Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-5614678-20180329110224

My newest story, something of a sequel to Lovecraft's "The Shadow over Innsmouth." Critique is greatly appreciated.

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The following is taken from a manuscript purportedly claimed to be an excerpt from the Book of Dagon. According to rumor, it is said to have been written around 1946, roughly sixteen years after the government raid on Innsmouth, Massachusetts and the destruction of a bizarre rock formation known as "Devil's Reef" just outside of the town's shoreline. Rumors are that while the original Book of Dagon was written and completed in the late 1800s with only minor updates and passages, three new chapters describing events in an underwater city, the fall of the Esoteric Order of Dagon and a chapter pronouncing that the Order could be restored, but only if a new generation of followers were to find a way to please Lord Dagon and Mother Hydra once again, as they had since shunned humanity.

The authenticity of these stories is disputed by officials working for the Innsmouth Heritage Museum, who have claimed any supposed passages, chapters or verses circulated from a "Book of Dagon" are mere hoaxes.

Pht'thya-l'y, Siren Priestess of Dagon
May pity be upon Mother Pht'thya-l'y, for the wrath of the Old Ones hath taken her. Deep in the underwater, cyclopean and many-columned city of Y'ha-nthlei, she was once the high-priestess of followers of Dagon and Mother Hydra. She has fallen, devoured by her own children. Abandoned by the Father and Mother, her remains left to float endlessly in the vast, unforgiving darkness of the ocean.

It was she who cared so deeply for humans, while her kithe and kin were so indifferent to them. It was she who took an interest in the great patriarch Obed Marsh when he sought out the Deep Ones. She arranged for many trades between the downtrodden and impoverished island natives all across the shores of the Pacific. She is the one who answered Captain Obed's call in his time of need.

Pedestrian history will remember Obed Marsh as a cruel tyrant, a scoundrel, and a heretic, but everything he did, he did protect his people, his city, and his love. Pht'thya-l'y was not an ordinary Deep One. She took the form of a human woman with blue skin, not dissimilar to the gorgons and sirens of ancient legend, of what she seemed to admire. A powerful sorceress and a marvelous shapeshifter, she could take any form she pleased, but chose to look like us, to connect with us.

It was she who helped give birth to the beautiful land of Philistia before it was destroyed by the heathen empire of Judea. It was she who brought her beautiful gifts and treasures to island natives, but they were all destroyed by rival tribes jealous of the favor Pht'thya-l'y showered upon them. It seemed no matter where the benevolent queen went, no matter how hard she tried to show them the wonder and beauty of Father Dagon and Mother Hydra, there would always be those too foolish to accept her gifts and too envious to spare her children.

Father Dagon and Mother Hydra showed favor upon her, for her extravagant spells and signs of faith pleased them greatly. She gave birth to many children, all of whom took more after the gods than they did her, and she adored them for it. They were beautiful in her eyes.

It was because of her magic that she was able to share her beauty with the dregs of humanity. Because of her spells, the genetic structure of her children was so powerful and potent that even a small amount of it would begin to grow and grow within whoever had even the smallest sample of her blood. Unfortunately, now that she has passed, such miraculous transformations become rarer by the day. Though some still carry the blood, it is faint. And now even the ones who are embraced by her blessing rarely take to the water anymore.

When the brainless heretics of the surface world destroyed Devil's Reef, there was great upset in the underwater kingdom of Y'ha-nthlei, of which she ruled over. There were other cities that Dagon and Hydra beloved and tended to, but none of them were quite so welcoming to the former hybrid children of the Siren Priestess than it.

When the last of her kin, a Deep One by the name of Olmstead, finally took to the water and joined her in the great city, tragedy would soon strike. Her children, once loyal to her, would soon rise up against her. They were tired of her love for humanity, tired of her risking the safety and sanctity of the kingdom to interact with the world of man.

Traitorous rebels, obsessed with the so-called "purity" of the people -- a ridiculous notion, as there were many breeds and strains of Deep Ones, from the traditional and burly Dagonites, to the slim and slender Gillmen to even sirens and gorgons! But nonetheless, these foolish Deep Ones sought to win over Dagon and Hydra's favor by destroying all the beauty the Siren Priestess had created.

Dagon and Hydra were disgusted by the sight of this. Although they had seen war and battle for ages, they had never seen their own children turn on their holy nobles ever before. Offended by the hideous visage of this bloodshed and betrayal, Dagon destroyed the city, reducing it to cinders and wiping Pht'thhya-l'y and all her children, both loyal and scurrilous, from existence.

Woe to us, the survivors of Innsmouth, to live in a world rendered so black loveless now that she is gone. Our blessings have faded. The few of our children who still carry the gifts are now mere hybrids, destined to never fully ascend, to never swim in the beautiful waters of our forefathers. Because of the foolishness of our kith and kin, both on the surface and below the waters, we have been robbed of our birthright.

But despair not, my brothers! Lord Dagon has not forgotten us. His children may have turned on him, but we shall not. He requires a sign of loyalty, an assurance that we will restore what was once destroyed. We must rebuild. We must be brave and vigilant, we must bring life back to Innsmouth. We shall return to the waters, and we shall destroy our enemies. I'a Dagon! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn! 