You want to start collecting Conan omnibuses, but you’re staring at two different lines: Conan the Barbarian (colour) and Savage Sword of Conan (black-and-white). Both are excellent. Both are relatively expensive. Which do you buy first?

The honest answer: it depends on what you want from Conan.

I own both lines. I’ve read both extensively. Here’s how I think about it.

The Quick Answer

Buy Conan the Barbarian if: you want to follow Conan’s life as a continuous story, from young thief to king. You prefer colour comics. You’re new to Conan and want the “main” series.

Buy Savage Sword of Conan if: you want the best individual stories. You care about faithful Howard adaptations. You prefer dipping in rather than reading chronologically. You can handle (or prefer) black-and-white art.

The Key Differences

Format

Conan the Barbarian: Full colour. Standard comic book format (monthly issues collected). Art by Barry Windsor-Smith and John Buscema, among others.

Savage Sword of Conan: Black-and-white. Magazine format (longer stories per issue). Art primarily by John Buscema with stunning inking by masters like Alfredo Alcala.

The B&W format isn’t a limitation – it’s a feature. Every line carries weight. The shadows and textures are extraordinary. That said, some readers just prefer colour. Up to you.

Story Structure

Conan the Barbarian: Chronological. You follow Conan from his first adventures leaving Cimmeria through his life as thief, mercenary, pirate, and eventually king. Events build on each other. Characters recur. It’s a saga.

Savage Sword of Conan: Anthology. Stories jump around Conan’s timeline. One issue might feature a young thief story, the next an old king tale followed by a pirate adventure. Each story stands alone. No need to read in order.

This is the biggest practical difference for collecting.

If you want to read Vol. 1, then Vol. 2, then Vol. 3, following Conan’s journey – Conan the Barbarian is designed for that.

If you want to grab whatever volume is available, read a story when you feel like it, and not worry about continuity – Savage Sword is perfect. I think Savage Sword vol 2 is probably my favourite of all the Savage Swords, though the first six are all top notch (with the first four being the cream of the crop).

Content

Conan the Barbarian: Published under the Comics Code Authority. Some content was softened. More original stories alongside Howard adaptations. Roy Thomas wrote the first 115 issues, mixing faithful adaptations with new material.

Savage Sword of Conan: No Comics Code. Darker, more violent, occasional nudity. Generally more faithful to Howard’s original tone. The stories feel closer to the source.

Neither is “better” – they’re different flavours of Conan.

I also wrote a full guide on where to start with the Conan comics to help out.

Completeness

Conan the Barbarian: Will be 10 volumes to collect the complete 1970–1993 run. Currently up to Vol. 7, with Vol. 8 coming June 2026. 9 and 1o are already available from Marvel, though getting hard to find.

Savage Sword of Conan: Will need approximately 18 volumes for the complete 1974–1995 run. Currently up to Vol. 12.

Both are long-term collecting commitments. At $125 per volume, you’re looking at $1,250+ for either complete set.

That being said, you can find them on offer at various places, including the omnibuses on Ebay or Forbidden Planet.

My Recommendation

If you’ve never read Conan or the comics: Start with Conan the Barbarian Vol. 1. The chronological structure makes it accessible, and Barry Windsor-Smith’s early issues are great fun. You’ll get the “origin story” experience.

If you’ve read the Howard prose: Start with Savage Sword Vol. 1 or 2. The faithful adaptations will feel like coming home. “Red Nails” and “A Witch Shall Be Born” in this format are extraordinary.

If you want flexibility: Start with Savage Sword. You don’t need to hunt down Vol. 1 specifically – any volume works as an entry point. Grab whatever’s in stock at a good price.

If budget is a concern: Same advice. Savage Sword lets you buy opportunistically without worrying about sequence. Conan the Barbarian works best read in order.

A third option are the King Conan omnibuses, but honestly I would start with one of these two instead.

What I Did

I started with Conan the Barbarian because I wanted to follow Conan’s life chronologically. I wanted to experience the story Thomas and Buscema were telling across years of comics. It’s also how the Conan comics started and you feel them improve and find their way as time goes on.

Then I added Savage Sword for the Howard adaptations and to dip into when I wanted a single great story.

Now I collect both. If I’m in the mood for an ongoing epic, I read CTB. And I’m still making my way through them (there are 275 issues after all!). If I want to grab a book, read one story, and put it down, I reach for Savage Sword.

The Verdict

There’s no wrong choice. Both are essential Conan material, lovingly restored by Titan, featuring some of the greatest comic book art ever produced.

If you’re paralysed by choice: flip a coin and start. You’ll probably end up owning both eventually anyway.

Frequently Asked Questions

King Conan represents an older Conan moving towards the end of his journey (but still far from it!) – and no longer a wandering barbarian, but ruler of Aquilonia and dealing with treachery, politics, and the weight of a crown.

It’s a different Conan. And to be completely honest? I think these omnibuses are fun, but they’re not essential. If you’re new to Conan comics, start elsewhere.

That being said, if you’re a completist or you’ve already devoured Conan the Barbarian and Savage Sword, then King Conan absolutely offers something different. And it’s still Conan – essentially the king of sword & sorcery.

What is King Conan?

King Conan was a Marvel Comics series that ran from 1980 to 1989 (55 issues), telling stories of Conan’s reign as king. Parts of it are based loosely on Robert E. Howard’s only Conan novel, The Hour of the Dragon, and the closing chapters of his life that Howard sketched but never fully wrote.

The series picks up where the main Conan the Barbarian chronology ends – Conan has seized the throne of Aquilonia and now faces threats from sorcerers, neighbouring kingdoms, and conspirators within his own court.

The Omnibus Editions

Titan Comics is collecting the complete King Conan run in three oversized hardcover volumes.

That’s the complete run in three books. Clean and simple. That I really do appreciate!

I’ve also found you can pick up the omnibuses below the RRP pretty often. Amazon seems well-priced in the US and Europe, and Forbidden Planet is great in the UK.

What You’ll Find in the Conan King Omnibuses

An older, more wizened Conan. He’s not climbing towers or raiding ships (quite as often, anyway). He’s ruling a kingdom, managing advisors, and facing enemies who use politics as often as sorcery. He’s also goes tramping about different parts of the kingdom now and then.

A different tone; the desperate survival adventure of young Conan is replaced by something more stately. There’s still plenty of action, but it’s more often royal intrigue action. In some ways we move more towards a Kull type of character – more thoughtful and prone to brooding.

By the way, if you’ve never read Kull before you really should – and here’s the complete Kull reading order. He’s often described as ‘the thinking man’s Conan’ which I don’t completely agree with – I think Conan is more than a match for pure intelligence BUT Kull is definitely one-up on the philosophical side of things.

You can also expect sublime artwork. John Buscema handled much of the series, and his royal Conan is as striking as his barbarian one.

Prince Conn. Conan’s son appears throughout. The father-son dynamic adds emotional stakes the earlier comics didn’t have. Some people love it, some not so much.

My Take: Fun, But Not Essential

I own these (the first two anyway, and I’ll pick up the third as soon as it’s released.) I’ve read them. They’re enjoyable and I definitely want them in my collection.

But if someone asked me where to start with Conan comics, King Conan wouldn’t make my top three recommendations. In the comics I think the character works best as a wanderer, a thief, a mercenary, a corsair – not a king holding court (at least for more than a few stories at a time).

That said, if you’ve already fallen in love with Conan through the main series and Savage Sword, King Conan offers satisfying closure. You get to see where it all leads.

There’s something rewarding about watching the barbarian who once had nothing end up ruling the greatest kingdom of the Hyborian Age.

Are the King Conan omnibuses worth it?

Yes, if:

• You’ve read the main Conan the Barbarian omnibuses and want more
• You want to see how Conan’s story ends
• You’re a completist building the full Titan collection
• You love John Buscema’s art (and who doesn’t?)

Maybe not, if:

• You’re new to Conan – start with CTB Vol. 1 or Savage Sword instead
• You prefer young, wandering Conan to royal Conan
• Your shelf space or budget is limited

Comparison to Other Lines

Frequently Asked Questions

Bêlit, Queen of the Black Coast, is Conan’s most iconic pirate lover – a Shemite “she‑devil” who rules the southern seas with a black corsair crew and loves as fiercely as she raids. In my opinion, she is one of the most important women in all sword and sorcery: part lover, part mentor, and ultimately a ghost who saves Conan’s life.

Bêlit in Robert E. Howard’s “Queen of the Black Coast”

Weird Tales magazine cover (May 1934) illustrating Robert E. Howard’s “Queen of the Black Coast” with Conan and Bêlit.

Bêlit appears in just one Robert E. Howard story, “Queen of the Black Coast” (first published in Weird Tales in 1934), but that single tale is so intense that it defined her forever.

You can find it in The Coming of Conan.

By the way, there are spoilers coming here, so if you’ve never read the story before then now might be a good time (and it is awesome).

With that being said…

The story opens in an Argossean port, where Conan – fleeing the law – bullies his way onto the merchant ship Argus, bound for the “black kingdoms” of Kush.

Off the coast of Kush, the Argus is attacked by the dread pirate galley Tigress, captained by Bêlit and manned by ebony‑skinned corsairs.

Her crew slaughters the Argus’ sailors, but Conan fights like a cornered tiger, killing so many raiders that their bodies heap around him. Instead of finishing him, Bêlit orders her men to stand down, impressed by his ferocity and immediately captivated by him.

Standing on her blood‑slick deck, she declares, “I am Bêlit, queen of the black coast”, and offers Conan a place as her chosen mate and war‑chief. Conan accepts, and together they raid the Black Coast in a whirlwind of plunder and passion that, I think, represents the wildest, most romantic phase of Conan’s life.

An interesting point here – was Conan really smitten with her right away, or did he see the position he was in left him with no other choice? You decide…

Personality, Origins, and Leadership

Howard’s Bêlit is Shemite – likely from Shem’s coastal city‑states – but she has cast off any conventional role to become a pirate queen in command of an all‑male crew.

She is described as pale and slender, with burning eyes and a voice that can whip hardened corsairs into a frenzy. Contemporary reviewers rightly called her “the wildest she‑devil unhanged”.

According to later essays and lore pieces, Bêlit may be the daughter of a Shemite trader or minor king, who learned seamanship young and seized the Tigress by force or mutiny.

What matters most on the page is her charisma: her men will follow her into haunted ruins and cursed rivers, and she rules through a mix of sensuality, ruthless discipline and shared lust for treasure.

In my view, she stands as an early pulp example of a woman commanding absolute loyalty in a traditionally “male” role without losing her own complexity.

The Tragic Voyage and Bêlit’s Death

The latter half of “Queen of the Black Coast” sends Bêlit and Conan up a mysterious, jungle‑choked river to a lost Stygian‑built city filled with ancient treasure and a cursed necklace.

Bêlit becomes obsessed with the relics, putting on the jewellery despite ominous signs and ignoring Conan’s unease. The curse slowly unhinges her judgment, and she orders her crew into ever greater danger.

When a winged demon‑thing attacks, Bêlit’s corsairs die by the score and she herself is found hanged from the Tigress’ mast, killed while wearing the cursed ornaments. Conan, alone among the ruins and driven to berserk fury, fights the monster and nearly dies – until Bêlit’s spirit appears in a final, wordless act of love, shielding him from the demon’s strike. Her ghostly intervention lets him recover and slay the creature.

The story ends with Conan giving Bêlit a Viking funeral: he loads her body and their treasure onto the Tigress, sets it aflame and sends it drifting downriver, watching the blaze fade into darkness. I think that image – barbarian on the shore, ship burning with love and loot alike – is one of Howard’s most haunting endings.

Bêlit and Conan’s Relationship

Bêlit and Conan are equals in passion and violence. She calls him her “tiger of the North”, and he responds with a loyalty that is rare even for him: he becomes her first mate, leads boarding actions, and learns seamanship under her tutelage. Howard emphasises that, at this stage, Conan is still a land‑lubber; Bêlit effectively teaches the future king of pirates how to sail.

Their relationship is intensely physical and openly acknowledged. Bêlit never pretends she wants anything but Conan and plunder; Conan never tries to “tame” her or drag her back to civilisation.

Many readers (myself included) see Bêlit as Conan’s great doomed love – not a queen he settles down with, like Zenobia or possible fling like Valeria, but the embodiment of his wild, sea‑roving youth.

Bêlit in Marvel, Dark Horse and Age of Conan

Bêlit’s legend grew even larger in comics. Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian #58–100 turned the “Queen of the Black Coast” period into a long‑running arc, expanding her backstory and giving readers dozens of adventures aboard the Tigress. In this version, Roy Thomas and John Buscema portray her as Conan’s long‑term partner – never less than his equal in command, and often the one driving the plot.

It’s a great period of Conan comics to be honest, possibly my favourite of all time. We get issues like The Dance of the Skull and Swordsmen & Sorcerers. Excellent stuff.

Decades later, Age of Conan: Bêlit, Queen of the Black Coast offered a five‑issue miniseries focused on her youth, showing her as a rebellious Shemite princess who takes to piracy after royal betrayal.

Other publishers, including Dark Horse, have adapted “Queen of the Black Coast” with varying degrees of fidelity; commentators note that Marvel’s classic run does the best job of preserving her slow descent into greed and her deliberate choice to risk her crew in the cursed city.

These are not as good, in my humble opinion, however, and I would personally stick to the Marvel or Titan Bêlit comics.

These versions sometimes differ on details, but they agree on the essentials: Bêlit is ferocious, charismatic, deeply in love with Conan, and doomed.

Some of the current Conan comics also feature Bêlit and I would highly recommend them!

Why Bêlit Matters to the Howard‑Verse

For the Howard‑Verse and sword & sorcery as a whole, Bêlit matters on several levels:

• She is a fully Howard‑created heroine who commands a ship and shapes the plot, rather than existing as a side‑character or prize.
  
• She helps define Conan’s “pirate phase”, marking a shift from land‑bound mercenary to legendary raider of the southern coasts.
  
• Her story mixes romance, cosmic dread and tragic fate in a way that pushes sword & sorcery beyond simple monster‑of‑the‑week adventures.
  

I think any serious exploration of Conan’s life needs Bêlit alongside figures like Valeria and Zenobia – she is the crucible in which his seafaring skills, capacity for love and acceptance of loss are forged.

Frequently Asked Questions

For over four decades, the original Red Sonja novels have been out of print and increasingly difficult to find. That’s about to change – and I couldn’t be happier about it.

I’ve wanted to read these books for years. But try finding them? On eBay in Germany, a single volume regularly sells for €20–50. For six books, you’re easily looking at well over €150 just to read them all – assuming you can even find complete copies in decent condition.

Now, for roughly €30–35, I can read the entire series in one omnibus. This is exactly the kind of reprint the sword and sorcery community has been waiting for.

The Omnibus

Orbit Books (a Hachette imprint) is releasing the Red Sonja Omnibus in January 2027, collecting all six novels by David C. Smith and Richard L. Tierney in a single 1,072-page volume.

According to Hachette’s listing, this marks the first time these books have been collected together. And I don’t remember anything to the contrary.

The trade paperback will retail at $34.99 (USD), with an ebook edition available for $16.99. Amazon already has it up for pre-order as the Red Sonja Omnibus.

The Original Novels

Smith and Tierney wrote six Red Sonja novels for Ace Books between 1981 and 1983, all featuring iconic Boris Vallejo cover art:

1. The Ring of Ikribu (1981)
2. Demon Night (1982)
3. When Hell Laughs (1982)
4. Endithor’s Daughter (1982)
5. Against the Prince of Hell (1983)
6. Star of Doom (1983)

These books have been out of print for decades, with used copies often commanding high prices from collectors. The omnibus finally makes them accessible to a new generation of readers. I cannot wait!

I do hope the covers are included individually in the book as they are awesome – Vallejo is indeed a master!

The Authors

David C. Smith is a prolific sword and sorcery author with 29 novels to his name, including the award-winning Robert E. Howard: A Literary Biography. His connection to Howard scholarship makes him a fitting custodian for Red Sonja’s literary adventures.

Richard L. Tierney (1936–2022) was a poet, scholar, and fiction writer whose work expanded the sword and sorcery genre. His Simon of Gitta stories and his influential essay “The Derleth Mythos” cemented his reputation in fantasy and weird fiction circles. Sadly, Tierney passed away in February 2022, but this omnibus ensures his Red Sonja work will reach new readers.

Red Sonja’s Origins

Red Sonja was created by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith for Marvel Comics in 1973, inspired by Robert E. Howard’s Red Sonya of Rogatino from “The Shadow of the Vulture.”

While Howard’s character was a 16th-century swashbuckler, Thomas transplanted the concept to the Hyborian Age, creating the chainmail-bikini-clad warrior we know today.

The character has spawned dozens of comics, multiple films (including the 1985 Brigitte Nielsen version and the 2025 reboot), and these six novels – which remain the most substantial prose adventures Red Sonja has received.

There was also a novel from Red Sonja a couple of years ago – Red Sonja: Consumed. It was…alright. Red Sonja consumed review is here.

There’s also a new Red Sonja film, which was a decent effort. It’s pretty low budget, and only had one day at the cinemas but lets hope it paves the way for more Sword & Sorcery films.

Why This Matters

For fans of Conan and Hyborian Age fiction, the Red Sonja novels occupy a unique space. They’re set in the same world as Conan’s adventures, written by authors steeped in sword and sorcery tradition, and they’ve been effectively lost to time for forty years.

At over 1,000 pages, the omnibus represents serious value – and a chance to experience Red Sonja as a fully developed literary character rather than just a comics icon.

The Red Sonja Omnibus is available for pre-order now, with release scheduled for 19th January 2027.

If you want to explore Red Sonja’s comics adventures while you wait, The Adventures of Red Sonja Omnibus collects the classic Marvel tales from Roy Thomas and Frank Thorne – essential reading for any fan of the She-Devil with a Sword.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ah Zula. Truly, who are you?

Zula is one of those fascinating Conan characters who exists in multiple forms at once – male sorcerer in the comics, female warrior in the film, and now a reinvented presence in the latest Titan Conan Comics run.

In my opinion, that fluidity makes Zula a perfect symbol of how the Howard‑Verse keeps evolving without losing its core.

Zula in Conan the Destroyer (Grace Jones’ Warrior)

Most casual fans first meet Zula in Conan the Destroyer (1984), where Grace Jones plays a wild, spear‑wielding warrior.

At the start of the film, she is a captured bandit, tied to a stake and tormented by villagers until Princess Jehnna begs Conan to intervene.

Conan frees her, fights off the mob, and Zula pledges herself to his group.

On the quest to retrieve the Horn of Dagoth, Zula becomes both bodyguard and mentor to Jehnna, bluntly teaching the princess how to navigate men and danger.

In the final act she helps Conan and Akiro fight through Queen Taramis’ guards, hurls her spear to kill the treacherous Grand Vizier before he can sacrifice Jehnna, and attacks the awakened monster‑god Dagoth alongside Conan.

I think Jones’ physicality and presence give the film much of its energy – she feels like a pulp cover come to life.

Zula in Marvel’s Conan Comics

In the classic Marvel comics, Zula is very different: a male Darfarian warrior and sorcerer, last survivor of his tribe and sometimes trained in dark lore.

He first appears in Conan the Barbarian #84–90 during Conan’s time with Bêlit, joining the crew of the Tigress and later fighting alongside Conan in various arcs.

Zula is exceptionally strong, highly intelligent, and able to hold his own against Conan in single combat, at least briefly.

He also has limited magical ability – for example, using the Darkhold and mesmerism to create illusions or control enemies, and later mastering the sign of Jhebbal‑Sag to speak with beasts.

I like that Marvel’s Zula occupies a liminal space between warrior and sorcerer, something Howard rarely gave to his Black characters but which fits the broader pulp tradition.

He’s one of my favourite supporting characters in the Conan comics – see here for his backstory in the Conan the Barbarian #85 review. There is some stunning, and I do mean stunning, artwork included.

Zula in Animation and the Wider Franchise

The 1990s animated series Conan the Adventurer offers a further variation: Zula as Conan’s Black tribal prince ally, a beast‑talker and wielder of star‑metal weapons who helps lead a slave rebellion. He becomes Conan’s blood‑brother and regular companion, reinforcing that “loyal comrade” core no matter how the details change.

Across these versions, one trait remains constant – Zula is fiercely loyal once freed or helped by Conan, repaying that debt with unwavering support. In my view, that emotional through‑line matters more than whether the character is male, female, sorcerer or pure warrior.

Zula’s Return in Titan’s Conan Comics

Recently, writer Jim Zub and Titan Comics have begun weaving Zula back into the modern Conan the Barbarian series, leaning into the character’s multiplicity. Commentary around issues in the early 20s suggests Titan is exploring Zula’s “secret origins”, with nods to both the Marvel sorcerer and the Grace Jones film version – sometimes even playing with the idea of shifting forms and identities.

I actually really like this idea and thought it was very clever. I did see some people complaining on Reddit about Zula being changed from male to female – but they’d obviously forgotten the film!

Solicitations and previews hint at Zula Hendricks leading an elite unit known as the Jackals and crossing paths with Conan again as he battles the followers of Set and larger cosmic threats. I think this is a clever way to fold decades of media history into one living, in‑continuity character for the new era of Conan comics.

Want to know more about other characters in Conan’s lore who changed or evolved throughout book, film or comic? Check out Conan’s father, or Queen Taramis.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conan’s father remains one of the most enigmatic figures in all of sword and sorcery literature.

While the Cimmerian himself looms large across twenty–one stories, his sire is mentioned exactly once in Robert E. Howard’s original canon – and even that single line hints at a far more complex lineage than apparent at first glance.

What Robert E. Howard Actually Wrote About Conan’s Father

If you’re expecting a fleshed – out backstory, I think you’ll be disappointed.

The only direct reference to Conan’s father in all of Howard’s prose appears in The Hour of the Dragon, where Conan states plainly: “I am a barbarian and the son of a blacksmith”. That is the sum total of canonical information.

The story can be found in this Conan Del Rey book.

Yet Howard provided slightly more detail in a personal letter to fan P.S. Miller in 1936.

Here he revealed that Conan’s father was indeed a Cimmerian blacksmith, and that the boy’s grandfather hailed from a southern tribe who had fled north seeking refuge after a blood–feud.

This mixed bloodline – though still purely Cimmerian – places Conan as something of an outsider even within his own clan, a fractured heritage that I believe subtly informs his wanderlust across the Hyborian kingdoms.

We also later learn his grandfather adventured into foreign lands and I’m sure this rubbed off on Conan somewhat, too.

The blacksmith profession itself carries symbolic weight. In ancient societies, the smith was both craftsman and keeper of mysteries – one who transformed raw earth into weapons of war.

That Conan, the mightiest warrior of his age, sprang from such humble but potent origins feels poetically fitting.

The Expanded Universe: Enter Corin

The name “Corin” does not originate with Howard. Marvel Comics first developed the father as a fleshed–out character in their 1970s Conan the Barbarian series, where he appears as a master blacksmith and chieftain of the Canach clan.

However, many modern fans associate the name with Ron Perlman’s gruff, gravel–throated portrayal in the 2011 Conan the Barbarian film.

In the 2011 adaptation, Corin serves as both father and mentor – a departure from Howard’s original conception where Conan learns through brutal experience rather than paternal guidance.

Perlman’s Corin delivers the film’s central lesson during the forging of Conan’s sword: “The sword must bend or it will break. It must be tempered”.

This emphasis on discipline over pure strength represents a Hollywood interpretation of Cimmerian philosophy that, whilst compelling, diverges from Howard’s more nihilistic vision.

The 1982 John Milius Conan the Barbarian film approached the father differently.

William Smith plays the blacksmith as a stoic, almost mythic figure who teaches young Conan the “Riddle of Steel” – a concept entirely invented for the screen.

In this telling, Conan’s father imparts that steel is the only thing one can truly trust in the world, only for that trust to be violently shattered when Thulsa Doom’s raiders massacre the village.

The Conan films also feature other characters who didn’t exist in Conan’s original stories, or who were given larger or different roles than before. Check out Taramis and Princess Jehnna for examples.

The Significance of the Blacksmith Archetype

I believe the choice of profession is no accident. The blacksmith occupies a liminal space in barbarian societies–neither pure warrior nor common labourer, but something between.

Howard, with his deep knowledge of Celtic and Pictish history, would have recognised this tension.

The smith creates the tools of violence but does not always wield them; he shapes destiny in fire and steel yet remains rooted to his forge.

This duality mirrors Conan’s own contradictions throughout the stories. He is the barbarian who becomes king, the thief who commands armies, the savage educated in the ways of civilised warfare.

His father’s trade–transmuting base metal into noble weapons serves as metaphor for Conan’s transformation from Cimmerian youth to Hyborian legend. Or maybe I’m just reading into it too much!

Film Adaptations vs. Literary Canon

Fan Theories and Speculation

Given the scarcity of canonical material, the Conan community has developed numerous theories about Conan’s father.

Some scholars suggest the blacksmith may have died young, explaining Conan’s early independence and lack of filial references in the tales.

Others speculate the father’s southern bloodline connected Conan to the more “civilised” peoples he would later conquer, genetically predisposing him toward kingship.

The expanded universe–including the Dark Horse comics and recent Titan series–has largely followed Marvel’s lead in developing Corin as a named character.

Whether this constitutes legitimate continuation of Howard’s vision or mere apocrypha depends, I think, on your tolerance for interpolation versus strict canon.

Frequently Asked Questions

There is no doubt the Tower of the Elephant is one of my all-time favourite Conan stories – and I know I’m not alone.

It’s a fast-paced tale of stealth and mystery, complete with some of the most incredible prose Robert E. Howard ever wrote.

Yag‑Kosha is the elephant‑headed alien imprisoned in the Tower of the Elephant – and, in my opinion, one of the purest examples of cosmic tragedy in all of Conan. He is not a monster to be slain, but a tortured exile whose last wish changes Conan’s understanding of sorcery forever.

The Tower of the Elephant Reforged was released not long ago, and while it’s a beautiful recolouring, I would recommend the original Savage Sword of Conan Omnibus Vol 2 instead.

Yag‑Kosha’s Origin: Alien Exile Turned Slave

In Robert E. Howard’s short story The Tower of the Elephant (1933), Yag‑Kosha is introduced as an ancient being from the distant constellation of Yag, who fled to Earth with others of his kind long before human history.

They were peaceful, winged travellers who hid in remote jungles, avoiding interference with mankind as the ages rolled by and their numbers dwindled.

Eventually, Yag‑Kosha encountered Yara, an ambitious human sorcerer who sought knowledge. Yag‑Kosha taught him lore and tried to instil humility, but Yara turned on his mentor, using Stygian necromancy and treachery to bind and torture the alien.

Forced to construct the Elephant Tower in a single night and enslaved for centuries, Yag‑Kosha was blinded, mutilated and reduced to a living magical battery.

Conan’s Encounter in The Tower of the Elephant

When a young Conan sneaks into the Elephant Tower to steal the jewel known as the Heart of the Elephant, he expects treasure and perhaps a giant beast – not a dying, elephant‑headed being chained to an altar.

Conan is initially horrified by Yag‑Kosha’s appearance, but quickly comes to pity him as he hears the story of betrayal and endless torment.

Yag‑Kosha asks Conan for mercy: to kill him, then use his heart’s blood in a final spell of vengeance. Conan, moved by compassion, obeys – slaying Yag‑Kosha and squeezing his blood onto the Heart of the Elephant, which absorbs it like a sponge.

He then carries the gem to Yara’s chamber, places it before the sleeping sorcerer, and watches as Yara is drawn into the jewel, shrunk to nothing.

Inside the gem, a restored Yag‑Kosha chases his tormentor across a purple, dreamlike sky until both vanish and the Heart explodes. The Elephant Tower collapses as Conan flees into the dawn, leaving him empty‑handed but forever changed.

Why Yag‑Kosha Matters to the Howard‑Verse

I think Yag‑Kosha is crucial because he pushes Conan’s world firmly into cosmic fantasy. He is not a demon or god from local myth, but a star‑traveller whose tragedy predates the Hyborian kingdoms.

The story reads almost like a sword‑and‑planet crossover dropped into sword and sorcery – a reminder that Howard’s universe is bigger than just barbarians and wizards.

Yag‑Kosha also exposes the moral rot at the heart of “civilised” sorcerers. Compared to Yara’s cruelty, the alien exile is far more human in his suffering and desire for justice.

That inversion – where the monster is compassionate and the man is monstrous – fits neatly into the broader Howard‑Verse theme that civilisation often hides the worst savagery.

Of course, Yag-Kosha is not the only interesting character in Conan’s stories! Find out more about Kull, Jehnna or Taramis right here.

Frequently Asked Questions

After decades of false starts, it looks like Conan is finally returning to the big screen – and Arnold Schwarzenegger is coming with him.

The News

20th Century Studios has attached Christopher McQuarrie – the writer-director behind the last four Mission: Impossible films – to write and direct King Conan, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Schwarzenegger will reprise the role that helped make him a star in 1982.

Schwarzenegger announced the news himself at the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio this weekend. Speaking to TheArnoldFans, he outlined the basic premise:

“It’s a great story where Conan was 40 years as king and he gets complacent, and now he gets forced out of the kingdom, slowly. Then there’s conflict, of course, and then he somehow comes back, and then there’s all kinds of madness and violence and magic and creatures.”

This sounds like Hour of the Dragon at 80 to me, but: he also addressed concerns about his age – as Schwarzenegger turns 79 this July:

“They don’t write them like I’m forty years old, you write it to be age-appropriate. I’ll still go in there and kick some ass but it will be different.”

A Long Road to Get Here

Hollywood has been trying to bring Schwarzenegger back to Conan for over a decade. Universal previously held the rights and developed an Unforgiven-style story with Fast & Furious writer Chris Morgan, but the project never materialised. That earlier attempt, often referred to as The Legend of Conan, fell apart despite years of development.

20th Century Studios has spent much of the past year securing the rights to move forward with a new film.

My Take: Cautious Optimism

I’ll be honest – I’m a huge Arnie fan. I’ve watched all his films, read his books, and have enormous respect for what he brought to the 1982 original. But I don’t want to see a nearly-80-year-old Schwarzenegger as the main Conan, swinging swords and fighting like he did four decades ago.

What I’d love to see is Schwarzenegger as an aged King Conan, recounting his tales – perhaps framing the story while a younger actor carries the action. This would give the film the clout and legitimacy that Schwarzenegger’s involvement brings, while being honest about what’s physically realistic.

Even in phenomenal shape for his age – and while he genuinely is fitter than 99.9% of other people approaching 80 – there’s no escaping the fact that heavy action sequences would require significant CGI assistance. I’d rather see a dignified performance than a de-aged uncanny valley version of the Austrian Oak.

That said, McQuarrie is a serious filmmaker. The Mission: Impossible films under his direction have been genuinely excellent – tense, well-crafted, and respectful of both spectacle and character. If anyone can thread the needle between nostalgia and quality, it might be him.

What I’m Hoping For

After the 2011 reboot proved that a generic, forgettable Conan doesn’t work, I’m hoping this film gets the character right. That means:

A Conan close to the source material. Robert E. Howard’s Conan is intelligent, cunning, and melancholic – not a grunting brute. He’s a thief, a pirate, a mercenary, and eventually a king. He has depth.

No cheese. The 1982 film worked because John Milius took it seriously. The moment Conan becomes campy or self-aware, it dies.

Real stakes. Howard’s stories are often bleak. People die. Conan doesn’t always win cleanly. The Hyborian Age is a brutal, unforgiving world.

Will King Conan deliver? Based on the 2011 film, I’m sceptical. But McQuarrie’s track record gives me more hope than I’ve had for a Conan project in years.

I’d love to be proven wrong on both counts – and finally get the Conan film that Howard’s creation deserves.

If you want to revisit where it all began, the Conan the Barbarian (1982) Blu-ray remains essential viewing.

Need more Conan right now?

The King Conan Omnibuses are available and they’re excellent. 2026 has also been an excellent year for modern Conan comics and you can find all the new and current Conan comics right here.

And finally, if you’ve only ever seen the films and would like to dive further into the fantastic world of Conan, here’s the best place to get started with Conan the Cimmerian.

Frequently Asked Questions

Princess Jehnna is the sheltered royal at the heart of Conan the Destroyer – part damsel in distress, part destined sacrifice, and part coming‑of‑age heroine. In my opinion, she gives the film much of its fairy‑tale flavour, sitting halfway between innocent tag‑along and potential sorceress.

Jehnna’s Role in Conan the Destroyer

In the 1984 film, Jehnna is the niece and ward of Queen Taramis of Shadizar. She is kept protected in the royal palace, guarded by the queen’s soldiers and watched over by the towering eunuch Bombaata.

When the story begins, Taramis sends her to a secluded temple to pray – where she is attacked by bandits and rescued by Conan, who is lured into the situation by the promise of resurrecting Valeria.

Taramis then reveals the supposed “true” mission. Jehnna, as a virgin of royal blood and a child of the gods, is the only one who can retrieve a magic key from the fortress of Toth‑Amon and then unlock the horn of Dagoth.

Conan is tasked with escorting her safely, while Bombaata secretly orders to kill him once the quest is done.

From Sheltered Princess to Emerging Heroine

At first, Jehnna is naïve and inexperienced, relying entirely on Conan, Zula and the others for protection. She clearly has a crush on Conan, asking him blunt questions about love and loyalty that he batters away with gruff non‑answers. Those scenes they highlight both her innocence and Conan’s awkwardness with anything that is not battle.

As the quest continues, Jehnna grows braver and more decisive. She helps in escapes, learns to trust Zula’s tough‑love advice, and even shows hints of latent magical potential after touching the horn.

By the final act, she is strong enough to rebuke Bombaata and, once crowned, chooses to spare Conan and his friends instead of treating them as expendable tools.

Some non‑canonical sources suggest that, after Dagoth’s defeat, Jehnna rules as queen in her own right and may develop sorcerous abilities – a path that would put her closer to the “sorcerer‑queen” archetype found elsewhere in sword and sorcery.

Why Jehnna Matters in the Howard‑Verse Context

Jehnna is not a Robert E. Howard creation, but she fits neatly into the broader pattern of royals whose destinies hinge on barbarian swords.

Where Zenobia represents the grounded, loyal queen of the prose canon, Jehnna feels more like an 80s fantasy riff on the “chosen princess” motif – a bridge between the darker pulp roots and more family‑friendly adventure.

From a Howard‑Verse perspective, I think she is useful for showing how filmmakers softened and reshaped Conan for a wider audience: adding a younger character, giving him someone to protect rather than just comrades to carouse with, and hinting at a future where the barbarian’s actions shape entire royal bloodlines.

Frequently Asked Questions

Queen Taramis is the elegant, treacherous ruler who sets all of Conan the Destroyer in motion. In my view she’s a classic sword‑and‑sorcery villain – a queen who mixes political power, hidden sorcery and ruthless manipulation in pursuit of a god’s favour.

BUT! Taramis is not exactly who she appears to be – there are two Queen Taramis. Read on…

Taramis in Conan the Destroyer

In the 1984 film, Taramis rules the city of Shadizar and commands its soldiers and priests. She first appears when Conan and Malak are ambushed by her guards; impressed by their prowess, she offers Conan a quest: escort her niece Princess Jehnna to retrieve a magical key and a jewelled horn, promising to resurrect Valeria as payment.

To ensure the mission’s success – and to keep Conan under control – she sends her champion Bombaata along as Jehnna’s bodyguard, secretly ordering him to kill Conan and his companions once the horn is secured. Throughout the film she remains in Shadizar, plotting, sending soldiers to shadow the party, and preparing the ritual that will raise Dagoth, the “Dreaming God”.

The Plot to Resurrect Dagoth

Taramis is revealed as a devoted worshipper of Dagoth, believing that restoring his horn will grant her immense power or perhaps divine consort status. The ritual requires two things: the horn itself and the sacrifice of a virginal princess of royal blood – Jehnna.

When Bombaata returns with both Jehnna and the horn, Taramis imprisons her niece in the palace and begins the ceremony, fully intending to sacrifice her own kin. Zula’s timely spear strike kills the Grand Vizier before he can complete the rite, which corrupts the process: Dagoth awakens not as a serene god but as a rampaging horned monster.

Horrified by what she has unleashed, Taramis approaches Dagoth as if to embrace a beloved deity – only to be impaled on his horn and killed. In my opinion it’s a fitting end for a queen who gambled everything on a god she never truly understood.

You can read more about the Hyborian Age gods here.

Taramis vs. the Original Taramis from A Witch Shall Be Born

Film‑Taramis should not be confused with the Taramis of Khauran, who appears in Robert E. Howard’s novella A Witch Shall Be Born and its Savage Sword of Conan adaptations.

In my opinion, and I’m sure in many others’ too – the true Taramis is the one envisioned by REH.

In the prose and comics, Taramis is a good queen overthrown and imprisoned by her witch‑twin Salome, who impersonates her while Conan leads the Khauran guard.

That earlier Taramis is a victim rather than a villain; Conan eventually helps restore her to the throne after defeating Salome and the demon Thaug.

I think it’s interesting that the film essentially flips the dynamic – making Taramis herself the scheming antagonist and leaving Jehnna as the innocent royal in danger.

For Howard‑Verse readers, both versions showcase different facets of sword‑and‑sorcery royalty: the beleaguered but just queen in the prose, and the power‑hungry cultist in the film.

A Witch Shall Be Born is a truly excellent story. If you haven’t read it yet, then The Bloody Crown of Conan book is a great place to start.

There was also an excellent comic adaption in the Savage Sword of Conan Omnibus Vol 1 – beautifully drawn and inked by John Buscema and The Tribe.

It’s also the story where the famous crucifixion scene came from and that was replicated in the 1982 Conan film.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Hyborian Age is teeming with gods.

Unlike the sanitised fantasy settings that came after, Robert E. Howard’s world presents religion as something dangerous, primal, and undeniably real. Gods don’t merely exist as distant concepts – they intervene, they demand sacrifice, and they shape the fates of nations.

What I find most fascinating about Howard’s approach to religion is how it reflects his understanding of human history.

The Hyborian Age exists as a bridge between the fall of Atlantis and recorded history, and its religions serve as prototypes for faiths we’d later recognise. Mitra becomes Christianity, Set becomes the snake cults of Egypt, Ymir becomes Odin. It’s a clever framework that lets Howard explore theological ideas through the lens of sword-and-sorcery adventure.

How Religion Works in Howard’s World

Howard wasn’t interested in creating a neat pantheon where gods hold council and bicker like the Olympians. Instead, he presents a world of competing faiths, each centred on a different deity or group of deities, each reflecting the culture that worships them.

The key distinction is between gods who answer and gods who don’t. Crom gives his people courage at birth – then ignores them forever after. Mitra occasionally speaks to his followers in desperate hours. Set demands constant sacrifice and grants terrible power in return. This creates genuine theological variety rather than a simple “pick your patron deity” approach.

What makes Hyborian religion genuinely unsettling is Howard’s refusal to confirm which gods are “real” in any absolute sense. Conan encounters plenty of supernatural beings – demons, sorcerers, alien entities – but the gods themselves remain mysterious. Are they truly divine, or simply powerful beings worshipped as gods? Howard never definitively answers, and I think that ambiguity is intentional.

The Major Gods of the Hyborian Age

Crom – The Grim God of Cimmeria

Crom sits atop his mountain, sending doom and death down to his people. He grants courage at birth and nothing more. Prayer is pointless; Crom despises weaklings who ask for help. The Cimmerians invoke his name in oaths and curses, but they never worship him in the conventional sense.

I’ve written extensively about Crom and what he represents, but in brief: he’s Howard’s answer to the question of what a truly barbarian god would look like. No temples, no priests, no comfort – just the grim knowledge that you face the world alone.

Mitra – The Lord of Light

Mitra represents civilisation, truth, and mercy. His worship dominates the Hyborian kingdoms – Aquilonia, Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Corinthia, and Zingara all kneel to the god of light. Unlike the bloody faiths of the East and South, Mitra demands no sacrifice. His temples are deliberately plain, his rites simple and dignified.

What sets Mitra apart is his willingness to intervene. In “Black Colossus,” Mitra directly speaks to Princess Yasmela, guiding her to choose Conan as her champion. This divine endorsement marks a turning point in Conan’s career – from mercenary captain to general commanding tens of thousands.

Read my complete guide: Who is Mitra? The God of Light Explained

Set – The Old Serpent

In dark Stygia, the serpent god Set demands blood. His worship involves human sacrifice, and giant snakes are kept in his temples – when hungry, they’re released into the streets to take what prey they wish. To kill a snake in Stygia is a mortal sin.

Set represents everything Mitra opposes: darkness, deceit, and the cold-blooded cruelty of the serpent. His priests are among the most powerful sorcerers in Howard’s world, with Thoth-Amon serving as their most infamous example. The eternal conflict between Set and Mitra forms the theological backbone of the Hyborian Age.

Read my complete guide: Who is Set? The Serpent God Explained

I’d also recommend checking out The Scourge of the Serpent, great mini series! Check out the Scourge of the Serpent reading order if you haven’t already.

Ymir – Lord of Storm and War

The Nordheimr – both the blonde Aesir and the red-haired Vanir – worship Ymir, the frost giant. Unlike Crom, Ymir is an active deity. His daughter Atali haunts battlefields, luring dying warriors to their doom at the hands of her frost giant brothers. Slain warriors go to Valhalla, Ymir’s great hall, to feast and fight forever.

Ymir represents the closest thing to Norse mythology in Howard’s world, which makes sense given the Nordheimr are clearly proto-Vikings. “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter” gives us our most direct look at Ymir’s influence, when Atali cries out to her father and the god himself intervenes to save her from Conan.

Read my complete guide: Who is Ymir? The Frost Giant God Explained

Bel – God of Thieves

Every thief in the Hyborian world knows Bel’s name. This Shemite deity serves as patron to all who earn their living through stealth and cunning. His temples connect to thieves’ guilds via underground tunnels, and his priests teach that if you’re skilled enough to take something, you deserve it.

Arenjun, the City of Thieves in Zamora, practically runs on Bel’s philosophy. In “The Tower of the Elephant,” characters swear by “Bel, god of all thieves” while planning their crimes. It’s a wonderfully practical faith for a wonderfully practical profession.

Read my complete guide: Who is Bel? The God of Thieves Explained

Ishtar – The Earth Mother

The Shemites worship Ishtar as their primary goddess – a deity of fertility, passion, and the earth itself. Her worship couldn’t be more different from austere Mitra. Ishtar’s temples are lavish and exotic, filled with ivory idols, and her rites involve blood sacrifice (of animals, not humans) and, famously, temple prostitution.

Ishtar represents the sensual, earthy religions of the East that the Hyborian kingdoms find both fascinating and scandalous. Several kingdoms – Koth, Khoraja, Khauran – abandoned Mitra for Ishtar’s more passionate rites.

Read my complete guide: Who is Ishtar? The Earth Mother Explained

Lesser Gods and Regional Deities

The Hyborian Age contains dozens of other gods, each with their own cults and territories:

Asura – A mysterious god worshipped in secret across the Hyborian kingdoms. His followers seek truth beyond illusion. In “The Hour of the Dragon,” Conan protects Asuran worshippers from Mitran persecution – an interesting commentary on religious intolerance.

Ibis – The heron god of Stygia, representing a gentler alternative to Set. Ibis worship was once strong in Stygia before being suppressed by the Set cult.

Derketo – A goddess of passion worshipped in the Black Kingdoms and parts of Shem. Often conflated with or related to Ishtar.

Zath – The spider god of Zamora, worshipped with particularly dark rites in the city of Yezud. His cult is considered abominable even by Hyborian standards.

Jhebbal Sag – The lord of beasts, worshipped by the Picts. This ancient god represents the primal connection between humans and animals in the time before civilisation.

Yog – The Lord of Empty Abodes, worshipped by cannibal tribes. His followers must consume human flesh as part of their devotion.

Gods in Conan Exiles

If you want to experience Hyborian religion firsthand, Conan Exiles lets you choose your deity at character creation.

The game features Mitra, Set, Ymir, Yog, Derketo, Zath, and Jhebbal Sag as playable religions, each with unique altars, items, and eventually the ability to summon your god’s avatar.

What I particularly like about Conan Exiles’ approach is how it captures the transactional nature of Hyborian religion. You harvest specific resources with religious tools, offer them at altars, and gain power in return. It’s not about faith – it’s about demonstrating your devotion through action.

Crom is also an option, but selecting him grants nothing. No altar, no items, no avatar. It’s the game’s way of honouring Howard’s vision: Crom gives you nothing but the will to survive.

The Thurian Age: Gods Before the Hyborian Era

Howard’s Kull stories take place in the Thurian Age, an era that predates even the fall of Atlantis. The gods here are different, though some connections exist:

Valka – The chief god of the Atlanteans, often invoked by Kull. His nature remains mysterious.

The Great Serpent – A pre-human entity worshipped by the Serpent Men, possibly an early form of Set.

I love the Kull stories nearly as much the Conan works, so I’d definitely recommend picking them up if you haven’t already! They can all be found in the Kull Del Rey issue.

Religion and Conan

Conan himself presents an interesting case study in Hyborian religion. He swears by Crom constantly – “Crom and his devils!” is practically his catchphrase – but he never prays to his god because he knows it’s pointless.

He respects other religions without necessarily believing in them, and he protects religious minorities when civilised people persecute them.

In many ways, Conan represents Howard’s ideal: a man who acknowledges the gods exist but refuses to bow before them, who draws strength from within rather than from divine favour. It’s a philosophy that fits perfectly with the self-reliant barbarian ethos.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where Mitra offers austere dignity and intellectual worship, Ishtar offers passion, fertility, and the warm embrace of the earth itself.

She’s the goddess of the Shemites, worshipped in lavish temples filled with ivory idols and exotic ceremony. Her rites include blood sacrifice and, famously, temple prostitution. To Hyborian sensibilities, she represents everything dangerously seductive about the East.

What I find interesting about Ishtar is how Howard uses her to explore the tension between “civilised” and “sensual” religion.

The Hyborian kingdoms look down on Ishtar worship as primitive and scandalous, yet several of them – Koth, Khoraja, Khauran – abandoned Mitra for her more passionate rites. There’s something the cold temples of Mitra can’t provide that Ishtar’s rich shrines can.

Howard’s Original Vision

Ishtar appears throughout the Conan stories as the primary goddess of Shem and the eastern kingdoms. Howard based her directly on the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar (also known as Inanna) – the ancient deity of fertility, sexuality, and war.

Unlike many of Howard’s divine names, which he merely borrowed while creating something original, his Ishtar functions much like her historical counterpart.

She’s an earth mother, a fertility goddess, and her worship involves the sacred sexuality that characterised actual Mesopotamian temple practice.

Howard describes Ishtar’s worship in “The Official Handbook of the Conan Universe” material: “Ishtar, the ancient Mother Goddess, is worshipped in rich temples and at lavish shrines with rituals of blood sacrifice and orgiastic frenzy performed before sensuously carved idols of ivory.” It’s a striking contrast to Mitra’s bare altars and dignified simplicity.

The Earth Mother of Shem

The Shemites are Howard’s version of the ancient Semitic peoples – Babylonians, Assyrians, and their neighbours. Their worship centres on Ishtar, who eclipses all other deities in their pastoral land.

If there are male gods in the Shemite pantheon, Howard suggests, their names remain unknown to history. Goddess worship completely dominates.

This fits historical patterns. The mother goddess was often the supreme deity in agricultural societies, where fertility of land and livestock meant survival. Ishtar’s role as earth mother – guaranteeing bountiful harvests and many children – made her essential to Shemite life.

Her temples were famous throughout the Hyborian world for their luxury. Where Mitra’s shrines valued austere simplicity, Ishtar’s houses of worship were “rich, lavish and exotic,” filled with colourful decorations, ornate ceremony, and sensuously carved ivory statues.

To Westerners from the Hyborian kingdoms, these temples must have seemed dangerously appealing.

Indeed, Conan: Spawn of the Serpent God begins with just such a heist.

Temple Prostitution and Sacred Sexuality

The most notorious aspect of Ishtar worship is her temple prostitutes – sacred women who served the goddess through ritual sexuality.

These were not merely courtesans who happened to work in temples; their role was explicitly religious, offering worshippers communion with the divine through physical pleasure.

Howard presents this without significant moral judgment. He notes that “the voluptuous temple prostitutes which were found in Ishtar’s temples were well known even outside the lands where the goddess was worshipped.” They’re famous, perhaps scandalous to some, but not condemned as evil.

This reflects actual historical practice. Sacred prostitution was a genuine feature of ancient Near Eastern religion, though scholars debate its exact nature and extent.

Howard incorporated it into his worldbuilding as one of the ways Ishtar worship differed from Mitra’s more ascetic faith.

Ishtar’s Idols and Worship

The Shemites believed their gods actually inhabited their idols – a significant theological difference from Mitra worship, where statues merely represented the god.

When you prayed before an Ishtar idol, you were praying to the goddess herself, who was genuinely present in that ivory form.

Howard describes these idols as “caricatures” with “swollen breasts and belly” that appeared “repulsive to the more refined worshippers of Mitra.”

This is the Hyborian perspective – the Shemites themselves presumably found these figures beautiful representations of fertility and abundance. It’s a neat bit of cultural relativism in Howard’s worldbuilding.

Blood sacrifice was part of Ishtar’s rites, but only of animals, not humans. This places her worship between Mitra (no sacrifice at all) and Set (human sacrifice demanded). The blood offerings were meant to bring Ishtar’s favour in harvests and fertility.

Ishtar’s Spread Beyond Shem

While primarily a Shemite goddess, Ishtar’s worship spread throughout the Hyborian world. She was worshipped in Shem (obviously), but also in Ophir, Argos, Koth, Khoraja, Khauran, and Zamora. Small cults existed wherever Shemite populations had settled.

It’s worth noting that Howard lists Ishtar alongside other Shemite goddesses – Ashtoreth and Derketo – as separate deities. In “Queen of the Black Coast,” Bêlit names “the gods of the Shemites – Ishtar and Ashtoreth and Derketo and Adonis.”

While later adaptations (particularly Marvel Comics) sometimes conflated these goddesses as aspects of a single deity, Howard’s original text treats them as distinct figures in the Shemite pantheon.

Several Hyborian kingdoms that once worshipped Mitra switched to Ishtar’s more sensual rites. Koth abandoned the god of light for the earth mother, as did Khoraja and Khauran.

This suggests that Mitra’s distant, intellectual worship couldn’t satisfy all spiritual needs – some people wanted a goddess they could feel, whose worship engaged the body as well as the mind.

Ishtar and Mitra: Competing Faiths

The contrast between Ishtar and Mitra represents a fundamental tension in Hyborian religion. Mitra offers truth, restraint, and civilised dignity. Ishtar offers passion, fertility, and earthy sensuality.

Both are generally benevolent deities – neither demands human sacrifice or promotes evil – but they represent fundamentally different approaches to the divine.

From the Mitraic perspective, Ishtar worship is primitive and scandalous. Her temples are too rich, her rites too physical, her idols too explicit. Proper religion should be dignified and intellectual, not this orgiastic indulgence.

From the Ishtar perspective (though Howard rarely writes from it), Mitra worship is probably cold and sterile. What good is a god you can’t touch, whose temples are bare, whose priests offer nothing but sermons? Ishtar gives her worshippers something tangible – pleasure, fertility, abundance.

I think Howard’s sympathies lie somewhere between these poles. He clearly admires Mitra’s association with civilisation and truth, but he also presents Ishtar worship without the condemnation we might expect from a 1930s American author.

Ishtar in the Stories

Ishtar appears directly in the comics rather than Howard’s original stories, though she’s mentioned throughout the Conan tales. In one comic adaptation, Conan encounters Ishtar herself, using the alias “Alonia,” in the ruined city of Ababenzzar. She’s pursuing a priest who stole her “lifestone,” a source of divine power.

The story shows Ishtar as genuinely divine – capable of magic, functionally immortal, but also somewhat petty (she cursed a woman named Isolene for being too beautiful, then apparently forgot about her).

It humanises the goddess in ways that fit the Hyborian worldview, where gods are powerful beings rather than perfect moral exemplars.

Why Ishtar Matters

Ishtar serves multiple functions in Howard’s worldbuilding. She represents the sensual, earthy religions of the East that the Hyborian kingdoms find both fascinating and threatening.

She provides an alternative to Mitra that isn’t simply evil (like Set), showing that the religious landscape is more complex than good god versus bad god.

She also represents the feminine divine in a way that Mitra (explicitly male) doesn’t provide. The Shemites worship a goddess, not a god, and her domain – fertility, sexuality, the earth – encompasses aspects of life that Mitra’s stern masculinity ignores.

I think Ishtar is underexplored in Howard’s original fiction – she appears mostly as background colour rather than an active force. But her presence enriches the world, suggesting depths of religious practice and belief that the stories only hint at.

Related Reading

• Gods of the Hyborian Age – Complete Guide
• Who is Mitra? The God of Light Explained
• Who is Set? The Serpent God Explained
• Where is Stygia? The Land of Set
• Who is Crom? Conan’s God Explained
• Bel, God of Thieves
• Ymir, God of the North

Frequently Asked Questions

“By Bel, god of all thieves!” It’s an oath you’ll hear in every tavern in Zamora, every thieves’ den from Arenjun to Shadizar.

While Cimmerians invoke Crom and priests pray to Mitra, those who earn their living with quick fingers and quicker feet have their own patron: Bel, the masked god who blesses all who steal with skill.

What I love about Bel is how he represents the practical, transactional nature of Hyborian religion at its most honest.

There’s no pretence of morality here, no claims of cosmic righteousness. Bel’s philosophy is simple: if you’re skilled enough to take something, you deserve to have it.

If you don’t want your belongings taken, be craftier than those who want them. It’s a refreshingly amoral faith for a refreshingly amoral profession.

Howard’s Original Vision

Bel appears in one of Howard’s most famous stories, “The Tower of the Elephant,” where a character swears by “Bel, god of all thieves” while bragging about a kidnapping scheme in the Maul, Arenjun’s notorious thieves’ quarter.

The oath establishes Bel immediately as the patron of criminals throughout the Hyborian world. Howard drew the name from Baal/Bel, the ancient Semitic title meaning “Lord” that was applied to various Mesopotamian deities.

By making Bel a god of thieves rather than a storm god or fertility deity, Howard created something original while maintaining the flavour of ancient religion.

Bel is primarily a Shemite deity – the god originated in Shem, where his main temple (a ziggurat in the city of Shumir) still stands. But his worship spread far beyond Shemite lands because, well, there are thieves everywhere.

Wherever cities exist, wherever merchants accumulate wealth, there are people willing to pray to Bel before relieving them of it.

The Philosophy of Bel

Bel’s faith teaches a straightforward philosophy: take what you can, keep what you take. There’s no altruism in this religion.

Charity is for fools, and beggars who worship Bel don’t consider themselves charity cases – they’re simply using different skills to acquire resources.

The religion teaches that others will prey upon you if permitted, so you should become the predator. This isn’t presented as evil, merely practical.

The world is full of people who want things; some acquire them through honest labour, others through clever theft. Bel blesses those who choose the latter path and do it well.

I find this approach philosophically interesting because it rejects the moralistic framework of most fantasy religions.

There’s no good-versus-evil struggle, no cosmic stakes. Just the acknowledgment that some people steal, some get stolen from, and the clever ones come out ahead.

Worship and Temples

Bel’s temples are deliberately hard to find. In cities with a single dominant thieves’ guild, the temple connects to the guild hall via underground tunnels.

In cities like Arenjun where multiple guilds compete, the temple occupies a neutral underground location where all factions can meet safely.

None has ever seen Bel’s face – appropriate for a god of thieves. His idols depict him variously: a stocky dwarf with a grinning face, a six-armed elephant-man, or a lithe panther-like figure wearing a black mask.

The inconsistent depictions might represent regional variations, or might simply reflect the fact that nobody actually knows what Bel looks like.

The priesthood is organised independently in each major city to prevent problems in one location from affecting others.

If the authorities crack down on Bel worship in Shadizar, the temples in Arenjun continue operating unaffected. It’s a sensible structure for an illegal faith.

Priests of Bel operate under an interesting restriction: they may never buy or trade for anything. If they slip and purchase something legitimately, Bel can only be appeased by sacrificing stolen goods worth ten times the value of what they bought.

This keeps the priesthood true to their god’s principles – everything they have, they must have taken.

Arenjun: The City of Thieves

Bel is the patron deity of Arenjun, the infamous City of Thieves in Zamora. While Zath, the spider god, dominates Zamora’s official religion, Bel commands the loyalty of Arenjun’s true power structure – the thieves’ guilds that actually run the city.

As a slight aside, there is an excellent feeling of Set vs Zath vs other gods in Tim Waggoners new Conan novel, Conan: Spawn of the Serpent. Definitely worth a read.

“The Tower of the Elephant” gives us our best look at Arenjun’s underworld. It’s still one of my favourite Conan stories ’til today, and I always recommend it when starting Conan.

It’s also been adapted a couple of times by Marvel, and the new colourised version of the Savage Sword of Conan Reforged is a real beauty to look at.

The Maul district is where “the thieves of the east hold carnival by night,” where “honest people shun the quarters, and watchmen, well paid with stained coins, do not interfere with their sport.” It’s a place where “steel glints in the shadows where wolf preys on wolf.”

In this environment, Bel isn’t just worshipped – he’s essential. Thieves need somewhere to meet on neutral ground, someone to swear oaths before, a framework for the complex relationships between competing guilds. Bel provides all of this, his faith serving as the operating system for organised crime throughout the Hyborian world.

Bel in the Comics

Marvel’s Conan comics expanded Bel’s mythology significantly. One story established that Bel was once a six-armed deity who commanded armies of dead thieves in the ancient past.

The goddess Ashtoreth defeated him and severed his sixth arm, destroying his power and exiling him to what became Zamora.

This origin explains some of the idols showing Bel as six-armed – they preserve a memory of his original form. It also connects Bel to the ancient divine wars that shaped the Hyborian world, making him a fallen god rather than merely a local deity.

The comics also showed characters taking vows of silence to Bel, cutting their own tongues as sacrifice. This extreme devotion makes sense for a god of thieves – a follower who literally cannot speak can never betray his companions under torture.

Bel and Conan

Conan himself has an interesting relationship with Bel. During his years as a thief in Zamora – the period depicted in “The Tower of the Elephant” – he would have been familiar with Bel worship even if he didn’t actively participate.

A young Cimmerian making his way as a thief in the City of Thieves couldn’t avoid contact with Bel’s followers.

However, Conan worships Crom, not Bel. He might swear by Bel when among thieves (when in Zamora, do as the Zamorians do), but his primary invocations are always to his Cimmerian god. This reflects Conan’s identity – even when living as a thief, he remains a Cimmerian barbarian at heart.

Taurus of Nemedia, the legendary “prince of thieves” who appears in “The Tower of the Elephant,” would certainly have been a Bel worshipper.

His incredible skill at theft – the story shows him scaling the Tower using equipment worthy of a god-level burglar – represents exactly what Bel values: taking the impossible through superior craft.

Why Bel Matters

Bel serves an important worldbuilding function in Howard’s fiction. He establishes that religion in the Hyborian Age isn’t limited to cosmic good-versus-evil struggles.

There are practical faiths for practical people, gods who care about specific professions rather than universal salvation.

This makes the world feel more alive and realistic. Real-world ancient religions often had patron deities for specific trades – smiths, sailors, merchants, soldiers. Bel represents the logical extension of this to criminal enterprise. If there are gods for honest professions, why not a god for dishonest ones?

I also think Bel represents Howard’s pragmatic streak. The author clearly enjoyed his thief characters – Conan himself spent years in the profession – and presenting theft as having its own legitimate religious tradition removes some of the moral judgment. Bel’s followers aren’t evil; they’re just people who’ve chosen a particular path, one with its own code, structure, and divine sanction.

Related Reading

• Gods of the Hyborian Age – Complete Guide
• Where is Zamora? The Land of Thieves
• Who is Crom? Conan’s God Explained

Frequently Asked Questions

Set coiled about the world like a python about its prey.

That’s how Howard describes him – not merely a god to be worshipped, but a cosmic predator that once dominated the earth and still lurks in the shadows of Stygia’s cryptic temples.

While Mitra represents everything the Hyborian kingdoms aspire to be, Set embodies everything they fear: the ancient, the cold-blooded, the endlessly patient serpent waiting to strike.

What makes Set genuinely terrifying, I think, is his worship. This isn’t abstract theology – Set’s followers sacrifice human beings on his altars, keep giant snakes in his temples that are allowed to hunt people in the streets, and consider it a mortal sin to kill a serpent.

The faith isn’t about enlightenment or redemption. It’s about power, purchased with blood.

The recent Scourge of the Serpent mini series and the Tim Waggoner book, Conan: Spawn of the Serpent are all about Set and his/her servants.

I really enjoyed the series and the book and would recommend them. We see a lot of focus on the serpent men, original foes of Howard’s other famous barbarian, Kull.

Howard’s Original Vision

Set appears in Howard’s very first Conan story, “The Phoenix on the Sword” (1932), establishing him immediately as the primary antagonist in the cosmic struggle of the Hyborian Age.

The long-dead sage Epemitreus tells Conan: “Ages ago Set coiled about the world like a python about its prey. All my life, which was as the lives of three common men, I fought him.

I drove him into the shadows of the mysterious south, but in dark Stygia men still worship him who to us is the arch-demon.”

Howard based Set loosely on the Egyptian god of the same name, but his version bears little resemblance to the actual Egyptian deity (who was a god of storms and chaos, not serpents).

Howard’s Set is “the Old Serpent” – a title that deliberately evokes the biblical serpent, the tempter in Eden, the embodiment of ancient evil.

In Howard’s cosmology, Set predates human civilisation. His original worshippers were the Serpent Men of Valusia, the pre-human race that Kull of Atlantis fought in the Thurian Age.

When those serpent people were driven from the world, Set found new followers among the humans of Stygia, who built their dark civilisation on the foundations of serpent worship.

Set Worship in Practice

The practical details of Set worship are genuinely horrifying. In “The Hour of the Dragon,” Howard describes how serpents are sacred in Stygia – to kill one is a mortal sin.

Giant snakes are kept in Set’s temples, and “when they hungered, were allowed to crawl forth into the streets to take what prey they wished. Their ghastly feasts were considered a sacrifice to the scaly god.”

Out of all the images that have stayed in my head from the Conan stories, huge snakes slithering around the streets and being allowed to eat whoever they want is one that really stayed with me.

Imagine living in a city where massive snakes periodically escape from the local temple to hunt citizens, and resisting them is considered sacrilege.

That’s daily life in Stygian cities. Citizens are expected to accept being devoured by sacred serpents with equanimity. Anyone who dares resist can be lynched as a heretic.

Human sacrifice forms the core of Set’s worship. The blood offerings serve a practical purpose beyond appeasing the god – according to characters like Thugra Khotan, they actually enhance the magical power of the one performing the sacrifice.

Set worship isn’t merely evil religion; it’s evil religion that works, granting genuine power to those willing to pay the terrible price.

Thoth-Amon and the Priests of Set

The most famous servant of Set is Thoth-Amon, the Stygian sorcerer who appears in “The Phoenix on the Sword.”

Though he only appears in one original Howard story, Thoth-Amon became Conan’s arch-nemesis in the comics and later adaptations.

In the original story, Thoth-Amon has fallen from his position as high priest of Set, reduced to servitude under the outlaw Ascalante. But when he recovers his Serpent Ring of Set – a source of magical power – he immediately summons a demon to kill his master.

The scene demonstrates both the power of Set worship and its fundamentally predatory nature.

The priests of Set are almost as frightening as their god. They shave their heads, practice dark sorcery, and rule Stygia as a theocracy. Their power extends beyond religion into politics – the kings of Stygia serve at the pleasure of the priesthood, not the other way around.

Thulsa Doom, as reimagined in the 1982 film, draws heavily on this archetype of the serpent priest.

The 1982 Film’s Cult of Set

The 1982 Conan the Barbarian film reimagined Set worship through Thulsa Doom’s snake cult. While the film takes liberties with Howard’s mythology (Thulsa Doom was originally a Kull villain, not associated with Set), it captures the essential horror of serpent worship.

James Earl Jones’s Thulsa Doom leads a cult that combines Set worship with elements of real-world cults like the People’s Temple and the Assassins.

His followers give themselves willingly, believing in his message of flesh over steel. The snake-to-arrow transformation and Doom’s own ability to become a serpent visualise the supernatural power that Set grants his faithful.

What I find effective about the film’s approach is how it shows Set worship as seductive rather than merely terrifying. People choose to follow Thulsa Doom.

They find meaning in submission to the serpent. It’s a more insidious form of evil than simple monster worship.

Set in the Comics

Marvel Comics expanded Set’s role dramatically, connecting him to their broader cosmology. In Marvel’s version, Set is one of the Elder Gods – ancient beings who ruled Earth before humanity.

He’s depicted as a massive seven-headed serpent, a design that became iconic despite differing from Howard’s more ambiguous descriptions.

The comics established the Serpent Crown as a major artifact of Set worship, a device that allows the wearer to channel Set’s power (and become influenced by his will).

This artifact appeared in various Marvel comics, connecting the Hyborian Age to the modern Marvel Universe.

Roy Thomas, who wrote many of the Conan comics, used Set as the ultimate antagonist – the dark force behind multiple villains and schemes.

This elevated Set from a background deity to an active threat, though it arguably simplified Howard’s more ambiguous approach to divine intervention.

This has carried on with Jim Zub’s work on the newest Conan comic iterations (and are well worth your time).

Set in Conan Exiles

In Conan Exiles, Set is one of the most mechanically useful religions. His worship focuses on serpents and poison, with unique items that make him particularly valuable for mid-to-late game content.

The Set Antidote cures poison, alcohol poisoning, and food poisoning – incredibly useful given how common poison is in the Exiled Lands.

Snake Arrows are among the strongest ammunition in the game. The Feast of Set provides excellent health regeneration.

To worship Set, you use the Setite Ritual Knife to harvest human hearts from corpses. These hearts become offerings that generate Manifestations of Zeal, which power your altar and eventually allow you to summon Set’s avatar – a massive serpent that can devastate enemy bases.

What I appreciate about Conan Exiles’ implementation is how it makes Set worship genuinely tempting. The mechanical benefits are excellent.

You want to worship the evil snake god because he rewards you well. It captures something essential about Howard’s vision – Set worship persists because it works.

The Conflict with Mitra

Set and Mitra represent the fundamental theological conflict of the Hyborian Age. Where Mitra is light, civilisation, and mercy, Set is darkness, ancient evil, and predatory power. Their followers have been at war for millennia.

This isn’t merely symbolic opposition. Mitraic artifacts genuinely work against Set’s forces. In “The Phoenix on the Sword,” Epemitreus marks Conan’s sword with the phoenix symbol of Mitra, and this mark destroys a demon sent by Set’s servant.

Holy water from sacred rivers harms vampires. The cross of Mitra can ward off undead.

The eternal struggle between these gods mirrors the political conflict between the Hyborian kingdoms and Stygia. It’s civilisation versus barbarism (from the Hyborian perspective), or truth versus deception (from either side’s perspective, really).

Howard uses this religious conflict to add cosmic stakes to what might otherwise be simple adventure stories.

Why Set Endures

Set represents something fundamental in Howard’s fiction – the ancient evil that civilisation tries to suppress but can never entirely defeat.

He existed before humanity, his worship predates recorded history, and his influence persists despite millennia of opposition.

I think Set works so well as an antagonist because he’s not merely powerful but patient. He doesn’t need to win today.

He’s been waiting for ages and can wait ages more. His worship spreads through seduction as much as conquest – people choose to serve him because he offers power that “good” gods don’t provide.

This makes Set a more interesting villain than a simple dark lord. He represents a genuine temptation, a path to power that requires only that you abandon your humanity piece by piece.

The horror of Set worship isn’t that his followers are deceived – it’s that they know exactly what they’re doing and do it anyway.

Related Reading

• Gods of the Hyborian Age – Complete Guide
• Who is Mitra? The God of Light Explained
• Is Set different to Ymir?
• Where is Stygia? The Land of Set
• Who is Thulsa Doom? The Serpent Cult Leader
• Who is Crom? Conan’s God Explained

Frequently Asked Questions

In the frozen wastes north of Cimmeria, the Nordheimers worship a god who actually answers. Not with gentle guidance like Mitra, nor with cold indifference like Crom, but with crackling ice and the thunderous hooves of a war-chariot rushing across the snows. Ymir is the frost giant, the Lord of Storm and War, and unlike the distant deities of civilised lands, he takes a personal interest in his people.

What strikes me about Ymir is how he represents the one god in Howard’s fiction who behaves like gods of actual mythology. He has children who walk the earth. He intervenes directly in mortal affairs. He maintains a great hall where slain warriors feast eternally. In a world of absent gods and cosmic horrors, Ymir is almost comfortingly traditional.

Howard’s Original Vision

Ymir appears most prominently in “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter” (also published as “Gods of the North”), one of Howard’s earliest Conan tales chronologically. The story takes place in Nordheim, where a young Conan fights alongside the Aesir against the Vanir.

There are a couple of mild spoilers below, so if you’ve never read the original story, be sure to skip on down to the next section. Here’s a link to the Coming of Conan book where you’ll find it.

After a brutal battle leaves Conan the sole survivor on the field, he encounters Atali – a beautiful woman with golden hair who taunts him across the frozen wastes. Maddened with desire, Conan pursues her, only to be attacked by her brothers – actual frost giants who serve their father Ymir.

Conan kills the giants, but when he finally catches Atali and tears her gossamer veil, she cries out: “Ymir! Oh, my father, save me!”

And Ymir answers. The skies crack with icy fire, blue darts of frozen lightning and crimson flames engulf the scene, and Atali vanishes. Conan awakens a while later, surrounded by his Aesir companions who believe he merely dreamed. But clutched in his hand is the gossamer veil – tangible proof that the gods of Nordheim are real.

This is the only time in Howard’s original Conan stories that a god directly intervenes on-page. Not Crom, not Mitra – Ymir, saving his daughter from a mortal’s grasp.

The Frost Giant’s Daughter

Atali herself is a fascinating figure. According to Nordheimr legend, she haunts the battlefields of the north, appearing to dying warriors and luring them into the wastes where her frost giant brothers can slay them. Their hearts are laid smoking on Ymir’s board.

It’s a grim legend that serves multiple purposes. It explains why bodies sometimes disappear from battlefields. It gives dying warriors something to see in their final moments besides empty snow. And it reinforces the warlike nature of Ymir’s worship – even death in battle serves the god.

Howard drew this directly from Norse mythology, combining elements of the Valkyries (who choose the slain) with the frost giants of Jotunheim. Atali functions as a kind of dark valkyrie, but instead of bearing warriors to Valhalla, she lures them to their deaths for her father’s pleasure.

Valhalla in the Hyborian Age

The Nordheimers believe that warriors slain in battle go to Valhalla – Ymir’s great hall in the northern mountains. There they feast and fight forever, an endless cycle of glorious combat and abundant mead.

This is essentially Norse Valhalla transplanted into Howard’s prehistoric world, which makes sense given that the Nordheimers (both Aesir and Vanir) are clearly proto-Vikings. Howard’s Hyborian Age serves as the forgotten prehistory that became legend, and the worship of Ymir eventually became the Norse mythology we know.

What I find interesting is how Valhalla functions as the only clearly defined afterlife in Howard’s stories. Mitra presumably has some form of heaven (and definitely has a hell), but the details are vague. Crom offers nothing – you go to a grey realm of clouds and icy winds. But Ymir promises something specific and desirable: eternal war and feasting for those who die well.

The Aesir and Vanir

Ymir is worshipped by both peoples of Nordheim – the blonde Aesir of Asgard (the eastern portion) and the red-haired Vanir of Vanaheim (the western portion). These tribes are locked in eternal warfare with each other, which serves Ymir well. Battle honours the god, and both sides believe they fight for his glory.

The names aren’t coincidental. In Norse mythology, the Aesir and Vanir are the two tribes of gods. Howard uses these names for human peoples, suggesting that the legendary gods arose from the deified memories of Hyborian-era heroes and peoples. It’s the same technique he uses throughout his worldbuilding – connecting his prehistoric age to later mythology.

The Nordheimers are fierce warriors, raiders who descend on southern lands in longships. They’re essentially Vikings before there was a word for Vikings. Their worship of Ymir reflects their culture – a warrior god for warrior peoples, promising rewards for battle and offering nothing to those who die in bed.

The Ymirish

In expanded Conan lore, particularly in the Age of Conan MMO, the Ymirish are a special caste among the Vanir – warriors with the actual blood of Ymir in their veins. These half-giant descended commanders lead Vanir war parties, their white or yellow hair and wolf-gleaming eyes marking them as something more than mortal.

The Ymirish are taller and stronger, than ordinary Nordheimers. Some possess dark magical abilities, able to hear and answer “Ymir’s Call.” Their existence bridges the gap between mortal worship and divine reality – literal children of the god walking among his human followers.

This expansion of the lore fits Howard’s original vision pretty well, I think, where Atali and her brothers are Ymir’s actual offspring. The frost giants aren’t merely creatures from legend but genuine divine children, and the Ymirish are their mortal cousins.

Ymir and Norse Mythology

Howard based his Ymir directly on the Norse primordial giant – the first being, from whose body the world was made. In Norse myth, Odin and his brothers killed Ymir and used his corpse to create Midgard.

Howard’s Ymir is still alive and active, which makes sense since the Hyborian Age predates the events of Norse mythology. Perhaps Odin hasn’t been born yet. Perhaps Ymir’s eventual death at Odin’s hands lies in the future. Howard never addresses this directly, but the implication is clear – the gods of the Hyborian Age are the same gods who would later become the Olympians, Asgardians, and other mythological pantheons.

Marvel Comics explicitly connected Howard’s Ymir to their Thor comics, making the frost giant god a continuous figure from the Hyborian Age to the modern day. In Marvel’s version, Odin eventually kills Ymir, but the giant keeps returning – one of Thor’s most persistent foes.

Ymir in Conan Exiles

In Conan Exiles, Ymir is one of the selectable religions, favoured by Nordheimer characters. His worship focuses on ice, cold, and war.

The most useful Ymir item is the ability to craft Black Ice at higher altar tiers – a building material that’s otherwise difficult to obtain. The Feast to Ymir provides significant buffs, and ice-related weapons and armour round out his offerings.

To worship Ymir, you use the Hoarfrost Hatchet to harvest “ice shards” from corpses. These become offerings that generate Manifestations of Zeal. At the highest tier, you can summon Ymir’s avatar – an enormous frost giant wielding a massive axe, leaving trails of frost in his wake as he demolishes enemy structures.

The Ymir religion in Conan Exiles captures the harsh nature of Nordheimer faith. It’s about survival in frozen lands, strength in battle, and the cold beauty of ice and snow. If you’re building in the frozen north, Ymir is thematically appropriate and mechanically useful.

Why Ymir Matters

Ymir serves a unique function in Howard’s religious landscape. He’s the god who actually behaves like a god – intervening directly, maintaining a family, rewarding his followers with a clear afterlife. In a world where Crom ignores prayers and Mitra only occasionally intervenes, Ymir is actively present.

This makes the Nordheimer faith feel different from other Hyborian religions. The Aesir and Vanir know their god exists because they have tangible proof – the frost giants, Atali’s appearances, warriors who claim to have seen Valhalla. While other peoples hope their gods are real, the Nordheimr have evidence.

I think Howard used Ymir to explore what religion might look like if the gods were undeniably real. The Nordheimers aren’t more faithful than other peoples – they’re simply more certain. And that certainty makes them fearsome enemies, warriors who charge into battle knowing exactly what awaits them on the other side.

Related Reading

Ever wondered how strong Conan was?
Is Valeria or Belit Conan’s love?

Frequently Asked Questions

If the god Set is the shadow over the Hyborian Age, Mitra is the light.

He’s the dominant god of civilisation, worshipped across Aquilonia, Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Corinthia, and Zingara – essentially every major Hyborian kingdom. Where Set demands blood, Mitra asks for virtue.

Where serpent worship lurks in crypts and shadows, Mitra’s temples stand proudly in city centres, their simple architecture a deliberate rejection of the ornate horror of eastern faiths.

I’d quickly take this point to recommend the Scourge of the Serpent mini series, I enjoyed it from start to finish. The reading order for Scourge of the Serpent is here.

What fascinates me about Mitra is how Howard uses him to explore the intersection of religion and civilisation. Mitra represents everything the Hyborian kingdoms believe makes them superior to their neighbours – mercy, truth, restraint.

But Howard doesn’t let this go unexamined. Mitraic priests can be intolerant bigots, persecuting Asuran worshippers with the same zeal they condemn in Set’s followers. Civilisation’s god, Howard suggests, isn’t necessarily civilised in his followers.

Howard’s Original Vision

Mitra appears throughout the Conan stories as the primary “good” deity, but he’s more complex than that label suggests.

Howard drew the name from the historical Mithra – the Zoroastrian god of covenants and light who later inspired the Roman Mithras cult – but created something distinctly his own.

In Howard’s world, Mitra represents a deliberate contrast to every other religion. His rites alone in the Hyborian era include no blood sacrifice whatsoever – not even animals.

His temples are deliberately plain, featuring little iconography except a single statue of the god depicted as an idealised bearded man. His priests teach forgiveness of enemies, though Howard acidly notes that “many of them fail to do so.”

The key text for understanding Mitra is Howard’s essay “The Hyborian Age,” where he describes the god’s worship as effectively the state religion of the Hyborian nations corresponding to Western Europe.

Mitra’s faith is missionary – his followers sometimes die trying to spread their religion to hostile peoples. It’s Christianity with the serial numbers filed off, transplanted into a prehistoric setting.

When Mitra Actually Intervenes

Unlike Crom, who gives his people nothing but courage at birth, Mitra occasionally involves himself in mortal affairs. The most significant example occurs in “Black Colossus,” where Princess Yasmela of Khoraja faces an ancient sorcerer-king threatening to destroy her nation.

In her desperate hour, Yasmela prays in Mitra’s temple – and the god answers. A voice speaks from the darkness, directing her to go to the city gates and choose the first man she meets as her champion and commander. That man turns out to be Conan.

This intervention changes everything for Conan. He’s commanded tens of thousands of soldiers in a historically important battle, emerging victorious against impossible odds. It’s an important step on his path to eventually becoming King of Aquilonia.

From Mitra’s perspective, the barbarian was evidently the best choice to defeat a sworn enemy of the Hyborian kingdoms – even if his own priests might have preferred someone more conventionally pious.

I find this fascinating because it shows Howard’s nuanced approach to religion. Mitra doesn’t choose a devout worshipper or a Hyborian nobleman. He chooses a Cimmerian barbarian who worships a completely different god. Divine wisdom, it seems, values effectiveness over orthodoxy.

It’s a great story, Black Colossus and it should definitely be read. It’s in the Coming of Conan book by Del Rey, among others.

The Darker Side of Mitra Worship

Howard wasn’t interested in presenting Mitra as simply “the good god” without complication. In “The Hour of the Dragon,” we see Mitraic priests actively persecuting followers of Asura, another deity whose worshippers seek truth and enlightenment.

Conan, being a barbarian, doesn’t share this “civilised” prejudice. He protects Asuran worshippers from Mitraic persecution, and they prove beneficial allies in his hour of need.

It’s a pointed commentary on religious intolerance – the followers of the “merciful” god proving less merciful than the “savage” barbarian.

The Mitraic religion also practices a form of hell. Mitra judges souls after death, consigning sinners to punishment.

For a god whose followers preach forgiveness, this creates an interesting tension that Howard never fully resolves. I think the ambiguity is intentional – Howard was too smart a writer to create a straightforwardly “good” religion.

Mitra’s Temples and Worship

Mitraic temples stand out for their deliberate simplicity. Where other faiths build ornate shrines filled with imagery and idols, Mitra’s temples are “awesomely plain, yet stately, artistic and beautiful despite the lack of ornate symbols.”

This aesthetic simplicity serves theological purpose. Unlike the Shemites who believe their gods inhabit their brass idols, Mitraists understand that Mitra is omnipresent – the statues are merely representations, not dwelling places.

It’s a more abstract, philosophical approach to divinity that Howard associates with civilised sophistication.

Mitraic priests are trained in many practical skills beyond theology – smithwork, carpentry, stonework, diplomacy.

The religion functions as a civilising force, spreading knowledge alongside faith. This practical dimension helps explain why Mitra worship dominates the most advanced kingdoms.

Mitra’s Eternal Enemy: Set

The conflict between Mitra and Set forms the theological backbone of the Hyborian Age. Where Mitra represents light, truth, and civilisation, the god Set embodies darkness, deception, and the ancient predatory aspects of worship. Their followers engage in a cosmic struggle that plays out across the stories.

In Howard’s cosmology, Mitra protects the righteous from the demonic forces of Set. The priest Epemitreus, who appears to Conan in “The Phoenix on the Sword,” spent his entire long life fighting Set’s influence.

Even in death, his spirit continues the struggle, marking Conan’s sword with Mitra’s phoenix symbol to destroy a demon sent by Set’s follower Thoth-Amon.

This isn’t mere mythology within the story – it’s active supernatural conflict. The Heart of Ahriman, the phoenix symbol, holy water from sacred rivers – these Mitraic tools genuinely work against evil in Howard’s world.

Mitra in the Comics

Marvel’s Conan comics expanded Mitra’s role considerably. The god appears more directly, his priests wield genuine magical power, and the conflict with Set becomes even more explicit.

Roy Thomas, who adapted Howard’s work for Marvel, maintained the essential character of Mitra while adding visual elements like the horned cross symbol (resembling an ankh) that became associated with the faith.

The comics also established Mitra as part of the Elder Gods hierarchy, connecting him to the broader Marvel Universe cosmology. While this goes beyond Howard’s original conception, it did help cement Mitra as a genuinely divine being rather than merely a cultural construct.

Mitra in Conan Exiles

In Conan Exiles, Mitra is one of the selectable religions at character creation. His worship focuses on virtue and healing, with unique items that reflect his benevolent nature.

The most useful Mitra item is Ambrosia – a healing consumable that’s incredibly easy to craft. You make it using resources harvested from human corpses with the Mitraic ankh tool, which provides “lingering essence” and “unblemished human meat.”

Yes, even the god of light apparently doesn’t mind if you harvest corpses – though at least he doesn’t require you to eat them like Yog does.

At higher tiers, Mitra provides the Feast to Mitra (offering health regeneration and stat bonuses) and eventually the ability to summon his avatar – a towering bronze colossus that can devastate enemy bases.

What I appreciate about Conan Exiles’ Mitra is how it captures the transactional nature of Hyborian religion while maintaining Mitra’s distinct character.

You’re still performing morally questionable acts to gain religious favour, but the rewards are healing and protection rather than venom and death.

Why Mitra Matters

Mitra serves multiple functions in Howard’s fiction. On one level, he’s simply the “good god” opposing Set’s evil. On another, he’s a tool for examining how civilised people can be just as cruel as barbarians while believing themselves morally superior.

I think Howard’s Mitra is ultimately a commentary on organised religion in general. The god himself seems genuinely benevolent – he answers prayers, protects the righteous, opposes evil.

But his followers are human, with all the pettiness, intolerance, and hypocrisy that implies. The faith teaches forgiveness, but practitioners often fail to practice what they preach.

This nuanced treatment elevates Howard’s work beyond simple good-versus-evil fantasy. Mitra isn’t just “the god the heroes worship.” He’s a lens through which Howard examines religion, civilisation, and the gap between what people believe and how they behave.

Related Reading

• Gods of the Hyborian Age – Complete Guide
• Who is Crom? Conan’s God Explained
• Who is Set? The Serpent God Explained
• Where is Stygia? The Land of Set
• Bel, God of Thieves

Frequently Asked Questions

Just how strong was Conan the Barbarian? It’s something I’ve wondered since I was a teenager – and something that Robert E. Howard himself addressed, at least partially.

I do enjoy my strength and running routines, so for me there’s something deeply satisfying about analysing Conan through the lens of modern fitness and strength training.

I’m sure every reader will have their views on this, but here’s what I came up with.

Conan’s Height and Weight: What Howard Actually Wrote

Here’s the thing many people get wrong about Conan’s size: Howard never gave us his adult measurements. The only concrete numbers we have come from a letter Howard wrote to P. Schuyler Miller and Dr. John D. Clark in March 1936, just months before his death:

“At Vanarium he was already a formidable antagonist, though only fifteen. He stood six feet and weighed 180 pounds, though he lacked much of having his full growth.”

That phrase – “lacked much of having his full growth” – is crucial. At fifteen, Conan was already six feet tall and 180 pounds, but Howard explicitly tells us he wasn’t done growing.

The Cimmerian Average

Howard also wrote that Cimmerians averaged six feet in height – tall even by modern standards. For Conan to be average Cimmerian height at fifteen suggests he grew considerably taller. Often, Howard fans places adult Conan somewhere between 6’2″ and 6’4″, with a weight between 200 and 230 pounds. I’ve also read arguments placing him closer to 6’6″.

In my opinion, the most reasonable estimate is around 6’3″ and 225 pounds. He’s taller than most men he encounters, but Howard is careful to note that some opponents are taller still – Conan’s dominance comes from the complete package, not height alone.

Conan’s Build: Not a Bodybuilder

Although an incredibly muscular Arnold Schwarzenegger is often the first face that jumps into mind for Conan, Howard consistently described Conan in terms that suggest functional strength rather than aesthetic muscle.

From The Tower of the Elephant, when Conan is just seventeen:

“His cheap tunic could not conceal the hard, rangy lines of his powerful frame, the broad heavy shoulders, the massive chest, lean waist, and heavy arms.”

Key words here: rangy, hard, lean waist. Conan wasn’t a modern bodybuilder with bulging aesthetics – he was built like a fighter, an athlete, a working man who’d spent his life climbing, fighting, and surviving.

Later, when Conan is King of Aquilonia in his forties, Howard gives us this in The Hour of the Dragon:

“A tall man, mightily shouldered and deep of chest, with a massive corded neck and heavily muscled limbs.”

Tall (but not giant-sized) with a massive corded neck and heavily muscled limbs – this is the physique of someone who’s spent decades wielding heavy weapons, climbing castle walls, and wrestling with human and inhuman foes alike.

How Strong Was Conan? Analysing the Feats

Howard never gives us specific numbers for Conan’s strength, but he provides plenty of feats we can analyse. The pattern is clear: Conan was the strongest human in virtually every story. Not just “pretty strong” – genuinely elite, the kind of strength that made hardened warriors and pirates step back.

Strength Feats

In Shadows in Zamboula, Conan fights Baal-pteor, a professional strangler described as having immense strength. The fight is described as one of his toughest physical challenges – suggesting Baal-pteor was in the same weight class, strength-wise. We also learn that Conan strangled a bull when he was just fifteen.

In Rogues in the House, Conan fights Thak, an intelligent ape described as stronger than any man. Conan wins, but it’s a brutal, close fight – his human strength pushed to its absolute limit against something genuinely superhuman.

What This Means in Modern Terms

If Conan was consistently the strongest human in a world of warriors, pirates, and soldiers, what would that translate to in a modern gym?

Here’s where I think we need to be honest: Conan wasn’t just “gym strong” – he was elite. A lifetime of combat, climbing, and survival from childhood, combined with obvious genetic gifts, would put him firmly in competition-level territory.

With even basic barbell training to refine his technique, he’d be pushing towards powerlifting competition numbers.

As a caveat to that, elite lifters spend years honing their craft and technique. Conan does not have that luxury, and therefore, without extra training, he would have the technical side of lifting working against him.

The Lifts

To work out some realistic weights, I’m using the website Strength Level.

I’m also using these numbers as a kind of comparison. And I’m comparing Conan to himself.

Well, kind of.

Arnold’s Schwarzenegger’s best ever lifts are given as: Squat – 610lbs (276 kg), Bench – 525 lbs (238 kg) and Deadlift – 710 lbs (322kg).

I think these weights are slightly above an untrained Conan, for two reasons. Arnie was an incredibly well trained bodybuilder, and dedicated his life to strength and muscle training. He also used steroids.

It should also be noted that although Arnie was ‘only’ a bodybuilder when compared to powerlifters (another breed altogether, and with numbers far above Arnie) he was an exceptionally strong one and his numbers are nothing to be sniffed at.

So, using strength standards for a 225-pound man, here’s where I’d place Conan.

I decided on these numbers as they are classified as at the lower-mid end of ‘elite’ on Strength Level.

With specific lift training, he could of course move even higher up in the category.

It could also depend on the period of his life – 17, 25 or 40 could have far different results.

Squat: 525 – 575 lbs 245 kg (238 – 261 kg) – Conan would have had phenomenally powerful legs from climbing, riding, and the explosive movements of sword fighting. His mountain upbringing in Cimmeria – constantly traversing rough terrain – built a foundation most modern athletes can only dream of.

Bench Press: 425-475 lbs (193 – 216 kg) – Years of sword work, shield use, climbing, and grappling would build serious pressing strength. His “massive chest” and “heavy arms” support elite pressing capability.

Deadlift: 600-650 lbs (272 – 295 kg) – Picking up bodies, dragging treasure, carrying wounded companions, hauling on ship rigging – Conan’s lifestyle was essentially deadlift training. I’d expect this to be a very strong lift for him. Howard describes him carrying people on his back during escapes – that’s some serious posterior chain strength.

Weighted Pull-ups: Bodyweight + 68 kg (150 lbs) Conan spent his early career as a thief, climbing towers and castle walls. Howard frequently describes him “swarming” up sheer surfaces. His back and grip strength would have been exceptional – I’d estimate he could manage 30-35 bodyweight pull-ups, or carry a full-grown person on his back while climbing. At 100kg (225lbs) 28 reps would get him into elite territory, but I think he’d breeze past that.

These are all at least elite numbers – roughly what you’d need to think about compete at national powerlifting levels in the 100kg class.

But here’s the thing: Conan wouldn’t just be strong in the gym. He’d maintain this strength while also being fast, having incredible endurance, extreme explosive power and possessing genuine combat skills.

That’s what makes him exceptional.

Conan’s Speed: Like a Panther

Howard’s most consistent description of Conan’s movement involves big cats. The word “panther” appears more than any other comparison:

“A pantherish twist and shift of his body avoided the blundering rush of two yellow swordsmen.” – Xuthal of the Dusk (The Slithering Shadow)

“He was like a tiger among baboons as he leaped, side-stepped and spun, offering an ever-moving target.” – Queen of the Black Coast

Conan wasn’t just strong – he was explosively fast, with reflexes honed by years of combat where a moment’s hesitation meant death.

Sprint Speed: The 100 Metre Question

For a man of 6’3″ and 225 pounds, how fast could Conan actually run?

I think 11 seconds for 100 metres is realistic – possibly 11.5 on a bad day. That might not sound elite compared to Olympic sprinters, but consider the context:

Jonah Lomu, the legendary All Blacks winger, stood 6’5″ and weighed 265 pounds. He reportedly ran 10.7–11.2 seconds for 100 metres. Will Carling famously called him a “freak” – no one had ever seen that combination of size and speed on a rugby pitch. Lomu could outrun smaller men while being big enough to run through them.

Bo Jackson, at 6’1″ and 227 pounds, ran a hand-timed 4.12-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine – still considered one of the fastest ever recorded. That translates to roughly 11-second 100m territory.

Micah Parsons, the NFL linebacker at 6’3″ and 245 pounds, ran a 4.39-second 40-yard dash. He’s been compared to Lawrence Taylor for his combination of speed and power.

Conan fits this mould perfectly – the freak athlete who shouldn’t be that fast at that size, but somehow is. Fast enough to close distance with an archer before they could nock a second arrow. Fast enough that even quick opponents couldn’t simply run away.

Endurance Running

This is where Conan truly excels. Howard repeatedly emphasises Cimmerian endurance – the ability to cover vast distances on foot through harsh terrain.

In my opinion, Conan could sustain a military pace of 4–5 mph for hours on end, covering 30–40 miles in a day when necessary. That’s not casual hiking – that’s Special Forces selection territory. The British SAS “Fan Dance” covers similar distances over brutal Welsh mountain terrain, and only the most elite candidates complete it.

His 5K time? Probably around 20 minutes – impressive for a 225-pound man, but not quite elite runner territory. He’s simply too big for distance running to be his strength. But that 20-minute 5K while carrying weapons? That’s genuinely formidable.

For longer efforts, think military selection rather than marathon running. Conan could ruck with a heavy load across broken terrain for days on end – a capability built through years of mercenary work, mountain living, and the harsh Cimmerian upbringing.

The Cimmerian Training Programme

Conan didn’t train in a gym – his strength came from life itself. But if we were to reverse-engineer his capabilities, what would the programme look like?

In my opinion, the closest modern equivalent is something like Tactical Barbell – a programme designed for military and law enforcement personnel who need strength, endurance, and the ability to perform unpredictably.

The key elements:

1. Base Strength: Heavy compound movements (squat, deadlift, press, pull-ups)
2. Endurance Base: Running, rucking, swimming – the ability to move for hours
3. Work Capacity: Circuit-style training that builds the ability to perform under fatigue
4. Skill Work: Combat skills, climbing, swimming – the specific demands of the job

This is functional training in the truest sense – not exercises that look impressive, but capabilities that keep you alive.

My Stats (For Posterity)

This post came about because I do have more than a passing interest in health and fitness.

So I thought I’d add my own numbers, not only to embarass myself, which I must surely do here, but to have some kind of comparison.

I train using Tactical Barbell and it really is good for functional fitness. I do not claim for my stats to be great in any way, but I’m mostly happy with them relative to my size. I also ran a marathon a few years back.

These are my stats from the last few years:

• Height: 5’10” (178 cm)
• Weight: fluctuates between 75-80 kg (165-176 lbs)
• Back Squat: 115 kg (254 lbs) for 5 reps
• Bench Press: 95 kg for 1 rep (209 lbs)
• Deadlift: N/A (I don’t deadlift)
• Pull-ups: 18 bodyweight, or +30 kg (66 lbs) for 3 reps
• 5K PB: 20:37 (well off that now)
• 1oK PB: 43:07
• Half Marathon: 1:43:50
• Marathon: 4:03:25 (still gutted I didn’t go under four hours)

These numbers only put me somewhere between novice and intermediate on Strength Level charts – and that’s with consistent training. My running stats are far from anything exciting, though I’m still happy I can say I finished a marathon.

It really shows how much work goes into reaching elite levels. Conan’s estimated numbers are in a completely different category, the kind of strength that takes either a lifetime of physical labour or years of dedicated training (plus genetic gifts most of us don’t have).

My weight is a few kilos heavier now, though I still lift about the same. I don’t back squat much any more either; I find goblet or Bulgarian splits easier on my lower back. I blame it on being over 40.

I guess I’ve got some work to do before I’m storming any Stygian temples.

Was Conan’s Strength Realistic?

Here’s where I think Howard got it right: Conan’s strength is exceptional but not impossible. The numbers I’ve suggested – a 525-575 lb squat, 425-475 lb bench, 600-650 lb deadlift – are achievable by elite natural athletes at his weight class. They’re not world records, but they’re firmly in the “competition powerlifter” range.

What makes Conan special isn’t any single attribute – it’s the combination:

• Elite strength
• Elite speed for his size
• Elite endurance
• Combat skills honed over decades
• Pain tolerance and mental fortitude

That complete package is what’s rare. Plenty of powerlifters can outlift those numbers; they can’t usually run 10k or fight for hours. Plenty of endurance athletes can cover huge distances; they can’t usually bench press 400 pounds. Conan can do both.

In my opinion, this makes him more impressive than a character with clearly superhuman abilities. His strength could exist in our world – it just rarely does.

Is Conan-Level Fitness and strength Achievable?

Honestly? For most people, probably not, no – not the full package. Building elite strength while maintaining elite endurance and combat skills requires either:

1. A lifetime of physical labour starting in childhood
2. Full-time dedication to training
3. Genetic gifts most of us don’t have
4. Probably all three

That being said, there are some humans alive who would surely test Conan. Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (The Mountain that Rides from Game of Thrones, and World’s Strongest Man in 2018) springs to mind. There must be others, too.

In his prime, Andre the Giant must have been stronger than Conan. But clearly nowhere near as fast.

Yet elements of Conan’s fitness are absolutely achievable. You can build impressive functional strength. You can develop solid endurance. You can maintain combat readiness. The question is what you’re willing to prioritise – and that’s the difference between training for life and training for sport.

Follow Conan’s latest comic exploits here or start with the original Robert E Howard Conan stories here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Reading

• Who is Crom? Conan’s God Explained – The philosophy behind Cimmerian self-reliance
• Cimmeria: Conan’s Homeland Explained – The harsh land that forged the barbarian

What do you think – could you train to Conan levels? Let me know in the comments, or share your own training stats for comparison.

“Do you want to live forever?”

Valeria asks this question in the 1982 film before charging into battle alongside Conan. It’s the perfect line for a character who represents everything Robert E. Howard admired: fierce independence, martial skill, and absolute refusal to be anyone’s plaything.

But here’s what many fans don’t realise – the film’s Valeria is actually a combination of two different Howard women. The literary Valeria from “Red Nails” is quite different from the character Sandahl Bergman brought to screen, who borrows heavily from another Howard creation: Bêlit, Queen of the Black Coast.

I think understanding both versions reveals a lot about how Howard wrote women – and why Valeria remains one of sword-and-sorcery’s most memorable heroines.

Valeria in Robert E. Howard’s “Red Nails”

Valeria of the Red Brotherhood appears in “Red Nails,” the final Conan story Howard ever wrote. The novella was serialised in Weird Tales from July to October 1936, published posthumously after Howard’s suicide that June. It’s considered one of his finest works. You can find it in The Conquering Sword of Conan.

Howard described Valeria with characteristic vividness:

“She was tall, full-bosomed, and large-limbed, with compact shoulders. Her whole figure reflected an unusual strength, without detracting from the femininity of her appearance. She was all woman, in spite of her bearing and her garments.”

What I love about this description is how Howard refuses to make her masculine just because she’s a warrior. Valeria is explicitly feminine and explicitly deadly – she sees no contradiction between the two.

Her outfit tells you everything about her character: wide-legged silk breeches, flaring-topped boots, a low-necked silk shirt, and both a straight double-edged sword and a long dirk at her hips. She’s dressed for fighting and for herself, not for anyone else’s approval.

A History of Refusing to Submit

According to “Red Nails,” Valeria was a member of the Red Brotherhood – the Hyborian Age’s most notorious band of pirates operating along the coasts of Stygia and Kush. She earned her reputation among some of the most dangerous men alive.

Her immediate backstory involves fleeing trouble (as Conan characters often do):

1. Red Ortho – A pirate king who wanted her as his mistress. Valeria’s response? She jumped overboard and swam for the Kushite coast rather than submit.

2. Zarallo’s Free Companions – She joined this mercenary company guarding Stygia’s southern borders, but a Stygian officer thought she’d make a better bedwarmer than soldier.

3. The Stygian Officer – He pressed his advances. She stabbed him. She fled south.

I find this pattern revealing. Howard shows us a woman who has repeatedly faced men trying to possess her, and who has consistently chosen violence and exile over submission. This isn’t backstory for its own sake – it tells us exactly who Valeria is before the main action begins.

In the current Conan comics, there is also a sequel to Red Nails by Pat Zircher in Savage Sword of Conan #9.

She Wasn’t Impressed by Conan

Here’s where things get interesting. Unlike the film, literary Valeria is not Conan’s lover when “Red Nails” begins. Quite the opposite – Conan is pursuing her, and she’s not having it.

When they first appear together, Conan has tracked her into the southern jungles precisely because he desires her. Valeria greets this with a drawn sword and genuine hostility:

“I’m not going to be any man’s plaything.”

Howard makes clear that Valeria rebuffs Conan’s initial advances. She’s not impressed by his reputation, his muscles, or his persistence. She judges men by whether they’re useful, not whether they want her.

What changes their dynamic is mutual danger. A dragon (actually a dinosaur with characteristics of both Stegosaurus and Allosaurus) attacks their horses. Suddenly they’re stuck together, survivors who need each other to reach the mysterious city on the horizon.

Throughout the story, Valeria remains Conan’s equal rather than his prize. She fights beside him, makes her own decisions, and is told much of the story from her point of view – unusual for the Conan tales.

By the end of “Red Nails,” after surviving the horrors of Xuchotl, they do become lovers. But it’s on her terms, after she’s seen what kind of man Conan truly is. The final lines promise they’ll return to the seas “to show the world what plundering means” – partners in adventure, not damsel and rescuer.

What Makes Valeria Special

Howard scholar E. F. Bleiler called “Red Nails” “among the better Conan stories,” and Valeria is central to why it works. That being said, I’d argue all the Conan stories are ‘better stories’!

She’s a POV character. Much of “Red Nails” is told from Valeria’s perspective, letting readers see both the madness of the city-dwellers and Conan’s “primordial fury” through civilised eyes.

She’s genuinely dangerous. Howard writes that she was “stronger than the average man, and far quicker and more ferocious.” When combat comes, she kills efficiently and without hesitation.

She has agency. Valeria makes decisions throughout the story. She chooses to enter Xuchotl, chooses her alliances, and acts on her own judgment.

She’s flawed. Valeria can be reckless and hot-tempered. She ends up captured and in need of rescue – but so does Conan at other points in Howard’s stories. Neither is invincible.

In my opinion, Valeria represents one of Howard’s most successful attempts at writing a female warrior who feels like a complete character rather than a prize to be won.

The Other Half of Film Valeria: Bêlit

To understand the 1982 film’s version of Valeria, you need to know about Bêlit, Queen of the Black Coast.

Bêlit appears in “Queen of the Black Coast” (1934), often considered Howard’s finest Conan story. She’s a Shemite pirate queen who commands a crew of black warriors from the Tigress, terrorising the coastlines of Kush and Stygia.

Unlike Valeria, Bêlit falls for Conan instantly. Upon seeing him fight, she declares:

“I am Bêlit, queen of the black coast. Oh, tiger of the North, you are cold as the snowy mountains which bred you. Take me and crush me with your fierce love! Go with me to the ends of the earth and the ends of the sea!”

Bêlit is passionate, avaricious, and commands absolute loyalty from her crew. She and Conan spend years together pillaging the coast before tragedy strikes in a haunted city. A winged monster kills her – but she makes Conan a promise:

“Were I still in death and you fighting for your life, I would come back from the abyss to aid you.”

She keeps that promise. Bêlit’s ghost returns to save Conan from the monster that killed her. Very similar to Valeria returning in the film.

The 1982 Film: Merging Two Characters

Sandahl Bergman’s Valeria in the 1982 film is really a fusion of both women:

From Valeria:

• The name
• The profession (thief/mercenary rather than pirate queen)
• The initial reluctance about Conan
• The swordsmanship

From Bêlit:

• The deep romantic relationship with Conan
• The promise to return from death
• The ghostly return to save Conan in battle
• The status as Conan’s “true love”

The film handles this fusion brilliantly. We first meet Valeria in Zamora, where she and Conan become lovers and partners in crime along with Subotai. Their relationship develops naturally, avoiding both Bêlit’s instant passion and literary Valeria’s prolonged resistance.

When Valeria is killed by Thulsa Doom’s snake-arrow, her death devastates Conan – exactly as Bêlit’s death devastates him in “Queen of the Black Coast.” And like Bêlit, film Valeria returns from beyond death to save Conan during the Battle of the Mounds.

“Do you want to live forever?” becomes her eternal question – a warrior who chose mortality over immortality, death over dishonour, and love over safety.

Sandahl Bergman Earned Those Awards

Sandahl Bergman won both a Golden Globe (New Star of the Year) and a Saturn Award (Best Actress) for playing Valeria. Her performance deserves the recognition.

A professional dancer who worked with Bob Fosse, Bergman brought physicality and grace to the role that few actresses could match. At 6 feet tall and genuinely athletic, she’s believable as a warrior who fights beside Conan as an equal.

Because no stunt women matched her size, Bergman performed all her own stunts. As she later recalled: “It was tough. I nearly lost a finger. Arnold smashed his head against a rock. But that was nothing compared to what the stuntmen went through.”

What I appreciate most about her performance is the emotional range. Bergman’s Valeria isn’t just a fighter – she’s someone who has clearly lived hard and found something worth protecting in her relationship with Conan. Her concern about whether revenge against Thulsa Doom is worth dying for feels genuine.

The scene where she offers to stay with Conan rather than pursue vengeance, declaring “All the gods, they cannot sever us,” contains more emotional truth than most sword-and-sorcery romances manage.

Valeria’s Legacy

Is Valeria a good character? I think she’s one of Howard’s best – and she’s influenced sword-and-sorcery heroines for decades:

Red Sonja – The “She-Devil with a Sword” was created for Marvel’s Conan comics, drawing inspiration from both Valeria and another Howard character (Red Sonya of Rogatino from a non-Conan story). Red Sonja: Consumed review here.

Modern Fantasy Heroines – Characters like Brienne of Tarth owe something to Howard’s template of the warrior woman who refuses traditional feminine roles but remains distinctly female.

Video Game Characters – Valeria appears in Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures and influences countless female warrior designs.

In my opinion, what makes Valeria endure is that Howard avoided the obvious traps. She’s not a man with breasts. She’s not defined solely by her relationship to Conan. She’s not rescued so often that her combat skills seem like a joke. She’s simply a dangerous, complicated person who happens to be female – exactly what a good character should be.

Where to Experience Valeria

For Howard’s original, The Conquering Sword of Conan from Del Rey contains “Red Nails” with the unedited text. Is “Red Nails” worth reading? It’s genuinely one of Howard’s best – darker and more psychologically complex than most Conan tales, with Valeria as a proper co-protagonist rather than a damsel. You can also read it free on Project Gutenberg.

For the 1982 film, the 4K UHD is the best way to see Sandahl Bergman’s Golden Globe-winning performance. Is the film worth watching for Valeria specifically? Yes – she’s not just a love interest but a genuine partner to Conan, and her death scene remains one of the most affecting moments in sword-and-sorcery cinema. The Blu-ray or Conan dvd are also excellent if you’re on a budget.

For comics, Barry Windsor-Smith’s adaptation of “Red Nails” in Savage Tales #2–3 is stunning, and Marvel’s recent Age of Conan: Valeria provides an origin story. I haven’t read it myself but it’s supposed to be pretty average.

If you want to understand the other half of film Valeria, read “Queen of the Black Coast” featuring Bêlit – also in the Del Rey collections. The recent novel Conan: Blood of the Serpent serves as a prequel to “Red Nails” showing how Conan and Valeria first met. It was pretty good.

Island of Pirates’ Doom was an entertaining six part comic running through the Savage Sword of Conan Volume 6 Omnibus and I would definitely recommend it!

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Reading

• Who is Thulsa Doom? Conan’s Most Famous Villain Explained – The man who killed Valeria
• Cimmeria: Conan’s Homeland Explained
• Who is Crom? Conan’s God Explained
• Best Music for Reading Conan – Includes the 1982 soundtrack
• Stygia: The Serpent Kingdom Explained

“Crom!”

It’s the word Conan shouts before battle, in moments of shock, and when everything goes wrong. But who exactly is Crom? And why does Conan invoke a god who, by his own admission, doesn’t care about mortals at all?

I think Crom is one of the most fascinating elements of Robert E. Howard’s worldbuilding – a deity who exists not to comfort his worshippers but to challenge them. In my opinion, understanding Crom is essential to understanding Conan himself.

Who is Crom?

Crom is the chief god of the Cimmerians, the grim northern people who inhabit the cold, mountainous land where Conan was born. Unlike the gods of other Hyborian nations – who promise salvation, answer prayers, or demand elaborate worship – Crom offers nothing.

He sits on his great mountain, Crom’s Mountain (called Ben Morgh in some sources), brooding over the world. He sends forth doom and death. He doesn’t listen to prayers. He doesn’t intervene in mortal affairs. He doesn’t care.

And yet the Cimmerians worship him anyway.

What I love about this is how it reflects the Cimmerian character. These are a hard people living in a hard land, and their god matches them perfectly. They don’t want a comforting deity – they’d despise one. Crom respects strength, and the Cimmerians respect Crom for demanding it.

What Does Crom Give His Worshippers?

According to Cimmerian belief, Crom grants each person exactly two gifts at birth:

1. The will to fight
2. The strength to survive

That’s it. No miracles, no divine protection, no answered prayers. Crom gives you the tools at the start and expects you to handle the rest yourself. If you fail, that’s your problem. If you succeed, don’t expect praise.

I think this is genuinely brilliant theology for a barbarian culture. It explains why Cimmerians are so self-reliant and why they view softer peoples with contempt. Their god doesn’t coddle them, so why should they expect coddling from anyone else?

In my opinion, this also makes Crom one of the most honest gods in fantasy literature. He doesn’t pretend to love his worshippers or promise rewards he won’t deliver. The deal is clear from the start: here’s your strength, now get on with it.

Why Doesn’t Crom Answer Prayers?

Howard addresses this directly through Conan. The Cimmerian explains that it’s actually better that Crom doesn’t listen, because if you attracted his attention, he’d probably send you doom rather than help.

This isn’t a god you want noticing you.

The Cimmerians don’t build temples to Crom. They don’t perform rituals or sacrifices. They don’t have priests. What would be the point? Crom doesn’t want worship – he wants his people to be strong enough not to need it.

Personally, I find this refreshing compared to the transactional religions in most fantasy settings. There’s no “pray harder and good things happen” here. The universe of Conan is indifferent at best, hostile at worst, and Crom embodies that perfectly.

Crom in the 1982 Film

The 1982 Conan the Barbarian film gave Crom his most memorable moment in popular culture. When Conan prays before the Battle of the Mounds, he delivers what I’d argue is one of the best prayers in cinema:

He asks Crom for revenge. He asks for help in battle. But then he acknowledges that Crom probably won’t listen – and if Crom won’t help, then to hell with him.

It’s not really a prayer at all. It’s a statement of intent that happens to be directed at a god. Conan isn’t begging; he’s informing Crom of his plans and daring the god to stop him.

I think this scene captures the Cimmerian relationship with Crom perfectly. It’s not worship in any conventional sense. It’s an acknowledgement that Crom exists, combined with complete self-reliance about what comes next.

Crom vs Other Hyborian Gods

To understand what makes Crom special, compare him to the other major deities in Howard’s world:

Mitra – The god of the Hyborian kingdoms (especially Aquilonia) is benevolent, answers prayers, and promises salvation. His worship involves temples, priests, and moral codes. He’s essentially the “good” god of the setting.

Set – The serpent god of Stygia is actively malevolent, demanding human sacrifice and granting dark powers to his sorcerer-priests. He’s the primary antagonist deity in many Conan stories.

Ishtar, Bel, Derketo – Various gods of the eastern and southern kingdoms who involve themselves in mortal affairs to varying degrees, usually through priesthoods and temples.

Then there’s Crom, who simply… doesn’t engage. He’s not good or evil in any meaningful sense. He gave humanity what it needed and walked away. In my opinion, this makes him more realistic than any of the others – a god who reflects the indifferent universe Howard depicts.

What Crom Reveals About Conan

Crom isn’t just worldbuilding – he’s character development. The god tells us everything we need to know about Conan’s philosophy:

Self-reliance is paramount. Conan never expects divine intervention because his entire culture taught him not to. When he succeeds, it’s through his own strength and cunning. When he fails, he doesn’t blame the gods.

Life is struggle. The Cimmerian worldview, embodied by Crom, sees existence as an endless battle. You fight until you can’t, and then you die. There’s a brutal honesty to this that Conan carries throughout his adventures.

Strength deserves respect. Crom respects the strong. Conan respects the strong. This isn’t might-makes-right morality exactly – Conan has his own code – but physical and mental toughness matter more than birth, wealth, or piety.

Death is final. Unlike Mitra-worshippers who believe in paradise, Cimmerians believe the dead go to a grey realm of clouds and ice where they wander forever. It’s bleak, but it means Conan lives fully in the present rather than hoping for rewards after death.

I think this is why Conan feels so different from other fantasy heroes. He’s not on a divine mission. He’s not a chosen one. His god explicitly doesn’t choose anyone. He’s just a man with strength and will, making his way through a hostile world.

Is Crom a Good God?

Here’s where I’ll offer a controversial opinion: I think Crom is actually a better god than many fantasy deities.

Not morally better – Crom doesn’t care about morality. But better in the sense of honest, consistent, and realistic.

Most fantasy religions are wish-fulfilment. Pray to the good god and he’ll help you. Serve the dark god and he’ll grant you power. It’s transactional, comforting, and fundamentally unlike how most people experience religion in reality.

Crom offers no comfort, but he also tells no lies. He doesn’t promise what he won’t deliver. He doesn’t demand worship he won’t reward. He’s exactly what he appears to be: a grim god for a grim people in a grim world.

Is Crom worth believing in? In my opinion, within the context of Howard’s universe, absolutely. He’s the only honest deity in the Hyborian Age.

Where to Read About Crom

If you want to explore Crom and Cimmerian religion further, here are my recommendations:

Essential Howard Stories:

• The Phoenix on the Sword – Contains Conan’s explanation of Crom and Cimmerian beliefs
• Queen of the Black Coast – The famous “what do you believe” conversation between Conan and Bêlit
• The Frost Giant’s Daughter – Shows Cimmerian attitudes toward northern gods

Best Editions:

• The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian (Del Rey) – Contains all the essential stories with the original text
• The Complete Chronicles of Conan (Gollancz) – More affordable single-volume option

Comics:

• The Marvel Conan comics explore Crom occasionally, particularly in stories set in Cimmeria
• Conan the Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibuses – Includes several Cimmeria-set stories

The 1982 Film:

• Conan the Barbarian 4K UHD – The prayer to Crom scene alone is worth the price

Where to start with Conan if you’re not sure:

• The best current Conan comics
• The original Conan stores

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Reading

• Cimmeria: Conan’s Homeland Explained
• Conan’s Gods: Complete Pantheon Guide (coming soon)
• Where to Start with Conan the Barbarian
• The Hyborian Age Map: Complete Geography Guide (coming soon)

Few regions of the Hyborian Age require as much contextual understanding as the Black Kingdoms, and Kush stands at their heart – a powerful civilisation drawing on African history and filtered through the pulp sensibilities of the 1930s.

Understanding Howard’s Black Kingdoms

Before diving into Kush specifically, I think it’s essential to address the elephant in the room. Robert E. Howard was a product of his time, and his depictions of African-inspired cultures reflect the prejudices and limitations of 1930s America.

This doesn’t mean we must discard these elements of his work, but we should read them critically and with historical awareness.

That said, Howard’s treatment of the Black Kingdoms is more complex than simple dismissal might suggest. He clearly found these cultures fascinating, depicted individual black characters with dignity and heroism, and created kingdoms with genuine grandeur.

The situation is nuanced, and I would argue that modern readers can engage with this material thoughtfully without either whitewashing its problems or discarding it entirely.

Kush: The Kingdom

Kush occupies the region south of Stygia, positioned between the serpent-worshippers and the less organised tribal territories further south. It’s the most powerful and civilised of the Black Kingdoms, with cities, organised military forces, and a sophisticated culture.

The name itself comes from the historical Kingdom of Kush, the Nubian civilisation that flourished along the Nile and actually conquered Egypt at one point.

I think Howard chose this name deliberately to evoke African antiquity and power – he wanted Kush to feel ancient and formidable, not primitive.

In Howard’s telling, Kush has a complex relationship with neighbouring Stygia. The two kingdoms trade, war, and influence each other across their shared border.

Stygian culture has seeped into Kush over the centuries, creating a unique blend. In my opinion, this cultural mixing makes Kush more interesting than a purely isolated civilisation would be.

Geography and Society

Howard describes Kush as a land of savannahs, jungles, and great rivers.

The capital city – though Howard was somewhat inconsistent about details – appears to be a genuine metropolis with temples, palaces, and markets. This isn’t a collection of villages but an organised kingdom with urban centres.

Kushite society is hierarchical, with a king or queen ruling over nobles, warriors, priests, and commoners. The military tradition is strong – Kushite warriors are feared throughout the Hyborian world as formidable fighters.

I would say Howard consistently depicted Kushites as dangerous opponents, not easy victories for Conan.

The religion of Kush incorporates both native traditions and Stygian influence. Set worship has made inroads, though it never completely dominated as it did in Stygia. Local gods and spirits remain important, creating a religious landscape more diverse than the Stygian theocracy.

Key Stories Featuring Kush

“The Snout in the Dark” features Kushite characters and touches on the kingdom’s politics. “The Vale of Lost Women” is set in the Black Kingdoms region, though it’s one of Howard’s more problematic stories in terms of racial depictions.

“Queen of the Black Coast” involves Conan’s relationship with Bêlit, whose crew includes Black warriors and whose adventures take her along the Black Coast.

I think “Queen of the Black Coast” deserves particular attention because it showcases Howard’s complexity. Bêlit leads a crew that includes black men treated as loyal, capable warriors.

The story takes African-inspired settings seriously as places of danger, mystery, and adventure. It’s not perfect by modern standards, but it’s not simple bigotry either. You can check it out in The Coming of Conan from Dey Rey.

In my opinion, the Kush-related stories work best when read as adventure tales in exotic settings – the same way Howard treated every setting, from Nordheim to Khitai. He wasn’t interested in anthropological accuracy; he wanted exciting backdrops for Conan’s adventures.

The Question of Representation

Modern readers and creators face a genuine challenge with Howard’s Black Kingdoms. Do you ignore this portion of his world? Do you revise it? Do you engage with it as-written whilst acknowledging its limitations?

I would argue for critical engagement. The Black Kingdoms contain genuine imaginative power alongside their problems. Kush as a concept – an ancient, proud African kingdom with its own magic, warriors, and traditions – is inherently appealing. The execution in 1930s pulp fiction has flaws, but the core idea has potential.

Recent Conan adaptations have attempted various approaches. Some expand Kush and the Black Kingdoms, giving them more depth and agency. Others have created new black characters less burdened by pulp-era baggage. In my view, both approaches have merit, and the material is rich enough to support multiple interpretations.

Historical Inspirations

Howard drew on several sources for his African-inspired kingdoms. The historical Kush and its successor state Meroë provided the name and some imagery. West African kingdoms like Mali and Songhai may have influenced his conception of organised Black African states. Egyptian depictions of their southern neighbours also filtered into Howard’s imagination.

I think it’s worth noting that Howard stood out in his era for acknowledging that Africa had genuine civilisations at all. Much popular culture of the 1930s depicted Africa as entirely primitive jungle. Howard’s inclusion of cities, kingdoms, and organised societies in the Black Kingdoms – however flawed – represented a step beyond complete erasure.

The warrior traditions Howard described have some basis in African military history. The disciplined armies of various African kingdoms genuinely impressed and terrified their neighbours and European colonisers alike. In my opinion, Howard’s respect for African martial prowess was genuine, even if his other depictions fell short.

Kush in the Broader World

Kush doesn’t exist in isolation. Its relationships with Stygia, the other Black Kingdoms, and the broader Hyborian world create a web of politics and commerce. Kushite mercenaries serve in foreign armies. Kushite gold flows through trade routes. Kushite magic – distinct from but related to Stygian sorcery – has its own reputation.

In my view, this interconnection is one of Howard’s strengths as a worldbuilder. He didn’t create isolated pockets of culture but a genuinely interconnected world where influence flows in all directions. Kush influences and is influenced by its neighbours, making it feel like part of a living world.

Reading Recommendations

If you want to explore Kush and the Black Kingdoms, I would suggest starting with “Queen of the Black Coast” – it’s one of Howard’s best stories regardless of setting. Approach it knowing the era it comes from, and you’ll find genuine thrills alongside the period limitations.

For a modern take, the recent Marvel Comics Conan runs have done interesting work expanding the Black Kingdoms and their characters. These adaptations benefit from decades of changed attitudes whilst retaining Howard’s core sense of adventure.

The Snout in the Dark, finished by Lin Carter and L. Sprague de Camp is a great read and a story I’d highly recommend. It’s an old school pulp adventure.

There’s a great adapatation of it in the original Conan omnibus volume 4.

To find the best of the current Conan the Barbarian comics go here.

Further land and city reading in Conan’s world

Stygia and why it’s like Egypt
What’s the difference between Nemedia and Aquilonia?
Zamora and its thieves (including Conan)

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