Anyway, most of these details are from Lovecraft's very short story "Polaris" but some come from "The Mound" or "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" or other sources. Every detail that I was able to scrounge about Lomar is presented here; which isn't much. But it's enough to start with. The image is one I found online at Mark Foster's blog and is of the cannibal Gnophkeh's whom the men of Lomar defeated to settle the land of Lomar, and who it is expected, will eventually reclaim the land after the Inutos finally defeat them.
I also plan on using the Inutos in my MAMMOTH LORDS setting, and if I'm doing that, why not Lomar too?
Anyway, without further ado: here are some details about Lomar. All of the known details, as it happens.
Lomar
capital city is Olathoë
which is located on the plateau of Sarkis
betwixt the peaks of Noton and Kadiphonek
there is a vaporous distant valley called Banof that can be seen from the towers of Olathoë
Olathoë is "ghastly" and built of towers, domes, pavements and pillars of marble
Olathoë is "many-templed" but only the worship of Tsathoggua is specifically mentioned
the upper part of the city has carved images of grave, bearded men
the Lomarians are tall and gray-eyed
Daikos is another city of Lomar
Lomar was at war with the Inutos and they were eventually over-run
the Inutos could come upon Olathoë via a narrow pass behind Noton
the watchtower of Thapnen guarded the pass
Alos is a politician-general of Olathoë
the Lomarians moved to Lomar from Zobna in the north due to advancing ice
Lomar is located near the north pole
the air of Olathoë was warm, despite it's northern lattitude
Olathoë contains a square with many statues from which its leaders speak
besides the Inutos, they Lomarians also contended with "hairy, long-armed cannibal Gnophkehs"
the Inutos are "squat, hellish yellow fiends" come from the west, who are mighty in the arts of war and fight without scruples of honor
the men of Lomar wear strange robes and are noble and wise
the men of Olathoë were the bravest of Lomar
the men of Lomar brought with them from Zobna the Pnakotic manuscripts as well as the "wisdom of [their] Zobnarian Fathers"
the Pole Star shines balefully above Olathoë and seems to be possessed of a malignant antipathy towards Lomar
Now, granted, we can presume, I think, that some of the above is nativist propaganda since it comes from a patriotic denizen of Olathoë itself. But that's a sufficient capsule view of Lomar to make it usable, I think, to potential gamers.
It is worth noting that there are Gnophkehs and Gnoph-kehs, which are not the same. The former, referred to here, are in the words of Clark Ashton Smith, "detested," "repulsively hirsute cannibals" from his Hyperborean chronicles, who worshiped the cosmic obscenity Rhan-Tegoth. They were driven from Hyperborea by the Voormis to Lomar (the Voormis themselves supposedly the ancestors of the sasquatch and yeti.) After being driven from Lomar by the men from Zobna (and there's a minor discrepancy between Smith and Lovecraft's narrative, since Zobna was north of Lomar, and the Lomarians drove the Gnophkehs to the north of Lomar also) they started worshiping instead Ithaqua.
The relationship between Lomar and Hyperborea is unclear; Lovecraft himself seems to have once hinted that they were indeed the same, or at least neighbors, and that Olathoë was very near to Commoriom, both located (presumably) under the ice of Greenland today in a letter to Smith. Smith called his Hyperborean stories the most similar to the Lovecraft Mythos (although told with a tone of grotesque humor not entirely compatible with the Mythos as it is normally presented.)
For my stories, I don't necessarily need to maintain every (admittedly not entirely consistent) detail as told by Lovecraft and Smith of the area... but if I'm going to diverge, it's nice to know where I'm starting from first, at least.
