Cultists of the Yellow Sign tend to have an artistic temperament and to view their horrible master, the King in Yellow, as the ultimate performance artist. They see the destruction and havoc he wreaks as a great display, and in a sense, they are absolutely correct. Of course, only the cultists are fully able to appreciate the king’s creativity. The cult also reveres Unknown to varying extents, but the cultists are never clear on the relationship between the two entities.
Many Yellow Sign cultists are cunningly insane: deceptively refined serial killers and urbane sociopaths. Often, they only “realize” they are devoted to the Yellow Sign after years of compulsive cruelty, always “in the name of art.” The Yellow Sign gives cultists free rein to their whims while the cult provides aid for their goals and machinations.
The King in Yellow is among the most accessible of all the Great Old Ones, and his cultists enjoy a great deal of his personal patronage. Wise beyond belief and unusually attentive to his followers, the King in Yellow appears periodically at cult services or the doorsteps of those who believe in him, ready to dispense gifts or knowledge. He might leave a single pot of paint with a cultist or group, that they might create the perfect color for their mural. He might instead leave a small razor, for use in carving away the body feature that prevents their loved one’s physical perfection.
The Cult of the Yellow Sign is not as tightly-organized as many cults. Cultists occasionally meet in groups for activities other than worship, as signaled to them through the King’s insane mental dramas. The Yellow Sign does not have persistent cult leaders. When they meet, regardless of how they came together this time or originally, one of them naturally takes the lead. This may be a different cultist each time. Usually, the person who takes over is the one most suited for the task at hand.
Because of the King in Yellow’s foreknowledge, he can send his cultists to seek out and extract wisdom from other beings. For example, they make a regular practice of hunting down those possessed by the great race of yith and also round up occasional humanoids or non-humanoids for creative torture, whether to learn secrets or for no obvious reason. Even ghouls and deep ones fear being taken by the Yellow Sign’s cult, whose ingenuity and extravagance in causing pain is beyond compare.
While the majority of Yellow sign cultists follow the "inspiration" of the King in Yellow, there are other manifestations of the King, or even Hastur, that have been known to form cults. Again, the relationship between these avatars as aspects of several powers or multiple manifestations of one is mysterious, unknown and never truly known.
Dark Savant: conspiracies, dangerous knowledge, and forbidden arcana;
Dread Emperor: decadence, ennui, rebellion;