Lemuria

The Lost Continent (Art by William Scott-Elliott)

**Lemuria** is a lost continent, believed by some to have been situated in either the Indian or Pacific Ocean. Notably, there is limited information available about this mysterious land and its ancient inhabitants. According to some legends, the Great Old Ones were worshiped as deities in Lemuria, and these beings were said to possess formidable magical abilities.

## Overview

Lemuria was an ancient empire located in the Indian Ocean, predating civilizations like Atlantis, Babylon and Egypt by thousands of years.

A theory was that the nation was mainly inhabited by humans, though it is speculated that other beings, such as elves and fae, also inhabited the lands.

## Description

The civilization was ruled by an emperor/empress, who ruled over ten kings/queens, who in turn ruled over lesser dukes and earls. Despite being ruled by nobles, the standard quality of life for a Lemurian citizen was high, and a large middle class of merchants, non-noble landowners, industrials, bankers and scholars did exist. Education was also valued by all layers of society. The Lemurians were believed in contact with several non-human civilizations, such as Fairies, Elves and Deep Ones, with whom they had shifting alliances, sometimes being allies and sometimes being at war.

The people of Lemuria appeared to posses both advanced magic and technology that would be beyond the comprehension of modern humans, such as energy weapons, advanced forms of transportation and massive metropolitan cities.
Some of this technology included:

* Unspecified, renewable power source
* Energy weapons
* Power grids
* Aircraft
* Primitive satellite technology
* Submarines
* High speed trains
* Possible Artificial Intelligence

### Religion

It is speculated that they worshipped many gods called the Ogdru Hem, who were later identified as the Great Old Ones and that they taught the Lemurians to harness powerful mystical abilities. The people of Lemuria worshipped many gods other the Ogdru Hem, that would later on be known as either demons, primordials, titans or even angels, though more in the form "mystery-religions". The main gods were called either "Lord" or "Lady", while the lesser gods were called simply "Patron", though an exact hierarchy is not exactly known.

Worship varied from Temple services on holy days to sacrifices (mostly animal, but sometimes humans) among ordinary citizens, but there were many "mystery-religions" that engaged in more unusual rituals. Common worship of the Ogdru Hem through mass prayer and sacrifice at a massive "cyclopean temples ".

Some coastal towns seemed to have an arrangement with the Deep Ones and Urgo-Hem, in which they sacrificed youth and mated with the sea creatures in return for plentiful fish and gold. This tradition would later be performed by the Esoteric Order of Dagon and Cthulhu Cult.

Some nobles made blood-pacts with so-called gods in return for wealth, power or sexual partners, which could be see as history's first Faustian Bargains.

## History

At some point, during the Last Glacial Period, Lemuria vanished from the Earth, alongside most of it's citizens, knowledge and technology. Still some written records have survived until this very day, found in the scriptures of fae, elves and deep ones. The empire is also mentioned in books such as the Necronomicon and De Vermis Mysteriis, the latter presumably being at least partially written by the inhabitants of the old nation.

Causes have been speculated from a civil war between two or more noble factions, to supernatural invasions from beings such as the Deep Ones or Nephilim, to Nyarlathotep driving the imperial ruler insane, to God Himself deciding that the empire was to sinful and wicked and had to be ended. The most likely theory is that the continent was swallowed by flood waters, leaving Lemuria under water to this day.

## Lemurian Deities

* Oruboros - Ancient Creator, not worshipped
* Adoni - Sky Deity (Lord of the Sky)
* Sadu-Hem - Sea Deity (Lord of the Sea)
* Erra - Underworld Deity (Lord of the Dead)
* Aarde - Earth Deity (Lady of the Land)
* Abigor - War Deity (Patron of Soldiers)
* Plutus - Wealth Deity (Patron of Merchants)
* Krono - Fertility Deity (Patron of Farmers)
* Kaiwan -Fertility Deity (Patron of Shepherds)
* Urgo-Hem - Fertility Deity (Patron of Fishermen)