The following questions always comes up:
Q: What's the difference between the Occult skill and Cthulhu Mythos skill?
A: Occult (p.70 Keeper Rulebook) is major world religions, fringe religions and beliefs, and non-Mythos magic. This includes such things as Kabbalah, Masonic secret handshakes, Knights Templar symbols, Aztec ritual sacrifices, Ancient Egyptian rites, Midsommar rites and symbols, Satanism, etc. This skill may let your cast non-Mythos magic (Folk magic, individual GMs would determine if this is available), identify rites and rituals, and lets you blend in especially when pretending to belong to a specific religion or cult.
Cthulhu Mythos (p.61 Keeper Rulebook) is attunement the Lovecraftian reality of the universe, that there are Deep Ones in the seas; Azathoth sleeps and the universe and all its happenings are figments of its dream; Cthulhu sleeps in the sunken city of R'lyeh and when he wakes, he'll destroy Earth; etc. This skill lets you cast Cthulhu Mythos spells, identify Cthulhu Mythos creatures, determine their strengths and weaknesses.
Note: The Keeper Rulebook does not say Occult includes world religions. I think it isn't specifically spelled out because people would get offended if their religion is placed in the Occult category. That said, if you look up the Sample Occupations: Member of the Clergy (p. 40 Keeper Rulebook) or Missionary (p.41 Keeper Rulebook), religion is NOT a skill. So, world religions should be in the general knowledge category. I'm not religious, but I know about the Jewish prohibition on eating pork, Christians saying grace at meals, Buddhists burning incense at an altar, Sikh's not cutting their hair, etc. This general knowledge of other people's religion may all come under an EDU roll. But esoteric religious knowledge such as the ones I listed above (secret handshakes and symbols), should be under Occult. I also asked Mike Mason about this once and he told me that Occult includes Religion.
Q: Is there an overlap between Occult and Cthulhu Mythos? With a high enough Occult skill, would I know any Cthulhu Mythos?
A: Short answer: No. Long answer: Maybe. The rules clearly delineates the two, but also states that "worshippers of the Great Old Ones often adopt occult ideas." Who is to say that some old stories or practices by a religion isn't based on a kernel of truth or some ancient truth twisted by time and oral retellings into something else. Sometimes, if a PC has a very high Occult, I would let them roll that instead of Cthulhu Mythos, but I would require an Extreme success to give them some information and even when I do that, I may couch the information as a rumor or as a wild speculation. There are stories of Selkies who come up from the sea to mate with humans or a Creature from the Black Lagoon who kidnapped women. Whereas if they rolled Cthulhu Mythos, I'd say, "Yeah, it's a Deep One." Actually, the better solution is have them make a combined roll of Occult and Cthulhu Mythos. Roll once and see if it's a Cthulhu Mythos success, if not, see what type of Occult success they got instead.
Q: Why should I put skill points in Occult if it's just a distortion of the truth and would just give me red herrings?
A: You can't put points into Cthulhu Mythos, but you can put points into Occult. Also, all skills have a potential to give you useful information. Occult might tell you that folklore in your region says that pouring salt across your doorways and windows will keep the evil forces from entering your house. But Cthulhu Mythos tells you that most likely the creature can't fly and salt harms the creature.
Knowledge of Occult can also let you fake it, until you make it; when trying to convince a cultist you're a believer and want to join their cult or you belong to another branch of their cult.
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