Stygia (Hyboria)

Pre-Cataclysmic Age[]

During the Pre-Cataclysmic Age, the Serpent-Folk ruled over Stygia,^[6] and built the black pyramids and the tombs bellow them.^[1]

According to legend, ten thousand years before the Age of Conan (which would set it circa 20,000 BC, during the Pre-Cataclysmic Age and about 1,500 years before the Age of Kull, see notes), Akivasha was an evil and beautiful princess reveled in "purple feasts" in the black halls of Luxur. She became a vampire at some point.^[7]

Old Stygia[]

Foundation[]

The ancestors of the human Stygians destroyed much of the snake-folk when they conquered Stygia, before ironically coming to worship them, deriving in a worship of Set.^[1]

Acheron[]

Circa 16,000 BC,^[8] or circa 15,500 BC,^[9][10] thousand years after the Great Cataclysm. the ancient kingdom of Acheron was founded by Stygians from Khemi, who established an outpost at the embouchure of the Tybor and expanded up-river, while enslaving or destroying the small unclassified tribes it encountered.^[9] Acheron soon broke off Stygian control, though it remained Stygian in culture.^[9]

Western Koth, Ophir, and Corinthia were at some point under Stygia's dominion, but apparently fell to Acheron at a later date.^[11]

Hyborian Invasion[]

As war approached between Acheron, Stygia, and Zamora (the pre-Cataclysmic Zhemri, re-invigorated by infusions of some unclassified race), the Hyborians, unable to penetrate Acheron's and Zamora's borders, were led to Stygia with Acheron's connivance and Zamora's secret help, resulting in the loss of the Stygian forts in northern Shem. The Hyborians subsequently settled in tribal clusters between Acheron and Zamora.^[9]

13,000 BC[]

War with Acheron[]

At some point circa 13,000 BC, according to legends, the Stygians marched on Acheron. In Koth, Acheron's fiercest warrior Thun'da of the Snow-Mane, wielder of the Scarlet Sword, fought a horde of Stygians, but was eventually defeated and slain, and his family massacred.^[12]

Fall of Acheron[]

Thugra Khotan, the arch-mage of Acheron, preferred to retreat in the Stygian city of Kuthchemes to avoid being forced to choose sides, as Stygia's king remained strictly neutral to Acheron and its enemies alike.^[13]

War with Hyborians[]

Finally, Old Stygia joined the conflict on Acheron's side, but too late to turn the tide and prevent the Fall of Acheron. In retaliation, the infuriated Kothians sacked Kuthchemes.^[9] The Hyborians invaded the city, slaughtered Thugra Khotan's devotees, but were unable to breach into his Ivory Dome, and consequently fled the ruined city.^[14]

By the end of the conflict, the Stygians were pushed back beyond the Styx and out of Shem.^[9]

Undisclosed time events[]

Yezmite influence[]

At some point, the Yezmite cult was powerful in Stygia, and had Luxur under its thrall.^[15]

Hyborian Age[]

The following events are repeatedly stated to be set several centuries before the Age of Conan, and can be presumed to occur during the Hyborian Age, rather than during the Age of Acheron.

Unnamed king's rule[]

Several hundred years before the Age of Conan, the King boasted he would cross the River Styx on his chariot, and set out the construction of a bridge over the river. When after five years of construction, he bridge was swept away by rising waters, the king had the priests of Set flogged, and extinguished the sacred fire of the Temple of Set himself (rumors alleged he had a ceremony where corpses of ibises, most abhorrent creatures to Set, were burned. The high priest Kha Semblor rallied the nobles, and together led a mob to the palace. The King refused to hear his sister Nitocris' plea to light the temple fires and met with the mob. For an instant, his magnificient defiance neutered the mob, but as a miracle, a step broke loose from under the King who stumbled and fell down the stairs and the reignited mob tore his body apart, avenging Set.^[16]

Queen Nitocris' rule[]

The next week, Nitocris, with the blessing of the priests of Set and acceptance of the people, was declared queen, but secretly plotted vengeance. She had a new temple to Set built, "to atone for her brother's sacrilege", and held a banquet for all the nobles and high priests in the subterranean vault of the temple, where she trapped them all alive, before enabling a mechanism to drown them with he water of the Styx. Returning to Luxur, Nitocris knew the people would suspect her hand in the death of the nobles and priests, who all had participated to her brother's slaying, and committed suicide before the angry mob entered her palace boudoir.^[16]

Age of Conan (10,000 BC)[]

Argos/Stygian war[]

Argos and Stygia went at war. Koth became embroiled in the conflict, and the Kothians urged that both them and Argos launch a simultaneous invasion of Stygia. Argos consequently raised an army of mercenaries (including Amalric of Aquilonia and Conan of Cimmeria).^[17] Zapayo da Kova was the admiral of the invading fleet assembled by Argos to attack Stygia. The Phoenix, carried a cargo of gold to pay the troops, but was lost from the fleet in a storm, somewhere south of the Isle of the Black Ones.^[18]

Zapayo's fleet met the Stygian Fleet, defeated it and drove it back into Khemi. Instead of landing, looting the city and advancing along the River Styx, Zapayo cautiously cruised the fleet southward to the coasts of Kush. The ships anchored and the army pushed eastwards along the Stygian frontier, burning and pillaging on his course. The plan was to turn northward to strike the heart of Stygia and join with the Kothic army pushing southward, but Koth concluded a separate peace with Stygia, and the Stygian Army was free to annihilate Argos' mercenary army.^[17]

Few of the mercenary host survived, including Conan and Amalric.^[17] The Phoenix-Trove became as fabled as the Talons of Dagon or the Treasure of Tranicos.^[18]

King Mentupherra's rule[]

During the rule of King Mentupherra, Thoth-Amon was forced to flee in exile.^[19]

King Ctesphon IV's rule[]

After King Mentupherra's death, Ctesphon IV became king of Stygia.

Though Thoth-Amon stayed away for a time, but was eventually forced to flee again and return in stealth to Stygia during the rule of Ctesphon IV. Finding favor and gathering wealth and magical might, Thoth-Amon eventually made himself the virtual ruler of Stygia.^[19]

He was seemingly a bad king, gambling away fortunes on dwarf fights, a sport considered gruesome and obscene by his wife, as did his former wives before her.

For those excesses, but also because he wished to diminished the power of the priesthood in the affairs of state, the priest elite wished to remove and replace him. The Stygian sorcerer Parmek Da'an schemed as well to overthrow him and usurp the Stygian throne. Kiriandra the Enchantress, a former student of Parmek, forced Conan to go and stop Parmek, and gave him a talisman protecting him from Parmek's astral form.

During a venture on the streets of Luxor, Mehtvezem was targeted by assassins sent by the priests, but was saved by Conan. Conan later invited himself in Mehtvezem's quarters and managed to get recruited into the Royal Stygian Elite Guard (after defeating the guard he was to replace).

Parmek Da'an and the priests joined forces, and Parmek Da'an presented him his trio of fighting dwarves. Infiltrated on the pretense of demonstrating his fighting dwarves (in fact a Jinn of the Thirteenth Order), he possessed the vizier to fake an assassination attempt, have the vizier removed. He then possessed Mrhtvezem's queen to pretend adultery with Conan, thus removing him as well. Parmek then presented his dwarves, who merged into a single warrior who disposed of the king's guards.

Mrhtvezem was possessed by Parmek Da'an, who used his figure to lead the royal guards to slaughter his last potential rivals, the priesthood. Freed by the Queen, Conan confronted "the King" and his Jinn. Conan defeated the Jinn and forced Parmek to retreat. Parmek was unable to possess Conan who was protected by the talisman given by Kiriandra, thus fled to his body whom Conan was stabbed. Parmek subsequently withered.^[20]

King Yllareph and Queen Sullimma's rule[]

While King Yllareph was disabled, his wife, the decadent Queen Sullimma, reigned in his stead, and plotted the return of elder god Yog Sothoth, which eventually led to her downfall.^[21] Yiraleph's fate following his wife's demise is unrevealed.

Great Am-Hotep's rule[]

For a time, Stygia was ruled by a king, Great Am-Hotep. When Am-Hotep died, he was embalmed and sat upon a black obsidian throne, while the priests of Set collected grain and wealthes to allegedly feed Am-Hotep's soul, and sacrificed those who you could not give anything.^[22]

Egypt and end of the Hyborian Age[]

Circa 9,500 BC, before the post-Hyborian Cataclysm, Vanir adventurers came to Stygia, where they overthrew the ruling class building a vast southern empire which they called Egypt. The early Pharaohs boasted to descend from them.^[23] The Egyptian god Seth usurped and supplanted Set's worship only by the time Stygia became Egypt.^[24]

Post-Hyborian Cataclysm (9,500-8,000 BC)[]

At the end of the Hyborian Age, a cataclysm caused the formation of the Mediterranean Sea along the former westward path of the Nilus, as the Stygian continent broke away from the rest of world-continent of Hyboria and would later become the eastern part of Africa.^[23]

Facts[]

Population[]

Stygian royalty and certain lines of ancient nobility were typically relatively tall people with fair-skinned and black hair. The rest of the nobility and the influential middle class are typically dusky-skinned and hawk-faced. The lower classes and the slaves typically have mixed ancestry, resulting from mating among Stygians themselves, Kushites, Shemites, and Hyborians.

Stygia was underpopulated due to its climatic conditions. The only fertile lands were those surrounding the River Styx, also known as the Nilus, while the rest of Stygia was an arid desert. Rumors of the Hyborian Age surmised that this was a side-effect of the Stygians practice of dark magic.^[1]

Economy[]

The sizable number of Stygian magic users and healers required constant production of medicinal drugs, and magical paraphernalia, making these major industries for the country. Stygia exported silks, and served as an important stop in trade networks involving animal hides, artwork, woven carpets, ivory, jade, pearls, and slaves.

The coastal city of Khemi served as its main harbour and religious center. It lacked the cosmopolitan culture of other major ports of the Hyborian world, mainly due to the restrictions imposed on foreign visitors. Only foreign ambassadors and licensed traders were allowed within the city. Foreign scholars and sorcerers tended to migrate to more hospitable Stygian cities.^[1]

Politics[]

The city of Luxur served as the royal seat of power and center of administration. It aws strategically situated among major trade routes. Kheshatta, the famed City of Magicians, serves as another seat of power.

Stygia maintained a moderately-sized war fleet and a much larger land army. While this army had a well-deserved reputation for ruthlessness and discipline, it was hindered by the government's reluctance to upgrade their weaponry. Adhering to ancient tradition, they used the same type of armor and weaponry which their predecessors had used centuries before. Weapons that were considerably outdated in comparison to other Hyborian equipment.

Stygia was relatively secure from foreign invasion. The Eastern Desert and the steppes kept them safe from would-be eastern invaders, while their western border was the Western Ocean. The Black Kingdoms and Shem also served as buffer zones, separating them from more aggressive potential opponents, but the Stygian government remained insecure and near-paranoid in its fear of foreign invasion.^[1]

Religion[]

The worship of Set was the sanctioned state religion.^[1] The Egyptian god Seth usurped and supplanted Seth's worship only by the time Stygia became Egypt.^[25]

Yog Sothoth, or Sehdoula, was worshipped by Queen Sullimma. The Fingers of Sehdoula, in the Valley of Sehdoula, were a landmark in Stygia named after Sehdoula's outstretched hand, and a place from where Yog Sothoth could be summoned back on Earth when the stars were in proper position, opening the gates of chaos.^[21]

Other Stygians deities included:

• Issus, sister of Set, invoked several centuries before the Age of Conan,^[16] Elder Goddess.^[26]
• Nubis, invoked during the Age of Conan,^[16] possibly the Egyptian god Anubis.
• Oris or Osiris the Man-Woman, invoked during the Age of Conan,^[16].

Other, non-Stygian, deities sometimes invoked (whether as mere expressions or proper invocations) included Tarim, Ishtar, Mitra, and possibly Ashtoreth.^[5]

Alternate Realities[]

Earth-83600[]

In a shadowy shop of Stygia's main bazaar, Thor and Conan were told that Mjolnir, the mystic hammer made of wondrous Uru metal, could have been found by Thoth-Amon in the city of magicians.^[27]

• Luxur - Capital city
• Kheshatta, City of Magicians
• Khemi - Stygian greatest port and city, religious capital, set on the estuary of the River Styx
• Harakht - city set on the River Styx, halfway between Khemi and Luxur, ruled by twin kings, twin-city with Attalus - city founded by time-displaced soldiers of Alexander of Macedon twin-city with Harakht
• Tezunar - village^[28]
• Black Lotus Swamp - forlorn region
• Purple Lotus Swamp - south-central region
• Pteion - dead city in the middle of the eastern Stygia
• Southern Desert of Stygia
  • Gazal - city and oasis built by the Gazali, a people driven from southern Koth for their Mitraic faith
• Black pyramids - monuments built by the Serpent-Men, major ones set near Khemi
  • Forbidden Temple of Set - Hall of the dead near Khemi^[7]
• Valley of Sehdoula
  • Fingers of Sehdoula - Landmark, summoning place of Yog Sothoth^[21]
• Sukhmet - city on the southern border
• River Styx / Nilus - greatest river of Hyboria, northern and eastern border
  • Bakhr River - tributary, going from Shem to Luxur
• Bel-Phar
• Caravan Road
• Quenah

By the Age of Conan, circa 10,000 BC, Stygians still established colonies:

• Viper's Head - Independent colony, disputed with Kushites^[29]

Old Stygia[]

The empire of Stygia before the rise and fall of Acheron was later known as "Old Stygia", and included cities and lands beyond the borders of Stygia during the Age of Conan

• Acheron itself was originally part of Old Stygia.^[13]
• Kuthchemes - northernmost outpost, city ruled by Thugra Khotan
• Shem^[2]
  • Shushan - Imperial city^[30]
• Western Koth - Stygian possession^[2] or sattelite, fell to Acheron^[31]
• Corinthia - Stygian possession^[2] or sattelite, fell to Acheron^[31]
• Ophir - Stygian possession^[2] or sattelite, fell to Acheron^[31]
• Part of the Eastern Desert - Stygian possession^[2]
• Zamboula - Stygian city in the Kharamun Desert, conquered by Turan

Pre-Human Kingdom[]

• Luxor - Dwelling of Akivasha
• Black pyramids

For a more complete list, please consult the full list of Stygians.

• Akivasha - ancient evil princess, vampire, active at the Forbidden Temple of Set near Khemi circa 10,000 BC, allegedly active in Luxor circa 20,000 BC
• Black Ring
  • Ptah Mekri - High priest of Set, adept of the Black Ring, died circa 13,000 BC, before the Fall of Acheron
  • Thoth-Amon
• Xaltotun - wizard and high priest of Set in Acheron fled the Fall of Acheron (circa 13,000 BC)
• Thugra Khotan - wizard of Acheron and ruler of Kuthchemes (circa 13,000 BC)
• Kha Semblor - high priest of Set (undisclosed period)
• Mekri Ra - Sorcerer Supreme
• Kulan Gath - Sorcerer Supreme (cannibalized Mekri Ra's power and title), impersonated the sorcerer Kulan Gath
• Karanthes - priest of Ibis, exiled in Nemedia
• Nitocris - Queen (undisclosed period)
• Ctesphon II - King
• Hor-Neb - King of Harakht
• Mer-Ath - Kings of Harakht, high-priest of the Hawk-God
• Ctesphon III (Nephta) - King (female), succeeded to Ctesphon II
• Katuman - Exiled prince, betrothed to Princess Yasmela of Khoraja, former ally of Natohk
• Mentupherra - King^[32]
• Ctesphon IV - King, succeeded Mentupherra^[32]
• Mehtvezem - King^[20]
• Sullima - Queen, worshiper of Yog Sothoth^[21]
• Yllareph - King, crippled, husband of Sullima^[21]
• Great Am-Hotep - King^[22]
• Nekht Semerkeht - wizard expelled from Kheshatta
• Ixtlaca - Princess

Many monsters roamed Stygia, including:

• Phmog - creature lying at the edge of sanity, dwelt in the deserts
• Ghoul-Hyena of Chaos - allegedly spawn of Chaos, dwelt at the Black Sphinx of Nebthu

• Robert E. Howard loosely-based Stygia on Egypt, which was established as the continuation of Stygia in his pseudo-historical essay "The Hyborian Age". The name was inspired by Styx, a river of the Greek underworld in Greek mythology.^[33]

• Stygia is referred to as a feminine subject.^[20]