The Yellow Sign (the symbol)
From The Yellow Site
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The Yellow Sign is a fictional symbol or glyph, first described in Robert W. Chambers' book The King In Yellow.
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[edit] The King in Yellow
The King in Yellow never fully describes the shape and purpose of the Yellow Sign. The story of the same name offers only that it is "a curious symbol or letter in gold. It was neither Arabic or Chinese, nor as I found afterwards did it belong to any human script." 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. Lovecraft refers, in one story, to the Brothers of the Yellow Sign, as enemies of the Mi-go. 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 Call of Cthulhu RPG. 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.
Presumably the mistake occurred because the sign (as familiar to us now) contains what looks like a question-mark, acting as a counterpoint to the question "Tell Me, Have You Seen The Yellow Sign?" Ironically it makes the Sign appear more fluid, more dynamic, than it would have otherwise appeared.
[edit] Other media
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.
