#northwestern gothic

[backwoodspriestess]

The cemetery tonight 💕

[punkass-diogenes]

The rats in the basement are calling your name Through the night Their whispers reach out from the dark once again

[bunnyraebbit]

real life western . . . ♱♡🏔️

[thegreatcheese]

Pacific Northwestern Gothic

All the gift stores have mugs, fans, clothes, etc., with the infamous sasquatch printed on them. You've never seen him yourself, but you've heard from a friend of a friend...

The schools are filled with children, but oddly enough, never in your life have you seen a single child in the neighborhood.

There are beaches here. Big ones, too. But, they're not like the crowded touristy beaches of California and the like. No, there's a reason no one talks about these beaches. They're dark, windy, cold, and the water is vicious. You grew up on stories of people being dragged out into the waves and never seen again. These beaches are filled with dead birds buried in the sand. One time, you saw the bloody corpse of a baby seal, being torn apart by vultures. And everyone knows to run when you see the vultures.

Don't drive in the fog. You don't know what's in it, nor do you want to.

Every day at noon, they test the tsunami sirens. They're supposed to last only a few seconds, unless there really is a tsunami, in which case they will blare for at least two minutes. Nobody really bats an eye when they blare, it's practically a lunch bell to them. But still, every time, there are those few second where everyone goes silent, listening, counting the seconds the sirens go. And the panic that ensues within you when the siren goes on for just a little too long...

The mountains go on forever. Don't bother trying to reach the end of the trail. You won't.

At night, you can hear the coyotes calling. Best to keep your pets inside. Let them out when you hear the coyotes and you might not see them again.

Sometimes, you'll look out your window at night and there might be a deer right at your window. Ignore it, it just likes to watch you sleep. Do not provoke it. You don't know just what happens if you do, but you're father always told you...

Don't let your dog off leash if it barks while on a walk in the woods. It knows something you don't, but it doesn't know not to chase whatever it is.

There's a church at every corner. You're pretty sure there's never been a service at any of them.

Dear skulls. Dear skulls everywhere.

[mother-lee]

[overnitereligion]

St. Johns Bridge in a dream

[pacificnorthwesterngothic]

Are you aware of pacific drive? Stalker-like survival game taking place in forests of Olympic Peninsula

I was totally unaware and this looks super cool!

It looks like a cross between Mudrunner and Gravity Falls and I'm delighted

If anyone picks this up, let me know how you like it?

[motelpearl]

abandoned house, jackfish ontario

[billiennn]

Northern State Hospital in Sedro Woolley, WA

[freezing-kaiju]

too many ghosts in the pines to count. you captured them beautifully

Haunted Country Just nice to see this developing series together... Maybe some locations from the Midwest next? My shop

[boykissr]

NORTHWESTERN WINTER GOTHIC

you are driving through the fog, there are trees on both sides of the road. you cannot see into the forest. you cannot see the road. you don’t know when the sun set, but the headlights are blinding you. a herd of deer stand in wait.

the cold seeps through your coats and into your bones. you can’t feel your fingertips anymore, and you don’t know if it’s from the frostbite or from the amount of gloves you are wearing. you don’t remember owning a pair of gloves.

you turn on the tv; the weatherman announces something unintelligible. he says, the temperature is going to steadily drop.

you sit on the couch, wearing a winter coat and huddled under blankets. the thermostat reads 73. you can’t feel your fingertips. you don’t know where your gloves went.

it is 5:30 in the morning, you are driving through the fog. it has not lifted, you don’t remember when it arrived. you pass a bus stop; there is a boy wearing basketball shorts. you pass a herd of deer. the fog has not thinned, there are trees on both sides of the road.

[finchmomentwrites]

[wip intro]

themes: southern gothic but make it the woods, majority queer relationships/characters, ancient gods, heavy found family, doing what it takes to survive, ethel cain core if you know what i mean, grief and grief and grief (for who you were, what happened to you, and who you could've been if it didnt)

content warnings: religious trauma, emotional/physical abuse, sh, heavy depiction of mental illness, sacrifices, references to childhood trauma and sa, cult... activities.., suicide, and probably more. will update as they arise!!

setting: an estranged cult in the northwestern wilderness

pov: third person omniscient

cabins & gods & (main) cast......... (hyperlinks are their pinterest!)

[cabin one— gods of moon, water, cold, love ] members: greyson, delta, paris, atlas.

[cabin two— gods of earth, time, fire, talent] members: ferran, odyn, noire, castor.

[cabin three— gods of death, sky, war, intellect] members: kato, cyrus, arlo.

[cabin four— gods of sun, life, harvest, beauty] members: jude, blake, venus, faye.

stay tuned for more!! i've been working on this project for five years now and every single character is simultaneously part of me & one of my closest friends. this book has been a huge part in processing my own trauma, both religious and not, and i hope it can be validating for you too <3 questions are always welcome, and let me know if you want to be on the taglist!!

[HAF playlist]

[HAF pinterest]

[wyrmfedgrave]

Pics: More Lovecraftian movie posters...

1915: HPL Output. Part 1.

Intro: As a member of the UAPA, Howard was inspired to write quite a few works - mostly to do with the Association's inner workings.

But, that didn't stop Lovecraft from writing political & astronomical articles.

HPL also produced his fair share of short poems...

The following is an example from Lovecraft's war-hawk days.

The Work: "1914"¹ -

Opening Quote: "Parcere subjectis, et debellare superbos"² < Virgil³ in his Aeneid⁴, Book 6.

"Arise, Britannia⁵! At (your) sister's⁶ plea, And crush the... foe⁷ of liberty."

"Behold the hour... to prove (your) place, As friend & guardian of the human race."

"The (unquenchable) Goth, with murderous sword⁸, Defies (your) edict & ignores (your) word."

"Eve(r) daring... he plays the... brute, To scorn (your) greatness & (your) power dispute."

"(You) Queen of Nations! Smite into the dust, The proud invader, savage & unjust."

Whose maddened hordes, like... Vandals⁹ seek, To wrong the guiltless & despoil the weak."

"(One) who all his culture misemploys, In art creating less than he destroys."

"Imperial Mother! Cast... pitying eyes, On the sad spot where... Louvain¹⁰ (now) lies."

"Or, on... crumbling wall & formless mound, Where Gallia's¹¹... monarchs were once crowned."

"From North & East... bold barbarians poured, Dyeing the flowing Axona¹² with gore."

"The outraged Gauls¹³, defeated & dis- mayed, Survive alone thru England's¹⁴ aid."

Footnotes:

1. But, actually written in 1915.

2. The Latin quotation reads, "Spare the defeated & subdue the arrogant."

3. Virgil was the Roman's greatest poet. His name, properly spelled as Vergil, meant "rod (or) staff bearer."

During the Middle Ages, such poets were believed to be magicians - able to conjure dead spirits!!

4. The Aeneid was regarded as the national origin epic of the Roman Empire.

Strangely enough, Virgil died without getting to finish it...

5. Britannia is the Latin version of the British Pretani, "Great Britain."

In the 100s AD, Romans personified Britannia as a goddess armed with trident & shield!

But, this only covered the southern British Isles that the Romans had been able to conquer.

6. I believe that Howard actually meant the United States here.

However, on other occasions, Howard called the U.S. a "child colony" of the British Empire - so, who knows?

7. During WW1, the "Entente Powers" of France, Great Britain & Russia fought against the "Central Powers" of Turkey, Germany & Austria-Hungary.

8. Obviously, HPL meant the great German war machine, which used tanks, trench warfare, poisonous gasses & other 'modern' weapons - not just a sword.

9. The Vandals were a Germanic people from southern Poland.

They conquered Iberia (Spain), some Mediterranean islands & parts of northwestern Africa in the 400s AD.

In 455 AD, they even sacked Rome!!

10. 'Louvain' (now Leuven in Belgium) is so called by its French speakers.

This has led to some confusion with the nearby city of Louvain-la-Neuve!

During WW1, the Germans claimed that they were being attacked by the 'armed' civilians of this city.

So, they burned the whole city down - killing 300+ unarmed folk!

And, destroyed its cultural heritage!!

230,000 Gothic & Renaissance books, 750 Medieval manuscripts & more than 1,000 works printed before 1501 were turned to ash.

The destruction was actually an act of reprisal, which was legal international law back then.

Sadly, this city has been occupied by foreign troops, at least 3 times before this - during different wars.

11. Gallia is the Roman name for the Celtic land that is now known as France.

It is also the name of a fickle satyr (a half woman, half goat!) that called herself "The Lord of Misrule."

Shouldn't that read "Lady of Never- ending Party"?

12. Axona (now Aisne) is the Roman name for a tributary of the Oise River in northern France.

In 57 BC, Julius Caesar fought a battle there against the Belgians.

Though outnumbered & almost out- flanked, Caesar's forces crossed a small marsh & attacked the Belgians, who were disordered while crossing the Axona.

A great many Belgians died, forcing the rest of their army to retreat to their own territories.

Caesar, fearing an ambush, didn't pursue them then.

But, the next day, he attacked the retreating Belgians & killed more of them...

13. "Gauls" was the Roman name for the Celtic peoples that we now call French folk.

14. England is 1 of the "Home Nations" of the modern U.K. country.

The name comes from the Middle English words Engle-land/Engelond. These names appeared after the Norman Conquest of 1066 AD.

But, the Normans finally ended up calling it Engleterre.

Much earlier, the Romans had known the same land as Anglia.

The Angles settled in the Southeast of Celtic Britain, starting during the 410s AD.

They were a Germanic people who once lived in an area between Den- mark & Germany.

Joining their fellow Saxons & Jutes, they took advantage of the Roman desertion of Britannia...

(And, might tie-in to King Arthur's defense of Camelot - in western Britain!!)

Next: Part 2.

[eye-of-yelough]

whatever. gortae poacher au be upon ye

So here’s the long and short of it: Gortash is a completely self-sufficient remote poacher and arms dealer with a particular interest in taking old defunct weapons and making them Better. or just straight up inventing his own; some he sells, some he keeps and uses to terrorise the ecosystem around him. His remote lifestyle is not to be mistaken with being “one with nature” however, this is Gortash we’re talking about, and the only difference between this version of him and the version of him in-game is lack of opportunity/desire to get mixed up in politics. He’s pulling a one-man industrial revolution out in the woods, he is Building His Empire, it’s just a bit smaller.

Enter Aeryn. Young, dumb and full of cum, and fresh out of the mental hospital/rehab/jail in a stolen car that breaks down on Gort’s land, miles from any other civilisation. cue heavy rain and me staring directly at the camera.

Anyway it turns into a campy, cliché-ridden northwestern-gothic horror complete with psychosexual warfare, stockholm syndrome and some truly depraved sexually charged scenes including those aforementioned weapons. namely a chainsaw.

more random info under the cut

- Aeryn is a human in this au! and he probably uses his alternative name, Tae. Aeryn is an irish name and Tae is korean name so that’s his ethnicity, his father was the irish one, and very catholic so that was his upbringing. it was Bad lol. i also think Tae is the name he exclusively goes by in this au, Aeryn being his deadname, not just his birth name.

- it’s the closest thing i’ll make to a modern au. i think it’s early/mid 90s, and probably takes place in the autumn

- set in america cos there’s definitely some american horror story inspiration happening here that wasn’t even intentional at first but now i’m leaning into it. rural Montana to be specific. near the Missouri river to be super specific.

- i made this almost entirely because of a desire to see Gort with guns and chainsaws and working on cars. and i will not apologise.

- Gortash directly calls Tae bait, prey and victim to his face. like petnames. and yes, they’re both getting off on it.

- Tae is still a trained nurse and a killer in this au as well, but i don’t think they’re as strongly related, and he’s definitely not on bhaalspawn level. if i decide to make it prison he’s fresh out of, it was his first offence. Gort definitely Makes Him Worse though :3

- Gortash has an absolutely terrifying amount of taxidermy 👍

- umm. uhh. images be upon ye. gort and his horrible creations…….

picrew link

[cleopatrachampagne]

i’m reading an absolutely incredible pacific northwestern gothic lesbian romance/mystery novel (the dead and the dark by courtney gould) one of many i’ve been enjoying over the past few months, and i really gotta say that i’m usually a pretty unbothered bitch who minds her own business but i cannot stand people calling twilight pacific northwestern gothic. it’s exactly like the debate a while back over how inauthentic southern gothic feels/is from people who aren’t from the south. bc i assure you brigham young university is not a genuine pacific northwestern experience and neither is anything in twilight.

like, this novel is absolutely nailing the creepiness of hyper conservative small towns in eastern oregon (aka the maga headquarters of the goddamned world and the place where my dad escaped a literal neo-nazi skinhead cult) filled with old families and rampant corruption. another one i recently read used the sociopolitical issue of “hipster portlandia” culture, which beneath the surface of quirky leftists and food trucks is just cultural erasure, sickening gentrification and hostility against the poor, as what the gothic style monstrosity represented.

even if we brush past politics to just discuss the ecology, history and infrastructure, true authenticity is in dilapidated logging towns, the feeling you get in your spine when there’s a mountain lion watching you in the woods that you can’t see or hear, being baptized by rainwater imbued with toxic wildfire smoke, the grey fog over the cold beaches, the lovecraftian dead things that often wash up on those beaches, cities built on bones of burned cities and named after the dead leaders murdered by conquerors, covens of new age woodland witches, ghosts of pioneers, beasts of the wilds fighting against rampant deforestation, corpses of lost skiers frozen in the mountain snow and an unsettling history of geothermal and volcanic activity. not to mention the seriously disproportionate number of creepy cults which have thrived (and died) here.

maybe i was influenced by growing up hearing my parents talk about watching the air around them suddenly become thick with blinding white ash and then looking out their windows when the smoke cleared to see half a mountain just gone or the fact that the grandmother’s house in halloweentown was filmed in my grandmother’s old house or even just my own personal eerie experiences while hiking alone in the pacific wilderness but come on man.

hell, i’ve been to forks twice and my uncle’s place on the san juan islands a ferry ride from port angeles more often than that and she even has the weather wrong. the rich mythos of the cascadian culture from last decade to pre-columbus is fascinating but she just made up harmful stereotype fueled shit out of thin air. the twilight saga is a generic paranormal romance story that could be set literally anywhere. i’m an unashamed twilight fangirl but it’s about as far from proper pacific northwestern gothic as you can get so can we please stop calling it that?

[overnitereligion]

witch house pdx 2014