Hyborian age
From AoCWiki
Conan lived during the era that scholars and dreamers alike called "The Hyborian Age." But mankind's lost prehistory extends back much farther even than that. The Nemedian Chronicler referred to that earlier period as "The Pre-Cataclysmic Age," which probably occurred 15 to 20 millennia ago. This era gave rise to the Thurian civilization, the waning days of which were dominated by the mainland kingdoms of Valusia, Grondar, Thule, and others, all of whom spoke a common language. But that time had its barbarians as well, including the Picts, the Atlanteans, and the Lemurians. These tribes dwelt on islands or small continents far out on the Western Ocean. The Atlanteans were the ancestors of the Cimmerians--the race of which Conan would one day spring--and the mightiest of them all was Kull of Atlantis, who rose to become king of civilized Valusia. "Then," as Robert E. Howard wrote, "the Cataclysm rocked the world."
[edit] Barbarians in a strange new world
The Great Cataclysm! Volcanoes and earthquakes destroyed the mighty Thurian cities, reducing their once-proud culture to savagery. Atlantis and Lemuria sank beneath the seas, and the Pictish Isles were heaved up, forming the mountain peaks of a new continent. In the centuries that followed, the untamed islands races migrated to the mainland in seagoing vessels, where the Atlanteans and the Picts fought a series of bloody wars that left both sides in a near-bestial state. The Lemurians were enslaved for thousands of years by an ancient race on the main continent, and theirs became a history of brutal servitude.
[edit] The rise of The Hyborians
The first tribe of survivors to begin the steep climb back to a state of civilization were the Hyboria, for whom this age is named. This was a time of wanderings and conquests, as tribes mingled and mixed and formed new peoples. The first of the Hyborian realms to come into existence was Hyperborea, whose inhabitants turned abruptly from a nomadic life and began erecting dwellings of naked stone in the far north. In the years that followed, other Hyborians founded kingdoms of their own. The first of these was the more southerly state of Koth, which bordered the lands of the nomadic clans that would soon establish the domain called Shem. The dusky-skinned Zhemri, who were descended from the remnants of one of the Thurian nation-states, founded the eastern kingdom of Zamora. And a hybrid race, formed of Picts, Hyborians, and the agrarian dwellers of the Valley of Zingg, brought forth a kingdom all their own. They called it Zingara.
[edit] The age of Conan
Over the next 4,000 or 5,000 years, many of the migrating clans gradually build new and civilized nation-states in the large central land mass, including Aquilonia, Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Argos, Corinthia, and the Border Kingdom. The Picts, however, remained in a state of unbridled savagery.
Meanwhile, dwelling north of Aquilonia were the Cimmerians, ferocious Atlantean-descended barbarians untamed by any invaders. Still farther north, other strands developed into the red-haired inhabitants of Vanaheim and the blond denizens of Asgard. The descendants of the Lemurians at last rebelled, threw off their masters' yoke, and became the Stygians. They ruled a territory to the south of the great River Styx, which wound its way like a serpent to the Western Ocean. Other branches of once-Lemurians trekked eastward, where they gradually evolved into the Hyrkanians and the Khitans. And all the while, the dark-skinned tribal inhabitants of the far south lived in isolation.
This, then, was the high Hyborian Age. This was the Age of Conan.
[edit] References
- Conan, the ultimate guide to the world's most Savage Barbarian, by Roy Thomas. ISBN 0756620953
