There is something more horrible than the black, and that is the yellow.

Black is chaos; black is the unbeing; but the death of being, the death of that which has lived, is yellow . . .

-- Pedro Antonio de Alarcón

. . . For it was in Irem, City of Pillars, that I did speak the Words that opened the Gate. However, I was not the first one to open the Gate in the City of Pillars; already in olden times sought, in his arrogance, to do so unpunished, even the King and builder of Irem, whose name was Shaddad, he who bethought himself capable of ruling the Spirits in the same manner as he ruled men.

Believing himself king of kings, seduced by visions sent to him by the Great Old Ones, dazzled by the Light of Madness, Shaddad led his people, which was the People of Ad, to the desert; and there, upon a spring, the waters of which had never until that day reflected a face, other than that of the Moon, Shaddad proclaimed himself King of Kings, Sorcerer of Sorcerers, and he spoke the Forbidden Names and the Incantation of Na seven times seven times, through seven nights, until the coming of the Black Moon. Then, whilst the People of Ad trembled before his madness and their priests prayed for their own souls, Shaddad brought forth the Spirits from the Desert and commanded them, with the Forbidden Name of Azathoth, to there build a city. And it is said that, at the coming of dawn, Irem, the City of Pillars, was built already. And upon the gateway of the walls of Irem, Shaddad commanded that a hand like unto that of a giant man be constructed, which was truly the hand that reaches out to grasp the Key to the Final Gateway. For Shaddad, in his infinite arrogance, wished to cross all the Gateways and impose his rule on the Outside, and be King of Kings, of Sorcerers, and of Gods. Nevertheless, the only thing in which he emulated the Daemon-Sultan was his unlimited and blasphemous madness.

For there came a night when Shaddad had the Stones be raised up, spoke the Words and poured the blood, and the Gate was opened. And through it came the burning, unseen Winds that waste and level, the Winds that howl forbidden songs between the stars, and the People of Ad howled the song of Death. All through the night did the burning Winds blow, and when the Sun did appear, its rays shone upon empty streets. And in the zones of the black stars, upon the shore of the Lake of Hali, new voices moaned within the white towers of the Palace of Naotalba.

And Irem, City of Pillars, was never dwelt in again, save only by cursed Spirits from the desert, and its walls never echoed a voice other than the azif.

And upon the wall of the Temple of Nergal, within the center of the City, was left engraved one terrible Sign, doom and warning to him who seeks to open a Gateway to a Sphere unbeknownst by him, and to him who seeks to oppose the power of the Gods with his human power.

And that Sign, which I did see inscribed upon the marble wall of the Temple when I visited Irem, and the which did cause me to shudder and to protect myself with the Sign of Ankh with a trembling hand, was the Yellow Sign.

And the Yellow Sign is the following:

And the Yellow Sign must be employed with the utmost care, for if it is studied insistently or if it is meditated upon in excess, the whisper of the winds of Hastur which rush through the empty spaces among the stars shall invade thy mind and thy dreams, snatching thy repose away, bringing along disturbing visions of That which shifts the waters of Hali, and of That which flutters among the towers of Carcosa, when the black stars do shine in the skies.

Created: October 5, 1998; Current Update: August 9, 2004