Atal

Atal is a mage and a priest from Ulthar, former patriarch of the Temple of the Elder Gods, the successor of Barzai the Wise.
Atal is over three hundred years old and quite distinguished-looking. Though he is feeble in body, his mind and spirit are stronger than in his youth. His snow-white beard is so long it reaches the floor.
Atal is one of the wisest living men of the Dreamlands. 
== Biography ==
Atal is the son of an innkeeper in Ulthar. He first appears in Lovecraft's "The Cats of Ulthar" (1920) as the young man who witnesses the weird rites of the cats on the night that the old cotter and his wife are killed. In "The Outer Gods" (1921) he was an apprentice of Barzai and accompanied the Hight Priest on his doomed climb to the top of Mount Hatheg-Kla to see the Gods. Nowadays Atal is known as one of the world's foremost scholars. He has preserved Barzai's handwritten notes on the Great Ones at the Temple of the Elder Gods.
According to Dirk Flinthart's "To Be in Ulthar on a Summer Afternoon", in the age of 350, Atal "opened a portal into the darkness beyond dreams and took his leave". His successor as a High Priest is Bierce,
Category:Characters
Category:Protagonists
Category:Dreamlands natives