A concept sketch for the King in Yellow's design that developed into a portrait.
[ID/ A digital drawing of the King in Yellow, with wood block texturing to the shading. He is in three quarters profile, looking towards the left, on a dark reddish brown background. The drawing cuts off at his shoulders, with his chest shown in a deep V, bust style. Instead of a face, there is smooth white chitin. Many insect legs poke out of his shirt collar, and curl around his chin.
The King is wearing a hooded robe in glowing golden amber, thrown over a mellow tan shirt. The edges of the robe and shirt are slightly tattered, with small holes. On his head is a glowing crown, with tall angular spikes in the same pale yellow. This crown wraps around the sides and back of his head, but leaves his forehead bare.
Behind the King’s head is a cracked circle of a lighter brown outlined in gold, mimicking a halo. The edge behind him has shattered, leaving shards exploding towards the right.
At the bottom, the artist's signature is written in gold. "Tyrastafr - Krakaheimr". /End]
—"Cassilda's Song" in The King in Yellow Act 1, Scene 2
It may be that I saw the Yellow Sign, but... this is the first of a series of paintings for a project I am working on with @amyma-ymamy. Hope you like it, it is the first city I paint.
Dedicated to @late-to-the-magnus-archives @sepiabandensis and @sparklyandheroic, for writing my favorite fanfiction of all times and helping me be freely creative again. I can never thank you enough <3
[ The following is lore for my PNGtuber! I wrote and read this out on stream but also wanted somewhere to post it that isn't twitter or bluesky. ]
Carcosa, lost Carcosa. It is in this distant city that we find the Marquis Yellow – in the court of the King in Yellow.
The Marquis had found their way to Carcosa long ago, from across the black waters of Lake Hali and from lands under different stars, and soon became an inhabitant of the city during its prime, before its fated destruction. Once a bustling city, all kinds would find their way to Carcosa yet none of them were strictly human – for this place existed an age before humanity formed. This city rose from the shore, tall obsidian towers piercing the sky and great domes that could house thousands within them for the eldritch mass that prayed to the elder Gods. Carcosa saw many visitors, pilgrims from beyond the Lake and beyond the stars, who sought to venerate this holy place and pay respects to the King in Yellow.
Here, in this strange and alien city, where the Twin Suns hang low and dim above the lake, the Marquis, before they had claimed that title, was but a performer – making their wage on the street and during religious festivities paying homage to Hastur and the King in Yellow, both whom ruled over the Hyades cluster. It was at such a time that the King deigned to walk among the masses, and had his attention brought on the jester. Upon a whim, the King decided to lay claim to this lone fool, inviting them to Court and even granting them a title… even if the title was in name only.
Thus, the Marquis Yellow was raised into nobility, as a member of the King’s court. However, this was not without its detriments. As a condition of this position, the newly appointed Marquis had to become a host of one of Carcosa’s more… troubling inhabitants; The Umbral Watcher, That With Eyes to Witness the Black Stars, Bane of the Twin Suns, this was the entity that the Marquis would be bonded to for the rest of eternity to ensure that the Twin Suns would remain safe from the threat of darkness that the Watcher would bring.
Under the King’s decree, the Marquis was given the privilege to joke and jest about any topic they wished, they were even allowed to insult the King himself or the nuances of the religion – such is the privilege given to any jester. However, one topic was forbidden under the King’s rule: the Watcher was not to be mentioned or even acknowledged. And any attempt the Marquis made to bring up the matter to the King in private was shut down almost immediately.
Yet, due to their newfound state of being, this was not something that the Marquis could accept. For the Watcher would whisper to them in the dark of night, when the King’s yellow eye was not upon the two of them. Beneath the lake’s abyssal surface, that was where it came and where it would wait for the twin suns to sink into the Hali and Carcosa would find its destruction once the dim light had died. Visions of this future entered the Marquis’ mind, a maddening prophecy that the Marquis was subjected to despite their best efforts to do as their King decreed; ignore the beast, disregard its lies and repeat not the heretical divinations.
Time passed, as it was want to do, and slowly Carcosa was filled with madness for its King’s condition began to decline. He who was once a vaunted god amongst the pilgrims who travelled the Hyades to visit the great city of Carcosa had now delved into strange and paranoid routines, an obsession with realms far and distant. His gaze no longer lingered on the city that he lived in, no, for it was humans who had stolen his interest. The tattered King left the city to fall into decay, into its own destruction now that the foe he truly believed to be its enemy had been captured and imprisoned. The very thing the King once sought to avoid had happened, yet, it was not the fate that the Watcher had foretold.
Carcosa would last under the dim light of the suns. Even if it was left in ruins, it was where the Marquis still lived – keeping the Court of the King in Lost Carcosa, prowling the empty halls of the palace – and deep in its heart sat the mad King.
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