Yellow Sign

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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).

Contents 1 The King in Yellow 2 The Cthulhu Mythos 3 Call of Cthulhu 4 Other media 4.1 Literature 4.2 Film 4.3 Games 4.4 Music 5 F. Tennyson Neely monogram 6 Notes and references

[edit] The King in Yellow

The King in Yellow never fully describes the shape and purpose of the Yellow Sign. Nonetheless, "The Repairer of Reputations", one of the stories in the collection, suggests that anyone who possesses, even by accident, a copy of the sign is susceptible to some form of insidious mind control, or possession, by the King in Yellow or one of his heirs. The stories also suggest that the original creator of the sign was not human and possibly came from a strange alternate dimension that contains an ominous and ancient city known as Carcosa.

[edit] The Cthulhu Mythos

H. P. Lovecraft and many of his imitators were great admirers of Chambers' book and incorporated many of his characters and symbols into their own works. In the latter-day Cthulhu Mythos, developed by August Derleth and other Lovecraft imitators, the Yellow Sign is the sign of Hastur and is used by members of his cult to identify one other. In addition, according to many of these works one of Hastur's avatars is known as the King in Yellow. This interpretation is popular among role-players, but many prefer the more vague horror of Chambers' original vision.

[edit] Call of Cthulhu

In 1989, Kevin Ross designed a Yellow Sign symbol for the Chaosium roleplaying game Call of Cthulhu. Ross created the symbol for an adventure scenario entitled "Tell Me, Have You Seen The Yellow Sign?" in the supplemental book The Great Old Ones. The symbol resembles a yellow triskelion, and is also believed to resemble a tentacled creature, since Hastur is often described as an aquatic tentacled being similar to Cthulhu.^[1]

Ross later stated in an interview that the image used is actually a corruption of his original drawing; apparently, Chaosium printed the image both upside-down and backwards. Flipping the image horizontally and vertically reveals Ross' original conception of the Yellow Sign, which resembles a coiled body or tentacle with two tentacles branching upward. Fans have pointed out that this image bears a resemblance to the "Kronos" symbol used by the band Blue Öyster Cult. When asked, Ross admitted to being a big fan of the band, but could not remember if the resemblance was deliberate.^[2]

[edit] Other media

[edit] Literature

In Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus! trilogy, the Cult of the Yellow Sign is offered to one detective as a concocted explanation of human history. The cult supposedly worships cthulhoid entities known as lloigor, commits human sacrifice, and has strived throughout history to suppress rationalism. The cult is opposed by the rationalist Illuminati.

[edit] Film

Independent film director Aaron Vanek shot The Yellow Sign in 2001, inspired by the Robert W. Chambers story of the same title. Like H. P. Lovecraft, Chambers is a difficult author to adapt to film. The book The King in Yellow which contains the short story "The Yellow Sign" is a set of loosely connected stories about sensitive individuals discovering an obscure play, "The King in Yellow", then becoming obsessed with the horrific otherworldliness. The emphasis is less on plot and characterization than on creating an eerie, disturbing atmosphere.

Vanek, with colleague John Tynes of Pagan Publishing, took the sketchy plot of Chambers' story and built a more complete screenplay around it, while still capturing the proper weird, disconnected, dream-like fantasy feel.

The film was distributed by Lurker Films at the end of 2006 as part of the Weird Tale Collection Volume 1.

See Lurker Films and the original website Web Noir.

[edit] Games

The Yellow Sign is the symbol used to designate the Hastur Faction in the Call of Cthulhu Collectible Card Game.

The Yellow Sign is depicted on the cover of the Unknown Armies supplement Postmodern Magick.

The Yellow Sign is used by cultists in Green Ronin's Freeport d20 System setting, and a similar cult in the same company's Freedom City setting for Mutants and Masterminds.

[edit] Music

The Yellow Sign is also the name of a Progressive Death Metal band from Michigan formed in 2007, and can be found online through their website (http://www.myspace.com/theyellowsign).

[edit] F. Tennyson Neely monogram

The first edition of The King In Yellow was published in 1895 by F. Tennyson Neely, and featured a picture of a salamander on the cover with a highly stylized symbol in the upper left corner. Some believed that this symbol was supposed to be the Yellow Sign. However, closer examination of the symbol reveals that they are a monogram of F.T.N., the publisher's initials, and the same picture appears on other early editions of books published by F. Tennyson Neely as part of their "Neely's Prismatic Library" series.^[3]

[edit] Notes and references