Nations of the Hyborian Age
A list of the nations of the Hyborian Age. "Tech Level" refers to the classification found in the article arms and armor of the Hyborian Age, indicating which weapons, armor and equipment are available to that culture.
| Country | Tech Level | Main Religion | Description |
| Aquilonia | Dark Ages | Mitra, Asura, Ibis | Symbol of might in the Hyborian Age, Aquilonia with her legendary armies of Bossonian archers, Gunderland pikemen and Poitanian knights, wields indisputably the supreme military power of the Western world. More than any other kingdom, however, Aquilonia lies surrounded by grim and unrelenting enemies. |
| Argos | Roman | Mitra, Bel | The major sea power of the Hyborian Age, proud Argos sweeps the western sea from Vanaheim to the Black Kingdoms. Wealthy beyond its size, Argos seldom lacks for funds either to war or to weave far reaching webs of intrigue as the situation dictates. Natural enemy of Zingara. |
| Asgard | Dark Ages | Ymir | Blonde reavers of the icy north, the mailed warriors of the Aesir are held in check only by their equally ferocious kin the Vanir to the west, the grim Cimmerians southward, and by arcane Hyperborea to the east. Loosely organized, the clans await their forging to a cause, or a great captain of men, to spur them over the ice towards bright and bloody conquest! |
| Border Kingdom | Dark Ages | Various gods | Serving as a buffer state between Nemedia and Brythunia and the more savage people of the north, the Border Kingdom was probably the last Hyborian nation to be founded. The country also served as a trade route for merchants trying to avoid the strict taxes of Nemedia. A sad wilderness with deserted, disconsolate marshlands. |
| Brythunia | Dark Ages | Mitra, Wiccana | The land of plains and horse, the Brythunians have become a culture of hunters and farmers, ranging their wide, flat lands ahorse and unfettered. The Brythunian army carries forward this heritage with a large contingent of disciplined cavalry regiments. Still, Bruthunia is split and scattered into small, widely dispersed fiefdoms. |
| Cimmeria | Dark Ages | Crom | Grim. Moody. Grey skied. The land of Crom amid hills and mountains. A warrior race, the Cimmerians are descendants of ancient Atlantis and only slowly coming again into the ways of civilization after contact with the Hyborian kingdoms. In battle the Cimmerians are unmatched in the darkly wooded hills of their homeland and few are the invading Aquilonian, Pictish, or Nordheim warriors who return from that grey land. A legacy of hatred runs strong amongst Cimmerians for their long time enemies, the Picts. |
| Corinthia | Roman | Ishtar, Pteor, Bel | Secure behind high mountain passes lie the city states of Corinthia. Notable for their highly disciplined battle phalanxes and fearsome weaponry, including halberd and pike. However, the fractured city-states all pay tribute to mighty Koth. |
| Darfar | Savage | Yog | The sharply filed teeth of the Darfar savages haunt the dreams of even the boldest warriors who have faced them in screaming battle. Actually composed of a mix of various tribes, the Ghanata slave lords and the masked Tibu tribes foremost amongst them. Darfar gains its name from the scattered cannibalistic grassland tribes which most often provide the drive and leadership for empire. |
| Hyperborea | Dark Ages | Louhi, Bori | Cold and heartless, Hyperborea is ruled by grim, gaunt, albino nobles and by the sorcerously powerful witch-women. Safe within their high stone keeps on the snowy Hyperborean plain, the Hyperboreans wield power far beyond their meager resources and small army. Fortress of arcane power in the north, Hyperborea is a spiteful foe to Aquilonia and quite possibly the most dangerous kingdom of the Hyborian Age. |
| Hyrkania | Oriental | Erlik, Tarim, ancestor worship | Savage horse tribes of the interior steppes, uncivilized in all but the arts of war at which they excel, the Hyrkanians move upon a shifting sea of unrest as turbulent as the fiery ponies upon which they ride. The Hyrkanian tribes war constantly amongst themselves, but when united under a great chief, they destroy armies as swiftly as their horse-archers can race across the endless flatlands which encompass them. Trained from childhood in horse and bow, the Hyrkanian cavalry has been called with good reason the finest horse-archers in the world. |
| Iranistan | Middle Eastern | Various gods | The golden land south of the Ilbars mountains is widely, albeit sparsely inhabited. Ancient and rich, Iranistan uses the Afghuli and the Ilbars hillmen as border defenses to turn back the swift horse-archers of their long standing foes in Turan and Hyrkania. |
| Kambuja | Oriental | Ganesha | Ruled by the god-king of the Scarlet Circle, deep in the jungle-girdled city of Angkhor crouches the hungry kingdom of Kambuja. The Kambujans are forever locked in war with neighbouring Khitai, whose great wizards, the dragon-sons, also contest on an arcane level. The Kambujan host fields huge war elephants, relied upon to smash the formations of Khitai in battle. |
| Keshan | Savage | Gwahlur, Dagon, Derketa | A kingdom of barbaric splendor, the Keshans are well led by nobles and religious leaders who claim descent from the great people of Alkmeenon. Keshan also has a well drilled army patterned after the Stygian military organization. While Stygian troops often raid into northern Keshan, Punt is Keshan’s long standing and hereditary enemy. |
| Khauran | Roman | Shemitish Pantheon | Rich in fertile meadowlands and at the center of trade in the Hyborian world, Khauran is a petty kingdom of abundant wealth. Khauran is well ruled by nobles of Kothic descent. The Khauranian nobles disdain the use of horse but hire mercenary cavalry troops as needed. Khauran is vassal to Koth. |
| Khitai | Oriental | Yun | An ancient empire, stronghold of the world’s greatest wizards and masters of the eastern world, Khitai has a powerful army and a sound leadership based in Paikang, Shu-Chen and Ruo-Chen. Khitai is forever at war with Kambuja to the south, whose god-kings vie with them for supremacy in the arcane mysteries of the Scarlet Circle. |
| Khoraja | Roman | Mitra, Ishtar | Blessed with excellent leadership, a highly diverse and well trained army, a fertile land, and a location central to the rich southern and eastern trade routes, Khoraja is powerful beyond its tiny size. Khoraja is vassal to Koth. |
| Kosala | Oriental | Yajur | The Kosalans are an ancient race, decadent but not grown soft. They are devoted to the worship of the god Yajur and their armies are an arm of their religious organization. The Kosalans are aided by ancient magics and a fanatical if untrained populace ever willing to fight and die in battle. Kosala from of old is tied with Vendhya through intermarriage and treaty and can expect no invasions from that quarter. |
| Koth | Roman | Ishtar, Bel, Set | Once the mainland of the forgotten empire of Acheron, Koth is now ruled by the mad Emperor Strabonus. While Khauran and Khoraja are historical vassals of Koth, Strabonus has also forced Ophir and Corinthia to pay tribute. It is whispered that the Emperor dabbles in forbidden magicks to fulfill his ambition: to restore the fallen empire of Acheron. |
| Kusan | Oriental | Gods of Khitai | The westernmost Khitan kingdom, culturally advanced Kusan relies upon her excellent ambassadors and diplomats (easily the most adept politicians of the age) at least as much as upon her armies. |
| Kush | Bronze Age | Set, Jullah | The semi-civilized Black Kingdom of most common knowledge among people of the Hyborian nations is Kush. Proud Kush is seldom raided, the Stygians usually preferring to take their slaves from weaker Darfar or Keshan. |
| Meru | Oriental | Yama | Meru is an isolated land in the heart of the Himelian Mountains, its origins known only through legend. The people is ruled by red-robed, slant-eyed priests of the demon-king Yama. |
| Nemedia | Dark Ages | Mitra, Ibis | Nemedia, the central pillar of Hyborian culture and civilization, stands ever in defiance to their habitual foes, mighty Aquilonia. The gleaming Nemedian knights are rightly proud for their army which is as diverse as it is deadly. |
| Ophir | Roman | Anu, Ishtar, Bel | A Kingdom of great beauty with gilded knights and high towered cities, Ophir is protected by natural boundaries of mountain and river on all sides but to the south, which the Ophirians have well fortified. But the kingdom lacks the will to fight dominant Koth and has been forced to pay tribute to its mad Emperor. |
| Pictland | Savage | Jhebbal Sag, Gullah | Savage, warlike, brutish, persistently resistant to civilizing influences, the Picts inhabit the primal forest of the Pictish Wilderness. The tribes are constantly warring amongst themselves. |
| Punt | Bronze Age | Nebethet | The barbaric splendor of the kingdom which is Punt is based upon the bright yellow gold washed down off the central hills. Hereditary enemies of Keshan, Punt also mistrusts the growing power of Zembabwei. If these two foes can be kept at bay, and if a trade route can be established to the gold-hungry markets of the Hyborian world, then Punt may well emerge as supreme among the Black Kingdoms. |
| Shem | Bronze Age | Ishtar, Pteor, Bel, Nergal, Set, Ashtoreth | The city states of Shem lie between the mad ambitions of Koth and the malignant arcane power of Stygia. The western Shemish states form a loose knit nation with Asgalun dominating its politics. The eastern Shemish states stand in alliance with each other and also with western Shem, creating a friendly eastern border. The Shemish Asshuri and the famous Shemish archers make Shem’s armies very strong. Through mercenary service in over a dozen kingdoms of the western world, the Shemish generals have learned well the art of war. |
| Stygia | Bronze Age | Set, Derketo, Hawk-God of Harakht | Slumbering in her desert retreats, protected behind the mighty and brooding Styx river, lies Stygia. The ancient culture of Stygia is in decline, revolving in malignance about itself, but it is also the source of a great and evil sorcerous knowledge which may yet gain mastery over the Western world. |
| Turan | Middle Eastern | Erlik | Gleaming mailed and silken-clad riders, masters of the Vilayet Sea, Turan revels in sweeping the barely contested wastelands to the west and south. Turan, however, must bear the plague of a thousand frustrations arising from the seemingly indomitable and ever resurgent Kossaks, Zuagirs, and Vilayet pirates. Perpetually battling raiders and quelling revolts from a hundred pinpricking sources, the rulers of Turan pass their reign in unceasing watchfulness. Turan is a natural enemy to Iranistan and Vendhya, but stands in loose alliance with Hyrkania. |
| Uttara Kuru | Oriental | Asura | Dismissed as a myth in most regions of the world, Uttara Kuru is a land of ancient magics, misty mountains, dense coastal forest, and the strange, haunting architecture of the city of Uttara Kuru. The people of this kingdom are fanatically loyal in defense of their homeland. Ancient enemy of great Vendhya. |
| Vanaheim | Dark Ages | Ymir | The red-haired Vanir are isolated in the northwest and their mailed swordsmen therefore vent their warlike natures on their Asgardian kin to the east, the savage Picts to the south, or less often upon grim Cimmeria to the southeast. Many a hero of the Hyborian Age was of the Vanir and warriors of Vanaheim are known to be utterly fearless in combat. |
| Vendhya | Oriental | Asura, Kali | Vendhya is an ancient and proud kingdom, ruled by the Kashatriyan warrior caste and has mystics adept with their own peculiar range of magicks. Vendhya is pent up in the north by the savage and virtually unconquerable Ghulistan tribesmen. To the west lies Kosala, made unassailable by the well forged intermarriages between the two kingdoms. To the east broods Uttara Kuru whose silver-tongued diplomats and arrogant wizards have long held the weight of Vendhya at bay. As the huge Vendhyan host continues to swell in size, like a bubble it must burst forth into empire and the day of Vendhyan glory. |
| Zamora | Middle Eastern | Bel, Zath | Zamora is a land of spider-haunted towers and master thieves. The Zamoran army is adequate, but it is their spies and long-lived wizards upon which Zamora relies. What king not departed from his sanity will risk the intrigues of Zamora, or worse yet, her assassins? Zamora may indeed follow a shadowy path to world mastery with the aid of spells long forgotten and knives which strike swiftly in the dark. |
| Zembabwei | Bronze Age | Damballah | A growing power in the southlands, vital Zembabwei is well led and armed. The Zembabwei command great flying reptiles found only in Zembabwei heartland. These soaring winged mounts strike terror into the hearts of all who behold them. |
| Zingara | Dark Ages | Mitra, Ishtar, Bel | The most powerful sea raiders next to their Argossean rivals, the Zingarans are active supporters of the Zingaran buccaneers (pirates by any other name). Zingara is a proud and rich land, though often torn by civil strife and bitter feuds between powerful members of its nobility. |