¶ Stygia
The Stygians are a mysterious people, the ruling elite tall, dusky, hawk-nosed, and haughty while the lower classes were a mixture of Negroid, Stygian, Shemite, and Hyborian stock. Stygia is a decadent nation and its total population was very small. Arable land was in short supply, being found only along the Styx.
The economy includes nomadic herding, fishing, manufacturing of jewelry such as amulets and talismans, and the production of drugs. Stygia has a distinct superfluity of sorcerers. It trafficks as far as Khitai to obtain magical nostrums. Caravan routes criss-cross the country, bringing goods into the Black Kingdoms and raw materials and slaves out of them. Stygian silk industry and steel-arms productions are well known and popular.
Stygia is a theocracy controlled by the priests of Set, the Serpent-God. The administrative capital and seat of the king is Luxur, lying inland and south of the Styx on an important caravan route. The greatest port and religious center is at Khemi, on the estuary of the Styx. Sukhmet and Kheshatta are apparently caravan cities that service traders from the black nations. From the coast, it is 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 Lemurian survivors, 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 survives in the Far South and in a few other places. The serpent-worship characterizing the religion of the nation has its basis in the veneration of the vanished snake-beings.
The Old Stygian Empire embraces 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.
The nation represents an undefined menace of ancient sorcery.
References: Hyborian Age I-II, Tower of the Elephant, Hall of the Dead, Queen of the Black Coast, A Witch Shall Be Born, Conan the Buccaneer, Conan and the Treasure of Python, Hour of the Dragon, et al.
See also:
- Kheshatta, the City of Magicians
- The River Styx
- 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
- Allies: Kush, Turan, Zembabwei
- Enemies: Shem, Darfar, Keshan
- Tech level: Bronze age
- Religion: Set, Derketo, Ibis