Khoraja

"Rumors drifted up through the meadowlands, into the cities of the Hyborians. The word ran along the caravans, the long camel-trains plodding through the sands, herded by lean, hawk-eyed men in white kaftans. It was passed on by the hook-nosed herdsmen of the grasslands, from the dwellers in tents to the dwellers in the squat stone cities where kings with curled blue-black beards worshipped round-bellied gods with curious rites. The word passed up through the fringe of hills where gaunt tribesmen took toll of the caravans. The rumors came into the fertile uplands where stately cities rose above blue lakes and rivers: the rumors marched along the broad white roads thronged with ox-wains, with lowing herds, with rich merchants, knights in steel, archers and priests." -- Robert E. Howard: "Black Colossus"


Khoraja

A small but important kingdom lying southeast of Koth; named after its walled capital city. The southern border of Khoraja was the steep Kothian Escarpment, pierced only by the Shamla Pass, part of the main caravan route from the Hyborian kingdoms into the East and South.

Khoraja was once part of Shem. Kothic adventurers took over the strategic area, making it one of several small, independent nations lying along the eastern Kothian frontier.

The Kothian Escarpment is an area along the southern border of Koth, where its hills "fall away sheerly" in the east, making a bizarre, virtually unbroken, mile high sheer rock wall at the edge of the Eastern Desert. Its origin is unknown and its presence inexplicable. A rain forest thrives in the escarpment's shadows, grown out of humid air pockets created by storms breaking against the forbidding wall. Beyond the rain forest lies the Eastern Desert.

Queen-regent Yasmela of Khoraja

Zaheemi warriors, a clan living on the southern edge of the Kothian Escarpment, have been ancestrally charged with guarding the eastern caravan route to Khoraja through Shamla Pass, from above the wall to the forests below. The wall extended along the southeastern part of Khoraja and southern Koth for "1000 miles".

Shamla Pass, the only major break in the rampart, is heavily traveled by caravans and lined with vendors and merchants. A northern branch of the escarpment lies between Koth and Khoraja. A secret way through the wall is rumored. To the northeast was another pass at Khauran.

Khanyria is a town or city in Khoraja, home of the sorcerer Pelias.

The Khorgas River is a Kothic river starting in the highlands of northern Khoraja.

Mount Khrosha is a volcano in the Flaming Mountains west of Khoraja.

References: Black Colossus, Conan the Great, Return of Conan, Chaos Beneath Kuthchemes.

  • Population: 400,000
  • Capital: Khoraja
  • Ruler: Queen-regent Yasmela (King Khossus)
  • Major cities: Meshken, Khanyria
  • Resources: Cattle, steel, grain
  • Imports: An important crossroad of the east-west caravan routes; silk, spices, exotic animals, exotic weapons
  • Allies: Khauran
  • Enemies: Ophir, Koth
  • Tech level: Roman
  • Religion: Shemitish pantheon (Ishtar)