Prompt: Carcosa is a fictional city at the heart of the Carcosa Mythos.
Origins in fiction
It was first mentioned in the Ambrose Bierce short story An Inhabitant of Carcosa (first published 1886). In Bierce's story, the ancient and mysterious city is barely described and is viewed only in hindsight (after its destruction) by a character who once lived there.
The city was later used more extensively in Robert W. Chambers' book The King In Yellow, though still without greatly clarifying its exact nature. Chambers had read Bierce's work and also borrowed a few other names (including Hali and Hastur) from Bierce's stories.
In Chambers' book, and within the apocryphal play (also titled The King In Yellow) mentioned several times within its stories, the city is a mysterious, ancient, and possibly cursed place. The most precise description of its location given is that it said to be located on the shores of Lake Hali in the Hyades star cluster. The descriptions given of it, however, make it clear that it is probably located on another planet, or possibly even in another universe, although real world locations have also been suggested. Lin Carter has used it as the name of a planet, the site of the Immemorial City.
Its name may have originally been derived from the medieval city of Carcassonne in France.
Description of Carcosa
In The Repairer of Reputations, the following statements about Carcosa are made:
there are black stars overhead;
the "shadows of men's thoughts lengthen in the afternoon";
it is lit by twin suns that sink "into the lake of Hali".
In the Court of the Dragon mentions the black stars hanging in a bright sky, with the wet winds off the Lake of Hali chilling the narrator's face. In The Yellow Sign the cloud waves of The Lake of Hali are also mentioned.
In Litany To Hastur, Lin Carter describes Carcosa as having black domes an
Dream Level: is increased each time when you "Go Deeper" into the dream. Each new level is harder to achieve and
takes more iterations than the one before.
Rare Deep Dream: is any dream which went deeper than level 6.
Deep Dream
You cannot go deeper into someone else's dream. You must create your own.
Deep Dream
Currently going deeper is available only for Deep Dreams.
