[CONAN] CONAN The Rebel

[Supplement Four]

I just started Poul Anderson's Conan The Rebel, and I'm really digging it. Though, it's rough stuff. Gritty. It's a tale of Conan and Belit. The she-pirate tells Conan of her path to being the Queen of the Black Coast.

Though originally from Shem, Belit lived with her father and mother, brother, and husband among the Suba in the Black Kingdoms. Stygian slavers appeared one day. An arrow took her father. Her brother was captured for slave merchandise. Belit, with her husband, mother, and 3 month old son, ran for the forest, but they didn't make it. Her mother was too old to run fast enough to get away. She took her own life in the reeds before reaching the forest.

Belit and her husband ran. But, this did them no good. Four slavers chased them, and a sling bullet blew out the back of Belit's husband's head.

This is when Belit stopped. She took her newborn child and fed him from her breast. Then, as the slavers approached, she stuck a spear through her son's small body, granting him freedom. The four slavers overtook her, then, and they raped her in the reeds next to the dead bodies of her son and husband.

Damn, man! That's harsh!

Belit is really an interesting, complicated character, and I love what Poul is adding to the character.

 

[Supplement Four]

I'm about to finish the book (I've been reading the Chronicles of Conan a lot, too), and I do think it is a good Conan yarn.

A few things I like about the book....

1. It's one of the few looks into Stygia, and I think Poul Anderson did a great job of making that peek fit perfectly with what has already been established with the Hyborian Age. Stygia feels like it should.

2. I also like how Anderson reveals Stygia to be a living, breathing place, rather than just the static home of the badguys. Stygia has it's own internal troubles, such as the Taian Rebellion. Conan explores both Khemi and Luxor, and both cities feel different. Khemi, for instance, doesn't allow foreigners to move about the city freely at night. Even during the day, it's best to go straight to a destination or stay on your merchant vessel. I think the developers of the Age of Conan MMO got the look of the place spot-on. That's exactly what I saw in my head when reading the pages (except for the foreigners, all the snakes, and the mages displaying magic all over the place--that's more MMO than what I read in the book).

Stygia doesn't have a strong navy--probably relies overmuch on the power of the kingdom's mages. And, sorcerery has a range not extending that far off the coast.

The dynamic between the kingdom's king and the mages of the Black Circle is interesting as well.

3. The priestesshood of Derketa. Man, this religion really caught my interest. I remember reading in Frank Herbert's Dune series about the Honored Matres and how their troops were bound to their leaders because the individual troops were in deep love with their female leaders. Have you ever been so in love with someone that it hurts? That you'd do anything for them. It's a strange state that we sometimes get into. Just ask that astronaut woman who drove from Houston to Floriday a few years ago wearing diapers so that she would have to stop less often in order to intimidate and warn off her romantic rival. It's a crazy kind of love that we sometimes fall into. My friends and I have a name for it. We call it "The Horror" (which is a sort of take off from Apocolypse Now).

Well, Anderson gives a similar power to the Derketan priestesses. They're able to make a man fall in extreme, crazy love with them to the point which the victim will do anything for the object of his desire.

I've thought the notion was amazing since I read it in the Dune books. To see it here, in a swords & sorcerery setting, is a treat.


4. I'm not finished with the book yet, but the climax is visually amazing. I can picture it on the big screen. Conan leads a hundred warriors to Pteion, a city that, ages agon, has been abandoned by the living. It is a city of the dead.

A huge sand storm hits just as Conan and his troops reach the city. It's so bad that the sun is blocked out. And...there are....creatures....movements...shadows....in the sand. The dead walk from the cover of the storm to engage Conan and his men. Two giant armies battle, in this thick sand storm. One alive. One dead.

Very cool.

 

[Supplement Four]

Finished. I really liked this book. I found it very visual. I think it would make a great Conan film: The exotic setting of Stygia; the machinations of Kings, Priests, and Black Ring Sorcerors; The eternal battle between Set and Mitra.

Armies clash. Rebels fight for freedom in a dark land of slavery, dust, and snakes. And, there is a prophecy, that a man would come and lead them to victory!

There are lots of elements in the book that would easily lend themselves to depiction on the big screen. Pteion, the City of the Dead. A winged ship, not unlike the winged camel that appears in Black Colossus. A great Ax, created in antiquity, that can only be wielded by Mitra's hero.

Another thing that was neat: This book explains how Conan came to be called "Amra."

And, if you've played the Age of Conan MMO, then you might be pleased to hear that the character Sakumbe makes an appearance (Captain Sakumbe, the slaver, in the MMO).

It's good stuff.





From a roleplaying point of view, this book could easily make the basis for a story arc in a game. I like the whole bit about us humans being the pawns of the gods. One or more of the PCs could have a "destiny" that sets the story in motion (read the book--you'll understand). I'd start the game in Khemi at the Keep of the Manticore. You could have your game where there is one Conan-ish hero with a destiny while the other players take on the roles of the NPCs Jehanan (Belit's brother), Falco, and Daris. Or, you could easily use the book as a base but change the story a bit and the characters--maybe the lot of them, together, have a destiny.

Because the PCs will start the game captured (starting the mini-campaign in medias res), they can come from all sorts of backgrounds. Even in the book, there was Conan, a Cimmerian, of course. Jehanan, a long term Stygian slave, orginally from Shem. Daris, of the Mitra worshipping ethnic Hyborians who setteled the Taian Provence of Stygia before Stygia came into existence. And, Falco of Kirjahan in Ophir.

The story makes for a great first adventure, bringing new PCs together for the first time. A good GM can make each PC special by tying them into the story. One PC will have a destiny akin to Conan's in the book, chosen by Mitra to be his hero against Set. Another PC might be tied to the Taian rebellion like the Daris character. And so on.

A typical mini-campaign would start at the Keep of the Manticore, where the PCs all meet each other. Then the story follows them as they break out, steal the winged boat, and make their way east to the Taian provence where they recover the Axe of Varanghi from the undead at Pteion. Then, climax the mini-campaign with the huge battle at Rasht.

The GM can be as linear and story-driven as he likes, either keeping to the progression as told in the novel, or using the novel as a spring board for a setting in which the players end up telling a much different story. Keyed events or random encounter charts--it's up to the GM.

And, there are lots of interesting characters to flesh out should the GM wish to expand his story and campaign beyond the novel.



Tothapis, leader of the Black Ring of Stygian sorcerors. He's been alive for hundreds of years.

Ramwas, Stygian nobleman.

Nehekba, High Priestess of Derketa

Shuat, Stygian commander of the governor's milita in the Province of Taia.

Ausar, Taian clan chieftain.

Parasan, Taian Priest of Mitra.

Mentuphera, King of Stygia

Ctesphon, Crown Prince of Stygia

And many others....



My copy of Conan The Rebel even has a fairly detailed map of Stygia and the surrounding areas--something handy for a Conan RPG GM. And, there are some interesting magics and creatures that the GM can spring on the players--something that they've never seen before.

An enterprising GM could take the book and make an entire campaign--or campaign sandbox--that will last years, all set in Stygia and the surrounding areas.

There's a lot to work with, here.