Children of the Night - Monsters and Demons of the Hyborian Age

[Taranaich]

Now this update will be a little different - there are no in-game models yet, this is strictly a concept art thread detailing some of the more exotic units that will make an appearance in the Hyborian Age. In addition to the zombies, werebeasts and vampires which we all know and love, Howard also featured some other creatures which could find their way on a battlefield. This is a preview of some of those Children of the Night.

Beasts of Jhebbal-Sag

Jhebbal-Sag is the patron god of the Picts, an ancient and dangerous god who is master of beasts. When a Pictish Shaman has gained enough power, and constructed suitable groves and temples to Jhebbal-Sag, he can use his terrible magicks to summon and command the very beasts of the forest to battle, including prehistoric survivors and demons caught between the Outer Dark and this world.

Bull Apes

“Behind the altar was an idol, dim, indistinct, bestial, yet vaguely man-like in outline. Then fresh horror choked Balthus as the shape heaved up suddenly with a rattle of chains, lifting long misshapen arms in the gloom.” – Beyond the Black River
Bull Apes are big, ferocious apes of the Pictish Wilderness, revered by the Picts who perceive them as sacred to Gullah, the Hairy One Who Lives On The Moon. Unfortunately, the Bull Ape's evolving intelligence means that their kinship with Jhebbal Sag is deteriorating, and many of them have forgotten the common tongue between man and beast. Most of these individuals are chained to shrines to Gullah, sustained with grisly sacrifices.

Ghost Snakes

“He saw and knew the ancient and evil serpent which swayed there, its wedge-shaped head, huge as that of a horse, as high as a tall man's head, and its palely gleaming barrel rippling out behind it. A forked tongue darted in and out, and the firelight glittered on bared fangs… That was the reptile that the ancients called Ghost Snake, the pale, abominable terror that of old glided into huts by night to devour whole families. Like the python it crushed its victim, but unlike other constrictors its fangs bore venom that carried madness and death. It too had long been considered extinct... No white man knew what shapes haunted the great forests beyond Black River. It came on silently, rippling over the ground, its hideous head on the same level, its neck curving back slightly for the stroke.” – Beyond the Black River
Perhaps the most terrible and devastating creature that can be commanded by a Pictish Shaman, the Ghost Snake is a gargantuan serpent that can grow to eighty feet in length, and is all but extinct in most sane parts of the world. Both a constrictor and secreting insanity-inducing venom, the Ghost Snake has been mostly superceded by smaller, more adaptable vipers and pythons, but is undisputed master of those realms where they yet survive.
A Pictish Shaman of considerable skill can summon one of these beasts relatively quickly, and so it is possible that a small group of these normally solitary creatures could be formed for the battlefield. These creatures would be a hideous and terrifying sight, and their writhing coils would wreak havoc on troop formations and fortifications alike - if they could be kept under control.

Swamp-Devils

“The flames leaped and sank, dwindling and dimming. A face began to take shadowy form… there was a demoniac aspect about it… an obliqueness of the eyes, a sharpness of the ears, a wolfish thinness of the lips: these peculiarities were exaggerated in the apparition which swayed before him. The eyes were red as coals of living fire.
More details came into view: a slender torso, covered with snaky scales, which was yet man-like in shape, with man like arms, from the waist upward, below, long crane-like legs ended in splay, three-toed feet like those of huge bird. Along the monstrous limbs the blue fire fluttered and ran. He saw it as through a glistening mist.
Then suddenly it was towering over him, though he had not seen it move toward him. A long arm, which for the first time he noticed was armed with curving, sickle-like talons, swung high and swept down at his neck.” – Beyond the Black River
A Swamp-Devil is an abominable creature from the dark sorceries of the Pictish Wilderness, beings uniquely connected to Jhebbal-Sag.
The details on the summoning of a swamp devil, but one forest runner who survived an encounter with a beast heard the following: "My brother had not painted a skull black for you and hurled it into the fire that burns for ever on Gullah's black altar. He had not whispered your name to the black ghosts that haunt the uplands of the Dark Land. But a bat has flown over the Mountains of the Dead and drawn your image in blood on the white tiger's hide that hangs before the long hut where sleep the Four Brothers of the Night. The great serpents coil about their feet and the stars burn like fireflies in their hair".
It should be noted, however, that the Swamp Devil encountered by Conan was a considerably dangerous example, and the Devils Conan refers to as being "not uncommon" are probably either rogues who have somehow travelled here, or lesser beings summoned by Shamans. A Pictish Shaman could easily summon and control these latter beings for violent ends.

Beasts of Set

Set is the god of the Stygians, but like all dark cults, remnants survive in the lands once controlled by the old Stygian lands and the nightmare empire of Acheron. If playing one of the Hyborian Kingdoms, there is an option to construct "Secret Temples" that are unknown to the populace, but can still allow the research of some of Set's nastier demons without causing riots. Once these beings are summoned, however, it will take considerable diplomatic or military might to ensure half the kingdom doesn't instantly rebel at the foul sorcery, as seemed to happen in Koth and Ophir. Naturally sorcerous kingdoms such as Zamora and Stygia will not have to worry about this.

Demons of Set

"There was a movement in the air about him, such a swirl as is made in water when some creature rises to the surface. A nameless, freezing wind blew on him briefly, as if from an opened Door. Thoth felt a presence at his back, but he did not look about. He kept his eyes fixed on the moonlit space of marble, on which a tenuous shadow hovered. As he continued his whispered incantations, this shadow grew in size and clarity, until it stood out distinct and horrific. Its outline was not unlike that of a gigantic baboon, but no such baboon ever walked the earth, not even in Stygia." - The Phoenix on the Sword
Demons of Set are beings from the mysterious Outer Dark, a realm beyond humanity's understanding where denizens of darkest night reside. These beings are frequently used as assassins by the Black Ring, but an enterprising and audacious sorcerer could form a small group of them for use on the battlefield, usually as a last line of defense or to cause devastation in a nearby army. Their ties to this world, however, are very thin, and once they have carried out their task (in this unit's case, one battle) then they vanish back to the dark places of the universe from which they emerged. Combined with their expense, these beings should only be used in absolutely critical engagements.
These creatures can also be summoned on the campaign map, where they serve as Stygia's assassins. They are the best assassins in the game, and can only be thwarted either by a character with powerful sorcerous defenses against assassination, or are armed with a blade marked with the sign of Epimitreus. However, just like on the battlefield, they can only carry out a single act, though they will only disappear when they successfully kill their target, or are killed themselves.

Sons of Set

“Conan was aware of a sinister slithering ahead of him. Then about the dark comer of the building he was approaching poked a hideous, wedge-shaped head, and after it flowed coil after coil of rippling, darkly glistening trunk.
The Cimmerian recoiled, remembering tales he had heard-serpents were sacred to Set, god of Stygia, who men said was himself a serpent. Monsters such as this were kept in the temples of Set, and when they hungered, were allowed to crawl forth into the streets to take what prey they wished. Their ghastly feasts were considered a sacrifice to the scaly god.” – The Hour of the Dragon
The Sons of Set are hideous serpents sacred to Father Set. These gigantic snkes are tended for by the Priests of Set, who use sorcerous techniques to help them attain colossal sizes. Usually they are kept sedated in the temples, but every few weeks they are awakened from their drugged stupor, and released into the streets of Stygia's cities, where the hapless inhabitants must prostrate themselves before the serpent and accept their fate. Although the Sons of Set are sacred and not used to battle, in times where Stygia must either defend itself or embark on wars of self-preservation, these creatures could themselves find themselves on the battlefield, enraged and berserk from the priests's medicines and magicks to turn them into a devastatingly powerful weapon, wreaking death and destruction among the terrified enemy ranks and crushing simple walls in their fury.

Other Creatures

Other creatures can be summoned at various groves and temples, or from their native homelands, and appropriated for nefarious purposes.

Grey Apes

“Out of the shadows of the cliffs moved a monstrous shambling bulk – an anthropomorphic horror, a grotesque travesty of creation. In general outline it was not unlike a man. But its face, limned in the bright moonlight, was bestial, with close-set ears, flaring nostrils, and a great flabby-lipped mouth in which gleamed white tusk-like fangs. It was covered with shaggy grayish hair, shot with silver which shone in the moonlight, and its great misshapen paws hung nearly to the earth. Its bulk was tremendous; as it stood on its short bowed legs, its bullet-head rose above that of the man who faced it; the sweep of the hairy breast and giant shoulders was breathtaking; the huge arms were like knotted trees.
The moonlight scene swam, to Olivia's sight. This, then, was the end of the trail – for what human being could withstand the fury of that hairy mountain of thews and ferocity?” – Iron Shadows in the Moon

Man-Apes

“Murilo stared in the mirror at the creature which sat with such monstrous patience before the closed door. He shuddered at the sight of the great black hands, thickly grown with hair that was almost furlike. The body was thick, broad, and stooped. The unnaturally wide shoulders had burst the scarlet gown, and on these shoulders Murilo noted the same thick growth of black hair. The face peering from the scarlet hood was utterly bestial, and yet Murilo realized that Nabonidus spoke truth when he said that Thak was not wholly a beast. There was something in the red murky eyes, something in the creature's clumsy posture, something in the whole appearance of the thing that set it apart from the truly animal. That monstrous body housed a brain and soul that were just budding awfully into something vaguely human. Murilo stood aghast as he recognized a faint and hideous kinship between his kind and that squatting monstrosity, and he was nauseated by a fleeting realization of the abysses of bellowing bestiality up through which humanity had painfully toiled.” – Rogues in the House

Black Ones

“These creatures were black and naked, made like men, but the least of them, standing upright, would have towered head and shoulders above the tall pirate. They were rangy rather than massive, but were finely formed, with no suggestion of deformity or abnomality, save as their great height was abnormal. But even at that distance Conan sensed the basic diabolism of their features… Conan mentally termed the creatures black men, for lack of a better term; instinctively he knew that these tall ebony beings were not men, as he understood the term.
The superb symmetry of body and limbs was more impressive at close range. Under the ebon skin long, rounded muscles rippled, and Conan did not doubt that the monster could rend an ordinary man limb from limb. The nails of the fingers provided further weapons, for they were grown like the talons of a wild beast. The face was a carven ebony mask. The eyes' were tawny, a vibrant gold that glowed and glittered. But the face was inhuman; each line, each feature was stamped with evil – evil transcending the mere evil of humanity. The thing was not a human – it could not be; it was a growth of Life from the pits of blasphemous creation – a perversion of evolutionary development.” – The Pool of the Black One

Ghouls

“Half-forgotten memories surged back, of grisly tales whispered of the shapes that haunted these uninhabited forests at the foot of the hills that mark the Zingaran-Argossean border. Ghouls, man called them, eaters of human flesh, spawn of darkness, children of unholy matings of a lost and forgotten race with the demons of the underworld. Somewhere in these primitive forests were the ruins of an ancient, accursed city, men whispered, and among its tombs slunk gray, anthropomorphic shadows-Conan shuddered strongly.” – The Hour of the Dragon

Ice-Giants

“…two gigantic figures rose up to bar his way. The scales of their mail were white with hoar-frost; their helmets and their axes were covered with ice. Snow sprinkled their locks; in their beards were spikes of icicles; their eyes were cold as the lights that streamed above them.” – The Frost-Giant’s Daughter