Picture the Hyborian Age, now forgotten and undreamed of save in the pages of the Nemedian
Chronicles and in the deeds of its greatest heroes. At the zenith of their power,
the mighty kingdom of Aquilonia and its fellow Hyborian neighbor states stood nearly without
rival, having absorbed and assimilated countless tribes and nations to build a civilization out of
the barbarism that had carried them from their Northern homeland so unstoppably. However, the
Hyborians were not the first peoples in history with expansionist ambitions. Many generations ago,
Stygia, ancient land of serpents and sorcerers, had sent its own colonists East and North across
the Styx, founding new kingdoms under the rule of Stygian sorcerer-kings.
Although the Hyborian conquests had destroyed the Stygians three thousand years before the coming of
Conan, the ghosts of this Stygian past did not always sleep quietly among the desert ruins.
In today's video, a thief's folly unleashes a long-dead sorcerer-king on an unsuspecting world.
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This story begins in the ruins of Kuthchemes, once a Stygian satellite state, founded southeast
of the land of Shem, back when Stygia still ruled over its pastoralist inhabitants and dominated the
uplands beyond. Though destroyed along with its neighbor kingdoms by the still-barbarous Hyborians
of that bygone age, the last king of Kuthchemes - the feared sorcerer Thugra Khotan - would go
out on his own terms rather than those of his conquerors. As his city burned, he consumed a
deadly ritual poison, his black heart going still as his acolytes sealed him into the impregnable
tomb he had prepared for himself, and though the Hyborians razed Kuthchemes to the ground,
no amount of effort by the barbarians could crack the tomb's ensorcelled walls or open their way
to the treasure within. As the years drew on, the Hyborians and Shemites alike steered clear of the
cursed ruins, with only thieves and madmen paying heed to the legend of Thugra Khotan - the first
out of lust for his treasure, the hunt for which claimed the lives of many a foolhardy tomb robber,
and the latter through the degenerate cults of devotees which clung to life over the centuries,
deifying the fallen wizard-king and awaiting his return. Yet one day,
a thief of a different caliber arrived in Kuthchemes: Shevatas, a master thief of Zamora,
luckier and more skillful than most. Where so many had turned back in failure or perished before him,
he came armed with long-forgotten secrets and an incantation of opening, gleaned from
thieves' tales and cultists' chants over many perilous adventures. Narrowly avoiding death at
the fangs of the tomb's ancient serpent guardian, he opened the ancient tomb, revealing the vast
treasures of Thugra Khotan inside. But the only reward Shevatas would take from this success
would be a grisly death at the hands of Thugra Khotan himself, preserved in undeath
for three thousand years, and now free to take vengeance on the descendants of his conquerors.
Emerging from the ruins and styling himself a prophet under the name of Natohk, he seized
leadership of dozens of nomad tribes, sweeping murderously North-west through the city-states
of Shem and growing in power with every conquest. Some Shemite rulers tried to negotiate or
to oppose him and were slain by sorcery or by force of arms. Kutamun, a rebel Stygian prince,
joined his army to Natokh's, expecting to find an easily-manipulated desert warlord to win
himself a throne by only to find himself the party being dominated. Unstoppably, the growing desert
army worked its way towards the kingdoms of the Hyborians, with tiny Khoraja its first target.
Khoraja had problems of its own already. With its king held for ransom in Ophir after a
failed mission to secure that kingdom’s aid, and its larger neighbor Koth plotting a takeover,
rulership during a time of crisis lay in the hands of the king’s sister - the young and untested
princess Yasmela. With much of the kingdom's army and nobility despairing of Khoraja's prospects and
accepting Kothian gold for their loyalty, it was in large part the mercenary soldiers of general
Amalric - among them Conan of Cimmeria, older and more experienced since his time in Makkalet and
serving as a captain of the spearmen, who upheld the defense of the kingdom. But no mere soldiers
could protect Yasmela from the attentions of Natohk, who nightly sent his shadow to stalk the
princess' bedchambers, tormenting her by declaring her his queen-to-be and describing in lascivious
detail the life that awaited her. In desperation, Yasmela turned to an unlikely source for guidance:
Mitra, the god of her Hyborian ancestors, long since abandoned in Koth and Khoraja for Ishtar
and other deities of the land’s Shemite majority. Led by one of her serving girls to Mitra's temple
by night, the princess heard the voice of the god of her forebears instruct her to save her
kingdom by placing its defense in the hands of the first man she met on the moonlit city streets.
Departing the temple without guard or escort, she found none other than Conan outside an alehouse,
leading the confused northman back to her palace - where instead of the tryst with a
palace maid-in-waiting he expected, he was named commander of Khoraja’s army.
The naming of a rowdy foreign mercenary as commander seemingly on the princess’ whim was
met with opposition, of course. Count Thespides, leader of Khoraja’s knights and a suitor to the
princess, would be especially opposed, but he begrudgingly accepted the northman’s leadership
on the Princess’ order. With discontent still simmering, Conan marched out with the kingdom’s
armies to meet Natokh at the Pass of Shamla, a narrow pass through the steep hills and cliffs
that separated the Kothian highlands from the deserts of Eastern Shem two days’ march from
Khoraja. The site of an ancient Stygian ruin, a well-worn caravan road, and the path by which
countless armies had marched in ages past, they were guarded and patrolled by the Zaheemi Clan,
one of the many tribes on the kingdom’s outskirts that swore fealty to the crown of Khoraja.
Camping on the plateau at the top of the long, steep valley that made up the pass,
with a well and several stone archer’s towers to aid in the defense,
Conan’s forces were bolstered by some 3000 archers from the loyal hill tribes, leaving him with an
army 12,000 strong in total - from the regular Khorajan army came 500 pikes, 5000 archers and
500 knights under Thespides, joined by a thousand mercenary horsemen, twice as many mercenary
spearmen and the previously mentioned tribal archers. With the narrow pass held by spearmen
and Conan’s bow-heavy army commanding the cliffs and ridges surrounding it, the pass would be a
difficult obstacle to force, even for an army as large as the approaching horde - claimed by
Natokh to number a hundred thousand, with the Stygian chariot archers and Kushite horsemen of
Kutamun’s rebel army racing ahead of the nomad and Shemite warriors of the desert prophet.
The Khorajans’ morale would also be bolstered by the presence of their princess - still haunted by
the nightly apparitions of Natohk, now taking ever more horrifyingly lifelike appearance
as the undead sorcerer drew closer, she had chosen to accompany the great army on its march
rather than await the specter in the cold loneliness of the palace. Leaving her
great pavilion to stay in the Commander’s tent under Conan’s vigilant protection,
she slept without fear or nighttime visitors for the first time since the opening of Kuthchemes.
Conan had his own problem of command, though, even with the princess’s blessing and presence.
Despite the massively greater numbers of Natokh’s horde, Thespides demanded they be met head-on,
his ideas of chivalry and his noble-born disdain for his foes
leaving him sorely underestimating the danger faced by Khoraja and her army. On Conan’s refusal,
he split off with his knights to camp in the valley rather than with the rest of the army
on the plateau - an empty gesture on its own, but foreshadowing further mutiny by the proud Count
against his lowborn commander’s orders that would nearly spell his homeland’s doom.
There would be little time for petty arguing over authority, however. The army had scarcely had time
for a midday meal after their arrival at the pass than the first signs of Natokh’s approach began to
show: a great plume of sorcerous mist rolling up the valley towards the defenders, concealing the
approach of the horde. The undead mage was facing a cannier general than the likes of Thespides,
though. Though the approaching army was veiled from his sight, the wilderness-trained Conan
easily picked up the approaching Stygian chariots by the vibrations in the ground, ordering his
men to attention from their food and revelry to strap on arms and brace for the enemy’s arrival.
As soon as he did so, the mist dissipated from existence to reveal the approaching horde in
all its fearsome splendor, as though his seeing through the attempted surprise attack had pierced
the physical mist as well - left suddenly exposed, the horde began to wheel about in confusion, the
chariots splitting off from the army to leave the Kushite light cavalry milling about in disarray.
By all appearances, the trick had failed, and a crushing cavalry charge by Khoraja’s knights would
be all it would require to start the enemy routing - as Count Thespides was quick to point out.
The speed with which the first ruse was abandoned led Conan to suspect a second,
though. Concerned his foes’ confusion might be feigned to lead him into a trap,
he forbade Thespides from charging them, ordering his troops to keep their defensive positions.
But seeing Conan’s prudence as cowardice, and perhaps hoping to win Yasmela’s hand through
a glorious victory of his own making, Thespides abandoned his commander to rejoin his knights,
leading them in a mighty headlong charge down the steep valley.
Their charge would come to nothing but disaster, once Natokh showed his undead face on the
battlefield for the first time. Racing across the valley perpendicular to the onrushing knights,
the undead King worked sorceries not seen since the height of Stygia’s power,
scattering strange silver powder in a line across the valley in the knights’ path before riding
out of sight. Just moments before their charge should have impacted the Kushites like a hammer,
the frontmost horses rode through the powder, setting off a great explosion
that killed knights by the dozens and reduced the whole charge to a burning mass of chaos and death.
This was the only signal the army behind needed - shedding their feigned confusion, as Conan had
feared, they turned to advance up the valley, mercilessly slaughtering the surviving knights.
In one fell swoop, Khoraja had been shorn of much of its nobility and one of its strongest assets,
with the soldiers behind thrown almost into panic by the sight of the massacre.
Though Conan was able to prevent a rout thanks to his commanding presence
and rally his frightened forces to the defense, the battle had only just begun,
and the Khorajans would soon be sorely pressed. Dismounting from their horses
and chariots for the close-quarters fighting to come, Kutamun’s Kushites and Stygians pressed
forward through the hail of Khorajan arrows to clash with the mercenary spearmen in the pass,
choking the valley with their dead as arrows and boulders rained down, but still driving the
defenders back through sheer numbers and through vast arrow volleys of their own.
Following them were the Asshuri, the soldiers of the fifteen conquered Shemite city-states,
filling the gaps in the Stygian lines as they killed and died against Amalric’s mercenaries.
As the fighting grew thicker and fiercer, Conan fighting like a madman on the front lines,
it soon became clear that the enemy’s numbers were insurmountable and defeat was inevitable
if Conan could not pull off a trick of his own. Interrogating one of his loyal Zaheemi
tribesmen in the thick of battle, he learned of the existence of another narrow and hidden trail,
unknown to most, that wrapped around the valley’s western ridge to let out behind the press of
Natokh’s forces. Placing the surprised youth in charge of General Amalric and his thousand
mercenary cavalry, the desperate Conan ordered them to take the pass and launch an attack from
behind. As they vanished from the field, Conan returned to the defense, as his forces melted
and panicked around him - Shupras, war leader of the hill tribes, lay dead already and the
mercenary pikes were wavering. Unfortunately for the beleaguered defenders on the pass,
Amalric would not be reaching the enemy rear unopposed, with a small screening
force of nomad horsemen patrolling the outer valley encountering and attacking them as they
rushed out of the secret pass - outnumbered and outmatched as these desert scouts might have been,
every minute of delay this engagement caused brought the mercenaries and hillmen above
closer to defeat. As long minutes passed and the battle grew ever more bloody, Amalric and his
horsemen’s charge failed to materialize, leading Conan to turn to his last remaining asset - the
500 Khorajan spearmen, held thus far in reserve - to pull off his most desperate gambit yet.
Like most Hyborian kingdoms, Khoraja saw the mounted knight as the only truly honorable
military occupation, and her spearmen represented the destitute sons of diminished noble families
unable to afford horses and plate armor, their very service a humiliation.
At the Battle of Shamla Pass, however, they would all get a chance at the glory their poverty had
denied them. Rallying them to his side, Conan bade them to mount themselves on the half-wild
horses of the hill tribesmen, and join him in a cavalry charge Thespides’ fallen knights would
have envied. Paltry though their numbers might have been, surprise, and the momentum of their
steep downhill charge allowed them to tear through the front ranks of their enemies, leaving Kushite,
Stygian and Asshuri alike slaughtered in their wake and striking a blow to the enemies’ morale.
Still, had this charge been unsupported or had Natokh remained on the field to rally his shaken
forces, the makeshift knights would likely have simply been drawn into the vast host and cut down,
a valiant death in battle the only prize for their mad charge. But whether by luck or Mitra’s favour,
the charge of these pauper nobles was joined by the delayed attack of Amalric’s cavalry,
having overcome their foes just in time for the weight of their charge to be added to Conan’s.
With Natokh having abandoned the battlefield, the impact of the mercenary horsemen in the rear
of the great leaderless host created instant chaos and panic, a genuine reenactment of the
confusion they had previously feigned to bait out Thespides’ knights. Despite retaining a
vast numbers advantage, the panic and stampeding soon had the horde tearing itself apart, unaware
in the confusion of how very few the horsemen who had torn through their lines truly were.
As the nomads fled in terror to mount their horses and Stygians raced for their chariots,
the horsemen of Khoraja reaped a terrible toll on their fleeing foes, with Conan himself slaying
the massive prince Kutaman in a savage duel among the rout. The bulk of Conan’s forces had fallen,
but the enemy's losses had been far, far greater - upwards of forty thousand slain by arrows,
trampling or on Khorajan spears. Even among his army's defeat, Thugra Khotan would make
one last bid to win the prize he had truly sought - amongst the fighting, the princess’ pavilion had
been all but forgotten, and into this his flying chariot swooped, drawn by a hellish black camel.
The last and perhaps most important battle of the day would be not be a clash of armies,
but the showdown between lich and barbarian in the nearby Stygian ruins,
ending with the three thousand year-old scourge ended forever at the point of a thrown sword.
Though Thespides had mocked and doubted him, the former mercenary cutthroat
had won a great victory in his first command, seeing through their sorcerous foe’s tricks
and keeping his panicked army from rout when many more experienced generals would have failed.
Nor would it be his last - in the years to follow, Conan would fight and lead all manner of forces,
as a hetman among the Kozaki Free Companions, as Amra the Lion, the fabled pirate of the Black
Coast, and soon as the warrior-king of proud Aquilonia. Our series on the history of the
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