by Daniel Harms
Upton was committed, but contradictory accounts of what happened later have emerged. Some say that influential friends at Miskatonic were able to free him, while others hold that he remained confined for the rest of his life.
See Derby, Edward; Waite, Asenath. (“The Revenge of Azathoth”, Cannon; “To Arkham and the Stars”, Leiber; “The Statement of Richard Daniel Upton”, Jantsang, Gerber, and Ley; “The Thing on the Doorstep”, Lovecraft (O).)
URALTE SCHRECKEN (roughly Ancient Fears)
Monograph written by Graf von Könnenberg in the nineteenth century, and published in 1823. An English translation by “Crowley” appeared in London in 1854, as did another in 1903. In his book, von Könnenberg asserted that he had traced the myth-patterns of all cultures back to their origins as projections of something he called Mlandoth. Who, what, or where Mlandoth is, von Könnenberg did not explain; this likely explains the book’s cool reception among the public and reputable scholars alike.
Aside from Mlandoth, this volume also mentions such entities as Ngyr-Khorath (who he warns strongly against), ‘Ymnar, and Yidhra.
See Chthonic Revelations; ‘Ymnar. (“The Barrett Horror”, DeBill; “The Bookseller’s Second Wife”, DeBill; “Ngyr-Khorath”, DeBill (O); “Where Yidhra Walks”, DeBill.)
URILIA TEXT
See R’lyeh Text.
UZULDAROUM
Capital city of Hyperborea. When the people of the former capital city of Commoriom fled their homes due to the prophecy of the White Sybil of Polarion or other less pleasant causes, they established Uzuldaroum a day’s journey from the deserted metropolis.
See Commoriom, Hyperborea; Satampra Zeiros. (“The Tale of Satampra Zeiros”, Smith (O); “The Testament of Athammaus”, Smith.)
V
* * *
VACH-VIRAJ INCANTATION
Chant used to ward off the Great Old One Nyogtha, and which is efficacious to a lesser degree against Cyäegha and the cthonians. This is one version of the Vach-Viraj chant, supposedly written in the Senzar tongue:
Ya na kadishtu nilgh’ri stell-bsna Nyogtha;
K’yarnak phlegethor l’ebumna syha’h n’ghft.
Ya hai kadishtu ep r’luh-eeh Nyogtha eeh,
S’uhn-ngh athg li’hee orr’e syha’h.
It is believed that the Vach-Viraj, when spoken in reverse, may release the same earth elementals it will normally disperse. It has been suggested that “Vach-Viraj” is another title for Azathoth; what significance this might have is unknown.
[Blavatsky suggests that Vach-Viraj symbolizes the union of the male and the female principles, though she does not speak of an incantation in which they are used.]
See Circles of Thaol; cthonians; Necronomicon (appendices); Nyogtha. (“Darkness, My Name Is”, Bertin; “The Book of Dismissals”, Carter; “The Strange Doom of Enos Harker”, Carter and Price; “The Salem Horror”, Kuttner (O); The Burrowers Beneath, Lumley.)
VALE OF BERKELEY
Volume by Lord Arthur B. Wilshire on the folklore of this area of the Severn River Valley, published in 1928. Supposedly two editions of this work were issued. The most unusual tales included are of the Berkeley Toad, a dungeon-dwelling creature that ate corpses, and the Berkeley Witch. The other stories are conventional tales of ghostly clergymen and women.
(Ramsey Campbell’s Goatswood, Aniolowski and Sumpter; “The Room in the Castle,” Campbell (O), “Unseen”, Love.)
VALE OF PNATH
See Pnath, Vale of.
VALUSIA
Ancient land of the serpent people. It consisted of modern southern Europe, the Mediterranean, and northern Africa. Humans conquered Valusia, driving the serpent people away, and one hundred thousand years ago, Valusia was the most powerful of the Seven Empires. The most famous king of Valusia was Kull the Atlantean.
See Brothers of the Yellow Sign; Kull; serpent people. (“Exile of Atlantis”, Howard; “The Shadow Kingdom”, Howard (O).)
VATICAN CODEX
Mayan document found several years ago in the Vatican Library. It is on a piece of bark paper eight inches wide and seven feet long, painted with various colors. This is the only known copy of this work, one of the few Mayan books to have survived the ecclesiastical zeal of the Spanish priests. Why the religious authorities considered this book to spare from destruction and send back to Rome is unknown.
In most respects, this document parallels the Mayan creation myths as detailed in the Popol Vuh. At one point, however, the story varies from the more common version. A being known as both Ghatanothoa and Yig comes down to Earth from the star Arcturus. Seeing the goddess of the dawn bathing, he attempts to force himself upon her, but she escapes. Yig’s semen falls into the sea, eventually giving rise to the various animals that populate the earth. The Ancient Ones (as the benevolent gods are called in this document) attack Yig and imprison him within the ground. Having done so, they take some of his seed and use it to create humanity. Then a Golden Age begins, ending when Yig calls down disaster upon humanity.
(The Philosopher’s Stone, Wilson (O).)
VAULTS OF ZIN
See Zin, Vaults of.
VHOORL
Planet located within the twenty-third nebula, wherever that might be. It was Kathulhn, a student of mathematics on Vhoorl, who first broke through the barriers between this dimension and the others where the Great Old Ones once lived. The lords of Yaddith are also known to have visited this world.
Some have connected the “Kathulhn” who once dwelt on Vhoorl with the Great Old One Cthulhu. If this linkage is valid, Vhoorl may be Cthulhu’s birthplace that Henry Akeley hinted of in his discourse with Albert Wilmarth.
See Cthulhu. (“The Guardian of the Book”, Hasse (O); “The Whisperer in Darkness”, Lovecraft.)
VIRKLYU
The City of Flame of the Arkandian people, located in the Kalnor Plain in prehistoric times. Within a great dome in the city lived the Fire Women, the priestesses of the Great Old Ones who were led by Ilyth’la.
(A Guide to the Cthulhu Cult, Pelton; The Sussex Manuscript, Pelton (O).)
VISIONS FROM YADDITH
Volume of poetry by Ariel Prescott (most likely a pseudonym), who was confined to, and later died in, Oakdeene Sanitarium. Charnel House Publishers of London published the volume in a limited edition in 1927, and it became fashionable for a brief while among the occult elements of Cambridge University’s student body. Ariel Prescott’s family, however, managed to purchase and destroy almost all copies of the book.
The poems of this book, which were inspired by the author’s nightly visions, tell the story of the last days of Yaddith, its inhabitant’s attempts to save their dying world, and their final flight throughout the cosmos.
(“Dreams in the House of Weir”, Carter (O); Visions from Yaddith, Carter.)
VISIONS OF KHROYD’HON
Chapbook by the poet William Davis Manly. It contains poems using the mysteries of the Sesqua Valley as subject matter; Khroyd’hon was the poet’s own name for Mount Selta. Only distributed on a limited basis, the work is quite rare now. A very limited edition with Manly’s own illustrations is also rumored to exist.
[An actual book called Visions of Khroyd’hon was published under Pugmire’s editorship.]
(“A Piece of Stone”, Pugmire; “The Strange Dark Folk”, Pugmire; “The Thing in the Glen”, Pugmire (O); “The Totem Pole”, Pugmire.)
VON DENEN VERDAMMTEN, ODER EINE VERHANDLUNG ÜBER DIE UNHEIMLICHEN KULTEN DER ALTEN (“Of the Damned, or a Trial of the Unholy Cults of Antiquity”)
Volume written by Kazaj Heinz Vogel, a German who immigrated to America over two centuries ago. He returned to his native Germany and completed his untitled book. After its publication, the authorities seized the volumes and destroyed all but two copies. Vogel himself vanished shortly thereafter. The two remaining copies of this volume remained in the restricted collections of German libraries.
In 1907, a young woman named Edith Brendall gained access to one of the volumes. Using
her photographic memory, she memorized the entire book and later rewrote it, added notes gathered from her own research, and entitled it Von denen Vertdammten. Ms. Brendall then had the book published at her own expense. As soon as the publishers released the book, most of the copies were bought hastily or stolen by persons unknown. Ms. Brendall believed someone was following her, and moved from city to city attempting to elude her pursuers. She disappeared from Bonn on March 27, 1910, and her body was discovered the Rhine on April 4 of the same year.
This book is purported to deal mainly with the cults that Vogel witnessed in the United States, though most of the material seen so far deals with European sites. The book holds information on the worship of an organization known as the Waiting Dark, including an impressive genealogy of its members. It also discusses the cults of Innsmouth, Salem, and Dunwich (though the latter refers to the English town of the same name).
(“Darkness, My Name Is”, Bertin (O); “Dunwich Dreams, Dunwich Screams”, Bertin; “Sufficient unto the Day”, Ingham.)
VON JUNZT, FRIEDRICH WILHEIM (1795–1840)
Noted explorer and author of Unaussprechlichen Kulten. Friedrich was born in Cologne in 1795 to Ava and Heinrich von Junzt, a family rich in the coal industry. (Solar Pons’ claim that von Junzt was a baron remains unsubstantiated.) The birth of his brother Augustus in 1804 led to his mother’s death. This led Friedrich’s father to seek out spiritualists in a quest that was to affect von Junzt for the rest of his life. Despite his young age, he was also inducted into a Miltenberg fraternal order, inspiring a love of secret societies and their lore that would last throughout his life.
Von Junzt entered the University of Berlin in 1814, meeting his friend Gottfried Mülder the following year. The two of them spent some time after their graduation travelling through Asia, after which von Junzt returned to Germany and completed his doctoral thesis, “The Origin and Influence of Semantic Magical Texts.” He taught at the University of Wurttemberg for four years, after which he travelled through Europe, the Americas, and Africa, investigating and joining as many secret societies as he could discover. At one point, his wanderings took him to Paris, where he would meet Alexis Ladeau, with whom he travelled for a short time. During this time he published two short monographs, Les Vampires (1827) and Les Lupines (an 1828 treatise on werewolves), but in 1835 he returned to his family’s estate and began work on his magnum opus, Unaussprechlichen Kulten (or Nameless Cults) which was published in Dusseldorf in 1839.
After the completion of his manuscript, von Junzt set out for parts unknown. Years later, upon his return from an expedition to Mongolia, von Junzt secluded himself in a locked and barred room in Dusseldorf, writing a manuscript whose exact nature remains a mystery. A few months later, he was killed in his lodgings with the marks of talons on his throat and the chamber’s locks still intact. Alexis Ladeau, a Frenchman who had been von Junzt’s best friend in life, took the mutilated pages of the manuscript and put them together. Having read them, he then burnt the manuscript and cut his own throat with a razor. Following these events, frantic owners burned many copies of the Black Book.
Von Junzt’s research was exhaustive and comprehensive. He is known to have infiltrated many different religious sects and secretive cults in order to write about their practices. Von Junzt was able to access many secret collections of books, and was one of the few who had seen the unexpurgated Book of Iod, the Ghorl Nigral kept at Yian-Ho, and the Necronomicon’s Greek translation. (Rumor has it that the German scholar made a German translation of the latter entitled Das Verichteraraberbuch, published posthumously in 1848.) Though his stories seem unbelievable to many, subsequent scholars in the field of medieval metaphysics have been able to substantiate many of his findings.
Since his time, von Junzt has attracted considerable controversy. Many call him a pioneer in the fields of anthropology and religion, while others point out his rambling style of writing and outrageous claims as evidence of mental instability. The debate over von Junzt’s writings is one is likely to continue far into the future. To add fuel to the fire, some even insist that von Junzt survived his supposed death and still walks the earth via sorcery.
[It was Lovecraft who provided Howard with von Junzt’s first and middle names. Occasionally, Von Junzt’s first name is given as “Fvindvuf,” the result of Lin Carter’s inability to read Lovecraft’s handwriting in one of his letters.]
See Abbith; Black Stone; Black Sutra, Bran Mak Morn; Ghatanothoa; Ghorl Nigral; Kn’aa; Ladeau, Alexis; Mülder, Gottfried; Necronomicon (appendices); Pnakotus; Secret Mysteries of Asia; Temple of the Toad; Unaussprechlichen Kulten; Yian-Ho; Yog-Sothoth. (“Dead of Night”, Carter; “Zoth-Ommog”, Carter; “Solar Pons and the Cthulhu Mythos”, DeBill and Berglund; “The History of Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten”, Harris; “Timeline of Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten”, Harris; “The ‘True’ History of Friedrich Wilheim von Junzt”, Hillebrand, Harms, and Harris; “The Black Stone”, Howard; “The Children of the Night”, Howard (O); “The Thing on the Roof”, Howard; Schrodinger’s Cat Trilogy, R. Wilson.)
VOOLA RITUAL
Incantation that calls up beings of the earth, especially a creature living beneath a rock somewhere within the Severn River Valley. Several people must perform the ritual if it is to be effective, however. This ritual may also be used to call up Tsathoggua, but does not provide the means to put him back down without making a sacrifice.
(“The Mine on Yuggoth”, Campbell; “The Thing under Memphis”, Carter; “The White People”, Machen (O).)
VOONITHS
Amphibious creatures that dwell in the swamps of Oriab in the Dreamlands. Vooniths are creatures with salamander-like heads, poisonous skin, and long tails. Those on Oriab can often be heard howling at night. They are a risk to travelers, but those who pass close enough to Mount Ngranek are safe from them.
(“The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, Lovecraft (O); H. P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands, Petersen et. al.; S. Petersen’s Field Guide to Creatures of the Dreamlands, Petersen et. al..
VOOR
Kingdom beyond the edge of the world where, according to the Green Book, water leaves with the sun and the light can be extinguished. This was probably the “Desolation of Voor”, a site on the isle of Ultima Thule near Hyperborea. The people of this land once built huge domes and cemeteries, but then vanished, and later civilizations shunned their ruins. Their magic was preserved, however, and such spells as the “Voorish sign” originated here.
See Deep Dendo; Green Book; Voorish Sign. (“The Offering”, Carter; “The Secret in the Parchment”, Carter; “The White People”, Machen (O).)
VOORISH SIGN
Hand pass or glyph that might aid in making the invisible visible. It might also make certain spells more efficacious or create a passageway to other worlds.
See Voor. (“The Dunwich Horror”, Lovecraft (O); “The Adventure of the Voorish Sign”, Lupoff; Call of Cthulhu, Petersen and Willis.)
VOORMIS
Sub-human entities that lived in the land of Hyperborea (present-day Greenland) before the arrival of humans. All voormis traced their ancestry back to Voorm, the Thing Without a Face, a being allegedly the product of the mating of the minor deity Shathak with Tsathoggua. According to other sources, the Valusian serpent people bred the Voormis during the Pleistocene as a race of slaves. With the decline of their masters, the Voormis broke free of their enslavement and went to live on the continent of Hyperborea. There, they beat back the horrible Gnophkehs into the polar wasteland and laid the groundwork for a new civilization.
The worship of Tsathoggua, the founder of their race, was especially important to the Voormis, many of whom dwelt underground so as to be closer to their lord. At one point in their history, however, the Voormis became involved in a rebellion in which the worshipers of the new god Ithaqua struck out against the followers of Tsathoggua. In the end, Ithaqua’s followers were soundly beaten and exiled from the lands of the more orthodox Voormis.
Between
this great civil war and the coming cold, the Voormis’ civilization had been exhausted by the time the first humans arrived in Hyperborea. At first, the Voormis aided these newcomers in finding food and shelter, instructing them in the scientific and magical arts. As the number of humans increased, the Voormis slowly dwindled, until the few remaining left their cities to hide in the mountains, with their largest colony at Mount Voormithadreth. The humans quickly forgot about their one-time benefactors and proclaimed themselves lords of Hyperborea, often hunting the Voormis for sport.
Many years later, when the cold came once again to Hyperborea, the Voormis, who had sunk to almost bestial levels, made raids on human villages for food. The Hyperboreans retaliated, crushing most of the remaining Voormis and staging periodic hunting expeditions to exterminate the rest. Little has been heard of this once-great race following the fall of Hyperborea, but it is rumored that the mysterious ape-men, such as the yeti and Bigfoot, sighted in various parts of the world are the last surviving Voormis.
