N-Spiration - Zothique: The Final Cycle

He who has trod the shadows of Zothique
And looked upon the coal-red sun oblique,
Henceforth returns to no anterior land,
But haunts the latter coast
Where cities crumble in the black sea-sand
And dead Gods drink the brine.

- Clark Ashton Smith, Zothique

Zothique: The Final Cycle

About Zothique

Zothique is not a singular story nor plotline - but instead represents a collection of mixed genre works including stage play and metered rhyme: all of which illustrate and inhabit a particular world - Zothique - the last continent of Earth, formed when the sun is bloated, red, and dim in decrepitude. Like the sun, but dissimilar to the Dying Earth of Vance, there is little jocularity in it. Decay, death, and darkness run a consistent theme through the works - which, themselves, are almost memento mori for an ineluctable perishing of the world, itself. The stage is set for bronze-age savagery and for black sorcery, necromancy - in particular - taking a central role in almost all spell-casting. Control over death, yet another furtive struggle in a world bound for the endless dark, caters to the theme and tone of the works - joined together in their references, maps, and insinuated meaning - forcing the reader to contend with that which is apperceptive about its higher neurological function in addition to that which is base: that which is primal and inexpressible through cogent language.

Indeed, the author displays an incredible combination of restraint and artistry in his presentation of the obscene - able to draw carnal imagery in the mind of the reader totally without the use of vulgarities or the excessive description of gore. What is dwelt upon in modern vintage, Smith mentions but in passing or by implication only: the impact of which is made magnified by it. The urges and the instincts surrounding life and the clawing, clinging thereto by all metabolizing things feel drawn into sharp focus while perusing the great majority of the Zothique epistles.

The book pictured and recommended, which graces my shelves and now my imagination, contains 25 individual pieces of varied length - some, novellas in and of themselves, others poems that might fit on a single page. Published in various places - books and serials alike - across a span of many years (ranging from 1932's The Empire of the Necromancers to 1956's The Dead will Cuckold You), Zothique is a land of wastes and deserts: inspired in no small part by classic folk tales of the Arabian Nights. Edited by Ronald Hilger, Zothique: The Final Cycle is a new collection of the old works: its copyright dated to 2022.

About the Author

The author of the work is Clark Ashton Smith. If you have not heard that name and read nothing further of this short biopic, in attempt to sufficiently introduce him: know that his introduction to the world of weird fiction would come from a 1922 letter from H. P. Lovecraft... who was a fan of Smith's dark and strange poetry.

Smith is a character whose name arises frequently in discussions of Appendix N fantasy: typically to recommend him in apology for the original text, having insulted both the genre and wounded the imagination of the reader by his 1979 omission. Hailed as the last of the authors of Weird Tales' golden era, Smith was born in 1893, he was a visual artist and poet who lived in the small California community of Long Valley for the duration of his professional career. Indeed, poetry was his primary calling - being self-educated and self-inundated in the like of Poe and d'Aulnoy - and was said to be of remarkable intellect and memory: teaching himself multiple languages so as to work on translations of literary works in them. Using the nightmares he suffered during bouts of ill health, Smith produced the bulk of his prose fiction - over one hundred short stories - during the American Great Depression, with publications between 1929 and 1934. His fiction writing would cease - as it would seem, by result of preference - following a string of personal tragedies: the deaths of his mother in 1935, Robert E. Howard (with whom he was a fan and had been in correspondence prior) in 1936, and both his father and long-time friend H. P. Lovecraft in 1937. Though while the macabre of life would blunt his desire to write fiction and divert him back into the visual arts and sculpture, the macabre of his fiction would live on for decades to come: primarily through the intentional and occasionally unprofitable republications championed by August Derleth.

He was a single man most of his days - marrying only after suffering a heart attack at the age of 61: moving to establish his household in Pacific Grove, California with his new wife and her children. Shortly thereafter - almost as if in closing this chapter of history - the home he had been born into, where his intellect had been fostered, his works authored, and his life spent - burned to the ground in 1957: by Smith's account, an act of arson. It would seem then anapestic that Smith, on his death in 1961 from a series of strokes, was cremated - his ashes interred alongside the ashes of that Long Valley cabin.

Why Zothique?

There are numerous elements of Zothique that have verifiably made their way into the popular mythoi surrounding tabletop gaming - let alone the OSR alone. Tsathoggua - for example - an entity in the Cthulu cosmology and made most famous in the H. P. Lovecraft yarn, The Whisperer in Darkness, is actually a Clark Ashton Smith creation - having been invented in 1929 in a short story, The Tale of Satampra Zeiros: where Lovecraft and Smith were known to borrow one another's respective milieu and re-use what was borrowed in agapic homage. Similarly - any familiar with Hyperborea will be familiar with a flat world, the edge of which one might sail off of - falling with the ever-flowing waters into an abyss of space: this, too, is found in Zothique - at the end of the Black River from Necromancy in Naat (Weird Tales, 1936) an ocean current which pours like a waterfall into the void, after having dashed itself first against the jagged rocks of the island Naat, home to necromancers plying their carnal trade and cannibals, brutal and savage, cowering in fear of them.

While these two notable examples are ones I here cite, they are but the first two of countless references you'll find as you explore the last continent to rise from the teeming sea. Authors of products you have bought, played, or purchased will have read Zothique - one or all of the stories therein - and themes, spells or locales, and figures will become more clearly defined, their motives and machinations elucidated, by a shared experience in the stories.

Untitled Watercolor, Clark Ashton Smith: 1926
Sourced: EldritchDark.com

Zothique being Smith's seeming ode to mortality itself, he has a penchant for the inhuman. Ghouls and cannibalism, long-sleeping ancient powers passing as gods, and demons which offer Monkey's Paw pacts and bargains with those wanting or foolish enough to take them abound. Indeed, Smith offers a new perspective on the Monkey's Paw pact - classically, the pact-maker seeks to undo the pact-recipient as quickly as possible, turning the wish against the wisher to illustrate their own hubris: however, Smith's demons will keep to their bargain, fulfilling what was promised to the spirit - not the letter - instead allowing the basic foibles of Man to do the undoing for them. Smith's portrayal of infernal entities in this regard is one of the few places where - in D&D, the differentiation between a Devil and a Demon is in their service to Law or to Chaos: Smith is able to portray Lawful Evil in a manner which is left wanting in other re-tellings. These beings are immortal after all - they can wait! Expect - after reading this book - that you may be drawn to undeath: and that your players may, a few characters from now, inexplicably be drawn to a greater contingent of Clerics.

In addition - other monsters are handled well in the book. Some are smaller enemies - frightening, but within the realm of reason: that many would assail at once: peer to men of similar statue. Some are greater enemies - immune to attack except for that which has been blessed or ensorcelled against them. This divide portrays both - through the lens and vocabulary of the same author - two ends of the spectrum of creatures one might throw at a party: the man-like, the swarm, the flesh and blood horror - but also the supernatural: the crypt-bound or otherwise contained evil which cannot be conquered, only escaped. Within the works of Smith can be found inspiration for both. 

Lastly, to argue for Zothique as inspiration in gaming, the continent is absolutely rife with crypts, tombs, and fallen civilizations. Cities which have crumbled into dust, leaving behind only the sarcophagi of their ancestors dot the landscape and feature prominently in the prose. In particular, The Weaver in the Vault (1934) expressly presents itself as a treasure delve. Three characters - Yanur, Grotara (the youngest), and Thirlain Ludoch - are sent into the bowels of a cursed crypt, broken into almost maze-dom by time and seismic movements, in search of a magical treasure for the witch-wife of their sovereign employer.

While I will not spoil their exploits - the point of their adventure almost perfectly parallels the exploits of three Fighting Men who might descend into a tomb for luck and treasure...

...only to find an unexpected curse - an alien intelligence of an uncaring, unhuman scavenger - in its place.

An adventure writer, or a referee aspiring to both draw in his players while dooming their characters, would be well served by The Weaver in the Vault - as likewise would they be served by most of the works contained within the tome.

To Note before Reading

As mentioned in the initial biopic - the author was born in the 19th century and was educated on material from his time. His vocabulary is extensive - and his diction is evocative: a trait which a budding referee would be well served to emulate and learn - however his mannerisms and some of the ideas presented can come across as dated. Some authors are able to speak through the ages - their works being timeless either in presentation or in their appeal to the human condition: Smith achieves this in some places, but in others, it becomes very obvious that the stories can be as old as a century.

Similarly, some themes in the book - such as the open use of race - may catch the reader off-guard: especially one sensitive to the subjects broached. In particular, Zothique concerns itself heavily with life and with death... and with that which lies between or beyond. The necromancy which features prominently in the tales often crosses the lines between these two extremes - birth and death - where the carnal desires of necromancers or witches (and at times, normal folk, themselves!) are satiated using mindless or compulsory involvement of reanimated productions.

Note - it is entirely plausible (and, as I type it, likely) that these broaches of the taboo are specifically intentional, necrophiles in particular being the last brink of corporeal drive and a fundamental breach and violation of the natural order: a choice by the author to shock and disgust while drawing in the reader artfully, without a hint of pornographic intent. Indeed, the author is able to edge the erotic without engaging it - something that, in and of itself, might not be welcome to a sensitive reader, let alone at a gaming table.

So, being thus informed, the reader may decide whether or not to continue into the far future of the world's last continent.

For further reading - or for initial reading as well - it has been brought up in the comments that the full fiction of Clark Ashton Smith may be available online freely on Eldritch Dark. Thank you very much, Tamás!

Further Reading

As mentioned, Clark Ashton Smith - the author - passed in 1961: 62 years prior to this writing. A great deal of his works being published in the 1920s, a great deal of his works are now publicly available under the Public Domain. Project Gutenberg - the free online print product distribution project - has two works of poetry by the author available freely for download. Free Speculative Fiction Online, which provides access to free literature under Creative Commons, has several short stories posted by Clark Ashton Smith. In that sense, there is a fair amount of material freely available that will allow you to - without risk - assess whether Clark Ashton Smith is right for you; whether his style of writing and the material he produces will be inspirational for you and your home campaign. However, be advised - as likewise mentioned, Smith was not a one-genre artist. Not all of his works will be (as would be evidenced by the reading of the plethora mentioned) of the same tone.

Another book in my own collection, I thought a good starting point for Smith, The Door to Saturn: T Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith: Volume 2, is - to my own perspective - a mixed bag. 

It opens strongly with the title story, The Door to Saturn, which centers around...

...a vindictive priest and a fugitive sorcerer: the latter of whom flees through a mysterious "door" given to him by a passing super-terrestrial creature, a one way ticket to safety. It reads as a travelogue through an alien landscape through unfamiliar peoples - an unsurprisingly one-way journey with a humorous (and fortunate) conclusion for the protagonists.

It betrays, however, one of the weaknesses of the author - which was rejected from Weird Tails magazine for being too wistful, too fanciful - his vocabulary, while erudite and extensive, is likewise antiquated. Reading the piece, you can feel it was written 100 years ago: unlike some other authors - such as Howard or Anderson - who transcend time: writing to you as though they were flesh and blood, breathing the yarn into your face with their hot, living breath.

And this trend continues in the book - it is not exclusively fantasy: but instead encompasses science fiction (dated, the concept of a computer not having been conceived yet) - the theme oscillating and making some stories more akin to my tastes (and more or less appropriate for OSR gaming) than others.

With that in mind - the buyer may beware: but your risk is as well informed, in that sense, as might be feasible for a risky book buyer to be.

Conclusion

Zothique is, without question, a work of art. Additionally, Clark Ashton Smith - it's author - had profound impacts on other Appendix N writers - including Fritz Lieber of Swords & Deviltry fame, in addition to those already mentioned - as well as on the writers of many modern OSR supplements and settings. For this reason - for his tonal conformity to our movement in gaming (or, perhaps, due to our tonal conformity to him, knowing his writing precedes almost all of our births, let alone the beginnings of the OSR as a movement) - I rate it as 1: Very OSR.

Simply put, Clark Ashton Smith - whose name was affectionately transliterated by Lovecraft to create Klarkash-Ton, Atlantean Priest, of The Battle that Ended the Century - is the appendix that was removed. Clark Ashton Smith, as his fans among the gaming community will tell you, deserves a place among the cannon of the OSR literary background and - be it through picking up tricks in the telling of stories or in the depictions of the strange, foreign, or horrific for your players or be it through the classic feel of the works in Zothique in particular - any referee, tenured or tyro, would be well served in his or her game to brush up on Clark Ashton Smith's final continent in the cycle of the Earth.

Thank you for reading; delve on!

 

Zothique: The Final Cycle, written by Clark Ashton Smith and edited by Ronald S. Hilger, is copyright 2022 Hippocampus Press of New York, NY, and copyright 2022 Ronald S. Hilger. Cover art for Zothique: The Final Cycle by Jason Van Hollander, copyright 2022 to the same. Applicable copyrights to original Clark Ashton Smith materials held by Arkham House of Sauk City, WI. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons & Dragons, and D&D and all imagery thereto related are property of Wizards of the Coast. Portrait of the author, older, sourced from ThePulp.net; portrait of the author, younger, sourced from Wikipedia.

Clerics Wear Ringmail makes no claim of ownership of any sort to any of the aforementioned media, texts, or images and includes references to them for review purposes under Fair Use: US Code Title 17, Chapter 107. 

The slide-in of Gary... I got from a meme.