If you had to, how would you do Lovecraft in the Tolkienverse? Consider that the Tolkien lore can be expanded but its canon should not be largely modified.
Failing that, what system/book would you recommend for a Fantasy Dark Ages lovecraftian horror?
Lovecraftian material falls flat on its ass in Middle Earth because Middle Earth has a clearly-established Catholic cosmology.
Who was that one guy who wrote Lovecraft novels and everyone hates? Who turned it into an actual Good vs Evil struggle with the Evil old gods always getting BTFO'd? Best case scenario it'd be kinda like that.
At the smaller scale, there's nothing Lovecraft influences can add which isn't already covered in what Tolkien wrote.
>system/book would you recommend for a Fantasy Dark Ages lovecraftian horror?
Call of Cthulhu Dark Ages. It's geared toward the actual Dark Ages rather than fantasy but it is a rulebook for running CoC games set during sword swinging times.
As for your first question, Ungoliant is as close as you are gonna get to an actual "Lovecraftian" entity in Middle Earth but I remember seeing some fan theory about how Tom Bombadil is actually some sort of ancient evil. It's a fun take on the character, even if it really doesn't work without fucking around with Tolkien's original intentions.
What about the nameless things Gandalf was meant to have seen when he was having his punch up with the Balrog beneath Moria?
most likely way is an ancient horror from the depths of Morgoth's vaults, that crawled away in the ruin of Thangorodrim and has lurked for an aeon. Maybe a group of heroes who end up investigating why an area is blighted. Alternately, maybe people who have been corrupted by a Dark Numenorean survivor cult.
Actively introducing something that is in the Great Old Ones style, would just be completely out of place.
>If you had to, how would you do Lovecraft in the Tolkienverse?
"The dwarves dug too deep, releasing (...)". That's basically it on a first thought.
>We fought far under the living earth, where time is not counted. Ever he clutched me, and ever I hewed him, till at last he fled into dark tunnels. They were not made by Durin’s folk, Gimli son of Glóin. Far, far below the deepest delving of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he. Now I have walked there, but I will bring no report to darken the light of day. In that despair my enemy was my only hope, and I pursued him, clutching at his heel.
It's always easy to do away with those; the gods/cults lied and there's a bigger story here.
The Outer Gods were conquered by the Airnur, who the claimed to have built a new universe, when in reality they merely masked the old evil.
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Ungoliant and the unspeakable things below the depths of Moria that spooked the Balrog are the two big ones.
More generally, though, is right. Also, it's hard to get proper Lovecraft going on when the canon (that should not be largely modified) has humanity actually matter. Can't have cosmic horror without the crushing nihilism, y'know.
That's hardly following OP's
>Consider that the Tolkien lore can be expanded but its canon should not be largely modified.
, is it? I mean, saying that the whole of the Ainulindalë was just a front just seems kind of... I dunno, lazy? It's reaching for the age-old cliche of "no, you see, here are the REAL bad guys who were orchestrating everything all along!"