The Arrival of the Insects of Shaggai, Part 2

This is Part 2 of a two-part discussion on the interstellar and inter-dimensional travels of the Insects from Shaggai, as documented by Mr. Ramsey Campbell. This article focuses on the Insect’s experiences within our solar system.  In the previous article we described that as a result of their world being destroyed, most likely by Ghroth, a small population of the Insects used one of their inter-dimensional temples to travel to various other worlds. Eventually they entered our Universe and settle down onto a large icy giant of a world on the outer rim of our solar system, known to its endemic inhabitants as L’gy’hx. To us this world is known as Uranus. As I have mentioned in past articles, while H.P. Lovecraft has written about Uranus several times in his articles on astronomy, this is the only world he has not referenced in any of his fiction. Fortunately for us, Mr. Campbell has had an opportunity to document the arrival of the Insects to L’gy’hx and how this impacted the residents of that world. But first, let’s review what is currently known about L’gy’hx.

  An inhabitant of L’gy’hx by Jok18 (www.deviantart.com)

L’gy’hx (again, known to Terrans as Uranus) is approximately 1.8 billion miles from the sun with an atmosphere mainly composed of hydrogen and helium. However, L’gy’hx has more methane than Jupiter and Saturn, which gives it the observed light blue tint. The darker and rich blue of Neptune is a result of that planet having higher concentrations of methane since this simple organic molecule is known to absorb red light and reflect blue light back into space. This is why methane is a “stronger” greenhouse gas; it is so much more efficient at trapping infrared radiation (heat). For example, over a five-year period methane traps up to 100 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. However, in addition to methane being relatively “short-lived” in our atmosphere, it only accounts for 9% of the total of greenhouse gas emissions, while carbon dioxide accounts for 82% of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.

 L’gy’hx, (known to us as Uranus (www.nasa.gov)

A majority of L’gy’hx’s mass is composed of a hot, dense fluid of “icy” materials including water, methane and ammonia, surrounding a small rocky core.  The planet has 13 rings and at least 27 moons. As previously mentioned, what makes L’gy’hx unique in our solar system is that it is the only planet that rotates horizontally on its axis. As has been hypothesized this unusual axis of rotation is the result of a collision with some type of large object. An alternative hypothesis is the that Shaggai’s inter-dimensional temple ship crashed into our Universe, hitting L’gy’hx with such a high amount of pan-dimensional energy that it resulted in the planet’s now observed horizontal tilt.

Obliquity of the Nine Planets; note Uranus’s rotates horizontally on its axis

As previously mentioned, the inhabitants of L’gy’hx were a relatively peaceful species of cuboid many-legged metal beings and were initially content in the co-habitation of their world with the Insects from Shaggai. However, conflict did eventually break out between these two species, largely due to religious differences.  The Insects from Shaggai worshiped Azathoth while the inhabitants of L’gy’hx worshiped a strange bat-like god called Lrogg, which is actually hypothesized to be another variation of Nyarlathotep.

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

Since L’gy’hx is known to have a small, solid core made of iron and nickel, these metals be the material that the cuboid entities are made of; thus, the biochemistry of the inhabitants of L’gy’hx may be based on iron or nickel, with carbon being an important constituent the way nitrogen and phosphorus are important to life on Earth. Above the hot solid core is an “ice mantle” that is composed of a hot and very dense mixture of fluids such as liquid ammonia, water and liquid methane. The incredible high pressures and temperature in the mantle and above the solid core may also allow for stable forms of liquid metal, which in turn may have given rise to a sentient form of liquid metal. Such replicating forms of liquid metal may produce crystalline shapes (like dendrites) if the temperature and pressure allows for some stable fluctuations between the liquid and solid states of metal, giving the inhabitants a simple cuboid body plan. Additionally, this life may not exist on the surface of the small solid core but instead in the ice mantle where various liquids are layered on one another based on temperature and pressure. Thus, while life may exist on L’gy’hx it may be very different than it is on Earth. Obviously more research is required on the L’gy’hx ecosystems.

 An internal view of L’gy’hx (www.newtonsapple.org.uk)

In any event, over time a conflict developed between the two species when some of the inhabitants of L’gy’hx began to worship Azathoth and some of the Insects of Shaggai started worshiping Lrogg. After a few violent altercations approximately 30 Insects of Shaggai left L’gy’hx in their newly re-constructed inter-dimensional temple and headed to the third world from the L’gy’hx system’s star. Unlike the large gas giants, there small little, rocky worldlets huddle close to that system’s star and the third one is called by its residents – Earth.

 Ships of the Shaggai by Clone Artist (www.deviantart.com)

For whatever reason when the temple re-materialized on Earth, it did not appear entirely “on” the Earth. Only the upper 30 feet of the temple materialized above the surface of the Earth in a place called Goatswood, which is a village in the United Kingdom’s Severn Valley, southwest of Brichester (The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, 2^nd Edition, by Daniel Harms, 1998). Fortunately, the temple re-materialized in a wooded area; however as documented by Ramsey Campbell interactions or encounters between the Insects and humans, while rare, do occur from time to time.

The Insects appear to live in the upper sections of the temple (the 30 feet portion of the temple above ground). In contrast their Xiclotlian slaves occupy the middle section of the temple, while the lower 40-foot portion of the temple is used for worshiping Azathoth. However, even the Insects of Shaggai were fearful to enter the lowest most chambers. Whatever thing is behind that final door in the bottom of the temple must be some residual force or entity from the Insect’s native Universe. It is the multi-dimensional gate in the bottom of the temple that keeps this thing trapped. Thus, while the Insects from Shaggai plot their total domination of the Earth, envisioning enslaving humans the way they enslaved the Xiclotlians, they are still fearful of the day when the multi-dimensional gate breakdown and the thing from their Universe emerges into ours.

                                                     Insects from Shaggai by Herb Arnold

Next up some additional articles based on NASA’s study of Yuggoth as well as the initiation of a discussion on Lovecraft’s “The Lurking Fear.” Thank you – Fred.

The Arrival of the Insects of Shaggai, Part 1

This is Part 1 of a two part final article on “The Insects From Shaggai,” as documented by Mr. Ramsey Campbell. In this concluding discussion we review the various species and entities encountered by the Shaggai from the destruction of their world to their eventual colonization of Earth. When Shaggai was destroyed, presumably by Ghroth, at small group of Shaggai used one of their temples to teleport to another world. We know that Insects from Shaggai are from another Universe since they are made up of different matter than we are; however, they did end up in our Universe and this article briefly documents their travels.

Possibly a temple transport of the Insects of Shaggai (https://cthulhutech-once-were-men.obsidianportal.com)

The first world the Insects from Shaggai ended up on was the nearest planet called Xiclotl by in inhabitants. More than likely this world is also located in the Shaggai Universe and is probably even in the same star system as Shaggai. If this is the case, there is no documentation that this world was also destroyed by Ghroth. Approximately 40 of the Insects escaped Shaggai through the teleportation temple. However, once they arrived on Xiclotl the Insects communicated with other off-world Insects to let them know what happened and asked them all to meet on Xiclotl. It is not known if any other Insects joined them and if so how many.

An inhabitant of Xiclotl by Michael Bukowski (www.yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com)

On Xiclotl the Insects encountered a species of semi-intelligent, carnivorous, metallic grey, tree-like entities. While carnivorous, the “Xiclotlians” were slow moving and were relatively easy to control by the Insects through telepathy. The Insects used the Xiclotlians as a labor work force. The long-lived Insects did not stay on Xiclotl any longer than two hundred years due to the strange religious practices of the Xiclotlians, where they routinely sacrificed some of their own to a strange plant-race, which lived in the bottom of a sheer-sided pit. While the plant-race was considered to be a “god” to the Xiclotlians, it is possible that this plant-race was a large, global, clonal organism with mycelium-like extensions threading throughout the subsoil of the planet Xiclotl; this would be similar to many of the mycorrhizal fungi that form symbiotic relationships with plant roots on our world. Maybe the supplemental feeding of the plant-god contributed toward some unknown environmental benefit to the Xiclotlians. In any event, these religious practices made the Insects very uneasy and when they eventually saw the strange plant-god slither out of the pit they left Xiclotl, taking some of its inhabitants with them as a work force.

Strange plant-god the Xiclotlians worship by Michael Bukowski (www.yog-blogsoth.blogspot.com)

The next world the Insects ended up on was Thuggon, which was documented to be in another galaxy (thus the Insects were probably still in their native Universe). They stayed on this world for less than a year due to some unknown force preying on both their Xiclotl slaves and themselves. The next world they ended up on was known to its inhabitants as L’gy’hx; to us this world is known as Uranus. Thus, from Thuggon to L’gy’hx the Insects conducted some inter-dimensional jump or shift where they left their Universe and entered ours.

A photograph of L’gy’hx (to us known as Uranus) displaying its tilt (www.wikipedia.com)

The Insects would live on L’gy’hx for many centuries. The inhabitants of L’gy’hx were a relatively peaceful species of cuboid many-legged metal beings. L’gy’hx (again to us known as Uranus) is unique in our solar system in that it’s the only gas giant planet where its equator is almost at right angles to its orbit (www.nasa.gov). A large collision with an Earth-sized object centuries to millennia ago may be responsible for its tilt – were the Insects responsible for this tilt? It is said that their temple was old and dilapidated due to so much interstellar and inter-dimensional travel. In fact, once on L’gy’hx the Insects built a new temple; they “fashioned it [the new temple] in a conical shape, carefully constructing the multi-dimensional gate which must exist in each temple…” Here we have confirmation that temples were inter-dimensional transports. Also, is it possible that the inter-dimensional “jump” from their Universe to ours resulted in them crash landing on L’gy’hx, producing the unusual tilt we see today?

In Part 2 we will discuss the Insect’s experiences on L’gy’hx and how they eventually ended up on Earth. Thank you – Fred.

An Insect from Shaggai attacks a resident of Earth (by Jb Lee)

 

The Lovecraftian Solar System: Neptune

The planet Neptune as captured by Voyager 2 in 1989 (solarsystem.nasa.gov).

Neptune is the outermost planet of our solar system and is one of the two ice giants (the other being Uranus).  It is 2.8 billion miles or 30.07 A.U. away from the sun.  It takes Neptune 165 Earth years to make a complete orbit around the sun and a “day” on Neptune is approximately 16 hours (solarsystem.nasa.gov).

HPL called the discovery of Neptune “…one of the most remarkable achievements of astronomical science, being no mere accident, but the result of long and extremely precise calculation” (Collected Essays: Science, Volume 3 by S.T. Joshi, 2005) and he was correct.  Before the planet was actually discovered, its existence was theoretically predicted by “reverse calculating” the irregulatrities in the motion of Uranus.  Even when John Couch Adams  took Saturn’s gravitational pull into consideration, it could not account for the movement of Uranus.  Something else had to be contributing to the observed conditions.  By mid-September 1845 Adams final solution was completed for the orbit of Uranus and it required the existence of an another planet, a planet beyond Uranus.  Adams did not know it at the time, but the position he predicted for this unknown planet was within 2 degrees (Planets Beyond: Discovering the Outer Solar System by Mark Littmann; 1990).  This unknown planet turned out to be Neptune.

John Couch Adams  (Wikipedia.org)

A Frenchman, Urbain Le Verrier, also worked out the same solution as Adams at about the same time.  The astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle used both of their calculations to correctly locate Neptune.  There was a bitter dispute between England and France on who should be credited for finding Neptune.  Eventually, it was decided both astronomers should share the credit.  For HPL’s part, he cites both of astronomers in the discovery of Neptune in his Science Essays.  Again, the most incredible thing about the discovery of Neptune was that it was theoretically discovered through mathematical calculations before it was actually observed in the sky.  Based on his quote provided above, this impressed HPL and provided additional support on the value and power of the scientific method.

Urbain Le Verrier (Wikipedia.org)

Similar to Uranus, in HPL’s day little was known about Neptune.  In the early 20th century, Neptune was known to have a greenish colour and one moon.  HPL hypothesized that it was probably hot with a “small density” like many of the other outer planets (Collected Essays: Science, Volume 3 by S.T. Joshi, 2005).  Again, remember in HPL’s day all of the outer planets were thought to be semi-molten, which would be attributed to volcanic activities and/or the failure of developing into a sun (e.g. Jupiter).

Thanks to the Voyager 2 mission we know a lot more about Neptune than we did in HPL’s time.  Similar to Uranus, Neptune is an ice giant, composed of a hot, dense fluid of “icy” materials, including water, methane and ammonia, probably above a solid core approximately the size of the Earth (solarsystem.nasa.gov).

In HPL’s time Triton was the only moon identified for Neptune.  However, currently, Neptune has 13 confirmed moons and 1 waiting official confirmation.  Neptune has 6 confirmed rings, a Great Dark Spot, a Little Dark Spot, smaller cloud features and dark bands.

The surface of Triton – one of the moons of Neptune; photographed by Voyager 2 in 1989 (solarsystem.nasa.gov)

Finally, it should be noted that Triton is only one of two satellites in our solar system that are known to possess a permanent atmosphere – the other being Saturn’s moon Titan.  More than likely Triton’s atmosphere is thin and originates from the vaporization of methane ice.  However, Triton also possesses molecular nitrogen.  There are a few organisms on Earth, such as some blue-green algae, that have the ability to “fix” molecular nitrogen from the atmosphere as an energy source.  Are there similar microbes on Triton, taking advantage of its atmospheric nitrogen?

The blue-green alga (also known as cyanobacteria) Anabaena.  The clear cell in the upper right corner is called a heterocyst and is a specialized cell used to fix atmospheric nitrogen for energy.  Are there microbes on Neptune’s moon Triton that use a similar biochemical pathway?  (photo-micrograph from PhycoTech).

Next time we will talk about how HPL incorporated Neptune into his stories.  Thank you – Fred.

Is There Room for Uranus in a Lovecraftian Solar System?

A view of the planet Uranus from the Hubble Telescope.  The white dot is its moon Ariel; the black dot is the moon’s shadow on the planet (solarsystem.nasa.gov).

Uranus was discovered by an amateur astronomer – William Herschel – on 13 March 1781.  It was the first planet ever identified in recorded human history.  In fact, Herschel first thought Uranus was a comet.  In 1781 the idea that there was another planet beyond Saturn was unthinkable.

Sir William Herschel, discoverer of the planet Uranus (wikipedia.org).

In HPL’s time not much was known about Uranus.  He mentions the planet a few times in his astronomical articles.  For example in his Celestial Objects for All: An Easy Guide to Astronomical Observation with Opera, and Field Glasses (first published in 1907), HPL had one sentence for the planets Uranus and Neptune:  “Both of these planets are visible as faint stars in opera glasses, yet their study seldom repays the observer” (from Collected Essays Volume 3: Science H.P. Lovecraft, edited by S.T. Joshi, 2005).  Later, HPL said Uranus was more than likely “a hot and molten semi-sun” (Asheville [N.C.] Gazette-News; 1915).

In HPL’s time Uranus was thought to have four moons.  Moving outward these moons are Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon.  Currently Uranus is thought to have 27 moons.  Additionally, Uranus is called an ice-giant, since most of its mass is composed of a hot dense fluid of “icy” materials of water, methane, and ammonia with a small rocky core.  The atmosphere of Uranus is composed primarily of hydrogen, helium and a small amount of methane (solarsyste.nasa.gov).

Uranus is about 1.8 billion miles, or 19.19 A.U. away from the sun.  A day on Uranus is about 17 hours, while a “year” for Uranus is 84 Earth years.  Similar to Jupiter, Uranus has a set of faint rings but in the case of Uranus the inner rings are narrow and dark while the outer rings are brightly colored.  What is unique to Uranus is that it rotates on its side and thus spins horizontally and not vertically like the rest of the plants (solarsystem.nasa.gov).

A series of enhanced (infrared composites) views of Uranus from the Keck Telescope taken on 11 July 2004 (solarsystem.nasa.gov).

So where was the planet Uranus mentioned in HPL’s fiction?  Well, I could not find any reference to this planet in any of HPL’s stories.  There is a brief mention of the Greek God Uranus (God of the sky) in Poetry and the Gods, a story HPL co-wrote with Anna Helen Crofts but there is no mention of the planet Uranus.

Unfortunately, the same can be said for Clark Ashton Smith.  I found no reference of the planet Uranus in any of Smith’s stories.  A lot more is known about Uranus today than what was known in the days of HPL and Smith.  However, that can be said about all of the planets.  Why was Uranus ignored in the fiction of HPL and Smith?  We may never know.  Maybe there is no room for Uranus in a Lovecraftian solar system.  Next time we visit Neptune.  Thank you – Fred.