After the last UA gave us a wild magic Barbarian subclass and a psychic-themed monk subclass, the latest gives us new subclasses for the Sorcerer and Barbarian, as well as a new cantrip.
Both involve elements common with the works of Lovecraft and cosmic horror.
Sorcerers get the Aberrant Mind sorcerous origin. The notion in this subclass is that your sorcerer got their powers after being tainted by some kind of aberration - being born in some place warped by the Far Realm, maybe having been enslaved by an Aboleth, or even having nearly undergone Cereomorphosis, only for the process (which would have seen your body essentially overtaken by a nascent Mind Flayer) to fail.
Aberrant Minds get several free spells (not counting against the "known spell" limit) that, when cast using Sorcery Points, actually count as Psionics and thus don't require any components (it took me a very long time to figure out that was the distinction.) You can also eventually find yourself transformed in various body-horror ways to give various physical benefits. Definitely one of the creepier subclasses, and if my Great Old One Warlock ever multiclasses into Sorcerer, this'd probably have to be the subclass for him.
Warlocks get the Lurker in the Deep. Now, if you've watched Critical Role's second campaign, you'll be familiar with Fjord (pronounced just "Ford,") the well-meaning but deceptive half-orc who woke up after nearly drowning in a shipwreck with a magical falchion by his side. Fjord is a Hexblade warlock, but his patron is less Shadowfell-y and more like a Great Old One - a massive underwater sea monster titan with, just, too many eyes called Uk'otoa. Well, even if I think it fits Great Old One, it's an even better match for the Lurker in the Deep, which has a patron that's some ancient underwater creature like an Aboleth, Kraken, or Leviathan - maybe even something from the Plane of Water. In addition to some obvious aquatic-based abilities, you can also have your patron come and aid you in various ways, and summon a tentacle of theirs to help in combat.
So what could this all mean?
After seeing the Order Domain, Circle of Spores, School of Invention (which sort of became a magic item,) as well as several Ravnica races that were first tested in Unearthed Arcana before the Ravnica sourcebook was announced, I now look at a lot of UA articles as potential hints for something in the future.
On one hand, the psionic nature of Aberrant Mind and the Monks' Way of the Astral Self makes me wonder if they might be gearing up for some Dark Sun-themed release, which I know to be a popular (and very different from both Forgotten Realms and Eberron) setting. On the other hand, Lurker in the Deep sure as hell ain't going to be much of a thing on the desert world of Athas (unless there's some vast ocean there I'm not aware of.)
The truth is that these could just be ideas they're tossing at the wall. Or, we might get something more akin to Xanathar's Guide to Everything, which is not really about any one particular theme but adds some "missing pieces" that feel like they fill out the options pretty well.
But given how my homebrew setting has cosmic horror monsters that even fiends consider dangerous as its most prominent supernatural threat, I'm very curious to see if we see more of that sort of thing in future 5E releases. After all, with Out of the Abyss and Descent into Avernus, we've got two major adventures featuring the headlining fiend types. Maybe a bit more in the way of the aberration is what we could use next.
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