"Understand that there is no point in living. Cry, that there is no answer! Where there is darkness, there are shadows. I, myself, am all of you humans!"
Nyarlathotep was known to many as The Crawling Chaos, The God of a Thousand Forms, The Dweller in Darkness, The Faceless God, The Floating Horror, The Haunter of the Dark or many others, is an Outer God in the Cthulhu Mythos. He is the spawn of Azathoth. Like many of the well known Old Ones, he was created by H. P. Lovecraft.
Nyarlathotep differs from the other deities in the Mythos in a number of ways. Most of the Outer Gods are exiled to the stars, like Yog-Sothoth and Azathoth, and most of the Great Old Ones are sleeping and dreaming like Cthulhu; Nyarlathotep, however, is active and frequently walks the Earth, actively seeking to agitate the universe into madness, woe, and discord. He has been known as a manipulative, charismatic and cruel entity who enjoys bringing chaos to the many worlds he walks. He has "a thousand" other forms and manifestations, most reputed to be quite horrific and sanity-blasting.
While the other Mythos gods are often described as mindless or unfathomable, rather than truly malevolent, Nyarlathotep delights in cruelty, he is deceptive and manipulative, deceiving the antagonists of the mythos into believing he could grant them power (which he did at the cost of nearly losing their humanity) and manipulating them into becoming his pawns and even cultivates followers and uses propaganda to achieve his goals.
Nyarlathotep appears as a special field boss in Nakano. During a Full Moon, if the player is holding a Shining Trapezohedron and approaches the tree at the southern central area, a Fiery Three-Eyed Nyarlathotep boss will appear along with several Nightmare Black Oozes. Should Nyarlathotep and the Black Oozes be defeated before the Full Moon ends, there is a rare chance that a second, more powerful Crawling Chaos Nyarlathotep will appear to take their place, who is accompanied with several other, smaller Crawling Chaos Nyarlathotep. This boss will drop a Crown Shard when defeated, which can be traded with the Junk Collector in Souhonzan for Nyarlathotep's plug-in, Crawling Confusion.
Persona series[]
In the Persona series, Nyarlathotep is one of the sapient forces of the Collective Unconsciousness. Unlike deities and demons born from human imageries in the sea of hearts, Nyarlathotep is formed from the destructive impulses of humanity: every action, feeling and thought oriented toward destroying or harming the sense of self or the ego, be it oneself or others. As such, he and Philemon exist as polar opposites, yet fundamentally similar entities formed out of primal instincts which all humans possess.
Unlike Philemon, Nyarlathotep freely manifests in the waking world and interferes with the lives of humans, and he has myriad forms to match. He can pose himself as a Persona to individuals he chooses, he can impersonate anyone in order to manipulate those close to the person he impersonates, he can manifest avatars based on rumors which he himself spreads, and he can manifest himself as a black butterfly to observe, much like Philemon's blue butterfly.
Megami Ibunroku Persona[]
Nyarlathotep is first introduced as Takahisa Kandori's Persona. After Kandori is defeated by the protagonist and his friends, the Persona forcibly fuses himself into Kandori and transforms him into God Kandori, stating he will give Kandori the power the man always wanted.
A distinct form of Nyarlathotep can be fused in the Velvet Room using the "Faceless Mask" totem dropped by God Kandori; the Persona will only be obtained through a fusion with a Tower Arcana result. Nyarlathotep has "Worst" affinity with every party member except for Reiji Kido, Kandori's half-brother.
The revelations in Persona 2 duology, particularly Eternal Punishment retroactively reveal Kandori's Nyarlathotep was in reality the mastermind which guided Kandori into finding the keys to the DEVA System, setting the events of this game into motion in the first place. However, it remains unclear if the Nyarlathotep which the protagonists can fuse is related to Kandori's Nyarlathotep, or if it is simply a Persona shaped by the "Nyarlathotep" image in the collective unconscious.
Persona 2 Duology[]
Nyarlathotep is the true antagonist of the Persona 2 duology, though he primarily acts behind the scenes and only reveals himself at the tail ends of both games. He is voiced by Jin Yamanoi (Japanese; for both versions of Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment) and Tom Wyner (English) in Eternal Punishment. Patrick Seitz, however, voices him in English in the PSP version of Innocent Sin.
Persona 2: Innocent Sin[]
He was responsible for the voices driving Tatsuya Sudou into madness, dictating the Oracle of Maia in hopes that he will spread the rumor and destroy humanity. Nyarlathotep himself does not believe in the prophecies at all and knows perfectly that it is nonsense spread to manipulate humanity into destroying itself, but Akinari Kashihara and Maya Okamura, genuinely believing the nonsense were prophecies by Maians, collaborated with him to write the In Lak'ech.
Both Kashihara and Okamura initially kept all of the rumors to themselves in fear of causing humanity's destruction, until Kashihara committed suicide due to vicious slander from his wife Junko Kurosu. This gave Nyarlathotep an opportunity to impersonate Kashihara, and Nyarlathotep subsequently capitalized on the desires of Kashihara's son Jun Kurosu who wanted a parent that will not embarrass him.
Due to the fake Kashihara's charisma and self-confidence compared to the real one, Nyarlathotep successfully manipulated Jun and slowly set him up as an individual who could set in motion the events prophesied in the Oracle of Maia, under the premise that it will lead mankind to a golden age. After Jun embraced the Joker identity, Nyarlathotep granted Jun a Persona of himself similar to what he did to Kandori prior.
Nyarlathotep then placed a curse onto Sumaru City which allows any rumor to become true as soon as enough people there believe in it, setting up the events prophesied in the Oracle of Maia to eventually become reality. After the Alaya Shrine arson incident, Nyarlathotep manipulated Jun as Joker into exacting revenge against Tatsuya Suou by making Jun believe Suou killed Maya Amano (presumably by taking the form of Kashihara). This is a blatant lie intended to manipulate Jun, and the true arsonist was Tatsuya Sudou whom Nyarlathotep already enthralled, as Maya is alive and well early on in the game, albeit suffering from pyrophobia.
For most of the game, Nyarlathotep remains passive as Joker and the Masked Circle carry out the Maia "prophecy" for him, not knowing its true nature. The protagonist's party are unable to actually stop him or the Masked Circle's plans, as they cannot catch up or comprehend his plans enough to outmaneuver him and can only respond to individual incidents (each of which which would fulfill parts of the prophecy without fail as soon as they happen). The party also inadvertently plays right into Nyarlathotep's hands by spreading rumors about the Masked Circle and Last Battalion in an effort to warn the people. Once enough lines of the Maian prophecy were fulfilled, Nyarlathotep took the form of the Fuhrer and marched his way towards Sumaru City with the now manifested Last Battalion.
Nyarlathotep first appears in the flesh (and out of his Fuhrer form) after Jun returns back to his senses after being defeated as the Angel Joker, taking the form of Kashihara. He tries to goad Jun back to his good side while pretending to be his father, but once this fails, he declares that Jun is removed from the Wheel of Fortune (evicting the Nyarlathotep-Persona out from him) and he will lead both the Masked Circle and Last Battalion in Jun's stead.
The party finally confronts Nyarlathotep in the Heart of Xibalba, where the Fuhrer wields the Spear of Destiny and uses Nyarlathotep as his Persona. The party asks the Fuhrer to hand over the final Crystal Skull, but he dismisses the skull as unimportant (as they are mere distractions that have nothing to do with Xibalba's ascension). Once he is defeated, the Fuhrer transforms into Kashihara to throw mocking and spiteful remarks against them, sharing that Xibalba is not in outer space but rather a realm of the collective unconscious where he resides. It is here that Nyarlathotep explains who and what he is, and the nature of his and Philemon's being as the source of people's selves (translated erroneously as the source of souls in English).
Nyarlathotep then summons Kashihara and Junko's souls to further spite Jun more. This angers the party and they challenge him to a battle with Maya Amano openly declaring her hate on him. He makes fun of their "hypocrisy" and attacks, taking the form of the Great Father (グレートファーザー, Gureito Faazaa)?. The entity takes a form resembling an amalgamation of the main cast's fathers, likely to psychologically attack them. The left arm takes the form of Lisa Silverman's father, Steven Silverman, the right arm takes the form of Masataka Amano, the left leg takes the form of Kankichi Mishina and the right leg takes the form of Akinari Kashihara. The head takes the shape of a fake Akinari Kashihara based on Jun's delusions.
Upon the Great Father's defeat, Nyarlathotep wraps up the fight by praising the party's strength, at which point Philemon appears. Both entities discuss the party are indeed evidence that humanity possess the potential to become enlightened beings, which Nyarlathotep admits is the case. They reveal the events of the entire game stem from a prior wager between Philemon and Nyarlathotep, where the former bets humanity will achieve an enlightenment to become greater beings, while the latter bets humans will ultimately destroy themselves. Nyarlathotep has been planning and pushing things in his favor with his manipulations.
Nyarlathotep soon reveals he was only toying with the party because he is confident that he already won. He reveals his real ace in the hole which the party failed to take into account; Maya Okamura and another Spear of Destiny. He summons the insane Okamura, who fatally stabs Maya Amano with a wound which cannot be healed. Philemon comments the Spear of Destiny's power originated from a rumor about the spear of Longinus which Nyarlathotep spread 2,000 years ago, revealing that Philemon and Nyarlathotep began their wager that long ago. With Maya's death, the Oracle is fulfilled, causing the earth to stop rotating and devastates the entire surface, with the inhabitants of Sumeru in the Xibalba spaceship being the last vestige of humanity alive, rendering him victorious.
Philemon offers the party a way out by telling them a way to harness the Collective Unconscious to create a new reality, where the chain of events leading to the destruction of humanity never happened. However, the party must visualize a reality where they never met so Nyarlathotep cannot manipulate them. All party members reluctantly do so, but Tatsuya alone refuses to forget his memories, setting up the events of Eternal Punishment. It is implied Nyarlathotep is counting on this to happen, because the final phrase of the Oracle of Maia explicitly says "Marking the end and a new beginning."
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment[]
Nyarlathotep fulfills a similar role as he did in Innocent Sin. Because Tatsuya refused to abandon his memories of the old world, his spirit now inhabits the body of Tatsuya Suou of the new world. Nyarlathotep took advantage of this and branded Tatsuya with a mark to remind him that he doesn't have much time before the Other Side erases the new world created by the sacrifice of his friends. This causes Tatsuya to initially avoid the people he knew, including his own family as well as Maya.
Prior to branding Tatsuya, Nyarlathotep spent some time implementing a new plan to let Mankind destroy itself once again. While he didn't grant Tatsuya Sudou memories of Innocent Sin's events, he did talk and tease Sudou with comments intended to spark the general idea of the same events, so Sudou would repeat most of them (albeit with some differences).
The initial plan was somewhat similar to his Masked Circle scheme in the previous timeline where a spaceship will supposedly deliver promises of a utopia, but this time he set up the New World Order, a group of corrupt politicians to act as his servants. He spread the unearthing of the mummy of a fabricated tyrant known as Kiyotada Sumaru who via kotodama, supposedly told the New World Order to extract Kegare from people and insert them into the earth's core, which will result in the earth dragons arising from it and they will destroy the world out of rage.
In order to fulfill the prophecy, Nyarlathotep turned Tatsuya Sudou into a contract killer known as JOKER and used Chizuru Ishigami to spread a similarly named mystical infection on anyone who called him that will result in the host turning into a bloodthirsty maniac. The rumor of Takahisa Kandori's revival was also spread, causing him to literally return to life to act as Nyarlathotep's agent again. Nyarlathotep is also implied to fabricate historical events surrounding Gozen and bogus ancestors of Maya Amano, Tatsuya Suou and Jun Kurosu to mock them.
The New World Order organizationally extracts Kegare from the people infected with Joker infection, and then dumps the Kegare toward earth's core from various sites, planning the destruction of the world while they board Ame-no-Torifune (a counterpart to Xibalba) to utopia. Just like before, Nyarlathotep remains passive for most of the game while having his pawns do most of the work for him, although this time he's visible in the open as the Time Count rather than hidden entirely from plain sight. He also often takes the form of Tatsuya Suou, presumably to psychologically attack him, although he only starts doing this when the party directly confronts him.
In the end, a new group, consisting of Maya, Tatsuya, Baofu, Tatsuya's brother Katsuya Suou, and Ulala Serizawa stand against Nyarlathotep and his plans of extermination. Unlike the previous group, this one is much more proactive in stopping Nyarlathotep's schemes rather than merely reacting to his movements, allowing them to finally gain an upper hand by directly thwarting his plans. After the defeat of Kiyotada Sumaru, the Torifune is thrown into the collective unconscious and the party ends up in the Monado Mandala. From there he unleashes his backup plan; using the Shadow Selves of the party members to capitalize on their personal traumas, while simultaneously forcing Tatsuya to decide whether to restore Lisa, Eikichi, and Jun's memories of the Other Side. Despite his efforts, Jun will not be able to recover his memories of the Other Side, preventing Nyarlathotep from undoing the current reality.
Once the party manages to confront Nyarlathotep himself, he spends most of the confrontation trying to psychologically attack Tatsuya into a breakdown until Baofu and Maya gave him the encouragements not to give in, and they collectively deny Nyarlathotep's fatalist philosophy. Enraged, he unleashes his "true forms" against the party. Contrary to the previous encounter against him, he acts in a much, more hostile manner and is prone to genuine anger, likely realizing that he is actually cornered into a loss for real this time. Ultimately, he is defeated for good this time with no more plans left to follow-up against them. Following his second defeat, he is banished by Tatsuya to the deepest corners of the collective unconscious, eradicating the curse of Rumors in Sumeru and allowing Philemon to win the bet. He isn't destroyed forever though, because he is an undeniable and indelible presence in the hearts of humanity, and may still return.
In Tatsuya's new scenario in the remake, a series of circumstances prior to Tatsuya meeting the rest of his party members leads to Shiori Miyashiro's self is shattered into Trapezohedrons and scattered into the realm known as Kadath Mandala. Nyarlathotep's avatar, "The Faceless God" seized the last of the eleven stones, the one containing Shiori's Shadow. Unlike the Nyarlathotep from the main story, The Faceless God appears as how Nyarlathotep is depicted in the traditional Shin Megami Tensei games.
Upon being encountered by the party and then defeated, Faceless God tells the party to meet with the real Nyarlathotep soon. Upon dispersing, he is forced to leave behind not only Shiori's Trapezohedron, but also Randolph Carter's Trapezohedron of Emotion, allowing both to be restored to proper humanity and ending the scenario.
Persona: Tsumi to Batsu[]
It is revealed in the last chapter that Rago is an avatar of Nyarlathotep.
Devil Survivor Overclocked[]
"A god of the Cthulhu mythos. He came to Earth in ancient times from outer space and is known as the Crawling Chaos. He acts as a proxy to his masters such as Azathoth, who have no intelligence to make their desires manifest in our world. Because he can assume various forms, he is known as a faceless god. He is particularly known as the Haunter of the Dark, and he seems to have other guises on Earth as well."
—Devil Survivor Overclocked Compendium
Known as Nyalatotep. In the 8th day, God vs Hero, Nyarlathotep is one of Naoya's demons when he appears to help during the final battle against Okuninushi.
Devil Survivor 2[]
Nyarlathotep appears as the strongest member of the Vile race.
The Animation[]
Nyarlathotep's name appears as the name of the 8th layer in JP's Alaozar Firewall System.
Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2[]
An event titled The God of Chaos Cometh was held in the game to coincide with Nyarlathotep being added to the game.
+15% to Force damage and HP stops at 1 HP upon receiving the first killing blow.
Innate
Crawling Chaos
Auto
Adds Force Pierce. Adds Null Bind. While the one with this skill is alive, all enemies will receive the following effect: When in a state of Gloom, +25% to all Magic damage received, and decreases damage of all Magic attacks by 25%.
On 1st turn: Inflicts Gloom on all enemies. (3 turns)
Innate
Otherworldly Force
6 MP
Inflicts Force (Magic) damage 4 times (Power: 35, Total: 140) on all enemies. Enemies downed by this skill will not be able to revive.
Innate
Killing Wind
7 MP
Inflicts Force (Magic) damage with 180 power on a Single Enemy.
Aragami (Awaken)
Force Amp
Auto
+25% to Force damage
Aragami (Gacha)
Debilitate
8 MP
Reduces ATK, DEF, and EV/AC of All Enemies by 20% for 3 turns.
Protector (Awaken)
Null Mute-Curse
Auto
Adds Null Mute and Null Curse
Protector (Gacha)
Butcher
Auto
+20% damage to skills that target all or random enemies.
Psychic (Awaken)
Force Enhancement
Auto
+15% to Force damage. +10% damage when attacking the enemy's weak point
Psychic (Gacha)
Null Light
Auto
Adds Light Null.
Elementalist (Awaken)
6th Sense Survivor
Auto
-50% to Critical hit rate of damage received. HP stops at 1 HP upon receiving the first killing blow.
Elementalist (Gacha)
Battle Quotes[]
Persona 2: Innocent Sin[]
"It is a father's nature to be the ultimate obstacle to his child. Very well... reach for your future with all your strength!" (Start of Great Father battle)
"Now, what will you do?" (Physical attack)
"Ahahahaha!" (Physical attack)
"Do you fear your father?" (Megidolaon)
"Heed your father's call!" (Firestorm/Despairing Dream)
"Prepare yourselves!" (Earth's Anger)
"Maya!" (High Pressure)
"Eikichi!" (Fear Torrent)
"Jun..." (Hurricane)
"Call me Papa." (Delusion Channeling)
"I hope you find happiness." (Reminiscence Wave, spoken by Maya's father)
"Do as I say!" (Master 18, spoken by Eikichi's father)
"You are Japanese!" (Seals Raid, spoken by Lisa's Father)
"Stop this!" (Taking damage)
"You've killed me..." (Defeat)
"Incredible. I have witnessed the powers you have fostered. Well done." (Battle End)
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment[]
"Understand that there is no point in living! Cry, that there is no answer! Where there is darkness, there are shadows! I, myself, am all of you humans!!" (Final Battle)
"Why did you come here? Heh... to spout gibberish?" (Contact of Moon Howler)
Nyarlathotep as Takahisa Kandori's Persona in Eternal Punishment
Nyarlathotep's Moon Howler form
Nyarlathotep's Crawling Chaos form
Nyarlathotep in the guise of Tatsuya Suou to the right of a tearful Maya Amano
Nyarlathotep's Faceless God avatar in Tatsuya's Additional Scenario
Portrait of Nyarlathotep as Tatsuya Suou
Unused design for Nyarlathotep's default form
Music[]
Kashihara - Persona 2 Innocent Sin (1999)
False Kashihara from Persona 2: Innocent Sin (PSX) OST
Persona 2 IS and EP - Final Battle
Final Battle from Persona 2: Innocent Sin (PSX) OST
Nyarlathotep in Persona 2 duology has a musical theme titled False Kashihara (偽橿原) which shares the same motif with Philemon's. The arrangement uses eerie pads, stronger tom drums and a human scream sound effect with strong reverberation.
The final battle theme against Nyarlathotep in both Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment continues to develop the same motif which shares the same choir phrases in the opening movie music and Order of the Holy Lance battle theme from the Innocent Sin OST.
Trivia[]
Nyarlathotep's original character design, first seen in Shin Megami Tensei II, is actually a composite character based on several different monsters from Lovecraft's writings. Its dark, featureless gaunt and featureless appearance with bat wings, resembles The Haunter of the Dark, one of Nyarlathotep's "1000 Masks." The pincer-like hands and spiny crown might reference the Mi-Go: crablike, winged fungoid aliens with a mass of feelers in place of a head first appearing in The Whisperer In Darkness. His black, winged body makes him look like the Night Gaunts which appear in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.
The design of the Moon Howler boss in Eternal Punishment is a reference to one of his avatars in the Cthulhu Mythos, specifically his avatar The Howler in the Dark. Similarly, the Faceless God form that originated from Shin Megami Tensei II may be a reference to the avatar The Wailing Writher.
The party actually met Nyarlathotep a decade ago prior to Innocent Sin where he was posing as Kashihara to take Jun back home, but they do not recognize him, nor does he do anything overtly suspicious. Young Jun also sometimes refers to his father as "a super-cool person" when playing in the Alaya Shrine despite the real Kashihara, to his knowledge was an embarrassment to him, suggesting that he was already impersonating Kashihara for some time.
Three out of five of the Great Father's signature attacks are named after psychological attacks targeted against each individual party member. Seals Raid references Maya's father dying in war, Master 18 is named after the 18 martial arts Eikichi's father is rumored to have been mastered and Delusion Channeling is named after Nyarlathotep's manipulations against Jun, which included nonsensical conspiracy theories and blatant lies intended to guide Jun into ruin.
None of Nyarlathotep's forms in the Persona series are his true form. A Kazuma Kaneko artbook contains a concept art for his true form (resembling a humanoid in a black suit with a mask as his head and holding a staff), but he never assumes this form anywhere in the games he's in.
Shadow Aigis' intro for Persona 4 Arena Ultimax shows her with a black butterfly, Nyarlathotep's symbol. Despite this, he has no role in the story.
The broken Buddha statue on Kandori's Persona-Nyarlathotep in Eternal Punishment is identical to the intact Buddha face that appears as the body of God Kandori in Megami Ibunroku Persona.
Given that the final line of the Oracle of Maia is "What then remains is paradise on earth, marking the end and a new beginning," it's likely that Nyarlathotep either took Philemon's reset of the Persona timeline into account or made a deal with him to orchestrate it if he won even way before the timeline reset occured.
If Maya speaks to Katsuya after meeting Nyarlathotep for the first time in the Monado Mandala, he will recognize it as a being that is "undoubtedly human." His presence also visibly terrifies Baofu despite his usually stoic nature.
Nyarlathotep is capable of making personas experience fear and his presence alone is enough to strike fear onto even the most stoic of people. However, in a flashback where he was posing as Kashihara to fetch a young Jun back home from the Alaya Shrine and is visibly standing right in front of the other young party members, he elicits no negative reaction towards the children whatsoever, suggesting that he could consciously control this ability.
The fact that Nyarlathotep is the only known character to disguise as a Persona deliberately to manipulate a main antagonist (Kandori in the first Persona) references his roles in the Cthulhu Mythos universe; while the other Mythos gods are often described as mindless or unfathomable, rather than truly malevolent, Nyarlathotep delights in cruelty, is deceptive and manipulative - deceiving the antagonists into believing he could grant them power (which he did at the cost of nearly losing their humanity) and manipulating them into becoming his pawns - and even cultivates followers and uses propaganda to achieve his goals - using rumors, Wang Long fortune-telling, Sumaru TV (broadcasting Wang Long), and the Masked Circle (Innocent Sin) / Tenchu Army (Eternal Punishment) to ultimately destroy the world around Sumaru City.
Additionally, Nyarlathotep's nature to offer deals with humans for power in exchange for their bodies reflects one of his forms in the Cthulhu Mythos, namely the Black Demon. It would appear to distraught cultists and offer them unimaginable power for the permission to enter their body, but would never follow up on his end of the deal.
In Innocent Sin, Nyarlathotep can seemingly exist separately from his persona form, as shown when Jun Kurosu / Joker tries use the persona to attack a Order of the Holy Lance robot commanded by the Hitler to take the Crystal Skulls and when Nyarlathotep himself harmlessly evicted the persona out from Jun's body when the party first meets him personally after defeating Angel Joker.
As of Royal,Yaldabaoth is no longer the final boss, however, the new dungeon contains many Shadows related to Lovecraftian Mythology, with Maruki'sultimate Persona, Adam Kadmon, assuming full control over Maruki after he willingly surrenders himself to his own Persona in desperation, also sharing many similarities to Nyarlathotep.
Hinokagutsuchi in the Persona 4 Arena duology is easily mistaken for Nyarlathotep before his true identity was revealed in Ultimax due to both sharing a tendency to manipulate others' emotions into achieving their goals (although Hinokagutsuchi was only able to manipulate someone by personally contacting them), their lack of regard to their surrogates/subjects such as Minazuki or Labrys, their ability to manifest Shadow Selves out of nowhere and their goal of complete and utter world destruction. Therefore, prior to the release of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, fans speculated that the Malevolent Entity was in fact Nyarlathotep rather than a completely unrelated entity, further reinforced with sharing the same English voice actor, before the reveal of differing Japanese voices.
Nyarlathotep disguising as the Time Count is similar to Yaldabaoth impersonating as Igor in Persona 5, as both are final bosses that appear as vital service providers in the game, and provide the services as a part of their plan. Yaldabaoth is also staging a humanity on a "trial" just like Nyarlathotep and Philemon did, but in Yaldabaoth's case, it was fully rigged while both parties on Philemon and Nyarlathotep's trial are genuinely competing with and trying to gain the upper hand against each other.
Nyarlathotep's form of summoning in games of the series, such as Eternal Punishment's additional Tatsuya's Scenario is a direct reference to the Cthulhu Mythos. In the mythos, the Shining Trapezohedron is an ornate stone used to contain Nyarlathotep's Haunter of the Dark avatar, usually driving those who have it mad.
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