Know, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars – Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry, Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and gold.
I'm so glad you brought back these posts. I remember reading your posts in the old arkhaven site, click on the random ones that seemed appealing and when you made a reference to an older article and I clicked the link, it would say sometimes the article didn't exist anymore (I assume you reposted it and the real url name changed) and trying to use the website's search function didn't always work as expected. Can't wait to read the rest of the character archetypes articles, western or eastern!
Favorite Conan Poem, perfectly encapsulating his disdain for weak city men:
What do I know of cultured ways, the gilt, the craft and the lie?
I, who was born in a naked land and bred in the open sky.
The subtle tongue, the sophist guile, they fail when the broadswords sing;
Rush in and die, dogs—I was a man before I was a king.
—The Road of Kings.
(From The Phoenix on the Sword, the first published Conan story, chapter 5)
Link to original publication in Weird Tales 1932 (free): https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tales_v20n06_1932-12_AT-sas/page/n59/mode/2up
Obligatory non-free book self-plug: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DQTF6NRT
I'm so glad you brought back these posts. I remember reading your posts in the old arkhaven site, click on the random ones that seemed appealing and when you made a reference to an older article and I clicked the link, it would say sometimes the article didn't exist anymore (I assume you reposted it and the real url name changed) and trying to use the website's search function didn't always work as expected. Can't wait to read the rest of the character archetypes articles, western or eastern!