Averoigne

Averoigne is a fictional province in France, created by Clark Ashton Smith as a setting for a series of horror fantasy stories set in a pre-modern era. The fictional land appears to based on the historical province of Auvergne.Crypt of Cthulhu #26, Hallowmass 1984, "The History of Averoigne?" by Glenn Rahman The frequent references to Lovecraftian deities, often in transparently altered terms (Sodaqui for Tsathoggua, Iog-Sotôt for Yog-Sothoth, the Ram With a Thousand Ewes for Shub-Niggurath), establish Averoigne as a part of the Cthulhu Mythos.
In addition to Mythos entities and their worshippers, Smith populates Averoigne with malign and dangerous creatures like vampires ("Rendezvous in Averoigne"), lamias ("The End of the Story", possibly "The Enchantress of Sylaire"), and satyrs ("The Satyr").
==Stories==
Smith used Averoigne as the setting for the following stories:
*"The End of the Story" (Weird Tales, May 1930)
*"A Rendezvous in Averoigne" (Weird Tales, April/May 1931)
*"The Satyr" (La Paree Stories, July 1931)
*"The Maker of Gargoyles" (Weird Tales, August 1932)
*"The Mandrakes" (Weird Tales, February 1933)
*"The Beast of Averoigne" (Weird Tales, May 1933)
*"The Holiness of Azédarac" (Weird Tales, November 1933)
*"The Colossus of Ylourgne" (Weird Tales, June 1934)
*"The Disinterment of Venus" (Weird Tales, July 1934)
*"Mother of Toads" (Weird Tales, July 1938)
*"The Enchantress of Sylaire" (Weird Tales, July 1941)
*"Averoigne" (poetry) (Challenge, Spring 1951)
These stories are collected in The Averoigne Archives: The Complete Averoigne Tales of Clark Ashton Smith, an ebook published by Pickman's Press in 2019.
==Geography==
Smith places Averoigne near the center of France, in the highland region known as the Central Massif. The northern half of the territory is dominated by the walled city of Vyônes, site of an impressive cathedral. In the southern half is located the town of Ximes. The main road of Averoigne runs between Ximes and Vyônes, straight through the thick, dark forest that blankets the province. A river called Isoile flows from the mountains in the northern part of the province to feed into a swamp in the south.
Other Averoigne towns and villages mentioned by Smith include Moulins, Les Hiboux, La Frenâie, Sainte Zenobie, and Périgon. In the forest can be found haunted ruins, such as the Chateau des Faussesflammes and the stronghold of Ylourgne.
In The History of Averoigne, Glenn Rahman suggests that Vyônes might be identified with Clermont-Ferrand in the real world's Auvergne, Ximes with that province's St. Flour, and Périgon with La Chaise Dieu, which also had a prestigious abbey.
==Timeline==
*475: Brother Ambrose is sent back seven centuries before his own time, where he meets the enchantress Moriamis. ("The Holiness of Azédarac")
*1138: The city of Vyônes is the site of gargoyle attacks. ("The Maker of Gargoyles")
*1166: Azédarac becomes bishop of Ximes. ("The Holiness of Azédarac")
*1175: Brother Ambrose is sent back in time by the sorcery of Bishop Azédarac. ("The Holiness of Azédarac")
*1230: Ambrose, attempting to return to his own time, overshoots by more than half a century. ("The Holiness of Azédarac")
*1275: The necromancer Nathaire comes to Vyônes. ("The Colossus of Ylourgne")
*1278: Nathaire is permanently lamed by a stone thrown by an angry mob. ("The Colossus of Ylourgne")
*1281: Nathaire and his followers secretly depart Vyônes for the fortress of Ylourgne, only to return in the form of a colossus. ("The Colossus of Ylourgne")
*1369: Fifty people are killed by the Beast of Averoigne. ("The Beast of Averoigne")
*1550: An enchanted statue of Venus is unearthed at the Abbey of Périgon. ("The Disinterment of Venus")
*1789: Christopher Morand disappears after a visit to the Abbey of Périgon. ("The End of the Story")
==In Lovecraft's Fiction==
H. P. Lovecraft paid homage to his friend Clark Ashton Smith's setting in his revision tale "Out of the Aeons", which mentions in passing that the fictional Cabot Museum in Boston purchased, in the spring of 1931, "the strange objects and inexplicably preserved bodies found in crypts beneath the almost vanished and evilly famous ruins of Château Faussesflammes, in Averoigne, France."
The spring of 1931--specifically, April/May 1931--is when Weird Tales published "A Rendezvous in Averoigne", which features vampires found beneath the ruins of Chateau Faussesflammes.
Previously, Lovecraft had used Auvergne (the real life province that inspired Averoigne) as the setting of his supernatural story "Psychopompos".
==Other Writers==
One of the first stories not written by Smith to be set in Averoigne was "The Wedding of Sheila-Na-Gog", first published in Crypt of Cthulhu #29 (Candlemas 1985), in which Glenn Rahman —author of The History of Averoigne— and Richard L. Tierney insert Tierney's character, Simon of Gitta, into the prehistory of Smith's province. In Rahman and Tierney's story, set in the first century Roman Empire in an occupied province called Regio Averonum, Simon is caught up in a struggle between the Gauls, who worship an Abhoth-like creature called Sheila-Na-Gog, and the Sadoqua-worshipping Averoni.
In a similar vein, Ron Hilger published "The Oracle of Sadoqua", a story of conflict between Romans and Druids in Averonia, in Chronicles of the Cthulhu Codex #5 (Winter 1989). Hilger based the story on Smith's outline for a story that he never completed.The Averoigne Legacy: Tribute Tales in the World of Clark Ashton Smith, "Introduction", by Edward Stasheff (Pickman's Press, 2019). Cthulhu Codex published another such "posthumous collaboration" between Hilger and Smith, "The Doom of Azédarac", in issue #6 (1994); this was a sequel to Smith's "The Holiness of Azédarac". Hilger (with Henry J. Vester III) also wrote "The Muse of Averoigne", published in Fungi #14 (Fall 1996).
Brian McNaughton wrote "The Return of the Colossus", a sequel to "The Colossus of Ylourgne" set during World War One, that was published in Weirdbook #29 (Autumn 1995).
The anthology The Averoigne Legacy: Tribute Tales in the World of Clark Ashton Smith, published by Pickman's Press in 2019, collects these and other stories by various writers who have set their own fiction in Smith's Averoigne.
Averoigne was also adapted as a setting for Cthulhu Dark Ages, Chaosium's early medieval setting for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game, in a series of articles that appeared in Worlds of Cthulhu magazineWorld of Cthulhu at rpggeek.com (published by Pegasus Press and edited by Keith Herber and Adam Crossingham, and not to be confused with the 2012 anthology of the same name edited by Robert M. Price). Issue #1 of Worlds of Cthulhu, published in August 2004, featured the articles "On Gaming in Averoigne" by Richard A. Becker, "Averoigne Occupations" by Dan Harms and Adam Crossingham, and "Skills for Dark Ages: Averoigne" by Dan Harms and Adam Crossingham, with additional articles further exploring the setting published in Worlds of Cthulhu issues #2 (which featured "Dark Ages: Averoigne - A Gazetteer of Averoigne" and "Dark Ages: Averoigne - The Library", a list of new Cthulhu Mythos and occult tomes for the game setting), #3 (featuring the articles "Dark Ages: Averoigne - A Bestiary", Dark Ages: Averoigne - The Grimoire", which featured new spells and rules for summoning knowledge spirits, "Dark Ages: Averoigne - Magical Items" and "Dark Ages: Averoigne - Finance in the 13th Century") and #4 (featuring just one article, "Insanity and Faith in Averoigne").
==References==
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Category:Locations Originating From Lovecraft Circle Works
Category:Regions/Territories