Why am I still here?

https://archiveofourown.org/works/50795107/chapters/172270159

Title: these walls come tumbling down

Chapter: 15/?

Pairing: Jade Claymore/Kit Tanthalos

Tags: Werepanther!Kit//Vet!Jade//Slow Burn//Angst with a Happy Ending//This is my Hallmark fic

Summary:

and if I said I stayed up til the ungodly hours of the morning to draw fanart for a tv show scrubbed from existence?

details and flats under the cut!

Erin Kellyman as Jade Claymore & Adwoa Aboah as Scorpia WILLOW (2022 - 2023) Season 1, Episode 5: Wildwood

What does Willow have to do with the master of horror, H.P. Lovecraft, that shaped, actually created a subgenre of the horror genre and the völkisch movements("German ethnic nationalist movement active from the late 19th century to 1945", Wikipedia) like the Thule Gesellschaft (Society), founded in 1911 ?

Probably more than one may think and I wanted to discuss the various elements that illustrate how Willow's villains and its mysterious Order of the Wyrm may have been influenced by these things in this essay.

As a personal sidenote: Even though I haven't read all of Lovecraft's works, I'm a big fan of his works. And yes, Lovecraft was a racist, anti-semite and probably a misogynist too - this traits had a huge impact on his creative work. That is undeniable and I am no fan of this separation of author and art. You shouldn't do that, you need to understand the art and that's only possible if you look at the artist. It tells you some about human nature and how, in case of Lovecraft, his view of the world is reflected in his works - if you keep that in mind you can understand his stories as a cautionary tale of sorts, that the “Fear of the Unknown” is something that resides in many if not in all of us. To identify and sort of equate the author with its art doesn't mean that a creator agrees with his protagonist(s) view(s) but the work itself, what it tries to tell comes from within the creative mind. To quote Henry Ackeley from "The Whisperer in Darkness: Ex nihilo nihil fit. - Nothing comes from nothing. Additionally, as a German it is always difficult to talk about the racist and fascist era and its institutions, movements etc that took over a whole country and lead to such a tremendous loss of lifes.

Before you advance reading, it is A) important to have watched the show (even though I try to put in explanatory notes) and B) it is therefore riddled with spoilers. 

First some definitions

Lovecraftian/Cosmic/Eldritch Horror: “Lovecraftian horror, also called cosmic horror or eldritch horror, is a subgenre of horror fiction and weird fiction that emphasizes the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible more than gore or other elements of shock.” Wikipedia

Sword and Sorcery: “Sword and sorcery (S&S) or heroic fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent adventures. Elements of romance, magic, and the supernatural are also often present. Unlike works of high fantasy, the tales, though dramatic, focus on personal battles rather than world-endangering matters.”, Wikipedia

HIgh Fantasy: “High fantasy, or epic fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy defined by the epic nature of its setting or by the epic stature of its characters, themes, or plot. High fantasy is usually set in an alternative, fictional ("secondary") world, rather than the "real" or "primary" world.” Wikipedia

The Immemorial City, The nameless city/Mountains of Madness & Fallout

First lets take a look at the Immemorial city and its architecture and artstyle. Its huge, stretching into the distance with seemingly no borders as it touches the horizon. The city is gigantic, eldritch and dwarfs every single person in it. One can actually see Elora and Kit walking over the bridge like construction, however they are very small. The monolithic nature of the buildings also look as if they were spawned directly out of a description of one of Lovecraft's stories. Lovecraft liked the use of words like cyclopean, monolithic, eldritch in his descriptions: 

"…curious regularities of the higher mountain skyline – regularities like clinging fragments of perfect cubes…” - “…no architecture known to man or to human imagination, with vast aggregations of night-black masonry embodying monstrous perversions of geometrical laws and attaining the most grotesque extremes of sinister bizarrerie,,,,", At the mountains of madness, 1931

"...only a single mountain-top, the hideous monolith-crowned citadel..", The Call of Cthulhu, 1926/28

And because the Immemorial City is like in a desert like region, an in an almost literal way deserted area which at closer inspection seems lto be more like ashes than sand, you can combine previous descriptions with this:

"Remote in the desert of Araby lies the nameless city, crumbling and inarticulate, its low walls nearly hidden by the sands of uncounted ages.", The nameless city, 1921

He also used the term non-euclidean to describe impossible architecture in which "an angle which was acute, but behaved as if it were obtuse" and while the Immemorial City is rectangular, pyramidic, using straight lines that are only balanced out by the curves of the gigantic statues, this might be the concept artists and creatives way of combining both the Lovecraftian architecture with the Art Deco style of the early 20th century.

The Immemorial City in the show & concept art by David Freeman

The statues and heads that are part of the architecture of the Immemorial City remind of Art Deco statues you can find for example in New York, the Atlas statue on 5th avenue or the faces on the building of the 20 Exchange Place, Those are also a typical style used in the Fallout franchise, especially in Fallout 4 (some of the faces appeared already in Fallout 2).

This design choice of using Art Deco, giant statues and stone or metal faces is interesting as Fallout built up some eldritch/Lovecraftian background itself and connected it with the architecture. One can find one of those heads in the depths of the so-called Dunwich Borer, a clear reference to Lovecraft who wrote a story titled "The Dunwich Horror". So, like Willow does it visually, Fallout connects Art Deco style with Lovecraftian horror elements by name. Cosmic horror in a fantasy show? Yes and there are more clues, including one in the very name of one of the characters, that support this. Like the Fallout franchise, the creators use visuals and names that link them to HP Lovecraft.

It is indeed interesting that the names of the two cities, the Nameless City and the Immemorial City strike a similar tone as well.

This site with concept art of the Immemorial City by David Freeman is very interesting.

In the name of Hastur: the Wyrm and the Great old Ones

The Fallout franchise, a post apocalyptic video game and now TV-show series  is making advances to build a cosmic horror background (the Youtubers SinisterHeart and EpicNate talk about this) by using names from the Lovecraft universe, some similar architectural elements and add some eldritch elements and beings to it (like the Interloper) - so does the TV-Show Willow:

Hastur, also known as the Unspeakable One, He-who-must-not-be-named, or the King in Yellow, is a Lovecraftian deity originally created by Ambrose Bierce and while in Bierce’s work Hastur is more benevolent, in the Lovecraft-universe he became one of the malignant cosmic beings of the Cthulhu universe, God-like creatures beyond man’s capability to understand them. "Hastur is defined as a Great Old One, spawn of Yog-Sothoth, the half-brother of Cthulhu". He is amorphous and uses avatars such as the King in Yellow. The Nameless City is Hasturs realm. And coincidentally Hastur is the surname of the rulers of Galladorn - its probably no coincidence that this name was chosen especially since Graydon, son of King Zivian Hastur, has a history of being either possessed or some truly evil part of Graydon is hiding inside - the show does not go into details in its first season however the scars on his chest indicate that this is some sort of a magical seal to keep evil at bay. Did Graydon release something by accident, did he read the wrong books or was it something in his family that may have awaken some day.

And, Graydon can read "Pnakotic", the language of the Wyrm which is another nod to Lovecraft and the "Pnakotic Manuscripts" he mentions in his stories.

The big plan?

It is indicative that King Zivian wants an “allegiance” with Tir Asleen by marrying his son to Kit Tanthalos but that he also “convinces” Graydon to accompany the group that sets out to search for Airk.

Kit is the descendant of Bavmorda, the evil queen-witch of the film and Sorsha, - Kit's mother, reveals that her mother’s spirit somehow survived in her grandchildren. Which is probably why the Gales, “a group of monstrous creatures, led by The Crone” kidnap Airk in the first place.

The fact that Kit can use the Kymerian Cuirass suggests that she has Fey blood in her as the cuirass was forged by Queen Anabel of Kymeria who was a Fey herself, supernatural beings, of lesser, such as brownies or dyads, or higher fairies like Elves or Elementals.

It's not a stretch to assume that King ZIvian wanted a blood bond as it all points to the so called “Blood of the Six” that is important - what his plan is in regard to the crone is unclear, maybe he has plans of his own, maybe it is all related to the Wyrm. Maybe the goal is an offspring of "special blood" and there is a clue by the end of the first season that this is the case.

There's a brief moment by the end of the season in which Graydon (although he does not have scars) exchanges words with a version of Elora who tells him that she "wants him" at her side. This is pure speculation but King Zivians mysterious plan and "Dark Elora's" offer to Graydon could very well go into a similar direction: an (potentially) evil offspring. Or a child that holds dark powers? It would make sense given that the story of Willow started with a child. Elora. So, a child on the other side of the spectrum would make sense. "It's like poetry. It rhymes.", George Lucas

Even though Graydon was a spare kid and something was done to him or he did to himself, these elements may be connected if a blood bond is truly the idea behind this and some elements point into this direction, Sadly though there are only some vague clues to formulate a hypothesis.

About Sword & Sorcery:

The land described by Robert E. Howard in his Conan the Barbarian is called Cimmeria. In Willow the magical cuirass is called Kymerian Cuirass after the Kymerian Empire - the name has a familiar sound and could have been altered for Willow. Lovecraft drew inspiration from different sources, including Ambrose Bierce who created Hastur and Robert E Howard was coeval with, a friend and penpal of Lovecraft - Howards works were influenced by Lovecraft’s (Yog, a deity worshiped by cannibals in Howard’s Conan universe may have been derived from Yog-Sothoth). Here is a Youtube-video by Atlantean Archive who specializes on discussing books especially by authors such as Howard and Lovecraft who compares both authors. In general the “Sword and Sorcery” genre has some dark, almost horror elements that feel very Lovecraftian. Willow, the film and the show, seems to try to bridge the two subgenres of “Sword and sorcery” and “High fantasy” in my opinion.

The dark elements we see in the Immemorial City itself, the very ghoulish monstrosities that the Gales are and even the Wyrm, but also the focus on the characters and Kit’s quest to save her brother on the one hand, are in my opinion more Sword and Sorcery, while the adventure of a group of misfits, the need to save the world in the process feels more like the High Fantasy we know from Tolkien.

Dungeons and Dragons itself is no stranger to combining the subgenres, depending on the setting but also with creatures such as Mindflayers that are very Lovecraftian.

Lovecrafts idea was: you either die or go insane, you cannot beat those monstrous beings. Robert E. Howard on the other hand was on the side of “You can choose your path and beat the monster with a giant sword”...by Crom.

The fact that the creators decided to use the name “Hastur” and connect it to Graydon’s mysterious past in which he turned evil and killed his brother, the Immemorial City with its eldritch architecture, the fact that for example the Fallout franchise does something similar: Lovecraft's works have potentially inspire Willow a lot.

Lets talk about the Wyrm next and about the Order of the Wyrm in the following chapters.

The Wyrm

Potentially the Wyrm was inspired by an old Irish deity called Crom Cruach, an ancient God of fertility who demanded the sacrifice of first borns in exchange for a good harvest.

He later became a much more demonic creature in most stories that was defeated by Saint Patrick and ultimately found his way into modern culture for example as the namesake for Crom (who otherwise more akin to Odin), the patron deity in Robert E. Howard’s “Conan the Barbarian” the titular hero worships, or as the villain in the novel “The Hunter’s Moon” by O.C. Melling in which he is called “Crom Cruac, The Great Worm”.

Very interesting is this mentioning of Crom Cruach use in the Villains Wiki: "In Pleasure of a Dark Prince by Kresley Cole, Crom Cruach is the main antagonist, with the ability to infect beings with a mad need to sacrifice whoever they love most."

This description feels as if “Pleasure of a Dark Prince”  could have been taken as an inspiration for what happens to Airk.Especially in conjunction with the myth of the sacrifice of the first borns to the original Irish god of the same name: that Graydon kills his own, older (first born) brother and Airk is a first born himself. This is proven by the dialog between Airk and Kit in which he points out that he is the older sibling and Kit confirms this “By like a minute.”  Airk is a first born who was “infected” with the “milk” of the Wyrm and seduced to “sacrifice” those he loved if necessary by fighting and killing them especially when he is additionally possessed by the Crone. And one could say that Graydon, whatever made him do it, “sacrificed” his own brother. It all points to first borns that are sacrificed and the second borns that are actually important.

Which is rather interesting because both Graydon and Kit are second borns, their older siblings were sacrificed, Dermot killed by his younger brother and Airk turned to serve the Wyrm.

And of course the list is not complete with the Necronomicon a fictional book created by Howard Philips Lovecraft as a lesser god below Shub-Niggurath and is describe generally this way in the Villains Wiki:

Crom Cruach was originally envisioned as a god hidden by mists, represented as a gold figure surrounded by twelve stone or bronze figures. Crom Cruach's countenance is akin to that of a demonic snake or monstrous worm (possibly referring to a Wyrm or a Wyvern, a type of dragon).

The Order of the Wyrm, Thule Society, 3rd Reich-symbols and Hellboy

Chants & prayers

In the story “The Nameless city” there is another element that piqued my interest, a line: “That is not dead which can eternal lie/and with strange eons even death may die”. Having a familiar tone to the script that Graydon reads aloud after which an earthquake happens. At this point it seems as if it was just the typical “Dont-read-from-the-book” moment we know from films like The Mummy, 1999. However if we think ahead and of Graydons mysterious past, whatever it is his father and Dark Elora may want from him by forming alliances as talked about in previous chapters, then these things start to from a pattern that further point to Graydon’s importance for the plot.

Furthermore if you are familiar with “A song of Ice and Fire”, you may know the words “What is dead may never die” by the folks from the Iron Islands who worship a drowned God - clearly GRR Martin is referencing Cthulhu.

Yet again a piece of Lovecratian horror in fantasy and the creepy chants, sayings, prayers of spells are all very similar

“That is not dead which can eternal lie” - Lovecraft

“The Eternal One … stirs his deathless slumber”, Willow - The Order of the Wyrm

“What is dead my never die”, GRR Martin

And of course: Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn - In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.

Joachim Kerzel (the German voice actor for Anthony Hopkins) speaking the words in the audio book adaptation of Der Ruf des Cthulhu / The call of Cthulhu

The order of the Wyrm - Hellboy & The Thule Society

The Order of the Wyrm, whose members “...worshiped an ancient blood magic, the Wyrm. The Wyrm was imprisoned a long time ago beneath the surface of world, and it waits, sleeping, for its acolytes to release it.”, they started as a small cult in Cashmere but at some point they kidnapped the princess of Cashmere, indoctrinated her so that she transformed into the Crone. They did something similar to Bavmorda, mother of Sorsha and grandmother of both Airk and Kit. The cult shares some interesting symbols with the symbols used in the Third Reich and the so called “Thule society”.

The Thule Society was founded in 1918 in Munich as a secret society, it was based on the “völkische Bewegung”, the völkisch movement, a German ethnic nationalist movement that started in the late 19th century and was active until 1945.

“A primary focus of the Thule Society was a claim concerning the origins of the Aryan race. In 1917, people who wanted to join the "Germanic Order", out of which the Thule Society developed in 1918, had to sign a special "blood declaration of faith" concerning their lineage.”

Due to its occult background this led to some conspiracy theories even though the Nazis suppressed after 1933 - it has been argued that it found its way into the NSDAP. Its beliefs were mentioned in Alfred Rosenberg's books, the leader of the Foreign Policy Office and Hitler’s first ideologist, as well as in the ideas of SS-Leader Heinrich HImmler who -unlike Hitler- was fascinated by the occult and mysticism. (Which means Indiana Jones is talking nonsense but I guess the name Hitler is better known than Himmler).

It looks as if the typical rectangular Swastika was fused with the more round shaped version of the Thule society to give it a very familiar look - round shaped elements also could be interpreted as sickle and evoke an association to some sort of harvest.

If you make a connection between the symbols of the Nazis and the Thule society as potential inspirations for the symbol of the Order of the Wyrm, with the clues we have of the so called “Blood of the Six” which runs in the veins of both Kit and Airk, and Graydon maybe being of interest for Dark Elora due to his blood, it is safe to say that the order is blood-line interested in general. And that the order is the Willow-vers representation of a lineage-concerning, (pre-)Nazi-like order such as the Thule Society.

This is hinted at through Sorsha and the fact that Kit can use the cuirass, making her blood related to Fays. So, the order's interest in this blood line ideology is very much in line with beliefs of the original, historical Thule society.

Germania - Even though it was based on Roman architecture, the right out crazy plans of Albert Speer and Adolf Hitler of a Welthauptstadt (World capital) with some similar elements we see in the show (instead of some sort of tanks according to images, there are human figures in the concept art) and a central big hall, like a huge temple you were supposed to “worship” the Nazi ideology, a building so insanely large it would have had its own climate, is echoed in the Immemorial City as well.

In Hellboy, the 2004 film by Guillermo del Toro, one of the central focus points is the Thule Society under Karl Ruprecht Kroenen (btw in the comics the spelling is “Ruprect” which is incorrect) who helps Rasputin to unleash the Ogdru-Jahad, the seven Gods of Chaos.

These beings were among others inspired by the Outer Gods/the Great Old Ones by HP Lovecraft and the Jörmungandr, the world serpent from Norse mythology that is directly connected to Ragnarök, the end of the world, killing the old gods but also dying in the process and lay groundwork to new life. 

Hellboy is yet another plot that, similar to Indiana Jones, has Nazis as the antagonists that seek power in occult objects and means to reach their goals. This connection, the occult, the Thule society which used the Swastika back in 1919 already, and the Order of the Wyrm that uses Nazi/Swastika like symbols is indicative of what influenced the show “Willow” aside from Lovecraft.

Yet another interesting fact is that in the Roleplaying Game “Vampire - The Masquerade”, there is a so called “Order of the Wyrm (Vampire the Masquerade)”, centered around a tome penned by Abdul Alhazred - Abdul Alhazred, a character invented by HP Lovecraft, writer of the infamous Necronomicon. The Wyrm in “Vampire - The Masquerade” is the “incarnation of destruction and misery that will one day swallow the world”.

“If magic is the bloodstream of the universe, the Wyrm feeds on it.”, Willow Ufgood

Conclusion:

These elements make up the world building of Willow: In sometimes subtle and sometimes very obvious clues, symbols and architecture, combining the myths of Lovecraft, the Sword and Sorcery of Robert E Howard, the high fantasy of Tolkien (since Lucas originally wanted to make Lord of the Rings), a certain blood lineage ideology of the Thule society and its imagery which is echoed in the symbols Order of the Wyrm etc. These things follow a clear pattern. It is a vast and much richer universe, filled with potentially endless wonders and horrors, made by a creative team that probably had a large variety of inspirations on their desks.

As I would say about any other analysis that I made. If I can find it, professional writers in Hollywood can find it and very likely brought those ideas already with them when they expanded the Willow universe. Like us they read novels, comics, play RPGs, and video games, watch TV and movies. - Ex nihilo nihil fit.

And these potential connections, inspos etc may offer some clues into which directions the Seasons 2 and 3 of Willow were supposed to go thematically.

Be My Mirror (My Sword and Shield) // Tanthamore

As one of my fave fanfics for our girls, I wanted to draw them as a gift for the talented @onlyshestandsthere and her incredible story. It has all the elements I love and adore in any tale: adventure, action, suspense, humour and romance. I'd encourage anyone who hasn't read it to add it to your list.

Summary:

Angry blue eyes glared at Jade from beneath short dark locks that fell into her face. Sharp cheekbones, straight nose, and a strong jaw gave her an imperious air, and despite the fact that she was shorter than Jade – and tied to a tree – she still somehow gave the impression that she was looking down at her. This was even more impressive given the entire left side of her face was one massive bruise, and her eye was swollen almost completely shut. Or: Bone Reaver Jade is tasked with escorting a prisoner to the Immemorial City for their new ally, the Crone.

Be My Mirror Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/47197000/chapters/118917430