The Great Arising

Chapter 36

The Great Library. Its squat facade in the Canadian wilderness belied the incredible treasure trove that lay beyond its massive doors and many-headed, many-legged Curator. Books, scrolls, data crystals and less recognizable forms of preserving knowledge stretched for miles upon miles. And that was just the library section, the museum seemed infinite. As a pocket universe, it was, of course, finite, but it was still inconceivably huge to a mortal mind.

"What are you reading?" Torren-Wraeth asked.

Eikichi looked up from the record crystals he was examining, " Ancient Graphic Novels. Shade, the Changing Man, to be exact. DC and Vertigo. We have quite a bit in common, outsiders living in worlds filled with tangible madness . . ."

"Hopefully that madness won't extend to being briefly turned into a woman."

"That was a bit odd . . . But, then, the whole series is supposed to be bizarre."

"Sometimes I wonder . . ." Torren-Wraeth sat cross-legged on the floor of the library, "If old Dr. Wertham wasn't right after all."

"Doctor Who?"

"Doctor Fredric Wertham. He was one of the biggest proponents of censorship in the 20th century. He was a psychiatrist who truly believed thatviolent, suggestive comic books were corrupting America's youth. He even wrote a book about it "Seduction of the Innocent." Like most people with good intentions, he couldn't see beyond black and white and eventually became a fanatic. He finally succeeded at getting the government to adopt a standard that all comic books had to go by. This was in the 1940's and '50's. They eventually overturned it, giving them free reign, so to speak. By the time everything fell apart, there were comics that turned my stomach."

"What do you think he would think of Shade?"

"He would have condemned it on the basis of hundreds, if not thousands, of reasons. And Shade is relatively tame for the period. Have you read Vertigo's Swamp Thing? The things Anton Arcane did and became . . ."

"No. I'll keep that in mind. I'm almost done with Shade, any recommended reading?"

"Comics?" Torren-Wraeth shrugged, "I was never really into them. I only liked certain characters, not really any titles. If you like Vertigo, American Freak: A Tale of The Un-Men was pretty . . . Interesting." He smiled thinly, "You know, I don't think Tek was being literal about becoming 'Super-Heroes."

"Super Hero is a subjective term." He laughed, "And I know one comic you never read. Thor."

Torren-Wraeth groaned, If there was one thing he hated, it was Old English, "I hate it when every deity in the universe is speaking in Old English! Archaic English is not The Divine Language! Why does a Norse god speak Old English? Why do the Inuit gods sound like they are quoting The King James? The Bible was written in Hebrew and Greek, not Old English!"

"When you finish ranting, maybe you could show me where you put The Necronomicon?"

"In the Non-Fiction section." He stood up and looked around at the rows upon rows of collected knowledge, "Though I'm not exactly sure where that is. We'll have to ask The Curator. I was going to pick up De Vermis Mysteriis myself. It has a lot of information on sacrifices and Summoning. It may help us to anticipate our enemies' actions."

"Wait a minute. You've read The Necronomicon, Cultes des Ghoules, The King in Yellow and Massa di Requiem per Shuggay, you own a whole gallery of Richard Upton Pickman's art, you have looked into the unspeakable face of Yibb-Tstll and mere comic books turn your stomach?"

"Some of those things would have turned Pickman's stomach." Torren-Wraeth grimaced, "Like I said, I think Dr. Wertham was right in a lot of ways."

"There are two other books we have to read." Eikichi said grimly, "The Goddess of The Black Fan and The Tale of Priest Kwan."

Torren-Wraeth nodded. The two sacred texts of The Order of The Bloated Woman, who venerated that avatar of Nyarlathotep with whom Tek had fallen in love. As he had said, they could play no favorites. He hadn't read either text in many years, and had doubtless forgotten much. Besides, when dealing with mystic tomes, one could spend years reading without truly understanding the true meaning of cryptic words, symbols and illustrations. But he needed to understand the cult and The Bloated Woman herself, as much as he could, if he needed to fight her. Many of her sacrificial victims and those who fed her monstrous hunger did so willingly, but not all.

"How are we going to deal with the various incarnations of Shub-Niggurath? We live in Her territory, at Her sufferance ."

"She rarely accepts sentient sacrifices. She prefers large animals that Her Young can feast upon. The days of Ashtoreth and Ishtar are long gone."

"Good riddance." Tek approached them, Naoltaba and Dodomeki hovering beside him, "Though She may still hold a grudge against me . . ."

"I doubt it, else she would have acted by now." Eikichi noted, "Of The Outer Gods, The All-Mother is the one who is most beneficent toward mankind. Most of Her avatars actually help people. Unless they try to ruin the wilds as they did before R'lyeh rose."

"Umr At-Tawil is also well-disposed toward mortals." Torren-Wraeth was familiar with the many forms of Yog-Sothoth, his father was High Priest of The Outer God, after all. The Most Ancient One, however, was like Mordiggian in that, while he bore malice toward none save those who directly attacked him (unlike Mordiggian, Umr at-Tawil had no worshippers to protect) Neither did he fight for mortals. His purpose was to guard The Gate of The Silver Key, nothing more. "And perhaps we could convince Yig to help us . . ."

"We don't even know for sure what we are going to do," Eikichi pointed out, "Other than save lives."

"I was thinking of something. It's been in my mind for a few eons. Sorcerers and other magic users regularly Summon and Bind other beings against their will. You hate being Summoned, so do I. Why should we let our kin be enslaved by petty spell-pickers? What do you suppose would happen, if, say, a wizard Summoned and tried to Bind a Dimensional Shambler, and three other creatures arrived with it?" Tek laughed, "That would deter unwanted Summonings, I'd wager."

"You attack one of us, you attack all of us? I kind of like that idea." Torren-Wraeth replied, "But we don't have allies to back it up. yet. And some Summonings are desired, the beings are given offerings of food and items of power. That is how some deities communicate with there followers, by proxy."

"True." Tek shook his golden head, "Why does everything have to be so complicated!?"

"What of Hastur?" Torren-Wraeth asked.

"He has no objection, for the time being. When angry deities start banging on the gates of Carcosa demanding we stop stealing their sacrifices, his opinion may change. Cthulhu?"

"I have not seen or spoken to him." Torren-Wraeth said sadly, "Chxixsas told Eikichi that my father is extremely dissapointed, but that he will probably not act against us."

"Probably?"

"Nothing is certain in life anymore, not even death."

To be continued . . .

Notes:

Old English is one of my biggest pet peeves as well. When I read the Inuit gods speaking in 'thee's' and 'thou's' in Alpha Flight, I wanted to scream. It's not only ridiculous that the Inuit pantheon be speaking in Old English, it's insulting to take a culture and adapt it to fit some other culture's idea of how they should sound. Thank God they had the Asgardians speaking modern English in the Thor and Avengers movies!

I must confess that I have never read Shade, The Changing Man.

I think Dr. Wertham was a good man with good intentions, but, as I said, he saw everything in strict black and white, with nothing in between. He was an imperfect human being trying to force everyone to live by his moral standards, which goes beyond good intentions into fanaticism. I respect him, he did a lot of good in his life. He ran a low-cost mental health clinic for poor black kids, (This was an incredible act for a white man in the 1940's), and worked on dealing with mental health in the justice system. I actually agree with him on some points about comics and TV. I just think he went too far.

He would have condemned almost all of my work, this story included.