Line #35 Literature/AtTheMountainsOfMadness


1	%%Zero-context examples have been commented out as per wiki policy. Please do not re-add any of these examples without including proper context.
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3	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/as_at_the_mountains_of_madness_cover_7214.jpg]]
4	[[caption-width-right:350:[[ItCameFromTheFridge The Elder Things' jello salad has been in the fridge a little too long]].]]
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6	''At the Mountains of Madness'' is a 1936 novella by Creator/HPLovecraft, serialized in ''Astounding Stories'' magazine. It revolves around the geologist William Dyer, leader of an expedition to Antarctica. While digging for ice cores, his team uncovers the frozen bodies of creatures of indeterminate origin; later, most of the expedition is mysteriously slaughtered. Dyer's party discovers the ruined camp, and he and a graduate student fly over the mountains into mystery to investigate further. They soon find themselves beyond massive mountain peaks, in the ancient ruins of a colossal city, completely alien in design...
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8	A film adaptation, directed by Creator/GuillermoDelToro and produced by Creator/JamesCameron, [[http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/07/28/guillermo-del-toro-to-direct-at-the-mountains-of-madness-with-james-cameron-producing/ was in the works,]] but [[http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/10032011/5/studio-axes-tom-cruise-film-0.htmlv was cancelled after the failure of the Wolfman reboot.]] However, it seems Del Toro [[https://www.fangoria.com/original/guillermo-del-toro-isnt-done-with-at-the-mountains-of-madness/ has restarted his efforts to make the film]]. Author Madara Usi also wrote TTRPG scenario derived from this story titled ''Summit of Deities'' that is to be made into an animated movie titled ''Naked Peak - Climb the Mountains of Madness'' with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-YsjhfEgEY a pilot currently released]].
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10	Has been adapted twice as a radio drama, first by the Atlanta Radio Theater Company and later as part of the ''Radio/DarkAdventureRadioTheatre'' series. A ComicBookAdaptation was also done by I.N.J. Culbard, as well as a manga adaptation by Tanabe Gou.
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12	It can be read [[http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/mm.aspx here.]]
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14	----
15	!!This novella provides examples of:
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17	* AcquittedTooLate: Gedney, who is initially suspected of murdering his party, is himself found dead, and clearly a victim of something worse.
18	* AIIsACrapshoot: The Shoggoth are genetically engineered drones meant for life in the sea, who accidentally developed intelligence and adapted to land, where they quickly became a major threat to the Elder Ones, eventually overthrowing their former masters.
19	* AlienAutopsy: Performed by Professor Lake's group on the thawed Elder Things, [[spoiler: which turn out to be actually alive and performs autopsies on Lake and his men after killing them in self-defense.]]
20	* AlienBlood: The Elder Things have a dark green blood-like fluid.
21	* AlienGeometries: As expected for Lovecraft, the expedition nearly gets lost thanks to the nature of what they have discovered. In this case it's at least as much the alien architecture as any twisting of space.
22	* AlliterativeTitle: ''At The '''M'''ountains Of '''M'''adness''
23	* AncientAstronauts: The Elder Things and their slave servants, the Shoggoths. Notable in that [[UnbuiltTrope unlike most ancient astronaut stories]], the aliens are decidedly ''not'' humanoid, and have no interest whatsoever in humanity.
24	* ApocalypticLog: The story, and there is one implied written by the alien Elder Things which no-one in the expedition can read, but is accompanied by various wall carvings depicting images which convey the history of the race and its decline.
25	* ArcWords
26	** "Mountains of Madness", describing the mountain range where the city of the Elder Ones lies, but arguably fits the mountains beyond much better.
27	** "...decadent sculptures...", indicating the degeneration of the Elder Ones as seen in their art.
28	** "...a sort of musical piping, over a wide range", the sounds used by the Elder Ones to communicate, [[spoiler: and as it turns out, the sounds imitated by the Shoggoths]].
29	** "''Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!''", The single phrase we hear of the Elder Ones' language.
30	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Giant penguins? Theoretically possible. ''Blind'' giant penguins? Not at all likely, considering penguins are almost entirely sight-hunters. It's implied to be some sort of corruption effect, though, rather than straight evolution.
31	* BackFromTheDead: Subverted, as the "dead" Elder Things that seemingly came back to life had actually been in a centuries-long coma-like state of hibernation.
32	* BadassNormal: The Elder Things, although not human by any means, were carbon based lifeforms, that, without any supernatural powers or anything similar, led a war against Star Spawn and their god/priest Cthulhu and fought them to a standstill. They [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu punched out Cthulhu]]. And all this while also holding off attacks from the Mi-Go.
33	* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: The Elder Things traveled to Earth naked using their wings as living solar sails.
34	* BizarreAlienBiology: The Elder Things apparently had gills, lungs, tentacles, wings, and numerous mouths, among other things. They seem to reproduce asexually and have massive, if not indefinite, lifespans, in addition to massively resistant bodies and nigh-impossible endurance (since they survived having been frozen for ''aeons''). Note that, as far as Lovecraftian beasts go, they're stated to be a species of {{Badass Normal}}s, since despite their biological superiority to humans, they made little or no use of magic (unlike the Deep Ones), were constrained by time (unlike the Race of Yith) and had bodies made of "regular" matter (while the Mi-Go and Star Spawn of Cthulhu were explicitly stated to be more ''exotic''). They also resort to wearing clothing, using heaters and other human-like behavior.
35	* BizarreAlienLocomotion: Flying through space with wings is apparently fine and dandy if you're an Elder Thing. They were supposedly flapping the luminiferous Ether, but [[ScienceMarchesOn science has marched on]].
36	* BlobMonster: The Shoggoths, with the variant that they are described as constantly forming and un-forming eyes and mouths.
37	* ContinuityNod: This story makes explicit references to many of Lovecraft's other narratives, and is one of the reasons why the Franchise/CthulhuMythos are thought of as a single, coherent universe.
38	* CoolPlane: '''The''' reason for which the expedition penetrates so far in the Antarctic. Usually identified by modern fans with the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dornier_Wal Dornier Wal]] / [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dornier_Do_R Super Wal]] planes of [[TheRoaringTwenties the mid-1920s]], due to the fact [[RealLifeWritesThePlot they were used by Roald Amundsen over the Arctic in 1925]]. None of them however could raise to 24,000ft to cross the mountains, so they might have been [[http://propnomicon.blogspot.com/2011/11/wings-over-antarctica-part-deux.html Dornier Merkur]] type instead.
39	* CreaturesByManyOtherNames: Within the story itself, the creatures that built the Antarctic civilization are generally called "Old Ones;" since that name is generally used to refer to a very different class of being in the Mythos they originate from later writers generally refer to them as the "Elder Things," with this page following suit.
40	* DoingInTheWizard: Many elements of previous stories in the Franchise/CthulhuMythos are recast as being of extraterrestrial, as opposed to supernatural, origin. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation Another interpretation]] is that the protagonist of the story was a scientist, and the Elder Things seem very science-based themselves. It could just be a case of the protagonist, the Elder Things, or both trying to explain where the creatures of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos came from. With science.
41	* DownerEnding: Lake's entire party is killed by Elder Things. On top of that, Danforth has probably gone insane, and Dyer is trying to stop a second arctic expedition from taking place, and chances are no one will believe the reason why.
42	* EvilDetectingDog: Invoked, as the sled-dogs are held from tearing into the retrieved bodies of the Elder Things [[spoiler: presumably because they could sense that the Elder Things were actually alive]].
43	* EvilSmellsBad: The Elder Things smell unpleasant, but their odor is miles better than the toxic vapors the Shoggoths exude.
44	* FishOutOfTemporalWater: The Elder Things thawed up by the expedition team, as they originated from a time of a much hotter and forest-clad, flourishing Antartica, leaving them utterly flabbergasted by the snow-coated, blizzard-ridden, hellish landscape they woke up to aeons later after their slumber.
45	* TheFogOfAges: From what Dyer could interpret from the murals, the Elder Things ended up residing on the "relatively safe" Earth for so long, that they ended up forgetting a lot of vital knowledge their ancestors possessed upon their first arrival, such as the ability to enter "stasis" and flight through the vast empty aether of space. The loss eventually added to their inevitable downfall as a supreme species over the planet.
46	* {{Foreshadowing}}: The sudden "degenerate" Elder Things artwork [[spoiler: is indicative of shoggoth imitation]].
47	* FramingDevice: Both audio drama versions are framed as radio news interviews with Professor Dyer.
48	* FunWithAcronyms: The news station that interviews Dyer in the ARTC radio version is known as W[[Franchise/CthulhuMythos CTH]] News.
49	* GoMadFromTheRevelation: [[spoiler:Danforth]] sees... ''[[NothingIsScarier something]]'' past the far mountains. Although never outright stated, from various gibberings, it's likely that he got a good look at the history of many, ''many'' [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]], including the Shoggoths, the Great Old Ones, and even Outer Gods like ''Yog-Sothoth''. It's debated how much he could truly have seen in the brief look he got, but also that he might have recognized something from the Necronomicon.
50	** Each of his quoted gibberings is [[GeniusBonus a reference to another of Lovecraft's stories]], take that as you will.
51	* HarmlessFreezing: The Elder Things were frozen for a long period of time. When they're thawed out, they still have enough vitality to go on a murderous rampage against the humans who they almost certainly perceived as hostile intruders. The freezing and surviving is justified in that they are described as being extremely tough in comparison with humans.
52	* HellIsThatNoise: Dyer mentions hearing a musical piping sound in the air, which he attributes to the strong winds blowing through the Mountains, however he and Danforth hear it while exploring the depths of the alien city. [[spoiler: It turns out to be a sound the Shoggoths make, howling the Elder Things' language.]]
53	* HumanPopsicle: The Elder Things. Very, ''very'' not human, but still the same idea.
54	* IndyEscape: The two explorers escape the Shoggoth by confusing it into taking a wrong turn.
55	* InfoDump: Once Dyer enters the ancient city of the Elder Things, he uncovers a series of murals and sculptures that tell the history of the city's inhabitants. Cue an onslaught of exposition on the history and purpose of the Elder Things, Shoggoths, etc that lasts for a good chunk of the story.
56	* LateToTheTragedy: All of the dying happens before the viewpoint characters arrive.
57	* LifeInZeroG: The Elder Things are adapted for movement directly through the void of space, and as such are depicted as radially symmetrical around their central axis, with tentacles on one end, a ring of eyestalks on the other, and wings running down their sides that they use to fly the luminiferous aether (or to sail the solar wind in later interpretations).
58	* MadnessMantra:
59	** "Tekeli-li!" The narrator speculates that it's a phrase in the Elder Thing language, parroted without context or meaning by the shoggoths.
60	** Danforth's listing off subway stations while running from the Shoggoth, just to try to stay focused - although as Dyer notes, it was inspired by the reminiscence of the shoggoth thundering down on them to a subway train speeding through a tunnel.
61	* MirroringFactions: This is especially exceptional for Lovecraft's stories, where most things that are "different" are usually "wrong". Appearances aside, the Elder Things are the most "human" and benign of the Mythos species. Aside from their strange biology and amazing toughness, they are made of mundane elements (compare with the Mi-go, or the partly-spectral flying polyps), they formed family units, and had an art-producing culture and an economy. Perhaps most importantly, they only lashed out at the human party in horror and vengeance for the ''humans'' mutilating ''them'' first, rather than out of sheer carelessness or malice, before burying their six fallen ones under star-shaped snow mounds. Dyer even says near the end, when they're more worried about escaping from the shoggoth, that he has some vain hope that if they run into the thawed out Elder Things first he might even be able to reason with them if he demonstrates he isn't a threat.
62	--> ''"Radiates, vegetables, monstrosities, star-spawn - whatever they had been, they were men!"''
63	* MysteriousAntarctica: The Mountains of Madness are somewhere deep within the continent, around the pole itself. One of the most iconic examples of this setting.
64	* NeglectfulPrecursors: The Elder Things created humans and all organic life on Earth by accident, but have no interest towards us.
65	* NothingIsScarier:
66	** The terrible vision that only Danforth saw over the mountains, just before he and Dyer flee back to their plane, which pushed him over the edge into madness.
67	*** There's considerable setup earlier in the story, as Dyer observes that ''even the Elder Things'' were terrified of whatever was beyond those mountains, to the point that they noticeably avoided depicting it in artwork. They were only referenced at all in a handful of the more daring murals, but even those only depicted Elder Things turning away in terror from those mountains, not giving any hint about exactly ''what'' was beyond them.
68	** The very brief glimpse that Dyer and Danforth have of the shoggoth that pursues them. All Dyer can say is that it put them both in mind of a subway train roaring through a tunnel.
69	** The narrator himself never sees the Elder Things alive and active, and there are no first-hand accounts of their actions in the story; only the consequences are visible, afterwards.
70	* OffWithHisHead: The Shoggoths' main method of disposing of their hated masters is by crudely tearing off their heads through sheer force of suction. [[spoiler: When the humans find one of the thawed out Elder Things left killed in this manner, they are paralyzed with fear due to the instant realization that an active shoggoth must be nearby.]]
71	* OrganicTechnology: Used by the Elder Things to generate energy and breed shoggoths for construction purposes.
72	* {{Panspermia}}: Of a sort: according to this story all life on Earth started with experiments the Elder Things let live out of apathy. So in other words, we're all the spawn of failed alien bioengineering.
73	* PolarMadness: An expedition to Antarctica going horribly wrong when one camp of explorers is found slaughtered with only one man unaccounted for; it's initially suspected that he might have gone insane and committed the murders, but [[spoiler: this theory is ultimately disproven when the "survivor's" body is found collected for dissection by the Elder Things]]. Later, following a harrowing escape, Danforth suffers a full-blown mental breakdown when he happens to turn around at the wrong time and see what lies beyond the mountains - but whatever he's witnessed is never precisely explained.
74	* PurpleProse: Like everything by Lovecraft.
75	-->The leathery, undeteriorative, and almost indestructible quality was an inherent attribute of the thing’s form of organization, and pertained to some paleogean cycle of invertebrate evolution utterly beyond our powers of speculation.[[labelnote:Translation]]They were really freaking tough, and we will never understand exactly why.[[/labelnote]]
76	* RagnarokProofing: The ruins of the unbelievably old Elder Thing city are found remarkably intact, with wall carvings still un-eroded and legible.
77	* RedHerring: Gedney is initially held responsible for the massacre at Lake's camp, since he's the only one missing. [[spoiler: When exploring the alien city behind the Mountains, Dyer and Danforth discover his body and that of a dog, dragged all the way there on a sled, thus guessing that the awakened Elder Things really did it and that they took the well-preserved bodies of Gedney and the dog out of scientific curiosity]].
78	* SceneryPorn: The frozen wastes of the Antarctic are described in excruciating detail.
79	* ServantRace: The Shoggoths, to the Elder Things. Shoggoths were not originally created to be sentient: they were more like bioengineered construction equipment, and only became sentient through unintended mutations.
80	** In ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth'', it's mentioned that the [[FishPerson Deep Ones]] have a shoggoth under their control as well.
81	* ShoutOut:
82	** The narrator brings up Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's ''Literature/TheNarrativeOfArthurGordonPymOfNantucket'', when describing the Arctic. The "Tekeli-li" sound is also borrowed from Poe's book, and Danforth suggests that Poe [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy may have taken that from "forbidden sources"]] and incorporated it in his novel.
83	** The narrator also refers to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Roerich Nicholas Roerich's]] [[https://www.roerich.ee/galnew/gallery.php?gallery=NR&lang=est&cat=title&value=H paintings of Himalayan landscapes]] when describing the mountains of the Antarctic.
84	** Dyer brings up [[Characters/ClassicalMythologyMortalsAndDemigods Orpheus]] and [[Literature/TheBible Lot's wife]] stating that he and Danforth paid more dearly than they did by looking back and getting a traumatizing glimpse of the Shoggoth.
85	** In the ARTC version the reporter who interviews Dyer is named Alice [[Creator/ClarkAshtonSmith Ashton]].
86	* SicklyGreenGlow: Shoggoths are described by Dyer as enormous black masses of protoplasmic bubbles covered in luminescent green eyes that are constantly forming, shifting around and dissolving.
87	* StarfishAliens: Almost literally in the case of the Elder Things, who are radially symmetric and built around pentagon and five-pointed star shapes. Shoggoths, meanwhile, are AlwaysChaoticEvil {{Blob Monster}}s.
88	* StarfishLanguage: The {{Trope Namer\|s}}. The Elder Things communicate by making piping sounds through their breathing tubes.
89	* TakeOurWordForIt: Aboard the plane after escaping from the city, Danforth looks back and sees... [[NothingIsScarier something]] so horrible it cannot be put into words, far, far worse than anything they've seen so far. Whatever it was, Danforth ''refuses'' to tell Dyer what it was, and [[BrownNote it pushes him]] [[GoMadFromTheRevelation into complete insanity.]]
90	* TimeAbyss: The Shoggoths and Elder Things are ''millions'' of years old. One of the most awe-inspiring, mind-blowing things about the alien city to the human characters exploring it isn't anything actively threatening, but its sheer age and longevity. This place was settled when life on Earth was just primordial ooze...and continued all the way through the dinosaurs to the Ice Age. The murals they observe cover millions of years of history, vast sweeps of the alien civilization across entire epochs. In its way, this is another aspect of CosmicHorror: human civilization has barely been around for 5,000 years or so, an insignificant speck compared to the true depths of time even on this planet.
91	* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: Originally mindless workers, the Shoggoths somehow evolved intelligence once the Elder Things relocated to Earth. It's hinted that it was a side effect of the Elder Things modifying them for their new world. A war was apparently fought to resubjugate the Shoggoths and keep them from wiping out their masters, and the Elder Things came out on top... temporarily. After the Elder Things relocated to a giant, underground sea, it's implied that the Shoggoths once again rose up, and this time, ''they'' won. Dyer hypothesizes that this was inevitable: the Shoggoths are flexibility incarnate, able to take the form needed for any task. Being so variable in nature makes keeping them in a state of static subjugation impossible.
92	* UnreliableExpositor: Dyer considers the possibility that the Elder Things' histories may be colored somewhat. He wonders if the “exotic matter” of the Star-spawn and Mi-go is a mythological construct, and notes that there is no mention of the Great Race of Yith.
93	* UnseenEvil: There's something even worse that the Elder Things or the Shoggoths at the mountains, never seen or even speculated of. It's implied to be what Danforth sees at the end of the story, driving him completely mad.

Context Literature / AtTheMountainsOfMadness