High Priest Not To Be Described - Summary

Summary

The High Priest Not to Be Described is the sole occupant of a remote and ancient monastery on the Plateau of Leng in the Dreamlands. He serves the Outer Gods and may be Hastur, the servant of the crawling chaos Nyarlathotep (or he may even be Nyarlathotep himself).

The monastery where he dwells has a confusing tangle of lightless corridors with disturbing frescoes that chronicle Leng's bloodcurdling history. Deep in the bowels of the monastery, inside a frightening domed room, the High Priest Not to Be Described sits on a throne of gold atop a stone dais in pitch-black darkness. Five steps down from the dais is a row of six blood-stained stone altars surrounding a yawning well that is rumored to connect with the Vaults of Zin in the underworld.

In Lovecraft's novella The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926), Randolph Carter has a fateful encounter with the High Priest Not to Be Described. The only description of the High Priest is given in this passage:

...and there... sat a lumpish figure robed in yellow silk with red and having a yellow silken mask over its face. To this being the slant-eyed man made certain signs with his hands, and the lurker in the dark replied by raising a disgustingly carven flute of ivory in silk covered paws and blowing certain loathesome sounds from beneath its flowing silken mask.

During his search for the fabled city of Celephaïs, the dreamer Kuranes had an equally chilling experience, just narrowly escaping the High Priest.

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