The Plateau of Leng

[Darius West]

The Plateau of Leng (PoL) is often mentioned in CoC and associated materials.  It is a very mysterious place, where a number of Mythos beings are known to live.  There is some conflict as to where it is exactly.  Some people place it in the Dreamlands, while others place it in Tibet, Antarctica, South-East Asia, or potentially on other worlds entirely.  I was personally surprised to discover an IRL Plateau of Leng in Switzerland (Lenk am Simmental), and featured it in a Mythos short story I wrote.  We have also variously heard that ghouls, moon-beasts, the Emerald Lama, tcho-tchos and who-knows-what other horrors can be found there.  When I am Keeper, I personally assume that the Plateau of Leng is a "gate nexus" of sorts, a place where a great many crossing points from one place to another intersect, and thus the mystery of the Plateau may lie not with... (see spoiler below to ruin the mystery, unless you are a Keeper of Arcane Lore, in which case hideous cosmic vistas await as your poor mind correlates these contents)

Spoiler

Hastur, in his mask/avatar/disguise/aspect of the Emerald Lama (assuming that Hastur himself isn't just another mask of Nyarlathotep).

 but with

Spoiler

Yog Sothoth.  Consider, where better for Yog Sothoth to actually be "most manifest" than at the most active nexus of gate travel?  That of course would be the Plateau.  Of course Yog Sothoth is technically everywhere and nowhere at once in our Universe, but he is potentially MOST everywhere and nowhere at once on the Plateau.

It is also worth pointing out that the Cruel Empire of Tsan Chan will be born in the Himalayas in the lands around the Plateau in that period when humanity falls to the Great Old Ones at some point in the future.  This inhuman bastion of humanity may well serve as the only reservation where humans remain during this unspeakable period, and who knows what will become of our species afterwards?  It is odd however that the Plateau of Leng becomes the "final" refuge for humanity in this period.

Does anyone else have tidbits of Plateau of Leng lore?  Or want to chat about how they have used (or been subjected to) the PoL in their game?

[AlHazred]

I liked Robert Price's interpretation of the monastery of Leng in "The Strange Doom of Enos Harker". I recommend checking it out if you can do so without throwing any money at Mr. Price.

[EricW]

I always figured the Plateau of Leng was the horrible reality underpinning the myth of Shangri-La.

Perhaps it is buried under ice, but will be revealed when global warming disturbs the balance, and the Great Old Ones begin stirring back to consciousness.

As for the cruel empire, I doubt we fully understand it. The protagonist enjoys a long association with a resident of the empire in The Shadow Out of Time. I suspect people in the empire are not necessarily insane, the way people of our world go insane, more they have somehow made an accommodation with their horrible reality.

[Darius West]

1 hour ago, EricW said:

more they have somehow made an accommodation with their horrible reality.

Hmmm... That sounds a lot like most investigators in CoC... And quite a few unhappy people deemed to have mental health problems irl now I think about it.

7 hours ago, AlHazred said:

I liked Robert Price's interpretation of the monastery of Leng in "The Strange Doom of Enos Harker". I recommend checking it out if you can do so without throwing any money at Mr. Price.

Might there be a reason I shouldn't throw money at Mr. Price?  How dire are his sins that he is deemed unfit to be paid for his writing? 🤔

Needless to say, thanks for the tip, I will see if I can find his work online somewhere.

Edited August 12, 2022 by Darius West

[EricW]

1 hour ago, Darius West said:

Hmmm... That sounds a lot like most investigators in CoC... And quite a few unhappy people deemed to have mental health problems irl now I think about it.

Perhaps thousands of years have provided a way to live with the mind wrenching fear. They might be insane from our POV, as per the prophecy in CoC. But it would be a very short lived empire if say kids couldn’t grow up into viable adults, whatever that would mean in such an age.

“…The time would be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom.…”

[John Biles]

There used to be an amazing Miskatonic Repository work on the Cruel Empire of Tsan Chan, but it's no longer available, on drivethrurpg, anyway.

It's an interesting take on their never ending war to use comprehensible cruelty to keep out Mythos insanity.

They are horrible, but in ways humans can adapt to and survive, though their leaders are no longer really human and struggle with the call of the Mythos.

 

[Qizilbashwoman]

5 hours ago, Darius West said:

Might there be a reason I shouldn't throw money at Mr. Price?

https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2020/08/18/pro-trump-atheist-blames-cancel-culture-for-drama-over-his-anthology-foreword/

Basically 'sword and sorcery novels will stop the feminisation of the male youth by the forced trans woke Left and women who cry rape constantly' by a Trumpet IN AN INTRODUCTION TO A COLLECTION OF STORIES

Edited August 12, 2022 by Qizilbashwoman

[Darius West]

3 hours ago, John Biles said:

There used to be an amazing Miskatonic Repository work on the Cruel Empire of Tsan Chan, but it's no longer available, on drivethrurpg, anyway.

Yes, I bought that.  Sadly I've never had a chance to use it for any CoC purpose.  My players always found a reason not to go to the Plateau of Leng.  Scaredy cats.  Of course I blame myself for being a very sandbox-style Keeper who lets his players choose their own direction.

Edited August 12, 2022 by Darius West

[Darius West]

4 hours ago, EricW said:

Perhaps thousands of years have provided a way to live with the mind wrenching fear. They might be insane from our POV, as per the prophecy in CoC. But it would be a very short lived empire if say kids couldn’t grow up into viable adults, whatever that would mean in such an age.

“…The time would be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom.…”

The Cruel Empire of Tsan Chan is probably best described as a magocracy built on strict discipline and encoded ritualism in the supplement.  This adherence to the rules allows people who are otherwise quite mad to continue to function as part of society despite being mentally broken and "hollowed out".  Loyalty is demanded unto death, and it reminds me of a combination of Traditional Tibetan Society, China under the CCP, The Empire of Man in Warhammer 40K, and the Dinner scene from "Roger of the Raj" in "Ripping Yarns".

As to the part when mankind is "liberated" by the Great Old Ones, no doubt this is the false promise of power the GOO offer humanity.  On the other hand, humanity has always been more of a threat when we work together rather than as atomized individuals who live in fear of each other.  No matter how much sorcery you learn, will you ever learn more than Nyarlathotep or any of the other GOOs?  Unlikely.

[AlHazred]

12 hours ago, Darius West said:

Might there be a reason I shouldn't throw money at Mr. Price?  How dire are his sins that he is deemed unfit to be paid for his writing? 🤔

 

6 hours ago, Qizilbashwoman said:

https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2020/08/18/pro-trump-atheist-blames-cancel-culture-for-drama-over-his-anthology-foreword/

Basically 'sword and sorcery novels will stop the feminisation of the male youth by the forced trans woke Left and women who cry rape constantly' by a Trumpet IN AN INTRODUCTION TO A COLLECTION OF STORIES

What she said. I loved his editing job in the Call of Cthulhu Fiction line, but I will not throw money his way again. However, that is not germane to this thread.

You might also want to give some thought to the various other "Plateaus" other Mythos writers have mentioned or invented. Like the Plateau of Tsang ("Where Yidhra Walks," DeBill).

[Qizilbashwoman]

The Cruel Empire of Tsan Chan uses a secondary system for SAN based on socio-religious training. It's referred to as The Way. To quote CETsCh, "The Way does not precisely record Sanity, it records the ability to function in society." To sum up the general function of The Way:

• The Way is a kind of Sanity soak, if you will. It is an ‘add- on’ mental discipline that helps people survive in an environment which should mentally and spiritually destroy them. Because it is taught as a folk religion, mental discipline, philosophy, cant and screed, understood differently on different levels by the varying classes, it is based on Intelligence rather than Education. While a Eunuch scholar can certainly discuss the laws and ideology with far greater eloquence, a dirt-poor factory worker may understand the spirit and purpose with greater clarity.

I should add that the Way is limited: you can handle upsetting things, but real horror is going to hit your SAN. Loss of Way to zero is 'death', but loss of SAN to zero is not.

 

[EricW]

On 8/12/2022 at 8:38 PM, Darius West said:

The Cruel Empire of Tsan Chan is probably best described as a magocracy built on strict discipline and encoded ritualism in the supplement.  This adherence to the rules allows people who are otherwise quite mad to continue to function as part of society despite being mentally broken and "hollowed out".  Loyalty is demanded unto death, and it reminds me of a combination of Traditional Tibetan Society, China under the CCP, The Empire of Man in Warhammer 40K, and the Dinner scene from "Roger of the Raj" in "Ripping Yarns".

Hmm. Rigidly ritualistic doesn't seem much like "... for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside ...", though to be fair maybe the ritual enabled those who embraced it to survive the "... holocaust of ecstasy and freedom ...". 

Perhaps most of them just keep their eyes closed during the interesting parts of religious services, have lots of group therapy sessions, and quietly dispose of the wizards who develop insanities which are un-conducive to community harmony.

On 8/12/2022 at 8:38 PM, Darius West said:

As to the part when mankind is "liberated" by the Great Old Ones, no doubt this is the false promise of power the GOO offer humanity.  On the other hand, humanity has always been more of a threat when we work together rather than as atomized individuals who live in fear of each other.  No matter how much sorcery you learn, will you ever learn more than Nyarlathotep or any of the other GOOs?  Unlikely.

Do the GOO actually care what humans do with the sorcery they learn, so long as the sacrifices keep flowing their way? Nyarlathotep might occasionally take delight in taunting individual humans, or entire societies, and Cthulhu might be a bossy micromanaging b*stard, but most of the GOO seem way too impersonal to care what humans do with the power they share.

Or maybe the humans in the cruel empire are all utterly insane. Old Castro in the Lovecraft CoC story was able to be civil, answer questions and give coherent descriptions of cult activities, but as an active and knowledgable participant in awful sacrifices and rituals he was probably totally insane in game terms.

Edited August 15, 2022 by EricW

[Darius West]

21 minutes ago, EricW said:

Or maybe the humans in the cruel empire are all utterly insane. Old Castro in the Lovecraft CoC story was able to be civil, answer questions and give coherent descriptions of cult activities, but as an active and knowledgable participant in awful sacrifices and rituals he was probably totally insane in game terms.

Ahh, here's the misunderstanding.  The Cruel Empire of Tsan Chan are NOT the mad mass of humanity.  They are the last viable human culture and civilization after the return of the GOO.  What they aren't is the madmen out there "killing in the name of something unpronounceable", which is not to suggest that the don't per se, but that they are rigid and structured about it, and not just a pack of random acts of disorganized sociopathic violence.

Edited August 15, 2022 by Darius West

[EricW]

7 hours ago, Darius West said:

Ahh, here's the misunderstanding.  The Cruel Empire of Tsan Chan are NOT the mad mass of humanity.  They are the last viable human culture and civilization after the return of the GOO.  What they aren't is the madmen out there "killing in the name of something unpronounceable", which is not to suggest that the don't per se, but that they are rigid and structured about it, and not just a pack of random acts of disorganized sociopathic violence.

Maybe we're looking at this wrong. "... What the police did extract, came mainly from an immensely aged mestizo named Castro, who claimed to have sailed to strange ports and talked with undying leaders of the cult in the mountains of China. ..." - seems pretty structured to me.

Maybe when the GOO finally arise, the undying cult leaders simply come out of hiding, and become the aristocracy of the cruel empire, by guiding humanity into a structured pattern which allows people to co-exist with their new masters, at least until the monster food runs out. Perhaps CoC story gave us a glimpse of this cruel future.

The undying leaders gave instruction to Castro. Castro's group in turn preyed on the locals. But in time perhaps the locals would have come to an accommodation, where they provided sacrifices of their own free will, in return for Castro agreeing to be more socially sensitive about selecting sacrifices - like the villagers in “The Shadow over Innsmouth”.

Most people in such a settlement - the villagers - would have been relatively sane, aside from the pain and loss of sacrificing a few of their number every month. Most of them would have had more sense than to go into the woods to spy on the cultists. The cultists in turn would have themselves been barking mad, but a functional form of insanity which allows them to co-exist with the normals, though there is no doubt who is in charge in that arrangement.

Welcome to the cruel empire.

Edited August 15, 2022 by EricW

[Darius West]

15 hours ago, EricW said:

Maybe we're looking at this wrong. "... What the police did extract, came mainly from an immensely aged mestizo named Castro, who claimed to have sailed to strange ports and talked with undying leaders of the cult in the mountains of China. ..." - seems pretty structured to me.

Maybe when the GOO finally arise, the undying cult leaders simply come out of hiding, and become the aristocracy of the cruel empire, by guiding humanity into a structured pattern which allows people to co-exist with their new masters, at least until the monster food runs out. Perhaps CoC story gave us a glimpse of this cruel future.

The undying leaders gave instruction to Castro. Castro's group in turn preyed on the locals. But in time perhaps the locals would have come to an accommodation, where they provided sacrifices of their own free will, in return for Castro agreeing to be more socially sensitive about selecting sacrifices - like the villagers in “The Shadow over Innsmouth”.

Most people in such a settlement - the villagers - would have been relatively sane, aside from the pain and loss of sacrificing a few of their number every month. Most of them would have had more sense than to go into the woods to spy on the cultists. The cultists in turn would have themselves been barking mad, but a functional form of insanity which allows them to co-exist with the normals, though there is no doubt who is in charge in that arrangement.

Welcome to the cruel empire.

Yeah, not bad and pretty close to what the Cruel Empire of Tsan Chan supplement suggested.  In the supplement, humanity's survivors initially fled underground to the ghoul tunnels, where they skirmished with the Serpent Men, before realizing that all 3 independent races were in the "same boat" vis the rise of C'thulhu.  They made their way underground with the Serpent Men largely taking the lead due to their sorcery.  They emerge on the Plateau of Leng, where they form their new "empire", and begin fortifying and preparing an economy and defenses, and shielding against the madness emanating from C'thulhu.  They drive off waves of attacks, and gradually produce a new ruling class made of humans who have interbred with the gods Wilbur Whately style, who have enough innate power to withstand the very worst that can be thrown against the Empire.  And they create a ritualized society where adherence to the Law before all else becomes a sanity substitute.