Celaeno

A star in the Pleiades star cluster, in the constellation Taurus. In the Pleiades it lies between Alcyone and Electra on one side, and Maia and Taygeta on the other [AWD Curwen].

The Great Library

There is a library on Celaeno [AWD Island]. It is not clear how a library could be located "on" a star. It is possible that Laban Shrewsbury and his companions used the term "Celaeno" as a shorthand for a planet that orbits Celaeno.

The library on Celeano is of carved granite, with columns and tables of colossal size. The shelves hold gigantic books with hieroglyphs on their spines. The walls are made of rows of stacked blocks that are convex on top and concave on the bottom. Carvings appear on the walls. [AWD Gorge description]

The hieroglyphs and books there were stolen from the Elder Gods by the Great Old Ones. Some were stolen at the time of their revolt from the Elder Gods, while others were stolen later on. [AWD Curwen; Sky]

Human Exiles

Laban Shrewsbury, Andrew Phelan, Abel Keane, Claiborne Boyd, and Nayland Colum all spent periods of time in exile on Celaeno. Shrewsbury spent a full twenty years there after his initial disappearance. [AWD Curwen; Gorge; Island; Keeper; Sky]

To travel to Celaeno, Shrewsbury and his companions first drank a special golden mead and recited an invocation to Hastur. This summoned the bat-winged byakhee, who transported them to the Nameless City in Arabia. There, they left their bodies in hibernation while their astral selves traveled to Celaeno. It is not clear how their astral selves were transported to Celaeno, though this may also have involved using the byakhee. [AWD Curwen; Sky]

Hastur and the Hyades

Claiborne Boyd and Abel Keane each mistakenly believed that Celaeno is in the Hyades, which is another star cluster in the constellation Taurus. Boyd jumped to this conclusion after reading a reference to a dark star in the Hyades in the R'lyeh Text; since Boyd had recently heard of Celaeno, he made the leap of connecting the two. [AWD Sky] Abel Keane had a vision of Laban Shrewsbury, in which he was supposedly told that Celaeno is "a place far removed from our universe—Celaeno in the Hyades" [AWD Gorge]. This lapse can perhaps be explained if you suppose that Shrewsbury referred to Celaeno and the Pleiades as being somehow related to the Hyades, which is the realm of Hastur. Together with the use of Hastur's byakhee for transport, these factors seem to imply that Celaeno is controlled by servants of Hastur.

Possibly it was these followers of Hastur who tortured Shrewsbury when he first arrived on Celaeno, because he did not have a star-stone for protection [AWD Curwen].

See also: celestial objects.

Return to Cthulhu Universalis Contents Page

Return to CthulhuFiles.com Home Page

Send comments to jfm.baharna@gmail.com.