The Hyborian Age is the main setting where the Red Sonja stories take place. It originates from Robert E. Howard, described as a mythical point in time before the rise of the known ancient civilizations. The term "Hyborian" is a contraction of the Greek concept of "Hyperborea", a mythical place found north where things did not age.
History[]
Pre-Cataclysmic Age[]
There is little about the Pre-Cataclysmic Age in the Nemedian Chronicles. Recorded history begins with the waning of the civilization on the main continent, Thuria. The primary kingdoms on Thuria included Ramelia, Valusia, Verulia, Grondar, Thule and Commoria. Language was similar across these civilizations which seems to indicate a common origin.
The societies outside those civilizations, the barbarians of the age, included the Picts of the islands far out on the Western Ocean, the Atlanteans, who dwelt on a small continent between the Pictish islands and the Thurian continent, and the Lemurians, who inhabited a chain of large islands in the Eastern Hemisphere.
In addition, there were vast regions of unexplored land, the civilized kingdoms, though enormous, occupied a relatively small portion of the whole planet. Valusia was the westernmost kingdom of the Thurian continent with a capital city known as 'the City of Wonders'. Grondar, whose people were less highly cultured than those of the other kingdoms, was the easternmost land. Among the less arid stretches of desert east of Grondar, in the serpent-infested jungles, and among the snow capped mountains, there were scattered clans and tribes of primitive savages.
On the eastern end of the Thurian continent lived another race of humans which had occasional contact with the Lemurians. They may have migrated from another continent somewhere east of the Lemurian islands.
There was also a second mysterious civilization, unconnected with the Thurian culture, far to the south, that was pre-human in nature.
The exact details of the pre-Cataclysmic Thurian civilization are unknown, but it is generally believed that it was in decline at the time of the Cataclysm. Legends tell of strife between the kingdoms and in particular, wars between Valusia and Commoria, as well as Atlantean colonization of the mainland.
Notes[]
- The chronology of the Hyborian Age was set out in an essay by Robert E. Howard entitled, 'The Hyborian Age'. This essay was adapted into comic form by Roy Thomas and Walt Simonson in the Conan Saga 50-54 & 56.
