REH's Hyborian Age Essay

"Know, O prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars ... Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet." -- The Nemedian Chronicles
Robert E Howard (REH) wrote an Essay about his Hyborian Age setting.
It is a fictional history of the Hyborian Age. That "history" dealt not only with the period during and after Conan The Barbarian's life, but also with events some 8000 years earlier, during the Thurian civilization, which produced King Kull (exiled warrior of Atlantis) in the days before that continent sank into the surging seas.
Playlist of REH's Conan The Cimmerian Tales in Visual & Audio Book format:
• REH's Hyborian Age Essay
Audio from LibriVox, Narrated by Klaatu (www.LibriVox.org)
Hyborian Age Map Sources:
• Marvel Comics
• aoc.fandom.com/wiki/The_Hybor... (Clayton Bunce Map)
• www.deviantart.com/sirinkman/...
• web.stanford.edu/~bkunde/imag...
• Morphieus' (2017) RPG: Conan Adventure In An Age Undreamed Of.
• www.deviantart.com/sapiento/a...
Robert E. Howard is also known as the creator and father of Sword & Sorcery.
Sword and Sorcery is a subgenre of fantasy characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent adventures. An element of romance is often present, as is an element of magic and the supernatural.
#REH #HyborianAge #ConanTheBarbarian #Kull #ThurianAge #Conan #RobertEHoward #Marvel #ConanTheCimmerian

[@RPGmodsFan]

Playlist of REH's Conan The Cimmerian Tales in Visual & Audio Book format: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oYvKlWyEbKmjhaM

[@808davoz]

This was creative genius that they created a world based on a time where howard e roberts only can put theroy to put in sagas of Conan got me to luv the concept and also luv the ancient history of man and how these maps were presenter close to as real as possible but fictional still the concept was close to be as real as possible but luv these maps great fictional story based on some real knolage where what we know is just theory anyway of any people that would of lived in this time of the hyborian age

[@HenkZw]

Thank you for the work you put in this!

[@RPGmodsFan]

Thanks for the compliment. I thought it would nice to see where all these places are that are mentioned in the Essay.

[@thelitchfieldexperiment6269]

This is pretty legit. Thank you.

[@RPGmodsFan]

You are welcome. By placing Maps as visuals, I hope it made REH's essay easier to follow.

[@jamesabernethy7896]

And older video that just came up for me. I really like the steady, almost poetic, pace of your narration. Other than the movie I only have a passing knowledge of the world of Conan. It's a really well-designed world. familiar enough to be relatable but with fantasy elements that still feel tangible. I love interesting lore like this. Even though I never played those games, I find the world of Strangereal really fascinating.

[@RPGmodsFan]

Thanks. I tried to add as many visuals as possible, so that it is just not audio narration only.

[@DarkVeghetta]

After listening to this work twice over, I've noticed something the second time around: Robert E. Howard doesn't seem to be aware of continental drift / tectonic plates, presumably because said theories were not yet extant, in their infancy and not yet proven, he was not aware of them, or for some reason he chose to not apply them to his world. Regardless, this makes it fairly simple to correlate certain Hyborean or even Thurian landmasses to modern ones, even though the elevation and geographical layout differs greatly. Case and point: the Thurian Lemurian island-chain is rather obviously the mountainous spine of Japan rising out of the ocean, though later Hyperborean Lemuria seems wider than present-day Japan is - but it is still roughly where Japan now stands. Mu seems to be a higher-altitude Indonesian island chain plus a large landmass to it's west that now would be under the Indian Ocean... though, on the Clayton Bunce map, Hyperborean Mu looks more like a proto-Australia, given it's position - which goes counter to Howard's own Thurian-age map (further compounded by no continental drift being presented anywhere else, which leads me to believe Bunce's map is flawed in that specific regard). Hyperborean Vendhya is quite clearly proto-India - both the landmass and the nation. Kambuja is, amusingly, where now Cambodia and Thailand exist. Hyperborean Iranistan seems to be a mix of present-day eastern or southern Iran, but also the Persian Gulf and a good chunk of the Arabian Peninsula. Oh, and ofc, Hyperborean Khitai is just China plus a chunk of western Thailand. I have to say that the most striking contrast for me has to be what happened to the area of Hyperborean Meru. From being a vast inland sea in the middle of the Himelian Mountains that looks like it was the result of some giant meteor impact, to now being part of the Tibetan Plateu of the Himalayan Mountains. That area still has a smattering of large lakes visible from orbit, so I have to commend Howard's mytho-geographical progression - it's expertly well-crafted, given the knowledge he had available in his time.

[@RPGmodsFan]

Thanks for the long comment. :-) When I first saw REH's Hyborian Map, I thought that REH must have been aware of lower sea levels during the Ice Age. But, inorder for the Nile and Egypt to line up, REH has most of Africa submerged under the sea. So, I guess he was using more imagination than he was science.

[@DarkVeghetta]

@@RPGmodsFan It was a pleasure adding to the discussion. Howard used as much science as was feasible in an age without modern satellite imaging and knowledge of tectonic plates. For someone writing nearly one hundred years ago, he did an amazing job with his worldbuilding, so much so that many, to this day, are still convinced that he was actually writing a secret (and true) history of our world, not simply very good fiction. After re-watching the entire video today, I think what stuck with me most of all is that, within the context of REH's fictional bloodlines, I seem to have a thing for Cimmerian women. :P

[@RPGmodsFan]

I too have a thing for Cimmerian women. :-P

[@KylewithaK]

Excellent

[@RPGmodsFan]

Thanks :-)

[@joeybonaduchi3490]

Interesting.. good job.

[@RPGmodsFan]

Mitra's blessings upon you. Thanks for your compliment. :-)

[@durkadurka5044]

Yog's balls! Very informative!

[@RPGmodsFan]

Crom! Thanks. :-)

[@jamesmcelroy5830]

Nice 👍🏼

[@rustyshackleford9588]

Where was osrics kingdom, he mentions aqualonia to the west and koth/Stygia to his south…. Where’s the general are, close to zamora I guess? That’s where they hit the temple I think.

[@RPGmodsFan]

This vid is just an audiobook of REH's original essay. So, the osrics kingdom is missing from it.

[@nicholassudov2299]

Like and thanks. Good reading and wnderful maps.

[@RPGmodsFan]

Thanks. Glad you like the video, :-)

[@nicholassudov2299]

@@RPGmodsFan Thank YOU. I have seen a few computer graphic animated political maps of our world that showed how empires rose, expanded, shrank and disappeared - Assyrian, Roman, Chinese, Mongol, Osman, Spanish, Japanese (very short-lived - just 1910-1945), British, Russian (disintegrated twice - 1917 and 1991) etc throuout centuries. Fascinationg. But that would be a much too hard labor to do that with the "Hyborian Age" map, I'm afraid.

[@Just-inquisitor]

@@nicholassudov2299 I could likely do it but I'd need to invent some realistic pre-historic Ethno-chiefdoms throughout the newly formed Hyborean continent to be assimilated later by the empires of the East.

[@ryanratchford2530]

interesting to see what a fantasy world building lore is like pre-tolkien. The history for Howard seems to be mainly an anthoplological record that describes ethnicities & races of people migrating & waring. I suppose this is a pre-history so proper writing records & history & complex civilisations aren't to be found. Curious approach, though I feel like it forces the world building to be rather superficial. We don't really learn about the cultures or religions/spiritisms of these people. Only their biological descriptions and whether they were savages or slave conquerors.

[@RPGmodsFan]

I would agree. And I hate using the term "Product of his times". Many (especially in the Western World) idolize the Ancient Roman Empire. However, their morals and ideals would be considered reprehensible today.

[@stevenewton4110]

Well done, and thank you for putting this together! By the way...these maps are excellent -- any chance that prints of them might be available for purchase...?

[@RPGmodsFan]

Thanks for the compliment. :-) In the Description section, I listed the Map Sources used in the video. Also, the maps can be found by doing an image search in a Search Website (e.g., DuckDuckGo, Google, Yahoo, etc.).

[@stevenewton4110]

@@RPGmodsFan -- Ah! So you did...thanks!

[@Azrael1st]

I would love to learn more about these fantasy worlds, I myself am writing a setting in the far future.

[@RPGmodsFan]

Good luck with writing your story/novel/campaign. Being an author is not easy.

[@Kampfwageneer]

Based

[@nicholassudov2299]

Maybe I missed, but what about Acheron, the motherland of Xaltotun? "Invisible Empire" like KKK?

[@RPGmodsFan]

No, you did not miss anything. Acheron was not mentioned in REH's original essay.

[@nicholassudov2299]

@@RPGmodsFan Yes, thanks. I thought so at once after i posted my comment.

[@ryanratchford2530]

Seems to use the words Savages & Barbarians a lot (guess it's a product of its time)

[@RPGmodsFan]

yep. That he does.

[@PAGoldenglovechamp06]

The Namibian chronicles ? Namibia africa ? Are you reading this form somewhere or did you create this ?

[@RPGmodsFan]

Nemedian Chronicles. This essay (1936) was written by Robert E Howard. I speculate his knowledge of Africa and its history were very limited, at best.

[@PAGoldenglovechamp06]

@@RPGmodsFan I thought I heard you say Namibia that’s why I asked. Thanks for the reply.

[@Just-inquisitor]

Robert E Howard's world of the Hyborean age was beautifully crafted but it was textured with much of his racist bias that he, fortunately, overcame to some extent and I wish I could say the same for H.P. Love Craft. Howard made the Atlanteans a tan-skinned white race with blue eyes and dark hair but had no intentions of reserving the same glory for the Lemurians (who he could have explicitly stated were black people but did not for obvious reasons) which he writes as some kind of Asiatic "dark-skinned" race enslaved by the proto-stygian from the East which MAY be Robert hinting that a proto-Polynesian empire or Civ existed at one time before their lands were reduced to the remote islands we see in the Pacific today. But as for the origins of the Lemurians, I think Robert believed they might have been proto-Dravidians who later mixed with the Proto-Stygian and the squinty-eyed Mongoloid natives of Po mountain to make the Hyrkanians. I will finish some of Robert E Howard's work on the lore regarding the Lemurians who I think are deserving of having a rich black origin. I will do as Robert Did. I will use my knowledge of history, Geo-politics, and theology to give my audience ever so much as a glimpse of the World's TRUE history; and the motto that civilization is much older than you think. Mark my words...

[@RPGmodsFan]

I want to say REH was a "product of his times" as an excuse, but he was racist. However, what I find troubling in our times is everything has to be extreme, everything has to be black & white, with no shades of grey in between. I do not think REH was an extreme racist. His stories were about Sword & Sorcery, and not about promoting racism. Today, it seems Hollywood is not about entertainment, but about promoting an agenda deliberately designed to make us fight each other. My apologies for my rant.

[@Just-inquisitor]

​@@RPGmodsFan You can rant as much as you like. Your channel, man. But I wasn't implying Howard was an extreme racist or anything. If you do a little bit of searching you can track down letters Howard wrote to Love Craft, both of which were racist, with Howard being the lesser of the two. What did it for me (in a somewhat humorous way because some racist expressions are funny to me) was when REH wrote Shadows in Zamboula wherein Conan goes to Zamboula (what was then a desert now under the Mediterranean sea) and is quoted saying, "The guard outta clear out these black dogs!" He says this after seeing a group of black cannibals attacking a naked white woman which is the stuff they do in the race-bating Hollywood movies but in reverse with white Masters beating naked slaves, raping, etc. Conan traveled to various lands and met with many people and even helped black slaves mutiny on a ship one time. So, I'll say REH did promote racism but it was mixed and he didn't linger on the issue as Love Craft did.. Lovecraft who sent Howard excerpts of his short stories, namely one where Lovecraft writes about an African Queen who over through the Last of the Atlantean colonies. In this story, Lovecraft refers to the African Queen as a "Nigress;" a story which REH praised with a passion. Now as for the gray vs black and white point you made. I'd have to say the black-and-white struggle makes sense, especially during a time when two great imperial powers whose ethno-states dominate both hemispheres of the world. I'll gray it up a bit and make the Ancestors of the west indies THE FIRST Atlanteans only to be later overthrown by white invaders from the North pole. Now, according to the theosophical framework Robert was building his Krull and Conan worlds upon, the Lemurians were said to be the 3rd root race, a more ancient race who preceded the white Atlanteans on the island that would become Atlantis by thousands of years. It was only after the fall of the early Lemurian empire that the Atlanteans rise to become a second prominent power on the world stage of that time. The Atlanteans traverse the world and soon they overtake the Lemurians in military and naval technology but not by a large margin. My story will end with the Lemurians falling to a joint invasion by the Atlantean/MU coalition, resulting in half of Lemuria becoming a vassal state for two centuries. Sad right? And the moral of the story is that both the colored and non-colored peoples of the world are the product of more than 100,000 years of civilization. We are equals who have achieved amazing things especially when we work together, and it's time we start acting like it. Hope this puts things into perspective.

[@RPGmodsFan]

My apologies, I did not mean to offend or be insensitive. I have not yet read Shadows in Zamboula, nor have I read the Letters between REH & Lovecraft. I am from Turkey, so I am not too familiar with the situation in the US, and can only assess it from the outside. Again, I am sorry, I did not mean to offend. Also, I totally agree with you, that the Human Race needs to work together. This is why I love Old Star Trek, as well as The Orville. I believe they show a world that can be, if those few in charge were not constantly stealing from us and making us fight each other (the old Roman Strategy of Divide & Conquer).

[@jackp492]

@@Just-inquisitor wouldn’t it be fair for the in universe character calling cannibals black dogs? Would the world of Conan be at all interesting if there wasn’t racial and cultural differences, There would be no conflict to drive the stories of this world, It seems to me a part of the reason Dungeons and dragons is so popular as an rpg is that while in real life people are for the most part anxious to not insult eachother, but in dnd the elf and dwarf can hate eachother, the warrior can have disdain for orcs trolls and goblins etc, What does it say about dungeons and dragons and rpgs in general that people want to roleplay black and white ethics, and live out tribal thinking in game, At this point it seems the whole racism elephant in the room is itself a symptom of racist thinking, For example, whether you hate racists, or hate a group for thier race, you share hate in common, for a group, you see as outside yours, and to tie you even closer together, race is the common thing your both fussing about

[@jackp492]

@@Just-inquisitor it just seems to me no one really hates someone for thier race, only in thier ignorance the belief that all people of that race share cultural practices that the ignorant person finds disdainful, For example the holocaust was not a contest between chosen people and master race, it may have been presented that way to gain the support of the ignorant, but the guys running the show were certainly not so one dimensional in their thinking, it was an ideological conflict, that became physical