Miskatonic Arcihves

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An encyclopedia of strange fiction, its creators, places and mythos. Follow the sources; draw your own conclusions.

Tagged: Cykranosh

Books & artifacts

Book of Eibon

The Book of Eibon is Clark Ashton Smith’s fictional Hyperborean grimoire, attributed to the magician Eibon. It transmits accounts of primordial life, vanished sorcerers and dangerous powers across widely separated times and settings. Its manuscripts differ between stories, and its authority depends as much on missing originals and incomplete understanding as on the secrets it appears to preserve.

7 min read · 1,337 words

Places

Cykranosh

Cykranosh is Saturn as imagined in Clark Ashton Smith’s The Door to Saturn: a world of mineral forests, edible fungi, unusual peoples and deities related to Tsathoggua. Eibon and his pursuer Morghi reach it through a dimensional panel in Hyperborea. Their journey becomes an extended encounter with alien societies, ending in permanent residence rather than a return to Earth.

6 min read · 1,082 words

Themes & context

Dimensional gates

Dimensional gates in Lovecraftian fiction are conditions through which places, modes of perception or forms of identity become connected across an apparent boundary. They may involve an instrument, a geometrical relationship, an object, a dream or an ordinary-looking opening. The stories give these crossings different mechanisms and consequences; this article compares those differences rather than assuming a single universal portal system.

7 min read · 1,312 words

Characters

Eibon

Eibon is Clark Ashton Smith’s Hyperborean magician, the reputed author of the Book of Eibon and the resourceful fugitive of The Door to Saturn. His connection with Tsathoggua supplies both genuine supernatural protection and opportunities for worldly improvisation. The living character is more personable, adaptable and comic than the sinister reputation of the book bearing his name might suggest.

5 min read · 990 words

Places

Hyperborea

Hyperborea is Clark Ashton Smith’s imaginary northern world of human kingdoms, wizards, lost learning and prehuman powers. Its cities stand above a much older subterranean world, while its remote past connects with the origins of life and its sorcerers can reach other planets. The setting accommodates grotesque comedy as well as cosmic terror, and its approaching ice gives human prosperity a temporary horizon.

5 min read · 1,033 words

Entities & creatures

Tsathoggua

Tsathoggua is a deity created by Clark Ashton Smith and adopted into Lovecraft’s fiction. Its characteristic toadlike appearance, lethargy and associations with subterranean worship belong to several related but distinct narratives. A careful account separates the god from its statues and from the shapeless organisms encountered near those statues; sharing a cult does not make these beings identical.

6 min read · 1,051 words