| 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 (The Unspeakable One, The King in Yellow, Him Who Is Not to be Named, Assatur, Xastur, H'aaztre, or Kaiwan) is an entity of the Cthulhu Mythos.[1][2][3][4][5]
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.[6] 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.
- ^ Gaiman, Neil; Terry Pratchett (1996). Good Omens. Ace Books. p. 213. ISBN 978-0-441-00325-9.
- ^ 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 0-313-31578-7.
- ^ Pearsall, Anthony B. (2005). The Lovecraft Lexicon (1st ed.). Tempe, AZ: New Falcon. ISBN 1-56184-129-3.
- ^ Price, Robert M., ed. (1997). The Hastur Cycle (2nd ed.). Oakland, CA: Chaosium. ISBN 1-56882-094-1.
- ^ Harms, The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, p. 136.