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<blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 6625151" data-attributes="member: 92305"><p><strong>-- YET MORE NOTES FROM CONAN THE BARBARIAN --</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>XX. THE FORESTS OF OPHIR.</strong> Khalar Zym and Master Fassir have crossed paths before, in the forests of Ophir, when Zym's wife was burned at the stake. Fassir was there. Khalar, his wife Maliva, and daughter Marique were chased by hounds and men on horseback as Zym fled with his family through the forests. The three of them were on a search that originated with Maliva's discovery of mention in an ancient Archeronian tomb of a cavern that led to the Well of Light. The cavern should be somewhere in the forests of Ophir. If anyone were to bathe in the Well, immortality would be bestowed upon them. But, the Well of Light was a trap. It didn't exist. It was a carrot to pull Zym out of his domain. Maliva had made too many enemies. People feared her. Maliva was strapped to a large oaken wheel and burned alive. Zym and Marique were made to watch.</p><p></p><p>This leads me to believe that it was Maliva, not Khalar, who was the first tyrant. Khalar might have been her general--a warlord in service to an Archeronian witch. After Maliva's death, I speculate that Khalar picked up the piece and became the Shadow Lord that was feared even more so than his wife before him.</p><p></p><p>Fassir was member of the enemies who taunted Maliva with the fake reference to the Well of Light and who chased and captured the witch. And, this makes sense. It was Fassir''s master--the head of the monastery then--that helped trap Maliva. Fassir must have assisted him. The order, back then, was probably more influential than it is today. In fact, Maliva cursed all who engineered her downfall as she lied burning on that wheel. Maybe the decay that has fallen on the monastery has to do with....<em>that?</em></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>XXI. TAMARA's BACKSTORY.</strong> This is one of the coolest parts of the book--whey you read of Tamara's backstory and how she came to be with the monks. It makes you wonder just who the good guys are. Or, if there are any good guys. When Maliva burned on that wheel, she screamed at Khalar to raise her from the dead. This was the seed of Zym's obsession with the Mask of Acheron. He spent the rest of his life to date, gathering the resources to search the world for the Mask, enduring set back after set back. When he finally found all the pieces of the Mask, again he suffered a set back in that he needed the blood of an Acheronian noble to activate the Mask.</p><p></p><p>The coalition that burned Maliva heard her curse, and years ahead of Khalar, they found the youngest pure-blood Archeronian known to exist. Fassir's master had a heavy hand in this. The Master Monk had the babe, Tamara, taken from her home in Hyrkania and transported to the monastery in Shaipur, where the babe could be watched. Then, Fassir's master has Tamara's family massacred. Her parents were slain. Her brothers and sisters were put to the sword. Her grandparents were killed. And even her cousins--all of them murdered in order to keep their blood from ever touching the Mask of Acheron, should the Mask ever be reassembled. Tamara's entire family has been wiped from the earth at the hands of her own order. As Fassir says in the novelization, "Every single one, Khalar Zym, from the babes suckled at their mothers' breasts to a crone so old and in so much pain that she begged for release."</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>XXII. SHAIPUR MONASTERY RAZED.</strong> After Zym's attack, Khalar has all surviving monks put to the sword, and not a single stone from the age-old buildings are left standing. Today, it is a ruin. In the movie, the monastery is in the Forbidden Forest. I assumed the movie makers traded the Red Waste for the Forbidden Forest to give use a change in terrain, visually speaking. I'm sure Michael Stackpole's book was written from the latest script he could get his hands upon before the movie was finished. Note that the architecture of the monastery shown in the movie is definitely Argossean (or, at least, Hyborian) in nature, even though the name of the region has a Shemite flavor. Just from the way Master Fassir speaks (and from the decay and general poor condition of the Shaipur Monastery), the last remaining monastery to this order is probably the one seen at the end of the film, in Hyrkania. Later in the book, the Hyrkanian monastery is referred to as the sister to the one in the Red Waste--another clue that there were only two and now only one.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>XXIII. SHAIPUR PASS.</strong> In the movie, it is called the Shaipur Ravine. I had guessed earlier that it is a pass through the hills between Argos and Shem, and what I read in the book still makes me think that.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>XXIV. REMO.</strong> He seems to be the leader of Zym's Legion Scouts. He is an ugly man, and that fact comes up a few times in the novel. Zym has promised to make him comely once Zym becomes a god. When I first saw the film, I thought Remo was a Pict. But, now that I've read a tad more about him, I think he's probably a Hyborian or maybe a Zamorian.</p><p></p><p><img src="http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o747/ErikBCornell/Valley%20of%20Death%20inspiration/imagephp.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>XXV. FORBIDDEN FOREST.</strong> According to the film, the Shaipur Monastery lies in the Forbidden Forest. In the book, the monastery lies at the heart of the Red Waste (thus, the sorcery surrounding the Waste). Could both be true? That the Forbidden Forest lies in the central portion of the desert that is the Red Waste? And, the monastery lies at the heart of both? This isn't as far fetched an idea as it would seem at first. Remember the chase scene when Tamara escapes the Zym and his attack on the monastery? At first they're in a forested region, but the forest gradually thins and the chase wears on and Conan, with Tamara, camp.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>XXVI. ARCHERONIAN.</strong> This is interesting. I would have never guessed. Khalar Zym is a Nemedian by birth. He's a princeling. Maliva was interested in him, at first, because of his bloodline. He, too, has some Archeronian blood flowing through his veins. It is hinted that Maliva, too, is Nemedian, though the book doesn't say it specifically as it does with Zym. What it does say, though, is that Maliva's parents were also scholars of Archeronian sorcery, and they were driven out of Nemedia for their dark arts. Maliva chased the Mask of Acheron first. Zym took on the obsession as he got involved with her, long before Marique was born.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>XXVII. SHAIPUR OUTPOST.</strong> This is where Conan meets Zym and Marique, and fight's Marique's sandmen. According to the book, it is about two days journey on horse from the Shaipur Ravine. As we see in the film, the outpost is on the coast of Shem. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>XXVIII. HYRKANIAN MONKS.</strong> I see now that Zym refers to the monks from the Red Waste monastery as "Hyrkanian Monks". Why are they so far from home? Why is the monastery on the other side of the Known World from Hyrkania?</p><p></p><p>Extreme speculation: Could the Shaipur region of Shem or Argos be an abandoned colony of Hyrkania? The term "Shaipur" definitely has an eastern taste to it. Zym refers to the monastery's monks as Hyrkanians. The sister monastery is in Hyrkania. Tamara is Hyrkanian. And, the spears used by the monks feature an oriental dragon. In addition, the entire area seems abandoned. There is a huge city that Conan passes in the movie that looks completely empty. And, the Shaipur Outpost is definitely empty. And, there is a proliferation of ruins shown in the film in this area. </p><p></p><p>On the other side of the coin, though, it just doesn't mesh will with what we know of the area and of the Hyborian Age. And, the cities look empty, yes, but they don't look extremely old. Abandoned 25 years maybe? I'll give you 50 years, but not much more than that. The Shaipur Outpost is abandoned, but it's not 100 years abandoned.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>XXIX. ARGOS.</strong> Yes! There is an explanation of the Shaipur Outpost in the book, and it IS IN ARGOS. Ok, then. That's settled. The test reads:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>So, the Shaipur region is definitely in Argos. At least, part of it. The region could saddle both sides of the border, into Shem. But, I think that's unlikely due to the hills between the two kingdoms. The questions are: How did the Red Waste become the REd Waste? And, does the Red Waste have anything to do with the Shaipur region becoming barren? Plus, when Conan is on the <em>Hornet</em>, telling Artus that he's going after Zym (in the movie), Conan says that he's going to Shaipur. He could be talking about the region. But, maybe that big abandoned city that we see is the abandoned Argossean city of Shaipur, in the hills on the border with Shem. Maybe bandtry in the area keeps the place unoccupied?</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>XXX. FATE.</strong> There's a short section in the book that could speak to Fate Points in the roleplaying game. I though it interesting enough to note. Conan is reflecting on his use of the catapult to toss Remo down on Zym's Land Ship as the Legion camps in the Shaipur Ravine. This could easily be speculation on Conan's part of a use of a Fate Point in the game. It reads:</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Water Bob, post: 6625151, member: 92305"] [b]-- YET MORE NOTES FROM CONAN THE BARBARIAN --[/b] [b]XX. THE FORESTS OF OPHIR.[/b] Khalar Zym and Master Fassir have crossed paths before, in the forests of Ophir, when Zym's wife was burned at the stake. Fassir was there. Khalar, his wife Maliva, and daughter Marique were chased by hounds and men on horseback as Zym fled with his family through the forests. The three of them were on a search that originated with Maliva's discovery of mention in an ancient Archeronian tomb of a cavern that led to the Well of Light. The cavern should be somewhere in the forests of Ophir. If anyone were to bathe in the Well, immortality would be bestowed upon them. But, the Well of Light was a trap. It didn't exist. It was a carrot to pull Zym out of his domain. Maliva had made too many enemies. People feared her. Maliva was strapped to a large oaken wheel and burned alive. Zym and Marique were made to watch. This leads me to believe that it was Maliva, not Khalar, who was the first tyrant. Khalar might have been her general--a warlord in service to an Archeronian witch. After Maliva's death, I speculate that Khalar picked up the piece and became the Shadow Lord that was feared even more so than his wife before him. Fassir was member of the enemies who taunted Maliva with the fake reference to the Well of Light and who chased and captured the witch. And, this makes sense. It was Fassir''s master--the head of the monastery then--that helped trap Maliva. Fassir must have assisted him. The order, back then, was probably more influential than it is today. In fact, Maliva cursed all who engineered her downfall as she lied burning on that wheel. Maybe the decay that has fallen on the monastery has to do with....[i]that?[/i] [b]XXI. TAMARA's BACKSTORY.[/b] This is one of the coolest parts of the book--whey you read of Tamara's backstory and how she came to be with the monks. It makes you wonder just who the good guys are. Or, if there are any good guys. When Maliva burned on that wheel, she screamed at Khalar to raise her from the dead. This was the seed of Zym's obsession with the Mask of Acheron. He spent the rest of his life to date, gathering the resources to search the world for the Mask, enduring set back after set back. When he finally found all the pieces of the Mask, again he suffered a set back in that he needed the blood of an Acheronian noble to activate the Mask. The coalition that burned Maliva heard her curse, and years ahead of Khalar, they found the youngest pure-blood Archeronian known to exist. Fassir's master had a heavy hand in this. The Master Monk had the babe, Tamara, taken from her home in Hyrkania and transported to the monastery in Shaipur, where the babe could be watched. Then, Fassir's master has Tamara's family massacred. Her parents were slain. Her brothers and sisters were put to the sword. Her grandparents were killed. And even her cousins--all of them murdered in order to keep their blood from ever touching the Mask of Acheron, should the Mask ever be reassembled. Tamara's entire family has been wiped from the earth at the hands of her own order. As Fassir says in the novelization, "Every single one, Khalar Zym, from the babes suckled at their mothers' breasts to a crone so old and in so much pain that she begged for release." [b]XXII. SHAIPUR MONASTERY RAZED.[/b] After Zym's attack, Khalar has all surviving monks put to the sword, and not a single stone from the age-old buildings are left standing. Today, it is a ruin. In the movie, the monastery is in the Forbidden Forest. I assumed the movie makers traded the Red Waste for the Forbidden Forest to give use a change in terrain, visually speaking. I'm sure Michael Stackpole's book was written from the latest script he could get his hands upon before the movie was finished. Note that the architecture of the monastery shown in the movie is definitely Argossean (or, at least, Hyborian) in nature, even though the name of the region has a Shemite flavor. Just from the way Master Fassir speaks (and from the decay and general poor condition of the Shaipur Monastery), the last remaining monastery to this order is probably the one seen at the end of the film, in Hyrkania. Later in the book, the Hyrkanian monastery is referred to as the sister to the one in the Red Waste--another clue that there were only two and now only one. [b]XXIII. SHAIPUR PASS.[/b] In the movie, it is called the Shaipur Ravine. I had guessed earlier that it is a pass through the hills between Argos and Shem, and what I read in the book still makes me think that. [b]XXIV. REMO.[/b] He seems to be the leader of Zym's Legion Scouts. He is an ugly man, and that fact comes up a few times in the novel. Zym has promised to make him comely once Zym becomes a god. When I first saw the film, I thought Remo was a Pict. But, now that I've read a tad more about him, I think he's probably a Hyborian or maybe a Zamorian. [img]http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o747/ErikBCornell/Valley%20of%20Death%20inspiration/imagephp.jpg[/img] [b]XXV. FORBIDDEN FOREST.[/b] According to the film, the Shaipur Monastery lies in the Forbidden Forest. In the book, the monastery lies at the heart of the Red Waste (thus, the sorcery surrounding the Waste). Could both be true? That the Forbidden Forest lies in the central portion of the desert that is the Red Waste? And, the monastery lies at the heart of both? This isn't as far fetched an idea as it would seem at first. Remember the chase scene when Tamara escapes the Zym and his attack on the monastery? At first they're in a forested region, but the forest gradually thins and the chase wears on and Conan, with Tamara, camp. [b]XXVI. ARCHERONIAN.[/b] This is interesting. I would have never guessed. Khalar Zym is a Nemedian by birth. He's a princeling. Maliva was interested in him, at first, because of his bloodline. He, too, has some Archeronian blood flowing through his veins. It is hinted that Maliva, too, is Nemedian, though the book doesn't say it specifically as it does with Zym. What it does say, though, is that Maliva's parents were also scholars of Archeronian sorcery, and they were driven out of Nemedia for their dark arts. Maliva chased the Mask of Acheron first. Zym took on the obsession as he got involved with her, long before Marique was born. [b]XXVII. SHAIPUR OUTPOST.[/b] This is where Conan meets Zym and Marique, and fight's Marique's sandmen. According to the book, it is about two days journey on horse from the Shaipur Ravine. As we see in the film, the outpost is on the coast of Shem. [b]XXVIII. HYRKANIAN MONKS.[/b] I see now that Zym refers to the monks from the Red Waste monastery as "Hyrkanian Monks". Why are they so far from home? Why is the monastery on the other side of the Known World from Hyrkania? Extreme speculation: Could the Shaipur region of Shem or Argos be an abandoned colony of Hyrkania? The term "Shaipur" definitely has an eastern taste to it. Zym refers to the monastery's monks as Hyrkanians. The sister monastery is in Hyrkania. Tamara is Hyrkanian. And, the spears used by the monks feature an oriental dragon. In addition, the entire area seems abandoned. There is a huge city that Conan passes in the movie that looks completely empty. And, the Shaipur Outpost is definitely empty. And, there is a proliferation of ruins shown in the film in this area. On the other side of the coin, though, it just doesn't mesh will with what we know of the area and of the Hyborian Age. And, the cities look empty, yes, but they don't look extremely old. Abandoned 25 years maybe? I'll give you 50 years, but not much more than that. The Shaipur Outpost is abandoned, but it's not 100 years abandoned. [b]XXIX. ARGOS.[/b] Yes! There is an explanation of the Shaipur Outpost in the book, and it IS IN ARGOS. Ok, then. That's settled. The test reads: So, the Shaipur region is definitely in Argos. At least, part of it. The region could saddle both sides of the border, into Shem. But, I think that's unlikely due to the hills between the two kingdoms. The questions are: How did the Red Waste become the REd Waste? And, does the Red Waste have anything to do with the Shaipur region becoming barren? Plus, when Conan is on the [i]Hornet[/i], telling Artus that he's going after Zym (in the movie), Conan says that he's going to Shaipur. He could be talking about the region. But, maybe that big abandoned city that we see is the abandoned Argossean city of Shaipur, in the hills on the border with Shem. Maybe bandtry in the area keeps the place unoccupied? [b]XXX. FATE.[/b] There's a short section in the book that could speak to Fate Points in the roleplaying game. I though it interesting enough to note. Conan is reflecting on his use of the catapult to toss Remo down on Zym's Land Ship as the Legion camps in the Shaipur Ravine. This could easily be speculation on Conan's part of a use of a Fate Point in the game. It reads: [/QUOTE]
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