The King in Yellow by Earl Geier
Hastur, also known as the King in Yellow, is a fictional cosmic entity that first appeared in Ambrose Bierce's short story Haïta the Shepherd (1893) and was later expanded on by Robert W. Chambers, H.P. Lovecraft and August Derleth.
History[]
Hastur debuted in Ambrose Bierce's short story Haïta the Shepherd (1893), in which he was presented as a benevolent god of shepherds.
In Chambers' The King in Yellow (1895), a collection some of which are horror stories, the word "Hastur" is used to describe several concepts such as character and a place.
In Lovecraft's The Whisperer in Darkness (1931) mentioned Hastur alongside many other deities and locations of his own mythology, such as Cthulhu.
August Derleth, a friend of Lovecraft, turned Hastur into a Great Old One, half-brother to Cthulhu and spawn of Yog-Sothoth, who lives in Carcosa. Derleth also presented a rivalry between Hastur and Cthulhu.
In popular culture[]
The character has had influence in pop culture beyond this:
- A demon named Hastur appears in Neil Gaiman's and Terry Pratchet's novel Good Omens.
- As well as it's Amazon TV-show and he served as the possible background villain in the first season of True Detective as the "Yellow King".
- The Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game also features a monster with the name "Old Entity Hastorr".