History Creator / ClarkAshtonSmith

* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever: ''The Colossus of Ylourgne.'' A story about an undead giant made of hundreds of corpses.

* Hyperborea, a MedievalPrehistory JungleOpera LostWorld that existed in TheTimeOfMyths before being covered by Arctic ice. The stories trace the [[JustBeforeTheEnd decline]] of Hyperborean civilization, and the abandoning of its capital city, Commorriom, for the more southerly Uzuldaroum, leaving the old capital a GhostCity. In addition to its semi-[[{{magocracy}} magocratic]] human civilization, Hyperborea is also home to a race of three-toed, cave-dwelling [[BeastMan beast men]] called voormis, whose once-reasonably-complex society is also declining sharply. The setting has a number of JerkassGods, most prominently Tsathoggua, the Sleeper of N'Kai, who rules the voormis as their patron. Tsathoggua is probably Smith's most iconic character and contribution to the Cthulhu Mythos.

* {{Irony}}: Smith was very fond of ironic plot twists, {{bathos}}, {{Karmic Twist Endings}}s, and other playful touches to keep his stories fun.

* DecadentCourt: All of them. Zothique especially is full of crumbling cities ruled by mad or aging nobles that when not backstabbing each other, performing some flavor of curse or plague, they're having orgies and drugging themselves into oblivion to forget the depression of the world's demise.

%%* {{Irony}}

%%* LoveableRogue: Satampra Zeiros.

* Hyperborea, a MedievalPrehistory JungleOpera LostWorld that existed in TheTimeOfMyths before being covered by Arctic ice. The stories trace the [[JustBeforeTheEnd decline]] of Hyperborean civilization, and the abandoning of its capital city, Commorriom, for the more southerly Uzuldaroum, leaving the old capital a frozen GhostCity. In addition to its semi-[[{{magocracy}} magocratic]] human civilization, Hyperborea is also home to a race of three-toed, cave-dwelling [[BeastMan beast men]] called voormis, whose once-reasonably-complex society is also declining sharply. The setting has a number of JerkassGods, most prominently Tsathoggua, the Sleeper of N'Kai, who rules the voormis as their patron. Tsathoggua is probably Smith's most iconic character and contribution to the Cthulhu Mythos.

* Averoigne, a fictional province in the south of France, [[LandOfOneCity dominated]] by the city of Vyones and its majestic cathedral. A [[DarkFantasy Dark]] LowFantasy world plagued by [[WickedWitch witches]] and sinister magic. Although the Averoigne stories are largely set in [[MedievalEuropeanFantasy the Middle Ages]], Smith traces the region's history back to Roman times and the (fictional) Gallic tribe of the Averones. The Averoigne story "The Maker of Gargoyles" is probably Smith's most influential work of all, as it was the story that [[TropeMaker invented]] the idea of a [[OurGargoylesRock gargoyle as a monster, and not simply an architectural fluourish]].

%%* TheoryBeforePhenomenon: In ''The Devotee of Evil'' and ''The Tomb-Spawn.''

* DownerEnding: Toyed with a lot. Sometimes we get a simple TheBadGuyWins downer; sometimes a KillEmAll ending, where the villains go down as well; and sometimes a straight happy ending.

* KillEmAll: Repeatedly, to various degrees of scale and completeness.

%%* BalefulPolymorph: In ''The Maze of Maal Dweb'', the hero is turned into a deformed ape creature for his efforts.

Clark Ashton Smith (January 13, 1893 – August 14, 1961) was an American writer of {{horror}}, {{fantasy}} and ScienceFiction. He is most notable for being one of the founders of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos along with Creator/HPLovecraft, Creator/RobertEHoward and others. Smith's early works were influenced by Creator/TheBrothersGrimm, Creator/EdgarAllanPoe, and William Beckford's ''Literature/{{Vathek}}'', while his early poetry caught the attention of George Sterling, who helped him publish ''The Star-Treader and Other Poems'', his first collection of poetry, and also introduced him to the poetry of Charles Baudelaire, who became another important influence. Smith's 1920 poem ''The Hashish Eater, or The Apocalypse of Evil'' prompted H. P. Lovecraft to send him a fan letter, which was the beginning of a lifelong friendship and correspondence between the two.

%%* PyrrhicVillainy

* Hyperborea, a MedievalPrehistory JungleOpera LostWorld that existed in TheTimeOfMyths before being covered by Arctic ice. The stories trace the [[JustBeforeTheEnd decline]] of Hyperborean civilization, and the abandoning of its capital city, Commorriom, for the more southerly Uzuldaroum, leaving the old capital a frozen GhostCity. In addition to its semi-[[{{magocracy}} magocratic]] human civilization, Hyperborea is also home to a race of three-toed, cave-dwelling [[BeastMan beast men]] called voormis. The setting has a number of JerkassGods, most prominently Tsathoggua, the Sleeper of N'Kai, who rules the voormis as their patron. Tsathoggua is probably Smith's most iconic character and contribution to the Cthulhu Mythos.

Like Lovecraft's, Clark's stories were often inspired by the nightmares he suffered in his youth. However, Smith's stories tend to focus less on the CosmicHorrorStory and more on the pure exoticism of the setting. Some Mythos entities recur between them, such as the god Tsathoggua, but these entities tend to be less malevolent in Smith's portrayal than in Lovecraft's. While Smith is best known for his prose stories, he personally considered them secondary to his poetry (sometimes going as far as calling them "quasi-hackwork"), and the vast majority were written to help him raise funds for his ailing parents in the period from 1929 to 1934. After their deaths, as well as that of his friends Lovecraft and Howard, Smith's prose output dwindled dramatically, and he returned to poetry and began sculpting (usually small soft rock sculptures of strange beings).

Sexuality plays a strong role in many of Smith's works and female characters are a lot stronger and more prominent than in Lovecraft. Unlike Howard, sorcerers in Smith [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards tend to have the upper hand against swordsmen]] and Smith has many sorcerer protagonists, both good and evil. And finally, Smith was not as much a racist or a xenophobe as Lovecraft, which can be seen best in stories like ''The Great God Awto'' and ''A Star-Change'', although reading his Zothique stories shows he was still very much a man of his time. Smith was very fond of PurpleProse and one often needs to have a thesaurus handy to fully appreciate the meaning of some of his descriptions.

Smith was fond of playing with tropes and deconstructing pulp traditions, and his stories occasionally feature BlackComedy. The classic ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' module ''Castle Amber'' draws inspiration from his stories set in his fictional Averoigne setting.

* Hyperborea, a MedievalPrehistory JungleOpera LostWorld that existed in TheTimeOfMyths before being covered by Arctic ice. The stories trace the [[JustBeforeTheEnd decline]] of Hyperborean civilization, and the abandoning of its capital city, Commorriom, for the more southerly Uzuldaroum, leaving the old capital a frozen GhostCity. In addition to its semi-[[{{magocracy}} magocratic]] human civilization, Hyperborea is also home to a race of three-toed, cave-dwelling [[BeastMan beast men]] called voormis. The setting has a number of JerkassGods, most prominently Tsathoggua, the Sleeper of N'Kai, who rules the voormis as their patron. As noted above, Tsathoggua is probably Smith's most iconic character and contribution to the Cthulhu Mythos.

* AfterTheEnd: The setting of the ''Zothique'' stories.
* AlienInvasion: In ''The Metamorphasis of Earth''.

* ApatheticCitizens: In ''The Dark Eidolon'', before [[spoiler: Narthos is nearly trampled to death underneath hooves, people pass by and do nothing as the beggar boy is hated by the city]]; this sets in the entire revenge plot.

* BarbarianHero: Subverted.

* BetterLivingThroughEvil: The EvilSorcerer Namirrha's backstory in ''The Dark Eidolon''

* BigScrewedUpFamily: One of Smith's more notable contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos is the idea that the various EldritchAbomination are all related to each other in some way or another like a classical pantheon, rather than a bunch of random, unrelated extradimensional aliens. For instance, Hastur is supposedly Cthulhu's half-brother. And he's married to Shub Niggurath and therefore, presumably the father of at least some of her enigmatic Thousand Young. "The Door To Saturn" features a brief appearance by Tsathoggua's grouchy (but comparatively benign) uncle, with the [[TheUnpronouncable unpronouncable-even-by-Mythos-standards]] name of Hzioulquoigmnzhah.

* DisproportionateRetribution: ''The Dark Eidolon'' is all about this.

* DraggedOffToHell: Inverted [[spoiler:in ''The Devotee of Evil''.]] Averted [[spoiler:in ''Xeethra'' to the surprise of the main character. It's still a DownerEnding though.]]

* EvilVersusEvil: Every single character in ''The Dark Eidolon'' is evil.

* FauxDeath: Played for horror in ''The Charnel God'' and ''The Second Internment''.

* GardenOfEvil: In "The Garden of Adompha" The King and his evil sorceror have one such garden walled off in the palace for their own private use, wherein they graft human organs to the plants. Well until the King decides to kill his companion and bury him in the selfsame garden. It doesn't end well..

* GodOfTheDead: in ''The Charnel God'', the god of Zul-Bha-Sair, Mordiggian, claims all the dead in the city.

* HumanoidAbomination: Knygathin Zhaum in "The Testament of Athammaus" is a criminal who turns out to be a descendant of Tsathoggua, and has an appearance that suggests something snake-like and amorphous about his body. After being decapitated twice, he spontaneously revived himself, becoming more monstrous than before. After the third decapitation, well, suffice to say [[OneWingedAngel the "humanoid" part of this trope is averted]].

* ILoveTheDead: The sorcerers Mmatmuor and Sodosma in ''The Empire of the Necromancers'' raise royal corpses in a devastated palace to serve them; including empresses “they took for their lemans and made to serve their necrophilic lust”.

* JustBeforeTheEnd: Zothique is the last doomed land, the death rattle of the planet Earth. It is an “End of History” scenario; its end is the world’s end, and nothing will come after.
* KarmaHoudini: The titular villain from ''The Holiness of Azédarac''. A malevolent sorcerer who has infiltrated the church and risen to the post of bishop is discovered while dabbling in the dark arts by a monk send to investigate the rumors about him. He manages not only to prevent the truth from coming out by [[TrappedInThePast having the monk whisked seven centuries back in time]], but manages to be canonized as a saint after his death (which is strongly implied to [[FakingTheDead have been faked]]). According to his notes, Smith planned to avert this in the aptly named sequel ''The Doom of Azédarac'', but he never got around to writing that.

* KissOfDeath: Most notably the non-vampiric one in ''The Kiss of Zoraida''.

* TheMiddleAges: Where the Averoigne stories take place.

* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: Lovecraft-style ghouls are used, although [[DarkIsNotEvil they are predominantly good people.]]
* OurLichesAreDifferent: CAS uses the antiquated term "lich" in its classical meaning of "corpse". It is used to qualify either a usual dead body, a réanimated corpse like a zombie, or an undead sorceror (''The Stairs in the Crypt'')
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: the Sieur du Malinbois and his chatelaine, in ''A Rendezvous in Averoigne'' have mostusuel traits of the classical vampire: evil yet alluring, sleeping in coffins by day and destroyed when pierced by a stake. Nycea from ''The End of the story'', is a Lamia, who drains her lovers of their live and vigor with her kisses, before devouring them.
* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: In ''The Enchantress of Sylaire'', Malachie has been a victim of BalefulPolymorph by having been given the waters of an enchanted pool. (This cause of lycanthropy is actually more consistent with medieval litterature than the modern depictions)

* ShaggyDogStory: ''The Seven Geases''. Nobody wants the victim and he ends up dying in an accident.

* SinisterMinister: The titular villain in ''The Holiness of Azédarac'' is a Christian bishop who secretly serves some sort of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. One of the main characters of "The Door To Saturn", likewise, is a self-serving priest of an [[TheMarvelousDeer elk goddess]] who tortures heretics.

** In the ''Hyperborean Cycle'' of short stories, Saturn is known as Cykranosh and is the home of at least one EldritchAbomination. It's [[ArtisticLicenseSpace habitable to human visitors]] in "The Door to Saturn", with an ashy surface, liquid metal lakes, and highly diverse inhabitants; the visitors end up living with a race of friendly, toad-like aliens.

* SummoningRitual: Shown onscreen in ''The Double Shadow''. The wizard Avyctes is an expert at summoning every kind of spirit and demon. So when he discovers a summoning spell from a hitherto-unknown [[{{Precursors}} precursor race]], he casts it the first chance he gets. This despite the fact that the spell (a) doesn't say ''what'' it summons, and (b) doesn't come with a matching rite of exorcism to make whatever it summons go away again. It doesn't end well.

* Hyperborea, a MedievalPrehistory JungleOpera LostWorld that existed in TheTimeOfMyths before being covered by Arctic ice. The stories trace the [[JustBeforeTheEnd decline]] of Hyperborean civilization, and the abandoning of its capital city, Commorriom, for the more southerly Uzuldaroum, leaving the old capital a frozen GhostCity. In addition to its semi-[[{{magocracy}} magocratic]] human civilization, Hyperborea is also home to a race of three-toed, cave-dwelling [[BeastMan beast men]] called voormis. The setting has a number of JerkassGods, most prominently Tsathoggua, the Sleeper of N'Kai, who rules the voormis as their patron.

* Averoigne, a fictional province in the south of France, [[LandOfOneCity dominated]] by the city of Vyones and its majestic cathedral. A [[DarkFantasy Dark]] LowFantasy world plagued by [[WickedWitch witches]] and sinister magic. Although the Averoigne stories are largely set in [[MedievalEuropeanFantasy the Middle Ages]], Smith traces the region's history back to Roman times and the (fictional) Gallic tribe of the Averones.

* BigScrewedUpFamily: One of Smith's more notable contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos is the idea that the various EldritchAbomination are all related to each other in some way or another like a classical pantheon, rather than a bunch of random, unrelated extradimensional aliens. For instance, Hastur is supposedly Cthulhu's half-brother. And he's married to Shub Niggurath and therefore, presumably the father of at least some of her enigmatic Thousand Young. "The Door To Saturn" features a brief appearance by Tsathoggua's grouchy uncle, with the [[TheUnpronouncable unpronouncable-even-by-Mythos-standards]] name of Hzioulquoigmnzhah.

* EvilSorcerer: Most villains are. Zothique is full of them.

%%* SimSimSalabim

-> ''Tell me many tales, but let them be of things that are past the lore of legend and of which there are no myths in our world or any world adjoining. Tell me, if you will, of the years when the moon was young, with siren-rippled seas and mountains that were zoned with flowers from base to summit; tell me of the planets gray with eld, of the worlds whereon no mortal astronomer has ever looked, and whose mystic heavens and horizons have given pause to visionaries. Tell me of the vaster blossoms within whose cradling chalices a woman could sleep; of the seas of fire that beat on strands of ever-during ice; of perfumes that can give eternal slumber in a breath; of eyeless titans that dwell in Uranus, and beings that wander in the green light of the twin suns of azure and orange. Tell me tales of inconceivable fear and unimaginable love, in orbs whereto our sun is a nameless star, or unto which its rays have never reached.''

%%* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent

%%* ImAHumanitarian

%%* KissOfTheVampire

%%* OurVampiresAreDifferent

%%* EvilSorcerer: See above.

* BigScrewedUpFamily: One of Smith's more notable contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos is the idea that the various EldritchAbomination are all related to each other in some way or another like a classical pantheon, rather than a bunch of random, unrelated extradimensional aliens. For instance, Hastur is supposedly Cthulhu's half-brother. And he's married to Shub Niggurath and therefore, presumably the father of at least some of her enigmatic Thousand Young. "The Door To Saturn" features a brief appearance by Tsathoggua's grouchy uncle.

** In the ''Hyperborean Cycle'' of short stories, Saturn is known as Cykranosh and is the home of at least one EldritchAbomination. It's [[ArtisticLicenseAstronomy habitable to human visitors]] in "The Door to Saturn", with an ashy surface, liquid metal lakes, and highly diverse inhabitants; the visitors end up living with a race of friendly, toad-like aliens.

* Averoigne, a fictional province in the south of France, [[LandOfOneCity dominated]] by the city of Vyones and its majestic cathedral. A [[DarkFantasy Dark]] LowFantasy world plagued by [[WickedWitch witches]] and sinister magic. Although the Averoigne stories are largely set in [[MedievalEuropeanFantasy the Middle Ages]], Smith traces their history back to Roman times and the (fictional) Gallic tribe of the Averones.
* Zothique, a DesertPunk supercontinent and borderline DeathWorld that exists in the Earth's distant and grim future. These stories are part of the [[JustBeforeTheEnd Dying Earth]] genre, a fairly popular one at the time. Despite their futuristic setting, the Zothique stories are strictly SwordAndSorcery rather than science fiction, with [[TheMagicComesBack magic having returned]] in [[CrapsackWorld the worst possible way]]. Most of the world is a barren wasteland dotted with [[GhostCity empty cities]], and the last remaining human cities are haunted by {{necromancer}}s, [[OurGhoulsAreCreepier ghouls]], ancient {{curse}}s, and frightful JerkassGods, although [[DarkIsNotEvil dark is not always evil]].

Clark Ashton Smith (January 13, 1893 – August 14, 1961) was an American writer of {{horror}}, {{fantasy}} and ScienceFiction. He is most notable for being one of the founders of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos along with Creator/HPLovecraft, Creator/RobertEHoward and others. Smith's early works were influenced by Creator/TheBrothersGrimm, Creator/EdgarAllanPoe, and William Beckford's Literature/{{Vathek}}, while his early poetry caught the attention of George Sterling, who helped him publish ''The Star-Treader and Other Poems'', his first collection of poetry, and also introduced him to the poetry of Charles Baudelaire, who became another important influence. Smith's 1920 poem ''The Hashish Eater, or The Apocalypse of Evil'' prompted H. P. Lovecraft to send him a fan letter, which was the beginning of a lifelong friendship and correspondence between the two.

** "The Immortals of Mercury": The titular "Oumnis" SpaceElves live in vast underground colonies to avoid the deadly sun. The surface is inhabited by savage, tribal [[TheReptilians Reptilians]]. Neither group wants anything to do with humans: the Oumnis prefer to [[HiddenElfVillage hide their existence]] from humans; the reptilians, to [[HumanSacrifice sacrifice them]].