by Daniel Harms
(“The Mannikin”, Bloch (O); “The Winfield Heritance”, Carter.)
MAGNUM INNOMINANDUM (roughly “Great-One-Who-Is-Not-To-Be-Named”)
Deity mentioned in the incantation to summon a star vampire in De Vermis Mysteriis. The Miri Nigri worshiped this being long ago. It may also be a book.
[“Magnum Innominandum” means roughly “The Great Not-to-be-Named One”, and thus could refer to Hastur. Given the use of Lovecraft’s fragment in “The Horror from the Hills”, however, it might also be seen as a title of Chaugnar Faugn. Lin Carter took it to be a title of the Nameless Mist.]
See Chaugnar Faugn; De Vermis Mysteriis; Hastur; Miri Nigri. (“The Shambler from the Stars”, Bloch; “The Shadow from the Stars”, Carter; “The Horror from the Hills”, Long; Selected Letters II, Lovecraft (O); “The Whisperer in Darkness”, Lovecraft; Nightmare’s Disciple, Pulver.)
MAGYAR FOLKLORE
Book by Dornly that discusses the Black Stone in its chapter on “dream-myths”.
(“The Black Stone”, Howard (O).)
MAINE WITCH COVEN
See Cult of the Skull.
MAJESTIC 12 (or MJ-12)
Top-secret government organization dedicated to retrieving and studying alien life and technology. Majestic-12 was formed in response to a crash of an alien spacecraft near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. Informed of the crash, President Truman ordered the creation of a group headed by twelve scientists and military officials to investigate this and future alien encounters. Activities within the group remain secret, but leaked documents hold that Majestic-12 forged a treaty with an interstellar species in 1980. Further information on this organization is available only to those with TOP SECRET MAJIC clearance.
[Majestic-12 is a legend in the UFO community, relating to a series of “leaked” documents sent to various researchers in the paranormal field.]
(Delta Green, Detwiller, Glancy and Tynes (O).)
MAK MORN, BRAN
See Bran Mak Morn.
MALONE, THOMAS F.
New York police detective who was instrumental in the Red Hook raid. He was born near Phoenix Park, Ireland, and attended the University of Dublin. Malone had delved deeply into the occult, an avocation that stood him in good stead when sent to investigate the mysterious events in Red Hook. During a raid on one of the smuggling centers, a row of buildings collapsed, killing several officers and leaving Malone so shaken that he was given a leave of absence.
(“The Horror at Red Hook”, Lovecraft (O).)
MANUXET RIVER
River in eastern Massachusetts that reaches the ocean near Innsmouth.
(“The Shadow over Innsmouth”, Lovecraft (O).)
MAO
Ceremony or game that may be found in the Necronomicon, and that aids in communication with the beings from the Gulf of S’glhuo. After using the incantation, the caster falls asleep and may speak with the Gulf’s inhabitants through dreams. The Mao ritual is dangerous if used over long periods, though, and the people in the Gulf prefer other methods of speech.
The Mao games, witnessed only by select initiates, were played every fourteen years in the theater of Ool Athag in the Dreamlands town of Monat until that place was burned to the ground.
See Necronomicon (appendices). (“The Plain of Sound,” Campbell; “The White People,” Machen (O); “Ool Athag”, Webb.)
MARIGNY, ETIENNE-LAURENT DE
See De Marigny, Etienne-Laurent.
MARIGNY, HENRI-LAURENT DE
See De Marigny, Henri-Laurent.
MARSH, OBADIAH
Ancestor of Obed Marsh and a famous captain in his own right. Obadiah is most famous for turning up in a rowboat in Innsmouth harbor in 1797 with his first mate Cyrus Phillips, claiming that his ship and the rest of his crew had been lost in the South Pacific. The captain married a woman from Ponape, and some have said that it was around this time that the Innsmouth look began to show itself among the Marshes and Phillipses.
(“The Seal of R’lyeh”, Derleth (O).)
MARSH, OBED
Innsmouth’s most prominent merchant-captain and founder of that town’s Esoteric Order of Dagon. Obed’s three ships, the Columbia, Hetty, and Sumatra Queen, did a brisk business in the Pacific trade beginning in 1820 and lasting for over twenty years. As a result of this prosperity, the Marshes became Innsmouth’s most powerful family.
On one of his early trips, Captain Marsh stumbled across a group of Polynesian islanders who possessed a large number of golden ornaments. According to Walakea, the tribe’s chieftain, a race of fish-beings had brought these to them in exchange for human sacrifices. For a few rubber and glass trinkets, Marsh procured a large amount of the natives’ gold.
In the following years, Obed visited the islanders many times, trading for more gold and listening to their legends. When Marsh journeyed to this island in 1838, however, he found that natives from the surrounding isles had killed his trading partners, and that his source of revenue was lost. The repercussions of this disaster were felt throughout Innsmouth, and the town soon plunged into a depression.
It was then that Marsh began to preach a new religion based on the Polynesian’s beliefs. If the people of Innsmouth followed the gods of his islander friends, he proclaimed, they would become rich and the nets of the fishermen would always be full. After a while, Marsh’s Esoteric Order of Dagon became so popular that all of Innsmouth’s churches were forced to close down due to lack of worshipers (or the Order’s strong-arm tactics). During the chaos instigated by the plague of 1846, in which half the town’s people died, Marsh became the town’s de facto leader, a post that he held until his death in 1878. Following his demise, the Marsh family kept its hold on local power until the government raids of 1928.
See Book of Dagon; Codex Dagonensis; Devil’s Reef; Esoteric Order of Dagon; Innsmouth; Marsh, Obadiah. (“The Shadow over Innsmouth”, Lovecraft (O); Escape from Innsmouth, Ross.)
MARTIN’S BEACH
Oceanside village located a few miles northeast of Kingsport. Its only notable landmark is the Wavecrest Inn, a popular resort site. In 1922, Martin’s Beach was scandalized by the inexplicable drownings of several men in the same night.
(“The Horror at Martin’s Beach”, Lovecraft and Greene (O); Kingsport, Ross.)
MARVELLS OF SCIENCE
Book written by Bertrand Morryster and published in 1790. Morryster claimed to obtain knowledge from voices that spoke to him in his sleep, an assertion that did not hold well with the scientific community. After he died in 1799, most of his discoveries were lost.
Most of the book provides instructions for creating a perpetual motion machine, but it also deals with other discoveries, including the supposed hypnotic powers of snakes. Some say that this book describes a procedure for calling up angels or demons, and fanciful topographies of heaven and hell. However, this set of details appeared in a hoaxed copy created by bookseller Louis Gold.
(“The Man and the Snake”, Bierce (O); “Call of Duty”, Detwiller; Peace, Wolfe.)
MASON, KEZIAH
Supposed witch from Arkham, Massachusetts, apprehended during the witch-scare of 1692. Keziah Mason confessed freely to her crimes, saying that the Devil had given her the secret name of Nahab and taken her to secret rites at various isolated locations. To aid her mischievous deeds, he had given her a familiar named Brown Jenkin. She had also discovered certain combinations of lines and angles allowing travel through the dimensions.
After she gave the names of her fellow coven members, the judges condemned Keziah to death — an unusual sentence, since most witch-trial participants who confessed were not killed. Shortly thereafter, she escaped from her cell, leaving nothing behind but a mysterious drawing upon the wall of her prison. When the judges went to arrest her co-conspirators, they found them gone and the same markings in their homes. Rumors of long standing in Arkham maintain that the ghost of the witch and her familiar are seen occasionally.
See Arkham; Meadow Hill; Themystos’ Island; Witc
h-House. (“Idiot Savant”, Henderson; “The Dreams in the Witch-House,” Lovecraft (O).)
MASSA DI REQUIEM PER SHUGGAY (“Requiem for Shaggai”)
Italian opera written in 1768 by Benvento Chieti Bordighera. Bordighera, a gifted young composer, was born in Rome in 1746, and made many travels throughout Europe. Only one performance of the opera was made, but this was enough for Pope Clement XIII to ban it in 1769. Bordighera was imprisoned for heresy in 1770 and executed in the following year.
Many professional musicians have declared the score to be unplayable, since certain parts have been written for unknown instruments and notes that cannot possibly be rendered. Copies of the opera are kept at the British Museum, Bibliotheque Nationale, and the Vatican Library, and others are held by private collectors in India, Japan, and the United States. The German band Knochen Maschine adapted the piece into a modern format; the two singers hired to perform the main portions died shortly thereafter.
The opera tells the story of the destruction of Shaggai, and the journeys of its former inhabitants throughout space, a tale filled with death, incest, and rape. It also details the insects from Shaggai’s worship of Azathoth and a being known as Baoht Z’uqqa-Mogg, the Bringer of Pestilence. Performing the entire opera will result in the summoning of Azathoth.
See Shaggai; shan. (“Fade to Grey”, Aniolowski; “Mysterious Manuscripts”, Aniolowski et. al. (O); Keeper’s Compendium, Herber, Nightmare’s Disciple, Pulver.)
MASTERS OF THE SILVER TWILIGHT
Organization founded in 1657. Its primary goal is to raise the corpse-city of R’lyeh from the ocean and to bring Cthulhu from his tomb, so he may slay all of humanity. No link between this organization and the charitable society “The Hermetic Order of the Silver Twilight” has ever been proven.
See Stanford, Carl. (“The Coven at Cannich”, Clegg; “The Hermetic Order of the Silver Twilight”, Hutchinson (O).)
MAZE OF THE SEVEN THOUSAND CRYSTAL FRAMES
Concept alluded to by Abdul Alhazred, but whose true meaning is unknown. Some cults are believed to have traveled its ways nonetheless. Traveling through the frames may give access to a new level of reality that gives the traveler more occult knowledge, yet this also makes him more likely to be subjugated by the Great Old Ones. The 3333rd frame is supposed to consist of many mouths that moan and gibber, and this frame is very hard to pass.
(“The Inhabitant of the Lake”, Campbell (O).)
MEADOW HILL
Prominence near Arkham that seems to attract uncanny events. Nearby is the burned-down Chapman farmhouse where Herbert West performed his earliest experiments. In a valley nearby is a large white stone. No vegetation grows around the stone, and it was reputed to be a site for witch-cult meetings in Keziah Mason’s time and the present. Randolph Carter and Joel Manton were once found nearby, with curious and inexplicable wounds.
(“The Dreams in the Witch-House”, Lovecraft; “Herbert West — Reanimator”, Lovecraft (O); “The Unnamable”, Lovecraft.)
MERCY HILL
Area of Brichester deriving its ironic nickname from the town gallows which were located here at one time. Mercy Hill is now primarily lower-class tenements built with the rise of industrialization. It is distinguished by a hospital at the peak of the hill. This area is considered a rough part of town, and is avoided by all “respectable” people.
Folk legend holds that unpleasant dreams afflict some children who dwell on Mercy Hill, and this serves to keep many potential homebuyers away from this area. The author of the twelfth volume of the Revelations of Glaaki lived in this area, and the reclusive cult leader Roland Franklyn had his headquarters at the base of Mercy Hill.
See Brichester. (“13 Places of Interest in Brichester”, Brownlow; “Cold Print,” Campbell; “The Franklyn Paragraphs,” Campbell; “The Inhabitant of the Lake,” Campbell (O); “Return of the Witch,” Campbell.)
MEZZAMALECH STONE
See Eye of Ubbo-Sathla.
MHU THULAN
Utmost northern portion of Hyperborea. Connected with the rest of Hyperborea by a peninsula, Mhu Thulan is supposedly an early name for Greenland. The great wizards Zon Mezzamalech and Eibon both lived in Mhu Thulan.
See Aphoom Zhah; Cykranosh; Eibon; Hyperborea; Zon Mezzamalech. (“The Door to Saturn,” Smith; “Ubbo-Sathla,” Smith; “The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan”, Smith (O).)
MI-GO (or FUNGI FROM YUGGOTH or OUTER ONES)
Beings with a vast empire reaching beyond the stars, with its closest outpost on Pluto, otherwise known as Yuggoth. These beings resemble winged crustaceans with egg-shaped heads that constantly change color, their chief means of communication.
The mi-go arrived on our world earth during the Jurassic period. They fought off attacks from the Elder Things in order to settle in the Northern Hemisphere, where for the most part they have remained ever since. On occasion, they have fought on the side of Cthulhu and his spawn, due to the god of R’lyeh’s influence in the cult of Yog-Sothoth.
The fungi show a great deal of interest in our planet, because Earth contains deposits of certain minerals that are not found in other parts of the universe (or at least gates to other dimensions with these deposits). These substances are used to grow the fungi that they use as food. To obtain these minerals, the fungi have set up mining bases in the Andes, the Appalachians, and the Himalayas. Such bases are usually hidden, with the mi-go recruiting members of the local population to help them keep their activities secret. Word of their actions usually spreads despite this secrecy, and references to these curious creatures are often found in the legends of the countryside surrounding the creatures’ lairs. Their bodies sometimes appear after floods, as mi-go drown if submerged in water, adding substance to the local folklore. Myths ranging from those of the callikanzaros of Greece to the nagas of India and Tibet have been attributed to contacts with these beings.
The mi-go eat a variety of fungus that does not grow on earth, passing a metal capsule containing this substance through their bodies. Reproducing may only be performed through rites to Shub-Niggurath. In some cases, the young grow in pods on the ground in special incubator chambers, but otherwise they nest in the bodies of dead mi-go who sacrifice themselves for that purpose. Through consuming their forebears, the new mi-go can access their memories and knowledge.
A recent development is the appearance of different castes of mi-go, including soldiers, workers, and scientists. Some breeds are able to fly to other worlds, stars, and realities, though others must use magical gateways and other means to attain this goal. All these physical attributes, however, may be changed at a whim, for the fungi are masters of surgery who can attach or remove body parts, or even outfit a mi-go with organs capable of creating a buzzing human speech.
One of the mi-go’s most amazing feats of body alteration involves a device known as a brain-cylinder. Through their surgery, the fungi can remove the brain of any being and transplant it into a curious metal cylinder, leaving the body in a state of suspended animation until the mind’s return. The brain can observe and interact with its surroundings via certain apparatuses connected with the cylinder. The device may be taken by the mi-go on trips back to Yuggoth, other stars inhabited by the fungi, and even other dimensions and times. This procedure is usually reserved for those whom the mi-go especially favor or despise.
The mi-go mentality is nearly impossible for humans to understand. A mi-go purges its memory of any information that is not necessary for its immediate purposes. This keeps out irrelevant information, but leaves some facts, such as the species’ origins, a mystery to the mi-go themselves. A mi-go’s thought processes operate on a strictly cause-and-effect basis, with none of the intuitive leaps that allow humans increased creativity and quick technological advancement. At one time the mi-go performed experiments on humanity to reduce their psychic and creative potential, but today they are studying humans in hope of discovering how they can develop the same faculties.
The mi-go living in the Himalayas h
ave been known to cover their bodies with the pelts of various animals. According to some, this is the source of the legends of the Abominable Snowman. The mi-go’s surgical propensities also suggest that they may be responsible for the ongoing cattle mutilations reported in the southwestern U. S.
Possessing a pragmatic attitude toward the Old Ones, the mi-go single out both Shub-Niggurath and Nyarlathotep for worship. They worship Yog-Sothoth as the Beyond-One and perform rites of devotion to other deities as necessary.
[The name “Mi-go” does appear in Tibetan folklore, though the beings it describes bear little resemblance to Lovecraft’s.]