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May 09, 2007 18:00

In The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, (1926) the Plateau of Leng is located in the north of the Dreamlands, an alternate dimension accessible only in sleep. It is inhabited by the High Priest Not to Be Described, who dwells alone in a prehistoric monastery, and by a race of degenerate humans who are feared by all other men.
In At the Mountains of Madness, an expedition from Miskatonic University explores a plateau in Antarctica and discovers an ancient and apparently abandoned city built by the Elder Things. One member of the expedition, who has encountered references to the Plateau of Leng in ancient texts, forms the hypothesis that the plateau they are exploring is Leng. In common with the High Priest's abode in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, the walls of the buildings atop the plateau are covered with detailed frescos that are disturbing to read. However, it is never explicitly stated in the text - or in any of Lovecraft's later works - that this Antarctic city actually is Leng. In fact, it seems more likely that the city is simply an outpost of the Elder Things which came to Earth not to conquer but to live in isolation.
Lovecraft first described Leng in "The Hound" (1922) in which the dreaded Necronomicon places it in Central Asia and says it is inhabited by a corpse-eating cult.
In Stephen King's novel Needful Things, Mr. Gaunt gives Ace Merril some cocaine said to be fabricated in "the plains of Leng", though no other explanations are given. The novel also contains other references to Lovecraft's work.
Leng (or Plateau of Leng) is a fictional cold arid plateau in the Cthulhu Mythos, whose location seems to vary entirely from story to story. The Plateau of Tsang, referenced by H.P. Lovecraft and other authors, is probably a region of Leng.
The mad Arab Abdul Alhazred describes it as a place where different realities converge, which might explain why its precise location cannot be pinned down.
The Men of Leng are a fictional race in the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. They are the primitive, satyr-like inhabitants of the Plateau of Leng in the Dreamlands. They are mentioned throughout Lovecraft's Dream Cycle, especially in the novella The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926).

The Satyr is an oft-made reference to the Dionysian in Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy.
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