Valusia was a kingdom of Thuria during the Pre-Cataclysmic Era,[citation needed] ruled by King Kull circa 18,500 BC.[citation needed]
It was bordered (clockwise) at west and north by the Western Ocean, at northeast by Thule, at east by Zarfhaana and Kamelia, and at south by Verulia and Farsun (Valusia ruled over the whole of the western coast, with a narrow territory in the mountains at south, bordering Farsun by west).[4]
Prior to human rule, it belonged to the serpent-folk.[1]
It was considered one of the Seven Empires.[5][6][7][8]
History
Elder Days
The Serpent-Men ruled over Valusia.[1]
Pre-Cataclysmic Age
True men, ancestors of the Valusians, came from the East, crossing the Camoonian Desert and the Hills of Zalgara, and conquered Valusia from the serpent-folk. A few of those survived, went into hiding, plotting their way to reclaim their power.[1]
Unnamed king's rule
A legend among the Sea-Mountain Tribe mentioned a Valusian king, ambushed by Atlanteans, slain by Gandaro of the Spear and who turned into a Serpent-Man upon his death.[9]
25,500 BC
Circa 28,500 BC or before[10], in the hills of Zalgara in the middle of summer, an unnamed sorcerer sacrificied seven goats (with Tyre's goat, Devil Butt, last), in the name of the Black Beast of Hell with its Thousand Young, to Yagotha, to make him turn the key holding the Old Ones, intending to have them do his binding. Though the sorcerer was killed, the summoning was a success and an icy horror,[11] Yagotha himself,[12] came to Earth's dimension to prepare the planet for the Old Ones,[11] turning Zalgara into frozen waste,[12] until it was defeated into retreat by a hero whose name was forgotten. Yagotha then turned the key, closing the Gate upon the Old Ones.[11]
19,500 BC: Eallal's rule
A thousand years before Kull, King Eallal ruled over Valusia, until he was found hideously murdered in his throne room, killed by a Serpent-Man.[9]
18,500 BC
Borna's rule
King Borna was a tyrant. Ridondo, Kaanuub, Enaros and Ducalon conspired against him, Ridondo having approached Kull (an Atlantean barbarian that had ascended as commander of the Black Legion), and made him favor Kaanuub as king.
Ridondo then pretended to Kull that he had heard Borna planning to abolish the Black Legion due to the threat it could pose to his power. Kull bought it and went to confront his king. Kull managed to slay Borna, and before Kaanuub could do it, claimed the crown for himself.[13]
Kull's rule
After Kull used the amulet of Ka to restore Gallus' life and accidentally summoned the death in the orchards of Valusia, the king decided to throw off into the sea the magic item, thinking it was never meant for mortal keeping.[14]
Maxmelle, a Valusian knight, was attacked by a horde of savages and inadvertently saved by a shepherd-boy named Sedrick: the grateful knight then took him to the City of Wonders as his new squire.[15]
18,000 BC
Great Cataclysm
The large Pictish colony in the southern mountains survived the Cataclysm, and would form the basis of the Hyborian Age Picts.[16]
Legacy
Due to the statement that the Hyborian Kingdoms of Koth, Ophir, and Corinthia "regained their independence with the fall of the empire" of Acheron, a theory asserted that those three kingdoms may had not been founded by the Hyborians (unlikely to have dominated those kingdoms at the dawn of Acheron), but by refugees from Valusia, Thurania, and Zarfhaana, rebuilding their culture while the Hyborians were still in the Far North.[17]
Facts
Religion
The local population of Serpent-Folk worshiped the dread god Sligguth.[18]
Valka was the god of all gods,[19] worshiped in Valusia by 28,500 BC.[11] Hotath was another frequently invoked god.[20]
The Scorpion God was a near-forgotten god, and by 18,500 BC, its temple fell into ruins,[21] while it was considered as god remembered by children and women in Thuron's mountain city.[19]
The Annunaki were worshiped at least since circa 19,000 BC in Atlantis and Valusia,[22][23] and circa 18,500 BC, Anu was worshiped in the city of Ostium, though seen as a cult by King Kull.[24]
Multiple other cults and worships were witnessed circa 18,500 BC:
- the Black Shadow, material symbol of "the Unnameable One", an evil deity,[25]
- The depraved court and nobles of Kamula, the city of pleasure, secretly worshiped Zugthuu the Slitherer, a god cast into demonic form.[26]
Vramma was a demon[27] and a god[3] frequently invoked,[28][29] though Gonar the Pict stated that Vramma was unknown to most Valusians.[3]
Economics
It was a slavery-based civilized land.[24]
Politics and Laws
Valusia was governed by the King, along with the Royal Court (the king's privy council). The legislative power was held by the Senate.[24]
Points of Interest
- Ostium - Northern sea-port
- Northern Shore - Barony
- Kamula, the City of Pleasure
- City of Wonders ("Valusia", the "City of Crystal") - Capital
- Southern mountains
- Pict colony - Survived the Great Cataclysm
- Mountain city of Thuron, on the outer fringes of Valusia
- Temple of Everlasting Darkness - Altar of the Black Shadow
- Blaal - Barony[30]
- Komahar - province[31]
- Hills of Zalgara - Mountainous land of hills in eastern Valusia, marking the eastern and part of the northern border of Valusia.
- Forbidden Lake[32]
The Camoonian Deserts were a wasteland separating Valusia from Zarfhaana.[33]
Residents
Notes
- Valusia was created by Robert E. Howard in "The Shadow Kingdom", his first King Kull and Cthulhu Mythos story.
See Also
- 93 appearance(s) of Valusia (Kingdom)
- 3 minor appearance(s) of Valusia (Kingdom)
- 41 mention(s) of Valusia (Kingdom)
- 3 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Valusia (Kingdom)
- 2 image(s) of Valusia (Kingdom)
- 11 article(s) related to Valusia (Kingdom)
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Handbook of the Conan Universe #1; Atlantis and the Pre-Cataclysmic Age
- ↑ Savage Sword of Conan #55; Wizard and Warrior
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Conan: The Ravagers Out of Time #1
- ↑ Savage Sword of Conan #14; A Kull Glossary, map
- ↑ Handbook of the Conan Universe #1; Atlantis and the Pre-Cataclysmic Age's entry
- ↑ Savage Sword of Conan #14; A Kull Glossary: Valusia's entry
- ↑ Savage Sword of Conan #14; A Kull Glossary: Seven Empires's entry
- ↑ Savage Sword of Conan #39; A Gazetteer of the Hyborian Age, Part VII: Seven Empires's entry
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Kull the Conqueror #2
- ↑ 10,000 years or more before Kull, see notes
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Kull the Conqueror Vol 3 #4; Kuthulos' Tale
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Conan Saga #97; The Kull Comics Chronology by Fred Blosser: Pirates and Plagues
- ↑ Kull the Conqueror #1
- ↑ Kull the Conqueror Vol 3 #2
- ↑ Conan the Barbarian #12
- ↑ Savage Sword of Conan #38; A Gazetteer of the Hyborian World Part VI, Picts' entry
- ↑ Savage Sword of Conan #33; A Gazetteer of the Hyborian Age, Part IV: Koth's entry
- ↑ Marvel Premiere #4
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Conan the Barbarian #52; The Altar and the Scorpion
- ↑ Savage Sword of Conan #199; The Pit
- ↑ Kull the Conqueror #9
- ↑ All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z: Update #3; Annunaki's entry
- ↑ Thor & Hercules: Encyclopaedia Mythologica #1; The Annunaki's entry
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 Kull the Conqueror Vol 3 #3
- ↑ Savage Sword of Conan #14; A Kull Glossary: Black Shadow's entry
- ↑ Savage Sword of Conan #2; Black Abyss
- ↑ Savage Sword of Conan #14; A King Kull Glossary: Vramma's entry
- ↑ Kull the Destroyer #23
- ↑ Savage Sword of Conan #198; Vengeance in Valusia
- ↑ Savage Sword of Conan #31; A Gazetteer of the Hyborian Age, Part II: Blaal's entry
- ↑ Savage Sword of Conan #35; A Gazetteer of the Hyborian Age, Part IV Komahar's entry
- ↑ Savage Sword of Conan #31; A Gazetteer of the Hyborian Age, Part II: Forbidden Lake's entry
- ↑ Savage Sword of Conan #14; A Kull Glossary: Camoonian Deserts' entry
