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This document contains the core rules of the game and the Special Consultant: the RPGPundit gamemaster’s resources, and is produced with the financial Illustration: Quentin Bauer (BW), Cliff Cramp (color) backing of its generous Kickstarter supporters — whose Totem Sculptures: Cryptocurium investments of money, time and enduring patience have Special Thanks: Cliff Cramp, Kevin Ross, Chris Birch proven unbelievably charitable. Regarding copyright, & Doug TenNapel specifics of the game’s OGL are provided at the back of the document. Sign up as a Raider to receive future exclusive content This document covers the core rules of the game, including the Dedicated to: Sonja, a mother whose gamemaster’s resources. To receive news and future exclusive loving support made this book possible content (including original expansion material and other during a very difficult period. experiments), visit our website and join our newsletter at Sampleraidersofrlyeh.com. file Raiders of R’lyeh Gamemaster’s Guide & Complete Rules Version: 1.0 Release Date: May 28, 2017 Visit RaidersofRlyeh.com for updates! Contents Two: Skills 72

Skill Tests 72 Introduction 6 Common Skills 73 Professional Skills 78 Mythos & the Imperial Age 7 Additional Skill Rules 94 Skills Best Practices 97 One: Character Creation 24 Using Skill Levels 97 Investigation and Skill Checks 98 Adventurer Creation Summary 24 General Investigation 99 Attributes 24 Investigative Searching 99 Social Status 26 Investigative Researching 100 Common Skills 28 Investigative Canvassing 100 Cultural Background 29 Augmenting Investigation Checks 101 Family, Connections & Reputation 40 Investigation Mishaps 101 Professional Background 44 Tapping Circles of Influence 102 Artist 46 Networking 102 Cleric 46 Quid Pro Quos 103 Criminal 47 Spending Network Points 104 Detective 48 Capping Skills 105 Dilettante 48 Drifter 49 Three: Wealth & Equipment 108 Emissary 49 Engineer 50 Foreign Exchange 108 Entertainer 50 Wages & Standards of Living 109 Explorer 51 Housing & Period Architecture 112 Fighter 51 Hirelings 119 Herder 52 Clothing, Tools & Equipment 120 Hunter 52 Vehicle, Mounts & Travel Costs 122 Landlord 52 Weapons/Firearms 126 Magus 52 Artillery 137 Mariner 53 Repairing, Upgrading & Inventing 138 Merchant 53 Miner 54 Four: Game Mechanics 140 Physician 54 Reporter 55 Acid 140 Scholar 55 Action and Time 140 Scientist 56 Aging 141 Scout 56 Artillery & Other Scaled Weapons 141 Servant 57 Attributes & Example Descriptors 142 Solicitor 57 Blood Loss 144 Spy 57 Character Improvement 144 Seasoned, Full-Time Intelligence Agent 58 Chases 145 Thief 58 Damage and Healing from Injury 152 Tradesman 58 Major Wounds & Critically Major Wounds 152 Essential Nature 59 Natural Healing Rate 153 Everyman 59 Darkness 154 Outsider 59 Downtime 154 Scoundrel 60 Drives and Bonds 154 Sleuth 60 Drowning, Asphyxiation & Suffocation 155 Socialite 60 Electricity 156 Specialist 61 Falling 156 Thrill-Seeker 61 Fatigue 157 SampleTough 61 Exposure, Starvation & Thirst file157 Age and Free Skill Points 62 Fires & Explosions 158 Drives and Bonds 63 Luck 159 Circles of Influence 64 Magic & Essence Points 159 Mettle Points 159 Summon 226 Movement, Exploration & Encumbrance 160 Tap 226 Exploration & Travel 161 Tongues 226 Poison and Diseases 164 Undeath 227 Radiation 168 Voice 229 Set Pieces 170 Ward 229 Weather and Entropic Effects 171 Wrack 230 Rituals 230 Five: Horror, Shock & Sanity 172 Other Magic Rules 234 List of Preternatural Gifts & Curses 234 Rationality: Mental Hit Points 172 Coordinated Casting 236 Horror Checks 172 Researching & Using Extraplanar Entities 236 Psychopathy 173 Importance of Time and Place 237 Addiction 174 Occult Texts 238 Mental Trauma 175 Alien Artifacts 247 Effects of Mental Disorders 175 Occult Paths 248 Fractured Identity 177 Occultist Archetypes 251 Recovery, Restoration & Institutionalization 177 Becoming Inured to Horror 178 Eight: Extraplanar Entities 252 Six: Combat 180 Extraplanar Entity Types 254 Special Abilities of Extraplanar Entities 258 Quickplay Combat Rules 180 Creating a Unique Extraplanar Entity 261 Tactical Combat Rules 184 Random Entity Traits & Additional Special Abilities 277 Additional Combat Rules 190 Extraplanar Entity Examples 282 Fighting Methods 192 General Entities 282 Mythos Entities 286 Seven: Magic 196 Broodling of Shub-Niggurath 286 Familiar of Nyarlathotep 286 Occult or Mythos Magic 196 Great Old One 286 Learning & Using Magic 197 Spawn of Yog-Sothoth 286 List of Spells 206 Extraplanar Combat 288 Banishing 207 Adventurer’s Essence Drain Modifier 288 Binding 207 Bypass 207 Nine: Mythos Creatures 290 Cast Undeath 208 Charm 208 Minor Creatures 290 Curse 208 Carrion Horror 290 Detect 208 Deep One 291 Discorporation 209 Dhole (or Bhole) 294 Dispel Magic 209 Elder (Crinoid) Thing 295 Divination 210 Fungal Monstrosity 296 Dominate 210 Ghoul 298 Drain 212 Mi-go 299 Evocation 212 Oozing Spawn 300 Blind Conjuration 214 Polypous Horror 300 Fortified Will/Body 215 Reanimated Corpse 302 Healing 215 Serpent Folk 302 Immunity 215 Serpent Thing (or Worm of the Earth) 304 Invisibility 216 Shoggoth 305 Invocation 216 Spider (from Leng or elsewhere) 307 Magic Mark 217 Tcho-Tcho 308 Phantom Sense 217 Worm That Walks 309 Projection 218 Worm Thing (or Faceless One) 310 RepelSample 219 Yithian (from the Great Race offile Yith) 311 Spacetime Gate 220 Ancient Ones 313 Speak with Creatures 225 Azathoth 313 Spellbind 225 Cthulhu 313 King in Yellow 314 Crocodile, Nile 364 Nyarlathotep 315 Dog (or Wolf) 365 Shub-Niggurath 316 Elephant, African 366 Tsathoggua 317 Gorilla 367 Wendigo 318 Horse 367 Yig 318 Lion 369 Yog-Sothoth 319 Ox 369 Cultists 320 Rhinoceros 369 Creating Unique Mythos Creatures 291 Sea Monster 370 Shark, Hammerhead 371 Ten: Setting Creation 322 Training Animals 365 Re-skinning Beasts & Monsters 367 Location Traits 322 Timeline of Archaeology 325 Eleven: Organizations 372 Timeline of Exploration 329 Legendary Locations 333 Creating Organizations & Factions 372 Timeline of Forensic Science 334 Organization Types 372 Timeline of War Zones 338 Organization Ideologies 374 News Agencies with War Correspondents 339 Organization Goals 375 Timeline of Science & Invention 339 Hidden Agendas & Secret Knowledge 376 Raiders & Other Important NPCs 341 Muscle, Funding and Power 376 Aaron Burkett & the Burkett Detective Agency 341 Unique Assets 377 André Roy, Wanderer and Adventurer 342 Organization Scale and Structure 381 Brandon Joseph Lemos, Shipping Entrepreneur Statting an Organization 381 & Occult Detective 343 Mapping a Campaign Like an Organization 382 Bret Kramer & the Wanderer’s Club 344 Organization Objectives 383 Christian Lehmann, Spymaster & Proprietor Organization Responses 384 of the Baron Hotel 345 Intelligence Organizations 386 Dominik Kolodzie, Criminal Mastermind 346 Secret Service Bureau 386 George Rothrock, Gentleman Thief 347 William Melville 386 Jorge Alejandro Vega & Sangre Sagrada 348 Vernon Kell 387 Lynn “Maddie” Maudlin & Madame Magdalen Ltd. 349 Mansfield Smith-Cumming 387 Mark Tresidder, Academic Adventurer 351 Sidney Reilly (The Ace of Spies) 388 Michael Caballero, Gentleman Thief Deuxième Bureau 388 & Criminal Mastermind 352 The Dreyfus Affair 388 Peggy Carpenter, Boston’s Sherlock Holmes 353 Tiger Brigades 388 Sava Puško & the Brotherhood of Vlaha 354 Cryptanalytic Bureaus 388 Gregory Scott Turns, 11th Baron of Redmoor Abteilung IIIb 389 & Dilettante Occult Detective 355 Assets of the German Empire 389 Stuart J. Milton, Medical Examiner 356 Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft 390 Travis Arnold, the “Amazing Balkan” Nachrichten-Abteilung 391 & Occult Detective Extraordinaire 357 Gustav Steinhauer 391 Human Forces 358 Example Intelligence Agent (N Operative) 391 Bodyguards 358 Okhrana 392 Civilians 359 Attachés of the Russian Empire 392 Cultists 359 Kokuryukai/Black Dragon Society 392 Cult Leaders 359 Ryōhei Uchida 393 Intelligence Officers 360 Evidenzbureau 394 Police 360 Alfred Redl 394 Gendarmes 360 Black Hand 395 Soldiers 361 Events Leading to the Great War 395 Thugs 361 Dragutin Dimitrijević 395 Criminal Leaders 361 Bureau of Investigation 396 Beasts & Monsters 362 White Slave Traffic Act 396 AllosaurusSample 362 Office of Naval Intelligence file397 Bear, Brown 362 The Antiquarian Society 398 Camel, Dromedary 363 Pinkerton Detective Agency 398 Chimpanzee 364 Allan Pinkerton 399 Cherokee Scout (Detective Service Company) 399 Occult Organizations 400 Thirteen: Story Creation 440 Freemasonry 400 Freemasonry in Arkham 400 Running a Sandbox Adventure 441 Freemasonry and the Glove 400 Determining the Central Threat 443 Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn 401 Generating Plot Hooks 443 A .·. A .·. (or Argentium Astrum) 401 Expanding a Location Trait (an example) 444 Aleister Crowley 402 Objectives, Resolutions & Milestones 445 Mythos Organizations 402 Plot Ideas 445 Cult of the Yellow Sign 402 Structuring an Adventure 448 Cults of Cthulhu 403 Clues Versus Leads 449 Starry Wisdom Sect 403 Mapping an Adventure 449 Servants of the Great Race (of Yith) 404 Keying a Dungeon/Crypt Crawl 448 Creating a Clue Web 450 Twelve: The Glove 406 Keying a Clue Web Node & Encounters 450 Lead & Clue Types 451 Overview of the Glove 406 Creating Leads 452 The Black Brotherhood 407 Avoiding Choke Points 452 Tainted Families 408 Developing a Campaign 453 Van der Heyl Cabal 408 Frameworks 453 Order of Kamog 408 Conspiracy Box 453 Innsmouth 409 Common Bonds 453 Front Organizations 411 Players & Hooks 453 The Foundation 411 Framework Examples 454 Refining Companies 412 Ghost Society 454 The Arkham Commission for Antiquities 414 The Fugue 454 The Boston Museum 415 House on the Borderlands 455 The Arkham Athenaeum 417 Lady of the Shroud 455 The Thibeault Waite House 418 Structuring a Campaign 456 The Orient House 418 Mapping a Campaign Like a Clue Web 456 Sorcerers of the Black Brotherhood 421 Hot & Cold Adventure Nodes 456 Brett Bozeman Shipbuilder, Sorcerer & Descendant of Yog-Sothoth 421 Appendix: World Source Book 457 Intelligence & Smuggling Network 422 The Saltonstall Mansion 422 Jason Blalock Back Matter 471 Socialite, Conspirator & Sorcerer of the Haute Vienne Coven 426 Bibliography 471 Saracen Sword (Exonophon) 426 The Raiders: Kickstarter Backers 474 Castillo de Puntilla 427 Character Sheets & GM Aids 475 Black River Plantation 428 Index 484 Maw Maw 429 OGL & Legal Information 486 Douglas Richard ten Napel Haute Vienne Sorcerer & Member of the Van Der Heyl Dynasty 431 Chorazin & the Van Der Heyl Estate 432 The In-Between & the Village-Outside- of-Space-and-Time 434 The Wizard’s Tomb 435 Adversaries of the Glove 436 Occult Investigator Alonzo Typer 436 Industrialist and Magnate Yancey Clagham 437 PoliceSample Chief Frank Forte 438 file Researching the Glove 439 is certainly possible for these elements to occur in the setting Introduction (especially considering that some of the monstrous forces possess spacetime-tampering abilities). If certain historical he year is 1910. It is an Imperial Age of crumbling details seem atypical for the period or outright anachronistic, Tempires, dangerous adventures, and rotting decadence. then perhaps adventurers are slipping out of our known Rifles crack across the untamed Khyber pass, sorcerers stir history. Additionally, these core rules are designed to be as from eldritch crypts, and dark things dream and lurk in modular as possible within the scope of the genre. If players secreted, fetid corners of the globe. wish to use them to explore other eras or parallel worlds, then the gamemaster may adjust the Professional skills to better Raiders of R’lyeh is a stand-alone tabletop roleplaying game (or accommodate these alternate settings. “RPG”) in which mercenary rogues explore forbidden frontiers, unearth ancient artifacts, and outwit villainous scum. The This document contains the core rules of the game as well game is crafted to emulate not only adventure in the Cthulhu as gamemaster resources. It is produced with the financial mythos of H.P. Lovecraft and his circle of influences, but backing of its generous Kickstarter supporters — whose especially the savage and evocative feel of Robert E. Howard’s investments of money, time and enduring patience have mythos and weird menace stories. In a roleplaying game, each proven unbelievably charitable. player assumes the role of a character (called a player character, or “PC,” or more commonly, an adventurer) in a horror Chapter One provides rules and options for the creation of adventure setting. One of the players takes on a special role player characters (also called adventurers), as well as for a wide as a type of referee (the “gamemaster”). His or her job is to set variety of non-player characters found in the setting. up the adventures, create the environments, and assume the roles of characters in the setting that are not the heroes (those Chapter Two includes details about the simple core mechanic characters controlled by the gamemaster are called non-player of the system — the “skill check” — and the various skills characters, or “NPCs.”) The gamemaster also arbitrates the representing the characters and their proficiencies. Special rules in the game, using the various rules and options found in attention is given to investigation and the generation of plot this book. Dice rolls and good role-playing determine whether hooks through networking checks. certain choices and actions that characters make succeed or fail. Chapter Three catalogs all of the setting information regarding wealth, period architecture, hirelings, automobiles, With the rules provided in this book, players get to play equipment and weapons (and more), as well as inventories of adventurers and investigators traveling the world and basic costs of the time period. doing things like looking for ancient artifacts, fighting spies, discovering conspiracies, and escaping horrible Chapter Four lists the various game mechanics, in secrets and monsters. Though roleplaying games share alphabetical order for easy reference, covering everything from some commonalities with storytelling — such as motivated Acids and Aging, to Poisons, Diseases and Weather. characters, dangerous antagonists, and exciting settings — they offer the advantage of living, open worlds to explore, as Chapter Five covers the rules and options for the effects of opposed to scripted narratives preordained by their authors. horror and shock on an adventurer. In Raiders of R’lyeh, the gamemaster seeds the setting with interesting plot hooks tailored to the players’ adventurers Chapter Six includes all of the guidelines needed for combat, — each suggesting potential timelines, enemies, artifacts, and is divided between quickplay and (optional) tactical monsters and set pieces — and it is up to the players to rules. Additionally, the chapter discusses the design of unique determine which locations are worth exploring, which Fighting Methods. conspiratorial plots are worth investigating, and how they will react to events that unfold in response to their intervention Chapter Seven provides the rules and options for occult and or nonintervention. Unlike the author of a fiction, the mythos magic. Additionally, the chapter discusses the design of gamemaster responding to the setting’s unfolding events unique occult tomes, Occult Paths, and more. is not required to predict and account for every possible “plotline” that may occur. Instead, the gamemaster is in charge Chapter Eight includes toolkits for the generation of unique of reacting to player choices — as they forge their own paths extraplanar entities inspired by various authors of the Weird. through the evolving world — and to suspenseful rolls of the The chapter especially focuses on the use of the Evocation spell. dice when their output is required. Chapter Nine provides write-ups and unreliable testimonies By default Raiders of R’lyeh is set in the Edwardian era (also for commonly found mythos entities. known asSample the Imperial Age), though it is not necessarily a file foregone conclusion that its game timeline will play out exactly Chapter Ten provides tips and toolkits for developing a according to our known history. Weird fiction often employs mythos-based adventure setting, incuding: location traits, time travel, alternate histories, and parallel timelines, and it historical notes, and important NPCs and beasts.

Introduction

6 Chapter Eleven details creation rules for organizations, they would typically do so in their mythical underbellies, factions and cults, and includes tips for running them. populated and fortified by foreign intruders, scheming Additionally, write-ups for mythos cults as well as historical anarchists or traitors to western civilization. Most commonly, detective agencies, occult groups and more are provided. heroes found themselves inhabiting two worlds — one being the rational, mannered and civilized, and the other being the Chapter Twelve is devoted entirely to a conspiracy known wilderness with all of its freedoms, adventures and horrors. as The Glove, with notes on its history, a few key members, When combining these elements with the mythos, Howard and its powerful sorcerers — provided as a source of hooks or produced the alchemical results of such works as “Skull-Face,” background notes for the gamemaster’s own setting. “The Fire of Asshurbanipal,” and “The Valley of the Lost” (among a long list of others). Chapter Thirteen details adventure and campaign creation in a mythos setting, with tips on generating plots, creating and When infusing his fantasies (as pulpy pseudo-historical fiction) running investigations, mapping clue webs, and more. with these sensibilities, he brought similarly inspired heroes such as Conan and Solomon Kane into collisions with various Additionally, the document includes an appendix with various Cthulhoid horrors, delivering to us Sword and Sorcery in the play aids and historical details relevant to the time period. process. The themes and style of these early stories would later inspire our cinematic serials, up to and including Raiders of the Lost Ark and especially the Temple of Doom (with its Sax Rohmer- The Mythos & the Imperial Age ish villain, henchmen, lairs and hellish cults).

The Cthulhu mythos involves a loose pantheon of ancient These early Imperial Age writers seeded the ideas that would and powerful deities originating from the outer dark (or later see fruition in the Cthulhu mythos. Lost worlds — found from the outer reaches of space), who once ruled our world recurrently in Lovecraft — were earlier explored in H. Rider but who have since succumbed to a deathlike sleep. Those Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines (1885), Rudyard Kipling’s The attuned to their existence and horrible desires — cultists, Man Who Would Be King (1888), Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost madmen, drifters and dreamers — speak of their inevitable World (1912), Edgar Rice Burroughs’ The Land That Time Forgot return — when “the stars are right” — followed by the utter (1918), and A. Merritt’s The Moon Pool (1918). destruction of our world. Underlying this informal mythos is Lovecraft’s philosophy of cosmicism, a belief in humankind’s Other mythos themes, such as the double-edged nature insignificance in relation to the vastness and cold indifference of science, the Darwinian plasticity of life, time travel and of the universe’s monstrous forces. Following this logic, man’s alternate timelines, the unreliability of narrative, the horrors rationalities and superstitions — in the end — are merely of the sea, the romantic longing for escape into undreamt projections of his idolatries onto a vast and uncaring cosmos. ages, miscegenation and mysticism, were all first disturbed in the minds of H.G. Wells, Robert W. Chambers, William Hope Though Lovecraft originated what was to later be coined the Hodgson, Lord Dunsany and Arthur Machen. “Cthulhu mythos” (he himself jokingly referred to them as “Yog- Sothery”), others in his literary circle contributed their own Algernon Blackwood and M.R. James both dismantled the ideas and styles to the shared universe. This “Lovecraft Circle” naive Victorian assumptions of a hypothetical spirit world, consisted of Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch, Frank Bellknap and reconstituted them into Edwardian nightmares of alien Long, Henry Kuttner, Fritz Leiber, August Derleth, and Robert shape and inhuman malevolence — ideas which were also E. Howard, among others. later mined by Lovecraft and his circle. Similarly, Bram Stoker mutated well worn Gothic archetypes — dealing with darkness, Worth specific mention are the multifaceted contributions death, invasion, sexuality, spirituality, and the occult — into of Robert E. Howard, who often combined the action and monsters to terrorize the Edwardian imagination (haunted adventure found in Victorian and Edwardian writers such as by the failings of imperialism, colonialism, and nineteenth- H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle, Sax century politics, though ameliorated by the hopes of progress Rohmer, Talbot Mundy, and Harold Lamb, among others, with and invention). The resultant imperial gothic stories such the mythos elements and nihilism of Lovecraft. These former as Dracula (1897) and The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903), with their stories involved colonial adventurers — often tough, roguish baroque admixtures of ancient world horrors and modern and honourbound — exploring exotic settings — such as those heroes, suggested a formula for the “cosmic gothic” of the of Arabia, the Orient, the lost worlds of Haggard and Doyle, later mythos. and all the far-flung locations of the empire. More than dealing with just academic concerns, these heroes conflicted with For purposes of gaming, the Edwardian era — also the late warlords, mercenaries, spies of enemy empires, hostile natives, Imperial Age — as defined in Raiders of R’lyeh is roughly smugglers,Sample occultists and other supernatural threats, and divided into an early and a late period.file The early Edwardian various other undesirables placing their greed for coin above is demarcated as a time between the death of Queen Victoria the well-being of their fellow men. Adventures could also take (followed by the ascension and reign of King Edwardian VII place in cities such as London, New York or Boston, though of Britain) in 1901, and the assassination of Archduke Franz

Introduction

7 Ferdinand (and consequent outbreak of the Great War) in 1914. Well-known authors of the era included J.M. Barrie, Arnold The late period covers the beginning of the Great War in 1914 to Bennett, G.K. Chesterton, Joseph Conrad, E.M. Forster, the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. John Galsworthy, Kenneth Grahame, M.R. James, Rudyard Kipling, D.H. Lawrence, Edith Nesbit, Beatrix Potter, Saki, The Edwardian also coincides with the French Belle Époque George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, Edith Wharton, and P.G. (occurring between 1871 to 1914), characterized as a golden age Wodehouse — with the literary establishment making sharper of affluence, art, innovation (both scientific and technological), divisions between so-called highbrow literature and popular and prosperity for the Parisian bourgeoisie. In Europe, fiction. Newspapers, owned and controlled by press tycoons this was the fin de siècle, the end of an era marked by social such as William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Pullitzer and the degeneration but also by hope for a better tomorrow. In Harmsworth brothers, became increasingly influential in Asia, this was the Meiji era of Japan (emerging out of its long affecting public and political opinions. Music was playable isolationism as a sudden imperial challenger). In the Americas, on new technologies such as wax cylinders (rotated on it was the Progressive Era, defined by widespread social phonographs), though live performances were still more activism, political reform, and the rooting out of corporate popular. Contemporaries included Henry Wood, Edward Elgar, corruption (or at least a public show of it). For the United Gustav Holst, Arnold Bax, George Butterworth, Ralph Vaughan States especially, the age marked the nation’s ascension as a Williams, and Thomas Beecham, along with military and brass global power rivaling those of the other empires — and sharing bands performing at parks, boardwalks and amusement parks with them their hunger for corporate riches (contained in (especially during the summers). the nation’s newly won colonial possessions) and a hubris of civilizing the uncivilized. Cinema and animation were still primitive, with Edison’s film studio producing shorts such as Alice’s Adventures in Before the outbreak of the Great War, and the consequent Wonderland and the first Frankenstein screen adaptation, collapse of the era of manners and aristocracies, many saw Georges Méliès crafting early experiments such as A Trip to the age as one of optimism, with its various innovations the Moon, The Kingdom of the Fairies, and The Merry Frolics of (telephones, typewriters, sewing machines, motorcars, Satan, and with filmmakers Mitchell and Kenyon documenting aeroplanes, wireless), breakthroughs (of Max Planck, Albert public scenes such as sports, parades, factory exits, parks, Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Ernest Rutherford, Marie Curie, city streets, and boating in Britain and elsewhere. Director Guglielmo Marconi and the Wright brothers, among others), D.W. Griffith traveled to the west coast with his acting troupe and freedoms born of industry (with its relatively fast, cheap (consisting of Blanche Sweet, Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, and and open transport and porous borders). By the end of the Lionel Barrymore, among others), and within months was era, Louis Blériot had crossed the English Channel by air, the filming in a little village called Hollywood. Respected theater largest ship in the world — RMS Olympic — had sailed on its included works by George Bernard Shaw, Harley Granville maiden voyage, with her sister — RMS Titanic — soon to follow, Barker, Henrik Ibsen, Gerhardt Hauptmann and W. Somerset automobiles were common, and the South Pole was reached Maugham (the most successful playwright of the time). for the first time. Muscular Christianity — whose tenets espoused a faithful life of brave and cheerful physical activity — The era was also a golden age of illustrators — including inspired many American and European missionaries to spread Arthur Rackham, Charles Dana Gibson, John Singer Sargent, across the globe to convert and care for peoples in Africa, Asia, Howard Pyle, and Maxfield Parrish, among dozens of others — and the Middle East. It was an era of travel and adventure and the nascence of commercial design and typography (with — even for the middle class — and of exploration to the last an explosion of beautifully crafted typefaces whose specimen uncharted corners of the planet. books still influence us today). Popular illustrators were paid handsomely and treated as stars, with their works having In the arts, the period was characterized by its own unique an inordinate commercial influence on the public (as with architectural styles, fashions, and lifestyles. Art Nouveau, with the “Gibson Girl” influencing women’s fashions around the its combined aesthetic of curvilinear architecture, graphic world). Similarly, in-demand cartoonists were often stolen by design and applied arts, was still influential (until about 1910). competing newspapers (as was the case with animator and Architecture was impressively detailed and inspired, with cartoonist Windsor McCay, creator of Little Sammy Sneeze, much of it conforming to the aesthetics of the Edwardian Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, and Little Nemo in Slumberland). Baroque (a revival of Christopher Wren-inspired designs of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries) and Sports were divided along class lines, with tennis and yachting several other revival styles — before the world’s embrace of popular among the affluent, and football (soccer) enjoyed by modernism after the Great War. Notable architects included the working class. In the United States, baseball was already Edwin Lutyens, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Cass Gilbert, immensely popular. In New England, one was a fan of the Daniel Burnham, and Giles Gilbert Scott. Boston Red Sox (in 1910, playing home field at Huntington SampleAvenue Fairgrounds) or the Bostonfile Doves (playing home field at the South End Grounds, until 1914).

Introduction

8 Beneath this golden glow and apparently endless summer was By the end of the Great War, every philosophical and economic a tide of discontent, bringing with it inexorable social changes. presupposition of the past centuries would be uprooted. Many The outward peace between nations was secured upon royal writers, artists and composers of the era, such as Forster, bloodlines (with their conspiratorial secrets reaching back Picasso, Shaw, Ibsen and Pinero contributed to the changing to the Renaissance) and their precipitous imperial alliances. fashions and anxieties represented in this turmoil. These were continually threatened by petty scrambles for colonial territories across Africa, Asia and the Pacific, as well Additionally, many began to question God and Christianity as by the societal fragmentation, economic erosion, and secret in a resurgent wave of Darwinism, bolstered by assurances rebellions within their own borders. Rather than possessing of colonial prosperity, progressive idealism, humanistic one great enemy they each suffered hundreds. philosophies, and technological advances. Some were even convinced of man’s nigh invincibility, or at least of an Individuals, factions, and factions within factions — open approaching age of utopianism devoid of superstition. and secret, modest or violent — challenged every expression of the status quo, from religion and fashions to etiquette and On the other hand, as with the Victorian era, the Edwardian colonialism. Workers’ rights, women’s rights, issues of equality was a time of secret societies (reaching every continent), — all were called to reform by both empowered individuals and occultism — fueled by naive encounters with newly unearthed their newly organized coalitions. In every empire, agitators, mystical traditions and imported foreign religions — psychical anarchists, nihilists, and socialists attracted the working research groups, and so-called occult detectives. In Cairo (1904), classes and threatened the entrenched traditions of caste and occultist Aleister Crowley purportedly received a visitation by privilege. an otherworldly entity — which revealed to him the impending Age of Horus, during which humankind would unshackle Just in New England alone, the major cities were ensconced itself from the burdens of prior centuries and live free from by secret societies, corrupt politicians, scheming ruling its past moral and social constraints. Then, in January of families, and plotting anarchists (with one faction even 1910, a mysterious comet appeared — first observed from the successfully blowing up a Boston police station). Public diamond mines of South Africa — bringing with it a global riots were an intermittent threat (including those resulting panic and the first changes of the stars. Some of us, awakened from trolley worker or police strikes), foreign ghettos were already to the horrors to come, were long expecting its arrival. criminal sovereignties (including Boston’s Chinatown, which at one point had to be blockaded by police), and all of it was exacerbated by the shadow of influenza blamed often on foreign invaders.

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