Carter, Randolph

b. 1874. Randolph Carter of Boston, Massachusetts, and born in Arkham, is the narrator of the terrible business of his mentor Harley Warren ("The Statement of Randolph Carter") and is mentioned obliquely in "The Shunned House" and as a friend of Dr. Marinus Bicknell Willett in "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward." Carter is the central character in the tales of dreamworld that are recorded under the titles "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," "The Silver Key," and "Through the Gates of the Silver Key." He is the narrator "The Unnamable" which describes him as an author of "The Attic Window" which may be a story or recording of a local legend. He is friends with Basil Elton the Kingsport lightkeeper, Pickman who became a ghoul, and Kuranes (before and after his death). He was a friend to both the cats of Ulthar (whose language he understood) and the Zoogs between whome he engineered a peace. As a boy in 1883 had an incident at Snake Den that had allowed him to see into the future by thirty years. Very close to his mother and grandfather. Carter fought in World War I in the French Foreign legion where he met Etienne-Laurent de Marigny. Carter also, with Pickman and an army of ghouls, defeated the moon-beasts. He came face to face with Nyarlathotep, who allowed him to live based only on the pureness of his quest to see Kadath. When he was thirty, Carter lost the silver key of the Ultimate Gate given him by his grandfather. When he was fifty four he disappeared only to return in a misshapen form before disappearing again. See: Carter, (-) and Chandaputra, Swami