Miskatonik University may be the most beloved of Lovecraft’s imaginary locations. This Ivy League college, known for its library of occult books and daring expeditions, lies near a river of the same name which runs through imaginary Arkham, Massachusetts, * which Lovecraft based on Salem. He even drew his own map of the city to aid his writing. Miskatonic University t-shirts can be readily purchased online along with other items to show your school spirit (or spirits, given its reputation.)
Lovecraft’s other human settlements, Innsmouth, Kingsport, and Dunwich, also had real-life Massachusetts analogs. In the case of Innsmouth, it was Newburyport.
Of the inhuman and alien locations R’lyeh, Cthulhu’s submerged city in the South Pacific, remains the best known. But there’s also the Mountains of Madness and the Plateau of Leng, which pops up in a recent graphic novel I read, Locke & Key, as “The Plain of Leng.” Many of Lovecraft’s locations make out-of-genre cameos like this, even on the dwarf planet Pluto, where several features are named for Mythos elements. Who says Life does not imitate Art?
In the same spirit here are more places a shady character or Great Old One might hang out.
Shunned Locations
| The Hewes Museum
Caverns of Algol The Land of Shan Iuman of the Unseen Dunes Gulf of Hastit The Blasted Moors Gate of Thuban Wiskachanik River Wulfham College Mishgahoolik State Library The Hell-Gates Arxhan River Osnam Memorial Hospital The Inhuman City-state |
Hodgeson Sanitarium
The Aetheric University City of K’thun The Dream City of Sathep The Shining Silver Gulf Sea of Xoth The Crimson Library of Vhuthoa The Nameless Mountains Limekiln Asylum The Burning Tower of Yorghra The Shugyok Empire The Sathsothor Depths Plateau of Ptaeth Monstrous Temple of |
* In the DC comic universe, Arkham Asylum is where Batman’s foes get put after their defeat.
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[…] aren’t as many fictional colleges around as there are cities, states, and countries. Of them, Miskatonic University, H. P. Lovecraft’s creation and the setting for many of his stories, is the best known and detailed, even having a map. […]