CIMMERIA
CIMMERIA (Medium Kingdom) -- 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 Northeim
warriors who return from that grey land! A legacy of hatred runs strong
amongst Cimmerians for their long time enemies, the Picts.
NATIONAL HISTORY
Know, my Lord, that thy people are descended of the might of Atlantis.
Atlantis, whose gleaming spires the oceans drank in the Great Cataclysm
which shook the world many thousands of years past. Long lost is
Atlantis, and among her children not even the legend remains, only war
and unending war with all their neighbors.
Lo, for five thousand years ther has run a river of blood between thy
people and the Picts. Amongst the ruins of ancient Valusia, the
forefathers of the Picts and Cimmerians crashed upon one another to
destroy each other's kingdoms and return both cultures to savagery and
barbarism far removed from the works of their fathers. The sires
of Cimmeria were driven back from the coast by the seemingly
innumerable hordes of the Picts, whose legions to this day go
uncounted, into the grim, moody, grey-skied hills where they chose to
go no farther.
Thy people have made this land their home, and even Acheron, its empire
growing to full power and falling over twenty-five hundred years, never
once boasted defeat of thy Cimmerians. Other Hyborian kingdoms have
been slow to encroach upon the unappealing Cimmerian hills, and after
tasting harsh defeat, have bypassed this grim land and its even grimmer
people. It is true, however, by Crom's will or against it, that over
the last thousand years thy people have become more civilized - -
slightly - - by their contact with the Hyborian kingdoms.
Thy Cimmerians worship Crom, a god suited to their grim disposition.
Above all, thy people retain the soul of the savage, instinctively
knowing what more civilized men have forgotten. It is easier to take a
civilization by force of arms than to build one . . . Heed well now the
words of thy counsellor as I report to the of the present state of thy
kingdom.