Stygia

• Population: 2,100,000
• Capital: Luxur (pop. 200,000)
• Ruler: Pharaoh Ctesiphon  (? - ?)
• Major cities: Khemi (pop. 550,000), Kheshatta (pop. 70,000), Harakht (pop. 86,000), Sukhmet (pop. 34,000)
• Resources: Gems (lapis lazuli, fine quartz), medicines and charms, bronze, ivory, pearls, skins and slaves from the Black Kingdoms
• Imports: Cattle, grain and other agricultural products
• Historical Equivalent: Ancient Egypt 
• Religion: Set, Derketo, Ibis

Ships did not put unasked into the port of Khemi, where dusky sorcerors wove awful spells in the murk of sacrificial smoke mounting eternally from blood-stained altars where naked women screamed, and where Set, the Old Serpent, arch-demon of the Hyborians but god of the Stygians, was said to writhe his shining coils among his worshippers".    Queen of the Black Coast.


A southern kingdom bounded by the Western Ocean on the west, the River Styx on the north and east, the kingdoms of Kush, Darfar, and Keshan on the South. 

There are forests, marshes, and numerous islands along the western coast; but inland is mostly a featureless desert, dotted with tombs and sinister ruins. In the south-central grasslands are the ghost-haunted Swamps of the Purple Lotus. The jungle rainforest begins near the frontier with Darfar and Keshan. There were more grasslands and a portion of the Southern Desert at the frontier with Kush. Cultivated lands lay along the great river, but was in short supply.

The Stygians are a mysterious people, the ruling elite tall, dusky, hawk-nosed, and haughty while the lower classes were a mixture of Black tribesmen, Stygians, Shemites, and Hyborians.  The ruling elite, representing a constant and undefined menace of ancient sorcery, may be defined as somewhat "top heavy", forcing Stygia to sustain itself at the expense of its neighbours.

The economy during Conan's time included nomadic herding, fishing, manufacturing of jewelry such as amulets and talismans, silk, weapons-making and the production of drugs. Caravan routes criss-crossed the country, bringing goods into the Black Kingdoms and raw materials and slaves out of them.

Stygia is a theocracy controlled by the priests of Set, the Serpent-God. The administrative capital and seat of the king was Luxur, lying inland and south of the Styx on an important caravan route. The River Bakhr, once navigable as far as Luxur, is no longer.  The greatest port and religious center was at Khemi, on the estuary of the Styx. Sukhmet and Kheshatta are caravan cities that serviced traders from the black nations. From the coast, it was possible to take a caravan trail all the way to Sukhmet and presumably beyond.

After the Cataclysm, the land of Stygia was invaded by a large body of refugees, originally from the Far East. They destroyed a pre-human race of serpent-folk to establish what was probably the first of the post-Cataclysmic kingdoms of the West -- Old Stygia. A remnant of the serpent-race survived in the Far South and in a few other places. The serpent-worship characterizing the religion of the nation had its basis in the veneration of the vanished snake-beings.

At its greatest extent, the Old Stygian Empire embraced the lands of Shem, western Koth, Ophir, and Corinthia, as well as part of the Eastern Desert. Acheron may have taken over the northern satellites just prior to the Hyborian invasions. Stygians were driven out of Shem by Hyborian-Kothic invaders.