Hyperborea

Hyperborea
Name	Hyperborea
Aliases	Elder Hyperborea (Age of Dragons name), Hyperborea the Elder (early Hyborian Age name)
Characteristics
Demonym	Hyperboreans
Religion	See "Religion in Hyperborea"
Location Details
Reality	Earth-616
Galaxy	Milky Way
Star System	Sol
Planet	Earth
Continent	Lemuria ; Hyboria
Region	Hyborian Lands ; Hyborian Kingoms
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard
First	Conan the Barbarian #3 (February, 1971)
First	Conan the Barbarian #3 (February, 1971)

 The Gate of Hyperborea is the Gate of Death. 

History

Elder Hyperborea / Age of Dragons

Elder Hyperborea existed in Lemuria, at time where the Dragon Kings ruled the Earth.

Eibon's era / Pre-Cataclysmic Age

The Pnakotic Manuscripts were found back in Hyperborea during Eibon's era.

The Book of Eibon was written by Eibon's apprentice in Pre-Cataclysic Hyperborea.

Hyborian Age

Rise of the Hyborians

After the Great Cataclysm, Hyperborea was originally inhabited by the savage snow-apes, until savages led by Bori repelled them into the Icy Wastes. That area became the Hyborian homeland.

Hyperborea the Elder

The Hyperboreans were the first Hyborian tribe to discover stonemasonry, and abandoned their primitive nomadic way to settle. The former nomads crafted huge stone-walled dwellings for themselves. Circa 16,000 BC, they founded their barbaric kindom, which began with a crude fortress of boulders that help them repel tribal attacks.

1500 years after Bori, the Hybori achieved a fairly high culture, and started to conquer and absorb weaker tribes until eventually establishing the first Hyborian kingdom: Hyperborea the Elder.

The Hybori tribes who resisted or rebelled against Hyperborea migrated southwards in an invading horde.

Hyperborea

The first kingdom of Hyperborea was overthrown by another tribe, the Aesir. The Aesir settled in the ruins, married and bred with the survivors and created a new kingdom, which retained the old name.

Lanjau was the furthest southern outpost of the Hyperboreans, but later found itself into Corinthia.

The other Aesir and the Vanir eventually drove out of the snow-countries all the remaining Hyborians except for Hyperborea. Their country was called Nordheim).

Hyperborea suffered imperialistic attacks from Turan.

In the generation before Conan, Hyperboreans tried to subdue Cimmeria, only to be hurled back in their land.

Hyrkanians

Circa 9,500 BC, the Hyrkanians hordes (Hyrkanians and Turanians united under one great chief) stormed the west, sweeping first over Zamora, then Brythunia, Hyperborea, and Corinthia, conquering the kingdom.

After a short age, they were repelled by the Nordic-Nemedians, themselves fleeing the invasion of the Cimmerians and Nordics into Nemedia.

Trojan War's era / Antiquity

Sometime circa 1,300 to 1,100 BC, the Hyperboreans were (o the Greeks and Anatolians) a people of blonds who dwelt "beyond the North wind".

Facts

Fauna

The realm of Hyberborea contained gloomy mountains, desolate hills, and bleak plains. Wolves, cave bears, reindeer, musk oxen, and mammoths roamed the land.

Hyperborean race

The Hyperboreans were lean, and gaunt with pale skin, and white hair. Their most striking features were their unusual height of 7 feet (2,13 meters) and their sparkling cat-like eyes.

Society and politics

Class divisions were rather rigid in Hyperborea. Most commoners were serfs who resided in huts and hovels. They struggled to farm the land and herd cattle in this cold land. The famed stone keeps of Hyperborea were reserved for the ruling class, which mostly consisting of powerful wizards and witches. The local magical organization was the White Hand. The Hyperboreans were led by a priestess-queen, living incarnation of their Goddess of Death.

Though Hyperborean armies seldom ventured far from their borders, the reach of Hyperborea in world affairs was not be underestimated. The rulers trained and employed highly effective assassins, an elite of their age. They took pride in leaving no mark on the bodies of their victims, making their work untraceable. Hyperborean slave raiders plagued the neighboring lands in an effort to provide a cheap labor force for the homeland, resulting in hereditary enmity with various neighbors, including Cimmeria.

Religion

At the time of Conan, the Hyperboreans worshiped the war god Borri, and they were led by a priestess-queen, living incarnation of their Goddess of Death (This statement could be about Vammatar, who was both the queen of Haloga, and a goddess of evil, misfortune, pain and suffering).

The oldest god of the Hyperboreans was the elder god Bardisattva the Very Old, or Bardis, the god of the Coya clan, while despised by the Clan Curgill. The Land of Bardisattva was forbidden to all but the Silent Followers, priests of the Coya.

In a possible version of the Age of Conan, the cult of Sodatha formerly occupied a city later inhabited by wild clans of Hyperboreans united into a legion by a witch queen.

Alternate Realities

Earth-TRN671

The cult of Sodatha formerly occupied a city who was later inhabited by wild clans of Hyperboreans, united into a legion by a witch queen.

Points of Interest

• Haloga
• Icy Wastes
• Lanjau (Formerly; now in Corinthia)
• Pohiola
• Sigtona

Residents

• Queen Vammatar of Haloga

Notes

• Hyperborea was a mythical place in Greek mythology. It was adapted in fiction by Clark Ashton Smith in the series of short stories known as the Hyperborean cycle (1931–58). Some elements were borrowed by H. P. Lovecraft in what later became known as the Cthulhu Mythos. Robert E. Howard also included it in his Conan stories (1932–36). H.P. Lovecraft also included it in his stories.
• Robert E. Howard named his Hyperborea and its people after a namesake land of historic Greek legend. The name literally means "Beyond the North Wind" in ancient Greek, and was the term used for the largely uncharted far north of the world.
• The unusual height of the Hyperboreans is likely based on their description in the works of Aelian, who estimated them to be 6 cubits in height. That would be 3 meters/10 feet.
• In Greco-Roman legends, the kings of the Hyperboreans were the Boreades, descendants of the god Boreas and the nymph Chione. Boreas is a personification of the North Wind and Chione's name translates to "Snow".
• Boreas , the supposed ancestor of the Hyperboreans, is one of the Anemoi (wind gods) of Greek mythology. He is the Greek god of the cold north wind and the bringer of winter. The Romans called him "Aquilo", identifying him with their own god of the North Wind. Boreas' siblings were Zephyrus/Favonius (the West Wind), Notus/Auster (the South Wind, personification of the sirocco), and Eurus/Vulturnus (the East Wind). Their parents were Astraeus (the "starry" one, one of the Titans, and identified as the god of dusk) and Eos/Aurora (the goddess of the dawn).

See Also

• 16 appearance(s) of Hyperborea
• 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Hyperborea
• 2 minor appearance(s) of Hyperborea
• 41 mention(s) of Hyperborea
• 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Hyperborea
• 3 invocation(s) of Hyperborea
• 2 image(s) of Hyperborea
• 2 article(s) related to Hyperborea

Links and References

• Hyperborean at Wikipedia