Or is there more plot coming? It seems like there are hints of an endgame, but no way to approach it. Not that I’m eager to end it, but there’s a lot of unanswered questions. What happened to Siptah? If “The Gem in the Tower” is canon, then he’s clearly not in this world anymore. Who or what is causing the Maelstrom, and why is it centered on the Tower rather than shielding the island, as originally intended? And who are the Accursed? Descendants of Acheron, defectors from the first Stygian expedition, or demon cultists led to the island by some Elder God? Is there a plot reason that they look and sound like the Forgotten Tribe, or is it just a matter of reusing assets? It seems to me Xanarus turned against Set, and Acheron, after realizing the Serpent Men were infiltrating by impersonation, so which god did he turn to, and what exactly did he do with the Tower?
I wish I could answer even one of those, lol. Good questions though for sure.
Fairly sure the Accursed were stated (at least in advertising material) as being survivors of wild surges/summoned surges - they were dragged through the outer dark by one of the Cthulu beasts (Nyalathotep, iirc, but could be Yog maybe… maybe) - the experience supposedly messed up their heads a bit (which probably explains Rabid Milly for example). Sounding like the Forgotten Tribe seems to be mostly down to re-used assets (combined with the fact that pretty much all thralls now just use the Cimmerian lines - it might be intended in this instance, who knows, but it’s hard to read much into it when Black Hand Pirates like Tarman and Teimos are yelling constantly about ‘Crom’s poxy balls’).
Accumulated evidence from Siptah’s story and the Vaults suggests that the Maelstrom is ravaging the island because the Elder races replacement for the Shining Trapezohedron didn’t work. Until the Serpent Men stole that and ran to the exiled lands, the Trapezohedron (a gift from an Elder God/Cthuloid being) powered everything and kept the island safe. With it gone, they tried making a replacement, but the storm ran wild and the survivors had to hide in their vaults where they degenerated. Siptah’s final journal suggests he thinks he knows how to do it right. But he’s arrogant and frequently wrong throughout his journals, so it seems reasonable to suggest he just unleashed the Maelstrom again, the same way the Elder races did the first time.
What exactly Xanarus did I don’t know. He clearly turned against Acheron, but that may have been as simple as being far enough away to think he could build his own kingdom. I get a kind of Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now kinda vibe about Xanarus - like he’s a ‘senior officer’ (Acheronian Official) who goes out to a new colony and ‘goes native’ starting to believe that he’s a god. So arguably, if he turned from Set to another ‘god’ it may have been himself that he considered to be the new ‘god’.
If “The Gem in the Tower” is canon, then Siptah’s Trapezohedron did work, but he was mad with power and just used it to extort merchants for safe travel with it. Conan came with a pirate expedition to steal the gem and found Siptah lifeless in the tower, guarded by a demon bat. Conan inadvertently smashed the gem while fighting for his life against the demon, and it disintegrated immediately after.
Conan only identified it as a topaz, so it’s possible that wasn’t the Trapezohedron. It’s also possible that the Elder Race’s reproduction still existed, and that’s currently being used in The Tower. This would be a little more consistent with how it’s functioning now.
It’s also possible Siptah isn’t dead; Conan’s first impression was that he was still alive, no sign of violence. This might have been the correct impression, perhaps he was in a deep trance instead of dead.
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