The King in Yellow

 This gilded statuette appeared in an auction in Paris, 1924 with unknown provenance. Since then it has passed between collections. The gold leaf is worn and partially corroded in places, indicating a low purity, but the black, clay-like substance beneath defies analyses. Of the owners of the item, many went on to become noted artists. Several have claimed the figure, and the unusual symbol on its mask served as inspiration in their work. A number of owners have also met untimely ends, often a result of self destructive qualities or apparent mental illness, leading to rumours that the object is cursed, however this does not appear to be statistically significant

  

So I got some gold and silver leaf a while back and figured I'd try some of it out, whilst also attempting a larger fimo project than the small things I'd done before. Getting the leaf into the various crevices was ridiculously difficult but fortunately helps make it look old and worn (especially with a black wash). Due to distractions there ended up being a week or so between the most of the leaf and the final touches, so in a couple of places there's a notable colour change between the older and newer gold - some bits even have a sort of mottled bronze effect.

I started with a tin foil core, and used a bit of florists wire to form the structure for the wings, then built up with fimo for the main body and added details for the cowl, tattered robe, tentacles, and coiled yellow sign on the face. Do wish I'd made the hood a lot thinner though, and possibl added more details to the wings.

The project was originally inspired by this (far superior one).

Carcosa Coins

So, I've been meaning of to get into the mythos prop making scene (is that what it's called? A scene?) for a while and having started watching True Detective because of its references to the King In Yellow I was a) reminded that I haven't finished reading it and b) through an indirect chain of thought inspired to make some Yellow Sign Mythos* stuff, so here's some silver coins and a gold medallion from Lost Carcosa. 

I bought some Das air drying terracotta clay and after a few miss starts made a simple mold out of some leftover foam and printed out the coins, and made the larger medallion.  The coins were drybrushed silver while the medallion was done with rub n buff.  Oddly I had no problem with the finish at first but immediately after varnishing I've found its started to chip off in a couple of places, so I'll have to fix that up.

I plan on making accessory docments for this lot and they'll be packed up in a wooden boxband sold as a collection from Miskatonic University

*The King in Yellow was written by Robert Chambers using a couple of names from another guy who's name I forget, it was then referenced by Lovecraft and much later on it was folded into the Cthulhu Mythos entirely by Derleth as Hastur the Unspeakable.  However it still exists as a separate series of short stories and some fans are less happy about it being adapted into the Cthulhu Mythos.  So the Yellow Sign Mythos is sometimes part of the Cthulhu Mythos but the Cthulhu Mythos isn't part of the Yellow Sign Mythos.  It makes Faction Paradox and Doctor Who seem simple.

The Yellow Sign I've used on the coins was made by Kevin Ross for Chaosium role play system.  Why would it be on both sides of the country s used in Carcosa? Well it may or may not leave you susceptible to mind control by the Tattered King, so what better way to rule a city?

I really like the tone of the setting, it seems like a more subtle form of horror than the Cthulhu mythos, and it isn't jam packed with grubby monsters that won't to kill you and/or will kill you as a side effect of their unknowable antics.  That said, the original book? I've only read a little of it but I'm not quite seeing the hype - perhaps it's an issue of being written for an audience a hundred years ago.  However I have just got A Season in Carcosa, which is a modern collection of short stories in the Yellow Sign Mythos, which I find much more readable.  Perhaps it's just that I never got the the second act of the play...