Proppingupthemythos
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Spoiler Thread for Leaves 9, 10, 11, and 12 (catching up!)
🕑 Added 2019-03-03 13:11:46 +0000 UTCI really apologize for the delay on this thread, and I want to keep doing these in the future, so I am doing one big thread to catch us up with the end of the First Quire.
Page 17 gives us a portrait of Shub-Niggurath that was based on an original of the Madonna. There is a pretty blatant yonic quality that I thought was fitting for a fertility deity. The text on this page features the first mention of Ramsey Campbell's Gof'nn Hupadgh, the first (intentional) inclusion of that author's work in the book after I received his blessing. The side note from Dee mentions the Genii Cucullati and I would encourage folks to look into them. Strange stuff!
Page 18 features an image of the End Times (or possibly an amalgamation of possible end time scenarios). I've said before that I wanted the beginning of the Necronomicon to be like the Book of Revelation, so here is an aspect of that concept. In the text we have the first mention of the Black Spirits of Earth, a concept first mentioned by Old Castro in the Call of Cthulhu. His choice of adjectives in describing them ("moldy, shadowy" and "full of dim rumors") gave me the impression they were not one and the same with the creatures that helped the celebrants with this rituals. So here I am making them antagonists of the Great Old Ones, and rivals for their followers.
Page 19 begins a section on the Keeper. The side note is a reference to Count Magnus by M.R. James (such a great story!). The Order of the Crimson Altar (Ordo Altaris Rubri) is something I will be weaving into the narrative in the side notes: it is the cult that Sir Randolph belongs to, and the intended recipients of this edition of the Necronomicon. The name comes from the 1960's Dreams in the Witch House adaptation Curse of the Crimson Altar starring Barbara Steele, Christopher Lee and Boris Karloff. This cult is unrelated to Dr. John Dee and does not influence the main body of the text, so it is just some added flavour on the side.
(Also I happen to own a Crimson Altar, so it seemed fitting)
Page 20 has some really meaty concepts that I will be elaborating on over the course of the book. The basic idea is that a Master Adept can project a part of themselves beyond time and space as we know it (Witch House stuff again) and that this projection may then return in a new form as a guide (or Keeper) to help the Master (itself) in achieving their goals. It is sort of a Boot Strap Paradox, but Lovecraft sets the stage for it in Through the Gates of the Silver Key. Brown Jenkin with his odd resemblance to Keziah Mason is the most straightforward example of a Keeper in Lovecraft's work, but I would argue there are others...
There is also a mention of the disagreement between branches of the Path of Those Beneath the Land, especially in regard to the opinions of Ibn Schacabac. This will play out over the next 100 pages, and is sparked by the comments by Schacabac quoted in The Festival. The death scene described here was inspired by the execution of a famed Sufi master.
Page 21 has a most disturbing image of the birthing process of the Keeper, and a reference to the amazing short story Caterpillars by E.F. Benson (Eruca means caterpillar). In the real world there is a kind of tumor called a teratoma that contains hair and teeth, so I ran with that concept as the way the Keeper (re)enters the world through the body of the Master, or a close relative.
We get another mention of the Black Goat of Ibn Schacabac here (last mentioned on page 7), and the beginning of an expansion of the Keeper concept. I am proposing that the reason Wilbur Whateley's monstrous twin brother had the face of Wizard Whateley on it was because it was the Keeper of the Old Wizard. Not that it wasn't the spawn of Yog-Sothoth as well, but that it functioned as the apotheosis of the Wizard. In relating this concept I reference the tale of Iarchus of Smyrna. This was a Mythos tale I wrote twenty years ago and thought lost in a harddrive malfunction years back, but just the other day I stumbled across a copy in a Zine I'd forgotten had published it! I plan to revise it and incorporate it into the Necronomicon at some point down the line.
Page 22 gives us the last of the expansions of the Keeper for this section: shared Keepers in the form of a Shoggoth summoned by Deep Ones and their hybrid offspring. This is coming from the presence of a Shoggoth in the woods of Maine in The Thing on the Doorstep, and what that might have to do with the transference of souls between bodies in that story. After researching this concept a great deal I have come to the conclusion that Old Obed Marsh may well have lived on, transferred into the body of his grandson Barnabas Marsh (and therefore destined to take his place beneath the sea once the change had fully come). But I will have a lot more to say about that starting around page 200.
Page 23 introduces the concept of the Stipulations. This actually was sparked by a line on The Magicians by Lev Grossman where he described the tedious charts and formulae that needed to be memorized to account for various exceptions to the rule. So everything that follows from here until the start of Chapter 1 is intended as number crunching homework that must be done before the concepts can be put into practice. The artwork here depicts Cthulhu Spawn, MiGo, Ghouls, a Nightgaunt, and some formless tentacled creatures.
Pages 24 and 25 are a map of some important locations needed for correctly performing some spells.
Page 26 has a warning about not taking these studies lightly.
Page 27 (The Planes of Yr) features names pulled from Dunsany, REH, Lovecraft and John Dee's own writing.
Page 28 was inspired by the Dunwich Horror where Wilbur writes of conversing with being from beneath the Hill. We also get the pattern and rules for finding such a place (some of which are marked terrestrially on the map a few pages back, and some which are more nebulous). All of these names are taken from Lovecraft's letters.
Page 29 combines the learnings from pages 27 and 28 and cross references them.
Page 30 gives us a passage from the Necronomicon originally published in the 1966 as a "Preface to the Necronomicon" by Gerald W. Page. I took the Derlethian aspects out, but gave some of the misconceptions to Dr. Dee for fun! I like having Sir Randolph feel the need to add his own note of clarification afterwards.
Page 31 (The Formulae of the Shaurash-ho) is playing with more of Lovecraft's terms that only appeared in his letters. They are fun and pulpy, but straight from the source!
Page 32 brings us back to the image I placed at the head of this thread: form an eye by folding the page together, and then follow the instructions on page 33 on how to bind and Adumbralii into your tome. Everyone wants that, right?
So thank you for making it through this massive info dump. I had to skip over a few things (mostly fun word play), but hopefully this will give you plenty to mull over. I welcome any thoughts or comments and as always, thank you for the support!
Comments
Christian Matzke
That film has a special place in my heart.
Chris Kalley
Thank you, I love the tie in to Curse of the Crimson Altar.
