Thurian Age

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The Thurian Age is a specific epoch in the fictional timeline used by Robert E. Howard in his Kull stories. It predates the Hyborian Age of the Conan the Barbarian stories and is known to them as the Pre-Cataclysmic Age. [1] The main continent is called Thuria, although smaller continents such as Atlantis and an unnamed eastern continent exist, as do several island chains. Most of the world is unexplored wilderness inhabited by "scattered clans and tribes of primitive savages." [1] The boundary between the two ages is marked by the "Great Cataclysm," which might have taken place as early as ca. 35,000 to 40,000 B.C, or as recently as 18,000 B.C. depending on the sources considered. When Robert E. Howard began to chronicle the adventures of Conan the Cimmerian, in the early 1930s, he prepared a fictional history of the Hyborian Age which he had created. That "history" dealt not only with the period during and after Conan's life, but also with events some eight thousand years earlier, during the Thurian civilization which produced King Kull, an exiled warrior from Atlantis, in the days before his continent sank into the surging seas.

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A great cataclysm ends the Thurian Age some time after the Kull stories. Several countries sink into the sea, others rise from it, and the rest is devastated by earthquakes or volcanoes. Civilization is destroyed and the survivors attempt to build a new culture but warfare and a lesser cataclysm occur, creating the Vilayet Sea while destroying any last remnants of Thurian society. [1]

Dominant kingdoms

Six kingdoms dominate the main continent of Thuria: Valusia, Kamelia, Commoria, Grondar, Thule, and Verulia. All share a common language and possibly a common origin. East of these kingdoms is a vast desert. The six kingdoms are all part of the "Seven Empires", although the seventh member is never named.

Following the Cataclysm, one of the kingdoms (not Valusia), become the Zhemri people who eventually form the land of Zamora (the people of which, in turn, eventually become the Romani people).

Commoria

They are described as having wars with Valusia, [1] but this kingdom doesn't appear in the Kull stories.

Farsun

Note that "Fars" is the Persian name of Persia proper. This is arguably a precursor to Iranistan in Conan's days.

Grondar

An ancient kingdom further east of the Thurian continent, bordering a vast desert. Its people are less cultured than those of the other kingdoms. [1]

In an untitled draft in Kull: Exile of Atlantis, Grondar is described as being east of Zarfhaana, having a wasteland, and occasionally sending out raiders into the savannah which separates it from its western neighbors. Thurania is a named target of these raids. The ancestors of the Grondarans arivedr from somewhere unknown and defeated an ancient civilization who inhabited the land now known as Grondar (the remains of the original inhabitants' cities lie in a savannah between Grondar and the western kingdoms). It's hinted that Grondar had no cities similar to those of the west. [2]

Kamelia

Thule

The name Thule comes from Classical mythology (or pseudo-geography). First described by Greek explorer Pytheas, it's a mysterious land to the north. It has been associated with Scandinavia and Iceland.

Valusia

The kingdom furthest to the west of the Thurian continent. [1] This kingdom was created and initially ruled by the Serpent Men, until they were overthrown by their human slaves. They attempted to control the new human kingdom of Valusia from behind the scenes, using illusion-based magic, when mankind's memories of their past encounters faded. However, the Serpent Men were again defeated in a secret war. Finally, they created a religion, the Snake Cult, to continue their work and almost succeeded. Their power was, however, eventually destroyed by Kull, an Atlantean barbarian who had gained the crown of Valusia by force. [3]

Kull notes, in The Shadow Kingdom , how the Valusia of his time is a fading and degenerate country, "living mostly in dreams of bygone glory, but still a mighty land and the greatest of the Seven Empires". The kingdom is already ancient by his standards: "The hills of Atlantis and Mu were isles of the sea when Valusia was young." [3]

Barbarian societies

There are three main barbarian societies in the Thurian Age. [1]

Atlantis

A small continent to the west of Thuria and east of the Pictish Islands. They have colonies on Thuria itself.

Atlantis is an old enemy of the "Seven Empires" (see Dominant Kingdoms) of Thuria and has an even more ingrained enmity of the Picts. [3]

Following a cataclysm which destroyed the Thurian Age, Atlantis sinks beneath the sea. The survivors on the Thurian continent are forced back into the Stone Age by lack of resources, but become skilled in this medium and develop an artistic culture. They soon enter a war with the surviving Picts and lost to their superior numbers or Stone Age military technology. The survivors of the war devolve back into apes. They eventually re-evolve into humans and became the Cimmerians of the Hyborian Age. In turn, the Cimmerians become the Celts, Gaels, and Scythians of modern history.

Lemuria

Lemuria is a chain of large islands east of Thuria.

Following the cataclysm which ended the Thurian age, these islands sank into the sea. The surviving Lemurians escaped into the east coast of the Thurian continent and were enslaved by an unnamed white-skinned human race coming from a mysterious continent in the eastern ocean (Mu?). After enduring more than a thousand years of brutal slavery, the Lemurians were reduced to a state of savagery. The Lemurians eventually rose up and destroyed their masters, the survivors of whom escaped to the south of Thuria and created the kingdom of Stygia.

The Lemurians eventually became the Hyrkanians of the Hyborian Age and formed the country of Turan on the edge of the Vilayet Sea. The Hyrkanians played a part in destroying a Hyborian civilization during an unspecified era after the Conan stories. The stories assert they eventually became the Tatars, Huns, Mongols, and Turks of the modern age. [1]

Pictish Islands

A chain of islands in the far west of Thuria and Atlantis. Due to raiding expeditions, they have colonies on Thuria itself. The Picts have an ancient feud with the Atlanteans.

After the cataclysm, the Pictish Islands rose to form the mountains of what would be the Americas. The Picts of the islands would become the Native Americans. The Picts of Thuria fell further into barbarism but remained stable, neither evolving or devolving as other societies had. At first their society held, despite reverting to the stone age, but a war with the surviving Atlanteans halted any advancement they would have made. They would become the savage Picts of the Pictish Wilderness on the west coast of the Hyborian kingdoms in the Conan the Barbarian stories [1] and the more degenerate Picts of Britain in the Bran Mak Morn stories [4] and real history. The Picts of Howard resemble the Native Americans of B-Films and books.

Other kingdoms

Another mysterious kingdom lies on the east coast of the Thurian continent. They have some contact with Lemuria but come from another continent entirely to the east of the Lemurian islands. [1]

The Kull novel The Shadow Kingdom refers in passing to two other countries, Mu and Kaa-u. [3] Mu sinks during a cataclysm and its mountains become the islands of the South Seas. [5]

An untitled draft in the "Kull of Atlantis" stories mentions three other nations: Farsun (an enemy of Thurania, located west of Valusia), Zarfhaana (east of Valusia, the Camoonian Desert separates the two and there is a sea to the north of Zarfhaana), and Thurania (south of Zarfhaana, enemy of Farsun). [2] "Fars" is the Persian name of Persia proper, meaning much the same as "Iran". Arguably, Farsun is a precursor to Iranistan in Conan's days.

Pre-human societies

There are other "equally civilized" but non-human kingdoms. The citizens were of one or more older, pre-human races. One such mysterious pre-human civilization exists at the south of Thuria, this country is, at first, untouched by the Cataclysm. When the oppressors of the Lemurians are overthrown, however, the survivors escape to this region and destroy it in turn, creating the new country of Stygia.

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References

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