Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia
Page 10
During World War I, Carter served in the French Foreign Legion. It was here that he made the acquaintance of Etienne-Laurent de Marigny, a fellow dreamer with whom he travelled into the crypts below the town of Bayonne and forged a friendship that would last for years. He returned home after being nearly killed near the town of Belloy-en-Santerre.
After his discharge, Carter returned to the United States. Shortly thereafter, he became the pupil of Harley Warren, a scholar who had delved deeply into the occult. One night, Warren vanished after Carter accompanied him to a cemetery in Florida. The police questioned Carter, who gave them a strange account of what had happened, but he was released due to lack of evidence.
Randolph Carter was a writer of great ability, though he was not well known during his lifetime. His book A War Come Near, published in 1919, detailed his wartime experiences, and his horror story “The Attic Window”, printed in the magazine Whispers in 1922, was so disturbing that many newsstands kept the issue off their shelves. (Shortly after writing it, Carter and a friend were found near Meadow Hill with strange injuries that they never explained.) Carter is best known, though, for his fantasy novels. His earlier ones, written during his years of dreaming, met with little success. The later, more sophisticated ones garnered him some attention, but by the time of his disappearance, Carter had burnt all of his manuscripts, having found his career as an author unsatisfying.
On October 7, 1928, Randolph Carter vanished in the ruins of his family’s ancestral mansion outside Arkham. Searchers discovered his car and a handkerchief that might have belonged to him, but no other trace of Randolph Carter was ever found. A few of his friends asserted that Carter had gone back to the land of dreams to become the king of Ilek-Vad, but this speculation was not taken seriously.
[Carter was one of Lovecraft’s fictional alter egos, and in many ways represents how Lovecraft would have liked to present himself.]
See bholes; Chandraputra, Swami; Dreamlands; Elton, Basil; Ilek-Vad; Kadath; Klarkash-Ton; Leng; Marigny, Etienne-Laurent de; Meadow Hill; Phillips, Ward; Silver Key; time-clock; Warren, Harley. (“The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, Lovecraft; “The Silver Key”, Lovecraft; “The Statement of Randolph Carter”, Lovecraft (O); “Through the Gates of the Silver Key”, Lovecraft; “The Unnamable”, Lovecraft; Prey, Masterton; “The Lord of Illusion”, Price.)
CASSILDA
Character from The King in Yellow.
See King in Yellow. (“The Repairer of Reputations”, Chambers (O); “Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?”, Ross.)
CASTAIGNE, (HILDRED)
1) Individual from New York in an alternate reality. He fell under the influence of the play The King in Yellow after a fall from horseback inflicted a head injury. He became obsessed with the play, to the extent of making his own translation. After attempting to kill his brother’s fiancée, he was confined to the Asylum for the Criminally Insane, where he died. (“The Repairer of Reputations”, Chambers (O); “Typo”, Winkle.)
2) Author of the play The King in Yellow. Almost nothing is known of this individual, save that he disappeared from an institution after writing it. It is uncertain whether he was related to the first Castaigne. (“The Yellow Play”, Houarner; “Tatterdemalion”, Love, Ross, and Watts (O).)
CASTRO
Ancient sailor captured during a raid on a sacrificial ritual in Louisiana on November 1, 1907. Of all the prisoners taken during that night, Castro proved to be the best informant on the nature of the cult. He said that he was a worshiper of Cthulhu, and had met its immortal leaders who dwelt in China. Castro’s confession later formed a cornerstone of George Angell’s work on the Cthulhu cult.
See Cthulhu; Legrasse, John; Zuchequon. (“The Call of Cthulhu”, Lovecraft (O).)
CATHURIA
Land of the Dreamlands that once lay beyond the Basalt Pillars of the West, held to be the land where all ideals are true. Cathuria has many golden cities built of marble and porphyry with roofs of gold. The land is ruled by the king Dorieb, whose people see him as a god. Unfortunately, the gods took Cathuria away from the land of dream, and no one knows where it now lies. The great dreamer Basil Elton failed in his quest to attain this land; his grandson Nathaniel was said to have found this land, but was cast out soon thereafter.
See Elton, Basil. (“The Return of the White Ship”, Breach; “The White Ship”, Lovecraft (O).)
CELAENO
One of the seven stars in the Pleiades. On Celaeno’s fourth planet lies the Great Library of Celaeno, where the lore stolen by the Great Old Ones from the Elder Gods is kept. Just how the information is stored is unclear; some references indicate that it is held on books and tablets, but others assert that the elder lore rests in living organisms designed for that purpose. Visitors to the Library should bear the sign of the Elder Ones and not remove any written knowledge from the library, lest the Sleeper of the Lake prevent their escape. The noted scholar Laban Shrewsbury spent much time here, and may have deciphered the Celaeno Fragments from stone tablets he found in this place.
[Celaeno is an actual star, though no one has ever reported a huge library being found nearby. I am not sure why Derleth chose this particular star, but it is possible that he was considering a link between the byakhee and the harpies of Greek myth, whose queen “Celaeno” is mentioned in the Aeneid.]
See Barrier of Naach-Tith; Celaeno Fragments; Elder Gods; Naotalba. (“The House on Curwen Street”, Derleth (O); “The Watcher from the Sky”, Derleth; “Halls of Celaeno”, Herber; House of the Toad, Tierney.)
THE CELAENO FRAGMENTS
Transcript deposited at the Miskatonic University Library in 1915 by Doctor Laban Shrewsbury, who disappeared shortly thereafter. Shrewsbury had seen the original broken stone tablets in the Great Library of Celaeno, and left behind notes which he claimed were a translation of the Fragments, which dated back to at least the mid-Triassic period. Archaeological expeditions have subsequently turned up stone shards inscribed with portions of the Fragments, and a copy also turned up later in the Amos Tuttle Bequest made to the Miskatonic University Library.
The Fragments are short, constituting only fifty pages of Shrewsbury’s notes. In most respects, they are quite close to the Eltdown Shards and the Pnakotic Fragments in content. They may include information on the King in Yellow and Carcosa, and a small amount of data on the deep ones.
See Celaeno; Necronomicon (appendices); Shrewsbury, Laban; Zanthu Tablets. (“Behind the Mask”, Carter; “H. P. Lovecraft: The Gods”, Carter; “The House on Curwen Street”, Derleth (O); “The Gable Window”, Derleth and Lovecraft; Keeper’s Compendium, Herber; A Resection of Time, Johnson; Miskatonic University Graduate Kit, Petersen et. al.; Ex Libris Miskatonici, Stanley.)
CELEPHAÏS
City of the Dreamlands found in the Valley of Ooth-Nargai. Its marble walls and bronze gates make it one of the most impressive cities in all the Dreamlands. In Celephaïs, time seems not to pass at all, and a visitor may return many years later to find things exactly as they were when he or she left.
Celephaïs was built in the dreams of Kuranes, a London dreamer of some note. When he passed away, he went to dwell in Celephaïs forever as its ruler.
See Aran, Mount; Cerenerian Sea; Dreamlands; Kuranes; Nath-Horthath; Nithy-Vash; Ooth-Nargai; Serannian; Tanarian Hills. (“Celephaïs”, Lovecraft (O); “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, Lovecraft.)
CERENERIAN SEA
Azure ocean of the Dreamlands. It may be crossed between the towns of Hlanith and Celephaïs in only two days, but the journey across it to Inquanok takes three weeks. One who travels on this sea might encounter the cloud-city of Serannian, or the nameless rock inhabited by the moon-beasts.
See Hlanith; Inquanok; moon-beasts; Oukranos. (“Celephaïs”, Lovecraft (O); “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, Lovecraft.)
CHAG-HAI
See Shaggai.
CHALMERS, HALPIN (1891–1928)
Noted occultist and horror fiction author. Chalmers wa
s born in Partridgeville, New York, and graduated from Miskatonic University at a surprisingly late date (Class of 1918). Afterward, he moved to Brooklyn, where he served as the Curator of Archaeology at the Manhattan Museum of Fine Arts for some time. He was the author of a large number of occult volumes, including The Secret Watcher, published by London’s Charnel House Press.
Chalmers was found dead in his apartment in Patridgeville on July 3, 1928, and his apparent murder has never been solved. Since then, his fiction has achieved immense popularity. The interested reader should consult The Collected Letters of Halpin Chalmers and Fred Carstairs’ memoir Halpin Chalmers: Voyager of Other and Many Dimensions.
See Einstein Formula; Morton, James; Partridgeville; The Secret Watcher. (“The Letters of Halpin Chalmers”, Cannon; “The Winfield Heritance”, Carter; “The Horror from the Hills,” Long; “The Hounds of Tindalos”, Long (O); Ex Libris Miskatonici, Stanley.)
CHANDRAPUTRA, SWAMI SUNAND
East Indian individual who first appeared in 1930, taking up residence in Boston’s West End. He is known to have sent letters of inquiry to many occultists, and visited the Cabot Museum to view an ancient mummy housed there. The Swami impressed all who met him as an intelligent man who possessed a prodigious knowledge of uncanny subjects, though his garb and mannerisms made his listeners uneasy.
In 1932, the Swami left Boston for the New Orleans home of Etienne-Laurent de Marigny so that he might provide evidence of Randolph Carter’s survival. During the reading of the will, however, the Carter family’s lawyer died of apoplexy, and the Swami, who is believed to have been responsible in some way, disappeared.
See time-clock. (“The Strange Doom of Enos Harker”, Carter and Price; “Out of the Aeons”, Lovecraft and Heald; “Through the Gates of the Silver Key”, Lovecraft and Price (O).)
CHATEAU DES FAUSSESFLAMES
Ruined manor located in the woods of Averoigne, near the abbey of Perigon. In medieval times, the chateau was the home of Sieur du Malinbous and his wife, who were suspected of practicing witchcraft. Even after the pair’s death, the site’s ill repute remained. Many who visited the ruins of the Chateau did not leave, and even centuries later most curiosity-seekers shun its ruined walls. In 1932, the Cabot Museum in Boston displayed some curious mummies from the crypts beneath the manor.
(“Out of the Aeons”, Lovecraft and Heald; “The End of the Story”, Smith (O); “A Rendezvous in Averoigne”, Smith.)
CHAUGNAR FAUGN
Hyperdimensional creature slightly resembling an elephant-headed human with webbed ears and a large disk at the end of its trunk. It spends most of its time immobile in a cavern on the Plateau of Tsang, only shifting its bulk when feeding upon a sacrificial victim.
When Chaugnar came to earth, the most advanced life forms on this planet were amphibians. Desiring to have a race of servitors, Chaugnar Faugn used amphibian tissue to create the Miri Nigri. Over the long eons, these beings continued to worship Chaugnar. The Miri Nigri consorted with the first humans to create a hybrid race, eventually giving rise to the abominable Tcho-tcho people.
In Roman times, Chaugnar Faugn and his “brothers,” beings who bore a likeness to Chaugnar but were lesser in power, dwelt beneath the Pyrenees in northern Spain, near the town of Pompelo. The Miri Nigri who lived in the nearby hills would kidnap villagers to be sacrificed to their gods each year before Halloween. Eventually, the Roman governors sent out an expedition to put an end to the hill-dweller’s depredations. Though the Miri Nigri destroyed this force, Chaugnar knew that this would not put an end to the Roman threat. He might be able to destroy his foes himself, but his time had not yet come. Instead, he journeyed to the East to wait for the age of his greatness. When his Brothers balked at making the trip, Chaugnar cursed them and promised to devour them after his resurgence.
Currently, Chaugnar Faugn is worshiped in a cavern on the Plateau of Tsang; diffusion of such rites may account for the curious physical similarities between Chaugnar and the Indian elephant-god
Ganesha. Though he rarely awakens, his one-time high priest, Mu Sang, prophesied that one day the White Acolyte would come from the West and bear Chaugnar away to a new land. In this land, the elephant-god will awaken and feed until he devours the universe. Chaugnar was brought to the West and displayed in the Metropolitan Museum, but he was sent back into the past via a curious time-ray device.
In his guise of Ganesha, Chaugnar is said to possess the body of the Sacred White Elephant of Jadhore in Malaysia. He is also claimed to be another name for Tsathoggua. More research is required to verify these claims.
See brothers of Chaugnar Faugn; Magnum Innominandum; Pnakotic Manuscripts; Tcho-tchos; Tsang; Tsathoggua; White Acolyte. (“The Curse of Chaugnar Faugn”, Barton; “Death is an Elephant”, Bloch; “The Horror from the Hills”, Long (O); Selected Letters IV, Lovecraft; “The Very Old Folk”, Lovecraft.)
CHESUNCOOK WITCH COVEN
See Cult of the Skull.
CHHAYA RITUALS
Manuscript famous for its vagueness. Only the most knowledgeable occultists understand its allusions.
[“Chhaya” is Blavatsky’s transliteration of a Sanskrit term meaning “shadow.” Kenneth Grant lists the “Chaaya” as an astral shadow that a mystic seeking to release the Chakra energy in their body must overcome.]
(“Hydra”, Kuttner (O).)
CHIAN
Language mentioned in the Green Book that the Little People sometimes speak. Other references to “Chian games” and a “Chian pentagram” have been found, but the significance is unknown.
[Chian was originally a drink composed of garlic, leeks, cheese, oil, vinegar and dried herbs imbibed at the mysteries of Artemis at Ephesus, so it seems likely that the “Ephesian letters of good omen” mentioned by Athaenus are actually the Chian language. These Greek letters were supposed to form words representing the words for darkness, light, the earth, the sun, the year, and truth. They adorned the feet, girdle, and crown of the statue of Artemis at Ephesus. The possession of these letters made their possessor invincible at sports, but their use was illegal in such contests; one wrestler won three hundred bouts before the nature of his victories became known. King Croesus was said to have escaped being burned to death by saying the words over his pyre, and King Solomon himself was said to have used the Chian letters to exorcise demons. Certain cults may have passed down the mystical traditions of Chian down to present times.
[It should be noted that at least one Machen scholar has objected to this interpretation, but I find it to be an interesting one nonetheless.]
See Green Book. (“Something in the Moonlight”, Carter; “The White People”, Machen (O).)
CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT
See Worms of the Earth.
CHORAZIN
1) Cthulhu’s will or id. This is Cthulhu’s most psychically accessible part and is responsible for most of his dream sendings. See Cthulhu. (“Dreams Dark and Deadly”, Szymanski (O).)
2) Ruined city in Israel. This city was condemned by Jesus in the Bible (Matthew 11:21, Luke 10:13). Evil sorcerers often make a “Black Pilgrimage” to Chorazin in hope of gaining great power. Both Abdul Alhazred and Ludwig Prinn are said to have made such a pilgrimage and lived among the city’s ruins for some time. See Alhazred, Abdul. (“Count Magnus”, James; “Lord of the Worms”, Lumley; “The Transition of Abdul Alhazred”, Price (O).)
3) Town in upstate New York near both Attica and the ancestral Van der Heyl mansion visited by Alonso Typer. Most of the people here belong to a loathsome cult that meets on a hill near the old mansion. (“The Diary of Alonzo Typer”, Lovecraft and Lumley (O).)
CHORAZOS CULT
Sect of Yog-Sothoth worshipers established in the mountains of Rumania in the late 16th century. Its leader was a man named Chorazos, who was supposedly of Gypsy extraction. The members of the cult came from such diverse places as Hungary, Africa, Arabia, and China. In 1594, the cult was exiled from its former Continental site to England, where a temple was
established in Finchley. Though at first popular with Queen Elizabeth, the cult was hounded out of London in late 1595 due to an investigation by their former patron on the advice of Doctor John Dee. They moved their base of operations to a house known as the Oaks.
Though the Chorazos Cult spent only a year in the Oaks, it became infamous throughout the area. When Parson Goodly of the local church asked Chorazos about the cult’s worship, Chorazos cursed the surrounding land, which to this day remains poor and deserted. Finally, the countrymen banded together and burned down the Oaks. Chorazos and a few other members escaped to Scotland.
Chorazos’s cult received land in the Pentland Hills due to its supposed acts of healing. Before any official action took place, the people living nearby rose up following a series of disappearances, destroying the sect once and for all.