The Eastern Desert....or is it the Kharamun?

[Supplement Four]

I've always thought the Great Eastern Desert, that separates the Vilayet from the Hyborian kingdoms from the dark south, to be called just that: The Great Desert.

But, in my recent reading, it seems that Conan refers to the large desert as the Kharamun.

Is that the proper name for that desert? The Kharamun Desert?

Or, does the word pertain to something else?

 

[flatscan]

Kharaman Desert

This sandy desert is in the western portions of Turan, between the Vilayet and Zamboula and south of the Eastern Desert. Turanian mercenaries and Zuagir rebels often have skirmishes along the border of Turan and Shem.

Interestingly in the maps that come with the Conan game the Kharaman Desert is shown to be north of the Eastern Desert. :?

 

[Supplement Four]

Kharaman Desert

So, it's too different deserts? Not all one biggie of the same?

And, you've said "Kharaman" while Howard writes "Kharamun".

 

[flatscan]

Typo.

 

[VincentDarlage]

Here is the way I see it:

http://hyboria.xoth.net/maps/vd_eastern_desert.jpg

 

[Supplement Four]

Here is the way I see it:

http://hyboria.xoth.net/maps/vd_eastern_desert.jpg

How long, in your estimation, would it take Conan to ride from Shadizar to Zamboula, on your map? On horseback, not camels.

 

[VincentDarlage]

Here is the way I see it:

http://hyboria.xoth.net/maps/vd_eastern_desert.jpg

How long, in your estimation, would it take Conan to ride from Shadizar to Zamboula, on your map? On horseback, not camels.

Bud and Temple Abernathy rode 4,500 miles from New York to San Francisco in 62 days in 1911. They were aged 11 and 7, and travelled alone.

Let's see - let's put Shadizar at about Mykolaiv's location (in the Ukraine). Zamboula is located about where Tadmur (in Syria; AKA Palmyra) is (judging from the maps in the Ace/Lancer books). That makes the distance about 917.36 miles in a straight line (according to an online calculator; YMMV). Presuming plenty of grain and water for the horse... some seriously rough terrain, maybe 18 days? 20 days? If you have to follow a meandering caravan route between oases, then probably one is approaching 30 days.

I don't know. I am not a travel expert. My family used to raise horses, but we didn't go on nine hundred mile treks. We live in central Indiana, so I also don't have any idea how many miles a horse can cover over rough terrain. I also never rode a horse more than an hour or so at a time. Conan would probably have to go around the Shan-e-Sorkh, which is between Shadizar and Zamboula.

It would take a while. The tough part is food and water for the horse. If you decide to let it graze for food until you reach the desert, that almost doubles the travel time until then because you can only go half as far - the other half of the time the horse is grazing! For a game, though, the time should equal the speed of the plot.

 

[Hervé]

I don't really bother with travel time in my campaign, as REH didn't seem to bother too much about it too. I usually go for things like "a couple of weeks later...".

I don't think the game was made to be played with the approach of "hex by hex" travel, with random encounters and all, like old school D&D was. Game pace should be wild and fast in order to capture Howard's mood and style.

"Full of noise and fury" is what they used to say about REH stories...

 

[Supplement Four]

Presuming plenty of grain and water for the horse... some seriously rough terrain, maybe 18 days? 20 days?

I was just curious as to your estimation. About a month is how long Andrew Offutt thought it would take (in his three Conan books), Conan, atop horse, leading three pack horses, traveling from oasis to oasis and swapping the horse he rides every day.

I was curious if what you were thinking and what he was thinking "jived".

 

[VincentDarlage]

I don't think the game was made to be played with the approach of "hex by hex" travel, with random encounters and all, like old school D&D was. Game pace should be wild and fast in order to capture Howard's mood and style.

That is what I meant when I said "For a game, though, the time should equal the speed of the plot."

I really don't worry about technical considerations like that either.

 

[VincentDarlage]

I was just curious as to your estimation. About a month is how long Andrew Offutt thought it would take (in his three Conan books), Conan, atop horse, leading three pack horses, traveling from oasis to oasis and swapping the horse he rides every day.

I was curious if what you were thinking and what he was thinking "jived".

Apparently it does. I said if one was going from oasis to oasis it would take about 30 days.

Taking three horses helps the horses by not exhausting them, but is somewhat slower (I was always able to go faster from point a to point b on a single horse, but if I had to drag another horse along, it took a little bit longer. I never pulled along two extra horses, though).

Anyway, I hope the map answers your question about the Eastern Desert and the Kharamun desert.

 

[Supplement Four]

Anyway, I hope the map answers your question about the Eastern Desert and the Kharamun desert.

Yessir, it does. It looks to be a southern region of the same desert, just called something else. Just as the Gulf of Mexico has the same water in it as the Atlantic, but it's considered a different body of water.