Yog-Sothothery: Lovecraftian Circle Lore, Cosmology, Feats, and Characters

[Maddie]

I don't have any time to add much so I will just say who is allowed for statements and lore:

In Lovecraft's Time
-HP Lovecraft (Duh)
-Clark Ashton Smith
-Robert E. Howard
-Frank Belknap Long
-Robert Bloch
After Lovecraft's Time
-August Derleth (Coined the Cthulhu Mythos, and important in preserving Lovecraft's works, but take his works with a bucket of salt)
-Henry Kuttner (Had correspondences with Lovecraft)
-Duane W. Rimel (Had correspondences with Lovecraft)

 

[Maddie]

Some Important Cycles Within The Cthulhu Mythos

• The King in Yellow: Written before Lovecraft's time, Lovecraft would be inspired to bring these stories as canon elements of his mythos
• The Dream Cycle: Arguably the most important part of the Mythos for pure esoteric understanding, this explains the role and character of the likes of Yog Sothoth and Nyarlathotep. Themes include transcendentalism, dreams, drugs, and alternate realities.
• The Cthulhu Mythos: Lovecraft's Cosmic Horror full on. The science fiction elements of the mythos are explained here and the cosmology of gods are seen in a much more impersonal, cold, and horrific light than the dreamlike and fantastical depictions in The Dream Cycle. This is what his circle - especially Frank Belknap Long, Robert Bloch, and occasionally Clark Ashton Smith, would focus on
• Kull of Atlantis: Robert E. Howard's spiritual predecessor to the more famous Conan Stories. Involves many gods and creatures in the Cthulhu Mythos in prehistoric Atlantis
• Conan the Barbarian: Robert E. Howard's most famous work. Much like Kull, Conan overlaps with the Lovecraftian stories all the time
• Hyperborean Cycle: Stories by Clark Ashton Smith which he himself considers to be directly connected to the Mythos. This takes place in prehistoric times, millions of years ago, when the gods of Hyborea roamed the Earth
• Averoigne Stories: Stories by Smith set in Medieval France

 

[Maddie]

Hey, should I go straight to cosmology stuffs or go in order for lore and everything?

Also how do I do threadmarks?

 

[Maddie]

Earthen and Solar Cosmology
[wip I forgot lol]

 

[Maddie]

Universal Cosmology of Space-Time

Space
In order to understand how Lovecraft viewed the universe. We first need to remember that a lot of Lovecraft's writings were a reflection of his views, discoveries, and eccentricities. So what he describes the cosmology in the mythos is what he believes makes the most sense. His goal seems to show even what the likes of Einstein have proposed is too lowly and imperfect to describe the greater existence beyond that, but that will be later. For now, I will just show him approving of Einstein and De Sitter's theories:

“As for Einstein—there can be no doubt but that his fame is solidly founded. Whatever future mathematicians & physicists may discover regarding the widest working out of his principles, it seems certain that the general facts of relativity & curved space are unshakable realities, without considering which it will be impossible to form any sort of true conception of the cosmos.” (to Miss Elizabeth Toldridge, 20 December 1930)

“...I heard Prof. de Sitter lecture here Nov. 9 on The Size of the Universe. One of the most spectacular of recent astronomical developments is the growing conviction that the visible cosmos is in a state of constant expansion—as if it were scattering its contents into empty space. Probably all cosmic units have a similar history—forming through the accidental aggregation of wandering atomic clusters, subsequently going through a series of typical readjustments based on the electrical properties of matter, & ending in a final disintegration & dispersal. De Sitter is not the first proponent of this view of the cosmos—which perhaps originates with Dr. V.M. Silpher’s spectroscopic work at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, (which proved that all spiral nebulae—external galaxies—are retreating rapidly into outer space) but he is the first to make it the subject of a mathematical fact in the matter of Einstein. It will also be interesting to see how well de Sitter’s theory of the origin of the solar system (through actually colliding stars instead of merely closely passing stars) will stand comparison with the views which have been dominant since 1905 or 1906. De Sitter is a pleasant-looking little old man with bald head, fringe of snowy hair, & snowy full beard. He speaks excellent English, but has not a very great vocal carrying-power, so that those in the rear of his audiences are distinctly out of luck. He is extremely clever in bringing the outlines of an abstruse subject within the layman’s grasp, & shews great acumen in choosing illustrative lantern-slides.” (to Miss Elizabeth Toldridge, 3 December 1931)”

Lovecraft, not actually that well versed beyond the pop-sci of his time, either did or didn't realize that De Sitter's infinite expanding universe differed from Einstein's finite static universe. Likely, however, is he sees the universe as an infinitely expanding sphere. He does call a universe an infinity at one time:

Hasheesh helped a great deal, and once sent him to a part of space where form does not exist, but where glowing gases study the secrets of existence. And a violet-coloured gas told him that this part of space was outside what he had called infinity.

~Celephais

And in Whisperer in Darkness, implies our universe is a "non-genuine" infinity

The space-time globule which we recognise as the totality of all cosmic entity is only an atom in the genuine infinity which is theirs.

~The Whisperer in Darkness

The universe is likely infinite, definitely expanding, but what about it's time? How does Time work in Lovecraft's View?

Time

Hounds of Tindalos
Shadow Out Of Time
Through the Gate of the Silver Key
[I'm sleepy GN]

 

[Maddie]

Higher Dimensional and Multiversal Cosmology

The Multiverse

Going back to the Celephais quote, these other "infinities" (Universes) have differing laws of physics

Hasheesh helped a great deal, and once sent him to a part of space where form does not exist, but where glowing gases study the secrets of existence. And a violet-coloured gas told him that this part of space was outside what he had called infinity. The gas had not heard of planets and organisms before, but identified Kuranes merely as one from the infinity where matter, energy, and gravitation exist.

~Celephais

And again returning to the quote in Whisperer in Darkness, our universe is just an atom in a greater multiverse.

The space-time globule which we recognise as the totality of all cosmic entity is only an atom in the genuine infinity which is theirs.

~The Whisperer in Darkness

Here is another quote from Whisperer in Darkness saying there is a multiverse:

Round Hill, like most of the beings’ main outposts all through the various universes, is a very cosmopolitan place! Of course, only the more common types have been lent to me for experiment.

~The Whisperer in Darkness

Even now I absolutely refuse to believe what he implied about the constitution of ultimate infinity, the juxtaposition of dimensions, and the frightful position of our known cosmos of space and time in the unending chain of linked cosmos-atoms which makes up the immediate super-cosmos of curves, angles, and material and semi-material electronic organisation.

~The Whisperer in Darkness

Note the "constitution of ultimate infinity" and the "juxtaposition of dimensions", I will deal with the latter first.

Dimensionality

Dimensionality is a very important concept in the Cthulhu Mythos.

The Trap
The Dreams in the Witchhouse
Through the Gate of the Silver Key

Transcedental Realities Beyond All

"But what place is this? Is it Paradise or Hell? This is not the world I have known since birth. And those stars-I have never seen them before. Those constellations are mightier and more fiery than I ever knew in life."

"There are worlds beyond worlds, universes within and without universes," said the ancient. "You are upon a different planet than that upon which you were born; you are in a different universe, doubtless in a different dimension,"

"Then I am certainly dead."

"What is death but a traversing of eternities and a crossing of cosmic oceans? But I have not said that you are dead."

"Then where in Valka's name am I?" roared Kull, his short stock of patience exhausted. "Your barbarian brain clutches at material actualities," answered the other tranquilly. "What does it matter where you are, or whether you are dead, as you call it? You are a part of that great ocean which is Life, which washes upon all shores, and you are as much a part of it in one place as in another, and as sure to eventually flow back to the Source of it, which gave birth to all Life. As for that, you are bound to Life for all Eternity as surely as a tree, a rock, a bird or a world is bound. You call leaving your tiny planet, quitting your crude physical form-death!"

"But I still have my body."

"I have not said that you are dead, as you name it. As for that, you may be still upon your little planet, as far as you know. Worlds within worlds, universes within universes. Things exist too small and too large for human comprehension. Each pebble on the beaches of Valusia contains countless universes within itself, and itself as a whole is as much a part of the great plan of all universes, as is the sun you know. Your universe, Kull of Valusia, may be a pebble on the shore of a mighty kingdom. "You have broken the bounds of material limitations. You may be in a universe which goes to make up a gem on the robe you wore on Valusia's throne or that universe you knew may be in the spiderweb which lies there on the grass near your feet. I tell you, size and space and time are relative and do not really exist."

~Kull: Striking of the Gong

The universe and dimensionality, space and time, all of it, are relative as hell in the grand scope of the greater cosmos. Our universe is one infinitesimal speck of infinite others which make up a super cosmos which in itself is an infinitesimal speck of a greater multiverse, so on and so forth, ad infinitum. This is megaversal+