Hastur, also known as the Yellow King,is a fictional cosmic entity that first appeared inAmbrose Bierce'sshort story Haïta the Shepherd (1893) and was later expanded on byRobert W. Chambers,H.P. LovecraftandAugust Derleth.
Contents
- 1 History
- 2 Relationships
- 3 Career
- 4 Notes and Trivia
- 5 Gallery
- 6 Appearances
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'sThe Whisperer in Darkness(1931) mentioned Hastur alongside many other deities and locations of his own mythology, such asCthulhu.
August Derleth, a friend of Lovecraft, turned Hastur into a Great Old One, half-brother to Cthulhu and spawn ofYog-Sothoth, who lives in Carcosa. Derleth also presented a rivalry between Hastur and Cthulhu.
The character has had influence in pop culture beyond this: a demon named Hastur appears inNeil Gaiman's andTerry Pratchett’s novelGood Omens 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".
It is likely that Hastur is entirely fabricated by the Tuttle Cult and that they worship him in earnest, but he isn't a real entity. It is never fully revealed or explored as to whether the cultists have been in contact with an existential entity called Hastur. However, there is every possibility that he exists as a real force in the world. The strongest clue for this is the vortex vision that Rustin Cohle has at the final confrontation in Carcosa. Cohle states that he has had no visions or drug induced hallucinations in years (which is revealed in other scenes to be a lie), but suddenly has one in the presence of the shrine to Hastur. It may only be an extremely latent drug hallucination however, or one brought on by the stress of the final confrontation with Childress.
