Summary: If evidence of a civilization's presence disintegrates after 10,000 years, and the earth is 4.55 billion years old, what might have transpired throughout the earth's history that we are unable to detect? This is the history of the earth by way of Delta Green.
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| This is from an older edition of Delta Green but God do I like it |
A brief description of what the Delta Green RPG is about:
A pair of competing, illegal conspiracies within the federal government that have their operatives steal funds and equipment from their employers so that they can wage war on barely-understood, sanity-destroying manifestations of supernatural phenomena, ideally under the cover of sham federal investigations but more likely working the case at night or going AWOL if necessary. Both conspiracies are known as Delta Green. The players are in as much danger from federal prosecution, having their families disintegrate with a divorce stripping them of their assets and sanity-preserving social circle, and of liquidation by the conspiracy should they become too unhinged as they are from having their atoms reassembled at random by mistiform static, getting dirked down by the relict cultists of an aeons-old protohuman empire, or getting eternally trapped in a transitory time-realm.
A third federal conspiracy existed in the past, MAJESTIC-12. Delta Green was at war with them for a long time because they traded services to the Greys (biomechanical constructs controlled by the Mi-Go) in exchange for alien technology, maintaining their position within the government by selling the fruits of their acquisitions to the NSA while the Greys abducted humans. MJ-12 was liquidated by Delta Green after the Grey liaisons fell silent.
“Current human industrial civilization emerged, flourished, and bids fair to destroy or smother itself, all in only a few millennia. It takes geological and atmospheric processes approximately a thousand years to erase most signs of human construction: even plastics and metals corrode and disintegrate after five or ten thousand years. Continents subside, volcanoes erupt, coasts flood, glaciers grind down. A few megaliths survive perhaps, washed clean of the carbon we require to pin them in historical time.
Homo sapiens has existed for about a quarter of a million years. The emergence and destruction of previous civilizations is all but a mathematical certainty. Delta Green often uses the same names 19th century occultists and charlatans ascribed to these pre-decedents: Mu, Lemuria, Uluumil-Naga, and so forth. Other names appear in older records: Lomar, Mnar, Thule, Yhe, Hyperborea, and Valusia. Names and histories come adrift: one tradition asserts that Hyperborea was a human country in Eurasia contemporaneous with the Classical Greeks, while another describes it as a lost polar continent inhabited by furry humanoids or sweat-born golden beings that reproduced by budding
The cod-scholarly habit of applying human and historical mythical terminology to ancient and inhuman empires further muddles the issue: “Hyperborea,” for example, merely means “above the North Wind,” implying only a vaguely Arctic location. The constructions of the truly ancient alien races who colonized the Earth often pay no more heed to human notions of physics and temporality than their masters did: thermoluminescence, carbon dating, and all other methods of fixing a fossil or artifact in time apply only fitfully to unnatural relics. Finally, of course, the questions of time travel, dimensional dilation, and temporal epistemology raised by unnatural contact imply that even simple notions such as “before” and “after” have almost no real meaning to these alien civilizations.
With all that said, however, here’s what a paleontologist and an occultist might piece together if Delta Green were ever foolish enough to allow such a team access to their remaining files and incident reports. To date, no one has ever done so. Dates derive from current paleontological and paleogeological research; they are necessarily approximate and, as usual, may be wildly inaccurate.
∆ 4.48 billion years ago: The Hounds of the Angles are thrown into the corridors of time. (Moon formed by the collision of a Mars-sized sphere with the proto-Earth.)
∆ 542 million years ago: The crinoid Elder Things arrive on Earth, seeding millions of species with their experiments and bioculture. (Cambrian Explosion.)
∆ 443 million years ago: Spectral polyps arrive or emerge. (Ordovician Extinction.)
∆ 378 million years ago: Great Race of Yith arrive and uplift a conical terrestrial species; the Yithians conquer and imprison the spectral polyps. (Devonian Extinction.)
∆ 359 million years ago: Cthulhu and its spawn arrive from Zubeneschamali (Beta Librae) or Sothis (Sirius, sometimes referred to as Zoth). (Hangenberg Event; algal blooms flood the oceans, choking off life across the Southern Hemisphere.)
∆ 300 million years ago: R’lyeh sinks, Cthulhu trapped; N’Kai founded by refugee servitors of Cthulhu. (Pangaea forms.)
∆ 252 million years ago: The shoggoths rebel against their Elder Thing masters, unleashing a global war fought with ecocidal weapons. By the time the Elder Things subjugate their slave creations, the war has driven 96% of all species on the planet extinct. (Permian Extinction.)
∆ 230 million years ago: Serpent people evolve, or are created by Yig; they rule the empire of Valusia roughly where the Mediterranean is now. (75 million years after the first reptiles evolve.)
∆ 184 million years ago: Mi-Go arrive on Earth in force from Yuggoth or further Outside, defeat the Elder Things and restrict them to the Antarctic. (Pangaea breaks up.)
∆ 145 million years ago: In some legends, the Mi-Go bring Ghatanothoa to a Pacific subcontinent (“Mu”), possibly as a weapon.
∆ Deep Ones bring Byatis to Valusia, likewise. (Tithonian extinction event.)
∆ 90 million years ago: Mi-Go drive the serpent people underground to Yoth. (Fossils of Najash, a bipedal, burrowing snake with a pelvis.)
∆ 66 million years ago: The spectral polyps escape their prisons—possibly by summoning an enormous iridium-iron asteroid—and drive the Great Race from their rugose cone-bodies and into the future. The cataclysm destroys most Elder Thing cities, leads Mi-Go to reduce their presence on Earth. (Cretaceous Extinction.)
∆ 50 million years ago: Prehuman civilization (“Lemurians”) flourishes in Asia or a parallel dimension (“Shamballah”).
“Current human industrial civilization emerged, flourished, and bids fair to destroy or smother itself, all in only a few millennia. It takes geological and atmospheric processes approximately a thousand years to erase most signs of human construction: even plastics and metals corrode and disintegrate after five or ten thousand years. Continents subside, volcanoes erupt, coasts flood, glaciers grind down. A few megaliths survive perhaps, washed clean of the carbon we require to pin them in historical time.
Homo sapiens has existed for about a quarter of a million years. The emergence and destruction of previous civilizations is all but a mathematical certainty. Delta Green often uses the same names 19th century occultists and charlatans ascribed to these pre-decedents: Mu, Lemuria, Uluumil-Naga, and so forth. Other names appear in older records: Lomar, Mnar, Thule, Yhe, Hyperborea, and Valusia. Names and histories come adrift: one tradition asserts that Hyperborea was a human country in Eurasia contemporaneous with the Classical Greeks, while another describes it as a lost polar continent inhabited by furry humanoids or sweat-born golden beings that reproduced by budding
The cod-scholarly habit of applying human and historical mythical terminology to ancient and inhuman empires further muddles the issue: “Hyperborea,” for example, merely means “above the North Wind,” implying only a vaguely Arctic location. The constructions of the truly ancient alien races who colonized the Earth often pay no more heed to human notions of physics and temporality than their masters did: thermoluminescence, carbon dating, and all other methods of fixing a fossil or artifact in time apply only fitfully to unnatural relics. Finally, of course, the questions of time travel, dimensional dilation, and temporal epistemology raised by unnatural contact imply that even simple notions such as “before” and “after” have almost no real meaning to these alien civilizations.
With all that said, however, here’s what a paleontologist and an occultist might piece together if Delta Green were ever foolish enough to allow such a team access to their remaining files and incident reports. To date, no one has ever done so. Dates derive from current paleontological and paleogeological research; they are necessarily approximate and, as usual, may be wildly inaccurate.
∆ 4.48 billion years ago: The Hounds of the Angles are thrown into the corridors of time. (Moon formed by the collision of a Mars-sized sphere with the proto-Earth.)
∆ 542 million years ago: The crinoid Elder Things arrive on Earth, seeding millions of species with their experiments and bioculture. (Cambrian Explosion.)
∆ 443 million years ago: Spectral polyps arrive or emerge. (Ordovician Extinction.)
∆ 378 million years ago: Great Race of Yith arrive and uplift a conical terrestrial species; the Yithians conquer and imprison the spectral polyps. (Devonian Extinction.)
∆ 359 million years ago: Cthulhu and its spawn arrive from Zubeneschamali (Beta Librae) or Sothis (Sirius, sometimes referred to as Zoth). (Hangenberg Event; algal blooms flood the oceans, choking off life across the Southern Hemisphere.)
∆ 300 million years ago: R’lyeh sinks, Cthulhu trapped; N’Kai founded by refugee servitors of Cthulhu. (Pangaea forms.)
∆ 252 million years ago: The shoggoths rebel against their Elder Thing masters, unleashing a global war fought with ecocidal weapons. By the time the Elder Things subjugate their slave creations, the war has driven 96% of all species on the planet extinct. (Permian Extinction.)
∆ 230 million years ago: Serpent people evolve, or are created by Yig; they rule the empire of Valusia roughly where the Mediterranean is now. (75 million years after the first reptiles evolve.)
∆ 184 million years ago: Mi-Go arrive on Earth in force from Yuggoth or further Outside, defeat the Elder Things and restrict them to the Antarctic. (Pangaea breaks up.)
∆ 145 million years ago: In some legends, the Mi-Go bring Ghatanothoa to a Pacific subcontinent (“Mu”), possibly as a weapon.
∆ Deep Ones bring Byatis to Valusia, likewise. (Tithonian extinction event.)
∆ 90 million years ago: Mi-Go drive the serpent people underground to Yoth. (Fossils of Najash, a bipedal, burrowing snake with a pelvis.)
∆ 66 million years ago: The spectral polyps escape their prisons—possibly by summoning an enormous iridium-iron asteroid—and drive the Great Race from their rugose cone-bodies and into the future. The cataclysm destroys most Elder Thing cities, leads Mi-Go to reduce their presence on Earth. (Cretaceous Extinction.)
∆ 50 million years ago: Prehuman civilization (“Lemurians”) flourishes in Asia or a parallel dimension (“Shamballah”).
∆ Black, formless beings from Kythamil build K’n-Yan.
∆ 33 million years ago: War between Lemurians and Deep Ones destroys Lemuria, drives deep ones into deep trenches. (Meteoric bombardment of eastern North America; Eocene-Oligocene Extinction)
∆ 14 million years ago: Reptile species, possibly a clade of divergent serpent people, builds a nameless seaport city as a fane of Cthulhu in what is now Arabia. (Miocene Climate Transition.)
∆ 9 million years ago: Elder Things create hominid servant-pets. (Pan-Homo divergence.)
∆ 3 million years ago: Rhan-Tegoth rules in what is now Alaska.
∆ Tsathoggua arrives in Hyperborea from N’Kai or Saturn.
∆ 2.54 million years ago: Lloigor arrive from the Andromeda Galaxy, colonize Mu, begin to enslave and engineer hominid stocks. Some sources say the Lloigor faced resistance from Ghatanothoa; others, that Ghatanothoa was chief among them, or perhaps a forerunner. (SN 1885A, only known supernova in Andromeda Galaxy, c. 2.54 million light-years away)
∆ 2.4 million years ago: Furry hominid Tsathoggua-worshipers, the Voorii, establish the civilization of Hyperborea in Greenland. (Bramertonian Interglacial.)
∆ 2 million years ago: Hominid apes construct the ward-city “Thule” in central Africa. (Homo erectus.)
∆ 1 million years ago: Tcho-Tcho evolve in southeastern Asia. (Java Man.)
∆ 850,000 years ago: Human civilization first (?) rises in Hyperborea and Lomar, drives the Voorii south. (Homo heidelbergensis.)
∆ Deep Ones return to continental shelves. (Cromerian Interglacial.)
∆ 725,000 years ago: Lloigor destroy rebellious Lomarian city Nam-Ergest, explosion creates what is now the Grand Canyon. (Major period of activity in Uinkaret volcanic field.)
∆ 173,148 BCE: Worship of Ghatanothoa becomes supreme in Mu.
∆ 110,000 years ago: Uluumil-Ra empire of Mu destroys remnant Lemurian cities in Asia. (Last Gigantopithecus fossils.)
∆ 100,000 years ago: Human kingdom rules the continent or dimension of Atlantis; shadow war against serpent people infiltrators eventually undermines it.
∆ 85,000 years ago: Itla-shua destroys Hyperborea and the final Elder Thing city with ice; Lomarians retreat into K’n-Yan, except for those in the capital city of Olathoë. (Wisconsin Glaciation.)
∆ 50,000 years ago: Lomarians bring worship of Tsathoggua out of K’n-Yan, reestablish his cult across the North. (Upton-Warren interstadial warm spike.)
∆ 26,000 years ago: Final destruction of Olathoë by the hairy Gnophkehs.
∆ Lloigor return to power in decadent Mu.
∆ 17,000 years ago: Rise of Cimmeria under Crom-Ya. (Last glacial maximum.)
∆ 14,500 years ago: Sinking of Atlantis. (Bølling-Allerød interstadial warm spike.)
∆ 12,000 years ago: Final destruction of Mu in the western Pacific; Lloigor scatter across the world. (Sundaland continental shelf submerged; Younger Dryas mini-ice age.)
∆ 9000 BCE: Tcho-Tcho found Ai-Lao-Žar on the Plateau of Singu.
∆ Rise of Irem of the Pillars.
∆ 6000 BCE: Last kings of Stygia carve the Sphinx. (Controversial “watererosion” theory date of the Sphinx’ construction.)
∆ The Doom comes to Sarnath in the land of Mnar. (Flooding of the Persian Gulf seafloor.)
∆ 5600 BCE: Deluge submerges Cimmeria. (Ryan and Pittman theory of Black Sea flooding.)
∆ 2600 BCE: Nephren-Ka, the Black Pharaoh, rules in Egypt. (Confused and fragmentary records of the Pharaoh Nefer-ka (2nd Dynasty) or Nefer-ka-re (3rd dynasty).)
∆ 2184-2181 BCE: Ghoul queen Nitocris rules in Egypt. (Concealed under the name of Pharaoh Neitqerti Siptah (6th Dynasty).)
∆ 534 CE: Meteor impact in Britain (modern Brichester Lake) brings Glaaki to Earth. (Major cooling event in Northern Hemisphere.)
∆ 1643 CE: Shans arrive on Earth (in Goatswood) from Shaggai.
∆ 5000 CE: The cruel empire of Tsan-Chan flourishes.
∆ 50 million years from now: Great Race of Yith returns to incarnate into a hardy coleopteran species, reconquers the Earth.”
---
If you look into the game, look for the Lloigor, the most fascinating energy-field subterranean cancer-inducing space tyrants in role playing gaming.
∆ 33 million years ago: War between Lemurians and Deep Ones destroys Lemuria, drives deep ones into deep trenches. (Meteoric bombardment of eastern North America; Eocene-Oligocene Extinction)
∆ 14 million years ago: Reptile species, possibly a clade of divergent serpent people, builds a nameless seaport city as a fane of Cthulhu in what is now Arabia. (Miocene Climate Transition.)
∆ 9 million years ago: Elder Things create hominid servant-pets. (Pan-Homo divergence.)
∆ 3 million years ago: Rhan-Tegoth rules in what is now Alaska.
∆ Tsathoggua arrives in Hyperborea from N’Kai or Saturn.
∆ 2.54 million years ago: Lloigor arrive from the Andromeda Galaxy, colonize Mu, begin to enslave and engineer hominid stocks. Some sources say the Lloigor faced resistance from Ghatanothoa; others, that Ghatanothoa was chief among them, or perhaps a forerunner. (SN 1885A, only known supernova in Andromeda Galaxy, c. 2.54 million light-years away)
∆ 2.4 million years ago: Furry hominid Tsathoggua-worshipers, the Voorii, establish the civilization of Hyperborea in Greenland. (Bramertonian Interglacial.)
∆ 2 million years ago: Hominid apes construct the ward-city “Thule” in central Africa. (Homo erectus.)
∆ 1 million years ago: Tcho-Tcho evolve in southeastern Asia. (Java Man.)
∆ 850,000 years ago: Human civilization first (?) rises in Hyperborea and Lomar, drives the Voorii south. (Homo heidelbergensis.)
∆ Deep Ones return to continental shelves. (Cromerian Interglacial.)
∆ 725,000 years ago: Lloigor destroy rebellious Lomarian city Nam-Ergest, explosion creates what is now the Grand Canyon. (Major period of activity in Uinkaret volcanic field.)
∆ 173,148 BCE: Worship of Ghatanothoa becomes supreme in Mu.
∆ 110,000 years ago: Uluumil-Ra empire of Mu destroys remnant Lemurian cities in Asia. (Last Gigantopithecus fossils.)
∆ 100,000 years ago: Human kingdom rules the continent or dimension of Atlantis; shadow war against serpent people infiltrators eventually undermines it.
∆ 85,000 years ago: Itla-shua destroys Hyperborea and the final Elder Thing city with ice; Lomarians retreat into K’n-Yan, except for those in the capital city of Olathoë. (Wisconsin Glaciation.)
∆ 50,000 years ago: Lomarians bring worship of Tsathoggua out of K’n-Yan, reestablish his cult across the North. (Upton-Warren interstadial warm spike.)
∆ 26,000 years ago: Final destruction of Olathoë by the hairy Gnophkehs.
∆ Lloigor return to power in decadent Mu.
∆ 17,000 years ago: Rise of Cimmeria under Crom-Ya. (Last glacial maximum.)
∆ 14,500 years ago: Sinking of Atlantis. (Bølling-Allerød interstadial warm spike.)
∆ 12,000 years ago: Final destruction of Mu in the western Pacific; Lloigor scatter across the world. (Sundaland continental shelf submerged; Younger Dryas mini-ice age.)
∆ 9000 BCE: Tcho-Tcho found Ai-Lao-Žar on the Plateau of Singu.
∆ Rise of Irem of the Pillars.
∆ 6000 BCE: Last kings of Stygia carve the Sphinx. (Controversial “watererosion” theory date of the Sphinx’ construction.)
∆ The Doom comes to Sarnath in the land of Mnar. (Flooding of the Persian Gulf seafloor.)
∆ 5600 BCE: Deluge submerges Cimmeria. (Ryan and Pittman theory of Black Sea flooding.)
∆ 2600 BCE: Nephren-Ka, the Black Pharaoh, rules in Egypt. (Confused and fragmentary records of the Pharaoh Nefer-ka (2nd Dynasty) or Nefer-ka-re (3rd dynasty).)
∆ 2184-2181 BCE: Ghoul queen Nitocris rules in Egypt. (Concealed under the name of Pharaoh Neitqerti Siptah (6th Dynasty).)
∆ 534 CE: Meteor impact in Britain (modern Brichester Lake) brings Glaaki to Earth. (Major cooling event in Northern Hemisphere.)
∆ 1643 CE: Shans arrive on Earth (in Goatswood) from Shaggai.
∆ 5000 CE: The cruel empire of Tsan-Chan flourishes.
∆ 50 million years from now: Great Race of Yith returns to incarnate into a hardy coleopteran species, reconquers the Earth.”
---
If you look into the game, look for the Lloigor, the most fascinating energy-field subterranean cancer-inducing space tyrants in role playing gaming.
I ran a mini-campaign set in 1968 where I knitted/welded a situation together out of Flesh Interfaces, the CIA LSD interrogation programs and a Shub-Niggurathi cult whose 138-year old leader was having his adult sons infiltrate the USDA so that they could add hypergeometric cyst-causing spores to nearly all foodstuffs, fluoride-style.
Here are my notes, which I love and may put in a post in the future.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1S2zOnRZsoZWym3l7r1TuzsmBqOg_j0ag58f8pVUQIHw/edit?usp=sharing
Reference for Flesh Interfaces:
I really appreciate this concise (all things considered) timeline of the wider Lovecraft Mythos. For as problematic of a writer as he is, and as overused as some of his ideas are, when you see the whole mythology he and others have created laid out like this, it's just so wonderfully weird and imaginative. It's like superhero comics in the best ways, full of idiosyncrasies from different creators where things don't quite line up, and the attempt to fit them together, when done well, leads to even weirder ideas. Something about it makes it all feel more real, and feel like there is more room for development, because it is not so perfectly manufactured that any new element would break it. I only hope in the future we see these ideas reinterpreted or expanded by people with a wider diversity of experiences and perspectives.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly took something of a dark personality to be go as deeply into the cosmic recesses as he went, but I think the good he did for the imagination of mankind outweighs or will outweigh the disappointment he causes his readers. He's evergreen into the modern day because what matters of an author's work is how it weighs in the balance. What will remain of Lovecraft (and what will grow) is the imaginative power that he's made available for the wider range of people you mention, many of whom are imbalanced creatives in their own way. They may be personally frowned upon by posterity for reasons we don't yet understand, but posterity will inherit the silk they spun from their spiderwebs and will have a place for it on the mantelpiece. The power is distilled, the ill filtered out. All things are like this. I am grateful he lived in all his flaws, as I am for everyone who did more good than harm.
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