. Okay, Chai. Uh Howard believed it was real. Um, this is a quote that Chai has just given me. Did I tell you that Clark Ashton Smith was sending me uh as a gift some fragments of dinosaur bone, actual parts of an entity 20 feet high that lumbered through the fungal morsas of California and Lemuria 50 million years ago.

48:08 Yesh bug. Well, the stuff has come, crumbling fragments of organic phosphate material which once grew beneath the slimy hide of a dark and monstrous lizard shaped that glide along the waters of the inland tide. Actual letter by H. P. Lovecraft. That man wrote his fucking letters the same way he wrote his book.

48:34 Yeah, that's boy, that is that is uh gosh.

48:41 Sorry, I hang on, hang on. That's that is this that's uh I I'm I'm like I'm blindsided by just a certain part of that letter. Well, I mean a lot of that letter to be fair. It's batshit. I was gonna say one part? Someone received that letter, and in that letter, he actually wrote, like typed out or wrote out the yesh bug shagoth bit.

49:07 Like actually I I believe that. I I Lovecraft was out of his fucking mind. I believe it a hundred percent.

49:15 Fuck fucking have a day off. Just you know, you don't have to you don't have to be about it every single day of your life. Just chill out for once, man.

49:25 What are you doing? What I love that Kyrgios' reaction of that letter is is just like, oh, I have a day off, man. Just take a day off work, brother. You need come on.

49:38 Oh god, imagine imagine you get in an envelope and you recognize his writing. You'd be like, oh, for fuck's sake. Here we go again, geez. Let's see, let's see how much of this letter is unpronounceable bullshit. I can't wait.

49:52 You know what I would love? I would love it if HP Lovecraft wrote like a cookbook with just like recipes, you know? Ah, yes, HP Lovecraft cookies, one cup of and a spoonful of sugar, three cups of butter, put in the oven for cigars. And then you have a wonderful cake. And then a sl and then a slow. Yes, Shy, you see the vision.

50:23 You see Howard's tripping again, guys. Burn the letter. He's he's tripping balls again.

50:33 Christ. Oh god, that already got me. Hang on. Good job, Shy. You killed it. So the uh the next subtitle for the for the script i is literally wait, what the fuck? Taking a brief step back for a moment there, sorry about the Yeltsin jump scare, there's a reason why it doesn't cover anything from like 10,000 BC to 1996.

50:58 Essentially, the setting stipulates that the events from the Lovecraft and other mythos stories happened as written, and life slowly lurched forward into the modern era. Things like belief in the mythos would become popular and would cripple the religions of old, and society would change and corrupt dramatically.

51:15 We'll get into the specifics of what each nation looks like after we finish the timeline, so a lot of things are going to be said that sound pretty ominous without explanation, like the net, and it's going to happen fast. Oh man, I feel like As if it hasn't already. Jeez. We're like halfway, not even halfway through, and I'm exhausted.

51:36 I was gonna say, I feel like I've already run a marathon and I'm just I'm just sitting here listening.

51:42 It's gonna be so long, and it's not even the longest script we've had by a long shot. Like, how many calories have I burned in this episode already? Jesus. Oh man. But we will get our answers in a little bit, so don't worry. Just imagine this is all be all being yelled at you outside of a gas station at 3 a.m.

52:01 and reminding yourself every so often that Cthulhu's there. So, the uh the timeline continued. Anyway, Boris Yeltsin was assassinated, and the economy of one nation is rocked pretty aggressively. You know what that means? Global pandemic time.

52:16 Oh no, baby.

52:18 Not again. Oh god. I'm sorry, I read I read forward a little bit by accident. Beginning in 1997 and ending in 2021, an unknown plague would creep across the earth, claiming the lives brace yourself of one billion people. Oh wait, it started when? When did it start? 1997 to 2021. Uh a billion people dead, and infecting over 30% of the known population.

52:53 Well, given how we uh reacted to uh pandemics in the past, I could see that happening.

53:03 It's amazing it wasn't higher. Um also in in 1997, Hong Kong drops its administrative status and becomes fully integrated within China, and Fidel Castro dies in his sleep. Oh, great. Just I mean, I feel like that's a slightly better end than he gets in most other fictions, so uh good for him, I guess.

53:26 Um I guess I 1998 sees the most destructive storm in history up until that point. Hurricane Abner almost completely destroys Cuba before tearing across the United States, causing damage all the way to Baltimore. In Japan, hot fusion reaction technology is being experimented on. A scientist by the name of John Tolliver identifies the retrovirus that causes the global pandemic, and the disease is called Tolliver's disease, or TD for short.

53:58 That man, that sucks. You find out what's actually killing people and they name it after you.

54:04 Man, yeah. Uh you're the and it's like, oh hooray, Tol Tol Tol whatever disease, and it's like, oh great, I killed a billion people. My disease? I didn't make it. I just figured out what it was.

54:17 This is bullshit. Can we call it literally anything else? Call it name it after someone you really don't like instead.

54:26 Can we call it NTD, like not Tolver's disease? Because it's not I didn't make it.

54:32 I want to make sure people know this isn't mine. I didn't send this out into the world. This is bullshit.

54:37 People are gonna blame me, and I'm not happy about that. In 1999, vehicles began to run on methanol and electricity, and China's communist government was overthrown by a liberal government in a bloodless coup. The less said about that, the better. In 2000, Hurricane Marco hits the exact same areas as Hurricane Abner.

55:00 Wow. Oh no, the exact same, huh? Oh brother. Which results in all global governments agreeing that global warming is real. Nothing happens in 2001, believe it or not, nothing. So anyway.

55:16 We just believe global warming is real. Storms absolutely devastated that one area, and you know. And then 2001 happens, and apparently nothing. I was about to say the same thing. Sha was like, man, if there if only there was one time where fiction and our real world actually paralleled, but no.

55:39 I I feel suspicious. Like I have no reason to doubt Possum, but just nothing happens in 2001, believe it or not, not a single thing. Don't believe it. Yeah. Anyway, uh virtual reality becomes the norm in 2002, fully integrating the net into something more tangible. Cuba regains foothold thanks to Raul Guzman, and Puerto Rico becomes the newest state in the United States.

56:03 All good, right? Yes, on paper. Possum, you you absolute You gallant steed of a man, you possum. No, no, no, I was thinking something harsh. NATO was dissolved in 2003.

56:22 Oh no. Oh no, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We had had a nice streak of hey, look at us not paralleling fictional world with things that we wish were being par no. Nope. No, nope, nope, nope.

56:39 Just had to do it. Just had to do it.

56:45 What is that? What is that screenshot? Is that on the Magic the Gathering subreddit as well?

56:54 Why is that in the Magic the Gathering subreddit?

56:59 What? Also, I love that it's one comment.

57:03 One year ago, one comment. Yeah, and it's Cthulhu being like, yeah, prove it, idiot.

57:10 Just did not. Jeez. So uh NATO was dissolved in 2003 and global oil production was disrupted horrifically thanks to wars in the Middle East between Arabic nations and former parts of the Soviet Union. The Commonwealth of Independent States loses more republics. Stop it. Oh really? In all caps. And and uh and a lot of horrible things happen in South Africa, resulting in the cities of Pretoria, Johannesburg, and Cape Town becoming isolationist.

57:42 In 2006, an event known as the Grand Slam occurs. Can you guess what this is?

57:49 Surely it's just uh a global resurgence of baseball, right?

57:57 Surely not exactly Great reaction, by the way. If you'd guessed a global economic collapse, then maybe you'd got rise.

58:13 But you didn't, so yeah, not exactly what happened. Very soon.

58:23 I was hoping it was just gonna be sports, but no, it was damned. I love baseball collapsed. Shy. I thought Meteor Strike, I hoped for Meteor Strike. That's fair.

58:36 Grand Slam, yeah, okay, fine.

58:39 Virtually every economy around the world is rocked and all the weak ones collapse entirely. The global unemployment rate hovers at around 45%. Oh my god. Oh. The heat wave of 2007 oh my god, it's just gate, it's just it's not it's relentless. Causes civil unrest in the United States, resulting in a third of the country being placed under martial law.

59:05 But good news! A treatment for TD is found. Bad news, it's only for rich people.

59:12 Oh here we go again. We're paralleling the real world again, and I don't like this.

59:19 Worse news. Canada's national government collapses thanks to the religious extremists of Quebec and the pro provinces of Canada become autonomous governments.

59:29 Not again, Quebec. No, well, I think Quebec is having a hard time right now, so I don't wanna I don't wanna I don't wanna shake my fist at Quebec.

59:38 It's not down to religious extremists, though, is it? No, no, definitely not. Okay, that's right. No. Nothing so bad as that, but yeah. Speaking of splitting up, uh, 2008 resulted in the United States splintering all their political parties into sub-parties. Ultimately, the presidency would go to the moderate party president Walter Boris, and his vice president would be Martin Patterson of the Arch Conservative Party.

1:00:07 Gee, I sure hope President Boris doesn't get assassinated on April seventeenth, twenty ten. Oh no.

1:00:16 On April seventeenth, twenty ten, President Boris was assassinated. Who could have seen that coming?

1:00:24 Just amazing, amazing work, Possum. Truly foreshadowing is a literary tool.

1:00:33 Oh my god. Jesus. I think you know what? That is so speci I think that's the best one you've done so far, Possum. Agreed. I think that's the best one because it was it was so specific.

1:00:46 It was just, oh, that was I sure hope he isn't assassinated on this very specific date at this very specific time.

1:00:56 Oh, awesome. Love it. And uh President Patterson immediately blames occult organizations for the assassination, resulting in a purge of mysticism before he is re-elected in 2012. Cuba is annexed by the US in 2013, and a third revolution in China concluded in 2014, ending an eight-year-long civil war.

1:01:18 2016 sees Patterson re-elected for a second full term, and the Yukon Territory of Canada becomes a part of the United States at its request.

1:01:29 Oh brother. Alright. That's that's cool. Sure. Whatever. That's yeah. Mm-hmm. They look, they did ask. Yeah, they they asked. They they weren't annexed without their permission or anything. They they asked. They wanted that uh yeah, yep. Mm-hmm.

1:01:46 No, not again.

1:01:48 It's happening again. Yep.

1:01:50 Patterson would create the National Emergency Resource Coordinating Commission. Bloody hell, Patterson. That is okay. That is the terrible name. Or NURK. Oh no. Here we go. Which serves as a group with broad powers to suppress any dissent among the Americans. Right.

1:02:10 Oh boy.

1:02:10 Coincidentally, the 22nd Amendment, which limits the amount of consecutive terms a president can serve, is repealed. Weird. Oh, don't love that. Can we I can can we can we just can we just can we just move on? Can we just we don't we don't need we don't need to say it. We don't need to say it. No, we don't it's fine.

1:02:33 We all know we've all we're all thinking it. Let's just move on. You know the great shirt.

1:02:39 You like parallels, right? We just God, it's just it just never stops, man. I just it's oh it's just oh boy.

1:02:51 In 2019, a cheaper vaccine against T D is released publicly and will be released globally by 2021. And great news! Patterson is re-elected for a third time in 2020. All regularly parasol's right. It's it's just two lines in the shape of the World Trade Center.

1:03:15 Jesus Christ. Jesus. I don't I don't I don't think we're gonna I don't think we're gonna sell too many of those soon. I don't I don't I don't think we should do that one. I don't I don't know about you. I don't I don't um Oh my god.

1:03:29 Oh that I I that that stunlocked me. Right. Yeah So Patterson is re-elected for a third time in 2020. All regulatory functions are also being consolidated under Nurk, which is obviously not good. Uh Russia and Japan formed the Russo-Japanese Economic Union in 2023, which will dominate world trade for at least 20 years.

1:03:56 I'm sure that the United States is handling this information really well. Riots fundamentally destroy the infrastructure of the United States in 2024, and Patterson uses this as an excuse to abolish the constitutional government of the country in order to establish a dictatorial government.

1:04:14 Oh, yeah, they're handling it really well, Kiriad. They really doing great over there. Absolutely. Handling it really handling it really maturely and with grace and dignity.

1:04:29 Holy shit. So this uh this new provisional government called Progov suspends elections for two years. Uh side note, by the time the events of the setting fully take place, elections still haven't occurred, and nobody really expects them to ever happen again.

1:04:47 Oh boy.

1:04:48 I mean that sounds about right, doesn't it, for what we've seen so far.

1:04:51 Uh-huh. That sucks.

1:04:54 That yeah, that really sucks. Uh Progov attempts to move its authority into Alaska and is stopped by the National Guard station there. Alaska would establish itself as a free state in 2026 and forces its autonomy by planting oil pipelines and wells with explosives and nuclear devices that they threaten to detonate if Progov attempts to move inland.

1:05:16 Jesus Christ.

1:05:18 God damn. I also I I'm noticing a distinct lack of Cthulhu in this uh setting now. We've got a lot of punk.

1:05:29 No Cthulhu anymore. We've got all the dystopia, but we are lacking the Cthulhu part so far. You need the tentacles. What why is it what's this review, Shy? What are two great tastes that taste great together? I don't know either. You get this instead. Review of Cthulhu Punk by Falconer one one one That's amazing.

1:06:00 Well done, Falconer one one.

1:06:03 Absolutely a legendary line. In twenty twenty five, Chile and Argentina merge and become and become known as Chili Tina. What?

1:06:17 I mean so that's no no one no one wrote that and went nice. There's no way.

1:06:28 There's no Wait, Chili and Argentina merged to be Chili Tina. This this happens to be an early off-color uh April Fool's Day joke, right?

1:06:41 You know what? I am literally, uh you lying to us about Chili Tina. Be honest. Be honest, yeah. Because this is bullshit. Right, there we go. Uh I will give us an update from Possum as soon as I receive one. Possum's typing. Possum's typing. We will find out. Um okay, not not in the slightest. Possum is going to provide a screenshot so that there is hatching on it.

1:07:12 Oh no. So there we go. Um Possum says we're not capable of making some making up something that dumb. So uh so chili tina is now a thing. And uh Progold. Sounds like a margarita or a martina. Get me a chili tina.

1:07:35 Yeah, it sounds like it'd be I'd wanted that off the menu.

1:07:43 Like an Apple teeny, a chili tina, you know.

1:07:48 Oh my god. Uh uh Progov gives Cuba limited statehood in 2025, so that's something. By 2027, most of Mexico is peacefully annexed by the United States and is divided into six regions. I fucking hate it here.

1:08:04 Every American here, I'm so sorry, everyone. It's sorry about it. I it's our bad.

1:08:13 Oh dear. Oh yeah, okay. So uh I I have I I have I have the evidence. Um the evidence has been placed into the chat. I mean it said it I it says it right there. Chilitina, the country formed by the Mosha of Chile and Argentina. It's it is real. Well, I mean it's not it's not real, but it's in the book, you know what I mean?

1:08:35 It's it's real to me.

1:08:37 Um real to me, too.

1:08:42 The Virgin Islands are annexed and made a part of the United Oh, and made a part of the state of Puerto Rico. Well right, I mean it's still it's still yeah. Uh by 2028, a citizenship scale is established in the United States, and martial law is replaced with a uniform code of criminal justice. Things aren't going great in the newly annexed Mexico or in Bolivia.

1:09:06 The cartels in Bolivia establish their own independent government and begin a drug war that forces United States involvement, which continues to the modern day. The five southernmost uh Mexican states regain independence in 2030 and unite to form Mexico Libra and joins the Union of Central American States, the UCAS, which we have actually, funnily enough, heard before.

1:09:29 Um that was Cyberpunk, wasn't it, UCAS?

1:09:36 I don't know at this point, man. I I feel like my brain has been hijacked by this episode. I don't know what the hell is going on anymore, man. I I I am I am trying. It it I'm I'm just like I'm I'm constantly checking my ear to make sure that there's no clear fluid coming out of it from the head trauma that this damn episode is causing.

1:09:59 I'm just now like the the dystopias are starting to blur. They're really starting to blur. Okay, it is Shadow Runner, okay. Oh, United, Canada, and Americans. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. In 2031, the ProPrez for Life of Progov Patterson dies of quote unquote natural causes, and the NUC admin Adam Hammond was selected to replace him as ProPres.

1:10:27 In 2032, ProPrez Hammond will establish ProCon, which is a provisional Congress, which is uh elected to approve executive orders. But they also can't override any vetoes. So Oh great. Great. Uh love that. Also, Sinawara, a megacorp that's we have not mentioned before this point and isn't really mentioned anywhere else, develops the first real neural computer interface beginning the data wars.

1:10:58 Essentially, it was and is the Cold War, but for technology advancement, and this results in China cutting off all diplomatic and economic contact with the rest of the world the very same year. Wow. Wow.

1:11:12 Surely this is where we get back into the Cthulhu stuff, right? Like this surely this is how we get back into what Telenet and and all that, right? Surely, surely we're getting back into what makes this Cthulhu punk. It has to be.

1:11:26 It's insane that no sort of cosmic entity has been mentioned in this entire time. This is just the general world as it is. Oh Jesus. This is going to sound completely out of left field, and I don't think you will. I don't think it will! We haven't been ready for any of this, so what the fuck is this gonna be?

1:11:48 The the Russo-Japanese Alliance forces the passing of the International Rainforest Protection Act in order to protect the rainforests in Brazil, forcing the nation to give up exploiting its resources and preserving it for generations to come.

1:12:06 Well, that sounds lovely. I yeah, also What do you mean? That you know, uh when you said it, I was like, oh, that that's some good news. That's not dystopian, that's just, you know, a hooray, let's save the rainforest. And then I looked over at Discord and I was like, why is that fucking relevant? Which also, yeah, why are we talking about that?

1:12:27 What does that have to do with anything?

1:12:30 I I uh oh no, I read I I read ahead slightly just to get a feel for it. And I you seatbelt on, um we're taking a hard switch.

1:12:44 All right, strapped in. All right, all right.

1:12:46 Brazil is forced to protect the rainforest for generations to come. Really nice and really positive. In 2037, all life in Australia explicit inexplicably dies in six months. What?

1:12:59 I'm sorry. Um is is is is this is this the is this what what's the guy's name? I'm just gonna call him David. Is it David's virus? What was his name? Or Tovers' virus Tovert's virus or something? It is Toravan or something. Tarovin, yeah. Torovin's disease. Uh in my brain, I was like, was this name David?

1:13:19 There's been so much information. I was like, is this fucking David again? God damn it, David. Put your virus away.

1:13:26 Um yeah, 2037, uh, all life in Australia inexplicably dies in six months. Um, uh to be fair, it's an unknown disease that kills everything and everyone, resulting in the continent being permanently quarantined and an external government being set upon Tasmania, which was untouched by this event, much like New Zealand.

1:13:50 I'm sorry, just out of interest, why why is there an external government for Australia? If it's a hellhole where everything dies and is literally uninhabitable? I feel like you don't need a government for that. What are you governing? Well, at least the rainforests are okay.

1:14:07 Silver linings. Silver linings, huh? Everyone on Australia is dead, but yeah, Brazilian rainforests are doing swell.

1:14:15 Oh my god. The data wars would begin to spiral into irrelevancy in 2039, and revolution would begin in Cuba. This is like the fucking fifth one, isn't it? God. Guerrilla forces under the command of Rafael Echeveria would begin to initiate terrorist attacks across the United States, resulting in martial law returning fully without any frills or flares.

1:14:39 2041 arrives and the world is a nightmare. Welcome to Cthulhu Punk. Humanity is decayed, and technology makes humans less than human and more susceptible to the horrors of the void. It's a world of high tech and low sanity, where apathy is not a tragedy, but the norm. Okay. So essentially, place is a shithole.

1:15:01 Absolute disaster.

1:15:03 Yeah. It has been. At no point in in this whole thing, uh was it not uh a hellscape. Also, you you are not ending the episode on that, are you? No, no. Oh no, no, we've got more. Okay. I was like, I was like, I was like, if that's it, I'm like, brother, what?

1:15:24 Just have that's just that has just brought us to 2041, where the game's set. All of that is just like the introduction to the world that you are now in. Oh, I see.

1:15:39unknown Oh.

1:15:41 Now that we've uh now that we've caught up with everything, we can get why is there still no Cthulhu?

1:15:46 What do you mean that's the intro to the game and the world you're in? It's called Cthulhu Punk. What's the damn Cthulhu?

1:15:52 Uh well I was gonna say we're gonna get there, but I don't know because I haven't read this before. So I'm assuming that we're gonna get there. Now that we've caught up with everything, we can get more into the nitty-gritty. Oh my god, more into anyway. Currently, despite not being explicitly stated in the timeline outside of a few passing references, corporations have dominated without much hindrance, and the Grand Slam cemented their existence as almost separate nation states.

1:16:18 Referred to throughout as corps, the ten most powerful of these companies are known as the Bolshe ten, and until 2006 they have their own unique currencies and economies. The Grand Slam changed this, resulting in them all accepting either the primary European currency, the EQ, or the Russo-Japanese primary currency for fuck's sake, the the Rubian.

1:16:43 Oh no.

1:16:44 Oh no. Oh no, dude. First the Chilitina, now the Rubian. Oh dude. Ah, we can't. They can't keep getting away with this. You you can't. We c you know what? Let's just move past it. Let's just let's just let's just let's just I I feel like this is an effort to like the the Cthulhu is the is is the mental damage that this is doing.

1:17:10 Sort of like Cthulhu like getting its tentacles into your brain and squeezing. That's where the Cthulhu is.

1:17:16 I I have a I have a genuine honest question. What was what what's his face, Chris McCobbin? Was he drunk when he wrote this? And by this I mean all of it. Like was this was this like was this a solid two-week job of just pounding shots, getting the old getting the old you know, Windows 95 PC out or whatever, and and just going to town.

1:17:44 The Rubyen It kind of feels like my brain is in a vice at the moment. Like I'm just Anyway, continue.

1:17:51 The Rubyen. I I think I'm gonna sleep like a fucking log tonight.

1:17:59 Just the sheer mental overload is gonna just knock me the fuck out. This has been a wild ride, dude.

1:18:09 And we're still we are not done. Still these corps main t all maintain their own unique militaries, archologies, oh god, and absolute loyalty from all those who work for them in a feudal sense, to the point where most corps have a mausoleum, a mausoleum in space.

1:18:28 Don't think about this too much. Oh, alright. Uh what does it even mean? Oh boy. What does it mean? A mausoleum means uh look, let's just speculate.

1:18:38 The space mausoleum. What does it mean? Then a space mausoleum, Mason, what does it mean?

1:18:49 Exactly, exactly. Oh god. Oh my god, my temples are throbbing. I'm getting hot. Like am I see getting warm? It is what it is significantly warming.

1:19:06 Some major corps include uh Hiromatsu Power Systems, which recently suffered a strange incident that remains unexplained. Their subsidiary Global Petroleum had an oil drilling platform called Well 25, which was plagued relentlessly with problems. Hiromatsu spent a lot of money defending it with scuba troops and other defensive vessels.

1:19:26 What the fuck? Until one day when the platform suddenly vanished. Oh, okay. All right. We've got a proper mystery now. Alright, alright, alright. Okay, we're getting we're getting a bit of uh a bit of potentially eldritch nonsense here. Hiromatsu has ceased forty percent of his undersea operations because of this and refuses to explain why.

1:19:46 We can probably guess. If you've seen the film Underwater, I reckon it's that. Good film, by the way. Very good. Uh another notable corpse it's uh it it's basically um things like uh like maybe not like Armageddon but underwater, but it's like disaster flick but deep sea. Oh, okay. With with uh horrific Lord Craftian monstrosities.

1:20:13 Hell yeah. It's very it's very fun. Uh another notable corp is VES, which is Victoria Environmental Systems. Remember that whole rainforest thing we talked about a bit ago? I mean vaguely. Well, they have established themselves as a corporation working to restore the rainforest. But these untamed forests are ripe for some eldritch horrors, making VES the most likely megacorp to encounter the horrors head on at any given time.

1:20:39 Sick. Now we talked a bit about the great and prosperous nations, but what about the less fortunate ones? Well, remember the whole thing where in the Grand Slam all minor economies collapsed entirely? Yes. Well, the collapse was so aggressive that it reverted almost all these nations to a nineteenth century standard of living in technology, and progress would never occur, making these areas ripe for cult-based activities.

1:21:05 Wait, what? Oh, I oh I mm.

1:21:09 Also, hey, at least the art is phenomenal, though. Like I I I I think I may have been spot on is all the art Shy is showing off so far has been really good, actually. So, you know. Yeah.

1:21:22 Yeah, you know you know what it's it is. It's yeah, it's it's a good looking comic book to it. Yeah, yeah.

1:21:31 So that does this mean that like essentially in this world there are countries that are basically just living in the 1800s whilst everyone whilst there are mausoleums in space for giant corporate like what the what the what is what is this?

1:21:45 When you put it like that, it's just so crazy. You mean there are places that are living in 18th century tech and we have space mausoleums too? What?

1:21:56 You've basically got people travelling around by horse and c and using steam trains to pull stuff while the guy on the cover has got a gun that's two guns, a cybernetic arm, and is about to fight some sort of Lovecraftian dog ghost. I mean, what is this? What is this setting? Um I don't know. Essentially, the world is divided up into three different extremes.

1:22:21 The sprawls around the world, which are high-tech, low life, the enclaves of the corporations that are heavily fortified bastions of excess and luxury, and the wastes of the old world filled with the horrors and cults. So we'll uh we'll get more into cults in a moment, but we should take a step back into the whole cyberpunk dystopia aspect of this world for the civilized places, because it's being exploited in the same way that the cults are by the mythos.

1:22:45 The world from the early nineties onward has become a technologically reliant hellscape and it has been helped with the creation of the net. The net is a digital environment that dictates even the most basic functions within society, including economics. All money is digital, regardless of if it's EQ or Rubyen, I fucking hate saying that, and is referred to as cred.

1:23:08 Physical money doesn't exist outside of the more impoverished places in the world, as there is no way to determine its worth without the backdrop of the net. Outside of the economy, the reliance on technology has completely fucked with society as a whole in more ways than one. Entertainment in this world is brutal sensationalism with a hyperfixation on sex and violence.

1:23:30 Some of the most popular programmes are live gladiatorial fights broadcast on regular television, but many find this to be too tame, resulting in a focus on snuff films and public acts of violence. Nice.

1:23:46 I will not boss baby this. I will not boss baby this. I will not boss baby this. It's too easy. It's too easy. No, shy. Even is even they wouldn't do that. Come on.

1:24:05 Many performance artists out there will do an elaborate performance only to cap it off with them blowing themselves up, and folks will view it as mid. Wow. Wow. That's cult insane. Okay. Culture takes on many different forms, and we mentioned on one of the most popular subcultures earlier. Spookies are a youth culture that wears all white, shaves their heads, and walk around with menacing goggles while listening to horrific bassoon music.

1:24:35 They wear cult-like imagery in an ironic sense, and do rituals ironically, but in actuality, this stuff is attracting mythos entities. Spookies aren't the only fringe subculture as this is a world of excess, but this serves as the perfect smokescreen for devious entities to recruit unsuspecting individuals into arcane situations.

1:24:56 Despite the technological necessity of day-to-day life, the vast majority of the populace utilises keyboards, goggles, or data gloves to access the net, as anything close to a neural interface or a cyberdeck is strictly government grade and above. As a means to fight against the powers that be, many renegade corporate youths, dubbed Corpo Babies, have stolen high-value interfaces and what a name, and uh formed hacker underground networks that rival some of the bigger companies in raw strength.

1:25:28 The one good thing about the net is that it's global, meaning that even though the ProGov can censor public terminals and monitor for activities, they cannot control private networks. But this is also where the mythos comes in. In order to continue their manipulation of the minds of humanity, many cosmic entities have adapted to the constant access people have to it.

1:25:52 Like the nets they are messing with in order to instill some form of grand order. For example, cultists have programmers among their ranks, and they have set up many uncontrollable black eyes programs across the net called soul traps. Oh, lovely. Wow. These traps attack runners essentially by latching onto them and extracting their soul and mind into the net, leaving their body as an empty husk.

1:26:19 I see. I see.

1:26:21 Also, again, this this sounds like a a lovely cyberpunk world. Where's the Cthulhu?

1:26:30 They're stealing people's souls out of their bodies. I mean, come on. It's not just the brain that's going. They're they're using the internet to steal souls. I just That's hardcore, man.

1:26:43 It is. It like I don't I don't mind any of that. I j I just I just I just I don't w just make a cyberpunk setting, man. Why you gotta call it Cthulhu punk? This this sounds like a pretty cool cyberpunk thing. Why is it called Cthulhu Punk?

1:27:01 Sorry. Because there's a cut you heard the origin of this world. We started two billion years ago, and literally everything Lovecraft wrote happened. So Yeah, I I guess.

1:27:12 I just I'm sorry. I I'm just I'm trying to I'm just it's just it's been a long episode, man. Not even long in time sense. Like this isn't one of our long ones. It's just man, we it ooh boy.

1:27:26 It's just requiring a lot of brain power. Um hackers have attempted to destroy soul traps, but due to their magic nature, they rebuild themselves, meaning that total hardware destruction is the only way to truly eradicate it. Imagine Cthulhu was just standing there watching it happen. I I I guess. We're all just living in the dream, right?

1:27:48 Show of hands. Who wants to hear about a guitar that kills people with riffs fueled by the net?

1:27:54 Me, me, me, me, me, I do, I do. Hands up, me, me, me, me.

1:28:00 Right, baby. One of the most dangerous products of the melding between magic and technology is the mind fry chip, which interfaces with cyber axes God's sake, cybernetic instruments like guitars, and emits the horrific flute sounds that you would normally hear within the court of Azatoth, forcing the attention of anyone nearby and draining the sanity of listeners.

1:28:22 It also serves as a horrific beacon for interdimensional beings like shamblers or night gaunts and the famed hounds of Tinderos. Oh, that's what the dog is.

1:28:31 Oh, it's the cover thing! We're doing it. We're doing it. This is this is the Lovecraftians. We're doing it, Peter, you're doing it, Peter, you're doing it.

1:28:42 I told you rock and roll melts your brain. Reading this script does that. You don't even need rock and roll for that. Know what else the occult does to exploit the net? Bootleg cyberware. The Roulier interface is a particularly infamous one. Why would you why would you? Um It exploits environmental interface module tech so that it benefits the old ones.

1:29:06 Essentially, EM technology is tech that turns the raw data of the net into something tangible, like a city or a maze. The Roulier interface connects cortically and renders the visual of the net for users as nothing more than an ancient dark decayed series of tunnels that glow green. The program causes paranoia and chronic nightmares, and some believe that accidental interface with it can cause unas users to spontaneously combust at best or translate a user into another dimension at worst.

1:29:40 Okay, okay, okay. We're cooking a little bit now. Also, again, all the art Shy's been posting is phenomenal. Like that guitar one looks love it. Um Is this name actually Jonathan Bronzefinger Shy?

1:29:56 Is that is that is that okay.

1:29:58 I was I was like, I was like, surely, there's no way. Yeah, like that's that's just a ha ha ha hee hee meme. So okay, cool. I was I was I was kind of worried, dude.

1:30:08 I mean, with Chili Tina and the Rubian, I was like, I would not wouldn't be surprised Jonathan Bronze fingers is is so bad. I actually love it though, it's the problem. So a uh a a relier interface is something that is becoming more common because across the world biotech is becoming popular, and the entities have begun focusing more on mythos tech as a means to immediately physically corrupt people, but also using it as a means of temptation.

1:30:45 Imagine an augmenter offering you great things with incredible cybernetic eyes. I mean you would be tempted. As for direct interface from some of the major entities, they range from the subtle to the horrific. Cthulhu lies dreaming in the sunken city of Rulier, but the waves from his dreams resonate at a frequency that impacts the net indirectly, resulting in shifting changes in interest in certain things online to pattern-based blackouts that can impact the economy.

1:31:14 That's that is actually very cool.

1:31:17 Yeah, that is actually pretty dope. Also, I love that it's called Mythos Tech. That's pretty cool too. Yes, we're we're finally we're here. We're we've we've done it. We've we've well it's it's it's it's we're we're starting to pick up. It was it was a little it was a little uh valley, a lot of valleys before, but now we're we're hitting the peaks, I feel like.

1:31:40 The uh the always influential Nyalithep, oh my god, I can never I can never pronounce his name.

1:31:46 The cat wife who from Sucker for Love, obviously.

1:31:50 Guess out, has manifested in this new era as a very talkative and to some charismatic CEO that wildly influences the media around him while posing as a scientist and forcing a presence onto the world, whether people like it or not, to the point where he has the ear of various heads of state while pretending to be for the common man.

1:32:15 Wow.

1:32:17 There weren't a lot of hats. That's a foolboy. That's that's that's a lot. That's yep, yep.

1:32:24 This is a reminder that this supplement was written in 1995. Parson just decided to throw that in in case we'd forgotten. Now, for the most esoteric and baffling connection to the mythos that the net has, we have to look at Yogg Sothoth, an entity that exists as one of the truly omniscient things in the mythos that also exists outside our own universe that serves as its master.

1:32:48 In order to accomplish this, it is widely believed in the old law that Yog Sothoth manifests as mathematics and structure. The net is an encrypted pile of mathematics and data, meaning that at its core, the net is the digital manifestation of Yog Sothoth itself.

1:33:06 Oh, that's cool. I love it. Oh, hell yeah. I I okay. We needed more of this. We needed more of this and less of here's why Brazil needs to save the rainforest, and and and like we needed more of this.

1:33:22 And the oldest boomerang was in Poland.

1:33:24 Why was it in the book? Why was it and Australia just dying?

1:33:30 We needed more of this. This is cool. I was gonna say I quite like the Australia just dying bit, but I that's not I don't know how to I have there are some qu hey as a world building thing, it was interesting. It's obviously not something that I have like I'm giving tacit approval to.

1:33:49 Mark it off on your bingo card, everybody. Carry doesn't. Yeah, poor Ted. We're gonna need to find a new thumbnail artist. And and skill up. Oh man, I love his videos.

1:34:04 All right, we'll we'll let those two leave before we give the go-ahead then. Um I ain't giving go-ahead to shit. That's all you other things have a more tangible connection to the net. Migo from Yugoth are the ultimate hackers on the net as they have the ability to harvest human brains and use them as data storage relays.

1:34:26 Oh shit.

1:34:30 Yeah, I want to be a Cthulhu-era USB hub. Take my brain, please. Jesus. I want to be a USB storage device for a Cthulhu entity. Great.

1:34:41 And the Loigor, horrible serpentine beasts, feed on negative psychic energy, meaning that they gorge themselves in the areas rampant with the technologically addicted. Sometimes these entities use the hypergeometry of the net to enact arcane rituals and manifest gates to other dimensions, and the corruption of those minds deeply addicted or ripped from their souls serve as the sacrifices needed to complete them.

1:35:05 God damn. Wow Jesus Christ. So now we are we're gonna we're gonna talk to we're gonna talk about faith and magic. So a very obvious thing to conclude within this reality, magic is not viewed as supernatural in any way. In fact, the presence of cults and the mythos for generations has normalized it beyond measure and has directly impacted the reach and strength of religious organizations.

1:35:47 The Vatican has been struggling to maintain their presence and has shifted toward the fight against old ones, which they believe to be literal demons, and have established an elite war room against the supernatural.

1:36:00 Oh my god, shy is that the Popefoe.

1:36:07 Well turns out French Crusade has just been stealing from Cthulhu Punk this whole time.

1:36:17 The Vatican's fighting against fighting against the like Cthulhu spawn.

1:36:25 It's not a megaphone, it's a popophone. I love it. Oh, I love this. So dumb. Cyberpunk versus Cthulhu. I I 100% watch that. This has been one hell of a roller coaster ride, y'all. I hope you like this has been Oh my god.

1:36:47 What is Shrimp to? Well, the Protestants have updated their belief in the devil to state that the devil lies in a sunken city. So I'm not sure. Yep. No religion has been impacted more than Buddhism, as Tibet's direct geographical connection to a thinning of the fabric of reality has made them the true force that is fighting against the darkness.

1:37:13 Okay, no wonder no wonder those Buddhists are not pacifists and heavily armed. God damn. Holy shit. Tibet is also in another dimension in Shadowrun. Oh, ooh, interesting. Man, people need to leave Tibet alone. Why is this nice place to live?

1:37:36 The Buddhist monks just want to meditate. Leave them alone. Yeah. Jesus. Well, I guess in the Buddhist monks' case, not Jesus, but you you get the idea.

1:37:48 Excellent save. Loved it. In the face of organized religions are mystics and tribes. There are many neo-pagans that are attempting to adapt to a world run amok, but some are far more organized. The tr oh oh no. Trimagistians, Trimagistians? Sure. Easy for you to say. You know what? The biggest problem with not reading a script beforehand is we get to words like that and I simply don't know what to do.

1:38:20 Yeah, Trimagistians is about as good as I can do too. Maybe the The Trimagistians were formed in 1960 by Roger Amberlin and focus on the uses of pure magic to fight against the mythos, while many shamans have become technomystics who seek enlightenment within the net. Enlightenment can't be without terrors, as some of the mythos have adapted and created dark entities exclusive to the net, including Eo Eo Eo, which is a literal ghost in the machine that crashes nodes and causes psychological collapse in those who encounter it.

1:38:56 I was about to say M Bingo was his name. I get the thing is, I got a pronunciation guide for that. I got that from Possum. Did I get one for Trimagistians? No. Oh man. I mean to be fair, I would have gone IO IO IO, so I can see why, but you know, in the grand scheme of things, there's more difficult stuff in here than that.

1:39:23 Yeah.

1:39:27 Imagine if you didn't get that pronunciation from Possum and you're like, oh, is this uh IO IO man. Yo yo is Kiryath broken? Reset him to factory get get him back to factory factory settings. Push the button on his neck and let's just reboot him.

1:39:47 I mean I'm close to that anyway, reading through this, so it wouldn't take much. Now we're going to talk about cults, and they are not organized religions, not at all. They are scattered, secretive, and would hate to be called a religion. Some are just straight up true believers in the old ones, like you'd find in the old law, but some live a life of luxury while doing so.

1:40:06 For example for example, uh Videlia Duchamp is a high priestess of the cult of starry wisdom. At the age of twenty nine, she is a wealthy socialite that is utterly amoral, using her wealth and influencer status to advise cultist cells while supporting their atrocities. God damn. Well, that is rough. Other cultists are your run-of-the-mill mad scientists or nihilists, which are pretty self-explanatory.

1:40:36 Some view the existence of the mythos as something that can be exploited and used to fight back against oppression. Lawrence Bigelow is someone who has grown sick and tired of Progov's actions when it comes to the suspension of democracy. He is currently utilizing the arcane knowledge of the mythos as a tool of revolution and is plotting a supernatural assault at the heart of Washington to wipe out Progov entirely.

1:41:01 Quite the ambition. Yeah. Now we have the cults that are, in a word, inhumane. Not in their actions, but in their members. You have the deep ones, which are fish like entities that exploit those on coastal towns, but also the serpent people. I mean the deep one sounds very uh very shadow over over in his mouth, which is which is fun, like that.

1:41:26 Though almost entirely extinct, the remnants of the serpent people are so imbued with mystic energy that they can pose as humans and walk among us while being worshipped as gods by those who see their true form. A success story of a serpent person is Oliver Ophis. He is a twenty-four-year-old serpent man who operates as a broker openly while secretly leading the cult of Yig.

1:41:50 Sick. Jesus. I I like snake people enjoying top tunes and triple X.

1:41:58 Well, I mean, you know, when when you think historically of snakes, you do think of, you know, the snake of uh temptation offering Eve the apple and the first sin, and you know, that's kinda I thought you were gonna say you do think of banging tunes hard liquor.

1:42:20 Well, you do, you know. So snakes snakes love a good song. Although, actually, isn't there a whole the whole thing of snake charming is like playing a flute at them? So actually, I said it like it was a stupid thing, but it's it's it's actually kind of not. Um we also have the cho to cho, which uh I'm I've just realized it's probably chocho, isn't it?

1:42:46 The T's probably silent, and I've just been doing the the the thing where you say the letter that you shouldn't say. Uh which are small entities What the fuck? Which are small entities that look like flayed flesh.

1:42:59 Wait, like they look like someone's flayed flesh just like squirming around, or it looks like someone who has had their flesh flayed.

1:43:08 Small entities that look like flayed flesh. So it it must be like oh no.

1:43:16 Thanks for the censor. That yeah, that's that that does that's not that's yeah, that is someone that has their head looks like they have had their flesh flayed. Not a fan of that. Nope.

1:43:28 Not a fan of that. They are from Tibet. No wonder the Buddhists have heavily armed. Yeah, I would too if those things were crawling around. The Buddhists, they see one of those, they're just shoot on sight, get rid of it. We don't want that anywhere near us. Um so they're from Tibet and are the result of breeding between humans and creatures from the dreamlands.

1:43:48 Oh, Shang Pitsi is a 53-year-old wizard of the Cho Cho with a doctorate in clinical psychology. Sorry, what is happening again? We've we've we've we've fallen, we've fallen down the mountain again and we're back in nonsense land. Wizard with a doctorate in clinical psychology.

1:44:10 No man. No, no, not in Tibet. Not in the Tibet Buddhist monk place. Do we have a whiz? No, no, no, no, we're not doing this. We were on such a roll, man. This roller coaster, it's it's peaks and valleys, brother. And we were on a we were on a high high, and now we are crashing to a low low.

1:44:33 He is he is also a highly paid counselor to the Russian elite that works his influence to corrupt nobles. So, you know. I see. I see. He's also got a side gig, I guess.

1:44:45 On the Chocho Wiki page horrifying title In the Marvel Multiverse.

1:44:52 What? Oh no. Oh no. Of course, the nations of the world need to act when it comes to defending themselves from any mythos threats. Some do it directly, but other nations act on their own accord in a criminal sense. As you can imagine, since this is a cyberpunk dystopia, organized crime exists as their own corporations, and many have ceased fighting with other crime organizations in favour of fighting the mythos directly.

1:45:16 There are no crime syndicates in the world bigger than the combined the combined Russian mob and Yakuza. What are they called? What are they called? What are they called? What are they called? The Ruski Yaks. What? I mean, it's not it's not even trying. It's not even trying. It's just bullshit. It's just it's just every combined name is just fucking stupid.

1:45:46 Oh man, that's that's that's that's brutal. That's oh no.

1:45:50 Well there is there is I'm sorry, there is absolutely no world in which the Yakuza are like, yeah, we'll be referred to as the Yaks. What do you mean? Rooskiak.

1:46:01 Yeah, that's oh brother. That's that's that's that's uh yeah. Uh that's that's they uh it's pounding again. We were on such a roll, and then and then we got pseudo Doctor Strange in the Rooskiak.

1:46:17 That was my favorite band, but I was in coin. Pseudo Doctor Strange in the Rooskiak. It's like an acid jazz trio or something. Oh, phenomenal. Shy came up with combined Mexican Italian mafia. We call them the meat of the hotel. Shy, that's too clever. That was my that was my second favorite band. Um it's my favorite sandwich joint.

1:47:02 You know what? A sandwich shop called the meatball cartel would like I would actually go there.

1:47:09 I'd put solid money that there is some sort of restaurant that is called the meatball cartel. I don't know if it's a deli, I don't know if it's an Italian eatery. There has to be, dude. There has to be. Hashtag not ash.

1:47:25 Just in case. Although if the meatball cartel restaurant does want to sponsor us, we are we are up for that. 100%. Okay. Pay me in subs. So the uh the Ruski Yaks have a firm pulse on everything in the world, and their monitoring systems rival even the most corrupt of police states. Oh my god. The existence of the mythos serves as a risk to their financial bottom line and are treated as a violent and active threat.

1:47:58 The Italian mafia, oh no, has formed into math inc and tries to present themselves as an orderly and organized business. Sure thing. Yeah, the what? Math Inc. Like it's it's literally just uh math. I mean, yeah.

1:48:24 Boy, I I don't know, man. I think I was gonna say the meatball cartels with your time. 100%. 100% meatball cartels. Oh no, the math ink come on. Come on, Cthulhu Punk. You're better than that. You're better than that.

1:48:43 I've I think I think it has been amply demonstrated that it is not better than I guess you're right.

1:48:52 I guess you're right. Fine, have it your way.

1:48:56 They uh they emphasize tourism by having a gigantic presence in party cities in places like Miami and Acapulco, but this is a front to lure cults in to wipe them out. Oh wow, okay, math inc is all over that, it turns out. Um The cartels have been dealing with problems as well, like the Mordellas Syndicate, which is currently engaged in a brutal war against walking trees.

1:49:21 Oh, sure. Yeah, that you gotta deal with your tree ants, right? Your trence or however you for the longest time I actually called them treants instead of like trends. I don't know why.

1:49:30 Wait, is it not? Okay, I thought that was I thought that's how it was said. I'm learning a lot about pronunciation this week.

1:49:36 Aren't they aren't they trends the the walking tree people? Right?

1:49:41 I always thought it was like treant. So I'm not sure.

1:49:45 I mean I think maybe I have been maybe I've had the the Mandela effect and I thought I was saying it wrong when I was saying it right. Like the I guess that would be like the reverse version.

1:49:54 Don't take my word for it, because I couldn't pronounce uh Phoenician uh on Adrick. Oh yeah, the Phoenician. Yeah. I mean, where else are you even gonna see that word? I mean it's not real, so I mean it is real, I think, but who cares?

1:50:08 Yeah, like aside from hearing it in an audiobook, where the hell are you gonna hear that word? There are no restaurants with that word in the title in my town. Although wasn't wasn't there a I don't know if it was a wasn't there a movie or a series called The Phoenician? With um it doesn't matter.

1:50:31 Okay. As for global government actions against the mythos, the Russo-Japanese Front has the Bioinformation Institute that is heavily funded by the government. Though stories are leaking out that they may have suffered catastrophic losses while attempting to create psionic agents. Again, the left turn Okay.

1:50:52 United Europe has D11 that acts as an elite and secretive task force. They'll deny that D eleven is used to fight the mythos, but former members confirm the truth time and time again. Chinitina has their famed famed striptease act, Chinitina, has their institute known as the INIP, which acts in a similar capacity to BI, but they work strictly in the Antarctic.

1:51:20 The USA is saved for last in this list because it has two major like factors against the mythos. One is government sponsored and one is legendary. The government's nook has the task the task force against satanic cults, or task.

1:51:37 You can't you cannot have it's it's fine, don't worry. It's it it's just it's it's not math ink, so it's it's fine. It's if they want to do task and they want to do it, they want to spell it that way, that's none of my business.

1:51:52 You're not allowed to have task if you've already used the word task force in the acronym for task. I'm I I'm sorry. I'm just No, you got the you got the task task force. You know, I I have standards and that doesn't meet them, uh, which was formed to hunt the terrorists who allegedly assassinated President Burris, but over time they've become more and more armed and are still being utilized but for more secretive operations that are above top secret.

1:52:19 The final organization is the most obvious. For well over a hundred years, Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts has been allowed almost full autonomy when it comes to the research of the occult and mythos, and have a very well organized presence both on the surface and in the net. The Miskotonic Society is a secret society of academics dedicated to the unearthing of the mythos and have a global presence connected through a secret node on the net called Wattelli Net.

1:52:48 Oh boy, we're full circle. It came back round in the end a mere thirteen or fourteen pages later. Let's go, let's wash a little telly. The Miscatonic Society actively suppresses the publication of anything mythos related and controls all access to museum manuscripts to prevent the spread of the mythos.

1:53:12 Some of the members of the Miskotonic Society refuses to even look at their text. The current chief of the Society is Dr. Althea Washington. She has perfect composure and a passionate hatred for the mythos and the cults that have spawned over the past few centuries. She refuses to study these texts herself, but it's as if she doesn't have to.

1:53:31 There's a rumour that she was able to restore the entirety of the Necronomicon without having read a single word from it. What? Well, okay.

1:53:44 I I I detect a double agent. Yeah.

1:53:49unknown What the fuck?

1:53:53 I've never read the Necronomicon, but here it is. Okay, cool.

1:53:58 I sure I even corrected a couple of the spelling mistakes from the original text. What are you talking about? You're not afraid to read it.

1:54:08 How do you know what you're doing? How did you even do that, man? How did you make the book of the fing dead, man? Did you just stumble on that?

1:54:17 Like Oh my god. Regardless of how you look at it, the world of Cthulhu Punk has gone insane. The combination of technological corruption and the corruption courtesy of the mythos has resulted in a society that is as tech reliant as it is paranoid. The mega corporations work to force people into a feudal state of living while being manipulated by unseen gods who impact the ebb and flow of the net by their brainwaves.

1:54:41 The eccentric nature of life in this reality has resulted in sacrifices and magic being as normal as a commercial on TV, and the advancements of technology has been exploited by the old gods not only indirectly, but also by serving as the geometric framework of it. The one difference between the old law and the new law is the idea of technological advancement.

1:55:03 Travelling to the stars was merely science fiction in the 1920s, and now it's possible. In fact, some of the Megacorps are beginning what seems to be their own space race, but this may doom the entirety of humanity as we know it. Unbeknownst to us on our pale blue neon soaked dot in the stars, the galaxy is a brutal place that has been almost entirely run dry.

1:55:25 The Migo of Ugoth have mined the planets in the solar system and have total dominance of the area surrounding Earth.

1:55:34 Okay. Alright. Well, hey, we got we got more Cthulhu here at the end. It feels like it's the end. It might not be. I don't know.

1:55:43 Trickling away from the planet poses a territorial risk as well as an existential risk to those in the world of Cthulhu Punk. So instead of seeking out the stars, it might be best to put on your favourite data chip and accept the futility of this dystopia. At least the digital static can't hurt you. Or so you think.

1:56:02 Yeah, I was gonna say with the examples that we've been given, it absolutely can hurt you. Absolutely can. And uh I've got a quote for you right at the end to round. Wow. Okay. Feels like uh my voice is going.

1:56:17 That's fair. I I I yeah, yeah, yep, yep, yep. Cyberpunk and the mythos came together in that they're both dealing with alienation. The heroes of both sorts of story are usually cut off emotionally, socially, or both from mainstream society. In their isolation, they become ideal victims for the implacable forces that want to corrupt them and use them for their own ends.

1:56:42 They fight back, sometimes winning brief respite or a personal salvation, although in a larger context the battle remains unwinnable. A hound of Tyndalos and a cyber ninja are not that far apart when they both want you dead. Finally, Lovecraft Lovecraft's mythos are big enough to encompass almost any setting or literary genre past, present, or future.

1:57:05 If the great old ones were here in the 30s, then they're still here now, and they'll still be here in the next century. We might not be, but they will. Chris McCubbin.

1:57:22 I mean, it has its moments, at least. Like it they're there.

1:57:27 I feel like I feel like the one thing this whole setting needs more than anything is for the love of God, just hire a fucking editor that will just be like, hey, brother, this bit here, you don't need it. It's com I it doesn't it doesn't provide anything. Just just just cut it. This part, cut it. This part, cut it.

1:57:48 Elaborate on this part, that other part, get rid of it. Also, we gotta work on your names, brother. Ruskiaks, what are you doing? Chili Tina, are you crazy? Rubyan, brother. Like you need an editor to pare this shit down. Because there's mass potential here, I feel like, for something like really, really cool, but boy.

1:58:11 For the uh for the benefit of the right. For the benefit of the tape, uh the tape, um, the listeners, uh Shy's response to the uh to the quote read by DK was simply Chris, your book is kind of cringe. So that's why I didn't that's why I just started laughing.

1:58:30 I was just like I said, this this almost feel this feels like if you were like, oh yeah, this is a first draft for my like potential game, I'd be like, oh great first draft, dude. Like we got the foundation for some really, really banger stuff here. But we gotta do a little work.

1:58:48 There's there's there's stuff in in there that I really liked, but it there's also there's also things that they were intended as a joke. Like if it was like, yeah, we've gone for Chili Tina, because that's pretty funny, then I'll let it slide. If that was genuinely your best guess as to what a merger of nations and names looks like between Argentina and Chile, then you you just you need help with that.

1:59:18 You need someone else to do that bit.

1:59:21 Yeah, you just you you just you just need a good editor, right? And and the important thing when you're writing like a book or you gotta make it exist first. Then you can sort of whittle it down and and then make it good. And this feels like, boy, you made it exist. Now let's let's work on it a little bit, huh?

1:59:38 Let's let's give it a little paring down, and you know, it's it's I don't I don't want to completely demolish it and demean it. It has good stuff. There's there's stuff worth saving, there's cool shit in here.

1:59:50 So you know also on your next project when you deliver us the first draft, if you could refrain from from from using slurs in the first half of the first page. Super appreciate that.

2:00:03 Yeah, really, really appreciate that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Agreed. Agreed. All right. So any other parting words here? I mean, we it it does it feels like we've been here for like I feel like I've been here all day. Like this has been a wild ride, dude. It's it's crazy because like I'm I I feel sick. I feel this it's crazy because like my my lights were off because I was like, oh, it's just more comfortable.

2:00:30 Morning vibe, lights off, and I'm like, has it been all day? Is it nighttime again?

2:00:34 I mean, in the time that we have circle the sun has gone down where I am. So I started out in daylight and it's and it's now just proper nighttime outside, which feels really surreal.

2:00:47 Oh man. I feel like the only proper way to end this is for Kiriath to tell you all again about the merch and the patriot.

2:00:57 And yeah, right, right, Kirioth?

2:01:00 I I think uh what I I I think instead we should just take the bit that I did at the start and then paste it at the end. Oh my god, if you could if you could do that, chat, that'd be phenomenal. You should check out the Patreon, patreon.com slash acceptable losses, if you support us over there in a monetary fashion, you can get access to episodes early.

2:01:21 You can get is that how we're ending it?

2:01:23 Are we just I don't know anymore. I don't know what I don't know what I'm doing. I'm sat here in the dark.

2:01:31 After we've just talked about Good Punk for two hours, and it's not even the longest script we have. It's one of the longest episodes we've done, but it's not even that long. Like, I don't know what's happening. I don't want to go home, but I am home. Where do I even go from here? See you next week.