Research:Shadow Valley
This is a research page for systematically decrypting the hidden meaning and references in Shadow Valley. The story of Shadow Valley is still treated as official documentation, but its original context is the archaic Shadow World historical setting. This is seemingly of minimal importance in the case of Shadow Valley. Its original parts seem to have been released in 1995, and the release of its expanded areas occurred after the De-ICE in 1996. There were in-game storyline events, such as Muylari speaking, which are poorly recorded now. This includes the shadow steeds fighting the demon.
Similar to The Graveyard there seems to be a hidden layer of meaning that is a combination of H.P. Lovecraft and comparative mythology pertaining to the Underworld. The Broken Lands seems to have similar themes and subtexts. The relative importance of the Purgatory death mechanics, Shadow World, mythology, and Lovecraft varies between them. It is unclear if any relationship to the mythological subtexts in the Vvrael Quest is intentional.
Related Projects:
The following research pages are interrelated with the subject of this one:
Shadow World
The Shadow Valley story was originally written with I.C.E. Age terminology, which has been altered in the modern version "Tale of Silver Valley" which is still an official document. For the most part the Shadow World context does not seem important to the Shadow Valley story, though it is possible it may have mattered in some way for the in-game events that are now poorly recorded.
Discrepancies
There are only minor discrepancies between the original copy and the current one outside of changes to copyrighted terminology. These are mostly differences of punctuation or spelling corrections. This is using the copy on Solatarius' Tower because it has the highest percentage in common, the Coven copy may have transcription differences. The original title is unclear, and generally gets truncated. Options include "The Story of Jaron Galarn", "Silver Valley", and "Shadow Valley". It is simply "Silver Valley" on the Play.net website, having only been turned into "Tale of Silver Valley" on the Wiki.
(1) Byline
One of the largest discrepancies is the byline on the story. The modern form reads "From the journals of Selias Jodame" while the original reads "From the journals of Selias Jodame, Sage circle IIVI". This is an odd situation because "Sage" was the De-ICE'd term for "Loremaster", as in the Loremasters of Karilon, but this document pre-dates that convention. The word "Sage" was used in 2007 to refer to members of the Order of Lorekeepers in a retcon of the Uthex Kathiasas story. There is no reference to Selias Jodame being a Loremaster advisor to the Library of Nomikos which is also not a thing.
The story later refers to Selias Jodame being tasked by his "masters" to survey the remains of Silver Valley. This does suggest he was a young Loremaster. World travel was very difficult and few organizations did it. However, in Ditmar's Tale there is a premise of the Library of Nomikos sending its Scribes out in this way, so it is not a decisive factor. The Scribes also used Navigators, the Loremasters do not.
Original: From the journals of Selias Jodame, Sage circa IIVI: Current: From the journals of Selias Jodame Master of Lore Advisor to the Council of Biblia
The story refers instead to him having completed his studies on another continent. The title "Master of Lore" first appeared in the context of Linsandrych Illistim in the History of Elanthia document, but its use here dates to around November 2001, and thus pre-dates all of the Illistim documentation elaborating this concept. We cannot assume Selias Jodame was supposed to be a Lormaster or an advisor to the Library of Nomikos from this text. "Sage" is sometimes used in the Shadow World history, however, to refer to members of the Loremasters such as the "Sage Andraax" or their sage mortal members.
Regardless, the Library of Biblia was an orphaned term until around 2018 with the Rings of Lumnis event, and had almost no definition. Whether or not Selias Jodame is supposed to have become a Loremaster, the other oddity is the date "circa IIVI". The only ways to parse this as a Roman numeral would be "II VI" or "I IV I", improperly meaning "2 6" or "1 4 1". The most likely meaning of this is "Second Era circa 6,000" which is a few centuries before the Wars of Dominion. There is a hint that it should be that old further down, and the room painting in Shadow Valley refers to "hundreds of years".
(2) Jontara
The modern form of the Silver Valley story uses the phrase "Northern Jontara" to describe its location, while the original said "Northern Jaiman" which was the name of the continent. Jontara was the initial replacement term for the continent, until Elanith supplanted it, which was originally the replacement for "Quellbourne" which was only the northwest of Jaiman. Jontara was an orphaned term until 2020 when it was treated as the greater continent, akin to Australia and Australasia, where Elanith was the major central land mass but also including surrounding islands such as Atan Irith and the Shattered Continent.
Original: "The equine species were known throughout Northern Jaiman for their beautiful full manes and silver-tipped hooves. Never knowing the touch of man or elf, they roamed the valley freely, only occasionally to be observed by the curious from the cliffs high above. " Modern: "The equine species were known throughout Northern Jontara for their beautiful full manes and silver-tipped hooves. Never knowing the touch of man or elf, they roamed the valley freely, only occasionally to be observed by the curious from the cliffs high above."
This differs only in the words "Jaiman" and "Jontara". In the original context this is unusual because this region is known as Quellbourne, and yet Selias Jodame refers to it instead as "Northern Jaiman". This suggests it is within the past two hundred years of the Third Era, after the fall of Quellburn, or that it is before the founding of Quellburn but still fairly late in the Second Era. The latter sounds more convincing, as the term "Quellbourne" would still be known especially by a scholar, Kelfour's Landing was only 25 years old and surrounded by wilderness, and the "hundreds of years" of stagnant air in the mine shaft.
Given the continent map of Jaiman it is necessary for "Northern Jaiman" to truly mean northwest Jaiman. In the northeast Ja'miil Targ is a volcanic wasteland. Silver Valley therefore must be located in the Seolfar Strake, now called the Lysierian Hills, north of the High Plateau. Seolfar Strake means Journey to Strike Silver in the local trader's language of Seoltang. There is a silver mine there on the Quellbourne maps, known as Kren Talog's silver mine, which in the I.C.E. Age was taken to be the mine by manticores. This is the context of the miners looking to prospect for silver in the cliffs of Silver Valley.
(3) Race
The original version of the story specified that Jaron Galarn was a "young common man", which now reads as only "young man". Common man was a collective racial category for ordinary life-span mannish races and were replaced in the De-ICE by ordinary humans. In the mine shaft it is clear that the skeleton fused into the wall was elven, though it is unclear if this originally said something more specific. What little is paraphrased of Muylari suggests his master was Dark Elven, which back then would have been "Dyari", unless his visit as an NPC happened after the De-ICE conversion making the master Faendryl.
Original: "Upon our visit, I had the pleasure of meeting an young common man named Jaron Galarn." Modern: "Upon our visit, I had the pleasure of meeting an young man named Jaron Galarn."
Selias Jodame was a "small child" when he met Jaron Galarn and returned as what is implied to be a young adult to hear the tale of what happened. This does not help narrow down his race as Shadow World elves age like humans up until around 20. It seems vaguely likely that Selias using phases like "man or elf" and noting Jaron was a "common man" may suggest he was himself some kind of elf or high man.
(4) Finnia
Selias Jodame was finishing his studies in the continent of Emer, which was then replaced by the term Finnia. Emer is the continent immediately south of Jaiman. While Finnia was the word used in the Silver Valley story, it was an orphaned term without meaning until around 2019, when it was announced at Simucon that Finnia would be a continent south of Elanith and have a floating city called Phyon. This is likely an homage to the floating city of Eidolon in Emer. Eidolon was never built in GemStone III, but it was the inspiration for airships. The Library of Nomikos is in southern Jaiman and not far from Emer.
Original: "It was not until I had completed my studies in Emer that I had a chance to return to Silver Valley, and this time the journey was much less pleasant. I had been instructed by my masters to survey the remains of Silver Valley." Modern: "It was not until I had completed my studies in Finnia that I had a chance to return to Silver Valley, and this time the journey was much less pleasant. I had been instructed by my masters to survey the remains of Silver Valley."
(5) Navigators
The Navigators are mostly familiar to players from being the ones who mugged characters and took their teleportation gold rings back. This is why it is called getting "Navved". It is a term that should not have been used after the De-ICE, but appeared in the History of Kilron and the Thurfel quest. The concept was finally replaced with the Chronomages in 2006. The Silver Valley story included a specific Navigator guild out of Emer, so the modern version contains an orphaned term replacing it. It is odd that the phrase "elemental energy" is used in the original, as you would expect it to have said "flows of essence".
The Navigators are a cartel of guilds who are based on an island called Nexus. The Shadow World Master Atlas 1st Edition (1989), page 45, says they first formed in the early Third Era when the first of their teleportation Compasses were found. These are Lord of Essaence artifacts. This is contradicted in the Shadow World Master Atlas Addendum (1990), page 12, and page 130 of Master Atlas 2nd Edition (1992). The Navigator guilds first began appearing between 3300 and 4000 Second Era. The guilds divide up the world into districts, and the Guide's first appear on page 48 of The Iron Wind (1984).
Original: "With the courtesy of the Guide's guild, I arrived in the village of Valaskar with little delay. Tearhaut, my guid for this trip, informed me of strange patterns in the elemental energy of this area and warned me that such unforeseen dangers might make the return trip a bit more expensive. I shrugged off his allusions to price negotiations and set to my task. The village had been deserted, not so much as a stray animal remained. With no guides apparent, I set out towards the cliffs of Silver Valley." Modern: "With the courtesy of the Shifter's Guild, I arrived in the village of Valaskar with little delay. Tearhaut, my guide for this trip, informed me of strange patterns within the mana of this area and warned me that such unforeseen dangers might make the return trip a bit more expensive. I shrugged off his allusions to price negotiations and set to my task. The village had been deserted, not so much as a stray animal remained. With no locals apparent, I set out towards the cliffs of Silver Valley."
This is the Guide's Guild of Vurn-Kye which is relatively condescending and aloof. Their Compass resembles a golden sextant with a telescopic viewer allowing the user to see the Essence flows. In the Iron Wind book their district includes the nearby Mur Fostisyr. Tearhaut is not a Shadow World defined Navigator. However, the warning of the return trip being more expensive is a Navigator trope, as they gave surcharges as hazard pay. The "Jaiman: Land of Twilight" (1989) source book has a continent map of the Navigator obelisks that were used for long distance jumps. There is one in the courtyard of the Library of Nomikos, for example, and there is one in the Seolfar Strake. Consequently we know where on that map Valaskar must be located, as the closest alternative is instead near what is now called Glatoph.
This is probably what the wooden obelisk in Danjirland was supposed to be, though Navigator obelisks were made of stone rather than wood. Shortly after the release of the Red Forest in 2016, Orrisian spoke of it as a Chronomage obelisk, referring to the archaic Navigator lore for how they worked. The obelisk was given the mechanical ability to teleport people who touch it to Talon Isle, which was itself probably inspired by the Pillar of the Gods from Shadow World. There is no Navigator obelisk around Shadow Valley or the Lysierian Hills in the actual game, nor is the one that should be by the Spider Temple.
Isles of Transfer
The story refers to "strange patterns" in the flows of essence, or "elemental energy", warned about as a hazard by the Navigator. This is a situation where Selias Jodame has traveled to Silver Valley, which is located in its original place by the now empty Valaskar. What happened that allowed a path to reach the "Secluded Valley" from under the Graveyard is not recorded. The room painting has the tunnel looking recently dug. The Graveyard is on the southwestern edge of the High Plateau, so it should be at least a hundred miles away from Silver Valley. There is some kind of planar instability or portal involved.
This may be involving a Shadow World concept known as the isles of transfer effect. There are islands on the ocean that the Navigators refuse to go near, because they are like huge unstable portals. They can exist in multiple places and times simultaneously. The relevance of this is that Shadow Valley coexists in a parallel dimension with bleed through effects, though the premise could be Dreamlands.
"A phenomenon which defies even the Loremasters' explanation, there are islands which seem to exist on the very brink of another time or place. More than Portals, they may exist in several places at the same time (or, everal times in the same place... or even several places in several times...). Islands can drift from one space/time to another, or be fixed with access to the same set of 'universes'. In any case, they are dangerous and for the most part unpredictable. THe majority of them are fortunately isolated in the Malvin Tesea, and a Navigator will steer far clear of them." - Shadow World Master Atlas, 1st Edition (1989); page 57 (Note: The Malvin Tesea is the "endless sea" along with Wall of Darkness separating the East and West hemispheres of Shadow World.)
Whether or not this concept was used, Shadow Valley is somehow coexistent. It is not only dream-like and eerily unreal, it is duplicated in a parallel world. The sound of the horses travels between these worlds, where the portal of darkness in the crevice is presumably related to the wyrm, the great evil entity that opened a way to this world under the valley. The Shadow Valley side is a dark mirror of the Secluded Valley, where most of the details are backwards. Originally, there was a ladder in the Shadow Valley analog of Jaron Galarn's grave, which is apparently where the entity burst from the ground.
(1) Gravestone of Jaron Galarn [Secluded Valley] A rough granite gravestone stands against the west wall of the valley. The torn and broken ground beneath the marker leads you to believe that whatever was buried here chose to leave. Strangely, the thick mists circle the area, carefully avoiding the gravesite. You also see a night hound and a night hound. Obvious paths: northeast, southeast [Shadow Valley] A thousand tiny particles of shattered wood cover a mottled clay ramp which descends into the ground before you. Torn and broken earth indicates that the opening may have been caused by an explosive force. Strangely, odd black mists twist and flow around the entryway, as if trying to conceal it. You also see a shadow mare and some large cracks in the ground. Obvious paths: northeast, southeast (2) Sounds of Hooves [Secluded Valley] A sea of grey clouds fills the sky above. From somewhere in the distance, the sound of pounding hooves echoes across the valley. Obvious paths: east, southeast, south, southwest [Shadow Valley] A sea of grey clouds fills the sky above. Coming from all around you, the sound of pounding hooves echoes across the valley. You also see some large cracks in the ground. Obvious paths: east, southeast, south, southwest (3) Dead Trees and Mist [Secluded Valley] Dead trees reach out of the mist towards the sky, seeking to grasp some remnant of hope. A few large black rocks break the surface of the chalky vapors, marking the surroundings. Obvious paths: southeast, south, southwest, west [Shadow Valley] Dead trees reach out of the mist towards the sky, seeking to grasp some remnant of hope. A few large white rocks break the surface of the charcoal vapors, marking the surroundings. You also see some large cracks in the ground. Obvious paths: southeast, south, southwest, west (4) Trail to Dark Pasture [Secluded Valley] Steep rocky walls rise high above, squelching any thoughts of climbing out. A cold biting wind blows across your face, stinging your eyes and lips. Obvious paths: north, northeast, west, northwest [Shadow Valley] Steep rocky walls rise high above, squelching any thoughts of climbing out. A cold biting wind blows across your face, stinging your eyes and lips. You also see some scattered rubble, some large cracks in the ground and an ancient dusty trail that winds up past the rubble and out of the valley. Obvious paths: north, northeast, west, northwest (5) Lack of Color [Secluded Valley] The lack of color throughout the valley creates an odd feeling of unreality within you, as if you were reliving a long forgotten memory. Sharp grey stones mark the ground in the few spots where the mist thins. Obvious paths: north, northeast, east, northwest [Shadow Valley] The lack of color throughout the valley creates an odd feeling of unreality within you, as if you were reliving a long forgotten memory. Sharp grey stones mark the ground in the few spots where the black mist thins. You also see some large cracks in the ground. Obvious paths: north, northeast, east, northwest (6) Crevice Entry [Secluded Valley] The walls open wide and high forming a small valley forgotten by the waking world. Covering the entire range is a low layer of thick white mist, lending the land an eerie glow. Near the base of the wall, you see a crevice leading down into darkness. Obvious paths: southwest, northwest [Shadow Valley] The walls open wide and high forming a small valley forgotten by the waking world. Covering the entire range is a low layer of thick black mist, lending the land an eerie demeanor. Near the base of the wall, you see a crevice leading down into darkness. You also see a shadow mare and some large cracks in the ground. Obvious paths: southwest, northwest (7) Dark Crevice [Dark Crevice] You strain to keep clear of the rough outcroppings of rock in this dark space. The floor continues its steep incline causing you to lean severely to remain upright. In the dim light, you can just make out a trail of flowing mist moving slowly downward from a small opening above. Obvious exits: down [A Dark Crevice] You are perched on the ledge of a dangerously steep crevice which juts out from the wall hanging over a dark abyss. The odd mists within it glow with an ethereal light as they lash about in their chaotic dance. From above, the sound of thundering hooves reverberate throughout the chasm, seemingly vanishing into the bottomless pit below. You also see some large cracks in the ground. Obvious exits: up
Note that the submerged darkness from the Secluded Valley side happens at Jaron Galarn's tombstone, while the darkness from the Shadow Valley side is on the opposite end at the dark crevice abyss. The dark pasture with the horses is not visible from the Secluded Valley because of the steep rock walls, and the underground mines can only be reached through the grave on the Shadow Valley side of it. The whole Shadow Valley area is its own realm, not part of our own plane of reality. It is unclear if the Secluded Valley is actually underground now, or if there is some path now from under the Graveyard.
The town guard says, "I hear they discovered a new valley somewhere around the old graveyard. I don't see how you could miss something as big as a valley all these years, but then we don't get the sort of folk in this town that we used to either." >ask guard about valley The town guard whispers in a low tone, "I'd avoid it if I were you. Infested with undead and strange magic! Say the wrong thing out there and you could vanish from this very existence! Of course, that's just a rumor, mind you."
In the time of Selias Jodame it would have still been present somewhere on the north side of Claedesbrim Bay. The north side of Darkstone Bay is ill-defined in the modern world setting, because the Lysierian Hills is pushed south with the High Plateau not existing on the maps. The northern peninsula is still represented on the illustrated maps first released in late 1998, but nothing about that area is defined. In the archaic world setting this was the location of Feortoth, Galtoth, and Straketoth. These were replaced on lists (possibly not in the game itself) by the orphaned terms Startoph, Keltoph, and Straektoph.
Other
There are a few other points where the Shadow World or Rolemaster background materials may provide relevant context that is otherwise missing.
(1) Muylari
The mining supervisor Muylari is a name that is conspicuously influenced by Shadow World. The Iylari are the high born elves, which is an Iruaric word, meaning the beauties. Iylari and Muylari differ only by the first letters. In the GemStone III specific glossary the word Iylari (or Ilyari) is a pluralization of "Ilar". This glossary also speaks of word-parts being morphed together. This raises the question of how Muylari is supposed to be interpreted. It might be "mur" and "iylari", meaning essentially the beautiful women, or even the beautiful elven women. This may refer to his wife who, according to paraphrases, is dead.
Another possibility is the combination of "mun" and "iylari", meaning the beautiful hills. This would refer to Silver Valley, and perhaps play off the implicit fey mythology. The third possibility is it is meant to be Erlini, the common elven tongue, where "mur" instead means "watch" or "watcher." He would then be the watcher of all, supposedly cursed with immortality, and this may play off implicit watcher demons.
Major Sub-Texts
The concept of "major sub-texts" is a theory that another story or myth was used as a hidden layer of meaning. It is impossible to prove without a statement of authorial intent. The idea is that if there is such an outside story, identifying it will allow some number of specific details to be explained. Coincidences hopefully only match poorly, and correct ones hopefully have enough parallels to be convincing. Only parts of a premise will actually be present. The difference between an "inspiration" or pastiche and an "allegory" or allusion is if the source is left in a recognizable form and adds a dimension of meaning.
Mythology
The theory of this research page is that the Shadow Valley story is a GemStone III specific variation of the Chaoskampf mythology. This is a struggle between a storm god and a sea god. In the Indo-European traditions it is a heroic god of thunder who slays a world serpent associated with the seas, often with a lightning themed weapon such as the hammer of Thor or the mace of Indra. There are similar myths in Middle Eastern religions, including the Hebrew Bible with Yahweh striking down Leviathan, and more broadly includes Underworld stories such as the Osiris myth with the battle between Horus and Set.
The basic premise is that the demon of Shadow Valley was a "wyrm", which is a sea serpent, and that the valley is dead with drought with its rivers blocked with sentient black ichor. The shouting that cracked the earth and the return of the shadow steeds to battle the wyrm were associated with lightning and thunder. The specific theory is the salvation myth in the Rigveda and the "water horses" of Celtic myth.
Vedic
The oldest written version of this myth is the slaying of the world dragon Vrtra (or Vritra) by the storm god Indra. The Vedas are the early precursor of Hinduism from the Indus Valley Civilization in what is now northwest India and Pakistan. Indra is the Lord of Steeds and Thunder in Vedic mythology. Vrtra is the son of the water goddess Danu, and a serpent demon of drought, responsible for blocking up the rivers and swallowing all the water. Vrtra is the brother of the demon Vala, who swallows up Ushas who is the Dawn. Vala is hoarding her sacred cows as well, which are watched by fog demons called Panis.
Vrtra and Vala are cognates of the same myth, descending etymologically from "Vr", which like Varuna signified encompassing or enclosing. Vrtra swallows the water and Vala swallows the light. When Indra slays the stone serpent Vrtra with his lightning mace, the waters burst forth from its body and the rivers flow again. When Indra cracks open the stone cave Vala by shouting prayers, he lets out the Dawn.
"A group of men had arrived at the settlement of Velaskar claiming to be sightseers. As most travelers in the village were in fact sightseers there was little to be suspicious of but this was a large group of men, seven and twenty and more seemed to join them each day. ... With the courtesy of the Guide's guild, I arrived in the village of Valaskar with little delay. Tearhaut, my guid for this trip, informed me of strange patterns in the elemental energy of this area and warned me that such unforeseen dangers might make the return trip a bit more expensive." - "Tale of Silver Valley"; Selias Jodame (Note: This is in copies that are not De-ICE'd. However, "elemental energy" seemingly should say "flows of essence" instead, so it might be tampered with regardless. In the current modern form it says "Shifter's Guild" and "mana" instead of "elemental energy." The Guides guild is a Navigator guild in Emer. This pre-dates the Chronomages.)
The hint in the "Tale of Silver Valley" story that tips off the relevance of Vala and Vrtra is the name of the village being spelled two different ways. In one spot it is Velaskar, and in the other spot it is Valaskar. It has the seeming appearance of being Scandinavian. Skær is Old Norse for "horse" and "bright/radiant", while skar essentially means "to cut." Vela could be taken to mean "veil" in Latin, which has the same ultimate etymological root as Vala. Vala is also an Anglicization of the Viking völva seers, which means wand-bearer while "gandr" means both wand and monster. Research:The Graveyard argues Norse mythology is important to the burial mound. Whether rebracketing the word into parts in this way is correct, "Vala" by itself convincingly signifies the Vedic myth in the context of the Shadow Valley story.
The following is one of many hymns in the Rigveda giving an account of Indra slaying Vrtra and freeing the rivers. In this one it includes the detail that the world dragon Vrtra is perpetually sleeping, and was awakened to be slain by Indra with his thunder. "Ahi" in this hymn is referring to Vrtra. Indra is generally associated with the Sun, and Vrtra with new moon, meaning darkness in the destruction of the Moon.
1. THEE, verily, O Thunder-wielding Indra, all the Gods here, the Helpers swift to listen, And both the worlds elected, thee the Mighty, High, waxen strong, alone to slaughter Vrtra. 2 The Gods, as worn witheld, relaxed their efforts: thou, Indra, born of truth, wast Sovran Ruler. Thou slewest Ahi who besieged the waters, and duggest out their all-supporting channels. 3 The insatiate one, extended, hard to waken, who slumbered in perpetual sleep, O Indra,- The Dragon stretched against the seven prone rivers, where no joint was, thou rentest with thy thunder. 4 Indra with might shook earth and her foundation as the wind stirs the water with its fury. Striving, with strength he burst the firm asunder, and tore away the summits of the mountains. 5 They ran to thee as mothers to their offspring: the clouds, like chariots, hastened forth together. Thou didst refresh the streams and force the billows: thou, Indra, settest free obstructed rivers. 6 Thou for the sake of Vayya and Turviti didst stay the great stream, flowing, allsustaining: Yea, at their prayer didst check the rushing river and make the floods easy to cross, O Indra. 7 He let the young Maids skilled in Law, unwedded, like fountains, bubbling, flow forth streaming onward. He inundated thirsty plains and deserts, and milked the dry Cows of the mighty master. 8 Through many a morn and many a lovely autumn, having slain Vrtra, lie set free the rivers. Indra hath set at liberty to wander on earth the streams encompassed pressed together. 9 Lord of Bay Steeds, thou broughtest from the ant-hill the unwedded damsel's son whom ants were eating. The blind saw clearly, as he grasped the serpent, rose, brake the jar: hisjoints again united. 10 To the wise man, O Sage and Sovran Ruler, the man who knoweth all thine ancient exploits. Hath told these deeds of might as thou hast wrought them, great acts, spontaneous, and to man's advantage. 11 Now, Indra! lauded, glorified with praises, let powers swell high, like rivers, for the singer. For thee a new hymn, Lord of Bays! is fashioned. May we, car-borne, through song be victors ever. - HYMN XIX. Indra, Rigveda; Griffiths translation
This is another example which speaks of the artisan god Tvastar making his thunder weapon, as well as the mother of Vrtra and the Dawn. It is worth noting that in the Vvrael quest, Risper was supposed to smite the Vvrael with a Mace of Eonak, which was forged by Eonak himself for that end. Whether the word Vvrael was playing off Vritra in a comparative mythological sense can only be speculated.
1 I WILL declare the manly deeds of Indra, the first that he achieved, the Thunder-wielder. He slew the Dragon, then disclosed the waters, and cleft the channels of the mountain torrents. 2 He slew the Dragon lying on the mountain: his heavenly bolt of thunder Tvastar fashioned. Like lowing kine in rapid flow descending the waters glided downward to the ocean. 3 Impetuous as a bull, he chose the Soma and in three sacred beakers drank the juices. Maghavan grasped the thunder for his weapon, and smote to death this firstborn of the dragons. 4 When, Indra, thou hadst slain the dragon's firstborn, and overcome the charms of the enchanters, Then, giving life to Sun and Dawn and Heaven, thou foundest not one foe to stand against thee. 5 Indra with his own great and deadly thunder smote into pieces Vrtra, worst of Vrtras. As trunks of trees, what time the axe hath felled them, low on the earth so lies the prostrate Dragon. 6 He, like a mad weak warrior, challenged Indra, the great impetuous many-slaying Hero. He. brooking not the clashing of the weapons, crushed-Indra's foe-the shattered forts in falling. 7 Footless and handless still he challenged Indra, who smote him with his bolt between the shoulders. Emasculate yet claiming manly vigour, thus Vrtra lay with scattered limbs dissevered. 8 There as he lies like a bank-bursting river, the waters taking courage flow above him. The Dragon lies beneath the feet of torrents which Vrtra with his greatness had encompassed. 9 Then humbled was the strength of Vrtra's mother: Indra hath cast his deadly bolt against her. The mother was above, the son was under and like a cow beside her calf lay Danu. 10 Rolled in the midst of never-ceasing currents flowing without a rest for ever onward. The waters bear off Vrtra's nameless body: the foe of Indra sank to during darkness. 11 Guarded by Ahi stood the thralls of Dasas, the waters stayed like kine held by the robber. But he, when he had smitten Vrtra, opened the cave wherein the floods had been imprisoned. 12 A horse's tail wast thou when he, O Indra, smote on thy bolt; thou, God without a second, Thou hast won back the kine, hast won the Soma; thou hast let loose to flow the Seven Rivers. 13 Nothing availed him lightning, nothing thunder, hailstorm or mist which had spread around him: When Indra and the Dragon strove in battle, Maghavan gained the victory for ever. 14 Whom sawest thou to avenge the Dragon, Indra, that fear possessed thy heart when thou hadst slain him; That, like a hawk affrighted through the regions, thou crossedst nine-and-ninety flowing rivers? 15 Indra is King of all that moves and moves not, of creatures tame and horned, the Thunder-wielder. Over all living men he rules as Sovran, containing all as spokes within the felly. - HYMN XXXII Indra, Rigveda; Griffiths translation
In the cognate story of Indra slaying the stone cave Vala to release the Dawn, instead of using his thunder weapon, he shouts prayers that are likened to thunder. In this guise he is sometimes represented mystically as the Vedic sage Brhaspati, who was born from the first great light that drove away the darkness. This is remarkable as the original copy of the "Tale of Silver Valley" was authored by "Sage Selias Jodame". The Greek word "σέλᾰς" (selas) means light or shining, being related to the word for moon. In the story Jaron Galarn's shouting is accompanied by thunder and the ground cracking. Jaron is a Hebrew name that means "shouting or singing praises." Jodame is likely Hebrew as well. Joda means "he who is praised", and names like Jehoram contract to Joram, so it is likely something on these lines.
" Then suddenly an excited voice exclaimed, "Muylari, there's cracks opening up in the grave! I don't think we can dig any deeper." "Shut up fool! I told you never to use my name." A short silence. Then... "It is deep enough. Toss the box in and fill up the hole." The darkness once again lurched around Jaron as someone hefted the box and began carrying it away. Before he could begin screaming, the sad voice spoke one last time, "Good-bye Jaron Galarn. Accept your fate." "No!" Jaron screamed. "I do not accept this fate damn you! You cannot leave me here to die and simply forget me! Do you hear me Muylari?! I will return to free my horses if I have to rise from the grave I swear! Do you understand Muylari?! I curse this land and all who would do harm here! I WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN!!!" A roll of thunder breached the silence and then Jaron was suddenly falling as his box was dropped into the grave. The hard impact knocked him out, leaving his last words echoing in his mind as the sounds of earth raining upon the top of the coffin filled his ears. The last thing he felt before dizziness and suffocation took over was a sudden shift and a sinking feeling as if falling a great distance into some subterranean chasm. Then everything, even his thoughts, stopped in blackness. " - "Tale of Silver Valley"; Selias Jodame
The following is one example of a hymn in the Rigveda where Vala is split open by thunderous shouting of praises. The Panis fog demons who watch the stolen cows are mentioned in other hymns, such as Hymn XXXIII Indra, which says: "GIVE us the rapture that is mightiest, Indra, prompt to bestow and swift to aid, O Hero, That wins with brave steeds where brave steeds encounter, and quells the Vrtras and the foes in battle. For with loud voice the tribes invoke thee, Indra, to aid them in the battlefield of heroes. Thou, with the singers, hast pierced through the Panis: the charger whom thou aidest wins the booty."
1. Him who with might hath propped earth's ends, who sitteth in threefold seat, Brhaspati, with thunder, Him of the pleasant tongue have ancient sages, deep-thinking, holy singers, set before them. 2 Wild in their course, in well-marked wise rejoicing were they, Brhaspati, who pressed around us. Preserve Brhaspati, the stall uninjured, this company's raining, ever-moving birthplace. 3 Brhaspati, from thy remotest distance have they sat down who love the law eternal. For thee were dug wells springing from the mountain, which murmuring round about pour streams of sweetness. 4 Brhaspati, when first he had his being from mighty splendour in supremest heaven, Strong, with his sevenfold mouth, with noise of thunder, with his seven rays, blew and dispersed the darkness. 5 With the loud-shouting band who sang his praises, with thunder, he destroyed obstructive Vala. Brhaspati thundering drave forth the cattle, the lowing cows who make oblations ready. 6 Serve we with sacrifices, gifts, and homage even thus the Steer of all the Gods, the Father. Brhaspati, may we be lords of riches, with noble progeny and store of heroes. 7 Surely that King by power and might heroic hath made him lord of all his foes' posses-ions, Who cherishes Brhaspati well-tended, adorns and worships him as foremost sharer. 8 In his own house he dwells in peace and comfort: to him for ever holy food flows richly. To him the people with free will pay homage-the King with whom the Brahman hatb precedence. 9 He, unopposed, is master of the riches.of his own subjects and of hostile people. The Gods uphold that King with their protection who helps the Brahman when he seeks his favour. 10 Indra, Brhaspati, rainers of treasure, rejoicing at this sacrifice drink the Soma. Let the abundant drops sink deep within you: vouchsafe us riches with full store of heroes. 11 Brhaspati and Indra, make us prosper may this be your benevolence to usward. Assist our holy thoughts, wake up our spirit: weaken the hatred of our foe and rivals. - HYMN L. Brhaspati., Rigveda; Griffiths translation
This is then more explicitly called shouting in Hymn LXII. Brhaspati or Brahmanaspati is the lord of prayer, and splits Vala with thunderous shouts of prayer.
"1. LIKE Angiras a gladdening laud we ponder to him who loveth song, exceeding mighty. Let us sing glory to the far-famed Hero who must be praised with fair hymns by the singer. 2 Unto the great bring ye great adoration, a chant with praise to him exceeding mighty, Through whom our sires, Angirases, singing praises and knowing well the places, found the cattle. 3 When Indra and the Angirases desired it, Sarama found provision for her offipring. Brhaspati cleft the mountain, found the cattle: the heroes shouted with the kine in triumph. 4 Mid shout, loud shout, and roar, with the Navagvas, seven singers, hast thou, heavenly, rent the mountain; Thou hast, with speeders, with Dasagvas, Indra, Sakra, with thunder rent obstructive Vala. 5 Praised by Angirases, thou, foe-destroyer, hast, with the Dawn, Sun, rays, dispellcd the darkness. Thou Indra, hast spread out the earths high ridges, and firmly fixed the region under heaven" - Hymn LXII Indra, Rigveda; Griffiths translation
The context that ties this back together with Shadow Valley is that the "great evil entity" that was driven into the darkness below ground, where it sleeps, was called a "wyrm" when it "awakened" and a portal opened in the sky with a stampede of shadow steeds and mares trampling it with lightning and thunder. Wyrms are water dragons from Norse mythology. The cognate of Vrtra is Jormungandr, and Indra is Thor. The log of this event used to exist but is currently missing. The following is a summary of what happened. Shadow Valley is drought stricken with evil fog, rivers of sentient black ichor, and darkness.
" "My master says, `No icons can save you from the destroyer. Only the protectors of Velaskar can save you now. It forms .... it awakens,’" the wolf growled. The awakening was that of a giant winged wyrm that formed in the sky above the band of adventurers. It was Lady Cheat and Lord Jorak who realized that the wolf wanted them to cast uncurse on three ghostly pookas. Free of their chains, the pookas transformed into a giant shadow steed. The steed launched itself into the sky, and the old ladder that once led to the safety of the ledge shattered into a thousand tiny particles. Seconds later, a vortex opened in the sky, pouring out thousands of shadow steeds and mares in a majestic ethereal display of lightning and thunder. The stampede trampled and destroyed the wyrm in a fiery battle. " - "Shadow Valley", Lord Eythan Gwenywen; Elanthian Times Volume I Issue I, Ancient Annals
Interestingly, the story is exactly backwards of the Vala and Vrtra myth on certain points, similar to the mythology in The Graveyard. Instead of the Dawn being imprisoned below ground by the demon Vala, it is the "darkness" and fog that is imprisoned and guarded against by the equines. Instead of the cows imprisoned in the cave, it is the "wyrm" or Vrtra analog that is held underground. Jaron Galarn is shouting a "curse" rather than "praises" when the ground is cracking. The stilted line about no icons of protection from the wolf familiar quoted above is interesting, as the Vedic period myths had no iconography.
" Jaron was dumped roughly in a long wooden box and the lid was immediately nailed shut. He searched frantically for anything to aid him in an escape, but the strangers had stripped him of anything useful. Desperate, he began screaming at the top of his lungs. "Release me! Let me out here or you'll regret it!" A sad voice replied, "Quiet in there. No one remembers you. In time, we will not remember you. Accept your fate lad. Try to die with some dignity." "Dignity! What dignity is there to die in a box?! You must let me out! I can hear in your voice that you do not wish this upon me! Release me and help me free the horses!" Again the sad voice replied, "My fate is set friend, as is yours. I must serve the master with my talents and you must die in this box. Do not bother in your attempts to turn my loyalty. That possibility has long passed." Then suddenly an excited voice exclaimed, "Muylari, there's cracks opening up in the grave! I don't think we can dig any deeper. "Shut up fool! I told you never to use my name." A short silence. Then... "It is deep enough. Toss the box in and fill up the hole." The darkness once again lurched around Jaron as someone hefted the box and began carrying it away. Before he could begin screaming, the sad voice spoke one last time, "Good-bye Jaron Galarn. Accept your fate." "No!" Jaron screamed. "I do not accept this fate damn you! You cannot leave me here to die and simply forget me! Do you hear me Muylari?! I will return to free my horses if I have to rise from the grave I swear! Do you understand Muylari?! I curse this land and all who would do harm here! I WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN!!!" " - "Tale of Silver Valley"; Selias Jodame
The following are some examples of the in-game text with implicit or explicit associations of wind and thunder along with the cracks in the ground.
[Secluded Valley] A sea of grey clouds fills the sky above. From somewhere in the distance, the sound of pounding hooves echoes across the valley. Obvious paths: east, southeast, south, southwest >yell jaron galarn As you yell out the name, your voice echoes through the valley, louder and louder until it becomes deafening. The world begins spinning, and the ground shakes beneath your feet. You become completely overwhelmed at the sudden barrage attacking your senses when, suddenly, it all stops, fading into silent blackness. [A Dark Crevice] You are perched on the ledge of a dangerously steep crevice which juts out from the wall hanging over a dark abyss. The odd mists within it glow with an ethereal light as they lash about in their chaotic dance. From above, the sound of thundering hooves reverberate throughout the chasm, seemingly vanishing into the bottomless pit below. You also see some large cracks in the ground. Obvious exits: up [Shadow Valley] The walls open wide and high forming a small valley forgotten by the waking world. Covering the entire range is a low layer of thick black mist, lending the land an eerie demeanor. Near the base of the wall, you see a crevice leading down into darkness. You also see a shadow mare and some large cracks in the ground. Obvious paths: southwest, northwest A rush of cold wind blows through the area as a shadow mare gallops into view!
The identification of the battle between Indra an Vrtra with the moon cycle is present in the Satapatha Brahmana which is a later commentary on the Vedas. The slaying of Vrtra is identified with the splitting of the moon, and the moon infuses the soma drink. There is a stilted line in the "Tale of Silver Valley" where men arrive in Valaskar in numbers of "seven and twenty and more seemed to join them each day." Twenty-seven days is the length of moon phase cycle in the real world. There is a mural of a dragon assaulting a world in the mine tunnels. It is remarkable that DragonRealms was developed around the same time as Shadow Valley and has a mythical premise of a world dragon birthing from one of the moons, devastating the world below and having to be kept sleeping under the earth by the gods.
"12. The full-moon oblation, assuredly, belongs to the Vritra-slayer, for by means of it Indra slew Vritra; and this new-moon oblation also represents the slaying of Vritra, since they prepared that invigorating draught for him who had slain Vritra. 13. An offering in honour of the Vritra-slayer, then, is the full-moon sacrifice. Vritra, assuredly, is no other than the moon 1; and when during that night (of new moon) he is not seen either in the east or in the west, then he (Indra) completely destroys him by means of that (new-moon sacrifice), and leaves nothing remaining of him. And, verily, he who knows this, overcomes all evil and leaves nothing remaining of evil." - Satapatha Brahmana, Part 1 [Mine Tunnels] Swirling blue symbols formed of luminescent moss mark the walls. Though none are of any symbol set you can recognize, the largest is quite obviously a dragon. Several spheroid-shaped patches of moss surround it, causing the entire wall to be reminiscent of a star-covered night sky. Obvious exits: southeast >glance symbol You glance at a large mossy symbol. >look symbol The symbol is shaped in the form of a large dragon, wings extended and breathing fire upon a small planet just underneath it.
Celtic
In Celtic and Scandinavian folklore there are various kinds of "water horses", which are water spirits that take the form of horses who kill the people who ride them. The Scottish kelpie, the German nokk, the Scandinavian bäckahäst, the Welsh ceffyl dŵr, the Manx cabyll-ushtey, and the Gaelic each-uisce or each-uisge are all examples of this, and there are other Celtic water spirits represented in the residential neighborhood outside Castle Anwyn. In the "Tale of Silver Valley" this is hinted at with Jaron Galarn telling tourists: "'No one has ever ridden one of the Silver Valley horses,' he said in an ominous tone."
The tip off that the Celtic fey or faeries are relevant comes from the ghostly pookas. Pookas are shapeshifters who take many other animal forms. In the folklore they are sometimes in the form of black steeds wearing heavy chains, and this is notably not included for them in the Rolemaster bestiaries. The point that they are actually shapeshifters was used outright in the release event for the dark pasture, where their chains had to be uncursed and a few of them morphed together into a giant shadow steed. This is when the vortex in the sky opened and there was a stampede of shadow steeds and mares.
" "My master says, `No icons can save you from the destroyer. Only the protectors of Velaskar can save you now. It forms .... it awakens,’" the wolf growled. The awakening was that of a giant winged wyrm that formed in the sky above the band of adventurers. It was Lady Cheat and Lord Jorak who realized that the wolf wanted them to cast uncurse on three ghostly pookas. Free of their chains, the pookas transformed into a giant shadow steed. The steed launched itself into the sky, and the old ladder that once led to the safety of the ledge shattered into a thousand tiny particles. Seconds later, a vortex opened in the sky, pouring out thousands of shadow steeds and mares in a majestic ethereal display of lightning and thunder. The stampede trampled and destroyed the wyrm in a fiery battle. " - "Shadow Valley", Lord Eythan Gwenywen; Elanthian Times Volume I Issue I, Ancient Annals
The Welsh water horse "ceffyl dŵr" is known for flying people in the air and dropping them. More generally, riders are stuck to the horse, who drown them. There are similar drowning monsters in other cultures such as kappas. This idea that the seeming horses are actually water spirits is important. The "Tale of Silver Valley" has folktales in it of the equines imprisoning "a great evil entity from another plane" deep under ground and that they "remain in the valley to protect us" if it ever returned. This is a clearly mythological notion and cannot be literal if they (or at least all of them) are actually corporeal horses.
"There were rumors and legends about them, scary tales of a great evil entity from another plane who once tried to gain entrance to our world by opening a great portal deep underground. The skies grew dark and the ground shook. The entity came through the portal and tore its way up through the ground, breaking the surface just inside Silver Valley. It is said that the equines met this invader with such ferocity that it was driven back into the crevice that it had opened and fell into a deep chasm never to be heard from again. Some say the horses still remain in the valley to protect us should the entity in the pit ever return. His stories were many and I never forgot the awe-inspiring feeling I had when I first set eyes upon the herd as they ran through the valley." - "Tale of Silver Valley"; Selias Jodame
The theory is then that at least some of the equines of Silver Valley are actually fey water spirits in the form of horses similar to the pookas. These would be the shadow mares and steeds, who came out of a portal in the sky. The night mares are instead corporeal undead, and would presumably be the ones who were actual horses. The spirit horses are now corrupted with dark power, and effectively are undead. The wyrm is symbolically a serpent demon of drought, which establishes an inherent antagonism between them. The rivers in Shadow Valley have been replaced with caustic black sludge that is sentient.
The tie-in is that the Celtic Otherworld of the fey is typically reached by traveling down into mounds. The Aos Sí or Aes Sídhe are "the people of the mounds", where sídhe is the Irish for "mounds." Shadow Valley is under the burial mound of the Graveyard, which itself is a huge passage barrow like those that exist in the British Isles. The "moaning spirits" may thus symbolize bainsídhe (banshees), and the "spectral miners" may be "knockers". The night hounds could symbolize the "black dogs" in European folklore who guard the Underworld. Regardless, the Aos Sí descend historically from the old Irish gods, the Tuath Dé meaning "the tribe of the gods". This is known also as the Tuatha Dé Danann, meaning "the folk of the goddess Danu". Some folklorists have argued since the 19th century that the Irish mother goddess "Danu" is cognate to the Vedic water goddess "Danu" who is the mother of the world dragon Vrtra. Thus the Celtic and Vedic myth crossover in Shadow Valley is more natural than it sounds.
Lovecraft
There seems to be a convincing amount of influence from H.P. Lovecraft stories, just as there is in the original Graveyard and the Broken Lands. The parallel to a given story will always break down at some point, so only parts or even single scenes from a given story will be relevant. There is a reasonable case for the foggy underground valley with the precious metal prospectors, spectral horses, eagle-clawed moaning spirits, phasing monsters, mining picks, and serpent demon coming from "The Mound". There is a sound basis for suspecting the relevance of several others, such as "The Colour Out of Space".
The Mound
The story that seems to have the most relevance to Shadow Valley is "The Mound", a relatively obscure novella ghost-written by H.P. Lovecraft for Zealia Bishop. It was only published in highly abridged forms until 1989, when the full text was given in "The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions" anthology. In the novella there is an "Indian mound" in Oklahoma, where "Indian" means Native American, which is the gateway to a subterranean valley with an underground kingdom. The narrator is an ethnologist investigating it over ghost stories he has pieced together from locals involving a headless woman.
He finds a scroll written by a Spanish Conquistador from several centuries ago who had wandered down there searching for gold. There are numerous motifs in common between this story and Shadow Valley, which is located under the burial mound of the Graveyard. In the case of Silver Valley it was silver instead of gold. If this novella was used as a subtext, it is able to explain a number of specific details.
(1) Spectral Sky Horses
"I had gone into Oklahoma to track down and correlate one of the many ghost tales which were current among the white settlers, but which had strong Indian corroboration, and—I felt sure—an ultimate Indian source. They were very curious, these open-air ghost tales; and though they sounded flat and prosaic in the mouths of the white people, they had earmarks of linkage with some of the richest and obscurest phases of native mythology. All of them were woven around the vast, lonely, artificial-looking mounds in the western part of the state, and all of them involved apparitions of exceedingly strange aspect and equipment.
The commonest, and among the oldest, became quite famous in 1892, when a government marshal named John Willis went into the mound region after horse-thieves and came out with a wild yarn of nocturnal cavalry horses in the air between great armies of invisible spectres—battles that involved the rush of hooves and feet, the thud of blows, the clank of metal on metal, the muffled cries of warriors, and the fall of human and equine bodies. These things happened by moonlight, and frightened his horse as well as himself. The sounds persisted an hour at a time; vivid, but subdued as if brought from a distance by a wind, and unaccompanied by any glimpse of the armies themselves. Later on Willis learned that the seat of the sounds was a notoriously haunted spot, shunned by settlers and Indians alike. Many had seen, or half seen, the warring horsemen in the sky, and had furnished dim, ambiguous descriptions. The settlers described the ghostly fighters as Indians, though of no familiar tribe, and having the most singular costumes and weapons. They even went so far as to say that they could not be sure the horses were really horses.
The Indians, on the other hand, did not seem to claim the spectres as kinsfolk. They referred to them as “those people”, “the old people”, or “they who dwell below”, and appeared to hold them in too great a frightened veneration to talk much about them. No ethnologist had been able to pin any tale-teller down to a specific description of the beings, and apparently nobody had ever had a very clear look at them. The Indians had one or two old proverbs about these phenomena, saying that “men very old, make very big spirit; not so old, not so big; older than all time, then spirit he so big he near flesh; those old people and spirits they mix up—get all the same”."
- "The Mound"; H.P. Lovecraft
"Here is the legend as I have heard it told in various inns along the northern coast of Jontara. Considering its detail, I can only speculate that the original teller of this tale was a participant of the event..."
- "Tale of Silver Valley"; Selias Jodame
There used to be a log of the release event for the dark pasture and shaft expansions, where the ladder was replaced by a ramp and the shadow steeds were introduced. The following summary of it describes the scene, where a portal opens and the shadow horses battle the wyrm in the sky. These are "spectral" horses in the sense that they are not really corporeal, and they are also probably not really horses.
" "My master says, `No icons can save you from the destroyer. Only the protectors of Velaskar can save you now. It forms .... it awakens,’" the wolf growled. The awakening was that of a giant winged wyrm that formed in the sky above the band of adventurers. It was Lady Cheat and Lord Jorak who realized that the wolf wanted them to cast uncurse on three ghostly pookas. Free of their chains, the pookas transformed into a giant shadow steed. The steed launched itself into the sky, and the old ladder that once led to the safety of the ledge shattered into a thousand tiny particles. Seconds later, a vortex opened in the sky, pouring out thousands of shadow steeds and mares in a majestic ethereal display of lightning and thunder. The stampede trampled and destroyed the wyrm in a fiery battle. " - "Shadow Valley", Lord Eythan Gwenywen; Elanthian Times Volume I Issue I, Ancient Annals
(2) Serpent Demon
The "great evil entity from another plane" of Shadow Valley was a "wyrm", and there is a mural in the mine tunnels depicting a dragon assaulting a world. In "The Mound" there is a Great Old One named Yig, Father of Snakes, who is the ur-daemon behind the mythical Central American snake gods such as Quetzalcoatl and Kukulcan. The advanced race that lived deep under the mound in the subterranean realm specifically worshipped Yig, Cthulhu, and at one point Tsathoggua until something happened. Yig and Cthulhu are referenced here repeatedly, and "The Call of Cthulhu" is probably in the mine shaft.
"Make no mistake—Oklahoma is a lot more than a mere pioneers’ and promoters’ frontier. There are old, old tribes with old, old memories there; and when the tom-toms beat ceaselessly over brooding plains in the autumn the spirits of men are brought dangerously close to primal, whispered things. I am white and Eastern enough myself, but anybody is welcome to know that the rites of Yig, Father of Snakes, can get a real shudder out of me any day. I have heard and seen too much to be “sophisticated” in such matters. And so it is with this incident of 1928. I’d like to laugh it off—but I can’t." "Opening my handbag in the light of a single electric bulb, I again took out the cylinder and noted the instant magnetism which pulled the Indian talisman to its carven surface. The designs glimmered evilly on the richly lustrous and unknown metal, and I could not help shivering as I studied the abnormal and blasphemous forms that leered at me with such exquisite workmanship. I wish now that I had carefully photographed all these designs—though perhaps it is just as well that I did not. Of one thing I am really glad, and that is that I could not then identify the squatting octopus-headed thing which dominated most of the ornate cartouches, and which the manuscript called “Tulu”. Recently I have associated it, and the legends in the manuscript connected with it, with some new-found folklore of monstrous and unmentioned Cthulhu, a horror which seeped down from the stars while the young earth was still half-formed; and had I known of the connexion then, I could not have stayed in the same room with the thing. The secondary motif, a semi-anthropomorphic serpent, I did quite readily place as a prototype of the Yig, Quetzalcoatl, and Kukulcan conceptions. Before opening the cylinder I tested its magnetic powers on metals other than that of Grey Eagle’s disc, but found that no attraction existed. It was no common magnetism which pervaded this morbid fragment of unknown worlds and linked it to its kind." - "The Mound"; H.P. Lovecraft
Yig is known to make "Progeny of Yig" out of humans who harm his snake children. These are semi-anthropomorphic snakes with human faces. This happens to look almost exactly like the abyran demons. While the "History of the Faendryl" (2002) document has a couple of Lovecraft easter eggs in it, the Enchirdion Valentia (2003) document was probably written by a different GameMaster, and this is most likely coincidental. If it is not a coincidence it would imply that the missing Faendryl sorcerers were turned into abyran demons, and might explain Shieltine's Ward banning sorcerers from traveling to Lorae'tyr.
(3) Moaning Spirits
The moaning spirits are oddly described as having eagle claws for feet, but otherwise appear to be humanoid. The moaning spirits force their way into this plane, and also appear in Castle Anwyn.
"Intense hatred for those living drives the moaning spirit to traverse the bounds of space to attack its enemies. Crying out in constant pain, it marshals magic, claw and fist against its foes, destroying relentlessly to sate the desires of the forces that bind it, then returning whence it came to await the intrusion of another living creature. Its semi-transparent countenance is passably humanoid, save for the eagle-like claws replacing what would normally be the human's feet." - Moaning Spirit creature description
This is a highly specific and unusual detail that can be effortlessly explained by a section of the novella where a man named Captain Lawton traveled down into the mound. He was later found with his feet cut off. He was rambling madly about Cthulhu, as well as Azathoth and Nyarlathotep, who are relevant to Research:The Graveyard and Research:The Broken Lands. In this scene there is an old Native American chieftain named "Grey Eagle" speaking, warning to not go down there because the old ones are no good. This easily accounts for the eagle claw feet on the moaning spirits guarding the entrance to the valley.
"The next trip was the solitary venture of old Capt. Lawton, a grizzled pioneer who had helped to open up the region in 1889, but who had never been there since. He had recalled the mound and its fascination all through the years; and being now in comfortable retirement, resolved to have a try at solving the ancient riddle. Long familiarity with Indian myth had given him ideas rather stranger than those of the simple villagers, and he had made preparations for some extensive delving. He ascended the mound on the morning of Thursday, May 11, 1916, watched through spy glasses by more than twenty people in the village and on the adjacent plain. His disappearance was very sudden, and occurred as he was hacking at the shrubbery with a brush-cutter. No one could say more than that he was there one moment and absent the next. For over a week no tidings of him reached Binger, and then—in the middle of the night—there dragged itself into the village the object about which dispute still rages.
It said it was—or had been—Capt. Lawton, but it was definitely younger by as much as forty years than the old man who had climbed the mound. Its hair was jet black, and its face—now distorted with nameless fright—free from wrinkles. But it did remind Grandma Compton most uncannily of the captain as he had looked back in ’89. Its feet were cut off neatly at the ankles, and the stumps were smoothly healed to an extent almost incredible if the being really were the man who had walked upright a week before. It babbled of incomprehensible things, and kept repeating the name “George Lawton, George E. Lawton” as if trying to reassure itself of its own identity. The things it babbled of, Grandma Compton thought, were curiously like the hallucinations of poor young Heaton in ’91; though there were minor differences. “The blue light!—the blue light! . . .” muttered the object, “always down there, before there were any living things—older than the dinosaurs—always the same, only weaker—never death—brooding and brooding and brooding—the same people, half-man and half-gas—the dead that walk and work—oh, those beasts, those half-human unicorns—houses and cities of gold—old, old, old, older than time—came down from the stars—Great Tulu—Azathoth—Nyarlathotep—waiting, waiting. . . .” The object died before dawn.
Of course there was an investigation, and the Indians at the reservation were grilled unmercifully. But they knew nothing, and had nothing to say. At least, none of them had anything to say except old Grey Eagle, a Wichita chieftain whose more than a century of age put him above common fears. He alone deigned to grunt some advice.
“You let um ’lone, white man. No good—those people. All under here, all under there, them old ones. Yig, big father of snakes, he there. Yig is Yig. Tiráwa, big father of men, he there. Tiráwa is Tiráwa. No die. No get old. Just same like air. Just live and wait. One time they come out here, live and fight. Build um dirt tepee. Bring up gold—they got plenty. Go off and make new lodges. Me them. You them. Then big waters come. All change. Nobody come out, let nobody in. Get in, no get out. You let um ’lone, you have no bad medicine. Red man know, he no get catch. White man meddle, he no come back. Keep ’way little hills. No good. Grey Eagle say this.” "
- "The Mound"; H.P. Lovecraft
This is referencing another man named Heaton who in 1891 went down into the mound, and came out later rambling in madness about Cthulhu and other Great Old Ones. The "white man" referenced here is implicitly the Spanish Conquistador, who is introduced later in the story. In the "Tale of Silver Valley" Selias Jodame has a Navigator guide named Tearhaut which is at least vaguely Native American.
"When Heaton made his own trip he resolved to get to the bottom of the mystery, and watchers from the village saw him hacking diligently at the shrubbery atop the mound. Then they saw his figure melt slowly into invisibility; not to reappear for long hours, till after the dusk drew on, and the torch of the headless squaw glimmered ghoulishly on the distant elevation. About two hours after nightfall he staggered into the village minus his spade and other belongings, and burst into a shrieking monologue of disconnected ravings. He howled of shocking abysses and monsters, of terrible carvings and statues, of inhuman captors and grotesque tortures, and of other fantastic abnormalities too complex and chimerical even to remember. “Old! Old! Old!” he would moan over and over again, “great God, they are older than the earth, and came here from somewhere else—they know what you think, and make you know what they think—they’re half-man, half-ghost—crossed the line—melt and take shape again—getting more and more so, yet we’re all descended from them in the beginning—children of Tulu—everything made of gold—monstrous animals, half-human—dead slaves—madness—Iä! Shub-Niggurath!—that white man—oh, my God, what they did to him! . ." - "The Mound"; H.P. Lovecraft
(4) Conquistadors
The story of what happened to Shadow Valley involves miners coming to the local village in search of silver. They wipe the memories of the townsfolk with sorcery, and enslave the horses to be beasts of burden. In the Shadow World historical setting the northern region of this area had silver mines, and that is the implicit context for Silver Valley. The valley would have implicitly have been located to the north in the Seolfar Strake, which means something like "Journey to Strike Silver" in Seoltang, and was re-named the Lysierian Hills. What happened around its appearance under the Graveyard is not recorded.
"A group of men had arrived at the settlement of Velaskar claiming to be sightseers. As most travelers in the village were in fact sightseers there was little to be suspicious of but this was a large group of men, seven and twenty and more seemed to join them each day. It soon became apparent that they were more than watchers of horses and it was Jaron Galarn who discovered their true purpose. Taking them on a tour to the valley, as he was known to do, he observed them paying little attention to the equines and more attention to the grounds around the valley. That night, he snuck into their supply tent at the end of town and discovered it was full of mining equipment. The men intended to mine the cliffs of Silver Valley, no doubt expecting to find silver." - "Tale of Silver Valley"; Selias Jodame
The corresponding detail in "The Mound" is the character who provides all the information on the subterranean world is a Spanish Conquistador who was searching for legendary cities of gold.
"I paused to reflect on the portentous significance of what I was reading. “The Narrative of Pánfilo de Zamacona y Nuñez, gentleman, of Luarca in Asturias, Concerning the Subterranean World of Xinaián, A. D. 1545” . . . Here, surely, was too much for any mind to absorb all at once. A subterranean world—again that persistent idea which filtered through all the Indian tales and through all the utterances of those who had come back from the mound. And the date—1545—what could this mean? In 1540 Coronado and his men had gone north from Mexico into the wilderness, but had they not turned back in 1542! My eye ran questingly down the opened part of the scroll, and almost at once seized on the name Francisco Vásquez de Coronado. The writer of this thing, clearly, was one of Coronado’s men—but what had he been doing in this remote realm three years after his party had gone back? I must read further, for another glance told me that what was now unrolled was merely a summary of Coronado’s northward march, differing in no essential way from the account known to history." - "The Mount"; H.P. Lovecraft
This is stated more explicitly in other parts of the story, such as this scene where Zamacona encounters an idol of Cthulhu.
"For a moment he was quite stupefied by what he saw. It was not the all-covering dust and cobwebs of immemorial aeons, the fluttering winged things, the shriekingly loathsome sculptures on the walls, the bizarre form of the many basins and braziers, the sinister pyramidal altar with the hollow top, or the monstrous, octopus-headed abnormality in some strange, dark metal leering and squatting broodingly on its hieroglyphed pedestal, which robbed him of even the power to give a startled cry. It was nothing so unearthly as this—but merely the fact that, with the exception of the dust, the cobwebs, the winged things, and the gigantic emerald-eyed idol, every particle of substance in sight was composed of pure and evidently solid gold.
Even the manuscript, written in retrospect after Zamacona knew that gold is the most common structural metal of a nether world containing limitless lodes and veins of it, reflects the frenzied excitement which the traveller felt upon suddenly finding the real source of all the Indian legends of golden cities. For a time the power of detailed observation left him, but in the end his faculties were recalled by a peculiar tugging sensation in the pocket of his doublet. Tracing the feeling, he realised that the disc of strange metal he had found in the abandoned road was being attracted strongly by the vast octopus-headed, emerald-eyed idol on the pedestal, which he now saw to be composed of the same unknown exotic metal. He was later to learn that this strange magnetic substance—as alien to the inner world as to the outer world of men—is the one precious metal of the blue-lighted abyss. None knows what it is or where it occurs in Nature, and the amount of it on this planet came down from the stars with the people when great Tulu, the octopus-headed god, brought them for the first time to this earth. Certainly, its only known source was a stock of pre-existing artifacts, including multitudes of Cyclopean idols. It could never be placed or analysed, and even its magnetism was exerted only on its own kind. It was the supreme ceremonial metal of the hidden people, its use being regulated by custom in such a way that its magnetic properties might cause no inconvenience. A very weakly magnetic alloy of it with such base metals as iron, gold, silver, copper, or zinc, had formed the sole monetary standard of the hidden people at one period of their history."
- "The Mound"; H.P. Lovecraft
(5) Secluded Valley
The scroll of Zamacona detailed how he was told of the underground valley by a native named Charging Buffalo, who said there were "natural fissures" in the earth that were allowed to stay open to circulate the air. Zamacona ends up descending into the mound, which Charging Buffalo had done up to a point. It is mostly a descent, but it involves going up sometimes, and the final part of the tunnel is a steep climb. This is the corresponding situation for Shadow Valley. What follows in this section is several paragraphs from a single scene, which depicts finding they valley and descending to it.
"For three days, as best he could reckon, Pánfilo de Zamacona scrambled down, up, along, and around, but always predominately downward, through this dark region of palaeogean night. Once in a while he heard some secret being of darkness patter or flap out of his way, and on just one occasion he half glimpsed a great, bleached thing that set him trembling. The quality of the air was mostly very tolerable; though foetid zones were now and then met with, while one great cavern of stalactites and stalagmites afforded a depressing dampness. This latter, when Charging Buffalo had come upon it, had quite seriously barred the way; since the limestone deposits of ages had built fresh pillars in the path of the primordial abyss-denizens. The Indian, however, had broken through these; so that Zamacona did not find his course impeded. It was an unconscious comfort to him to reflect that someone else from the outside world had been there before—and the Indian’s careful descriptions had removed the element of surprise and unexpectedness. More—Charging Buffalo’s knowledge of the tunnel had led him to provide so good a torch supply for the journey in and out, that there would be no danger of becoming stranded in darkness. Zamacona camped twice, building a fire whose smoke seemed well taken care of by the natural ventilation.
At what he considered the end of the third day—though his cocksure guesswork chronology is not at any time to be given the easy faith that he gave it—Zamacona encountered the prodigious descent and subsequent prodigious climb which Charging Buffalo had described as the tunnel’s last phase. As at certain earlier points, marks of artificial improvement were here discernible; and several times the steep gradient was eased by a flight of rough-hewn steps. The torch shewed more and more of the monstrous carvings on the walls, and finally the resinous flare seemed mixed with a fainter and more diffusive light as Zamacona climbed up and up after the last downward stairway. At length the ascent ceased, and a level passage of artificial masonry with dark, basaltic blocks led straight ahead. There was no need for a torch now, for all the air was glowing with a bluish, quasi-electric radiance that flickered like an aurora. It was the strange light of the inner world that the Indian had described—and in another moment Zamacona emerged from the tunnel upon a bleak, rocky hillside which climbed above him to a seething, impenetrable sky of bluish coruscations, and descended dizzily below him to an apparently illimitable plain shrouded in bluish mist."
- "The Mound"; H.P. Lovecraft
This illustrates the analogous tunnel deep under the ground, which turns into a steep ascent. This opens up to a secluded valley, shrouded in mist with clouds in the sky.
[Narrow Tunnel] The tunnel continues, seemingly without end, in both directions. Shadows play off the rough rock walls, causing your eyes to dart about looking for enemies that may or may not be there. Obvious exits: northeast, southwest [Dark Crevice] Darkness prevents a clear survey of this small niche, but you feel a space above your head. The floor begins a steep incline rising up into the rock and a narrow fissure, possibly wide enough to squeeze through, is barely visible along the wall. You feel a cool dampness around your ankles. Obvious exits: up [Dark Crevice] The rough path continues up the steep terrain. Step after step, you feel your legs growing hot as you strain to keep a sure footing. A pressure in your ears lets you know you have climbed quite a distance. Obvious exits: up, down >u [Dark Crevice] You strain to keep clear of the rough outcroppings of rock in this dark space. The floor continues its steep incline causing you to lean severely to remain upright. In the dim light, you can just make out a trail of flowing mist moving slowly downward from a small opening above. Obvious exits: down
The foggy valley is illustrated as being dream-like or a forgotten memory. It is possible to hear horses stampeding in the distance in one room.
>climb opening Confidently, you begin to climb up the opening. Within a short time, you have reached the top. [Secluded Valley] The walls open wide and high forming a small valley forgotten by the waking world. Covering the entire range is a low layer of thick white mist, lending the land an eerie glow. Near the base of the wall, you see a crevice leading down into darkness. Obvious paths: southwest, northwest [Secluded Valley] Dead trees reach out of the mist towards the sky, seeking to grasp some remnant of hope. A few large black rocks break the surface of the chalky vapors, marking the surroundings. Obvious paths: southeast, south, southwest, west [Secluded Valley] Steep rocky walls rise high above, squelching any thoughts of climbing out. A cold biting wind blows across your face, stinging your eyes and lips. Obvious paths: north, northeast, west, northwest [Secluded Valley] The lack of color throughout the valley creates an odd feeling of unreality within you, as if you were reliving a long forgotten memory. Sharp grey stones mark the ground in the few spots where the mist thins. Obvious paths: north, northeast, east, northwest [Secluded Valley] A sea of grey clouds fills the sky above. From somewhere in the distance, the sound of pounding hooves echoes across the valley. Obvious paths: east, southeast, south, southwest
The corresponding scene is the next paragraph in "The Mound", where the native guide Charging Buffalo was unwilling to go further, because of the stampeding things that were not horses.
"He had come to the unknown world at last, and from his manuscript it is clear that he viewed the formless landscape as proudly and exaltedly as ever his fellow-countryman Balboa viewed the new-found Pacific from that unforgettable peak in Darien. Charging Buffalo had turned back at this point, driven by fear of something which he would only describe vaguely and evasively as a herd of bad cattle, neither horse nor buffalo, but like the things the mound-spirits rode at night—but Zamacona could not be deterred by any such trifle. Instead of fear, a strange sense of glory filled him; for he had imagination enough to know what it meant to stand alone in an inexplicable nether world whose existence no other white man suspected.
The soil of the great hill that surged upward behind him and spread steeply downward below him was dark grey, rock-strown, without vegetation, and probably basaltic in origin; with an unearthly cast which made him feel like an intruder on an alien planet. The vast distant plain, thousands of feet below, had no features he could distinguish; especially since it appeared to be largely veiled in a curling, bluish vapour. But more than hill or plain or cloud, the bluely luminous, coruscating sky impressed the adventurer with a sense of supreme wonder and mystery. What created this sky within a world he could not tell; though he knew of the northern lights, and had even seen them once or twice. He concluded that this subterraneous light was something vaguely akin to the aurora; a view which moderns may well endorse, though it seems likely that certain phenomena of radio-activity may also enter in."
- "The Mound"; H.P. Lovecraft
Instead of being able to see a vast plain far below, there is the grave of Jaron Galarn, which involves shouting his name to be teleported to that realm.
[Secluded Valley] A rough granite gravestone stands against the west wall of the valley. The torn and broken ground beneath the marker leads you to believe that whatever was buried here chose to leave. Strangely, the thick mists circle the area, carefully avoiding the gravesite. Obvious paths: northeast, southeast >yell (wrong answer) The words you yell are garbled by the wind, and nothing happens. >yell Jaron Galarn As you yell out the name, your voice echoes through the valley, louder and louder until it becomes deafening. The world begins spinning, and the ground shakes beneath your feet. You become completely overwhelmed at the sudden barrage attacking your senses when, suddenly, it all stops, fading into silent blackness.
The corresponding paragraph is when Zamacona begins descending down to the misty plain, and the utter silence was such that even small noises were loud. It is then speaking of the underworld herds who could not be grazing there as there was no vegetation. The pastures in Shadow Valley are all dead and mist shrouded. However, there is vegetation further into the plain when he keeps traveling, there just is not where there was evidence of the herds. Later when he is hiding out with the Cthulhu idol he can hear the herd stampeding, which is thunderously loud because of how silent it is in the underworld.
"Zamacona strode briskly along down the steep, interminable slope; his progress checked at times by the bad walking that came from loose rock fragments, or by the excessive precipitousness of the grade. The distance of the mist-shrouded plain must have been enormous, for many hours’ walking brought him apparently no closer to it than he had been before. Behind him was always the great hill stretching upward into a bright aërial sea of bluish coruscations. Silence was universal; so that his own footsteps, and the fall of stones that he dislodged, struck on his ears with startling distinctness. It was at what he regarded as about noon that he first saw the abnormal footprints which set him to thinking of Charging Buffalo’s terrible hints, precipitate flight, and strangely abiding terror.
The rock-strown nature of the soil gave few opportunities for tracks of any kind, but at one point a rather level interval had caused the loose detritus to accumulate in a ridge, leaving a considerable area of dark-grey loam absolutely bare. Here, in a rambling confusion indicating a large herd aimlessly wandering, Zamacona found the abnormal prints. It is to be regretted that he could not describe them more exactly, but the manuscript displayed far more vague fear than accurate observation. Just what it was that so frightened the Spaniard can only be inferred from his later hints regarding the beasts. He referred to the prints as ‘not hooves, nor hands, nor feet, nor precisely paws—nor so large as to cause alarm on that account’. Just why or how long ago the things had been there, was not easy to guess. There was no vegetation visible, hence grazing was out of the question; but of course if the beasts were carnivorous they might well have been hunting smaller animals, whose tracks their own would tend to obliterate."
- "The Mound"; H.P. Lovecraft
This is the later paragraph illustrating the thunderously loud charging herds against the silent backdrop.
"Zamacona’s reflections on the strange idol and its magnetism were disturbed by a tremendous wave of fear as, for the first time in this silent world, he heard a rumble of very definite and obviously approaching sound. There was no mistaking its nature. It was a thunderously charging herd of large animals; and, remembering the Indian’s panic, the footprints, and the moving mass distantly seen, the Spaniard shuddered in terrified anticipation. He did not analyse his position, or the significance of this onrush of great lumbering beings, but merely responded to an elemental urge toward self-protection. Charging herds do not stop to find victims in obscure places, and on the outer earth Zamacona would have felt little or no alarm in such a massive, grove-girt edifice. Some instinct, however, now bred a deep and peculiar terror in his soul; and he looked about frantically for any means of safety." - "The Mound"; H.P. Lovecraft
(6) Spectral Miners
In contrast to elements (1) through (5) from the earlier part of the novella, the very end of "The Mound" provides possible basis for the spectral miners. The advanced underground "Old One" race known as the K'n-yans were effectively immortal, with advanced telepathic powers, and they entertained themselves with sadistic and grotesque modifications of bodies. They had the power to dematerialize and rematerialize themselves through matter. Near the end this is a horror motif where modern objects, from mound explorers, are found impossibly deep in older parts of the earth unless they were phased.
"But I wished I had not stopped at just that place, for the act fixed my attention on something profoundly disturbing. It was only a small object lying close to the wall on one of the steps below me, but that object was such as to put my reason to a severe test, and bring up a line of the most alarming speculations. That the opening above me had been closed against all material forms for generations was utterly obvious from the growth of shrub-roots and accumulation of drifting soil; yet the object before me was most distinctly not many generations old. For it was an electric torch much like the one I now carried—warped and encrusted in the tomb-like dampness, but none the less perfectly unmistakable. I descended a few steps and picked it up, wiping off the evil deposits on my rough coat. One of the nickel bands bore an engraved name and address, and I recognised it with a start the moment I made it out. It read “Jas. C. Williams, 17 Trowbridge St., Cambridge, Mass.”—and I knew that it had belonged to one of the two daring college instructors who had disappeared on June 28, 1915. Only thirteen years ago, and yet I had just broken through the sod of centuries! How had the thing got there? Another entrance—or was there something after all in this mad idea of dematerialisation and rematerialisation?" - "The Mound"; H.P. Lovecraft
The ethnologist narrator goes still deeper and eventually discovers his own belongings impossibly far underground. This is specifically what would be considered mining equipment: a pickaxe and shovel.
"But, curse it, every time I tried to get a grip I saw some fresh sight to shatter my poise still further. This time, just as my will power was driving the half-seen paraphernalia into obscurity, my glance and torch-beam had to light on two things of very different nature; two things of the eminently real and sane world; yet they did more to unseat my shaky reason than anything I had seen before—because I knew what they were, and knew how profoundly, in the course of Nature, they ought not to be there. They were my own missing pick and shovel, side by side, and leaning neatly against the blasphemously carved wall of that hellish crypt. God in heaven—and I had babbled to myself about daring jokers from Binger!
That was the last straw. After that the cursed hypnotism of the manuscript got at me, and I actually saw the half-transparent shapes of the things that were pushing and plucking; pushing and plucking—those leprous palaeogean things with something of humanity still clinging to them—the complete forms, and the forms that were morbidly and perversely incomplete . . . all these, and hideous other entities—the four-footed blasphemies with ape-like face and projecting horn . . . and not a sound so far in all that nitrous hell of inner earth. . . .
Then there was a sound—a flopping; a padding; a dull, advancing sound which heralded beyond question a being as structurally material as the pickaxe and the shovel—something wholly unlike the shadow-shapes that ringed me in, yet equally remote from any sort of life as life is understood on the earth’s wholesome surface. My shattered brain tried to prepare me for what was coming, but could not frame any adequate image. I could only say over and over again to myself, “It is of the abyss, but it is not dematerialised.” The padding grew more distinct, and from the mechanical cast of the tread I knew it was a dead thing that stalked in the darkness. Then—oh, God, I saw it in the full beam of my torch; saw it framed like a sentinel in the narrow passage between the nightmare idols of the serpent Yig and the octopus Tulu. . . ."
- "The Mound"; H.P. Lovecraft
The scene is describing partially dematerialized people, ending with the headless body of Zamacona. This is thematically present in the mine shaft, which has skeletons embedded in the stone walls. The spectral miners themselves spawn by materializing out of the walls of the mine shaft, and they swing mining picks as weapons. These rooms are from the original part of the spectral miner area.
[Mine Shaft] Something about this part of the shaft sends a chill down your spine. Warily looking about the area, you find the source of the uneasiness. Embedded into the walls are the skeletal remains of several unfortunate former humanoids. From this vantage point you cannot quite make out their race. Obvious exits: east, west >look remain Upon closer inspection, you recognize the skull to be of elven origin. How this poor soul found itself in this situation remains a mystery. A spectral miner walks right out of a wall without warning! [Mine Shaft] Impenetrable stone walls mark the end of this long musty shaft. On the ground, shattered remains of broken mining picks lead you to believe that the sudden outcropping of hard rock was not well received. You also see a large pile of rubble. Obvious exits: east
The sudden materialization concept might also be present in the special maneuver attack of the moaning spirits where they briefly become solid.
The spirit wails a sad, eerie song! The moaning spirit swings a suddenly quite solid arm at you! Powerless to move out of the way, you can do little but flinch and pray. ... 25 points of damage! Strong blow breaks your neck!
(7) The Mound
The burial mound of The Graveyard can itself be taken to correspond to the "Indian mound" in the novella, since it has had a pathway leading to Shadow Valley since the ghoul master expansion in 1998. The question is whether this room painting has continuity with "The Mound", assuming that sub-text was actually an influence on Shadow Valley. There are some points of similarity suggesting they might be consistent. The tomb spider portion is completely inconsistent with it. However, there is a Clark Ashton Smith story called "The Seven Geases", where this is not a problem on the way to K'n-yan.
"Everything else on the mound was as I had left it—brush cut by my machete, slight, bowl-like depression toward the north end, and the hole I had made with my trench-knife in digging up the magnetism-revealed cylinder. Deeming it too great a concession to the unknown jokers to return to Binger for another pick and shovel, I resolved to carry out my programme as best I could with the machete and trench-knife in my handbag; so extracting these, I set to work excavating the bowl-like depression which my eye had picked as the possible site of a former entrance to the mound. As I proceeded, I felt again the suggestion of a sudden wind blowing against me which I had noticed the day before—a suggestion which seemed stronger, and still more reminiscent of unseen, formless, opposing hands laid on my wrists, as I cut deeper and deeper through the root-tangled red soil and reached the exotic black loam beneath. The talisman around my neck appeared to twitch oddly in the breeze—not in any one direction, as when attracted by the buried cylinder, but vaguely and diffusely, in a manner wholly unaccountable.
Then, quite without warning, the black, root-woven earth beneath my feet began to sink cracklingly, while I heard a faint sound of sifting, falling matter far below me. The obstructing wind, or forces, or hands now seemed to be operating from the very seat of the sinking, and I felt that they aided me by pushing as I leaped back out of the hole to avoid being involved in any cave-in. Bending down over the brink and hacking at the mould-caked root-tangle with my machete, I felt that they were against me again—but at no time were they strong enough to stop my work. The more roots I severed, the more falling matter I heard below. Finally the hole began to deepen of itself toward the centre, and I saw that the earth was sifting down into some large cavity beneath, so as to leave a good-sized aperture when the roots that had bound it were gone. A few more hacks of the machete did the trick, and with a parting cave-in and uprush of curiously chill and alien air the last barrier gave way. Under the morning sun yawned a huge opening at least three feet square, and shewing the top of a flight of stone steps down which the loose earth of the collapse was still sliding. My quest had come to something at last! With an elation of accomplishment almost overbalancing fear for the nonce, I replaced the trench-knife and machete in my handbag, took out my powerful electric torch, and prepared for a triumphant, lone, and utterly rash invasion of the fabulous nether world I had uncovered."
- "The Mound"; H.P. Lovecraft
The burial mound expansion has a depression in the middle, as well as a spiral stone walkway leading down into it. This is mildly consistent but could easily be coincidental.
[Graveyard, Burial Mound] The dark earth sinks into a deep depression, providing slippery footing as you make your way among the collection of mummified flesh and bone that has fallen here, loosed from the soil by the movements of the earth and the passage of wandering visitors. A sun-bleached skull grins up at the sky, still firmly attached to its body buried somewhere beneath the loam. Obvious paths: northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest >look skull The skull grins at you, its teeth, polished by hungry insects, glistening in the faint light. >sw [Graveyard, Burial Mound] The ground slopes away into a deep, dark hole at the corner of the mound, a rough ledge dug into the soil providing access into the darkness below. Bones and grinning, fleshless skulls from ages past protrude from the ancient layers of dirt, their peace disrupted by the digging. Obvious paths: north, northeast, east, down >d [Graveyard, Barrow Tunnel] The piled dirt that forms the burial mound gives way to a passage hewn into the stone of the ground below. A narrow ledge has been carved into the walls, providing a precarious means of descent as it circles downward into darkness. Obvious paths: up, down >d [Graveyard, Barrow Tunnel] A stone ledge, carved into the chamber walls, circles the passage and leads upward into darkness. A foul miasma settles from above, filling the chamber with a heavy odor of tainted soil and ancient decay. The passage narrows to the east, its walls still showing the marks of the tools used to painstakingly carve it from the rock countless centuries ago. Obvious exits: east, up
The room with the "symbols of dark gods" could correspond to the idols of Yig and Cthulhu the narrator encounters after this, where he is horrified by the buried equipment being impossibly present, and ultimately encounters the headless body of the Conquistador soldier. But this requires ignoring the robed scythe figure, altar, and the albino tomb spiders. There is nothing specific indicating it.
[Graveyard, Barrow Tunnel] A chill breeze bearing a faint odor of decay wafts through the huge stone arch that dominates the eastern end of the tunnel. The arch is worn by dark rivulets of water dripping from somewhere above, the acidic liquid etching deep streaks in the ancient grey stone and nearly obliterating the many symbols of dark gods carved into its pockmarked surface. Obvious exits: south, west
In the same way the skulls in the burial mound and the "unknown warrior" grave-marker could refer to his headless body, which is the premise of the ghost story the narrator was investigating. Overall this is still very thin, these details of the burial mound could be meaningless. The presence of this area also subverts the Purgatory symbolism of the original Under Crypt tunnels and the Under Barrow.
[Graveyard, Burial Mound] A weathered wooden grave-marker stands here, leaning to one side in the dark soil that shifts damply underfoot. A ridge of black earth forms a boundary at the west end of the mound, blocking access to the dark bogs in the distance. Obvious paths: east, southeast, south >read grave-marker In the Common language, it reads: For The Unknown Warrior - R I P
However, since there is a basic consistency between these two mound scenes it is worth mentioning, as several points potentially match up. The burial mound expansion was not very long after Shadow Valley was made, so it is conceivable there could still have been some continuity of intent between them. Generally speaking, the add-on areas to the Graveyard are their own things, and are mostly meaningless.
"Well, I saw the same thing that poor Heaton saw—and I saw it after reading the manuscript, so I know more of its history than he did. That makes it worse—for I know all that it implies; all that must be still brooding and festering and waiting down there. I told you it had padded mechanically toward me out of the narrow passage and had stood sentry-like at the entrance between the frightful eidola of Yig and Tulu. That was very natural and inevitable—because the thing was a sentry. It had been made a sentry for punishment, and it was quite dead—besides lacking head, arms, lower legs, and other customary parts of a human being. Yes—it had been a very human being once; and what is more, it had been white. Very obviously, if that manuscript was as true as I think it was, this being had been used for the diversions of the amphitheatre before its life had become wholly extinct and supplanted by automatic impulses controlled from outside.
On its white and only slightly hairy chest some letters had been gashed or branded—I had not stopped to investigate, but had merely noted that they were in an awkward and fumbling Spanish; an awkward Spanish implying a kind of ironic use of the language by an alien inscriber familiar neither with the idiom nor the Roman letters used to record it. The inscription had read “Secuestrado a la voluntad de Xinaián en el cuerpo decapitado de Tlayúb”—“Seized by the will of K’n-yan in the headless body of T’la-yub.”"
- "The Mound"; H.P. Lovecraft
Call of Cthulhu
There is a one-off allusion to "The Call of Cthulhu" in the original part of the mine shaft of the spectral miners. In the Shadow Valley story there is an otherworldly horror slumbering deep below ground until it is awakened and destroys its surroundings. Cthulhu is a Great Old One who is in a state of sleeping death at the bottom of the ocean in his city R'lyeh until the stars return to the right alignment. The Cthulhu cultists around the world are unconnected to each other, except for what they receive in their minds from the dreaming Cthulhu. This is the "uninvited memories" of ritual chanting in the room painting.
[Mine Shaft] Faint echoes of a strange singsong chant enter your mind without the courtesy of using your ears. Disturbed, you can find no visible source of the uninvited memories. The walls seem to grow closer as the tunnel continues upward to the east. Obvious exits: east, west
In the collected works of H.P. Lovecraft he used the phrase "sing-song chant" twice, once in "Out of the Aeons" co-written with Hazel Heald, the other as an exact phrase in "The Call of Cthulhu". In "Out of the Aeons" it is strange foreigners coming to see a mummy with a scroll from Yuggoth, which has an image of Ghatanothoa with the power of mummifying those who look at it. This story notably has Randolph Carter in it in his Swami disguise, and mentions Yig and K'n-yan, but otherwise seems irrelevant. In "The Call of Cthulhu" the phrase is immediately before the famous line of Cthulhu sleeping in R'lyeh.
"Only poetry or madness could do justice to the noises heard by Legrasse’s men as they ploughed on through the black morass toward the red glare and the muffled tom-toms. There are vocal qualities peculiar to men, and vocal qualities peculiar to beasts; and it is terrible to hear the one when the source should yield the other. Animal fury and orgiastic licence here whipped themselves to daemoniac heights by howls and squawking ecstasies that tore and reverberated through those nighted woods like pestilential tempests from the gulfs of hell. Now and then the less organised ululation would cease, and from what seemed a well-drilled chorus of hoarse voices would rise in sing-song chant that hideous phrase or ritual:
“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.”
Then the men, having reached a spot where the trees were thinner, came suddenly in sight of the spectacle itself. Four of them reeled, one fainted, and two were shaken into a frantic cry which the mad cacophony of the orgy fortunately deadened. Legrasse dashed swamp water on the face of the fainting man, and all stood trembling and nearly hypnotised with horror."
- "The Call of Cthulhu"; H.P. Lovecraft
This is then translated later in the story when it is discovered a completely unrelated cult of Eskimos had knowledge of the exact same ritual chant.
This data, received with suspense and astonishment by the assembled members, proved doubly exciting to Inspector Legrasse; and he began at once to ply his informant with questions. Having noted and copied an oral ritual among the swamp cult-worshippers his men had arrested, he besought the professor to remember as best he might the syllables taken down amongst the diabolist Esquimaux. There then followed an exhaustive comparison of details, and a moment of really awed silence when both detective and scientist agreed on the virtual identity of the phrase common to two hellish rituals so many worlds of distance apart. What, in substance, both the Esquimau wizards and the Louisiana swamp-priests had chanted to their kindred idols was something very like this—the word-divisions being guessed at from traditional breaks in the phrase as chanted aloud:
“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.”
Legrasse had one point in advance of Professor Webb, for several among his mongrel prisoners had repeated to him what older celebrants had told them the words meant. This text, as given, ran something like this:
“In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”
- "The Call of Cthulhu"; H.P. Lovecraft
The "Tale of Silver Valley" does not specifically say the entity is unconscious, but there is a recurring dream theme to Shadow Valley. The wyrm "awakened" when it fought the steeds.
"There were rumors and legends about them, scary tales of a great evil entity from another plane who once tried to gain entrance to our world by opening a great portal deep underground. The skies grew dark and the ground shook. The entity came through the portal and tore its way up through the ground, breaking the surface just inside Silver Valley. It is said that the equines met this invader with such ferocity that it was driven back into the crevice that it had opened and fell into a deep chasm never to be heard from again. Some say the horses still remain in the valley to protect us should the entity in the pit ever return." - "Tale of Silver Valley"
Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
In Research:The Graveyard and Research:The Broken Lands there are arguments for "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" being a basis for the Purgatory death mechanics messaging. This is a novella which takes places in a parallel dimension called the Dreamlands, which is a fantastical version of the Earth and Moon. It is reached by dreaming out of one's own body. It is the end scene where the dreamer leaps out into the void of sentient blackness to wake up again that is relevant. The valley at this point is a contrast to the "waking world", and is an exact parallel to the dark crevice and Secluded Valley.
[Shadow Valley] The walls open wide and high forming a small valley forgotten by the waking world. Covering the entire range is a low layer of thick black mist, lending the land an eerie demeanor. Near the base of the wall, you see a crevice leading down into darkness. You also see a shadow mare and some large cracks in the ground. Obvious paths: southwest, northwest [A Dark Crevice] You are perched on the ledge of a dangerously steep crevice which juts out from the wall hanging over a dark abyss. The odd mists within it glow with an ethereal light as they lash about in their chaotic dance. From above, the sound of thundering hooves reverberate throughout the chasm, seemingly vanishing into the bottomless pit below. You also see some large cracks in the ground. Obvious exits: up (A) Leaping >jump You foolishly leap up into the air and straight out into the dark abyss! You find yourself falling into a bottomless abyss. Swallowed by blackness, you can only sense the air rushing by as you plummet down into certain death! P> Just as you think the falling will never end, you crash through an ethereal barrier which bursts into a dazzling kaleidoscope of color! Your sensation of falling turns to dizziness and you feel unusually heavy for a moment. Everything seems to stop for a prolonged second and then WHUMP!!! You are stunned! You feel the presence of cold hard stone underneath you. (B) Mist > A tendril of mist wraps around your waist and yanks you away from the ledge with surprising strength! You find yourself falling into a bottomless abyss. Swallowed by blackness, you can only sense the air rushing by as you plummet down into certain death! P> Just as you think the falling will never end, you crash through an ethereal barrier which bursts into a dazzling kaleidoscope of color! Your sensation of falling turns to dizziness and you feel unusually heavy for a moment. Everything seems to stop for a prolonged second and then WHUMP!!! You are stunned! You feel the presence of cold hard stone underneath you. (Note: The Fool card in Tarot decks is represented as walking off a cliff. This may not be relevant, but is worth mentioning.)
This is essentially the same as Randolph Carter leaping from the shantak to return to the world of his own memories. The parallel is the "grainy montage of colors" in the decay messaging.
"Thick though the rushing nightmare that clutched his senses, Randolph Carter could turn and move. He could move, and if he chose he could leap off the evil shantak that bore him hurtlingly doomward at the orders of Nyarlathotep. He could leap off and dare those depths of night that yawned interminably down, those depths of fear whose terrors yet could not exceed the nameless doom that lurked waiting at chaos’ core. He could turn and move and leap—he could—he would—he would—
Off that vast hippocephalic abomination leaped the doomed and desperate dreamer, and down through endless voids of sentient blackness he fell. Aeons reeled, universes died and were born again, stars became nebulae and nebulae became stars, and still Randolph Carter fell through those endless voids of sentient blackness.
Then in the slow creeping course of eternity the utmost cycle of the cosmos churned itself into another futile completion, and all things became again as they were unreckoned kalpas before. Matter and light were born anew as space once had known them; and comets, suns, and worlds sprang flaming into life, though nothing survived to tell that they had been and gone, been and gone, always and always, back to no first beginning.
And there was a firmament again, and a wind, and a glare of purple light in the eyes of the falling dreamer. There were gods and presences and wills; beauty and evil, and the shrieking of noxious night robbed of its prey. For through the unknown ultimate cycle had lived a thought and a vision of a dreamer’s boyhood, and now there were re-made a waking world and an old cherished city to body and to justify these things. Out of the void S’ngac the violet gas had pointed the way, and archaic Nodens was bellowing his guidance from unhinted deeps.
Stars swelled to dawns, and dawns burst into fountains of gold, carmine, and purple, and still the dreamer fell. Cries rent the aether as ribbons of light beat back the fiends from outside. And hoary Nodens raised a howl of triumph when Nyarlathotep, close on his quarry, stopped baffled by a glare that seared his formless hunting-horrors to grey dust. Randolph Carter had indeed descended at last the wide marmoreal flights to his marvellous city, for he was come again to the fair New England world that had wrought him."
- "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath"; H.P. Lovecraft
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath uses the phrase "waking world" over a dozen times as the contrast between Earth in our universe and Earth as it exists in the Dreamlands. This kind of language is much more overt in Shadow Valley than it is in the Broken Lands, which is argued to tightly parallel the Underworld of the Dreamlands. The wording in the room painting for the valley refers to forgetting, remnants of hope, and odd feelings of unreality. In context this might be cryptically playing off Oblivion as it existed in GemStone III and the hopelessness of Purgatory where all memory washed away.
The "forgotten" motif appears in the mines of Shadow Valley as well, and is the predominant theme of "Tale of the Silver Valley". (The jumping into darkness is there as well, except in that case bodies smack hard into the ground.) Muylari uses his sorcery to cause amnesia in the town, and Jaron Galarn is buried alive only because it wore off allowing his memories to return. It is possible this is supposed to be an allegory of sad Eissa and the inevitable fate of Oblivion in general. Muylari interestingly says in time even they will forget him. Muylari is poorly recorded now but was seemingly cursed with immortality.
"He woke up in darkness at the sound of harsh voices. "What should we do with him? The forget spells didn't work! If we spell him again he may come back with help next time!" one voice said. Another voice, this one calmer, darker, "Dig a grave outside the mine and bury him." The other protested, "But he's not dead!" "If you bury him, he'll be dead soon enough. Do it!" Jaron was dumped roughly in a long wooden box and the lid was immediately nailed shut. He searched frantically for anything to aid him in an escape, but the strangers had stripped him of anything useful. Desperate, he began screaming at the top of his lungs. "Release me! Let me out here or you'll regret it!" A sad voice replied, "Quiet in there. No one remembers you. In time, we will not remember you. Accept your fate lad. Try to die with some dignity." "Dignity! What dignity is there to die in a box?! You must let me out! I can hear in your voice that you do not wish this upon me! Release me and help me free the horses!" Again the sad voice replied, "My fate is set friend, as is yours. I must serve the master with my talents and you must die in this box. Do not bother in your attempts to turn my loyalty. That possibility has long passed." Then suddenly an excited voice exclaimed, "Muylari, there's cracks opening up in the grave! I don't think we can dig any deeper." "Shut up fool! I told you never to use my name." A short silence. Then... "It is deep enough. Toss the box in and fill up the hole." The darkness once again lurched around Jaron as someone hefted the box and began carrying it away. Before he could begin screaming, the sad voice spoke one last time, "Good-bye Jaron Galarn. Accept your fate." "No!" Jaron screamed. "I do not accept this fate damn you! You cannot leave me here to die and simply forget me! Do you hear me Muylari?! I will return to free my horses if I have to rise from the grave I swear! Do you understand Muylari?! I curse this land and all who would do harm here! I WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN!!!" A roll of thunder breached the silence and then Jaron was suddenly falling as his box was dropped into the grave. The hard impact knocked him out, leaving his last words echoing in his mind as the sounds of earth raining upon the top of the coffin filled his ears. The last thing he felt before dizziness and suffocation took over was a sudden shift and a sinking feeling as if falling a great distance into some subterranean chasm. Then everything, even his thoughts, stopped in blackness. " - "Tale of Silver Valley", Selias Jodame