The Xothic Legend Cycle

NOW that you've been introduced co Winfield Phillips, Hiram Stokely, and Anton Zarnak, I suppose you're ready for the following gloss on the Xothic cycle. If Lin Carter himself liked to write new Mythos tales to plug gaps in the system of the Mythos, some of us find it irresistible to write them to plug gaps left by writers like Lin himself. If he implied a sequel but did not provide one, then, well, it may be a dirty job, but some ill-omened acolyte has to do it.

Where is the Oriental Quarter, the stomping grounds of Dr. Anton Zarnak? You will note that in “Perchance to Dream” Lin Career placed it in New York. He borrowed the locale from Robert E. Howard’s Steve Harrison detective stories. Where did Howard envision River Street, China Alley etc.? It's hard to say! In "The Mystery of Taannernoe Lodge", River Street seems to be in New York City, but in "The Silver Heel" we are told that a character who had left the city might be in New York instead, while another character is said to have recently relocated from San Francisco, as if it were perhaps nearby. The West Coast has always seemed to me the most natural setting for the adventures of Steve Harrison and Anton Zarnak, and so it is in the present story.

The first appearance of "The Soul of the Devil-Bought" was in Cthulhu Cultus #5. 1996.