I haven't been interested in using ChatGPT for gaming before, but on a whim, I asked it to generate some Lovecrafian entity names for me, just so I'd have more to choose from instead of having to use obscure names dropped by Smith, Lovecraft or Howard all the time. I'm actually not terribly unhappy with some of the stuff that it generated. I've also added an attempt to get another Revecca von Lechfeld image. I haven't been super happy with the images that I got before; this one is ... well, it's not perfect either, but it's another alternative.
Not sure yet what (if anything) I'm going to do with any of this, but it's interesting stuff nonetheless.
(as pieced together from fragments of peasant lore, cult records, and forbidden monastic chronicles)
The Ashen Circle is not a true pantheon, but a cluster of presences bound to the land itself, each embodying a blight, silence, or hunger. Their names shift between villages: some remembered in single breath, others drawn out in hyphenated chants.
Core Figures (earlier “single-name” entities)
Orridathis, the Watcher Beneath Clay — feared in burial mounds.
Elythagar, the Brine That Walks — dwells in wells and tidal pools.
Voruzethis, the Feast in Dust — haunts famine fields.
Khaltheron, the Smoldering Veil — seen in curling smoke.
Drovanyth, the Crooked Root — marrow-drinking roots in caverns.
Seryvokath, the Ashen Host — the moth-cloud that whispers.
Later “Smithian-cluster” additions
Ghorthalyx, the Carrion Crown — crowns the dead with rot.
Zhulgrithan, the Mire That Breathes — suffocating bog-entity.
Throzkivar, the Ember-Womb — molten womb birthing stone eggs.
Vraggonith, the Horn in Hollow Hills — the echo no shepherd answers.
Xarkooneth, the Black Vellum — flesh-parchment that remembers.
Hyphenated Ones (the oldest names whispered in temple fragments)
Khar-Ghoryn, the Silt That Devours — river and ferry cults dread it.
Thol-Karesh, the Howl in Iron — invoked by miners before cave-ins.
Vruz-Kathor, the Ashen Maw — remembered in sacrifices at craters.
Grith-Ozael, the Crooked Flame — household warnings against firelight illusions.
Zhar-Khuneth, the Mourning Mire — a swamp phantom whose weeping is contagious.
Folkloric Pattern
Scholars believe the single names belong to more recent rural personifications of natural horrors (drought, famine, plague).
The consonant-heavy Smithian names may reflect older shrines and cults, tied to forgotten stonework.
The hyphenated names are thought to be fragments of the oldest language of the vale, their hyphens marking “breaks in utterance” during ritual recitation.
In local superstition, each village swears its own god is oldest and most terrible — but all agree that together they form the Ashen Circle, a wheel of misfortunes turning endlessly through their land.
The Ashen Circle: A Folkloric Map of Veyrholm Vale
The Vale is a shallow basin ringed by wooded hills and seamed with rivers, bogs, and abandoned mines. No modern map marks its villages, but in old chronicles one finds hints of the Ashen Circle, an arrangement of dread figures tied to particular landscapes.
Northern Reach (the Clay and the Hills)
Orridathis, the Watcher Beneath Clay — The Barrow-Fields
Barrows and tumuli rise here, scarred by grave-robbers. Pale hands are said to press upward after moonrise.
Vraggonith, the Horn in Hollow Hills — The Shepherd Hills
Lonely uplands where echoes sound sharper than voices; shepherds refuse to pasture their flocks after dusk.
Eastern Reach (the Forges and Ash-lands)
Khaltheron, the Smoldering Veil — The Ruined Kilns
Abandoned potteries smolder in ash even a century cold; smoke-shapes drift where no fire burns.
Thol-Karesh, the Howl in Iron — The Collapsed Mines
Rusted winches and caved shafts echo with a shriek like torn steel; miners’ families still leave offerings of bread crusts at the pit-mouth.
Throzkivar, the Ember-Womb — The Fire-Pits
Cracked earth glows with hidden embers; peasants say “stone eggs” sometimes surface, too hot to touch.
Southern Reach (the Marshes and Riverlands)
Elythagar, the Brine That Walks — The Well-Steads
Clusters of hamlets with ancient wells, salt-crusted; many doors bear chalk sigils to bar his dripping step.
Khar-Ghoryn, the Silt That Devours — The River Dregs
Barges vanish into sudden whirlpools; ferrymen never speak his name above the waterline.
Zhar-Khuneth, the Mourning Mire — The Wailing Marshes
Reeds grow in strange patterns; villagers hear sobbing where no one treads.
Western Reach (the Fields and Craters)
Voruzethis, the Feast in Dust — The Fallow Farms
Abandoned granaries creak with insectile clicks; husks of crops scatter across fields at night.
Vruz-Kathor, the Ashen Maw — The Crater-Shrine
A bowl-shaped hollow worshiped since forgotten ages; offerings cast into the ash-pit vanish without a trace.
Central Vale (the Dark Heart)
Drovanyth, the Crooked Root — The Bone Caverns
White roots slither through cavern walls; bones split clean as if drained of marrow.
Seryvokath, the Ashen Host — The Moth-Fane
A ruined abbey overgrown with moth swarms; locals speak of “moth-dust feasts” where voices echo wrong.
Ghorthalyx, the Carrion Crown — The Rot-Keep
A crumbling watchtower, its battlements covered with lichens that resemble crowns.
Xarkooneth, the Black Vellum — The Scriptorium Ruins
Monastic ruins where walls are ink-blackened, as if parchment itself had bled.
Folkloric Pattern
Travelers note the Circle forms a rough ring, as though each presence guards its own quarter of the vale, with the caverns and ruins at the center serving as a knot of power where their influence overlaps. The old priests whispered that the Circle is not six, nor twelve, nor twenty names — but a wheel that turns endlessly, its spokes always shifting.
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