Red Slayers (Earth-616)

Red Slayers
Name	Red Slayers
Aliases	The King's Guard
Members
Leader(s)	Formerly Alecto; Captain Hoga; Kelkor; Brule the Spear-Slayer King Kull, King Borna
Former Member(s)	Alecto, Arctorus, Duron, Emandax, Gomar, Captain Hoga, Kelkor, Shanna
Affiliation and Identity
Identity	Public
Origin and Status
Origin	Corps of royal bodyguards
Status	Defunct
Reality	Earth-616
Base of Operations	Valusia, Thuria
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Robert E. Howard, Roy Thomas, Bernie Wrightson
First	Creatures on the Loose #10 (March, 1971)
First	Creatures on the Loose #10 (March, 1971)

The Red Slayers were a corps of royal bodyguards.

History

After King Kull mistakenly released the curse of the tombs of the first true men, a Red Slayer was among the first to succumb to it, entering the king's court maddened and sword drawn, before being stopped by his fellow Red Slayers. Kull looked for a wizard to solve the issue. Red Slayer Emandax offered his wife Ofira's services, hoping to be promoted to captain of the Red Slayers. Ofira tried to seduce Kull, but was spurned and told Emandax Kull had tried to force himself upon her. Furious, Emandax rallied Red Slayers around him, intending to slay Kull during the upcoming battle against Varicus of Zarfhaana. Ragmar, the court poet of Zarfhaana sentenced to death by Varicus but who was offered asylum by Kull (thus causing war between Valusia and Zarfhaana), slew the Red Slayer who guarded the royal treasury chamber he stumbled upon in the Palace. Ragmar was soon avenged by Kull. During the battle, Emandax launched the signal and first targeted Brule, who slew him. The battle initially went badly for the Valusians after Ofira, now in service of Varicus, casted a spell to turn the Zarfhaanan into powerful elk-men, but the Valusians prevailed after Sen-Dor disrupted the spell.

Ranking

The Red Slayers, as well as other branches of the Valusian forces, seemingly used "general" and "commander" indistinctively.

Notes

• The Red Slayers were created by Robert E. Howard in "The Shadow Kingdom", "The Skull of Silence", "Riders beyond the Sunrise", and other Kull stories.
• In Kull the Conqueror #9 and Kull the Conqueror (Vol. 3) #7, the recaps erroneously states that Kull was the leader of the Red Slayers, rather than the commander of the Black Legion.

See Also

• 36 appearance(s) of Red Slayers (Earth-616)
• 2 minor appearance(s) of Red Slayers (Earth-616)
• 5 mention(s) of Red Slayers (Earth-616)
• 3 image(s) of Red Slayers (Earth-616)
• 7 member(s) of Red Slayers (Earth-616)