Hastur (The Unspeakable One, Him Who Is Not to be Named, Assatur, Xastur, or Kaiwan) is a fictional character in the Cthulhu Mythos. Hastur first appeared in Ambrose Bierce's short story "Haïta the Shepherd" (1893) as a benign god of shepherds. Robert W. Chambers later used Hastur in his own stories to represent both a person and a place relating to the Aldebaran star.^[1] A fictional character is any person who appears in a work of fiction. ... Cthulhu Mythos is the term coined by the writer August Derleth to describe the shared elements, characters, settings, and themes in the works of H. P. Lovecraft and associated writers. ... Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842–1914?) was an American satirist, critic, social commentator, poet, short story writer, editor, and journalist. ... This article is in need of attention. ... See also: 1892 in literature, other events of 1893, 1894 in literature, list of years in literature. ... In a draw in a mountainous region, a shepherd guides a flock of about 20 sheep amidst scrub and olive trees. ... Robert W. Chambers (May 26, 1865 - December 16, 1933) was an American artist and writer. ... Aldebaran, (α Tau / α Tauri / Alpha Tauri), is the brightest star in the constellation Taurus and one of the brightest stars in the nighttime sky. ...

Hastur in the mythos

In Bierce's "Haita the Shepherd", which appeared in the collection Can Such Things Be?, Hastur is more benevolent than he would later appear in August Derleth's mythos stories. Another story in the same collection ("An Inhabitant of Carcosa") referred to the place 'Carcosa' and a person 'Hali', names which later authors were to associate with Hastur. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Carcosa is a fictional city in the Ambrose Bierce short story An Inhabitant of Carcosa (1891). ...

In Chambers' The King in Yellow (1895), a fin-de-siècle collection of horror stories, Hastur is the name of a potentially supernatural servant (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 mentioned Carcosa and Hali, along with a 'Yellow Sign' and a play called the 'King In Yellow'. The King in Yellow is a collection of short stories published by Robert W. Chambers in 1895. ... See also: 1894 in literature, other events of 1895, 1896 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Fin de siècle is French for end of the century. The term turn-of-the-century is sometimes used as a synonym, but is more neutral (lacking some or most of the connotations described below), and can include the first years of a new century. ... The Yellow Sign is a fictional symbol or glyph, first described in Robert Chambers book of horror short stories entitled The King in Yellow (1895). ...

H.P. Lovecraft read Chambers' book in early 1927^[2] and was so enchanted by it that he added elements of it to his own creations^[3]. There is only one place in Lovecraft's own writings that mentions Hastur (italics added for emphasis): Howard Phillips Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author of fantasy, horror and science fiction, noted for combining these three genres within single narratives. ...

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, 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.... 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 the monstrous powers from other dimensions.
—H. P. Lovecraft, "The Whisperer in Darkness" Yuggoth, in the Cthulhu Mythos, is the name by which the extraterrestrial Mi-go know the planet Pluto, where they are believed to have established a colony. ... Cthulhu and Rlyeh Cthulhu (other spellings: Kutulu, Cthulu, Kthulhut, Thu Thu, Tulu[1], and many others) is a fictional entity created by horror author H.P. Lovecraft. ... Tsathoggua (the Sleeper of Nkai) is a fictional character in the Cthulhu Mythos. ... Yog-Sothoth (The Lurker at the Threshold, The Key and the Gate, The All-in-One) is a fictional character in the Cthulhu Mythos. ... Rlyeh is in the middle of one of the biggest patches of empty ocean on Earth. ... Nyarlathotep (the Crawling Chaos) is a fictional character in the Cthulhu mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. ... Azathoth is a fictional deity in the Cthulhu mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. ... Yian is a fictional city in China created by Robert W. Chambers and also referred to by H. P. Lovecraft. ... The cold desert plateau of Leng is a place mentioned several times in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft. ... Carcosa is a fictional city in the Ambrose Bierce short story An Inhabitant of Carcosa (1891). ... The Yellow Sign is a fictional symbol or glyph, first described in Robert Chambers book of horror short stories entitled The King in Yellow (1895). ... The Whisperer in Darkness is a short story by H.P. Lovecraft, written in 1930. ... Bran Mak Morn is a hero of several pulp fiction short stories by Robert E. Howard. ... The Magnum Innominandum is an entity in the Cthulhu Mythos, whose name in Latin means Great not-to-be Named. It is often associated with [[Hastur]. According to H.P. Lovecraft, this being is the spawn of Azathoth and progenitor of Yog-Sothoth, although the latter is dubious. ... The Necronomicon is the title of a fictional text in the works of American fantasy/horror author H.P. Lovecraft and other writers in the Cthulhu Mythos genre of horror fiction. ... The Whisperer in Darkness is a short story by H.P. Lovecraft, written in 1930. ...

It is unclear from this quote if Lovecraft's Hastur is a person, a place, an object (such as the Yellow Sign), or a deity. Derleth, however, developed Hastur into a Great Old One^[4], spawn of Yog-Sothoth, the half-brother of Cthulhu, and possibly the Magnum Innominandum. In this incarnation, Hastur has several avatars: A Great Old One is a type of fictional deity in the Cthulhu Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. ... Yog-Sothoth (The Lurker at the Threshold, The Key and the Gate, The All-in-One) is a fictional character in the Cthulhu Mythos. ... Cthulhu and Rlyeh Cthulhu (other spellings: Kutulu, Cthulu, Kthulhut, Thu Thu, Tulu[1], and many others) is a fictional entity created by horror author H.P. Lovecraft. ... A number of supernatural characters appear in the Cthulhu mythos. ... The ten avatars of Lord Vishnu, copyright BBT In Hindu philosophy, an avatar, avatara or avatarim (Sanskrit: , IAST: ), most commonly refers to the incarnation (bodily manifestation) of a higher being (deva), or the Supreme Being (God) onto planet Earth. ...

• 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^[5]
• The King in Yellow.
• The High Priest Not to Be Described, an entity that wears a yellow silken mask^[6])

Hastur's form is amorphous, but he is said to appear as a vast, vaguely octopoid being, similar to his half-niece Cthylla. The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers is a 1895 collection of short horror stories loosely connected by their shared references to a fictional play of the same name. ... The High Priest Not to Be Described is a fictional character in H.P. Lovecrafts Dream cycle. ... Cthylla (nickname: the Secret Daughter of Cthulhu) is a fictional character, a Great Old One from the pantheon of H. P. Lovecrafts Cthulhu Mythos. ...

Popular culture

Literature

Hastur sometimes appears in literature outside of the Cthulhu Mythos genre of horror.

• Hastur is a god with a royal family descended from him in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series.
• In Paul Edwin Zimmer's Dark Border series the mysterious Hastur are guardians and protectors of the world.
• In Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, Hastur is a Duke of Hell who becomes trapped in an answering machine. He later escapes when a telemarketer phones, and promptly devours the entire staff of the telemarketing office (unintentionally spreading a "wave of low-grade goodness" throughout the population).
• The Doctor Who novel All-Consuming Fire equates Hastur with Fenric.
• In the Stephen King short story, Gramma, the titular "Gramma" invokes Hastur to impregnate her when she is found to be incapable of having a child, and can be made to sleep by being told to "Lie down in the name of Hastur."

Marion Eleanor Zimmer Bradley (June 3, 1930 – September 25, 1999) was a prolific author of largely feminist fantasy novels such as The Mists of Avalon and was a steadfast encourager of equality (and quality) in writing. ... The Darkover series consists of several novels and short stories set in the fictional world of Darkover as created by science fiction author Marion Zimmer Bradley. ... Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (1990) is a fantasy novel written in collaboration between Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. ... The Virgin New Adventures (often referred to simply as NAs within fandom) were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, which had been cancelled in 1989, continuing the story of the series from where the television programme had left off. ... The Curse of Fenric is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from October 25 to November 15, 1989. ... For other people named Stephen King, see Stephen King (disambiguation). ... Gramma is a short story by Stephen King. ...

Comics

• The comic strip User Friendly proposes that Hastur used Usenet as an avatar. Hastur appears in the strip as a sentient blob of very strong coffee made from "Distilled Usenet Bitterness". [1]
• The comic weekly '2000 AD' featured a story that centred on a vast cruise liner, 'Leviathan,' that was lost in a featureless sea for years. Hastur was a demon captured in the bowels of the ship, and was the reason for Leviathans misfortune.

For the concept in software engineering, see user-friendliness. ... Usenet is a distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP network of the same name. ...

Games

Extrapolating from August Derleth's epithet for Hastur, "He Who Is Not to be Named", the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game suggested in the Deities and Demigods Cyclopedia supplement (TSR, ISBN 0-935-69622-9) that merely speaking Hastur's name brings doom to those who do so. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... For other uses, see Dungeons & Dragons (disambiguation). ... A role-playing game (RPG, often roleplaying game) is a type of game in which the participants assume the roles of characters and collaboratively create stories. ... TSR, Inc. ...

This idea was later picked up by the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game. ^[7] It also appears in the PlayStation game Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, where Hastur can be summoned by saying his name three times. Call of Cthulhu is a horror fiction role-playing game based on the story of the same name written by H.P. Lovecraft and the so-called Cthulhu Mythos the story inspired. ... For other versions of PlayStation, please see PlayStation (disambiguation) The PlayStation ) is a video game console of the 32/64-bit era, first produced by Sony Computer Entertainment in the mid-1990s. ...

Hastur is the main enemy in the Sega Genesis games Earnest Evans and El Viento. In both games, he's an evil god worshipped by a crazed cult using him to destroy New York City in the 1920s. The heroine of El Viento, Annet Myer, is descended from Hastur's cursed bloodline. The Mega Drive/Genesis was a 16-bit video game console released by Sega in Japan (1988), Europe (1990) and most of the rest of the world as the Mega Drive. ... El Viento is a 2D platformer video game released by Wolf Team and published by Renovation for the Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis game console in 1991. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Nickname: Big Apple, City that never Sleeps Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City 1,214. ... El Viento is a 2D platformer video game released by Wolf Team and published by Renovation for the Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis game console in 1991. ...

The role-playing game Delta Green treats Hastur and his counterpart, the King in Yellow, as manifestations of entropy. A role-playing game (RPG, often roleplaying game) is a type of game in which the participants assume the roles of characters and collaboratively create stories. ... Delta Green is a setting for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game and was created by Adam Scott Glancy, Dennis Detwiller, and John Tynes of the Seattle gaming house Pagan Publishing. ... The King in Yellow is a collection of short stories published by Robert W. Chambers in 1895. ...

References

• Harms, Daniel (1998). “Hastur”, The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, 2nd ed., Oakland, CA: Chaosium, pp. 136–7. ISBN 1-56882-119-0.

• Joshi, S. T., David E. Schultz (2001). An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-3133-1578-7.

• Pearsall, Anthony B. (2005). The Lovecraft Lexicon, 1st ed., Tempe, AZ: New Falcon. ISBN 1-561-84129-3.

• Price, Robert M. (ed.) (1997). The Hastur Cycle, 2nd ed., Oakland, CA: Chaosium. ISBN 1-56882-094-1.

Sunanda Tryambak Joshi (b. ...

Footnotes

The Dream Quest of Unkown Kadath is a short novel by H. P. Lovecraft, published in 1926, part of his dream cycle. ... See also: 1925 in literature, other events of 1926, 1927 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Nyarlathotep (the Crawling Chaos) is a fictional character in the Cthulhu mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. ...

External links

• Haita the Shepherd