Royals, Hordes, and The Alien Nature of Mars - The Hyperborea rpg & Warriors of the Red Planet Hybrid Campaign Commentary

Tonight as we prepare for yet another round of snowstorms, I got together with my players via a Zoom call. And we discussed the upcoming Warriors of the Red Planet/Hyperborea rpg campaign leg. During tonight's call we spoke at length about the various aspects of the fact that that the ancient White Martians had a war with the serpent men of our campaign's Mars. And this made me dig out Night Owl Workshop's  Space Noble PC class. 

Why?! Because this class highlights something that we find in the writings of both Edgar Rice Burroughs & Leigh Brackett. The fact that social class plays such a tight role in the separation of the Martian races hierchary that is implied within the writings of both authors. 

And this has been a key playing point within our campaigns. There are two of our player's PC's who are of noble blood. Ironically Hemaza Dee our princess turned thief & Nazaa the space noble who is masquerading as a warrior. 
These two know & hate the ancient White nobles whose behind the resurrection of the serpentmen. The White Martians & thier counterparts among the Reds have woven immortality within thier unlives after death to continue the racial feuds millions of years later. 
And this is something we see within the writings of Leigh Brackett time and again. 

White Box: Unearthed Trove By Jonathan Rowe was also discussed but I'm unsure about allowing too many resources at the table top at this time. There are already enough classes with the Hyperborea rpg that allow many of the tandum PC classes to be done within our campaign. 

The Pyromancer,cryomancer, druid, and shaman PC classes  may in point of fact be perfect for the revivalization efforts of Mars as a dying world. And may be behind the atmosphere processing plans of the planet created by the ancient Martians. The ancient Martians also had thier own monsters to contend with in the form of the Green Martians. According to the Encyclopedia Barsoomia Wiki Green Martian entry;"The complete origin of the Green Martians is mostly unknown. They first rose to prominence in the waning days of Barsoom, when the oceans began to recede, and began raiding the cities of the various races (such as the Orovar), driving these once-great civilizations into increasingly remote regions. When the peoples abandoned the cities, the Green hordes took over. Though they appear to have lacked the intelligence to make use of most of the ancient technology left behind, their size, brute strength, and abundance of limbs for many years prevented them from being driven out."

And the next part of the entry is telling; "As time grew on, the Green hordes ran out of enemies and began to fight among themselves. They began to split into different hordes based on the kingdoms they occupied - the horde that occupied the ancient city of Thark began to call themselves Tharks, the horde that controlled Warhoon began to call themselves Warhoon, etc. The bitter rivalry between the the hordes ensured that there would never be any alliance between them, while they fought among themselves and didn't advance, the Red peoples thrived."

There are many Green hordes scattered across Mars and thousands of minor hordes as well. Here are some of the most common & infamous hordes that appear in the ERB books: 

• Thark
• Thurd
• Torquas
• Warhoon

The Green hordes had to have supported by hordes of Red Martian barbarian tribes as well. These are the tribes we see within Leigh Brackett's stories. Not beneath the notice of John Carter but relatively unknown possibly in his part of the world. The fact that's been forgotten by many DM's and players is the size of Mars. 

Geen Martians play a huge part in many of the various campaigns of Warriors of the Red Planet that we've played over the years. The fact is that Mars is a very alien planet. And post Colonial Mars is a rather unsavory and dangerous place. And it's this nature of unrest that within our games has allowed the Sorcerers of the Black Gate & the serpent men to take hold of certain underworld & criminal aspects of the planet. 
The royals & tribal rulers of Mars are the go betweens when it comes to the Earthmen vs the barbarian hordes. These hordes are mobile moving across the face of Mars exploiting what & if they can find resources across the face of the red planet. And here's where the PC's come in. These caravans are more then simply traveling hordes. The Green & Red Martian caravans are a fact of life supplying goods, information, and more across the face of the planet. The dead cities are the way points & stations on Mars. And these are also where and when the player's PC's may be from! 

Tribal Matters, Ancient Rivalries, and PC classes - The Hyperborea rpg & Warriors of the Red Planet Hybrid Campaign Commentary

 Freak snow storm last night cancelled last night's games & that's fine. But it also meant that we could take a break and start planning out the next leg of the Hyperborea/ Warriors of The Red Planet  campaign. And I'd love to take a bit of a break so to breath a bit of life into our dead sea bottem Red Martian tribes. And here's where Hyperborea & Leigh Brackett's “The Treasure of Ptakuth” • (1940) comes in really handy. “The Treasure of Ptakuth” by Leigh Brackett is available from Astounding v25n02 (1940 04) here.

Brackett doesn't fill in details in her stories but implies them long hand. We've got an Indiana Jones/Rene Belloq dynamic, between the protagonist & the Venusian nemisis of the story. We almost see a 'Raiders of the Lost Artifacts' Rpg  vibe going on here. Let's take the long view here through the lens of the Hyperborea rpg. We've got our main protagonist 'hero' because Leigh Brackett characters all have thier all too human fumbles & sins about them. And the White Martians within this story. The Martian goddess is very much drawn in the vein of Clark Aston Smith's scientists & sorcerers. A pragmatic character willing to achieve immortality regardless of the consquences. And dare I say more then a little desparate. 

The fact is we also get a bit of an insight into the Red Martian tribes of Mars through this story indirectly. The Red Martians are both barbarians & savages in Leigh Brackett's stories. Forget John Carter here. Brackett's Martians are rough & ready barbarians who have thousands & thousands of years backing them up. And this means that the average Red Martian barbarian is going to be a sophiscated & dangerous customer. Barbarian & fighting man is going to be a very common occupation set among the bottom seas of Mars. 

So this where the Hyperborea rpg enters the picture. The White Martians are very akin to the Atlanteans of Hyperborea. Within the Hyperborea rpg almost 90 % of the occult technological items were made by the people of Atlantis. And my logic follows that this might be for the higher level technological items on our Mars. 

And another observation about the Hyperborea rpg & Warriors of the Red Planet is how specialized classes could become for both PC's & NPC's given the age of Mars. 
One of the themes that runs through Leigh Brackett's solar systems stories is ​“you might manage to become immortal, but if you do you will regret it,”.Again this is something that we also see in the works of Clark Aston Smith. And it also help to explain the pragmatic view point of the Red Martians.  

The idea running through the early Pulp writers seems to be that death has it's place within the human and non human scheme of things. Magick is incredibly rare among the solar system because of the alien science of psionics & psychics. Almost every races & creature on Mars is psionic. 

So magick still exists is incredibly rare leading into all kinds of avenues of throw backs & wizards as atavisitic throwbacks. And this also sets up wizards & clerics being the heads of cults quite nicely. 
And what about Hyperborea's rune graver class?! Hell yes it could easily be found among some of the more isolated & rarely seen Martian tribes. And this also goes for other Hyperborea rpg classes. The fact that so many of the Martian tribes are isolated makes them have access to other forbidden & not well known rites and rituals. 

And what would keep these tribes isolated?! Two things the hordes of Green Martians & mankind. Leigh Brackett's stories are super critical of the Colonial Martian state or humanity's colonial leanings. However not even death can stop the wars between the ancient Martian states. No other place is this illustrated more then in the The Sorcerer of Rhiannon • (1942)  novelette. 
Time & again we see these forces of culture vs the person caught within the greater solar system affairs of the Ancients. And its up to the protagonist to think thier way out. 

Getting A More Lovecraftian Campaign Spin On Leigh Brackett's 'Shadow Over Mars'

" Rick Urquhart was going to conquer the turmoil-ridden planet of Mars. He was penniless and unknown, but there could be no doubt that he would rule the Red Planet-the ancient Martian mystic had made the prophecy, there was no way fate could cheat him of his prize.. "

When we begin looking into the lovely work of the far future of  the Terran Exploitation Company within the bounds of Startling Stories v11n02 [1944-Fall]'s Leigh Brackett's Shadow over Mars. Three things become evident. The Terran Exploitation Company are complete & utter bastards exploiting the ancient Martian races. This corporation is running absolutely scared & they have no idea of the extent of the Martian race's artifcial nature. All of this goes back to my original AS&SH campaign notes from Thursday, August 3, 2017 here on the blog. 

You can download
& read 'The Shadow Over Mars' Right Over Here. 

This one of Brackett's first Martian novels & you can see the plight of the Martians likened to the American Indians in the United States West. Brackett would go on to write a ton of Pulp Westerns. Brackett's Shadow over Mars brings home the fact that there's been race after race that goes back eons on the Red Planet. Her Martians fit John Carter into a pocket of the Martian royalty. Brackett's Martians are thieves, wizards, warriors, & the alleyway runners of an exploited planet. And their fighting for their very existence. 
Mars exploits the hard bitten bastards as her saviors making it a perfect canvas for a party of adventurers. Especially those of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. The Hyperboreans have their own part to play in the transformation of the solar system. 
The Terran Exploitation Company seems almost like the 'Company' of the classic 70's film Alien. Out to exploit the conquered planet at any means necessary but Mars has other plans. At some far distant point in the future of Old Earth the Hyperboreans returned according to Clark Ashton Smith's Hyperborea cycle & his Zothique cycles.

The humans of 'Shadow Over Mars' are solidly within the sleazy vein of Martian stories, the grungy New Town section with its stripper Venusian girls, 3-D cinemas, and various drug parlors are the perfect metaphor of the Earthman's coming to Mars.  The Terran Exploitation Company knows that their time is almost up & they are scrambling to get all they can outta of Mars as fast as possible. They are perfect rpg fodder to use Night Owl Workshop's Colonial Troopers to stand in as their forces. Mars is not going to give up all of its secrets easily. 

The Terran Exploitation Company knows that when the stars are right then Clark Ashon Smith's  Vulthoom  an alien 'god' (plant like) is going to awaken & then every Terran on Mars is deep trouble. They want to keep the peace with the current crop of Martians but when the new cycle begins they figure they can retreat back to Earth. But can they really?! 

'Serpent Men On Mars!' - OSR Commentary On 'Sea Kings of Mars' from Thrilling Wonder Stories v34n02 (1949 06) & The 'Old Mars' Campaign Setting

 This post is going to pick right up from my 2019 post on this blog entry here " Further OSR Commentary On The Free 'Old Mars' Downloads For Your Old School Campaigns"

Download & Read Sea Kings of Mars Here

A quick rereading of  a copy of Sea Kings of Mars from Thrilling Wonder Stories v34n02 (1949 06) is one of Leigh Brackett's best.  Brackett's  writing about the serpentmen of Mars that's brought home one of my favorite villain races of Mars.  The Dhuvians, aka the Serpent Men: these are hated and feared by all Martians, these masters of super science were taught these forbidden knowleges by the very 'gods' themselves. Rhiannon being one of the Quiru, “hero gods who were human but superhuman.”  
Sea Kings has plenty of elements of Sword & Planet that can easily be brought into a campaign such as  the Tomb of Rhiannon,itself filled with all manner of bizarre super science weapons & devices. Its the fact that behind the Sark Empire of cruelty are the Dhuvians. And these serpent men have the cooperation of a 'god'. 
Sure the hero & the love interest both triumph over the odds in Sea Kings of Mars. It begs the question what happened to the the Dhuvians?! 
For my own post apocalytic Mars they woke up after the bombs fell & really got things really nasty from there. There are two OSR resources that I used for my own campaign when it comes to  the Dhuvians.  Oldskull Serpent Folk from Oldskull, aka Kent David Kelly has been my go to source for these guys. This book by itself has everything a DM needs to really bring home these serpent men villains. 

And when it comes to the Dhuvians then we've also got Gregorius21778: Ssssnake-Men! This product was  used to represent different tribal nations of serpentmen across their Martian empire. 

The Dhuvians  are going to be major antagonistic force in our upcoming campaign acting as villains & vile NPC's coming up! 

Queen of the Martian Catacombs 'Old Mars' Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyprborea & Warriors of The Red Planet Hyrbid Campaign Notes Updated

 This is the first of the Eric John Stark stories & its got all of the pulpy weirdness we've come to expect from Leigh Brackett's Mars.

"Gaunt giant and passionate beauty, two dragged thirst-crazed across endless crimson sands in terrible test of endurance. One knew where cool life-giving water lapped old stones smooth - a place of secret horror, death to reveal
S.O.S. Aphrodite by Stanley Mullen - No wonder that signal stabbed out into the icy void from a ship of hate and evil"


When it comes to iconic Martian tales they don't come closer then Queen of The Martian Catacombs, I've been rereading this tale while I've been flat on my ass with the Flu. Yeah, yeah, I'm taking care of myself and drinking plenty of fluids and the usual whatnot that folks tell you when your sick. What I've also been doing between fever gripped spasms has been rereading Queen of the Martian Catacombs by Leigh Brackett.  Don't let 'the damsel in distress' routine of the Planet Stories pulp artwork fool you. The women in Brackett's tales are power players. They've got more on their minds then mere biological imperatives and it doesn't involve our heroes.  In fact the give and take of the players that are involved here remind me of the best of Robert Howard's & Edgar Rice Burroughs. But its that touch of the forbidden wastelands of Mars that sends it home for me into the field of the Lovecraft circle of writers. There is another twist in which the hero becomes involved with the Terran agents and a little brush fire war going in background of the wastelands of Mars.
The story telling is rapid fire & the material reads like partly between a normal sword & planet mixed with a banana republic revolution set against the dying embers of a world that is half forgotten. In other words a perfect venue for a sword & sorcery style game.
The "Giants of the Earth" articles in old issues of The Dragon gave the D&D stats for Stark( Issue #28, p. 35.) and as I remember he was a total bad ass. This story can be dovetailed right into the C.L. Moore North West Smith tales. This is a Mars on the edge of a boil and almost but not quite brought to its decedent head by internal forces. Here is the perfect Mars to marry to both Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea & Warriors of the Red Planet. I'll never forget running into the cover for Volume three The Reavers of Skaith. Brackett's Mars has the space ports and Earth's interests clearly marked out, settlements drawn, but this is a world where Clark Aston Smith's Lovecraftian horrors clearly hide out in the desert sands.


Once again the idea here of the power of the Martian desert world set with the PC's dealing with its ancient realities mixed with the modern Imperialism & Earth Colonialism is a powerful combination. Take the basics of the AS&SH as the back bone system mix it in with the Warriors of the Red Planet retroclone and your ready to go. But there's far more to this combination then simply meets the eye. If we start looking a bit further a field into Gulliver of Mars, by Edwin L. Arnold then we begin to see a very different area of Old Mars. The swampy & highly dangerous temperate polar regions of the Hither & Thither peoples.

Give the expansiveness of Old Mars this isn't a surprise & there are hints throughout several novels of classic pulp and Victorian authors of connections between lost Hyperborea & Mars as a possible colony. Brackett & Moore take this implied connection and expand on it until we have solid Lovecraftian leads and in roads especially in 

Queen of the Martian Catacombs

by Leigh Brackett

Here's where the PC's could easily get caught up in the politics of the Terran Empire & the system crap stirring its engaged in on Mars. This is the same sort of interference & tactics that we see the wizards of Thundarr's era engaged in back on Old Earth. There's far more that's implied here & the connections to some of the politics that we see in C.L. Moore's North West Smith stories can't be mere coincidence. In fact if I was to speculate I'd say that the Sol system pot of Old Earth's system with its bloated suns had been messed with before. This feeling of a trodden upon Mars gives the planet a 'lived in' & on ancient decadence that we don't get with some of Burroughs books.

1d20 Random Ancient Martian Minor Treasures Table 

1. 1d4 ancient Martian mind jewels worth 60 gold pieces to the right collector, they contain weird & half remembered alien dreams 
2. Short sword jeweled for a small alien hand more of a +2 dagger in a human hand or larger. 
3. A small soul mirror worth 70 gold pieces to the right buyer. 
4. An ancient map of the dead sea bottoms  worth 700 gold pieces 
5. Twin jeweled mind needles capable of delicate surgery 1000 gold pieces to a medical collector 
6. An ancient hand of jet and onyx that points the way to an ancient treasure vault deep in the Martian desert .600 gold pieces
7. Weird Martian jewel made from a preserved alien brain. There is still a psychic trace of the former owner 70 gold pieces as a curiosity 
8.  Pathan warrior harness plain 70 gold pieces with the names of two hundred tribal warriors of renowned names carved into it 
9. A long sword carved with 15 names of protection from ancient demons of the Martian nights 
10. A clawed gauntlet of red Martian iron spiked +3 damage worth 700 gold pieces in the Southern markets 
11. An ancient seed of Tu worth 700 gold pieces 
12. A water crystal with the Southern beam marked clearly and in solid working order at least 100 gold pieces 
13. The dark heart of a Martian dead god now a curiosity of morbid aspect  300 gold pieces to a black magician 
14. Weird  crystal face mask of the ancients  worth 700 gold pieces and able to block telepathy and mind probes  
15. The globe of Tous A Hither people artifact that allows its owner to gaze into certain parts of the Martian underworld. Worth 8000 gold pieces 
16. Plain silver dagger with a gem set in the handle. 70 gold pieces 
17. A cut jeweled statue of a Martian night angel  200 gold pieces 
18. Strangely wrought statues made of a solid ruby from the ancient sea bottoms with several White Ape claw marks 300 gold pieces 
19. Green Martian horn of sounding 700 gold pieces because of the fine workmanship. 
20. The black gem of Far 'ru This gem allows the owner to see into the hearts of those preserved on the sea of death. Its worth 1000 gold pieces for the workmanship

How could we  handle Queen of the Martian Catacombs? We'd really need to use this novella as a part of campaign jump off point. Given the events of this story there's going to be lots of fall out. And where did the forbidden knowledge for this stories events come from?! This is going to lead back into the Martian underworld & possibly the Black Circle of sorcerers moving events on Mars from behind the scenes. There's lots to consider here because the fall out here is going to be intense possibly even leading to a Martian civil war. And that's where the PC trouble shooters are going to have to come in to deflate the situation. 

More Free Sword and Science Fantasy Fiction - 'The Tree of Life ' by C. L. Moore From October 1936 issue of Weird Tales magazine

 

"A gripping tale of the planet Mars and the terrible monstrosity that called its victims to it from afar -- a tale of interplanetary space hero Northwest Smith."
Grab it right here. 

Most of you might be thinking that this blog entry is going to be where we dive deep into C.L. Moore's Northwest Smith  Mars.   If we look at 'The Tree of Life ' by C. L. Moore more closely there's a lot going on below the surface. 
 The actual danger comes to PC's who don't understand that the Lovecraftian Martian plant described in the story is actually a part of a much greater danger on Mars & elswhere. The plant life described in the story is similar to plant deities of Mars decribed by both Leigh Brackett & Clark Aston Smith. For CAS it was his story, 'The Dweller in the Gulf' is one where one of the ancient gods of Mars shows the upstart humans that not everything is gone on Mars. This entity might be similar to the occult cosmic entity found in Seedling of Mars and Vulthoom .  And as Boyd Pearson says in his article on Eldritch Darkness 'Cycles of Clark Ashton Smith'; "While The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis and The Dweller in the Gulf would of been equally effective stories had they been set on earth Seedling of Mars and Vulthoom utilised the 'alien invasion' motif popular in the pulps at the time However, theses did not contain your typical alien invasion scenarios Vulthoom was an alien 'god' (plant like) who came to mars when humans "were still the blood-brothers of the ape," and now wishes to move to Earth Vulthoom's plot is only temporarily foiled by being put back to sleep for a thousand years The plant thing in Seedling of Mars has better luck in that it does get to take over the earth" 

• Dweller in the Gulf, The (1933)
• Mnemoka (1955) Fragment
• Vaults of Yoh-Vombis, The (1931)
• Vulthoom (1935)

Seedling of Mars or The Planet Entity [plot by - E M Johnson] (1931)[An alternative background to the proceeding 4 stories] 

So what does any of this have to do with 'The Tree of Life ' by C. L. Moore? Everything there are very dangerous occult forces on Mars. Divine forces that work in various cycles of life & death just as some Earth life forms do according to the weather. And this plant entity encountered by Northwest Smith might simply be an extension of the former pantheon of Mars. And in point of fact these alien entities might be tied to Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoomian plantmen. And in point in of fact these plantmen could be extensions of the Lovecraftian plant gods on Mars. 
But these types of entities are not just found on Mars. There are a literal ton of these plant monsters scattered throughout the Pulps. So it would be quite easy to add these monsters to your favorite OSR games! 
These plant gods & alien entities are the great survivors & are able to survive just about any disaster that might befall Mars and this includes a small nuclear war. 

The plantmen below is from Michael Whalen's Barsoom covers & used without permission. 

Frozen Blood & Focused Ambitions - Leigh Brackett's Black Amazon of Mars 's 'Shining ones' & Michael Moorcock's Stormbringer mythologies

 This blog entry picks right up where yesterday's left off & we dive into another Martian ecology with an OSR twist or two. 

Leigh Brackett's Black Amazon of Mars wraps up the Stark triliogy of stories. Black Amazon of Mars by Leigh Brackett originally appeared in the March 1951 issue of Planet Stories. It can be read online here at Archive.org. And yes it has some incredibly interesting characters & an apocalpytic situation of dire Pulp proporations upon Brackett's Mars. What I want to do is tackle this story from the other end of the spectrum & that is the Lovecraftian monsters lurking within this story. Stark, as an "Earthman out of Mercury" sits in the Martian setting like the Old  Western hero of a typical Orientalist yarn: he's violent and morally upright, and he's confronted with exotic beauty and spooky mysteries. And could in many respects be considered an aspect of the Eternal Champion of Michael Moorcock fame. 
All of this kicks off with a Martian thief & Stark's partner having stolen the artifact of Ban Cruach. And Stark fufilling a life debt for his partner. It rings out in an 'Old Western' life debt between the native & the outsider. The trope isn't lost on the reader & it works. And it also works as a motivator for old school adventure. But what strikes me is the dual role of the hero king  Ban Cruach to both sets of Martians. He sits as genocidal warlord of Hitler proporations to Lovecraftian polar martians beyond the 'Gates of Death' & as a hero king to the humanoid tribes. The Pulp microwave set up of the old king is a clever plot device.  

The Lovecraftian 'shining ones' with their deep freeze apoclaytic slide want back their lands & their inheritance of Mars. And then there are the Martian humanoid tribes around the city states that have become roving hordes of Gengis Khan level armies out to plunder all of Mars. The barbarians  end up becoming Mars polar guardians but interesting is the fact that the 'shining ones' are far more then they seem. Two sentiant races of Mars evolving along the same lines. What are the odds?! Slim & none come to mind.  The 'shining ones' remind me of some of the tribal ancestor mythological figure races  of the plains American original tribes both their outlook & their goals. The view point of the humanoid tribes of Martians & the 'shining ones' stands in stark contrast to the view point of Michael Moorcock's Melniboné empire vs its human rivals of Pan Tang. 

And this is a theme we see in both old school adventure  modules & OSR role playing games such as Lamentations of the Flame Princess. The old races vs the upstarts who are moving in. This conflict isn't new & is the basis for many conflicts within campaigns. Another stark contrast is the fact that the 'shining ones' are unique among the patheon of Martian monsters. They appear once & then quietly set into the background. 

Humanity vs the old races in this case Elves from Lofp 

The notations of colonial Mars & colonial based conflicts in Dungeons & Dragons style games isn't racist its adventure & campaign driven. The racial motivated battles are not race driven their driven by resources of a campaign. the hero king  Ban Cruach strove to push back the 'shining ones' so that his own peoples would have the resources of Mars to expand & evolve. The Man with No Tribe and the Warrior Queen of Kushat are the new hero champions. The losers in this conflict are the 'shining ones' & the same goes for the  Melniboné empire vs its human rivals of Pan Tang.  And this is a cycle that repeats over & over again perhaps the real essence of Law vs Chaos even on an alien world. The real losers are those nameless  adventurers caught in the cross fire. 

Conflict is good in old school & OSR games, because it allows us as both DM's & players to explore issues from the safety of dice & sanity. Within the bounds of games we see pig faced orcs as servants of the 'other'  & the existence of the shining ones is no different. Their very alien  presence is immical to mankind  & the aliens have an  agenda of taking back Mars regardless of genocide . This contrasts with the Melniboné empire.  Make no mistake the Melniboné empire is utterly evil & decident in its treatment of humanity within the Elric mythos. Yes there are indivdual examples of  Melibonean champions but on the whole. Humanity are late comers to the scene. A fact that the Pan Tangians emulate their former Melibonean benefactors. This irony isn't lost on many readers & players of the  Stormbringer rpg. 
And Leigh Brackett isn't a comfortable writer folks & even though the tales are set on Mars they contrast quite nicely with the plots of a great many peoples through out our Earth. Leigh Brackett's Mars seems very much in the same vein as her mentor's C.L.Moore's solar system. A silent frontier that was set out & up in Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles waiting for mankind. But mankind is the tresspasser on very ancient legacies. And in many ways the 'shining ones' remind me very much in the same ways that the enemies & ancient sorcerous legacies of the Young Kingdoms. Many of the Elric book's monsters would be right at home among the red & raw sands of Brackett or C.L. Moore's worlds. In many ways many of the conventions of the Sword & Planet vs Sword & Sorcery literature remain. But this is a form & function of the genre & not a take away. 
But my question becomes will the amulet & sword of the old warrior king keep the 'shining ones' at bay forever?! Perhaps not.  
There are many, many, questions about Leigh Brackett's Mars still in the back of my mind. But that's another blog entry. 

Warm Wet Ragged Tendrils - C.L. Moore's Shambleau & Michael Moorcock's Stormbringer mythologies

 "Somewhere beyond the Egyptians, in that dimness out of which come echoes of half-mythical name - Atlantis, Mu - somewhere back of history's first beginnings there must have been an age when mankind, like us today, built cities of steel to house its star-roving ships and knew the names of the planets in their native tongues..." "Man has conquered space before, .... and faint echoes still run through a world that has forgotten the very fact of a civilization which must have been as mighty as our own".

Shmableu C.L. Moore 

              

Shambleau

by jujugonzo

This blog entry picks right up from this Mars themed Sword & Sorcery entry from the other day. 
So Cha'alt is the deal of the Day on Drivetru rpg, but my game campaigns  with Cha'alt & its sister book are on hiatus. Why?! Controversy by Venger, lack of eithos on the players part, a host of reasons?! Nope its work schedules & real life commitments the bane of all table top gaming. So for the moment that little slice of purple & vallium hazed desert Hell is put on hold. 
But let's get back to Mars or more specifically C.L.Moore & Northwest Smith's solar system. There's something about C.L.Moore's solar system that indicates that mankind is a very late comer to this universe. And there's been lots conflicts & wars between the Martians, Venusians, & other entities going back millions of years. Because mankind or an offshoot of it has been on the interstellar stage before. C.L. Moore's Shambleu feels like a tapestry of an old Western, Sword & Planet, & a Lovccraft tale all rolled into one. The C.L. Moore solar system tales feel like this solar system has been a battle ground before. Not simply a place where Law & Chaos have gone at one another but where even the older  races have had a go. 

But Northwest Smith reminds me quite nicely in the same vein as Michael Moorcock's Elric. This reviewer writes of Northwest Smith: "We are told repeatedly that he is an Earthman, though it is only in the later stories that we actually see him on Earth; for all his sentimental attachment, Earth is a place to come from, not a place to be. He is subtly marked as an alien by his eyes, which are colourless. It is only a small step to see the colourless eyes of Northwest Smith turning into the albinoism of another wanderer from exotic adventure to exotic adventure, Michael Moorcock's Elric."

Alexandr Komarov's Elric artwork 

The question isn't where does Northwest Smith fit in but when?! We know that the cycles of Law & Chaos repeat endlessly upon themselves over & over again until the end of all things. C.L. Moore's Shambleau tale feels like a book end to a struggle that we as humans don't have a clue about. The Shambleau feels like she (it?!?) feels like a left over bio weapon created by the elder things or perhaps the ancient Melnibonéan sorcerer king's black magicians. No but it might be something that the Melnibonéan used or deployed as a tool of addiction & seduction. 

C. L. Moore's Shambleau as illustrated by the one and only Jean-Claude Forest, the creator of Barbarella.  It's available over at the Cool French Comics site.  You can find it here. 

The Shambleau has all of the hallmarks of the the ancient Melnibonéan legacies. The Shambleau is an intimate cosmic horror that at the same time feeds upon both the soul & the dignity of its victims. Again this has the sardonic humor & inhuman horro of the Melnibonéan race. I'm I saying that the Melnibonéan's created the Shambleau?! Nope, but the creature has many of the hall marks & weirdness that we find within the stories & novels of Elric & his doomed Melnibonéan race. And just because it wears the shape of a little brown girl creature don't think that it is one even remotely. James Garrison of the Old School Heretic blog goes into the racially charged aspects of the Shambleau far better then I here. 

But the fact that every planets seem to be inhabited by every shade, stripe, & tendriled human variation has been lost on DM Ricky or DM Steve. Shambleau evokes the same disgust that Elric's drug addiction passages do. The Shambleau is 'need' incarnate both sexual, & soul perhaps even other. And yes C.L.Moore's writings are Space Westerns but like her protege' Leigh Brackett. The Space Western here is one that evokes the fact that humanity is pushing out the older races. The monster could easily be at home on Hyperborea of the  Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers rpg or on Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique. And that's one of the beauties of the alien thing. At this point the race is so ancient that even it has no idea how many millions of years of the Shambleau is.  And there's an undercurrent of HPL alieness & Cosmicism ro it. The thing is that the alien Shambleau could be at home on some alien back water boom town or found operating within the Young Kingdom's at a brothel or worse. According to the Shambleau wiki entry; 

"Several commentators refer to the lynching scene that starts the story. Thomas F. Bertonneau remarks that "Moore's protagonist gets into trouble by rescuing what appears to be a young woman from a Martian lynch-mob: his sense of the dignity of the persecuted victim leads him to put himself in danger by opposing the witch-hunters. (Later, Smith has to be rescued from the young woman, who turns out to be a monster in disguise; victimhood can be a disguise.)"^[1]

Bernard Fields adds that, "The disturbing undercurrent is that the lynch mob turns out to have been right in wanting to kill the 'sweetly made girl'. Smith was wrong in his chivalrous impulse to save her, and the mob was right to despise him for it." 
The Shambleau are ancient beyond time & the mob itself was right. The inhuman horror of the alien is terrible beyond words. But what would adventurers do against such a creature or would one of the party become an addict to the soul sucking horror of the Shambleau itself. 

You can read or Shambleau here 

You can listen C.L. Moore reads her story "Shambleau." Originally released by Caedmon Records in 1980 (TC 1667) 
Here 

Brackett & Moorcock - Leigh Brackett, Astonishing Swordmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, & Michael Moorcock's 'Kane of Old Mars'

 Today we're going to dive into a very different Mars then readers might be familar with. A Mars that sits in the sights of three very distinctive authors of Sword & Plantary fiction 

Its been a very busy couple of weeks & its only getting busier. So during this St.George's day it seems like the perfect opportunity to return to the shores of Mars. DM Ricky & DM Steve have been riding my behind now for some weeks & today's blog entry picks up with Michael Moorcock's Kane of Old Mars saga. Yes we've covered this saga in these two blog entries here & here. Michael Moorcock's Kane contrasts utterly with other Martian or Barsoomian heroes. Why?!  The Kane series is a homage to Edgar Rice Burrough's Barsoom stories; "Michael Kane is the principal character, a Vietnam veteran that goes into physics and ends up on Mars during one of his experiments. He tells the author of the book his tales of adventure and the life he made on Mars. Typical of Moorcock's Eternal Champion stories, Moorcock's hero is a philosophical man who hates war (except Elric), but is good at it when he needs to be. Through Kane, Moorcock speaks of how fear affects us and causes us to do the wrong thing (kill, hate, etc.). Kane tries his best to remedy that with logic and compassion." All of the above comes from Michael H. Weekley Amazon review on Kane of Old Mars. We've read all of this before. What you haven't read is the fact that recently Sea Kings of Mars and Otherwordly Stories By Leigh Brackett  (Fantasy Masterworks) has come back into my collection. Why back because an ex friend of mine stole my copy. 

Everything about Leigh Brackett's Mars & even her solar system is completely in line but opposite with Michael Moorcock's Kane stories. The reason for this simple Kane solves his problems with his brain,brawn, & heart. Brackett's heroes & anti heroes solve their problems with ultra violence, fists, honor, determination, & despration. And before we go further yes the Kane stories are homages to Edar Rice Burroughs, Leigh Brackett, & the Pulp stories of Moorcock's youth. 

But what strikes me are the contrasts of C.L. Moore's North West Smith Stories & Leigh Brackett's  Sword & Planet  stories in Sea Kings of Mars and Otherwordly Stories  along side Michael Moorcock's Kane of Old Mars. The meta take away from these stories is the fact that our solar system had other tenants & land lords in long forgotten ages ago. And the neighborhood didn't always get along. Lovecraftian gods & alien races carved out their own niches in this solar system landscape. At some point in the far future millions of years Ragnorok happens & the old gods of Mars return. But are they all that old!? 

If we do a cross comparison between the gods or aliens of Kane's Mars & say Elric's Old Kingdom are we simply looking at old celestial masks for the forces Law & Chaos?!  Gods of Law in the Young Kingdoms (written by Charles Green- with large contributions from Richard Watts)  has some excellent references for the cults of Law for the fifth edition Stormbringer rpg. These along with the CHAOS CULTS OF THE YOUNG KINGDOMS BY CHARLES GREEN stand in sharp focus to some of the stories in all three of the cited sources in this blog post. 

But already the OSR & the Stormbringer fifth edition crowd is howling for my blood & souls. Calm down this is a mental excercise. Since the fact is that mankind is on a colonial expansion kick in Leigh Brackett & C.L. Moore's stories. Then we have to turn to Clark Ashton Smith's tales especially The Seedling From Mars.  This entity along with CAS's Mars cycle give us a seemless background for the peperation of the Mars life forms on a 'dead mars' of the far future:

• Dweller in the Gulf, The (1933)
• Mnemoka (1955) Fragment
• Vaults of Yoh-Vombis, The (1931)
• Vulthoom (1935)
• Seedling of Mars or The Planet Entity [plot by - E M Johnson] (1931)[An alternative background to the proceeding 4 stories]

These tales contain the Martian Lovecraftian Satan which means that Vulthoom might be in point of fact 'old Reg' from Michael Moorcock's Von Bek tales. A being whose closely connected with the Black Sword & might be connected with several artifact swords of Mars itself. 
This revelation is nothing new & has been put forth in several Barsoom & Brackett fanzines over the years. After the gods of Earth die in Ragnorok then the Martian races & gods retake Mars in a nasty event. Humanity on Mars might well be in the very smallest minority. The forces of the balance shift the pendulum again. This could help to explain some of the forces & entities that we see in the Kane of Old Mars series. 
But Kane's position as an eternal champion is an interesting one. He's more of a figure of balance in these stories then one of Law or Chaos. His use of his mind instead of ultraviolence contrasts sharply with the situations he finds himself in. 
The legacy of Kane compared to the tone of AS&SH is both an interesting one & one could work well to pull the PC's into the eye of a storm that a Mars that a campaign that  uses all three authors as source material offers.