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49-460: A middle-aged Conan of Cimmeria tries to govern the turbulent kingdom of Aquilonia . Conan has recently seized the crown from King Numedides after strangling the tyrant on his throne, but the Cimmerian is more suited to swinging his broadsword than signing official documents. The Aquilonians who originally welcomed Conan as their liberator have turned against him due to his foreign blood, and construct

98-586: A "leisurely" pace in search of new areas in which to settle. The Hyborians had yet to encounter other cultural groups, but engaged in wars against each other. Howard describes them as a powerful and warlike race with the average individual being tall, tawny-haired, and gray-eyed. Culturally, they were accomplished artists and poets. Most of the tribes still relied on hunting for their nourishment. Their southern offshoots, however, had been practicing animal husbandry on cattle for centuries. The only exception to their long isolation from other cultural groups came due to

147-515: A Cimmerian. Mitra is a personification of good, popular amongst people of the era. He is probably loosely based on the Vedic and Zoroastrian figure by the same name , and in the Hyborian universe, his worship generally represents Christianity . In the essay " The Hyborian Age ", Howard writes that followers of Mitra are urged to forgive their enemies (though many of them fail to do so). Mitra's religion

196-529: A camel driver, he was waylaid in Koth by Ascalante's reavers. The rest of his caravan was slaughtered, but Thoth-Amon saved himself by revealing his identity and swearing to serve Ascalante. The conspirators plan to assassinate King Conan when he is unprepared and defenseless, but Thoth-Amon discovers that his ring of power is in Dion's possession, murders him and summons a fanged ape-like demon to slay Ascalante. Conan in turn

245-408: A great tribal chief of their past who had undergone deification . Their oral tradition remembered him as their leader during their initial migration to the north, though the antiquity of this man had been exaggerated. By this point, the various related but independent Hyborian tribes had spread throughout the northern regions of their area of the world. Some of them were already migrating south at

294-578: A greater aspect of realness." The essay sets out in detail the major events of Howard's fictional prehistory, both period before and after the time of the Conan stories. In describing the cataclysmic end of the Thurian Age, the period described in his Kull stories, Howard links both sequences of stories into one shared universe . The names he gives his various nations and peoples of the age borrow liberally from actual history and myth. The essay also sets out

343-416: A significant effect on Conan's career. Though he had never commanded more than a "company of cut-throats", Conan emerges as a victorious general in a historically important battle involving tens of thousands of soldiers. Though Conan's career would know many more ups and downs, this was an important step towards eventually becoming a king. From Mitra's point of view, Conan was evidently the best choice to defeat

392-422: A significant military force to campaign against them, but most Hyborians were not convinced by his tales; only a small group of foolhardy youths followed his campaign. None of them returned. With the population of the Hyborian tribes continuing to increase, the need for new lands also increased. The Hyborians expanded outside their familiar territories, beginning a new age of wanderings and conquests. For 500 years,

441-709: A single idol . The idol itself has the appearance of an idealized, bearded male figure and is the primary object of worship. However, being omnipresent and incorporeal , Mitra is not considered to reside in the icon, nor share its appearance. He is also symbolically represented by a phoenix in Howard's writing, by an Ankh in the Age of Conan MMORPG , and by a bronze colossus in the survival video game Conan Exiles . Mitra appears directly in Howard's "Black Colossus", where he speaks to Princess Yasmela of Khoraja and guides her in an hour of desperate danger. Mitra's involvement has

490-512: A statue to Numedides' memory in the temple of Mitra; priests burn incense before their slain king, hailing it as the holy effigy of a saintly monarch who was killed by a red-handed barbarian. A band known as the Rebel Four forms: Volmana, the dwarfish count of Karaban; Gromel, the giant commander of the Black Legion; Dion, the fat baron of Attalus; and Rinaldo, the hare-brained minstrel. Their goal

539-608: A sworn enemy of the Hyborian kingdoms. Skelos is mentioned in "The People of the Black Circle", "The Hour of the Dragon" and in the verse prologue to "The Pool of the Black One". He is an evil god of death, and as many such ones, Odin for one, he is connected to wisdom and learning. The Bible of maltheists and necromancers in Conan’s days is called "The Book of Skelos", whose author is Vathelos

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588-446: Is all that is needed from him. Crom doesn't care if individuals live or die, and his name is typically only invoked as an oath or curse. He is the only member of the Cimmerian pantheon named with any regularity. Crom is never depicted as directly intervening or otherwise explicitly causing any event in the original Conan stories by Robert E. Howard. There is little consistent evidence in his works that Crom actually exists, in contrast to

637-587: Is also dry, his Caspian Sea , which he renames the Vilayet Sea, extends northward to reach the Arctic Ocean , so as to provide a barrier to encapsulate the settings of his stories. Not only are his Baltic Sea and English Channel dry, but most of the North Sea and a vast region to the west, easily including Ireland, are, too. Meanwhile, the west coast of Africa on his map lies beneath the sea. In his fantasy setting of

686-465: Is missionary; its adherents are sometimes martyred trying to spread their faith to hostile peoples. Mitra's worship is dominant, effectively the state religion , in the Hyborian countries corresponding to modern Western Europe . In lands corresponding to Asia and Africa, Mitra is, at best, one god among many, and his worship is forbidden in Stygia (Egypt and North Africa). Mitra is the chief god of most of

735-687: Is prehistoric Europe and North Africa (with occasional references to Asia and other continents). On a map Howard drew conceptualizing the Hyborian Age, his vision of the Mediterranean Sea is dry. The Nile , which he renamed the River Styx , takes a westward turn at right angles just beyond the Nile Delta , plowing through the mountains so as to be able to reach the Straits of Gibraltar. Although his Black Sea

784-522: Is probably derived from the Old Irish deity Crom Cruach or Crom Dubh . Crom is the chief god of the Cimmerian pantheon, and he lives on a great mountain, from where he sends forth doom or death. It is considered useless to call upon Crom, because he is a gloomy and savage god who hates weaklings. However, Crom gives a man courage, free will, and the strength to fight his enemies, which the Cimmerians believe

833-418: Is to put the crown in the hands of someone with royal blood, and to this end they recruit the services of a southern outlaw named Ascalante. However, Ascalante secretly plans to betray his employers and claim the crown. Ascalante also enslaves Thoth-Amon, a Stygian wizard who has fallen on hard times: A thief had stolen Thoth-Amon's ring and left him defenseless, forcing him to flee from Stygia; while disguised as

882-426: Is warned of this event in a dream by a long-dead sage named Epemitreus, who marks Conan's sword with a mystical phoenix representing Mitra , a Hyborian god. Conan awakens and, prepared for the attack, slays the three remaining members of the Rebel Four, breaking his sword upon the helm of Gromel and using a battle-axe against the rest of his would-be assassins. Conan hesitates to kill Rinaldo, whose songs once touched

931-551: The setting for the sword and sorcery tales of Conan the Barbarian . The word "Hyborian" is derived from the legendary northern land of the ancient Greeks , Hyperborea , and it is rendered as such in the earliest draft of Howard's essay " The Hyborian Age ". Howard described the Hyborian Age taking place sometime after the sinking of Atlantis and before the beginning of recorded ancient history . Most later editors and adaptors such as L. Sprague de Camp and Roy Thomas placed

980-470: The Hyborian Age , the fictional setting of his stories about Conan the Cimmerian . It was written in the 1930s but not published during Howard's lifetime. Its purpose was to maintain consistency within his fictional setting. Howard opens the essay stating "When I began writing the Conan stories a few years ago, I prepared this 'history' of his age and the peoples of that age, in order to lend him and his sagas

1029-478: The Picts and forced them back to the western wastelands, which would come to be known as the "Pictish Wilderness". Following the example of their Hyperborean cousins, other Hyborians migrated Southward and created their own kingdoms. The southernmost of the early kingdoms was Koth, which was established north of the lands of Shem and soon started extending its cultural influence over the southern shepherds . Just south of

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1078-558: The Roman legions , while " The Haunter of the Ring ", set in the modern age, makes use of a Hyborian artifact. An unnamed Howard fragment published by Glenn Lord features two grave robbers , Allison and Brill, who discover in the Egyptian desert a structure older and different from anything they encountered before. Brill proposes that the structure is Stygian rather than Egyptian, and starts recounting

1127-573: The Thurian Age at the time of Atlantis . The name "Hyborian" is a contraction of the Greek concept of the land of " Hyperborea ", literally "Beyond the North Wind". This was a mythical place far to the north that was not cold and where things did not age. Howard's Hyborian epoch, described in his essay The Hyborian Age , is a mythical time before any civilization known to anthropologists . Its setting

1176-641: The Blind. The blind seer Tiresias in Greek mythology was strongly connected to Hades, the realm of the dead. In Homer’s Odyssey , Odysseus travels to Cimmeria , the forecourt of Hades, to confer with the shade of Tiresias. Vatellen is the name of a volcanic mountain in reality lying where Luxor, capital of Stygia lies in the world of Conan. In "The Hour of the Dragon" Orastes resurrects Xaltotun with an incantation of Skelos, "Ancient when Atlantis sank", i.e. much older than Stygia, let alone Set-worship. The idol worshipped by

1225-655: The Hyborian Picts occupying a large area in the northwest. The probable intended analogues are listed below; notice that the analogues are sometimes very generalized, and are portrayed by non-historical stereotypes . Most of these correspondences are drawn from "Hyborian Names", an appendix featured in Conan the Swordsman by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter . NOTE: Meru is not one of Howard's original Hyborian Age countries, and

1274-561: The Hyborian Age around 10,000 BC. More recently, Dale Rippke proposed that the Hyborian Age should be placed further in the past, around 32,500 BC, prior to the beginning of the Last Glacial Maximum . Rippke's date, however, has since been disputed by Jeffrey Shanks, who argues for the more traditional placement at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum. Howard had an intense love for history and historical dramas ; however, at

1323-456: The Hyborian Age, Howard created imaginary kingdoms to which he gave names inspired by or adapted from a variety of mythological and historical sources. Khitai is his version of China, lying far to the east ; Corinthia is his name for a Hellenistic civilization, a name derived from the city of Corinth and reminiscent of the imperial fief of Carinthia in the Middle Ages . Howard imagines

1372-523: The Hyborians spread towards the south and the west of their nameless continent. They encountered other tribal groups for the first time in millennia. They conquered many smaller clans of various origins. The survivors of the defeated clans merged with their conquerors, passing on their racial traits to new generations of Hyborians. The mixed-blooded Hyborian tribes were in turn forced to defend their new territories from pure-blooded Hyborian tribes which followed

1421-474: The King's heart - this scruple proves costly, as Rinaldo manages to stab him before being killed. Ascalante, his goal in reach, moves to finish off the wounded king, but is killed by Thoth-Amon's demon before he can strike, and the demon is then slain by Conan with the shard of his enchanted sword. Conan's courtiers hesitate to believe his tale, as the demon has evaporated, until they spot the shape its blood has left on

1470-512: The Pictish Wilderness was the fertile valley known as "Zing". The wandering Hyborian tribe which conquered it found other people already settled there. They included a nameless farming nation related to the people of the Shem and a warlike Pictish tribe who had previously conquered them. They established the kingdom of Zingara and absorbed the defeated elements into their tribe. Hyborians, Picts, and

1519-638: The Shemite gods – but in hours of great need, Khorajans still call on Mitra and are answered (" Black Colossus "). While Mitra and his followers are in general presented favorably in the Conan stories, in Howard's The Hour of the Dragon they intolerantly persecute followers of Asura. Conan, being a " barbarian ", does not share this "civilized" prejudice and protects Asura's followers, who prove helpful later. The Mitra cult never practices sacrifice and values aesthetic simplicity. Thus, his shrines are usually unadorned and feature little or no iconography except for

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1568-465: The actions of a lone adventurer, unnamed in the essay. He had traveled past the Arctic Circle and returned with news that their old adversaries, the apes, were never annihilated. They had instead evolved into apemen and, according to his description, were by then numerous. He believed they were quickly evolving to human status and would pose a threat to the Hyborians in the future. He attempted to recruit

1617-401: The civilized Hyborian kingdoms, including Aquilonia, Ophir, Nemedia, Brythunia, Corinthia, and Zingara. His worshippers are monolatristic , since at least one tale depicts priests of Mitra recognizing the existence of Set. He is depicted as a "gentle" god. In Khoraja, which is on the border between the Hyborian kingdoms and the Shemite ones, the worship of Mitra was largely forgotten in favor of

1666-590: The dark priest-mage Rotath in the Kull story "The Curse of the Golden Skull" seems to be a grinning skull. In this story an earlier version of "The Book of Skelos" is mentioned. The god of Rotath is identical with the dark nameless god worshipped by Thuron in "The Altar and the Scorpion". Skelos is one aspect of this great nameless one. The Hyborian Age " The Hyborian Age " is an essay by Robert E. Howard pertaining to

1715-673: The demons and highly advanced aliens appearing in " The God in the Bowl " and " The Tower of the Elephant ", while the story " The Phoenix on the Sword " implies that Set is one of H. P. Lovecraft 's Great Old Ones . Howard's story "Black Colossus" features a princess vocally directed by Mitra to recruit Conan as her champion, but Crom makes no such appearances. Crom is exclusively a Cimmerian god, with other civilizations paying him little attention, and Conan swearing with Crom's name immediately identifies him as

1764-540: The end of the Thurian Age (the setting for Howard's King Kull stories) and the destruction of its civilizations, Lemuria and Atlantis, by a geological cataclysm . After this cataclysm, the surviving humans were reduced to a primitive state and a technological level hardly above the Neanderthal . Several such tribes migrated to the northern areas of what was left of the Thurian continent to escape destruction. They discovered

1813-577: The floor. Writer Roy Thomas and artists Vicente Alcázar and Yong Montano adapted the story in Conan the Barbarian Annual #2 (1976). Writer Timothy Truman and artists Tomas Giorello and Jose Vilarrubia adapted the story in King Conan: The Phoenix on the Sword (2013). Aquilonia (Conan) The Hyborian Age is a fictional period of Earth 's history within the artificial mythology created by Robert E. Howard , serving as

1862-479: The grave robbers frame story . Howard's story " Men of the Shadows " includes a long historical narrative, similar in style to "The Hyborian Age" but different in detail. The Hour of the Dragon , the only Conan novel authored by Howard, expands upon the history of the world presented in this essay by introducing a new ancient empire called Acheron that had ruled the Hyborian kingdoms in the past. Robert Yaple wrote

1911-471: The hides of horses , but soon abandoned them in favor of their crude but durable stone houses. They permanently settled in fortified settlements and developed cyclopean masonry to further fortify their defensive walls . The Hyperboreans were by then the most advanced of the Hyborian tribes and set out to expand their kingdom by attacking their backwards neighbors. Tribes who defended their territories lost them and were forced to migrate elsewhere. Others fled

1960-573: The history of Stygia in nearly identical words to those used in The Hyborian Age  – but making no mention of the Hyborian kingdoms to the north of Stygia. Brill's source for the information is the Unaussprechliche Kulte (also known as Nameless Cults ), a fictional work of Cthulhu Mythos arcane literature , cited in other Howard stories. This historical exposition seems an earlier draft, which Howard later extended greatly and dropped

2009-456: The kingdom with its old name, merged with the defeated Hyperboreans and adopted elements of Hyborian culture. The continuing wars and migrations would keep the state of the other areas of the continent for another five hundred years. The Hyborian Age was devised by author Robert E. Howard as the post-Atlantean setting of his Conan the Cimmerian stories, designed to fit in with Howard's previous and lesser known tales of Kull , which were set in

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2058-419: The path of Hyperborean expansion before ever engaging them in war. Meanwhile, the apemen of the Arctic Circle emerged as a new race of light-haired and tall humans. They started their own migration to the south, displacing the northernmost of the Hyborian tribes. For the next thousand years, the warlike Hyborian nations advanced to become the rulers of the western areas of the nameless continent. They encountered

2107-527: The pleasures of the flesh. In Vendhya, the followers of Asura seek truth beyond the illusions of the physical world, and the Hyborian devotees of Mitra are almost Christian in their merging of asceticism with a commitment to compassion and justice. Crom / ˈ k r ɒ m / is a deity in Robert E. Howard 's fantasy tales of the Hyborian Age. He is acknowledged as the chief god by the lead character Conan , and his proto- Celtic Cimmerian people. The name Crom

2156-496: The racial and geographical heritage of these fictional entities, making them progenitors of modern nations. For example, Howard makes the Gaels descendants of his own Cimmerians . In addition to its use as underpinning to his Kull and Conan stories, Howard drew on his invented prehistory in tales with later settings. For instance, "Kings of the Night" brings King Kull forward in time to fight

2205-578: The region to be safe, but covered with snow and already inhabited by a race of vicious white-furred apes . A vicious territorial war ensued until the humans drove the apes further North, past the Arctic Circle . Believing the apes were destined to perish, the humans turned to taming their harsh new home. One thousand five hundred years later, the descendants of this initial group were called "Hyborians". They were named after their highest ranking god deity , Bori. The essay mentions that Bori had actually been

2254-459: The same paths of migration. Often, the new invaders would wipe away the defenders before absorbing them, resulting in a tangled web of Hyborian tribes and nations with varying ancestral elements within their bloodlines. The first organized Hyborian kingdom to emerge was Hyperborea. The tribe that established it entered their Neolithic age by learning to erect buildings in stone, largely for fortification . These nomads lived in tents made out of

2303-466: The same time, he recognized the difficulties and the time-consuming research needed in maintaining historical accuracy. By conceiving a timeless setting – a vanished age – and by carefully choosing names that resembled our history, Howard avoided the problem of historical anachronisms and the need for lengthy exposition. Howard explained the origins and history of the Hyborian civilization in his essay " The Hyborian Age ". The essay begins with

2352-475: The unnamed kin of the Shemites would merge into a nation calling themselves Zingarans. On the other hand, at the north of the continent, the fair-haired invaders from the Arctic Circle had grown in numbers and power. They continued their expansion south while in turn displacing defeated Hyborians to the south. Even Hyperborea was conquered by one of these barbarian tribes. But the conquerors here decided to maintain

2401-534: Was created by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter for " The City of Skulls ". NOTE: Uttara Kuru is not one of Howard's original Hyborian Age countries, it appears in Conan the Avenger by Björn Nyberg . NOTE: Yamatai is not one of Howard's original Hyborian Age countries, but appeared in a Savage Sword of Conan comic adaptation. The Stygian followers of Set worship their deity with human sacrifice and actively venerate serpents, and Ishtar's worshippers follow

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