I think you're downplaying the extent to which the topics chosen as "horrifying" are skewed by cultural context.
That's a good point. I'm thinking about what could be done to change this and still be in the horror genre. Is "horrifying" based on the context of the characters, of the reader, or of the author? Does it have to be?
Surely the game is siding with colonizers by presenting the thing as horrible in the first place? Rather than focusing on colonialism as the evil?
That's part of the point I was trying (and probably failing) to make. You could create an occult history of Western civilization where, by conquering other civilizations and melding the local occult aspects of each local culture in Europe, the entire civilization gradually loses stability until the atrocities of colonization begin to make rational sense within its context. But at the end of the day, the game is sending characters into the occult context of the local culture and presenting that as horrible. I don't think the Mythos is flexible enough to present the local Things as relatively evil.
no subject
That's a good point. I'm thinking about what could be done to change this and still be in the horror genre. Is "horrifying" based on the context of the characters, of the reader, or of the author? Does it have to be?
That's part of the point I was trying (and probably failing) to make. You could create an occult history of Western civilization where, by conquering other civilizations and melding the local occult aspects of each local culture in Europe, the entire civilization gradually loses stability until the atrocities of colonization begin to make rational sense within its context. But at the end of the day, the game is sending characters into the occult context of the local culture and presenting that as horrible. I don't think the Mythos is flexible enough to present the local Things as relatively evil.