Really, the whole setting was an excuse for Howard , who loved historical adventure fiction, to put Conan in any place and period he felt like, without worrying about getting shit wrong. Want him to fight vikings? To be a Roman mercenary in Britain? Team up with Egyptian slaves? Why not!
@@GrimDarkHalfOff I think, while worldbuilding can be fun for its own sake, more authors should remember there's nothing wrong with the primary concern being storytelling functionality. REH wanted to have all the coolest parts of history happening at the same time.
I've got a Roman empire establishing itself on my D&D world, established by the lost 9th legion who were magically transported to another dimension by the druids
@@abrahamsorby8193 i always loved that premise. Came across a number of stories whose heroes were the lost legion the whole time And like they said above, that was only a part of the overall storytelling, which I rather enjoyed
Tbh that feels like a huge motive for many fantasy/fiction writers. Take WH Fantasy/Oldworld, so many historical peoples and events literally just named swapped. Why not use something original? Probably so they can do what IS original in cool semi-historical environs without getting nitpicked to death. Same with "High Gothic" being just unconjugated, undeclined Latin. Even historical fiction takes an immense amount of research comparable to legitimate historical research. Dan Jones who is praised for writing popular (but generally scholarly acceptable) historical works came out with ONE historical fiction book a short bit ago (Essex Dogs iirc) and all the historians who praised his non-fiction tore into him with his fiction because of minor inaccuracies and idiosyncrasies. They generally liked it but gave him little grace. Despite YEARS of acumen built up and legitimate research chops, explicitly writing a fiction book wasn't enough for him to be free to just write something cool without worrying about accuracy.
The Hyperboreans being a supposed mythical race mentioned by the ancient Greeks as a people living in the frozen lands with a somehow temperate climate under perpetual sunshine is something I had absolutely never heard before until I looked up "Hyperboreans" for more Conan lore lol instead I found another actual historical equivalent used by Howard in his world building
I find it fun how Howard didn’t even bother renaming any of the African kingdoms (Kush and Darfur, which where real African kingdoms) still I’m impressed he even knew about them.
he was, as were many writers and historians of the time, extremely smart and tried to emulate much of his world off of the kingdoms and cultures that actually existed, though he would add a bit of his own thematic flare.
The countries and cultures he mentioned that are real that we know today are supposed to be, in his canon, ones that existed on because at least a few people carried the names with them through the Pict conquest and the final cataclysm.
Only the authors of the time got away with that (not saying it's a bad thing) because people weren't as hypereducated about the world as our society is now, possibly no one would have heard about these kingdoms, which meant that keeping the names wouldn't break the veil, same goes for basing so much of their worlds on the real world, they didn't need to try as hard to make their setting outlandish, which allowed them to focus more on other aspects and put more polish into their stories
@@DenethorDurrandir you'd be surprised at how well educated the Americans were of the 20th century. The elementary school students were smarter than most of our high school students and they were also far more literate in comparison. Heck kids were reading Conan the Barbarian alongside The Shadow, Zorro, and Doc Savage just to name a few. By the time they were in middle school they were already reading The Iliad and The Odyssey before graduating on to the works of Shakespeare and Beowulf.
I've just discovered Conan and I'm fascinated by the world, lore, and the cultural influences on the different races. For my own TTRPG homebrew world I was already taking a lot of influence from real world cultures and peoples and seeing that Conan has done the same is a huge inspiration. I love seeing real world history with a fantastical twist
If anyone's interested there's a four book series based in African cultures that I recommend called Imaro written by Charles Saunders. Its about a warrior called Imaro and is set in Nyumbani, a fantasy Hyperborean version of Africa and many of the cultures and people who live there, mixed with some degrees of Lovecraftian cosmic horror for good mesure.
I read all of the REH Conan books when I was a kid, along with the stories of Kull the Conquer and the sword fighting Puritan Mercenary Soliman Kane. You did a great job tying the original Hyborian World and the games together. Well done.
The Brythunians, known across the land for their dreaded light cavalry, rumored to be a proto-winged hussar. They ride rugged Steppe horses capable of riding on rough terrain for days on end and charging violently down the steep ravines that surround their heartland. Legend tells that eons ago, in their eleventh hour facing insurmountable odds against eastern barbarians, they were rescued by a mysterious mounted force of flying cavalry pouring from the northern mountain passes. We refer to them today as the mythical Valkyrie, but they were referred to as “Hushkai” which in the ancestral tongue meant “rider of death”. Thus the tradition remains today of swift riding cavalry donning dramatic wings as they ride fiercely into battle.
The 80s movies take a lot more from Howard's Kull books than they do Conan. For instance the main villian was a Kull villian book Conan never even met him ditto for the slave and arena fighter background that was Kull. As for the actual Kull movie I have no idea what the hell they based that on
@@WILD__THINGS its an Objective fact the Conan movies particularly the first have next to nothing to do with actual conan. If you squint really hard you might be able to argue the seconds extremely loosly based on hour of the dragon but that about it. Have you ever actually read the Conan books and short stories? And I mean the orgianl Howard books not the comics. Bevause if you knew anything about them you wouldn't be trying to shoot down someone saying there bad adaptations. I'm not saying they can't be fun or good taken on there own but they've got next to nothing to do with Conan as written by Robert E Howard
Excellent video! I’ve become a huge fan of Conan and Howard’s work since I picked up Conan Exiles last year and have been trying to eat up as much lore as I possibly can.
The Cimmerians in Conan's lore refer to the real-life Proto-Indo-European people of the same name. Interestingly, they were the people who first mastered ironworks in Europe. They have solved the riddle of Steel
1. a member of an ancient nomadic people who overran Asia Minor in the 7th century BC. 2. GREEK MYTHOLOGY a member of a mythical people living in perpetual mist and darkness near the land of the dead. Everything ive read says the culture and race are based on early scottish and irish culture, obviously the irish and scots come from celts who come from indo-european, but a scottish/irish celt culture verse a 7th century BC ino-european culture would be insanely different.. Howard states in The Hyborian Age that "the Gaels, ancestors of the Irish and Highland Scots, descended from pure-blooded Cimmerian clans."
@@rns7426 correct as stated in his essay turned book "the hyborian age" RNS 74 u know ya shit.my mom had me reading the Conan and adventure of land of Dan books by age 6.always loved Conan and kull
Cimmerians weren't even around until the 8th century BC, long after Proto Indo Europeans would have been around... They were an Indo-European people not a Proto Indo European group.
@@rns7426 Not of Britain, they are based on Gaelic Celts of Ireland specifically. Howard mentions this in his notes. The Picts next door to the Cimmerians are the British Celts with a tad bit of Native American mixed into the mix.
This was cool, thank you very much! I didn't know any of this and I'm just getting into a RP server for Conan Exiles and writing my backstory. This helped me come up with some ideas.
To make a few additions, the Vilayet Sea was the Ottoman term for the Caspian Sea. The Turan Kingdom is more like a reflection of the Seljuks and the Ottomans. Because the origin of the Turanians is based on the Hyrkania steppes. A group of Hyrkanian nomads crossed the sea of the province and established a state on the western side, just as the Seljuks left the steppes and established a state in Iran and Anatolia. Hyrkanians, on the other hand, are similar to nomadic Turks and Mongols. The gods Tarim and Erlik worshiped by the Turanians and Hyrkanians. Erlik is Turkic god that exists in mythology. Also, Tarim evokes the word Tanrı (or old version Tengri) in modern Turkish.("Tanrım" means "my God" in modern Turkish) Also, in a Conan adventure, it was mentioned that the Turan king arrived in the capital before his brother and tried to take the throne. This was a direct reference to the Ottoman Sultan Selim I. It is also an old Turkic tradition for Turan kings to strangle their relatives with bowstring for political gain. The Turks believed that the ruling dynasty was commissioned by God and that their blood was holy. Therefore, members of the dynasty were not killed by the sword. The name of Yildiz, the King of the Turanians, is also Turkish name means "star". Although we use the name Yıldız for women today, we also used it for men in history. The country called Iranistan to the south of Turan represents Persian culture and they are enemies to each other, just as Turks and Persians were enemies to each other in history. Btw fantastic video. Thanks for sharing.
Turkish people didn't exist in the region until 1260AD during the Mongol invasion they arrived from Turkmenistan and kyrgystan The Vilayet Sea is obviously a reference to the Red Sea not the Caspian.
@@HamguyBacon What are you talking about? Before 1260, there were Seljuks in the region, before that, the Oghuz Yabgu State, the Khazar Khanate and Kipchak Khanate in the North of the Caspian Sea. If this is a reference to the Red Sea, the Stygian civilization must have been around it. Not the horse-ridden Turanians and Hyrkanians. It is the river Styx, symbolizing the Red Sea or Nile River. If you open the Hyborian Age map and look at it, you can see that the names of many settlements around the Vilayet Sea are similar to the names of places around the Caspian Sea in the real world.
I am always trying to convince my friends to start reading Conan, but they just laugh it off. I read the Hyborian Age first and I was like wtf this is great and then I read all the short stories and fell absolutely in love with Howards world and it's characters. Hats off to you, sir! Thank you for keeping Conan's name out there. Absolutely no tv show or no movie will ever do it the proper justice. REH wrote so much good stuff, it is insane to imagine that he died at the age of 30. I am 31 and I hate every word I write down to craft my own story lol
More like a fictional lost age of History. It is what happens when you splice togethered the various legendary ages of the various ancient people of the world. Like it said... "Between the time the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the Sons of Aryas."
Interesting, I always thought Aquilonians were more like late Roman Empire, after enforcing christian faith as only allowed religion (hence zealous adherence to Mitra's worship), Franks never came to my mind
Nice. I always toyed with the idea of doing a Conan run (TTRPG). I wanted it to be near the end of the Hyborian age, where magic is waning, Aquilonia has long since fallen, the peoples in & around Stygia aren't even calling it Stygia anymore.
@@chefbezos. he stated that they werent the same as the rl picts that they were based on native americans in i believe the source was the essay on hyboria
In my head canon, The pictes are the "ancestors" of all of the Native americans, Because most of the arts represent them being brown skinned, dark hair & eyes. Maybe the ones who landed in Hyboria eventually mixed with other cultures to become the scottish. But by the looks and name of their tribes, they are basically Natives americans.
Something about the idea of ordinary men becoming mythologized really fascinates me. Reminds of the idea of an Anglo Saxon king that inspired the myths of King Arthur. (I forget the exact name though)
AFAIK King Arthur is rumored to be based on a Roman soldier stationed in the British isles and there was a renewed interest in the character after the Battle of Hastings hundreds of years later. Take that with a huge grain of salt, though. A lot of the Arthurian legends we think of now was basically fanfiction and idealized versions of chivalry.
Only king Arthur is derived from Welsh legend from the Mabinogi, there were historical figures like Vortigern and Ambrosius Aureliaunus that may have inspired the legend of king Arthur also. King Arthur however was an not inspired by any Anglo-Saxon rulers, he was in inspired mostly by native Brittonic Celts(Britons) who defended their lands from Anglo-Saxon invaders who arrived to Britain in the 5th century AD.
As far as I'm aware, nobody truly knows who King Arthur is based on. The main theory is that King Arthur is based on a Romano-British/Sub-Roman Brittonic warleader named Ambrosius Aurelianus (Emrys Wledig in Welsh) who helped defend against early Saxon invasions, particularly at the Battle of Badon Hill. Ambrosius is known to have existed, as his name is found in Roman records from that time.
Been collecting the RPG books for Conan. I've been trying to get away from running DnD and I've always been a fan of Conan. This Lore video was helpful.
@@GrimDarkHalfOff I like how you explain the relation of the Cthulhu Mythos stuff and how to implement it. Works very well because one of my ideas for a Conan Game is to switch back and forth between the Conan System and a Modern Setting using the Call of Cthulhu Rules set.
I always thought Conan was Persian (the story is almost 1 to 1 of Kaveh the black Smith) he's referred to as a barbarian & also Cimmerian & Sumerian (a persian city) as well as Thusla Doom being Zahhak the serpent leader. The use of lions in Conan armour (persian lion). Also the horns on his helmet (not Viking from Viking history as we know but from Rostam the Persian equivalent of hercules) I feel like there's too many similarities & it can't be coincidence that Conan just happens to have a lot of similarities to Persian mythology/ culture. Also with Atlantis it was mentioned in Persian mythology. And geographically it would of most likely been under the Persian Empire not Greek or Roman. I know Conan is its own universe that draws inspiration from real history. But for me there's too many references pointing to Conan being from Persian inspiration mostly.
This was educational and fun. I just realized the only decent Conan movie we have is Arnold's, Conan movie. We need a Conan anime, a la Netflix's Castlevania.
@@GrimDarkHalfOff Oh imma definitely watch that. I'm thinking of picking up the original Conan books too, maybe on audible if they've got it. I've been a Conan fan my whole life but purely of the movies and comics. I had no idea there was this much depth to it 😅
Yea it sucks he took his life feeling worthless not knowing we would be loving and speaking of his works for many many many years into the future R.E.H. SIR U WERE A TRUE MASTER OF YOUR CRAFT AND MADE A MARK ON MANY CHILDREN AND ADULTS LIVES WHO LOVE YOUR WORK.RIP SIR AND THANK YOU FOR THE MANY MANY MANY HOURS UR BOOKS AND WORKS KEPT A LONELY KID ENTERTAINED AND FEELING LESS ALONE.THANK U
I watched this video and was inspired to (re)watch the REH Hyporborean Essay video to compare and identify for myself, the fiction vs reality comparisons mentioned and expanded upon in said videos. I can only say I am now more knowledgeable of geographical, ethnic groups/races, and archeological history than I was before. Only if and when referring to that of the fantasy world invented ( with real world inspiration ) by Robert E. Howard.
Hyrkania; pronounced like Higher-kania, not Her-krania. Howard depicts Brythunians as fair skinned blondes and their culture as pretty much a vassal state of Aquilonia, but you're right, there isn't much to go on.. I found the inclusion of Yamatai in Exiles surprising as I believe they are not mentioned anywhere in Howard's work. If memory serves they are another mythical antediluvian culture like the Lemurians and denizens of Mu, theorized by spiritualists and pseudo historians at the beginning of the 20th century.
Considering that Hyrcania derives from the word Verkana- wolf land, more or less - I'd count Her-khania as a valid pronunciation, despite linguistic standards of the last centuries. Likewise, given historical pronunciation, HUR-khania (hoor) would have been the likelier pronunciation of the y.
@@SanktBeautancus Herkhania yes, but not HerkRhania...there's no R there (as I believe it was pronounced in the video). The massive region would have been pronounced differently by dozens of tongues, they just wouldn't add a phoneme.
I always thought the pronunciation was "Heer-kania", but listening to Subotai introduce himself in Conan the Barbarian he does indeed say "Hire-kania".
@@RobertWF42 As I said earlier, the Hyborean age hosts scores of languages, so it is very conceivable that it could be pronounced Herrkania by a Zingaran, or something, who knows. My only point is that there is no "R" in the second syllable. Although your point about Subotai's pronunciation is a good one being as that is his homeland.
I really liked this one. I love Conan Exiles so much I have 3100 hours in it. I learned a lot from your video about the races and locations. Thank you. It is December now so I wish you Merry Christmas and successful Happy new year!
EVERY Conan Fan MUST Read R. E. Howard's, L. Sprague De Camp's and Lynn Carter's Paperbacks on Conan's Life, about 14 Volumes from Conan's Birth to Supposed Death.
L. Sprage De Camp slandered Howard's name, edited his books, while leaving the originals unavailable to the public, and said he wrote better Conan stories than Howard, despite missing the entire point of Conan. He would also take unrelated stories from Howard and change a few names here and a few things there to make a new book so he could profit and keep the rights to Conan. I would not advise any fan to read De Camp's Conan stories, as I would not recommend watching Batman and Robin to a batman fan, because they are utterly disloyal to the source material and because of the way De Camp did what he did.
You wouldn't recommend Schumacher's Batman and Robin for being unfaithful to the original? Say what you will about production difficulties and corporate meddling, but the movie is faithful to the camp of the 60s Batman and golden age comics. I think people forget how camp golden age DC comics were.
@@user-nd7rg5er5g I suppose Batman and Conan are incomparable as Batman is a constantly fluctuating character who has many interpretations and many fans who enjoy all of them. But even still, fans of the 60s Batman and the later golden age and silver age comics don't like Batman and Robin, I'd argue no one does but little kids maybe. Also when it comes to new fans you wouldn't recommend Batman and Robin, and I hope you wouldn't recommend De Camp's Conan stories to new Conan fans either. A better comparison for Conan then would probably be Godzilla. Robert E. Howard's Conan is like Toho Godzilla and later Conans by other writers are more similar to the 1998 Tristar Godzilla, or Zilla. Zilla is a giant monster that destroys citys and is called Godzilla, but it isn't true to the character, in the same way De Camp's Conan isn't true to Howard's Conan. If you want to know more I'd suggest reading Don Herron's Conan vs Conantics.
In my homebrew, I’d make the Lemurians based on the Jomon period (which fits the timeline), and use the famous Jomon “astronauts” as suits of armor imbued with magical powers like flight.
"Cimmerians are heavily theorized to be the decendents of the Atlanteans." Robert E. Howard, verbatim in reference to Cimmerians in "Notes on various peoples of the Hyborian Age" I quote, "These were descendents from the ancient Atlanteans." Come on dude.
You showed the scout for Thulsa Doom from the 80s movie as a Pict. He is, in fact, Vanir. The movie explicitly says about the raiders/mercenaries: "Who knows what they came for? Weapons of steel or murder? It was never known, for their leader rode to the south while children went North with the Vanir."
The Vanir, in the movie, was the redheaded warrior who took Conan as a slave to the great mill, and then to the gladiator pits, and then finally let him go. Not the same man/actor as the scout. I believe in the director commentary they say that the scout WAS a Pict who was hired by both Thulsa Doom and his Vanir allies to lead them to the Cimmerian village, since, in Howard's works, the Picts are described as ancient enemies of the Cimmerians, engaged in centuries-long blood fueds.
@@Langenschwerte Okay, yep, you are right it seems. Dunno why they would hire a Pictish scout for a Vanir raid instead of using a Vanir scout. Seems overly complicated. Also just because the Picts have an ancient blood feud doesn't mean anyone in the raid HAS to be a Pict. Seems really out of the way to portray that.
@@Kmkilch22 just a guess, but I think John Milius just wanted to portray as much of the Hyborian world its cultures as he could, just as a celebration of Howard's works.
Maaaaan. Geeeeez. D: I am going to have to write so much stuff to get all these referencer points down. I want to play around a bit in this setting, probably using Novel AI. However before I start I really feel I need to get some information about all the races, cultures and so on into the lorebook. Probably have to add all sorts of lore bits and information to get as solid a setting as possible... Not that an AI would truly follow and appreciate the setting properly anyway but hey. I do not get to buy slaves to play and run games for me so I will take what I can get. This video is truly a massive help. :3 I will probably just copy the stuff you said and hope that is enough for the AI.
Howard meant "Cimmeria" to be an expert of ancient pre-Roman Britain inhabited by the Ancient Britons, who called themselves "Cymri". There was a real region called Cimmeria, which actually existed at the north end of the Caspian Sea.
That's incorrect. Howard literally says the Cimmerians are proto-Gaels of Ireland, some of whom later went into the Scottish Highlands. Crom is an Irish god, Conan is a Gaelic irish name. You got to learn the differences between Gaelic, Welsh/Celtic Briton and North Celtic Briton/Pict. They are three different distinct Celtic cultures.
Cimmerians are also taken from world history from the bronze age, they were from Black Sea in modern day Crimea... They are mentioned by other cultures histories for their invasions of modern day Turkey/ Pontice/Asia minor. they had ties to both the Greek world and the indo-Iranian Scythians of the Siberian step.
While information was mostly spot on you got Cimmerians and Picts quite wrong,according to the centenary edition of the complete chronicles page 19 specifically states Gaels were the descendants of pure Cimmerian tribes in particular highland Scots and Picts became part of the ancient kingdom of Koth. In fact I highly recommend reading the book I mentioned as it contains a plethora of information of most of the nation states and what they eventually became part of.
Arguably the Vikings had there origins in today's Denmark. Most Norse cultures looked like each other before the Viking age. The Celtic people weren't a unified people, the closest it came to it they spilt into two a french and german faction. That also spread to the British isles, most prominent in Scotland and Ireland from one of the group's and the Welsh from the other.
Your more than welcome! I do make 3 mistakes here tho regarding Turanians, Picts and Hyperboreans so be sure to check out my Addendum video. I also go into architecture in Conan there as well,
I saw some of these a bit differently, however was a good job on your part and program, the Brythunian folk I see as proto Briton, and said in such a way Bryth, the th being a t sound, etc Shem of course giving rise to the Semetic folk later, Arabs, Amorites, Akkadian, Hebrew etc
I'm a bit confused about places like Argos, Koth and Ophir. Some places say Koth and Ophir are Ancient Roman inspired and Argos is ancient Greece inspired, while others say Koth and Ophir are Medieval Italy inspired and Argos is medieval Greece inspired. Would you be able to confirm which one it is? I'm a big fan of Ancient Rome and Greece and just want to know which Hyborian nation is Anicent Roman/Greek Appreciate any help you can give
I think the problem here isn’t a conflation of lore, but more how this was described to you. Both the medieval description and ancient description is true. The Hyborian age exists in a cyclical history loop and medieval level technology was invented lost and reinvented in the world of Howard many times before what we would call the Middle Ages. So they are ancient in culture, but depending on the area with in the nation can reach up to medieval levels of technology. It’s a fusion of the two concepts and different ages of tech before the invention of gun powder.
@@GrimDarkHalfOff oh right, that's really interesting. So in terms of appearance and architecture, how would somewhere like Koth and Ophir look? Would it be men in togas walking past colleseums, or would it be Renaissance Italy with Leonardo DaVinci types? Or would each area of the nation be like stepping into a different period in Italy's history? Also, appreciate the quick reply. You've just earned a follower
@@CulturePopChannel So once again fashion varies greatly both in Conan and in its thematically opposite, but Canon series Elric. The really unique and cool thing about the countries in Conan is architecture. In ancient times you’ll often find a world of Adobe buildings or Hellenic marble design, but these will be very simple in the real world. Very down to earth literally in the sense that the tallest common ancient building would be a Ziggurat which would only be about 3 stories. Conan asks the question “hey what if all those primitive tree houses, Adobe rock building and others had sky scraper and large city versions”. Cities in Conan have a lot of Las Vegas or Urbanized energy to them despite being ancient. Cross Plains Texas was a crime ridden nightmare and it influenced a lot of Howard’s representation of cities. Fashion varies in era, but there are of course some standard things like togas being more common the further south you go and trousers more common in the north. Armor is very practical (which is sadly not represented in Exiles well) and robes/dresses are pretty universal.
@@GrimDarkHalfOff that's super interesting, not what I expected, but way more interesting honestly. What would you say is the best visual depiction of the Hyborian Age then? You mentioned Exiles not getting the armour right, did any particular comic or one of the other games or some other visual media perfectly depict the world of Conan?
There is a legend in Hyboria rarely so much as spoken of. Trifecta. Only love prevails & Hyboria too never had to learn this universal truth. It certainly did witness it epitomized. Earth, Air, Water & Fire each cultivated from the world that is Hyboria came from a storm most severe. A storm that rescued countless. A storm that never stops, goes or yields. Love.
Is it true that the Conan universe is also apart of the Lovecraft universe? How many Lovecraft influences or inspired things are present in the Conan universe?
I am from Norway, and we are well know ass the land off the vikings. In the storry of conan they talke aboute the northeimer and the berserker...do this have anny thing with the vikings??
That’s tuff for me to figure out, but if there was a culture that could possibly mimic it I would argue it would be something like a border culture or small village on the borders of Koth and Ophir near the east also bordering Zamora. This gives them in a very small way that feel of being near but not quite on the fringe of western leading into middle eastern society.
@@RLDragonStrider perhaps, it depends on the founding history of Bulgaria. I’m a Texan for reference, so I don’t know much about the circumstances surrounding the culture’s founding. Just geography.
@@GrimDarkHalfOff Apologies, TH-cam decided not send a reply notification. If I may comment further, to kind of summarize Bulgarian history in a nutshell, that would be as follows, I am really interested to hear your thoughts. Semi-nomadic horse civilization living on the frontier (not of Mongoloid but Caucassian descent) with ties to Scythians, Northern-Iranians and Sarmatians Establishing a quasy-defence pact with the Conan equivalent of the Byzantine empire (Corinthia?) Country declines after generations and under pressure from other nomadic tribes (historically the Khazars) Ruling aristocrats decide to split between the king's sons to seek a new homeland and one son arrives in the Balkans. Establishing a pact with local Slavic tribes and old Thracians remnants they defeat the Byzantine empire and firmly take root in the area. After many back and forth skirmishes and campaigns the civilization establishes a stable monarchy that accepts Orthodox Christianity and ushers a cultural golden age peaking with the creation of the Bulgarian alphabet (Cyrillic) A civilization characterized as bridge between East and West alot of Byzantine influence that HOWEVER grows into it's own type of art and architecture. A people placing emphasis on their heritage and homeland, with strong familial ties, hardworking and steadfast with love or art and learning however no stranger to minial tasks. They would preffer the heavy cavalry and heavy horses would be their most recongnizable military units followed by footarchers of merit and horse archers usually drafted from still nomadic tribes. This is probably the best way to condence it. Where do you think a civilization like this can work in Conan?
I agree with most of this especially Aquilonia being France but they do have some roman vibes like having a patrician class, zamora is 100% the caucuses and cimmerians are geals 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻
REH wrote an essay on his world "The Hyborian Age" and the influence for the cimmerians is obvious and conformed therein it is well The Cimmerians you know in asia minor and the pontic steppes. A scythian people not of the green isle Ireland nor of Dal Riada
@@zachofthebattery2864 Robert e howard believed the scythians where related to the gaels also conans is an Irish name deriving its meaning from the word for wolf
You can find Howard's Conan stories online at Project Gutenberg and also Project Gutenberg Australia. Just search or look for Robert E. Howard. I have been reading Conan for about 50 years.
If Nemedia is Germany and Brythunia is Poland and Ophir is northern Italy then Corinthia must be inspired by kingdom of Carinthia, so Slovenia and Austria. Edit: I looked at the lore. It says that was raided by invaders of Turan (Turkey), so yes, this is 100% inspired by Austria/Slovenian/Croatian lands.
@@Non_auro_sed_ferro_recuperanda All of it is mixed together really. Even antediluvian civilization theory is mixed in.. And I don't believe real history is what we are told. There were advanced break away civilizations. There is nuclear glass in places where wars of the gods took place and it's well documented in ancient writings. The pharaohs made jewelry out of the glass. It was highly prized. They knew about it even then.
@@Non_auro_sed_ferro_recuperanda I don't believe in aliens.. Who said anything about aliens?? I'm even worse to you probably. I believe the Bible. And I believe in Fallen angels.. Jesus is Lord!
I find it kinda fitting that Koth and Ophir are Hittite, but play the part of Rome. The Hittites were a very bright, albeit relatively short lived powerhouse, in Anatolia. In the Aeneid the survivors of Troy, an Anatolian city, fled and would eventually founded what would become Rome. If I'm remembering correctly the city was called Wilusa and a vassal of the Hittites.
Really, the whole setting was an excuse for Howard , who loved historical adventure fiction, to put Conan in any place and period he felt like, without worrying about getting shit wrong. Want him to fight vikings? To be a Roman mercenary in Britain? Team up with Egyptian slaves? Why not!
Actually this comment adds a lot of value to the video and is a good thematic summary, pinned!
@@GrimDarkHalfOff I think, while worldbuilding can be fun for its own sake, more authors should remember there's nothing wrong with the primary concern being storytelling functionality. REH wanted to have all the coolest parts of history happening at the same time.
I've got a Roman empire establishing itself on my D&D world, established by the lost 9th legion who were magically transported to another dimension by the druids
@@abrahamsorby8193 i always loved that premise. Came across a number of stories whose heroes were the lost legion the whole time
And like they said above, that was only a part of the overall storytelling, which I rather enjoyed
Tbh that feels like a huge motive for many fantasy/fiction writers. Take WH Fantasy/Oldworld, so many historical peoples and events literally just named swapped. Why not use something original? Probably so they can do what IS original in cool semi-historical environs without getting nitpicked to death. Same with "High Gothic" being just unconjugated, undeclined Latin. Even historical fiction takes an immense amount of research comparable to legitimate historical research. Dan Jones who is praised for writing popular (but generally scholarly acceptable) historical works came out with ONE historical fiction book a short bit ago (Essex Dogs iirc) and all the historians who praised his non-fiction tore into him with his fiction because of minor inaccuracies and idiosyncrasies. They generally liked it but gave him little grace. Despite YEARS of acumen built up and legitimate research chops, explicitly writing a fiction book wasn't enough for him to be free to just write something cool without worrying about accuracy.
Some time stamps
2:37 Hyperborea
3:08 Vanaheim and Asgard
3:39 Cimmeria
4:09 The Picts
4:37 Aquilonia
5:02 Zingara
5:25 Argos
5:48 Ophir and Koth
6:14 Nemedia
6:33 Brythunia
7:01 Corinthia
7:17 Zamora
7:39 Turan
7:53 Hyrkania
8:11 Shem
8:29 Stygia
9:28 Himelian Mountains
9:49 Vendhya
10:11 Khitai
10:31 Kush
10:50 Darfar
11:18 Lemuria
The Hyperboreans being a supposed mythical race mentioned by the ancient Greeks as a people living in the frozen lands with a somehow temperate climate under perpetual sunshine is something I had absolutely never heard before until I looked up "Hyperboreans" for more Conan lore lol instead I found another actual historical equivalent used by Howard in his world building
The white race/Europeans are from Hyperboria
Nvw yvv svv...
I find it fun how Howard didn’t even bother renaming any of the African kingdoms (Kush and Darfur, which where real African kingdoms) still I’m impressed he even knew about them.
he was, as were many writers and historians of the time, extremely smart and tried to emulate much of his world off of the kingdoms and cultures that actually existed, though he would add a bit of his own thematic flare.
The countries and cultures he mentioned that are real that we know today are supposed to be, in his canon, ones that existed on because at least a few people carried the names with them through the Pict conquest and the final cataclysm.
Well he didnt bother to change the names of Argos and Korinthia. I have a seaside house in Korinthia lol
Only the authors of the time got away with that (not saying it's a bad thing) because people weren't as hypereducated about the world as our society is now, possibly no one would have heard about these kingdoms, which meant that keeping the names wouldn't break the veil, same goes for basing so much of their worlds on the real world, they didn't need to try as hard to make their setting outlandish, which allowed them to focus more on other aspects and put more polish into their stories
@@DenethorDurrandir you'd be surprised at how well educated the Americans were of the 20th century. The elementary school students were smarter than most of our high school students and they were also far more literate in comparison. Heck kids were reading Conan the Barbarian alongside The Shadow, Zorro, and Doc Savage just to name a few. By the time they were in middle school they were already reading The Iliad and The Odyssey before graduating on to the works of Shakespeare and Beowulf.
I've just discovered Conan and I'm fascinated by the world, lore, and the cultural influences on the different races. For my own TTRPG homebrew world I was already taking a lot of influence from real world cultures and peoples and seeing that Conan has done the same is a huge inspiration. I love seeing real world history with a fantastical twist
For some context regarding characters:
Belit: Shemite
Red Sonja: Hyrkanian
Valeria: Aquilonian
Zenobia: possibly Numedean
Those are my four waifus right there!
Me: Creampuff
@@sesimie Everyy lucky guy dated a belit but eventually ended up with a zenobia
Zenobia is a Nemedian
If anyone's interested there's a four book series based in African cultures that I recommend called Imaro written by Charles Saunders. Its about a warrior called Imaro and is set in Nyumbani, a fantasy Hyperborean version of Africa and many of the cultures and people who live there, mixed with some degrees of Lovecraftian cosmic horror for good mesure.
Thanks
That's cool as hell actually, thanks for the recommendation
Oh I love Imaro. Charles Saunders should be just as respected as Howard and Moorcock
Thank you
@@Neoprototype Touch grass.
I read all of the REH Conan books when I was a kid, along with the stories of Kull the Conquer and the sword fighting Puritan Mercenary Soliman Kane. You did a great job tying the original Hyborian World and the games together. Well done.
The Brythunians, known across the land for their dreaded light cavalry, rumored to be a proto-winged hussar. They ride rugged Steppe horses capable of riding on rough terrain for days on end and charging violently down the steep ravines that surround their heartland. Legend tells that eons ago, in their eleventh hour facing insurmountable odds against eastern barbarians, they were rescued by a mysterious mounted force of flying cavalry pouring from the northern mountain passes. We refer to them today as the mythical Valkyrie, but they were referred to as “Hushkai” which in the ancestral tongue meant “rider of death”. Thus the tradition remains today of swift riding cavalry donning dramatic wings as they ride fiercely into battle.
Which is funny, because "hussar" comes from magyar. It refers to the number 20.
@@OkurkaBinLadin Wasnt a hussar a vikin raider on horse? In eu they have hussar somewhere too dont know west or east but they have it.
@@OkurkaBinLadin and not by chance from the word cavalryman, what does it mean in Hungarian huszár?
Only ever heard of Conan and seen the 80s movies, never knew the Lore, Races, Nations, Cultures etc. Very interesting!
The 80s movies take a lot more from Howard's Kull books than they do Conan. For instance the main villian was a Kull villian book Conan never even met him ditto for the slave and arena fighter background that was Kull.
As for the actual Kull movie I have no idea what the hell they based that on
@@vonfaustien3957 I heard they mostly based the kull movie on the "Hour of the Dragon'' a novel length Conan story.
@@vonfaustien3957 Dude, you have NO idea what you're talking about 🙄 Just 🤐 ok?
@@WILD__THINGS its an Objective fact the Conan movies particularly the first have next to nothing to do with actual conan.
If you squint really hard you might be able to argue the seconds extremely loosly based on hour of the dragon but that about it.
Have you ever actually read the Conan books and short stories? And I mean the orgianl Howard books not the comics. Bevause if you knew anything about them you wouldn't be trying to shoot down someone saying there bad adaptations.
I'm not saying they can't be fun or good taken on there own but they've got next to nothing to do with Conan as written by Robert E Howard
Howard was among my favorite authors growing up. This channel is a gem. Thank you.
Excellent video! I’ve become a huge fan of Conan and Howard’s work since I picked up Conan Exiles last year and have been trying to eat up as much lore as I possibly can.
Get Howard's 12 Paperbacks on the Life of Conan.
You must not eat it! You must read it!
I had know idea the conan-verse could be so dense with lore and roleplay potential.
Still I like this video and it has peaked my interest in conan :D
Yes, good, that!
@@King.Leonidas I'll be looking those up!
The Cimmerians in Conan's lore refer to the real-life Proto-Indo-European people of the same name. Interestingly, they were the people who first mastered ironworks in Europe. They have solved the riddle of Steel
1. a member of an ancient nomadic people who overran Asia Minor in the 7th century BC.
2.
GREEK MYTHOLOGY
a member of a mythical people living in perpetual mist and darkness near the land of the dead.
Everything ive read says the culture and race are based on early scottish and irish culture, obviously the irish and scots come from celts who come from indo-european, but a scottish/irish celt culture verse a 7th century BC ino-european culture would be insanely different.. Howard states in The Hyborian Age that "the Gaels, ancestors of the Irish and Highland Scots, descended from pure-blooded Cimmerian clans."
REH Cimmerians were based off of the Celtic peoples of Britain.
@@rns7426 correct as stated in his essay turned book "the hyborian age" RNS 74 u know ya shit.my mom had me reading the Conan and adventure of land of Dan books by age 6.always loved Conan and kull
Cimmerians weren't even around until the 8th century BC, long after Proto Indo Europeans would have been around... They were an Indo-European people not a Proto Indo European group.
@@rns7426 Not of Britain, they are based on Gaelic Celts of Ireland specifically. Howard mentions this in his notes. The Picts next door to the Cimmerians are the British Celts with a tad bit of Native American mixed into the mix.
This was cool, thank you very much! I didn't know any of this and I'm just getting into a RP server for Conan Exiles and writing my backstory. This helped me come up with some ideas.
To make a few additions, the Vilayet Sea was the Ottoman term for the Caspian Sea. The Turan Kingdom is more like a reflection of the Seljuks and the Ottomans. Because the origin of the Turanians is based on the Hyrkania steppes. A group of Hyrkanian nomads crossed the sea of the province and established a state on the western side, just as the Seljuks left the steppes and established a state in Iran and Anatolia. Hyrkanians, on the other hand, are similar to nomadic Turks and Mongols. The gods Tarim and Erlik worshiped by the Turanians and Hyrkanians. Erlik is Turkic god that exists in mythology. Also, Tarim evokes the word Tanrı (or old version Tengri) in modern Turkish.("Tanrım" means "my God" in modern Turkish) Also, in a Conan adventure, it was mentioned that the Turan king arrived in the capital before his brother and tried to take the throne. This was a direct reference to the Ottoman Sultan Selim I. It is also an old Turkic tradition for Turan kings to strangle their relatives with bowstring for political gain. The Turks believed that the ruling dynasty was commissioned by God and that their blood was holy. Therefore, members of the dynasty were not killed by the sword. The name of Yildiz, the King of the Turanians, is also Turkish name means "star". Although we use the name Yıldız for women today, we also used it for men in history.
The country called Iranistan to the south of Turan represents Persian culture and they are enemies to each other, just as Turks and Persians were enemies to each other in history.
Btw fantastic video. Thanks for sharing.
Good comment, I am taking notes for later!
Turkish people didn't exist in the region until 1260AD during the Mongol invasion they arrived from Turkmenistan and kyrgystan
The Vilayet Sea is obviously a reference to the Red Sea not the Caspian.
@@HamguyBacon What are you talking about? Before 1260, there were Seljuks in the region, before that, the Oghuz Yabgu State, the Khazar Khanate and Kipchak Khanate in the North of the Caspian Sea.
If this is a reference to the Red Sea, the Stygian civilization must have been around it. Not the horse-ridden Turanians and Hyrkanians.
It is the river Styx, symbolizing the Red Sea or Nile River.
If you open the Hyborian Age map and look at it, you can see that the names of many settlements around the Vilayet Sea are similar to the names of places around the Caspian Sea in the real world.
@@YunusKULL there were no such thing as Turks in the region until after the mongol invasion, You can clearly see Africa and Saudi-Arabia on the map.
@@HamguyBacon lol
I am always trying to convince my friends to start reading Conan, but they just laugh it off. I read the Hyborian Age first and I was like wtf this is great and then I read all the short stories and fell absolutely in love with Howards world and it's characters. Hats off to you, sir! Thank you for keeping Conan's name out there. Absolutely no tv show or no movie will ever do it the proper justice. REH wrote so much good stuff, it is insane to imagine that he died at the age of 30. I am 31 and I hate every word I write down to craft my own story lol
A smell special few are chosen for Conan and Howard.
The masses are sheep.
Your video was quite detailed and extensive. The historical links you expounded on helped me to visualize the world better. Much appreciated.
Thanks working on all Gods and Religions now
I Think I understand the idea of Conan a bit better now, always thought Conan to be a loose fictional fanatasy that wasn't bound to any foundations.
Yeah it's really diverse
It's basically pre-flood Earth.
@@STANKONIA24
But where's the cult of murder hobbos made by Cain?
@@STANKONIA24 Finally someone gets it! My man! Yes a fantasy Ante-Diluvial period.
More like a fictional lost age of History. It is what happens when you splice togethered the various legendary ages of the various ancient people of the world. Like it said... "Between the time the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the Sons of Aryas."
This is great. I had no idea the Conan world was so developed. Thank you.
Fantastic video!
Thank you! I do Conan, VTM and WH40K along with what ever interests me! Stick around!
one of the best Conan channels out there
Your work is incredible and you deserve many times more attention! Peace and prosperity!
Interesting, I always thought Aquilonians were more like late Roman Empire, after enforcing christian faith as only allowed religion (hence zealous adherence to Mitra's worship), Franks never came to my mind
I used to have the same thoughts due to age of Conan
They wouldn't be "Franks" but Celts/Gauls. The Franks were germanic conquerors
@@FantadiRienzo Medieval France is somewhat the basis for Aquilonia, so Franks would be in the mix.
It would be AWESOME if you made a part 2 to this video. Would love to learn more about Iranistan, Kosala, Kambuja, Zembabwei, Punt, etc.
Script is already in the works
And direct delivery of it along with visuals in the format of maps.
Nice. I always toyed with the idea of doing a Conan run (TTRPG). I wanted it to be near the end of the Hyborian age, where magic is waning, Aquilonia has long since fallen, the peoples in & around Stygia aren't even calling it Stygia anymore.
Red Dead Barbarian
You should, it sounds great
would love to see more lore vids especially about the giant kings.
Thought picts were suppose to repetsent the native americans
No lol more like Euro. Scot’s (the actual Picts in real life) I think they are based on
@@chefbezos. he stated that they werent the same as the rl picts that they were based on native americans in i believe the source was the essay on hyboria
@@roycoleman4550 They take influence from both Pict and Native American culture. They don't represent any culture
In my head canon, The pictes are the "ancestors" of all of the Native americans, Because most of the arts represent them being brown skinned, dark hair & eyes. Maybe the ones who landed in Hyboria eventually mixed with other cultures to become the scottish. But by the looks and name of their tribes, they are basically Natives americans.
Thank you I needed this
I was just at the comic book store feeling I need a new dose of CONAN! and this hit the spot
Thank you for the summary of such a rich and diverse mega continent! Helped me in prep for running the Conan tabletop RPG
Something about the idea of ordinary men becoming mythologized really fascinates me. Reminds of the idea of an Anglo Saxon king that inspired the myths of King Arthur. (I forget the exact name though)
Originally Arthur was defending against Anglo-Saxon invaders. They came from what's now Northern Germany and Denmark.
AFAIK King Arthur is rumored to be based on a Roman soldier stationed in the British isles and there was a renewed interest in the character after the Battle of Hastings hundreds of years later. Take that with a huge grain of salt, though. A lot of the Arthurian legends we think of now was basically fanfiction and idealized versions of chivalry.
Only king Arthur is derived from Welsh legend from the Mabinogi, there were historical figures like Vortigern and Ambrosius Aureliaunus that may have inspired the legend of king Arthur also.
King Arthur however was an not inspired by any Anglo-Saxon rulers, he was in inspired mostly by native Brittonic Celts(Britons) who defended their lands from Anglo-Saxon invaders who arrived to Britain in the 5th century AD.
As far as I'm aware, nobody truly knows who King Arthur is based on. The main theory is that King Arthur is based on a Romano-British/Sub-Roman Brittonic warleader named Ambrosius Aurelianus (Emrys Wledig in Welsh) who helped defend against early Saxon invasions, particularly at the Battle of Badon Hill. Ambrosius is known to have existed, as his name is found in Roman records from that time.
Fairly certain the King Arthur mythology comes from much earlier, during the Celtic bronze/iron age.
Good video👍
👍🔥🔥🔥 perfect work
Been collecting the RPG books for Conan. I've been trying to get away from running DnD and I've always been a fan of Conan. This Lore video was helpful.
Your very welcome I hope you stick around. Part 2 of my God’s series for Conan is almost out!
@@GrimDarkHalfOff I like how you explain the relation of the Cthulhu Mythos stuff and how to implement it. Works very well because one of my ideas for a Conan Game is to switch back and forth between the Conan System and a Modern Setting using the Call of Cthulhu Rules set.
Could you combine the worlds of Conan and Dungeons and Dragons into one role playing game? Sounds wild
I'm so happy I found this channel
For those who noticed errors in this video! Don’t worry we go over that and go deeper into Cultures here: th-cam.com/video/FRF7yP_Zawo/w-d-xo.html
Were any culture in Conan based on the Native Americans?
@@teyanuputorti7927 the picts and cimmerians were pre celts
I always thought Conan was Persian (the story is almost 1 to 1 of Kaveh the black Smith) he's referred to as a barbarian & also Cimmerian & Sumerian (a persian city) as well as Thusla Doom being Zahhak the serpent leader. The use of lions in Conan armour (persian lion). Also the horns on his helmet (not Viking from Viking history as we know but from Rostam the Persian equivalent of hercules) I feel like there's too many similarities & it can't be coincidence that Conan just happens to have a lot of similarities to Persian mythology/ culture. Also with Atlantis it was mentioned in Persian mythology. And geographically it would of most likely been under the Persian Empire not Greek or Roman. I know Conan is its own universe that draws inspiration from real history. But for me there's too many references pointing to Conan being from Persian inspiration mostly.
This was educational and fun. I just realized the only decent Conan movie we have is Arnold's, Conan movie. We need a Conan anime, a la Netflix's Castlevania.
This is a great video subbed
thank you my King! May Sun Never Set on Aquilonia!
World of Conan is epic and rich. Great job in covering it. Robert E. Howard was genius.
Just started to read the Conan stories. I realy like the short story format for fantasy. It get's to the point
Thanks!! fun info
This was super cool thank you for the great video man.
I've been looking into Howard recently and I can't believe how short and tragic his life was...
Yes I have a mini-documentary on him in both this and better audio quality on my writing channel fantasy for your inner shadow!
@@GrimDarkHalfOff Oh imma definitely watch that. I'm thinking of picking up the original Conan books too, maybe on audible if they've got it. I've been a Conan fan my whole life but purely of the movies and comics. I had no idea there was this much depth to it 😅
Yea it sucks he took his life feeling worthless not knowing we would be loving and speaking of his works for many many many years into the future R.E.H. SIR U WERE A TRUE MASTER OF YOUR CRAFT AND MADE A MARK ON MANY CHILDREN AND ADULTS LIVES WHO LOVE YOUR WORK.RIP SIR AND THANK YOU FOR THE MANY MANY MANY HOURS UR BOOKS AND WORKS KEPT A LONELY KID ENTERTAINED AND FEELING LESS ALONE.THANK U
I watched this video and was inspired to (re)watch the REH Hyporborean Essay video to compare and identify for myself, the fiction vs reality comparisons mentioned and expanded upon in said videos. I can only say I am now more knowledgeable of geographical, ethnic groups/races, and archeological history than I was before. Only if and when referring to that of the fantasy world invented ( with real world inspiration ) by Robert E. Howard.
awesome vid
Such a beautifully detailed and lore rich world.
Here from Conan exiles cause I wanted to learn about the races.
Hyrkania; pronounced like Higher-kania, not Her-krania. Howard depicts Brythunians as fair skinned blondes and their culture as pretty much a vassal state of Aquilonia, but you're right, there isn't much to go on.. I found the inclusion of Yamatai in Exiles surprising as I believe they are not mentioned anywhere in Howard's work. If memory serves they are another mythical antediluvian culture like the Lemurians and denizens of Mu, theorized by spiritualists and pseudo historians at the beginning of the 20th century.
Considering that Hyrcania derives from the word Verkana- wolf land, more or less - I'd count Her-khania as a valid pronunciation, despite linguistic standards of the last centuries. Likewise, given historical pronunciation, HUR-khania (hoor) would have been the likelier pronunciation of the y.
@@SanktBeautancus Herkhania yes, but not HerkRhania...there's no R there (as I believe it was pronounced in the video). The massive region would have been pronounced differently by dozens of tongues, they just wouldn't add a phoneme.
I always thought the pronunciation was "Heer-kania", but listening to Subotai introduce himself in Conan the Barbarian he does indeed say "Hire-kania".
@@RobertWF42 As I said earlier, the Hyborean age hosts scores of languages, so it is very conceivable that it could be pronounced Herrkania by a Zingaran, or something, who knows. My only point is that there is no "R" in the second syllable. Although your point about Subotai's pronunciation is a good one being as that is his homeland.
Video author says: hi-crane-ee-an
Should actually be: hur-cain-ee-an
Whomever is working on the Conan TV series on Netflix should take careful note of this video.
If they want to pay me I’m right here lol
@@GrimDarkHalfOff I would do that for free just give us a good conan show
I really liked this one. I love Conan Exiles so much I have 3100 hours in it. I learned a lot from your video about the races and locations. Thank you. It is December now so I wish you Merry Christmas and successful Happy new year!
Thanks! I have an entire playlist on the channel called “Conan - Lore Guide” organized like an audiobook
@@GrimDarkHalfOff I will definitely listen to it while playing Conan Exiles :D
EVERY Conan Fan MUST Read R. E. Howard's, L. Sprague De Camp's and Lynn Carter's Paperbacks on Conan's Life, about 14 Volumes from Conan's Birth to Supposed Death.
L. Sprage De Camp slandered Howard's name, edited his books, while leaving the originals unavailable to the public, and said he wrote better Conan stories than Howard, despite missing the entire point of Conan. He would also take unrelated stories from Howard and change a few names here and a few things there to make a new book so he could profit and keep the rights to Conan. I would not advise any fan to read De Camp's Conan stories, as I would not recommend watching Batman and Robin to a batman fan, because they are utterly disloyal to the source material and because of the way De Camp did what he did.
@@thechallenger752 Never Knew that Thanks for the Info, what about Lynn Carter?
@@tonymickens8803 From what I know he's like De Camp.
You wouldn't recommend Schumacher's Batman and Robin for being unfaithful to the original? Say what you will about production difficulties and corporate meddling, but the movie is faithful to the camp of the 60s Batman and golden age comics. I think people forget how camp golden age DC comics were.
@@user-nd7rg5er5g I suppose Batman and Conan are incomparable as Batman is a constantly fluctuating character who has many interpretations and many fans who enjoy all of them. But even still, fans of the 60s Batman and the later golden age and silver age comics don't like Batman and Robin, I'd argue no one does but little kids maybe. Also when it comes to new fans you wouldn't recommend Batman and Robin, and I hope you wouldn't recommend De Camp's Conan stories to new Conan fans either. A better comparison for Conan then would probably be Godzilla. Robert E. Howard's Conan is like Toho Godzilla and later Conans by other writers are more similar to the 1998 Tristar Godzilla, or Zilla. Zilla is a giant monster that destroys citys and is called Godzilla, but it isn't true to the character, in the same way De Camp's Conan isn't true to Howard's Conan. If you want to know more I'd suggest reading Don Herron's Conan vs Conantics.
Why are people so surprised that Howard based his stories on real places and cultures?
I’m surprised that aquilonian isn’t base on Romans but Greece
Nice lore video on Conan, thanks!
liked and subscribed
In my homebrew, I’d make the Lemurians based on the Jomon period (which fits the timeline), and use the famous Jomon “astronauts” as suits of armor imbued with magical powers like flight.
This helps me roleplay my character in Conan Exiles. Thank you
Cool video, keep pausing every few minutes to read wiki articles, I am enamored...
Great to hear!
Really love Conan and the game aswell👍
Hey 👋🏻
This was interesting. Thanks and Peace. ✌🏻
New subscriber here. This video was excellent. As a fan of Conan since my childhood, I really liked what I saw in your channel.
Welcome aboard! I’m happy to hear it and glad to have you
@@GrimDarkHalfOff As long as you don't sell your subscribers to stygian merchants...
@@nosotrosloslobosestamosreg4115 Do I know you from somewhere?
Great work! Love Conan!
"Cimmerians are heavily theorized to be the decendents of the Atlanteans." Robert E. Howard, verbatim in reference to Cimmerians in "Notes on various peoples of the Hyborian Age" I quote, "These were descendents from the ancient Atlanteans." Come on dude.
You showed the scout for Thulsa Doom from the 80s movie as a Pict. He is, in fact, Vanir.
The movie explicitly says about the raiders/mercenaries: "Who knows what they came for? Weapons of steel or murder? It was never known, for their leader rode to the south while children went North with the Vanir."
The Vanir, in the movie, was the redheaded warrior who took Conan as a slave to the great mill, and then to the gladiator pits, and then finally let him go. Not the same man/actor as the scout. I believe in the director commentary they say that the scout WAS a Pict who was hired by both Thulsa Doom and his Vanir allies to lead them to the Cimmerian village, since, in Howard's works, the Picts are described as ancient enemies of the Cimmerians, engaged in centuries-long blood fueds.
@@Langenschwerte Okay, yep, you are right it seems. Dunno why they would hire a Pictish scout for a Vanir raid instead of using a Vanir scout. Seems overly complicated. Also just because the Picts have an ancient blood feud doesn't mean anyone in the raid HAS to be a Pict. Seems really out of the way to portray that.
@@Kmkilch22 just a guess, but I think John Milius just wanted to portray as much of the Hyborian world its cultures as he could, just as a celebration of Howard's works.
Maaaaan. Geeeeez. D: I am going to have to write so much stuff to get all these referencer points down. I want to play around a bit in this setting, probably using Novel AI. However before I start I really feel I need to get some information about all the races, cultures and so on into the lorebook. Probably have to add all sorts of lore bits and information to get as solid a setting as possible... Not that an AI would truly follow and appreciate the setting properly anyway but hey. I do not get to buy slaves to play and run games for me so I will take what I can get.
This video is truly a massive help. :3 I will probably just copy the stuff you said and hope that is enough for the AI.
Great work thanks!
30 seconds in. Subbed.
Don’t forget to tip your waitresses
Loved this
12:30 found your video through algorithm. Awesome content! I will rewatch this again :)
Howard meant "Cimmeria" to be an expert of ancient pre-Roman Britain inhabited by the Ancient Britons, who called themselves "Cymri". There was a real region called Cimmeria, which actually existed at the north end of the Caspian Sea.
Cymri is not a people lol it's the ancient name for Wales.
Cimmerians in real life were the enemy of the Scythians.
That's incorrect. Howard literally says the Cimmerians are proto-Gaels of Ireland, some of whom later went into the Scottish Highlands. Crom is an Irish god, Conan is a Gaelic irish name. You got to learn the differences between Gaelic, Welsh/Celtic Briton and North Celtic Briton/Pict. They are three different distinct Celtic cultures.
Cimmerians are also taken from world history from the bronze age, they were from Black Sea in modern day Crimea... They are mentioned by other cultures histories for their invasions of modern day Turkey/ Pontice/Asia minor. they had ties to both the Greek world and the indo-Iranian Scythians of the Siberian step.
Really helpful video!
While information was mostly spot on you got Cimmerians and Picts quite wrong,according to the centenary edition of the complete chronicles page 19 specifically states Gaels were the descendants of pure Cimmerian tribes in particular highland Scots and Picts became part of the ancient kingdom of Koth.
In fact I highly recommend reading the book I mentioned as it contains a plethora of information of most of the nation states and what they eventually became part of.
Don’t worry I already covered that in the Addendum Video to this one. Should be right after it in the “Conan - Lore” play list! Good eye!
Thank you!
Arguably the Vikings had there origins in today's Denmark. Most Norse cultures looked like each other before the Viking age. The Celtic people weren't a unified people, the closest it came to it they spilt into two a french and german faction. That also spread to the British isles, most prominent in Scotland and Ireland from one of the group's and the Welsh from the other.
Good find
this was perfect informations. thank you!
Your more than welcome! I do make 3 mistakes here tho regarding Turanians, Picts and Hyperboreans so be sure to check out my Addendum video. I also go into architecture in Conan there as well,
Good video.
I totally misheard that "neighbors" word when you started talking about the Darfari. I was like "wait, WHAT?" :D
I saw some of these a bit differently, however was a good job on your part and program, the Brythunian folk I see as proto Briton, and said in such a way Bryth, the th being a t sound, etc Shem of course giving rise to the Semetic folk later, Arabs, Amorites, Akkadian, Hebrew etc
I remember reading the comics, there was a land where that had dinosaurs and native american type people
Pictish Wilderness, see the Addendum video to this one for more details!
@@GrimDarkHalfOff thanks
I hope to see your name one day on a production that does conan justice like you do.
I do like REH mix history and fantasy in hes work
I'm totally down with worshipping the goddess Rhona Mitra.
Could you make a video about the cimmerians ? Despite the character of conan being very present I know little about his people and their way of life
I'm a bit confused about places like Argos, Koth and Ophir. Some places say Koth and Ophir are Ancient Roman inspired and Argos is ancient Greece inspired, while others say Koth and Ophir are Medieval Italy inspired and Argos is medieval Greece inspired. Would you be able to confirm which one it is? I'm a big fan of Ancient Rome and Greece and just want to know which Hyborian nation is Anicent Roman/Greek
Appreciate any help you can give
I think the problem here isn’t a conflation of lore, but more how this was described to you. Both the medieval description and ancient description is true. The Hyborian age exists in a cyclical history loop and medieval level technology was invented lost and reinvented in the world of Howard many times before what we would call the Middle Ages.
So they are ancient in culture, but depending on the area with in the nation can reach up to medieval levels of technology.
It’s a fusion of the two concepts and different ages of tech before the invention of gun powder.
@@GrimDarkHalfOff oh right, that's really interesting. So in terms of appearance and architecture, how would somewhere like Koth and Ophir look? Would it be men in togas walking past colleseums, or would it be Renaissance Italy with Leonardo DaVinci types? Or would each area of the nation be like stepping into a different period in Italy's history?
Also, appreciate the quick reply. You've just earned a follower
@@CulturePopChannel So once again fashion varies greatly both in Conan and in its thematically opposite, but Canon series Elric. The really unique and cool thing about the countries in Conan is architecture. In ancient times you’ll often find a world of Adobe buildings or Hellenic marble design, but these will be very simple in the real world. Very down to earth literally in the sense that the tallest common ancient building would be a Ziggurat which would only be about 3 stories. Conan asks the question “hey what if all those primitive tree houses, Adobe rock building and others had sky scraper and large city versions”. Cities in Conan have a lot of Las Vegas or Urbanized energy to them despite being ancient. Cross Plains Texas was a crime ridden nightmare and it influenced a lot of Howard’s representation of cities. Fashion varies in era, but there are of course some standard things like togas being more common the further south you go and trousers more common in the north. Armor is very practical (which is sadly not represented in Exiles well) and robes/dresses are pretty universal.
@@GrimDarkHalfOff that's super interesting, not what I expected, but way more interesting honestly. What would you say is the best visual depiction of the Hyborian Age then? You mentioned Exiles not getting the armour right, did any particular comic or one of the other games or some other visual media perfectly depict the world of Conan?
@@CulturePopChannel Yes that would be age of Conan, I’m doing a let’s play of it right now.
There is a legend in Hyboria rarely so much as spoken of. Trifecta.
Only love prevails & Hyboria too never had to learn this universal truth. It certainly did witness it epitomized. Earth, Air, Water & Fire each cultivated from the world that is Hyboria came from a storm most severe. A storm that rescued countless.
A storm that never stops, goes or yields. Love.
Is it true that the Conan universe is also apart of the Lovecraft universe? How many Lovecraft influences or inspired things are present in the Conan universe?
Screen shotted, so I can make a video answering this!
Lovecraft and Howard were friends.
I am from Norway, and we are well know ass the land off the vikings. In the storry of conan they talke aboute the northeimer and the berserker...do this have anny thing with the vikings??
Most likely, and greeting from Denmark
Weird question, but are there any cultures that are inspired or hint at being earlier versions of the Bulgarians?
That’s tuff for me to figure out, but if there was a culture that could possibly mimic it I would argue it would be something like a border culture or small village on the borders of Koth and Ophir near the east also bordering Zamora. This gives them in a very small way that feel of being near but not quite on the fringe of western leading into middle eastern society.
@@GrimDarkHalfOff
So of your oppinion as someone who knows the lore better than I, you think that can work in order to facilitate a similar culture?
@@RLDragonStrider perhaps, it depends on the founding history of Bulgaria. I’m a Texan for reference, so I don’t know much about the circumstances surrounding the culture’s founding. Just geography.
@@GrimDarkHalfOff Apologies, TH-cam decided not send a reply notification.
If I may comment further, to kind of summarize Bulgarian history in a nutshell, that would be as follows, I am really interested to hear your thoughts.
Semi-nomadic horse civilization living on the frontier (not of Mongoloid but Caucassian descent) with ties to Scythians, Northern-Iranians and Sarmatians
Establishing a quasy-defence pact with the Conan equivalent of the Byzantine empire (Corinthia?)
Country declines after generations and under pressure from other nomadic tribes (historically the Khazars)
Ruling aristocrats decide to split between the king's sons to seek a new homeland and one son arrives in the Balkans.
Establishing a pact with local Slavic tribes and old Thracians remnants they defeat the Byzantine empire and firmly take root in the area.
After many back and forth skirmishes and campaigns the civilization establishes a stable monarchy that accepts Orthodox Christianity and ushers a cultural golden age peaking with the creation of the Bulgarian alphabet (Cyrillic)
A civilization characterized as bridge between East and West alot of Byzantine influence that HOWEVER grows into it's own type of art and architecture.
A people placing emphasis on their heritage and homeland, with strong familial ties, hardworking and steadfast with love or art and learning however no stranger to minial tasks. They would preffer the heavy cavalry and heavy horses would be their most recongnizable military units followed by footarchers of merit and horse archers usually drafted from still nomadic tribes.
This is probably the best way to condence it. Where do you think a civilization like this can work in Conan?
VERY NICE
I agree with most of this especially Aquilonia being France but they do have some roman vibes like having a patrician class, zamora is 100% the caucuses and cimmerians are geals 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻
REH wrote an essay on his world "The Hyborian Age" and the influence for the cimmerians is obvious and conformed therein it is well The Cimmerians you know in asia minor and the pontic steppes. A scythian people not of the green isle Ireland nor of Dal Riada
@@zachofthebattery2864 Robert e howard believed the scythians where related to the gaels also conans is an Irish name deriving its meaning from the word for wolf
@@ruairimartin4240 Well, weren't Scythians supposed to be offsprings of both Howard's Cimmerians and Hyrkanians?
@@mausolus8466 that sounds familiar actually so you're probably right
@@ruairimartin4240 The scythians are an iranic people, so relaterd to the persians. Why would he belive they were related to the gaels?
You can find Howard's Conan stories online at Project Gutenberg and also Project Gutenberg Australia. Just search or look for Robert E. Howard. I have been reading Conan for about 50 years.
I love Project Gutenberg more than a human should
I really like the Kushite Warrior body style, i wish i could make a character shaped like that in Conan Exiles
Yeah they kind of messed up the character creation by not giving us triangular body sliders
The coast of kush sounds like a weed smokers resort xD
If Nemedia is Germany and Brythunia is Poland and Ophir is northern Italy then Corinthia must be inspired by kingdom of Carinthia, so Slovenia and Austria.
Edit: I looked at the lore. It says that was raided by invaders of Turan (Turkey), so yes, this is 100% inspired by Austria/Slovenian/Croatian lands.
Love Conan lore.. It's interesting how much is similar to ancient history..
Only it's kind of silly mixing Medieval and Iron Age cultures and civilizations together.
@@Non_auro_sed_ferro_recuperanda All of it is mixed together really. Even antediluvian civilization theory is mixed in.. And I don't believe real history is what we are told. There were advanced break away civilizations. There is nuclear glass in places where wars of the gods took place and it's well documented in ancient writings. The pharaohs made jewelry out of the glass. It was highly prized. They knew about it even then.
Okay ancient astronaut theory isn't real buddy.
@@Non_auro_sed_ferro_recuperanda I don't believe in aliens.. Who said anything about aliens?? I'm even worse to you probably. I believe the Bible. And I believe in Fallen angels.. Jesus is Lord!
I find it kinda fitting that Koth and Ophir are Hittite, but play the part of Rome. The Hittites were a very bright, albeit relatively short lived powerhouse, in Anatolia.
In the Aeneid the survivors of Troy, an Anatolian city, fled and would eventually founded what would become Rome. If I'm remembering correctly the city was called Wilusa and a vassal of the Hittites.
Like game of thrones but based more on history it's great I'm gonna go check it out.
Your the reason why I downloaded the game