Hyperboreans from Age of Conan and Dark Horse

[Water Bob]

I'm reading the Dark Horse graphic novel collections, and I see that Dark Horse copied some of the Hyperborean stuff from Age of Conan. At least, that's what I think they did. Maybe it's the other way around?

Is there another source for the gurnakhi?

And, I've read Howard stories where Hyperboreans were mentioned. They are described as thin and tall. But, don't they just look like people? They're not so pale that they look blue, right? Their noses don't look like small pig snouts, right?

I like a lot of what Dark Horse has done, filling in the holes and creating atmosphere for the universe of our favorite barbarian. But, aren't these Dark Horse Hyperboreans just a little too powerful? They live forever. They control the weather. They suck men's souls from their bodies to fuel their sorceries. Even the wizards of the Black Ring seek to learn from them.

Really?

Then, why haven't they taken over the world?

It all just seems a little too much for me. It steps just on the other side of my suspension of disbelief. The strength of the Hyperboreans almost seems godlike, to me.

I've always thought of Hyperborea as a collection of city-states that most likely conflict amongst themselves. Each city or region has a different (enough) culture from the other to keep unification from happening. Some of the Hyperboreans still worship Bori, and some and embraced other religions. Some city-states are allied, and some stand alone. Some of the people have embraced sorcery (but not to an extent where they are controlling the weather and keeping the land 75 degrees every day!), and some are examples of more traditional Hyborian Age peoples.

I don't know why, but the Hyperboreans that I've read so far in the Dark Horse graphic novel THE FROST GIANT'S DAUGHTER And other stories strike me more as a race from Star Wars rather than Conan.

How about you? Your thoughts?

 

[Deuce Traveler]

I haven't read the new line of Conan comics from Dark Horse, but from the way you state it they do seem overpowered. Practicing magic in the original REH stories seemed like playing a reverse sort of Russian Roulette. There was a small chance you might come out on top and gain a sort of dominating power, but it was more likely that you were going to get yourself killed in horrific fashion.

Wizards in the REH stories were beings to both admire and fear because of what magic was rather than their accomplishments. After all, what does it say psychologically about a man who is willing to risk losing his life at best and a tortured afterlife at worse if they were willing to take those chances for even a small taste of hidden knowledge? Even a minor wizard from the Conan novels hit high on the creep meter.

 

[Water Bob]

That's the way magic is presented in the rpg. The game is based on 3.5, but the entire magic section is completely re-written with new rules. Sorcerery in the Conan RPG is dark and gritty. It is nature perverted. Yes, you can become more powerful as a sorceror if you sacrifice a virgin, but you have to deal with corruption--stuff that can make your character paranoid and look like Emperor Palpatine's long lost brother.

But still, there's no way in the rpg that a charater can be as powerful as those Hyperboreans presented in the Dark Horse book.