Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 6623848" data-attributes="member: 92305">--  NOTES FROM CONAN THE BARBARIAN  --Michael Stackpole wrote a damn good novelization of the 2011 film.  Even if you didn't like the movie, Stackpole's book is worth reading.  It stands on its own merits and a pretty good Conan tale, and Stackpole adds a lot of scenes that were not in the movie.  For example, a large section of the beginning chapters focuses on young Conan after the attack by Khalar Zym and his band on Conan's village.  In the movie, we cut from that scene where Conan's father is killed to years later, when Conan is a man, traveling with Artus.  In the book, young Conan is taken by his grandfather who lived close to the village but was not present during the massacre, and old Connacht would continue teaching Conan where Conan's father, Corin, had left off.  Even Venarium is addressed before the story moves on to catch up with Conan and Artus attacking a slave caravan (it's a coastal slave camp in the movie).Stackpole gives use reference, in places, to other Howard Conan stories.  For example, the reason the slave caravan I just mentioned is traveling by land and not by sea is because of the piracy.  The Queen of the Black Coast has disappeared, but her second in command, Conan, has taken up with another bunch of pirates, that of Artus and his crew on the Hornet.In the movie, it's not really clear or even said that Artus is a pirate captain, though one could make the assumption.  And, in the film, Artus says that he's known Conan for a long, long time, since Conan was a young pup picking pockets in Zamora (Conan has never been a sneak thief to pick pockets in any other story I've read), and that Conan was the one who slayed the sorcerer Yara (a reference to The Tower of the Elephant).  In the book, Artus is definitely a pirate and who Conan sailed with after the death of Belit.Below are some notes from the novel that I am taking mainly for use in my personal game (but you may find them useful or interesting).I.  LUCIUS.  He's the character who gets his nose cut off by young Conan.  He's an Aquilonian, and he leads Khalar Zym's Aquilonian Mercenaries.  So, not all of Zym's forces are fanatics following him.  These mercenaries are paid to bolster Zym's army.  After leaving Zym's employ, Lucius became overseer of lead mines in the mountains north of Messantia.II.  SHADOW LORD.  This title for Zym is not used in the book (but is used in the movie).  In my game, Zym is a bandit warlord who came to control the southeast region of Argos, near the border with Shem.  The term "shadow lord" is nothing sinister.  It simply means that Zym's power is equivalent to the King of Argos.  Though not the official ruler of the kingdom, Zym controls his portion of Argos as if he were king.  Thus, the term "shadow lord" refers to his power.  King Milo feared that Zym would start a civil war or annex even more land from Milo's kingdom.III.  NAVARUS.  He is an Argossean, not seen in the film.  He drives the slave caravan down the coast of Zingara with intention of delivering and selling his cargo to Lucius in Messantia.  Conan and Artus have targeted the slave master several times in the past.  Navarus avoids the sea to avoid them, but, of course, the pirates are on to his latest move.  "You rob me at sea.  You rob me on land.  Why can't you leave me alone!"  He says.  Navarus once tried to drug Conan with the intention of selling him into slavery as a pit fighter (a nod to the 1982 Conan film).  Navarus is not killed in the attack.  Instead, Conan and Artus throw him into a slave cage.IV.  ARTUS.  The pirate Captain of the Hornet, and comrade to Conan, is actually a Zingaran.  He was born in Zingara to Kushite slaves who worked a plantation near Thunder River.  Conan's path had crossed with that of the pirate several times over the years.  They were never enemies, but not always friends.  Most of Artus' crew is Zingaran (which doesn't make sense that they dock in Messantia so easily).<img src="http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjAyNzQxNDc4N15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNzYxOTI0Ng@@._V1_SX640_SY720_.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /></blockquote>

Verification