His chosen victim is, of course, Kull, the barbarian king. Kull's personality is further outlined in this story. Kull is not interested in women, and comments on Delcardes' plight, "I have naught to do with a woman's mating" -- does this perhaps have a double meaning? Probably not.

Also in this story Kull is seen to doubt predestination and to be of short patience. The reader is informed that kingship is difficult and is introduced to four priorities: war, conquest, keeping the throne, learning the customs and thoughts of the people he's ruling.

There are many comments about savagry and barbarism being better than civilization: "Kull is warned by some primal instinct," "elemental magic of the savage, the magic of decadency," "The rot of civilization has not yet entered your soul and our charms may not harm you."

The second paragraph of the story paints a better portrait of the stable of Kull and his supporting players than at first seems apparant:

Kull was skeptical, and Tu was wary and suspicious without knowing why, but years of counter-plot and intrigue had soured him. He swore testily that a talking cat was a fraud, a swindle, and a delusion; and maintained that should such a thing exist, it was a direct insult to the gods, who ordained that only man should enjoy the power of speech.

A bit more of the history and geography of the pre-cataclysmic word are revealed in this story:

1. Valka and Hotath are sworn by; these gods were mentioned in The Isle of the Eons.
   
2. Valusians came out of the east to trample the old race. The old race originally came out of the ocean (i.e.: Across the ocean -- note that Saremes the cat is one of the old race too).
   
3. Tals are the Valusian units of exchange.
   
4. An old wizard of Lemuria was a ventriloquist (Rotath?).
   
5. Brule still used a curved sword in the Pictish manner, not the straight Valusian sword he later adopted.
   
6. The Forbidden Lake, which is near the City of Wonders, is also in the Zalgaran foothills.
   
7. According to Atlantian legends, in the old times beasts had talked to men -- as also mentioned in the Conan story, "Beyond the Black River."
   
8. There are shrines never built by human hands.
   
9. Cats were exhalted in old times.

You are at the center of the universe as you are always. Time, place, and space are illusians, having no existence save in the mind of man which must set limits and bounds in order to understand. There is only one underlying reality, of which all appearances are but outward manisfestations, just as the upper lake is fed by the waters of the real one.

If there had been a Kull, his actions would have had no effect on the way we live our lives today. History has a muting effect on the actions of any man, even a great king. What will be the end result of our actions in 100,000 years? What will our achievements have been? Nothing! All is folly, eventually. What we believe, what we do, what morals we live by -- will all prove to be pointless. Even if one of us achieves the notoriety of a great figure in history, our possible effect on long term history will have been nil. If Kull had been a real king and not a fictional construct, he would have been forgotten entirely, not remembered by anyone.

The philosophies that Howard offers through the "very old man" in this story are immensely interesting. Paramount among these are the "world within worlds" theory, serving to make the infinite more vast (if that's possible) and complex. If a king in Kull's time would seek to raise his land from a state of civilized decadency -- what would those actions matter if that kingdom were, after all, only a part of a grain of sand on some unknown beach in the macrocosm. There is also a passage which seems to promote Howard's recurrent theme of reincarnation, or perhaps even predestination: "You are a part of that great ocean which is Life, which washes upon all shores, and you are as much a part of it in one place as in another, and as sure to eventually flow back the Source of it which gave birth to all Life."

We don't know how Howard had intended the longer untitled fragment or "The Black City" to end, but it's easy to assume that Kull decides to began an extensive campaign, not only to wipe out the last of the serpent people, but also any of the religions still utilizing human sacrifice. He is also persecuting any worship of the elder gods. These actions would set the stage for the present story.

Thuron, like the later-encountered Rotath of Lemuria, is one of the elder race. He is described as being a cadaverous giant, a tall gaunt man with glimmering eyes, heavy brows, a thin gash of a mouth, metallic laughter and lean powerful hands. His movements are snake-like. Thuron is the high priest of the Unnamable One, known as the Black Shadow, one of "the terrible gods ... [that] came from forgotten worlds and lost realms of blackness." (Cthulhu Mythos followers, take note!) Thuron has opposed the descendants of the hero, Gonra, for some time now. They've voted against him in council, and he is seeking revenge by trying to sacrifice them to the Black Shadow in the Temple of Everlasting Darkness.

Gonra was an ancient hero who spilled blood for the scorpion god in ages past when Atlantean savages would have defiled the shrine. Gonra died in the service of that deity and the priests promised that Gonra's descendants would be granted protection by the scorpion god. Thuron confronts the current descendant of Gonra and his lover in the temple of the scorpion god and is about to drag them off to sacrifice them when a bit of irony occurs: He dies from a scorpion bite when "no scorpion has been seen in the city for longer than men remember." The scorpion god has obviously kept his vow. It's odd that such a negative, deadly beast should prove to be the "hero" of this tale, rescuing the descendant and his lover.

Another bit of irony is that Kull's Atlantean ancestors are not shown in a favorable light, revealing a bit of objectivity on Howard's part.

Evidently this story culminates a series of battles that Kull has had to go through to put an end to these demonic religions. One can imagine many bravely-fought battles and supernatural encounters, ending with the friendship between Kull and Brule growing, ending with the presentation to Brule of certain gifts mentioned in "Kings of the Night."

In Kamula Kull finds no peace. Grogar disappears into a hiden doorway in a wall and Monaro is murdered by a mysterious unseen piper.

Grogar the Pict is described as never having looked at a woman. Although homosexuality was known to be practiced in many ancient societies, Howard seems to have been possessed with the idea of asexual, ascetic males during the time in which he wrote the Kull stories.