View source for Ooth-Nargai

The Dreamland of '''Ooth-Nargai''', and its cities of '''Celephaïs''' (AKA "Celephais", "Celephaiis") and '''Serannian''' (AKA "Cloud-City of Serannian", "Cloud-Castle of Serannian", "Sky-Floating Serannian", "Cloud-Hung Serannian", "Serranian" or "Serrannian" [''sic''], etc.) are first appeared in [[H.P. Lovecraft]]'s "[[Celephaïs (fiction)]]" and described in detail in Lovecraft's ''[[Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (fiction)]]''.  This land is placed in the East.  

==Kingdom of Ooth-Nargai==
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For the most part, the East is a barren wasteland, and only a scant few cities cling to the westernmost coasts, and the Kingdom of Ooth-Nargai is one of the jewels of the western coast, consisting of the lands stretching from the marvelous city of Celephaïs, its capital, to the Tanarian Hills; the River Naraxa runs through the Kingdom.  The entire land was created from the dreams of King Kuranes, Earth's greatest dreamer.  [[Ilek-Vad]] is a neighboring Kingdom in the East; Ooth-Nagai is one of the [[Six Kingdoms]].

==Geography==
===Mount Aran===
Across the River Naraxa from Celephaïs in the land of Ooth-Nargai stands the regal Mt. Aran, its peak forever crowned in snow which never melts, and its lower slopes covered with groves of ginkgo trees. 

The peak of Aran, like many other mountain peaks in the Dreamlands, is forbidden for men to climb; generally it is thought that this is because the gods sometimes come here to dance atop the peak as they do with [[Mount Lerion]] and [[Mount Hatheg-Kla]], but this is not so, for the gods do not come to Mt. Aran as they do to other peaks: the gods fear Mount Aran.  (Chaosium?)

[[File:Location DreamHarborOfCelephais.png|thumb|150px|right|"Harbor of Celephaïs]]" illustration by [[David Day]]]]
===Tanarian Hills===
These mysterious Tanarian hills border the entire realm of Ooth-Nargai on its landward sides, and are the source of the Naraxa River.

===Naraxa River===
A bubbling river that runs through the Kingdom of Ooth-Nargai, between the Tanarian hills, beneath a stone bridge in the city of Celephaïs.

===Cerenerian Sea===
The crystal-blue Cerenarian Sea, its chilly, mildly salty waters, upon whose shores stand major Dreamlands ports including the marvelous city of Celephaïs.

==Cities==
[[File:Location DreamPalaceOfSeventyDelights.png|thumb|150px|right|"Palace of Seventy Delights" illustration by [[Jeff Menges]]]]
[[File:Location DreamStreetOfPillars.png|thumb|150px|right|"Street of Pillars" illustration by [[Chris Adams]]]]
[[File:Mythos cornwallbythesea.png|thumb|150px|right|"Cornwall-by-the-Sea" illustration by [[Andrew T. Kalichack]]]]
===Celephaïs===
The city of Celephaïs stands at the end of the valley-realm of Ooth-Nargai. The wide streets of Celephaïs are paved in onyx, and the houses are of white-washed clay.  Many buildings have towers capped with minarets of bronze or copper, and fly gaily-coloured pennants from their spires.  The walls are of white marble, topped with bronze statues, and guarded by bronze gates.

===Palace of Seventy Delights===
The tallest and most slender spires with the brightest pennants in Celephaïs belong to the beautiful rose-crystal Palace of Seventy Delights and Citadel of Celephaïs, home of the ruler of Ooth-Nargai, [[King Kuranes]].

===Street of Pillars===
The Street of Pillars to the seaward wall of Celephaïs, is a gathering place and market for the traders and sailors from the harbors of the Cerenarian Sea, and foreign folk from the seas beyond, and even strangers from the regions where the sea meets the sky and from alien Dreamlands beyond the sky itself.

===Harbour of Celephaïs===
The Harbour of Celephaïs is accessed from the Street of Pillars, overlooking sparkling blue water and galleons from ports across the Dreamlands, the icy crown of regal Mount Aran and its ginkgo trees visible in the distance looming over city's white marble walls, and the bronze spires of Celephaïs and the Temple of Seventy Delights.

===Temple of Nath-Horthath===
The turquoise temple of Nath-Horthath is served by eighty orchid-wreathed priests, and orchid-crowned high priest of [[Nath-Horthat]].  See:  [[Nath-Horthat]] for more details about the temple and its cult.

===Cornwall-by-the-Sea===
Past the eastern gates of Celephaïs is Cornwall-by-the-Sea, where King Kuranes has built a Norman Abbey and a small Cornish fishing village, to resemble his native Cornwall, to which he can never return. Not far from the village stands a small Norman abbey whose bell sounds across the hills and dells, and whose churchyard is filled with headstones bearing the names of King Kuranes' ancestors, and Kuranes resides in a Gothic manor house overlooking the town.


==Serannian==
Serannian is a cloud-castle floating over the sea near Celephaïs

===Kingdom of Serannian===
[[File:Location DreamSerranian.png|thumb|150px|right|"Serannian" illustration by [[Michael Kucharski]]]]
The high-turreted cloud-castle of sky-floating Serannian, a pink marble cloud-city in the cloud-hung realm that lies in ethereal space beyond where the sea meets the flow of the west wind in the sky.  It was built by [[King Kuranes]], and is placed in the East, near Celephaïs.

===Bay of Serannian===
The Harbour of Serannian, built on that ethereal coast where the west wind flows into the sky.

===Cloud-Castle of Serannian===
A high-turreted, pink marble cloud-castle, where [[King Kuranes]], the powerful dreamer who built Serannian from the very clouds of Dream, sometimes reigns when he grows tired of ruling [[Ooth-Nargai]].


==Heresies and Controversies==
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==Keeper Notes==
Optional. Suggestions for using this deity in the CoC RPG, and in fan-fiction. 
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* '''Serannian''' is given some additional detail by [[Sandy Petersen]] and [[Chaosium]] in ''[[H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands]]'', including the shape and size and appearance of the circular city, about 20 square miles in size, and built in imitation of a Greek architectural style, covering about 3/4 of the floating cloud island, mostly on the eastern and southern sides. A domed Museum of Serannian stands on the island, as do "two" lighthouses - actually, one single lighthouse tower which extends both upwards from the city's surface, and downwards through the bottom of the island to light the way from below.  A Hall of Proclamation, covered by a bronze dome, houses the city's Council, and the courts of King Kuranes and the city's Patriarch of Cats.  Kuranes's palace here, as in Celephaïs, is built in imitation of a familiar English manor-house.  (Chaosium)
* '''Rinar''', mentioned in passing by Lovecraft alongside Celephaïs and Ograthan as trading ports, described by Chaosium as a city whose walls and buildings are made of large blocks of yellow moss-agate inlaid with copper, notable for its merchant quarter, processional boulevard, and for its looming temple of the Great Ones.
* '''Ograthan''', mentioned in passing by Lovecraft alongside Celephaïs and Rinar as trading ports, described by Chaosium as a port on the Cerenarian Sea. It is built of shining red and black stone with silver inlays, and governed by martial law by order of a paranoid prince and a large force of soldiers due to raids by wild savages from the hills to the west.


==Associated Mythos Elements==
* setting: [[Dreamlands]]
* location: [[Ilek-Vad]], located close by
* character:  [[King Kuranes]]
* cult:  [[Nath-Horthath]]
* cult: [[Six Kingdoms]]
* location:  [[Ilek-Vad]]


==References==
* fiction: [[H.P. Lovecraft]]'s ''[[Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (fiction)]]''
* fiction: [[H.P. Lovecraft]]'s "[[Celephaïs (fiction)]]", "[[The Silver Key (fiction)]]", "[[The Other Gods (fiction)]]", "[[The Cats of Ulthar (fiction)]]", and others
* fiction: [[H.P. Lovecraft]] and [[E. Hoffman Price]]'s "[[Through The Gates of the Silver Key (fiction)]]"
* sourcebook: "[[H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands]]"


[[Category:Mythos:Locations]]
[[Category:Mythos:Locations:Dreamlands]]
[[Category:Dreamlands]]
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