Dark Gods of Bal Sagoth

"There are many gods in Bal-Sagoth but the greatest of all is
    Gol-goroth who sits forever in the temple of shadows."
 (Robert E. Howard, The Gods of Bal-Sagoth)

 

 

 

 

Sorcerer Kings of Lemuria

In those last days of Lemuria sorcerers were given great power by the Old Ones who dwell in the primal dark, and the sorcerers ruled over men as though they themselves were gods. Idols of Great Cthulhu, Sub-Niggurath, and Yig were placed in the once sacred temples of the Elder Gods, even the statue of great Nodens was defiled and men swore that the elder gods of earth had lost their power. The land became cursed and all manner of evil was indulged.

 

 

 

    But in far Kadath, great Nodens watched and waited.
    In time the stars wheeled in their eternal course and the Old Ones slept, in their dreams seeking out other worlds to corrupt. Great Nodens came down from Kadath to the land of Lemuria and the people cried out praises to him. But Nodens did not listen, he went to the high peak of Koltheg-Kla and there he did awaken the fire worm that is the child of Cthugha, and the fire worm devoured the foundations of the land of Lemuria that it would sink beneath the boiling seas.
   All the tribes of Lemuria were destroyed but a few of the Sorcerers were gifted with the sight of things future and past, knowing what was to come they prepared spells and philtres to preserve their bodies and containers for the preservation of their dark souls. For in time the stars would wheel again and even great Nodens would become not even a memory and the Old Ones stir from their dreaming, then would the sorcerers rise and the tribes of man bow down to them again.
(from the Scrolls of Vecra Tutthoon)

The Primal Vampire

    Istvan Hunyadi was a desperate man; in the spring of 1520 the church had ordered the bold Hungarian knight to destroy the vampires who plagued the countryside. To this end Hunyadi gathered a group of brave men, each of unwavering faith. But the effort was a disaster, the vampires tore his men apart like rag dolls and seemed to have none of the weaknesses the priests had claimed for they did not cower or weaken when presented with the either the Cross or doused with Holy Water.

    Hunyadi sought out a heretic named Prynn, a man reputed to have knowledge of ancient lore concerning vampires and other things even more blasphemous . Istvan used his influence to get Prynn access to the libraries of the church and there, locked away and untouched for centuries they discovered a moldering scroll written in a strange language. The knight was repulsed by the horrid runes, feeling as though merely looking upon them was a sin. He became even more horrified when Prynn read the glyphs, revealing the terrible rituals that could give power to equal the vampires and the location of the monstrous thing that even the undead feared.

  The knight and his sinister companion left the following day, vaguely hinting that they would travel into the Carpathian Mountains on some pilgrimage.

   Hunyadi returned from the journey alone, never speaking of what they found or of the fate of Prynn. But the knight brought back a darkly stained wooden stake, vowing that it was the key to destroying the vampires.  He quickly proved the value of his mysterious weapon by killing a dozen of the undead over the course of a fortnight, more vampires than had been slain over the previous century. Rumor spread that Hunyadi drank the blood of the vampires he killed and chanted in strange tongues, causing his own warriors to draw back in fear of his battle madness. But the men who started these tales disappeared and no more was spoken of the matter.

Priests whispered about the origins of Hunyadi’s stake and the nature of its power; some suggested it was a splinter from the Ark of Noah, others thought it to be a limb pruned from the Tree of Life, some even speculated it was fragment from the Holy Cross itself. Hunyadi remained silent, occasionally mumbling that it was a gift from his god if one of the priests pressed him on the matter.

   The elder vampires came into the land, things so old they had fed upon the slaves who built the pyramids of Egypt, and they also whispered into the ears of the church leaders, revealing the true origins of Hunyadi's weapon. It was a splinter from the stake that impaled the heart of the first Vampire, holding that primal monster in its tomb. Hunyadi prayed to the father of the undead each time he slew its grandchildren and it became stronger with each sacrifice. Soon it would be strong enough to tear the stake from its heart and rise to consume all the living and the undead.

   The church leaders acted swiftly, Hunyadi was charged with witchcraft and sentenced to death by fire. As he burned Istvan Hunyadi screamed for his undead master to save him. But to no avail, he was burnt to ashes. That night the elder vampires gathered the ashes of the fallen knight, they mixed them with salt and scattered them across the land that no necromancy might ever raise Istvan Hunyadi.

   In a crypt hidden in the Carpathian Mountains the primal vampire listened to the death cries of his servant but paid little heed, the loss was a small thing for it could not die and eventually another would come to free it. The monster returned to its eons long death sleep, dreaming of revenge on its children and the ocean of blood waiting to be drank.

The Glass from Leng

Abdul Alhazrad sat cross-legged on the rapidly cooling desert sands. Night had fallen and he awaited the rise of the moon. Beside him petals of Black Lotus smoldered in a bronze brazier crafted in sunken Lemuria. The mad poet forced his brain to ignore the monstrous shapes formed by the lotus smoke. His attention was focused on a chunk of glass held in his hands.
    He had obtained the glass from an eyeless beggar on the outskirts of Damascus who claimed it to have been created in the fabled land of Leng and that it gave a man visions of things beyond imagining even a glimpse of the abyss beyond space and time wherein dwells the daemon sultan Azathoth. The old man had fallen on hard times and in the end had traded the glass shard and ancient scrolls written in the high Aklo tongue for a few crusts of moldy bread and a skin of sour wine.
Abdul had spent a week studying the scrolls and waiting for a full moon, now he was ready to look through the veil of time and space.
   The moon rose and the blue light streamed through the glass into Alhazrad's left eye, then deeper into his mind. Within the glass Alhazrad beheld wonders of primal ages, glorious cities and kingdoms so ancient no scholar could remember their names. Further back he saw the first men, shaggy brutes who sacrificed their children to winged things in exchange for knowledge of fire and primitive magic. He saw the ancient Serpent Men hissing incantations and mixing vile potions. He beheld the continent of Rl'yeh in its colossal glory, hurriedly looking away when Great Cthulhu turned to meet his gaze.  
    Then the poet cast his vision far out into the silent void, past Yuggoth and Xoktli, past Hali with its slimy churning lake, to the very rim of space and time to the place where dwells Azathoth. The great eye of Azathoth opened to stare back at him. With that vision Alhazrad hurled the glass from Leng away and ran screaming into the blue-litten dunes for the eye of Azathoth held no ultimate wisdom only idiocy and cosmic madness.
  

Pnakotic Fragments

   Beyond the worlds we know, beyond Yuggoth at the rim, beyond Almuric where savages battle endlessly and beyond Nh'ule of the black towers, there rolls in a strange orbit the world god Gauru-Yoth . The world thing circles seven stars, three are red and old, four are dim and older still. The seven stars hold Gauru-Yoth in check. But even the stars die and one of the seven shall someday go cold then shall Gauru-Yoth be free to roam among the stars and devour all life. Azathoth has power to bind the world thing, but Azathoth is mad.

   By certain formula a skilled wizard may open the gate to Gauru-Yoth and if the Guardian of the Gate deems the traveler worthy he may go forth onto the surface of that sentient world. There he will be watched by countless eyes and will hear the screams of countless mouths, all beings that have been consumed by the world god in ages past. Some of those voices will speak and the adept may learn powerful formulae and lore of elder times. Some of the voices are simply mad and will plead for release from Gauru-Yoth or plead for the mercy of death. But their is no release and there is no escape in death, for all that Gauru-Yoth consumes lives on in his substance.

  When the adept prepares to return to his world the Guardian of the Gate will bid him to feast upon the flesh of Gauru-Yoth, and thus will the adept become one with the world god and carry the essence with him. Over time the body of a man will take on the cast of Gauru-Yoth and become an unspeakable thing, taking on the appetites of Gauru-Yoth, ravenously consuming man and beast alike. After much carnage this thing will grow to a great size and the world god will call him back, there it will sink into the mass of Gauru-Yoth and live on eternally.

 ( from the Book of Veiled Gods, author unknown)

Mi Go Cult Fetish

The Tcho-Tcho witch doctor howled his incantations into the night sky and held aloft the disgusting little fetish he had handled with such care we ascended the rugged mountain. He finished the ritual and smiled at me with his filed teeth, "Now you see them, the little mi-go have spirit in it to bring the big mi-go, that is the way of magic. They hear me on the world of black mountains and soon they come. He wrapped the fetish up in a soft leather that reminded me of human skin and said, "Now we wait" then he stood staring at the sky.
Several minutes passed and nothing happened. I felt like laughing, I had been foolish enough to pay this old cannibal $20 for a ridiculous ritual he claimed could summon beings from beyond the stars. I had seen far more convincing magic shows in india and china at half the price. I let my hand rest on my holstered Colt, I planned on getting a refund if something didn't happen soon.
I started to feel dizzy, at first I thought it was the heat and the noxious weeds he was burning but it was not like any drug, it was like something was disconnecting my brain a section at a time. My legs went numb and I fell face first to the ground, completely paralyzed. I heard the sound of giant beating wings and a vibrating drone like a million cicadas. The old cannibal rolled me over on my back and I saw them; three of the things, like bat winged crabs almost as big as a man and covered with a fungus skin, the Mi-go were here just as the witch doctor had said they would be . I tried to scream but no sound came.
 The old cannibal whispered into my ear, "They like you, they gone take you with them, you gone live with them forever inside of a can". They were crawling over me by then and I saw the blades, blood ran into my eyes and suddenly I couldn't see, hear, or feel anything.
I've been here in the dark ever since, I don't know how long. Sometimes I hear voices, sometimes the droning insect voice of those things and sometimes other people. The people say crazy things and some of them just scream, some say we had out brains took out and put in cans and we are in a place called Yuggoth. I wonder where Yuggoth is, I think it may be hell.
(anomalous radio transmission received by Voyager 2 on December 9, 1989 as it passed beyond Neptune)

Tcho-tcho fetish representing the Mi-Go entities.

Keziah Mason's Key

This artifact is called the "Key to Hell" in the Dee version of the Necronomicon although a more proper translation from the Al-Azif is the "Key of Sorrow", it is also mentioned in the Hyperborean Scrolls of Ysra as being a gift from Nyarlathotep to his favored servants. It was one of many artifacts in the possesion of Keziah Mason and is thought to be a magical focus to aid hyperdimensional travel.