- 🔀 For the short story by Ran Cartwright see De Marigny's Clock (Ran Cartwright)
De Marigny's Clock is an artefact of the Elder Gods which appears in Brian Lumley's Titus Crow series of Cthulhu Mythos novels and short stories. It was inspired by a line written by H. P. Lovecraft and E. Hoffman Price in the short story "Through the Gates of the Silver Key".
Description[]
Disguised as a grandfather clock shaped somewhat like a coffin, the Clock is in fact an incredibly advanced ship with the ability to traverse time, space and, with the correct pilot, dimensions as well. It features a door on the front body which is large enough to admit a full-grown human. Upon stepping inside, pilot and passengers will become enveloped in a white mist which cushions their bodies perfectly, presumably to protect them from any manoeuvring stresses.
Controlling the Clock's direction of travel - either in the material universe or through time - requires nothing more than the mental concentration of the pilot, who may use the advanced sensors to view his surroundings out to a tremendous distance. It is capable of travelling at faster than light speed both in and out of an atmosphere (although it features inbuilt safeguards to prevent most collisions), is capable of moving through time at the speed of thought, and can be outfitted with a variety of sensor and weapon packages depending on the requirements of the user. As a device created by the Elder Gods, the weapon systems are powerful enough to physically harm, if perhaps not destroy, entities as powerful as a Great Old One, as seen when Titus Crow used the Clock's energy beam against Ithaqua.
Trivia[]
- De Marigny's Clock is not a unique device; Titus Crow observed a great hall full of them when he first arrived on Elysia, one of which was utilised by the alien Dchichi named Esch.
- Ran Cartwright presents a very different version of the clock in his short story "De Marigny's Clock", this one being more of a mystical artefact, and seemingly malevolent in nature.
- Lumley's depiction of de Marigny's Clock shares several similarities with the TARDIS from the Doctor Who franchise. Both are living machines that can travel through time, space and other dimensions. Both are shaped like ordinary objects, bigger on the inside, virtually indestructible, and have a scanner that allows those inside to see where they have landed. Both are also the creation of an ancient alien civilisation: the Elder Gods in de Marigny's Clock's case, and the Time Lords in the TARDIS' case.