Cyäegha Issue One

Cyäegha Issue One
Spring 2008
Editor & Publisher: Graeme Phillips
cyaegha@live.co.uk

This A5 fanzine from Graeme Phillips immediately strikes you as Crypt of Cthulhu's anorexic little sister. Even the print run is thin, with the one I own being one of just sixty numbered copies.

It has a similar cover style with a striking central image with a well spaced border. This inaugural issue introduces us to the "Nagaae" by Paul Carrick. This loathsome thing is reminiscent of the illegitimate offspring of a Deep One and Tsathoggua.

If editor and publisher Graeme Phillips throws the right stones into the sea, perhaps he’ll be fortunate enough to have future covers graced by Carrick's work. It’s certainly striking and will no sales no harm at all. In the meantime, you can see more at www.nightserpent.com

Cyäegha comes in at twenty eight pages. With a price of £4 there's a little pressure for the contents to live up to the cost.

The well laid out contents page shows no trace of an editorial. There are no reviews, RPG snippets, scenarios, cartoons and there is not a trace of an advert. In fact, the only hint that Phillips is involved is a short introduction and in the interviews. There is not an ounce of fat in the issue, and it focuses entirely on the subject at hand.

The issue is devoted to Eddy Bertin, who is probably best known for his work "Darkness, My Name Is" is that appeared in the Disciples of Cthulhu anthology.

If you've not read a lot of Bertin's other works, then don't be disheartened. Much of it has not appeared in English despite popularity elsewhere.

With so much of Bertin's work unavailable, Phillips has very wisely allowed the author to speak for himself as much as possible throughout the fanzine.

Two things emerge from this first hand look at the Mythos. Firstly, Bertin's work does not rely on the mythos for effectiveness. While there are similar themes such as the use of dreams, transformation and indifferent forces beyond those of mankind, Bertin has ideas that stand perfectly well on their own. The Piercing of Priscilla Peterson (surely to be left as The Piercing at some point), The Observers and the ghastly opponents in the Valentina and Anton novels are just a few examples.

Secondly, Bertin is not a slave to the Mythos canon although there are many mythos trappings to be found in his work. If you break his work down into a list of Mythos appearances, then many familiar faces will appear. Upon closer inspection, however, they take on new forms, changing in scope and theme. There's more focus in the aspects of the Mythos that exist beyond spacetime and the Old Ones we know are but dreams and reflections in our reality of the true horror.

Bergin goes into some detail on his European Mythos in his essay that starts off the fanzine, giving some background into his writing and how it has developed over fifty years. You can follow the evolution of stories such as Darkness, My Name Is through a variety of publishing ventures and through it’s many forms. The story's becomes as convoluted as the Al Azif itself or Bertin's stand in tome, the Von Denen Verdammten. Stories are transformed around their cores to fit markets and there are lessons in perseverance to be found.

The history is followed by a bibliography. However, this has notes on the plots of the tales, bringing them to life and giving a few ideas to any Keeper. Hopefully this format will be continued as it’s far better than having a dry list of works for the completist.

An eight page interview with Bergen follows, reinforcing some of the ideas mentioned in the initial essay. It also adds more depth to both the author and the concepts outlined in the bibliography. It's definitely a strength of the fanzine that each part of it feeds into the next and those before it.

Two of Bertin's poems close out the issue, both of which feature strongly in his work. Even Carrick's cover turns out to be an image of one of Cyäegha's minions, so the fanzine gets bonus points for focus.

In summary, although short, the fanzine gives an interesting look at a mythos author who's work is particularly hard to get hold of in English. While seeing a piece of Bertin's fiction would have been ideal, the fanzine makes good use of the space available.

Receiving much of the information first hand from the author was a bonus, as much more is made of the available space. The downside of this is that there's little interaction beyond a standard Q&A format and themes are left unexplored.

From a Keeper's perspective, the fanzine provides a good glimpse into a different mythos with some familiar names.

Seeing Bertins' concepts hang together as a whole is certainly much better than a disjointed reading in amongst the other creatures in the rulebook. The themes underpinning the stories are much clearer this way and will aid Keeper's looking for a little more than stats and tentacles. Additionally, there are more than a few new entities mentioned that you can include in your game.

For my own campaigns, I've now got another layer of disinformation to feed to my players as Bertin involves the Seraphim battling the old ones.

There's the Cult of Vaeyen that protects the Von Denen Verdammten and the secrets it holds about the Waiting Dark.

My favourite though, is Edith Brendell. While I'm not too keen on the eidetic memory, there’s considerable weight behind someone who willingly infiltrates the depths of a cult to painstakingly transcribe it's darkest secrets. Her fate was none too pleasant and will be making it’s way to my group sooner rather than later.

Cyäegha is pronounced sigh-AE-guh, according to my trusty 5th edition and is published irregularly. Hopefully, the second issue won't be too far away as I'll certainly be picking it up.

Added: April 23rd 2008
Reviewer: thothkins
Score:
Hits: 947
Language: english