I miss Terry. Alzheimer's couldn't have happened to a less deserving artist. I almost wish he wasn't an atheist so he at least would have someone to be angry at.
This reading of The King In Yellow makes me think more of Reaper Man when Death is outraged to see the new Death wearing a crown. Like a king. Discworld's Death I can see as an anthisis to The King Yellow, where those who nilisticly believe and seek nothing get just that, while the Absurd Humanist Death leads you to dark desert and when asked what's next replies "THAT IS UP TO YOU. IT IS ALWAYS UP TO YOU."
The single most important thing about TKiY: it was published in 1895. 1895! Lovecraft was 5 years old when this short-story collection came out. This art-horror concept album, so influential that many people assume it's a Mythos keystone, is actually a foundation-piece.
The play "The King in Yellow" reminds me of something that Socrates says when talking to Protagoras (Protagoras 313e-14b) and comparing knowledge to food; he says that "Knowledge is the food of the soul" and later says "If, therefore, you have an understanding of what is good and evil, you may safely buy knowledge [...] there is far greater peril in buying knowledge than in buying meat and drink". He talks about how you can buy meat and drink and take it to a [physician], but how you cannot do this with knowledge. He says, *"But you cannot buy the wares of knowledge and carry them away in another vessel; when you have paid for them you must receive them into the soul and go your way, either greatly harmed or greatly benefited."*
The worst part is not that afterlife isn’t real, but the fact that is in ruin, which means something made it this way, and if that’s so, this means something must have caused it, which is an extremely more terrifying revelation.
Agreed. It's not like "Heaven alhas always been a lie, there Is nothing there." But the mere fact that a Heavem WAS there but now it's in ruin (and could probabily never recover) Is fare more horrifying.
@@yurimolino5435 And most importantly, whatever brought it to ruin, might still lie there, and since we are already dead, the consequences of it finding us are far more unsettling
@@amyroberts8978 Well, it's still the work of Eldritch creatures, usually in that kind of literature Is next.to.impossible to undo any kind of damage or influence by those entities.
I never realized how bastardized the yellow king had become, and this has given me a new appreciation for it and the scp adaptation “The Hanged King” an adaptation that stays much truer to the source than the modern Haastur
@@Goldenkitten1 The king in yellow is my favourite character of that game. I just finished Sucker For Love: A Date to Die For demo, and I am super excited for more. I wish we could get a game where all of them can interact, just like in Act II of the first game
@@danielzane6714 Agreed. I was a little disappointed when I found out it wasn't going to be the same protagonist since the entire concept was to smooch all the lovecraftian entities possible.
Never forget, Chambers depicted The King in Yellow as a jester on the original cover. Forgive me if I got my details wrong, but I also believe he drew/designed the cover himself as well.
This reminds me of the closing lines in "The Court of the Crimson King" by King Crimson: On soft grey mornings widows cry The wise men share a joke I run to grasp divining signs To satisfy the hoax *The yellow jester does not play* *But gently pulls the strings* *And smiles as the puppets dance* *In the court of the crimson king* This could have been a coincidence, but it's a very interesting one, especially given the apocalyptic tone of King Crimson's song.
That kinda describes modern society. Just a couple highlight reels, cult-like repression of any non-conformity, and a sprinkle of hedonism to disguise a system so broken it doesn't even know where happiness comes from.
I know that even if The King in Yellow was never published as an actual book that didn´t stop people writing their own version of the ficticious play, like the one by Thom Ryng about a dying dynasty among other versions. What I think it would be cool to see in a adaptation of the story would be using a palette scheme where every colour is allowed, except any shade of yellow. No gold, no amber, nothing that resembles yellow. There would be blues, greens, purples and reds, but not yellow at all. That way the absence of this colour creates an alien and otherworldy sensation to the audience, a sense of mystery and morbid curiosity on why the setting looks like that. Even more, once there is a scene where we finally see yellow it would be of a shade that can be disturbing, and even cause a feel of sickness to the audience, to show how corrupt this colour is in universe.
Thats really intersting. I've read a work loosely inspired by King in Yellow on SCP wiki, named the Hanged King, specifically SCP-2264. It doesn't have a big theme like King in Yellow, but the ending of it really connects to King being a false dead god, hidden behind a mask. In the ending, a group of Foundation agents get into Alagadda, the realm of the Hanged King and they confront the Ambassador, Kings servant. Ambassador tortures them and forces them to kill each other, leaving only one agent standing. This agent is than taken to the Hanged King himself. Quote from the interview after the mission: Agent: There I saw the King. It was anchored in place, with hands and throat shackled tight, like… like a corpse in bondage. Its face was hidden beneath a black veil, or maybe it was a hood. I… I don't quite remember. But I remember these horrid imps. They were caressing the King's twitching body, as if trying to comfort it. But others pulled the tethers even tighter. The King trembled and quivered and I saw pale tendrils slither in and out of its tattered robes. I looked on as the imps lifted the King's veil… [there is a change in tone, suggesting lucidity] I want to die. I can't live with what I've done. Please kill me. End this. I can't feel my legs. I can't feel my arms. Not like this. Not like this. Please, I'm begging you… Interviewer: You know I can't do that. Please tell me what you saw. Agent: [Said without emotion] A god shaped hole. The barren desolation of a fallen and failed creation. You see the light of long dead stars. Your existence is nothing but an echo of a dying god's screams. The unseen converges. Surrounds you. And it tightens like a noose.
Given all the talk of stars, including "black stars" in the original story, the "Hanged King" described in that last bit could be an analogy for a blackhole of maddening size being what went basically super nova (on a much larger scale) and created our Universe. "you see the light of long dead stars" = we're doing that now with the James Webb telescope, looking back at the light of the earliest-formed stars that are now long gone. The "unseen" that surrounds and tightens = the pull of gravity from the black hole at the center of our galaxy (or the pull from all of the black holes in general). The black hole that exploded to create the Universe is the "dying god" that died because of being a "fallen and failed creation".
The hanged king is one of the only interperetations I agree with, The King always struck me as a sort of manifestation of nothing. When you think about it, the human concept of "nothing" is actually super important and meaningful, so it makes sense there'd be a god of nothing, like there's gods for everything else. But since humans don't actually ascribe anything to "nothing" it's forced to force its way into simi-reality through our collective unconcious.
@@Vaeldarg "Black star" is an older term for a black hole, in fact. It also has a modern meaning that I don't fully understand but which is similar to but distinct from a black hole.
@@blarg2429 it's because a "black hole" is really just an object with even greater gravity than a neutron star. The gravity is just off-the-charts for a star, so a different category of celestial object was created. A modern use of "black star" would probably be an even "colder" star than a brown dwarf, maybe even a star that has completely used up all its fuel and has solidified. (aka "iron star" since the end product of all that fusion is stable iron atoms)
What previous comments are getting at is called a black dwarf. The universe is simple not old enough for any black dwarf stars to have formed yet. The estimated time for the Sun to cool enough to become a black dwarf is about 10¹⁵(1 quadrillion) years, though it could take much longer than this, if weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) exist. Way off topic, I know, but hey - I'm an astrophysics buff. 😉
When I read An Inhabitant of Carcosa, I can't recall if I already knew the twist ending or not going in-- it's not so much of a twist these days that "he was dead all along!' but it wasn't common practice to write something that required the kind of suspension of disbelief at the time, iirc, that the narrator wasn't around to be doing the telling-- but I never once thought that the ruins of Carcosa might be the ruins of *the afterlife*. I'd just taken it as a ghost story, someone who "woke up" as a ghost many centuries after their death. I love your interpretation here, and night use that in my own world building-- while I want to include Cthulhu mythos stuff in the setting too, The King In Yellow & Carcosa gave me a very different vibe from Lovecraft, and I wanted to preserve the difference in their presence in my world... I think starting from the concept that Carcosa was always an afterlife, but now it's in ruins-- I think that's a great way to do just that. Thank you so much for this interesting interpretation.
@@khorrusvoa there are a million retellings of alice in wonderland. I f you want to build a world based on lovecraftian lore then do it. just make it original, make it interesting.
@@davidmc8478 The Egyptians had their afterlife, the Greeks had their own afterlife, a lot of religions dangle immortality at the end of a stick by saying if you believe in it then you will continue to live a life in another form after your body has died. Lovecraft here was probably pulling a "they actually are all talking about the same thing" angle, and taking the title "Paradise Lost" as paradise itself becoming lost instead of just missing out on it.
I always saw the king in yellow as something more than just another Lovecraftian monster, instead a embodiment of pure imagination no different than say the Childlike Empress. strangely enough both the Neverending Story and the King In Yellow could even be the same story only read in a different perspectives one from a paranoid Adult the other a curious Child. Regardless both lead to madness upon reading too far into the story.
I honestly don't think that the modern idea of the Lovecraftian entity of Hastur takes anything away from The King in Yellow as some of the comments are saying. If anything, I think the sheer difference of the two combined into one entity makes a uniquely interesting result. The King in Yellow is an entity associated very strongly with human perceptions and needs, specifically meaninglessness and decadence. Its power over humanity comes from human minds. To contrast, the creature Hastur must be far more ancient and incomprehensible. Doesn't it seem appropriate to portray the King in Yellow as a mere avatar or aspect of a creature that is beyond human comprehension? To play on the contrast seems to me that it would strengthen both parts. A simple lesser avatar of the creature Hastur causing so much madness by merely tapping into the existentialism and decadence of humanity, making it a very powerful force of madness while also propping up the creature called Hastur as something humans can't fully understand even further. I dunno, I just think rather than seeing Hastur as a Cthulhu Mythos bastardization or something to that effect, I think both can work in terms of their own merits as well as together.
I like your take on things! I’ve more or less done the same thing for my D&D game’s big bad. Hastur has three avatars, with the King in Yellow being the most important (the other two being based on the Dunwich Horror, the Wickerman and the Feaster From Afar). The King in Yellow is an all-powerful divine king, who in actuality, is a hollow thing consumed by Haster in his attempts to become a god by becoming a mask to put on the unfathomable force that Hastur is. Hence ruining his city he’d turned into its own afterlife, enticing souls with meaningless, burning bliss. Its definitely a fun concept you can take and run with, and it sure beats just being upset about TKiY’s modern portrayals
It seems some people are starting to see Lovecraft as "the dude with the giant squids" and nothing more, without realising how slanted a viewpoint that creates. The more Lovecraftian Hastur character steps beyond the human-centric interpretation that Chambers gave him and morphs him into this sort of avatar of decadence and decay on a cosmic level. Hastur isn't just a literary figure, he actively ruins worlds by turning people into its slaves and destroying their worlds around them. It kinda reminds me of Slaneesh in 40K being born from a single species' decadence and lust but then stepping onto a galactic stage to menace an entire cosmos' worth of people and things. Ironically, even Tale Foundry here sounds critical of "Eldritch bloodlines and unspeakable runes." as if those are a bad thing. I think it's a difference in perspective. Chambers was criticising a single philosophical viewpoint of humanity by presenting excess and shallow lives as ultimately meaningless while Lovecraft's works focus on humanity as a whole being just a speck of dust underneath the boots of much grander, more terrifying entities. They are different, sure, but both can be bone-chilling in the right hands.
@@darklord884that kind of misses the vibe so to speak. The horror is not that there is an eldritch entity like Hastur out there, the real horror is the things anything associated to him does. The real villains is the self and the concept of sanity, the idea that as Tale Foundry suggests, language in itself is a form of magic that can influence people beyond the means of mere patterns like an alphabet is horrifying. That the horror of the king in yellow is the fact his kingdom of Carcosa is dead, his successors are mad and failing, and the people who follow him don't even know what he is (The Mask). It's a bit reductive to make him something of a Slaanesh figure of mainly decadence. It's much more powerful if the concept of creativity combined with the king in yellow is enough to shape maddening reality, and just knowing of it will force people to notice and read the play even if they reject it. He's not some power like Cthulhu actively summoning stuff or like Slaanesh who wants to beat the other gods, he just is. And his realm is perpetuated by people who should've known better, or do know better but are powerless to stop it. He barely even appears yet his corruption persists throughout the 4 original stories because of human curiosity and wanting to read the play. "The old king is dead. Long live the king." As they say. The yellow king to me and others is about the downfall of people chasing something both long dead and fake, and making him a lovecraftian cosmic entity with plots strips most of that by removing most of the human agency.
@@magniwalterbutnotwaltermag1479 But contrary to what you said, Tale Foundry specifically says that Hastur is likely a critique and mockery of the Decadent movement. The interpretation of the invasive, mind-melting patterns and brain-breaking concepts only came in later. And not even from Lovecraft himself, since he only mentions Hastur once and that's just in a list of names and concepts, not even giving Hastur a full description. What you just described isn't really that different from the 'Lovecraftian' version of Hastur (again, that term is a bit of a stretch but eh) since that one is also an invasive, leech-like version of creativity and talent that seeps into the minds of the artistically inclined, slowly corrupting them to the cause of a ruined land and a non-existent king. He doesn't really have "plots", at least not ones that humans can interpret. Just as you described the version of Chambers, the Lovecraftian Hastur kind of seeps into your brain if you are curious and prone to obsession enough. In fact, if you recall the Repairer of Reputations, Chambers's Hastur actually has far clearer plots, since that version actively attempts to assassinate state leaders and establish a proxy as the head honcho in America. Or at least the King in Yellow drives a poor sucker into believing he is. That is actually a clearer form of malevolent planning than most of what other writers did with the figure of Hastur. I think you unfortunately misunderstood me. My comparison to Slaneesh wasn't in function, but more in concept. Just as Slaneesh represents the decadence of the Eldar, so does Hastur and the King in Yellow represent the decadence of humanity. Or at least it can do that. But the actual in-universe way of how Hastur works isn't really that simple. None of the great old ones and outer gods are, really. Like you said, they often don't give a shit about humanity and are not actively trying to destroy us, they just *are* and the fact they merely *are,* their mere existence is so destructive to humanity that our reality can become compromised by their mere presence alone. That is what they are in-universe (except Nyarlathotep who has a human-adjacent enough personality to be a dick on purpose), but their metaphorical interpretation isn't just "Great byg monster thyng that is great and byg and scary." I have seen this interpretation from some people and it is pretty weird to say the least. That Lovecraftian horror is suddenly considered base, shallow and lesser than say Chambers' book. That's absolutely insane to me because these aren't in competition, but are rather built off of each other. What confuses me the most is that I've seen several people seemingly identify Lovecraft's work and Lovecraftian horror in general as the "byg scary monster horror" and identify the threat and scare factor of cosmic entities that they are all powerful and byg. That is absolutely crazy to me, since sure, many beings could snap humanity out of existence if they wanted to, but it's never that simple. They all represent something greater than just the fact they are big and scary and if you think about it, all cosmic entities have the human element and human action tied to them. Either in the cultists who go mad and seek to awaken an ancient entity from the depths or the unlucky investigator who has to unearth the work of a depraved ritualistic killer. Claiming that "Lovecraftian horror removes most of the human agency" is absolutely crazy to me because Lovecraftian horror is, by its base components, predicated on the actions and foolhardy, arrogant ideas of humans. Lovecraft specifically wrote many of his tales as critiques of human-centric philosophies of his time and that is why so many of his 'heroes' and villains are humans who think themselves masters of their fate, only to be squashed by either a fellow human driven made or an entity they cannot even comprehend. But it always takes that human element to either seek out the unfathomable, to seek the grand answers, or to devolve into the doom-seeking cultist and power-hungry psycho. Saying that Lovecraftian horror takes out the human action and human element from these beings is simply not true.
@@darklord884 agreed. unfortunately you will find that the vast majority of people who have hot takes on lovecraft have absolutely no idea what they're talking about
The sentence "The king in yellow is the metaphorical corpse of God" has been living rent free in my head for a little over a year. To dream of your Carcosa IS better then the alternative.
The name Hastur actually comes from another Ambrose Bierce story, and is mentioned in one of Chambers' short stories in "the King in Yellow", but is given almost in passing to a side character. Also, a lot of the imagery surrounding the King in Yellow also comes from a lot of French decadence works, such as "La Bas" and "The King in the Golden Mask".
I saw a fascinating interpretation once that much of the strange imagery in Cassilda's Song could be taken to be describing theatrical artifice--the 'cloud waves' as fog effects used to represent water on stage, the celestial bodies described in terms that could evoke a theatrical backdrop, and the King's tattered robes as the curtains framing a proscenium stage.
@@niftyskates85 while it is true chemical fog machines are a relatively recent invention (1920s), smoke/fog has been used in theatre for centuries its one of the oldest special effects techniques used by mankind and surprisingly easy to accomplish. Edit: punctuation for clarity
SCP has something like this in the form of The Hanged King and his envoy. I'm pretty sure they were inspired by these stories, but the envoy can appear when a specific play is done and results in everyone in attendance and the actors killing themselves and each other. The Hanged King is an entity "Living" in a different dimension that connects to all other dimensions, where anyone from anywhere can go if they want to. The King is as much a prisoner as it is king, it's described as a void in the shape of a man, brought about by a king who refused to die and rose up from his grave, chained to it's thrown and suffering as it did in the moment of it's death. His subjects are all dressed in masquerade attire and they all party when the envoy is gone, but all of them are in fact dead, unable to leave the world behind by the hand of the hanged king.
@@l0sts0ul89 If you are referring to Doomsday as in the DC character and enemy of Superman, then that's a stretch unless the author themselves stated it. The Lizard that refuses to die has a few ties to other SCPs depending on the canon, such as the biblical SCPs where its implied the lizard is the Serpent or Satan. Another it is the physical manifestation of an abstract concept called SCP-3125 where it hates humanity because of the Entity residing in humanity's collective consciousness, feeding off of the pain and suffering that it bestows on humans. Although if in your head you believe it so, I doubt there's much I can do to change your mind (again unless the author has confirmed that Doomsday was the inspiration for SCP-682).
@@blitzwolfer4154 Yeah and all those came AFTER it's creation building off new lore created by others, 682 is a giant monster that adapt to everything it comes across and hates/wants to kill everything, which is Doomsday to the T.
@@l0sts0ul89 I mean if we are being real, there are a lot of characters with similar traits or personalities that aren't directly inspired from each other. And unless the author confirms it, its not a fact. Plus, there are quite a few differences, despite the rage or hate SCP-682 displays, it shows considerably more intelligence that Doomsday never will. There's a few more differences but the point being is, there's no actual factual evidence the author used Doomsday as a template for SCP-682. Of course if you do find evidence the author confirmed your statement, then that would resolve anything I brought up. But if you don't then it means your statement is an opinion or theory.
@@blitzwolfer4154 are you fucking on something, do you know not know what the word inspiration means, also Doomsday has absolutely shown that levels of intelligence
"Hark! Comes the yellow King! Regaled in a gown of yellow. He stands twice as tall as any man! Majestic, he glides over the ground to take his throne in lost Carcosa, for he is the king that was and shall be…!"
This is such a great video, and I definitely love the "King in Yellow is the corpse of God after we killed him." Like... a cause and effect, we killed God, and what's left isn't ever going to be that thing again, but rather something horrifying.
I published a short story last year about the King in Yellow ("The Dedication of the High Priestess" on the Tales to Terrify podcast episode 565, if you're interested). For me, the King in Yellow is an entity born to rule, no matter the situation, place or people, and I tried to put that into the story, along with trying to stick closer to the original stories rather than the Lovecraftian additions. I wonder how my story might have changed if I knew this viewpoint when I wrote it, however. I wonder how someone with this viewpoint might view the story!
To begin, this is the first time I've seen the new animated intro, and my god it's fantastic. As a Lovecraft enthusiast, not a scholar or historian, I never really understood the King in Yellow as presented in the cosmic horror materials I consume, those being related to Lovecraft's original works and the tabletop RPG, of which I'm a huge fan. I was never aware of Inhabitant of Carcosa, so I never had much context as to what the King represented. After hearing Inhabitant and your explanations of what the story implies, he might be one of my favorite Mythos entities now, even more than Shub-Niggurath. I really love all of the interpretations presented, especially the King being the corpse of every god or pantheon that promised a Heaven to their worshipers. I find the influence of the decadents and the meaning of the color yellow at the time to be absolutely fascinating, but since I usually lean more into the overt cosmic horror elements of the Mythos, I find it just be just a tad less compelling to write or theorize about, though that's like saying that a 9.9 is less than 10, so it's not by much. I think it may be because the decadent theory is essentially, at least as it was presented, a complete and understandable embodiment and idea. Whereas the corpse of gods and the afterlife leaves room for imagination and horror beyond what's outright stated, at least for me. Finally, to explain the Hastur connection and renaming the King as an avatar of Hastur, in the materials I have access to, it alludes to Hastur being considered an embodiment of cosmic entropy, and the undeniable, unstoppable end of all things, like the heat death of the universe given life and form. With the King in Yellow representing the death, end, or corpse of the afterlife and the gods, usually considered to be endless ideas, concepts, and entities, it's at least understandable why the two were connected, but I prefer to have them be separate. Uh, anyway, great video! Haha
There's one of those Lovecraft quotes that's along the lines of "in these strange eons, even Death may die", so maybe it's more that The King in Yellow is a being with a skeletonized face mistaken for a "pale mask" (as in, a mask of a skull, popular at certain kinds of parties) and they're from a place where nothing is able to die anymore. That's why the grass and trees were still there, and the "inhabitant" is there as a ghost who was unable to go to any other after-life. They didn't get re-born into a new body when they died: their soul simply kept existing, now in this new landscape.
@@Vaeldarg yet the pallid covering shows strange bumps and twisting of what should be human features----they aren't though we never see what it is. Guessing is freely associated.
I don't usually enjoy these types of books, but when I was walking through the library, and I saw this book, it just piqued my interest. It was actually entertaining, and there being different people's stories that all have the King in Yellow affecting them in their own ways was different and it gave me something to think about. I've also had the book cover as my profile picture for about a year now, just so I am always reminded of The King in Yellow's existence. Would recommend.
I imagined the King in Yellow play as something similar to Masque of the Red Death. With this concept of the Yellow King I feel more sure about a paralel becouse at the end of the Poe's story it is revealed that there is nothing under the red mask. Both the play and the short story has: an associated colour, a masquarade and a stranger that is revealed to be something not human. It's just my little personal idea about what is the King in Yellow play becouse the book and the short stories just stick with people and we all want to know the truth of the Yellow King Ps.: This video and the other about Lovecraft's dream cycle are just so fun, seeing the roots and edges of the mythos! A Lord Dunsany video would be so great too.
I used the original story in my D&D game, to set the mood for carcosa. They found a lost ghost and helped lay it to rest. Then they ran into Alaggodda, which i just inserted as a province of Carcosa. They found the whole thing creepy, unsettling, and surreal.
I saw this video a while back and only recently checked out malevolent! Really liked it because it does appeal to the whole lovecraftian side of 'the king in yellow' and it was just a good story, but I also appreciate and love this philosophical take on the story! both are good, and the podcast is very fun!
I've read the King in Yellow (all the short stories in the collection) and it quickly became a favorite. I loved your insight on the meaning of "yellow" from that era, and it makes sense. I noticed that in The Great Gatsby how the jazz music at one of the wild parties in Gatsby's mansion was described as yellow. It definitely tracks.
This imaginary play is described the way my christian family and friends described atheism to me as a child. They never explained what it was to be an atheist, they even went out of their way to misinform me about what it is. Their misinformation was born out of sort of a combination of naivety and ignorance. They had obviously been misinformed themselves but they were misinformed in the same way they misinformed me, leading them to be deliberately ignorant of it as well out of fear of what it would do to them to consider the idea that god does not exist. It is in their doctrine that, without the meaning that their doctrine imposes upon them, they would lose all meaning and be like the decadents you mention. Deconverting is scary at first because of this perception but it is incorrect to think that there is no meaning without a god. You lose the artificial meaning that imposed religion forces you to accept but then you're free to find your own meaning. I found meaning in the true paradise I've found: Love the joy of someone else. This will give you more joy and fulfillment than any other source. I go so far as to call it paradise. It does not end suffering but it is still possible through suffering. It does not guarantee the existence of an afterlife but, if there is an afterlife, then death will not take this paradise away. There is no gatekeeper, mortal or eternal, who can withhold it from you.
Tale Foundry, thank you for always giving us so many good videos. I actually listen to you while i write all the time and find inspiration in the vibe you put in these vids ^-^
my favorite iteration of the king in yellow is the sucker for love game. The baby in yellow is a close contender I've never really thought of the king himself as an independent entity or character, but "The King In Yellow" as a script or a book that has a supernatural cognitohazardous ability to drive the reader mad. Reading it does to you what looking directly at an elder god does (or an angel, I like to think they're the same creature, though an angel often breaks the effect by proclaiming the magic words "be not afraid")
Robert chambers wrote a follow up anthology weird tales and one line had the characters tell a story to another "about wars". "There was once a king of Carcosa and upon given to him was a mouth of truth and blasphemies." So I'm sure he's anthropomorphic
I quite like the idea of the King in Yellow and Carcosa being a metaphor for narcissism, both personal and cultural. A hollow, decaying existence that only affirms itself through sensation, having the shiny things, feeling all the pleasures, and getting all the attention. The moment the narcissistic mind is deprived of that excess, it is faced with how much it is lacking within, forced to introspect for the first time and see the dilapidated husk that has become of its soul. In reaction, it reels in horror, trying to block it out with yet more excess, but to no avail. It becomes miserable, deranged, desperate to fill the void it has become all too aware of; but it does not know how, for it has forgotten- or perhaps never even known- that which brings life to an empty soul. It has been deprived of love, truth, meaning, and purpose, and thus knows not that those things are what make a man whole.
10:43 It was actually Ambrose Bierce who named him Hastur. Hastur's first appearance came in Bierce's 1891 short story "Haita the Shepard" where he portrays Hastur as a benevolent Shepard God.
The comments section of Tale Foundry videos is an endless source for new inspiration, authors, movies and music. All of this from a 125 year old tale. It's nice to be reminded that the love for this material is so widespread, and not my own. 💛 to all.
I subscribed to the reading that explains away the strangeness of Carcossa as the stage of a theater - stars painted in black to be visible, mist for the lake's water, hanging moon props occluding the peaks of Carcossa's towers, painted to the backdrop as they are. And of course, the King's tattered, yellow robes engulfing all - the curtains of this stage. The terror in the first act is the realization of the characters that they are just that, characters on stage, ushered of course by seeing that the visitor's mask and face are the same thing. The second act was mentioned to feature people trying to disregard what was happening and live their life. Perhaps the final blow to the reader's sanity is the realization that they, too, live in a play. I like how this background meshes with the above. If Decadence pushes for a rejection of a meaningful, objective reality, then Carcossa is a place where it succeeded, on a cosmic scale. The world itself has become a play, and the King in Yellow is what remains of whatever divinity once existed. And at the same time, his Demiurge-like interpretation fits - a world that's nothing but a persuasive spectacle would have a god whose job is to sustain that persuasiveness.
The idea and history of this yellow clad decadent movement is very interesting to me, more interesting even then speculating on the text itself. I think it’s easy to forget the popular culture of the day when something was written. Maybe it’s possible the king in yellow story isn’t a comment on the decadent movement, but it’s hard to not see the correlation and that correlation adds a level of depth to the work that is lost on modern people. It’s like reading Shakespeare I think. Many of Shakespeare’s stories have slang and puns and jokes that simply don’t exist anymore because our modern English is so removed from his. It shows that the history of literature just as important as the literature itself.
I like this. Actually analyzing the mechanisms behind the fears that Lovecraftian horrors represent, rather than just going "Oooooo, big spoooky aliens"
Yellow is such an interesting color. One bit of media that it immediately made me think of was Elden Ring, FromSoftware's 2022 GOTY. In that game, yellow is the color of the Frenzied Flame which inflicts Madness on those who gaze upon it for too long. It is a color of extremes of sorts. It is the color of rebellion that is so rebellious it doesn't care if its actions hurts its own cause. It's the color of extreme creativity. Creativity so extreme that as soon as one thought appears it is gone and replaced by another. It is the color of Chaos. In the setting this color exists, its adherents seek to reunite everything that was once the One Great by burning all that divides and distinguishes. It is the most reviled thing in the Lands Between. Yellow is such a fascinating color.
The King in Yellow: "it is a fearsome thing to fall into the hands of the *living* god." Tale foundry: C.O.R.P.S.E O.F G.O.D Yet I still believe you are right. Even if not, this is the most dreadfully beautiful interpretation of this character I have heard. Thank you so much!
I personally always saw the king in yellow as a living sentient idea, one no human could comprehend. In the stories by Robert W Chambers the play of the same name is said to be banned pretty much everywhere yet nearly everyone has heard of it or have some knowledge of it to the point that some of the main characters who end up reading it were afraid of it before hand. The king as this "living idea" either wants to be known or thought but humans cant comprehend it entirely, and only perceive pieces which effect them in different ways. As they only see parts of this god who exists only in thought, still powerful as a true god but by only understanding a fraction of him his powers only react in what the perceive of him, those who feared the play are eventually convinced/ coerced into reading it by a dead man who hounded them only for there fears to be confirmed when one dies and the other goes mad, all the while another man who reads it comes to fear carcosa as the city of lost souls and the king as their ruler. Meeting with the king is dangerous as what you think of this idea may be what changes you or your life, to the man who feared him as the ruler of lost souls, he ends up being chased by what he thought was death and ends up an inhabitant of the city, meeting the king who says said "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God." God lives as an idea.
You know, after going over the Cthulhu mythos to try to get inspiration for a story I’ve been trying to write since high school, I had just recently realized something. Hastur is “the king in yellow.” Nyarlehotep is “the thing in the yellow mask.” The king in yellow changes people in drastic ways, and Nyarlehotep loves to interfere with human affairs. Nyarlehotep can shapeshift,and the king in yellow has no defined form. With this, I conclude that Hastur is actually Nyarlehotep.
Read the rat on walls, it pretty much states directly that Nyarlatoteph it's, at least on that history, the king in yellow. Funny that Nyarlatoteph likes to shapeshift and go around just having fun, dude can turn into a lego set, a vtuber, a damn fisherman or the god of decadence and forgotten stuff, I love Nyarlatoteph.
I only know about the king in yellow because of Estir in Sucker For Love. As goofy as the game is, it does eldritch horror really well and I find Estir especially chilling with how she's depicted
In one of my stories. I have heavily recontextualized the love lovecraftian Mythos in a way that makes it more KIY centric. In my story, Carcosa was hyper powerful world that had forgone things such as death and decay. Here they made their rulers by using Napier unfiltered reality. Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, and all others exist here as members of the Carcosan court. Hastur is simply the latest entity born to become the King In Yellow, though he in actuality desires simple things and finds the life of king to be unsuited for him. When Carcosa falls to a plague beyond explanation. Only the court remains, scattered across worlds. Here they end up creating the myths that birth their cults, and as tense myths grow, the courtiers go from “inter dimensional advanced aliens” to cosmic horrors. Now they seek new purpose. Cthulhu sleeps to avoid confronting his grief, but accidentally enthralls mortals in his dream. Nyarlathotep destroys and conquers to ignore the part he played in his home’s destruction. And Hastur wrote the King In Yellow as an expression of his sorrow, but such pure emotion infused the book with power, and now it has taken on a life of its own. I find that revealing the dark horrors to be just scared and flawed as we are makes them all the more scarier. For there was no grand plan, no cosmic entity whose machinations we couldn’t understand. They are as Lost as we are, and no one is above that chaos.
The section of "The Mask" at 14:42 seems reminiscent of Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death". It would add an extra, reinforcing layer to your interpretation comparing it to a literal, consuming plague.
I first heard of the King in Yellow from the first season of True Detective, written by Nic Pizzolatto (which IMO, is one of the best written shows). Diving into Nic's work, I also found he was (and that script for True Detetive, season 1) influenced by the writings of Thomas Ligotti. If you like this kind of existential "horror", I would encourage you to read some short stories by Thomas Ligotti. Very dreamlike and existential, quite lovecraftian, but in his own way. More about the 'horror of existence'. One of his key images/themes are puppets as a metaphor for sentience and life controlled by forces other than us. Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe are two good collections to start with.
This video is amazing! thank you so much for making this~💛💛💛 I LOVED your first video on The King In Yellow and could not have been any faster to click on this one💛 (Also your voice is very soothing & nice to listen to)
This reminds a lot of Dante's Inferno which has the unbaptized that were virtuous wander aimlessly in the first circle. Also the people that where indifferent run after a flag for eternity.
Makes me think a bit of Lord of the Mysteries, where the honorific name of a eldritch god can be translated as "king of yellow and black that brings good luck" but there yellow signifies heaven and black earth in Chinese symbolism.
Anyone here because of the game Signalis? I am. And after playing the game and listening to this, the whole theme around The King In Yellow all makes sense now.
Fellow Signalis enjoyer! After watching this, I'm kind of wondering if the King in Yellow in the game isn't also supposed to represent Ariane, who, in one interpretation of the game's events, is essentially a dying, dreaming god warping reality to match her pain. Also, the play's compulsion to spread and be read reflected in Elster's consuming, destructive need to fulfill their promise.
I think I enjoy the three concepts used for the King in Yellow: The Usurper/fake creator upon a ruined heaven, the commonly used Hastur, and the metaphor corpse of god. These concepts enough where I’d like to use for my own delving into my jumbled and decadent mind.
This was excellent. Thank you. I love analysis that actually delves into the symbolism and meanings behind cosmic horror. That look past the tentacles and monsters and portals, searching for the horror that brings it back to the quiet fears of the human heart quivering in an uncaring cosmos. The King in Yellow as you describe it is very much still relevant. In a culture defined by distraction, momentary gratification, and spectacle, a reminder to search for meaning and dreams is sometimes necessary. Worshipping at the feet of the Yellow King brings us nothing but woe.
Something this video alludes to, and something I agree with, is that some people lose the forest for the trees when it comes to cosmic horror. I think writhing limbs and otherworldly horrors are a part of it obviously, but the scary part of these monsters isn’t that they are monsters but instead what they represent. In many of lovecraft’s works he presents knowledge itself as dangerous. Not because knowing things is bad as a whole, but because some things are better left unknown. People aren’t driven mad by the sight of C’thulu being he is really scary (which he is) or because he has terrible psychic powers (which he does). Instead it’s because being faced with the fact that there is this otherworldly and unimaginably powerful and evil presence on our world, something that has always been here, that fact alone is so traumatic that it breaks the people who look upon him. By that same extension the terror of the king in yellow isn’t this robes tentacle man, although him being there does help, it’s whatever terrible truth is buried in that play. I think personifying something like the king in yellow as a tangible entity with tentacle and the like alone isn’t the problem. Just when the spectacle of a cool monster takes president over the terror that comes from knowing too much.
Poe --> Bierce --> Dunsany --> Chambers --> Lovecraft --> ?? --> King --> ?? Sorry, there is no mystery or hidden meaning to this. They all consciously and openly borrowed from each other, keeping names, places, idea alive throughout their works. Toyah Willcox, the Packt, from the album Changling: Along the shore The cloud waves break The twin suns sink behind the lake Strange is the night Now black stars rise And many moons circle Through the skies Why? Where is she now? She'd let the dawn rise She's bring peace She'd silence the beast
I was just thinking of rereading it, such excellent timing! Also, the new intro you have used for the latest videos is absolutely wonderful! Although I do still like the old one with the classic scribble and stamp.
Brilliant philosophical analysis of the cadaveric monarch, symbolically influencing dismal dread from the implied revelation of the death of the Empyrean, and the crumbled Throne; Carcossa. The King Wears no Mask, the decayed visage of the monarch, is the truth, eldritch and unfathomable. There is a song by the band Diablo Swing Orchestra, which inspired a lot of a similar revelation. It is called Ragdoll Physics, and it is similarly about, the dreadful revelation of the apathy of death. Its chorus, sings: "I do, and I don't, want to care anymore. If I closed my eyes, will it spare me the sight? Of decay, corruption, how we nurtured destruction... And everything that will doom us all". Self brought decadence and ruin.
The symbolisms of the color Yellow in this case to me more evoke not just decadence or decay, but the aging that occurs to objects even when lovingly cared for and Protected from the elements as best one can. Paper and cloth alike both yellow with age
100% me not clicking on this thinking we were gonna be talking about how Constantine Valdor is the king in yellow from Warhammer 40k.... But now I'm sticking around cause i have a soft side for Lovecraftian/gothic horror.
Fantastic video. Really excellent - putting it all in it's historic and literary context. I just want to mention that "salome"'s final "e" is pronounced. Your video essay is so good, it would be a shame if anyone might not give it its due because of a little pronunciation glitch. Though in truth, mispronouncing that name is the sign of a well read person...one of those people who have words which they know from reading about topics that few people even know to speak about these days.
You could almost argue that the King in Yellow is more a warning of the dangers of not just ideas but their effects. As Lovecraft would come to embody parts of this story, he adopted the idea of a mind breaking. Madness seems to be a major theme in the story, and how simple coincidence and misunderstanding can destroy sanity. I think this is why it gets attributed to cosmic horror and Lovecraft so much. And why it seems to be just as terrifying as any Cthulu or Shoggagoth. Afterall, who needs a cosmic being when men are able to destroy their own minds with ideas of divine conspiracy and Cosmic existentialism.
I really love this interpretation/explanation for the King in Yellow. I've racked my brain trying to think what could consistently drive men to madness the way the second half of the play is meant to, and honestly I could never find an answer. What is horrifying to some is not horrifying to all. But, I think fear of mortality and what comes after the end is universal, and as such that finding out that what comes after the end is itself lying in ruination, therefore is universally horrifying.
That kind of horror presented in the play you mentioned reminds me of one of the SCP objects called "What happens after." It's basically a story about an experiment that brought a man back to life. The said man exhibited strange behavior after the revival and made it his goal to achieve immortality and to protect everyone from knowing what happens after death. The information on what happens is an SCP object on itself and must never be told or printed, and everyone involved must be quickly disposed of after getting to know it. That knowledge was so gruesome, so unspeakable, that it became the living horror itself, and everyone bearing it would go maniacal just as the resurrected man did. Everyone to whom he told the story, everyone who read the report, everyone who knew the truth. Interestingly enough, it's unknown whether that information was really true or was it just an artifact of that particular resurrection case.
@@matteste- His religious beliefs got in the way, not to mention his attempts to fit the various entities into the ancient Greek 'Elemental' (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) system.
So many times I have checked out something supposedly Lovecratian only to realize that it is Derlethian. Little atmosphere, meaningless monsters, thickheaded protagonists, explaining the whole plot in black and white. I am disappointed every time.
@@Duchess_Van_Hoof Too many people just take "Lovecraftian" and "Cosmic Horror" to mean "Tentacle Monsters." And they make it all about Cthulhu, who, while pretty cool, is fairly insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Lovecraft left things nice and vague; unknowable in form, unmeasured in potential. Derleth, meanwhile, shoehorned in Christian morality and drew a fucking _family tree!_
It could just be purgatory or a dead version of heaven, but that seems a little too simple for this pantheon lol. This is probably a stretch, but with the way everything was described here, I’d maybe guess that Hastur somehow takes what’s left of your sanity to Carcosa at the moment you mentally snap on earth or something. They were talking about how they were going insane before waking up in Carcosa feeling mostly normal, only to find a tombstone already made for them to mock the fact that what’s left of their sanity (their true self) is going to die there. The “ruins” of carcosa could be intentional on Hasturs part too, to represent a ruined mind or spirit, I’m definitely shooting in the dark lol, but that’s what I gathered. Hastur is mystery incarnate, but having multiple authors throughout his history has been an advantage in the development of his character, The “changes” have been accepted because they fit
Actually, Hastur was a name taken from a short story called "Haita The Shepherd" whom, in that story, is a benevolent god of shepherds. Chambers used this name in The King In Yellow to refer to a place. In one of Lovecraft's stories, he only mentioned the name Hastur once while listing the names of other gods. That's the funny thing, in later iterations of the Cthulhu Mythos, they would expand on something that's barely talked about or is only mentioned very briefly. Hastur was also retconned in certain iterations to be Cthulhu's half brother. I bet this was done on purpose from a meta perspective by having Lovecraft's most iconic monster be the half brother of a god that's based on one of Lovecraft's biggest influences. The most popular depiction of the yellow sign that's essentially become canon for a lot of people was actually from the Call of Cthulhu rpg.
@@franciscoruiThe reality bending, the faces (multiple identities and past lives), the uprooting of systems and it backfiring (revolution), banning knowledge "unfit" for people, the whole thing about being already dead and not accepting it/being kept alive unwillingly in emptiness. Those kinda things. Most of what happens to the first 4 chapters happens in Signalis in a corrupted way different from the book but close enough to be just as horrifying if you were part of it. Not to mention the final boss is an insane manmade demigod covered in gold that no longer knows what it is supposed to be.
Your conclusion about needing to believe just reminds me of the Terry Pratchett quote of humanity needing belief "to be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape"
Sooooo dooooope… this is by far one of my favorite cosmic horror concepts, including the SCP Foundation take on it, the “Tragedy Of The Hanged King.” Freakin awesome. And there’s barely anything (aside from the SCP wikis contributions) to be found as far as written or audio/visual content related to it…. I’m so stoked you guys chose to showcase this….
I always interpreted the king in yellow as a deity born of human greed: greed for power, greed for material things, greed for status, etc. The humans have abandonned the god of creation for material pleasures, making it a deity, and through this act, killing the god of creation.
Literally me, amirite? Anyways, the thought of having a king in yellow, not in gold, is kinda funny to me. Like the guy from Curious George, but much more dangerous
I'm liking the Lovecraftian themed uploads, lately. And your artwork is going up in quality, the dreamy visuals is much appreciated. Thank you Tale Foundry.
What a coincidence, yesterday i was watching a gameplay from "The baby in yellow" and another video about 4th wall break in horror media. It feel like THIS wasnt a coincidence
The name Hastur comes from Haïta the Shepherd, another Ambrose Bierce story from Can Such Things Be? In that story, Hastur is just god of the shepherds, not a nefarious figure.
Carcosa feels like an anomly that takes place in the past of the living world but you can roam around dead Seems like live that got made into a new form
‘The King in Yellow’ got referenced in the Warhammer 40k novels ‘Penitent’ & ‘Pariha’ by Dan Annette. The King, of course, hasn’t appeared yet. While the third book hasn’t come out yet, the first two books cone off as more ‘New Weird’ than anything else in that universe. Also, WH40k is generally horrifying. Just thought that was a weird place to find a reference to outside media.
@@Wanderer-nw2so yeah…..it isn’t tzeench. Who it is gets name dropped on the last page of the second book & I have no idea where the third book goes from there.
@@Wanderer-nw2so the Ghoul stars are untapped material for this kind of stuff, honestly a lot of the fan base it's a bit tired of chaos, and given that Lovecraft mythos permeates everything on Warhammer it wouldn't surprise me if they outright put a few of the "minor" Lovecraft gods on the ghoul stars. As usual Nyarlatoteph, Kthulu, and Shubnigurath would be my personal picks, Nyarlatoteph it's an actual character with personality and stuff, and the other 2 could totally just run around destroyeing everything on their path.
Wait i read that wrong or you say that WH40k IS a weird place to find references to outside media? Because half of it is build in base of ideas of other universes
“Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.”
― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
Literally the first Discworld book I read. I have on my bookshelf in my room.
You missed the most important part:
"You need to believe in things that aren't real. How else can they become?"-
I miss Terry. Alzheimer's couldn't have happened to a less deserving artist. I almost wish he wasn't an atheist so he at least would have someone to be angry at.
This reading of The King In Yellow makes me think more of Reaper Man when Death is outraged to see the new Death wearing a crown. Like a king. Discworld's Death I can see as an anthisis to The King Yellow, where those who nilisticly believe and seek nothing get just that, while the Absurd Humanist Death leads you to dark desert and when asked what's next replies "THAT IS UP TO YOU. IT IS ALWAYS UP TO YOU."
"Oh, yes, and um...Ho Ho Ho.. "
😁
The single most important thing about TKiY: it was published in 1895.
1895! Lovecraft was 5 years old when this short-story collection came out. This art-horror concept album, so influential that many people assume it's a Mythos keystone, is actually a foundation-piece.
now, THAT is amazing!
Lovecraft himself credited 'The King In Yellow' as one of his inspirations.
Honestly, even Lovecraft himself admitted that he considered Robert W Chambers to be what Lovecraft is to modern horror story writers
So it is impossibly old.
Another foundation-piece was Edgar Allan Poe. Especially stories like "Masque of the Red Death".
The play "The King in Yellow" reminds me of something that Socrates says when talking to Protagoras (Protagoras 313e-14b) and comparing knowledge to food; he says that "Knowledge is the food of the soul" and later says "If, therefore, you have an understanding of what is good and evil, you may safely buy knowledge [...] there is far greater peril in buying knowledge than in buying meat and drink".
He talks about how you can buy meat and drink and take it to a [physician], but how you cannot do this with knowledge. He says, *"But you cannot buy the wares of knowledge and carry them away in another vessel; when you have paid for them you must receive them into the soul and go your way, either greatly harmed or greatly benefited."*
Reminds me of the themes of Bloodborne
I need to remember this one.
The worst part is not that afterlife isn’t real, but the fact that is in ruin, which means something made it this way, and if that’s so, this means something must have caused it, which is an extremely more terrifying revelation.
Agreed. It's not like "Heaven alhas always been a lie, there Is nothing there."
But the mere fact that a Heavem WAS there but now it's in ruin (and could probabily never recover) Is fare more horrifying.
@@yurimolino5435 And most importantly, whatever brought it to ruin, might still lie there, and since we are already dead, the consequences of it finding us are far more unsettling
@@Emmy-S55 no escape
@@yurimolino5435 but if it was made ruined could it not be fixed?
@@amyroberts8978 Well, it's still the work of Eldritch creatures, usually in that kind of literature Is next.to.impossible to undo any kind of damage or influence by those entities.
I never realized how bastardized the yellow king had become, and this has given me a new appreciation for it and the scp adaptation “The Hanged King” an adaptation that stays much truer to the source than the modern Haastur
Mythologization bro
What you're looking for is Sucker for Love. Nothing more true to the source material than that, I'm like 23% certain.
@Goldenkitten1 there is no eldritch entity that can conquer the power of human horny.
@@Goldenkitten1 The king in yellow is my favourite character of that game. I just finished Sucker For Love: A Date to Die For demo, and I am super excited for more. I wish we could get a game where all of them can interact, just like in Act II of the first game
@@danielzane6714 Agreed. I was a little disappointed when I found out it wasn't going to be the same protagonist since the entire concept was to smooch all the lovecraftian entities possible.
Never forget, Chambers depicted The King in Yellow as a jester on the original cover.
Forgive me if I got my details wrong, but I also believe he drew/designed the cover himself as well.
Yes and he had black wings and a torch too.
Which is problably meant to be the yellow sign.
This reminds me of the closing lines in "The Court of the Crimson King" by King Crimson:
On soft grey mornings widows cry
The wise men share a joke
I run to grasp divining signs
To satisfy the hoax
*The yellow jester does not play*
*But gently pulls the strings*
*And smiles as the puppets dance*
*In the court of the crimson king*
This could have been a coincidence, but it's a very interesting one, especially given the apocalyptic tone of King Crimson's song.
@@cookimnstr27 Check out Fripp's wife Toyah's The Packt, from the album Changling.
@@niftyskates85 Are you talking about the halo around his head? Update: Nevermind, I see the torch now.
The only phrase I can think of to properly describe The King in Yellow is "Decadent Entropy" A hollowness and decay hidden under decadence and glamor.
You just described Hollywood.
@@kelf114 LOL
Reminds me of present day TQ+ movements
That kinda describes modern society.
Just a couple highlight reels, cult-like repression of any non-conformity, and a sprinkle of hedonism to disguise a system so broken it doesn't even know where happiness comes from.
I believe the Decadents did themselves glamorize decay, as though that were possible.
The expression of "the absence of darkness" deliberately not being described as light is very powerful
I know that even if The King in Yellow was never published as an actual book that didn´t stop people writing their own version of the ficticious play, like the one by Thom Ryng about a dying dynasty among other versions.
What I think it would be cool to see in a adaptation of the story would be using a palette scheme where every colour is allowed, except any shade of yellow. No gold, no amber, nothing that resembles yellow. There would be blues, greens, purples and reds, but not yellow at all.
That way the absence of this colour creates an alien and otherworldy sensation to the audience, a sense of mystery and morbid curiosity on why the setting looks like that. Even more, once there is a scene where we finally see yellow it would be of a shade that can be disturbing, and even cause a feel of sickness to the audience, to show how corrupt this colour is in universe.
Yes ikr
Sulfur Yellow will be the best yellow for this....
Thats really intersting. I've read a work loosely inspired by King in Yellow on SCP wiki, named the Hanged King, specifically SCP-2264. It doesn't have a big theme like King in Yellow, but the ending of it really connects to King being a false dead god, hidden behind a mask. In the ending, a group of Foundation agents get into Alagadda, the realm of the Hanged King and they confront the Ambassador, Kings servant. Ambassador tortures them and forces them to kill each other, leaving only one agent standing. This agent is than taken to the Hanged King himself. Quote from the interview after the mission:
Agent: There I saw the King. It was anchored in place, with hands and throat shackled tight, like… like a corpse in bondage. Its face was hidden beneath a black veil, or maybe it was a hood. I… I don't quite remember.
But I remember these horrid imps. They were caressing the King's twitching body, as if trying to comfort it. But others pulled the tethers even tighter. The King trembled and quivered and I saw pale tendrils slither in and out of its tattered robes. I looked on as the imps lifted the King's veil… [there is a change in tone, suggesting lucidity] I want to die. I can't live with what I've done. Please kill me. End this. I can't feel my legs. I can't feel my arms. Not like this. Not like this. Please, I'm begging you…
Interviewer: You know I can't do that. Please tell me what you saw.
Agent: [Said without emotion] A god shaped hole. The barren desolation of a fallen and failed creation. You see the light of long dead stars. Your existence is nothing but an echo of a dying god's screams. The unseen converges. Surrounds you. And it tightens like a noose.
Given all the talk of stars, including "black stars" in the original story, the "Hanged King" described in that last bit could be an analogy for a blackhole of maddening size being what went basically super nova (on a much larger scale) and created our Universe. "you see the light of long dead stars" = we're doing that now with the James Webb telescope, looking back at the light of the earliest-formed stars that are now long gone. The "unseen" that surrounds and tightens = the pull of gravity from the black hole at the center of our galaxy (or the pull from all of the black holes in general). The black hole that exploded to create the Universe is the "dying god" that died because of being a "fallen and failed creation".
The hanged king is one of the only interperetations I agree with, The King always struck me as a sort of manifestation of nothing. When you think about it, the human concept of "nothing" is actually super important and meaningful, so it makes sense there'd be a god of nothing, like there's gods for everything else. But since humans don't actually ascribe anything to "nothing" it's forced to force its way into simi-reality through our collective unconcious.
@@Vaeldarg "Black star" is an older term for a black hole, in fact. It also has a modern meaning that I don't fully understand but which is similar to but distinct from a black hole.
@@blarg2429 it's because a "black hole" is really just an object with even greater gravity than a neutron star. The gravity is just off-the-charts for a star, so a different category of celestial object was created. A modern use of "black star" would probably be an even "colder" star than a brown dwarf, maybe even a star that has completely used up all its fuel and has solidified. (aka "iron star" since the end product of all that fusion is stable iron atoms)
What previous comments are getting at is called a black dwarf. The universe is simple not old enough for any black dwarf stars to have formed yet. The estimated time for the Sun to cool enough to become a black dwarf is about 10¹⁵(1 quadrillion) years, though it could take much longer than this, if weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) exist. Way off topic, I know, but hey - I'm an astrophysics buff. 😉
When I read An Inhabitant of Carcosa, I can't recall if I already knew the twist ending or not going in-- it's not so much of a twist these days that "he was dead all along!' but it wasn't common practice to write something that required the kind of suspension of disbelief at the time, iirc, that the narrator wasn't around to be doing the telling-- but I never once thought that the ruins of Carcosa might be the ruins of *the afterlife*. I'd just taken it as a ghost story, someone who "woke up" as a ghost many centuries after their death. I love your interpretation here, and night use that in my own world building-- while I want to include Cthulhu mythos stuff in the setting too, The King In Yellow & Carcosa gave me a very different vibe from Lovecraft, and I wanted to preserve the difference in their presence in my world... I think starting from the concept that Carcosa was always an afterlife, but now it's in ruins-- I think that's a great way to do just that. Thank you so much for this interesting interpretation.
It’s kinda terrifying
Shoot, you beat me to it. Build away!
@@khorrusvoa there are a million retellings of alice in wonderland. I f you want to build a world based on lovecraftian lore then do it. just make it original, make it interesting.
But why would heaven have tombstones? Is that clear?
@@davidmc8478 The Egyptians had their afterlife, the Greeks had their own afterlife, a lot of religions dangle immortality at the end of a stick by saying if you believe in it then you will continue to live a life in another form after your body has died. Lovecraft here was probably pulling a "they actually are all talking about the same thing" angle, and taking the title "Paradise Lost" as paradise itself becoming lost instead of just missing out on it.
Really should've seen it coming. "Carcosa" and "carcass" are practically the same word.
Huh! Yeah, I suppose that does sound like something that the guy who wrote The Devil’s Dictionary would come up with.
I always saw the king in yellow as something more than just another Lovecraftian monster, instead a embodiment of pure imagination no different than say the Childlike Empress. strangely enough both the Neverending Story and the King In Yellow could even be the same story only read in a different perspectives one from a paranoid Adult the other a curious Child. Regardless both lead to madness upon reading too far into the story.
Pfft, the fact lovecraftian horrors can be referred to as "just another" is really telling how Diluted, folks have grown to the concept.
@@GreaterGrievobeast55
Helps that not many eldritch horrors in fiction are ineffable so much as big with tentacles.
@@GreaterGrievobeast55 Nothing worse than people who have been watered down and left thinned and weak.
He's also one of the earliest
@@briannewman9285 hmmm, i've added a comma now but it doesn't look any better...
I honestly don't think that the modern idea of the Lovecraftian entity of Hastur takes anything away from The King in Yellow as some of the comments are saying. If anything, I think the sheer difference of the two combined into one entity makes a uniquely interesting result. The King in Yellow is an entity associated very strongly with human perceptions and needs, specifically meaninglessness and decadence. Its power over humanity comes from human minds. To contrast, the creature Hastur must be far more ancient and incomprehensible.
Doesn't it seem appropriate to portray the King in Yellow as a mere avatar or aspect of a creature that is beyond human comprehension? To play on the contrast seems to me that it would strengthen both parts. A simple lesser avatar of the creature Hastur causing so much madness by merely tapping into the existentialism and decadence of humanity, making it a very powerful force of madness while also propping up the creature called Hastur as something humans can't fully understand even further.
I dunno, I just think rather than seeing Hastur as a Cthulhu Mythos bastardization or something to that effect, I think both can work in terms of their own merits as well as together.
I like your take on things! I’ve more or less done the same thing for my D&D game’s big bad.
Hastur has three avatars, with the King in Yellow being the most important (the other two being based on the Dunwich Horror, the Wickerman and the Feaster From Afar).
The King in Yellow is an all-powerful divine king, who in actuality, is a hollow thing consumed by Haster in his attempts to become a god by becoming a mask to put on the unfathomable force that Hastur is. Hence ruining his city he’d turned into its own afterlife, enticing souls with meaningless, burning bliss.
Its definitely a fun concept you can take and run with, and it sure beats just being upset about TKiY’s modern portrayals
It seems some people are starting to see Lovecraft as "the dude with the giant squids" and nothing more, without realising how slanted a viewpoint that creates.
The more Lovecraftian Hastur character steps beyond the human-centric interpretation that Chambers gave him and morphs him into this sort of avatar of decadence and decay on a cosmic level. Hastur isn't just a literary figure, he actively ruins worlds by turning people into its slaves and destroying their worlds around them. It kinda reminds me of Slaneesh in 40K being born from a single species' decadence and lust but then stepping onto a galactic stage to menace an entire cosmos' worth of people and things.
Ironically, even Tale Foundry here sounds critical of "Eldritch bloodlines and unspeakable runes." as if those are a bad thing. I think it's a difference in perspective. Chambers was criticising a single philosophical viewpoint of humanity by presenting excess and shallow lives as ultimately meaningless while Lovecraft's works focus on humanity as a whole being just a speck of dust underneath the boots of much grander, more terrifying entities. They are different, sure, but both can be bone-chilling in the right hands.
@@darklord884that kind of misses the vibe so to speak. The horror is not that there is an eldritch entity like Hastur out there, the real horror is the things anything associated to him does. The real villains is the self and the concept of sanity, the idea that as Tale Foundry suggests, language in itself is a form of magic that can influence people beyond the means of mere patterns like an alphabet is horrifying. That the horror of the king in yellow is the fact his kingdom of Carcosa is dead, his successors are mad and failing, and the people who follow him don't even know what he is (The Mask).
It's a bit reductive to make him something of a Slaanesh figure of mainly decadence. It's much more powerful if the concept of creativity combined with the king in yellow is enough to shape maddening reality, and just knowing of it will force people to notice and read the play even if they reject it. He's not some power like Cthulhu actively summoning stuff or like Slaanesh who wants to beat the other gods, he just is. And his realm is perpetuated by people who should've known better, or do know better but are powerless to stop it. He barely even appears yet his corruption persists throughout the 4 original stories because of human curiosity and wanting to read the play.
"The old king is dead. Long live the king." As they say. The yellow king to me and others is about the downfall of people chasing something both long dead and fake, and making him a lovecraftian cosmic entity with plots strips most of that by removing most of the human agency.
@@magniwalterbutnotwaltermag1479 But contrary to what you said, Tale Foundry specifically says that Hastur is likely a critique and mockery of the Decadent movement. The interpretation of the invasive, mind-melting patterns and brain-breaking concepts only came in later. And not even from Lovecraft himself, since he only mentions Hastur once and that's just in a list of names and concepts, not even giving Hastur a full description.
What you just described isn't really that different from the 'Lovecraftian' version of Hastur (again, that term is a bit of a stretch but eh) since that one is also an invasive, leech-like version of creativity and talent that seeps into the minds of the artistically inclined, slowly corrupting them to the cause of a ruined land and a non-existent king. He doesn't really have "plots", at least not ones that humans can interpret. Just as you described the version of Chambers, the Lovecraftian Hastur kind of seeps into your brain if you are curious and prone to obsession enough. In fact, if you recall the Repairer of Reputations, Chambers's Hastur actually has far clearer plots, since that version actively attempts to assassinate state leaders and establish a proxy as the head honcho in America. Or at least the King in Yellow drives a poor sucker into believing he is. That is actually a clearer form of malevolent planning than most of what other writers did with the figure of Hastur.
I think you unfortunately misunderstood me. My comparison to Slaneesh wasn't in function, but more in concept. Just as Slaneesh represents the decadence of the Eldar, so does Hastur and the King in Yellow represent the decadence of humanity. Or at least it can do that. But the actual in-universe way of how Hastur works isn't really that simple. None of the great old ones and outer gods are, really. Like you said, they often don't give a shit about humanity and are not actively trying to destroy us, they just *are* and the fact they merely *are,* their mere existence is so destructive to humanity that our reality can become compromised by their mere presence alone. That is what they are in-universe (except Nyarlathotep who has a human-adjacent enough personality to be a dick on purpose), but their metaphorical interpretation isn't just "Great byg monster thyng that is great and byg and scary."
I have seen this interpretation from some people and it is pretty weird to say the least. That Lovecraftian horror is suddenly considered base, shallow and lesser than say Chambers' book. That's absolutely insane to me because these aren't in competition, but are rather built off of each other. What confuses me the most is that I've seen several people seemingly identify Lovecraft's work and Lovecraftian horror in general as the "byg scary monster horror" and identify the threat and scare factor of cosmic entities that they are all powerful and byg. That is absolutely crazy to me, since sure, many beings could snap humanity out of existence if they wanted to, but it's never that simple. They all represent something greater than just the fact they are big and scary and if you think about it, all cosmic entities have the human element and human action tied to them. Either in the cultists who go mad and seek to awaken an ancient entity from the depths or the unlucky investigator who has to unearth the work of a depraved ritualistic killer.
Claiming that "Lovecraftian horror removes most of the human agency" is absolutely crazy to me because Lovecraftian horror is, by its base components, predicated on the actions and foolhardy, arrogant ideas of humans. Lovecraft specifically wrote many of his tales as critiques of human-centric philosophies of his time and that is why so many of his 'heroes' and villains are humans who think themselves masters of their fate, only to be squashed by either a fellow human driven made or an entity they cannot even comprehend. But it always takes that human element to either seek out the unfathomable, to seek the grand answers, or to devolve into the doom-seeking cultist and power-hungry psycho. Saying that Lovecraftian horror takes out the human action and human element from these beings is simply not true.
@@darklord884 agreed. unfortunately you will find that the vast majority of people who have hot takes on lovecraft have absolutely no idea what they're talking about
I love the King in Yellow! It’s probably my favorite piece of Eldritch Horror literature 😊
That's not a sentence I expected to read today.
But what about me😢
Where did you get it? I've been trying to find it, not a remake version or modern version
Bro, you okay?
why do 3 out of 5 of the comments above^ make no sense?
The sentence "The king in yellow is the metaphorical corpse of God" has been living rent free in my head for a little over a year. To dream of your Carcosa IS better then the alternative.
The King Banana
Nah, it's mangoes
Too bad he’s not more appealing…
King Bob!
Do you see banana man?
Truth
The name Hastur actually comes from another Ambrose Bierce story, and is mentioned in one of Chambers' short stories in "the King in Yellow", but is given almost in passing to a side character. Also, a lot of the imagery surrounding the King in Yellow also comes from a lot of French decadence works, such as "La Bas" and "The King in the Golden Mask".
I don't know why but this is my favorite story. It's just so captivating to me.
O5-11, please get back to work. Also, reading our SCPs is against protocol. Expect to be hearing about this in the next meeting.
@@o5-1-formerlycalvinlucien60 Roger, you should try reading it, it's fun. (•‿•) I thought this wasn't an SCP that I know of
I saw a fascinating interpretation once that much of the strange imagery in Cassilda's Song could be taken to be describing theatrical artifice--the 'cloud waves' as fog effects used to represent water on stage, the celestial bodies described in terms that could evoke a theatrical backdrop, and the King's tattered robes as the curtains framing a proscenium stage.
There weren't fog machines back then
@@niftyskates85 while it is true chemical fog machines are a relatively recent invention (1920s), smoke/fog has been used in theatre for centuries its one of the oldest special effects techniques used by mankind and surprisingly easy to accomplish.
Edit: punctuation for clarity
SCP has something like this in the form of The Hanged King and his envoy.
I'm pretty sure they were inspired by these stories, but the envoy can appear when a specific play is done and results in everyone in attendance and the actors killing themselves and each other.
The Hanged King is an entity "Living" in a different dimension that connects to all other dimensions, where anyone from anywhere can go if they want to.
The King is as much a prisoner as it is king, it's described as a void in the shape of a man, brought about by a king who refused to die and rose up from his grave, chained to it's thrown and suffering as it did in the moment of it's death.
His subjects are all dressed in masquerade attire and they all party when the envoy is gone, but all of them are in fact dead, unable to leave the world behind by the hand of the hanged king.
A lot of SCPs were inspirations
Peanut = Weeping Angels
682 = Doomsday (DC)
@@l0sts0ul89 If you are referring to Doomsday as in the DC character and enemy of Superman, then that's a stretch unless the author themselves stated it. The Lizard that refuses to die has a few ties to other SCPs depending on the canon, such as the biblical SCPs where its implied the lizard is the Serpent or Satan. Another it is the physical manifestation of an abstract concept called SCP-3125 where it hates humanity because of the Entity residing in humanity's collective consciousness, feeding off of the pain and suffering that it bestows on humans.
Although if in your head you believe it so, I doubt there's much I can do to change your mind (again unless the author has confirmed that Doomsday was the inspiration for SCP-682).
@@blitzwolfer4154 Yeah and all those came AFTER it's creation building off new lore created by others,
682 is a giant monster that adapt to everything it comes across and hates/wants to kill everything, which is Doomsday to the T.
@@l0sts0ul89 I mean if we are being real, there are a lot of characters with similar traits or personalities that aren't directly inspired from each other. And unless the author confirms it, its not a fact. Plus, there are quite a few differences, despite the rage or hate SCP-682 displays, it shows considerably more intelligence that Doomsday never will. There's a few more differences but the point being is, there's no actual factual evidence the author used Doomsday as a template for SCP-682.
Of course if you do find evidence the author confirmed your statement, then that would resolve anything I brought up. But if you don't then it means your statement is an opinion or theory.
@@blitzwolfer4154 are you fucking on something, do you know not know what the word inspiration means, also Doomsday has absolutely shown that levels of intelligence
"Hark! Comes the yellow King! Regaled in a gown of yellow. He stands twice as tall as any man! Majestic, he glides over the ground to take his throne in lost Carcosa, for he is the king that was and shall be…!"
This is such a great video, and I definitely love the "King in Yellow is the corpse of God after we killed him." Like... a cause and effect, we killed God, and what's left isn't ever going to be that thing again, but rather something horrifying.
I published a short story last year about the King in Yellow ("The Dedication of the High Priestess" on the Tales to Terrify podcast episode 565, if you're interested). For me, the King in Yellow is an entity born to rule, no matter the situation, place or people, and I tried to put that into the story, along with trying to stick closer to the original stories rather than the Lovecraftian additions.
I wonder how my story might have changed if I knew this viewpoint when I wrote it, however. I wonder how someone with this viewpoint might view the story!
Tale foundry is the channel that peeked my interest into deep literature and and the way we think of writing, thanks so much for that!
One of my favorite things to listen to while i work.
Piqued. It piqued your interest. Just sayin
@@SkewtLilbttm why thank you
To begin, this is the first time I've seen the new animated intro, and my god it's fantastic.
As a Lovecraft enthusiast, not a scholar or historian, I never really understood the King in Yellow as presented in the cosmic horror materials I consume, those being related to Lovecraft's original works and the tabletop RPG, of which I'm a huge fan. I was never aware of Inhabitant of Carcosa, so I never had much context as to what the King represented. After hearing Inhabitant and your explanations of what the story implies, he might be one of my favorite Mythos entities now, even more than Shub-Niggurath.
I really love all of the interpretations presented, especially the King being the corpse of every god or pantheon that promised a Heaven to their worshipers. I find the influence of the decadents and the meaning of the color yellow at the time to be absolutely fascinating, but since I usually lean more into the overt cosmic horror elements of the Mythos, I find it just be just a tad less compelling to write or theorize about, though that's like saying that a 9.9 is less than 10, so it's not by much. I think it may be because the decadent theory is essentially, at least as it was presented, a complete and understandable embodiment and idea. Whereas the corpse of gods and the afterlife leaves room for imagination and horror beyond what's outright stated, at least for me.
Finally, to explain the Hastur connection and renaming the King as an avatar of Hastur, in the materials I have access to, it alludes to Hastur being considered an embodiment of cosmic entropy, and the undeniable, unstoppable end of all things, like the heat death of the universe given life and form. With the King in Yellow representing the death, end, or corpse of the afterlife and the gods, usually considered to be endless ideas, concepts, and entities, it's at least understandable why the two were connected, but I prefer to have them be separate.
Uh, anyway, great video! Haha
There's one of those Lovecraft quotes that's along the lines of "in these strange eons, even Death may die", so maybe it's more that The King in Yellow is a being with a skeletonized face mistaken for a "pale mask" (as in, a mask of a skull, popular at certain kinds of parties) and they're from a place where nothing is able to die anymore. That's why the grass and trees were still there, and the "inhabitant" is there as a ghost who was unable to go to any other after-life. They didn't get re-born into a new body when they died: their soul simply kept existing, now in this new landscape.
@@Vaeldarg yet the pallid covering shows strange bumps and twisting of what should be human features----they aren't though we never see what it is. Guessing is freely associated.
This new animated opening is amazing!
I don't usually enjoy these types of books, but when I was walking through the library, and I saw this book, it just piqued my interest. It was actually entertaining, and there being different people's stories that all have the King in Yellow affecting them in their own ways was different and it gave me something to think about. I've also had the book cover as my profile picture for about a year now, just so I am always reminded of The King in Yellow's existence. Would recommend.
Piqued
@@__En__ Thanks.
I imagined the King in Yellow play as something similar to Masque of the Red Death. With this concept of the Yellow King I feel more sure about a paralel becouse at the end of the Poe's story it is revealed that there is nothing under the red mask.
Both the play and the short story has: an associated colour, a masquarade and a stranger that is revealed to be something not human.
It's just my little personal idea about what is the King in Yellow play becouse the book and the short stories just stick with people and we all want to know the truth of the Yellow King
Ps.: This video and the other about Lovecraft's dream cycle are just so fun, seeing the roots and edges of the mythos! A Lord Dunsany video would be so great too.
I used the original story in my D&D game, to set the mood for carcosa. They found a lost ghost and helped lay it to rest.
Then they ran into Alaggodda, which i just inserted as a province of Carcosa. They found the whole thing creepy, unsettling, and surreal.
AND THIS COMES OUT JUST AS I GET INTO MALEVOLENT THE PODCAST, perfect timing!
FINALLY ANOTHER MALEVOLENT FAN
I saw this video a while back and only recently checked out malevolent! Really liked it because it does appeal to the whole lovecraftian side of 'the king in yellow' and it was just a good story, but I also appreciate and love this philosophical take on the story! both are good, and the podcast is very fun!
scrolled until i found my people lol ❤
@@sociallysatanicSame lol
I've read the King in Yellow (all the short stories in the collection) and it quickly became a favorite. I loved your insight on the meaning of "yellow" from that era, and it makes sense. I noticed that in The Great Gatsby how the jazz music at one of the wild parties in Gatsby's mansion was described as yellow. It definitely tracks.
'Yellow' journalism, what we'd now call tabloid journalism, and now the online outrage sites.
This imaginary play is described the way my christian family and friends described atheism to me as a child. They never explained what it was to be an atheist, they even went out of their way to misinform me about what it is. Their misinformation was born out of sort of a combination of naivety and ignorance. They had obviously been misinformed themselves but they were misinformed in the same way they misinformed me, leading them to be deliberately ignorant of it as well out of fear of what it would do to them to consider the idea that god does not exist. It is in their doctrine that, without the meaning that their doctrine imposes upon them, they would lose all meaning and be like the decadents you mention. Deconverting is scary at first because of this perception but it is incorrect to think that there is no meaning without a god. You lose the artificial meaning that imposed religion forces you to accept but then you're free to find your own meaning. I found meaning in the true paradise I've found: Love the joy of someone else. This will give you more joy and fulfillment than any other source. I go so far as to call it paradise. It does not end suffering but it is still possible through suffering. It does not guarantee the existence of an afterlife but, if there is an afterlife, then death will not take this paradise away. There is no gatekeeper, mortal or eternal, who can withhold it from you.
You did an amazing job of telling The Inhabitant of Carcosa in a way that really made parts of it seem chilling - as you usually do :)
Tale Foundry, thank you for always giving us so many good videos. I actually listen to you while i write all the time and find inspiration in the vibe you put in these vids ^-^
Same
my favorite iteration of the king in yellow is the sucker for love game. The baby in yellow is a close contender
I've never really thought of the king himself as an independent entity or character, but "The King In Yellow" as a script or a book that has a supernatural cognitohazardous ability to drive the reader mad. Reading it does to you what looking directly at an elder god does (or an angel, I like to think they're the same creature, though an angel often breaks the effect by proclaiming the magic words "be not afraid")
Robert chambers wrote a follow up anthology weird tales and one line had the characters tell a story to another "about wars". "There was once a king of Carcosa and upon given to him was a mouth of truth and blasphemies." So I'm sure he's anthropomorphic
I quite like the idea of the King in Yellow and Carcosa being a metaphor for narcissism, both personal and cultural. A hollow, decaying existence that only affirms itself through sensation, having the shiny things, feeling all the pleasures, and getting all the attention.
The moment the narcissistic mind is deprived of that excess, it is faced with how much it is lacking within, forced to introspect for the first time and see the dilapidated husk that has become of its soul. In reaction, it reels in horror, trying to block it out with yet more excess, but to no avail. It becomes miserable, deranged, desperate to fill the void it has become all too aware of; but it does not know how, for it has forgotten- or perhaps never even known- that which brings life to an empty soul. It has been deprived of love, truth, meaning, and purpose, and thus knows not that those things are what make a man whole.
10:43 It was actually Ambrose Bierce who named him Hastur. Hastur's first appearance came in Bierce's 1891 short story "Haita the Shepard" where he portrays Hastur as a benevolent Shepard God.
The comments section of Tale Foundry videos is an endless source for new inspiration, authors, movies and music. All of this from a 125 year old tale. It's nice to be reminded that the love for this material is so widespread, and not my own. 💛 to all.
I subscribed to the reading that explains away the strangeness of Carcossa as the stage of a theater - stars painted in black to be visible, mist for the lake's water, hanging moon props occluding the peaks of Carcossa's towers, painted to the backdrop as they are. And of course, the King's tattered, yellow robes engulfing all - the curtains of this stage.
The terror in the first act is the realization of the characters that they are just that, characters on stage, ushered of course by seeing that the visitor's mask and face are the same thing. The second act was mentioned to feature people trying to disregard what was happening and live their life. Perhaps the final blow to the reader's sanity is the realization that they, too, live in a play.
I like how this background meshes with the above. If Decadence pushes for a rejection of a meaningful, objective reality, then Carcossa is a place where it succeeded, on a cosmic scale. The world itself has become a play, and the King in Yellow is what remains of whatever divinity once existed. And at the same time, his Demiurge-like interpretation fits - a world that's nothing but a persuasive spectacle would have a god whose job is to sustain that persuasiveness.
The idea and history of this yellow clad decadent movement is very interesting to me, more interesting even then speculating on the text itself. I think it’s easy to forget the popular culture of the day when something was written. Maybe it’s possible the king in yellow story isn’t a comment on the decadent movement, but it’s hard to not see the correlation and that correlation adds a level of depth to the work that is lost on modern people. It’s like reading Shakespeare I think. Many of Shakespeare’s stories have slang and puns and jokes that simply don’t exist anymore because our modern English is so removed from his. It shows that the history of literature just as important as the literature itself.
I like this. Actually analyzing the mechanisms behind the fears that Lovecraftian horrors represent, rather than just going "Oooooo, big spoooky aliens"
-which turned from just nonspooky big aliens into icons of beauty of our Universe. Dont say to me Moon lord from Terraria isnt hot, I wont buy it
I LOVE THIS BOOK. I own a 1895 second edition copy. Its absolutely bonkers.
Yellow is such an interesting color. One bit of media that it immediately made me think of was Elden Ring, FromSoftware's 2022 GOTY. In that game, yellow is the color of the Frenzied Flame which inflicts Madness on those who gaze upon it for too long. It is a color of extremes of sorts. It is the color of rebellion that is so rebellious it doesn't care if its actions hurts its own cause. It's the color of extreme creativity. Creativity so extreme that as soon as one thought appears it is gone and replaced by another. It is the color of Chaos. In the setting this color exists, its adherents seek to reunite everything that was once the One Great by burning all that divides and distinguishes. It is the most reviled thing in the Lands Between. Yellow is such a fascinating color.
When I think of yellow I think of Persona 4 where the Fog, (symbolic of how mankind turns away from the truth) is very yellow
The King in Yellow: "it is a fearsome thing to fall into the hands of the *living* god."
Tale foundry: C.O.R.P.S.E O.F G.O.D
Yet I still believe you are right. Even if not, this is the most dreadfully beautiful interpretation of this character I have heard. Thank you so much!
I personally always saw the king in yellow as a living sentient idea, one no human could comprehend. In the stories by Robert W Chambers the play of the same name is said to be banned pretty much everywhere yet nearly everyone has heard of it or have some knowledge of it to the point that some of the main characters who end up reading it were afraid of it before hand. The king as this "living idea" either wants to be known or thought but humans cant comprehend it entirely, and only perceive pieces which effect them in different ways. As they only see parts of this god who exists only in thought, still powerful as a true god but by only understanding a fraction of him his powers only react in what the perceive of him, those who feared the play are eventually convinced/ coerced into reading it by a dead man who hounded them only for there fears to be confirmed when one dies and the other goes mad, all the while another man who reads it comes to fear carcosa as the city of lost souls and the king as their ruler. Meeting with the king is dangerous as what you think of this idea may be what changes you or your life, to the man who feared him as the ruler of lost souls, he ends up being chased by what he thought was death and ends up an inhabitant of the city, meeting the king who says said "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God." God lives as an idea.
You know, after going over the Cthulhu mythos to try to get inspiration for a story I’ve been trying to write since high school, I had just recently realized something. Hastur is “the king in yellow.” Nyarlehotep is “the thing in the yellow mask.” The king in yellow changes people in drastic ways, and Nyarlehotep loves to interfere with human affairs. Nyarlehotep can shapeshift,and the king in yellow has no defined form. With this, I conclude that Hastur is actually Nyarlehotep.
Read the rat on walls, it pretty much states directly that Nyarlatoteph it's, at least on that history, the king in yellow.
Funny that Nyarlatoteph likes to shapeshift and go around just having fun, dude can turn into a lego set, a vtuber, a damn fisherman or the god of decadence and forgotten stuff, I love Nyarlatoteph.
@@toobig7150Found the cultist! 😉
@@toobig7150 is a trickster being. He loves messing with humans.
The King In Yellow is nothing to be scared of, he's just the co founder of Shadow Wizard Money Gang. Bro is just casting spells😊
I only know about the king in yellow because of Estir in Sucker For Love. As goofy as the game is, it does eldritch horror really well and I find Estir especially chilling with how she's depicted
Oh ho ho ho!
In one of my stories. I have heavily recontextualized the love lovecraftian Mythos in a way that makes it more KIY centric. In my story, Carcosa was hyper powerful world that had forgone things such as death and decay. Here they made their rulers by using Napier unfiltered reality. Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, and all others exist here as members of the Carcosan court. Hastur is simply the latest entity born to become the King In Yellow, though he in actuality desires simple things and finds the life of king to be unsuited for him.
When Carcosa falls to a plague beyond explanation. Only the court remains, scattered across worlds. Here they end up creating the myths that birth their cults, and as tense myths grow, the courtiers go from “inter dimensional advanced aliens” to cosmic horrors. Now they seek new purpose. Cthulhu sleeps to avoid confronting his grief, but accidentally enthralls mortals in his dream. Nyarlathotep destroys and conquers to ignore the part he played in his home’s destruction. And Hastur wrote the King In Yellow as an expression of his sorrow, but such pure emotion infused the book with power, and now it has taken on a life of its own.
I find that revealing the dark horrors to be just scared and flawed as we are makes them all the more scarier. For there was no grand plan, no cosmic entity whose machinations we couldn’t understand. They are as Lost as we are, and no one is above that chaos.
The section of "The Mask" at 14:42 seems reminiscent of Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death". It would add an extra, reinforcing layer to your interpretation comparing it to a literal, consuming plague.
As a big fan of Chambers' collection of horror stories, I really love the extra depth you went into here. So much fun. Thank you
I first heard of the King in Yellow from the first season of True Detective, written by Nic Pizzolatto (which IMO, is one of the best written shows). Diving into Nic's work, I also found he was (and that script for True Detetive, season 1) influenced by the writings of Thomas Ligotti. If you like this kind of existential "horror", I would encourage you to read some short stories by Thomas Ligotti. Very dreamlike and existential, quite lovecraftian, but in his own way. More about the 'horror of existence'. One of his key images/themes are puppets as a metaphor for sentience and life controlled by forces other than us. Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe are two good collections to start with.
Same. The first season of that show still troubles me
I finally found someone here who mentioned True Detective. That's where I first saw this as well.
Obsessed with that first season for many reasons. Different every time I watch it
Old Tom Bombadil was a scary fellow. Bright and sickly his jacket was as he was the king in yellow.
This video is amazing! thank you so much for making this~💛💛💛
I LOVED your first video on The King In Yellow and could not have been any faster to click on this one💛
(Also your voice is very soothing & nice to listen to)
This reminds a lot of Dante's Inferno which has the unbaptized that were virtuous wander aimlessly in the first circle. Also the people that where indifferent run after a flag for eternity.
Been seeing a lot of "SHADOW WIZARD MONEY GANG" and your thumbnail looks like a wizard.
we love casting spells
Makes me think a bit of Lord of the Mysteries, where the honorific name of a eldritch god can be translated as "king of yellow and black that brings good luck" but there yellow signifies heaven and black earth in Chinese symbolism.
Anyone here because of the game Signalis? I am. And after playing the game and listening to this, the whole theme around The King In Yellow all makes sense now.
Fellow Signalis enjoyer! After watching this, I'm kind of wondering if the King in Yellow in the game isn't also supposed to represent Ariane, who, in one interpretation of the game's events, is essentially a dying, dreaming god warping reality to match her pain. Also, the play's compulsion to spread and be read reflected in Elster's consuming, destructive need to fulfill their promise.
I think I enjoy the three concepts used for the King in Yellow: The Usurper/fake creator upon a ruined heaven, the commonly used Hastur, and the metaphor corpse of god. These concepts enough where I’d like to use for my own delving into my jumbled and decadent mind.
Tale foundry, you make exquisite artworks 👏👏
This was excellent. Thank you.
I love analysis that actually delves into the symbolism and meanings behind cosmic horror. That look past the tentacles and monsters and portals, searching for the horror that brings it back to the quiet fears of the human heart quivering in an uncaring cosmos.
The King in Yellow as you describe it is very much still relevant. In a culture defined by distraction, momentary gratification, and spectacle, a reminder to search for meaning and dreams is sometimes necessary. Worshipping at the feet of the Yellow King brings us nothing but woe.
Something this video alludes to, and something I agree with, is that some people lose the forest for the trees when it comes to cosmic horror. I think writhing limbs and otherworldly horrors are a part of it obviously, but the scary part of these monsters isn’t that they are monsters but instead what they represent.
In many of lovecraft’s works he presents knowledge itself as dangerous. Not because knowing things is bad as a whole, but because some things are better left unknown. People aren’t driven mad by the sight of C’thulu being he is really scary (which he is) or because he has terrible psychic powers (which he does). Instead it’s because being faced with the fact that there is this otherworldly and unimaginably powerful and evil presence on our world, something that has always been here, that fact alone is so traumatic that it breaks the people who look upon him.
By that same extension the terror of the king in yellow isn’t this robes tentacle man, although him being there does help, it’s whatever terrible truth is buried in that play. I think personifying something like the king in yellow as a tangible entity with tentacle and the like alone isn’t the problem. Just when the spectacle of a cool monster takes president over the terror that comes from knowing too much.
Some etymology:
Carcosa means "corpse", from the Latin carcosium
The 👑 is avatar of decadence and madness, facets of decay and death.
Who came here after watching FRom season 3 episode 10
Poe --> Bierce --> Dunsany --> Chambers --> Lovecraft --> ?? --> King --> ??
Sorry, there is no mystery or hidden meaning to this. They all consciously and openly borrowed from each other, keeping names, places, idea alive throughout their works.
Toyah Willcox, the Packt, from the album Changling:
Along the shore
The cloud waves break
The twin suns sink behind the lake
Strange is the night
Now black stars rise
And many moons circle
Through the skies
Why?
Where is she now?
She'd let the dawn rise
She's bring peace
She'd silence the beast
I was just thinking of rereading it, such excellent timing! Also, the new intro you have used for the latest videos is absolutely wonderful! Although I do still like the old one with the classic scribble and stamp.
12:30
A king in yellow, yellow for its adornment or- yellow for daisies that decorate its corpse?
Brilliant philosophical analysis of the cadaveric monarch, symbolically influencing dismal dread from the implied revelation of the death of the Empyrean, and the crumbled Throne; Carcossa. The King Wears no Mask, the decayed visage of the monarch, is the truth, eldritch and unfathomable.
There is a song by the band Diablo Swing Orchestra, which inspired a lot of a similar revelation. It is called Ragdoll Physics, and it is similarly about, the dreadful revelation of the apathy of death. Its chorus, sings:
"I do, and I don't, want to care anymore. If I closed my eyes, will it spare me the sight? Of decay, corruption, how we nurtured destruction... And everything that will doom us all".
Self brought decadence and ruin.
The symbolisms of the color Yellow in this case to me more evoke not just decadence or decay, but the aging that occurs to objects even when lovingly cared for and Protected from the elements as best one can. Paper and cloth alike both yellow with age
YEEEEESSSSS!!!!!! Please do more videos on the King in Yellow, it's my favorite book, and every video you guys make of it is fantastic!
100% me not clicking on this thinking we were gonna be talking about how Constantine Valdor is the king in yellow from Warhammer 40k.... But now I'm sticking around cause i have a soft side for Lovecraftian/gothic horror.
Fantastic video. Really excellent - putting it all in it's historic and literary context.
I just want to mention that "salome"'s final "e" is pronounced. Your video essay is so good, it would be a shame if anyone might not give it its due because of a little pronunciation glitch. Though in truth, mispronouncing that name is the sign of a well read person...one of those people who have words which they know from reading about topics that few people even know to speak about these days.
You could almost argue that the King in Yellow is more a warning of the dangers of not just ideas but their effects. As Lovecraft would come to embody parts of this story, he adopted the idea of a mind breaking. Madness seems to be a major theme in the story, and how simple coincidence and misunderstanding can destroy sanity. I think this is why it gets attributed to cosmic horror and Lovecraft so much. And why it seems to be just as terrifying as any Cthulu or Shoggagoth. Afterall, who needs a cosmic being when men are able to destroy their own minds with ideas of divine conspiracy and Cosmic existentialism.
I use this and the original video in my college lit course on horror fiction. Thank you! May you all find your own Carcosa!
I just started watching this, and I had to stop just to say that your opening animation is FANTASTIC!
I really love this interpretation/explanation for the King in Yellow. I've racked my brain trying to think what could consistently drive men to madness the way the second half of the play is meant to, and honestly I could never find an answer. What is horrifying to some is not horrifying to all. But, I think fear of mortality and what comes after the end is universal, and as such that finding out that what comes after the end is itself lying in ruination, therefore is universally horrifying.
Had to rewatch this now that I’m caught up on the podcast malevolent. It features lovecraft lore and TKIY is a central figure in the story.
Malevolent Fan spotted
i literally gasped when i saw you did another king in yellow video, it's literally my favorite book
That kind of horror presented in the play you mentioned reminds me of one of the SCP objects called "What happens after."
It's basically a story about an experiment that brought a man back to life. The said man exhibited strange behavior after the revival and made it his goal to achieve immortality and to protect everyone from knowing what happens after death.
The information on what happens is an SCP object on itself and must never be told or printed, and everyone involved must be quickly disposed of after getting to know it.
That knowledge was so gruesome, so unspeakable, that it became the living horror itself, and everyone bearing it would go maniacal just as the resurrected man did. Everyone to whom he told the story, everyone who read the report, everyone who knew the truth.
Interestingly enough, it's unknown whether that information was really true or was it just an artifact of that particular resurrection case.
It has always been somewhat sad to me how the original vision of the King has kinda been lost these days, most notably thanks to August Dereleth.
Derleth's interpretation of Lovecraft has influenced many subsequent writers.
@@julietfischer5056 And not for the better. Seriously, the guy had zero idea of what Lovecraft tried to convey.
@@matteste- His religious beliefs got in the way, not to mention his attempts to fit the various entities into the ancient Greek 'Elemental' (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) system.
So many times I have checked out something supposedly Lovecratian only to realize that it is Derlethian.
Little atmosphere, meaningless monsters, thickheaded protagonists, explaining the whole plot in black and white.
I am disappointed every time.
@@Duchess_Van_Hoof Too many people just take "Lovecraftian" and "Cosmic Horror" to mean "Tentacle Monsters." And they make it all about Cthulhu, who, while pretty cool, is fairly insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Lovecraft left things nice and vague; unknowable in form, unmeasured in potential. Derleth, meanwhile, shoehorned in Christian morality and drew a fucking _family tree!_
It could just be purgatory or a dead version of heaven, but that seems a little too simple for this pantheon lol. This is probably a stretch, but with the way everything was described here, I’d maybe guess that Hastur somehow takes what’s left of your sanity to Carcosa at the moment you mentally snap on earth or something. They were talking about how they were going insane before waking up in Carcosa feeling mostly normal, only to find a tombstone already made for them to mock the fact that what’s left of their sanity (their true self) is going to die there. The “ruins” of carcosa could be intentional on Hasturs part too, to represent a ruined mind or spirit, I’m definitely shooting in the dark lol, but that’s what I gathered. Hastur is mystery incarnate, but having multiple authors throughout his history has been an advantage in the development of his character, The “changes” have been accepted because they fit
Actually, Hastur was a name taken from a short story called "Haita The Shepherd" whom, in that story, is a benevolent god of shepherds. Chambers used this name in The King In Yellow to refer to a place. In one of Lovecraft's stories, he only mentioned the name Hastur once while listing the names of other gods. That's the funny thing, in later iterations of the Cthulhu Mythos, they would expand on something that's barely talked about or is only mentioned very briefly. Hastur was also retconned in certain iterations to be Cthulhu's half brother. I bet this was done on purpose from a meta perspective by having Lovecraft's most iconic monster be the half brother of a god that's based on one of Lovecraft's biggest influences. The most popular depiction of the yellow sign that's essentially become canon for a lot of people was actually from the Call of Cthulhu rpg.
The visuals for this video are stunning. They created a really great atmosphere that fits this story imo.
Ah yes, the book that I was obsessed with after completing "Signalis".
You ever figure out the connection with the play and the game?
@@franciscoruiThe reality bending, the faces (multiple identities and past lives), the uprooting of systems and it backfiring (revolution), banning knowledge "unfit" for people, the whole thing about being already dead and not accepting it/being kept alive unwillingly in emptiness. Those kinda things.
Most of what happens to the first 4 chapters happens in Signalis in a corrupted way different from the book but close enough to be just as horrifying if you were part of it. Not to mention the final boss is an insane manmade demigod covered in gold that no longer knows what it is supposed to be.
Perhaps, this is hell.
Your conclusion about needing to believe just reminds me of the Terry Pratchett quote of humanity needing belief "to be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape"
Sooooo dooooope… this is by far one of my favorite cosmic horror concepts, including the SCP Foundation take on it, the “Tragedy Of The Hanged King.” Freakin awesome. And there’s barely anything (aside from the SCP wikis contributions) to be found as far as written or audio/visual content related to it…. I’m so stoked you guys chose to showcase this….
I always interpreted the king in yellow as a deity born of human greed: greed for power, greed for material things, greed for status, etc. The humans have abandonned the god of creation for material pleasures, making it a deity, and through this act, killing the god of creation.
If you played fear and hunger, the king in yellow is Le'garde
This channel has one of the few intros I will actually watch every time
Literally me, amirite?
Anyways, the thought of having a king in yellow, not in gold, is kinda funny to me. Like the guy from Curious George, but much more dangerous
I'm liking the Lovecraftian themed uploads, lately.
And your artwork is going up in quality, the dreamy visuals is much appreciated.
Thank you Tale Foundry.
What a coincidence, yesterday i was watching a gameplay from "The baby in yellow" and another video about 4th wall break in horror media. It feel like THIS wasnt a coincidence
The name Hastur comes from Haïta the Shepherd, another Ambrose Bierce story from Can Such Things Be? In that story, Hastur is just god of the shepherds, not a nefarious figure.
Always is nice to watch one of your videos
King is yellow definitely is one of my favorite works
Carcosa feels like an anomly that takes place in the past of the living world but you can roam around dead
Seems like live that got made into a new form
‘The King in Yellow’ got referenced in the Warhammer 40k novels ‘Penitent’ & ‘Pariha’ by Dan Annette. The King, of course, hasn’t appeared yet. While the third book hasn’t come out yet, the first two books cone off as more ‘New Weird’ than anything else in that universe. Also, WH40k is generally horrifying. Just thought that was a weird place to find a reference to outside media.
If the book came out in the universe, I could easily just say that the king in yellow is just zinnch
@@Wanderer-nw2so yeah…..it isn’t tzeench. Who it is gets name dropped on the last page of the second book & I have no idea where the third book goes from there.
@@Wanderer-nw2so the Ghoul stars are untapped material for this kind of stuff, honestly a lot of the fan base it's a bit tired of chaos, and given that Lovecraft mythos permeates everything on Warhammer it wouldn't surprise me if they outright put a few of the "minor" Lovecraft gods on the ghoul stars.
As usual Nyarlatoteph, Kthulu, and Shubnigurath would be my personal picks, Nyarlatoteph it's an actual character with personality and stuff, and the other 2 could totally just run around destroyeing everything on their path.
Wait i read that wrong or you say that WH40k IS a weird place to find references to outside media? Because half of it is build in base of ideas of other universes
I absolutely love the new intro that's been in these few most recent videos.
I found out about The King in Yellow from playing Signalis recently. Really good game.
Probably my favorite singular description of The King as an entity comes from an SCP entry that called it a ‘god-shaped hole’.