Lovecraft, Zelazny and Butcher

[Yuillegan]

I want to unpack a lot of really interesting connections, some of which I may turn into other threads.

Let's start with Nemesis. ***Spoilers Ahead*** You have been warned.


Nemesis
So HP Lovecraft wrote a poem 102 years ago about Nemesis, called 'Nemesis'.

One might imagine that is a huge hint and point of connection to the Dresdenverse being. Whilst the poem doesn't spell out any clues for us to Nemesis' identity, there are some buried ones.

The 'speaker' in the poem is Nemesis and talks about how it is so old, older than when Man was in the Garden of Eden, existing before the Dinosaurs and indeed even before the atmosphere had calmed down and was a "vaporous flame".

The current take (and one I agree with) is that Nemesis is the same being as Nyarlathotep (sometimes conflated with the Black Pharoah, the Howler in the Dark and the Crawling Chaos). Some even see this being as the inspiration for Satan, or this is about Satan through a Lovecraft lens, or that Satan is one of his Nyarlathotep avatars. For the purposes of this discussion, let's assume not.

How does the poem hint it is Nyarlathotep? Well he is afraid of the sun for one, and the poem says:

"I have plung’d like a deer thro’ the arches
          Of the hoary primordial grove,
     Where the oaks feel the presence that marches
          And stalks on where no spirit dares rove;
And I flee from a thing that surrounds me, and leers thro’ dead branches above."

This is a pretty clear reference to the Sun and daylight. Spirits don't dare roam in the Sun (see Bob), and sunlight leers through dead branches. This is also in the time of the Dinosaurs (primordial grove - although who knows which period).

Nyarlathotep is the child of the Outer God, Azahoth (the blind idiot god). Azahoth sits at the heart of Creation and all reality is his dream, and if he wakes up it all ends (like the ending of a dream, rather than an act of fiery destruction). Nyarlathotep, unlike the rest of the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods (which even in Lovecrafts works are not clearly different beings), is much closer to mankind. He uses mortal language, assumes relatively human (and sometimes completely human) shapes, and prefers to create chaos than just destroy reality. He has lots of plans within plans and is the messenger of his race. He often works through avatars and is quite powerful, though not necessarily on the destroying-universe scale that many of his race is. In Roger Zelazny's A Night in Lonesome October, it is shown that should he and his force cross over, then it doesn't matter if the Closers win (think about what Mother Summer said in Cold Days - everything stops if the Outsiders get through) More on this later.

http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/poetry/p121.aspx


A Night in Lonesome October
This is a fascinating story by Roger Zelazny. It was his final solo work and contained many nods to Lovecraft and other famous authors and filmmakers. It's about these two groups, Openers and Closers. They are each made of a variety of characters who each wish to Open or Close the Gate for their own purposes. One of the key points is that The Closers are not necessarily good, and the Openers are not necessarily evil. It's more Oblivion versus Existence. Amongst the Closers there is The Count (Dracula), The Good Doctor (Dr Frankenstein), The Great Detective and his Companion (Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson), Larry Talbot (The Wolfman), and Jack (Jack the Ripper).

The Openers consist of Crazy Jill (the Witch), Owen (a Druid), Rastov (a Mad Monk - based on Rasputin), Morris and McCab (Hermetic Monks), and Vicar Roberts (the Clergyman).

Every few decades when the moon is full on Halloween, the fabric of reality thins and doors may be opened between this world and the world of the Old Ones. During these events, men and women with the right occult knowledge gather at specific ritual sites and may attempt keep the doors Closed or rip them Open. When the Closers win, the world stays as it is until the next turning. But should the Openers win...the Old Ones come and remake the world in their own image and slaughter and enslave everything. The Openers have never won. These meetings are referred to as "The Game" or "The Great Game", and they are secret from the mortal world.

Most interesting to me is the character of Vicar Roberts. He appears to be a humble, innocent and harmless priest who actually wants the world to end. This immediately made me think of

(click to show/hide)

Father Forthill

. He also possesses a cup with five-pointed star in it, used for some dark part of the ritual (which makes me think this is exactly what Nicodemus intends to use the Holy Grail for. Not only that, there are several objects that can aid or hinder either side.

In Dresdenfiles terms:
- The Game (Vadderung mentions that Harry is only just finding out who the players are)
- The objects of the Apocalypse. The Artefacts of Christ quite likely link up to this game, tools for Destruction or Saving the World.
- The hidden enemy:

(click to show/hide)

Father Forthill. Would be a hell of a surprise considering he has been helping Harry the whole time. But what if it is to get him onside? And what if he is secretly a cultist? Maybe even the leader of the Circle? Also fits the right under his nose type villain

- Two Competing teams: Those on the Unseelie Accords vs The Enemy. That's the real purpose of the Accords.
- The veil IS thinner on Halloween between the Nevernever and the real world. But what if it also thinner between Creation and Outside?


The Lord of Tindalos
In Peace Talks (or Skin Games) Cornerhounds (a type of Outsider) appear. The general consensus is they are the same being as the Hounds of Tindalos. The Lord of Tindalos is a Outer God called Mh'ithrha and seems to be associated or resemble Fenrir (the first child of Loki, and the killer of Odin). Will we see Vadderung's final enemy in the Dresden Files?


Starborn
Curiously, the only reference to Starborns in Lovecrafts works that I have found are the Old Ones themselves.

"and of those hints of old Castro about the sunken, star-born Old Ones and their coming reign"

What if Harry the Starborn, is actually an Old One spawn/avatar/vessel etc? What if that is what is meant by "Destroyer"? No wonder the White Council fear him, and everyone wants his power. Would make sense why his birthday is on Halloween - they needed to bring "him" or something to fill him across from the Other Side. Maybe even Outside.


Necronomican

"Whenas Aldebaran riseth to the Sixth House, and agreeth in all ways with ye Conjunctions of Phutatorius as shall hereinafter be inscribed, then that is no Door which openeth on its Rising, but a Gate to ye Outside, through which All may pass but None may return save a Master of ye Runes, or ye Host of Ekron."

Lots of connections in that one. Outside, Outer Gate, Conjunctions, Master of the Runes (Vadderung). From what I can tell the "Host of Ekron" refers to a people that were absorbed by Israel. Phutatorius only makes sense to me from an Ethical concept angle, but beyond that I am not sure. Master of the Runes could also be a Necromancer and servant of Crom Cruach (referenced in another passage). Which could also be Vadderung by another name. Which might hint that Vadderung might not necessarily be a good guy...

Stars and Stones
Referenced in this passage:

Armor against Witches & Daemons, Against ye Deep Ones, ye Dools, ye Voormais, ye Tacho-Tacho, ye Mi-Go, ye Shoggaoths, ye Ghasts, ye Valusians, & all such Peoples & Beings that serve ye Great Olde Ones & ye Spawn of Them, lies within ye Five-Pointed Star carven of gray Stone from ancient Mnar; which is less strong against ye Great Olde Ones Themselves. Ye Possessor of ye Stone shall find himself able to command all Beings which creep, swim, crawl, walk, or fly even to ye Source from which there is no returning. In Yhe as in Great R'lyeh, in Y'ha-nthlei as in Yoth, in Yuggoth as in Zothique, in N'kai as in Naa-Hk & K'n-yan, in Carcosa as in G'harne, in ye twin Cities of Ib and Lh-yib, in Kadath in ye Cold Waste as at ye Lake of Hali, it shall have Power; yet even as Stars wane & grow cold, even as Suns die & ye Spaces between Stars grow more wide, so wanes ye Power of all things -- of ye Five-Pointed Star-Stone as of ye Spells put upon ye Great Olde Ones by ye benign Elder Gods, & that Time shall come as once was a Time, when it shall be known:

That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange Aeons even Death may die.

Also might explain the importance of the Five Pointed Star.

Old Ones and Outsiders

The book of the black name, containing the history of that which came before men. The great old ones were both one and many. They were not separate souls like men, yet they were separate wills. Some say they came from the stars; some say that they were the soul of the earth when it was formed from a cloud. For all life comes from the beyond, where there is no consciousness. Life needed a mirror, therefore it invaded the world of matter. There it became its own enemy, because they [bodies? -- note in original] possess form. The great old ones wanted to avoid form; therefore they rejected the heavy material of the body. But then they lost the power to act. Therefore they needed servants.

Also - Deep Ones and Fomor. Almost exactly the same.


Can you guys think of anymore links? I purposely left out Chronicles of Amber as the connections have been made quite a few times already and I wanted to focus on other areas.

[Avernite]

Primordial and oak don't seem to go back all the way to the dinosaurs though - or at least the greater family which includes oak and beech was only forming around 80 million years ago. But nyah, who knows if Lovecraft knew that?

And I am not sure Nemesis is a spirit who needs fear the sun, even if Lovecraft's has that issue. It would be a sad Outsider invasion if any sunlight stops them cold (though of course it may only strike down spiritual Outsiders, while physical ones do just fine).

That said I disagree with Fomor and Deep Ones being the same; the Fomor(ians) have a long history as humanoid or goat-inspired human forms, while the Deep Ones are clearly more fishy. Doesn't mean the current Fomor coalition (with their hypothesized Titan) can't include Deep Ones.

[Yuillegan]

Dinosaurs were wiped out roughly 66 million years...so it still works I think. But as you say, hard to know if Lovecraft knew that stuff - I suspect he was merely being poetic (pun intended).

Exactly, we aren't sure WHAT Nemesis is. In fact, I can't imagine that Jim will 100% use the rules defined by an previous works that he has been inspired by. But we do know that Nemesis is a SPIRITUAL malady (in Cold Days), and we know that ALL spirits fear sunlight. I would say that it is reasonable to assume Nemesis might too. I truly can't remember if any Outsiders have been in direct sunlight, but that would build on my theory if they only attack in the dark. I mean, they do seem to want "Empty Night". And as you say, I suspect the physical Outsiders might not be as affected as the spiritual ones.

Have you read Even Hand - the John Marcone short story? The description he give for the Fomor Lord is almost exactly a classic Deep One. Beyond that, the Fomors servitors (the Turtlenecks) are rather similar to the Deep One hybrids. Whilst I agree Jim's description doesn't match the mythological description of the Fomorians, there are a few explanations to this:
1) As you point out, the Fomorians of old and the current ones in the Dresdenverse are not the same group really anymore - in Cold Days we learn Fomor is just the banner they all march under but the make up of the group is all the defeated races, exiled beings, banished gods and giants of all the peoples that border the sea.
2) Jim might be using creative licence to make the Fomor fit into his works.
3) Whose to say those goat-like Fomor don't exist, they just might be the last of that pure-blood group?
4) We have seen that the Fae (the cousins of the Fomor, and their traditional enemies) can shapeshift. Whose to say the Fomor can't be both Deep Ones/Frogmen and goat-like humanoids?

[knnn]

Another possible Necronomicon reference is Thomas' quote in Blood Rites:

You can have everything in the world, but if you don't have love, none of it means crap," he said promptly. "Love is patient. Love is kind. Love always forgives, trusts, supports, and endures. Love never fails. When every star in the heavens grows cold, and when silence lies once more on the face of the deep, three things will endure: faith, hope, and love.

Thomas says it's from Corinthians, but if you look up the reference, it's really not.   For one thing, the "face of the deep" thing sounds a lot like Genesis 1:2.   More important to your thread, the notion that "stars" can  "grow cold" is actually a relatively modern idea (i.e. the notion that the stars are just suns that are far away), not really mentioned in the Bible at all.

In the past I've tracked this quote idea to two places, one of which is a quote from the (as you pointed out above) Necronomicon:

...even as stars wane and grow cold, even as stars die and the spaces between stars grow more wide, so wanes the power of all things...

Edit:

Some more thoughts:

1) If you haven't read A Night in the Lonesome October, you totally should.   It's from the PoV of the dog (think Mouse) and a whole lot of fun.

2) "Host of Ekron" probably refers to one of the 5 city states of Philistines who lived in ancient Israel shortly before king David's time (the five states being:   Ekron, Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod and Gath).  The probable connection here is that their chief deity was fish-god named "Dagon" (I think the name literally means "fish-lord").   Dagon of course also has Lovecraftian connections.

[Yuillegan]

Yes I always found that quote odd - especially considering Jim being raised in a fundamental Christian household would probably know the actual quote. So you're explanation makes sense. It definitely felt like being hit with the clue bat when I read it the first time, not in the least because Faith, Hope and Love are the Swords of the Cross.

I have read A Night in the Lonesome October actually, and I did thoroughly enjoy it. I definitely wondered if Jim had too tbh. He is a bit of a Zelazny fan.

Thank you - the Host of Ekron line makes much more sense now. I wonder if Dagon is more heavily involved with the Fomor...being the Fish Lord.


The Old Ones are specifically talked about in the Necronomicon:

Nor is it to be thought that man is either the oldest or the last of earth's masters, or that the common bulk of life and substance walks alone. The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be. Not in the spaces we know, but between them, they walk serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen. Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They had trod earth's fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread. By Their smell can men sometimes know Them near, but of Their semblance can no man know, saving only in the features of those They have begotten on mankind; and of those are there many sorts, differing in likeness from man's truest eidolon [spectre] to that shape without sight or substance which is Them. They walk unseen and foul in lonely places where the Words have been spoken and the Rites howled through at their Seasons. The wind gibbers with Their voices, and the earth mutters with Their consciousness. They bend the forest and crush the city, yet may not forest or city behold the hand that smites. Kadath in the cold waste hath known Them, and what man knows Kadath? The ice desert of the South and the sunken isles of Ocean hold stones whereon Their seal is engraver, but who hath seen the deep frozen city or the sealed tower long garlanded with seaweed and barnacles? Great Cthulhu is Their cousin, yet can he spy Them only dimly. Iä! Shub-Niggurath! As a foulness shall ye know Them. Their hand is at your throats, yet ye see Them not; and Their habitation is even one with your guarded threshold. Yog-Sothoth is the key to the gate, whereby the spheres meet. Man rules now where They ruled once; They shall soon rule where man rules now. After summer is winter, after winter summer. They wait patient and potent, for here shall They reign again.

This passage is very illuminating. It seems to align with the idea that gods cannot always be perceived because they move through the time stream at a different rate - so presumably the timeless Old Ones are like that too. It also discusses the "smell" of the Old Ones. Harry often talks about the foulness and wrongness of Outsiders and their presence. He has a few time described it in terms of smell.

There is also the reference to the Gate and Yog-Sohoth. The gate that Lovecraft is referring to is the Ultimate Gate or The Gate of the Silver Key. Among other things, this gate allows access to the greater multiverse and to all the lives a person may live or have lived. There are other gates that Lovecraft references, but I think these are more like Ways that lead to the place that Mother Summer took Harry (a place outside of time - according to Lovecraft). There are many of these gates that I suspect lead all to the same place, and are likely at famous historical (possibly religious) sites, like Stonehenge maybe. The Ultimate Gate leads to the Last Void - which is outside all earths, all universes and all matter. This is where the Outer Gods and the Court of Azahoth. This I feel links all the way back to the Red Court, as the Lord of the Outer Night (once referred to as the Outer Dark) is a very curious and specific phrase that makes me more certain of their Outsider origins.  Interestingly, Nyarlahotep (possibly Nemesis) actually takes a character through the Ultimate Gate - maybe this will happen to Dresden.

Yog-Sohoth is an Outer God (so probably an Old One). He is the progenitor of Cthulu and Hastur (sometimes considered Nyarlahotep). He can see all of space and time, but is locked Outside. He is considered the All-In-One and the One-In-All, the Gate and the Key, the Opener of the Way and the Beyond One.

He has a possible Avatar in 'Umr At-Tawil. He stands beside the Ultimate Gate, heavily cloaked, with no discernible features. In Pathfinder, he is considered to be the effect of Yog-Sothoth on the material plane. It knows about reality, including how to access the Dimension of Time (although the knowledge comes at a terrible cost). I highly suspect Dresden will encounter this being, if he hasn't already - and I suspect the Gatekeeper knows all about It.

Also - Star-Spawn are similar to the Fomor mentioned in the Dresden Files (as they inhabit all the oceans of the Earth). However the name made me think of star born, and the fact that they are shape-shifters is interesting.

Finally, the reference to winter and summer I think is something Jim clearly is aware of. Even though Lovecraft is talking about the turning of the seasons, I believe Jim will find a clever way of reinterpreting that.