Carcosa

>
>
>
>
> Along the shore the cloud waves break,
>
> The twin suns sink behind the lake,
>
> The shadows lengthen
>
>
>
>
> In Carcosa.
>
> Strange is the night where black stars rise,
>
> And strange moons circle through the skies
>
> But stranger still is
>
>
>
>
> Lost Carcosa.
>
> Songs that the Hyades shall sing,
>
> Where flap the tatters of the King,
>
> Must die unheard in
>
>
>
>
> Dim Carcosa.
>
> Song of my soul, my voice is dead;
>
> Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed
>
> Shall dry and die in
>
>
>
>
> Lost Carcosa.Cassilda's Song in *The King in Yellow*, Act I, Scene 2.

**Carcosa** is a mysterious lost city, believed to have been located in an otherworldly landscape and under an alien sky with two suns and multiple moons, and where black stars are sometimes visible, apparently even at night. Its exact location seems to be at the shore of Lake Hali, and possibly another lake called Demhe, and it is also associated with stars such as Aldebaran, the Hyades and Hastur - the latter apparently the name of a star and/or a kingdom as well as a deity.

The city of Carcosa is most eerily associated with the accursed stage-play known as *The King in Yellow*. In the play, the song of Cassilda describes the lost city visible from the shore of the lake where "cloud waves break" and shadows lengthen as the twin suns sink behind the water. Another peculiarity about Carcosa is that its towers often appear to be *behind* the moon. This fact might suggest either a supernatural element or the possibility that Carcosa might have been a space-borne city, a celestial construction, perhaps even something akin to a space station.

In the night sky above Carcosa circle "strange moons" and a number of "black stars" rise. The fact that these are somehow visible against the night sky might suggest that the sky above Carcosa isn't all black at night. Alternatively, it might be that the black stars are visible simply because the twin suns still haven't set completely.

Whatever the answers to the mysteries of Carcosa, it is clear that the city is long lost to history and probably no longer exists, except in ruins.

In 1920, a delusional man named Hildred Castaigne believed himself to be a direct descendant of the royal dynasty originally established in Carcosa. His delusion was shared with a mysterious and apparently deranged man named Mr. Wilde, who possessed (possibly produced) a document entitled *The Imperial Dynasty of America*, which opens up with the words "when from Carcosa, the Hyades, Hastur, and Aldebaran". While the significance of Aldebaran and the Hyades is not clear, Castaigne later describes himself as "King by my right in Hastur", possibly suggesting a larger kingdom in which Carcosa might have been located and which shares its name with a certain bucolic god of shepherds.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "The Repairer of Reputations", by Robert W. Chambers (1895)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Haïta the Shepherd", by Ambrose Bierce (1893)
3. ↑ "Supernatural Horror In Literature", by H. P. Lovecraft (1927)
4. ↑ "The Mask", by Robert W. Chambers (1895)
5. ↑ "In the Court of the Dragon", by Robert W. Chambers (1895)
6. ↑ "An Inhabitant of Carcosa", by Ambrose Bierce (1886)