AlHazred

So, earlier this year, I had the idea to comb various Dreamlands stories and collect geographical information to produce a gazetteer. There's some of that sort of thing in the CoC Dreamlands books, but they don't reference where each item comes from, which makes it difficult to follow up on the entries. Then it only became a matter of, what to include? I started with Lord Dunsany. His dream stories inspired HPL's own Dreamlands stories, so it seemed appropriate. The problem with Lord Dunsany's work in this regard is he had no real interest in consistency in some details, even if he was very good about consistency in others. He definitely felt there was a difference between Fairyland and the Dreamland, but they're adjacent. I decided to divide Dunsany's stories into three regions: At the Edge of the World (most of his contemporary stories, featuring mild (if any) supernatural elements), Over the Hills and Far Away (questionably located, possibly near or far from the regular world), and Beyond the Fields We Know (definitely Dream- or Fairy-land). I included geographic items from Beyond the Fields We Know. With HPL, it was much, much easier to determine what to include. I also included some of his poems, but I'm probably still missing an item or two. Also, some of the items that usually get included were shown in the story that introduces them to be nonexistent, which is awkward. So, I put together a gazetteer of the above sources, since those are all in the public domain as far as I'm aware. I've been delving deeper, into Gary Myers and Brian Lumley and others, but that won't be sharable, obviously. Anyway, here it is. I should mention, it's very early draft; call it version 0.1.

Purchased. As a big fan of "The Haunting," this is a... Wait, did I say that already? I'm having déjà vu...

I mean, a key part of the Ernalda myth is dying going to sleep and then reviving. Shamans awakening their fetch in the game have frequently been portrayed as "self-resurrecting" (hence the Self-Resurrection power). There's a good synergy there. Ernalda brought most of the dead gods and goddesses back with her, with Voria leading the way; the fetch of the Serdrodosa myth must be one of these daimones that came back with her.

The waters didn't devour the Earth Cube in the same way, though, right? When forced to retreat, they gave up the Earth back again. With Krarsht, it's just gone.

"Bad" in this context is from the shaman's perspective. I wonder if the Balazaring Lady of the Wilds is the Bad (Wo)Man for the Elder Wilds shamans? They're (presumably) trying to hunt animals and collect vegetables to stave off hunger; the Lady of the Wilds is the personification of the wilderness that makes this task difficult.

Purchased. As a big fan of "The Haunting," this is a no-brainer. Does it come with printable props?

These are very good points. So I move to that part of the Earth Goddess group that did not sleep. Ty Kora Tek seems mythically similar in some ways; but I don't know that Ty Kora Tek had an enemy? Except for members of her own family, right? Didn't she have a mythic disagreement with Asrelia?

I wonder if Serdrodosa's foe should be some form of Nontraya (from a Godlearner perspective).

Is the Argan Argar Chain still canonical? How does it play out in RQG?

My read of that is that, sure, on the Mundane Plane the bodies are being vivisected and remade. But the heroes undergoing the rebirth are also performing important acts on the God Plane (or possibly the Hero Plane) to undergo the troll coming-of-age rites. Trolls suffer quite a lot during their growth to adults, and the humans have to suffer the same, but without the benefits of being a troll -- they do not automatically get comfort and protection from Darkness, for example. Only when they prove themselves troll by succeeding at the coming-of-age rites, do they reawaken in the Mortal World as full trolls (of some variety). EDIT: In other words, it is not just a ritual that is done to a person, it is something that they have to actively participate in for it to have any chance of success.

Yes, I know that, but there was a specific line that said "occult thieves," that got me started on the version I posted. It's really bugging me that I can't find it now.

I've been trying to find what I thought I remembered as a reference to Atyari Thanatari as "occult thieves," but I'm drawing a blank. Mea culpa.

I had postulated a while back that, IMG, the Thanatari who worship Atyar, the Horned Skull, had formed a sorcerous society (the Horned Society) which specializes in stealing occult and arcane secrets from other organizations/cults/etc. If you use such an organization, they would certainly have a cell in Nochet, what with the large Lhankor Mhy temple there, not to mention being a trading hub and therefore a great place to seek out new secrets. EDIT: To add to this, I picture this as a group you might patronize if you want to find out more information about the protective spirits of a rival House, prior to attempting some shenanigans with said House. Alternatively, if you want to find out if the secrets of the House of Black Arkat include a specific myth you need to know to succeed in a HeroQuest, these guys might do it for the right amount of money (or in exchange for other lore of interest).

I'd seen this guy's artistic take on the Aztec gods before, but I was unaware he had done a website! Thanks for the link!

I'm sorry, but by the Rules of the Round Table, you owe us three posts of outstanding luminosity and grandiloquence.

I value these kinds of threads because I like to keep options open so that I can pivot the campaign, in case a group tends vehemently to one position or another. For instance, I have some people who, if they ever got in a game, would not be able to see Uther in a good light no matter what I did. Familiarity with some modern interpretations of the source material, and all that...

I just hate to make Merlin the only magical mover/shaker in any period. Are there any potential figures from Welsh stories, I wonder? The Mabinogion? I've never gotten around to reading its stories, but I'm told they're full of wonder-workers.

Would this "unnatural obsession" make sense as some early plot of an evil sorceress or faerie? I'm not familiar enough to the characters of the early story to have any ideas I'd be confident enough to propose.

I mean, you can gaslight your players right now! You don't need to wait! That's what GMing is all about!

It occurred to me to look at precursors to HPL, and stories they wrote that might also have influenced the Dream Cycle. Robert W. Chambers: his stuff will need a bit of unpacking. I'll have to reread it carefully -- he's got a lot of dreams and dream-imagery, but I don't remember it having the "Dreamlands" character, but more mundane (... relatively, in context) dreams of doom. Ambrose Bierce: stories like "The Death of Halpin Frayser" show a strong element of dreaming, but in general there isn't a lot of actionable information. It is possible that "An Inhabitant of Carcosa" can be understood to take place in the Dreamlands, but in AGB it's ambiguous; RWC puts a lot more dream imagery into the Carcosa Mythos. Edgar Allen Poe: I was looking at "To -- -- --. Ulalume: A Ballad" and was struck by the similarity between it and some of HPL's Dreamlands poems. The ghoul-haunted forest of Weir; the dark, misty lake of Auber; hoary Mount Yaanek; these could all comfortably be in the Dreamlands, and as the poem itself says, "This is nothing but dreaming!" And EAP's poem "Dream-Land" definitely refers to a Lovecraftian Dreamlands. Any other older authors with appropriate works? I know Jason Thompson has put Etidorhpa's Country and Zimiamvia in his Dreamlands map, but I'm not sure those fit as well as these examples above.

It suddenly occurred to me that Clark Ashton Smith's City of the Singing Flame stories might make sense as taking place in the Dreamlands. "The City of the Singing Flame" (Jul 1931) "Beyond the Singing Flame" (Nov 1931) "The Rebirth of the Flame" (1989) Now I have to reread them and see if it tracks. Practically everything else he wrote doesn't take place in dreams, but in fantastical regions that are supposed to be real.

I think this is the Gary Myers Dream-Cycle. I think I have all of these in The Country of the Worm collection. “The House of the Worm,” from The Arkham Collector #7 (Sum 1970) “Yohk the Necromancer,” from The Arkham Collector #8 (Win 1971) “Passing of a Dreamer,” from The Arkham Collector #9 (Spr 1971) “The Return of Zhosph” from HPL (1972) “Xiurhn,” from The House of the Worm (1975) “The Three Enchantments,” from The House of the Worm (1975) “Hazuth-Kleg,” from The House of the Worm (1975) “The Loot of Golthoth,” from The House of the Worm (1975) “The Four Sealed Jars,” from The House of the Worm (1975) “The Maker of Gods,” from The House of the Worm (1975) “The Gods of Earth,” from Nameless Places (1975) “The Snout in the Alcove,” from The Year's Best Fantasy Stories #3 (1977) “The Priest of Mlok,” from Crypt of Cthulhu #22 (Roodmas 1984) “The Fourth Cryptical Book of Hsan,” from Crypt of Cthulhu #23 (St. John’s Eve 1984) [as “The Third Cryptical Book of Hsan”] “The Gods of Drinen,” from Crypt of Cthulhu #29 (Candlemas 1985) “The Tomb of Neb,” from Crypt of Cthulhu #31 (Roodmas 1985) “The Treasure of the Ancients,” from Crypt of Cthulhu #56 (Roodmas 1988) “The Last Night of Earth,” from The Azathoth Cycle: Tales of the Blind Idiot God (1995) “The Lord of the Hunt,” from Crypt of Cthulhu #89 (Eastertide 1995) “The Keeper of the Flame,” from The New Lovecraft Circle (1996) “The End of Wisdom,” from Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror #8 (2003) “The Tower of Mormoroth,” from Worlds of Cthulhu (2012) “The Mouth of God,” from The Lovecraft eZine #29 (Feb 2014) “Dusk,” from The Country of the Worm: Excursions Beyond the Wall of Sleep (2016) “Sadiva’s Lover,” from The Country of the Worm: Excursions Beyond the Wall of Sleep (2016) “The Door Through the Fire,” from The Country of the Worm: Excursions Beyond the Wall of Sleep (2016) “The City of the Dead,” from The Country of the Worm: Excursions Beyond the Wall of Sleep (2016) Hopefully get through this collection over the next couple of weeks. I won't be able to share any of this stuff, but it may be helpful for someone else trying to track down material.

To be fair, the first story, "The Caller of the Black," is, I think, decent. I haven't read most of them, but I picked up a later novel in the series, and it was, to my reading tastes, hot garbage. But then, I have a weird sense of what I like -- for instance, I would have loved a further exploration of the Pickman Mythos, which few writers seem to have expanded on.

Sure, but while his stuff feels appropriate, I haven't found anything definitively "Dreamlands." I have his complete works, and have scanned a bunch but I haven't found any definitively Dreamland stuff yet. Already mentioned above! It's in my reading list! 🙂

I'll have to check those out, though I'm not that fond of his later Titus Crow stuff, which is the only stuff of his I've read.