View source for Hastur

{{Short description|Fictional creature and deity}}
{{for|the fictional family|Darkover}}
{{Infobox character
| name = Hastur
| series = [[Cthulhu Mythos]]
| image = Hastur-the-Unspeakable-Robert-M-Price.gif
| caption = Hastur the Unspeakable as he appears in [[August Derleth]]'s short story "The Gable Window". Illustration by [[Robert M. Price]] published in ''Crypt of Cthulhu'' #6 "August Derleth Issue", St. John's Eve 1982.
| first = "Haïta the Shepherd"
| creator = [[Ambrose Bierce]]
| species = [[Great Old Ones|Great Old One]]
| gender = Male
}}

'''Hastur''' (known by the epithets '''The Unspeakable One''', '''The King in Yellow''', '''Him Who Is Not to be Named''', '''Assatur''', '''Xastur''', '''H'aaztre''', '''Fenric''', or '''Kaiwan'''<ref>{{cite book |last=Harms |first=Daniel |chapter=Hastur |pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediacthu00dani/page/136 136&ndash;7] |title=The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana |edition=2nd |year=1998 |publisher=Chaosium |location=Oakland, CA |isbn=1-56882-119-0 |chapter-url-access=registration |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediacthu00dani/page/136}}</ref>) is an entity of the [[Cthulhu Mythos]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Joshi |first=S. T. |authorlink=S. T. Joshi |author2=David E. Schultz |title=An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia |location=Westport, CT |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2001 |isbn=0-313-31578-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Pearsall |first=Anthony B.|title=The Lovecraft Lexicon |edition=1st |year=2005 |publisher=New Falcon |location=Tempe, AZ |isbn=1-56184-129-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Price | editor-first=Robert M. |title=The Hastur Cycle |edition=2nd |year=1997 |publisher=Chaosium |location=Oakland, CA |isbn=1-56882-094-1}}</ref>

Hastur first appeared in [[Ambrose Bierce]]'s short story "Haïta the Shepherd" ([[1891 in literature|1891]]) as a benign god of [[shepherd]]s. Subsequently [[Robert W. Chambers]] used the name in his late 1800s stories to represent both a person and a place associated with several stars, including [[Aldebaran]].<ref>Harms, ''[[The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana]]'', p. 136.</ref> [[H. P. Lovecraft]] was inspired by Chambers's stories and briefly mentioned Hastur in ''[[The Whisperer in Darkness]]'' (1930). Later writers have also adapted Hastur in a variety of tales.

==Appearances==
[[File:The king in yellow, by Robert W. Chambers - 10713590626.jpg|thumb|Hastur as he appears in [[The King in Yellow]].]]
In Chambers' ''[[The King in Yellow]]'' ([[1895 in literature|1895]]), a collection of [[Horror fiction|horror stories]], Hastur is the name of a potentially supernatural character (in "The Demoiselle D'Ys"), a place (in "The Repairer of Reputations"), and mentioned without explanation in "The Yellow Sign". The latter two stories also mention [[Carcosa]], Hali, [[Aldebaran]], and the [[Hyades (star cluster)|Hyades]], along with a "[[Yellow Sign]]" and a play called ''The King in Yellow''.

[[H. P. Lovecraft]] read Chambers' book in early 1927.<ref>Joshi & Schultz, "Chambers, Robert William", ''An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia'', p. 38</ref> Lovecraft was so enchanted by the book that he added elements of it to his own creations.<ref>Pearsall, "Yellow Sign", ''The Lovecraft Lexicon'', p. 436.</ref> There are two places in Lovecraft's own writings in which Hastur is mentioned:

<blockquote>I found myself faced by names and terms that I had heard elsewhere in the most hideous of connections—[[Yuggoth]], Great [[Cthulhu]], [[Tsathoggua]], [[Yog-Sothoth]], [[R'lyeh]], [[Nyarlathotep]], [[Azathoth]], Hastur, Yian, [[Leng (plateau)|Leng]], the [[Lake of Hali]], Bethmoora, the [[Yellow Sign]], L’mur-Kathulos, Bran, and the Magnum Innominandum—and was drawn back through nameless aeons and inconceivable dimensions to worlds of elder, outer entity at which the crazed author of the ''Necronomicon'' had only guessed in the vaguest way.

:— H. P. Lovecraft, "[[The Whisperer in Darkness]]"</blockquote>

Later in the same story, it is described that the [[Mi-Go]] have been attacked by followers of Hastur, and Hastur is an enemy of the [[Cthulhu Mythos deities#Outer Gods|Outer Ones]] whom the Mi-Go serve:

<blockquote>Actually, they have never knowingly harmed men, but have often been cruelly wronged and spied upon by our species. There is a whole secret cult of evil men (a man of your mystical erudition will understand me when I link them with Hastur and the Yellow Sign) devoted to the purpose of tracking them down and injuring them on behalf of monstrous powers from other dimensions. It is against these aggressors—not against normal humanity—that the drastic precautions of the [[Cthulhu Mythos deities#Outer Gods|Outer Ones]] are directed.

:— H. P. Lovecraft, "[[The Whisperer in Darkness]]"</blockquote>

Derleth also developed Hastur into a [[Great Old One]],<ref>Derleth once entertained the notion of calling Lovecraft's mythos the ''Mythology of Hastur''&mdash;an idea that Lovecraft summarily rejected when he heard it. (Robert M. Price, "The Mythology of Hastur", ''The Hastur Cycle'', p. i.)</ref> spawn of [[Yog-Sothoth]], the half-brother of [[Cthulhu]], and possibly the Magnum Innominandum. In this incarnation, Hastur has several [[Avatar]]s:

* '''The Feaster from Afar''': A black, shriveled, flying monstrosity with tentacles tipped with razor-sharp talons that can pierce a victim's skull and siphon out the brain.<ref>Joseph Payne Brennan (1976), "The Feaster from Afar", ''The Hastur Cycle'' (2nd ed.), pp. 272&ndash;82.</ref>
* '''[[The King in Yellow]]'''

[[Anders Fager]]'s "Collected Swedish Cults" features a Stockholm-based coterie known as "The [[Carcosa]] Foundation" that worships Hastur.<ref>Fager, Anders, "Samlade Svenska Kulter"</ref>

Hastur is amorphous, but he is described as a vast, vaguely octopoid being. In the mythos, Hastur is presented as having "a strange effect on artists and playwrights".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mizer|first=Nicholas J.|title=Tabletop role-playing games and the experience of imagined worlds|date=22 November 2019|isbn=978-3-030-29127-3|location=Cham, Switzerland|oclc=1129162802|publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]]|page=164}}</ref>

Hastur appears as '''HASTUR THE UNSPEAKABLE''' (He Who Must Not Be Named) "Master of the Air" in the first through fifth printings of the [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] book [[Deities & Demigods]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ward|first=James M.|title=Deities & Demigods:  Cyclopedia of Gods and Heros from Myth and Legend|date=1980|isbn=0-935696-22-9|location=Lake Geneva, WI|publisher=[[TSR Games]]|page=45}}</ref>  While the publisher legally had the rights to publish Hastur, the entire Cthulhu Mythos section has subsequently redacted starting with the 6th printing as [[Legends & Lore]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ward|first=James M.|title=Official Advanced Dungerons and Dragons Legends & Lore|date=1987|asin=B002REP9T4|location=Lake Geneva, WI|publisher=[[TSR Games]]}}</ref> to avoid any possible controversy.  Additionally, the [[Elric of Melniboné (novel)|Melnibonéan Mythos]] section was also removed, all female topless illustrations were removed and the title of the book was changed for the same reason.

== See also ==
* [[Cthulhu Mythos in popular culture]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Wikisource|Haïta the Shepherd}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070219163328/http://www.classicreader.com/read.php/sid.6/bookid.1937/Ha%C3%AFta the Shepherd]
* {{librivox book | title=Can Such Things Be? | author=Ambrose BIERCE}}
* {{librivox book | title=The King in Yellow | author=Robert W. CHAMBERS}}

{{Cthulhu Mythos}}
{{H. P. Lovecraft}}
{{Robert W. Chambers}}

[[Category:Ambrose Bierce]]
[[Category:Cthulhu Mythos deities]]
[[Category:Fictional amorphous creatures]]
[[Category:Fictional demons]]
[[Category:Fictional monsters]]
[[Category:The King in Yellow]]
[[Category:Literary characters introduced in 1891]]
[[Category:Male literary villains]]
[[Category:Robert W. Chambers]]
[[Category:Fictional tentacled monsters]]