Resources

Instead of paraphrasing lore, the sources are presented here for your perusing. You will need a torrenting client to download these files. Transmission is a good, simple-to-use, open source client.

Short stories link

Click here or here for public-domain books.

These are the original short stories written by Robert E. Howard, later compiled faithfully by a scholar of his works. They are worth a read for your enjoyment, but if you are looking for lore, it is scattered all throughout in a manner that is not easy to parse.

Modiphius RPG books link

Click here.

These are books for the Conan role-playing game published by Modiphius Entertainment. It is the primary source of lore on The Thin Veneer, for its ease of navigation and excellent and faithful scholarly work on the world of Conan.

You can find a short summary of each nation in chapter 8 of Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of. For a lengthier read, see the Conan the … books.

You may freely ignore any talk of game mechanics.

You may find especially useful:

• Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of — The main book for the game. It contains a good amount of lore in chapter 8 on page 195.
• Conan the Adventurer — Contains lore for Stygia, Darfar, Keshan, Kordafan, Kush, Tombalku, Punt, Zembabwei, Amazon, Atlaia, the Black Coast, and the Southern Desert.
• Conan the Barbarian — Contains lore for barbarians and Cimmeria, Nordheim, and Hyperborea.
• Conan the Brigand — Contains lore for brigands and Khauran, Zamboula, Turan, and the Vilayet Sea.
• Conan the King — Contains lore for nobles and Aquilonia.
• Conan the Mercenary — Contains lore for mercenaries and Khoraja, Koth, Ophir, and Shem.
• Conan the Pirate — Contains lore for pirates and Zingara, Argos, Shem, Stygia, Kush, the Black Coast, Vanaheim, the Pictish Coast, and the Vilayet Sea.
• Conan the Scout — Contains lore for scouts and Bossonia, the Westermarck, Gunderland, the Pictish Wilderness, the Border Kingdoms, and Zingara.
• Conan the Thief — Contains lore for thieves and Zamora, Corinthia, Nemedia, and Brythunia.
• Conan the Wanderer — Contains lore for Ghulistan, Iranistan, Khitai, Kosala, Sabatea, and Vendhya.
• Nameless Cults — Contains lore on many of the religions.
• The Exiles Sourcebook — That’s us! This contains lore on the Exiled Lands themselves. It’s a handy reference book.

‘Essential’ Mongoose RPG books link

Click here.

These are selected books published by Mongoose Publishing for their d20 role-playing game. These are a secondary source of lore for The Thin Veneer. You are free to pilfer these for more lore. In some areas, interpretations differ vastly from Modiphius. See What to do if lore contradicts on how to handle these contradictions.

You will find most useful:

• The Roleplaying Game Second Edition — The main book for the game. It contains a short introductory text for the races on page 13, a history of the world written by Howard on page 284, and a gazetteer of the nations of the world on page 299.
• Return to the Road of Kings — A much more comprehensive gazetteer of the nations of the world. It contains a bibliography at the end, including mostly comic stories.
• Faith and Fervour — A compilation of (almost) all cults and religions in the world.

The remaining books detail regions in the world. Several are obviously named, but here are the ones which require a little extra context:

• Across the Thunder River — The Picts.
• Messantia - City of Riches — A campaign which also contains an in-depth description of the city of Messantia, the capital of Argos.
• Shadizar - City of Wickedness — A campaign which also contains an in-depth description of the city of Shadizar, the capital of Zamora.

Remaining Mongoose RPG books link

Click here.

These are all the other books published for the role-playing game. You will not find all of them useful. Here are a select few which you might like to peruse:

• Cities of Hyboria — Contains descriptions of various cities.
• Hyboria’s Fallen - Pirates, Thieves, and Temptresses — Contains information on role-playing the aforementioned classes, as well as lore for these classes in each nation.
• Hyboria’s Fiercest - Barbarians, Borderers and Nomads — Idem ditto.
• Hyboria’s Finest - Nobles, Scholars and Soldiers — Idem ditto.
• The Free Companies — Contains lore on mercenaries and war.