The Unspeakable One.
Him Who Is Not To Be Named.
The King in Yellow.
Hastur.
Up to this point we have solely discussed entities in the Cthulhu mythos
that were created by H.P. Lovecraft himself.
Hastur, on the other hand, is a bit different,
but He is still an intrical part of the overall mythos and a personal favorite.
Hastur's first literary mention was in Ambrose Bierce's short story "Haïta the Shepherd"
in which Hastur is a benevolent patron of shepherds.
This short story would also introduce the names "Carcosa" and "Hali".
Robert W. Chambers would go on to write a collection of stories titled "The King in Yellow",
which, despite being a fascinating collection,
is mainly focused on the titular play which we'll save for a separate video.
Lovecraft, inspired by Chamber's collection,
would mention Hastur only once in his short stories,
in "The Whisperer in Darkness".
"I found myself faced by names and terms that I had heard elsewhere in the most hideous of connections-"
"... Yuggoth ..."
"... Great Cthulhu ..."
"... Tsathoggua ..."
"... Yog-Sothoth ..."
"... R'lyeh ..."
"... Nyarlathotep ..."
"... Azathoth ..."
"... Hastur ..."
"... Yian ..."
"... Leng ..."
"... the Lake of Hali ..."
"... Bethmoora ..."
"... the Yellow Sign ..."
"... L’mur-Kathulos ..."
"... Bran ..."
"... and the 'Magnum Innominandum'."
It's unclear if Lovecraft meant Hastur to be an entity or a place,
since he placed it right between a deity, Azathoth,
and a place, Yian,
although a separate quote from him discussing Chamber's book implies Hastur to be an entity.
We can, however, thank August Derleth for fleshing Hastur out as an actual Great Old One.
Hastur is a lesser deity that lives, likely imprisoned, on a star near Aldebaran in the Torus constellation.
Hastur is supposedly the half-brother of Cthulhu,
although it is said the two share nothing but contempt for one another.
Hastur's default appearance is a large, vaguely octopoid being,
but He also can take several different shapes as avatars.
One of these is "The Feaster from Afar", a horrific, bat-like creature,
but much more well-known is His avatar of "The King in Yellow".
Hasturs main weapon is His ability to instil insanity in victim's minds.
From His home in Carcosa,
He mainly influences the minds of creative types, such as artists, musicians, writers and others,
into creating madder and madder pieces.
Oftentimes, they will succumb to the influence of the infamous "Yellow Sign".
They will recreate the horrid sign however they can and seek to share its image with others often repeating...
"Have you seen the Yellow Sign?"
Supposedly, anyone that views the Sign
is capable of being influenced or even mind-controlled by Hastur.
As His "King in Yellow" avatar, whether it's actually Hastur Himself or just a messenger of Him,
He can influence others more directly.
He is pictured as a hunched figure, clad in tattered yellow rags
who wears a smooth and featureless pallid mask.
The mask covers a horrific face, described as
"Inhuman eyes in a suppurating sea of stubby, maggot-like mouths..."
... liquescent flesh, tumorous and gelid, floating and reforming."
Hastur's main goal is likely to get to Earth permanently,
in order to spread madness and insanity to all.
In order to achieve this,
He's influencing as many as He can from afar.
Cultists around the world work tirelessly to spread His message,
and call to Him when Aldebaran is in the sky.
Hastur is an interesting figure to me, since His terror is not necessarily a physical threat,
but from our culture.
The horror stories we read and delight in,
so does he.
So tell me...
Have you seen the Yellow Sign?