More Commentary On Law & 'The Priests of The Golden Peacock' in Kuntz & Ward's 'Gods,Demi-gods, & Heroes

 This post is going to pick right up from what we spoke of yesterday on the blog. 
Let's dig deeper into the role of Law on Carcosa for a moment & its legacy with the Golden Peacock. 

So over the last forty eight hours we've been going over our notes for original Dungeons & Dragons & Gods, Demi-gods, & Heroes by Kuntz & Ward. And one of the things that has occurred to me is the amount of artifacts of Law in the Hyboria mythos that has been included! Take for example; 'HEART OF AHRIMAN Device of great power able to work over any distance, which acts as an anti magic shell for six people'. Seems like a simple & straight forward artifact that would be but consider it within the contents of the Hyboria mythology of original Dungeons & Dragons. There's a great little Carcosa thread on the original Dungeons & Dragons Facebook group here.  If we take them together with other artifacts of Law & Neutrality on Carcosa including personages. Then the struggle for Law & Chaos on the bleak Pulpy planet becomes clear. 

Take for for example; "HEART OF TAMMUZ A lawful artifact used to counter the effects of the Claw of Nergal. With this, the user can undo the action of the claw without knowing who the claw affected, merely by bringing the Heart within 500 yards of a victim."  On Carcosa these artifacts would be invaluable pieces of example of Law. Tribal coloured nations would go to war over such artifacts hence why within Gods, Demi-gods, & Heroes these would be in multi tiered dungeons of incredible complexity. Law stands for civilazition & order, on a planet such as Carcosa this means the difference between survival & death. The problem here is one of complexity & scale, because original Dungeons & Dragons is modular its easy to add or subtract supplements as needed. 
Now what is the role of neutrality & law on Carcosa?! That in my humble opinion is one of survival and eventually civilization. And this brings  Milk Tous & his ilk to Carcosa easily. Given the almost twisted Lovecraftian 'Garden of Eden' setting that is primitive Carcosa. It's easy to see why Earth bound demonic Lovecraftian enities would be right in to corrupt Carcosa & its inhabitants. 

Demoness of the Wasteland Published: May 4, 2014 by MrZarono artwork used without permission. Available here. 

Commentary On 'The Priests of The Golden Peacock' in Kuntz & Ward's 'Gods,Demi-gods, & Heroes'

 So while going through Kuntz & Ward's 'Gods,Demi-gods, & Heroes' last night came acrossthis  reference to; "PRIESTS OF THE GOLDEN PEACOCK As a cleric These evil priests never rise higher than Bishop as per D&D. They have the power from the third level on to hide in shadows as a master thief." within the Robert E. Howard Hyboria section. Priests of the Golden Peacock are from Robert E. Howard's 'Dig Me No Grave'. If we read through the story the Fausten bargain of John Grymlann is a pretty straight forward affair. You get two hundred & fifty years of life, wealth, & eternal damnation with Milk Tous feeding on your soul for eternity. 

And there is zero doubt that the priests of the order of the golden peacock are pure evil. Reading through, 'Dig Me No Grave' the city of Koth is mentioned at least three times. Now Koth was a thriving kingdom in the Hyborian age but something horrid happened to it allowing Great Old One Malik Tous. According to the H.P. Lovecraft Wiki; " In Conan the barbarian's world, Koth is an ancient Hyborian kingdom. (CIRCLE: "The Hyborian Age" Robert E. Howard) The city of Koth could reside in this kingdom or be a remnant of it." In my own head canon the city of Koth was coming to its end & made a fausten bargain with Malik Tous. The Great Old claimed the place as his literal cold Hell on Earth. And his priests roam far & wide across the multiverse spreading his message of rebellion & corruption using their abilities to claim souls & spread chaos. 
If we're using Jason Vey's Age of Conan supplement Secrets of the Archeon then those dalleying with Malik Tous are going to be on the rough end of the corruption rules. And this is reflected in the fate of John Kirowan. "Dig Me No Grave" mentions many mythos elements including Yog-Sothoth, Koth and Yuggoth.
The Golden Peacock it's is no friend of mankind & personally even though I fit's the bill isn't an avitar of  Nyarlathotep. Personally I believe this entity is it's own entity another among numerous Lovecraftian horrors out in the world.