Proppingupthemythos
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Spoiler Thread for Leaf 006
🕑 Added 2018-10-20 14:09:26 +0000 UTC Hello fellow cultists!Page 11 has a pretty splashy image of the undead leaders of the Cthulhu Cult (as mentioned by Old Castro when interviewed by Inspector Legrasse). A fun detail I discovered was that on 16th century maps China was often misrepresented as two different countries, so I was able to reference Serica Regio and Sinarum Situs instead of just boring old China ;)
"Vulgar Practicers" is another example of Hazred being elitist (and me leaning on Paul of Tarsus as inspiration for some of his character flaws).
Page 12 is a whole bunch on Nug adoration. Why Nug you ask? Well, in the narrative Nug the Devourer is the primary deity worshipped by Hazred's first Master, Ibn Yakrib, so naturally he remains a part of Hazred's belief system even years later. On a functional level though, I felt that a minor deity like Nug (who mostly appears in Lovecraft's revision tales) was a good bit of filler. Within this preface to the book proper we've had an introduction to a lot of the major players in the pantheon of the Mythos, but we have to pace ourselves. I've noticed in a lot of Lovecraftian tales by later authors there is a tendency when they quote from the Necronomicon to info dump the names of the Gods in rapid succession. It doesn't come across as particularly convincing honestly.
I imagine the preface (which comprises the first 40 pages of the Necronomicon) is somewhat of an artificial construct. By that I mean that each successive translator has probably pulled concepts or elements from later in the text (or even outside it) that they felt were useful for novitiates and placed them here. This sort of shuffling of elements has an historical precedent and is fun to imagine. To hint at this I've also played around with alternate spellings in the text. Spelling was a much more fluid affair back in the day, and I've documented examples of one word being spelled two different ways in the same sentence!
Now we jump to page 37 and the Formulae of the Nh-Hngr. This page incorporates a quote by William Browning Spencer, which offers a useful banishing spell. Over the course of the book I would like to incorporate the majority of the Necronomicon quotes out there. It's good to set goals!
Page 38 gives us a glimpse of the more technical aspects of the Mythos, and an alternative to Essential Saltes for raising an image (but not a physical manifestation) of those who are now gone. Dense text like this is what I imagine young Wilbur Whatelely pouring over by candle light as he mutters the incantation from page 37. What is the Infernal Creature of the Outer Sphere? We will see!
