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381 lines
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+-+--+-+--+-+ VOLUME ONE NUMBER FOUR
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+___________+ FFFFF SSS FFFFF N N EEEEE TTTTT
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| ++ | F S F NN N E T
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| ++ | FFF SSS FFF N N N EEE T
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| | F S F N NN E T
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|_________| F SSS F N N EEEEE T
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/___________\ ==========================================
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| | BITNET Fantasy-Science Fiction Fanzine
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___|___________|___ X-Edited by 'Orny' Liscomb (NMCS025@MAINE)
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<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>
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CONTENTS
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Editorinomican Mad Orny al-Hazred
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Featured Author: H.P. LOVECRAFT Orny
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Call of Cthulhu Game Review Mike H.
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The Book HPL
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The Cthulhu Mythos Merlin
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Editorial
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Greetings, and welcome to the Howard Phillips Lovecraft special issue
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of FSFnet. I must apologize for the lateness of this issue, but, as
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many of you know already, I am in the middle of spending three weeks in
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wonderful (?) New York City. I hope that you will find the issue worth
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the wait. Future issues should be forthcoming within a few weeks,
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depending on how things go here.
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Submissions and other response can be sent to my Maine account, and
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will receive proper attention, usually within one to five days. If you
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have something that you would like to bring to my attention, I will be
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using TIGQC489 @ CUNYVM during my stay in NYC, which should last until
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the 20th of March.
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I would like to thank the contributors for their help, and I would
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like to apologize to Eric (@ UCONN) for having to ask him to withdraw a
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fine submission, due to length. Merlin's overview of the Mythos is an
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excellent article, and Mike's CoC game review is lucid. I hope that
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Lovecraft fans enjoy this issue, although there is not enough room to do
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his work justice, and I hope that those of you who have not been
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introduced to HPL find this issue enjoyable and interesting.
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Issue five should be following this issue rather rapidly, and will
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definitely appear in your reader queues before the end of the month. It
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will contain sequels to stories that appeared in issue three, and, of
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course, another featured author... I really ought to start thinking
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about who...
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Well, you know how it is. Enjoy, and spread the word!
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Orny <NMCS025 @ MAINE and TIGQC489 @ CUNYVM>
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<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>
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Featured Author: HOWARD PHILLIPS LOVECRAFT
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H.P. Lovecraft has become one of the most well-known of the early
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writers in the pulp science fiction/horror field. His life was very
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controversial, and there has been passionate debate over how much of
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Lovecraft's work was influenced by his early experiences. However, his
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writings remain popular works of horror, and HPL has had many followers
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and imitators.
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Lovecraft was born and lived all his life in Providence, Rhode
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Island. His father was placed in a mental home when HPL was three, and
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died of paresis when Howard was 8. His mother, from all accounts, was
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psychoneurotic, eventually being institutionalized as well. HPL was
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brought up in a very Victorian household, and therefore his emotions and
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imagination were suppressed. He was taught to read early, and his
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childhood was filled with writing experiments. However, Howard was a
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sickly child, and was not exposed to the world outside his home. He was
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made very aware of his own shortcomings, with possible psychological
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implications.
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HPL carried on a number of active correspondances with younger
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authors once he had broken into the pulp market, and many people feel
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that if he had spent less time on his letters he might have been more
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productive; however, for Lovecraft, these epistles were necessary to
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help him cope with his incredibly low self-image, to help him deal with
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his loneliness, and to gather news and ideas from the vast world outside
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his experience.
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Lovecraft's style was heavily influenced by Poe, Arthur Machen, and
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Lord Dunsany, although HPL also filtered his ideas through his life-
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experience. For example, Lovecraft used very little dialogue, for he
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did not have a great deal of experience in conversation. Most of his
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tales are located in New England, a fact which adds believability to his
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tales, but also becomes redundant. HPL distinctly avoided sex in his
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stories, and any women who appear are as nonfeminine as his mother.
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One of Lovecraft's favorite writing mechanisms is the use of an
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ancient, forbidden tome, usually the Necronomicon, a book originally of
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his invention, though several hoaxes have been perpetrated. This may
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have been borrowed from Poe's "ancient sources" or Robert W. Chambers'
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"King in Yellow", but no fantastic book has ever been portrayed as
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effectively as Lovecraft's. More recent authors have copied the tactic
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with marginal success: Robert E. Howard's "Unaussprechlichen Kulten"
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and Robert Bloch's "De Vermis Mysteriis" being examples.
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Lovecraft's works are many and varied, beginning with his earlier
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tales, to be found in Del Rey's recent reprints "The Tomb" and "The Doom
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that Came to Sarnath" and culminating in his popular Cthulhu Mythos
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cycle. Most of his work is in the form of short stories, although he
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also wrote poetry which is generally considered marginal. In his own
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eyes, his best work was the story "Colour out of Space", followed by
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"The Music of Eric Zann". I tend to agree with Lovecraft on this, but
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would also suggest "The Tomb", "The Doom that Came to Sarnath", "The
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Call of Cthulhu", and the Charles Dexter Ward novella. The Del Rey
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reprints are all excellent collections, and many other works are
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available, if, like some of HPL's characters, one enjoys delving for
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arcane and wond'rous tomes of ancient lore.
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H.P. Lovecraft is a classic horror author and a must for horror fans;
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however, it must be remembered that he wrote his works for pulp
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magazines who were not interested in master works of style. He wrote to
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earn his living, which was, at best, meagre, and his unique psychology
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and situation left many gaps in his writing style. However, he was also
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a master at certain techniques that budding authors should note, and
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that horror fans would appreciate.
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Orny <NMCS025 @ MAINE>
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<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>
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Call of Cthulhu GAME REVIEW
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Fans of H.P Lovecraft's infamous 'Cthulhu mythos' stories and general
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horror buffs now have a role playing game designed just for them:
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Chaosium's fantasy role playing game 'Call of Cthulhu'. If you are
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bored by standard role playing games, tired of the old 'kill monster,
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take its treasure, go on to next monster...' limbo inherent in many
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fantasy games, or if you just want to try something different, Call of
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Cthulhu may be worth looking into. Based entirely on the world of H.P.
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Lovecraft, where mankind is beset by immortal elder gods of
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mindshattering power and insane human sorcerers bent on the enslavement
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of humanity, this game offers adventurers a different approach to
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gaming; Horror based role playing. In this world, players fight
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sorcerers and evil humans, lose sanity, and run from monsters a lot.
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The enjoyment of it is derived not from successfully killing the enemy,
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but from successfully running away before it eats your face off. Combat
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plays a small part in this game, which instead centers around detective
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work coupled with a general atmosphere of Gothic horror and impending
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doom.
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The gaming system is remarkably simple, and anyone familiar with
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Chaosium's gaming system will find Call to be similar to other Chaosium
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games, such as Elfquest, Stormbringer, and Elric. Hit points are
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computed in a simple (some might say primitive) way by averaging size
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and con. Sanity is a statistic unique to this game, and is used more
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often than hit points, with a character being shocked into madness by
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'unspeakably blasphemous horrors', as H.P.L. might have put it. The
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overall game system is more logic oriented than most others, with a list
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of abilities and areas of knowledge somewhat similar to Top Secret, only
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more diverse and lengthy. Combat is simple, with parries, critical
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hits, and a percentage chance to hit any given target. (Those who value
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greater realism in a gaming system may wish to use a system of
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'difficulty factors' like that used in the James Bond role playing
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game. Assigning a constant chance to hit any target at any range with a
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given weapon is not exactly realistic.) However, a clever gamemaster can
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make up for any deficiencies in the game system and find a right blend
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of realism and simplicity.
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Modules for Call are not easy to find, being less numerous than those
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of many other games. Most modules published by Chaosium are in the form
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of long campaigns, with six or more modules usually linked by a central
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theme, and flowing nicely from one to the other. These modules cost
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approximately ten dollars, and are well worth it since they provide many
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hours of game time. The modules state that they will last for sixty
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hours, but a gamemaster well versed in Lovecraft's literature can
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stretch it out to at least a hundred hours. That comes to a dime an
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hour, a much better deal than most other games can offer. Some titles
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to look for are: Shadows of Yog Sothoth, Masks of Nyarlathotep, The
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Asylum, The Fungi from Yuggoth, Death in Dunwich and others.
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The game itself may prove difficult to find; almost as difficult as
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locating books by H.P.L. The easiest way to get a copy of the game if no
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local store has it is to order it direct from Chaosium; there are
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advertisements in Dragon magazine with the address. Modules will
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probably be similar to track down, but an order form is enclosed with
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the game, so that is no big problem.
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(Note: try to get the second edition of the game. The first is flawed
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in several ways, which are corrected in the second edition. Corrections
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for the first edition were published as part some modules, including
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'Shadows of Yog Sothoth'.)
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Mike H. <HONORS4 @ UCONNVM>
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<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>
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THE BOOK
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My memories are very confused. There is even much doubt as to where
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they begin; for at times I feel appalling vistas of years stretching
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behind me, while at other times it seems as if the present moment were
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an isolated point in a grey, formless infinity. I am not even certain
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how I am communicating this message. While I know I am speaking, I have
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a vague impression that some strange and perhaps terrible mediation will
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be needed to bear what I say to the points where I wish to be heard. My
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identity, too, is bewilderingly cloudy. I seem to have suffered a great
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shock - perhaps from some utterly monstrous outgrowth of my cycles of
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unique, incredible experience.
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These cycles of experience, of course, all stem from that worm-
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riddled book. I remember when I found it - in a dimly lighted place
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near the black, oily river where the mists always swirl. That place was
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very old, and the ceiling-high shelves full of rotting volumes reached
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back endlessly through windowless inner rooms and alcoves. There were,
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besides, great formless heaps of books on the floor and in crude bins;
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and it was in one of these heaps that I found the thing. I never
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learned its title, for the early pages were missing; but it fell open
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toward the end and gave me a glimpse of something which sent my senses
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reeling.
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There was a formula - a sort of list of things to say and do - which
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I recognized as something black and forbidden; something which I had
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read of before in furtive paragraphs of mixed abhorrence and fascination
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penned by those strange ancient delvers into the universe's guarded
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secrets whose decaying texts I loved to absorb. It was a key - a guide
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- to certain gateways and transitions of which mystics have dreamed and
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whispered since the race was young, and which lead to freedoms and
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discoveries beyond the three dimensions and realms of life and matter
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that we know. Not for centuries had any man recalled its vital
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substance or known where to find it, but this book was very old indeed.
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No printing-press, but the hand of some half-crazed monk, had traced
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these ominous Latin phrases in unicals of awesome antiquity.
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I remember how the old man leered and tittered, and made a curious
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sign with his hand when I bore it away. He had refused to take pay for
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it, and only long afterward did I guess why. As I hurried home through
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those narrow, winding, mist-cloaked waterfront streets I had a frightful
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impression of being stealthily followed by softly padding feet. The
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centuried, tottering houses on both sides seemed alive with a fresh and
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morbid malignity - as if some hitherto closed channel of evil
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understanding had abruptly been opened. I felt that those walls and
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overhanging gables of mildewed brick and fungoid plaster and timber -
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with eye-like, diamond-paned windows that leered - could hardly desist
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from advancing and crushing me... yet I had read only the least fragment
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of that blasphemous rune before closing the book and bringing it away.
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I remember how I read the book at last - white-faced, and locked in
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the attic room that I had long devoted to strange searchings. The great
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house was very still, for I had not gone up till after midnight. I
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think I had a family then - though the details are very uncertain - and
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I know there were many servants. Just what the year was, I cannot say;
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for since then I have known many ages and dimensions, and have had all
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my notions of time dissolved and refashioned. It was by the light of
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candles that I read - I recall the relentless dripping of the wax - and
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there were chimes that came every now and then from distant belfries. I
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seemed to keep track of those chimes with a peculiar intentness, as if I
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feared to hear some very remote, intruding note among them.
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Then came the first scratching and fumbling at the dormer window that
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looked out high above the other roofs of the city. It came as I droned
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aloud the ninth verse of that primal lay, and I knew amidst my shudders
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what it meant. For he who passes the gateways always wins a shadow, and
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never again can he be alone. I had evoked - and the book was indeed all
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I had suspected. That night I passed the gateway to a vortex of twisted
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time and vision, and when morning found me in the attic room I saw in
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the walls and shelves fittings that which I had never seen before.
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Nor could I ever see the world as I had known it. Mixed with the
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present scene was always a little of the past and a little of the
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future, and every once-familiar object loomed alien in the new
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perspective brought by my widened sight. From then on I walked in a
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fantastic dream of unknown and half-known shapes; and with each new
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gateway crossed, the less plainly could I recognize the things of the
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narrow sphere to which I had so long been bound. What I saw about me,
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none else saw; and I grew doubly silent and aloof lest I be thought mad.
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Dogs had a fear of me, for they felt the outside shadow which never left
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my side. But still I read more - in hidden, forgotten books and scrolls
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to which my new vision led me - and pushed through fresh gateways of
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space and being and life-patterns toward the core of the unknown cosmos.
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I remember the night I made the five concentric circles of fire on
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the floor, and stood in the innermost one chanting that monstrous litany
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the messenger from Tartary had brought. The walls melted away, and I
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was swept by a black wind through gulfs of fathomless grey with the
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needle-like pinnacle of unknown mountains miles below me. After a while
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there was utter blackness, and then the light of myriad stars forming
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strange, alien constellations. Finally I saw a green-litten plain far
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below me, and discerned on it the twisted towers of a city built in no
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fashion I had ever known or read of or dreamed of. As I floated closer
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to that city I saw a great square building of stone in an open space,
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and felt a hideous fear clutching at me. I screamed and struggled, and
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after a blankness was again in my attic room sprawled flat over the five
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concentric circles on the floor. In that night's wandering there was no
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more of strangeness than in many a former night's wandering; but there
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was more of terror because I knew I was closer to those outside gulfs
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and worlds than I had ever been before. Thereafter I was more cautious
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with my incantations, for I had no wish to be cut off from my body and
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from the earth in unknown abysses whence I could never return...
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Howard Phillips Lovecraft
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<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>X<>
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THE CTHULHU MYTHOS
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The Cthulhu mythos developed from Howard Phillips Lovecraft's
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experimentation in the media of modern horror in the magazine Weird
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Tales in the 1920's and 30's. The Mythos embodies a pantheon of evil
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beings from other space-time continua, many of whom possess divine
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powers. A fictitious history of the interactions of these beings and
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their alien worshipers on this world and other distant planets comprises
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the core of the Lovecraft mythology. The underlying theme of these
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stories lies in the attempts of these beings to achieve physical
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manifestation on Earth and the methods that foolish mortals utilize in
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this goal.
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Because the idea of a common mythos of places, races, and deities
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appears only gradually in HPL's work, no real attempt was made to make
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the cycle logically coherent until 1926 with the publication of "The
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Call of Cthulhu". Further, HPL encouraged other authors, particularly
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Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch, August Derleth, Robert E. Howard, and
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Frank Belknap Long, to enlarge upon the Mythos in their own fiction.
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Following HPL's death in 1937 a host of other writers have made notable
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contributions to the Cthulhu cycle. Thus, stories throughout the mythos
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are often contradictory or overlapping, making a glossary of the
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elements of the cycle difficult. For reasons of simplicity and space,
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only those places, races, and deities which were mentioned in at least
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two of HPL's own stories are included.
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DEITIES:
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The Elder Gods - Elsewhere referred to as the "Great Ones" and the
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"Other Gods". They are a group of semi-benevolent deities which
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struggle against the "Old Ones". HPL left this group greatly
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undeveloped and unexplored with the exception of the deity Nodens, "Lord
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of the Abyss", who aids the protagonist of "The Dream-Quest of Unknown
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Kadath".
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The Old Ones - The group of evil deities whose intrigues are the
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subject of most of the cycle's stories. These deities often have both
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incorporal and corporal forms. The primary goal of these beings was to
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extend their influence into the modern world. All of the following gods
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are considered "Old Ones":
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Yog-Sothoth - The "All-in-One and the One-in-All of limitless being
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and self - the last, utter sweep which has no confines and which
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outreaches fancy and mathematics alike", Yog-Sothoth resembles an evil
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Brahma, the Hindu god of the unification of all existence. He co-rules
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the pantheon of Old Ones with Azathoth. In spite of his seemingly
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indescribable form, we are told in "The Dunwich Horror" that he
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resembles "an octopus, centipede, spider kind o' thing" which is capable
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of physical manifestation on earth.
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Azathoth - "The blind idiot god who sprawls at the center of ultimate
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chaos", "circled by his flopping horde of mindless amorphous dancers,
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and lulled by the thin monotonous piping of a demonic flute held in
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nameless paws." He, "the Lord of all Things", and his antithesis Yog-
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Sothoth the "One-in-All", comprise a dialectical universe. Though he
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never visits our dimension, he is seen by many astral voyagers in the
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Mythos.
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Other Gods - Often confused with the Elder Ones because of their
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name, these are the direct servants of Azathoth: the dancers and
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players. They often visit the highest peaks of the world as in "The
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Other Gods".
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Shub-Niggurath - "The Goat with a Thousand Young". Direct servant to
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both Yog-Sothoth and Azathoth, he is the Pan-like fertility god.
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Nyarlathotep - "Soul and messenger" of the Other Gods, Nyarlathotep
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is represented in two forms: As "crawling Chaos" and as "The Black
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Man". In the later form he is instrumental in organizing the ceremonies
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of witchcraft which allow the aliens to visit this dimension.
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Cthulhu - A semi-divine being who is referred to as a priest of the
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gods. He leads an aquatic race called the Deep Ones who descended to
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earth from the stars. He has been imprisoned in R'lyeh by the Elder
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Gods.
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RACES:
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The Deep Ones - A species of aquatic humanoids which inhabit the deep
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ocean trenches of the earth. Most attend their god Cthulhu who is
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imprisoned on the island of R'lyeh, though some have chosen to settle
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near coastal fishing villages as demonstrated in "The Shadow Over
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Innsmouth". They seem to be governed by Dagon who is the immediate
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subordinate of Cthulhu.
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The Old Ones of Leng - Ancient race of aliens who inhabited
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magnificent cities near the southern pole. They made a treaty with the
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Deep Ones to insure that each remains in their respective realms. They
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are said to tentacled, barrel-shaped beings with starfish-like heads and
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membranous wings.
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The Shoggoths - A race of giant, amorphous creatures developed by the
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Old Ones of Leng to be used as manual laborers. They eventually
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rebelled and destroyed their masters' civilization.
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Mi-Go - A race of crab-like beings which were identified with the
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Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas by HPL.
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PLACES:
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R'lyeh - The sunken island of Cthulhu which periodically rises from
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the depths at different points in the oceans of the world. It is the
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city of the Deep Ones and prison of their god.
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The Plateau of Leng - The home of the Old Ones located in Antartica.
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"At the Mountain of Madness" gives the best description of this place.
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Kadath - The home of the Elder Gods which lies in the "frozen waste"
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beyond Leng. It is the goal of all who seek truth and enlightenment.
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Arkham, Massachusetts - A fictitious town which was the setting of
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many of HPL's stories. It is patterned after Salem and is the site of
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the Miskatonic University, whose library contains one of the forbidden
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copies of Abdul Alhazred's Necronomicon.
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Innsmouth, Massachusetts - Another fictitious village created by HPL.
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This town is located near the site of an off-shore settlement of Deep
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Ones, with whom the town has forbidden commerce. The town is modeled
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after Newburyport, Massachusetts.
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Per Adonai Eloim, Adenali Jehova, Adonai Sabaoth Metraton....
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Joseph (Merlin) Curwen <P0575175 @ UMVMA>
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