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[Freebooter]

Hello all,
I like the guy playing Conan and all, his voice, etc. But blue eyes are a must because in almost every story every time you turn around his smoldering blue eyes are mentioned and described. Those blue eyes are, if not the epitome, the hallmark of Conan!

Also, some of y'all have been discussing what Conan wore and looked like. I have created two files on descriptions; one is descriptions of dress, etc, from around the world Conan lived in, and the other is solely descriptions of Conan's dress; clothing, armor, arms, etc., if anyone is interested, below is the one on Conan, from REH. The only part from a pastiche is the very first section, then after that from pure REH:
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ROBERT E. HOWARD'S CONAN DESCRIPTIONS; Armor, Clothing, Arms, etc.:

From the old Lancer paperback, "CONAN THE FREEBOOTER". Two or three of the chapters are by Howard and De Camp. But two or three are solely by Robert E. Howard too. Here is Robert E. Howard's own descriptions in the stories he wrote:

Ch. I: "Hawks Over Shem" (SABRE), by REH and De Camp;
1. The tall figure in the white cloak wheeled, cursing softly, hand at scimitar hilt. Not lightly did men walk the nighted streets of Asgalun, capital of Shemitish Pelishtia. In this dark, winding alley of the unsavory river quarter, anything might happen.
"Why do you follow me, dog?" The voice was harsh, slurring the Shemitic gutturals with accents of Hyrkania.

Another tall figure emerged from the shadows, clad, like the first, in a cloak of white silk but lacking the other's spired helmet.
"Did you say, 'dog'? The accent differed from the Hyrkanian's.
"Aye, dog. I have been followed--"

Before the Hykanian could get further, the other rushed with the sudden blinding speed of a pouncing tiger. The Hyrkanian snatched at his sword. Before the blade cleared the scabbard, a huge fist smote the side of his head. But for the Hyrkanian's powerful build and the protection of the camail of chain mail that hung down from his helmet, his neck might have been broken. As it was, he was hurled sprawling to the pavement, his sword clattering out of his grasp.

As the Hyrkanian shook his head and groped back to consciousness, he saw the other standing over him with drawn sabre. The stranger rumbled: I follow nobody, and I let no one call me dog! Do you understand that, dog?"

Note: That "other's" helmet, besides being spired, had chain mail attached to it. A little bit later on it says Conan had a helmet too, described as a steel cap under a kaffria like the Arabs wear. So evidently he had a plain one without a point on it, sort of like a Norman helmet.

Ch. II: "Black Colossus", by R.E.H.;
1. In this chapter Conan at first is a captain of the mercenaries........"As he passed through a cresset she saw him plainly--a tall man, in the chain-mail hauberk of a mercenary."......."He stood facing her, his hand on the long hilt that jutted forward from beneath the scarlet cloak which flowed carelessly from his mailed shoulders. The torchlight glinted dully on the polished blue steel of his greaves and basinet." "......his sword leaping into his hand with a broad shimmer of blue steel.",
2. "He lifted off his basinet and laid it upon the table, and drew back his coif, letting the mail folds fall upon his massive shoulders."
3. "At her command they brought harness to replace Conan's chain mail--gorget, sollerets, cuirass, pauldrons, jambes, cuisses, and sallet."
4. A description of the mercenaries that among which Conan was a Captain: "Clad from head to foot in chain mail, they wore their vizorless headpieces over linked coifs. Their shields were unadorned, their long lances without guidons. At their saddlebows hung battle axes or steel maces, and each man wore at his hip a long broadsword."
5. In another passage; "He seated himself............, with his broadsword across his knees. With the firelight glinting from his blue steel armor............".
6. "Conan the Cimmerian, restless in his plate armor....".........."He had discarded his plate armor for the more familiar chain mail."

Ch. III: "Shadows in the Moonlight", by R.E.H.;
1."........as a terrible apparition arose from the reedy jungle..............Olivia, staring up from the ground, saw what she took to be either a savage or a madman advancing on Shah Amurath in an attitude of deadly menace. He was powerfully built, naked but for a girdled loincloth which was stained with blood and crusted with dried mire. His black mane was matted with mud and clotted blood; there were streaks of dried blood on his chest and limbs, dried blood on the long straight sword he gripped in his right hand. From under the tangle of locks, bloodshot eyes glared like coals of blue fire."

2. Although the following is not a description of Conan, some people are curious about others in Conan's world and how they dress, etc., so thus here is REH's Description of Pirates of the Sea of Vileyet:
"There were some 70 of them, a wild horde made up of men from many nations: Kothians, Zamorians, Brythunians, Corinthians, and Shemites. Their features reflected the wildness of their natures. Many bore the scars of the lash or the branding iron. There were cropped ears, slit noses, gaping eye sockets, stumps of wrists--marks of the hangman as well as scars of battle. Most of them were half naked, but the garments they wore were fine; gold braided jackets, satin girdles, silken breeches, tattered, stained with tar and blood, vied with pieces of silver chased armor. Jewels glittered in nose rings and earrings, and in the hilts of their daggers."
REH described their captain thusly: ".......as a huge figure swaggered forward: a giant, naked to the waist, where his capacious belly was girdled by a wide sash that upheld voluminous silken pantaloons. His head was shaven except for a scalplock, his mustaches drooped over a rat-trap mouth. Green Shemitish slippers with upturned toes were on his feet, a long straight sword in his hand."


"He (Constantius) sat his horse among a cluster of his men---thick-bodied Shemites with curled blue-black beards and hooked noses; the low swinging sun struck glints from their peaked helmets and the silvered scales of their corselets."

It describes Conan on the cross thusly:
"By the side of the caravan road a heavy cross had been planted, and there on this grim tree a man hung, nailed there by iron spikes through his hands and feet. Naked but for a loincloth, the man was................."

Howard describes the Shemite mercenaries marching out to meet Conan thusly:
"The dawn light glinted on peaked helmets pouring in a steady stream through the broad arch, on the bright housings of the chargers. This would be a battle of horsemen, such as is possibly only in the lands of the East (Conan had under his command almost 20,000, Constantius' Shemitish Mercenaries around 15,000). The riders flowed through the gates like a river of steel--somber figures in black and silver mail, with their curled beards and hooked noses, and their inexorable eyes in which glimmered the fatality of their race--the utter lack of doubt or of mercy."

Some desert people saved him and later Conan and the leader are described thusly by REH as they sat across a table from one another:
"His khalat was of white silk, with pearls sewn on the bosom. Girdled at the waist with a Bakhauriot belt, its skirts were drawn back to reveal his wide silken breeches, tucked into short boots of soft green leather, adorned with gold thread. On his head was a green silk turban, wound about a spired helmet chased with gold. His only weapon was a broad curved Cherkees knife in an ivory sheath girdled high on his left hip, kozak fashion. Throwing himself back in his gilded chair with its carven eagles, Olgerd spread his booted legs before him and gulped down the sparkling wine noisily.

To his splendor the huge Cimmerian opposite him offered a strong contrast, with his square-cut mane, brown, scarred countenance and burning blue eyes. He was clad in black mesh mail, and the only glitter about him was the broad gold buckle of the belt which supported his sword in its worn leather scabbard."

Howard described the desert nomads in flowing robes, etc., but here is one more description, of both attire and Conan's tactics:
"In even ranks we thundered upon them (Conan's army). Then the masses of their horde opened to right and left, and through the cleft rushed three thousand Hyborian horsemen whose presence we had not even suspected. Men of Khauron, mad with hate! Big men in full armor on massive horses! In a solid wedge of steel they smote us like a thunderbolt. They split our ranks asunder before we knew what was upon us, and then the desert men swarmed on us from either flank!............"
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PURE ROBERT E. HOWARD:

From Book I, "THE COMING OF THE CIMMERIAN ":


I. THE PHOENIX ON THE SWORD:
1. "His garments were of rich fabric, but simply made. He wore no ring or ornaments, and his square cut mane was confined merely by a cloth-of-silver band about his head."
2. " 'Hold out your sword.' Conan did so, and on the great blade, close to the heavy silver guard, the ancient traced........"
3. "........for on the broad blade was carven a symbol......"
4. "...........partly armored, and with his long sword in his hand."

II. THE FROST GIANT'S DAUGHTER
1. "Their shields were gone, their corselets battered and dinted. Blood dried on their mail; their swords were stained red. Their horned helmets showed the marks of fierce strokes."
2. "....and at that instant Conan was dashed into the snow, his left shoulder numb from the blow of the survivor, from which the Cimmerian's mail had barely saved his life."

III. THE GOD IN THE BOWL
1. "Arus saw a tall powerfully built youth, naked but for a loin-cloth, and sandals strapped high about his ankles." (That answers my questions as to whether his sandals came to his knee or just above his ankles).
2. "A long sword hung from a leather scabbard at his girdle."

IV. TOWER OF THE ELEPHANT
1. "His cheap tunic could not conceal the hard, rangy lines of his powerful frame.........."
2. "From his girdle hung a sword in a worn leather scabbard."
3. "He had discarded his torn tunic, and walked through the night naked except for a loin-cloth and his high-strapped sandals."

V. THE SCARLET CITIDEL
1. "......the black-mailed figure of the western king loomed among his foes...........about his iron clad feet grew a ring of mangled corpses."
2. "Now he grinned bleakly as the kings reined back a safe distance from the grim, iron-clad figure looming among the dead. Before the savage blue eyes blazing murderously from beneath the crested, dented helmet, the boldest shrank.""........his black armor was hacked to tatters and splashed with blood."
3. "?his captains had fallen like grain before the Cimmerian's broadsword."
4. "The black-armored figure......"
5. "........the mailed giant crashed heavily to earth, to lie motionless."
6. "........the pageant of his life passed fleetingly past his mental eye----a panorama wherein moved shadowy figures which were himself--a skin-clad barbarian, a mercenary swordsman in horned helmet and scale-mail corselet; a corsair in a dragon-prowed galley......, a captain of hosts in burnished steel........"
7. After being captured and stripped: "In strong contrast Conan, grim, blood-stained, naked but for a loin-cloth.........."
8. After his escape and return to his kingdom: "He could not mistake the giant figure in the black, guilt worked armor........"
9. "It (an axe) clanged on Conan's helmet, striking fire, and the Cimmerian reeled and struck back. The five-foot blade crushed Strabonus' casque and skull......."
10. "He (the captain of the boat) saw a tall powerfully built figure in a black scale-mail hauberk, burnished greaves and a blue-steel helmet from which jutted bull's horns highly polished. From the mailed shoulders fell the scarlet cloak........ A broad shagreen belt with a golden buckle held the scabbard of the broadsword he wore."
11. "....his sojourns in many lands was evident by his apparel........His horned helmet was such as was worn by the golden-haired /Esir of Nordheim; his hauberk and greaves were of the finest workmanship of Koth; the fine ring-mail which sheathed his arms and legs was of Nemedia; the blade at his girdle was a great Aquilonian broadsword; and his gorgeous scarlet cloak could have been spun nowhere but in Phir."

VI. QUEEN OF THE BLACK COAST
1. He saw a tall, powerfully built figure in a black scale-mail hauberk, burnished greaves and a blue-steel helmet from which jutted bull's horns highly polished. From the mailed shoulders fell the scarlet cloak, blowing in the sea-wind. A broad shagreen belt with a golden buckle held the scabbard of the broadsword he bore.

VII. THE BLACK COLLOSUS
1. "As he passed near a cresset she saw him plainly--a tall man, in the chain-mail hauberk of a mercenary............He stood facing her, his hand on the long hilt that jutted forward from beneath the scarlet cloak which flowed carelessly from his mailed shoulders. The torchlight glinted dully on the polished blue steel of his greaves and basinet."
2. "?.the brought harness to replace Conan's chain-mail--gorget, sollerets, cuirass, pauldrons, jambes, cuisses, and sallet.
3. ".....a Conan in burnished steel stood before the audience. Clad in the plate-armor, vizor lifted and dark face shadowed by the dark plumes which nodded above his helmet;..."
4. "......he drew off his scarlet cloak and wrapped it around her."
5. "He seated himself on a boulder, his broadsword across his knees. With the firelight glinting from his blue steel armor, he seemed an image of steel......"
6. "......she glimpsed the long blue glimmer of his blade."
7. "He had discarded the plate-armor for the more familiar chain-mail."

VIII. IRON SHADOWS IN THE MOON
1. ."........as a terrible apparition arose from the reedy jungle..............Olivia, staring up from the ground, saw what she took to be either a savage or a madman advancing on Shah Amurath in an attitude of deadly menace. He was powerfully built, naked but for a girdled loincloth which was stained with blood and crusted with dried mire. His black mane was matted with mud and clotted blood; there were streaks of dried blood on his chest and limbs, dried blood on the long straight sword he gripped in his right hand. From under the tangle of locks, bloodshot eyes glared like coals of blue fire."
2. Although the following is not a description of Conan, some people are curious about others in Conan's world and how they dress, etc., so thus here is REH's Description of Pirates of the Sea of Vileyet:
"There were some 70 of them, a wild horde made up of men from many nations: Kothians, Zamorians, Brythunians, Corinthians, and Shemites. Their features reflected the wildness of their natures. Many bore the scars of the lash or the branding iron. There were cropped ears, slit noses, gaping eye sockets, stumps of wrists--marks of the hangman as well as scars of battle. Most of them were half naked, but the garments they wore were fine; gold braided jackets, satin girdles, silken breeches, tattered, stained with tar and blood, vied with pieces of silver chased armor. Jewels glittered in nose rings and earrings, and in the hilts of their daggers."
REH described their captain thusly: ".......as a huge figure swaggered forward: a giant, naked to the waist, where his capacious belly was girdled by a wide sash that upheld voluminous silken pantaloons. His head was shaven except for a scalp lock, his mustaches drooped over a rat-trap mouth. Green Shemitish slippers with upturned toes were on his feet, a long straight sword in his hand."


IX. XUTHAL OF THE DUSK (wpn: SABRE)
1. "........though his only garment was a silk loin-cloth, girdled by a wide, gold buckled belt from which hung a saber and a broad-bladed poiniard."

X. THE POOL OF THE BLACK ONE
1. "His single garment--a pair of bright crimson silk breeks----his broad gold-buckled girdle and the sheathed sword it supported."

XI. ROGUES IN THE HOUSE
1. After a fight with the guards, capture, imprisonment, and then escaping: "He discarded his ragged tunic and moved off through the night naked but for a loin-cloth. As he went he fingered the poiniard he had captured--a murderous weapon with a broad double-edged blade nineteen inches long."

XII. THE VALE OF LOST WOMEN
1. "He was clad like his followers in leopard-skin loin-clout and plumed head-piece, but he was a white man."
2. "High-strapped sandals guarded his feet, and from his broad girdle hung a sword in a leather scabbard."

XIII. THE DEVIL IN IRON (wpn: SCIMITAR)
1. "A crimson scarf was knotted about his head; his wide silk breeches, of flaming hue, were upheld by a broad sash which likewise supported a scimitar in a shagreen scabbard. His guilt-worked leather boots suggested the horseman rather than the seaman...............Through his widely open white silk shirt showed......."
2. "He went softly in his soft leather boots."

XIV. "UNTITLED FRAGMENT"
1. "His girdled loincloth and high-strapped sandals were splashed with blood."

XV. "UNTITLED DRAFT"
1. "The rider.............a powerfully built man in chain mail and helmet, with a scarlet cloak whipping its folds about him."
1. Conan charging in on horseback:...."........a dark scarred face under a steel helmet, of a scarlet cloak unfurled from mighty mailed shoulders, and a great sword lashing up and down."............"Wildly driven spears and knives glanced from his helmet or the shield on his left arm......."-----------------------------------------------------------------------


From book II of Conan stories, "THE BLOODY CROWN OF CONAN":

Ch. I; THE PEOPLE OF THE BLACK CIRCLE:
1. The yard long Zhaibar knife that glittered in the intruder's fist?.,"
2. The invader was a tall man, at once strong and supple. He was dressed like a Hillman, but his dark features and blazing blue eyes did not match his garb.
3. His garments were clean and not ragged. The broad Bakhariot girdle that supported his knife in its ornamented scabbard would have matched the robes of a prince, and there was a glint ot fine Turanian mail under his shirt.


Ch. II. From the book, "THE HOUR OF THE DRAGON", which is 2nd story in Bloody Crown of Conan:

Ch. I; O Sleeper Awake:
1. "........a tall man, mightily shouldered and deep of chest, with a massive corded neck and heavily muscled limbs. He was clad in silk and velvet, with the royal lions of Aquilonia worked in gold upon his rich jupon, and the crown of Aquilonia shone on his square-cut black mane; but the great sword at his side seemed more natural to him that the regal accoutrements. His brow was low and broad, his eyes a volcanic blue that smoldered as if with some inner fire. His dark, scarred almost sinister face was that of a fighting-man, and his velvet garments could not conceal the hard, dangerous lines of his limbs."

Ch. II: A Black Wind Blows:
1. " 'I saw again in the battlefield wherein I was born,' said Conan, resting his chin moodily on a massive fist. "I saw myself in a panther skin loin-clout, throwing my spear at the mountain beasts.' "
2. ....."the king's great two-handed sword lay near his hand,......".

Ch. III; The Cliffs Reel:
1. "Wrenching away the bow and an arrow he staggered toward the opening of the pavilion. So formidable was his appearance, naked but for short leather breeks and sleeveless shirt, open to reveal his great, hairy chest, with his huge limbs and his blue eyes blazing under his tangled black mane,........".

Ch. IV; The Thrust of a Knife:
1. Conan killed a Nemedian soldier with the poniard the slave girl who helped him escape the dungeons gave him, then took his mail armor and obviously his sword, which we learn later was a two-hander: : "....the rider wore the grey mail of a Nemedian adventurer."
"Conan sprang as a tiger springs. Practiced fighter though the Adventurer was, he did not realize the desperate quickness that lurks in barbaric sinews. He was caught off guard, his heavy sword half lifted. Before he could either strike or parry, the king's poniard sheathed itself in his throat, above the gorget, slanting downward into his heart. With a choked gurgle he reeled and went down, and Conan ruthlessly tore his blade free as his victim fell. The white horse snorted violently and shied at the sight and scent of blood on the sword."
`
I wonder if by that last sentence REH meant to say that Conan had picked up the sword and then used it again on the guy or was it a typo? Because the Adventurer's sword had not been used, Conan having killed him before he could get it up. Anyway, he left there, wearing the Nemedian Adventurer's mail, on the white horse the slave girl had hidden for him and rode, crossing the wild country, until in his own land (that was funny about that crow flying around and hanging about above him with constant, incessant squawks, cries and caws until Conan's teeth were on edge and he was seething with fury). There he came across the four Nemedians that were fixing to hang that wolf woman or witch (next)-----

Ch. VIII: Rending of the Veil:
"Conan swung from his weary steed and dropped down the face of the rocks, landing with a clang of mail on the grass. The four men wheeled at the sound and drew their swords, gaping at the mailed giant who faced them, sword in hand.
Conan laughed harshly. His eyes were bleak as flint.
'Dogs!' he said without passion and without mercy. 'Do Nemedian jackals set themselves up as executioners and hang my subjects at will? First you must take the head of their king. Here I stand, awaiting your lordly pleasure!'
'Who is this madman?' growled a bearded ruffian. 'He wears Nemedian mail, but speaks with an Aquilonian accent.'
'No matter,' quoth another. 'Cut him down, and then we'll hang the old hag.'
And so saying he ran at Conan, lifting his sword. But before he could strike, the king's great blade lashed down, splitting helmet and skull. The man fell before him, but the others were hardy rogues. They gave tongue like wolves and surged about the lone figure in the gray mail, and the clamor and din of steel drowned the cries of the circling raven.

Conan did not shout. His eyes coals of blue fire and his lips smiling bleakly, he lashed right and left with his two-handed sword. For all his size he was quick as a cat on his feet, and he was constantly in motion, presenting a moving target so that thrusts and swings cut empty air oftener than not. Yet when he struck he was perfectly balanced, and his blows fell with devastating power. Three of the four were down, dying in their own blood, and the fourth was bleeding from half a dozen wounds, stumbling in headlong retreat as he parried frantically, when Conan's spur caught in the surcoat of one of the fallen men.
The king stumbled, and before he could catch himself the Nemedian, with the frenzy of desperation, rushed him so savagely that Conan staggered and fell sprawling over the corps. The Nemedian croaked in triumph and sprang forward, lifting his great sword with both hands over his right shoulder, as he braced his legs wide for the stroke--and then, over the prostrate king, something huge and hairy shot like a thunderbolt full on the soldier's breast, and his yelp of triumph changed to a shriek of death (he was killed by the witch's wolf)."

That "sword in hand" could be none other than the Nemedian Adventurer's sword, unless Conan took one of the curved swords of the drugged Nubian guards in the dungeon. But I doubt that because he would have used it to dispatch the Adventurer instead of his poniard, and most curved swords weren't two handed. So he had the Adventurer's sword when he fought the four men and where it mentions it also being a "two-hander".

Ch. IX; It is the King or His Ghost:
1. While under disguise: ".......whose worn cloak......... A great patch covered one eye, and his leather coif, drawn low over his brows, shadowed his features."

Ch. XI; Swords of the South:
1. Again in disguise: "The man.......was huge and brown as the others, though closer scrutiny might have revealed the fact that the hue was the result of carefully applied pigments. He was clad in leather loin-clout and sandals, and he handled the boat........"
2. After washing off the brown pigment......"From the cabin he brought forth a suit of Aquilonian ring-mail......"

Ch. XII; The Fang of the Dragon:
1. "His harness proclaimed him a veteran of the Free Companies, who were of all races. His headpiece was a plain morion, dented and battered. The leather and mail-mesh of his hauberk were worn and shiny as if by many campaigns, and the scarlet cloak flowing carelessly from his mailed shoulders was tattered and stained."

Ch. XV; The Return of the Corsair:
1. "Then he discovered he was weaponless and naked except for his short leather breeks."

Ch. XVI; Black-Walled Khemi:
1. ".....he donned the prisoner's silk breeches and sandals, and the band from the man's hair, but scorned the fisherman's short knife. ......but Conan buckled to his hip a Ghanta knife, a weapon borne by the fierce desert men who dwelt to the south of the Stygians, a broad, heavy, slightly curved blade of fine steel, edged like a razor and long enough to dismember a man."

Ch. 22; Drums of Peril:
1. ".......rode a giant figure in black armor, with the royal lion of Aquilonia worked in gold upon the breast of his rich silken surcoat."

Ch. 23; The Road to Acheron:
1. "And at the tip of the wedge a giant figure in black armor roared and smote like a hurricane, with a dripping ax that split steel and bone alike."
2. "The Cimmerian placed a mail shod foot upon his enemy's breast......"

"A Witch Shall Be Born", by R.E., At the outset Conan is the Captain of the Royal or Palace Guard, 500 strong. While it did not describe them, it did describe the Shemitish Mercenaries that had taken over and had defeated Conan's men and crucified him:
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From book III of Conan stories, "THE CONQUERING SWORD OF CONAN":

I. The Servants of Bit-Yakin:
1. His only garment was a pair of short red silk breeks, and his sandals were slung to his back, out of his way, as were his sword and dagger.
His skin was brown, bronzed by the sun, his square-cut mane confined by a silver band about his temples.

II. Beyond the Black River:
1. The traveler stared in surprise. The stranger was clad like himself in regard to boots and breeks, though the latter were of silk instead of leather. But he wore a sleeveless hauberk of dark mesh-mail in place of a tunic, and a helmet perched on his black mane. That helmet held the other's gaze; it was without a crest, but adorned by short bull's horns. No civilized man: dark, scarred, with smoldering blue eyes, it was a face as untamed as the primordial forest which formed its background. The man held a broadsword in his right hand, and the edge was smeared with crimson.

NOTE: This quote isn't pertaining to descriptions of Conan, but should answer any questions as to who or what the Picts were:
"I never liked the fat bastard, but we can't have Pictish devils making so cursed free with white men's heads."
The Picts were a white race, though swarthy, but the border men never spoke of them as such.

III. The Black Stranger (wpn: (CUTLASS):
1. For all his massive, muscular build he moved with the supple certitude of a panther. He was naked except for a rag twisted about his loins, and his limbs were criss-crossed with scratches from briars, and caked with dried mud. A brown-crusted bandage was knotted about his thickly-muscled left arm. Under his matted black mane his face was drawn and gaunt, and his eyes burned like the eyes of a wounded panther. He limped slightly as he followed the dim path that led across the open space.

2. ,?.the Cimmerian bounded into the path and plunged the knife between the shoulders of the last man. The attack was so quick and unexpected the Pict had no chance to save himself. The blade was in his heart before he knew he was in peril. The other two whirled with the instant, steel-trap quickness of savages, but even as the knife sank home, the Cimmerian struck a tremendous blow with the war-axe in his right hand. The second Pict was in the act of turning as the axe fell. It split his skull to the teeth! ??The remaining Pict, a chief by the scarlet tip of his eagle-feather, came savagely to the attack. He was stabbing at the Cimmerian's breast even as he killer wrenched his axe from the dead man's head. The Cimmerian hurled the body against the chief and flowed with an attack as furious and desperate as the charge of a wounded tiger. The Pict, staggering under the impact of the corpse against him, made no attempt to parry the dripping axe; the instinct to slay submerging even the instinct to live, he drove his spear ferociously at his enemy's broad breast. The Cimmerian had the advantage of greater intelligence, and a weapon in each hand. The hatchet, checking its downward sweep struck the spear aside, and the knife in the Cimmerians's left hand ripped upward into the painted belly.

3. A man as big as himself was striding toward him over the sands, making no attempt at stealth; the pirate's eyes widened as he stared at the close fitting silk breeches, high flaring-topped boots, wide-skirted coat and head-gear of a hundred years ago. There was a broad cutlass in the stranger's hand and unmistakable purpose in his approach.

4. The stranger was as tall as either of the freebooters, and more powerfully built than either, yet for all his size he moved with the pantherish suppleness in his high, flaring-topped boots. His thighs were cased in close-fitting breeches of white silk, his wide-skirted sky-blue coat open to reveal an open-necked white silken shirt beneath, and the scarlet sash that girdled his waist. There were silver acorn-shaped buttons on the coat, and it was adorned with gilt-worked cuffs and pocket flaps, and satin collar. A lacquered hat completed a costume obsolete by nearly a hundred years. A heavy cutlass hung at the wearer's hip.
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IV. The Man-eaters of Zamboula:
1. "I have no goods," growled the Cimmerian, touching the shagreen-bound hold of the broadsword that hung at his hip. "I have even sold my horse."

2. His blue eyes and alien features distinguished him from the Eastern swarms, and the straight sword at his hip added point to the racial differences.

3. Note: A description of Turanian cavalry (and the type of swords they carried) on the streets of Zamboula: The babble of a myriad tongues smote on the Cimmerian's ears as the restless pattern of the Zamboula streets weaved about him---cleft now and then by a squad of clattering horsemen, the tall supple warriors of Turan, with dark hawk-faces, clinking metal and curved swords.

V. Red Nails:
1. Note: A description of Valeria is warranted here: She was tall, full-bosomed and large-limbed, with compact shoulders. Her whole figure reflected an unusual strength, without distracting from the femininity of her appearance. She was all woman, in spite of her bearing and her garments. The latter were incongruous, in view of her present environs. Instead of a skirt she wore short, wide-legged silk breeches, which ceased a hand's breadth short of her knees, and were upheld by a wide silken sash worn as a girdle. Flaring-topped boots of soft leather came almost to her knees, and a low-necked, wide-collared wide-sleeved silk shirt completed her costume. On one shapely hip she wore a straight double-edged sword, and on the other a long dirk. Her unruly golden hair, cut square at her shoulders, was confined by a band of crimson satin.

2. Conan: He was a giant in stature, muscles rippling smoothly under his skin which the sun had burned brown. His garb was similar to hers, except that he wore a broad leather belt instead of a girdle. Broadsword and poniard hung from this belt.


---------------------------

[Freebooter]

Gin-Wulf,
Here ya go bro:
--------------------
DESCRIPTIONS OF ATTIRE, ETC., IN CONAN?S HYBORIAN ERA

While descriptions of Conan are here also, the following are descriptions of mainly other people in his world in order to show different styles and culture in the various nations and lands. They are listed by countries in alphabetical order, then each story is listed with its descriptions listed under its name. Everything is numbered. When Conan descriptions are listed separately, they are numbered by themselves, and the descriptions of others have their numbers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

ACHERON
Ancient empire that crumbled long ago before Conan?s time.

From ?Hour of the Dragon?
1. Description of the great sorcerer and magician Xaltotun, who had been the High Priest of Set in Python, in Acheron, after he had been resurrected by the Nemedian magician Orastes using the flaming jewel called the ?Heart of Ahriman?: ?In the jade sarcophagus lay a living man; a tall, lusty man, naked, white of skin, and dark of hair and beard.?


AQUILONIA--Flag; black with golden lion on it. Flag of Poitain: a crimson leopard.

From ?Phoenix on the Sword?
-------------------------------
Descriptions of Conan:
1. "His garments were of rich fabric, but simply made. He wore no ring or ornaments, and his square cut mane was confined merely by a cloth-of-silver band about his head."
2. " 'Hold out your sword.' Conan did so, and on the great blade, close to the heavy silver guard, the ancient traced........"
3. "........for on the broad blade was carven a symbol......"
4. "...........partly armored, and with his long sword in his hand."
--------------------------------

Descriptions of others:
1. Description of Escalante: ??where a tall, lean man in worn velvet lounged like a lazy cat on a silken couch,??
2. Descriptions of Prospero: ??for he was taking up the laces of his gold-chased armor,? and ??smoothing his silken surcoat over his shining mail??
3. Description of chain Baron Dion of Attalas wore: ??thick golden chain??
4. Description of King Conan?s night guards in his palace: ??ten giants in black armor??
5. Description of the poet and bard Rinaldo: ??pulled his slouch hat down...? and ???dashing off his feathered cap??
6. Description of helmet of Gromel, commander of the Black Legion: ??sword and casque shivered??
7. Description of armor of Count Volmana of Karaban: ??the ax crunched through the steel cuirass and Volmana crumpled??

From ?The Scarlet Citadel?
------------------------------------
Descriptions of Conan:
1. "......the black-mailed figure of the western king loomed among his foes...........about his iron clad feet grew a ring of mangled corpses."
2. "Now he grinned bleakly as the kings reined back a safe distance from the grim, iron-clad figure looming among the dead. Before the savage blue eyes blazing murderously from beneath the crested, dented helmet, the boldest shrank.""........his black armor was hacked to tatters and splashed with blood."
3. "?his captains had fallen like grain before the Cimmerian?s broadsword."
4. "The black-armored figure......"
5. "........the mailed giant crashed heavily to earth, to lie motionless."
6. "........the pageant of his life passed fleetingly past his mental eye----a panorama wherein moved shadowy figures which were himself--a skin-clad barbarian, a mercenary swordsman in horned helmet and scale-mail corselet; a corsair in a dragon-prowed galley......, a captain of hosts in burnished steel........"
7. After being captured and stripped: "In strong contrast Conan, grim, blood-stained, naked but for a loin-cloth.........."
8. After his escape and return to his kingdom: "He could not mistake the giant figure in the black, guilt worked armor........"
9. "It (an axe) clanged on Conan's helmet, striking fire, and the Cimmerian reeled and struck back. The five-foot blade crushed Strabonus' casque and skull......."
10. "He (the captain of the boat) saw a tall powerfully built figure in a black scale-mail hauberk, burnished greaves and a blue-steel helmet from which jutted bull's horns highly polished. From the mailed shoulders fell the scarlet cloak........ A broad shagreen belt with a golden buckle held the scabbard of the broadsword he wore."
11. "....his sojourns in many lands was evident by his apparel........His horned helmet was such as was worn by the golden-haired /Easir of Nordheim; his hauberk and greaves were of the finest workmanship of Koth; the fine ring-mail which sheathed his arms and legs was of Nemedia; the blade at his girdle was a great Aquilonian broadsword; and his gorgeous scarlet cloak could have been spun nowhere but in Ophir."

------------------------------------------
Descriptions of others:
8. Description of the dead of Conan?s army after he had crossed into Ophir and fought: ??the sinking sun shimmered on burnished helmets, gilt-worked mail, silver breastplates,?..; About them and among them, like the drift of a storm, were strewn slashed and trampled bodies in steel caps and leather jerkins--archers and pikemen.? .
9. Description some of the forces who fought Conan?s troops: ?The mailed lancers of the routed center had reformed??
10. ??steel clad knights of Poitain??
11. Description of Prince Arpello: ?The prince of Pellia was?.Under his silken jupon with its gilt-braided skirts and jagged sleeves, glimmered burnished steel. He long black hair was curled and scented, and bound back by a cloth-of-silver band, but at his hip hung a broadsword the jeweled hilt of which was worn with battles and campaigns.?

From ?The Queen of the Black Coast?

12. ??the blade at his girdle was a great Aquilonian Broadsword??.

From ?Beyond the Black River?
--------------------------------
Descriptions of Conan:
1. The traveler stared in surprise. The stranger was clad like himself in regard to boots and breeks, though the latter were of silk instead of leather. But he wore a sleeveless hauberk of dark mesh-mail in place of a tunic, and a helmet perched on his black mane. That helmet held the other?s gaze; it was without a crest, but adorned by short bull?s horns. No civilized man: dark, scarred, with smoldering blue eyes, it was a face as untamed as the primordial forest which formed its background. The man held a broadsword in his right hand, and the edge was smeared with crimson.
-------------------------------
Descriptions of others:
13. Description of Balthus, a new settler to Aquilonia?s far western frontier. He was actually from the Tauran, the area of north-western Aquilonia that was just east of the Bossonian Marches: ?He was a young man of medium height, with an open countenance and a mop of tousled tawny hair unconfined by cap or helmet. His gar was common enough for that country--coarse tunic, belted at the waist, short leather breeches beneath, and soft buckskin boots that came short of the knee. A knife hilt jutted from one boot-top. The broad leather belt supported a short heavy sword, and a buckskin pouch?.the short wide sleeves of the tunic??
14. Description of a western Aquilonian merchant, Tiberias of Velitrium: ??a short fat man, clad in the gilt-worked boots and (despite the heat) the ermine-trimmed tunic of a wealthy merchant?..the short sword still in its scabbard seemed to?
15. ?Aquilonians of the western provinces to a man, they had many points in common. They dressed alike--in buckskin boots, leathern breeks and deer-skin shirts, with broad girdles that held axes and short swords; ?
16. Description of a settler?s wife in her sleeping garment: ??a woman in a scanty shift??;

From ?Hour of the Dragon?
Orastes, magician of Nemedia, Valerius, an Aquilonian of royal blood, of the line of the older dynasty of which Conan over threw and now wants that crown, Tarascus, who wants the crown of Nemedia, and Amalric, Lord of Tor, one of Tarascus? main commanders in the army of Nemedia and a commander of mercenaries; Conspirators in bringing the great magician and High Priest of Set of Python, Acheron, Xaltotun, back to life to use as their tool to gain control of Aquilonia, to put Tarascus on the thrown of Nemedia, etc..

Descriptions of Conan included below:


17. Description of robe of Orastes, the Nemedian magician: ??he thrust a broad white hand into his fur-trimmed robe?in the ermine trimmed robe?
18. Description of what Orastes clothed the magician Xaltotun with, who had been the High Priest of Set in Python, which was in ancient Acheron: ??and Orastes clothed him in a curious dark velvet robe, splashed with gold stars and crescent moons, and fastened a cloth-of-gold fillet about his temples,??
19. Descriptions of King Conan (including his dream when he saw himself in his youth):
"........a tall man, mightily shouldered and deep of chest, with a massive corded neck and heavily muscled limbs. He was clad in silk and velvet, with the royal lions of Aquilonia worked in gold upon his rich jupon, and the crown of Aquilonia shone on his square-cut black mane; but the great sword at his side seemed more natural to him that the regal accoutrements. His brow was low and broad, his eyes a volcanic blue that smoldered as if with some inner fire. His dark, scarred almost sinister face was that of a fighting-man, and his velvet garments could not conceal the hard, dangerous lines of his limbs."--?I saw again the battlefield whereon I was born. I saw myself in pantherskin loin-clout, throwing my spear??the king's great two-handed sword lay near his hand?-----Wrenching away the bow and an arrow he staggered toward the opening of the pavilion. So formidable was his appearance, naked but for short leather breeks and sleeveless shirt, open to reveal his great, hairy chest, with his huge limbs and his blue eyes blazing under his tangled black mane
20. Description of Aquilonia?s forces: ? ---they met the hosts of Conan, king of Aquilonia ? forty-five thousand knights, archers and men-at-arms, the flower of Aquilonian strength and chivalry. Only the knights of Poitain, under Prospero, had not yet arrived, for they had far to ride up from the southwestern corner of the kingdom??
21. Description of the flag of Aquilonia: ??upon the black banner with its golden lion that floated above King Conan?s pavilion.?
22. Valannus, a Captain of the Pellian Spearmen: ??mail shirt, burganet and leg-pieces.?
23. Description of Conan?s armor when it was given Valannus to wear: ??the squires stripped Valannus of mail shirt, burganet and leg-pieces, and clad him in Conan?s armor of black plate-mail, with the vizored salade, and the dark plumes nodding over the wivern crest. Over all they put the silken surcoat with the royal lion worked in gold upon the breast, and they girt him with a broad gold-buckled belt which supported a jewel-hilted broadsword in a cloth-of-gold scabbard.?
24. Description of Bossonian archers: ?The latter were Bossonians from the western marches, strongly built men of medium stature, in leathern jackets and iron head-pieces.?
25. Nobleman Servius Gallanus, one of King Conan?s staunchest supporters, at what was left of his farm: ??he saw the door open and a compact figure in silk hose and richly embroidered doublet stride forth??
26. Description of Conan when in disguise in Tarantia enroute to rescue the noblewoman Albiana, who was to be beheaded: ??whose worn cloak?.A great patch covered one eye, and his leather coif, drawn low over his brows, shadowed his features. With a long, thick staff in his hand?.?
27. Description of a workman of Tarantia, Aquilonia: ?He saw a man in the brown jerkin of a free workman regarding him fixedly.?
28. Description of the official executioner and axeman of the courts of Tarantia: ?He was a tall, powerfully-built man, clad in close-fitting black silk. Over his head was drawn a black hood which fell about this shoulders, having two holes for his eyes. From his shoulders hung a loose black cloak, and over the shoulder he bore a heavy axe. ?
29. She was clad only in a scanty shift; her golden hair fell in lustrous ripples about he white shoulders??
30. Description of clothing of those who helped Conan escape the Nemedians with the girl: ?He could tell nothing of his rescuers except that they wore dark cloaks and hoods.?
31. Hadrathus, priest of Asura in Tarantia: ?--a slim figure, masked in a black cloak with a hood.?
32. Description of a boatman of the cult of Asura, of which Conan was disguised, and then the clothing he donned when he got ready to leave the boat on his trek: ?He was clad in a leather loin-clout and sandals??From the cabin he brought forth a suit of Aquilonian ring-mail??
33. Description of some Poitainians: ??a band of knights in burnished armor rode from among the trees??
34. Description of Bossonians in the battle to retake Aquilonia: ?Bands of Bossonians were seen moving along the edges of the marches: stocky, resolute men in brigandines and steel caps, with longbows in their hands??the burganets of the archers glinting among the rocks??
35. ?Description of the Gundermen during the battle to re-take Aquilonia: ?Above them the Gundermen made no outcry of triumph. They closed their ranks, locking up the gaps made by the fallen. Sweat ran into their eyes from under their steel caps. They gripped their spears and waited, their fierce hearts swelling with pride that a king should fight on foot with them.
36. Description of a part of Conan?s aide Pallantides? helmet, torn off in battle: ?snapped bolts and rivets and tore off the casque??


ARGOS

From Queen of the Black Coast
---------------------------
Descriptions of Conan:
1. He saw a tall, powerfully built figure in a black scale-mail hauberk, burnished greaves and a blue-steel helmet from which jutted bull?s horns highly polished. From the mailed shoulders fell the scarlet cloak, blowing in the sea-wind. A broad shagreen belt with a golden buckle held the scabbard of the broadsword he bore.
-----------------------------
Descriptions of others:
1. Descriptions of the Master or Captain of the Argosean merchant galley ?Argus? and the crew: ?The master, sturdy and black-bearded,??They were characteristic Argosean sailors, short and stockily built?..They were hardy and robust, but his was???The bearded rowers grunted, heaved at the oars, while their muscles coiled and knotted, and sweat started out on their hides???The stocky sailors, no match for the tall barbarians, were cut down to a man,??
2. Descriptions of Argosean sailors on board a merchant galley when arming for defense: ?From under the poop deck Tito brought out quilted jerkins, steel caps, bows and arrows.?

From ?Hour of the Dragon?
3. Argosean merchants Conan saw: ??from the sharp-eyed silk-clad merchants??
4. Description of a servant of Publio, a lord of merchants in Messantia, Argos: ?A page in jagged silken jupon and hose came forward inquiringly.?
5. Description of Publio, Messantian merchant lord: ?He was a short man, with a massive head and quick dark eyes. His blue robe was of the finest watered silk, trimmed with cloth-of-gold, and from his thick white throat hung a heavy gold chain.?
6. Description of the merchant Publio?s servant and body-guard, in Messantia, Argos: ??a Shemite, of medium height and mightily muscled build, his curled blue-black beard bristling, and a short, leaf-shaped sword in his hand.?
7. Description of the Argosean vessel that Conan was taken aboard: ?What ship is this?? Conan demanded. ?The Venturer, out of Messantia, with a cargo of mirrors, scarlet silk cloaks, shields, gilded helmets and swords to trade to the Shemites??


ASGARD / NORDHEIM / ?SIR

From ?The Frost Giant?s Daughter?

1. Description of Conan?s friends, the ?sir of Nordheim: ??he was surrounded by golden haired warriors in mail and furs??


BAKALAH OF THE BLACK KINGDOMS
(Bakalah; City, City-State, or Nation?)

From ?The Vale of Lost Women?
-------------------------------
Description of Conan:1. Description of Conan and his Bamula warriors: ??a thick line of waving plumes and glinting spears??.He was clad like his followers in leopard-skin loin-clout and plumed head-piece, but he was a white man."
2. "High-strapped sandals guarded his feet, and from his broad girdle hung a sword in a leather scabbard."
------------------------------
Description of others:
1. Description of a white woman who was captive of blacks in Bakalah: ?Her fingers twitched convulsively at the skirt of the scanty under-tunic which constituted her only garment.?
2. Description of black woman of Bakalah: ??a black woman entered--a lithe pantherish creature, whose supple body gleamed like polished ebony, adorned only by a wisp of silk twisted about her strutting loins.?
3. Description of black dancers around the fire in the village: ?The red light glinted on silver and ivory ornaments; white plumes nodded against the glare??
4. Description of guards flanking black chief Bajujh and of him also: ?On an ivory stool, flanked by giants in plumed head-pieces and leopard-skin girdles, sat a fat, squat shape, abysmal, repulsive, a toad-like chunk of blackness, reeking of the dank rotting jungle and the knighted swamps. The creature?s pudgy hands rested on the sleek arch of his belly; his nape was a roll of sooty fat that seemed to thrust his bullet head forward. His eyes gleamed in the firelight, like live coals in a dead black stump. Their appalling vitality belied the inert suggestion of the gross body.?



BRYTHUNIA

From Xuthal in the Dusk
1. Description o Natala, Conan?s companion at Xuthal of the Dusk. Also she wore sandals, as was mentioned later in the story. She was Brythunian but he had rescued her from a Shemitic slave market. Her clothes might have come with her or been given her by the Shemites: ??., her short silken tunic, low-necked and sleeveless, girdled at the waist, emphasized rather than concealed her lithe figure?






DARFAR
Darfar is a black kingdom where cannibalism is more than just eating one?s fellow man if needs be. It is an evil, dark Cult where cannibalism is a way of life and religion; it is a part of their religion and is preferred over other meat! Darfar lies between Kush and Keshan. South of them lie the more southern black lands and kingdoms.

From ?The Man-Eaters of Zamboula?
1. Description of one of the cannibals of Darfar in Zamboula. According to #18 below they had filed teeth too: ?It was a gigantic black man, naked but for a loin cloth?..The fellow?s kinky wool was built up into horn-like spindles with twigs and dried mud.?


FREE COMPANIONS

From ?Hour of the Dragon?
1. Description of garb of the Free Companions which Conan donned when he crossed into Zingara in search of the flaming jewel, the ?Heart?: ?His harness proclaimed him a veteran of the Free Companies, who were of all races. His headpiece was a plain morion, dented and battered. The leather and mail-mesh of his hauberk were worn and shiny as if by many campaigns, and the scarlet cloak flowing carelessly from his mailed shoulders was tattered and stained???Only his basinet had saved his life."

From Iron Shadows of the Moon
1. Description of Conan, late a member of the Free Companions and only survivor of his band: "........as a terrible apparition arose from the reedy jungle..............Olivia, staring up from the ground, saw what she took to be either a savage or a madman advancing on Shah Amurath in an attitude of deadly menace. He was powerfully built, naked but for a girdled loincloth which was stained with blood and crusted with dried mire. His black mane was matted with mud and clotted blood; there were streaks of dried blood on his chest and limbs, dried blood on the long straight sword he gripped in his right hand. From under the tangle of locks, bloodshot eyes glared like coals of blue fire."


HYRKANIA

From ?Iron Shadows in the Moon?

1. Description of a girl escaped from the Shah of Akif, Turan?s harem:
??a slender rider in sandals and girdled tunic??
2. Description of Shah Amurath, Lord of Akif, Turan. Although Akif is in Turan, Conan called him a Hyrkanian. Conan and the girl referred to the Shah?s men as Hyrkanians:
??from head to heel he was clad in light silvered mesh-mail that fitted his supple form like a glove. From under the dome-shaped, gold chased helmet his??


KESHAN
A small black country south of Stygia. It is east of Darfar, and Kush is west of Darfar, on the coast.

From ?The Servants of Bit Yakin?
-------------------------------
Descriptions of Conan:
1. His only garment was a pair of short red silk breeks, and his sandals were slung to his back, out of his way, as were his sword and dagger.
His skin was brown, bronzed by the sun, his square-cut mane confined by a silver band about his temples.
--------------------------
Descriptions of others:
1. Description of sleeping Goddess in ancient ruins: ??in breast-plates of jeweled gold, gilded sandals and silken skirt.?
2. Description of Priests of Keshan: ?In single file, their ostrich plumes nodding, their leopard skin tunics?shaven heads??


KHAURAN
A tiny independent kingdom at the eastern end of Koth, at one time a part of Koth, ruled by beloved Queen Taramis.

From ?A Witch Shall Be Born?
1. Description of night garments of Queen Taramis and her evil twin, the witch Salome: ?Her fiffure imitated that of the queen, on her feet were gilded sandals such as Taramis wore in her boudoir. The sleeveless, low-necked silk tunic, girdled at the waist with a cloth-of-gold cincture, was a duplicate of the queen?s night garment.?
2. Description of leader of the Shemitish mercenaries, the Kothic viovode of the Free Companies: ?His boots were of kordavan leather, his hose and doublet of plain, dark silk, tarnished with the wear of the camps and the strains of armor rust.?
3. Clothes of a Khaurani: ?The young soldier?s hose and shirt were smeared with dried blood,??
4. Description of Constantine?s Shemitish mercenaries: ?He (Constantine) sat his horse among a cluster of his men---thick-bodied Shemites with curled blue-black beards and hooked noses; the low-swinging sun struck glints from their peaked helmets and the silvered scales of their corselets.?
5. Description of the desert men who freed Conan from the cross: ??Conan saw four horsemen sitting their steeds in the twilight and staring up at him. Three were lean, white-robed hawks, Zuagir tribesmen without a doubt, nomads from beyond the river.?
6. Description the leader of the desert tribesmen of whom the three watching Conan on the cross were members of. He was also a former outlaw chief and hetman of the kozaki of the Zaporskan River, Olgerd Vladislav, and the fourth man sitting and watching Conan on the cross: ?The other was dressed like them in a white, girdled, khalat and a flowing head-dress which, banded about the temples with a triple circlet of braided camel-hair, fell to his shoulders. But he was not a Shemite?.a sword gleamed from beneath his kafieh.?
7. Description of the queen?s twin sister, and usurper of the kingdom, the evil witch Salome: ?Salome was clad in the barbaric splendor of a woman of Shushan. Jewels glittered in the torchlight on her gilded sandals, on her gold breast-plates and the slender chains that held them in place. Gold anklets clashed as she moved, jeweled bracelets weighted her bare arms. Her tall coiffure was that of a Shemitish woman, and jade pendents hung from the gold hoops in her ears, flashing and sparkling with each impatient movement of her haughty head. A gem-crusted girdle supported a silk skirt so transparent that it was in the nature of a cynical mockery of the convention that requires that nakedness be concealed?..Suspended from her shoulders and trailing down her back hung a darkly scarlet arm cloak, and this was thrown carelessly over the crook of one arm and the bundle that arm supported.?
8. A description of Khumbanigash, general of Constantine?s Shemitish mercenaries: ?a giant Shemite, with somber eyes and shoulders like a bull, his great black beard falling over his mighty, silvered-mailed breast.?
8. Description of Olgerd Vladislav and Conan while in their tent at camp of desert nomads: ?Olgerd?s apparel would have satisfied the vanity of any Zaporoskan hetman. His khalat was of white silk, with pearls sewn on the boxom. Girdled at the waist with a Bakhauriot belt, its skirts were drawn back to reveal his wide silken breeches, tucked into short boots of soft green leather, adorned with gold thread. On his head was a green silk turban, wound about aspired helmet chased with gold. His only weapon was a broad curved Cherkess knife in an ivory sheath girdled high on his left hip, kozak fashion. Throwing himself back in his gilded chair with its carven eagles, Olgerd spread his booted legs before him, with a gusty exhalation of satisfaction, and gulped down the sparkling wine noisily.???????To his splendor the huge Cimerian opposite him offered a strong contrast, with his square-cut black mane, brown scarred countenance and burning blue eyes. He was clad in black mesh-mail, and the only glitter about him was the broad gold buckle of the belt which supported his sword in its worn leather scabbard.?
9. Description of some of Khauran?s citizens plotting against the invaders: ?They were clad in chain-mail shirts and worn leather, swords hung at their girdles.?
10.


KHITAI

From ?Hour of the Dragon?
1. Description of some priests/magicians/sorcerers of Khitai in the service of Velerius, who, with the help of Nemedia and an ancient sorcerer, tried to take Aquilonia from Conan: ?Valerius summoned before him four men of curious and alen aspect. They were tall, gaunt, of yellowish skin, and immobile countenances. They were very similar in appearance, clad alike in long black robes beneath which their sandaled feet were just visible. Their features were shadowed by their hoods. They stood before Valerius with their hands in their wide sleeves?..each bore a long, curiously mottled staff. ?
2. More of the priests: ?And along this latter tunnel filed a bizarre procession--four tall, guant men in black, hooded robes, leaning on staffs.?


KHORAJA
A tiny independent kingdom between Koth and Shem, carved out of Shemitish lands by Kothic adventurers, now ruled by Queen Yasmella. Conan served as a Captain of some of Amalric?s Nemedian mercenaries until she made him commander of her armies.

From ?Black Colossus?
--------------------------------
Descriptions of Conan:
1. "As he passed near a cresset she saw him plainly--a tall man, in the chain-mail hauberk of a mercenary............He stood facing her, his hand on the long hilt that jutted forward from beneath the scarlet cloak which flowed carelessly from his mailed shoulders. The torchlight glinted dully on the polished blue steel of his greaves and basinet."
2. "?.the brought harness to replace Conan's chain-mail--gorget, sollerets, cuirass, pauldrons, jambes, cuisses, and sallet.
3. ".....a Conan in burnished steel stood before the audience. Clad in the plate-armor, vizor lifted and dark face shadowed by the dark plumes which nodded above his helmet;..."
4. "......he drew off his scarlet cloak and wrapped it around her."
5. "He seated himself on a boulder, his broadsword across his knees. With the firelight glinting from his blue steel armor, he seemed an image of steel......"
6. "......she glimpsed the long blue glimmer of his blade."
7. "He had discarded the plate-armor for the more familiar chain-mail."
------------------------------
Descriptions of others:
1. Description of Yasmela when her helpers re-dressed her after her bad nightmare. The latter she donned before going out into the streets to find Conan. She was sister of the King of Khoraja and acting ruler in his absence: ??garb her in the light sleeveless silk shirt, over which was slipped a silken tunic, bound at the waist by a wide velvet girdle. Satin slippers were put upon her slender feet,??Wrapping a voluminous silken cloak about her lithe figure and donning a velvet cap from which depended a filmy veil??
2. Description of Royal Palace Guard: ?Here stood a guardsman in crested gilt helmet, silvered cuirass and gold-chased greaves, with a long-shafted battle-ax in his hands.?
3. Description of Count Thespides: ??and with the other he held a velvet chaperon with scarlet feather fastened by a golden clasp. His pointed shoes were satin, his cote-hardie of gold-embroidered velvet?..Count Thespides, you have my glove under your baldric??
4. Description of Count Thespides. ??an elderly man in an ermine-fringed robe,?? Description of Taurus the Chancellor:
5. The mercenaries of the Nemedian Amalric, serving in service to Khoraja, wore chain mail hauberks. Conan was a Captain of them and wore also a scarlet cloak: He was described thusly: ?a tall man, in the chain-mail hauberk of a mercenary."......."He stood facing her, his hand on the long hilt that jutted forward from beneath the scarlet cloak which flowed carelessly from his mailed shoulders. The torchlight glinted dully on the polished blue steel of his greaves and basinet." "......his sword leaping into his hand with a broad shimmer of blue steel?...He lifted off his basinet and laid it upon the table, and drew back his coif, letting the mail folds fall upon his massive shoulders."?.
6. After promoting Conan to command her army, she had his mail replaced by Plate armor: "At her command they brought harness to replace Conan's chain mail--gorget, sollerets, cuirass, pauldrons, jambes, cuisses, and sallet??a Conan in burnished steel stood before his audience. Clad in plate-armor, vizor lifted and dark face shadowed by the black plumes that nodded before his helmet."
7. Description of army of Khoraja moving out, led by Conan: ?The army was on the move at last. There were the knights, gleaming in richly wrought plate-armor, colored plumes waved above their burnished sallets. Their steeds, caparisoned with silk, lacquered leather and gold buckles, caracoled and curvetted as their riders put them through their paces. The early light struck glints from lance-points that rose like a forest above the array, their pennons flowing in the breeze. Each knight wore a lady?s token, a glove, scarf, or rose, bound to his helmet or fastened to his sword-belt. They were the cavalry of Kharaja, five hundred strong, led by Count Thespides.
They were followed by the light cavalry on rangy steeds. The riders were typical hillmen, lean and hawk-faced; peaked steel caps were on their heads and chain-mail glinted under their flowing kaftans. Their main weapon was the terrible Shemitish bow, which could send a shaft five hundred paces. There were five thousand of these, and Shupras rode at their head, his lean face moody beneath his spired helmet.
Close on their heels marched the Khoraja spearmen, always comparatively few in any Hyborian state, where men thought cavalry the only honorable branch of the service. These, like the knights, were of ancient Kothic blood--sons of ruined families, broken men, penniless youths, who could not afford horses and plate armor--five hundred of them.
The mercenaries brought up the rear, a thousand horsemen, two thousand spearmen. The tall horses of the cavalry seemed hard and savage as their riders; they made no curvets or gambades. There was a grimly business-like aspect to these professional killers, veterans of bloody campaigns. Clad from head to foot in chain-mail, they wore their vizorless head-pieces over linked coifs. Their shields were unadorned, their long lances without guidons. At their saddle-bows hung battle-axes or steel maces, and each man wore at his hip a long broadsword. The spearmen were armed in much the same manner, though they bore pikes instead of cavalry lances.

This next paragraph describes some of the mercenaries, genetic traits, etc.:
They were men of many races and many crimes. There were tall Hyperboreans, gaunt, big-boned, of slow speech and violent natures; tawny-haired Gundermen from the hills of the northwest; swaggering Corinthian renegades; swarthy Zingarians, with bristling black mustaches and fiery tempers; Aquilonians from the distant west. But all , except the Zingarians, were Hyborians.
Behind all came a camel in rich housings, led by a knight on a great war-horse, and surrounded by a clump of picked fighters from the royal house-troops. Its rider, under the silken canopy of the seat, was a slim, silk-clad figure, at sight of which the populace, always mindful of royalty, threw up its leather cap and cheered wildly.

8. Description of Conan after camping for the night: ??he drew off his scarlet cloak and wrapped it about her??.He seated himself on a boulder, his broadsword across his knees. With the firelight glinting from his blue steel armor, he seemed like an image of steel??glimpsed the long blue glimmer of his blade.?

It would seem, from what it says in various places in that story, that the armor, helmets, and blades of the troops were mostly blued steel.


KOSALA
Kosala is a small country that lies to the east, between Iranistan and Vendhya, south of Hyrkania and south-east of the Sea of Vileyet.

From ?Red Nails?
1. Descriptions of people on a carven frieze, people Conan thought looked like Kosalans. According to Prince Olmec, the original Kosalans were indeed the founders of the city;
?Look at these friezes. They portray men. What race do they belong to?? Conan scanned them and shook his head. ?I never saw people exactly like them. But there?s the smack of the East about them ? Vendhya, maybe, or Kosala.?
?Were you a king in Kosala?? she asked, masking her keen curiosity with derision.
?No. But I was a war-chief of the Afghulis who live in the Himelian mountains above the borders of Vendhya. These people favor the Kosalans. But why should Kosalans be building a city this far to west??
The figures portrayed were those of slender, olive-skinned men and women, with finely chiseled, exotic features. They wore filmy robes and many delicate jeweled ornaments

KOTH

From ?The Scarlet Citadel
1. Description of the Kothic wizard, and real ruler of Koth, Tsotha-lanti: ?Clad only in silken robes?..figure in a filmy robe.?
2. Description of the Kothic wizard, and real ruler of Koth, Tsotha-lanti: ?He passed through the lines of the pikemen, and the giants in their steel caps and mail brigandines shrank back fearfully?! Nor were the plumed knights slower in making room for him.?
3. Description of the Kings of Ohpir and Koth: ??and on divans lounged Strabonus and Amalrus in their silks and gold, gleaming with jewels.?
4. Strabonus was King of Koth: ??the squat black-armored form of Stabonus.?

From Queen of the ?Black Coast?
5. Conan?s armor: ?..in a black scale mail hauberk, burnished greaves,?his hauberk and grieves were of the finest workmanship of Koth??
6. Description of leader of the Shemitish mercenaries, the Kothic viovode of the Free Companies when he and the witch, and twin to Queen Taramis, tried to take over Khauran: ?His boots were of kordavan leather, his hose and doublet of plain, dark silk, tarnished with the wear of the camps and the strains of armor rust.?


KUSH

From ?Black Colossus?
1. Part of Natuhk?s horde that confronted the forces of Khoraja under Conan were from Kush:
?Behind these came a motley array of wild men on half-wild horses--the warriors of Kush, the first of the great black kingdoms of the grasslands south of Stygia. They were shining ebony, supple and lithe, riding stark naked and without saddle or bridle.?



NEMEDIA: Flag; golden banner with scarlet dragon on it.

From ?God in the Bowl?
--------------------------------
Descriptions of Conan:
1. "Arus saw a tall powerfully built youth, naked but for a loin-cloth, and sandals strapped high about his ankles" (That answers my questions as to whether his sandals came to his knee or just above his ankles).
2. "A long sword hung from a leather scabbard at his girdle."
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Descriptions of others:
1. Description of Kallian Publico, the owner of the museum ?Kallian Publico?s Temple?: ??his rich robe half torn from him, and his purple tunic awry?.His face was blackened, his eyes almost starting form his head, and his tongue lolled blackly from his gaping mouth. His fat hands were thrown out as in a gesture of curious futility. On the thick fingers gems glittered??the keys to the door?.one of which still hangs on the girdle of Kallian Publico?.
2. Description of the Numalian Police, of which Dionus was Prefect: ??All but one wore the scarlet tunic of the Numalian Police, were girt with stabbing swords and bills--long shafted weapons, half pike, half axe??.
3. Description of Dionus, Prefect of Police: ? ?Oh, an insolent fellow!? sneered Demetrio?s companion, a big man wearing the insignia of Prefect of Police.?
4. Description of Posthumo, police strongman and cruel interrogator and torturer: ??the veins in his thick neck swelling?? (probably a big brute of a bully)
5. Description of a charieteer: ??sandaled feet re-echoed outside?? and ??in the helmet and tunic of a charioteer?? (I wish REH would?ve given a more detailed description of type of helmet and tunic, or color. He bore the ?debtors?? branded scar on his chest).
6. Description of Kallian Publico?s chief clerk, Promero: ??grasping Promero by neck and girdle?..as he seized the wretched clerk by the collar of his tunic??.
7. Description of Aztria Petanius, nephew of the city?s governor: ??richly dressed figure?? and ??foppish young nobleman brushed his embroidered sleeves fastidiously??but Aztrias shrugged his slender shoulders and covered a yawn with a slender white hand.?
8. The night watchman, Arus, carried an arbalest or crossbow, the bolts of which were square headed; no other description of him.
9. Description of Demetrio, Chief of the Inquisitorial Council of the City of Numalia: " 'What devil's work is this?' exclaimed the foremost man, whose cold grey eyes and lean keen features, no less than his civilian garments, set him apart form his burly companions." By civilian garments I figure he was wearing some sort of nice embroidered tunic and cloak, and probably some sort of slender, elegant gentleman?s sword. Too bad REH did not better describe this individual.
10. Description of the ?god? which came out of the bowl: ?A black cable, thicker than a man?s arm, curiously splotched.?
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WOUNDS:
1. Astrias Petanius: Lost his head.
2. Demetrio: Terrible wound completely through his thigh, probably his right one.
3. Dionud: Had his ear cut off, probably left one.
4. Posthumo: Had his eye gouged out, probably his left one.
5. Arus: Was made sick by kick in abdomen by Conan who also splintered Arus?teeth and shreaded his lips with his heel.


DESCRIPTIONS OF KALLIAN PUBLICO?S MUSEUM, D?COR, ITEMS, ETC.:
1. ?Arus stood in a vast corridor, lighted by huge candles in niches along the walls. These walls were hung with black velvet tapestries, and between the tapestries hung shields and crossed weapons of fantastic make. Here and there too, stood figures of curious gods--images cared of stone or rare wood, or cast of bronze, iron or silver--dimly reflected in the gleaming black mahogany floor.?
2. ?Through the dark, silken hangings that masked the many doorways opening into the hallway, came a figure.? These hangings were possibly semi-transparent due to the fact that Conan had seen the ?god? move across the room behind it.
3. ?Arus had edged his way to the wall, and now he took hold of a thick velvet rope which swung there, ?? (the rope which led to the Nightwatch alarm bell outside by the street).
4. The street outside was of cobblestones and; ?The walls of the temple are so thick, they are practically sound proof--an effect increased by the heavy hangings??..the corners of the building was decorated with carvings.?
6. Description of the bowl: ?A sort of sarcophagus, such as is found in the ancient Stygian tombs, but this one was round, like a covered metal bowl. Its composition was something like copper, but much harder, and it was carved with hieroglyphics, like those found on the more ancient menhirs in southern Stygia. The lid was made fast to the body by carven copper-like bands??In the center of the room stood a strange black cylinder, nearly four feet in height, and perhaps three feet in diameter at its widest circumference, which was half-way between the top and bottom. The heavy carven lid lay on the floor, and beside it a hammer and a chisel. Demetrio looked inside, puzzled an instant over the dim hieroglyphics, and turned to Conan?..?The bands were cut with this chisel?,?.?There are the marks where misstrokes of the hammer dinted the metal?. ?
7. In the room of the sarcophagus:
?Through the velvet hung door??They passed through the torn hangings and entered the room, which was rather more dimly lighted than the corridor. Doors on each side gave into other chambers, and the walls were lined with fantastic images, gods of strange lands and far peoples.?
There were marble pillars with carven leaves near the tops, the serpent ?god? had been seen wrapped around the top of one near the shadowy ceiling, in which were marble statues. The pillars were more of ornamental value in order to set off the statuary than a utilitarian nature.
?The barbarian shifted his grip on his sword and strode into the chamber. It was hung with rich silken tapestries; silken cushions and couches lay strewn about in careless profusion; and over a heavy gilded screen a Face looked at the Cimerrian.?

8. The item Conan was to steel was; ?a Zamoran diamond goblet???It is kept in that room,? Conan pointed, ?in a niche in the floor under a copper Shemitish god.? ?--- I figure it was of pure gold studded with diamonds.?
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From ?Queen of the Black Coast?
7. Conan?s mail when in Zingara: ??the fine ring-mail which sheathed his arms and legs was of Nemedia??

From ?Hour of the Dragon?
8. Description of the Nemedian host as it advanced into Aquilonia: ?The king and his allies moved westward at the head of fifty thousand men ? knights in shining armor with their pennons streaming above their helmets, pikemen in steel caps and brigandines, crossbowmen in leather jerkins.
9. Description of Nemedia?s flag: ?the golden banner of Nemedia with the scarlet dragon, unfurled in the breeze above the pavilion o King Tarascus??
10. Descriptions of three soldiers accompanying King Tarascus and his squire. Could the emblem have been the scarlet dragon?: ?The three soldiers--men-at-arms wearing the emblem of the royal guards?his squire?in black mail??
11. Description of Xaltotun after the battle with the Aquilonians: ?He was a tall man, superbly built, clad in a long unadorned silk robe. He wore a Shemitish head-dress, andits lower folds hid his feactures, exept for the dark, magnetic eyes?..threw a velvet cloak over his body??
12. Description of servents and dungeon guards of Nemedian King Tarascus and magician Xaltotun: ??four giant negroes entered. Each was clad only in a silken breech-clout supported by a girdle, from which hung a great key??Outside lay another Black man, a giant in turban andsilk loin-cloth, with a curved sword laying on the flags near his hand..?
13. Description of the slave girl Zenobia who freed Conan and later became his queen:
?The dim glow behind her outlined her supple figure through the wisp of silk twisted about he loins, and shone vaguely on jeweled breast-plates. Her dark eyes gleamed in the shadows, her white limbs glistened softly, like alabaster. Her hair was a mass of dark foam, at the burnished luster of which the dim light only hinted??...Her bracelets and breast-plates clinked against the bars??
13. Description of thief King Tarascus hired to steel the flaming jewel form Xaltotun: ?One was a scarred, sinister-looking ruffian in leather breeks and ragged cloak;?--
14. Description of royal Nemedian palace guards: ?Guards were running through the garden,?.--tall men in burnished cuirasses and crested helmets of polished bronze.?
15. A description of one of the Nemedian ?Adventurers?: ?Rounding it, he saw a great white horse tied among the bushes. Heaving a deep gusty sigh he reached it with one stride ? a mocking laugh brought him about, glaring. A dully glinting, mail-clad figure moved out of the shadows into the starlight. This was no plumed and burnished palace guardsman. It was a tall man in morion and gray chain-mail ? one of the Adventurers, a class of warriors peculiar to Nemedia; men who had not attained to the wealth and position of knighthood, or had fallen from that estate; hard-bitten fighters, dedicating their lives to war and adventure. They constituted a class of their own, sometimes commanding troops, but themselves accountable to no man but the king. Conan knew that he could have been discovered by no more dangerous a foeman?..the starlight was a long sheen on the great two-handed sword he bore naked in his hand??the king?s poniard sheathed itself in his throat, above the gorget, slanting downward into his heart.?
16. Description of the Nemedian soldiers who were roughing up the Aquilonian witch, Zeleta: ??four soldiers in Nemedian chain-mail??
17. Descriptions of Nemedian guards and soldiers during their at the palace and keep of Tarantia, Aquilonia during their occupation of that part of Aquilonia: ??befoe it stood a bearded nemedian in corselte and helmet,??men poured out, with torches gleaming on breastplates and naked swords??But there were a half a score of them, in full mail, hard-bitten veterans of the border wars,??sparks flew as Conan?s sword crashed on basinet and hauberk. ?
18. Description of Tarascus, King of Nemedia: ?Tarascus laughed?..He surreptitiously felt of a scar beneath his jupon,??
19. Conan riding at the head of the armies of Poitain; ?And at their head, the spies swore, rode a giant figure in black armor, with the royal lion of Aquilonia worked in gold upon the breast of his rich silken surcoat.?
20. Soldiers of Nemedia: ?Firelight glinted on their breast-plates and helmet crests.?
21.

NORDHEIM

From ?Queen of the Black Coast?
1. ??blue steel helmet from which jutted bull?s horns highly polished??.His horned helmet was such as was worn by the golden-haired ?SIR of Nordheim.?

OPHIR

From ?The Scarlet Citadel?
1. ?Ophirean knights in gilded mail leaped their horses?? Self explanatory.
2. Description of either Kothic or Ophirean troops: ?He passed through the lines of the pikemen, and the giants in their steel caps and mail brigandines shrank back fearfully?! Nor were the plumed knights slower in making room for him.?
3. Description of the Kings of Ohpir and Koth??and on divans lounged Strabonus and Amalrus in their silks and gold, gleaming with jewels.?
4. King of Ophir: ??golden mailed Amalrus??

From ?The Queen of the Black Coast?

5. ??and his gorgeous scarlet cloak could have been spun nowhere but in Ophir..?; Description of Conan?s cloak.


PICTS

Clans/Tribes of the Picts: Eastern: Eagle Clan, Wolf Clan, Western and Sealand: Toucans, Cormorants, Seea-Falcons, and Shark.

From ?Beyond the Black River?
1. ?The Picts were a white race, though swarthy, but the border men never spoke of them as such.?
2. ?A man lay there, a short, dark, thickly-muscled man, naked except for a loin cloth, a necklace of human teeth and a brass armlet. A short sword was thrust into the girdle of the loin cloth, and one hand still gripped a heavy black bow. The man had long black hair;?? ; Description of a Pict Conan killed in the woods.
3. ?Beyond that ring fires burned, tended by naked, dark-skinned women?..Even the cryptic dark women with their curious coiffures were???; Descriptions of Pictish women.
4. ?Short men, broad-shouldered, deep-chested, lean hipped. They were naked except for scanty loin clouts??barbaric tribal designs painted on their faces and breasts.?; Descriptions of Pictish men.
5. ?Balthus saw a lean figure of middle height, almost hidden in ostrich plumes set on a harness of leather and copper.?; Description of Pictish medicine man or shaman, half human and half demon, Zogar Sag.
6. ?Half a dozen others were swarming about Conan, swords and axes lifted. They had cast away their bows, useless at such deadly close quarters. Their lower jaws were painted white contrasting vividly with their dark faces, and designs on their muscular breasts differed from any Balthus had ever seen.? ; Description of some Picts from another tribe Zogar Sag had summoned.
7. ?He was a strongly built Pict with a white heron feather thrust in a copper band that confined his square-cut mane.? ; Description of a Gwawela man, emissary of Zogar Sag.

From ?The Black Stranger?
8. ?They were dark-skinned men of short stature, with thickly-muscled chests and arms. They wore beaded buckskin loin-cloths, and an eagle?s feather was thrust into each black mane. They were painted in hideous designs, and heavily armed??.and pointed with his broad-bladed stabbing spear??.The remaining Pict, a chief by the scarlet tip of his eagle-feather, came?he drove his spear ferociously??; Description of the squad of Picts Conan ambused.
Then, ??loosing arrows as they came??The warriors came on howling,?war-axes in their hand.? and, ??phrases snapped at the warriors by their crimson-feathered chief.? ?Then without further hesitation they unstrung their bows and thrust them into buckskin cases at their girdles;??They were men of the Eagle, whose villages lay far to the east, adjoining the country of the Wolf-Picts.?; Description of the larger band that chased Conan up onto the rocky hill in which he found the chests of treasure, clothes, and the frozen pirates of a hundred years before, and also from what clan they were and from whence they hailed..
10. ?--a hideously painted warrior, naked but for a doe-skin breech-clout, with a toucan feather drooping over his left ear.?--Description of a Pict watching the goings ons at the fort of Count Valenso and Black Zarono.
11. ?Toucan feathers waved in blackmanes, and the feathers of he cormorant and the sea-falcon. A few warriors, the wildest and the most barbaric of them all, wore shark?s teeth and woven in their tangled locks. The sea-land tribes had gathered from up and down the coast in all directions to rid their country of the white-skinned invaders.?--Descriptions of the horde of Picts that attacked the fort of Count Valenso.

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PIRATES:
This pirate section covers the Unknown, Black Corsairs, Barrachan, and Zingaran pirates of the open main, and the ?Red Brotherhood? of the Sea of Villeyet, each under its own listing:
Unknown Origins;

From ?The Black Stranger?
1. Descriptions of the infamous pirate Admiral, Tranicos, dead and preserved for a hundred yeas in the cave with his captains and their treasure: ?Tranicos, in his lacquered hat, his gilt-embroidered coat with jeweled buttons that winked in the blue flame, his flaring boots and gold-worked baldric that upheld a jewel-hilted sword in a golden sheath??.And ranging the board, each with his chin resting on his lace-bedecked breast, sat the eleen captains.?

Black Pirates of the Western Seas:

From ?Queen of the Black Coast?
1. ?These were painted and plumed, and mostly naked, brandishing spears and spotted shields.?; Description of Belit?s crew of black corsairs (Pirates).

Pirates of the Sea of Vileyet:

From Iron Shadows in the Moon
Descriptions of pirates, members of the ?Red Brotherhood?:1. "There were some 70 of them, a wild horde made up of men from many nations: Kothians, Zamorians, Brythunians, Corinthians, and Shemites. Their features reflected the wildness of their natures. Many bore the scars of the lash or the branding iron. There were cropped ears, slit noses, gaping eye sockets, stumps of wrists--marks of the hangman as well as scars of battle. Most of them were half naked, but the garments they wore were fine; gold braided jackets, satin girdles, silken breeches, tattered, stained with tar and blood, vied with pieces of silver chased armor. Jewels glittered in nose rings and earrings, and in the hilts of their daggers."
REH described their captain thusly: ".......as a huge figure swaggered forward: a giant, naked to the waist, where his capacious belly was girdled by a wide sash that upheld voluminous silken pantaloons. His head was shaven except for a scalplock, his mustaches drooped over a rat-trap mouth. Green Shemitish slippers with upturned toes were on his feet, a long straight sword in his hand."

From ?Red Nails?
Description of Valeria, also of the ?Red Brotherhood (she was from Aquilonia originally)?:
1. ?The woman drew a booted foot out of the silver stirrup and swung down from the gilt-worked saddle??She was tall, full-bosomed and large-limbed, with compact shoulders. Her whole figure reflected an unusual strength, without detracting from the femininity of her appearance. She was all woman, in spite of her bearing and her garments. The latter were incongruous, in view of her present environs. Instead of a skirt she wore short, wide-legged silk breeches, which ceased a hand?s breadth short of her knees, and were upheld by a wide silken sash worn as a girdle. Flaring-topped boots of soft leather came almost to her knees, and a low-necked, wide collared, wide-sleeved silk shirt completed her costume. On one shapely hip she wore a straight, double-edged sword, and on the other a long dirk. Her unruly golden hair, cut square at her shoulders, was confined by a band of crimson satin??..this was Valeria of the Red Brotherhood, whose deeds are celebrated in song and ballad wherever seafarers gather.


Zingaran Buccaneers

From ?The Pool of the Black One?
1. ??just as she was also aware that her short silk kirtle veiled little of her voluptuous contours from eager eyes??.The sun behind her shone through her light kirtle??; Description of Sancha, the woman aboard the Wastrel.
2. ?Framed in his steel morion his face was dark,?., his armor and garments were rich and ornate, after the fashion of a Zingaran grandee.?, and also, ??the sharp point ripped through chain-mail and ribs like paper;??; Description of the Zaporavo, Captain of the Wastrel, a Zingaran buccaneer.
3. ??the crew came about him---Zingarans, allof them, half naked, their gaudy silk garments splashed with tar, jewels glinting in ear-rings and dagger-hilts.?; Description of crew of the Wastrel, who were Zingaran buccaneers, or pirates.

From ?The Black Stranger?
1. ?I see a man in the bow, wrapped in a dark cloak?.clad in black silk and polished steel?. The tall stranger removed his morion and made a sweeping bow. His companions halted, drawing their wide cloaks about them,?.a bunch of lace was gathered at is throat and there was lace on his wrists.?--Description of Black Zarono, the Buccaneer.
2. ??the buccaneers came ashore, dark-faced men in flaming silk and polished steel, with scarfs bound about their heads and gold hoops in their ears.?--Description of Black Zarono?s Zingaran buccaneers.
3. ?Zarono caught the blow on his armored left arm and sparks flew as??--More describing Zarono?s armor.


Barachan Pirates
Most Barachan pirates were Argoseans sailors turned outlaw, etc.

From ?The Black Stranger?
1. ??, a black flag, with scarlet skull gleaming in the sun.?--flag of carack, or vessel, ?Red Hand?, of Pirate Captain Strom. He and his men were mostly Argosean sailors turned outlaw.
2. ?They are big men in armor! Look how the sun strikes fire from their pikes and burgonets!--Description of some of Strom?s pirate crew.
3. ??splintered on his breastplate.?--Strom wore a breastplate.
4. ?Their weapons were longbows??--some of the weapons of the Barachan pirates.
5. ?A few bodies lay prone on the sandy earth, back-pieces glinting in the sun, quarrel shafts standing up from arm-pit or neck. But the pirates were quick as cats,?protected by their light armor.?--Description of some of the pirates? armor.
6. ?And he designated his boatswain, a brawny, hard-faced giant, naked to his broad leather belt, with gold hoops in his ears, and a crimson scarf knotted about his head.?--Description of one Strom?s men.


SHEM

From ?The Scarlet Citadel?

1. Description of Shemitish archers: ?The blue bearded warriors in their light mail shirts could not endure??

From ?Black Colossus?
2. ?The desert sorcerer Natuhk, ?The Veiled One?, actually 3000 yr old Thugra Khotan resurrected in disguise, was gathering tribes together down around southeast of Shem, a mixture of peoples to start conquest. Below is his army which confronted Conan, the commander of the forces of the tiny kingdom of Khoraja. These first in the following first paragraph are Stygians under a renegade Stygian prince who rallied to Natuhk?s banner, the 2nd paragraph are from Kush, and the 3rd definitely from Shem;
?First was a long line of chariots, drawn by the great fierce horses of Stygia, with plumes on their heads--snorting and rearing as each naked driver leaned back??.The fighting-men in the chariots were tall figures, their hawk-like faces set off by bronze helmets crested with a crescent supporting a golden ball. Heavy bows were in their hands. No common archers, these, but nobles of the South, bred to war and the hunt, who were accustomed to bringing down lions with their arrows.
Behind these came a motley array of wild men on half-wild horses--the warriors of Kush, the first of the great black kingdoms of the grasslands south of Stygia. They were shining ebony, supple and lithe, riding stark naked and without saddle or bridle.
After these rolled a horde that seemed to encompass all the desert. Thousands on thousands of the war-like Sons of Shem; ranks of horsemen in scale-mail corselets and cylindrical helmets--the Asshuri of Nippr, Shumir, and Eruk and their sister cities; wild white robed hordes--the nomad class.?

From ?Hour of the Dragon?
3. Description of the merchant Publio?s servant and body-guard, in the seaport of Messantia, Argos: ??a Shemite, of medium height and mightily muscled build, his curled blue-black beard bristling, and a short, leaf-shaped sword in his hand.?
4. Desription of Shemite warriors: ?Through the grazing-lands moved the herds of cattle, and squat, broad riders with cylindrical helmets and curled blue-black beards, with bows in their hands. This was the shore of the lands of Shem, where there was no law save as each city-state could enforce its own.?
5. Description of the Shemitish mercenaries marching out: ? ??for the mercenaries are already marching out through the southern gate? ???The dawn light glinted on peaked helmets pouring in a steady stream through the broad arch, on the bright housings of the chargers?.The riders flowed though the gates like a river of steel--somber figures in black and silver mail, with their curled beards and hooked noses, and their inexorable eyes in which glimmered the fatality of their race--utter lack of doubt or of mercy????they are dying like flies in their silvered mail!? ?
6. Description of Constantine, the Kothic leader of the Shemetish mercenaries: ? ?It shall be done? answered Constantius, with his gauntleted hand brushing back the thin hari from his high bald forehead, burned dark by the sun. ?For victory and the fair honor of Taramis!? he said sardonically, and taking his vizored helmet under his arm, he lifted a hand in salute, and strode clanking from the chamber?
7. Another mention of the Zuagir, those free roaming desert nomads that roamed free between Turan and Eastern Shem: ?The sun was rising, The ancient caravan road was thronged with white-robed horsemen, in a wavering line that stretched from the walls of Kharan to a spot far out in the plain. Conan the Cimmerian sat at the head of that column,?.?



STYGIA

KUTHCHEMES (The ruins of an ancient Stygian city 3000 years old from when the borders of the northern Stygian kingdom lay far northward from their present ones. Kuthchemes lay South-East of the lands of Shem. Riding camelback it was a few days North-East of the right angle turn of the River Styx where it turned to the west. )

From ?Black Colossus?
1. Among the heaps of treasure in the tomb in Kuthchemes were??Jewel-hilted swords in cloth-of-gold sheaths; golden helmets with colored horsehair crests, or black and scarlet plumes; silver-scaled corselets; gem-crusted harness by warrior kings three thousand years in their tombs;??
2. Among the enemy who confronted the host of Khoraja under Conan were the forces of a renegade Stygian Prince Kutamun: ?First was a long line of chariots, drawn by the great fierce horses of Stygia, with plumes on their heads--snorting and rearing as each naked driver leaned back??.The fighting-men in the chariots were tall figures, their hawk-like faces set off by bronze helmets crested with a crescent supporting a golden ball. Heavy bows were in their hands. No common archers, these, but nobles of the South, bred to war and the hunt, who were accustomed to bringing down lions with their arrows??..It was Kutamun, naked but for a loin clothe, his harness hacked away, his crested helmet dented, his limbs splashed with blood???.Natohk faced the Cimmerian---inhumanly tall and lean, clad in shimmering green silk. He tossed back his veil.?

From ?Hour of the Dragon?
3. Description of the Stygian priest Thutothmes, who was a member of the dreaded and fabled ?Black Ring, who killed Beloso, whom Conan was trying to find, and stole the flaming jewel: ?The stranger was a Stygian. There was no mistaking that hawk-faced, shaven head, even in he starlight, nor the mantle over the broad shoulders?..His shirt was torn open, and on his brown, muscular breast was the print of a black hand, thumb and four fingers plainly distinct???Only occultists high in the mazes of the hideous Black Ring possessed the power of the black hand that dealt death by its touch;? ?
4. Description of Stygian fisherman: ?--a Stygian fisherman in his shallow, flat-prowed boat?..a tall, dark, rangily built man, ?.He was naked except for his silken breeks, for like the Hyrkanians, even the commoners and slaves of Stygia wore silk; and in his boat was a wide mantle such as these fishermen slung about their shoulders against the chill of the night???he (Conan) doffed his own garments and donned the prisoner?s silk breeches and sandals, and the band from the man?s hair, but scorned the short fisherman?s knife.?
5. Description of build of Stygian warriors castes: ?In build he was not unlike the warrior castes of the Stygians, who were a tall, muscular race.?
6. Description of a Stygian chariot and occupants: ?Occasionally a bronze chariot rumbled along the flags, and there was a brief glimpse of a tall, hawk-faced noble, with a silk cloak wrapped about him, and a gold band with a rearing serpent-head emblem confining his black mane; of ebon, naked charioteer bracing his knotty legs against the straining of the fierce Stygian horses.?
7. Description of a ?courtezan?: ?And suddenly he heard a low scream from a woman on the other side of the street and somewhat ahead of him---a naked courtezan wearing the tall plumed head-dress of her class.?
8. Description of some Stygian temple priests in their regalia: ?From one of the black arches emerged a tall, powerful figure in sandals and silken loin-cloth, with a wide mantle trailing from his shoulders. But face and head hidden by a monstrous mask, a half-bestial, half-human countenance, from the crest of which floated a mass of ostrich plumes??a band of masked figures filed down the stair, appareled exactly as he was??the leader carried an ebon staff which supported a grinning white skull,??
9. Description of a temple guard: ??a man standing in the mouth of it (corridor), wrapped in a wide black cloak??
10. Description of a vampire, the Princess Akivasha, who lived in the dark haunts deep beneath the temple: ?A girl stood at the mouth of a smaller tunnel??But for her velvet sandals and broad jewel-crusted girdle about her supple waist she was quite nude??she reared up on the couch like a serpent poised to strike, all the golden fires of hell blazing in her wide eyes. Her lips drew back, revealing white, pointed teeth.?


TURAN

From ?Iron Shadows in the Moon?

1. ??a slender rider in sandals and girdled tunic??; Description of a girl escaped from the Shah of Akif, Turan?s harem.
2. ??from head to heel he was clad in light silvered mesh-mail that fitted his supple form like a glove. From under the dome-shaped, gold chased helmet his??; Description of Shah Amurath, Lord of Akif, Turan. Conan called him a Hyrkanian dog. Perhaps he was originally from there. Conan and the girl referred to the Hyrkanians.



From ?The Devil in Iron?
----------------------------------
Description of Conan:
1. "A crimson scarf was knotted about his head; his wide silk breeches, of flaming hue, were upheld by a broad sash which likewise supported a scimitar in a shagreen scabbard. His guilt-worked leather boots suggested the horseman rather than the seaman...............Through his widely open white silk shirt showed......."
2. "He went softly in his soft leather boots."
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Description of others:
3. Description of Yuetshi tribal fisherman from southern shore of Sea of Vileyet in Turan: ??saw-edged crescent blade off the Yuetshi??A belt for a knife and a rag for a loin-cloth were all he wore in the way of clothing.?
4. Description of the Iron God which lay in the ruins on the Isle of Xapur: ?He was clad in a sort of skirt and a shagreen girdle. His black hair, which fell in a square mane to his massive shoulders, was confined about this temples by a narrow gold band. On his bare muscular breast lay a curious dagger with a jeweled pommel, shagreen-bound hilt and a broad crescent blade. It was much like the fisherman?s knife but lacked the serrated edge and was made with infinitely greater skill.?
5. Description of woman and man of ancient civilization Dagonia on Isle of Xapur, resurrected from death and dust of the past by the Iron God of Xapur: ?She was undoubtedly a member of a white race, though her skin was very dark. Her square-cut hair was black as midnight, her only garment was a wisp of silk about her supple hips.??..?It was a man, dark and lean, clad only in a silk loin-cloth, with a shaven head and cruel features??
6. ?Description of naval vessels and soldiers of King Yezdigerd of Turan:
?his fleets of purple sailed war galleys had made Vilayet an Hyrkanian lake?..His gilt-helmeted swordsmen had?.?
7. Description of a Kushite Eunuch in service of King of Turan.: ??an image of shining ebony in silken pantaloons,??
7. Description of slave girl Octavia owned by Jehungir Agha, Lord of the Turanian city of Khawarizm near southern border of Turan: ?Her scanty silk tunic, girded at the waist??
8. Description of a Kozaki, which happened to be Conan enroute to the Isle of Xapur:
?A crimson scarf was knotted about his head; his wide silk breeches, of flaming hue, were upheld by a broad sash which likewise supported a scimitar in a shagreen scabbard. His gilt-worked leather boots suggested the horseman rather than the seaman, ?..Through his widely open white silk shirt showed his broad muscular chest??
9. Description of Turanian archers from Khawarizm: ??ten mighty archers of Khawarizm, in spired helmets and tiger-skin cloaks.?

10. Another description of Jehungir Agha: ??confident in his spired helmet and close-meshed mail.?

From ?The Man-Eaters of Zamboula?
According to a Conan related website; ?Hyborian Geography: Gaps, Inconsistencies, and the Turanian Empire?, Zamboula is the westernmost outpost of the Turanian empire
( http://hyboria.xoth....n_geography.htm )
----------------------------------------
Descriptions of Conan:
1. ?I have no goods,? growled the Cimmerian, touching the shagreen-bound hold of the broadsword that hung at his hip. ?I have even sold my horse.?
2. His blue eyes and alien features distinguished him from the Eastern swarms, and the straight sword at his hip added point to the racial differences.

----------------------------------------
Descriptions of others:
11. Not sure what a Ghanara is; a place, a people, or a type of person such as a prostitute:
?Conan pulled his eyes back from following a bold-eyed, red-lipped Ghanara, whose short slit skirt bared her brown thigh at each insolent step??
12. (See Conan?s descriptions above).
13. Description of a squad of Pelishtim, city watchmen. Their sandals sound similar to hob-nailed Roman Kaligae sandals: ?The watchmen??.They were Pelishtim, squat, hook-nosed, with blue-black beards sweeping their mailed breasts--mercenaries hired for work the ruling Turanians considered beneath themselves, ??..Once they heard the clank of brazen-shod feet, and drew into the shadows of a gloomy arch while a squad of Pelishtim watchmen swung past. There were fifteen of them; they marched in close formation, pikes at the ready, and the rearmost men had their broad brass shields slung on their backs, to protect them from a knife-stroke from behind-----As soon as the clang of their sandals had receded?. ?
14. Descriptions of people on a Zamboula street: ??the ragged tunics of whining beggars brushed against ermine-trimmed khalats of lordly merchants, and the pearl-sewn satin of rich courtesans??
15. Description of Turanian cavalry: ??cleft now and then by a squad of clattering horsemen, the tall, supple warriors of Turan, with dark hawk-faces, clinking metal and curved swords.?
16. ?.?--Descriptions of Aram Baksh, owner of the Inn: ?Aram Baksh came forward, walking softly a portly man, with a black beard that sweapt his breast, a jutting hooked nose, and small black eyes that were never still??Aram?s feet were clad in soft slippers??
17. Description of one of the cannibals of Darfar in Zamboula. According to #18 below they had filed teeth too: ?It was a gigantic black man, naked but for a loin cloth?..The fellow?s kinky wool was built up into horn-like spindles with twigs and dried mud.?
18. Description of a non cannibal black man working for the Satrap and Nafertari (alias Zabibi): ?A quick glance showed Conan the man was not from Darfar. His teeth were unfiled and his kinky hair was cropped close to his skull. He was from the Wadai.?
19. Description of the servant or guard of the sorcerer Totrasmek: ?The man was naked except for a loin-cloth and high-strapped sandals.?

VANAHEIM

From ?The Frost Giant?s Daughter?
1. Descriptions of Conan and Heimdul of Wulfhere?s band of Vanaheim. Heimdul had the brass scales on his corselet. Conan was possibly fighting for Asgard, whom he said were his friends, or the ?sir.-From ?Frost Giant?s Daughter?.
??and mail-clad forms?? and ??Their shields were gone, their corselets battered and dinted. Blood dried on their mail; their swords were stained red. Their horned helmets showed the marks of fierce strokes??..One was beardless and black-maned. The locks and beard of the other were red as the blood on the sunlit snow???.?Man,? said he, ?tell me your name, so that my brothers in Vanaheim may know who was the last of Wulfere?s band to fall before the sword of Heimdul.??.. and ?.??..?The sharp point tore through brass scales and bone??
2. Description of apparel of the goddess, or daughter of the Frost God Ymir, Atali, and her brothers? mail armor-From ?Frost Giant?s Daughter: ??light veil of gossamer?? and ??the scales of their mail were white with hoarfrost??


VENDHYA

From ?The People of the Black Circle?
--------------------------------
Descriptions of Conan:
1. The yard long Zhaibar knife that glittered in the intruder?s fist?.,?
2. The invader was a tall man, at once strong and supple. He was dressed like a Hillman, but his dark features and blazing blue eyes did not match his garb.
3. His garments were clean and not ragged. The broad Bakhariot girdle that supported his knife in its ornamented scabbard would have matched the robes of a prince, and there was a glint of fine Turanian mail under his shirt.
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Descriptions of others:
1. Description of Khemsa and his magic, protective girdle, a magician and student of the Priests of the Black Circle; The dreaded Black Seers of Yimsha!: ??this man was clad in a brown camel-hair robe and sandals, and a green turban was on his head??Conan stared down at the girdle. The hair of which it was woven was not horse-hair. He was convinced it was woven of the thick black tresses of a woman. Set in the thick mesh were tiny jewels such as he had never seen. The buckle was strangly made, in the form of a golden serpent head, flat, wedge-shaped and scaled with a curious art.?
2. Description of some of the ?noble-born fighting men of Ayodhya? (capital of Vendhya) gathered at the great royal palace, or about it. Ayodhya lay in the southern provinces: ?In the gardens of the palace the torches glinted on polished helmets and curvd swords and gold-chased corselets.?

3. Yasmina, was the sister of the dying King of Vendhya. She was called the Devi: ?Sobbing wildly, Yasmina plucked a jeweled dagger from her girdle?.?
4. Description of tools of the priests: ??the priests gashed themselves with copper knives??
5. Description of sword of Chunder Shan, governor of Peshkhauri, near the northern border of Vendhya and the Himilian Mountains: ?He snatched at the curved sword lying in its ornate scabbard on the table??
6. Description of the Devi, sister of the king, Yasmina: ??a woman whose gossamer robes??.A filmy veil fell below her breasts, supported by a flowing head-dress bound about with a triple gold braid and adorned with a golden crescent?.in a flow of silken skirts and white limbs??Her cloth of gold slippers were in tatters, her robes and silken under-garments torn to shreds that scarcely held together decently.?
7. Description of weapons of household guard and maid of Chunder Shan.
governor of Peshkhauri: ?as beckoned the warrior on guard there, and the man fell in behind, spear held at the salute?..he stationed a squad of spearmen at her door?. The maid waited, veiled like her mistress??
8. Description of Conan, a hetman of the Afghulis as he entered the governor?s room: ?the yard-long Zhaibar knife that glittered in the intruder?s fist,?the invader was dressed like a Hillman??
9. Mounted troops of the governor were lancers, carrying long lances or spears along with their swords: ? ?Turn out the lancers!? he roared, There has been an abduction!? .
10. Description of Kerim Shah, a nobleman from Iranistan (actually a Hyrkanian serving the King of Turan): ?Catching up helmet, sword and cloak,??
11. Description of band that Conan rode with, Afghulis: ?The starlight glimmered on helmets and curved blades,??
12. Description of leader of band of Iraksai, loyal to Kerim Shah: ?Their leader, a well built man in a helmet and gilt-braided cloak.?
13. An Afghuli hill woman: ?At the other end of the room a girl in the vest and baggy trousers of a hill woman??
14. ??Conan strode in?..His garments were clean and not ragged. The broad Bakhariat girdle that supported his knife in its ornamental scabbard would have matched he robes of a prince, and there was the glint of fine Turanian mail under his shirt.?---more of Conan?s description.
15. Description of a Galzai village woman: ??promptly ripped off her sleeveless embroidered vest, slipped down her wide trousers and stepped out of them, twitched off her wide-sleeved shirt, and kicked off her sandals.?
16. Descriptions of some of the People of the Black Circle, the Black Seers of Mount Yimsha!: ??with shaven, vulture-like heads, and black robes that hid their feet. Their hands were conealed by their wide sleeves.?
17. Description of some of the Irakzai riders of Kerim Shah, the Turanian masquerading as a Prince of Iranistan: ??lean Irakzai on gaunt horses.. They glared like wolves, fingereing bows and knives??
18. Description of ?The Master of the Yimsha?: ?His long black velvet robe, embroidered with gold thread, fell loosely about him, masking his features??
19. Acolytes of the Black Seers of Yimsha: ??green robed figures??
20. Descriptions of Turanian lancers and Afghuli riders whom they pursue. Note that the Turanian?s curved swords were scimitars: ?They saw the glint of the sun on lance-tip and spired helmet. Three thousand mailed horsemen were driving before them a ragged band of turbaned riders?..?Turanians!? muttered Conan. ?Squadrons from Secuderam??helmet plumes nodding amongst turbans that were stained crimson????Conan?dodged the sweep of a scimitar????The riders in their spired helmets and gold-worked hauberks swarmed about the gorge mouth,??.
21. Description of the cavalry, lancers, of Vendhya: ?A long line of lances and polished helmets moved along the vale, gleaming in the sunlight?..?The riders of Vendhya!? she cried exultingly. ?Even at this distance I can?t mistake them!??..?There are thousands of them muttered Conan. ?It has been a long time since a Kshatriya host has ridden this far into the hills.??
22. Descriptions of the curved swords of the Afghulis,proving they were Tulwars:
?The pressure of the men behind forced the horse men of Turan deeper and deeper into the gorge, in the teeth of the flickering tulwars.?
23. What a sight this must have been!!: ?And then with a burst of trumpets that shook the walls, and rushing thunder of hoofs, five thousand riders of Vendhya smote the hosts of Secunderam.?



XUCHOTL
An ancient city in the deserts or arid lands south of Kush, Darfar, and Keshan, in the arid plains and deserts south of the Black Kingdoms, and not a great distance east from Xuthal. The inhabitants that Conan and Valeria met were originally of a tribe of Tlazitlans, who had rebelled against the Stygian king and been defeated. They had fled south until they found ancient Xuchotl which lay south of Darfar and Keshan. They in turn found the original inhabitants in Xuchotl, and according to Tolkemec these original inhabitants had come from Old Kosala, from whence they had fled when the ancestors of those who now inhabit Kosala came up from the south and drove them out.

From ?Red Nails?
-------------------------------------------
Descriptions of Valeria and Conan?
1. She was tall, full-bosomed and large-limbed, with compact shoulders. Her whole figure reflected an unusual strength, without distracting from the femininity of her appearance. She was all woman, in spite of her bearing and her garments. The latter were incongruous, in view of her present environs. Instead of a skirt she wore short, wide-legged silk breeches, which ceased a hand?s breadth short of her knees, and were upheld by a wide silken sash worn as a girdle. Flaring-topped boots of soft leather came almost to her knees, and a low-necked, wide-collared wide-sleeved silk shirt completed her costume. On one shapely hip she wore a straight double-edged sword, and on the other a long dirk. Her unruly golden hair, cut square at her shoulders, was confined by a band of crimson satin.
2. Conan: He was a giant in stature, muscles rippling smoothly under his skin which the sun had burned brown. His garb was similar to hers, except that he wore a broad leather belt instead of a girdle. Broadsword and poniard hung from this belt.
-----------------------------
Descriptions of others:

Tecuhltli: the city quarter by the western gate of Xuchotl
1. Description of Techotl, of the Tecuhltli: ?The man in no way resembled the figures depicted on the friezes. He was slightly above middle height, very dark, though not negroid. He was naked but for a scanty silk clout that only partly covered his muscular hips, and a leather girdle, a hand?s breadth broad, about his lean waist. His long black hair hung in lank strands about his shoulders, giving him a wild appearance??..He grasped a wide-tipped blade in his right hand, and she saw it shake with the intensity of the emotion that gripped him??When he turned his head she caught the blaze of wild eyes among the lank strands of black hair??
2. Description of Micmec, Techotl?s friend who was slain by the skull man: ??He lay face down on a dark crimson carpet in the middle of the room. His body was limp, his arms spread wide. His curved sword lay near him.?
3. Descriptions of more of the men and women of Tecuhltli: ?The men, all except one, were of the same type as Techotl, and the women were equally dark and strange-eyed, though not unbeautiful in a weird dark way. They wore sandals, golden breast-plates, and scanty silk skirts supported by gen-crusted girdles, and their black manes, cut square at their naked shoulders, were bound with silver circlets.?
4. Descriptions of Prince Olmec and Tascela, a princess of Tecuhltli: ?On a wide ivory seat on a jade dais sat a man and a woman who differed subtly from the others. He was a giant, with an enormous sweep of breast and the shoulders of a bull. Unlike the others, he was bearded, with a thick, blue-black beard which fell almost to his broad girdle. He wore a robe of purple silk which reflected changing sheens of color with his every movement, and one wide sleeve, drawn back to his elbow, revealed a forearm massive with corded muscles. The band which confined his blue-black locks was set with glittering jewels.
The woman beside him sprang to her feet with a startled exclamation as the strangers entered, and her eyes, passing over Conan, fixed themselves with burning intensity on Valeria. She was tall and lithe, by far the most beautiful woman in the room. She was clad more scantily even than the others; for instead of a skirt she wore merely a broad strip of gilt-worked purple cloth fastened to the middle of her girdle which fell below her knees. Another strip at the back of her girdle completed that part of her costume, which she wore with a cynical indifference. Her breast-plates and the circlet about her temples were adorned with gems. In her eyes alone of all the dark-skinned people there lurked no brooding gleam of madness. She spoke no word after
her first exclamation; she stood tensely, her hands clenched, staring at Valeria.?

Xotalanc: the quarter of the city near the eastern gate of Xuchotl
.
1. Description of the shaman of the Xotalanc, who wore white, glowing paint on his body and the skull of an ancient ?king of magicians? which he wore to bewitch his opponents:
??a ghostly light began to glow and grow?..dimly visible in the throbbing radiance, there floatede a human skull, and it was from this skull--human yet appallingly misshapen--that the spectral light seemed to emanate.?..The thing moved out from the wall and a grotesque shadow moved with it?..became visible as a man-like figure whose naked torso and limbs shone whitely, with the hue of bleached bones?..She turned toward the skull, which still glowed and pulsed on the floor?.It seemed to possess a life of its own. Its jaws jaws yawned at her and snapped together. Its radiance grew brighter, more vivid, yet the impression of nightmare grew too;??
2. Descriptions of some warriors of Xotalanc, they who dwell by the eastern gate of Xuchotl. NOTE: The curved swords with their wide ends remind me of a 1796 British light cavalry saber; curved but with the area near the point wider than the rest; made for devastating blows and cuts! : ?...They were armed and clad like the men of Tecotl, but on the breast of each was painted a white skull??Techotl ducked the swipe of a wide-headed blade,??curved blade of he tall warrior??.Four men stood on guard, the same lank-haired, dark-skinned breed as Techotl, with spears in their hands and swords at their hips.?
3. Description of the leader and his men outside the Eagle Gate: ?Men were clustered thickly outside the door; grim, dark-faced men with swords clamped in their teeth. --and their fingers pressed in their ears. One who wore a feathered head-dress had a set of pipes to which he set his lips??.Twenty men and women, their black hair steaming, and the white skulls gleaming on their breasts, were locked in combat with the people of Tecuhltli. ?

XUTHAL, ANCIENT CITY IN DESERTS SOUTH OF KUSH

From Xuthal in the Dust
-----------------------------------
Descriptions of Conan:1. "........though his only garment was a silk loin-cloth, girdled by a wide, gold buckled belt from which hung a saber and a broad-bladed poiniard."
-----------------------------------
Descriptions of others:1. Description of a man of Xuthal.: ?The body was that of a tall powerful individual, apparently in his prime; the skin was yellow, the eyes slightly slanted; otherwise the man differed little from the Hyborian type. He was clad in high-strapped sandals and a tunic of purple silk, and a short sword in a cloth-of-gold scabbard hung from his girdle.?
2. Description of another citizen of Xuthal: ?He was exactly like the others they had encountered; tall, well-made, clad in purple garments, with a jeweled girdle.
3. Description of Thalis the Stygian, Important figure in Xuthal: ?She was?.clad in a narrow girdle crusted with jewels.?
4. More of Xuthal?s denizens. I picture their short swords being like the Roman Gladius.
??.yellow men in purple tunics, with short swords in their hands.?
5. ?On this stood a man in rich robes.?


ZAMORA

From ?Tower of the Elephant?
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Descriptions of Conan:1. "His cheap tunic could not conceal the hard, rangy lines of his powerful frame.........."
2. "From his girdle hung a sword in a worn leather scabbard."
3. "He had discarded his torn tunic, and walked through the night naked except for a loin-cloth and his high-strapped sandals."
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Descriptions of others:
1. Description of Kothic kidnapper: ??A touch on his tunic sleeve??
2. ??in the silvered armor and crested helmet of the Zamorian Royal Guard??; self explanatory.
3. ?The tall silken clad form lifted erect??; Description of Yara the magician and owner of the Tower of the Elephant.
4. Description of the guards in bottom room of Elephant Tower: ?He saw the glitter of their silver corselets, the sheen of their jeweled sword-hilts,?., their dusky plumes waving somberly above their drooping helmeted heads??

From ?Black Colossus?
5. Description of Shevetas, master thief of Zamora: ?His small round head was shaven, his only garment was a loin-cloth of scarlet silk??.From his gold-scaled girdle hung, a short, narrow, jewel-hilted sword in a sheath of ornamented leather.?

From ?Hour of the Dragon?
6. Zamoran thieves that the witch Zaleta showed Conan with her magic: ?Men moved in the shadows, dark, wiry men, clad in red, silken loin-cloths.?

From Rogues in the House
1. Description of Conan: ?After a fight with the guards, capture, imprisonment, and then escaping: "He discarded his ragged tunic and moved off through the night naked but for a loin-cloth. As he went he fingered the poiniard he had captured--a murderous weapon with a broad double-edged blade nineteen inches long."


ZINGARA: Flag; golden banner with scarlet falcon on it.

From ?The Pool of the Black One?
1. Description of the Zaporavo, Captain of the Wastrel, a Zingaran buccaneer: ?Framed in his steel morion his face was dark,?., his armor and garments were rich and ornate, after the fashion of a Zingaran grandee.?
2. Description of crew of the Wastrel, who were Zingaran buccaneers, or pirates: ??the crew came about him---Zingarans, all of them, half naked, their gaudy silk garments splashed with tar, jewels glinting in ear-rings and dagger-hilts.?

From ?The Black Stranger?
(Although the setting is on the west coast of Pictdom, the settlers are recently from Zingara.)

Descriptions of Conan included below:
1. ?He was naked except for a rag twisted about his loins?(and on the trail he fought the Picts with axe and knife).
2. ?the pirate?s eyes widened as he stared at the close fitting silk breeches, high flaring-topped boots, wide-skirted coat and head-gear of a hundred years ago. There was a broad cutlass in the stranger?s hand and unmistakable purpose in his approach.?
3. The stranger was as tall as either of the freebooters, and more powerfully built than either, yet for all his size he moved with the pantherish suppleness in his high, flaring-topped boots. His thighs were cased in close-fitting breeches of white silk, his wide-skirted sky-blue coat open to reveal an open-necked white silken shirt beneath, and the scarlet sash that girdled his waist. There were silver acorn-shaped buttons on the coat, and it was adorned with gilt-worked cuffs and pocket flaps, and satin collar. A lacquered hat completed a costume obsolete by nearly a hundred years. A heavy cutlass hung at the wearer?s hip. ?
--------------------------
Descriptions of others:
1. ??floated the gold and scarlet flag of her house??--Family flag or arms of the Family of , Count Valenso of Kordova, Zingara, which flew over log fort and homes of he and his retainers and his entourage that had moved from Zingara to Korvela Bay on the Pictish west coast. It was probably gold with a scarlet falcon on it due to the fact that later someone commented on the red falcon on the flag and ?the red falcon of the Korzettas?.
2. Description of dress of Belesa, niece of Count Valenso: ??her silken dress??
3. Description of one of the Count?s soldiers: ?For answer one taciturn man-at-arms in worn leather and rusty steel pointed southward.?
4. Description of Count Valenso and his seneschal: ?Trunk-hose and doublet were of black silk, the only color about his costume the jewels that twinkled on his sword hilt, and the wine-colored cloak thrown carelessly over his shoulder. He twisted his thin mustache nervously, and turned his gloomy eyes on his seneschal--leather-featured man in steel and satin.?
5. Description of Count Valenso?s entourage: ?Valenso had been followed into exile by a hundred men; soldiers, vassals and serfs. Of these some forty were men-at-arms, wearing helmets and suits of mail, armed with swords, axes, and cross-bows. The rest were toilers, without armor save for shirts of toughened leather?.and skilled in the use of their hunting bows, woodsmen?s axes, and boar-spears. ?
6. Descriptions of the Count?s armor: ?The Count,?having donned helmet and cuirass,?his ironclad fist..?
7. Some of Count Valenso?s workers: ??men with sleeveless tunics, their axes gleaming in the sun..?
8. Count Valenso?s people in his home in the fort: ?Impassive attendants lined the walls, soldiers with pikes and helmets, servants in satin coats.?
9. Belesa?s dress at the table of Count Valenso: ??in her low-necked satin gown and jeweled girdle.?
10. Description of Conan wearing pirates? garb, which he had found in the cave, from a hundred years before his time:
??he stared at the close fitting silk breeches, high flaring-topped boots, wide-skirted coat and head-gear of a hundred years ago. There was a broad cutlass in the stranger?s hand and unmistaken purpose in his approach.?----??in his flaring-topped boots. His thighs were cased in close-fitting breeches of white silk, his wide-skirted sky-blue coat open to reveal an open-necked white silken shirt beneath, and the scarlet sadh that girdled his waist. There were silver acorn-shaped buttons on the coat, and it was adorned with gilt-worked cuffs and pocket-flaps, and a satin collar. A lacquered hat completed a costume obsolete by nearly a hundred years. A heavy cutlass hung at the wearer?s hip.?
11. More description of Count Valenso?s dress: ??he shrieked, tearing at the lace upon his collar as thought it strangled him.?
12. Description of Pict, a member of the ?Toucans? clan or tribe: ??, a dark painted face, framed in thick black hair, in which a toucan feather drooped over the left ear.?

From ?Hour of the Dragon?
13. Description of Valbroso, a nobleman or baron of Zingara, and some of his people: ?Valbroso rode down with his men-at-arms, a lean, dark man with glittering eyes and a predatory beak of a nose. He wore black plate-armor and was followed by thirty spearmen, black-mustached hawks of the border wars, as avaricious and ruthless as himself??women, slatternly or deck in gaudy finery, looked from the doors. ?
14.
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UNKNOWN LOCATIONS

From ?Rogues in the House?
(In a letter REH wrote in 1936, he stated that he felt the city in ?Rogues in the House? was one of the small ?City-States? just west of Zamora. On the various maps, including the oldest one, of Conan?s world only Corinthia is west of Zamora, and Ophir also just west of that. So it must have been some tiny place REH imagined in Conan?s world that was too small for the maps.)

1. Description of Murilo, a young aristocrat of that locale: ?But Murilo, for all his scented black curls and foppish apparel,?..wrapped in a wide black cloak.?.
2. Description of gown of the ?Red Priest?, a sorcerer or wizard, named Nabonidus: ??glimpsed an arm in a red sleeve resting on the arm of the chair; the head, clad in the familiar scarlet hood of the gown, was?.?

[Freebooter]

It said one reply and I was curious as to what it said but I don't see it?
Freebooter

[monk]

very interesting, have you compiled this at all by, say, percentage of stories in which conan is loin clouted vs armored...

[Buxom Sorceress]

Freebooter :
Many thanks for compiling these detailed lists.
Excellent work.

I adore this great help for fans. It makes researching things much easier.

Best wishes.

[Freebooter]

Thanks y'all. And Monk, no I compiled it simply by storie or locale, etc.. I prefer the ones when he operated alone as an adventurer rather than the ones where he is in charge of amries and all. I loved the pirate stories, Xuthal in the Dusk, etc..
FB

[Gin-Wulf]

that is a great list , many thanks
when i was little i always saw hyborian world as a fur and leather place. well also comics and the old films were my only source.
when i found the books and were conan truly started i was amazed in some ways,the descriptions i read were far from the way i had been "seeing " it in my mind. i didnt mind . but it was far from even the way the Fazetta drew him, i know almost everyone thinks his art is the be all conan,and im alone on this, but i see his work(great and awesome as it is) as kinda what kicked off the full time lion cloth thing. and even his work is what made me think this world/history was mostly fur and leather and metal.
but in REH descriptions i found a more rich in textiles world were silk was most common it seems.

[finmaccool]

Two thoughts and a kudos for all that typing....

When I first read the REH Conan yarns it bothered me that in some stories, REH would give a vivid description of what Conan was wearing and in the next one there would be breif or no mention at all. For example, Shadows in Zamboula. I always imagine Conan wearing a vest in that one and maybe a kilt, but I cannot recall REH saying anything. For all we know he could have been wearing a nasty old goat hide similar to an Alfredo Alcala drawing, LOL...
Later on, I realised this was not such a bad thing when Various Members of the Howard Orthodoxy attempted to organize fandom like some sort of spurious Roman state religion and began whinging about the Loin Cloth illustrations, LOL...
Howards Conan wore a lot of things, from Pirate outfits to red breeks and pantaloons to full plate armour. But he also wore that loincloth in some classic REH yarns, LOL.... One needle that refuses to go away, despite sucking up to the likes of Kurt Busiak and Cary Nord, I note.
I guess somewhere along the way, REH figured it would be a keen idea to let the fans decide what the Cimmerian was wearing.

[Van]

Very nice!

[Freebooter]

I always sort of liked the stories when he was just a wondering adventurer such as Tower of the Elephant or whatever it was where Conan wore a simple linen tunic and under that just the loin cloth. It got ripped in the scuffle with the Kothian in the bar so he tore it off and walked through the night with just his loincloth. Forget what what it was made of, fur, silk, or what.

Freebooter