BoM/TWS Message Forum

The point of the Cthulhu Mythos is horror by despair. You can't stop the inevitable - all you can do is stall it, and convincing yourself that magic's the only way is a surefire way to become the villain. That's probably the reason why you feel it fits - the corruptive influence of magic alongside the creatures and artifacts that the heroes would have to confront. As I said, other systems could replicate the same feel, but you're too married to the setting, and doing so means you'll have to either disregard all the lore (which means a MASSIVE revision) or eventually embrace it.

One reason I mentioned Shadowrun, even if it's a cyberpunk setting at its core, is because it fits some concepts as well (the creatures and artifacts, the concept of essentia down to the Rule of Six, the presence of megacorporations looking to rule the world and delve into secrets man shouldn't know for profit reasons, ancient conspiracies), as a way to mention how your vision is only a fraction of the whole. CoC fits well with stories relating to, say, Blackwell or Cuthbert or maybe the Brotherhood of Baphomet, but when dealing with the day-to-day stories everyone else prefers or when Fane's involved, the setting doesn't help that much.

As for the Stellae - I recall that, in the Mythos, there are benign gods. I know I confused the Outer Gods for the Elder Gods, but there's a group of ancient deities that oppose the Great Old Ones, and some of them are related to existing deities (like the Egyptian Bast or the Greek Hypnos). In that regard, the Stellae would be a group that knows about beings like these - the ousiarchs would fit that mold of Elder Gods without being gods themselves. At their core, even if not being blessed by otherworldly beings, they're a secret society fighting evil magicians and cryptids - they can exist easily, as an aide or a foil to the players depending on their actions. (Considering how the Durras brothers often butt heads with Will, they'd probably do the same for anyone who tries to use magic to fight these creatures indiscriminately - those two are a little bit too convinced they're the only ones.) Once that's settled, what's left is to describe how the ousiarchs exist. Considering you want to divorce the setting from the lore of the Cthulhu Mythos, there's no reason why you can't work them mechanically - particularly if you want the players to be adepts.