In our last video, we witnessed Conan
of Cimmeria’s first taste of leadership in the service of Khorala, beating back the
hordes of the undead sorcerer Thugra Khotan. The decade to follow would see him
grow further into the role of a leader, inspiring loyalty and terror
across the breadth of the world. He had fought against his former master and
rival Yezdigerd of Turan, leading the Kozaki Free Companions of the steppes as their Hetman. He had
raided far-off Vendhya ahead of Afghuli tribesmen, forged brigands into an army to overthrow the
usurper queen of Khauran, and entered into legend as the fearsome pirate lord known as Amra, the
lion of the Black Coast. But his greatest test and his greatest conquest lay ahead of him,
in the mightiest kingdom of the Hyborian Age: Aquilonia, an old and proud empire laid low
by the tyranny of its mad king Numedides.
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a gift, and help support the channel. In recent years, the perversions of King
Numedides of Aquilonia had grown ever darker, his cruelty and thirst for soft flesh giving
way to baths of blood and the dark rituals of the sorcerer Thulandra Thuu, who promised
immortality to the Aquilonian monarch. Though far from the first magic-user to
make a puppet of a king in the Hyborian Age, Thuu had a far more pragmatic mindset
than the likes of Makkalet’s Kharam-Akkad, his mastery of the arcane arts not dulling his
courtly talents as a politician and schemer. Conan and Numedides had history already, and
had not always been foes. Though in his youth Conan had first blooded himself in battle against
Aquilonians, part of the wild horde that overran Fort Venarium on Aquilonia’s frontier with
Cimmeria, in more recent years he had served in Numedides’ army, rising to become a renowned
general for his victories fighting the Picts at the Thunder River and at Velitrium. His rise
would come with an even more sudden fall, however, when the paranoid Numedides, fearful of the mighty
outlander’s popularity, turned on his general and forced Conan to flee into exile to avoid
execution, departing Aquilonia to the wildernesses of the Picts he had so recently warred against.
However, Conan’s exile would not be a long one. In the depths of the Pictish Wilderness, he made
two surprising discoveries, first: the hidden treasure cave of the famed pirate Tranicos, whose
buried wealth dwarfed the treasuries of kingdoms, and second, a remote wooden fortress built by
another exile, the Zingaran Count Korzetta. Tensions grew higher with the arrival of two rival
pirate captains, Strombanni and Black Zarono. Though Korzetta had in truth come to the
wilderness fleeing the wrath of the wizard Thoth-Amon, whom he had once cheated out of
payment for a dark bargain, both pirates were convinced the Count had come seeking the treasure
of Tranicos. However, attacks from Picts and the reveal of Conan’s knowledge of the treasure’s
location eventually drove the four into an uneasy rogues’ alliance. After schemes and betrayals from
all parties, the enterprise nearly came to naught with the fall of Korzetta’s fortress to Picts
and the deaths of Korzetta and both captains, but fortune smiled on Conan in the form of Count
Trocero of Poitain, a friend and ally of Conan’s, who had followed the divinations of the Mitran
priest Dexithius to find the exiled barbarian general and recruit him for a rebellion to
overthrow Numedides. With the treasure of Tranicos to bankroll their insurrection, Conan
and his unexpected rescuers left the Pictish Wilderness by war galley to Messantia, capital
of Argos, there to plot the toppling of a despot. Messantia would provide a staging ground for the
raising of Conan and Trocero’s mercenary army. King Milo of Argos was an old friend of
Count Trocero’s, and no friend of Numedides. During the reign of the mad
tyrant’s uncle and predecessor, large swathes of land along the Alimane River
had been seized from Argos by Aquilonia, and the grudges ran deep between Argos and
its more powerful, domineering neighbor. Selling the vast wealth of Tranicos, Conan and
Trocero soon raised over ten thousand warriors, camping and drilling outside Messantia as
ever more Aquilonian deserters, exiles and fortune-seekers flocked to the returned general’s
banner. But among the thousands of eager and loyal soldiers, two newcomers had come to Conan’s camp
with treachery in their hearts. The first was Quesado, a Zingaran spy in the employ of Thulandra
Thuu, who played the role of a drunken layabout sellsword in order to infiltrate Conan’s camp. The
second was Alcina, Thuu’s apprentice and catspaw, who posed as a Messantian dancing girl and became
Conan’s mistress after he overheard Quesado telling tales of her beauty. When Conan’s forces
finally left Messantia on the road to Tarantia, it was with these two unseen enemies in their
midst, informing the foe of their movements. Standing between Conan’s army and Aquilonia
was the border legion under General Procas, an experienced and skilled commander but one long
out of favor in court and a target of Thulandra’s machinations. Based on the Aquilonian side of
the Alimane River in Trocero’s native Poitain, they could control the three safe fords and
make any crossing difficult despite Conan having the larger army. The rebels had one major
advantage: Poitain was one of the provinces most hostile to King Numedides, and partisans in the
province were preparing to raise it in revolt, promising to send a bloodied arrow to Conan
as a signal when the revolt was ready. However, for such an uprising to have any
meaning, Conan’s army would first have to make the dangerous crossing of the Alimane. Conan’s advance
was a hurried one - pressured by the growing displeasure of King Milo at the large foreign army
at his borders, and hoping to march on Tarantia before harvest season brought potential recruits
back to their fields, Conan would have no choice but to attempt to force a crossing, splitting his
army into three and preparing to march as soon as the signal arrived from Trocero’s partisans
arrived. In the central, largest river crossing, a small force under Trocero’s right-hand man
Prospero would camp and threaten to cross, with extra tents and horses to feign a much larger
number. With the Aquilonians hopefully taking this for the main army and focusing their defense in
the center, Trocero and Conan would cross at the Eastern and Western crossings with the bulk of the
army, falling on Procas in a pincer movement. But as sound as the plan was, it would be undone by
Alcina’s spying. Overhearing Conan and Trocero’s plan as she feigned sleep in the general’s
tent, the plan - and the awaited signal - were transmitted by magic to Thulandra Thuu, and
from Thuu on to Procas. The following day, a bloodied arrow was indeed delivered to Conan’s
camp, but as a ruse by Procas, luring Conan into his trap before their allies could muster.
The resulting battle would be nothing short of a disaster for the rebels under Conan. Despite
marching their units in and out of the tree cover to suggest a larger army and blowing horns
enough for a force ten times their size, Prospero’s diversionary force found the central
crossing all but deserted. But on the flanks, Procas’ preparedness and the poor scouting of the
inexperienced rebel horsemen led both Conan and Trocero to lead their forces into ambushes. As
the rebels waded through the almost chest-high water of the Alimane, archers and crossbowmen
sprung from the foliage on the North bank, peppering them with deadly missile fire and
causing panic to break out. The foremost rebels, who managed to cross the river before the trap
was sprung, were cut down by Procas’ cavalry, who continued their charge to cut bloody trails
in the disorganized mass of rebels in the river. Unable to maintain the discipline of his
panicked troops, Conan soon fled with what survivors he could muster, with a downpour of
heavy rain come evening hiding both him and the similarly defeated Trocero from the Aquilonian
cavalry hunting survivors across the river. While the death toll was significant, the blow
to morale the disaster inflicted was far worse, with most of the survivors simply deserting
into the forest in hopes of reaching safety, the remainder of the scattered host slowly
regrouping after the disaster into a force barely stronger than fifteen hundred, which withdrew back
through the Saxula Pass to the Plain of Pallos. Conan’s misfortune would only grow in the
aftermath. Informed of the battle’s outcome by Alcina, Thulandraa Thuu decided to rid himself
of both Conan and his rival Procas, now that the commander was no longer needed to keep the rebels
at bay. On her master’s orders, Alcina poisoned Conan with the deadly powder of the purple lotus,
leaving him for dead and departing the rebel camp. Thuu, meanwhile, had Numedides send a letter to
Procas ordering him to cross the river and wipe out the remaining rebels in Argos. Surviving the
poison thanks to his legendary strength but left weakened and bed-ridden, Conan’s cause might
have seemed doomed, but in a stroke of irony, his salvation would come from one of the
same traitors responsible for his ruin. For his work spying on the rebel army, Quesado
had been promoted to the diplomatic corps as ambassador to Argos, but though a skilled spy,
he made a poor diplomat, gravely insulting King Milo by attempting to threaten him into helping
Aquilonia round up and destroy the rebel remnants. Instead, Milo sent a strong force of horsemen
North to the Alimane with orders to drive off any Aquilonian incursion. Their arrival just as
the rebel and Aquilonian army were about to meet for their final clash suddenly turned a last stand
into a tense stalemate, and put Procas in a deadly bind. Though his border legion outnumbered the
rebels even with the arrival of Milo’s cavalry, to attack now would mean a war with Argos that
Aquilonia could little afford in its current state of turmoil. However, to retreat would
mean disobeying a direct order from his king, inviting accusations of cowardice. Either way, his
enemies in court would spring at the chance to see him disgraced or executed, leading Procas to delay
the attack his army had been prepared to deliver. A few hours later, a second force appeared to tip
the scales - the intact rearguard from Trocero’s force, which had escaped the disaster under
the leadership of Baron Groder and numbered another fifteen hundred to double Conan’s
army. Now outnumbered, Procas signaled his army to withdraw, hoping the sudden imbalance
in numbers would forestall Numedides’ anger. Seeing his foe retreating, Conan hoped to pursue
them through the pass, dealing what damage he could while they filed through the passes and
across the river. Unfortunately, the Argossean horsemen under Prince Cassio were under orders to
fight for the Aquilonians only if they attempted to push further into Argos, and would not take
the offensive against them with the rebels, despite Cassio’s sympathy for Conan’s cause. But
here, Conan’s experience in Turan would serve him well. Remembering the mounted archers that
formed the core of that Eastern kingdom’s army, Conan asked Cassio to lend him five hundred
horses, after all, the king’s order bound only the soldiers, not their mounts. What horses the
rebel army had left were underfed and exhausted, but with five hundred strong Argossean mounts,
Conan could mount his Bossonian archers to harry the retreating Aquilonians. Though his men were
unable to fire from horseback, they waged an effective guerrilla offensive over the following
days, riding in small groups into longbow range of the enemy, dismounting to fire, and vanishing
like smoke in the face of resistance. On his way back through Saxula Pass, Procas’ army was further
damaged by an avalanche of boulders prepared by Conan’s scouts. Despite his skill as a soldier,
the Aquilonian general lacked Conan’s mastery of irregular warfare, won through years of tribal
warfare and piracy - and while the attrition meant little to the Border Legion’s overall numbers,
it caused a rapid deterioration of their morale. Finally crossing back over the Alimane after three
days of harassment, volleys from two hundred of Conan’s archers gave the Aquilonians a taste
of what the rebels had suffered at their hands, and Procas himself was left wounded and
unable to travel by an arrow in his leg. Beaten and humiliated, the Border Legion
made camp on the Alimane’s North Bank, to turn back any attempts at a second crossing.
Despite the losses inflicted by Conan’s hit-and-run attacks, the numbers were still
more favorable for the Border Legion than they had been in the rebel’s first crossing, and the
liberation of Aquilonia might well have ended here in stalemate if not for the misplaced
plotting of Thulandra Thuu. With Quesado and Alcina now both gone from the rebel camp, neither
they nor the wizard they served was aware Conan had survived the poisoning. Thinking the rebel
army to be leaderless and no longer a threat, Thuu decided it was now safe to eliminate his
rival Procas, sending Alcina as his assassin. Claiming to bear a message from the mage, she
secured a private meeting in the general’s tent, only to mortally injure him with a poisoned
dagger. The old warrior would sell his life dearly in his last moments, though, with the amulet used
to communicate with her master being torn free in the struggle and left behind in Alcina’s hurry
to flee the camp. In the morning, the discovery of Procas’ death, declared a suicide by his
replacement Count Ascalante, an inexperienced and power-hungry noble under Thulandra Thuu’s
sway, caused the Border Legion’s already flagging morale to plummet, with the unlikeliness
of the suicide claim spurring distrust and suspicion towards their new leadership. Thus,
while made up of some of the most experienced soldiers in Aquilonia, the Border Legion would
be little prepared for what would come next. As mentioned previously, Poitain had been
on the brink of revolt when Conan’s army of liberation had first arrived, but the disaster at
the Alimane and the rebel withdrawal to the plains of Argos had left the population too afraid of
Numedides’ harsh reprisals to turn on the crown. But now, with Conan again camped across the
river, Procas dead and the Border Legion licking its wounds, Trocero’s propagandists
set the planning of months into motion. Just a few nights after Procas’ death, the city
of Culario erupted in a well-planned rebellion, Poitainians killing guards at their posts,
looting the armory and hanging the Aquilonian governor and tax collector. Following this, the
victorious rebels made their way swiftly South, reaching the Alimane before word of the successful
insurrection. With fog shrouding the early morning darkness and the loss of Procas’ skilled
leadership, the Aquilonians caught off guard by the surprise attack from friendly territory.
With Conan’s army taking advantage of the fog and the distraction to launch their own attack, and
Ascalante deserting at the first sign of defeat, the skilled and experienced Border Legion
rapidly lost its discipline and disintegrated, some fighting in a confusing darkened melee while
far more threw down their weapons in surrender. Conan’s campaign at the Alimane, despite
its disastrous beginnings, would end as a triumph - in the aftermath of the victory, the
barbarian warrior’s renown and popularity as a former general and war hero allowed him to sway
many from the Border Legion to join his cause, including Ascalante’s former second-in-command,
the self-serving but skilled Baron Gromel - and on his arrival in Culario, new recruits
and allies flocked to his lion standard, with the Northern Barons pledging their
allegiance and men of Poitain volunteering to join his ranks in numbers greater than could
be armed or equipped. Though this was only the first step on his long road to Tarantia, it would
surprisingly be the last major battle won through conventional force of arms, despite the larger
Aquilonian armies still standing in his path. At the Brocellian Forest, both armies would trust
in sorcery to win the day. Conan would see victory here, his keen senses allowing him to save his
army from Thulandra Thuu’s magical landslide trap, while the satyrs of the forest - promised peace
and friendship by Conan, who had saved some of their number being hunted for Thuu’s rituals -
would use their pipes to cast madness over the encamped Aquilonians. And following this magical
victory, it would be Conan’s sword-arm alone that won him Tarantia and its Ruby Throne. Though
twenty-five thousand Aquilonians under Count Ulric stood poised to drive the rebels from the
capital, turncoats among the Black Dragons - the elite royal guard of Aquilonia, who in recent
years had seen and suffered through the madness of Numedides more closely than any - smuggled
Conan, the priest Dexithius, and some of his loyal men within the near-unguarded palace itself.
Here, protected from the unprepared Thuu’s magic by Dexithius, the wanderer from Cimmeria slew
the newly self-proclaimed deity Numedides and drove Thulandra Thuu to flight, being proclaimed
King Conan and ending the civil war before the two armies could meet in pitched battle.
In the years to follow, Conan would prove himself one of the greatest monarchs of
the Hyborian Age - but rulership would bring many new challenges for the barbarian
swordsman, and more battles still lay ahead. Thanks again to our sponsor, Established
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