Kthulhu Reich

by Ken Asamatsu

  April 20th, 1889

  25 Magical Diary

  Any magician engaged in ceremonial magic must keep a Magical Diary. Many of them are written in codes, symbols, or jargon that the uninitiated cannot understand. Real examples exist from some historical magicians below:

  Wilbur Whateley

  (November 26, 1916) “Today learned the Aklo for the Sabaoth, which did not like, it being answerable from the hill and not from the air.... I shall go to those poles when the earth is cleared off, if I can’t break through with the Dho-Hna formula when I commit it.” (The Dunwich Horror, H. P. Lovecraft)

  Joseph Curwen

  Wedn. 16 Octr. 1754... Say’d ye SABAOTH thrice last Nighte but None appear’d. I must heare more from Mr. H. in Transylvania, tho’ it is Harde reach’g him and exceeding strange he can not give me the Use of What he hath so well us’d these hundred Yeares. Simon hath not writ these V. Weekes, but I expecte soon hear’g from Him. (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, H. P. Lovecraft)

  26 ...a real tall man with pitch black skin

  Sightings of a “tall man with black skin” go back to the times of the witch hunts and the Inquisition. Margaret Murray, the anthropologist and folklorist, advances the hypothesis in her works The God of the Witches and The Witch-Cult in Western Europe that the “Devil” that manifested at the witch’s sabbath was a tall man with black skin dressed in black clothes. Magical researchers name these the “Dark Man,” and UFOlogists call them the MIB. In Kokui Densetsu, or Legend of the Blacksuit, your author proposes that these figures are one and the same.

  27 S. L. Mathers

  A practitioner of ceremonial magic in early modern England. 1858–1918. A founding member of the English magical society, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Excommunicated from the group in 1900. Earned fame as a translator of numerous grimoires (representative examples include The Book of Abramelin and Grimoire of Armadel). His wife Mina (also known by the Irish spelling, Moina) was sister of French Philosopher Henri Bergson. Mathers instructed the poet W. B. Yeats in mysticism for a short time, and served as a sort of guru for Yeats, who wrote about that period as bittersweet in his autobiography.

  28 W. W. Westcott

  William Wynn Westcott. 1848–1925. English Freemason. Head of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. One of the founders of the Golden Dawn. Primarily employed as a coroner at Scotland Yard. Withdrew himself from the Golden Dawn in 1897 but remained involved in the magical world behind the scenes. Briefly shared his home with S. L. Mathers. He also corresponded with German literary figure and fantasist Gustav Meyrink. His inexhaustible curiosity was the stuff of legend. One theory advanced by Mirai Matsuo links Mathers and Westcott with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (himself an admirer of mysticism), and suggests they were the inspiration for Doctor John Watson and the high-class idler with a taste for sleuthing, Sherlock Holmes.

  29 Mina

  Mina Mathers, wife of S. L. Mathers. A magician herself with considerable spiritual powers, she gained fame in her own right after her husband’s death. She was feared in her later years as a rival of fellow woman magician Dion Fortune.

  30 Sauvastika

  This symbol, familiar in Japan for its Buddhist roots, is called in Sanskrit the sauvastika, and the reverse is the svastika. In English, the Nazi Hakenkreuz is simply called the swastika. This symbol is not only a Buddhist one, but is found in cultures the world over and is thought to be symbol of shared humanity.

  31 Nyarlathotep

  The interpretations of “Nya” and “Hotep” were made based on an essay by Lovecraftologist George T. Wetzel in Collected Essays on H. P. Lovecraft. As for the “rlat” following “Nya,” the author consulted the Beginner’s Guide to Hieroglyphs by Kaoru Yoshinari (Rokko Shuppan, publishers). “R” signifies “word, incantation.” There was no L phoneme in ancient Egyptian, so it’s thought to be an erroneous transcription by a later Greek or Roman scribe. And so we come to “At” which means “instant.” Putting all these together gives us NYA (God of the swarthy peoples) R (incantation) [L]AT (instant) HOTEP (is satisfied). Perhaps we can decipher it thus: The (dark) God is satisfied at the moment the incantation (is chanted). However, please bear in mind that as the author is a rank amateur when it comes to hieroglyphs or ancient Egyptian, this interpretation is pure supposition.

  32 Magical Motto

  Magicians often use secret names in the magic world, different from their given names. These are called Magical Mottoes. These are often given on entering a magical society and are created by describing the person’s magical pursuits in a short Latin phrase. In addition, some societies such as the Golden Dawn typically used the Latin title Frater (brother) or Soror (sister) before the magical motto. Here are some examples of Magical Mottoes used by famous magicians in history:

  Aleister Crowley – Perdurabo (Latin: “I Will endure to the end”); J. W. Brodie-Innes – Sub Spe (Latin: “Under hope”); Joseph Curwen – Almonsin-Metraton (meaning unknown); Edward Hutchinson – Nephren-Ka nui Hadoth (meaning unknown).

  33 Golden Dawn

  The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. English magical society founded in 1888. Often shortened to G∴D. Founded by W. W. Westcott, S. L. Mathers, and R. W. Woodman. Had branches all over England and in Paris as well. Members included distinguished scholars and artists. Incidentally, in his book 20 Sekai Saigo no Jijitsu (Final Truth of the 20th Century, published by Shueisha), Nobuhiko Ochiai discusses the following extremely interesting testimony from “Phoenix,” a former Nazi official he encountered in Argentina. The man claimed that Hess’s plan to make peace in Britain actually had some chance of working, as Hess was a member of the Thule Society, and his friend the Duke of Hamilton was an influential member of a sister-society, the Golden Dawn....

  34 Secret Chiefs

  Said to be a group of entities existing on the astral plane, beyond the physical world, who only show themselves to humans when they have a specific purpose in mind. They are essentially superhuman entities who help guide magical societies. Every esoteric society seems to have a version (although the names differ: Mahatmas, Saints, Guardian Angels, Bodhisattvas, Demiurges, etc.). Naturally, the Nazis had them too. Some passages in Hermann Rauschning’s book Hitler Speaks make reference to “new men” and “heralds” who many researchers of the occult take to be these same entities.

  35 Gustav Meyrink

  A German supernatural writer. 1868–1932. He was a follower of Theosophy, Anthroposophy, the Kabbalah, magic, western occult philosophy, and eastern mysticism (especially Zen and esoteric Buddhism), such that it was said, “There’s no secret society he hasn’t joined.” In his later years, Meyrink converted from Christianity to Mahayana Buddhism. His most famous works include The Golem, The Green Face, and The Angel of the West Window.

  A Feast for the Children of the Night

  36 Tsathoggua

  An evil god from Saturn once worshipped in Hyperborea and N’kai. His name was rendered as Zhotaqquah by the medieval French mage Gaspard du Nord in his translation of the Book of Eibon (incidentally, that same book rendered Cthulhu as Kthulhut). On the milinarium, Sadoquae is the Latin rendering of Tsathoggua.

  Gigantomachia 1945

  37 Martin Bormann

  Highly powerful official at the end of Nazi rule in Germany. 1900–1945. Following World War I, he joined a paramilitary Freikorps organization, the Rossbach Gruppe. After murdering fellow member Walther Kadow for embezzlement, he was sentenced to prison for one year. Joined the Nazi Party in 1927. After Hess’s flight to Britain, he became an even closer associate of Hitler’s and soon became the Führer’s private secretary. They say that Bormann signed the decrees that prescribed the mass murder of the Jews of Germany known as the Final Solution, and that he established brutal “anti-Communist” policies in the East that resulted in the deaths of millions of Slavs. He was appointed Hitler’s successor in the Party in 1945. From May 1st o
f that year, though, he vanished, and is now the subject of various legends, i.e., that he died in South America, that he is still alive and controlling various neo-Nazi factions from the shadows, and so on.

  38 French Africa

  As of 1945, France was still officially under Nazi occupation. Naturally, German authorities took control of French territories in Africa. In addition, some Nazis used West Africa as a staging point for their escape to South America.

  39 Hastur

  An evil god in control of the wind, as per August Derleth et al, also said to control the Byakhee. However, The King in Yellow claims that Hastur is a supernatural entity that lives on the shores of the Black Lake of Hali, as well as referencing it as a location, or simply as a name without explanation.

  40 Zazas, Zazas

  According to Kenneth Grant, the formula for opening the gates of hell is “Zazas, Zazas, Nasatanada Zazas.” In The Magical Revival, he claims Adam used this incantation to open the gates of hell, where the spiritual memories of past selves reside.

  41 Cthugha

  A god associated with the element of Fire (in the Derleth stories). Apparently the arch-enemy of Nyarlathotep.

  42 De Vermiis Mysteriis

  Written by Ludwig Prinn: alchemist, necromancer, mage, and self-proclaimed survivor of the ninth Crusade. The historical record shows a retainer of the House of Montserrat named L. Prinn, but skeptical researchers insist this is a different person or—reluctantly—that this might be an ancestor. Late in his life, Prinn took up residence in ancient pre-Roman ruins in the Flanders countryside. He lived there with “invisible comrades” and “visitors from the stars” under his control, and undertook research into outrageous and unspeakable witchcraft and black magic. A witch hunter got wind of this and Prinn was captured by the Church. Records say he was locked in a dungeon and tortured before being burned at the stake.

  43 Reinhard Heydrich

  Member of the Nazi elite. 1900–1942. Appointed head of the Sicherheitsdienst security service at twenty-eight. At thirty, became head of the Gestapo. After the invasion of Poland in September 1939, the Gestapo and criminal police were combined into the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, and Heydrich placed in charge. He was thirty-five years old. In 1941, he possessed the titles of General, General der Polizei, Deputy Reich Protector of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (Czechoslovakia), and SS-Obergruppenführer. A brutal man, his orders led to the murder of four million Eastern European Jews. In May 1942, Heydrich was attacked by assassins with machine gun and grenade while leaving Prague army headquarters. He was critically wounded, his lung and spleen perforated by grenade shrapnel, and though he held on for three days, word finally reached Hitler and Hess that he died from sepsis on June 4th. It was eight days after the attack. Hitler was so enraged by the death that he ordered reprisals against Czechoslovakia. Masses of troops were sent to the village of Lidice (where informants wrongly claimed the assassins were from). All the residents were gathered in the village square and were divided into men, women, children, and childless women. The 200 men were murdered immediately. Sixty women with children were sent to concentration camps and executed there. Eighty-eight children were taken from their mothers and most were killed. Two hundred childless women were sent to camps and 100 of them died there. The village was burned to the ground and blown up with dynamite. The remains were bulldozed and the entire village was erased. The ground was treated with a powerful herbicide and left barren. Thus did the Nazis show their—Hitler’s—way of revenge. Incidentally, the details of Heydrich’s last will and testament were never revealed, on orders of Hitler and Hess.

  Dies Irae

  44 Dies Irae

  Dies Irae is Latin for Day of Wrath, referring to Judgment Day. It comes from the vulgate translation of Zephaniah: Dies iræ, dies illa, dies tribulationis et angustiæ, dies calamitatis et miseriæ, dies tenebrarum et caliginis, dies nebulæ et turbinis, dies tubæ et clangoris super civitates munitas et super angulos excelsos. That day is a day of wrath, a day of tribulation and distress, a day of calamity and misery, a day of darkness and obscurity, a day of clouds and whirlwinds, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high bulwarks. (Douay–Rheims Bible)

  45 We’re already under occupation!

  In 1949, similar comments were heard from Secretary of Defense J. V. Forrestal, who was in charge of the Army during the invasion at Normandy, during a mental breakdown at the Department of Defense. Data regarding such instances of delusion and paranoia from military personnel are typically kept hidden, but are thought to be quite common. Under the Nazi regime, mental and physiological disorders including (1) mental retardation, (2) vision and hearing disorders, (3) microcephaly, (4) serious illnesses resulting in increasing hydrocephaly, (5) all kinds of deformity, lost limbs, cranioschisis, and spinal fissures, and (6) Little’s disease would all result in euthanasia, and, legally speaking, paranoia would not have been an exception.

  46 Teppa Tsanpo

  In Tibetan, Teppa means “vehicle” and Tsanpo means “great, large.” In other words, this Guru named himself Great Vessel to the Nazis. Now, why did the Nazis believe that the Aryans and Tibetans shared roots? The situation is complex, but the author believes that the teachings of Theosophy had a strong influence on the idea. According to Madame H. P. Blavatsky, the grande dame of Theosophy, humanity comes from seven “Root Races,” namely: (1) the ephemeral or Invisible (reminiscent of “The Dunwich Horror!”), (2) Hyperborean, (3) Lemurian, (4) Atlantean, (5) our present one, (6) and (7) two others still to come. In The Secret Doctrine Blavatsky says that modern Black Africans, Dravidians, and Australian Aborigines descend from Lemurians. The “yellow” people of Asia and Native Americans of North and South America are descended from the Atlanteans, and Indians, Persians, Middle-Easterners, and Europeans are sub-races of the Fifth race, the Aryans, which originated millions of years ago in Central Asia.

  47 Cthulhu fhtagn

  English magic practitioner Kenneth Grant (1924–2011) describes how names in magical incantations are intentionally meaningless, as ways of unsealing the powers of the unconscious. These “barbarous names” mimic the howling of beasts to help open the spirit to the outside.

  48 ...crab’s claw

  With reference to H. P. Lovecraft’s The Whisperer in Darkness:

  “They were pinkish things about five feet long; with crustaceous bodies bearing vast pairs of dorsal fins or membraneous wings and several sets of articulated limbs, and with a sort of convoluted ellipsoid, covered with multitudes of very short antennae, where a head would ordinarily be.”

  About the author

  Asamatsu Ken was born in 1956 in Sapporo, Hokkaido. Graduated Toyo University to work at Kokusho Kankōkai, famous in Japan as the publisher of Lovecraft and many other works of horror and fantasy. Debut work as an author was Makyō no Gen’ei (Echoes of Ancient Cults), in 1986. He continues to be active in a wide range of activities, including writing extensively in the weird historical and horror genres. While remaining extremely interested in the Cthulhu Mythos, lately he has been concentrating on weird historicals set in the Muromachi period (1333–1573).

  In 2005 his Higashiyamadono Oniwa (Higashiyamadono Villa Garden) was a finalist for the annual award of the Mystery Writers of Japan, Inc. in the short story genre.

  He has also made considerable contribution to Japanese fiction as an anthologist, proposing a number of collections successfully published in Japan. The Lairs of the Hidden Gods, which won high praise in the original Japan, is now available from Kurodahan Press, as is his stand-alone horror novel Queen of K’n-Yan.

  About the translator

  Jim Rion is a native Kansan who came to Japan by way of Oklahoma, Iowa, Russia and Germany. He studied Philosophy and Germanic Linguistics before abandoning the riches of philology to teach English, and now translate, in Japan. He lives in beautiful Yamaguchi prefecture
with his wife, his son, and his enormous cat.

  He can be found at jimrion.com, or at easternsmooth.com for those interested in Japan’s national beverage of sake.

  About the artist

  M. Wayne Miller is a well-known name in the field of horror illustration. Not to be limited, he is equally adept with science fiction, fantasy, and young adult themes, welcoming the opportunities of each genre and, frequently, combining them all. Always open to new ideas and challenges, he continues his quest to learn and grow as an artist and illustrator. He can be contacted via his website at mwaynemiller.com

  Copyright Information

  Kthulhu Reich (邪神帝国)

  Copyright © 1999 Asamatsu Ken (朝松 健)

  English translation copyright © 2019 Jim Rion

  Cover art © 2019 M. Wayne Miller

  This edition copyright © 2019 Kurodahan Press. All rights reserved.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be sold or used in any way in any other work or product without explicit advance written permission from Kurodahan Press. Thank you for helping to protect the author’s rights.

  Original publication information:

  “The Corporal’s Self-Portrait”

  「"伍長"の自画像」、小説クラブ、Aug. 1994

  “The Mask of Yoth Tlaggon”

  「ヨス＝トラゴンの仮面」、S-Fマガジン、June 1994

  “In the Wasteland of Madness”

  「狂気大陸」、S-Fマガジン、Sept. 1995

  “April 20th, 1889”

  「１８８９年４月20日」、S-Fマガジン、March 1995

  “A Feast for the Children of the Night”

  「夜の子の宴、S-Fマガジン」、 Nov. 1997