The H.P. Lovecraft Wiki
Advertisement

This subject contains information from the "Lovecraft Circle" Myth Cycles, and while guided by HPL are not based on his work alone. This subject contains information from the Expanded Cthulhu Mythos, and not based on H.P. Lovecraft's works directly. Averoigne is a fictional province in France, created by Clark Ashton Smith as a setting for a series of horror fantasy stories set in a pre-modern era. The fictional land appears to based on the historical province of Auvergne.[1] The frequent references to Lovecraftian deities, often in transparently altered terms (Sodaqui for Tsathoggua, Iog-Sotôt for Yog-Sothoth, the Ram With a Thousand Ewes for Shub-Niggurath), establish Averoigne as a part of the Cthulhu Mythos.

In addition to Mythos entities and their worshippers, Smith populates Averoigne with malign and dangerous creatures like vampires ("Rendezvous in Averoigne"), lamias ("The End of the Story", possibly "The Enchantress of Sylaire"), and satyrs ("The Satyr").

Stories[]

Smith used Averoigne as the setting for the following stories:

These stories are collected in The Averoigne Archives: The Complete Averoigne Tales of Clark Ashton Smith, an ebook published by Pickman's Press in 2019.

Geography[]

Smith places Averoigne near the center of France, in the highland region known as the Central Massif. The northern half of the territory is dominated by the walled city of Vyônes, site of an impressive cathedral. In the southern half is located the town of Ximes. The main road of Averoigne runs between Ximes and Vyônes, straight through the thick, dark forest that blankets the province. A river called Isoile flows from the mountains in the northern part of the province to feed into a swamp in the south.

Other Averoigne towns and villages mentioned by Smith include Moulins, Les Hiboux, La Frenâie, Sainte Zenobie, and Périgon. In the forest can be found haunted ruins, such as the Chateau des Faussesflammes and the stronghold of Ylourgne.

In The History of Averoigne, Glenn Rahman suggests that Vyônes might be identified with Clermont-Ferrand in the real world's Auvergne, Ximes with that province's St. Flour, and Périgon with La Chaise Dieu, which also had a prestigious abbey.[1]

Timeline[]

In Lovecraft's Fiction[]

H. P. Lovecraft paid homage to his friend Clark Ashton Smith's setting in his revision tale "Out of the Aeons", which mentions in passing that the fictional Cabot Museum in Boston purchased, in the spring of 1931, "the strange objects and inexplicably preserved bodies found in crypts beneath the almost vanished and evilly famous ruins of Château Faussesflammes, in Averoigne, France."

The spring of 1931--specifically, April/May 1931--is when Weird Tales published "A Rendezvous in Averoigne", which features vampires found beneath the ruins of Chateau Faussesflammes.

Previously, Lovecraft had used Auvergne (the real life province that inspired Averoigne) as the setting of his supernatural story "Psychopompos".

Other Writers[]

One of the first stories not written by Smith to be set in Averoigne was "The Wedding of Sheila-Na-Gog", first published in Crypt of Cthulhu #29 (Candlemas 1985), in which Glenn Rahman —author of The History of Averoigne— and Richard L. Tierney insert Tierney's character, Simon of Gitta, into the prehistory of Smith's province. In Rahman and Tierney's story, set in the first century Roman Empire in an occupied province called Regio Averonum, Simon is caught up in a struggle between the Gauls, who worship an Abhoth-like creature called Sheila-Na-Gog, and the Sadoqua-worshipping Averoni.

In a similar vein, Ron Hilger published "The Oracle of Sadoqua", a story of conflict between Romans and Druids in Averonia, in Chronicles of the Cthulhu Codex #5 (Winter 1989). Hilger based the story on Smith's outline for a story that he never completed.[2] Cthulhu Codex published another such "posthumous collaboration" between Hilger and Smith, "The Doom of Azédarac", in issue #6 (1994); this was a sequel to Smith's "The Holiness of Azédarac". Hilger (with Henry J. Vester III) also wrote "The Muse of Averoigne", published in Fungi #14 (Fall 1996).

Castle Amber (1981) by Tom Moldvay, an adventure module for Dungeons & Dragons, introduces the d'Amberville family, a clan of wizards from Averoigne who fled persecution on Earth and resettled on the world of Mystara. In the course of the adventure the players pass through a portal back to Averoigne, where they are embroiled in the events of several of Smith's stories, including "The Colossus of Ylourgne" and "The Beast of Averoigne".

Brian McNaughton wrote "The Return of the Colossus", a sequel to "The Colossus of Ylourgne" set during World War One, that was published in Weirdbook #29 (Autumn 1995).

The anthology The Averoigne Legacy: Tribute Tales in the World of Clark Ashton Smith, published by Pickman's Press in 2019, collects these and other stories by various writers who have set their own fiction in Smith's Averoigne.

Averoigne was also adapted as a setting for Cthulhu Dark Ages, Chaosium's early medieval setting for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game, in a series of articles that appeared in Worlds of Cthulhu magazine[3] (published by Pegasus Press and edited by Keith Herber and Adam Crossingham, and not to be confused with the 2012 anthology of the same name edited by Robert M. Price). Issue #1 of Worlds of Cthulhu, published in August 2004, featured the articles "On Gaming in Averoigne" by Richard A. Becker, "Averoigne Occupations" by Dan Harms and Adam Crossingham, and "Skills for Dark Ages: Averoigne" by Dan Harms and Adam Crossingham, with additional articles further exploring the setting published in Worlds of Cthulhu issues #2 (which featured "Dark Ages: Averoigne - A Gazetteer of Averoigne" and "Dark Ages: Averoigne - The Library", a list of new Cthulhu Mythos and occult tomes for the game setting), #3 (featuring the articles "Dark Ages: Averoigne - A Bestiary", Dark Ages: Averoigne - The Grimoire", which featured new spells and rules for summoning knowledge spirits, "Dark Ages: Averoigne - Magical Items" and "Dark Ages: Averoigne - Finance in the 13th Century") and #4 (featuring just one article, "Insanity and Faith in Averoigne").

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Crypt of Cthulhu #26, Hallowmass 1984, "The History of Averoigne?" by Glenn Rahman
  2. The Averoigne Legacy: Tribute Tales in the World of Clark Ashton Smith, "Introduction", by Edward Stasheff (Pickman's Press, 2019).
  3. World of Cthulhu at rpggeek.com
Advertisement