Sandy petersens cthulhu mythos 193

Yellow Sign Cult
Cultists of the Yellow Sign tend to have an artistic

The King’s unholy text is also a play, simply entitled

temperament, and to view their horrible master, the

The King in Yellow (page 158). Either reading the

King in Yellow, as the ultimate performance artist.

play or watching it performed can lead to madness and

They see the destruction and havoc he wreaks as a great

worship of the King. Those aware of the danger it poses

display, and in a sense, they are absolutely correct. Of

are constantly at risk of being exposed to the Yellow

course, only the cultists are fully able to appreciate the

Sign and being magically compelled to serve the King

king’s creativity.

in Yellow, since it is easy to create and innocuous to

Many Yellow Sign cultists are cunningly insane:
deceptively refined serial killers and urbane sociopaths.

Often they only “realize” that they are devoted to the
Yellow Sign after years of compulsive cruelty, often in
the name of art.
The Yellow Sign gives cultists free rein to their
whims while the cult provides aid for their goals
and machinations.
The King in Yellow is among the most accessible of
all the Great Old Ones, and his cultists enjoy a great
deal of his personal patronage. Wise beyond belief and
unusually attentive to his followers, the King in Yellow
appears periodically at cult services or the doorsteps of
those who believe in him, ready to dispense gifts or
knowledge. He might leave a single pot of paint with a
cultist or group, that they might create the perfect color
for their mural. He might instead leave a small razor,
for use in carving away the body feature that prevents
their loved one’s physical perfection.
Exploiting their madness, the King in Yellow often
communicates with cultists in ways undetectable to
sane individuals. For example, a cultist might derive
meaning from a random phrase overheard on the
street, from the direction that a bird flies overhead,
or from the distorted shape of a tree’s shadow in the
late afternoon. Or perhaps what the cultist interprets
becomes the King’s intent. It’s hard to say because to a
follower of the King in Yellow, madness, reality, and
art become one.

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the uninitiated.

Organization
The Yellow Sign is not as tightly-organized as many
cults. Cultists occasionally meet in groups for activities
other than worship, as signaled to them through the
King’s insane mental dramas. For instance, a cultist
might realize that his cat’s persistent meowing for food
is a call from the King, while another might hear the
summons by looking closely at the pattern formed by
wine she accidentally spilled.
The Yellow Sign does not have persistent cult
leaders. When they meet, regardless of how they came
together this time or originally, one of them naturally
takes the lead. This may be a different cultist each time.
Usually, the person who takes over is the one most
suited for the task at hand. For instance, if they need
to capture a yithian-possessed person and torture him
for information, a cultist who has a deep sadistic nature
might become the leader. If they have to organize a
performance of the King’s play, the most artisticallyinclined might take over instead.
Because of the King in Yellow’s foreknowledge, he
can send his cultists to seek out and extract wisdom
from other beings. For example, they make a regular
practice of hunting down those possessed by the great
race of yith and also round up non-humanoids for
creative torture. Even ghouls and deep ones fear being
taken by the Yellow Sign’s cult, whose ingenuity and
extravagance in causing pain is beyond compare.