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The Quake 1 World: Influences And Origins?
It has fascinated me for quite a while now where the tremendously atmospheric world of Quake 1 came from.

I can mention two possible sources, (in addition to the actual imagination of the people at ID!)

Obviously the clearest debt is to HP Lovecraft, with the Chthon name/monster being specifically used in e1m7.

Lovecraft's surreal vision of horror rests on the idea of age old ancient aliens that visit/fester in the earth, killing humans when disturbed - this certainly fit in with the Quake paradigm.

(Kell is obviously a Lovecraft expert, see Contract Revoked).

i found this quote in the web whilst searching:

"I think they (ID) have been getting inspiration from Lovecraft even back to Wolfenstein 3-D -- Quake more so than Doom, and Doom more so than Wolf. (Note: "inspiration" -- in Wolf it was the whole Nazi mad-scientist deal; in Doom, Hell invades from another dimension.)

However, in Quake, we have monsters that are named from the Cthulhu mythos: Chthon, Shambler, Shub Niggurath. And many places, too: The Vaults of Zin, The Nameless City. As well as a story line (what there is of it) almost too Lovecraftian to mistake for anything but a Lovecraft-inspired story."

Back to my opinions again, another influence (after it coming up in the Coagula thread) might be the the artwork of HR Giger.

thoughts/ideas/comments?
Evile 
Black satanic rites 
Wait! Stop! 
I agree that Lovecraft was a key influecence, but the name 'Chthon' is not from Lovecraft. It comes from the word chthonic, which comes from khth�n, the Greek word for earth. 
Also 
Kell wrote an article on this very subject, though he spells my name wrong, AND the name of my website! Anyway, the link is http://www.signsofkoth.co.uk/stuff_lovecraftinquake.html 
Metlslime 
thanx for the link to the article, a well written and interesting read indeed.
I had never read that article before (honest!). Its also interesting that Kell mentions Giger near the end, just as i did in my post above. 
Giger-Lovecraft Connection 
If nothing else... Giger himself has named Lovecraft as an influence. In fact i first learned about Lovecraft by reading through one of Giger's art books -- Arh+, i think. 
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