Kayne is really fascinating to me as a Nyarlathotep, because what’s known about Nyarlathotep in the expanded Lovecraft Universe, particularly in the Call of Cthulhu Rulebook, is that he’s the messenger for Azathoth and other Outer Gods, albeit, he’s very mocking towards them, particularly Azathoth. He’s one of the only Outer Gods that actively engage with human beings on the same level as Great Old Ones do and the only Outer God to have a true personality. The book describes him as the heart and soul of the Gods, as well as a being that gets more joy out of causing madness than mere destruction and death.
Kayne deviates from this — a lot.
He is seemingly no longer fulfilling his role as the messenger of the Gods, as their soul, acting entirely on his own whims. On top of that, he’s incredibly violent throughout the series, revelling in the destruction and the death, massacring a city just because he got bored.
He’s seperated himself entirely from his existence as Nyarlathotep, and that might be why he gets so frustrated by people that insist on shoving him back in that box. Nyarlathotep was his prison, and he’s freed himself from it, or, he thinks he has.
It makes so much sense for the most self-aware Outer God to break eventually. He’s the only one to act out because he’s the only one that sees the canvas and understands their limits, and he resents it. On top of that, he killed the only beings that could possibly understand his plight — himself.
Something else about Kayne is that he takes great care in remaining human in his appearance. Lilith talks about it, but Kayne only appears to abide by gravity and walk the other as a human would, because he wants to. His human facade is so carefully crafted, and where Nyarlathotep was the creature of A Thousand Forms, shifting fluidly between identities, Kayne is simply… Kayne. This applies to the Manager as well.
Kayne is almost desperately trying to be the opposite of Nyarlathotep, but in the end, he reveals one of his other faces, and he speaks of the freedom the Blackstone — Azathoth — has given him. He’s right back to being Nyarlathotep, heart and soul of the Gods. I mean, never stopped being Nyarlathotep, really, but he was under the false illusion of freedom.
[Edited to clarify some things!]
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