The role of Wrath-Amon himself as the Chief Servant of Set, the high priest and ruler of Stygia. In the Robert E. Howard folklore - the city of Stygia is devoted to Set and worshiping any other god isn't allowed. The High Priest holds the real power while the king is symbolic - which may explain why Mesmira was Queen of Stygia while Wrath-Amon served as the high priest of the serpent god Set.
What was revealed was that he was once a gilla monster owned by the previous high priest known as Thoth-Amon. How events originally unfounded before Conan tried to get the Black Ring is unknown. For some reason after he overthrew his master Ram-Amon, he became the new Thoth-Amon expy when Set approved of his ascent from gilla monster to serpent man to becoming the new high priest that would carry out Set's will for at least 200 years or more.
What still makes me go WTF is this one - how il the world does this guy even operate for 200 years and later gather all the badly needed Star Metal? This guy is a KNUCKLEHEAD in more than one instance. He's overly dependent on the Black Ring and doesn't seem to possess anything else to back him up. Thoth-Amon used wits and intelligence to survive without it and so did Ram-Amon. Stillm he was a fun villain who had Serpentor's and Yosemite Sam's personality!
As I recall it, Ram-Amon created the Lizardman to prove to the perpetually-incompetent Dregs that literally anything could do a better job than he ever could - which let‘s be perfectly honest here, is not in any way, shape, or form a challenge.
ReplyDeleteWhat I saw was a Stable Time Loop. When Conan entered the past, his actions indirectly led to the exhaustion of Ram-Amon’s patience with Dregs leading to the reforming of the Gila Monster Lizard (that was used as a Sniffer) into the humanoid Lizardman with no attribute spared. Something that went Far Too Right given how said Lizardman was able to overthrow Ram-Amon with ease, and become the new High Priest/Chief Servant, Wrath-Amon. Then over 200 years later, Wrath-Amon petrifies Conan’s Parents and Grandfather, and in an effort to stop this, agrees to be sent back in time to before this ever happened, but is sent too far back, leading to his landing shortly before Wrath-Amon’s creation. And the Cycle starts again.
Oops.
This leads to several Headcanons for me:
1 - Having acquired the Black Ring of Set as early as he did, he was still an unknown with the Hierarchy of the Cult of Set. Changing his form again from a Lizardman to something almost Human, I see as his means of both Spiting Ram-Amon, and making it easier for him to assert his Authority.
2 - But because of this, he was left with a severe dependency on the Black Ring to maintain said form (more than once its loss or disruption of its power causing a reversion of varying degree) with a constant drain on its limited (if still copious) reserves of Set’s Magic.
3 - Set I think would not have objected to this too much, as Wrath-Amon had effectively rendered himself dependant on the Ring, and by extension, Set himself, assuring the necessity of his Complete Loyalty to him.
4 - Due to how few know the Truth about him (himself, Dregs, Set, and Ram-Amon for over 200 years), Wrath-Amon would be extremely paranoid about anyone learning about this, a consequence on building his reputation with such a deception.
5 - Which may also explain why he keeps Dregs around, needing something he can berate/belittle as a coping mechanism for his own insecurities. Ditto for Windfang, Dragonspawn, others like him, though Skulkar is an exception given he really likes being undead.
6 - Incidentally, as another means of maintaining his position, there are none within Set’s forces more competent than himself as so to keep from suffering the same fate as his predecessor. The obvious downside here being that since the others are less skilled/intelligent/cunning/ruthless than he is, they’re really ill-suited to dealing with Conan and Company [1].
All that said, he did have some wins under his belt.
Once when he duped the Cimmerians and Vanir to war with one another, using that to steal the Star-Metal first, from the villages, and then from the warring parties. While neither tribe was wiped out, Wrath-Amon did manage to claim an impressive and much-needed haul of Star-Metal to use.
A second example being when a statue made of Star-Metal was created (and accidentally brought to life), where despite Conan’s efforts, it was melted back down and used for the Discs.
And of, course the already-mentioned overthrowing of Ram-Amon.
The one where Conan was actually killed doesn’t count, given Greywolf used time travel himself (with the same incantation the Spellbinder had used previously in a good example of Continuity) as a means for saving Conan and preventing that win.
He could plan strategically, but when it came to immediate tactics, he was rather, lacking.
All of which leads me to two questions I have for you:
1) How do you think things would have developed had it taken Wrath-Amon far longer, say 5-10 years, before he was able to claim the Black Ring?
2) Had Conan never made that trip through time, how do you believe events would have transpired?
Here's my possible answers:
Delete1) How do you think things would have developed had it taken Wrath-Amon far longer, say 5-10 years, before he was able to claim the Black Ring?
Wrath-Amon would have had to build his reputation or two, proclaim himself as Set's new high priest. He would have to probably claim he was some random serpent man or something. Can't think of a better explanation.
2) Had Conan never made that trip through time, how do you believe events would have transpired?
Probably before that time trip, Ram-Amon created the lizardman servant not to hunt down Conan but probably some other imposter. There was probably a slave revolt before that incident.
To your answers, plus my own thoughts on the points:
Delete1) There is no doubt Wrath-Amon would’ve been unable to hide what he was. Inevitably, the extended time would’ve ensured that he would be relatively well-known - at least within the Cult of Set - so from where I stand, his being a Lizard-turned-Lizardman would be known as well, making hiding that aspect of himself an impossibility.
That said, they did obey the 100% Human Ram-Amon without question - or so it seemed to me - given he had Set’s Blessing at the time, thus it would not be unreasonable to conclude that they’d obey Wrath-Amon as well should Set say so.
What happens outside of the Cult however, is a different matter.
2) Wrath-Amon was remade into a Lizardman after Conan had already travelled through time and caused that ruckus, which prompted Ram-Amon to make him to serve as a more competent Right-Hand ‘Man’. But yeah, Dregs was only one Screw-Up away from compelling Ram-Amon to take such a step, so this point I can agree on.