Shamballah

Shamballah
Name	Shamballah, the The City of Skulls (Hyborian Age)
Location Details
Reality	Earth-616, , Earth-12591, Earth-80179
Galaxy	Milky Way
Star System	Sol
Planet	Earth
Continent	Asia ; formerly Hyboria
Country	China ; formerly Meru
State	Tibet
Region	Himalayas
Creators and Appearances
Creators	L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter, Roy Thomas, Mike Vosburg
First	Savage Sword of Conan #36 (October, 1978) (Mentioned in Meru's entry) Savage Sword of Conan #49 (December, 1979) (Mentioned in-universe) Savage Sword of Conan #59 (September, 1980)
First	Savage Sword of Conan #36 (October, 1978) (Mentioned in Meru's entry) Savage Sword of Conan #49 (December, 1979) (Mentioned in-universe) Savage Sword of Conan #59 (September, 1980)

History

Hyborian Age

During the Hyborian Age, the capital of Meru (which would be known as Tibet later) was known as Shamballah, the City of Skulls, ruled by a rinpoche (god-king) Its palace resembled a huge cone made of skull. It faced west on the the Sumero Tso. Shamballah was one of the Seven Sacred Cities of Meru.

Guchupta of Shamballah wrote a tome about the secret of eternal life. Thulandra Thuu, wizard and counselor of King Numedides of Aquilonia, acquired the volume and deemed it useless, stating that Guchupta didn't really knew anything on the subject.

Meru later became the cold wasteland known as Tibet.

Alternate realities

Earth-12591

Shambala was a city in Tibet, where the Dark Lama practiced the "more malignant" if the Zen arts.

In the last days of World War II, the Nazis were in disarray. A last desperate attempt was made at blood unity with the Norse Gods, the forebears of the Aryans. In order to reach Asgard, Baron von Strucker led an expedition to Tibet, the top of the world, searching for the Rainbow Bridge in vain. In Shambala, he met with the Dark Lama (In truth, a disguised Loki), who offered him the Death Spore Flower, plucked from the fields of Hel and fertilized with the remains of Pagan gods. Strucker and the Lama returned to Berlin, and gave the Flower to Adolf Hitler, thus starting a Zombie outbreak on their world.

Earth-80179

Shamballah existed as part of a markedly divergent version of events in this reality.

Residents

• Guchupta of Shamballah

Notes

• Doctor Strange was transported to the unrelated realm of Shamballa
• The unrelated city, Shumballa, located in Kush, was invented by Conan creator, Robert E. Howard.
• Shamballah, City of Skulls, was created in "The City of Skulls" (1968), by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, adapted in Savage Sword of Conan #59 (written by Roy Thomas and penciled by Mike Vosburg), though apart from the Marvel Conan chronology (see the issue's page for more detail).
• The unrelated, Shangri-La, created by British author James Hilton in the novel Lost Horizon (1933), is often considered to be inspired by Shambhala, alternatively spelled as Shambala/Shamballa, a mythical kingdom in Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Marvel Comics' first adapted Shangri-La in "The Vision's Secret" (Marvel Mystery Comics #45; July, 1943) written and penciled by unknown authors. Shambhala was later introduced into the Cthulhu Mythos.

See Also

• 2 appearance(s) of Shamballah
• 3 mention(s) of Shamballah
• 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Shamballah
• 1 image(s) of Shamballah

Links and References

• Shamballah on Wikipedia.org
• "The City of Skulls" by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter via conan.fandom.com