William Pynchon

Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.
The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
The nakedness of woman is the work of God.
The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the
stormy sea, and the destructive sword. are portions of
eternity too great for the eye of man.
What is now proved was once, only imagin’d.
Every thing possible to be believ’d is an image of truth.
Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires
Where man is not nature is barren.

—William Blake, Selections from “Proverbs of Hell”

William Pynchon, Chief Mate of the Quiddity

Statistics
Age: 36, Nationality: American, Birthplace: Salem 1808. Kingsport Cult: Fifth Degree.

Combat

Skills
Accounting 35%, Anthropology 35%, Archeology 15%, Art/Craft (Blacksmith) 15%, Art/Craft (Carpentry) 20%, Art/Craft (Chess) 30%, Art/Craft (Cooperage) 20%, Art/Craft (Harpsichord) 25%, Artillery 1%, Charm 65%, Climb 55%, Credit Rating 55%, Cthulhu Mythos 35%, Demolitions 1%, Disguise 5%, Fast Talk 10%, First Aid 45%, History 40%, Hypnosis 75%, Intimidate 45%, Jump 40%, Kingsport Cult 75%, Law 25%, Leadership 50%, Library Use 60%, Listen 60%, Locksmith 5%, Mechanical Repair 45%, Medicine 30%, Natural World 35%, Navigate 70%, Occult 50%, Operate Heavy Machinery 10%, Persuade 70%, Pilot (Boat) 70%, Psychology 65%, Read Lips 5%, Religion (Congregationalist) 65%, Renown 25%, Ride 45%, Science (Astronomy) 40%, Science (Meteorology) 40%, Seamanship 70%, Sea Lore 30%, Sleight of Hand 10%, Spot Hidden 70%, Stealth 70%, Survival 70%, Swim 40%, Throw 40%, Track 15%, Whalecraft 70%, Witchcraft 15%.

Languages: Vokoan 60%, Kát 40%, Polynesian Pidgin 30%, Latin 25%, French 15%, Greek 10%, Inuktitut 10%.

Spells: Bend Quarry to Thy Power (Mental Suggestion), Breath of the Deep, Call Into Service Thy Starry Steed (Summon/Bind Byakhee), Chant de Possession (Dominate), Command Shark, Control Elements, Create Mist of R’lyeh, Doigt de Malheur (Implant Fear), Enchant the Locust Whistle (Enchant Whistle), Eucharistia Viridi, Flesh Ward, Main de Glorie, Masque Banal, Music of the Court In Yellow (Song of Hastur), Obscurcir la Mémoire (Cloud Memory), The Omen Seal (Elder Sign), Parler Suif, Pouldre Noire du Diable (Shrivelling), Tentacles of Kith-Vloo’a (Grasp of Cthulhu), Vincula Sanguinis, The Voorish Sign, Wave of Oblivion.

Description

Tall and lanky, William Pynchon has the appearance of a dissolute aristocrat, with tousled sandy hair, short sideburns, thin lips, and arching eyebrows. His cultured voice is even and precise, and has never been raised in anger. The chief mate is a master of verbal persuasion, and his withering sarcasm is feared by every member of the crew and quite possibly the captain himself. Even at sea Pynchon dresses somewhat like a dandy, and his “British mannerisms” are the subject of furtive speculation regarding his patriotism—though no one would dare admit that to his face!

History
Among the last dissipated scions of Salem’s Pyncheon clan, William Pynchon—he dropped the extra vowel somewhere between Arkham Latin School and the Pacific Islands—is a direct descendant of Colonel Thomas Pyncheon, the infamous Salem magistrate who accrued his wealth by accusing his fellow citizens of witchcraft. William’s father was a theologian, his grandfather was a physician, and his great-grandfather was a Tory captain who spied on colonial shipbuilding for King George III. A prestigious but eclectic lineage, it didn’t quite come to fruition in young William. Expected from childhood to become a minister, he eventually turned his back on his family, his culture, and his God. New England lacked something for young William, something he needed, something that answered a deeper calling in his soul. From the joyless, witch-burning cult of the Nazarene to the petty clashes of Western “civilization,” Pynchon saw the world as a rigid prison fashioned from bricks of hypocrisy and cemented by the mortar of corruption. And so, stealing Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound from his father’s library, William Bliss Pynchon ran away from Salem at the age of fifteen—“Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free.”

Going Native
Like many young men fleeing something they couldn’t quite articulate, Pynchon went to sea. After two years on a Sag Harbor whaling ship, he became fascinated with the natives and customs of the Pacific. In 1825 he deserted on Oorikoa, an uncharted island near Easter Island. There he fell in with the Oori-Heki, or “People of the Green Octopus,” a mysterious tribe that consumed the flesh of a psychedelic starfish and indulged in bizarre orgies. The Oori-Heki had come from a larger island called Nukavoko, exiled three generations ago after a failed coup. Pynchon learned to speak their language and eventually gained their trust, becoming close to the tribe’s shaman, Toowhak’loo.

One morning Toowhak’loo struck Pynchon on the skull with his Ghost Club. He awoke hours later, nursing a headache and surrounded by laughing natives. He had been stripped naked, his flesh covered with circles of green paint. The damp air was illuminated by phosphoresce, and he understood himself to be in the labyrinthine caves below the lagoon—a forbidden place, the home of the sacred starfish. At first, Pynchon believed they were going to kill him; but then he understood. He was being initiated. Feeding him a living starfish, the shaman’s eldest daughter pierced Pynchon’s foreskin with a small hook and guided him painfully to a grotto carved from green bowenite. There, he prostrated himself before their god: a fount of cold flame they called the Blood of the Green Octopus.

Pynchon bathed in the fire, and visions of power and eternal life exploded in his brain. It was overwhelming. He spent the next few hours standing in the flame, his mind whirling in the currents of the starfish drug. As the drug faded, so did the sense of revelation. Surely there was some way to commune with the Green Flame and retain its secrets?

Later, Toowhak’loo informed Pynchon that he was not the first white man to visit the island. He escorted Pynchon to a corner of the grotto and showed him the skeletal remains of previous explorers. Their moldering artifacts revealed them as Spaniards. One of these men, dressed in the decaying robes of a Jesuit, had left an account of their expedition, his jagged Latin scratched into the greenstone of the cave. It was clear the Spaniards had been searching for the Green Flame, which they believed held the secret of eternal life. However, most of the writing seemed to be a translation of a non-Western text. The Jesuit had replicated numerous passages from this text on the walls, written in characters completely alien to Pynchon’s classical education. Sadly, the original text was nowhere to be found.

Pynchon spent weeks studying the inscriptions. According to the Jesuit, the Green Flame was the remnant of a lost civilization, a wellspring of magical power connected to the Philistine deity Dagon. Through the Jesuit’s interpretation of the ur-text—assuming, of course, the priest wasn’t mad, and an older source even existed—Pynchon discovered that some of the inscriptions were actually spells. He wasn’t sure how he managed to understand and pronounce the hierograms, but repeated exposure to the Green Flame and copious amounts of starfish drug increased his confidence. (Or was making him mad as the Spaniard!) Pynchon finally emerged from the cavern three weeks later, clutching the skull of the Jesuit and stepping into a raging monsoon. Drawing a deep breath, he croaked a single harsh word and killed the wind. A second turned off the rain, and a third recalled the sun.

He wasn’t mad after all.

In time, the Oori-Heki accepted Pynchon as an equal. They gave him the name Tekeloo, or “White Shaman.” Pynchon taught Toowhak’loo how to read Latin, and the shaman instructed him in the customs of Nukavoko. Together they unraveled the mysteries of the grotto, growing more powerful with each passing month. It was an idyllic existence, and Pynchon was content. He married the shaman’s two daughters and was granted a concubine servant, a young Hawaiian girl captured in a raid. He fathered three children and began thinking in the native tongue.

Pynchon’s paradise came to an end with the appearance of the Janus in 1827. A Kingsport whaler commanded by Ezra Coffin, the ship was homeward bound when it found the island. To Pynchon’s dismay, Captain Coffin knew all about the Green Flame—indeed, Coffin had been looking for an island devoted to its worship, and had erroneously believed Oorikoa to be an island named Kith Kohr. Suggesting that Pynchon return with the Janus, Coffin made him swear to secrecy, promising the young man he would learn “so much more” back in Kingsport. Realizing that the arrival of more “white shamans” jeopardized his mystical position among the Oori-Heki, William Pynchon abandoned his family for a second time.

The Kingsport Cult
Pynchon was immediately inducted into the Bons pêcheurs as a Second Degree initiate. He eagerly absorbed everything he could from the Covenant and willingly shared the secrets he had learned on Oorikoa. Pynchon was pleased by the amount of responsibility the Covenant afforded him, and he advanced through the ranks rapidly, earning the trust of Abner Ezekiel Hoag and Judge Return Whicher. He was informed of the existence of Kith Kohr, the “Wandering Island” first visited by Barzillai Coffin in 1821. Its native people, the Kát, were in possession of two relics believed to be the Head and Hands of Dagon. Placed onboard the Janus as boatsteerer, Pynchon was tasked with assisting Captain Ezra Coffin in his clandestine quest to relocate Kith Kohr and negotiate with the Kát. In a decision bound to cause friction between the ship’s officers, the Covenant ruled that chief mate Seth Warnock and second mate Jeremiah Joab should not step foot on the island. Both Ezra and Pynchon protested the decision, but they were overruled: Warnock and Joab were only Second Degree initiates.

In 1829 the Janus found Kith Kohr, and Pynchon accompanied Ezra Coffin into the interior to meet with the Kát. There, Pynchon made a felicitous discovery: much as Spanish was born from the mother-tongue of Latin, Vokoan was a corrupted dialect of the more ancient Kát language. With some effort, he could understand and speak Kát! Their visit was brief, but Pynchon proved invaluable as a translator, making a favorable impression on the Saudru, the Kát’s formidable chieftain. Pynchon returned to Kingsport covered in glory, and was immediately initiated into the Fourth Degree and promoted to third mate.

In 1832, Pynchon would be castaway for a second time. Returning to Kith Kohr on the Janus, Ezra and Pynchon struck into the interior to again parlay with the Kát. They failed to return at the appointed time. Before Warnock and Joab could mount a search party, the Janus was blown to sea by a sudden typhoon. The despondent officers searched for weeks but they could not regain the island.

The storm was not natural: Ezra and Pynchon had been forcibly detained by the Kát. Pynchon was taken to the city of Pan Kandira on the western side of the island, where he was ordered to share his arcane powers with the Azüri, the shamans of the Kát. He was released after nine months of servitude, permitted to return to Kingsport onboard a passing whaler. Captain Coffin was forced to remain on the island as the Covenant’s permanent ambassador to the Kát. (See “Background Part 3—the Great Work” for details about Kith Kohr. See Ezra Coffin’s NPC profile for details about Ezra’s life with the Kát.) In the meantime, both Seth Warnock and Jeremiah Joab had been initiated into the Third Degree, finally learning the role of Kith Kohr in the Covenant’s plans.

Pynchon shipped out again in 1834, the third mate of the Quiddity on her maiden voyage under the newly-promoted Captain Seth Warnock and his mate Jeremiah Joab. Reunited with his superiors from the Janus, Pynchon was disconcerted to find that both men now regarded him with a flinty mixture of jealousy and suspicion. Although this tension never came to a head, when the Quiddity returned, Pynchon requested a different assignment. He was appointed second mate of the Polaris, setting sail under Captain Jasper Blood in 1838.

In 1840, the Polaris was ordered to rendezvous with a group of Esquimaux on Resolution Island. Exiled from their tribe for practicing “evil magic,” they were in possession of an Azabhael shard, one of the components the Covenant needed to complete the Rite of Rapture. Their shaman had agreed to exchange this “cursed tupilak” for a crate of rifles and iron harpoons. Before the Polaris could reach the island, a squall pushed the ship too far north. Slowly entombed by ice, the Polaris was inexorably crushed. After enduring the harrowing arctic conditions for nearly a month, Pynchon and his fellow survivors were rescued by the Spindrift. Within six months, Pynchon was back at sea as chief mate of the Spindrift. In 1842 he fulfilled his mission and acquired the tupilak. He vowed never to return to the ice again. Pynchon spent the next year in Kingsport “getting warm” and helping the Covenant prepare for the final stages of the Great Work.

Return to the Quiddity
Once again, William Pynchon has been asked to serve onboard the Quiddity, now commanded by Captain Joab. Charged with finally locating the Black Island, both officers know this is the most important voyage of their careers. They also suspect it’s their last.

Roleplaying William Pynchon

William Bliss Pynchon is the most important nonplayer character in White Leviathan. While Captain Joab is more dramatic, and the Ministers of Abaddon more powerful, Pynchon is the NPC who interacts with player characters the most frequently. The chief mate essentially runs the ship, leaving the captain free for more profound tasks like cursing his fate and obsessing over Mocha Dick. More importantly, Pynchon is the highest-ranking cultist onboard the Quiddity, and plays a key role in the successful completion of the Great Work. As far as the player characters are concerned, from the moment the Quiddity leaves Kingsport until the Aldebaran arrives at Abaddon, William Pynchon is the Kingsport Cult! Roleplaying him effectively is the key to a successful campaign.

Personality
William Pynchon is a study in contradictions. He imagines himself a Shelley-like Romantic, a free-thinker who identifies with literary figures such as John Milton’s Satan and William Blake’s Orc. He’d even consider himself a libertine. However, those around him find Pynchon to be cold, aloof, and joyless. To make matters worse, Pynchon seems incapable of expressing his true self, and appears unaware of the obvious contradictions in his personality. A man whose heart surges when he reads about poetic rebellion, Pynchon expects his orders to be followed to the letter; an iconoclast who wants to smash Western society, Pynchon’s entire bearing is sculpted by the forces of patriarchy and colonialism. It’s even telling that most sailors think he’s a “molly”—this man who’s participated in psychedelic orgies and shared a bed with three women. Some experienced hands call him “Buttercup Bill,” but always behind his back!

Goals
Pynchon’s principal goal is to successfully execute the orders of the Covenant. The Quiddity must reach Kith Kohr, obtain the Head and Hands of Dagon, and locate the Black Island. Having said this, Pynchon is no mindless servant. If he sees an opportunity to gain an advantage, he won’t hesitate to seize it. Also, if certain members of the Covenant become unstable or unreliable—Captain Joab, Ezra Coffin, Nathaniel Warnock, etc.—Pynchon will take it upon himself to “correct” the situation.

Private Goals
Although he wouldn’t admit this even to himself—at least, not until the Quiddity reaches Abaddon—there’s a little voice inside Pynchon that grows steadily louder as the voyage proceeds. It begins whispering once he acquires the Valparaíso shard and realizes it’s not an authentic Azabhael. It becomes more audible after he obtains the relics from Kith Kohr. And once Pynchon discovers the Covenant has competitors, the voice becomes impossible to ignore or suppress; the proverbial devil perched on his shoulder and goading him to mischief. Of course he believes in the Great Work, but…why should Abner Ezekiel Hoag or Isaiah Tuttle reap the rewards? These pale, wormy sorcerers hiding behind waxen masks? Who’s done all the work over the past twenty years? Who is really worthy to be the Supplicant…?

Pynchon as Cultist
In many ways, Pynchon is the most “evil” NPC on board the Quiddity. Manipulative, cynical, and aware of the Mythos from an early age, Pynchon is a Faustian intellectual with an astonishing willingness to barter his soul. He can be ambitious and arrogant, but he’s aware that power is best obtained from behind the scenes, and he rarely reveals his cards. Pynchon suspects there’s a Seventh Degree of initiation to the Covenant, and is patient enough to await his rightful invitation. While some Bons pêcheurs find him charming and articulate—he’s been called the “future of the Covenant” by Judge Whicher himself—others are concerned with a certain…emptiness about Pynchon, some fundamental lack of moral center. While the Covenant is certainly immoral, they worry that Pynchon is unsuitably amoral, and there’s quite a difference. Quéraudes such as Abner Hoag and Isaiah Tuttle fear that in the end, Pynchon will follow his own beliefs, even if that means setting aside the time-honored traditions of the Bons pêcheurs. Still, no one denies he’s the most capable of the Covenant’s officers, and Pynchon has yet to fail a task or betray a confidence…

Pynchon as First Mate
Pynchon runs a tight ship, and the men respect him. (They respect him more than they like him—even the most callow seaman perceives the frost touching Pynchon’s tight smile.) As the voyage grows increasingly complicated, the relationship between the officers and crew becomes strained. If his authority proves insufficient to prevent trouble, Pynchon employs more subtle means of keeping order—sorcerots like Cloud Memory and Mental Suggestion, for instance. Nor is Pynchon above mundane acts of trickery, deception, and manipulation. Dealing with Joab, however, is more challenging. Once Mocha Dick makes an appearance, Pynchon begins worrying that Joab’s obsession might put the ship—and therefore the Great Work—in danger. The last thing he wants is a public showdown between the Quiddity’s two ranking officers. He’ll therefore allow Joab his obsession, to a point. If the captain becomes unreasonable, Pynchon makes entreaties to his sense of duty. If such pleas fall upon deaf ears, he resorts to more extreme measures to keep the mission on track.

Pynchon and the Player Characters
For the first half of the campaign Pynchon remains aloof and mysterious; but he is fair, open-minded, and sincerely wants the ship to run smoothly. As evidence of the supernatural continues to mount, Pynchon’s involvement in “strange business” becomes difficult to conceal from the player characters. It’s soon clear that Pynchon has other goals besides stocking the hold with whale oil. At this point—probably around Kith Kohr—player characters may find themselves testing their footing with the devious mate. These shifting relationships offer exciting roleplaying opportunities and should be allowed to develop organically. Pynchon is not foolish, and believes the best way to neutralize or even control a potential opponent is to gain their confidence. If a player character appears receptive or even sympathetic to occult influences, Pynchon courts him a potential ally. If he sees an opportunity to “convert” a player character, he begins a cautious, step-by-step seduction to the dark side. Morally ambivalent characters such as Ulysses Dixon, Leland Morgan, Montgomery Lowell, and Rachel Ward may be invited deeper into the mystery, perhaps even recruited to the Covenant by Pynchon himself. After all, each has a compelling reason to remain onboard until the Black Island is discovered. As such player characters grow closer to Pynchon, they earn glimpses into his rich internal life. It’s even possible temporary alliances may deepen into mutual respect and even admiration!

More principled characters such as Tobias Beckett, Joseph Coffin, Quakaloo, and Milton Redburn are more difficult to seduce, but can still be manipulated. Every player character has weaknesses and secrets, and the Keeper should use Pynchon to exploit them to the fullest. Beckett has his religious convictions and his “story” to pursue. Coffin may be confused by his dreams and premonitions of his “dark fate.” Quakaloo might be pleased to discover that Pynchon speaks his native language and is familiar with Vokoan customs. Even Milton Redburn hungers for recognition and fame. However, once a player character becomes a genuine threat, Pynchon won’t hesitate to use violence or coercive magic. And of course, all bets are off once the Quiddity arrives at Abaddon, a location destined for many strange bedfellows!

Adventure Hooks
Pynchon has led a fascinating life. As the player characters get to know him better, the Keeper may reveal aspects of Pynchon’s past by roleplaying flashbacks of defining moments: his departure from Salem, his initiation on Oorikoa, his year with the Kát. Players may even be recruited as spontaneous NPCs, given brief descriptions and motivations: “You are Wannawennu, the youngest daughter of Toowhak’loo and Pynchon’s second wife. You have just given Tekeloo a beautiful daughter. React as you see fit to the following vignette…”

As the adventure progresses, the Keeper may complicate the narrative by introducing new twists drawn from Pynchon’s history. For instance: Whatever became of his three children? They’d be in their late teens by now, certainly mature enough to have left Oorikoa. How do they feel about being abandoned by their white father? Or: How did Pynchon survive in the arctic circle for three weeks? Was he forced into cannibalism? Did the Polaris castaways do something terrible to a tribe of helpful “Esquimaux?” The Keeper is free to invent other such “twists,” but should be careful to make them meaningful and relevant.

Mythos Knowledge
Pynchon may be a dedicated cultist, but he’s not insane—he’s not some vulgar nihilist slavering for a future of burning cities and human sacrifice! Pynchon believes the Resurrection of Dagon will overthrow centuries of religious oppression and inaugurate a libertine Aeon of unlimited freedom. In Pynchon’s apocalyptic utopia, magic and science will be indistinguishable, and no man—or woman—will be prohibited from rising above their station.

Practically speaking, Pynchon knows a great deal about the Green Flame, Dagon, and Cthulhu. Although he’s read about the “Others”—a Covenant euphemism for the Great Old Ones—he knows little about deities such as Azathoth and Hastur. Like his fellow “Zealots” Abner Ebenezer Hoag and Ezra Coffin, Pynchon takes l’Ancienne Religion literally, but prefers not to meddle with forces he doesn’t (yet) understand. Pynchon has heard rumors about the Dreamlands, but nothing concrete, and like all Bons pêcheurs he’s ignorant about Elder Things, Mi-Go, Star-spawn, and any Mythos race save Deep Ones and Byakhees.

Possessions
Spartan in taste, Pynchon retains only two sentimental keepsakes—his father’s copy of Prometheus Unbound, and a gold pocket watch engraved with Salem’s seven-gabled Pyncheon House. He keeps a loaded Pistolet modèle 1777 in his sea-chest. A secret compartment in his cabin contains several arcane items, including his hand-written copy of Le livre de la méchanceté, an Esquimaux tupilak, a Vokoan spirt-bag filled with spell components, and the skeletal hand of the Salem “wizard” Matthew Maule. These are further described in “The Quiddity.”

Notes & Inspirations

The two best resources for understanding the operation of a whaling ship and the responsibilities of a mate/boatheader are Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick and Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. William Pynchon was partly inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables, a novel lavishly praised by Herman Melville and H.P. Lovecraft alike. As an antagonist, William Bliss Pynchon falls under the category of “Gentleman Evil,” and would be recognized by fellow travelers such as Captain Nemo, Doctor Moreau, Professor Moriarty, Hannibal Lector, Lucius Malfoy, and Doctor Who’s nemesis, The Master. If White Leviathan were a movie, Pynchon would be played by the young David Warner, whose Jack the Ripper from Time After Time was another inspiration for the character. (The photograph used to portray Pynchon is David Warner.) Other relevant David Warner roles include Evil Genius from Time Bandits, Keith Jennings from The Omen, Amos Hackshaw from Cast a Deadly Spell, and Dr. Wrenn from In the Mouth of Madness. Other suitable actors include Jason Isaacs, Burn Gorman, John Simms, and David Tennant. You know—“Gentleman Evil!”

White Leviathan > NPC Profiles
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Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 9 March 2022
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]