I interest about the world, Conan’s Age, races and history. I want to know more. Is there some good site to learn more? What’s it better? If I start a read the books, what do you think I should start? Is only 3 movies?
Do you only play for build and killing or do you roleplay your race? Like what is the Cimmerian? How do they act? I was travelling around the Darfari’s land, and i do like the concept I saw that. It’s macabre and bizarre, but it’s amazing.
Let’s talk about the universe! What do you know about?
The best place to start is the writings of Robert E Howard himself. The Hyborian Age essay provides a general overview of the setting. Some of the classic stories and a good place to start are:
Phoenix on the Sword
Queen of the Black Coast
Tower of the Elephant
The Frost Giant’s Daughter
God in the Bowl
There are many more. There are later stories about Conan written by Lin Carter and Sprague de Camp that are generally regarded to not be as good as Howard’s original. The movies are not based on the Conan stories at all and other than the name of Conan have nothing much in common with the stories.
@TikaTheHungry covered it dead on with going to Robert E. Howard’s work themselves. Would add,
“Beyond the Black River” To understand the Pict and Aquilonian situation.
“Shadows in Zamboula” For the Darfari, even though not set in Darfar, only REH written story with much focus on them.
Only thing else I can add is what Howard himself said in his correspondence with H.P. Lovecraft, how the Hyborian Age was a tool for him as a writer, to capture and implement a lot of the great stories of history, without the exhausting amount of research that historical fiction takes. Knowing that, you can see how the Cimmerians are a pseudo Celtic people (whatever a Celt is), with their Atlantean heritage added in. Or how the Pict, falling from civilization in the age of Atlantis and King Kull to complete savagery by the time of Conan are a darker side of the supposed Celts and some native North American tribalism.
What source are giving them north american attributes? I have wonderes this for some time since Hyboria is supposed to be Europe/Near East and Africa before the ice age? Having native americans in the west makes little sense. Not that it has to make sense.
A lot of people have seen the influence on Howard’s thinking of the Hyborian, Mu, and the lost Atlantis continents from Dr Wegener’s ‘Pangea’ theory, which his 1915 book ‘The Origin of Continents and Oceans’ first has the supercontinent idea, referenced as Pangea just the one time. So many postulate that the Hyborian age is a few hundred million years after the initial break up, hence Mu being so far out to the west (possibly Australia pulling away), the inland sea separating what would be Europe, Asia, and North Africa. And the Pictish wilderness as the proto-Picts of Howard’s later historical time frame stories with king Bran Mak Morn, after a splinter group of survivors headed to the Hyborian continent from those ‘far western islands.’
Howard himself was mute on the specific subject as far as I have seen. That said, the native American style of weaponry, war making, and token’s seen in stories like ‘Beyond the Black River’, where North American tribe names are used by Picts, is also a bit of an indicator that the Pict’s that migrated to the west in the Hyborian age were possibly also a race that mixed with others to start human civilizations there, thus influencing what would become Native American culture. Also Howard’s physical description of some Picts in Conan’s time can be interpreted to have what we might consider features of the native Americans north and south.
So in the world of Conan the “americas” is settled from the east/greenland and are at this point complete empty of humans? I wonder what lives there then, lizardmen or sasquatches? Too bad we will never know.
Thanks, guys. I’m new at this game. I’m a D&D master and I spent a lot of time understanding Forgotten Realm’s world. Now it is a “new” world and I know how to start. I love such thing like that. I’ve never imagined it is so complex and cool. I saw the Launch Trailer of Conan Exiles and I fell in love for it. I thought “This game is amazing”, but when I’ve started exploring the world, another thought passed at my mind “wtf, I really need to learn more about this.”
Also, which books etc do you recommend for learning more about Vendhya? I feel like playing as a wizard one in the jungle at some point and know nothing of their magic.
People of the Black Circle is a story about Conan kidnapping a Vendhyan princess to appease an afghuli tribe that he had been leading. The princess in turn is kidnapped from Conan by a cabal of sorcerers. The story takes place outside of Vendhya proper but is probably the best bet for what you are looking for.
What do you know about?
Too bad we will never know.