Hastur
| Hastur | |
|---|---|
| Cthulhu Mythos character | |
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 appearance | "Haïta the Shepherd" |
| Created by | Ambrose Bierce |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | 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) is an entity of the Cthulhu Mythos.
Hastur first appeared in Ambrose Bierce's short story "Haïta the Shepherd" (1891) as a benign god of shepherds. 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. 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.