View source for The Gods of Pegana (tome)

[[File:Godsofpegana tome.png|200px|thumb|right|''The Gods of Pegāna'']]
[[File:Sime hoodrazai.png|200px|thumb|right|An illustration by [[Sydney Sime]] for the book, depicting "[[Gods_of_Pegana#Hoodrazai|Hoodrazai]]"]]

''The Gods of Pegana'', AKA ''The Gods of Pegāna''

Origin:  ''[[The Gods of Pegana (fiction)]]'', [[Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany]]

==Description==
A small book, written and illustrated in a feverish, dream-like manner, in almost Biblical style, with prose that was almost poetry, purporting to describe a fictional myth-cycle of strange gods from an place called "[[Dreamlands|Pegana]]", with a scope ranging from the creation of the world in the dreams of "Mana-Yood-Sushai", to the End, when the dreamer awakens, filled throughout with the hints of unearthly history, peoples, cultures, and traditions ranging from Earth, to Pegana, to "beyond the Rim", past moons, stars, and other worlds, to the very heap of remnants from the building of worlds, where a "Thing that is Neither God Nor Beast" turns the pages of day and night from the beginning, to the doom of the world.  Written by [[Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany]], and illustrated in a distinctive, exotic style by [[Sidney Sime]].

===First Edition (1905, London)===
Language: English

Physical Description: First edition.  Octavo, original quarter-linen and decorated gray boards, front and spine panels stamped in black, all edges untrimmed.  Roughly 300 pages of short prose-poem vignettes written in an almost Biblical style of prose, including a number of full-page monochrome plate illustrations in a heavily shaded and intricate chiaroscuro style.

General Content: A collection of short vignettes, fables, or myths describing a myth-cycle of the creation of an exotic pantheon of little gods and the strange, human-inhabited dream-world which the gods subsequently create.  Includes extensive allegorical allusions to such topics as alien gods and worlds, the creation and end of reality, the nature of dreams and dreaming as windows into another world, etc.  Countless strange gods, dream lands, alien myths, and peculiar legends and customs are described in surreal, phantasmal detail.

'''Mythos Content'''
* Spells:  spells involving [[Dreaming]] might be implied
* Sanity Loss: minor
* Mythos Knowledge: minor


==Quotes==
<blockquote>
Before there stood gods upon Olympus, or ever Allah was Allah, had wrought and rested ''[[Gods_of_Pegana#Mana-Yood-Sushai|Mana-Yood-Sushai]]''.  There are in [[Dreamlands|Pegana]] [[Gods_of_Pegana#Mung|Mung]] and [[Gods_of_Pegana#Sish|Sish]] and [[Gods_of_Pegana#Kib|Kib]], and the maker of all small gods, who is ''Mana-Yood-Sushai''. Moreover, we have a faith in [[Gods_of_Pegana#Roon|Roon]] and [[Gods_of_Pegana#Slid|Slid]].  And it has been said of old that all things that have been were wrought by the small gods, excepting only ''Mana-Yood-Sushai'', who made the gods and hath thereafter rested. And none may pray to ''Mana-Yood-Sushai'' but only the gods whom he hath made. But at the Last will ''Mana-Yood-Sushai'' forget to rest, and will make again new gods and other worlds, and will destroy the gods whom he hath made. And the gods and the worlds shall depart, and there shall be only ''Mana-Yood-Sushai''.
<br> - [[Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany|Lord Dunsany]], "The Gods of Pegana"
</blockquote>

==Appearances==
Can be assumed to contain ideas drawn by any of the [[:Category:Fiction:Dunsany|related fiction]] by [[Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany]], such as:  
* ''[[The Gods of Pegana (fiction)]]''
* ''[[Time and the Gods (fiction)]]''
* ''[[Idle Days on the Yann (fiction)]]''
* ''[[A Shop in Go-By Street  (fiction)]]''
* ''[[The Avenger of Perdondaris (fiction)]]''


==Associated Mythos Content==
* setting:  [[Dreamlands]]
* location:  [[River Yann]]
* race:  [[Gods of Pegana]] (compare to [[Elder Gods]])
* race:  [[Human Cultist]]s
* see also:  [[Dreaming]]


==Heresies and Controversies==
<!-- Optional.  This is a good place to include non-canon and controversial aspects of the creature's mythos.  Suggested Alternative Theories include:  Derleth's elemental scheme; pseudo-science interpretation; "fanon" interpretations; unofficial humorous or eccentric versions; identification with "Real Life" mythological, religious, folklore, natural, and historical phenomena; rumor and speculation contribute some flexibility and ambiguity to the mythos. -->
* This real-life book of fantasy fiction is treated here like a Mythos Tome.


==Keeper Notes==
<!-- Optional. Suggestions for using this tome/artifact in the CoC RPG, and in fan-fiction. -->
* This tome might be treated as a sort of primer on [[Dreaming]] for characters who are investigating scenarios relating to the [[Dreamlands]].
* This book, along with the author's other fiction, sparked the imaginations of many of the 20th Century's most famous fantasy and Weird writers, including [[H.P. Lovecraft]], [[Robert E. Howard]], [[Clark Ashton Smith]], [[George R.R. Martin]], [[J.R.R. Tolkien]], [[C.S. Lewis]], [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]], [[Fritz Leiber]], [[Jack Vance]], [[Michael Moorcock]], [[Neil Gaiman]], [[Manly Wade Wellman]], [[Arthur C. Clarke]], [[C.L. Moore]], [[Ursula K. Le Guin]] etc.; Le Guin has famously commented:  "No one can imitate Dunsany, and probably everyone who's ever read him has tried."  Fictionally, this tome might be treated in a similar (though perhaps more benign) manner to ''[[The King in Yellow (tome)]]'', as a sort of "mythos infection" that spreads among the pulp writers it is exposed to, opening up the realm of the [[Dreamlands]] to those who are receptive to the work's influence.



[[Category:Mythos:Tomes|Gods of Pegana]]
[[Category:Pegana]]