Is there a name for this specific kind of horror ?

Is there a name for this specific kind of horror ?

Although some may say Lovecraft I beg to differ because Lovecraft is horror for the sake that you are but a speck and do not understand how insignificant you are to the greater cosmic beings.

With this something feels different. The more you learn the more it feels unnatural. You have already heard of evil and the devil but never thought you would have to face it/talk to it or never thought it was real and now that you have faced it you see that evil is a lot more cunning and charming then you where led to believe.

The best example would be the Witcher's Gunther O'dimm, Ladies of the Wood and things like the Blair Witch Project.

Other urls found in this thread:

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Twardowski
youtube.com/watch?v=cmZOzdSmokY
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

Bump for interest

It shares some characteristics with Southern Gothic, OP, but at the same time it isn't. It is rural, yet it isn't.

Cunning and charming is Faustian, or what some people would say is Faustian, but that isn't quite it either.

So, yes, I need to know too.

>the Witcher's Gunther O'dimm
That guy was horrifying, I noped out of that riddle at the end and just let him drag Olgierd to hell or whatever, then declined any kind of reward.

Everything else in that game I was entirely not fussed about but Gaunter scared the shit out of me. He was just so unsettling and so different compared to everything else.

You’re confusing genre with delivery, and the sensation you are describing is simply called “dread”.
It’s literally just horror with actual tension and foreshadowing involved instead of replacing tension and plotting with buckets of pointless gore for shock value and cheap jump scares.
Nothing Gaunter O’Dimm does or says is really that crazy or unknown to fiction, even specifically to fictional depictions of the Devil. It’s even pretty easy to figure out who/what he is as soon as you meet him the second time on the boat. The difference is that the DELIVERY is rock-solid and mixed with absolute perfect atmosphere, paired with great music and background context provided by the story.

The upside?
It means you don’t need to search out a special genre to find it. Just keep practicing, working on delivery, and learning from your failures, and you’ll get it eventually.

>”You can control time?”
>”I like to think of myself more as a talented hobbyist. Besides, there’s only four dimensions after all. Which would you prefer me to be interested in, Width?”

Proof that you don’t need to be covered in evil armor or be hugely violent or have everyone talk about how powerful you are to be scary.
You just need to be written properly.

There's heavy influence from Gothic fiction here, sort of filtered though the perspective of the pulp era Weird Menice books (like HP Lovecraft's work).

The feeling of pervasive dread and the macabre, eerie atmosphere with unresolved questions and tension.

It's just a guy holding a skull, user. It's not that scary

Faustian story?

I present to you the exact opposite.

I know this is bait but I'll bite

Kill yourself because if you haven't played this masterpiece of modern gaming you don't have a life worth living.

>Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend, based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (c. 1480–1540).
>Faust is a scholar who is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. The Faust legend has been the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical works that have reinterpreted it through the ages. "Faust" and the adjective "Faustian" imply a situation in which an ambitious person surrenders moral integrity in order to achieve power and success for a delimited term.

This message is really from me! I bet you didn't expect me to email you and gloat about the time you beat me like a rented monkey and I only won because of a cut scene.

I am clearly the best and you suck forever.

Love;
Kai Lang
This message sent from iPhone99.

He’s a proper example of the other kind of villain, true.
As every decent writing teacher will instruct you; Show, Don’t Tell. This applies even more strongly to Gaunter O’Dimm because we are SHOWN repeatedly that he is both very powerful and quite charming (honestly, he’s rather friendly to Geralt with all the aid and even romantic advice he gives him), but much of the horror and dread about him comes from how the ways we are shown his powers make no sense in an in-setting context, which only heightens the sense of otherness and mystery because we are not only continually guessing what he is but are consistently unsure of what he can do.

What gets me is how nobody’s ever seem to have heard of this guy except a crazy doomed blind man.

The ironic bit is if you choose a reward from him after taking the guy's soul, all the rewards are no strings attached and are genally useful. It blew my goddamn mind, i thought i was getting double tricked.

>”The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”
O’Dimm seems to take this to heart. He’s just a bit more pro-active about squashing particularly inquisitive people, creepy children’s nursery rhymes aside.

I don't get what everybody finds so menacing about O'Dimm. He's just Q with less hair and a mean streak

The one rule he follows is that he keeps his word.
He promised Geralt that he would be rewarded for helping him, and when Geralt does he gives Geralt said reward, fair and square.
The reason he didn’t try to screw Geralt is becaus Geralt never really entered into a contract with the guy at all; O’Dimm is merely paying for services rendered.

Yeah Gaunter isn't a lie or a cheat per se, he just uses word play and loop holes to win, he's the ultimate RAW-fag.

If you beat him or fulfil your side of the deal then there are no strings attached, at the time I didn't know this and just wanted done with him.

Blew my tiny mind when I realised that he appears right at the start of the main game and also in the Blood and Wine DLC.

I got nervous when we saw his fingerprints all over that one quest in Blood and Wine.
I dearly love John d’Lancie, but Q is a far more blatant and much more ridiculous and even comical sort of character then O’Dimm.
He’s basically completely lacking in any subtly whatsoever, which is part of why he’s so much fun to watch.

>Blew my tiny mind when I realised that he appears right at the start of the main game and also in the Blood and Wine DLC.
You wanna know something REALLY creepy?
As soon as you begin Hearts of Stons, he never leaves Geralt alone even for a moment. He can be found somewhere blending inauspiciously into the background of every single cinema during the DLC, “keeping an eye” on his investment so to speak. This even includes when you first read the notice at the Seven Cats Inn.

...

>Geralt never really entered into a contract with the guy at all
He did though. He got saved from being Shangai'd and had to serve as satan's errand boy in exchange. He was even branded to signify it. O'Dimm never buttfucked Geralt as much as everyone else because...reasons?

...

I think O'Dimm wanted Geralt to save Ciri, since she had to avert the White Frost. He can't do his thing if the world freezes over, so he doesn't dick over the guy who helps stop that.

Fuck.

The difference is that Olgierd and presumably everyone else comes to HIM. It’s an active choice on their part, which allows him to leverage the terms of the bargain in his favor. Like he tells you to your face; it’s not HIS fault everyone makes such wretched wishes.
When he offers a chance to help Geralt, it’s basically a “do this or I’ll leave you to die”, which isn’t really a bargain or contract but more leveraging Geralt for a favor instead of the other way around.

In short; Olgierd wanted something from O’Dimm and O’Dimm granted it, whereas O’Dimm wanted something from Geralt in Geralt’s case and then gave the White Wolf what he considered his fair payment, exactly what he himself demands of his own bargains.

Because he was too useful. Hence that remark he states at the end if you "fulfill his request" that he'll find you again if he ever needs help with certain hard contacts.

But Ciri already did that by the time Hearts of Stone comes out.

It’s disturbing, yes. Now when I’m playing the DLC missions I’m always keeping an eye out for the bastard.
I’m pretty sure that O’Dimm genuinely needed Geralt’s expertise to complete Olgierd’s contract. Basically he was in a sense outsourcing his work to the witcher and thus giving him fair payment of his choice for doing him the favor.

Ideal play order is the main game until the Battle of Kaer Morhen, then play Hearts of Stone, then finish the main game, then play Blood and Wine.

Not sure if this is word of god or just a fan favourite though.

but when do you play a better game?

When the fact that he is holding a skull represents him claiming someones soul, his near infinite power and the fact that there is that creepy nursery rhyme dedicated to him.
>His smile fair as spring, as towards him he draws you;
>His tongue sharp and silvery as he implores you.
>Your wishes he grants, as he swears to adore you,
>Gold, silver, jewels - he lays riches before you.
>Dues need be repaid and he will come for you
>All to reclaim, no smile to console you.
>He'll snare you in bonds, eyes glowing afire
>To gore and torment you till the stars expire"

When a better game gets made.

Don’t hold you fucking breath on that.
Witcher 3 is easily the best videogame I’ve played in thirty years of playing them starting back when I was five, and it just blows a lot of modern games out of the water without even trying.

The way the current gaming industry is we’re gonna be waiting awhile.

>Near infinite power
>needs to hire a hitman to claim some punk's soul
>can't simply rewrite reality to get shit done
>has to actually be physically present to keep track of his minion
>minor extraplanar entity at best

I'm crossing my fingers for Cyberpunk 2077 but I'm probably too hyped. CDPR are amazing but a follow up to TW3 is going to be very hard.

Anyway, better drop this line of thought, kinda getting off topic.

Never get hyped more then a month before release.
You’ll just overhype yourself.

His entire enjoyment is making tricky deals and wordplay.

Yeah he could just zap Olgierd into oblivion but that's like playing a game with god mode and the all weapon cheat. Gotta give yourself a challenge man.

>"near" infinite

That's the part that gives him class !
He still has rules that he abides for they are what give him power with his contracts and make fools gamble their own soul.

Never hype period. Nothing will ever live up to expectations. At best you'll delude yourself into believing a thing is better than it is.

...

Man talk about dropping the ball !

most people focus on the ending when in truth the entire game was a rushed over hyped shame.

I've always had the suspicion that anyone that only bitched about the ending never played the franchise and was just following the meme. That game dropped the ball pretty early on.

Q is fucking terrifying. Think about it. This is a being who claims to be omnipotent and very nearly is. Which means that for example, he could make it so you never existed. Or change your memory or change your mind by a snap of his fingers. Or turn your blood into acid. Or make your wife/husband forget you. People weren't really afraid of Q because John de Lancie made him more comical.

But for me, his best performances was in the first episode, with humanity on trial; the last episode with the time travel - but the epitome of his character was expressed when he introduced the Borg. Not just because he showed them how dangerous outer space really is, but also of the way he (barely) reacted to the mortal peril the crew was in.

Oh no, no, no user. You don't understand; he's a total badass killer we've never heard of. You can tell by the way everyone keeps telling us that he is and that every time his is defeated he comes back stronger and more cybered up. Every time he gets his ass handed to him his boss has to patch him back together with prosthetics. Admittedly the same could be said for Shepard at that point but in that case it took a ship being shot out from under him, vacuum exposure and a trip down a gravity well.

Just look at his list of super accomplishments:

Anderson broke both his legs back in the day

Despite having an army, a man on the inside and a space fleet he and his people fail to kill the other Council Members. Gets fended off by a mortally ill Drell in the terminal stage of a disease

Had Miranda lying on the floor, he has a weapon, fails to kill her, runs a way before Shepard arrives

Had a small army and an attack helicopter, gets beat from one side of building to other, lucks out when cathedral falls on Shepard. Fails to kill Shepard. Writes a 13 year old's letter.

Has home turf advantage, has an army, gets beaten to a pulp.

Shepard has his back turned and is sitting down, Leng has a weapon, Shepard fucking kills him.

After all that I don't see how his status as a galactic super L33T badass could ever possibly be questioned.

I remember the first time I played it I started seeing things that got me worried yet decided that the pay off will probably be worth it since I will be able to finally finish the story I started from the very first game.

Boy I was wrong.

>People weren't really afraid of Q because John de Lancie made him more comical.

He was comical but (Outside of Voyager) he was very darkly comical. De Lancie did a great job of making him funny because nothing about this, not the lives of your people or all the horrors he can inflict? None of it matters to him more than his amusement because he is that far above you.

I'm not all too sure.
Something tells me that if their is no definition to the fear of pure evil as put on by witches and the devil then it deserves one.

I can've believe you forgot about the original.

He's literally just nyarlathotep. Lots of people seem to overrate gunter desu.

Yeah I saw that, thought it was a bit odd he looked like gunther but didn't think to much about it.

MAN now I really wanna reinstall the witcher series and play trough them again.

Except the person serving the drinks. She genuinely freaked him out and I am glad we were left to wonder why.

Want to explain for those of us who haven't read Lovecraft?

That does fit Olgierd pretty well though.

I remember that he also warned his son about not provoking the Borg.

Olgierd is actually based off a character from an old Polish folktale about a man who outwits the Devil. Even the thing with them “meeting on the moon” is taken from that story.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Twardowski

It's naive, but I still give them the benefit of doubt and think that this is exactly what they aimed for, i.e. it's intentional.

what game?

And?

Isn't he a straight up Stephen King ripoff?
O'Dimm was one of the names Randall Flagg used.

witcher 3

Im a little rusty but I think their the crawling chaos, lover of misery and generally the most hedonistic? of the elder's who actually interacts with humans sometimes?

>Johann Georg Faust
Nothing to add to the comment b/c you covered it well, but he's my great*13 grandfather, and that's some cool shit. Love me some Faust lore.

Pretty much. Elder god dicking around in human form. Maybe he has a greater plan or is just bored. It is actually kinda funny when, at some point people start doing weird stuff in sandbox games. When you have seen the most of it, and there is really new challenges you just start filling houses in skyrim with cheese etc.

Stephen King also implied Randall Flagg was one of the many forms Nyarlathotep.

I played Gwent before I played Witcher 3. Seeing Gaunter in the tavern at the beginning of the game was fucking terrifying.

Besides the last name which has an extra m, I don't think so, as stated earlier in the thread theres more influence from the Polish story.

>being scared of a bald dirt farmer

I bet you're all homosexuals.

...

>I want to be rich
>5000 bucks

Fuck you!

You're telling me Walter O'Dim is not an inspiration for Walther O'Dimm?
He very clearly is.

But yes, he's also based on the polish story, also Mephistopheles and the classic Djinn.
Characters can be inspired by many things.

Correction: Its Gaunther O'Dimm. Not Walther.

Satan

If you ever play through it again, take note where he looks
Most of the time its at you, not Geralt.

Also pay attention to the characters in the background in the DLC cutscenes

He's in literally all of them somewhere, watching

Of course he’s named for Walter O’Dim.
His name is a combination of Mister Gaunt from Needful Things and Walter O’Dim.

This IS the Witcher we’re talking about.
The entire franchise is constantly filled with dry reference pop culture witticism.

>your favorite interpretation of Faust story is just a copy of my favorite interpretation of Faust story

I will never understand what this game's writers were thinking with Kai Leng.

He really is the vidya version of the GM's pet enemy "rival" who keeps showing up but because the GM sucks at statting enemies the party always kicks his ass and he escapes through fiat. There is nothing appealing about him, from his dumbass space katana to his shitty fucking attitude. It's like Bioware just said "what if we take all the stupid edgelord anime tropes in the book and focus it into one character?"

I still don't know what they were going for. Either they wanted some super threatening Anti-Shepard or they deliberately made him an asshole so you could feel good when you finally kill him But I didn't even enjoy doing that because his shitty fucking attitude left such a bad taste in my mouth.

But you know what? Still more interesting and likable than any of the Andromeda characters. At least I actually remember this guy.

I'd actually forgotten Andromeda was a thing. But then I remembered Pingu.

Playing a game with godmode can get boring really fast.

>i can buttfuck reality, but choose to play with mortals through shady deals
>also i don't wanna wake up the sleeping idiot, because i will cease to exist
Yog-Sothoth is way bettter what you ask is what you get, providing you deserve it.

You know considering O'Dimm is literally polish satan I wouldn't be shocked in the slightest if everything which occurred in that dlc was his plan from the get go. As in he knew Olgierd was trying to rules lawyer an impossible to collect contract with him, but let it happen knowing that years later Olgierd and Geralt's paths would cross, or at the very least that he could get Geralt by the balls and have the witcher agree to help him out rules lawyer Olgierd in the future.

As others have said, you meet O'Dimm in the base game. Hell you meet him in the fucking tutorial zone. Now either the devs picked an innocuous npc interaction to base O'Dimm's character model off of, or (and considering the dialog in the scene), O'Dimm's been interested in Geralt for some time.

Considering the whole looking at the camera during cutscenes, I think it's quite clear that he's aware of Geralt's protagonist status, and the media he's in. I mean hey those characters are pretty popular these days. Why would you fuck with the main character if you're that genre savvy, you know how this all ends. With a demon who's all about dicking with people because of their choices I'd imagine being able to sit back and watch a pc make decisions in a decision laiden game is probably the best entertainment he's ever gotten. Why muck that up? Why not get him involved in your own part of the game instead to see how he handles the choices you throw at him?

This is how Tzeentch should act in 40k, sort of friendly in the beginning, more willing to help you than the other Chaos Gods, and up to the moment he takes your soul his true powers/evil remain largely hidden.

>Now either the devs picked an innocuous npc interaction to base O'Dimm
Nope, that DLC was planned from the beginning of the dev cycle. He was a teaser for it.

Hence the second part of the sentence user, thanks for the confirmation.

Tzeentch doesn't act like anything in 40k. He's a vague entity with no character.

what this guy said
yeah it's more like in fantasy not 40(dic)k

Yes, It's called Satan, Mephistopheles, the Devil, Lucifer. Choose all of the above.

It's called skullfuck horror.

>Book Movie: The Game
>best made in thirty years
pffff HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

>Don’t hold you fucking breath on that.
But user, ace combat 7 is coming out in 2018.

But they tell you he's not the devil in the game. He's like sooo much cooler and intimidating and awesome because he's bald and tells you you suck for winning in three languages.

So would Gaunter have an okay/swell time in 40K?

>"Oh no, by all means I'm not exactly what you'd call a 'chaos daemon.' I'm but a humble glass maerchant hawking my wares."

>"I'm but a practitioner of my favorite arts. None of that hocus-pocus-warp-chaos mumbo-jumbo."

>"Believe me, I could take over half of this universe if I felt like to, just give me a few decades. Unlike the big four gods of this realm which took them thousands upon thousands of years to consume just one measely planet."

>"You do not want to know my real name Inquisitor/Farseer/Oh Great Ethereal."

Probably not. As Geralt has shown, he can be tricked and defeated.

Noot noot mother fucker

youtube.com/watch?v=cmZOzdSmokY

>a bald dirt farmer
Nobody farms bald dirt, dullard. If there's nothing growing from it, then who would bother?

That scene with the 'meeting on the moon' was fucking phenomenal.

Folk Horror?