History Literature / JohannesCabal

The Johannes Cabal Series is a number of novels and short stories about Johannes Cabal, a necromancer of some little infamy. It takes place in an AlternateHistory where magic is real and acknowledged as such by the general population, though it is established to also be rare the kind of thing the average person hears about but doesn't see. Cabal is driven to find a cure for death although "driven" is something of an understatement.

Not an adventuerous sort by nature, Cabal is also horribly pragmatic, so his quest for knowledge (which he'd be content to do in a lab and library) see him travel to Hell, The Dreamlands, various fictional European countries, and a city of horrors called London.

The short stories are also harder to track down than that as many were written in magazines that subsequently ceased publication. In brief, there are "Johannes Cabal and the Blustery Day", "Exeunt Demon King", "The Ereshkigal Working", "The House of Gears", "The Death of Me", "Ouroboros Ouzo", and" A Long Spoon."

* DevilButNoGod: This is ambiguously true for the cosmology of the series. In ''Literature/JohannesCabalTheNecromancer'', {{Satan}}} refers to himself as being a fallen angel (in line with Christian religion/mythology)and tortures the damned in FireAndBrimstoneHell, and Cabal seems to be believe that God exists, but [[GodAndSatanAreBothJerks doesn't like him either]] and believes that Heaven is [[AHellOfHeaven also unpleasant]], involving a loss of individuality. However, in a later book, ''Literature/JohannesCabalAndTheFearInstitute'', Cabal meets Nyarlathotep, who claims during a BreakingSpeech that there is no Satan/God/Hell/Heaven, and in reality, Satan is just one of his masks, and merely believes himself to be a separate entity, and for his amusement, Nyarlathotep likes to torture bad souls and give good ones the "gift" of a CessationOfExistence. This is seemingly born out by a scene where Cabal (admittedly while trapped in a LotusEaterMachine created by Nyarlathotep) has a vision of Satan and Hell and thinks he looks a lot like Nyarlathotep's human form. Although it is possible that Nyarlathotep was just saying this to MindRape Cabal, and there are indications that demons and devils exist independently of him, there's nothing that challenges Nyarlathotep's claims about God and Heaven.

** The series interpretation of Hell takes much from Literature/DantesInferno, down to the sign reading 'Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here.'

# Literature/JohannesCabalTheNecromancer (2009)
# Literature/JohannesCabalTheDetective (2010)
# Literature/JohannesCabalAndTheFearInstitute (2011)
# Literature/TheBrothersCabal (2015)
# The Fall of The House of Cabal (2016)

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: Applies only to Cabal's twitter account, where he complains occasionally about "the man Howard" publishing lies about his life.

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: Applies only to Cabal's twitter account, where he complains occasionally about "the man Howard" publishing tales about his life.

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: Applies only to Cabal's twitter account, where he complains occasionally about Howard publishing tales about his life.

* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: Horst Cabal is far different from the other vampires seen in the series, being a very nice fellow who is more or less exactly the same, personality-wise, as he was before being a vampire.

* MadScientist: While necromancers are typically seen as wizards, Cabal is ''not'' the typical necromancer and so is more of a science hero than a magic hero.

* MeaningfulName: In "The Death of Me" Cabal meets a being he believes to be the personification of death. When asked for her name, she says its Myghin, which is Manx for 'mercy', which death can often be.

* OhCrap!: Cabal has this reaction in "The Blustery Day" when he believes he has bested the Bonewind but he completely forgot that the Skirtingboard people have a chance to interfere and get him killed during his daylong stand-off.

* OutOfOrder: The series is not always written in chronological order-the first story written, ''Blustery Day'' takes place after ''Exeunt Demon King'' but ''also'' before-Exeunt Demon King is framed by Cabal telling a story of his past to someone in a period roughly after ''The Necromancer''. Likewise, "Ereshkigal Working" was published after ''Necromancer'' but takes place before it. The main reason for this is that Howard will often expand on things only briefly alluded to previously-Rufus Maleficarus first appears in ''Necromancer'' but its not the first time he met Cabal.
** "Ouroboros Ouzo" plays with this as Cabal is granted visions of his personal potential futures-he sees himself as a ghoul and as a mechanical butler, which are references to ''Fear Institute'' and "House of Gears" respectively.
* RunningGag: Cabal is almost always referred to in narration as "a necromancer of some little infamy."

* ShoutOut: There's an oblique reference to the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of The Six Napoleons" in ''Blustery Day'' as Cabal re-kills one of his failed experiments by dropping a bust of Napoleon from three stories onto its head. How many does he have left? Five.

** The series interpretation of Hell takes much from Dante's Inferno, down to the sign reading 'Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here.'

* CallBack: The list of supernatural weather conditions in the very first Cabal short story (see below), has two of those just mentioned be seen in later books-Cabal meets Umtak Ktharl (but doesn't see his famous Red Snow) in the epilogue of ''Detective'', and Horst encounters cumulonemesis in ''The Brothers Cabal''

* CallBack: The list of supernatural weather conditions in the very first Cabal short story (see below), has two of those just mentioned be seen in later books-Cabal meets Umtak Ktharl (but doesn't see his famous Red Snow) in the epilog of ''Detective'', and Horst encounters cumulonemesis in ''The Brothers Cabal''

* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: Horst Cabal is the only vampire seen in the series and its often pointed out how non-traditional he is, being a very nice fellow who is more or less exactly the same, personality-wise, as he was before being a vampire.

There are also several short stories, but the series is written in such a way that they are not necessary to follow the novels-any elements which appeared first in the stories and then in the novels is usually described well enough to preclude confusion and serve more as CallBacks or in-jokes.

* GenreShift: While the tone stays consistent, the series goes through several closely related genres-"The Necromancer" is a Faustian tale, "The Detective" is more of a Ruritanian romance and [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin detective story]], "The Fear Institute" has Cabal literally travel to The Dreamlands, a setting made by Lovecraft, The Brothers Cabal features Horst taking roughly 50% of the role of main character and i something of supernatural adventure story. The House of Gears has more sci-fi element, "Exeunt Demon King" is a sort of flashback story largely told in first-person and so on. These genres are fairly close, and Howard is such a good writer that these changes never feel like mis-steps.

* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: Horst Cabal is the only vampire seen in the series and its often pointed out how non-traditional he is, being a very nice fellow who is more or less exactly the same, personality-wise, as he was before being a vampire.