Vyônes

Vyônes (pronounced vee-OWN) is a fictional town created by Clark Ashton Smith, the major municipality of his imaginary French province of Averoigne. It was mentioned in the first Averoigne tale, "The End of the Story", published in the May 1930 issue of Weird Tales. But Smith did not use it as an actual setting until the third tale, "The Maker of Gargoyles", in Weird Tales' August 1932 issue.
== In Smith's Fiction ==
In "The End of the Story" (1930), the protagonist reads an account of Gérard de Venteillon, which says that his betrothed, Eleanor des Lys, "waited vainly for him at the cathedral of Vyônes, the principal town of Averoigne, where the wedding had been set." 
The town gets a slightly less glancing mention in "A Rendezvous in Averoigne" (1931) : "Visiting one day that quaint cathedral town, Vyônes, which lies so near to the ancient wood of Averoigne, Gérard had seen Fleurette, the daughter of a well-to-do mercer named Guillaume Cochin," the story relates; later, when lost in that wood, Gerard tells a stranger, "I should be profoundly grateful if you would direct me toward Vyônes"--to which the stranger replies, “Unfortunately, there are no paths from my château to Vyônes.”
"The Satyr" (1931) mentions the town briefly when Raoul, Comte de la Frênaie, "returned to the château from Vyônes, where he had gone on business."
Smith's first story that actually utilized Vyônes as a setting is "The Maker of Gargoyles" (1932), set in the year 1138, when "Vyônes was the principal town of the province of Averoigne." As in "Rendezvous", its closeness to the forest of Averoigne is noted: "On two sides the great, shadow-haunted forest, a place of equivocal legends, of loup-garous and phantoms, approached to the very walls and flung its umbrage upon them at early forenoon and evening." In the other directions, the view is more pastoral: "On the other sides there lay cultivated fields, and gentle streams that meandered among willows or poplars, and roads that ran through an open plain to the high châteaux of noble lords and to regions beyond Averoigne."
Vyônes is described in "Gargoyles" as "prosperous" and "sanctified by the presence of two nunneries and a monastery"--plus the cathedral whose construction sets the stage for the story. Despite this divine protection, Smith admits, "there had been occasional instances of alleged sorcery or demoniacal possession; and, once or twice, the perilous temptations of succubi had made their inroads on the pious virtue of Vyônes." The story goes on to recount a series of vicious gargoyle attacks.
In "The Holiness of Azédarac" (1933), Brother Ambrose is sent from Vyônes to Ximes by Clement, his uncle, who is also the Archbishop of Averoigne, with his seat at Vyônes' cathedral. Ambrose is tasked to investigate rumors that Ximes' bishop, Azédarac, has dealings with unholy powers--rumors that turn out to be all to true. The story turns on Ambrose's attempt to return to Vyônes with the evidence--a journey that turns into a voyage into the past and future of Averoigne.
There are two brief mentions of Vyônes in "The Beast of Averoigne" (1933): when Brother Constantin sees the Beast when he "returned late from a visit to Vyônes", and when the the Bishop of Ximes and the Archbishop of Vyônes are both said to be aware of an offer of immunity to the sorcerer Luc le Chaudronnier in return for his help in dealing with the Beast.
"The Colossus of Ylourgne" (1934) once again makes Vyônes one of its main settings (along with Ylourgne). It is from Vyônes that the necromancer Nathaire mysteriously vanishes, carrying with him a bitter grudge against the town; it's also from Vyônes that Nathaire's former student, Gaspard du Nord, travels to spy out what the necromancer is up to. The story makes reference to Vyônes' "stout walls", and to a cemetery outside those walls.
Category:Locations Originating From Lovecraft Circle Works
Category:Regions/Territories
Category:Averoigne