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Post Breakdown: unidentifiedflamingbastard’s “Eldritch Energy System Basics”

This is our first comparison between someone’s introductory posts on Eldritch energy and our own experiences, meant as a supplement and complement, never as enforcing our worldview over the worldview of another, since such things are counterproductive to learning and sharing information. For all of these, we will likely do a segment-by-segment breakdown, quoting the original post and then relaying our own information.

The original post can be found on our blog here.

“There are many strains of eldritch energy and each person/entity’s system is unique”

Personally, we cannot overstate how true this is in our overall experience. Even two individuals from the same source may vary immensely based on the energy and entities they have absorbed and assimilated, in this life and in others. It’s often very difficult to determine source as a result of this, we tend to compare the effects and manifestations of a given energy to help narrow down potential origin. Related, from the original post: “There are many different strains of eldritch energy and each strain has its strengths and weakness, as well as different ways of manifesting.”

“From what I have seen/heard most eldritch sources tend to be eldritch deities or other very powerful, old entities”:

Well... quite honestly, “entity” often implies in many magical circles something that can be identified as an individual in both form and function in many cases. It often carries the association of “mysterious, yet classifiable, and intelligent in a way humans can comprehend directly” which feels rather counterintuitive in the case of Eldritch sources to us. We even have difficulty believing the commonly-depicted and described forms and names of Lovecraftian entities are not in fact the source themselves, but rather potential avatars of such. “Powerful” and “old” still seem... anthropocentrically biased.

We would be far more inclined to use terms such as “force” or “existence” for Eldritch sources, and “pervasive”, “influential”,“truly otherworldly” and “unfathomable” as further descriptors. This may simply be our preference in preciseness of language, however.

“While Eldritch energy is highly sentient it is not sapient. To clarify, sentience just means an organism is aware of its environment and is conscious/responsive to stimuli.”:

This, to this day, continues to be our biggest point of frustrations with virtually all descriptions of Eldritch energies. It is in a similar vein to our previous contention, however this one feels far less personally-biased. It may simply be that there is no word or concept that exists here for our experience and knowledge of sentience in Earthly life and the responsiveness of Eldritch energy, or it may be that we have had experiences with strains and variations most authors on the subject have not encountered or worked with extensively.

From what we have experienced, the difference is potential for consciousness, and Eldritch energy straddles a line we have never seen elsewhere. It seemingly has instinct but in the way, say, a Roomba does, albeit a very vicious Roomba whose sensors are programmed to seek out any debris, up to and including insects, small animals, and unwary feet rather than mapping a floorplan and executing a given route while avoiding obstacles.

The debate on animal sentience has been mentioned in the original, but we are of the mind that animals are sapient, albeit in a way that may be wholly alien to human conception, and therefore incompatible in some regards. Our experiences with Eldritch lead us to feel more that it mirrors a computer virus with the capability to adapt.

Perhaps this issue is one of us having more experience with info Eldritch and psy/mental strains, and it may well be that physical strains do respond more like certain animals and plants in their instinctiveness, but we would like for that differentiation to be placed more at the forefront, as well as more research be done on the subject.

“It knows when it is being handled, when it is being restricted, how to hide, hunt, and ambush. On the flip side, it also makes it very useful and even better, trainable.”

Once again, we wouldn’t say the energy “knows” these things are occurring, rather that it responds on an instinctual, programmed level to these things. And anyone who has worked with code knows that it does not do what you want it to, it does what you told it to do.

And once again, it may be a distinction between physical and mental Eldritch that hasn’t been adequately explored and tested. There also may be a certain level of baseline experience of the individual/entity/being/source that is required for certain tasks and instincts to be present in Eldritch energy when first separated from its host.

For example, someone whose whole energy system has not been frequently utilized to actively hunt down and seek out sources of food may not see those instincts present in loose energy of theirs unless they harbor a certain strain, or other circ*mstances allow for it to occur, for example if they have used their energy frequently for aggressive defense.

Once again, we feel this warrants further research and investigation.

“Instead of ‘passively’ working and molding your energy, you are working with something that is alive, and to a certain extent has a will of its own. But at the same time, it’s a part of you.”:

We feel the cell analogy given is better here in some ways, but also unhelpful on some levels. Continuing off the last point, we feel it’s less a matter of having “a will of its own”, but rather a matter of having “preprogrammed instinctive responses that may conflict with your conscious desires”. See again our “doing what you told it to, not what you wanted it to” comparison here as well.

We can agree, however, it is very much a collaborative thing between you and your energy, and often by extension, your desires and how much they conflict or coincide with the will and desire of your source. We have other thoughts about the implications of this, but suffice it to say, we have had a much easier time utilizing our energy towards certain ends than others based on whether or not we were in alignment with our source at the time. It’s a similar concept to “alignment with divine will” seen in various religious, spiritual, and magical practices.

“I say stem cells because eldritch energy, unlike your heart cells, is capable of adapting and molding itself into whatever form it needs to survive and serve the hive. Oh, and if it’s not already clear, your energy system is the hive.”

Once again, this may be an info/psy/mental Eldritch thing, but the stem cell analogy suits itself better to the capability of overall adaptability and assimilation. That much may also be a small personal discrepancy, as we agree with the overall sentiment given here. The difference may simply be what it is your energy system needs most, and what you, as the host, have programmed your energy with, and what instructions your source gave it, as well.

“These default instructions are typically: feed, infect, protect the hive, and other basic survival actions. Certain strains may have extra default instructions such as: explore, investigate, dominate, create, and so on. These extra actions vary strain to strain.”

This portion at least does acknowledge the difference in default instructions! So we can very much appreciate that, and it does give us the impression that the author likely works largely with physical strains but has had experience with mental strains.

For example, our default instructions are largely “feed, protect the hive, investigate, and recombine”. Essentially, this manifests as very self-contained energy that gathers information and energy from what contacts it, rather than what it comes into contact with, and this is a result of the “manifesting/existing when certain conditions existing within the source spontaneously come into being elsewhere, allowing for a sort of strange contagion effect that then spreads this energy” we have briefly touched on in our intro.

Our energy and source are more concerned with exploiting and extending possibility, as far as we’re aware and able to comprehend. This may seem like a somewhat inverted action of “infection”, as it uses a more backdoor approach rather than direct invasion and infection, although it is still capable of doing so.

As a potential analogy, our source would be like a program can turn seemingly random computers into part of a botnet, but still allow for mostly-normal computer function if the user just so happens to type in a specific string of letters and numbers on it, even if it was not entered into a search engine or the computer wasn’t even connected to the Internet. (Obviously a computer not connected to the Internet is useless to a botnet, so this may have potential implications for dealing with info Eldritch infections.)

“Another trait to note about eldritch energy is it also has something similar to microbial intelligence, in that the more of it there is, the smarter it gets.”

This is something we’d love to see more in-depth explanations of, as we do not produce Shoggoths and we are not the only strain that seems not to, so we would personally be very interested to know what, if any, similar functions would be in such strains seeing as we can’t give much useful info without elaboration.

“Mutations are alterations made by eldritch energy to better serve the hive, or they can be a side effect of infection in a non-eldritch system... in an eldritch system, mutations can be fluid, controlled, and very helpful. In many cases mutations can happen unconsciously when a system is responding to a powerful stimulus, such as strong emotions or immediate danger.”

This tendency is one we’re well-acquainted with, and to be honest, the term “mutation” put us off a bit at first since these changes are not, by default, permanent, nor do they necessarily affect the behavior of misplaced or intentionally removed energy after these events take place. It also confused us since when we have seen reference to this trait, it isn’t mentioned in the context of “adaptability via consumption and assimilation”, which does induce a permanent change to your energy. We even know an individual who has to be very careful with their contact and bonding with spirits, because their system will develop an aggressive immunity to that spirit and others with similar energy if their connection ever becomes disrupted.

The acknowledgement of “Mutation can be controlled to an extent by training one’s energy but in some cases, it does appear to be a knee jerk response” is a very important thing to us, since we’ve simply referred to it as “energetic reactivity” for quite some time, and even joked that it’s a sort of inverse response to that of several Earthly animals that retract upon facing a potential threat. Our energy responds to a threat as a potential source of food, as well as a handy way to remove said threat from its immediate environment. While this still can backfire, especially with other Eldritch strains, it is overall a very handy defense, but it can also pose other issues.

As a sort of case in point: “It is important to note that just because one is eldritch aligned, that does not make you immune to all eldritch energy. Nor does it mean all eldritch entities will be friendly towards you, in fact some may see you as competition.” We have a small anecdote about this exact principle here.

“Eldritch energy has many different uses and is capable of many different things. How much you get out of it, and how well it does it depends on two major factors: 1. How well did you train your energy to do a certain task 2. PRACTICE! It is also important to remember you control your energy, but its smart and willful, and it will need training or it can ignore you”:

We can vouch for the many uses of this sort of energy, as well as the necessity of practice, however once again we will bring up the issue of alignment and our coding analogy for before. We would suggest getting to know the basic functions of your strain, and what things it’s best suited to, and then work from there. It is far better (and easier) to partner with your energy than attempt to wrangle it by force. It also cuts down on the necessity of wrangling by force if issues or incidents do occur down the line.

The suggestion of “First and foremost, you can do all the basic energy work that you could do regardless of energy alignment. I’m talking basic beginner energy work here; energy balls, warding, centering, charging things, so on and so forth” is an excellent way to observe how your energy behaves naturally if you give yourself the openness to do so.

“Be careful with charging things though, if you pump eldritch energy into something it’s going to consume all the energy that was in it in the first place and replace it with itself. Eldritch energy is also really good for cleansing, as it can break down, consume, and convert most forms of energy practically sterilizing the area.”

This is one of our favorite uses for our own energy, especially given its willingness to take in and alter virtually anything it touches, and it effectively allows us to utilize anything in magic by way of converting it to an “Eldritch version” of its original alignment. This has taken quite a bit of practice, however, and it may not be possible for all people and all strains, but it also means that highly neutral substances like varying sorts of plastics and other synthetics considered “spiritually dead” by many can become a wonderful blank slate for us to work with.

We will also add the caveat that while Eldritch energy can break down and consume most forms of energy, it can leave “waste energy” that can be difficult to remove unless it’s done by another Eldritch entity that’s compatible with it. This only seems to happen as a sort of “digestive process” with energy we have difficult compatibility with overall, however, so your mileage may vary. This is also something that potentially warrants further research.

“Another thing eldritch energy excels at is offensive uses regardless of the strain, and there are many different methods of using this energy to do harm.”

This certainly gets a loud, resounding “YES”. It isn’t even necessarily aggressive-malicious-offensive. It’s simply a very hardy, persistent, determined form of energy.

“Once in their energy body it will act like a parasite, it will consume their energy and spread throughout their system. It can cause major blocks and if left to grow unchecked cause permanent damage.”:

We also addressed this in the post on our experience with someone else’s uncontrolled energy. We are very fortunate in that we only experienced blockages via inert “blobs” of the person’s energy that simply built up over time and did not spread, several of this person’s friends were, quite frankly, brainwashed by their energy. It was horrifying to see, and even more horrifying to realize this person did not care about the damage they inflicted. Said person had even characterized their energy, rather unashamedly, as “spiritual cancer”.

“YOU CAN ACCIDENTALLY INFECT SOMEONE!! Be aware of where you are leaving your energy, and make sure you do not leave it on or in other people.”

Again, this is all too true and cannot be overlooked and, in our opinion and experience, is a vital reason to understand the nature of your strain and its normal means of interaction and its basic instructions. Awareness of those tendencies allows for more control over them, as well as where and how to look for potential leakage.

If you know more about the nature of your strain, you can be aware of vectors of transmission, and circ*mstances that make infection and losing track of your own energy more likely. One of ours, for example, is transmission of information paired with heightened emotion. This is, as we explained in our introductory post, our reason for maintaining a certain style of speech, as it requires far more deliberate attention placed on our words and emotional state. Simply wording things in a specific “ensouled” manner has been known to transmit our energy very effectively, so you can imagine the care that must be taken in our everyday lives.

“Due to the highly infectious nature of eldritch energy many spirits and entities respond with fear and/or disgust.”

This is one of the aforementioned potential issues with having an intensely dangerous, reactive energy. We work very hard to keep ours under control, and luckily our strain is well adapted to lying low, but that also leaves us in the place of potentially being suspect due to how insidious info/mental Eldritch infections can be.

There are mundane things that can be done to mitigate this, such as being true to our word and showing loyalty and actively providing and agreeing to displays of trust, however I’m almost certain we’re viewed as capricious and fickle to many beings... however, so are the Good Neighbors and various beloved deities.

How your Eldritch nature affects your spirit work will likely be largely personal and based on your previous workings and how much control you show. We cannot give advice for this, as every Eldritch-aligned individual and the vast majority of spirits are just that... individual.