Hyborians

The Hyborians or Hybori are the dominant civilization of the Hyborian Age.

History and politics
The Hyborians descend from a tribe of ape-men who were little more than Neanderthals in Thuria, and came to the far north of the continent to escape the disasters of the Cataclysm. According to the legend their leader was Bori to whom they owe their name. When they arrived, they had to drive out a race of snow-apes (the ancestors of the Nordheimir), and pushed them to the ice wastes north to the Arctic circle, hoping they would perish.

One and half a millennium after their arrival, they flourished as hunters before and after the Lesser Cataclysm and spread over the north. When it was discovered that the earlier beasts were evolving to a tribe of ape-like men, a small band of warriors went to exterminate them, but never returned. Tribes of Hyborians were expanding southward without contacting any other race. Those started raising cattle. But as their number increased, the movements became extensive, also westward. By 2000 years after the Cataclysm many small unknown clans were conquered and admixed to the conquerors, or destroyed.

One of their tribes discovered the use of stone. They built a crude fortress of boulders to repel tribal attacks and started using crude but mighty stone houses surrounded by walls. This fortress became fierce and barbaric Hyperborea, the first Hyborian kingdom, which marked the rise of the Hyborians who dominated the western world, and the Hyborian Age. Hyperborea drove away ther tribes who were defeated or didn't wish to become tributaries. Around the same time, gigantic blond savage ape-men started harrying their northern cousins.

Nonetheless, more Kingdoms took shape such as Koth to the south, near the borders of the Lands of Shem. In the meantime, the blond savages had grown so much that drove the northern Hyborians from their homelands. As a result, they drive their own kindred before them, and even conquered Hyperborea. Another roving tribe of Hybori conquered the valley of Zingg to the southwest, which had been invaded earlier by a tribe of Picts; from those mixed elements came the kingdom of Zingara.

Around 2500 years after the Cataclysm, the Hyborian civilization dominates the western world. It is contained in the further kingdoms of Nemedia, Brythunia, Ophir, Argos, Corinthia and the Border Kingdom. The most powerful was Aquilonia.

Around 3000 years after the Cataclysm, the blond arctic savages have evolved to golden-haired, blue-eyed barbarians. They have driven the remaining Hyborian tribes out of their ancestral homelands but stop at Hyperborea which resists, and the barbarians settle in Nordheim.

The Hyborian civilization fell with the advent of the Picts who conquered Aquilonia and completely devastated the former culture without copying or adopting it. Those were followed by the Hyrkanians, and these were then shattered by the Cimmerians and Nordics. Those wave levelled all the Hyborian cities in ruins. The once dominant Hyborians had vanished from the earth, leaving scarcely a trace of their blood in the veins of their conquerors.

Population and culture
They are vigorous and warlike, but also have developed artistry and poetism of nature. Back in the north they lived as hunters and slept in horse-hide tents. Those who migrated southwards started raising cattle. They are the first known people to have learned the use of stone in building and the first principles of architecture and abandoned their nomadic life.

Originally the Hyborians are tall, tawny-haired and grey eyed. The province of Gunderland is the nearest to the ancient root-stock of the Hybori, as they take no slaves. Elsewhere, the alien traits are stronger. Hyborian blood could be found even in Stygia and Hyrkania.