Conan Exiles is a rich amalgamation of over a century of stories, compiled and collaborated by such fantastic authors as Robert E Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and countless others.
Their works are intertwined, feeding into each other to flesh out this story-rich world. Truly grasping the comprehesive scale of this canon is a large undertaking. You’ve got the titular Hyborian Age naturally as the core continuity, with additions from the world over. The prolific and legendary Cthulhu Mythos is a major player in the game, featuring nearly as prevalent as the Hyborian Age; and who could forget the fantastical Hyperborean Cycle? And these are all surface level. You’ve even got newer additions like the Lu-Kthu cycle, not to mention many more minor references even I’m not fully up to speed on
So this brings me to my main question:
What do we call this extended universe?
It’s not just one thing or the other. It’s a blend of so many aspects coming together. Let me riff a few ideas and see if anything sticks:
Sword and Sothery
Conan Mythos
Barbariverse
Cthulhuverse
Lovecraft Circle Canon (LCC)
Howard & Friends
Devs if you have a real name tell me your secrets, if not I’m just gonna keep calling it Sword and Sothery because that’s my favorite.
If anyone else has any ideas, recklessly spam them in the replies I would love to hear them
Sword and Sorcery is the genre, but REH’s Hyboria including the Chthulhu crossover is a specific setting within that genre.
Both share something essential in my view: a certain nihilistic, hopeless outlook.
In the Cthulhu mythos, humanity is surrounded by dangerous forces far beyond its power and even understanding. Life and the world as a whole have no purpose: It was created by Azathoth, a blind, mindless god, pretty much by chance.
Our culture, even our whole race is a very recent affair and probalby won’t last long. Other civilizations and creatures have preceded it by eons and will outlast it by eons. People can behave in a good or in a bad way, but there’s no inherent value to being good, no sense of a moral framework. In the end, a tentacled monster will kill you, whether you helped that old lady across the street or not. It doesn’t even kill out of hunger or hatred, but just because that’s what it does.
The universe is just a weird, incomprehensible, random thing that will grind you down and doesn’t care the slightest for your suffering.
The Conan universe has many similar points. We know almost nothing about Conan’s god, Crom, other than that he doesn’t care about you and won’t help you in any way. In daily life, his (lack of) care and influence on daily affairs isn’t that far from Azathoth.
The past ist vast and inhabitated by other species much grander than humanity. Things are going downhill with only small bumbs in the road to hell like Atlantis or to a much lesser degree Aquilonia.
The world also conveys a sense of hopelessness, of moral emptiness. Conan, in current values, is a robber, a murderer, a ■■■■■■. Still, he comes across as a hero, as the people surrounding him are even worse - and moreso because he succeeds where they fail.
The “good” in Howard’s universe are those who are able, I’d say, as they don’t have to resort to poison, sorcery or treachery to achieve their goals. But the goals of heroes and villains have little moral difference - rule a country, enjoy feast, get the girl (whether she wants it or not).
This hopelessness and lack of morals is certainly connected to the author’s personal life and the time and country they lived in. The inter-war period had its good aspects, but one cannot overlook that those were trying times.
Both died young, and it’s hard not to feel some form of pity for them. Their trouble made them create great works for us to enjoy, but they themselves must have been pretty miserable.
So… why this long introduction? I’d use a name connected to the authors or the moral bleakness of their fictional universes.
Nihilistic sword and sorcery?
1930ies escapism?
Life sucks, so get a sword and have some fun?
Don’t have good idea for that. But that’s the direction I’d go. Somebody with a better understanding of literature and/or sociology might find a fitting word to connect both.