The Dark Crusade

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Kenneth Hite has written or designed 100+ tabletop roleplaying games and supplements, including GURPS Horror,Call of Cthulhu d20, Trail of Cthulhu, Bookhounds of London, the Delta Green RPG, The Fall of DELTA GREEN, The Dracula Dossier, Night’s Black Agents, and Vampire: the Masquerade 5th Edition. Outside tabletop gaming, his other works include two volumes of Tour de Lovecraft, Cthulhu 101, The Thrill of Dracula, The Nazi Occult and The Cthulhu Wars, several Cthulhu Mythos short stories, the “Lost in Lovecraft” column for Weird Tales, and four Lovecraftian children’s books. An Artistic Associate at Chicago’s WildClaw Theatre, he served as dramaturg for their stage production of The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Half of the award-winning podcast Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff, he lives in Chicago with two Lovecraftian cats and his non-Lovecraftian wife, Sheila.

Interview Schedule:

Wednesday, August 7th: Paul Tremblay

Information for NecronomiCon 2019—the international festival of weird fiction, art, and academia in Providence, RI. info

Art by Andrea Sparacio info

Music from https://filmmusic.io:

The Dark Crusade is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://thedarkcrusade.wordpress.com/

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Paul Tremblay has won the Bram Stoker, British Fantasy, and Massachusetts Book Awards and is the author of The Cabin at the End of the World, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, A Head Full of Ghosts, and the crime novels The Little Sleep and No Sleep Till Wonderland. His short story collection Growing Things and Other Stories was published this past July. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the Shirley Jackson Awards, and his essays and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly online, and numerous year’s-best anthologies. He has a master’s degree in mathematics and lives outside Boston with his family.

Wednesday, August 7th: Paul Tremblay

Information for NecronomiCon 2019—the international festival of weird fiction, art, and academia in Providence, RI. info

Art by Andrea Sparacio info

Music from https://filmmusic.io:

The Dark Crusade is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://thedarkcrusade.wordpress.com/

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The Treasure of Lynortis

Originally Written: 1961

Lynortis Reprise

Originally Written: 1974

Thus ends our season of Kane. But fret not dear listeners, Jonathan and I will be back for another season towards the end of the summer. In between seasons I’ll be posting a couple bonus episodes and we’ll delve into Wagner’s collection Echoes of Valor II on the blog. I’m hoping before the next season starts I will have

completed another trip to look at Wagner’s papers and found some great items to share. Till then, may the Bloodstone forever slip off your finger.

-Jordan

The Dark Crusade is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://thedarkcrusade.wordpress.com/

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Misericorde

Originally Published: Sorcerer’s Apprentice #17 1983, edited by Liz Danforth

“Kane. The name is familiar, chilling, timeless. Karl Edward Wagner’s fell hero walks again, and leaves no promised work undone, to the undoing of others. If this is your introduction to Kane, settle in for the best reading you’ve had all year. If not, you know how it will affect your dreams. The Tale begins.”

Thus begins the introduction to ‘Misericorde’ by Liz Danforth in Issue 17 of Sorcerer’s Apprentice. I wish we could offer a cash prize for a ‘Misericorde’ Dungeon design but alas, it is out of our budget. I was unable to track down issue 18 or any info regarding a winner for the contest. Maybe some Kane fan out there will finish the quest!

Below are some helpful links to items mentioned in the episode.

Grimtooth’s Ultimate Traps Collection

Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea

The Book of Adam and Eve

We’ll be back at the end of October with the last episode of the season, we’ll be covering both ‘The Treasure of Lynortis’ and ‘Lynortis Reprise’. Check back throughout the month as I’ll be posting about The Year’s Best Horror Stories Series IX.

Hosts: Jordan Douglas Smith & Jonathan Gelatt

The Dark Crusade is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://thedarkcrusade.wordpress.com/

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Sing a Last Song of Valdese

Originally Published: Chacal #1, Winter, 1976, edited by Byron L. Roark and Arnie Fenner

‘Sing a Last Song of Valdese’ is Karl Edward Wagner’s fantasy take on the tradition of the murder ballad. We covered his earlier ode to the murder ballad in episode 2 and 3 where we covered, one of my favorite stories, ‘In the Pines’.

‘Last Song’, though short, covered a lot of lore and added a great deal to the history of the world Kane inhabits. Once again the demon lords have poked their heads into the story in passing. I am of course speaking of Thro’ellet and Tloluvin. They have popped up in several stories so far: ‘Two Suns Setting’, ‘The Dark Muse’, and ‘Sing a Last Song of Valdese’.  I’m looking forward to how they’ll weigh in moving forward in the Kane stories and why they seem entwined with Kane’s destiny. Only time and future seasons will tell.

On a side note, where did the name Valdese come from? My best guess is from the town Valdese in North Carolina not too far from Wagner’s stomping ground. Valdese was founded in 1893 by a group of Italian Waldensians or Valdese. The Waldensians are a sect of Christianity founded around 1173 by Peter Waldo. Waldo was a merchant who took the radical move of giving up his wealth and preaching poverty as the way to enlightenment. This radical deviation from the Catholic Church caused them to be considered heretics and they were persecuted for years. Today, Valdese and its Waldensian church have folded in with the Presbyterians. Does this history have anything to do with Wagner’s story? Probably not, no. But, it’s a neat bit of history from the town the name came from.

Lastly, I have to give a special thank you to Jason Tarpey and Eternal Champion for letting us use their song ‘Sing a Last Song of Valdese’ off the album The Armor of Ire. Jason had this to add about the song.

“As for the lyrics to that one, they are actually based on two short stories from Night Winds, “Sing a Last Song of Valdese”, and “Raven’s Eyrie”. The song was actually called Night Winds in the beginning but I thought that “Sing…” was a much more epic title for it.”

You can check out their full album here. Lyrics to the song are below. And with that, we’ll be back in two weeks with ‘Misericorde’.

SING A LAST SONG OF VALDESE 

Into the vale beneath the autumn ridges flows the Cotras. It cuts it’s way to Raven’s Eyrie’s door. Under the strange moon the night winds mock the Sun. The hound is baying for his master Demonlord. 

Ever the rider, ever the foe. The name of Kane forever known. By spell or by steel the brazen fall. Bear the curse and bear the time. The Seven Nameless hear thy cry. The Grey Lord and not Thoem will have your soul. 

Valdese by revenge your soul can be as one. No longer must you stalk among the nighted boles. Seven times seven, the Grey Lord will return, and carry back with him the soul which he has won. 

Wherever Kane has walked, a trail of crimson would follow now. Cursed by Theom! He will tread through the ages until the treasures of kings turn to dust, and the flesh of all men falls from their time-eaten bones. Lord Tloluvin, Sathonys, wait an age for the one that will not die! 

In a tower of stone there burns a fire. The pain of steel for any who’d cross. The fatal eyes, weaken the brave. Horror met by the rushing of his blade. Lord Tloluvin, Sathonys, wait an age for the one that would not die. The hunting hound, the Demonlord, mark him by the strange hilt of his sword. 

Ever the rider, ever the foe, the name of Kane forever known. By spell, or by steel, the brazen fall. 

Valdese by revenge your soul can be at one. No longer must you stalk among the nighted boles. Seven times seven, the Grey Lord will return…..

Hosts: Jordan Douglas Smith & Jonathan Gelatt

Pippin the Hunchback Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

The Dark Crusade is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://thedarkcrusade.wordpress.com/

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The Dark Muse

Originally published: Midnight Sun, Summer-Fall 1975, edited by Gary Hoppenstand

Just made it back in time from summer vacation to get this episode in under the wire. I wanted to share this blurb from Gary Hoppenstand from the inside cover of Midnight Sun V. 1 N. 2 “Midnight Sun is a magazine devoted primarily to Kane and the new school of serious epic fantasy.”

If you enjoyed the poetry of Opyros check out some of the morbid poetry from these Graveyard Poets.

Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Church Graveyard

Thomas Parnell’s A Night-Piece on Death

Robert Blair’s The Grave

Edward Young’s Night-Thoughts

Join us in two weeks when we discuss the Kane horror classic Sing a Last Song of Valdese.

Original music: F. N. York

The Dark Crusade is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://thedarkcrusade.wordpress.com/

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Bloodstone

Originally Published: 1975 by Warner Paperback Library

Lo! Now arrives the conclusion of our coverage of Karl Edward Wagner’s Bloodstone. Such a large undertaking to try and tackle a novel in only two episodes. I feel like so many topics and themes hit the cutting room floor. One such subject was the role of horses in fantasy literature and Teres’s faithful horse Gwellines!

Bloodstone was translated into German in 1989 and then into Italian in 1991. I really loved the portrayal of the ring in the Italian cover so I wanted to display it here. It looks almost as if the ring is oversized and more girdle like. It gives the feeling of the power of the ring and also references how slippery the ring was until it began fusing itself to Kane.

Deuce Richardson, who we previously mentioned in the ‘Undertow’ episode, brought up another possible influence on Wagner’s work. This time the link is between Wagner’s Bloodstone and A. Merritt’s Dwellers in the Mirage.

Dwellers in the Mirage was originally published in Argosy Magazine split into six parts starting in January of 1932. It was written by the very interesting, world traveling, occult book collecting Abraham Grace Merritt or A. Merritt. We know Karl Edward Wagner read Merritt because of the inclusion of Merritt’s book Burn, Witch, Burn on Wagner’s list of Best Supernatural Horror Novels so a possible connection is not out of left field. Below are some of the connections that first stood out to me. This could certainly become its own blog post.

-The Ring: In Bloodstone the Ring is Kane’s connection with the space entity Bloodstone. It grants him access to Bloodstone and its power. In Dwellers, Leif Langdon also comes in possession of a ring. A ring that gives him the power to summon the horrible kraken space God Khalk’ru. The ring also starts him on the path of gaining knowledge and skills from a previous life. Both evil space creatures are tricking followers into powering their bids for power.

-Red Harvest Factor: In both stories the protagonist is going back and forth between two warring sides. The reader is often not sure which side they are really working for. In the end Leif helps the ‘good guys’ whereas Kane helps himself like a true hero-villain.

-Mind Control: Both tales have the ring exerting force over the bearer. It controls their decisions to a certain extent and the lead becomes unpredictable. In Dwellers it has more to do with a Blavatsky style past-life.

-Liebe zum Wolf: Love interests in both stories are warrior women who are associated with wolves. Teres is the daughter of ‘The Old Wolf’ and the chapter of her escape from Ristkon is titled ‘She-Wolf’s Fangs’. Lur, one of Leif’s two love interests in Dwellers, literally controls a pack of intelligent wolves into battle with her.

Maybe you see some of the connections, maybe you don’t. Either way, Dwellers in the Mirage was a fun pulpy read, perfect for sitting on the beach or surrounded by nature this summer.

I have the link for Graven Rite here. Please check them out and support their work. Below find the lyrics for their song ‘The Bloodstone Ring’ on their demo album The Summoner’s Pit.

The Dark Crusade is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://thedarkcrusade.wordpress.com/