WilloftheWest

Chapter VIII concerns the further decline of the empire of the Elder Things.

Dyer is now convinced that this great city is no other than the evil Plateau of Leng, of which even the great occult scholar Abdul Al-Hazred was fearful. The carvings of the Elder Things speak of the geography surrounding the city, including a much vaster mountain range which was the source of the great river that spanned the city. Even the Elder Things feared those mountains, for any who built near that range found their constructions falling to ruin. They even came to fear that which the river bore down from the mountains. Dyer recalls Kadath of the Cold Wastes mentioned in the Pnakotic Manuscripts, and is thankful that he has not seen that range.

Though the Elder Things were hardy folk, the approaching ice age originating at the poles caused ever decreasing crop yields, resulting in a population crisis. The Elder Things determined to build a new city, in the vast depths of an underground ocean which would be uniformly heated by the planet itself. To this end, they fashioned a new breed of intelligent Shoggoths. These new Shoggoths were capable of verbal communications, following complex instruction, and forming intelligent questions.

Dyer ponders on this underwater city and whether it still stands. He wonders whether it is possible for the Elder Things to have survived uncontacted for long millenia, and is then disturbed by the thought of the remarkably preserved specimens which disappeared after the slaughter at the camp.

It sounds to me like we have in fact found Unknown Kadath. While it lies in Antarctica in the waking world, it lies far to the North of the world of Dream. It is also notable in both worlds for its proximity to the Plateau of Leng and it's incredible size compared to other mountain ranges. A brief thought I had is that perhaps the fables of these locations are the cause for their representations in the Dreamlands. After all, these fables can lead to many dreams of these horrific places.

Chapter VII concerns Dyer's interpretation of the colonisation of Earth by the Elder Things, and their subsequent wars with later colonisers.

The bas-reliefs of the building depicts the Elder Things as flying to Earth without the aid of a vessel. Though affected by extreme weather, they apparently survived the vacuum of space by imbibing herbal preparations. Their curious bodies make them masters of land, air, and sea, thus they established many land and sea cities.

In the deep sea the Elder Things fashioned from inorganic material their ancient slave race of the Shoggoths, which were previously believed to never reside upon Earth. The Elder Things commanded the Shoggoths via psychic manipulation. The Shoggoths eventually developed some manner of independent thought as a side effect of excessive mental manipulation by the Elder Things; this prompted a war of subjugation which was eventually won by the Elder Things. Around the time that the Elder Things created the Shoggoths, they also produced early Earth life. Rather than the deliberate genetic manipulation applied to Shoggoths, the Elder Things were content with allowing other life to develop naturally, only interfering when a certain species potentially posed a threat. This was the age of the Elder Things on Earth.

The next great colonising force was the Star Spawn of Cthulhu, a race of bipedal reptilians with tentacled faces, reminiscent of Dread Cthulhu though much smaller. The Star Spawn waged war against the Elder Things for dominion over Earth. The war eventually ended in a peace deal, where the Elder Things retained all their ancestral land, and with new unsettled land going to the Star Spawn. Eventually, an apocalyptic event struck the Star Spawn, as worldwide their cities sunk to the bottom of the ocean, including their capital of R'lyeh.

The third colonising force was the Mi-Go from Pluto, also known as the abominable snowmen of the Himalayas. These two waged war against the Elder Things and proved the stronger force, eventually forcing the Elder Things back to their underwater cities and their sole remaining land city in Antarctica, where they first landed on Earth. The Elder Things attempted to use their powers of space travel and biological engineering to assert dominance over the Mi-Go, only to discover that their technological knowledge had decayed and was lost to them.

Like the previous chapter, Chapter VII does a lot of work to establish some form of plausible sci-fi explanation for the weird creatures on Earth, rather than leaving origins unexplained and open to supernatural interpretation. He puts a nail in the coffin for Cthulhu here by explicitly stating that R'lyeh was deliberately built by a spacefaring culture who resemble Dread Cthulhu.

Of note from this chapter was the descriptions of the Mi-Go and Star Spawn relative to the Elder Things. While the Elder Things had fixed forms, the Mi-Go and Star Spawn appear more plastic in nature, capable of altering their forms to suit their needs. This again is explained away as the Elder Things originating from a point in space-time not unlike our own, while the other two races originate from some deep and distant abyss where our conventional knowledge of the sciences need not apply.

In Chapter VI Dyer and Danforth investigate the art and reported history of the cyclopean city and its inhabitants.

Venturing through the ancient building, Dyer and Danforth come across regular patterns on the walls, Hieroglyphic murals bordered by arabesques line the entirety of the walls, only with brief pauses in the patterns of dots. These dot patterns hint at a rhyming form alien to all cultures of man.

They two delve deeper and study these murals, which evidently depict the history of the the barrel-like creatures. The rooms are notably unfurnished, though murals depict contents of these old rooms. This leads Dyer and Danforth to conclude that the city was abandoned. The pair both arrive at a conclusion that they try their hardest to deny, until they are presented with an unambiguous mural.

These barrel-like creatures are in fact an alien species who have lived on many worlds, and arrived on Earth a billion years ago. Indeed, these creatures are evidently the "Elder Things" fearfully written of in the Pnakotic Manuscripts and the Necronomicon. The mural further depicts that these creatures are at least partially responsible for life on earth.

Dyer and Danforth franticly take photographs of the murals and take to drawing pictures when they run out of film. Dyer reveals that on later study, Danforth suffered from a mental breakdown which Dyer blames on the revelations of their research. Unfortunately this was unavoidable, as Dyer and Danforth must warn against further expeditions.

This is an important chapter in the story. The revelation of spacefaring precursor races is noted by some Lovecraft scholars as Lovecraft's attempt to frame the creatures of his short stories through a more scientific lens, rather than leaving them as supernatural earthly entities. Enigmatic entities such as Cthulhu were now justified as ancient colonists of earth rather than god-like entities.

Those of you more seasoned in Lovecraft's work may have heard the term "Cthulhu Mythos", coined by a friend of Lovecraft, August Derleth. Derleth, while a confidant of Lovecraft, was a proponent of viewing the collected works of Lovecraft as a collective mythos with an overarching theme of good versus evil, which suited his catholic sensibilities. Lovecraft being an atheist rejected the notion of such a meta-narrative and firmly rejected Derleth's attempts to consolidate his works under a collective "Mythos" label.

Following Lovecraft's death, Derleth became the publisher of Lovecraft's unpublished works via Arkham House publishing. He is in part responsible for the widespread publication of Lovecraft's work today. Be that as it may, he is responsible for some decisions which many Lovecraft fans dislike. The two most controversial decisions were to go against the express wishes of Lovecraft and propose that the collection of stories be viewed under the banner of a single connected "Cthulhu Mythos"; and Derleth publishing a large number of "posthumous collaborations" with Lovecraft as a co-author, decades after Lovecraft's death.

In Chapter V, Dyer and Danforth descend into the city and investigate.

Dyer and Danforth fly over the cyclopean city. Though the city is only about 50km wide, no matter how far Dyer and Danforth fly they cannot see the end of the city. The roofs of most buildings have long decayed away, and the ruins that remain are coated with such a layer of ice as to hint of abandonment hundreds of millennia ago. Of note to the two is a fixation with five-pointed stars in the architecture.

The city matches the mirages that Dyer frequently experienced, and so he guesses that some array of ice particles in the air must have reflected the image of the city in such a way to fool him. This doesn't explain some of the warped architecture that he saw in the mirage but not now.

The pair land the plane, prepare for a swift take-off, and descend into the maze of the city. Buildings are tight-packed, with no streets of roads. Dyer and Danforth squeeze through tight alleyways, often overshadowed by the buildings drooping over them.

Finding one large star shaped building still mostly in tact, Dyer and Danforth plan to leave a paper trail and to wander in.

Again Dyer makes frequent references to Lovecraftian entities and artifacts of antiquity: he speaks of Leng, the ancient race of Mi-Go, the formless creature Tsathoggua, and the Pnakotic Manuscripts. He states how the city is unfathomably ancient, such that fabled ancient lands such as Atlantis, Lemuria, and Olathoë would be considered a relatively recent affair. He states this city as being contemporary with the sunken city of R'lyeh, Ib in the land of Mnar, and the Nameless City.

Here Lovecraft makes numerous references to previous tales from the Cycle. Olathoë and the Pnakotic Manuscripts are references to the very first dream story, Polaris. Leng is mentioned often but first mentioned in Celephaïs. Iv in the Land of Mnar is the ancient city of moon people destroyed by the people of Sarnath. And finally the Nameless City itself is mentioned.

Chapter IV pulls back the veil on the convenient lies told in Chapter III.

While the group reported that all but one human body was found and all sled dogs were dead, in fact two human bodies were missing from the campsite and all but one dog was found. Further inspection of the site revealed that clumsy dissections of the human bodies had taken place, and most bodies were missing various chunks. A large pile of viscera was determined to belong to an eleventh human body and the body of a sled dog. Evidently, the cruel imprecise hacks at these bodies hint at early experimentation with dissection equipment. The group rejects the idea that the missing scientist Gedney could be possible for this barbarity. Unfortunately, a need to cover up that events of this site led to the convenient attribution of the deaths to a maddened Gedney.

Though sufficiently scared, the surviving group are singularly taken with a sense of scientific adventure and so seek out the ancient discoveries. The cave mouths leading to the large hollow complex seem suspiciously uniform in size and shape, and are entirely absent of stalactites stalagmites. The group begin to conceive of an intelligent design to the cave complex.

Dyer and fellow Poe reader Danforth ascend the mountain, wanting to see what lies beyond the mountain range. They eventually glimpse beyond the peak to spy an ancient and alien landscape.

This draws the mind back to Carter's shantak flight from Inganok to Leng as the prisoner of the strange merchant. So far this very much seems like a waking world parallel to Unknown Kadath.

Here again we see our favourite Lovecraftian trope of an ostensibly intelligent person being acutely aware of horror and impending doom, yet borne onwards by an insatiable lust for knowledge.

Chapter III begins with the expedition party at the main base losing contact with the advance party. The group believe that the adverse wind that grounded the group must have damaged all of their radio equipment, and so a second group, including Dyers, ventures out to re-establish contact.

Dyers is disturbed to find a shocking similarity between the vista laid out before him, and the evil Plateau of Leng believed to lie in Central Asia. Dyers supposes that rumours of the Plateau may have long ago been misconstrued to place the plateau in Asia; perhaps it is simply that early rumours were propagated from Central Asia. After all, some dare to hint at a more ancient origin of the infamous Pnakotic Manuscripts, believed to have been written during the most recent ice age. Studying the mountain range further conjures forth images of cyclopean cities perched atop the peaks.

The group eventually finds the site of the advanced party and discovers that the wind has indeed done much damage. However, there is much about the scene that hints at events much more sinister.

Of the twelve members of the advance party, eleven are confirmed dead and the twelfth member is missing. The party's entire retinue of sled dogs have been slaughtered. Of the fourteen specimens of ancient bodies, the eight most well-preserved bodies are missing. The other six bodies have curiously been stood upright, buried in snow, and the snow pillars have been adorned with some dotted script similar to soapstones found by the advance party. Oddly, the wind appears to have damaged all of the probing equipment in such a way that suggests a curious inspection of the equipment.

Fortunately, the buried specimens are sufficient to confirm Lake's description of the bodies. The rescue party packs up what equipment can be salvaged and makes a journey up the mountain by plane. What they find convinces them to conspire never to speak of the expedition in great detail, lest it inspire curiosity. They plot to hide physical specimens of the bodies and to never reveal photographic evidence of their existence. They cannot afford another expedition to venture further into the cave complex and unearth what lies below.

The Pnakotic Manuscripts are another example of some ancient rare tome to which nearly everybody and their gran has access. I'm reminded of the ending of Polaris, where no one believes that the dreamer is some ancient soldier lost in time. All he had to do was namedrop the Pnakotic Manuscripts and have an army of academics at his beck and call.

We've seen the Plateau of Leng mentioned as a Central Asian location in a previous dream cycle story: The Hound. The gravedigger found an ancient amulet that the Necronomicon links to cannibalistic men of Leng.

There are just so many quests in the Lower City, and they're all great.

Chapter II tells the story of the advance research party via a series of radio transmissions by the researcher Lake.

The advance party venture further inland via plane. Before long, they make the discovery of a mountain range, hitherto undiscovered and possibly rivalling the Himalayas in scope. As they investigate the mountain range further, they begin to realise that this range dwarfs the Himalayas. Furthermore, there are odd rectangular formations upon the highest peak, which bring to mind images of castles.

At one point during their scouting flights, a sudden onset of violent turbulence causes damage to one plane and grounds the others. Unable to use their planes for now, the party procedes by sled dog. Before long they come across a cave complex which gives way to a huge underground hollow area.

Here they come across a remarkable discovery which excites the listeners. In the cave complex they find more peculiar triangular striations dating back to almost a billion years ago, and fourteen specimens of life previously undiscovered. These beings have barrel-like bodies, starfish shaped toothed heads, and leathery wings. While apparently animals, it is found that they also share a lot of common features with plants. The scientists conclude that it would be difficult to properly classify them without dissection. What is clear is that these triangular striations were made by the starfish heads of the beings. Lake notices the striking similarity between these creatures and the Elder Things described in the Necronomicon.

The group has trouble transporting the specimens, as the sled dogs grow anxious and violent in the presence of them. Fearing that the dogs may damage the specimens, the party resolves to transport the bodies by foot.

The description of the flight again is very similar to that in Unknown Kadath, where Carter and his entourage of ghouls and night gaunts are suddenly borne upon a powerful wind into the entrance hall of the castle upon Kadath. I get that this is a Miskatonic funded expedition, but is the Necronomicon required reading for all students and academics?

Chapter I of At The Mountains of Madness introduces the story from the perspective of William Dyer, a geologist employed by Miskatonic University.

Dyer is a member of a cross-disciplinary research expedition to Antarctica; his particular interest is in obtaining deep-level specimens with the aid of new drilling machinery. During the voyage to Antarctica, Dyer experiences regular mirages of cosmic castles atop distant mountains.

Upon making land at McMurdo Sound, one research student notes volcanic activity on Mt Erebus and recognises it as the likely inspiration for Edgar Allen Poe's poem Ulalume. Dyer is also a reader of Poe and reminisces on an antarctic scene from the story The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.

Some borings promise intersting results, and so the crew dynamites and chisels at a hole to find numerous fossil fragments. One member of the expedition notes curious striations on segments of the rock, which Dyer dismisses as normal. The team later resolve to send a small advance party to scout out interesting areas via plane.

Poe is listed by Lovecraft as one of his literary influences, and a huge inspiration for this story which Lovecraft mentions in the text is Arthur Gordon Pym. Lovecraft was also a keen follower of the Antarctic expedition of Admiral Byrd, which took place in 1928-30.

The mirages of castles atop distant peaks to me is a clear reference to Unknown Kadath which we've read previously in this book club.

Dyer also mentions the Plateau of Leng which we now know is linked geographically to Unknown Kadath. Unsurprisingly, this geologist is very familiar with the blasphemous works of Abdul Al-Hazred.

The good old ~~Narcissist's~~ Tankie's Prayer:

That didn't happen,

And if it did, it wasn't that bad,

And if it was, that's not a big deal,

And if it is, that's not my fault,

And if it was, that's Western propaganda,

And if it isn't, you deserved it.

Sounds good. With the abundance of potions, any composition is viable. I’m currently part of a monk co-op, two short stacks and me as the githyanki skill guy.

Take about 20% off there, bud.