Miskatonic Faculty
Scholars of the forbidden who stand between humanity and the madness of the cosmos.
The Faculty of Miskatonic University represents the collective body of professors and researchers at the fictional institution located in Arkham, Massachusetts. While ostensibly a center for higher learning specializing in obscure history, anthropology, and natural sciences, the faculty is famously defined by its repeated, often disastrous encounters with eldritch horrors and forbidden knowledge. They serve as the primary intellectual gatekeepers—and sometimes unwitting conduits—for the cosmic truths that threaten to shatter human sanity.
- Location
- Arkham, Massachusetts
- Affiliation
- Miskatonic University
- Primary Focus
- Occult History, Anthropology, Archaeology, and Forbidden Sciences
- Key Figures
- Warren Rice, Wilmarth, Pickman (Art Dept), Whateley
- Status
- Active but perpetually besieged by cosmic entities
- Notable Asset
- The Miskatonic University Library
Lore & Background
Despite their scholarly demeanor, the faculty operates under a constant shadow of impending doom. They are frequently called upon by law enforcement and local authorities to investigate supernatural disturbances in Arkham, only to find themselves on the front lines of cosmic wars. While some members, like Professor Wilmarth, strive to contain these horrors through rigorous study and containment protocols, others fall victim to the very entities they seek to understand, becoming cultists or victims of transformation.
In Their Own Story
The rain lashed against the high windows of the library, blurring the gaslight into watery streaks. Professor Rice adjusted his spectacles, his trembling fingers hovering over a leather-bound tome that seemed to pulse with a faint, sickly green light. The air in the room had grown heavy, smelling of brine and ancient dust, a scent that did not belong to Arkham. "It is opening," he whispered, not to his colleague Wilmarth, but to the silence itself. Outside, the campus bells tolled a discordant rhythm, signaling that the barrier between worlds was thinning once more.
Reader's Guide
The Miskatonic Faculty serves as the primary intellectual defense against cosmic intrusion in the Arkham region. Their goals oscillate between pure academic discovery and the desperate containment of eldritch threats. Membership is fluid, often consisting of brilliant minds who are either too curious or too terrified to leave their posts. Key departments include History, Anthropology, and a unique Art department that has produced disturbingly accurate depictions of non-Euclidean entities. In the broader conflict, they act as both researchers and first responders. They catalog forbidden knowledge to understand enemy weaknesses while simultaneously trying to keep such knowledge from falling into the hands of cultists or madmen.
Did You Know?
- The university's library is rumored to contain a copy of the Necronomicon, often referred to as the 'Book of Eibon' in earlier translations.
- Several faculty members have been known to disappear under mysterious circumstances, only for their research notes to be found scattered across campus.
- The Art Department has produced works that some claim are not paintings but windows into other dimensions.
- Professor Wilmarth is frequently cited as one of the few scholars who successfully navigated a direct encounter with a Great Old One without losing his sanity.