Miskatonic Arcihves

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

Tagged: Eltdown Shards

Books & artifacts

Eltdown Shards

The Eltdown Shards are fictional fragments of inscribed clay associated with the history of intelligent life before humanity. In Lovecraft’s fiction their alleged translations connect the Great Race’s remote past with an alien threat that crosses space through crystal probes. The surviving fragments and the much more expansive interpretations attributed to occult readers are different kinds of evidence within the stories.

4 min read · 756 words

Themes & context

Forbidden books

Forbidden books in Lovecraft’s fiction preserve dangerous fragments of history, provide procedures that characters can attempt, and connect otherwise separate narratives. Their importance depends on what a particular reader does with them. A citation, a usable passage, an unreadable symbol and an annotated copy perform different roles; none requires the assumption that merely opening every such book automatically destroys the mind.

6 min read · 1,077 words

Entities & creatures

Great Race of Yith

The Great Race of Yith is a civilization whose most capable minds investigate and survive across immense spans of time by exchanging bodies with other intelligent beings. The Shadow out of Time presents its libraries, institutions and migrations through Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee’s recovered experiences and the ruins he explores in Australia.

10 min read · 2,031 words

Literature

The Challenge from Beyond

The Challenge from Beyond is a five-author story in which a geologist’s discovery of a crystal cube leads to captivity in an alien body and, unexpectedly, to rule over another world. Each contributor changes the implications of what came before: an archaeological puzzle becomes a mind-transfer trap, then an opportunity for conquest, and finally an account of spiritual transformation. The complete ending belongs to the collaboration, not to Lovecraft alone.

7 min read · 1,444 words

Books & artifacts

Yekubian Crystal Cubes

The crystal cubes in The Challenge from Beyond are alien probes that attract attention and carry minds across intergalactic distances. The specimen found by George Campbell contains an inscribed disc and responds to light and concentration. Its apparent antiquity leads him toward a discovery whose purpose is examination and bodily appropriation rather than the harmless transmission of a message.

4 min read · 754 words