This stems from a conversation on Yog-Sothoth.com about Nyarlathotep. Maybe there's more discussion forthcoming in the book about the Big N that would contradict or clarify these notions. But I'm sure the good people here will inform me about such. So, here are a few ramblings on Nyarlathotep and humanity's ultimate fate. Enjoy them, hate them, destroy them in eternal flame, whatever. But most important, let's talk about them. 

Here's are ideas I've played around with:
Nyarlathotep is a genius. Beyond merely human genius. It's fairly safe to say that Nyarlathotep's intellect and understanding of the true nature of the cosmos is so far beyond ours that we can't effectively quantify it. And yet, he's a slave, tethered to a being of pure, mindless chaos, carrying out its at-times inexplicable whims. He's got to hate this. You take a supra-intelligent, apparently sentient being and make it a slave to a mindless god.

Well, something's gotta give. So ... I wonder about his actual interest in humanity. He hates us, and yet it seems he's fascinated with us. What does Nyarlathotep see in humanity? Why does he seem to spend so much time interacting with us?

The easiest answer, of course, is that he's working long-term to provide the methodologies of our eventual destruction and setting up the chess board for the return of the old ones. But I'm not sure. We're going to seem to go far afield here before we return to theme.

I've toyed with the idea that Nyarlathotep, rather than tormenting us, may be testing us. Pushing up to grow in scientific and certain other manners. Increasing our potential evolution at the possible cost of our essential "humanity." The prophecies of the Lovecraftian eshatology imply that mankind will become as the old ones themselves before it's all said and done. I can't for the life of me remember this, but I read somewhere where at least one researcher was speculating that serial killers and similar deviants might actually have a different type of consciousness than "normal" people do, a form of super-sanity. The Batman "Arkham Asylum" storyline actually played with this concept as it relates to The Joker:

Dr. Adams (Joker's therapist): The Joker's a special case. Some of us feel he may be beyond treatment. In fact, we're not even sure if he can be properly as insane. ... We're beginning to think it may be a neurological disorder, similar to Tourette's syndrome. It's quite possible we may actually be looking at some kind of super-sanity here. A brilliant new modification of human perception. More suited to urban life at the end of the twentieth century.

I realize that this makes Nyarlathotep appear, at first blush, something of a benevolent entity. This isn't exactly the case -- especially from our normal, humanity-centric point of view. But ... How does one transcend one's "islands of ignorance" and become one of the Great Races? Lovecraft says our doom will come from a piecing together of disassociated knowledge until a great,terrible whole is revealed -- a whole that he claims will make us run screaming into a new dark age. But will we?

To become as the old ones would seem to imply a move beyond humanity's comfortable moral constructs and into a more unblinking, unwavering perception of things as they Really Are. Perhaps this creates a form of "insanity" as new frames of reference are adopted that over time resolves into a new state of supra-consciousness.

I've become taken with the idea that part of Nyarlathotep's job is to test infantile races, to take their measure. Those who merely go insane or are easily broken are destroyed or enslaved. But perhaps one in 10,000, maybe even one in a million, shows the potential to be as terrible as Nyarlathotep and his masters. I think we just might be one of them.

So, he toys with us. Tests us. Gives us bits of knowledge to see what we do with it. I think he hates us because of our free will, but he sees something powerful, though latent, with us as well. I think he sees us as potentially greater than the old ones, or at least every bit as terrible.

I realize this throws Lovecraft's "humanity doesn't matter" ethos somewhat into the gutter. But to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure the fiction really bears that out. Earth, at least, seems vitally important to the old ones. And right now, we're primarily pawns in their plans. But what if their yen to control and subjugate us has more to do with what what we could become, given time? What game is Nyarlathotep really playing? Is he moving us forward toward our doom or some inexplicable goal of his own? Does he plan to use us as pawns, not to destroy the cosmos, but somehow to become its master?

I'm uncertain. But I know one thing: he's crafty. Craftier than any of us could ever be. And I know the bastard's got some sort of a plan cooking.