What would it take for mankind to become a Lesser Independent Race, akin to the Mi-Go, the Moon Beasts, or the Star Vampires? What would human society be like in such a case? What would individual psychology be like? Would we have to broker a deal with an Old One or an Outer God? Would we need to learn magic? Would our Cthulhu Mythos knowledge need to reach 99%?

I think HPL's assumption was that humans were psychologically incapable of this, and would either go mad (are Mi-Go mad?) in the light of Science, or retreat into the peaceful ignorance of a new Dark Age.

Lesser Independent Races afaict typically are widespread, with some form of interstellar travel, giving them a robust defence against natural and unnatural disasters. They have a good working knowledge of the cosmos. Rather than being victims & pawns of higher powers, they are able to push back and make their own mark on the universe. They may manipulate unintelligent and semi-sentient species (eg humans) for their own ends. But I think the main characteristic of a LIR is "We can Hold Our Own" - "We can Survive Most Threats" - "We are not controlled by a Great Old One or other power".

To use an analogy: in the real world, if humans are the Great Old Ones, dogs would be a Servitor Race. So would cows. A good example of an Independent Race would be rats - humans are much more powerful than rats, in ways unimaginable to the rats, but humans can neither control nor destroy the rat species.

I imagine it would look something a cross between Dead Space and the Emperor's quest to unify Earth in 40K. Messy as hell and takes a long time.

End result would be the crazy nut job cult winning and hundreds of millions of sacrifices to whatever entity was helping, sparking a change in humanity as a whole.

Can't imagine man would be quite the same, mentally or physically, at the end of the process.

I guess it really depends on what it means to be a Lesser Independent Race.

The Elder Things (the things in Antarctica) are spoken of by the narrator as being the 'men' of their day. There's no evidence of them casting spells or having any particular level of Cthulhu Mythos lore, though likely they'd have had access to lore about the existence of various other alien species.

There are plenty of examples of freaky offshoots of humanity or near relations, such as age-retarded cannibals,  ghouls and even the Deep Ones.

I think it's safe to state we don't know.

It might require some horrific transformation. It might just be a natural progression. It might require facilitation from outside. It might be achievable by ourselves, with or without massive self-editing. It's probably a safe bet that any specifics assumed by contemporary characters are wrong. Whatever the path is like, there's a good chance it's narrow and fraught with peril.

Which makes it quite flexible. You could run a game focusing on psychological and cosmic horror, and have humanity being ushered into becoming something monstrous. You could a run focusing on the science fiction elements in Lovecraft's work, and have humanity steadily progress toward a greater understanding of the universe, in fits and starts and with plenty of backtracking, but with a sense of progress and hope. Or something in-between, with shattered minds and broken empires, and a continual battle to preserve humanity against temptations to become something else.

For a non-horror take on this idea, look at Julian May's Galactic Milieu. The main plot centers around humanity's immanent psychic eschaton.

Quote from: Neoplatonist1 on March 11, 2022, 10:21:22 PM
What would it take for mankind to become a Lesser Independent Race, akin to the Mi-Go, the Moon Beasts, or the Star Vampires? What would human society be like in such a case? What would individual psychology be like? Would we have to broker a deal with an Old One or an Outer God? Would we need to learn magic? Would our Cthulhu Mythos knowledge need to reach 99%?

I agree with Pat that we just don't know, but we can imagine.

My take would be to have something like a classic sci-fi colonial setup - like Aliens or Babylon 5. But then the true horror isn't that there are nasty aliens - it's that humanity itself is really nasty when you scratch under the surface. For example, most people don't know just how the space drives work, and how it really works is powered by horrific rituals that aren't immediately visible. They also have various weapons of war. And there will be some point when humanity contacts aliens and the aliens are driven insane by human colonization / conquest.