Grimdark-like fantasy setting with Lovecraft's approach

Hello Veeky Forums, I would like to hear your thoughts.

I'm making a sort of grimdark setting inspired by Lovecraft's approach to the supernatural, which was that there is no such thing as magic and everything is scientific and realistic, and the only reason it doesn't make sense to a human is because it is beyond the scope of their knowledge.

Or more specifically, it is beyond the scope of knowledge of the people in the setting. To us we would know that the strange conditions and happenings are caused by diseases and such, to them it is magic.

I've actually posted about this setting before a few years ago, or rather a concept of it, but I ended up forgetting about it until I found some old notes.

Technologically it is set in a transitional period between swords & shields and muskets. Only some kingdoms have begun to employ and use proto-musketeer troops, proto-cannons, explosives.

This is what I have so far:

-Werewolves are people infected with lycanthropy, a disease transmitted through blood (not saliva). They do not transform on a full moon, but rather begin to transform whenever they bleed, even the smallest paper cut suffices. They do not instantly transform, but rather they slowly begin to transition into their were forms. Typically it takes them about 6 hours. They suffer from hemophillia, which is one of the ways used to identify them: their bleeding is very hard to stop in their human forms. Werewolf offspring are not born as werewolves, however because birthing is a bloody process, they end up contracting the disease. Organizationally most werewolves are loners who tend to live on the outskirts of civilization, some have families. While werewolves can and do blend in easily among humans in their human forms, they actively avoid civilization due to the aggressive werewolf hunts of The Church, who have begun to go from house to house, pricking the fingers of every single person, until they find one who can't stop bleeding.

There are rare individuals out there born from werewolves who are immune to the werewolf disease. These individuals have through some strange epigenetic processes inherited things such as higher amounts of muscle mass from their parents, among others. I like to visualize them as barbarians of sort, maybe they could serve as a barbarian-like class.

-Vampires are a unique race of their own, one cannot become a vampire unless they are born as one. They are highly secretive. They lurk among the human populace, blending in easily. They are not immortal but live extremely long, some say the oldest vampire is ten thousand years old. However, they are quite scarce, due to being almost barely fertile for reproduction. They are carriers of a unique sexual parasite that does not affect them, anyone who transmits the parasite becomes a zombie-like slave to the vampire they had sex with. Thus vampires spend a lot of time seducing and having sex with people, creating their own personal armies (as well as blood banks). To the general populace they are "demons", and The Church has effectively banned sex outside of marriage, to halt their advances. Organizationally they are split into houses and among the houses there are webs of alliances and feuds. There exist "werebats" - vampires who contracted lycanthropy. Instead of taking the form of a manwolf, they take the form of a manbat.

-Ghouls are a subrace of humans. They are not cannibals but rather raw flesh eaters, for thousands of years they have developed as such. Their digestive systems can only process raw meat and anything else makes them vomit. They are pale, thin, short. Seen as savages by the humans and are discriminated against. While they are not cannibals, there are cannibals in the setting, namely a secret society made up of elite individuals that hosts cannibal parties.

You have literally described Lamentations of the Flame Princess. 17thC Weird-Fantasy Horror.

-The Church is the religious authority of almost every kingdom in the setting. They protect the populace from things they deem heretical and unholy. While they have the best intentions, there are groups within The Church who go against their teachings - either they are greedy and powerhungry, or have gone mad and are attempting to bring the end of the world.

-The Blackness are dark foggy pockets of area in the world. No one knows where they came from or what is inside of them, but they are slowly spreading and consuming everything they come into contact with. Some claim that they are the result of evil magic.

I think that's all I have, any suggestions? Thinking of running this maybe in CoC.

This seems interesting. I'll check it out.

>lovecraft

Lovecraftian -//- Lovecraft

Like, everything you have written is so trope, that I honestly suspect that you are having one over on us that you are not just talking about LotFP already.

Really? I thought my werewolf idea was at least unique. Do werewolves in that setting work the same?