R’lyehian Chants in The Artifact


One of the things that occurs a lot towards the end of The Artifact is that Rev finds himself in black rituals, where cultists gather and intone in guttural, alien languages while they attempt to tap into unknowable energies. So there are sections where Rev’s ears are assaulted with phrases like this:

Nafl mnahn' ah r'luh, llll f' ah chtenff!
Nafl mnahn' ah mglw'nafh, llll f' kadishtu, 

Nafl mnahn' ah grah'nn, llll f' mgep kadishtu, 

Nafl mnahn' ah gof'nn, llll f' ahor ah ehyeog!
Nafl mnahn' ah ngahnah, llll f' ah gokahe, 

Nafl mnahn' ah hlirghh, llll f' ahor ah mgeplllln'gha nafl ehyeog, 

Nafl mnahn' ah hrii, llll f' ahor ah mgeplllln'gha ehyeog!

The interesting part is that this mumbo-jumbo actually means something. See, H.P. Lovecraft partially invented a language for his mythos, called R’lyehian, and other authors have expanded the language to the point that there is now a translator for it. 

Unfortunately, the translator isn’t very good at translating complex phrases, so if you paste that blob of text, you are going to get something very hard to understand. However, I hand-translated the text from English to R’lyehian, and this is what that particular phrase means (which Rev never discovers):

Blessed are the unseen, for they are the brotherhood...

Blessed are the dead, for they understand...

Blessed are the lost, for they seek understanding...

Blessed are the children, for they shall be the first...

Blessed are the maimed, for they are learning...

Blessed are the heretics, for they shall be devoured last...

Blessed are the followers, for they shall be devoured first...

There are several other phrases, which I’ll leave as easter eggs now that I’ve given you the tools to decipher them. 

One additional easter egg, though, is the written form of the language. For this, I used the R’lyehian font and guide, so kindly created by Lovecraft fans. The glyph, as it appeared in the book, is below:

I can’t reveal what this one says, since it would spoil some of the plot, but if you spend a little time digging once you’ve hit that part of the book, it should make perfect sense.

Happy reading! 

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