The Temple of Dagon

What are the Fishers from Outside?

Their ruins are mentioned in "Winged Death", and the poem "The Outpost" describes them as alien shape-shifters "who took what pelf their fancy spied". Both mention their ruins being in Africa.

But what ARE they exactly? Mi-Go? Cthulhu Spawn? Another race entirely?

Never heard of them before, I have to admit. Is "The Outpost" by Lovecraft? If so, I should have it sitting about, I'll look it up when I get the chance.

It looks like Lin Carter.

Evil Fishermen?

Then again, it is pretty tough to fish inside. The aquarium guys threatened to press charges if I didn't give the giant catfish back.

The Outpost is a poem by Lovecraft. "Winged Death" is a Lovecraft/Hazel Heald piece.

The description of them from "The Outpost" is:

"Inhuman shapes, half-seen half-guessed,
half solid and half ether-spawned,
seethed down from starless voids that yawned
in heav'n, to these black walls of pest.

And voidward from that pest-mad zone
Amorphous hordes seethed darkly back,
Their dim claws laden with the wrack
Of things that men have dreamed and known.

The ancient Fishers from Outside-
Were there not tales the high-priest told,
Of how they found the worlds of old,
And took what pelf their fancy spied?"


The references to their formlessness make me think of Flying Polyps (especially since their ruins are "unwindowed and malign"). It also says they have outposts "upon a million worlds of space".

I got a real night-gaunt vibe from all of that.

I still think its possible that a race of haggrid ghost fishermen explore the universe looking for new and exotic bait

did the night-gaunts have ruins? i thought they just picked up stray dreamers and dropped them in the vale of nath. are the night-gaunts known to attack in force? and are they half-ethereal?

maybe if we look at the dates of these different writings, we can deduce whether this poem is in reference to something else.

but i'm inclined to think these 'fishers from outside' exist for the sake of this poem. i don't see any definitive parallels with other hpl entitles.

I always thought the vales of pnath were part of some big dungeon complex. And yeah, there's usually several of the buggers at once.

Wikipedia says this regarding them...

They are unintelligent (having no language or culture) and function as mere servitors.

So I would say no ruins could have been built by them.

odin2 wrote:So I would say no ruins could have been built by them.

Who builds ruins?

They could be squating. I hear nightgaunts are cheap bastards when it comes to housing.

E.A. Lovecraft wrote:

odin2 wrote:So I would say no ruins could have been built by them.

Who builds ruins?

They could be squating. I hear nightgaunts are cheap bastards when it comes to housing.

'lol'

Eternities End wrote:I still think its possible that a race of haggrid ghost fishermen explore the universe looking for new and exotic bait

Like this one?

http://cellar.org/iotd.php?threadid=13768

P.S. I found the little pet's name: it's a Goliath Tigerfish (Hydrocynus goliath).