Quick update (Updated July 28th!)

[christof139]

Yeah, I have read some of the pastiches and have many of them. The only things 'historical' Howard wrote about the H. Age is some very short histories(y) that have been added to one (or two?) of his novels. All of his notes haven't been published as far as I know, however, ...

Seems that in one of the orginal 13 novels published (not all totally Howard's writings as you know), that Iranistan is described as fragmented, and perhaps that Ghulistan was actually once part of Iranistan (?), pointing to what you said about Iranistan once being an empire.

Yeah, somethings are very sobering. However, one must have a sense of humor concerning this and etc. I always liked nature, and hence my degree in Geology, even though I am and have been for some time a defunct geologist. Never worked in the field directly, just some related things. The videos on YouTube are great concerning nature and there are also some decent historical etc. ones.

I wish Howard had written more of Hyperborea, that very cold, isolated, and magic ridden place. The queen/sorceress reminds me a bit of the evil ice queen in the Narnia tales. Maybe the evil beings etc. of Narnia and the Warhammer world's Chaos Warriors and maybe even the Kislevites would be good to draw some more ideas from to flesh out the ice realm of Hyperborea. winter maps for the battles in the game, with maybe a battle setting in a large ice cave/fortress for one battle map, if anyone wants to take the time to mod that and it would be a lot of work.

Thaggans = Thuggies maybe?? Something like that would be good.

Yeah, the Irish are everywhere: at the Gaelic League, the Fratenal Order of Hybernians (or whatever it is called, I forget), the Polish American Legion (doesn't discriminate as to race or ethnicticity), in Mexico of course per the San Patrico(-tricio) Battalion and etc. Guiness is good to put in Bar-B-Q sauce BTW, as are most beers but particularily dark beers I prefer(ed). Polish Honey Mead is also good for a Bar-B-Q sauce ingredient. Ale and Mead would make a good trade resource for some nations of the Hyborian Age - would add some historical factuality.

Chris

PS: More evidence of the Irish being everywhere: Conan is replacing Jay Leno on the Tonight Show, originally starring Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon (Irish), or was it MacMahon (Scottish)?? The Scotti were an Irish tribe anyway as you know.

[Taranaich]

Yeah, I have read some of the pastiches and have many of them. The only things 'historical' Howard wrote about the H. Age is some very short histories(y) that have been added to one (or two?) of his novels. All of his notes haven't been published as far as I know, however, ...

Not all of them, no, there are some drafts that haven't been published yet.

Seems that in one of the orginal 13 novels published (not all totally Howard's writings as you know), that Iranistan is described as fragmented, and perhaps that Ghulistan was actually once part of Iranistan (?), pointing to what you said about Iranistan once being an empire.

Ghulistan and Iranistan are most likely of the same root culture, and Iranistan's empire likely occupied a lot of the space Ghulistan takes now. I'm viewing Ghulistan as a relatively young kingdom in comparison to Vendhya and Iranistan, which grew quite a bit before Yezdigerd invaded.

I wish Howard had written more of Hyperborea, that very cold, isolated, and magic ridden place.

Me too. Indeed, there was the possibility that he would've written a story set there, since he mentioned the name of the King in his notes. Alas, twas not to be - though the clues sprinkled throughout the stories give a tantalizing glimpse into possibilities.

The queen/sorceress reminds me a bit of the evil ice queen in the Narnia tales. Maybe the evil beings etc. of Narnia and the Warhammer world's Chaos Warriors and maybe even the Kislevites would be good to draw some more ideas from to flesh out the ice realm of Hyperborea. winter maps for the battles in the game, with maybe a battle setting in a large ice cave/fortress for one battle map, if anyone wants to take the time to mod that and it would be a lot of work.

I'll be drawing on similar sources that Kislev & Chaos are based on: the Slavs, Rus, and other northern folk. Generally I've been shying away from the overtly sorcerous kingdom of the pastiches in favour of a more neutral civilized state, but with plenty of scope to take that route should the player want to. No Queen Vammatar, but Queen Katarina is very interested in the ancient mysteries of Elder Hyperborea. No White Hand, but the Scions of Eibon keep the dark mysterious of the legendary priest of Zhothaqquah. No giant purple warriors, but the giant warriors of Hyperborea are no less ferocious and terrible. Lots of torturing though.

Thaggans = Thuggies maybe?? Something like that would be good.

Pretty much a fusion of the Thuggees and the proliferation of gods called "Th-g" or some variation thereof throughout the world, yes: they strangle their victims to retain as much blood as possible for their demonic god's pleasure. The Cult of Yajur in Kosala is an offshoot from the original Thaggan cult merged with Old Kosalan religion & sorcery.

Ale and Mead would make a good trade resource for some nations of the Hyborian Age - would add some historical factuality.

Oh yes, trade resources will not get the shaft.

I'm fairly certain that REH's Hyborian Age Picts never took to the sea at all...

I mean, that's not to say they shouldn't have any sea-going craft, but their navy should be severely limited when compared to sea-faring kingdoms like Zingara and Argos.

And they will be: it would take a lot of canoes to take down a Zingaran or Argossean transport, and even then it would have to be an ambush that wouldn't allow said transport enough movement points to escape. It's only after the reforms when they learn more advanced sea engineering that they get the big catamarans - and even they would be toast against anything bigger than a galley. Plus they'll be quite expensive, since there isn't really that much reason for the Picts to go to sea in the first place.

[christof139]

Yeah, you have it figured out pretty good. Didn't Howard et al, in one of the 13 original books, have a story that dealt with Hyperbora, or maybe it was that he mentioned Hyperborea and a previous adventure Conan had there, maybe Conan was reflecting on this in the book, can't remember????

-11F (-23.8888C) here now (10AM) and last night, it is supposed to go up to +7F or +8F today. Temps.in other areas around here in the northern midwest and in Canada are hitting -20F and -30F and a bit more. Very Nordlander and Cimmerian and northern Pictish and Hyperborean like. It's at times like this that notherners howl at the celing because they can't see the moon since it is concealed by snow clouds and ice fog and it's too cold to howl around outside anyway. Makes sense to me. Yeah, make Hyperborea evily cold, frigidly insane, the White Hand or whatever would be a good order of evil sorcers and sorceresses, with large wolves/wargs running around with the rebels and brigands.

Yeah, Picts should only have canoes and war canoes with maybe catamarans latter, and maybe they can be somehow used on certain rivers in the game?? Maybe not, as the rivers would have to be too wide. So, maybe as jsut coastal ships restricted to the adjacent Pictich waters and maybe one sea area to the north and one to the south, if that is possible. Something like that.

Take care over there on the Emerald Isle and its Cliffs of Moher etc.

[Taranaich]

Yeah, you have it figured out pretty good. Didn't Howard et al, in one of the 13 original books, have a story that dealt with Hyperbora, or maybe it was that he mentioned Hyperborea and a previous adventure Conan had there, maybe Conan was reflecting on this in the book, can't remember????

Conan never talked about the Hyperboreans in the stories, but in a letter to P.S. Miller, Howard did say he was captured by them in his youth, and gained a hatred of them which would last his entire life. Conan never talked about other times that affected him deeply - Belit's death was another - it wouldn't surprise me that this would be the same. There are also lots of references straight and oblique to Hyperborea's insularity and propensity for violence & torture.

Yeah, Picts should only have canoes and war canoes with maybe catamarans latter, and maybe they can be somehow used on certain rivers in the game?? Maybe not, as the rivers would have to be too wide. So, maybe as jsut coastal ships restricted to the adjacent Pictich waters and maybe one sea area to the north and one to the south, if that is possible. Something like that.

Much of the Black River and some of Thunder River will be traversable by boat, with the possibility of developing the small fishing villages to ports and having tiny trade fleets. I'm going to try and use the shallow/deep water mapping so that the larger ships (& sea monsters) will be unable to go up river: that way we won't have galleons, polyremes (or krakens) going up rivers too shallow to accomodate them. Since the mod probably won't use the discovery of America element, it's as well to use the dynamic for something.

Take care over there on the Emerald Isle and its Cliffs of Moher etc.

I'll pass it on from Scotland.

[christof139]

Yeah, the 'discovery' of the Americas - even though they were already 'discovered' by the inhabitants and contained great civilizations - only pops up in 'Conan of the Isles'.

Scotland, hmmm, yes, it does say that under your avatar. I guess I relate Conan more to the Irish and in reality there isn't much difference between the Irish and Scots being as closely related as you all are, and the pipes exist in both places.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5P1...eature=related
2006 Scottish/Irish Highlands Festival in Estes Park, Colorado. Mass band with several different bagpipe groups and the Marines playing Amazing Grace.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99qu...eature=related
Happy St. Paddie's day!! Irish-American piper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZuq_mMDg20
From USA Veterans in Colorado. Features the King's Own Scottish Borderers and the Marine Air Land Combat Band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2zcgieFVtE
Scotland per Robbin Williams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hZU...eature=related
The Massed Bands, 700 pipers and drummers play together in Calgary (Canada, I do believe) at the 2006 Highland Games

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84uM...eature=related
Conan time period pipes and drums. This is WULF playing An Dro at the Loveland Castle in Ohio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrIU...eature=related
Clann An Drumma at Culloden. This group is great!! The drummer on the right gets into it ten-fold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Lg-...eature=related
Clann An Drumma and the walk for Wallace.

Yeah, I was wondering if the game had the shallow and deep water distinction thingie, good it does and you are doing what I was thinking.
I have METW2 but haven't played it in awhile, and have 2 decent compooters to play it on. Had about 5, but I upgraded and reduced the amount of compooters to 2. Too confusing for me.

Bonnie Prince Charlie was half Polish and it is a shame he didn't have some Polish cavalry and infantry at Culloden as that would have been the end of Cumberland.

Stolat!!! Chris

PS: Pictish boats; rafts > war canoes > outriggers > catamarans.

[Argent Usher]

Hi i want ask how much life is still in the barbarian because i have begun a own cthulhu mod which includes also some lore of your mod.
Well my mod will be for Empire but maybe you can use some material of my mod if needed.

Regards A.U.

[Spartan198]

Hi i want ask how much life is still in the barbarian because i have begun a own cthulhu mod which includes also some lore of your mod.
Well my mod will be for Empire but maybe you can use some material of my mod if needed.

Regards A.U.

Sounds to be an interesting mod.

[Taranaich]

Hi i want ask how much life is still in the barbarian because i have begun a own cthulhu mod which includes also some lore of your mod.

Still life in the barbarian, but there isn't much visual/text stuff to show, most of the recent stuff has been bugfixing and coding, trying to get the blasted custom battles working again. One of these days I'll get that bally Argos preview up...

And, under the suggestion/enthusiasm of my go-to scholar, I've decided to combine two factions (which were unplayable, so very little is lost) in order to include another playable faction, simply because they're too much fun to exclude, plus the area of the map they're in was just awfully empty without them. Their identity shall remain nameless (though you chaps'll probably guess easy enough!)

Probably the most irritating thing, though, is the "Multiple Atlanteans" conundrum: a bunch of recently unearthed/noticed facts have thrown some of the history I made up into complete disarray (specifically the Negari/Malayu material). It doesn't cause things to be ruled out, it just means a lot of amendments.

I'm very intrigued by this Cthulhu mod you speak of, and appreciate the offer for material: I'd be happy to return the favour.

[Helgi]

Quote:
I'm fairly certain that REH's Hyborian Age Picts never took to the sea at all...

I mean, that's not to say they shouldn't have any sea-going craft, but their navy should be severely limited when compared to sea-faring kingdoms like Zingara and Argos.

And they will be: it would take a lot of canoes to take down a Zingaran or Argossean transport, and even then it would have to be an ambush that wouldn't allow said transport enough movement points to escape. It's only after the reforms when they learn more advanced sea engineering that they get the big catamarans - and even they would be toast against anything bigger than a galley. Plus they'll be quite expensive, since there isn't really that much reason for the Picts to go to sea in the first place.

Quote: christof139

PS: Pictish boats; rafts > war canoes > outriggers > catamarans.

In the Story I've been working on, is set 500 years after Conan's death and as per a conversation with Taranaich and a couple other people. Some of the Polynesian canoe's made sense given that after the Picts spring out and shatter the Hyborian West.