Stygia is a location in the Red Sonja comic series. Stygia is a southern land of the Hyborian Age.
Geography[]
Stygia is located south of Shem and north of the Black Kingdoms. Much of its borders are defined by the river Styx. Stygia's terrain is a mix of mountains, deserts, plains, and marshes.
History[]
The Stygians were a mysterious people, the ruling elite tall, dusky, hawk-nosed, and haughty while the lower classes were a mixture of Negroid, Stygian, Shemite, and Hyborian stock. Stygia was a theocracy controlled by the priests of Set, the Serpent-God. The administrative capital and seat of the king was Luxur, lying inland and south of the Styx on an important caravan route. The greatest port and religious center was at Khemi. Sukhmet and Kheshatta were apparently caravan cities that serviced traders from the black nations. From the coast, it was possible to take a caravan trail all the way to Sukhmet and presumably beyond.
After the Cataclysm, the land of Stygia was invaded by a large body of Lemurian survivors, originally from the Far East. They destroyed a pre-human race of serpent-folk to establish what was probably the first of the post-Cataclysmic kingdoms of the West -- Old Stygia. A remnant of the serpent-race survived in the Far South and in a few other places. The serpent-worship characterizing the religion of the nation had its basis in the veneration of the vanished snake-beings.
During Conan's time the nation represented a menace of ancient sorcery.
Notes[]
- In many ways Stygia is analogous to ancient Egypt as well as proto-Egyptian speculation from late 19th century occult thought.