Well, here's the next part of this history...
The Great Cataclysm
-c. 99,000 B.C.: The actual triggering mechanism behind the event regarded as the Great Cataclysm is unknown. Howard describes all manners of calamities and types of destruction in his various stories. The world-wide picture is one of tremendous seismic activity. In some areas continental landmasses, in whole and in part, are inundated and sink beneath sea level. In other regions the sea-floor is uplifted to become entirely new continents, with island chains transforming into mountain ranges. The planet’s axial tilt seems to have become almost non-existent; the post-cataclysmic world is much warmer at high latitudes. The changes to our planet are quite drastic.
The Thurian continent is devastated; large parts of the continent, including huge chunks of Valusia, disappear beneath the waves. The continent is completely transformed; thick jungles cover the plains, towering mountain ranges form, new rivers cut their way seaward and fertile valleys that used to hold now-dead cities drown beneath newly formed lakes. The western portion of the continent is separated from the eastern regions by a chain of vast lakes. Changing conditions create strange forms of plant and animal life.
Atlantis sinks, leaving behind only a few scattered, uninhabitable islands. Refugee ships from the inundated land flee to the east and increase the numbers surviving on the mainland Atlantean kingdom.
The Sunset Isles are raised up to become the western mountains of a new continent. These mountains are volcanic, and this volcanism lays waste to the Pictish population that survives the uplift. The Isles of the Sea are uplifted to become the mountainous backbone of a vast, southern continent.
The vast archipelago of Lemuria is inundated, leaving behind only a great, mountainous island surrounded by a number of smaller islets.
Millions die when continental Mu is rent asunder and its twenty great cities vanish beneath the waves, leaving only the crags of the Valla mountain range above water.
The lands surrounding the city of the winged men are altered; growing into dank jungle. Reasons inexplicable to mankind keep the city’s inhabitants from migrating to better surroundings.
The only known nations to survive the Cataclysm relatively unscathed are on the Thurian continent; pre-human Stygia in the South and the colony of Mu in the East.
The Post-cataclysmic World Age
-c. 99,000 B.C.: [Post-Great Cataclysm]: The Thurian continent continues to experience earth tremors and volcanism following the Cataclysm. In the northwestern part of the continent, a tribe of stone-age savages has fled northward toward the now-warm polar regions to escape the noxious volcanism. They encounter a species of hardy snow-ape that they forcibly drive above the Arctic Circle to perish. The snow-apes, for their part, thrive in their new environment. Farther south, the Atlanteans are hurled back into a Stone-age existence, due to constant warfare with barbaric refugees and strange creatures. To their south, the eastern Pictish colony has fared no better. Eventually the two stone-age nations come into contact and begin a series of bloody wars. Off to the east, a remnant of a non-Thurian race called the Zhemri dwells amid the region’s low mountains.
To the far south, lies the nation of Stygia (the Elder). Its destiny, at the present time, is still pre-human. The nation re-enters the world-scene when Set, the Old Serpent, the god of Stygia, decides to re-energize his fading kingdom. His serpent-men, for the most part, have passed from the world, so Set assumes the form of a man and undertakes the creation of a new race to worship him. Since he takes the form of a man it's reasonable to assume that the race he is trying to mate with is human as well. His efforts result in the creation of the "Sons of Set"; huge serpents with human-featured faces.
To the west, on the nameless northern (American) continent, incessant volcanism has turned the fertile lands of the former islands into an inhospitable desert. The remnant Pictish population travels eastward and discovers that they have to contend with fierce beasts and a race of ferocious, Neanderthal-like ape-men. These creatures are refugees from the easternmost, wilderness parts of the Sunset Isles. The western Picts are sufficient in strength and number to drive the ape-men before them. They eventually discover a rich fertile region of broad plains, where they settle for many centuries.
The surviving city of Na-hor on the remnant island of Mu begins to rebuild itself into a center of higher knowledge.
-c. 98,500 B.C.: The Atlantean and Pictish wars have culminated with the Atlantean nation dissolving into a number of Stone-age tribes and the eastern Picts retaining a loose sense of national identity. They continue to wage war with each other, albeit on a lesser scale. Here and there about the world are scattered tribes of apish savages, ignorant about the rise and fall of the previous great civilizations.
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At this point I would be remiss, if I didn’t mention that this part of the history completely breaks with what Howard wrote in his essay The Hyborian Age. This is due, in part, to the fact that Howard inserts a great deal of both evolution and de-evolution into the history at this point. Evolution on the scale that Howard describes it does not take place over a mere 500 years, but instead takes thousands, if not millions of years to accomplish. Howard recognizes this fact in Rogues in the House when he states that man-ape Thak may become human within a hundred thousand years. Since nearly all of his human evolution takes place around this 500 year time period, it only makes sense that this period of his history is the part that needs to reflect change. What follows is a list of all of the races that evolve or devolve during this time period.
The Stone-Age tribes of Atlanteans have devolved into wandering bands of ape-men, without human speech, and the ability to make fire and use tools. [According to Howard, this had happened within 1,000 years of the Lesser Cataclysm] They then turned it around and evolved into the Cimmerian race. [2,000 years after the L.C., according to “The Hyborian Age”]
The snow-apes evolve into the Nordheimer race. [3,000 years after being driven beyond the Arctic Circle]
The Lemurians evolve to become more human-looking; they are a swart, strange race of short, broad men with strange-looking eyes.
A new race evolves on a group of islands off the coast of the southern (American) continent. They are a race of red-headed giants; cave-dwelling artists. This is the Cro-Magnon race, although the western Picts call them Atlanteans.
By implication, the black African race evolves during this time, since no humans are seen around the city of the Winged Ones until Stygians show up during the Hyborian Age. The first black men to visit the city appear somewhat later in the narrative. Frankly, Howard portrays his black race as being primitive savages, so they haven’t been evolved all that long.
The unknown race of giants in “The Pool of the Black Ones” most likely evolved on an island group in the Atlantic during this time as there is no mention of anyone like that during the Thurian Age.
In the region of the northern (American) continent that will one day be known as “west Texas”, a new human race is in the process of evolving during this period. Outwardly they appear mostly human, but they have developed curiously peaked skulls and their feet and hands aren’t quite the normal style. They worship some type of serpent-god.
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Other events occur during this “post-cataclysmic” world age.
In the land of Stygia (the Elder), The “Sons of Set” have conquered and now rule the known world. Unfortunately, even though these creatures are practically immortal; they would eventually fall to sleep for incredibly long periods of time. It is my contention that these "Sons of Set" would perform the same rituals that their father did and also mate with humans. Think about it like this: genetically these creatures should be nearly 100% human, since Set had taken human form. They only looked like snakes due to the "divine aspects" of their nature. As the "Sons of Set" mated with humans, they would also have genetically human offspring; however the spark of "divinity" within them would have been diluted, making their offspring a more human-looking version of a snake. These offspring were the Giant-Kings of Old Stygia mentioned in The God in the Bowl. Further mating between humans and the Giant-Kings would produce the white-skinned Stygian race that populated Old Stygia and Acheron; the race whose blood carried a demonic taint. All of this happened between the Greater and Lesser Cataclysms
Over the passing centuries, remnants of the people of Xultha would periodically leave the island of Mu to colonize lands to the south (?), west, east, and north. They settle on islands and discover strange new continents hurled up from out of the deep during the Great Cataclysm. The members of one of the fleets leaving Mu at this time are the ancestors of the people that found the time-lost nation of the Khemuri.
The Lemurian islands are left geologically unstable after by the Great Cataclysm and its inhabitants begin to migrate to the more stable parts of the world surrounding them. The west coast of the northern (American) continent becomes the prime location for Lemurian relocation. The Lemurians of this age know very little about cultivation and craft, but they do possess strange knowledge of curious architecture. From the western Picts, they learn how to make implements of polished obsidian, jade, and argillite.
A unnamed nation arises in the Thurian continent on the southern end of the chain of vast lakes. The race is Lemurian in origin, and they are famed for building great circular cities of green stone. They are mental giants and amass a staggering amount of knowledge, both scientific and magical. They presumably fight several inconclusive wars with Stygia (the Elder). [If I were to put a name to this nation it would be Xuthalla.]
The time-lost nation of the Khemuri arises along the southern shore of the northern (American) continent. At its height, it girdles the entire gulf from west to east.
After some passage of time, the people of Mu are no longer able to colonize the lands to their north due to a savage (presumably Lemurian) race of sea-roving people that destroy their fleets. The last inhabitants in Na-hor live in idleness and ease.
- c. approximately 38,500 B.C.: Seismic instability inundates much of the Lemurian archipelago, and a large portion of the population flee by boat to the eastern coast of the Thurian (Eur-Asian) continent. This is presumably due to the fleet-destroying sea-people that infest the seas to the east. The refugees are enslaved by the ancient race that already dwells there and their history, for thousands of years, is one of brutal servitude.
The Lesser Cataclysm
- c. approximately 37,500 B.C.: [The Lesser Cataclysm]: New lands rise from the deep and sink into the deep; the attendant earthquakes, floods, and volcanoes add to the misery of the world.. The destruction of the world isn’t nearly as severe as the Great Cataclysm. Unfortunately the warm world of the post-cataclysmic age has come to an end. The stage has been set for the beginning of the next Ice Age. The planet has seen a number of geological changes.
The original Thurian continent is altered once again; the most noticeable change is that a great inland sea has formed at the site of the former chain of lakes, further separating the East from the West.
The jungle-lands surrounding the city of the winged men are convulsed by earthquakes, and spouting volcanoes fringe the horizon with lurid, red pillars of fire. An earthquake shakes down the walls and highest towers of the city. The quake causes the river supporting the city to run black for several days with some lethal substance; over time it causes a frightful chemical change in the city’s inhabitants.
Lemuria is completely destroyed; reduced to a single swampy, uninhabited islet.
The small island archipelago of Mu is likewise reduced to a single island. The city of Na-hor, however, survives.
On the northern (American) continent, eastern regions of the nation of the Khemuri subside into the sea, as well as the southern parts of the isthmus connecting the northern and southern (American) continents.
Next: Acheron and the Hyborian Age...
