The Maker of Moons

"The Maker of Moons" is a fantasy short story by Robert W. Chambers originally published in 1896. It introduces the mystical city of Yian, which would be incorporated into the Cthulhu Mythos by H. P. Lovecraft in The Whisperer in Darkness.

Synopsis[]

In 1896, in an American town close to the Canadian border, a goldsmith named George Godfrey acquires a lifelike gold sculpture of a small snake. Godfrey shows the piece to his friend, Roy Cardenhe (the narrator), telling him that he bought it from a man who lived in the vicinity of Cardinal Woods, near Starlit Lake. While Cardenhe admires the work, a creature crawls out of Godfrey's pocket, much to his friend's surprise. The animal looks like a strange combination of worm, crab, and reptile, and Cardenhe is utterly apalled by it, sensing something wrong about it. Godfrey recounts that he first saw the creature clinging to the box in which the gold snake was kept. The staff of the Natural History Museum couldn't identify the species, so he decided to keep it and use it as a model for his own art work.

Later that day, Cardenhe goes on a hunting trip to Cardinal Woods with two friends: a wealthy gold miner named Pierpoint and a government secret agent named Barris. The latter reveals that he's actually in a mission to apprehend a gang of "gold-makers". Recently, a scientist named La Grange has demonstrated that gold is not an element, but a composite metal that can be manufactured, and while the discovery has been kept secret for the fear of the economic consequences, some people have apparently learned how to make it. Pierpoint worries about whether Prof. La Grange will truly keep his discovery a secret, but Barris confirms it by revealing that La Grange has just been found murdered.

Five days later, Cardenhe's servant, David, tells him that he saw a Chinese man in the woods. When Cardenhe goes hunting with one of his dogs, he comes across a glade with a pool and meets a young woman named Ysonde. She caresses the dog gently and seems harmless, but also displays a puzzling unfamiliarity with the local settlements, and becomes serious when she notices a crescent-shaped mark on Cardenhe's forehead. She only relaxes again after Cardenhe assures her that it's not a scar, but a birthmark. She then reveals that she's a sculptor, and shows him a stone on which she has carved the images of moths and dragonflies. Cardenhe is impressed by her skill, but she vanishes just as suddenly as she appeared. On his way home, Cardenhe catches the sight of a Chinese man hiding among the trees, just like David had described.

The next day, Barris and Pierpoint have breakfast with Cardenhe and reveal that they have located the gold-makers' camp near the lake. Barris also shows him a small crab-like creature, which Cardenhe recognises as being the same species as Godfrey's new "pet". When Cardenhe talks about the Chinese man he saw in the woods, Barris informs him that a Chinese organisation known as the Kuen-Yuin is currently operating in the area. The Kuen-Yuin is a powerful society of sorcerers, and their symbol is a golden globe engraved with images of creatures that are, once again, the same as Godfrey's "pet". When Cardenhe touches the golden globe, it seems to change colour, and the images appear to move. Barris also informs Cardenhe that his crescent-shaped birthmark looks like the symbol of Yue-Laou, the legendary "Moon Maker" who is the leader of the Kuen-Yuin.

Cardenhe tries to lead Barris and Pierpoint to the glade, but is unable to find it even after hours of search, at which point he has almost persuaded himself to believe that he had only dreamed about the whole thing. However, when he enters the woods alone, he finds the glade again. Ysonde greets him and shows him her latest work: a gold sculpture of a winged lizard. She reveals that her stepfather is the one who tells her to sculpt things. When Cardenhe asks where she gets the gold, Ysonde responds that her stepfather makes it, and that he sells most of it to a group of men. Her house, she claims, is in the woods, but Cardenhe could never find it if he tried, nor could the men that her stepfather sells the gold to. Although Ysonde enjoys the forest, she longs to return to her home city of Yian. Asked how far away Yian is, she informs Cardenhe that it is "across seven oceans and the great river which is longer than from the Earth to the moon". When Cardenhe asks her to speak the language of Yian, Ysonde starts crying. As he apologises, he notices that she carries a golden globe with her, the symbol of the Kuen-Yuin.

Cardenhe loses consciousness, then wakes up hours later, lying on the forest floor, wounded, being examined by Pierpoint and Barris. They take him home and tend to his wound, which is not serious. Cardenhe asks Barris about Yian, and the agent reacts in shock and horror, as he claims that Yian is "the centre of the Kuen-Yuin", somewhere in China. Barris pulls up his sleeve to reveal the crescent-shaped mark of Yue-Laou on his elbow. He explains to Cardenhe and Pierpoint that he himself has lived in Yian, where he fell in love with a woman who was given to him by Yue-Laou, and taken from him by Yue-Laou also.

That night, Barris successfully apprehends one of the gold-makers. Cardenhe notices that all the animals of the forest seem to be running away from Starlit Lake. When he finds Ysonde again, she reveals that in their last encounter, Cardenhe had suddenly run off into the woods and abandoned her. Cardenhe has no memory of what happened before he lost consciousness, and asks Ysonde to tell him more about Yue-Laou. According to her, Yue-Laou came from the moon and used to be a sort of celestial matchmaker, responsible for uniting "all predestined couples" with cords of silk. At some point, however, he turned evil and corrupted the Xin, "the good genii of China". The Xin is a strange creature which now dwells in Starlit Lake. The half-worm half-crab things that scurry over the forest are also part of the Xin's body, all linked to it despite not being physically attached.

Ysonde informs Cardenhe that those who carry the crescent-shaped mark are watched by Yue-Laou, and risk death if they displease him. Cardenhe sees a cord of silk tying himself to Ysonde, but it melts away when he touches it. At this point, they sight the mysterious Chinese man again, and Ysonde realizes that he is both Yue-Laou and her stepfather: two different personas of the same man. Cardenhe tries to reach for his revolver, but finds himself and Ysonde tied together as if by a web of silk. Yue-Laou conjures a sphere that looks like a perfect replica of the moon in the sky. It floats from his hand to the sky to join the real moon, followed by many more like it. Ysonde hears the wailing sounds made by the headless Yeth-hounds, which are said to gallop through the woods whenever the Xin is about to kill someone. The ground turns alive with hundreds of the crustacean satellites of the Xin. While Cardenhe and Ysonde remain paralysed by the web, Barris shows up and shoots Yue-Laou several times. A massive beast rises from the lake and attacks Barris. Cardenhe and Ysonde faint in shock.

As the narrative reaches its conclusion, Cardenhe reveals to the reader that the Xin still inhabits Starlit Lake, and that its crustacean satellites are now the only creatures to be found in Cardinal Woods, as all the other animals have fled in fear and never returned. A note was found written by Barris, stating his intention to kill Yue-Laou before the latter killed him. It reveals that the woman that Barris loved was made by Yue-Laou from a white lotus, but just as the sorcerer "gave" her to Barris, he later came to take her away. When Barris refused, Yue-Laou took both the woman and their daughter, who Barris believes to be Ysonde. Press publicity has caused the Kuen-Yuin to move out of sight, but the body of Yuen-Laou hasn't been found, and Cardenhe fears that the sorcerer still lives. Cardenhe and Ysonde were found unconscious on the lake shore by Pierpoint. Ever since that day, Ysonde hasn't been able to find the house she inhabited with her "stepfather", and she and Cardenhe have never been able to find the glade again. She still has the golden globe of the Kuen-Yuin, but it no longer changes colour.

The last sentence contains a final surprise to the reader. As Cardenhe finishes the story, he reveals that Ysonde is now bending over his desk and asking why he's writing all this nonsense, thus implying that the whole story might have been made-up.

Characters[]

Roy Cardenhe, the narrator.
George Godfrey, a goldsmith.
Billy Pierpoint, a friend of Cardenhe, the owner of a lucrative gold mine.
Colonel Franklyn Barris, a friend of Cardenhe and Pierpoint who works for the Government Secret Service.
Old David, Cardenhe's servant, who takes care of the dogs.
- Voyou, Gamin, and Mioche, Cardenhe's dogs, specifically Gordon Setters.
Howlett, Pierpoint's loyal valet.
Ysonde, a young woman from Yian
The Shiner, a counterfeiter and a member of a gang of gold-makers.
Yue-Laou, a supernatural sorcerer from Yian
The Xin, a mysterious creature that lives in Starlit Lake. It has a number of mobile "satellites", which are part of its body, despite not being physically attached to it. These appear like small mouthless creatures with traits of a crab, a spider, a worm and a reptile.

Behind the Mythos[]

"The Maker of Moons" introduces the city of Yian, which would be mentioned in The Whisperer in Darkness as part of a list of names that Albert Wilmarth comes across in his occult studies. Said list also includes references to Chambers' The King in Yellow, as well as to the works of Clark Ashton Smith, Lord Dunsany, Robert E. Howard and Lovecraft himself.

Yian might also be related to, or even synonymous with, the city of Yian-Ho, which is mentioned in "The Diary of Alonzo Typer" (by Lovecraft and William Lumley), and "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" (by Lovecraft and E. Hoffmann Price).

Although "The Maker of Moons" is not part of Chambers' more famous The King in Yellow series, it seems to share certain themes, particularly as Ysonde mentions that the colour yellow is the symbol of faith in Yian. In the context of the Cthulhu Mythos, it is therefore possible to connect Xangi (the god worshiped by the people of Yian) to Hastur.

Mythos scholar and editor Robert M. Price included "The Maker of Moons" as the first story in the anthology The Tindalos Cycle, and suggested that the supernatural Yeth-hounds might be a sort of prototype to the Hounds of Tindalos.