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Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 09:23:51 -0500
From: Shane Ivey
Strange happenings prompt French villagers to call exorcist
10.03 a.m. ET (1404 GMT) October 22, 1998
PARIS (AP) - When the French villagers of Delain saw vases explode and candlesticks soar through the town church this weekend, first they called police - then, just to be cautious, the local exorcist.
About 50 people saw the strange events, which began last weekend as townspeople were re-arranging the church for an orchestra concert. Moving the altar a few inches seemed to trigger the flotation and explosion of holy objects, witnesses said … .
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 13:00:27 -0400
From: "Duran Goodyear"
F%*king sweet.
I love it when stuff like this happens…
I mean, unless 50 people where on PCP when they were cleaning out this church, then there HAS to be more to this planet we live on then we know…
Just my optomistic, yet continuily paranoid two cents…
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 12:47:03 -0500
From: Shane Ivey
I think my next story is going to feature the lloigor in a suspiciously large portion of the churches in rural France. ;-)
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 13:00:09 -0500 (CDT)
From: "G. Wyckoff"
F%*king sweet.
I love it when stuff like this happens…
I mean, unless 50 people where on PCP when they were cleaning out this church, then there HAS to be more to this planet we live on then we know…
But maybe they all _were_ on PCP, or at least something similar. Maybe the mold growing in the corners of the dusty church they were cleaning has some bizarre hallucinogenic properties when it is inhaled? One person saw something bizaree, started a panic, and the result was a bizarre, shared, mass hallucination.
I agree, there are a lot of thing we don't know about on this green ball of shit (to quote a familiar source), but some of what we don't know might be explainable by known science.
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 13:55:00 -0500
From: "Ricardo J. Méndez"
But maybe they all _were_ on PCP, or at least something similar. Maybe the mold growing in the corners of the dusty church they were cleaning has some bizarre hallucinogenic properties when it is inhaled? One person saw something bizaree, started a panic, and the result was a bizarre, shared, mass hallucination.
Maybe they had seen something *before* that they shouldn't have seen, and a drug was poured into their water supply to discredit them. Or maybe the it was put on the lunch they all ate in their break of cleaning the church.
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 19:22:19 -0400
From: "Duran Goodyear"
I agree, there are a lot of thing we don't know about on this green ball of shit (to quote a familiar source), but some of what we don't know might be explainable by known science.
I personaly think that it can all be explained by science, maybe science we don't understand yet, but I think it definatly can be explained… Just give me the Mi-Go Cook book, and give me a few days…
:)
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 18:01:20 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Andrew D. Gable"
Not to get too off-topic here, but there is an unusually high concentration of ghosts, poltergeists, religious visions, etc. in France, at least as high and in some ways higher than that of Britain. This is probably due to the influence the Catholic Church has had on France, but who's to say it isn't something like Shane Ivey suggested, something involving lloigor…
Also, I'll use this post to mention the Beast of Gevaudan (Lozere province). Although identified about a year ago as a hyena (!), some contemporary descriptions of the beast said it was humanoid, with dog-like features and cloven hooves…the beast killed at least 30 people…an early neophyte ghoul?
And that's my two cents.
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 19:50:56 -0400 (EDT)
From: The Man in Black
Also, I'll use this post to mention the Beast of Gevaudan (Lozere province). Although identified about a year ago as a hyena (!), some contemporary descriptions of the beast said it was humanoid, with dog-like features and cloven hooves…the beast killed at least 30 people…an early neophyte ghoul?
Or THE DARK DEMON~! Or those Shub-Niggurath Pan-the-goat-god types. Or a Gangrel Vampire who failed one too many humanity rolls. Or a hyena :)
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 08:33:29 +0100
From: Phil Ward
Also, I'll use this post to mention the Beast of Gevaudan (Lozere province). Although identified about a year ago as a hyena (!), some contemporary descriptions of the beast said it was humanoid, with dog-like features and cloven hooves…the beast killed at least 30 people…an early neophyte ghoul?
Just out of interest, how does a hyena manage to take down 30 people, I mean they're not the cowardly scavengers we all here about when we're kids, and a pack will take down a lion (so I hear). But how does a lone hyena kill 30 people, and get smart enough to avoid capture for so much time?
Were the victims all small children? Sick or elderly? Are there more of them?
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 09:47:50 EDT
From: Michael Layne
Just out of interest, how does a hyena manage to take down 30 people, I mean they're not the cowardly scavengers we all here about when we're kids, and a pack will take down a lion (so I hear). But how does a lone hyena kill 30 people, and get smart enough to avoid capture for so much time?
Maybe this was a genetically enhanced hyena — originally developed by New World Industries to accompany (US?) Special Operations soldiers in possible African conflicts… The prototype proved viable, except that it went rogue and escaped (or this is R&D's idea of a service test — they figure that if it takes down enough civilians, it will attract French troops, or at least local militia, and the real trials can get underway; if the US or French military figures out what's going on and objects, they can just claim it escaped)!
Could be this is what they put Dr. Ahab on after the failure of the pilot whale/lemming project? (Or did they put him in charge of the Big Freakin' Squid (BFS) project?) :)
On Fri, 23 Oct 1998, Michael Layne wrote:
From: "Andrew D. Gable"
Maybe this was a genetically enhanced hyena — originally developed by New World Industries to accompany (US?) Special Operations soldiers in possible African conflicts… The prototype proved viable, except that it went rogue and escaped (or this is R&D's idea of a service test — they figure that if it takes down enough civilians, it will attract French troops, or at least local militia, and the real trials can get underway; if the US or French military figures out what's going on and objects, they can just claim it escaped)!
< hangs head in shame >
Mea culpa. I forgot to mention theat the entire Beast of Gevaudan affair occurred btwn. 1763 and 1765. Eeaarrgghh.
And that's my two cents.
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 18:39:41 +0100
From: PM
Just out of interest, how does a hyena manage to take down 30 people, I mean they're not the cowardly scavengers we all here about when we're kids, and a pack will take down a lion (so I hear). But how does a lone hyena kill 30 people, and get smart enough to avoid capture for so much time?
Part of the victims at least were children, but I'm not sure how many. What I have at hand is :
"First manifested in 1764 in Langogne (Lozere). Terrorised the country (dozens of victims). It was probably three big wolves actually : one was killed mid-september 1765 by Antoine de Beauterne, sent by Louis XV with 40 men, who surrounded and killed a 130lb wolf, another 120 lb wolf was killed on June 18 1767 by Jean Chastel and a possible third later."
AFAIR the first victims were children but a few adults fell prey to the Beast. Not that it meant much, as these people were the average peasants of these days and not the strongest people on earth, not better nourished than people in some african countries (okay, better than Somalia !).
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 13:45:46 EDT
From: Michael Layne
Mea culpa. I forgot to mention theat the entire Beast of Gevaudan affair occurred btwn. 1763 and 1765. Eeaarrgghh.
Uh, oh! It's even more dangerous than I thought — it's not just a Genetically Enhanced Combat Hyena (GECH), but a _Time-Traveling_ Genetically Enhanced Combat Hyena (TTGECH)!! (I guess its next test run will be in Whitechapel, in the mid-1880s?) :)
I guess NWI considered enhancing a mountain gorilla, but decided they didn't want to monkey around with gorilla warfare! Or would their creation just ape true gorilla tactics? :)
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 13:47:26 -0400
From: Graeme Price
Mea culpa. I forgot to mention theat the entire Beast of Gevaudan affair occurred btwn. 1763 and 1765. Eeaarrgghh.
My GOD! You mean they have developed time travel capabilities as well??!!
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 22:52:28 -0400
From: Daniel Harms
Part of the victims at least were children, but I'm not sure how many. What I have at hand is :
"First manifested in 1764 in Langogne (Lozere). Terrorised the country (dozens of victims). It was probably three big wolves actually : one was killed mid-september 1765 by Antoine de Beauterne, sent by Louis XV with 40 men, who surrounded and killed a 130lb wolf, another 120 lb wolf was killed on June 18 1767 by Jean Chastel and a possible third later."
AFAIR the first victims were children but a few adults fell prey to the Beast. Not that it meant much, as these people were the average peasants of these days and not the strongest people on earth, not better nourished than people in some african countries (okay, better than Somalia !).
No information on the victims, but this is what I've got from the brief blurb in Fortean Times, November 1997. The creature that was supposedly the beast of Gevauden was shot by Jean Chastel, a local hunter. The corpse was sent to the National Museum of Natural History, where its stuffed skin was kept until 1819. During that time, it was identified as a striped hyena. You can learn more here:
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/cryptozoo/news.htm
For those who absolutely must know more and will hold their breaths until they do, you can send $99.95 to Amazon Books for this:
Wolf-Hunting in France in the Reign of Louis XV : The Beast of the Gevaudan. Richard H. Thompson. Edwin Mellen Press. 1992. ISBN: 0889467463.
If you do, let me know how good it is.
Date: Sat, 24 Oct 1998 00:31:13 -0500
From: "Ricardo J. Mendez"
No information on the victims, but this is what I've got from the brief blurb in Fortean Times, November 1997. The creature that was supposedly the beast of Gevauden was shot by Jean Chastel, a local hunter. The corpse was sent to the National Museum of Natural History, where its stuffed skin was kept until 1819. During that time, it was identified as a striped hyena.
Is it just me or the description in Andrew's article about the Beast of Gévaudan reads a lot like a ghoul in all fours? Could it be a degenerate european ghoul variety? The serrated back may well be a protruding spine.
Here's an interesting bit that would explain the strange discrepancy about a lone hyena from Africa murdering people in France:
Here we have the rending of corpses connected with change of form.
Marcassus relates that after a long war in Syria, during the night, troops of lamias, female evil spirits, appeared upon the field of battle, unearthing the hastily buried bodies of the soldiers and devouring the flesh of their bones. They were pursued and fired upon, and some young men succeeded in killing a considerable number; but during the day they had all of them the forms of wolves or hyenas.
The above quote is from "The Book of Werewolves, being an account of a terrible superstition" by Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould. The book was originally published in 1865 (although my edition is only from 1973) and I must say it's an excellent reference, even with the author's habit of quoting french and not translating it. In spite of the title, the book deals also with ghouls, other shapeshifters and the relationship between vampires / lycanthropes and ghouls / vampires. The analisys is serious, focusing a lot on historical background of werewolf mythologies from around the world and the psychological aspects of lycanthropy and ghoulish behaviours.
A little out of topic, one of my favorite quotes is
Parents and nurses know well that children by nature are cruel, and that humanity has to be acquired by education.
On a final note, at least half the cases mentioned in the book are from France.
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 1999 23:40:01 +0100
From: PM
The MiB's recent speculation with regards to Shan activity got me thinking about a possible French equivalent of Delta Green/MJ-12. Given the recent creation of GEPAN, and its successor SEPRA (1970's and 1980's, respectively), I'm inclined to think that it wasn't created as a MAJESTIC-12 clone.
I'm currently checking it but the main french RPG magazine, CAsus Belli ran a feature about a french DG-equivalent, called Felicie, and is planning a scenario set in the 70s next issue.
I'll tell you more after having reading these.
Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1999 14:10:24 -0500
From: Steven Kaye
Oddly enough, I'm toying around a bit with introducing just such an organization into my chapter of Emerald Hammer (which is still being worked on, never fear!). Here's what I've come up with.
I'm rather partial to the idea of a French Mythos group being formed in or about 1723 (of course as a pawn of the monarchy). I'm thinking that they were formed in the wake of the publication of CULTES DES GOULES, and their first official mission was to assassinate Comte d'Erlette, who was possibly becoming a threat to the King (according to KEEPER'S COMPENDIUM, he died under mysterious circumstances). This would leave them open to have been the group masquerading as soldiers sent in by Louis XV (?) to dispatch the Beast of Gevaudan, whose Mythos significance I've already discussed (ObDG: La Bete was a renegade group member, maybe along the lines of NANCY?). Maybe they also aided Jean Chastel, the farmer who finally dispatched the creature. Said group may also have been dispatched to Quebec during the same time period, to Kamouraska (I think that's the name), where there were sightings of another werewolf. So maybe the group at first was charged with tracking down ghoulish activities like those described by d'Erlette and possibly lycanthropy as well. (BTW: When was the Marquis de Sade up to his tricks?)
Maquis De Sade was alive from 1740 to 1814 - IIRC he was imprisoned in the Bastille around the time of the Revolution. Just one caution - let's not go the route of "Every significant happening in history was due to supernatural causes." There's still a lot of controversy about the Marquis' philosophy - whether it was a reaction against the "Reason will conquer all" attitude of the Enlightenment, a satire of the hypocrisy of the clergy and nobility, or whether he was just a randy boy who enjoyed giving the occasional whipping.
Keepers could play around with the group's role in the French Revolution (did they find out something between 1723 and 1789 that was non-ghoulish that was a significant enough threat that they wanted autonomy from the monarchy?). The group probably laid low throughout most of the nineteenth century, with few Mythos threats to worry about (or is that just few we know about) outside of THE KING IN YELLOW fiasco and, maybe, the Sergeant Bertrand affair as well.
You could play up Cagliostro's involvement in the Diamond Necklace affair, or the poisoner circle around Mlle. de Montespan. Towards the end of the nineteenth century you get the famous War of the Magicians, various groups playing at Satanism, etc. Maybe room to work in Von Junzt's friend Alexis Ladeau - I'd have to look in EC for more French Mythos references. Late nineteenth century you also get French activity in Indochina (my take on the King in Yellow is that it was brought to France from Indochina by some mad bastard who'd encountered the Tcho-Tcho, and lapped up by the Symbolists), the race to Fashoda, and more fun geopolitics. Don't know much about French occultism after the late nineteenth-early twentieth century.
Maybe after WWII and the occupation (plus the actions of the Karotechia), the French group redoubled their efforts and became more global in their scope (still, they've limited their operations mainly to French holdings. Speaking of which, which places are still French territory? Outside of the one little island off Canada, some of the South Seas islands, French Guiana and maybe Algeria, are there any?). During the War, they probably reinforced the Resistance.
French secret services still operate in ex-French holdings, though - witness the dueling of the U.S. and France over Chad, for example. One of the neat things (well, unless you lived through it, I suppose) about the Resistance was that there were several factions - DeGaulle's just happened to be the one that got the most credibility from the Allies - could this be true for anti-Mythos forces as well?
Could a French speaker come up with some cool-sounding name for the group? Likewise, I'd appreciate it if anyone could come up with some significant unexplained events in France (or French colonies) and other possible missions for these folks since 1723. I would've really liked to have used Gilles de Rais, but that affair's just a tad too early! Going by certain things Davide and others have posted, there could be grounds for tying this organization in with the Jeromites and maybe the Last Dawn, too.
Supposedly, Toussaint L'Ouverture (leader of the Haitian revolution) killed himself with a silver bullet. I'll do some digging.
Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1999 18:05:20 EST
From: LizardRoi
There's still a lot of controversy about the Marquis' philosophy - whether it was a reaction against the "Reason will conquer all" attitude of the Enlightenment, a satire of the hypocrisy of the clergy and nobility, or whether he was just a randy boy who enjoyed giving the occasional whipping.
Most of the controversy comes from dueling theses. You don't get an academic rep from agreeing with your colleagues. I think he was a randy philosopher who railed against the yada yada through satire, and certainly enjoyed giving and taking a whipping. If you remove the erotic sections of his prose, he was an inspiring political philosopher. "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" sums it up best. de Sade's writings have a Masonic/OTO bouquet. I love the idea of the French nobility attempting to titillate their jaded sensibilities by reading de Sade one-handed, and getting a lesson in guerrilla ontology while they're all horny and unaware.
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 09:14:35 -0000
From: Ward Phil
Heh, bring em on, and I'm sure we can work rainbow warrior into the background (Nb. there's a humorous link on the EH site to Mark McFadden's (?) rant about the French… ;) You may find a few more idea's for past missions for the french equivalent, nuclear test, nah, they were putting the slap down on something _big_.
I would expect that a lot of the old guard of this organisation (with French government sanction?) would have been resistance members who fed info to the DG boys in Operation Southern Hospitality, they probably had a lot to do with it's inception.
Hmm, keep it coming, and post me a copy when you get have a brief overview to put up on the site :)
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1999 12:51:35 +0000 (GMT)
From: David Clements
A few random thoughts about what might be of interest for this…
(1) The megalithic stone structures in Brittany may well have mythos significance. Deep Ones perhaps?
(2) During Napoleonic times, an awful lot of stuff was collected from around the world and is now in French museums etc. They may well have picked up things of interest to DG.
(3) The mysterious Comte de Saint Germain might be of saome mythos significance as well.
(4) The extensive Paris sewer system and any links to the catacombes would be great for Ghouls.
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1999 08:24:33 EST
From: Shane Ivey
There have been a number of supplements published in French about French matters—CoC in Paris, etc. Are any of them available in translation for us non-Francophones? Je ne parle pas beaucoup de Francais. :-(
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1999 09:05:36 -0500
Subject: DG: Interpol and France
I'll see what else I can turn up, but two quick links:
http://193.123.144.14/interpol-pr/ Interpol's official website
http://www.acsp.uic.edu/OICJ/PUBS/CJE/060409_2.html Story on the expansion of Interpol. You can also search issues of Crime & Justice International from this site.
Two important points to note:
- Interpol is an intelligence-sharing organization - it doesn't have an operational arm, and there's been serious resistance to forming one (search on "Europol").
- Interpol HQ is in Lyon, France - which might be the same as Vyones, Averoigne.
An excellent book on the varieties of organized crime in Europe is Brian Freemantle's OCTOPUS:EUROPE IN THE GRIP OF ORGANIZED CRIME (ISBN 1857976096).
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1999 15:28:09 -0500 (EST)
From: The Man in Black
David Clements, batting coach for the Manchester Blatantly Obvious, stated the blatantly obvious:
(1) The megalithic stone structures in Brittany may well have mythos significance. Deep Ones perhaps?
Lovecraft and others have written that Magna Mater and the pre-roman pagan, druids etc all were part of Shub-Niggurath cults.
(2) During Napoleonic times, an awful lot of stuff was collected from around the world and is now in French museums etc. They may well have picked up things of interest to DG.
EVERY MUSEUM has a looted collection of Mythos significant artifacts. Miskatonic U. has been trying to collect most of the more dangerous ones tho'.
(3) The mysterious Comte de Saint Germain might be of saome mythos significance as well.
Comte D'Erlette would agree.
(4) The extensive Paris sewer system and any links to the catacombes would be great for Ghouls.
DUH! How about a more detailed approach?
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 00:33:26 +0100
From: PM
(1) The megalithic stone structures in Brittany may well have mythos significance. Deep Ones perhaps?
Never thought about it. Too used to link these to Asterix, I think :-)
(2) During Napoleonic times, an awful lot of stuff was collected from around the world and is now in French museums etc. They may well have picked up things of interest to DG.
Notably in Egypt, just like the Rosette Stone now in British Museum. Remember that after Napoleon demise, France was looted at least once during WW2. Most of these items will probably have been taken by Karotechia.
(3) The mysterious Comte de Saint Germain might be of saome mythos significance as well.
Indeed. I've used him in several scenarios for various games. He's well known and always fine to use.
(4) The extensive Paris sewer system and any links to the catacombes would be great for Ghouls.
There are links between the sewers, the catacombs and the old stone diggings undeground, plus natural caves, underground rivers, the subway…..
You may imagine how the Ghouls feel at home in this town. Now add all the cemetaries inside the city (haven't you ever wondered why Morrison choosed PAris to die ?)
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 00:46:42 +0100
From: PM
There have been a number of supplements published in French about French matters—CoC in Paris, etc. Are any of them available in translation for us non-Francophones? Je ne parle pas beaucoup de Francais. :-(
As far as I can tell, I've never heard of any translations of anything Jeux Descartes did for CoC (there had been talks about a US edition of the 1920s France sourcebook "Les Annees Folles" (very impressive work) but it never concluded). Most of what has been published has been in magazines hence no trnalsations. I'm not sure of the two french scenarios ("Les Oeufs de KArlatt and Nightmare Agency) but I think at least NA is located in the US. I'll check.
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1999 23:20:10 EST
From: Shane Ivey
Two important points to note:
- Interpol is an intelligence-sharing organization - it doesn't have an operational arm, and there's been serious resistance to forming one (search on "Europol").
- Interpol HQ is in Lyon, France .
FYI, the U.S. Marshals Service represent the United States in Interpol and are the American agents most likely to be involved in actually tracking down and arresting any Mythos-tainted Richard Kimbles who flee for the Continent. The FBI and the DEA also maintain a significant presence overseas, of course; the FBI keeps legal attaches ("legats") in the embassies of major cities (Paris would be one; London has the biggest FBI office outside the U.S.). The FBI function primarily as advisors, not investigators. Legat spots are notoriously cushy. The DEA, of course, often works alongside the military and law enforcement agencies of other countries, either on the books or off, but they are most likely to have a serious presence in a major drug-producing nation.
In any event, the point about Interpol's lack of enforcement authority was correct: Interpol is NOT a law enforcement agency, it is an information-sharing agency. Since some countries' laws and theories of law enforcement are different than others, Interpol is often bypassed. I remember reading about a past terrorism investigation conducted without any involvement with Interpol because Interpol was as open to the law enforcement organizations of Libya and other terrorist-amenable states as it was to the countries doing the investigation. The basic fact that each country subscribes to a different set of laws (thank goodness) makes an actual "international police force" a theoretical impossibility.
Not that that's stopping the U.S. Department of Defense these days, but that's another story entirely… ;-)
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 18:16:56 -0500 (EST)
From: The Man in Black
Ex-Empire State Bronx Bomber's Catcher Shane Ivey is signalling for the outside curveball. MiB shaking his head on the mound. Ivey wants the screwball. MiB in denial. Ivey reluctantly readies himself for the fastball:
In any event, the point about Interpol's lack of enforcement authority was correct: Interpol is NOT a law enforcement agency, it is an information-sharing agency.
Yes, but that doesn't stop cheesy French films from making one up for Interpol. It is in the Frantic/La Femme Nikita tradition that a covert arm of Interpol exists. In the world of Conspiracy Horror, where nothing is true and everything is denied, Interpol enforcement isn't too far-fetched.
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 16:29:00 -0800
From: "Mark McFadden
Cribbing from the Reader's Digest version of Unaussprechlichen La:nden, Davide Mana invoked the "F" word, summoning up what should be smacked down:
A few other things to put on the bill of the French:
- colonies in the right places (Indocine, North Africa, Guyane)
- big shot occultists (St. Germain)
- masons
- Paris underground/underground Paris
- Averoigne
- Poictesme (check the Dreamland connection)
- Belphagor, the Ghost of the LouvreIf the Brits have PISCES, the French _must_ have something similar (if for nothing else, just not to stay behind).
Do we know something about Dave's "Men with Gauloises"?
- And what did Green Peace see in the South Pacific that merited a "frogman" assault on the Rainbow Warrior?
- And what about them Merovingians, huh? And what is it about Gauls that Anglos are hard-wired to hate? Primates bristling at Deep One pheromones?
- There's just something spooky about people who eat snails on purpose.
- Just what are those sounds that only dogs and the French can hear that civilized people seem unable to reproduce? I mean, 3 years of Berlitz and the waiter still winces and rolls his eyes when you ask for a croissant?
- What mysterious messages are being passed by all those unpronounced letters in French words? And how about the damn near arbitrary sprinkling of accent marks? The similarities between French spelling and Necronomicon excerpts surely cannot be mere coincidence?
- Soft cheese - protomatter, I'm not taking any chances.
- How can anyone get whupped so often and still be so arrogant? What secret wars have they WON?
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 11:14:42 +0100
From: Davide Mana
- Poictesme (check the Dreamland connection)
What is this? I vaguely recall the name, but for the life of me can't place it.
Poictesme is a fictitious southern French region (a mix of Poitiers and Aguilesme, and sorry for the spelling), and the setting of the majority of James Branch Cabell cynical fantasies/satyres.
Of these, the best known - and arguably the best - is probably "Jurgen" (1920), that was seized by censors for its (extremely tame and funny) sexual innuendos.
Poictesme belongs very much to the same vein of CAS' Averoigne (Smith probably lifted some ideas), but Cabell actually let it develop through history, so that each work of the series (25 books in all, including novels, plays and poetry) further develops an internal coherent timeline.
No direct connection with the Mythos exists; on the other hand Lovecraft knew "Jurgen", and while he did not like its sexual overtones, he still defended the work from detractors in an article dated 1924.
It must be noted however that many of the works in the series (and the whole of "Jurgen") take place in a dream dimension that adapts easily to the Dreamlands concept.
And Cabell's demon (?) Coshrei - "He Who Made Things As They Are", as opposed to God, "He That Made Things As They Should Be" (if at all) - is possibly the suavest version of Nyarlathotep you can get.
Passing references to Cabell's work are to be found - incredibly - in Larry Niven and R.A. heinlein (whose "Job" is IMHO a very botched and heavy handed attempt at a cabellian fantasy lacking Cabell's flair and panache).
Fritz Leiber was an estimator of Cabell, and listed him as an influence.
The bulk of Cabell's works is currently out of print - there was a complete (?) DelRey reprint in the '70s thanks to Lin carter but that's gone for good, I fear.
You can still get "Jurgen" easily and cheap - including a fine Dover illustrated edition.
And somewhere on the net, "The Cream of the Jest" should be freely available online.
To learn more, try
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Pantheon/1460
- Belphagor, the Ghost of the Louvre
Hmm. Any ghost with the name of a medieval demon can't be all bad…(evil grin).
I do not know much about the background of "Belphagor, or The Ghost of the Louvre".
It seems logical to postulate a novel, or possibly a serial, published in the first half of the century. A movie version was released in France between the wars (possibly as a serial), and should be currently available on tape.
Plot: mysterious entity that haunts the Egyptian collection of the Louvre. Police, journalists, parapsichologista and what not try to track it down. But maybe it's all a front for some very mundane going ons. Maybe not.
In the (early?) '60s a tv version was produced that is still very high in my personal list of horror shows - I watched it as a kid and it was _scary_. Watched it again 15 years later and it was _scary_ and beautyful from a cinematographic point of view (some things get better as you grow old). The series featured
. an extremely dark, noirish setting in contemporary Paris, shot in black and white.
. creepy soundtrack
. some weird characters, including a retired journalist that as a hobby "cans" news - that is, seals newspaper clippings in of tin cans for future reference, and lives in this house full of tin cans.
. a thick plot with ghosts, supernatural, crime, drugs and the whole lot
. singer Juliette Greco in a suitably alienated role
It is still one of my fondest memories.