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Zamora

Since time out of mind, Zamora has stood as a proud and independent nation. In more primitive days, the warlike Hybori could never quite conquer it, so they settled down to form kingdoms of their own. During Conan's times, Zamora stood poised uneasily, between the Hyborians and the rising empire of Turan to the east. Thus, mercenary armies, with their dubious loyalty, are not allowed within its cities' walls, and are made to feel unwelcome even in the hinterlands.[6][verification needed]

After the Age of Conan, Zamora fell to Turan, Aquilonia, and Turan again.[8] Zamora's legacy went on as part of some of the culture and language of the Romany people.[9]

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Origin[]

After the Great Cataclysm (which occurred circa 18,000 BC), first evident about 17,500 BC (500 years after the Cataclysm), the Zhemri were a remnant of one of the non-Valusian civilized nations,[10][11] possibly Grondarian in origin,[11][9] and dwelt in the low mountains of the southeast of the new world-continent circa 17,500 BC.[10][11]

The Zhemri intermingled with various unknown peoples.[11] Candidates for those people include:

  • After the Lemurian slaves successfully revolved in the Far East circa 16,500 BC, some of the "East-folk" migrated westwards. It was believed that they might have stimulated Zhemri revival by that hypothetical "northern branch" of the East-folk migration.[12][13] Other accounts mentions it was the Lemurians who migrated westwards after overthrowing the East-folk.[14]
  • After Dagonia was destroyed by the Yuetshi around the same time, refugees fled to mingle with the Zhemri, another candidate for having jumpstarted Zhemri revival.[13]

Foundation[]

The Zhemri, now a hybrid race, prospered and multiplied, and eventually founded Zamora around the time the Aesir overthrew Hyperborea the Elder.[8][11]

According to Zukala, Acheron predated Zamora,[7] meaning Zamora wasn't founded before 15,500 BC, date of foundation of Acheron.

Age of Acheron[]

In the early days of Zamora, Hyborians conducted slave raids in Zamora but were never able to seize its government.[8]

As war approached between Acheron, Stygia, and Zamora, the Hyborians, unable to penetrate Acheron's and Zamora's borders, were led to Stygia with Acheron's connivance and Zamora's secret help, resulting in the loss of the Stygian forts in northern Shem. The Hyborians subsequently settled in tribal clusters between Acheron and Zamora.[15]

Hyborian Age[]

Later, the Zamorians also intermarried with the Hyborian Brythunians[16][11] that flourished and moved southward,[16] but resisted encroachment by the Hyborian Kingdoms.[11]

Age of Conan (10,000 BC)[]

During Conan's youth, Zamora was an absolute despotism,[8][8] with the king dominated by a sorcerer.[8]

Tiridates' rule[]

During King Tiridates, Prefect Antagonides, prefect of the city of Ramaraj, wanted to rise against his king and usurp his rule, but lacked an army strong enough, having at his disposal only his garrison. Demon-priests from Khauran, Shebeshek, Jhia, and Ragathis, offered him the means to defeat the King's Army: resurrected monsters from ages past, preserved in tar. That plan was foiled by Conan, who conveted the key, an apparent cask of gems, to unleash and control those creatures.[5]

Under unrevealed circumstances, he was succeeded by Mitradites III, though Hadranor was also known as King of Zamora at some point during the Age of Conan.

Fleeing from Yezud, all the seekers of the amulet of Tolometh received a different vision of the place where each shard was hidden.[17]

Mitradites' rule[]

King Mitradites III was consistently described as a drunken monarch.[18][19][20][21] He was contested from many parties within Zamora, though many of his opponents were defeated and/or their plans foiled by Conan the Cimmerian (most of them unbeknowst to the king).

  • In a remote village, Zukala asked for tribute and considered its inhabitants his subjects. He was eventually defeated by Conan and left.[7]
  • In Shadizar, Madame X'arthalla plotted with the captain of the royal guard against the King, intending to seize control of Zamora. The multiple attempts at the King and his councillors' lives were foiled by Conan along with the pleasure girl Nadia. The captain was later executed and Conan rewarded by the King.[4]
  • In the the early adventuring days of Conan, Queen Isadona of Sakyara wished to conquer a region of Zamora and even make King Mitradites come to terms with her. To this end, she intended to use the flying technology of the Corinthian scientist Daedikaron to equip her troop. Daedikaron and Conan escaped from Sakyara.[22]
  • Around the same period, the Grand Inquisitor of Ong, who had tortured and slain his city's former king, wanted to capture and "save [the] soul" of Isadona. Feeling Zamora was plagued with too many sins and gods (including Omm, Spider-God, and Bel, God of Thieves), he wanted to unite Zamora under a more pious ruler than Mitradites: himself, the high priest of lion-headed Ong.[21]
  • As King Mitradites feared and mistrusted the Yezudites,[23] he sent Tork, an engineer[24] and spy, who destroyed Yezud by shifting a few boulders in the mines beneath the city, who rested on a fault, with the help of Conan.[24][23]

Two years later,[25] after Yezud was rebuilt, Zath high priest Feridun threatened King Mitradites with his Children of Zath, feeling confident in the myth of arachnic invincibility he had communicated to Zamora's king, and expecting Mitradites' ragtag army to crumble in panic at the mere sight of the Children of Zath (despite vicar Mirze's concerns).[26] Conan managed to take down Zath's cult, and the Children of Zath were destroyed.[25]

Later, priest of Zath Harpagus, rechristened himself Zath, took possession of the ruins of the Tower of the Elephant and of the Lotus caches of Yara. He intended to poison Zamora's king with spider venom, use the Lotus to bend an army to his will by supplying them Distilled Lotus, and finally rule from the Kezankian Mountains to the borders of Brythunia, and even beyond. That plan was foiled by Conan once again.[27]

At the foot of the Zamoran Steppes, Conan was assaulted by a kid named Veden Kamal, wanting revenge for his three older brothers, who were killed in battle by the Cimmerian. Wishing to learn swordsmanship from Conan, Veden Kamal offered to guide him to the Jewelled Sword of Tem, and escorted the barbarian to Maheeva's roost, who told them the way to retrieve the magical artefact.[28]

Some time later, in an oasis not far from Shadizar where the Free Companions set up their camp, Conan was kidnapped by the assassins of the Night-Cult and brought back to their wooden temple in the capital. He was then grabbed by the Night-Goddess, who flew him off to her cave, where she planned on mating with him, then feeding him to her young. Conan was at first enraptured by her hypnotic gaze, but he managed to overpower her control and ultimately destroyed her.[29]

When Conan finally returned to the mercenary camp, he discovered to have been replaced by Milo as the new captain of the Free Companions. He was then captured and then left to his own fate, tied to a running horse. A dying Conan was eventually found and healed by Turghol, who was riding towards the Kezankian Pass.[30]

By that time, it was said that King Mitradites sometimes ("in his more drunken moments") claimed the strip of plains set between the desert and the Kezankian Mountains, which was also claimed by Turan's King Yildiz.[20]

Hadranor's rule[]

Hadranor, king of Zamora, had the wizard Costranno sentenced to death by beheading after finding him guilty of performing unholy rites of life and death.[31]

Malakon's rule[]

Malakon was possibly a regional princeling, rather than the king of Zamora as a whole.
At the time of King Conan I's rule over Aquilonia, Malakon was king of Zamora. He was described as a despot and a tyrant, fearful of assassins and conspiracies, enacting a strict curfew on its subjects while the dens of criminals were left free. Displeased with Conan allowing "excessive" freedom to his citizens, and fearful that it might inspire his own subjects, Malakon dispatched men of Zamora to pose as Aquilonian rebels who seized the town of Tahrem, with the intent of destabilizing Conan's rule. He also imprisoned Count Trocero and Conan's son Prince Conn as they visited Zamora. Conan besieged Tahrem, and when informed by Conn of the plot, managed to retake the city and capture the Zamorans without spilling the blood of his subjects.[32]

After the Age of Conan[]

After the Age of Conan, Zamora fell to Turan, who were later driven off by the Aquilonian Empire. The Aquilonians levied increasing amounts of tribute.

After the Aquilonian debacle, Zamora were conquered by the Hyrkanians once more, who consolidated their hold on Zamora by settling Zingaan refugees to form a loyalist element among the conquered Zamorians.[8]

Legacy[]

Some of the culture and language of the Romany came from the Zingarans and Zamorans.[9]

Facts[]

Economy[]

The people of Zamora used as currencies Drakis and (if they're not the same) pieces of gold.[7]

Language[]

The Zamorians used Zamorian in writing. The Old Zamorian was a script that had long fallen into disuse circa 10,000 BC.[23]

People[]

The Zamorians were a dark-skinned, dark-eyed people.[6]

Religion[]

There was no known state-religion in Zamora. Instead, most cities appears to worship mostly or exclusively a single deity who could serve as the city's patron-deity, while some cities hosted many cults and temples.

The country is bordered at east by the Kezankian Mountains, Zamorian Marches and Turanian Steppes, south by Koth, west of Corinthia and Brythunia, northwest of Hyperborea.[8]