Plateau of Leng
The Plateau of Leng appears first in H.P. Lovecraft's "The Hound (fiction)", as well as "Fungi from Yuggoth (poem)", but gets described in the most detail in Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (fiction).
Description
The shantak now flew lower, revealing beneath the canopy of cloud a grey barren plain whereon at great distances shone little feeble fires. As they descended there appeared at intervals lone huts of granite and bleak stone villages whose tiny windows glowed with pallid light. And there came from those huts and villages a shrill droning of pipes and a nauseous rattle of crotala which proved at once that Inganok’s people are right in their geographick rumours. For travellers have heard such sounds before, and know that they float only from the cold desert plateau which healthy folk never visit; that haunted place of evil and mystery which is Leng.
— H.P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
A high arid plateau inhabited by a race of semihuman beings, and also the site of the Elder Pharos and the sinister monastery where dwells a high priest not to be described, who conceals his (or its) face behind a yellow silken mask. Some of its inhabitants participate in a corpse-eating cult whose symbol, a winged hound, may be seen on the Amulet of Leng. Leng is described in the Necronomicon and several other tomes, and is variously placed in the Dreamlands, Central Asia, or sometimes Antarctica.
Inganok
The Plateau of Leng borders on the Dreamlands at the Grey Barrier Peaks of Inganok, see Inganok for more details on that Dreamland.
Monastery of the Thing in the Silken Mask
Atop the plateau is a huge monastery in which lives only one being, the High Priest Not To Be Described. Much of the monastery is ruined, but the interior walls and tunnels that still stand are decorated with paintings and frescoes of half-men and the history of Leng. One of the tunnels leads to the ruins of Sarkomand.
Elder Pharos
From the most remote of far Leng's bleak and bare rocky peaks climbs the Elder Pharos in a tower of stone, a beacon of eerie light signaling up into empty space and the beating of hidden drums, where the last Elder One on Earth is said to dwell. Wizards have sought out the Elder Pharos to consult on the Elder One's terrible wisdom, but none have ever returned.
Vales of the Spiders
Located in the Cold Waste near the Plateau of Leng, the Vales of the Leng Spiders are the site of elder battles between the Men of Leng the strange, giant, intelligent purple spiders; it is believed that the vales are empty today, the spiders being exterminated from the Vales by the Lengites aeons ago, but the Cold Waste is vast, and it may be that one day the spiders will return to reclaim the vales where they flourished of old. See Vales of the Spiders for more detail.
Heresies and Controversies
- The great mystery about Leng is its location. According to "The Hound," and certain unnamed eldritch tomes cited in At the Mountains of Madness, the plateau of Leng is located in central Asia. Professor William Dyer, the narrator of At the Mountains of Madness, argues instead that Leng is identical to the plateau beyond the city of the crinoid Elder Things in Antarctica, while the account of Randolph Carter in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath places Leng squarely in the Dreamlands, near Inganok and Sarkomand. Given the ambiguity of space and time in relation to the Great Old Ones, Leng may be in all of these places at once, and perhaps others as well. (compared Lovecraft stories, "The Hound", Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, At the Mountains of Madness)
- May be the same place as the Plateau of Sung, containing the Tcho-Tcho cities of Alaozar and Lelag-Leng. (Chaosium, possibly Derleth or others?)
- The Elder Pharos or Black Tower has a hidden chamber beneath it where Nyogtha is said to dwell. (Chaosium?)
- The Monastery of Leng has other tunnels, which riddle the Plateau and are said to lead to other times, planets, or dimensions. Shoggoths and other dire horrors infest Leng's lower vaults, guarding the Sigils of Elder Lore. (Chaosium?)
Associated Mythos Elements
- tome: Necronomicon
- artifact: Amulet of Leng
- race: Man of Leng, Moon-Beast
- location: Inganok, Sarkomand
References
- fiction: "The Hound," At the Mountains of Madness, and The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H.P. Lovecraft.
