A-Z of the SILENCE IS GOLDEN Multiverse
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ARKHAM, MASSACHUSETTS Arkham is a coastal town in north central Massachusetts.
ARMIGEROUS "Armigerous" means "entitled to bear arms", in the sense of having a family crest.
Babsons The Babsons are an old Innsmouth family. A member of their family was implicated in a grisly murder in the 1920s. Various other members of the clan have been servants in homes where tragedy has struck, although other family members have been grandees of Innsmouth or Arkham and sons of the family have served with ferocity if not distinction in American wars going back to the time of Washington.
Bullfrogs The Bullfrogs is the name of the Innsmouth High School football team. They have a reasonably good record and their games are social events for the whole town during football season.
Burger Bear Family Restaurants Burger Bear is a chain of family fast food restaurants.
CROWNINSHIELD HOUSE
THE INNSMOUTH LOOK
Joe Sargent & Sons Joe Sargent & Sons is a transport company that runs the sole bus between Innsmouth and Arkham.
KAMOG "Kamog" is a word of unknown origin.
LAKE PEARCE, ARKHAM, MASSACHUSETTS West of Arkham in north central Massachusetts there is a flooded valley of the Miskatonic River known since the 1930s as Lake Pearce.
MARSHES The Marshes are the family credited with the foundation of modern Innsmouth.
MASON, KEZIAH (???? - ????) Keziah Mason was a reputed witch, persecuted during the witch trials of 1692-1694 in Salem and Arkham on the New England northeast coast.
NAHAB "Nahab" is a word of unknown origin.
POWER OF THREE, THE The "Power of Three" has a multitude of meanings.
ROGERS, CAPTAIN JERABOAM ABSOLETH
At the time of the American Revolution Captain J.A. Rogers was dispatched to hold or blow up the old garrison at Arkham.
ROGERS, NORVILLE "SHAGGIE"
One of the most high profile members of the Rogers family, Norville Rogers is a young freelancer working for a DVD / cable show company as a reporter and investigator.
Rogers The Rogers are a "new" family in the northern New England area -- only dating back to the time of the American Revolution when Jeraboam Absoleth Rogers was dispatched to hold or blow up the old garrison at Arkham.
RULES OF MAGIC, THE The Rules of Magic are apothegms commemorated and taught by the various types of magic practitioners. Some are hoary bits of folk wisdom that seem disconnected from reality to modern eyes, others are so fundamentally true and overtly universal that once they are heard it is impossible to forget them. Such is the power within.
SARGENT, JOSEPH "JOE"
Sargents The Sargents are an old Innsmouth family.
Tillinghast laboratories Tillinghast Laboratories are a scientific research
company trying to find a cure for the Innsmouth Look (amongst other things).
They have various activities that impact the people of Innsmouth and beyond.
They are suspects in the disappearance of several Teens.
Tillinghasts The Tillinghasts are an ancient pilgrim family hailing from Boston and Arkham, but with members of their family scattered across New England and indeed also in Florida and in California.
Waite, Ephraim (1838-1923) Ephraim Waite has entered folklore in New England as a warlock, vampire or boogeyman.
Waite Mansion Halfway between River Street and Martin Street on the western side of Washington Street there stands the crumbling but more or less intact Waite mansion. This building has the whaling-era Widow's Walk, the earlier gables, and the later clapboard sidings of an authentic (and architecturally monstrous) multi-generational Yankee dynastic home.
Waites The Waites are an old Innsmouth family. Asenath Waite married the dilettante aesthete Edward Derby back in 1931, and was later murdered by her husband. He was incarcerated in the Arkham Sanatorium and then himself murdered by his best friend. Washington Street Washington Street is a colonial-era thoroughfare in Innsmouth, running north-south connecting Church Street to the north and River Street to the south. Martin Street cuts across Washington about one third of the way down the road.
Zanns The Zanns are a musical family of German extraction.
A
It has a notable museum and college university, as well as a past going back to the witch trials of the 1690s and an amazing array of antiquarian buildings.
Arkham is proud of its history and the presence of witches in the region centuries ago has also attracted curious tourists and dedicated eco-goths and wiccan. The town now has several witchcraft museums ranging from the serious to the truly stupid, a pair of waxworks featuring horror displays, and many historic sites.
The university of Arkham on the Miskatonic, better known simply as Miksatonic U., boasts an amazing array of palaeontology, archaeology and American history displays as well as a museum of Americana and Folklore and a library with many old and rare books.
Click here to view a map of Arkham 2004...
In bygone centuries the armigerous people are the people who, even if away from for example England still style themselves lords or squires and display their family crests, or escutcheons over their fireplaces, on their stationery and clothing.
In the early days of New England in the seventeenth century there were a good number of armigerous families. Most of them bred amongst themselves, sometimes with disastrous results, but a few of the families established blue-blooded "colonies" amongst other communities.
The armigerous families include the Bishops, Hathornes, Marshes and the Peabodies.B
They serve themed food such as the Big Bear Burger, Momma Bear Soda and Fries Meal and the Baby Bear kids' menu.
There has been a Burger Bear in Arkham for several years, and a new restaurant has recently opened up in Innsmouth. Working at this sort of business is not great but it at least provides some employment prospects for teenagers.
Click here to view a map of a typical Burger Bear outlet, in this case the one in Innsmouth...C
"Asenath had bought the old Crowninshield place in the country at the end of High Street, and they proposed to settle there after a short trip to Innsmouth, whence three servants and some books and household goods were to be brought.
It was probably not so much consideration for Edward and his father as a personal wish to be near the college, its library, and its crowd of "sophisticates," that made Asenath settle in Arkham instead of returning permanently home."
H.P. Lovecraft, The Thing on the Doorstep
The Crowninshield Mansion, also latterly known as Crowninshield House, is a large three storey mansion on High Street, Arkham.
The mansion began its existence as a fine enough pilgrim house, well-appointed in its grounds which it dominated. Set on the slight rise along the bay from the Derby Neck area, the Crowninshield family made the house their home throuhg two centuries, but when they bred out and the family as such dissipated the house became home to a series of masters. Most notable of these in recent years was the avant-garde couple Edward and Asenath Derby in the 1920s.
After the bizarre murder-suicide that destroyed their family, the house went through more owners, including the U.S. Government during and immediately after World War II, before finally becoming a Historic Site in the 1970s. Since its preservation as a Heritage location it has still changed hands, but more rarely as there are incredibly severe restrictions on its use and changes to the property.
Another interesting sidelight on the history of Crowninshield House is that it is one of the possible locations of the mysterious incarceration of Keziah Mason, the famous local witch of the 1690s.
Scholarship is deeply divided over this however with most historians of the subject satisfied that the house of her imprisonment is further west in central Arkham.I
"One wondered what became of the bulk of the older folk, and whether the "Innsmouth look" were not a strange and insidious disease phenomenon which increased its hold as years advanced. Only a very rare affliction, of course, could bring about such vast and radical anatomical changes in a single individual after maturity - changes invoking osseous factors as basic as the shape of the skull - but then, even this aspect was no more baffling and unheard-of than the visible features of the malady as a whole."
H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The so-called Innsmouth Look is a scabrile choreic subtype of “Crouzon’s cranio-facial dystosis”. The physical form of the sufferer has noticeable fish-like and frog-like characteristics. Unfortunately this look makes the sufferer a figure of suspicion, fear and hostility from their fellows. The exact nature of the deformities of the Innsmouth Look always include webbed hands and feet, shockingly wide and flabby lips and glassy, bulging eyes.
J
The bus runs daily from the Old Market Square in north central Arkham up to Innsmouth's Church Green.
Joe Sargent started the business back at the beginning of the twentieth century and his sons took over from. Now his grandson Jasper and his great grandson Andrew run the business and run haulage contracting as well.
The Joe Sargents are a major branch of the Sargents family of Innsmouth.
For a tourist snapshot of the Sargent Bus Service vehicle in use, click here.
K
It was apparently used as a local nickname for Ephraim Waite during his younger days.
It has been suggested in recent articles by the Innsmouth Historical Society that it is a word of Native American origin meaning "Greybeard".
The word may well be Philippine in origin, a symptom of Ephraim's seafaring days.
L
Lake Pearce is actually flooded farmland the main part of which was ancestrally held by the Pearce family and its offshoots, hence the name of the lake.
Lake Pearce was created in 1926 when the so-called "Blasted Heath" west of Arkham was sealed off and flooded. The flooding was accomplished fairly efficiently by levies and bulldozing after which the deserted farmland was inundated. In the decades following, the lakeside became a truly beautiful series of bird sanctuaries, holiday marinas and harbours and campsites.
Lake Pearce is near a historical site commemorating pilgrim settlement in the region and within hiking distance of Round Mountain off the Aylesbury Pike road. The Lake Pearce region now also includes a forest preserve where Massachusetts state authorities and Federal conservators experiment with new plant varieties to re-establish in areas affected by disease or fire.M
The original patriarch of the family was Obediah Marsh. After the fishing stocks of Innsmouth became depleted and the townsfolk had become dissatisfied with their local preachers, Obediah came forward with new ideas and new ways of doing things. His ideas caught on sufficiently for the town to welcome people from overseas, in a very early example of what might now be called a "twin" community. These south seas islanders intermarried with the local Innsmouthers. In the process, the Marshes had unleashed a genetic disorder on the inbred population of Innsmouth.
The Marshes fell foul of the law at the height of prohibition in the late 1920s which led to a huge crackdown by G-Men and the U.S. armed forces. Parts of Innsmouth were destroyed and many of the townsfolk were arrested or killed. Most of the longer-term residents of the town were implicated in various sinister schemes. The Marshes were chief suspects in all the goings-on.
She was a self-confessed magic practitioner, making particularly claims as to the use of angles and geometry to travel between worlds.
This claim has been compared somewhat favourably to discoveries in modern physics, begging the question as to whether Keziah had access to some previously unknown book of ancient lore, or whether, as she herself claimed, she was personally tutoured by dark forces.
She suffered a terrible imprisonment and is believed to have died in horrible circumstances whilst incarcerated.
Both eco-goths and wiccan have claimed Keziah Mason as a misunderstoof healer and feminist icon, a position that those who actually look into the woman's life and times are somewhat uneasy about.
N
This word was revealed by Keziah Mason as her secret name in her coven, given to her after her admission into this secret group.
Wiccan enthusiasts claim that the word means "goddess-love" but there is no etymological basis for this claim.
The word may well be Arabic, Egyptian-Arabic or Gypsy in origin.P
It can refer to the Triple Goddess of the so-called “prehistoric” world – the goddess who enshrines the three ages of woman – virgin, mother, hag. It can also refer to the Rule of Magic: Read Seven Times, Say Thrice.R
Unable to carry out any of his orders properly he escaped any form of prosecution because, although the garrison blew up during his tenure as its commander and virtual sole occupant, at the time of the detonation he was being assaulted by a contingent of Royal Marines. Thus he blew up the fort at the time of its fall to the Redcoats, foiling the schemes of the British.
He was survived by a large family who went on to found the Rogers clan of today.
Following his part in the successful exposure of the Anaheim Australopithecus Affair, Norville made the cover of several magazines as "Most Interesting Teen" and "Teen of the Year". Now 19, Norville is still an investigator but also runs his own gourmet pizza business.
Since then the Rogers family has spread out across America and beyond, with branches of the family in California, Canada, New England, Scotland, Ireland and even outer space!
Click here to view the Rogers recent family tree.
There are many Rules of Magic. Most of them don’t mean much other than as ways to remember tricks of the trade. Some of the rules however are fundamental and relate to the practice of the Craft. These rules that have real effects are known as The True Grammarie.S
"The driver also alighted, and I watched him as he went into the drug store to make some purchase.
This, I reflected, must be the Joe Sargent mentioned by the ticket-agent; and even before I noticed any details there spread over me a wave of spontaneous aversion which could be neither checked nor explained. It suddenly struck me as very natural that the local people should not wish to ride on a bus owned and driven by this man, or to visit any oftener than possible the habitat of such a man and his kinsfolk. When the driver came out of the store I looked at him more carefully and tried to determine the source of my evil impression. He was a thin, stoop-shouldered man not much under six feet tall, dressed in shabby blue civilian clothes and wearing a frayed golf cap. His age was perhaps thirty-five, but the odd, deep creases in the sides of his neck made him seem older when one did not study his dull, expressionless face. He had a narrow head, bulging, watery-blue eyes that seemed never to wink, a flat nose, a receding forehead and chin, and singularly undeveloped ears. His long thick lip and coarse-pored, greyish cheeks seemed almost beardless except for some sparse yellow hairs that straggled and curled in irregular patches; and in places the surface seemed queerly irregular, as if peeling from some cutaneous disease.
His hands were large and heavily veined, and had a very unusual greyish-blue tinge. The fingers were strikingly short in proportion to the rest of the structure, and seemed to have a tendency to curl closely into the huge palm. As he walked toward the bus I observed his peculiarly shambling gait and saw that his feet were inordinately immense. The more I studied them the more I wondered how he could buy any shoes to fit them. A certain greasiness about the fellow increased my dislike. He was evidently given to working or lounging around the fish docks, and carried with him much of their characteristic smell. Just what foreign blood was in him I could not even guess. His oddities certainly did not look Asiatic, Polynesian, Levantine or Negroid, yet I could see why the people found him alien. I myself would have thought of biological degeneration rather than alienage."
H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Over Innsmouth
Joe Sargent was the driver of the Arkham-Innsmouth bus for many years and began the service in the early twentieth century. He was a prominent if not distinguished member of the Sargent family of Innsmouth.
His sons, grandsons and now great grandson have continued the same bus and haulage business.
BACK TO TOPT
The Tillinghasts have been acknowledged congenital artists for many generations but occasionally one of the brood has bucked the trend to be a captain of industry, seafarer or scientist.
This diversification led to a very lucrative family trust, which maintains the extremely well-provisioned and high capital Tillinghast Biomedical corporation, responsible for various laboratories and other facilities across the landscape. Some of these laboratories have questionable reputations.W
It is historical fact that he was the father of Asenath Waite, the wife of Edward Derby who was murdered by her husband in 1931. It is also fact that he was a seafarer, prominent member of the Innsmouth community and a sufferer from that peculiar congenital deformity known as The Innsmouth Look.
Wild horror stories such as only a Yankee could tell have clustered around his life and death, with several books published claiming that he was poisoned by his daughter Asenath as some sort of black magic plot, or even due to child abuse or incest. The result of this blackening of his name is that his surviving relatives now outright refuse any requests for information on their family history.
The Innsmouth Historical Society, meeting at the Innsmouth Public Library, have recently tried to portray Ephraim as a victim of surviving Puritan-style anti-pagan bias - citing Ephraim's known proclivities for frankly pagan practices as proof.
Whatever the truth, Ephraim Waite remains one of Innsmouth's most fascinating historical personages.
Abandoned since the disease outbreak of 1953, the Waite mansion was converted to a public housing project during the Kennedy administration and ultimately sold to private owners in 1975. Since then it has become a local landmark but remained in various private hands.
Local kids sometimes tell silly stories about it being haunted, but that is not so very unusual. Kids have active imaginations, after all.
The Asenath Waite case involved two other Innsmouth families: the Babsons and the Sargents. Eunice Babson was Asenath's maid at the time of her murder and Moses Sargent and his wife Abigail were Asenath's other domestics.
Washington Street is in the northwest corner of the central Innsmouth township.Z
The deceased patriarch of the family, Erich Zann, lived as a virtual recluse in Marseille for many years. He eventually disappeared in highly strange and mysterious circumstances, but he left a son who inherited his love of music and a scattering of Erich Zann's musical manuscripts, most of which were of a highly avant-garde nature.
Erich Zann's grandon, Hermann Zann, is now Chief Conservator and Musicologist at the Miskatonic University Music Conservatory and also runs extension courses for students of a wide range of ages as part of the UNE School of Music.
Hermann's daughter, Erica, is currently a student at Melanie Inker High School, Arkham.
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