Searching For a World That Doesn’t Exist theory time
A theory/rant I might add to from time to time
POST DTWTDE NON SPOILER NOTES DOWN BELOW
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you really like the King in Yellow mythos from the many different authors with different interpretations that’s cool but I might disappoint you, I only used what I know for my theory. In my defense, when I first thought of this and began writing it down, it was very maniacal, and I haven’t considered nor deeply researched other works. And also I just like the original.
I don’t offer a solution, nor prediction of what will happen, I just offer a lense to view the ARG through, I’d like to hear other people’s ideas too
After watching the video I reread my own copy of The King in Yellow and some of my own notes. The book is really fun, okay? ._.
So I kept thinking about it and about the ARG and then on a very normal morning of no sleep and amounts of caffeine that had me shaking, I had an idea. A theory, that could explain the ARG but keep it’s story intact. I won’t go too deep into everything.
D3RLORD3 WAS ALREADY DEAD IN HIS VIDEO
(I’m hoping this will work as a clickbait and you’ll either want to continue out of interest or out of spite to prove me wrong)
By reading this I assume you know more than just the surface knowledge about the King in Yellow and the ARG and are willing to listen to a mad man’s rambling. And also willing to overlook and ignore any and all errors, I am not a native speaker and no writer, I can’t make a coherent essay to save my life. And like, yknow, bear with me even if Im just stupid, never take the word of a random guy on the internet.
I stopped considering the storylines of Avery and D3rLord3 as chronological and rather very close, sorta parallel. Meaning D3r’s story isn’t really happening before Avery’s, removing the whole idea that he went through what he went through and still gave up his laptop to be found by Avery, whilst knowing what will follow.
And no, it’s not because The KiY gave him infinite knowledge and D3r knew it’s inevitable, nah that is never confirmed to be the effect of ‘looking’ at the ancient cosmic horror, funnily enough. As far as I know, this comes from the Lovecraft’s ‘adaptation’ of the infamous being and put me in the brazen bull for all I care, but it’s just boring and frankly a misinterpretation. It is a popular theory, but I’m not gonna make use of that here.
My theory is based on the possibility, that D3rLord3 was long dead before his video takes place.
Now, keep the pitchforks down, for this we need to delve deeper into the origins of Carcosa and Hastur.
As the foundation of my thesis I used the original book The King in Yellow, published by Robert W. Chambers in 1895 and his possible inspirations I will now talk about.
In 1891, Ambrose Bierce published a short story, Haita the Shepherd, where the titular character worships Hastur, ‘the god of shepherds.’ At first Haita praises his god for giving him safety in a valley surrounded by mountains, unaware his home is also a trap.
I’ll keep it short, Haita begins seeing visions of Joy in the form of a beautiful woman, but his yearning for joy causes him misfortune, as his god seemingly punished him for it. Haita runs back to the shrine built for Hastur’s worship, and pleads his god for forgiveness each time. Punished because he dared to yearn for happiness.
From this short story Chambers borrowed the god Hastur for his collection of stories. The name is sometimes mentioned there but never as the same thing, as if omnipresent and affecting the stories or the book itself. Hastur is usually synonymous with the KiY, implied to be the same thing altogether. Hastur often ‘speaks’ to artists and playwrights. Through a fictional playwright who ended up writing and publishing the infamous fictional play, The King in Yellow reached far into the minds of humans. As implied in the stories by Robert W. Chambers in his book of the same name.
From the short story also stems my favourite personal theory, whether The King in Yellow aims to cause the insanity or is merely a shepherd for those affected. What a terrible thing to find solace in the one thing who took everything you are and were, your perception of the world forever changed.
Another one of Bierce’s stories speaks of Carcosa, the lost city Chambers used in his KiY. Published in 1886, a short story The Inhabitant of Carcosa tells the tale of a man awakened in a strange land. Nothing but tall grass, dead trees and gravestones. I will cut to the point: The man finds his own gravestone under the roots of one of the trees and knows he’s awakened in the ruins of Carcosa, realizing he is already dead, as his story is told by a medium who has contacted his ghost. Important to note, the dead man ponders the words of Hali the philosopher, that of the death of the body and the soul.
(Hali is also used by Chamber’s as a name for a lake. Upon the shores of Lake Hali stands bright and high, our lost Carcosa, therefore I deem the guy important)
Bierce may have been inspired by a similar story of a man trying to reach a city of Carcassone before his death. I felt like that can be mentioned
Let’s talk about astronomy for a second.
Chamber’s stories mention multiple times The Hyades, which is a real cluster of stars of identical age and origin, forming the Taurus constellation along with the Adelbaran star, which is however much further from it, but closer to us, therefore appearing brigher. (The star’s name is sometimes used for the Hyades as a whole and can be translated to ‘the follower.’ The name Adelbaran is also used in the KiY)
Now, why mention the cluster. While the Hyades along with the Pleiades (another cluster) form what’s called The Golden Gate of the Ecliptic, moon, the sun and all planets regularly pass this ‘gate’ so it’s not neccessarily important to the theory unless we wanna recall another golden gate. The Hyades also house a few planets and our famous Carcosa is fabled to be on one of them (allegedly, gonna have to trust Wikipedia and my mind on that one, but hey, its better than grok or Ai overview)
And now, the Minecraft ARG. Why minecraft specifically? And it’s not just because it’s a great yet easy way to tell a complicated story. Let me get to what I think the ARG is about.
First I beg thee, dear members of the jury, to only gently caress the tomatoes, don’t throw them at my face yet.
I think that D3rLord3’s soul is trapped in previously his own minecraft world, which Hastur’s influence mangled and twisted into a path for D3r, leading him towards learning knowledge he wasn’t ready for.
D3rLord3 is gone, away from keyboard if I may, long before the video takes place. His laptop is later found by Avery, containing a minecraft world that was already there. A world where D3rLord3 might be still trapped in.
This would easily explain the very common question “why doesn’t he just leave and delete the game?”
He didn’t wan’t to leave, brother was too deep in it by the time he started digging, he needed to know more.
He is gone. He is trapped in a goddamn minecraft world, relying on a game’s rules, his current existence depending on it, but he doesn’t know that yet. He doesn’t know it means nothing compared to a game a dead God is playing. He ventured deeper and deeper, into the depths, into the labyrinth, into a decaying village, onto the crossroads. He had a choice, to learn more, or to leave.
And he chose, he entered and traveled closer and deeper into the lands of a ruined kingdom and behind the golden gates he saw and learned the truth, that he is dead. That he is in the ruins of the ancient city of Carcosa.
Yes, my theory goes back to The Inhabitant of Carcosa, and the words of Hali the philosopher, which I’ll now include. You can skip them honestly but eh, free will.
“For there be divers sorts of death -- some wherein the body remaineth; and in some it vanisheth quite away with the spirit. This commonly occurreth only in solitude (such is God's will) and, none seeing the end, we say the man is lost, or gone on a long journey -- which indeed he hath; but sometimes it hath happened in sight of many, as abundant testimony showeth. In one kind of death the spirit also dieth, and this it hath been known to do while yet the body was in vigour for many years. Sometimes, as is veritably attested, it dieth with the body, but after a season is raised up again in that place where the body did decay.”
With everything that is Hastur, everything that is the King in Yellow, is it that weird?
An ancient god, a ruler of a decaying planet, a concept, an idea that was able to reach past time and the space itself, crawl inside the human mind and keep existing just by being known, a plague that spreads by a mere book, with every page you read. You are not safe if you refuse to read the book, by the time you laid eyes on it, it was already too late. You are not safe from the words, which speak to the wise and ignorant alike.
Is it that far fetched to say that Avery experiences a minecraft world where the soul of the previous owner is still trapped because of the influence of Hastur?
Yes, I’m saying Hastur did a jingle jangle with a random minecraft world of a random guy. Like c’mon, ancient eldritch being messing with our technology in ways we cannot comprehend as a means of spreading isn’t a new concept.
Everything we see in D3r’s POV can be viewed with this in mind, even the fan favourite theory of D3rLord3’s body becoming Hastur’s vessel. (If you’ve read the book you will recall instances of reanimated dead bodies)
And ofc, his message to Avery in a book that wasn’t there before. He knows now and he leaves him a message, because the story of Avery is told almost parallel to D3rLord3, they coexist yet one will never meet the other.
And not to forget the ARG’s name, Searching For a World That Doesn’t exist, I think it’s possible our two protagonists are separated, one in a world that doesn’t ‘exist’, the other in a world we have yet to fully explore. If Avery’s path is to be same as D3rLord3s, that’s simply in the stars.
The ARG contains The King in Yellow, who created a story inside a minecraft world for the consciousness of D3rLord3 to follow.
Imagine that you’re dead, all that’s left of you is a part that’s still playing according to a game’s rules, but all at the mercy of an ancient god.
To come to terms with your own death is one thing, but it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
This was for shits and giggles, if there ever is a continuation of the story I will probably delete this because it will be painfully wrong but it’s a fun idea I really liked. Even though I was just
the entire time I was in work. Writing it down on random pieces of paper and later connecting them into this. I am employed, yet I do this for fun.
If you’ve read this far, thank you for your time, have a good day/night
Edit1: D3rLord3’s fate might be more hopeful, maybe he’s just in a coma. Philosopher Hali again
