Really, the whole setting was an excuse for Howard , who loved historical adventure fiction, to put Conan in any place and period he felt like, without worrying about getting shit wrong. Want him to fight vikings? To be a Roman mercenary in Britain? Team up with Egyptian slaves? Why not!

The Hyperboreans being a supposed mythical race mentioned by the ancient Greeks as a people living in the frozen lands with a somehow temperate climate under perpetual sunshine is something I had absolutely never heard before until I looked up "Hyperboreans" for more Conan lore lol instead I found another actual historical equivalent used by Howard in his world building

Some time stamps 2:37 Hyperborea 3:08 Vanaheim and Asgard 3:39 Cimmeria 4:09 The Picts 4:37 Aquilonia 5:02 Zingara 5:25 Argos 5:48 Ophir and Koth 6:14 Nemedia 6:33 Brythunia 7:01 Corinthia 7:17 Zamora 7:39 Turan 7:53 Hyrkania 8:11 Shem 8:29 Stygia 9:28 Himelian Mountains 9:49 Vendhya 10:11 Khitai 10:31 Kush 10:50 Darfar 11:18 Lemuria

I find it fun how Howard didn’t even bother renaming any of the African kingdoms (Kush and Darfur, which where real African kingdoms) still I’m impressed he even knew about them.

The Cimmerians in Conan's lore refer to the real-life Proto-Indo-European people of the same name. Interestingly, they were the people who first mastered ironworks in Europe. They have solved the riddle of Steel

For some context regarding characters: Belit: Shemite Red Sonja: Hyrkanian Valeria: Aquilonian Zenobia: possibly Numedean

The Brythunians, known across the land for their dreaded light cavalry, rumored to be a proto-winged hussar. They ride rugged Steppe horses capable of riding on rough terrain for days on end and charging violently down the steep ravines that surround their heartland. Legend tells that eons ago, in their eleventh hour facing insurmountable odds against eastern barbarians, they were rescued by a mysterious mounted force of flying cavalry pouring from the northern mountain passes. We refer to them today as the mythical Valkyrie, but they were referred to as “Hushkai” which in the ancestral tongue meant “rider of death”. Thus the tradition remains today of swift riding cavalry donning dramatic wings as they ride fiercely into battle.

I've just discovered Conan and I'm fascinated by the world, lore, and the cultural influences on the different races. For my own TTRPG homebrew world I was already taking a lot of influence from real world cultures and peoples and seeing that Conan has done the same is a huge inspiration. I love seeing real world history with a fantastical twist

Only ever heard of Conan and seen the 80s movies, never knew the Lore, Races, Nations, Cultures etc. Very interesting!

If anyone's interested there's a four book series based in African cultures that I recommend called Imaro written by Charles Saunders. Its about a warrior called Imaro and is set in Nyumbani, a fantasy Hyperborean version of Africa and many of the cultures and people who live there, mixed with some degrees of Lovecraftian cosmic horror for good mesure.

I read all of the REH Conan books when I was a kid, along with the stories of Kull the Conquer and the sword fighting Puritan Mercenary Soliman Kane. You did a great job tying the original Hyborian World and the games together. Well done.

To make a few additions, the Vilayet Sea was the Ottoman term for the Caspian Sea. The Turan Kingdom is more like a reflection of the Seljuks and the Ottomans. Because the origin of the Turanians is based on the Hyrkania steppes. A group of Hyrkanian nomads crossed the sea of ​​the province and established a state on the western side, just as the Seljuks left the steppes and established a state in Iran and Anatolia. Hyrkanians, on the other hand, are similar to nomadic Turks and Mongols. The gods Tarim and Erlik worshiped by the Turanians and Hyrkanians. Erlik is Turkic god that exists in mythology. Also, Tarim evokes the word Tanrı (or old version Tengri) in modern Turkish.("Tanrım" means "my God" in modern Turkish) Also, in a Conan adventure, it was mentioned that the Turan king arrived in the capital before his brother and tried to take the throne. This was a direct reference to the Ottoman Sultan Selim I. It is also an old Turkic tradition for Turan kings to strangle their relatives with bowstring for political gain. The Turks believed that the ruling dynasty was commissioned by God and that their blood was holy. Therefore, members of the dynasty were not killed by the sword. The name of Yildiz, the King of the Turanians, is also Turkish name means "star". Although we use the name Yıldız for women today, we also used it for men in history. The country called Iranistan to the south of Turan represents Persian culture and they are enemies to each other, just as Turks and Persians were enemies to each other in history. Btw fantastic video. Thanks for sharing.

I had know idea the conan-verse could be so dense with lore and roleplay potential. Still I like this video and it has peaked my interest in conan :D

Excellent video! I’ve become a huge fan of Conan and Howard’s work since I picked up Conan Exiles last year and have been trying to eat up as much lore as I possibly can.

I Think I understand the idea of Conan a bit better now, always thought Conan to be a loose fictional fanatasy that wasn't bound to any foundations.

Howard was among my favorite authors growing up. This channel is a gem. Thank you.

For those who noticed errors in this video! Don’t worry we go over that and go deeper into Cultures here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fLh2atyBxMDFp6M.html

This was cool, thank you very much! I didn't know any of this and I'm just getting into a RP server for Conan Exiles and writing my backstory. This helped me come up with some ideas.

Interesting, I always thought Aquilonians were more like late Roman Empire, after enforcing christian faith as only allowed religion (hence zealous adherence to Mitra's worship), Franks never came to my mind

Something about the idea of ordinary men becoming mythologized really fascinates me. Reminds of the idea of an Anglo Saxon king that inspired the myths of King Arthur. (I forget the exact name though)

Your video was quite detailed and extensive. The historical links you expounded on helped me to visualize the world better. Much appreciated.

I am always trying to convince my friends to start reading Conan, but they just laugh it off. I read the Hyborian Age first and I was like wtf this is great and then I read all the short stories and fell absolutely in love with Howards world and it's characters. Hats off to you, sir! Thank you for keeping Conan's name out there. Absolutely no tv show or no movie will ever do it the proper justice. REH wrote so much good stuff, it is insane to imagine that he died at the age of 30. I am 31 and I hate every word I write down to craft my own story lol

Nice. I always toyed with the idea of doing a Conan run (TTRPG). I wanted it to be near the end of the Hyborian age, where magic is waning, Aquilonia has long since fallen, the peoples in & around Stygia aren't even calling it Stygia anymore.

I've been looking into Howard recently and I can't believe how short and tragic his life was...

would love to see more lore vids especially about the giant kings.

This was educational and fun. I just realized the only decent Conan movie we have is Arnold's, Conan movie. We need a Conan anime, a la Netflix's Castlevania.

"Cimmerians are heavily theorized to be the decendents of the Atlanteans." Robert E. Howard, verbatim in reference to Cimmerians in "Notes on various peoples of the Hyborian Age" I quote, "These were descendents from the ancient Atlanteans." Come on dude.

It would be AWESOME if you made a part 2 to this video. Would love to learn more about Iranistan, Kosala, Kambuja, Zembabwei, Punt, etc.

This is great. I had no idea the Conan world was so developed. Thank you.

Howard meant "Cimmeria" to be an expert of ancient pre-Roman Britain inhabited by the Ancient Britons, who called themselves "Cymri". There was a real region called Cimmeria, which actually existed at the north end of the Caspian Sea.

Hyrkania; pronounced like Higher-kania, not Her-krania. Howard depicts Brythunians as fair skinned blondes and their culture as pretty much a vassal state of Aquilonia, but you're right, there isn't much to go on.. I found the inclusion of Yamatai in Exiles surprising as I believe they are not mentioned anywhere in Howard's work. If memory serves they are another mythical antediluvian culture like the Lemurians and denizens of Mu, theorized by spiritualists and pseudo historians at the beginning of the 20th century.

Been collecting the RPG books for Conan. I've been trying to get away from running DnD and I've always been a fan of Conan. This Lore video was helpful.

Here from Conan exiles cause I wanted to learn about the races.

Your work is incredible and you deserve many times more attention! Peace and prosperity!

And direct delivery of it along with visuals in the format of maps.

Whomever is working on the Conan TV series on Netflix should take careful note of this video.

In my homebrew, I’d make the Lemurians based on the Jomon period (which fits the timeline), and use the famous Jomon “astronauts” as suits of armor imbued with magical powers like flight.

"Screw Your Freedom". Conan The Barbarian.

Thanks for this, interesting video. I play Conan Exiles, it's funny I started my character as a Nordhiemer and then changed to Cimmerian with the orb of nergal bench. But I'm also personally a mix of Scandinavian and English (I didn't know who some of the races were inspired by before making those character choices).

I watched this video and was inspired to (re)watch the REH Hyporborean Essay video to compare and identify for myself, the fiction vs reality comparisons mentioned and expanded upon in said videos. I can only say I am now more knowledgeable of geographical, ethnic groups/races, and archeological history than I was before. Only if and when referring to that of the fantasy world invented ( with real world inspiration ) by Robert E. Howard.

Fantastic video!

You showed the scout for Thulsa Doom from the 80s movie as a Pict. He is, in fact, Vanir. The movie explicitly says about the raiders/mercenaries: "Who knows what they came for? Weapons of steel or murder? It was never known, for their leader rode to the south while children went North with the Vanir."

one of the best Conan channels out there

Why are people so surprised that Howard based his stories on real places and cultures?

Just started to read the Conan stories. I realy like the short story format for fantasy. It get's to the point

In my head canon, The pictes are the "ancestors" of all of the Native americans, Because most of the arts represent them being brown skinned, dark hair & eyes. Maybe the ones who landed in Hyboria eventually mixed with other cultures to become the scottish. But by the looks and name of their tribes, they are basically Natives americans.

I remember reading the comics, there was a land where that had dinosaurs and native american type people

EVERY Conan Fan MUST Read R. E. Howard's, L. Sprague De Camp's and Lynn Carter's Paperbacks on Conan's Life, about 14 Volumes from Conan's Birth to Supposed Death.

Cimmerians are also taken from world history from the bronze age, they were from Black Sea in modern day Crimea... They are mentioned by other cultures histories for their invasions of modern day Turkey/ Pontice/Asia minor. they had ties to both the Greek world and the indo-Iranian Scythians of the Siberian step.

World of Conan is epic and rich. Great job in covering it. Robert E. Howard was genius.

I was just at the comic book store feeling I need a new dose of CONAN! and this hit the spot

Thank you I needed this

Maaaaan. Geeeeez. D: I am going to have to write so much stuff to get all these referencer points down. I want to play around a bit in this setting, probably using Novel AI. However before I start I really feel I need to get some information about all the races, cultures and so on into the lorebook. Probably have to add all sorts of lore bits and information to get as solid a setting as possible... Not that an AI would truly follow and appreciate the setting properly anyway but hey. I do not get to buy slaves to play and run games for me so I will take what I can get. This video is truly a massive help. :3 I will probably just copy the stuff you said and hope that is enough for the AI.

Thank you for the summary of such a rich and diverse mega continent! Helped me in prep for running the Conan tabletop RPG

Such a beautifully detailed and lore rich world.

I'm totally down with worshipping the goddess Rhona Mitra.

Arguably the Vikings had there origins in today's Denmark. Most Norse cultures looked like each other before the Viking age. The Celtic people weren't a unified people, the closest it came to it they spilt into two a french and german faction. That also spread to the British isles, most prominent in Scotland and Ireland from one of the group's and the Welsh from the other.

While information was mostly spot on you got Cimmerians and Picts quite wrong,according to the centenary edition of the complete chronicles page 19 specifically states Gaels were the descendants of pure Cimmerian tribes in particular highland Scots and Picts became part of the ancient kingdom of Koth. In fact I highly recommend reading the book I mentioned as it contains a plethora of information of most of the nation states and what they eventually became part of.

This is a great video subbed

👍🔥🔥🔥 perfect work

Thanks!! fun info

Good video👍

I'm so happy I found this channel

Really love Conan and the game aswell👍

Could you make a video about the cimmerians ? Despite the character of conan being very present I know little about his people and their way of life

This was super cool thank you for the great video man.

Cool video, keep pausing every few minutes to read wiki articles, I am enamored...

I do like REH mix history and fantasy in hes work

I saw some of these a bit differently, however was a good job on your part and program, the Brythunian folk I see as proto Briton, and said in such a way Bryth, the th being a t sound, etc Shem of course giving rise to the Semetic folk later, Arabs, Amorites, Akkadian, Hebrew etc

You can find Howard's Conan stories online at Project Gutenberg and also Project Gutenberg Australia. Just search or look for Robert E. Howard. I have been reading Conan for about 50 years.

I really like the Kushite Warrior body style, i wish i could make a character shaped like that in Conan Exiles

The coast of kush sounds like a weed smokers resort xD

If Nemedia is Germany and Brythunia is Poland and Ophir is northern Italy then Corinthia must be inspired by kingdom of Carinthia, so Slovenia and Austria. Edit: I looked at the lore. It says that was raided by invaders of Turan (Turkey), so yes, this is 100% inspired by Austria/Slovenian/Croatian lands.

Hey 👋🏻 This was interesting. Thanks and Peace. ✌🏻

it's weird how now, due to the Comics, this also is in the Marvel Universe lore.

Nice lore video on Conan, thanks!

Good stuff!

awesome vid

12:30 found your video through algorithm. Awesome content! I will rewatch this again :)

I would appreciate a video explaining briefly the relationships between kingdoms! I am going to Gm on a 2d20 Conan game and i would really use that info!

Curious. The Isle of Siptah DLC intro sequence suggests that you are being taken to the Exiled Lands by sea. Now that I see it on the map, it seems like a very exhaustive way to drag people off to the Exiled Lands.

I just read REH’s collection and in his world ‘history’ section on the hyborian age, it said that the descendants of nemedians became the Irish and the descendants of the brythunians became the britons. Yet every thing I read on the topic said that nemedia was Germanic and brythunia was Eastern European. Did I miss something in his writing or is that just some revision after REH’s death?

I really liked this one. I love Conan Exiles so much I have 3100 hours in it. I learned a lot from your video about the races and locations. Thank you. It is December now so I wish you Merry Christmas and successful Happy new year!

Is it true that the Conan universe is also apart of the Lovecraft universe? How many Lovecraft influences or inspired things are present in the Conan universe?

I'm a bit confused about places like Argos, Koth and Ophir. Some places say Koth and Ophir are Ancient Roman inspired and Argos is ancient Greece inspired, while others say Koth and Ophir are Medieval Italy inspired and Argos is medieval Greece inspired. Would you be able to confirm which one it is? I'm a big fan of Ancient Rome and Greece and just want to know which Hyborian nation is Anicent Roman/Greek Appreciate any help you can give

I don't know if you said it in the vid and I just didn't hear it, but I'd like to point out that the picts are also partially inspired by native Americans specifically Algonquin

I ask myself, if Howard ever heard of the "Kurgan hypothesis"?

I totally misheard that "neighbors" word when you started talking about the Darfari. I was like "wait, WHAT?" :D

liked and subscribed

You mentioned that one of the races would later evolve into what we know as the Etruscans, out of curiosity would that be the Hittites due to their Italic attributes or another race?

Loved this

New subscriber here. This video was excellent. As a fan of Conan since my childhood, I really liked what I saw in your channel.

This explanation of the world of Conan the Barbarian, fills in some missing info of the franchise.

Basically the only thing we know about Brythunia from R. E. Howard's own writings that wasn't mentioned here is that Brythunian women are renowned for their beauty and are highly sought-after in the slave trade. :/ In that sense, there also seems to be some similarity with the so-called "Circassian beauties" of our own history.

Very cool video!

Also pretty sure cimmerian is pronounced with a hard k because in most celtic ( and they're gealic) languages and I think Latin too it would be a hard k but I made this mistake when reading it first and in my reading of cimmeria I pronounced it with the soft c

this was perfect informations. thank you!

Really helpful video!

Like game of thrones but based more on history it's great I'm gonna go check it out.

I agree with most of this especially Aquilonia being France but they do have some roman vibes like having a patrician class, zamora is 100% the caucuses and cimmerians are geals 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻