Spoiler Thread for Leaf 002

Leaf 002 was a real milestone. How do you start the Necronomicon?!? I decided to start with the meaning of Al-Azif, (the whispering of demons) as that is the source of Abdel’s occult knowledge. I’ve then thrown in two new elements: the "Worm Toung" and “cursed with sight beyond [his] years”. What is that all about? Well, the first is the ability to communicate with Ghouls, something both Randolph Carter and Richard Pickman were able to do in Dreamquest of Unknown Kaddath (and which we will revisit later). The second comes from a Lovecraft poem from the Fungi from Yuggoth cycle:

IV. Recognition

The day had come again, when as a child

I saw—just once—that hollow of old oaks,

Grey with a ground-mist that enfolds and chokes

The slinking shapes which madness has defiled.

It was the same—an herbage rank and wild

Clings round an altar whose carved sign invokes

That Nameless One to whom a thousand smokes

Rose, aeons gone, from unclean towers up-piled.

I saw the body spread on that dank stone,

And knew those things which feasted were not men;

I knew this strange, grey world was not my own,

But Yuggoth, past the starry voids—and then

The body shrieked at me with a dead cry,

And all too late I knew that it was I!

Since we know Abdel’s fate (torn apart by invisible demons) I thought it would be fascinating if Abdel did too. This becomes a great motivation for his desire to delve into forbidden knowledge of the occult as he looks for ways to save himself from this fate.

The rest of page 3 is giving a broad overview of the End Game, and name drops races from At the Mountains of Madness, The Call of Cthulhu, as well as hints about The Dunwich Horror, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, Whisperer in Darkness, etc. 

I never want to fall into the trap of over-categorization like August Derleth and Lin Carter, but the idea of The Four Paths is a way to order the various approaches to worshiping (and benefiting from) the Mythos. In this way the various approaches are kept distinct, and practitioners can have preferences (as Wilbur shows in his journal in the Dunwich Horror: “Today learned the Aklo for the Sabaoth [...] which did not like, it being answerable from the hill and not from the air.”).

We then end the page with a reference to a plot element from The Thing on the Doorstep; one that (based on the opening sentences of this story) would be of great interest to Abdel Hazred.

In the marginalia, we have an introduction from Sir Randolph Carter (based on a Dee original) and the first hint that this translation was never intended for publication by Dr. John Dee. We will see more of this as the book progresses. Marginalia by Carter will be followed by his initials (following the pattern established by Edward Kelly), but Dr. Dee’s notations start with the Greek Delta, as was his practice. They each have their own voice, and will comment on Abdel’s text accordingly.

Page 4 continues with Abdel’s overview of his cosmology. Based on Lovecraft’s “Out of the Aeons” I am positing that Shub-Niggurath is the only Mythos “deity” native to Earth. All the others were drawn here by her call. This isn’t a huge deal, but I like that it gives her a more defined place in the story since she is invoked by all sorts of cults. As I mentioned on the last Spoiler post, I’m using “Mystery” instead of “Mythos” in the text. I am striving to not have this read like a Chaosium RPG supplement, so slight adjustments in phrasing are required. Plus “Cthulhu Mythos” was a term coined by August Derleth, Lovecraft preferred “Yog-Sothothery”!

Jumping ahead to page 45, Abdel has entered a scene straight out of From Beyond as he becomes a devotee of Ibn Yakrib. Nug (along with Yeb) is another deity from the Lovecraft story “Out of the Aeons”. I’m a fan of these lesser-known characters as it would be very tedious if everyone worshipped Cthulhu! The symbols on this page were inspired by an authentic Icelandic spell book. 

Page 46 introduces an age-old complaint: “they’re doing it wrong”. This will be a reoccurring aspect in the Necronomicon for a few different reasons (not the least of which being that it is a component of all actual religions) and here Ibn Yakrib throws some shade at other mystics. But pretty quickly we transition to a physical trial for Abdel, and a description of an event that no doubt influenced the woodcut back on page 2. This of course sets him on the path we have seen in page 47-48 of the first Leaf.

That’s all for Leaf 002!