Cimmerians (Conan)

The Cimmerians are a people that feature in Conan the Barbarian.

History

The Cimmerians were a tribe of barbarians that resided in the lands of Cimmeria in the Hyborian Age. It was noted that they were in fact descendants of Atlantean colonists from the Thurian Age. Living on the main Thurian continent, these colonists survived the great Cataclysm which submerged Atlantis and destroyed most of the Thurian civilization. The survivors, at this point reduced to a stone age level of sophistication, eventually found themselves locked in multigenerational warfare with survivors of a Pictish colony. This prolonged conflict caused the Atlanteans to further devolve into little more than ape-men. With no memory of their history, or even of language and civilization itself, these primitive humans eventually redeveloped into a race known as the Cimmerians.

The Atlanteans soon encountered brutal tribes of barbarians and the long battle with this overpowering force demolished their civilization. Eventually, the few survivors were forced to become as savage as their foes. The Atlanteans, at this point reduced to a stone-age level of sophistication, eventually found themselves locked in multi-generational warfare with the survivors of a Pictish colony. For five hundred years, the two races continued to fight, instead of learning to advance their civilizations. This prolonged conflict caused the Atlanteans to further devolve into little more than ape-men. The Picts had the advantage, for they were numerous and led by powerful kings, while the Atlanteans were separated into disparate clans. Slowly, inexorably, the two cultures destroyed each other. Then, a lesser cataclysm further threw the two races backwards down the path of evolution.

Cimmerians were surrounded by hostile people, from their ancient enemies, the Picts, to the hostile Vanir of the north. They also fought against the Bossonian Marches and even changed their way into Aquilonia for plundering raids.

When the glacier age came, the Cimmerians fled before the Nordic onrush. No army or city stood before them, while hordes of Nordics swarmed behind them. Moving southwards, they almost destroyed Gunderland and fought their way into Aquilonia against the Pictsh Empire. They defeated the Nordic-Nemedians in Nemedia and sacked some of their cities before moving eastwards, defeating a Hyrkanian army on the borders of Brythunia.

The Cimmerians wandered southeastward, destroyed Turan, and settled on the southwestern shores of Vilayet, which slowly dried and became the Caspian. They were joined by pastoral Nordic tribes fleeing the next cataclysm eastwards and gradually mixed with them, forming the Aryan people. Their growing population forced many of them to migrate southward, northward, and westward.

Overview

In appearance, the Cimmerians were a tall and powerfully-built race of ferocious barbarians, with black hair and blue or grey eyes. Although the Hyborian invasion never touched them, they seem to have benefitted by contact with the invaders, and advanced rapidly in culture, more than their old rivals, the Picts.

Known for their strength and ferocity throughout the western world, the Cimmerians are barbarian tribesmen to whom war is the only known way of life. Few Cimmerians leave their homelands, but those who venture into the great world to the south soon learn that the other civilized races do not follow their own codes of honor or loyalty.

The Cimmerians were a people forged by the very harsh conditions of their land. The Cimmerians are notable among other civilizations as being an incredibly somber people. Howard often makes reference to the Cimmerian people's hardiness and martial prowess, as well as to their many other impressive skills. They can climb seemingly unscalable cliffs, track humans or animals with ease, and stalk their prey without making a sound. The apparent primitiveness of the Cimmerians and their sense of justice is often juxtaposed with the corruption of the 'civilized' races in Hyboria.

Among the Cimmerians, chief deity among their pantheon was Crom who was a vengeful god who took little interest in mortal matters. He and his dark brood are said to never answer prayers, for this as seen as weak pleading since Crom would rather such supplicants die honourably in battle. Cimmerians themselves believe there is little to hope for in life or the hereafter and that the gods desire no worship, but are best left to their own indifference towards mortals. However, the Cimmerians credit their strength of arm and spirit to Crom, who allegedly grants strength and courage at birth in order to face their enemies in life. After death, Cimmerians believe after death the soul wanders around Crom's Mountain that was a cheerless realm of gray clouds, cold mists, and moaning winds for all eternity.

The homeland of the tribe was the unremittingly somber land of Cimmeria that consisted mostly of hills and darkly woods thar rested under skies nearly always gray, with winds moaning drearily down the valleys" and its inhabitants are wont to be moody, taking on the cast of their gray skies. These people live within Cimmeria, a land of wooded fields and frigid tundra. Icy mountain ranges, winds moaning sorrowly down the valleys, and gray skies are all part of the Cimmerian geography. An ancient kingdom of barbarian tribes, Cimmeria is situated north of Aquilonia and separated from it by a narrow region known as the Bossonian Marches. The Pictish Wilderness lay to the west of Cimmeria. The rugged Eiglophian Mountains wall off the country from Vanaheim and Asgard in the north.

It's a land filled with dangerous tribes and fearsome predators, where much of the life that can be found in these savage hills lives only to take life from another. Creatures such as wolves, mountain cats, and bears patrol the frigid tundra or vast woodlands, more than capable of killing entire hunting parties unprepared for their savagery. Stories of monstrous beasts and dark legends waiting in the icy wastes for foolish travelers are told around crackling campfires, many of which have been proven true time and time again. In Cimmeria, if the weather or terrain dosen't claim you, something else likely will. To live in the harsh north requires a degree of fatalism, to accept one's place in the landscape.

Members

• Corin :
• Conan :
• Mara :

Notes

• The Cimmerians were created by Robert E. Howard where they featured in the Conan the Barbarian universe.
• No apparent relation to the similarly-pronounced Sumerians.

In other media

Films

• In Conan the Barbarian, Cimmerians appeared in the setting of the 1982 live-action film. An aphorism of their people was that of the Riddle of Steel that marked the importance of steel to their people.

Appearances

• Conan the Barbarian:

External Links

• Conan Wiki Entry

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