Plateau of Leng

Plateau of Leng
Location	Earth, The Dreamlands
Type	Dimensional Anomaly
Ruling Powers	Various
Accessibility	Various
Notable Features	The Ruins of an Elder Thing City
Inhabitants	Elder Things (formerly) The Men of Leng The Spiders of Leng The High Priest Not to Be Described
First appearance	HPL: "Celephaïs"
Appearances	HPL: "The Hound" Fungi from Yuggoth The Whisperer in Darkness At the Mountains of Madness "The Horror in the Museum" "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" "Out of the Aeons" The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath EXP: CthulhuTech
Created by	H. P. Lovecraft

🔀 For the Plateau of Leng from At the Mountains of Madness, see Leng (Antarctica)

“	Mythologists have placed Leng in Central Asia; but the racial memory of man—or of his predecessors—is long, and it may well be that certain tales have come down from lands and mountains and temples of horror earlier than Asia and earlier than any human world we know. A few daring mystics have hinted at a pre-Pleistocene origin for the fragmentary Pnakotic Manuscripts, and have suggested that the devotees of Tsathoggua were as alien to mankind as Tsathoggua itself. Leng, wherever in space or time it might brood, was not a region I would care to be in or near; nor did I relish the proximity of a world that had ever bred such ambiguous and Archaean monstrosities as those Lake had just mentioned.	„
	~ William Dyer , HPL: At the Mountains of Madness

🐙 Leng is a fictional location created by H. P. Lovecraft, a cold, arid plateau whose location seems to vary entirely according to different accounts. Abdul Alhazred describes it as a place where different realities converge, which might explain why its precise location cannot be pinned down.

The Plateau of Tsang, referenced by Frank Belknap Long and other authors, may be a region of Leng.

Locations

• The Necronomicon places it in Central Asia and says it is inhabited by a corpse-eating cult. (HPL: "The Hound")
• The Plateau of Leng is located in the northern Dreamlands, an alternate dimension accessible only in sleep. It is inhabited by satyr-like degenerates known as the Men of Leng. It is also the dwelling place of the High Priest Not to Be Described in a prehistoric monastery. (HPL: The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath) The plains of Leng are supposed to be located in Earth's Dreamlands. (EXP: The Clock of Dreams Brian Lumley)
• Leng is a remote plateau in Tibet where the monks of a lone monastery serve what appears to be an ancient underground fungus and possible hive mind, similar to Ophiocordyceps sinensis, but which infects humans. (EXP: "Leng", first printed in Lovecraft Unbound Marc Laidlaw)
• Leng is a demi-plane, or pocket dimension, that exists adjacent to the world of Golarion. It closely resembles the Dreamland's version of Leng. (EXP Pathfinder roleplaying game)
• The plateau of Leng is a projection into a higher mathematical space, which makes up the universe as observable by humans. (EXP Neonomicon, Alan Moore)
• Leng Avenue is a street in Innsmouth. (EXP: "Only the End of the World Again", Neil Gaiman)
• The "Hall of Leng" is a location within the Imperial Palace on Terra (Earth). (EXP: "Blood Games" [Dan Abnett, Warhammer 40,000, Tales of Heresy, Book 10 of Horus Heresy)

Antarctica

An expedition from Miskatonic University explores a plateau in Antarctica and discovers an ancient and apparently abandoned city built by the Elder Things. It was discovered by geologist William Dyer and graduate student Danforth. One member of the expedition, who has encountered references to the Plateau of Leng in ancient texts, forms the hypothesis that the plateau they are exploring is Leng. (HPL: At the Mountains of Madness) In common with the High Priest's abode, the walls of the buildings atop the plateau are covered with detailed frescos that are disturbing to read. (HPL: The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath) Wilbur Whateley also had vision of cities at the poles when studying aklo. (HPL: The Dunwich Horror)

The location in Antarctica is confirmed as the Plateau of Leng. (EXP: "God Cancer", Greg Stolze)

However, it is never explicitly stated in any of Lovecraft's writing that this Antarctic city actually is Leng. In fact, it seems more likely that the city is simply an outpost of the Elder Things which came to Earth not to conquer but to live in isolation.

Other mentions

• In a ceremony recorded by Henry Wentworth Akeley, the voice of one of the human agents of the Mi-go can be heard talking about "the gifts of the men of Leng". (HPL: The Whisperer in Darkness)
• The Dhôl Chants might have originated on Leng. (HPL: "The Horror in the Museum")
• The Plateau of Leng is one of the locations in which the cult of Ghatanothoa is rumoured to have been present. (HPL: "Out of the Aeons")
• The mythical city of Yian-Ho has been described as "the hidden legacy of sinister, aeon-old Leng". (HPL: "Through the Gates of the Silver Key")
• In Stephen King's novel Needful Things, Mr. Gaunt gives Ace Merrill some cocaine said to be fabricated in "the plains of Leng", though no other explanations are given. The novel also contains other references to Lovecraft's work. The Plateau is mentioned again in his novel The Eyes of the Dragon, where it is described as the place where Flagg's spellbook was written, by a man named Alhazred. This implies that Flagg's spellbook is the Necronomicon itself.
• In the Collectible Card Game Magic: The Gathering, there are two cards named "Library of Leng" and "Candles of Leng".
• In August Derleth's short story "The Thing That Walked on the Wind", two characters claim to be have been taken "...to Leng, lost Leng, hidden Leng, whence sprung Wind-Walker", suggesting that Ithaqua might have originated there. It is claimed that the Plateau of Leng was once ruled by entities known as "the Ancient Ones".
• In Kim Newman's Richard Jeperson short story "Soho Golem", an occultist and priest of Nyarlathotep holds the noble title "Lord Leaves of Leng".
• Leng is mentioned by an Iranian agent in "A Colder War" (1997) by Charles Stross.
• In Charles Stross's short story "Pimpf", the "Language of Leng" is inserted into the programming code of Neverwinter Nights in order to ensnare the souls of players.
• Leng is mentioned as being the home of an order of cannibal priests. (EXP: The Illuminatus! Trilogy)
• In Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Saga of the Renunciates", a character refers to a road that goes "across the Plateau of Leng" being "impassable and haunted by monsters"
• High On Fire's 2010 song "Frost Hammer" contains the lyric "Plateau of Leng".
• In the novella "Voluntary Committal", collected in 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill, it appears in the song lyrics "The ants go marching two-by-two, They walked across the Leng plateau".
• In Darrell Schweitzer's short story "The Adventure of the Death-Fetch", featured in the anthology The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a mystery revolves around an expedition to the Plateau of Leng.
• In the comic series Locke & Key, demonic Lovecraftian spirits from beyond a buried stone doorway are known as the Children of Leng.
• In the Doctor Who novel All-Consuming Fire, the Plain of Leng is a location on the ice planet Ry'leh from which a dimensional gate can be opened to Earth, specifically Jabalhabad, India.

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