The K'n-yanians, also known as the People of K'n-yan, is the collective name given to human-looking immortal alien beings who live in the mysterious underground city known as K'n-yan. They made their first appearance in The Mound, by Howard Phillips Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop.
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They are intelligent beings of aristocraticic bearing. They are believed to have descended from the ancient North and South American settlers, having moved to K'n-yan after the sinking of Atlantis. Formerly, they had cities on the outside, including one on one of the Kadath Mountains. Due to their isolation (even forbidding anyone who found the place to leave), they lost part of their culture, including their knowledge of magic, but they are still great dreamers and possess great mental powers such as the ability to will themselves to become intangible and walk through walls, an ability which they could teach to others but rarely did so. They also had great scientific knowledge, having mastered atomic power. It was said that they could have had extraterrestrial origin, but others claimed that this story was nothing more than a ruse used by the natives to grant themselves supremacy over other humanoid beings.
The natives of K'n-yan are immortal (except by violence or suicide), and have fallen into decline by losing interest in having all their needs met. To survive the boredom, they indulged in grotesque entertainments and the worship of sinister gods they had discovered while exploring the abyss of N'kai (where they had encounters with the Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua). The natives worshiped Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, Ghatanothoa, Nug and Yeb and Shub-Niggurath, as well as Han the Dark. Their titular gods, to whom they dedicate rich shrines and statues, are Yig and Cthulhu, whom they call "Tulu." According to them, Tulu brought with him an alien metal, which they use as currency after they extracted it from ancient cyclopean idols created on other worlds. This metal was shown to be the only substance that could harm or ward off the K'n-Yanians while they were intangible. Tulu also taught them to write in the R'lyeh glyph form, which has evolved over time. Its capital, Tsath, was named after Tsathoggua, who was venerated by the K'n-Yanians until the inhabitants discovered the Old One’s true nature.
They also fervently studied the culture of the serpent people, often descending to the Yoth region to analyze the archaeological remains they left there, such as ruins of temples and idols of Tsathoggua (which were rescued by the snake men from the abyss of N'kai) and Yig (god of serpent people).
This race had zombie slaves without rights and machines that did the work for them. These slaves, known as "Y'm-bhi", are kept alive thanks to advanced science, serving as amusement for the k'n-yans in public torture or as food for their mounts, the Gyaa-Yothn hybrids.
In The Mound, the Spanish explorer Pánfilo de Zamacona y Núñez was received with hospitality by the inhabitants of K’n-yam and even married one of their number named T'la-yub. However, when they tried to escape to the surface, they were branded as traitors and after being caught they were punished by being turned into Y’m-bhi.