“Five hundred years later the kingdoms of the world are clearly defined. The kingdoms of the Hyborians – Aquilonia, Nemedia, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Koth, Ophir, Argos, Corinthia, and one known as the Border Kingdom – dominate the western world.” – The Hyborian Age
Capital: Ianthe (Ophir)
Settlements: Carnolla (Plain of Shamu), Pergona (Ophirean Vales)
Current Ruler: Moranthes II
Ophir is a rich, opulent kingdom famed for it’s gold, jewelry and textiles. It does not bear much resemblance to the biblical Ophir, so based on descriptions of its knights wearing gilt armour and scarlet robes I decided to base them on the Latin Empire, as well as some elements of the Italian city states of the Middle Ages. Due to their dealings with Koth and Corinthia, there will be a few units influenced by those kingdoms, such as Shemite units from Koth and professional armies from Corinthia.
Units
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Knights of Ophir
Perhaps moreso than other Hyborian kingdoms, there is a considerable gap between the cavalry and infantry. The Knights of Ophir are kit out in the finest steel, with the most powerful steeds available and the best training that they can afford. Whilst this means they pack a mighty wallop, they are as reckless as any arrogant nobleman, and cannot be trusted not to gallop off on their own, regardless of their commander's directions. Indeed, some haughty knights may even make a point of disobeying their commander by charging without orders, though their considerable armour means they can emerge little more than battered and humiliated from all but the most disastrous charges. One example of this was the Battle of Shamu: after the flower of Aquilonian cavalry were slain, individual knights charged against the lone survivor one at a time, eager to prove their own individual glory in killing the enemy king. Unfortunately, the king in this instance was Conan, and each knight who charged at Conan found themselves another layer in a battlement of corpses at Conan's feet.
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Ophirean Crossbowmen
Unlike Aquilonia, the lands of Ophir are largely temperate and mild, the vast majority of the populace being farmers and orchard owners, a world away from the wild Westermarck and Gunderland. As such, Ophir cannot boast a strong presence of bowmen, relying on the cheap and easily used crossbow for their missile division. Although they are equipped with characteristically lavish Ophirean mail and reasonably reliable crossbows, these men are little more than peasants, and cannot be expected to do little more than soften up the enemy for the knights to finish off.
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Ophirean Arbalests
Most of the peasantry of Ophir are a miserable, oppressed lot: the exorbitant taxes of the nobility and tight control of the kingdom's considerable wealth means a lot of the common folk are resentful, and care little what happens to the kingdom one way or another. Those who serve as garrisons, watchmen and patrols are much more patriotic, and are generally made of sterner stuff than the common man. In most Hyborian kingdoms these folk would be the men-at-arms: however, Ophir is far too stubborn to allow mere peons the glory of riding with the nobility, and so are forever relegated to infantry status. These particular soldiers are composed of former night watchmen, wielding their arbalests with deadly accuracy and speed, and also shielding themselves with a larger tower shield: they may be mere infantry, but they have enough lust for life to invest in some good defense.
Elephants
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Elephants are still quite common in the Hyborian Age, and many belong to a species known to later chroniclers as the "straight tusked elephant", which was larger than the later varieties favoured by Pyrrhus, Antiochus and Hannibal. More crucially, they can be domesticated: later elephants gained a level of intelligence that made them temperamental and emotional, and would be unpredictable in combat. The Hyborian elephants, however, are too dim for such personality, and are intellectually more comparable to an ox or sheep. This means that they find common use as pack animals and war mounts, especially in the Shemite and southern Hyborian lands.
Although there are no elephants native to Ophir, there are dealers in the Kothian Uplands who frequently trade beasts for use on the hilly trade routs and low mountains, and some of these beasts are effective against easily frightened infantry. In Ophir, however, they are rarely more than an expensive luxury, and cannot stand up to the season war elephants of the Shemites and Hyrkanians, or the terrible mastodons of Hyperborea.
