R'lyeh

Overview

R'lyeh is the house of Cthulhu, tomb, temple, and prison built by the Great Old Ones when the stars were young and the continents had not yet assumed their present shapes. It sank when the waters rose; it sleeps while its master dreams; and when the stars come right, it will rise again to teach the world what it means to see a city that was never meant for human eyes.

In 1925 the Emma's crew found it above the waves, a wet green stone nightmare adrift at 47°9′S, 126°43′W, though later surveys find only empty sea. The city does not stay where cartographers put it. It obeys older mathematics.

Description

Johansen's account, recovered from a bottle, authenticated against his corpse in Oslo, describes bas-reliefs of beings that were neither wholly reptile nor wholly octopus; monoliths covered in hieroglyphs that hurt the mind; a vault with an octagonal trap-door sealed by a star-shaped carving; and a mountain of green stone slime from which something vast emerged when the door gave way.

The angles were wrong. Walk around a building and you should return to the same place; in R'lyeh you might not. Corners opened onto sky that was not sky. The ground tilted when not observed. Sailors who had survived typhoons wept at the threshold and did not enter until madness or courage drove them in.

Historical Record

The city rose in March 1925, coinciding with global dreams and cult activity from Greenland to New Zealand. Johansen rammed the thing in the head with his ship and drove it back into the vault; the city sank again before dawn. Whether Cthulhu was harmed or merely inconvenienced is unknown. Whether the stars were close enough to permit full awakening is disputed.

Cult chant translates the condition: In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming. The house is not a metaphor. The waiting is not metaphorical either.

Archive Notes

Naval approach to last known coordinates requires psychological screening and is not authorized for civilian research vessels. Sonar anomalies in the region have produced shapes inconsistent with geology on three separate surveys. Do not attempt to map R'lyeh with Euclidean instruments. If you see green stone above the waterline, retreat and report; do not land. The city is not ruins. It is a door.