Life in Naat

2. If this is the Far Future, why are there still Humans (and other current terrestrial animals)?

As Drhoz commented on a previous post, "Time Gates". Actually I want to expand this to include Dimensional Gates, as well.

Mount Monument, Wyandotte Cave
http://www.cardcow.com/286989/monume...-cave-indiana/

Here is CAS's take on it:

"But I have heard it hinted in certain obscure and arcanic prophecies that the far-future continent called Gnydron by some and Zothique by others, which will rise millions of years hence in what is now the South Atlantic, will surpass even Hyperborea in ... incursions of 'outsideness' ... and will witness the intrusion of Things from galaxies not yet visible; and worse than this, a hideously chaotic breaking-down of dimensional barriers which will leave parts of our world in other dimensions, and vice versa. When things get to that stage, there will be no telling where even the briefest journey or morning stroll might end. The conditions will shift, too; so there will be no possibility of charting them and thus knowing when or where one might step off into the unknown."

-- Introduction to 'Tales of Zothique'

"Gnydron, a continent of the far future, in the South Atlantic, which is more subject to incursions of 'outsideness' than any former terrene realm; and more liable to the visitation of beings from galaxies not yet visible; also, to
shifting admixtures and interchanges with other dimensions or planes of entity."

-- A Tale of Gnydron (Synopsis)

"He poured in their cups of onyx the amber vintages, brought by wizardry from hills beneath a younger sun..."

-- The Empire of the Necromancers

"He thought that the cavern was the portal of some undiscovered world—and the portal had opened to permit his entrance."

-- Xeethra

I hinted previously that there might be some reason the Earth was moved to allow it to survive the Red Giant stage of the Sun. To my mind, it might be that the Earth has become an indespensible nexus in this conjunction of many dimensional worlds and times and that its destruction could lead to the destruction of these other worlds/times/dimensions connected to it. The Earth can become a cold, dead, lifeless sphere hurtling through interstellar space but it cannot be allowed to be destroyed outright.

Another interesting possibility came to me. Yog-Sothoth also displays the quality of being a Gateway to other times and places.

“Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth ... Yog-Sothoth is the key to the gate, whereby the spheres meet.”

-- The Dunwich Horror

"It was an All-in-One and One-in-All of limitless being and self — not merely a thing of one Space-Time continuum, but allied to the ultimate animating essence of existence's whole unbounded sweep — the last, utter sweep which has no confines and which outreaches fancy and mathematics alike. It was perhaps that which certain secret cults of earth have whispered of as YOG-SOTHOTH, and which has been a deity under other names ..."

-- Through the Gates of the Silver Key

It may be that in the far future the Earth and Yog-Sothoth have become co-mingled, essentially fused into one entity. This puts a whole new meaning on the phrase "the Bowels of the Earth".

Whatever is the truth, we can assume that regular "incursions" from other times and realities can occur in Zothique. The sources of these physical incursions could be from Irem, the City of Pillars, Yondo (as postulated by G.R. Hager), Earth's Dreamlands or anywhere/when the Keeper desires.

"Concern'g ye Old Ones, 'tis write, they wait ev'r at ye Gate, & ye Gate is all places at all times, for They know noth'g of time or place but are in all time & in all places togeth'r without appear'g to be, & there are those amongst Them which can assume divers Shapes & Featurs & any Giv'n Shape & any giv'n Face & ye Gates are for Them ev'rywhere, ye 1st. was that which I caus'd to be op'd, Namely, in Irem, ye City of Pillars, ye city under ye desert, but wher'r men sett up ye Stones and sayeth thrice ye forbidd'n Words, they shall cause there a Gate to be establish'd ... "

-- The Lurker at the Threshold

"That antique Silver Key, he said, would unlock the successive doors that bar our free march down the mighty corridors of space and time to the very Border which no man has crossed since Shaddad with his terrific genius built and concealed in the sands of Arabia Petraea the prodigious domes and uncounted minarets of thousand-pillared Irem. Half-starved dervishes—wrote Carter—and thirst-crazed nomads have returned to tell of that monumental portal, and of the Hand that is sculptured above the keystone of the arch, but no man has passed and returned to say that his footprints on the garnet-strown sands within bear witness to his visit. The key, he surmised, was that for which the Cyclopean sculptured Hand vainly grasps."

-- Through the Gates of the Silver Key

Postscript:

For an example of time incursions in published game material look at "Slow Boat" by Peter F. Jeffery and Mark Morrison on p. 65 of Fearful Passages, where some Zothique Necromancers open a time portal to 20th Century England.

A source of information on Time Travel can be gleaned from Cthulhu By Gaslight, which contains rules for Time Travel on pgs. 53-64.

For dimensional travel in published game material there is the rare "The Realm of Shadows" by John H. Crowe III, where the Investigator’s have a chance to visit the grim city of Zul-Bha-Sair, home to the great ghoul-god Mordiggian accessed through the Dreamlands.

Mechanisms for physical connections to the Realm of Dreams are explored on pgs. 10-14 of H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands (5th edition). Recently reprinted by Chaosium, http://catalog.chaosium.com/product_...oducts_id=6648

Apparently, the Nug-Soth from the planet of Yaddith have advanced to a level of technology that allows them to travel through space and other dimensions. In "The Shadow Out of Time" one Nug-Soth, a magician of the dark conquerors of A.D. 16,000 has been taken by the Yith and Robert M. Price's short story "Saucers from Yaddith" hints that Nug-Soth scientists have appeared on Earth performing various experiments on humans. Whether any of this technology survives to the days of the last continent is for the Keeper to decide.

Finally, the Chronicles of Future Earth p. 49, introduces "Planing Machines".

"Planing Machines are the greatest of Urth’s treasures. Ornately carved, antique-looking, circular or semicircular gateways up to 10m in diameter, they provide a means of transportation to the lost worlds of the Great Commonality which died in the Armageddon of the Gods. Known planing machines in the Autocracy are under the control of the Venerable Autocrator. Through them the Empire receives much-needed steel from the world of Ladabran, the steadfast and loyal Stuyvosian Guard from the dark world of Stuyvos, and contact with other, stranger worlds not widely known to the peoples of the Empire. Legend says each planing machine can contact ten worlds. A functioning planing machine must exist on the other “side”. Both machines must allow passage, or contact is visual only. Rumor says that eight of the ten worlds contactable by the planing machine beneath the Autocrator’s Ethereal Palace in Kados are so implacably hostile that were the Autocrator to permit access, the whole world would erupt in terrible war. For this reason planing machines are the most perilous Ancient artifacts of all."

Lastly, I picked up an ebook copy of Taint and Sanity : RuneQuest Edition from Super Genius Games (OtherWorld Creations), which may prove to contain some interesting concepts for Sanity and Evil in a Fantasy Roleplaying context. A Swords Against the Outer Dark review can be found here: http://swordandsanity.blogspot.com/2...runequest.html