I associate the song "In the Court of the Crimson King" with the Mythos, with Azathoth being the titular Crimson King and the entertainment of the Court keeps him sleeping (Specifically the "Three lullabies in an ancient tongue") In the song, we have the lines "The yellow jester does not play But gently pulls the strings And smiles while the puppets dance In the Court of the Crimson King". This is how I percieve Hastur, he's the jester that entertains the idiot King (Azathoth) but is secretly in control, weaving his influence into the minds of the inhabitants of Azathoth's dream.

And this is why I like Sandy Peterson's version of He who must not be named.

He's also a god of shepherds, probably a side gig seeing as that he has to be coaxed into diverting the river from flooding Carcossa.

I can't believe you're the Call of Cthulhu creator. You know how many tattoos I have because of you? Much love, man.

If he's tied to all undead, does that make him..... Hastur of Puppets?

The Hastur and Carcosa myths are some of my favorites thanks to how anomalous it is compared to many other entities and concepts within the mythos. Which is saying a lot all things considered. I like to imagine Carcosa as a bizarre interdimensional space that Hastur uses to hide himself and his pawns away in secret, revealing itself only to those creatively inclined(or even, merely willing to submit to it if someone finds a way to know about it like the KiY play) with Lake Hali playing a similar function as Ryleh to Hasturs brother Cthulhu of hiding the abomination below, while the King in Yellow is the figure head everyone looks toward to.

so glad to have discovered your channel! Been a COC and Delta Green gm for awhile and its so cool to get commentary and tips from one of the originators

My favorite version is the Delta Green Hastur Mythos designed by John Scott Tynes. That is the base idea that I default to whenever I think of either Hastur or the King in Yellow. In that version, John Tynes made the King in Yellow into basically a kind of avatar for creeping entropy and madness, madness as being the entropic breakdown of a sapient mind, and Hastur isl;,

Love it, Sandy. Thank you for spreading the word of The Yellow Sign. I’ll continue to create the art.

For music and madness consider The Rite of Spring which inspired real-world crowd-sized madness the first time it was performed but not after that. Perhaps the King was present and His ends were served by the outbreak.

My take on the two, attempting to harmonize as much as is known about them. (I'd be interested to know your thoughts.) The King - The king is of course yellow as implied as a tattered, stained color of purity/white. It appears its main goal is to corrupt civilizations--specifically cities--through artistic and other influences so that the values and systems in place are undermined. (An idea/revolution can be combated against; madness and art cannot be so easily suppressed.) As the poison of this influence seeks into the general populous, decadence and unrest eats away at it until the entire thing collapses and becomes a desecrated husk of what it was, with no remaining social moorings left in which to find its way back to stabilization. It is then that the King can add this city to its kingdom, either taking it wholesale or creating a kind of platonic echo into its realm beyond the Hyades. (As what king isn't interested, ultimately, in expanding his kingdom?) This goes to explain multiple sightings, visions and stories, especially the visions of walking through cities that have multiple different cultural (sometimes alien) influences buttressed against one another, H---- - This was stated to be an entity (pastoral in some) in some stories, and a physical location in others. I don't see why it cannot be both things coterminously. The place has a will of its own that can manifest, or the entity itself has its dormant or other state of being that is also a physical location. (Things don't have to make sense according to our natural laws, of course.) How they interact with each other is anyone's guess. I'd wager that H--- is the (in its own way alien to our understanding) the place that is 'off limits' to the Kings degradation, to create a sort of balance between the ever expanding needs of the Kings kingdom, and the city of H--- itself wishing to be its own isolated entity. Perhaps a kind of truce exists between the two, where they are bidden to do each-other's bidding to keep the peace. Perhaps H--- has set the KiY against all other large civilizations in the universe so that they fall and can never rival the glory that the city of H--- has, and thus in its vanity will forever be the pinnacle of civilization (through whatever alien values it uses as a metric for such things.)

loved the spooky ending

Thank you, for everything. I've been playing/running CoCth for over 30yrs.

Always fun seeing people who have fun with the Lore playing with out to announce "That which should not be named" in talks. Very good take on the King in Yellow and I've always used the "tether" theory in many creepy Cthulhu mythos to add an extra factor of weird horror. Great stuff and always fun to hear from you. Thank you.

The first four stories in "The King in Yellow" are some of the weirdest and most disturbing I've ever read. I can see why HPL liked them! But Hastur, as an Outer God, is more of a creation of August Derleth. Still, another great and enjoyable episode! Thanks Sandy!

So enigmatic, I started to gather as much information on The King in Yellow and it is not easy considering the amount of various works and how they can differ in interpretation. But why not using it to our advantage as GM and confuse players with it? I’m thinking of using the Mythos in DnD (with support of your Cthulhu Mythos, thanks). I love the idea of an Outer one gaining power through arts that spreads like a diseases and turns people into mad, blind, (at times undead) followers of The King as the Cult grows.

What a fantastic ending

I prefer to think that the Yellow Sign is akin to the King in Yellow's (aka Hastur) handprint.

I enjoy your content, thank you.

I always learn a lot from your videos. They're top notch.

I remember chanting that name with some friends in junior high after Deities & Demigods came out. Tragically, nothing happened.

I didn't know True Dective had Lovecraft influence

The two entities have been one in our minds for a long time. This is incredible news. Only Old Man Henderson can save us now. Also, Robert Johnson's music got me through some hard times.

The sign Chaosium made in the 1980s reminds me of the Pathologic franchise.

It would be awsome if you did a full explanation on the elderthing (old ones) and the story there in.

I’m totally new to all this, and I gotta say…am I the only one that immediately thinks of Dark Souls when I think of The King In Yellow? At least in Cthulu Wars.

Hastur, The Father The King in Yellow, The Son The Yellow Sign, The Holy Ghost

The fun thing about the older artists all being "insane" is it's probably because of their paints. Really old paints contained toooonnes of arsenic, lead, heavy metals and other nasty things, but that was the reason their colours were so vibrant and beautiful. A lot of artists were using these without any gloves, respirators, etc. or even worse getting paint on their hands/mouth and ingesting it. So to create beautiful, vibrant art they basically had to destroy their minds, creating a vicious cycle. It's almost lovecraftian in itself where the more you would paint with these colours the more beautiful works you could create yet at the same time it was literally killing you. Knowledge people weren't meant to know, and the repercussions of that!

So H**stur is the ultimate memelord :3

Time is a flat circle.

I seem to remember Hastur being a name for Alderbaran and a Great Old One.

Hi Sandy! The entity you’re talking about in the Ramsey Campbell story is not Hastur but Gl’aaki, the title of the story is: The Inhabitant of the Lake.

I thought this was going to be about Tim Willits.

I'm surprised that there was no mention of Ambrose Bierce's "An Inhabitant of Carcosa".....

What I've learned from this video - that I've been mis-pronouncing 'Chaosium' wrong for the past 35(?) years.

04:00 Forgive me if I take anything Derlerth makes with a grain of salt the size of an iceberg.

I have an old paperback copy!

5:54 awesome reference to an awesome album

One of your best videos yet, can Hastur defeat Cthulhu? And to take it another step further, how does Hastur co-exist with Azathoth? If (Assuming) Hastur grew and destroyed the universe, would Azathoth wake up?

04:07 1. It's Derleth (Yuck!). While he saved HPL's writings, he also took creative liberties that went against the themes of the original works and probably made Lovecraft spin in his grave. 2. If Nyarlathotep can have multiple guises, then why not Hastur/The King In Yellow?

I've seen some sources call Hastyboy Cthulhu's half brother, and since you've got that octopoid theme going for him are you trying to imply he's a renegade member of the starspawn species?

A couple of years back I ordered a copy of The King in Yellow off Abebooks that was a printed on demand direct copy of the 1904 - I think - version, including some of the fancy plates. They make 'em in India. Leather bound and everything.

Sandy, have you watched the Spanish Production (30 Coins) on HBO max- (lots of Lovecraft references)

Thematically hastur not bring spoken of makes sense,but listening to this in the background makes it a touch confusing. Ah well the heavy need to actually look to see the symbols and stuff spoken of is also a thing so watching is still optimal. I just tend to listen while bouncing between tssks. I do love the audio effects you use to add flavor to the whole thing.

Please revisit the unknown clasic monster concept

I thought Hastur was a cute blonde trap with a star-shaped backpack attending school in Japan.

Apologies as much understanding of Cthuhlhu mythos and species evolution is way beyond me Could there be a third option about Hastur's humanlike form.... could humans be some kind of descendants? So it's not that Hastur looks human-like but, humans are Hastur-like

So Hastur won’t be summoned if it’s uttered via text? It’s only audio? Why’s that?

Ow yo no how you do concepts what would a blank alien be like could you do a video of what a special that became sentient with out technology or what an not necessarily sentient but intelligent plant that coin move with its own agency and coud use senceseto react to its invirment like an animal ever sent I read the triffids and the wolfen and the ruins these concepts gage intreaged me

I'm pretty sure that Alderaan was destroyed by the Empire so it would explain why it is pissed off :)

In your list of monstrous names I think you forgot the Hanged King and the Ambassador of Alagadda... ...ooooor maybe those were something else XD

The Repairer of Reputations is a masterpiece, and increasingly prescient. Where are the Imperial Dynasty of America when they are needed?

Shub Niggurath?

Lovecrafts undead sound alot like the evil dead's undead

The bigger question is can you even talk about him? You are bringing doom upon yourself. I am pretending like I have no clue what you just said to cover myself.

Speaking of music, there's a guitar pedal called the Carcosa. It's a fuzz pedal, with two modes: Demhi and Hali. The King in Yellow is on the front, depicted wearing a deer skull mask. And Bob Dylan really should demand a refund.

Am I missing it or have you not done a video iver the Dreamlands?

You won't say Hastur but you seem to be fine with showing everyone the yellow sign...

Or at least talk about monster more

I think this is probably my first interpretation of yours I have disagreed with.