Identity
Although the identity of the high priest is never established in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, the following passage (which appears below the passage quoted above) gives a hint:
This colloquy went on for some time, and to Carter there was something sickeningly familiar in the sound of that flute and the stench of the malodorous place. It made him think of a frightful red-litten city and of the revolting procession that once filed through it; of that, and of an awful climb through lunar countryside beyond... Then the figured silk slipped a trifle from one of the greyish-white paws, and Carter knew what the noisome High Priest was.
Since the moon is inhabited by pale, flute-playing toad creatures, and since the High Priest Not to be Described also communicates by playing the flute, he may simply be one of the lunar toad creatures and a servant of Nyarlathotep, the crawling chaos that consistently opposes Randolph Carter throughout the story. Furthermore, when Carter uses an opportune moment to escape and is fleeing blindly through the monastery's darkened, labyrinthine passageways, he dares not think of his pursuer and of "the stealthy padding of shapeless paws on the stones behind him, or of the silent wrigglings and crawlings which must be going on back there in lightless corridors."
He may instead be an avatar of Nyarlathotep, as a similar creature is mentioned in Walter C. DeBill Jr.'s "In 'Ygiroth". The sheer horror of Carter's reaction when he approaches the High Priest in the Yellow Mask lends some support to this possibility.
Read more about this topic: High Priest Not To Be Described
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