Through the Gates of the Silver Key: Was Randolph Carter Responsible for the Destruction of Yaddith?

In “Through the Gates of the Silver Key” written by H.P. Lovecraft and E. Hoffmann Price, Randolph Carter’s consciousness is “downloaded” into an insectoid-like being who lives on the planet Yaddith. This specific Yaddithian individual is the Wizard Zkauba. Since both consciousnesses are sharing the same body there are times that Carter dominates and others that Zkauba dominates. Such conditions may have produced symptoms similar to schizophrenia.

 A Dhole of Yaddith by King Ov Rats (www.deviantart.com)

As a wizard of Yaddith, one of Zkauba’s jobs was “weaving spells to keep the frightful bholes in their burrows…” For the sake of this discussion, a bhole is thought to be either the same thing or closely related to the dholes identified in other tales of Lovecraft. Apparently, the “bleached, viscous bholes” were constantly tunneling through Yaddith and the spells of the Yaddithian wizards would keep these creatures in a relative inactive or dormant state. Desperate to get back to Earth, Carter found a drug on Yaddith that could be used to keep Zkauba’s consciousness in a perpetual dormant state, yet allow Carter to have access of the knowledge and memories of the wizard. Thus, the next time Carter dominated the body of Zkauba, he made and administered the drug to himself.

Keeping Zkauba in a dormant state did allow Carter to eventually successfully (somewhat) leave Yaddith, which we will discuss next time. As part of this process he had to move forward in time in order to ensure he would reach Earth approximately close to when he initially left. As he left Yaddith he saw, “Below him the ground was festering with gigantic bholes; and even as he looked, one reared up several hundred feet and levelled a bleached, viscous end at him.”

                                                                             Dhole by Michael Bukowski (www.yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com)

Based on this text, the eventual destruction of Yaddith was due to the bholes increasing in size and numbers and reaching the surface. If the bhole population was large enough, it may have even resulted in the eventual destruction of Yaddith itself. The planet may have internally collapsed, breaking apart into a collection of small pieces, producing a miniature asteroid field or a dwarf planet system surrounded by countless minor moons. Or, the size and density of the bhole population may have kept the world intact but slowly converted it into a literal “living planet” continuously shifting, moving and feeding on itself. Obviously, the Yaddithian civilization died with this domination of the bhole with a few possibly escaping through time and space.

 Did Yaddith eventually become a living planet, seething with millions of bholes feeding on eat other’s wastes?

With Zkauba’s consciousness in a dormant state, he could no longer perform the ritual to keep the bholes inactive. Carter certainly was not continuing these spells; he was busy figuring out how to get back to Earth. The only spell he had was “a doubly potent spell with which to hold back the bholes at the moment of his starting from the black, dead Yaddith of the inconceivable future.”

Given these circumstances, this begs the question: was Randolph Carter at least partially responsible for the destruction of Yaddithian civilization? If Carter was not so preoccupied with finding a way home and Zkauba could continue the spells to keep the bholes inactive, would this have prevented or at least delayed the eventual honeycombing of Yaddith as a result of bhole activity? If this is the case, the destruction of Yaddith occurred in the distant past but was triggered by the consciousness of a strange ape-like descendent who came from the distant future. Thus, the path to Yaddith’s destruction was not set into motion until Carter, a being of the distant future, traveled back in time. Essentially, Carter’s choice to have access to all of Space-Time with the aid of the Silver Key resulted in the destruction of an entire civilization in the past.

                                                                    A bhole (www.aaronsiddall.com)

Next time we will discuss the science behind Carter’s escape from Yaddith. Thank you – Fred.

Through the Gates of the Silver Key: Chapter VI, Welcome to Yaddith

Chapter V of “Through the Gates of the Silver Key” written by H.P. Lovecraft and E. Hoffmann Price, ended with Randolph Carter’s consciousness entering the body of a squat, tapir-snouted and clawed inhabitant of a world illuminated by five multi-colored suns. This strange world of bizarre metal towers and cryptical floating cylinders is Yaddith, which is the focus on this article. Going into Chapter VI it is revealed this strange world was Yaddith.

 Surface of Yaddith. Note the presence of five suns in the horizon (http://www.demonbane.wikia.com)

The main sentient inhabitants of Yaddith were snouted, anthropomorphic, insectoid-like beings and through his dream travels, combined with tilting or modifying one’s consciousness-angles, Carter found himself in one of these clawed, snouted beings – a wizard named Zkauba. Given that Yaddith had five suns the atmosphere was ablaze with a wide variety of solar colors. As previously eluded to, traveling through consciousness-angles may be a metaphysical interpretation of traveling through the Space-Times of the Multiverse, similar to the example given with a sphere entering flatland. Once Carter’s mind entered the body of Zkauba, he found his consciousness “marooned” in the Yaddithian’s body. In addition, Carter had to “share” the body with Zkauba. More will be discussed about this in an upcoming article; this article focuses on Yaddith.

                     The Wizard Zkauba; Yaddithian III by KingOvRats (http://www.deviantart.com)

As previously cited Yaddith is in a five-star system so it is unlikely that this world experiences night, although the amount of daylight must widely vary, based on how many suns shine on the world at the same time. In addition, Yaddith probably experiences higher amounts of radiation (e.g. visible light, radio waves, infra-red, UV-radiation, infra-red, cosmic rays, etc.) relative to Earth. This means that Yaddith’s magnetosphere is probably strong enough to repel the charged particles that emanate from the multi-suns and/or the resident biota of Yaddith have evolved to be adapted to exist in an environment that is bombarded with high amounts of radiation. However, not all life on Yaddith may be well adapted to the highly-irradiated surface of this world.

The burrowing inner horrors of Yaddith were large, worm-like creatures called bholes (also referred to as dholes in some cases), which may have used the “unexplained” tunnels to burrow and move throughout the planet. The bholes may prefer to stay underground to avoid the high amounts of radiation Yaddith may receive from its five suns. However, it appears that these creatures were constantly trying to reach the surface but were prevented from doing so by spells performed by the Yaddithian wizards including Zkauba. Eventually, the entire world of Yaddith would be overrun by the bholes resulting in the extinction of the Yaddithians.

 Dhole of Yaddith III by KingOvRats (http://www.deviantart.com)

As previously mentioned, the Yaddithians, to some known as the nug-soth, were anthropomorphic insectoid-like beings. Given this insectoid-like description the Yaddithians more than likely had some type of exoskeleton. Whether this exoskeleton was composed of chitin like the arthropods on Earth or some type of similar or analogous material, it is most likely that the Yaddithians did possess some type of exoskeleton Typically, invertebrates with exoskeletons on Earth are limited in size by a number of physical constraints such as supporting an efficient respiratory / circulatory system in an armored organism. However, another important factor that limits the size of invertebrates on Earth is our planet’s gravitational pull. However, depending on what the Yaddithian exoskeleton is made of as well as gravitational pull of Yaddith, conditions on that world may have favored the development of large, anthropomorphic insect-like entities who stand upright with exoskeletons.

Similar to the Great Race of Yith, the Yaddithians had the ability to transport their minds through time and space, using a technology called “light-bean envelopes.” The Yaddithians made trips to worlds distributed throughout twenty-eight galaxies and collected knowledge from over ten thousand worlds. The libraries of the Yaddithians must rival those of the Great Race. Some of the nearby worlds that the Yaddithians frequently visited included Shonhi, Mthura and Kath but nothing is known of these planets.

                                                                                                      Yaddithian by Michael Bukowski (http://www.yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com)

Next time we will discuss more about the technology of Yaddithian culture and how Randolph Carter used this technology to eventually leave this world to return to Earth.