Kull is a physical exemplar, strong and fast and with incredible resilience. In Kull, Howard created the ideal expression of his values. Despite his decency towards women, he has no interest in romance with either gender. When a friend turns traitor, Kull’s regret is that the young man felt driven to such extremes. Life is a momentary dream, and kingdoms something to be tolerated, even his own. He forgives insults and treacheries, permits open rivals to live, reshapes laws to allow lovers to marry, and considers poets more worthy than kings. But alongside his adventures, he is also deeply concerned with matters of decency and fairness, particularly as they oppose the laws of civilisation. He has firm allies – the Pictish warrior Brule the Spear-slayer, and a cynical first councillor named Tu – and a dire enemy, the undead sorcerer Thusla Doom of movie fame. In the stories that follow, he devotes much of his time to defending life, throne, and kingdom from threats, often sorcerous. By the time of “The Shadow Kingdom,” he has replaced the previous king, and is forced to contend with constant conspiracy, backbiting, and the treat of assassination. He considers the ancient kingdom decadent and hidebound, their laws petty and cruel. By the time of the next story, he is established in Valusia. Because of this, he has to flee for his life. Kull is perplexed, and tries to help her, but the best he can do is grant her a swift death. The tribe decide to burn her at the stake. The earliest story in Kull’s own timeline is “Exile of Atlantis.” A tribeswoman who had fled to marry into enemy tribe is shipwrecked in her home territory. He rose swiftly in the army, and the loyalty he gained there permitted him to overthrow the cruel, hated king and replace him. He became famous and popular, eventually winning freedom as a soldier. After being banished, he spent an unsuccessful time as a pirate and then bandit, before being captured by the kingdom of Valusia and made to fight as a gladiator. Only some former mountains survived, as islands, and after a feral time, Kull was adopted into one of these sea-mountain tribes. Kull was born in Atlantis’s Tiger Valley, but the land flooded while he was still young. Little else of the world was above the waves. A hundred thousand years ago, Atlantis still stood above the waves, but most of humanity lived on the continent of Thuria, roughly equivalent to modern Eurasia.
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