What's up with Kosala?

[librarycharlie]

Perhaps my eyesight is failing me, but I can't seem to find any trace of the nation of Kosala (the little dangle next to Vendhya's big dangle) in the main book. It's not under Vendhya, Himelia, Kosala, nor is it in the index.

My adventurers are likely to go through here this week and I have no idea what the people believe, dress like, or anything else. We're still playing Atlantean edition for page references and such.

I can pull something from my bum, but any canonical-conanical input is appreciated!

 

[VincentDarlage]

Kosala lies to the east of Vendhya and south of the Himelian Mountains. In Shadows in Zamboula by Robert E. Howard, Baal-pteor describes a strong, brown people who worship Yajur by ritualized human sacrifice accomplished by strangling.

In Red Nails, also by Howard, Conan says the Kosalan people look similar to the Vendhyans, slender, olive-skinned humans with finely chiselled features who appreciate dancing, feasting and love-making. The original people of Old Kosala were of the latter type, having Lemurian origins. Powerful necromancers, they loved peace.

Kosala was later invaded by the brown-skinned people from the southern jungles. This invasion was the impetus for a group of Old Kosalans to leave the area and found Xuchotl in the Black Kingdoms (Red Nails).

If you know nothing about them, why are you taking the adventurers through there? Or you can skip ahead a few weeks and tell them they were there, but it is an unrecorded adventure (or nothing happened at all but some tourism).

Anyway, you can find maps with Kosala here:
http://hyboria.xoth.net/maps/vd_vendhya1.jpg
http://hyboria.xoth.net/maps/vd_vendhya2.jpg

 

[librarycharlie]

Those are the details I was looking for. I'm greatly appreciative.

The land lies between two places they're travelling, and I didn't want to say "You go through Kosala, it's pretty neat."

I'm a strong advocate of David-Eddings-style narratives in campaigns where "getting there" and encountering strange and unfamiliar cultures occuppies a good deal of the campaign. It's unexpected encounters with new NPCs that forms some of the most memorable moments of campaigns. It's quite a ways from Howard's adventure-to-adventure style with gaps between, but it's just another way to tell a story.