Part 1 (1/2)

FANTASY MASTERWORKS

ROBERT E HOWARD

THE HYBORIAN AGE

(Nothing in this article is to be considered as an attempt to advance any theory in opposition to accepted history It is siround for a series of fiction-stories 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 hireater aspect of realness And I found that by adhering to the 'facts' and spirit of that history, in writing the stories, it was easier to visualize (and therefore to present) him as a real flesh-and-blood character rather than a ready- about hie, I have never violated the 'facts' or spirit of the 'history' here set down, but have followed the lines of that history as closely as the writer of actual historical-fiction follows the lines of actual history I have used this 'history' as a guide in all the stories in this series that I have written) Of that epoch known by the Nee, little is known except the latter part, and that is veiled in theof the Pre-Cataclysdoms of Kamelia, Valusia, Verulia, Grondar, Thule and Co a codoms, equally civilized, but inhabited by different, and apparently older races

The barbarians of that age were the Picts, who lived on islands far out on the western ocean; the Adanteans, elt on a small continent between the Pictish Islands and the main, or Thurian Continent; and the Lee islands in the eastern heions of unexplored land The civilized kingdoh enormous in extent, occupied a comparatively small portion of the whole planet Valusia was the western-dom of the Thurian Continent; Grondar the eastern-hly cultured than those of their kindred kingdo the less arid stretches of desert, in the jungles, and a the es Far to the south there was a mysterious civilization, unconnected with the Thurian culture, and apparently pre-human in its nature On the far-eastern shores of the Continent there lived another race, human, but mysterious and non-Thurian, hich the Lemurians from time to time came in contact They apparently ca somewhere east of the Le; their arely of barbarian enerals, their statesdoms, and the wars between Valusia and Commoria, as well as the conquests by which the Atlanteans founded a kingdoends than accurate history

Then the Cataclysm rocked the world Atlantis and Lemuria sank, and the Pictish Islands were heaved up to form the mountain peaks of a new continent Sections of the Thurian Continent vanished under the waves, or sinking, forreat inland lakes and seas Volcanoes broke forth and terrific earthquakes shook down the shi+ning cities of the empires Whole nations were blotted out

The barbarians fared a little better than the civilized races The inhabitants of the Pictish Islands were destroyed, but a great colony of the the mountains of Valusia's southern frontier, to serve as a buffer against foreign invasion, was untouched The Continental kingdom of the Atlanteans likewise escaped the common ruin, and to it ca land Many Lemurians escaped to the eastern coast of the Thurian Continent, which was comparatively untouched There they were enslaved by the ancient race which already dwelt there, and their history, for thousands of years, is a history of brutal servitude

In the western part of the Continent, changing conditions created strange forles covered the plains, great rivers cut their roads to the sea, wild mountains were heaved up, and lakes covered the ruins of old cities in fertile valleys To the Continental kingdom of the Atlanteans, froes - ape-men and apes Forced to battle continually for their lives, they yet hly advanced barbarism Robbed of metals and ores, they became workers in stone like their distant ancestors, and had attained a real artistic level, when their struggling culture came into contact with the powerful Pictish nation The Picts had also reverted to flint, but had advanced more rapidly in the matter of population and war-science They had none of the Atlanteans' artistic nature; they were a ruder, more practical, more prolific race They left no pictures painted or carved on ivory, as did their enemies, but they left remarkably efficient flint weapons in plenty

These stone-age kingdoms clashed, and in a series of bloody wars, the outnuery, and the evolution of the Picts was halted Five hundred years after the Cataclysdoes - the Picts - carrying on continual warfare with tribes of savages - the Atlanteans The Picts had the advantage of numbers and unity, whereas the Atlanteans had fallen into loosely knit clans That was the west of that day

In the distant east, cut off froanticof a chain of vast lakes, the Le as slaves of their ancient masters The far south is still veiled in mystery Untouched by the Cataclysm, its destiny is still pre-human Of the civilized races of the Thurian Continent, a re the low mountains of the southeast - the Zhemri Here and there about the world are scattered clans of apish savages, entirely ignorant of the rise and fall of the great civilizations But in the far north another people are slowly co into existence

At the ties, whose development was not much above that of the Neanderthal, fled to the north to escape destruction They found the snow-countries inhabited only by a species of ferocious snow-apes -huge shaggy white aniht and drove beyond the Arctic circle, to perish, as the savages thought The latter, then, adapted themselves to their hardy new environment and throve

After the Pictish-Atlantean wars had destroyed the beginnings of what ht have been a new culture, another, lesser cataclysinal continent, left a great inland sea where the chain of lakes had been, to further separate west from east, and the attendant earthquakes, floods and volcanoes completed the ruin of the barbarians which their tribal wars had begun

A thousand years after the lesser cataclysles and lakes and torrential rivers A bands of ape-e of fire or the use of implements They are the descendants of the Atlanteans, sunk back into the squalling chaos of jungle-bestiality froo their ancestors so laboriously crawled To the southwest dwell scattered clans of degraded, cave-dwelling savages, whose speech is of the most primitive form, yet who still retain the na uish them from the true beasts hich they contend for life and food It is their only link with their fore Neither the squalid Picts nor the apish Atlanteans have any contact with other tribes or peoples

Far to the east, the Lemurians, levelled almost to a bestial plane themselves by the brutishness of their slavery, have risen and destroyed their e civilization The survivors of that civilization, who have escaped the fury of their slaves, have codo their own culture, doia, and remnants of the older nation seemed to have survived, and even been worshi+pped, after the race as a whole had been destroyed

Here and there in the world sns of an upward trend; these are scattered and unclassified But in the north, the tribes are growing These people are called Hyborians, or Hybori; their God was Bori -so who led thereat Cataclysm, which the tribes remember only in distorted folklore

They have spread over the north, and are pushi+ng southward in leisurely treks So far they have not come in contact with any other races; their wars have been with one another Fifteen hundred years in the north country have orous and warlike, and already exhibiting a well-defined artistry and poetism of nature They still livecattle for some centuries There is one exception in their so far complete isolation from other races: a wanderer into the far north returned with the news that the supposedly deserted ice wastes were inhabited by an extensive tribe of ape-like men, descended, he swore, from the beasts driven out of the ed that a large war-party be sent beyond the arctic circle to exter into truewarriors followed him into the north, but none returned

But tribes of the Hyborians were drifting south, and as the population increased this e was an epoch of wandering and conquest Across the history of the world tribes and drifts of tribespanorama

Look at the world five hundred years later Tribes of tawnyured Hyborians havethe blood of conquered races, already the descendants of the older drifts have begun to show modified racial traits, and these mixed races are attacked fiercely by new, purer-blooded drifts, and swept before them, as a broom sweeps debris iled debris of races and tag-ends of races

As yet the conquerors have not come in contact with the older races To the southeast the descendants of the Zhe fro to seek to revive some faint shadow of their ancient culture To the west the apish Atlanteans are beginning the long climb upward They have cootten their former existence asthe climb unhelped and unhindered by hues, apparently defying the laws of Nature by neither progressing nor retrogressing Far to the south dreaia On its eastern borders wander clans of noes, already known as the Sons of She, protected by great mountains, a nameless band of primitives, tentatively classified as akin to the Shericultural system and existence

Another factor has added to the impetus of Hyborian drift A tribe of that race has discovered the use of stone in building, and the first Hyborian kingdodo in a crude fortress of boulders heaped to repel tribal attack The people of this tribe soon abandoned their horse-hide tents for stone houses, crudely butThere are few more dradom of Hyperborea, whose people turned abruptly fros of naked stone, surrounded by cyclopean walls - a race scarcely ee, who had by a freak of chance, learned the first rude principles of architecture

The rise of this kingdom drove forthto beco kins treks that took them halfway around the world And already the antic blond savages, not much more advanced than ape-men

The tale of the next thousand years is the tale of the rise of the Hyborians, whose warlike tribes do shape The tawny-haired invaders have encountered the Picts, driving them into the barren lands of the west To the northwest, the descendants of the Atlanteans, cliery, have not yeta strange semi-civilization of their own To the south the Hyborians have founded the kingdom of Koth, on the borders of those pastoral countries known as the Lands of Sheh contact with the Hyborians, partly through contact with the Stygians who have ravaged thees of the far north have grown in power and numbers so that the northern Hyborian tribestheir kindred clans before thedom of Hyperborea is overthrown by one of these northern tribes, which, however, retains the old nado, under the name of Zamora To the southwest, a tribe of Picts have invaded the fertile valley of Zingg, conquered the agricultural people there, and settled a the tribe of Hybori, and froara

Five hundred years later the kingdodoms of the Hyborians - Aquilonia, Neos, Corinthia, and one known as the Border Kingdom - doara to the southwest of these kingdoms - people alike in darkness of complexion and exotic habits, but otherwise unrelated Far to the south sleeps Stygia, untouched by foreign invasion, but the peoples of She one of Koth

The dusky reat river Styx, Nilus, or Nile, which, flowing north froles and flows alh the pastoral reat sea North of Aquilonia, the western-es, unta rapidly because of contact with the more steadily than their old enemies the Picts, ell in the wilderness west of Aquilonia

Another five centuries and the Hybori peoples are the possessors of a civilization so virile that contact with it virtually snatched out of theof savagery such tribes as it touched The doth and mixed race; the nearest to the ancient root-stock are the Gundermen of Gunderland, a northern province of Aquilonia But thishas not weakened the race They are supreh the barbarians of the wastelands are growing in strength

In the north, golden-haired, blue-eyed barbarians, descendants of the blond arctic savages, have driven the re Hyborian tribes out of the snow countries, except the ancient kingdoht Their country is called Nordheim, and they are divided into the red-haired Vanir of Vanaheiard

Now the Leh the centuries they have pushed steadily ard, and now a tribe skirts the southern end of the great inland sea -Vilayet - and establishes the kingdom of Turan on the southwestern shore Between the inland sea and the eastern borders of the native kingdoms lie vast expanses of steppes and in the extreme north and extreme south, deserts The non-Hyrkanian dwellers of these territories are scattered and pastoral, unclassified in the north, Sheinal, with a thin strain of Hyborian blood fro conquerors Toward the latter part of the period other Hyrkanian clans push ard, around the northern extremity of the inland sea, and clash with the eastern outposts of the Hyperboreans

Glance briefly at the peoples of that age The dorey-eyed They haveShe the peoples of Koth, and to a lesser extent, of Argos, while in the case of the latter, adarans has been more extensive than with the Shemites The eastern Brythunians have intermarried with the dark-skinned Zamorians, and the people of southern Aquilonia have arans until black hair and brown eyes are the dominant type hi Poitain, the southern-dom of Hyperborea is more aloof than the others, yet there is alien blood in plenty in its veins, fron women - Hyrkanians, Esir and Zamorians Only in the province of Gunderland, where the people keep no slaves, is the pure Hyborian stock found unblemished But the barbarians have kept their bloodstream pure; the Cirey eyes The people of Nordheiolden or red hair The Picts are of the same type as they alere - short, very dark, with black eyes and hair The Hyrkanians are dark and generally tall and slender, though a squat slant-eyed type isfroh stunted, aborigines, conquered by the the mountains east of Vilayet, on their ard drift The Sheh soantic, broadly and strongly built, with hook noses, dark eyes and blue-black hair The Stygians are tall and wellclasses are of that type The lower classes are a down-trodden, ian, Sheia are the vast black kingdoms of the Amazons, the Kushi+tes, the Atlaians and the hybrid empire of Zembabwei

Between Aquilonia and the Pictish wilderness lie the Bossonian inal race, conquered by a tribe of Hyborians, early in the first ages of the Hyborian drift This mixed people never attained the civilization of the purer Hyborians, and was pushed by thee of the civilized world The Bossonians are of rey, and they are e walled villages, and are part of the Aquilonian kingdodo a bulwark for Aquilonia against both the Cihters, and centuries of warfare against northern and western barbarians have caused theainst direct attack

Five hundred years laters the Hyborian civilization ept away Its fall was unique in that it was not brought about by internal decay, but by the growing power of the barbarian nations and the Hyrkanians The Hyborian peoples were overthrohile their vigorous culture was in its priht about that overthrow, though indirectly Wishi+ng to extend their eos and Ophir were annexed outright, with the western cities of Shem, which had, with their more eastern kindred, recently thrown off the yoke of Koth Koth itself, with Corinthia and the eastern Shemitish tribes, was forced to pay Aquilonia tribute and lend aid in wars An ancient feud had existed between Aquilonia and Hyperborea, and the latter now marched to meet the ardoe battle, in which the northern hosts were utterly defeated, and retreated into their snowy fastnesses, whither the victorious Aquilonians did not pursue thedom for centuries, no Brythunia and Zamora, and secretly, Koth, into an alliance which bade fair to crush the rising empire But before their armies could join battle, a new enemy appeared in the east, as the Hyrkanians made their first real thrust at the western world Reinforced by adventurers from east of Vilayet, the riders of Turan swept over Zamora, devastated eastern Corinthia, and were met on the plains of Brythunia by the Aquilonians who defeated the eastward But the back of the alliance was broken, and Nemedia took the defensive in future wars, aided occasionally by Brythunia and Hyperborea, and, secretly, as usual, by Koth This defeat of the Hyrkanians showed the nations the real power of the western kingdo the alien Zingarans, and the barbaric Picts and Shemites Zamora was reconquered from the Hyrkanians, but the people discovered that they had ed an eastern master for a western master Aquilonian soldiers were quartered there, not only to protect the ravaged country, but also to keep the people in subjection The Hyrkanians were not convinced; three more invasions burst upon the Zamorian borders, and the Lands of Sheh the Turanian arer as hordes of steel-clad riders rode out of the east, skirting the southern extremity of the inland sea

But it was in the west that a poas growing destined to thron the kings of Aquilonia froh places In the north there was incessant bickering along the Cimmerian borders between the black-haired warriors and the Nordheimir; and the yEsir, betith the Vanir, assailed Hyperborea and pushed back the frontier, destroying city after city The Ciht the Picts and Bossonians impartially, and several times raided into Aquilbnia itself, but their ere less invasions thanae twist of fate, it was largely due to the efforts of one man, and he an alien, that they set their feet upon the ways that led to eventual empire This man was Arus, a Nemedian priest, a natural-born reformer What turned his mind toward the Picts is not certain, but this o into the western wilderness and modify the rude ways of the heathen by the introduction of the gentle worshi+p of Mitra He was not daunted by the grisly tales of what had happened to traders and explorers before hiht, alone and unarmed, and was not instantly speared

The Picts had benefited by contact with Hyborian civilization, but they had always fiercely resisted that contact That is to say, they had learned to work crudely in copper and tin, which were found scantily in their country, and for which latter ara, or traded hides, whale's teeth, walrus tusks and such few things as savages have to trade They no longer lived in caves and tree-shelters, but built tents of hides, and crude huts, copied from those of the Bossonians They still lived ame of all sorts, and the rivers and sea with fish, but they had learned how to plant grain, which they did sketchily, preferring to steal it froarans They dwelt in clans which were generally at feud with each other, and their simple customs were blood-thirsty and utterly inexplicable to a civilized man, such as Arus of Nemedia They had no direct contact with the Hyborians, since the Bossonians acted as a buffer between theress, and events proved the truth of his assertion - though scarcely in the way hethrown in with a chief of ence - Gorhis Khan, Othman, Attila, or any of those individuals, who, born in naked lands a untutored barbarians, yet possess the instinct for conquest and e In a sort of bastard-Bossonian, the priest h extre his tribe unbutch-ered - a case unique in the history of the race Having learned the language Arus set himself to work to eliminate the more unpleasant phases of Pictish life - such as hu alive of captives He harangued Gorth, whoination reconstructs the scene - the black-haired chief, in his tiger-skins and necklace of hu on the dirt floor of the wattle hut, listening intently to the eloquence of the priest, who probably sat on a carven, skin-covered block of any provided in his honor - clad in the silken robes of a Ne with his slender white hands as he expounded the eternal rights and justices which were the truths of Mitra Doubtless he pointed with repugnance at the rows of skulls which adorned the walls of the hut and urged Gor their bleached rehest product of an innately artistic race, refined by centuries of civilization; Gore of a hundred thousand years of screaer was in his stealthy step, the grip of the gorilla in his black-nailed hands, the fire that burns in a leopard's eyes burned in his

Arus was a practical ain; he pointed out the power and splendor of the Hyborian kingdos and works had lifted theh places And he spoke of cities, and fertile plains, marble walls and iron chariots, jeweled towers, and horse to battle And Gor instinct of the barbarian, passed over his words regarding Gods and their teachings, and fixed on the material powers thus vividly described There in that mud-floored wattle hut, with the silk-robed priest on thein his tiger-hides, was laid the foundations of empire

As has been said, Arus was a practical ent man could do to aid huer-skins and wore necklaces of human teeth Like all priests of Mitra, he was instructed in s He found that there were vast deposits of iron ore in the Pictish hills, and he taught the natives to ricultural implements, as he fondly believed He instituted other refors he did: he instilled in Gorht the Picts hoork in iron; and he established contact between them and the civilized world At the chiefs request he conducted hih the Bossonian ers stared in a outer world

Arus no doubt thought that he was ht and left, because the Picts listened to hi him with their copper axes But the Pict was little calculated to seriously regard teachings which bade hiive his eneery It has been said that he lacked artistic sense; his whole nature led to war and slaughter When the priest talked of the glories of the civilized nations, his dark-skinned listeners were intent, not on the ideals of his religion, but on the loot which he unconsciously described in the narration of rich cities and shi+ning lands When he told how Mitra aided certain kings to overcome their enemies, they paid scant heed to theon the description of battle-lines, hts, and maneuvers of archers and spearmen They harkened with keen dark eyes and inscrutable countenances, and they went their ithout co intent-ness his instructions as to the working of iron, and kindred arts

Before his co they had filched steel weapons and ararans, or had hammered out their own crude arms from copper and bronze Now a neorld opened to thehout the land And Goran to assert his dominance over other clans, partly by war, partly by craft and diplomacy, in which latter art he excelled all other barbarians

Picts now came and went freely into Aquilonia, under safe-conduct, and they returned withMore, they entered Aquilonia's ust of the sturdy Bossonians Aquilonia's kings toyed with the idea of playing the Picts against the Ci both ression in the south and east to pay uely known lands of the west, from whichthe mercenaries

These warriors, their service coood ideas of civilized warfare, and that contempt for civilization which arises froathering-fires se sword-ues and forays too numerous and devious to enumerate, Gor the Picts had had in thousands of years He had waited long; he was past ainst the frontiers, not in trade, but in war

Arus saw his an, in which lurked the hard fierceness of all the ages His persuasive eloquence had not caused a ripple in the Pictish conscience Gorer-skin, but underneath he was unchanged - the everlasting barbarian, unly on rapine and plunder

The Picts burst on the Bossonian frontiers with fire and sword, not clad in tiger-skins and brandishi+ng copper axes as of yore, but in scale- weapons of keen steel As for Arus, he was brained by a drunken Pict, while ly done Gorratitude; he caused the skull of the slayer to be set on the top of the priest's cairn And it is one of the grim ironies of the universe that the stones which covered Arus's body should have been adorned with that last touch of barbarity - above a

But the neeapons and h to break the lines For years the superior are of the Bossonians held the invaders at bay, aided, when necessary, by i this time the Hyrkanians came and went, and Zamora was added to the empire

Then treachery from an unexpected source broke the Bossonian lines Before chronicling this treachery, it lance briefly at the Aquilonian edom, untold wealth had been rolled in by conquest, and sumptuous splendor had taken the place of sieneracy had not yet sapped the kings and the people; though clad in silks and cloth-of-gold, they were still a vital, virile race But arrogance was supplanting their for conteos, Zingara, Ophir, Zaated provinces, which was especially galling to the proud Zingarans, who often revolted, despite savage retaliations

Koth was practically tributary, being under Aquilonia's 'protection' against the Hyrkanians But Nemedia the western eh the latter's triuenerally attained with the aid of Hyperborean ar this period Aquilonia's only defeats were: her failure to annex Nemedia; the rout of an army sent into Cimmeria; and the almost complete destruction of an army by the SEsir Just as the Hyrkanians found thees of the Aquilonians, so the latter, invading the snow-countries, were overwhel of the Nordics But Aquilonia's conquests were pushed to the Nilus, where a Stygian aria sent tribute - once at least - to divert invasion of his kingdom Brythunia was reduced in a series of ars, and preparations were ate the ancient rival at last - Nereatly increased by ainst their old-time foe, and it seemed as if the thrust were destined to crush the last shadow of Nemedian independence But contentions arose between the Aquilonians and their Bossonian auxiliaries