Re-imagining the Hyborian Age a little

[Rhoderic]

I've decided that for the sake of my Conan BA games, I'm going to re-imagine the Hyborian Age a bit, just to alleviate some of the things that bug me about that world. I used the map at http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/series.php?qsSeries=7  (in the free downloads section at the bottom of the page) for a base, much of which is speculative to begin with, so you could say that with some of these changes, I'm just speculating in a different direction Still, some of the changes are direct contradictions of REH's vision, which is just something I'm choosing to live with.

I guess you have to be familiar with the Hyborian Age already to fully understand this map, as I haven't bothered to name the formerly established nations, places and tribes, or mark out mountains, forests, plains etc. Also, I've had to shrink the image quite a lot to make it web-friendly, so please excuse that it's a bit unclear in places.

As you can see, many of the changes consist of adding new islands and waterways. My #1 pet peeve about the Hyborian Age is that, with so much of the world being landlocked, there seems to be little reason for people to be sailing, let alone engaging in piracy. On my map, it's a bit easier to imagine the seas and other waterways being criss-crossed with trade routes.

The other changes take the form of simply adding more nations, since I felt there was room for them and I wanted to represent some cultures/peoples that Howard didn't seem to be very interested in.



The major changes/additions are as follows.

1. An as-yet unnamed island group, kind of a combination of Iceland, Greenland, Ireland and the various islands off Scotland. The southern parts have been colonized by a mixed Nordheimr-Cimmerian race, while the northern parts are inhabited by Inuit-type tribes (probably Pictish in origin). Also lots of volcanic activity going on here.

2. The islands of Antillia. The nation of Old Tlazitl (founded by descendants of the same ancient, mysterious race that the Stygians descended from) occupies the northern part of the main island, while the southern part and the other islands are home to various Amazonian/Caribbean type tribes (again probably of Pict origin). The Tlazitlans that (according to Red Nails) live around lake Zuad in southern Stygia are originally from Old Tlazitl, having been brought there as slaves by Stygians who visited Antillia in the time when the Southern Stygian Empire was great (which contradicts what REH wrote in Red Nails, but I like it better this way). There's some trade between Antillia and the Hyborian kingdoms, particularly Zingara, but to most Hyborians the islands still have a semi-mythical status, and Hyborian sailors generally fear the islands. Quite apart from this, the Nordheimr and the aforementioned Nordheimr-Cimmerian race in the northen isles have also been aware of and have traded with Antillia for a long time.

3. The islands of Tarshish. A combination of Malta, Sicily, Cyprus, the Aegean Islands, etc. Tarshish is one of those legendary places from the Bible, much like Ophir.

4. The island of Minos. Pretty self-explanatory.

5. An as-yet unnamed island group corresponding to Indonesia, Malaysia etc. Populated by tribal cultures.

6. The islands of Ponopeia, populated by Pacific Islander type tribes. Another place with a lot of volcanic activity.

7. Fjords along the coast of Vanaheim, some reaching into Asgard (to give the Aesir some potential to go sea-rading as well - though they'll have to run a gauntlet through Vanaheim before reaching open seas). I guess the fjords turned out unrealistically broad in this picture. No helping that

8. A bay between Argos and Shem, giving Koth and Ophir a coastline. There's a Gibraltar-like strait (The Pillars of Gades) at the mouth of the bay.

9. A multitude of rivers running into the Vilayet from the northwest. They're used by Aesir, Hyberboreans, Brythunians etc. to trade with Turan and Hyrkania. This way I can have the Vilayet be more busily trafficked by numerous nations, which I think makes the Zhaporoskan pirates a bit more justifiable. There's a large lake along the way, which I haven't named yet.

10. The nation of Vandaluz (it can be a bit hard to see on this map, but it's wedged between Zingara and Argos by the coast). It's capitol is Garanada, the City of Gardens. Again, pretty self-explanatory (I went with the real-world theory that Andalusia got its name from the Vandals).

11. The nation of Aņabotha, corresponding to the Basque lands.

12. The nation of Makadon. Another self-explanatory one.

13. A pair of Eastern European type nations I haven't named yet, lying east of Brythunia. The southern one (which I broke off from Zamora in REH's map) is meant to correspond to Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldavia. I haven't really decided what kind of culture the northern one has, so I just think of it as a "generic Eastern European culture". These are not Hyborian peoples, so it still holds true that Brythunia is the easternmost of the Hyborian kingdoms.

14. The two small nations of Near Bacra and Far Bacra, lying on opposite shores of the northern Vilayet. Inspired by the Bactrian Greek kingdom, they're mysterious hybrid nations that were founded by Corinthian refugees in the time of the Acheronian (Northern Stygian) Empire. Being small, remote pockets of civilization surrounded by barbarian territories, they don't interact much with the rest of the world. Turan is (for now) quite uninterested in conquering them, being more obsessed with it's manifest destiny to move westward.

I made lots of other, small changes as well, such as putting some more bays, rivers, lakes and islands wherever I saw fit. I also like to imagine that there's a sea trade route between east and west skirting the tip of the Black Kingdoms (but it's a perilous voyage, so not many ships sail it and therefore caravans remain the main channel of trade) and that numerous small city-states (too small to put on the map) lie scattered between Koth, Turan and Stygia, enjoying varying degrees of independence from said three powerhouse nations.