"Priestess of Nycrama" is a short Cthulhu Mythos story by author John W. Patterson. It was first published in the December 1999 edition of Edward P. Berglund's online fanzine Nightscapes.
Synopsis[]
Two explorers, Drs Howard Phillips and Claude Farnsworth, explore a mysterious plateau in a remote region of Venezuela. During their researches, they are captured by a tribe of Nycrama cultists who send them through a portal to the pocket dimension inhabited by their master. There, they encounter a mysterious young woman named Endura who aids them in returning to their own world and destroying the malevolent creature, though the psychological strain costs one of them his life.
In the aftermath, Endura is revealed to be an alien woman who was planted into Nycrama's dimension with the goal of destroying it for good. The survivor, Farnsworth, travels to the dimension where Endura (whose real name is revealed to be Avrenim) dwells, and the two live in bliss together, while Phillips is reincarnated as none other than Howard Phillips Lovecraft himself.
Behind the Mythos[]
In his afterword to the Kindle edition, Patterson dedicates the story to Clark Ashton Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, and H. Beam Piper. He further states that:
| “ | Avalzant, Pnidleethon, Yamil Zacra, Yuzh, and N(y)ecrama are fantastic names and places, inspiring me to write, first used by Clark Ashton Smith in his unfinished tale, "The Infernal Star", begun in 1933. | „ |
Publication History[]
Since it’s debut appearance in Nightscapes, "Priestess of Nycrama" has also been independently published as a digital chapbook through Amazon's digital Kindle platform, with the release having two different covers.
Trivia[]
- Virtually every name used in the story has been reused from elsewhere in the Cthulhu Mythos, although not all of them are used to refer to their more usual subjects.
Gallery[]
