Conan is a Cimmerian (based somewhat loosely on the Celts), a barbarian of the far north. One of his grandfathers, however, came from a southern tribe. He was born on a battlefield and is the son of a village blacksmith. Conan matured quickly as a youth and, by age fifteen, he was already a respected warrior who had participated in the destruction of the Aquilonian outpost of Venarium. After its destruction, he was struck by wanderlust and began the adventures chronicled by Howard, encountering skulking monsters, evil wizards, tavern wenches, and beautiful princesses. He roamed throughout the Hyborian Age nations as a thief, outlaw, mercenary and pirate. As he grew older, he began commanding larger units of men and escalating his ambitions. In his forties, he seized the crown of the tyrannical king of Aquilonia, the most powerful kingdom of the Hyborian Age, having strangled the previous ruler on the steps of the throne. Conan's adventures often result in him performing heroic feats, though his motivation for doing so is largely for his own survival or for personal gain

Mitra is the most common god worshiped in Hyboria, and is the chief deity in almost all Hyborian kingdoms, including Aquilonia, Ophir, Nemedia, Brythunia, Corinthia, and even Zingara.
alt Typical household shrine to Mitra.

The worship of Mitra is a monotheistic one. There are a host of saints, but there must be no other God than Mitra. His followers are fervently suspicious towards other Gods and religions, especially the worship of Set and of the Pictish animal Gods.

As opposed to Crom and Set, Mitra is a kind God, although he holds his followers to high standards. The theology is based on justice and a very strong sense of right and wrong. His followers are expected to strive for justice and are encouraged to forgive.

There is a huge clergy associated with the worship of Mitra, and one can find temples in his honor everywhere his influence is spread, Nemedia is home to the most devoted of Mitra's servants. Mitra's temples are conspicuously free of ornamentation. They are supposed to reflect the pious and ascetic ideal he holds over his subjects. Mitra doesn't need precious metals and elaborate ornaments in his honor. He wants dedication and prayer, not superfluous sacrifice; and he abhors the ritual of human sacrifice prevalent in many other Hyborian religions.
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Mitra's name was recognized by Xaltotun, an Acheronian who lived around 13000 BC. Mitraism's real ascendancy probably began about 1400 years after Acheron's empire fall, when the Hyborian lands were once again menaced by the shadow of Set, and were largely saved through the efforts of the Mitraic prophet-hero Epemetrius the Sage. One of the earliest nations to embrace Mitra was Koth, around 11000 BC.

Today, the deity Mitra emerged as one of the most popular gods, receiving worship from peoples in the kingdoms of Aquilonia, Argos, Corinthia, Nemedia, Ophir, and Zingara; in fact south of Nordheim and Cimmeria, Mitra worship was almost universal. It was rivaled here and there only by little cults of such as that of Asura, Ibis, Ishtar, and even, to some degree, Set. That last deity was also Mitra's sworn enemy, as Mitra intervened in human affairs often to protect his own worshippers and humanity in general from Set's foul designs.

Some Mitraists are unique in having an unflinchingly monotheistic devotion to Mitra. While most people follow a type of henotheism, in which they acknowledged the existence of gods that they chose not to worship, some Mitraists held Mitra as the only god in existence. Not unexpectedly, this exclusivist view of Mitra produced intolerance of other religions at times.

Ostensibly Mitra is a gentle god in contrast to Northern warrior gods such as Crom, Borri, Ymir etc and supposedly taught mercy over vengeance. However, despite this, Mitra does banish people to a hell dimension for punishment, for as mankind's eternal judge, Mitra decided final assignment of souls to either there or a heaven world as a reward. Mitraic sorteriology preached salvation based on works, i.e. a person's life on Earth is judged based on his deeds in his or her life. Mitra, known to be attended to by a host of saints and angels, presumably dwelled in this heaven dimension.

Blood sacrifice is explicitly excluded from the Mitraic religion, the rituals of which have much simplicity, dignity, and beauty. As opposed to the case of the idols of non-Mitraic religions, the statues of Mitra serves only as emblems intended to represent the god in idealized form and not to be worshipped themselves.

Ishtar, the ancient Mother Goddess, is worshipped in rich temples and at lavish shrines with rituals of blood sacrifice and orgiastic frenzy performed before sensuously carved idols of ivory.

For those who serve her, Ishtar bestows bountiful harvests and many children in exchange for sacrifice. The voluptous temple prostitutes which are found in Ishtar's temples are well known even outside the lands where the goddess is worshipped.

Ishtar is worshipped in Shem, Ophir, Argos, Koth, Khoraja, Khauran and Zamora, and has small cults elsewhere. She is also known under such diverse names as Ishnigarrab, Shupnikkurat and Shub-Niggurath.

Unlike Mitra worship, which uses the altar only as a focus, Shemites believe that their gods actually inhabit their omnipresent brass idols. These idols are caricatures: the swollen breasts and belly of Ishtar appear repulsive to the more refined worshippers of Mitra.

Ishtar can take any form, male and female, although she is most likely to appear as a young, voluptous woman dressed in white robes, wearing a golden crown. Birth of hideously deformed children, as well as drought, are regarded as bad omens from Ishtar.

Ishtar has both male and female priests. Their ceremonies include the blood sacrifice of animals.

Crom is the head of the Cimmerian pantheon of cruel gods, sending forth dooms and death from his seat on the great mountain of Mount Crom, or Ben Morgh, the holiest place in Cimmeria.

To pray to Crom is a pointless task, as it will only invoke his anger. Prayer is a sign of weakness, and Crom has little patience for the weak. Cimmerians prefer to not attract his attention, and if his name is muttered, it is invariably in the form of an oath or a curse.

Nominally, every Cimmerian is a follower of Crom, but there is no established clergy devoted to him, he doesn't inspire any rituals, and the people bid him no sacrifice besides using the strength he granted them to take what they want from life and to cleave the skulls of their enemies.

Crom does not send avatars into the world to meddle with the affairs of men. Some claim that the voice of Crom can be heard in the harsh winter winds of Cimmeria.

Crom does not care to share his divine power with mortals. It is enough that he breathes life into mortals when they are born.

Set, the Old Serpent, is Ibis's arch-enemy, and the ancient god revered and worshipped mainly in Stygia, and is known and worshipped as Damballah in the Black Kingdoms.

He is a cruel, jealous god who demands constant sacrifice from his subjects, and his priests are only too willing to comply as they bring naked virgins screaming to his altar to appease his blood-lust. In Stygia the snake is holy and to kill a snake is a mortal sin--as King Conan himself once found out when adventuring in Stygia. If a snake slithers into the cities or to the streets, Set's subjects will lay prostrate before him, hoping to be found worthy of his bite.

His priests are almost as frightening as the god himself, and they terrify their own people almost as much as they terrify their enemies. Stygia is a theocracy, and the mad and corrupt clergy run the country on fear and wonder, as well as an indiscriminate willingness to sacrifice their own people.

A god of thieves worshipped in Zamora. His name is used to identify other thieves. "In the name of Bel!"

Bel, god of thieves, appears in some versions of the Shemitish myth-cycle, and his rather peripheral episodes are thought to be later additions to the myth.

Bel is worshipped, however; the Zuagir nomads and the thieves of Asgalun point to his exploits to prove that their nefarious acts are blessed by the gods.

According to legend, in the time of the Elder Gods, Bel used his dark powers to conjure up an army of undead thieves, with which to plunder the wealth of all nations. In desperation, the people of Shem called on the goddess Ashtoreth for help. In the ensuing battle, the goddess severed Bel's sixth arm. Thereafter, Bel was driven into exile in present-day Zamora.

None has ever seen the face of Bel, as befits a god of thieves, though several idols and amulets depict him variously as a stocky dwarf with a grinning face, a six-armed elephant-man, and a lithe, pantherish human wearing a black mask. Bel is worshipped, or at least paid lip service, by all who "earn" their living as thieves, outlaws and beggars.

The priesthood of Bel is independent in each major city or region, to prevent the frequent actions against one thieves' guild or temple from spilling over and affecting others. In areas with a single strong thieves' guild, the temple or shrine to Bel is usually connected to the guild hall via underground tunnels. In large cities with competing guilds, such as Arenjun, the temple is in an underground location and is recognized as neutral ground by all sides.

Erlik, also known as the Flame-Lord, is a god of northern Hyrkania. Long ago, the prophet known as Living Tarim brought Erlik worship to a group of Hyrkanian tribes who, with the strength of their religious fervor, swept down and founded the Turanian Empire. Erlik is a harsh god who believes in tempering the soul through trials and deprivation. However, most of his priests do not take these things to heart.

The Hyrkanian god Erlik is a figure shrouded in mystery and legend. Even though he is the supreme deity of the Hyrkanians and their younger kin, the Turanians, very little is known about Erlik.

According to Hyrkanian myth, Erlik was the first man on earth, but he was not given a soul by the Creator. When Erlik tried to create life by himself, he was banished into the depths of the earth, where he claims the dead ("those that lack breath") for his own.

Erlik is also known under the title "the God of the Yellow Hand of Death".

Erlik would be a minor god were it not for the prophet known as Living Tarim. Tarim brought Erlik worship from a remote region known as Pathenia to a group of Hyrkanian tribes who, with the strength of their religious fervor, swept down and founded the Turanian empire.

Erlik is a harsh god, who believes in the tempering of the soul through trials and deprivation. His tenets, as revealed by Tarim, forbid fornication, the consumption of alcohol and usury. However, even most of his priests ignore these precepts.

Erlik's avatar is the Living Tarim. The avatar appears as a human form whose face and features are cloaked by a hooded robe. It is said that he sits on a throne in the inner sanctum of Erlik's domed temple in Aghrapur.

Idols of Tarim depict him as a one-armed male.

Clerics of Erlik (and Living Tarim) who follow the strict codes of the Revelations of Tarim are able to master terrible necromancy. Among their powers is the ability to sink into the earth and command undead. Priests of Erlik must always be male.

The Nordheim worship Ymir, the Frost Giant, Lord of Storm and War, who lives (according to legend), in Valhalla, his castle far in northern Vanaheim. According to Nordheimr shamans, the souls of warriors who fall in battle go to Valhalla to feast and fight forever. This belief makes Nordheimr warriors terribly fierce in battle, and they often fight with no regard for their own safety.

Hyborian god. He is worshipped in secrecy in Aquilonia during the Hyborian era. Rivaled by the god Mitra and the Stygian serpent-god Set, and only worshiped by a small number of devoted servants.

Most Vendhyans worship Asura. He teaches that life is illusory and the only final truth comes after death, in the light of the soul. The cult will devote itself to "penetrating the veil of illusion of life".

According to his priests, Asura has no true form, but is a part of all cosmos. When the god wishes to send messages to his followers, he does so by the reincarnation-birth of an exceptional mortal.

Asura's doctrines reveal that all beings reincarnate, and that the purpose of life is the paying of the karmic debt against the soul. Each evil act extends the cycle of reincarnation; each good act shortens it. The people who suffer earned their trials in previous lives; they are not to be pitied.

Some priests of Asura wander the land as beggar-priests, while others are members of the upper caste of Vendhyan society, the Brahma are scholars and rulers. Everyone participates in rituals of meditation and purification, including ritual baths in the holy rivers of Vendhya.

The priests command the lowest caste, the Untouchables. During cremation ceremonies, where the dead are burned to dust on great funereal pyres, their ashes are blessed and spread on the winds. Anyone not properly cremated may wander the earth as undead.

One "civilized" animal cult is that of Hanuman the ape-god, worshipped in Zamboula. Hanuman's priests are feared rather than loved, but worship of the ape-god is still supreme in Zamboula (much to the chagrin of the rival priests of Set and Erlik).

Hanuman's temple stands alone in the midst of a broad, marble-paved square in Zamboula, surrounded by a marble wall. The great bronze doors of the temple have stood open for centuries. In the day men and women come timidly into the shrine and place offerings to the ape-god on the black altar, but at night the people shun the temple of Hanuman as hares shun the lair of a serpent.

Hanuman worship is thought to have come from Vendhya. The dark ape-god is probably worshipped in Kosala and other remote parts of the East as well.

Hanuman is not known to manifest, but his idol is regularly appeased with human sacrifice. Although the statue of the ape-god is made from black marble, those who touch it quickly recoil from it, for the stone has the cold and sleek feel of a reptile.

Hanuman has few, but powerful priests, who practice human sacrifice. One unusual ritual of the cult is the Dance of the Cobras, in which a young girl is made to dance between four live cobras, dodging their venomous fangs until, inevitably, she tires and falls to her death.

The current high priest of Hanuman in Zamboula is Totrasmek, who is reputedly a mongrel -- probably part Hyborian, part Shemite. He plays a very active part in the politics of Zamboula, having spun his slimy webs of power throughout the city for years.