Robert Crucian is a fictional character in H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos, introduced by writer Jason Bengtson. As of 2011, the character is the focus of a short story and audio-play by Bengtson, at least one fan site, and has found some crossover success among players of the Delta Green franchise.
Contents
Character Background
The character appears in the short story (later adapted to a "radio-style" audio play) "To the Ocean of Darkness" as a part-time librarian with experience as a military police officer in the Army. His experience with a "Cthulhu cult" has left him a jaded alcoholic. Crucian is described as marginally proficient in Latin, and an expert in weapons and hand-to-hand combat. In the story he demonstrates a capability and a willingness to resort to violence rarely seen in the characters of Lovecraft's original work, though occasionally glimpsed in later mythos adventures by other authors.
Character Development
The only story appearing to date has placed Crucian in Iowa, though the audio-play indicates he will be transplanted to New Mexico.
Crossovers with other Mythos characters
To date Crucian has been pitted against Cthulhu cultists (his backstory) and a Tsathoggua cult, as well as formless spawn and Nyarlathotep himself. The author has also made references in the character back story to "Henry Armitage", a librarian from Lovecraft's "the Dunwich Horror". Fan entries in the Delta Green franchise seem to indicate a fan authored cross-over between Crucian and Delta Green is in the works. Bengtson has updated his "official" Robert Crucian site with fictional "news" of the character's time in New Mexico.
Criticism of the Character
Some comments on the Crucian fan page have noted that the Robert Crucian character echoes an increasing strain of overt violence in later Cthulhu mythos works, as seen in the Delta Green and Titus Crow story lines. This contrasts heavily with the more detached, less revealing nature of Lovecraft's own original mythos writing. Some criticism has also been leveled against Bengtson's use of pulp-style writing, contrasted against Lovecraft's reliance on "purple prose" (an irony given that Lovecraft's work was published in pulp magazines).