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Chaosium Digest Volume 12 Number 11
Chaosium Digest Volume 12, Number 11
Date: Sunday, January 28, 1996
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
The Society Della Santa Fe (Steven Harris) CALL OF CTHULHU
Mulderian Maunderings (Marc Zender) CALL OF CTHULHU
Editor's Note:
Welcome to the special Unaussprechlichen Kulten edition of the
Chaosium Digest. Due to a once in a lifetime alignment of the
planetary fields, two articles related to that blasphemous book have
arrived in the same week.
As a followup to last week's "Secret Societies... for CoC" article,
Steven Harris has provided a new organization for CoC, The Society
Della Santa Fe. Nephilim fans will want to take a look at the article,
since it could also be used as background to that game. Marc Zender
also offers a followup article, giving further insights into the
CoC-XFiles connection, discussed previously in V12.7 and V12.10.
I hope the great CoC and Nephilim material keeps coming in. However,
I've also noticed that Pendragon and Elric! articles have been a bit
scarce since last November, and would love to see some more in the
coming weeks. So, if you've been working on some ideas for those
games, send the articles this way!
Shannon
--------------------
From: "Steven Harris" <KAYVEN@aol.com>
Subject: The Society Della Santa Fe
System: Call of Cthulhu
In the last Digest (V12.10), Shannon Appel talked about secret
societies being used in Call of Cthulhu. Readers of that article might
be interested in The Unaussprechlichen Kulten Web Page:
http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~sh323089
The UK Web Page contains a detailed listing of many of the cults and
secret societies that appear in Von Junzt's Unaussprechlichen Kulten.
The cults and societies are tailored to the world of the Cthulhu
Mythos, but Nephilim players could also find inspiration from some of
them. To give people an example of what the cults and societies are,
and how they are written, I offer the following secret society (which
was a real historical society).
NAME: The Society Della Santa Fe
AREA OF INFLUENCE: Strongest in Italy, but prevalent throughout
Europe. Late 1700's to early 1800's?
HISTORY: This society is mentioned by Jean de Witt in his Les Societes
de France et d'Italie (Paris, 1830) as being a group dedicated to the
eradication of post-revolutionary political forces in Europe.
According to De Witt, this reactionary body was spread all over Europe
and was slowly bringing about a return to the ideals of the
pre-revolutionary order. To cover its designs, it purported to aim at
the liberation of Italy from the Austrian government. It was also
known to go under a variety of names, like Del Anello and even Bruti.
The Society is thought to have been started by certain individuals
within the Society of Jesus, a.k.a. The Jesuits. These individuals
felt that the strong anti-Roman Catholicism ideology that was inherent
in the French Revolution had to be fought if the Church was to ever
return to its former glory.
ORGANIZATION: The headquarters of the Society was in Piedmont, Italy.
The reason for this was that Piedmont was under French rule from 1798
to 1814. Because of this, the Society Della Santa Fe was able to
increase their power in France due to the ease in movement from
Piedmont to Paris. The grades of power within the Society consisted of
three in number: the Initiate, the Knight, and the Provost.
The Initiate of the order was only able to contact the Society and
receive orders from them through the use of the confessional in
particular churches, usually those of St. Luke, patron saint of
surgeons. The Initiate was commonly chosen through the same method. If
an individual confessed to activities, such as murder or involvement
in the occult, that person would be placed on a list of possible
candidates for entry to the Society. If that person was a powerful
figure or had skills necessary for the Society to further its
interests, they would kidnap the person by the use of a drug that
would cause the person to be unconscious for several days. When the
individual awoke, they would find themselves in a representation of
Hell, complete with fire and demons. These demons, from descriptions,
were more than likely puppets or members of the Society in costumes.
During this experience, the individual would be drugged again and
awakened later by a representative of the Society who would tell the
Initiate that they were brought back from Hell through the
intervention by prayers of Society members. The individual was told
that they were poisoned by "revolutionary elements." At this point,
the representative would detail how the Society needed them and how
they could help further the aims of the Society.
Loyal Initiates would eventually find themselves raised to the status
of Knights. Knights were the active fighting part of the Society.
Their responsibilities were to manage Initiates, plan assassinations,
attempt to personally gain political power, and compose and distribute
propaganda. All Knights carried a small dagger with a red handle that
carried the Society's emblem upon it. This dagger was vital to the
ritual the Initiate underwent to gain the grade of Knight. The dagger
had to be used by the Initiate by plunging it into their thigh while
reciting a pledge to the Society's aims.
The Provost grade was restricted to priests or those of royal blood.
Little is known of the responsibilities of this grade or even the
ritual toward entering the grade.
SYMBOL: The symbol of the Society Della Santa Fe was composed of a
circle with five dots contained within it. These five dots were said
to be representative of the five wounds of Christ. The Society likened
these wounds with the wounds of the Roman Catholic Church (i.e. the
body of Christ) brought about by the French Revolution. Thus, their
identification with St. Luke and surgeons.
VON JUNZT'S COMMENTS: Von Junzt, in Unaussprechlichen Kulten, mentions
De Witt's account, but he dismisses De Witt and his details of the
group's beliefs and aims. Von Junzt feels that De Witt was only
acquainted with the information given to Initiates and that given to
Knights. Initiates were told that the aim of the Society was to
liberate Italy from its foreign invaders. Knights were told that the
true aim of the group was the restoration of pre-revolutionary Europe.
The Provosts, the true heads of the Society, were actually attempting
to achieve a much more sinister goal. According to Von Junzt, who
hinted that he knew someone or was himself accepted into the Provosts,
a member of this grade would learn that the organization's ambition
was to unite Europe under the powers of Charlemagne, the long since
dead Holy Roman Emperor from 600 years earlier! This unbelievable
claim is further complicated by the fact that Von Junzt holds that the
Society's Provosts believed that Charlemagne's spirit resided in a
bronze replica of a human head and was known to give advice to the
Society's leaders!
While many took Von Junzt's account of this secret society as further
proof of the author's insanity, it should be said that Von Junzt never
says that he himself believed that this bronze head was truly
Charlemagne's spirit. In fact, Von Junzt makes the cryptic remark
early in his account that the members of the Society Della Santa Fe
were "...of a number of deluded societies." Whether this refers to the
large number of those in the lower grades not being told of the
Provost's true aims or if this refers to the Provosts themselves as
being deluded in thinking that the bronze head truly held
Charlemagne's spirit we can never know.
NOTES: Few modern occultists or historians refer to the Society of
Della Santa Fe except in brief references.
One of the few exceptions is George Compton's article "Secret
Societies in Revolutionary France" from History and Society (Pg. 323,
Vol 13, 1953) Compton spends most of the article arguing against Nora
Webster's thesis that Masons were behind the Revolution, but he does
devote two paragraphs discussing The Society Della Santa Fe. He refers
to the commonly held belief among conspiracy writers that Victor
Emmanuel II, who became the first king of united Italy in 1861, was a
member of this Society because he came from Piedmont, the Society's
headquarters. Compton dismisses this idea, but he doesn't explain why.
Another article, "The Sun Will Never Set: Legends of the Templar's
Survival" by Paul Curmode from European Tales (ed. Michael Tillings,
Farnway Press, 1991) mentions the Society Della Santa Fe in relation
to the idea that the Society held a talking bronze head. Curmode sees
a connection between this idea and the accusations brought against the
Templars in 1307 of having a bronze head they worshiped. To Curmode,
this was one of many legends and stories that grew up after the
disappearance of the Templar order and, as he makes clear in his
article, he feels they are all untrue. Curmode's thesis is that the
Templars left a void in the European society that was never filled and
this caused many people to create the idea that they were still in
existence. The stories told of the Society Della Santa Fe provided the
necessary societal component that was missing.
--------------------
From: MVZENDER@okuc02.okanagan.bc.ca (Marc Zender)
Subject: Mulderian Maunderings (Errata & Addenda)
System: Call of Cthulhu
My last article created quite a stir in some circles, and, having
received a welling tide of e-mail, I decided that I would take this
opportunity to clear up one or two minor points.
First, Gottfried Mulder does not turn up in the Robert E. Howard
stories "The Black Stone" and "The Thing on the Roof", but in the Lin
Carter tale "Zoth-Ommog" (in the paperback collection DISCIPLES OF
CTHULHU). He is also mentioned in H.P. Lovecraft's SELECTED LETTERS V
(p.299) as the author of the GHORL NIGRAL. Other than a brief mention
in Lovecraft's almost impossible-to-find DREAMS AND FANCIES, this is
the extent of Gottfried Mulder's appearances in the corpus. (Sorry to
cause so much confusion, and those who have been hunting down copies
of REH's tales for mentions of Mulder can now turn to the more
fruitful task of hunting down copies of "Zoth-Ommog".)
Second, some additional information for the enterprising Keeper:
Gottfried Mulder wrote the foreword to Von Junzt's (in)famous
UNAUSSPRECHLICHEN KULTEN (Dusseldorf edition) in 1839. After Von
Junzt's death in 1840, Mulder devoted himself ever more to publishing,
which task had actually alienated him from Von Junzt prior to the
latter's death and caused him to take Alexis Ladeau with him on some
of his more harrowing adventures. This unfortunate occurrence,
however, probably saved Mulder's life, for both Von Junzt and Alexis
had been dead seven years when Mulder finally published THE SECRET
MYSTERIES OF ASIA, WITH A COMMENTARY ON THE GHORL NIGRAL (1847) in
Liepzig. Over a decade later, Mulder would again write about the
mythos. In 1858 he published the GHORL NIGRAL itself (whether he
actually *wrote* this work or translated it from a much older text
that came to Earth from distant Yaddith is still a matter hotly
debated by scholars). That year, Mulder fled to Metzengerstein to
escape a hanging. The authorities were outraged over his book, and his
long association with Von Junzt finally bore its terrible fruit.
I am indebted to Steven Marc Harris for much of the above information,
and strongly urge anyone who is interested in either Mulder, Von Junzt
or their respective works to check out his truly excellent website at:
http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~sh323089
Thanks to everyone who wrote to me (whether with criticism or
compliments), and I look forward to hearing from more of you,
Yrs. for the irreverberate blackness of the Abyss,
Marc Zender
mvzender@okuc02.okanagan.bc.ca
--------------------
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