The Lake of Hali is a cloud-lake near the city of Carcosa, on a world near the star Aldebaran in the Hyades (ADJ: The King in Yellow, AWD: "The House on Curwen Street", EXP: "De Marigny's Clock"). Hastur is said to be "the Sleeper beneath the Lake." When the Spawn of Cthulhu wake and thrash about in the lake it is called "the Time of the Frothing". Mists and cloud banks commonly cover the surface of the lake (or else the whole lake is made of mist?), and the ghostly presence of Carcosa can sometimes be seen. There are several lakes in the area, and one text refers to "the black lakes of Hali", however the other lakes have their own names (such as Dehme). Called "The Lake of Hali" as well as just "Lake Hali" and is sometimes termed "the Black Lake."
Trivia[]
- The Lake of Hali was added to the Mythos by H. P. Lovecraft in The Whisperer in Darkness, based on coinage by Ambrose Bierce and Robert W. Chambers; it has been greatly and conflictingly expanded upon since. In Bierce's works, Hali was the name of a character quoted by the narrator of "An Inhabitant of Carcosa".
- Lake of Hali makes a minor appearance in the ongoing Japanese manga Murcielago in which the main character is named Kuroko, which translates into 'black lake'.
- The first season of the HBO series True Detective namechecks a lot of the Chambers material from his book The King in Yellow, including the Lake of Hali.
- The Lake of Hali is mentioned in an invocation by Peter Ingram in Hugh B. Cave's short Cthulhu Mythos story "The Death Watch".