The Hyborian Age | Page 5

the Atlaians and the hybrid empire of
Zembabwei.

Between Aquilonia and the Pictish wilderness lie the Bossonian
marches, peopled by descendants of an aboriginal race, conquered by a
tribe of Hyborians, early in the first ages of the Hyborian drift. This
mixed people never attained the civilization of the purer Hyborians, and
was pushed by them to the very fringe of the civilized world. The
Bossonians are of medium height and complexion, their eyes brown or
grey, and they are mesocephalic. They live mainly by agriculture, in
large walled villages, and are part of the Aquilonian kingdom. Their
marches extend from the Border kingdom in the north to Zingara in the
southwest, forming a bulwark for Aquilonia against both the
Cimmerians and the Picts. They are stubborn defensive fighters, and
centuries of warfare against northern and western barbarians have
caused them to evolve a type of defense almost impregnable against
direct attack.
Five hundred years laters the Hyborian civilization was swept away. Its
fall was unique in that it was not brought about by internal decay, but
by the growing power of the barbarian nations and the Hyrkanians. The
Hyborian peoples were overthrown while their vigorous culture was in
its prime.
Yet it was Aquilonia's greed which brought about that overthrow,
though indirectly. Wishing to extend their empire, her kings made war
on their neighbors. Zingara, Argos and Ophir were annexed outright,
with the western cities of Shem, which had, with their more eastern
kindred, recently thrown off the yoke of Koth. Koth itself, with
Corinthia and the eastern Shemitish tribes, was forced to pay Aquilonia
tribute and lend aid in wars. An ancient feud had existed between
Aquilonia and Hyperborea, and the latter now marched to meet the
armies of her western rival. The plains of the Border Kingdom were the
scene of a great and savage battle, in which the northern hosts were
utterly defeated, and retreated into their snowy fastnesses, whither the
victorious Aquilonians did not pursue them. Nemedia, which had
successfully resisted the western kingdom for centuries, now drew
Brythunia and Zamora, and secretly, Koth, into an alliance which bade
fair to crush the rising empire. But before their armies could join battle,
a new enemy appeared in the east, as the Hyrkanians made their first

real thrust at the western world. Reinforced by adventurers from east of
Vilayet, the riders of Turan swept over Zamora, devastated eastern
Corinthia, and were met on the plains of Brythunia by the Aquilonians
who defeated them and hurled them flying eastward. But the back of
the alliance was broken, and Nemedia took the defensive in future wars,
aided occasionally by Brythunia and Hyperborea, and, secretly, as
usual, by Koth. This defeat of the Hyrkanians showed the nations the
real power of the western kingdom, whose splendid armies were
augmented by mercenaries, many of them recruited among the alien
Zingarans, and the barbaric Picts and Shemites. Zamora was
reconquered from the Hyrkanians, but the people discovered that they
had merely exchanged an eastern master for a western master.
Aquilonian soldiers were quartered there, not only to protect the
ravaged country, but also to keep the people in subjection. The
Hyrkanians were not convinced; three more invasions burst upon the
Zamorian borders, and the Lands of Shem, and were hurled back by the
Aquilonians, though the Turanian armies grew larger as hordes of
steel-clad riders rode out of the east, skirting the southern extremity of
the inland sea.
But it was in the west that a power was growing destined to throw
down the kings of Aquilonia from their high places. In the north there
was incessant bickering along the Cimmerian borders between the
black- haired warriors and the Nordheimir; and the AEsir, between
wars with the Vanir, assailed Hyperborea and pushed back the frontier,
destroying city after city. The Cimmerians also fought the Picts and
Bossonians impartially, and several times raided into Aquilbnia itself,
but their wars were less invasions than mere plundering forays.
But the Picts were growing amazingly in population and power. By a
strange twist of fate, it was largely due to the efforts of one man, and he
an alien, that they set their feet upon the ways that led to eventual
empire. This man was Arus, a Nemedian priest, a natural-born reformer.
What turned his mind toward the Picts is not certain, but this much is
history--he determined to go into the western wilderness and modify
the rude ways of the heathen by the introduction of the gentle worship
of Mitra. He was not daunted by the grisly tales of what had happened

to traders and explorers before him, and by some whim of fate he came
among the people he sought, alone and unarmed, and was not instantly
speared.
The Picts had benefited by contact with Hyborian