Oukranos

Kingdom of Oukranos is one of Lovecraft's Dreamlands, placed in the East.

Kingdom of Oukranos

One of the Six Kingdoms, the kingdom of Oukranos extends the length of the Oukranos River Valley up to, but not including, Hlanith on the coast. It has two important cities, Kiran and its capitol, Thran.

Geography

Oukranos River Valley

The Oukranos River Valley lies under a perpetual golden haze, the air is filled with the hums and music of birds and bees, and it is said that the region holds a little more sunlight than other places, bathing the rolling hills and farmlands on its banks in gentle warmth and flowers in thousands of different colours, giving those who walk through this land feel a sense of great wonder and joy.

River Oukranos

The blue-green River Oukranos is the mightiest river in Dreamlands, similar to the Mississippi or the Amazon rivers in depth, breadth, and swiftness of current, bounded by farm lands and rolling hills covered with the flowers of a thousand different colors.

Forbidden Lands

The Forbidden Lands are a hellish place, full of volcanoes, lakes of fire, and bizarre nameless creatures. The lands touch upon the Waking World in a number of places, and account for many Earthly disappearances. King Kuranes of Celephaïs has forbidden this region to humankind, and any dreamer caught trying to enter is regretfully imprisoned.

Cities

Hlanith

A great seaport located at the mouth of the Oukranos. The walls of this city are made of granite, and the houses have fantastically peaked roofs. The wharves of Hlanith are made of oak, and the streets are rutted from the passage of ox carts on their way to the city’s markets. The streets and buildings near the wharves are crusty with the salt spray of high tides. All the city’s taverns are located near the wharves, by law. Hlanith's proximity to the Waking World causes some of the mirage cities reported in this world from time to time. In addition, it has allowed many of the magicians in Hlanith to become alchemists, astronomers, and inventors. Hlanith's king is good and fair, though he likes the luxuries in life perhaps a bit overmuch.

Thran

Toward evening he mounted a low grassy rise and saw before him flaming in the sunset the thousand gilded spires of Thran. Lofty beyond belief are the alabaster walls of that incredible city, sloping inward toward the top and wrought in one solid piece by what means no man knows, for they are more ancient than memory. Yet lofty as they are with their hundred gates and two hundred turrets, the clustered towers within, all white beneath their golden spires, are loftier still; so that men on the plain around see them soaring into the sky, sometimes shining clear, sometimes caught at the top in tangles of cloud and mist, and sometimes clouded lower down with their utmost pinnacles blazing free above the vapours. And where Thran’s gates open on the river are great wharves of marble, with ornate galleons of fragrant cedar and calamander riding gently at anchor, and strange bearded sailors sitting on casks and bales with the hieroglyphs of far places. Landward beyond the walls lies the farm country, where small white cottages dream between little hills, and narrow roads with many stone bridges wind gracefully among streams and gardens.

Down through this verdant land Carter walked at evening, and saw twilight float up from the river to the marvellous golden spires of Thran. And just at the hour of dusk he came to the southern gate, and was stopped by a red-robed sentry till he had told three dreams beyond belief, and proved himself a dreamer worthy to walk up Thran’s steep mysterious streets and linger in bazaars where the wares of the ornate galleons were sold. Then into that incredible city he walked; through a wall so thick that the gate was a tunnel, and thereafter amidst curved and undulant ways winding deep and narrow between the heavenward towers. Lights shone through grated and balconied windows, and the sound of lutes and pipes stole timid from inner courts where marble fountains bubbled. Carter knew his way, and edged down through darker streets to the river, where at an old sea-tavern he found the captains and seamen he had known in myriad other dreams. There he bought his passage to Celephaïs on a great green galleon, and there he stopped for the night after speaking gravely to the venerable cat of that inn, who blinked dozing before an enormous hearth and dreamed of old wars and forgotten gods.
— H.P. Lovecraft, Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (fiction)

Thran, capital of the Kingdom of Oukraonos, is a great, golden-spired city on the River Oukranos, built within high, inward-sloping solid white walls built by unknown means in ancient times beyond memory, pierced by one hundred gates flanked by two hundred turrets. The city itself is is loftier still than its walls, constructed of a thousand white towers topped by the famous golden spires, visible from great distances away even dimly through clouds and mists. To access the city via the river, a Dreamer must first pass marble wharves trading in goods from strange and distant Dreamlands; from there, the city is surrounded by a farm country of small white cottages, pleasant gardens, little hills, delicate streams, narrow roads, and stone bridges. At the city's walls, the gates are guarded by by red-robed sentries, who will not grant passage to the city's winding, narrow streets, high balconies, and bubbling fountains until the visitor can tell three dreams beyond belief. An old sea tavern can be found on the river, where the captains of ships traveling to far and obscure reaches of the Dreamlands might be hired.

The king of Thran is an old dreamer who has seen many wondrous things, he became king after he successfully won a challenge to the former ruler to a dream-duel - the accepted form of choosing a new ruler in Thran, involving a story-telling contest between the two contestants.

The streets of Thran are steep and mysterious, and wind between the many towers which stretch heavenward. Smaller shops and homes stand like mice at the feet of these towers. Near the center of the city is the bazaar, a wide plaza where all the goods from the galleys in the harbor are sold, or traded for local goods. By day the streets are crowded with people and animals. By night they are filled with the warm glow of light which escapes through grated and balconied windows and the sounds of music wafted on the air from inner courtyards where cool fountains gently play.

The wall is pierced by 100 gates and surmounted by 200 turrets. The towers of the city are also made of alabaster and shine white beneath their golden spires, the tops rising so high that sometimes they are obscured by the clouds, and at other times they pierce through the clouds to appear as a city in the sky with their spires blazing fire in the heavens. The wall around Thran is so thick that the gates are more like tunnels through a mountain, 100 feet long, 30 feet wide, and are lit by torches every 10 feet. Each of the gates to the city is guarded by red-robed sentries, and those who wish to enter the city must first prove their worthiness by dazzling the guards with tales of three dreams beyond belief.

The gates open onto the river and city's marble wharves, where ornate galleys of fragrant woods such as cedar or calamander are anchored. Strange bearded sailors from all over the Dreamlands crowd the docks, and many crates and barrels labeled with mysterious hieroglyphs of far places stand in piles waiting to be loaded aboard ships or taken to market. Thran's harbor is the third mightiest in all the Dreamlands, after those of Dylath-Leen and Celephaïs.

Kiran

A hill on the banks of the Oukranos. Here stands the Temple of Loveliness to the god Oukranos. Oukranos is one of many small regional gods which inhabit the Dreamlands, and his influence does not extend beyond the river valley which bears his name. His temple is built all of jasper wood, and stands near the edge of the river. The temple's walls and courts cover an acre of ground and encompass seven pinnacled towers which surround the central shrine. Through this shrine, directed by hidden channels, run the waters of the river. By day the temple stands drowsy and silent. But often, at night, the air surrounding the temple is filled with a strange music. No one can say if this music is made by the priests of the temple or if it is the song of the god, for no human has entered the temple and seen the priests except the King of Ilek-Vad. The King, borne on a golden palanquin, comes from his distant land once a year to pray. It is said that the King of Ilek-Vad knew this region as a youth, and that the god Oukranos sang him to sleep each night.

Associated Mythos Elements

• setting: Dreamlands

References

• fiction: H.P. Lovecraft's "The Doom that Came to Sarnath (fiction)", "The Silver Key (fiction)", "The Other Gods (fiction)", "The Cats of Ulthar (fiction)", and others
• fiction: H.P. Lovecraft's Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (fiction)
• fiction: H.P. Lovecraft and E. Hoffman Price's "Through The Gates of the Silver Key (fiction)"
• sourcebook: "H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands"