9 replies to this topic

[Boot]

Mods: This topic seems most appropriate here, since the main focus is to discuss, and dare I say "create", history and background detail of a part of the Hyborian Age. If you think this topic should go under the forum that discusses movies, then move this sucker!



In the recent not-so-good-but-I-still-watch-it-and-leave-it-on-in-the-background-as-I-fold-clothes Conan The Barbarian reboot, the bad guy is one called Khalar Zym.




We know little about this powerful warlord other than his wife and daughter are witches of a powerful sorcerous cult and that he is known to be a Shadow Lord.

I've read the novel adaptation of the film (which, I've got to say, is better than the movie, spending the first third of the book focussing on Young Conan and a lot of detail not seen in the film), and there really isn't any more illumination on witch cult or the Shadow Lords than what we get in the film.

So...

That leaves a lot of room for us fans to just, well, make it up.

What do you think? What's your educated guess or speculation on the details of Zym's title as Shadow Lord and Marique's strange cult?

I thought it might be fun for us Conan fans to put some meat on these ideas.

[Boot]

Here's a thought: I've noticed that Zym doesn't seem to have any special powers other than being a consumate warrior. He does kick Conan's behonkus at the Shaipur Outpost. Conan has to create a distraction and run from him, jumping off over the wall and into the ocean.

I was thinking: Maybe the Shadow Lord serves a function in the hierarchy of Marique's (and Khalar's wife's) witch cult.

What if the order is male dominated, politically, but there is a separation of power in only the women can wield sorcerery?

Thus, the powerful witch is held in check by her Shadow Lord.



That would bring up a question, though. Why would a powerful witch bow down to a man with no sorcerous power of his own?

[Lunatic]

I was thinking that he was a crime-lord sort of a black knight, but my best guess is that it means he is high up in the hierarchy of the forbidden cult of Acheron.

[Boot]

And then there's the monks of the Order of Shaipur. They seem to have controlled a pretty large area that has fallen into decay. There's the Shaipur Monastery, where Tamara and the monks reside. There's the Shaipur Ravine, where Conan used the old catapult to vault Remo into Zym's lines. And, the region sports the Shaipur Outpost, on the coast, where Conan meets Zym and Marique, fights the sandmen, and jumps into the Shaipur Bay.

The monk order--in the book charged with protecting the ancient Archeron bloodlines--seems to me to have more of a purpose than just the bloodline guardianship.

The Outpost seems recently deserted. Is this because Zym's soldiers have scared all the monks off? Yet, the Monastery seems to have been falling into decay for centuries. With all those monks to take care of the place...why?

From the film, there seems to be two different types of monks. There's the brown-robed ones who seem to be the soldiers. They have pikes, spears, dual-wielded swords, and bows. And, they can do neat things like flip backwards while riding a horse and loose an arrow, straight and true, at their enemy. The other monks are white-robed, like Tamara and her master, Fassir. These seem to look into the future while tugging on an opium pipe (Fassir) and know how to fight in close hand-to-hand and dirk engagements.

My take is that the Order of the Shaipur is an aging, almost extinct, organization that remains the blood enemies of whatever cult Zym's wife and Marique belong to.

[Lunatic]

That was weird. Who would leave a perfectly good sniper-catapult lying around. My take is that it is actually K Zyms machines and Conan killed the engineers whom was also rebuilding or constructing the outpost.

The monks seem to come from the eastern lands of Hyrcania where the girl Tamara was fleeing to. So maybe they moved in recently a couple of generations ago. But the mother monastery is in the east then...and the browned-robed one´s were guards from that place. I am pretty sure I saw one of them dressed as a cimmerian in the opening battlescene.

[Boot]

The monks seem to come from the eastern lands of Hyrcania where the girl Tamara was fleeing to. So maybe they moved in recently a couple of generations ago. But the mother monastery is in the east then...

Although what you say can still be true, let's not forget that Fassir and the Order burned Zym's witch-wife in the forests of Ophir sometime in the not-so-distant past (within Marique's lifetime). Maybe there was/is an Order in Ophir. Or, maybe the Shaipur Order struck from the areas we saw in the film.

Plus, if the Order only recently took over the area, it's unlikely that so much of the area would be referred to using the Order's name (Shaipur Ravine, Shaipur Outpost, Shaipur Bay, etc).

[Ironhand]

Actually, this story takes place in the Shaipurean Age.

[Boot]

Re-watching a section today, just before Zym beats Fassir's head into the ground, he asks the monk why they've "hidden" themselves here (at the Shaipur Monastery) for a thousand years.

So, I guess the Order has been there for quite a while.

It looks greatly deserted, though. It must be a dying Order. The Shaipur Monastary, from the long shots, is a huge city. We definitely didn't see that many monks in the movie. It's like they are occupying only a small part of the decaying builinds. The wide shot of the Shaipur Outpost, too. That place would hold quite a few, as well, but it was deserted in the film.

[Lunatic]

I kind of thought that they were of the cult of Mitra, but then why hide for a thousand years. There were a hidden cult in the novel "Hour of the Dragon" but they didn´t fit this description much.

About the Shadow lord, maybe it is supposed to be lika a power that rules behind the official leaders. Kind of like the sorceror Yara whom ruled a Zamoran city by simply terrifying the king there with his magic.

Edited by Lunatic, 03 August 2012 - 05:29 PM.

[constantine]

Actually, this story takes place in the Shaipurean Age.

Ironhand

That's right. I can't make any sense whatsoever from the scenario when I try to connect it with the Hyborian Age. Of course, I wasn't supposed to. Geography, society, culture, all appear in an abominal mishmash of totally unconnected parts.