The Yellow King Hastur and Use of the Lovecraftian Pantheon in The Chronicles of Jegra: Gladiatrix of the Galaxy

Hastur (H'aaztre aka The Yellow King) is the main villain in my JEGRA Gladiatrix of the Galaxy series.

Dagon(s) are my main alien race--they're blue-skinned (obviously referencing the aquatic nature of Dagon from the Lovecraftian pantheon)

The Carcosan virgins in my story are based off the Carcosa Foundation and those who worship Hastur.

My book series visits a planet inhabited by the sentient Dygra crystal entity--another Lovecraftian horror. In my series, the Dagon people have figured out how to harvest and bond with the Dygra and use energy-based powers that the crystals give them.

I have many more Lovecraftian references in my JEGRA series.

Why did I choose to invoke the cosmic entities of Lovecraftian horror?

Because I wanted to include an ancient religion in my series. And I had the option of either using a real-world religion like Christianity or Islam as a stand-in, which I really didn't want to do, or create my own.

The problem with creating your own religion is that the level of mythos building required to make it believable is a painful undertaking. And, usually simpler is better when talking about the mystical and ancient aspects of bygone religions.

I also knew this religion would need to be alien, because it was for aliens and about aliens, and Lovecraft's cosmic Old Ones fit the bill perfectly.

It gave me an ancient mythos to refer to--based on a very simple premise--what if these ancient horrors were real?

What if other alien cultures knew of them and worshipped them?

Their names may not be familiar to all, since most people only know about Cthulhu. But my series takes the entire pantheon of Lovecraftian cosmic entities at face-value. They are very real.

And one of them just so happened to destroy the universe. He just wasn't expecting a genetically enhanced and extremely stubborn superhuman woman to stand in his way.

Welcome to the world of the Gladiatrix of the Galaxy!

(Hastur Art by Adrian Smith / Art Station)

You can buy Jegra books 1-5 available now.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KY43LH8