Difference between revisions of "Wamp"
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<!-- 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. --> | <!-- 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. --> | ||
* Lovecraft was probably describing a different creature in his grave-robbing "web-footed wamp" from the salt-shaking "fearsome critter" of American Folklore (which is shaped like a sack of salt and has a hollow tail with a salt-shaker at the end), but here, we conflate the two beasts for convenience. | * Lovecraft was probably describing a different creature in his grave-robbing "web-footed wamp" from the salt-shaking "fearsome critter" of American Folklore (which is shaped like a sack of salt and has a hollow tail with a salt-shaker at the end), but here, we conflate the two beasts for convenience. | ||
| − | * [[Sandy Petersen]]'s take on the creature (''[[S. Petersen's Field Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors]]'' and others) adds bat-like ears, a pig-snout, and multiple web-footed legs to Lovecraft's vague description. | + | * [[Sandy Petersen]]'s take on the creature (''[[S. Petersen's Field Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors]]'' and others) adds bat-like ears, a pig-snout, and multiple web-footed legs to Lovecraft's vague description, apparently inspired by [[(Clark Ashton Smith]]'s "[[The Abominations of Yondo (fiction))]]". |
| + | * What if the salt left behind by a folkloric Wamp after eating a corpse were [[Essential Saltes]]? Wamps might thus prove useful to wizards and cultists.... (YSDC) | ||
Revision as of 13:14, 30 July 2022
Wamp, Web-footed Wamp
Origin: American Folklore; H.P. Lovecraft's The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (fiction) (where it is barely described), (Clark Ashton Smith's "The Abominations of Yondo (fiction))" (where the H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands book gets its description.)
Description
...Ghouls of the waking world do no business in the graveyards of upper dreamland (leaving that to the web-footed wamps that are spawned in dead cities)....
— H.P. Lovecraft's The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (fiction)
A strange, sack-like, web-footed, carrion-eating creature that digs up shallow graves for its food, and leaves a trail of salt behind it as its spoor. If especially hungry and there are no corpses around to eat, wamps have been known to attack and eat living people. Bodies partly-eaten by a wamp might transform into a wamp themselves, so to prevent this from happening, you should bury the bodies deep, or leave a measure of salt in the body's mouth as wamp-repellent, as the wamp (though it leaves a trail of salt behind it, attracting deer that follow the wamp for the salt-lick) is itself disgusted by salt.
Keeper Notes
- Lovecraft was probably describing a different creature in his grave-robbing "web-footed wamp" from the salt-shaking "fearsome critter" of American Folklore (which is shaped like a sack of salt and has a hollow tail with a salt-shaker at the end), but here, we conflate the two beasts for convenience.
- Sandy Petersen's take on the creature (S. Petersen's Field Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors and others) adds bat-like ears, a pig-snout, and multiple web-footed legs to Lovecraft's vague description, apparently inspired by (Clark Ashton Smith's "The Abominations of Yondo (fiction))".
- What if the salt left behind by a folkloric Wamp after eating a corpse were Essential Saltes? Wamps might thus prove useful to wizards and cultists.... (YSDC)
Associated Mythos Elements
- setting: Folk Mythos, Dreamlands
- fiction: H.P. Lovecraft's Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (fiction)
- fiction: (Clark Ashton Smith's "The Abominations of Yondo (fiction))"
