Helman Carnby

Helman Carnby was a character who apppeared in the H.P. Lovecraft-inspired Cthulhu Mythos.

Description
A tall, thin man in life, Carnby was a man who exuded a certain power even in old age. He was possessed of strong, aquiline features and a great mane of hair. In death, he appeared as a corpse which was in the early stages of decomposition.

History
Helman Carnby and his brother John were once powerful sorcerers. They worshiped dark Gods, and in return were gifted with great power and the services of many demonic familiars. However, as the years went by and the pair grew older, John became jealous of his brother, whom he knew was the more powerful magician of the two, and held in greater favour by the fell beings which they revered. Finally, the envy became too much to bear, and John killed Helman, dismembering his body with a surgeon’s saw and scalpel then burying the pieces in various locations across his estate. The head, however, he kept locked in a cabinet in his library, fearful that his brother would rise from the grave to take his revenge.

John‘s fears were well founded, and for the next nine nights Helman’s severed limbs crawled through his house, terrorising the magician despite his attempts to use passages from the cursed Necronomicon to banish their animating magic back to whence it came.

On the tenth night, the limbs and torso united and smashed down the door to John’s bedroom before killing the man and doing to him what he had done to his brother. Once the deed was complete, Helman‘s head burst forth from the cabinet, smiling, before the whole cadaver disintegrated once more into its component parts, dead for good this time, it’s vengeance complete.

This final event was witnessed only by one Mr. Ogden, John Carnby’s secretary, who subsequently ran screaming in terror from the house.

Appearances

 * Helman Carnby made his only appearance in the short story The Return of the Sorceror (1931), by Clark Ashton Smith, although the tale was adapted into episodes for both radio and television.