expected action in regards to rights and obligations, he can make a Knowledge (nobility) DC 15 check.
History
To understand its government and laws one must first comprehend that which has gone before and necessitated the need for such things.
Aquilonia was founded some 2,500 – 3,000 years ago by some ancient Hyborian tribe. Extremely little is known about this shrouded time. The area where Aquilonia stands now was once part of Acheron. Bossonia and Gunderland were settled by Hyborians during the time of Acheron, driving the Picts to the west. From these early Hyborians Acheron raided for slaves and sacrifices. Acheron used the Gunderland Hyborians as a barrier against the Cimmerians just as the Bossonians were a bastion against the Picts. Sandwiched between Acheron and Cimmeria, the Bossonians were forced to keep their Hyborian blood pure. Thus the nations stood for two millennia.
Although even less is known about the fall of Acheron, according to Xaltotun the fall was precipitated by the theft of the Heart of Ahriman and a feathered barbarian shaman used its power to defeat the priests of Set. After the fall, the Hyborian tribes founded Aquilonia and Nemedia on Acheron’s ruins. The constant dangers of intertribal wars brought about the need for a system of local defence. Aquilonia’s feudal society began when Andromedus, a charismatic warlord, began granting estates for military service. His kingdom was being invaded by hostile barbarians and he could not gather a strong enough of a fighting force without giving the warriors something substantial in exchange for their blood. He hit upon the solution – he would give them the right to use land for their own purposes if they swore to defend those lands. He was soon
able to field armies powerful enough to conquer most of central Aquilonia, the name of Andromedus’ kingdom. His army was originally an army of infantry who normally were farmers and herdsmen. As his wars progressed, his fighting force became dedicated to military activity, giving rise to mounted cavalry called knights. In his day, a knight was any warrior who fought on horseback. There was no noble or aristocratic order at this time, either. Eventually, the knights would evolve into the aristocratic social order, but that would be a long time in the making. Some historians consider Andromedus to be the greatest king to ever stride this troubled world. He was a man possessed of sweeping vision, vast intelligence and awesome strength. Before him, Aquilonia was wilderness and wasteland but he carved a kingdom, founding the capital city of Tamar and the city of Tarantia. He built a vault beneath Tarantia for his remains but was never buried there. He was known to have wielded a silver- edged war axe. He vanished on an expedition along the Khorotas River. Some believe King Andromedus was met and captured by a southern sorcerer named Xondar Kan. Xondar Kan is believed to have mystically preserved the king’s soul, then perverting and strengthening that soul via certain rites of horror and magic. King Andromedus is remembered as a good and courageous ruler, the founder of Aquilonia’s royal line that ended with Numedides. From its original capital of Tamar, Aquilonia expanded violently, eventually extending to Gunderland, Poitain, Nemedia and the non-Hyborian realm of Bossonia. Nearly a thousand years after its founding, Aquilonia absorbed Gunderland and Bossonia and divided its territories up as fiefs for Aquilonian barons.
A religious upheaval shook the Hyborian kingdoms some four or five centuries later and Mitra became the dominant god. They Hyborian lands were again menaced by Set and his priests. For a period that lasted longer than the lifetime of three normal humans, Epemitreus the Sage battled Set and his priests, driving them at last back to Stygia. This successful war brought about the religious revolution that placed Mitra supreme among the Hyborian cultures. The priests of Mitra were unrelenting in rooting out Set’s temples and, later, in driving out nearly any foreign religion. Six hundred years later Epeus the Sword-wielder is the reigning king of Aquilonia, according to Howard’s Drums
of Tombalku. He battled the Nemedians when King
Bragorus of that realm invaded. Sometime during the next four centuries the capital of Aquilonia was moved to the religious center of Tarantia during a period of intense fighting with the kingdom of Poitain.
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Poitain was eventually brought into the Aquilonian fold, although it is not told whether they were subjugated or were diplomatically adjoined. Regardless, even in Conan’s time, some five hundred years later, the people of Poitain barely regarded themselves as Aquilonian.
The acquisition of Poitain spelled a basic end to turmoil in the Aquilonian interior. War, though still prevalent on the frontiers, became largely unknown to the peasantry of the central provinces. Through peace, Aquilonia grew prosperous and rich. Poitain occasionally rose up and fought for independence when a weak king ruled Aquilonia, but strong kings would soon reacquire the kingdom and peace again would steal across the heartland of Aquilonia. Revolutions among the nobles occasionally boiled up and the crown changed hands many times across the royal families, but generally peace in the heartlands was the norm.
Early in Conan’s life, Aquilonia tried to push its northern boundaries further into Cimmeria. This attempt at colonisation failed in one of the bloodiest battles in recent Aquilonian history. At Venarium, the Aquilonians built a fort, believing the scattered and disorganised Cimmerian tribes would never be able to throw them back as individual tribes. The Cimmerian tribes did what was thought to be impossible. They united and fought back. Venarium was sacked. Conan, the future king of Aquilonia, was among the savage hordes wading in Aquilonian blood on Cimmerian soil. The mighty Aquilonia was driven back. During most of Conan’s adventuring life, King Vilerus ruled Aquilonia. King Vilerus had dreams of imperial
conquest, desiring to rule by might and fear. Not learning from history, Vilerus declared the Pictish lands between the Thunder and Black Rivers to be a new Aquilonian province, the Westermarck, believing the disjointed and discordant Picts would never unite to stand against this colonisation effort. Shortly after he divided the new Pictish land up among some of his favoured vassals, he died and was replaced by his nephew, Numedides, who continued where Vilerus left off, pushing even further. This effort also failed when the Picts fought back as an allied force under the wizard Zogar Sag. The grim assault on Fort Tuscelan in Conajohara by the Picts left only one survivor. Even though Conan, a mercenary at the time, was able to lead Aquilonia into stopping the Pictish Invasion, the Aquilonians lost the new province of Conajohara. King Numedides was not a strong king. Eight years after the events of Beyond the Black River, Aquilonia was embroiled in a bitter civil war, a war from which Conan rose to wrest the Aquilonian throne from the Hyborian scions that traditionally ruled. For reasons undisclosed by Robert E. Howard, Conan stormed Tarantia, strangled King Numedides on the steps of Aquilonia’s throne and took the crown of the greatest of the Hyborian kingdoms for himself.
The events of The Phoenix on the Sword took place a year or so later. A plot to kill King Conan had arisen and might have succeeded if not for the magic of Thoth- Amon, whose summoned demon killed the leader of the rebels before he could score a deadly blow to the wounded king, and the intervention of the sage Epemitreus, whose magic sigil saved Conan from the same monster. Later, the events told in The Scarlet Citadel unfolded, and Conan was embroiled in a fight for his life against the plans of the kings of Ophir and Koth. Yet another pretender to the throne was slain and Conan reigned peacefully for two more years, ruling with a firm but tolerant hand.
According to L. Sprague de Camp, Conan ruled for some 20 years before abdicating to his son, Conan II, and leaving for a mysterious continent in the western hemisphere. The Games Master is free to make his own determination, for Robert E. Howard says little about it. Howard, in a letter to P. S. Smith, wrote, ‘He travelled widely, not only before his kingship, but after he was king. He travelled to Khitai and Hyrkania, and to the even less known regions north of the latter and south of the former. He even visited a nameless continent in the western hemisphere, and roamed among the islands adjacent to it.’