Hey everybody! This new update is very special for two reasons. First of all, you’ll soon discover it’s a very personal story, second, because this one was written by Ángel Luis Sucasas, the writer working in ‘A Place for the Unwilling’.

The whole team is always doing a constant research for ‘A Place for the Unwilling’, while doing this, something happened to Ángel over the last month and he wanted to tell you the whole story.

(If you don’t know what the ‘King in Yellow’ is better click here before reading the update)

I don’t think that anyone who’d read ‘The King in Yellow’ would think that sweet is a word that describes the master work of R.W. Chambers. Dreadful, maybe. Terrifying, for sure. Morbid is probably my favorite. But sweet… Come on! Cosmic horror isn’t something you’d want to cuddle with.

And yet, life always catches you off guard. After my experiences researching every attempt of recreating the theatrical play of the Ancient God in tattered yellow robes, I can say that sweet is also a suitable word for ‘The King in Yellow’.

It all began with madness. I told the rest of the team how cool would it be to have an actual representation of ‘The King in Yellow’ in ‘A Place For the Unwilling’. Two full acts of the play that, if one should believe Chambers, could make you go mad by the second act. Because AlPixel team is that cool, instead of sending me right to the nearest asylum everyone was on board with making a premiere of ‘The King in Yellow’, one of our biggest narrative set pieces.

I had a hunch that I wasn’t the first writer in attempting to cast the spell of Ythill, Lake Hali, Hastur, the Hyades, the black stars and Carcosa. I went straight to Wikpedia and suddenly I had a label, ‘Reconstructing the Play’, that speaks of many versions that tried to recreate the play.

There were two in a Chaosium Book called The Hastur Cycle, one by James Blish, another by Lin Carter. I got it on Amazon. There was another one by Thom Ryng, with a beautiful Yellow sign in the cover, published by Armitage House. Also ordered that one in Amazon. There was even the supposed French version, Le roi en jaune, in Lulu. Another fish to my net.

The last one mentioned was from an American playwriter and actor, Thomas Tafero. The guy even made a Kickstarter and actually premiered the thing in New York. Yep, it’s on Youtube. I discovered the thing, loved it, and knew that I needed the manuscript, that I must have this play to read it countless times.

I searched for the Facebook profile of the author. Apparently, it was still active. I was really excited, I really didn’t dig in his Facebook page, getting straight to contacting him. I sent him a private message, telling who I was and why I needed the manuscript.

The very same day, I got this response:

Since then, Cailin and I had become acquaintances. I’ve read Thomas version hungrily two times in a row. It was brilliant. Easily the best of the pack, although I still love Blish and Ryng more classical versions of the play. Thomas did something amazing. He was capable of creating two plays in one. The first is the ‘The King in Yellow’; Camilla, Cassilda, written in verse, baroque dialogues, etc. The other one was a brilliant meta turn of screw.

Among the troupe of actors playing ‘The King in Yellow’ in New York there’s an agent of FBI, David Stern, that’s trying to hunt the director of the play, a sort of modern Orson Welles called Michael Tazzerati. So this guy, Tazzerati, proposes the agent the following: he will confess his supposed crimes, a terrible premiere in Venice that ended with the whole audience dead in a fire, but he must let him finish this premiere of ‘The Yellow King’.

The way Tafero writes this crazy thing is masterful because audience and characters blends in the same horrific fascination of what’s real and what is a scam. Tazzerati seems to be a farceur (clown), an egomaniac artist pretending to have pacts with the devil, or something worst. We, as audience, identify with FBI agents, and experience the same dream like incredulity he has. Is this guy for real? Are people really disappearing in the theatre? What the fuck is happening?

The ending is so frightening I couldn’t close my eyes. It was like 3.00 am. Dark hours. I started the whole thing again, obsessed. Next day I wrote to Cailin and I told her how sincerely overwhelmed I was by his husband version. In return, she asked me to send my message to Thomas’ mother and sister. She also told me that I must keep her informed of any advances on both our version and the game.

Now you know how it’s possible to say that ‘The King in Yellow’ is, or can be, also sweet.

But beware. The one you would found in the game it would be not. Cause Hyades are glittering high in the sky, the yellow sign has been found, and the city behind the moon is on sight again. Think very well if you want to stay for a second act. Madness is a one-way ticket.

If you’re anything like us you’re probably still trying to take in all this. It was surprising and shocking. The whole team thanks Cailin her collaboration and how open she was about helping us, it was truly meaningful.

We’re going to say goodbye so you can start reading the story all over again, see all of you in two weeks for the next update! :-)