Religions of the Hyborian Age
The Hyborian world knows as many cults and religions as it knows tribesfolk and peoples, and religious practices and beliefs are as often the result of superstitious dread and sorcerous practices as of exalted spiritual yearnings and theological understanding.
In any case, the age breeds few atheists, and even the most cynical of philosophers accepts the existence of greater beings - good, evil, morally wishy-washy, and also totally chaotic - as a fundamental facet of reality. Though the various individual gods are often worshipped within strict geographical boundaries, the Hyborian Age is throughly polytheistic, and it is a matter of course for nations to acknowledge the existence of rival deities to their own. The major exception to this rule is to be found among certain priests and adherents to the god Mitra who declare their deity to be the one true god, deserving of unwavering, monotheistic devotion, and
the Stygian priests of Set who followed suit.
Among the Aesir and Vanir of Nordheim, Ymir the Frost Giant, lord of storm and war, is chief of all gods, while individual tribes might have their own local deities as well. Ymir's domain is Valhalla, a snowy, shadowy place that is home to warriors fallen in battle; Ymir's daughter, Atali, is said to appear to dying warriors as harbinger of their journey to her father's realm.
The Cimmerians worship a grim and savage god, Crom, Lord of the Great Mountain, who cares little
for humankind save to breathe into human souls the power to strive and slay. The Cimmerians believe in a shadowy afterlife in which the souls of the dead would wander Crom's grey realm aimlessly for all eternity. Among Crom's pantheon are the lesser gods Lir, Macha, Nemain, and Morrigan, Crone of War.
The Hyperboreans to the east worship ancient Bori, while west of Cimmeria the Picts serve Jhebbal Sag, the "ancient god of darkness and fear", as well as the Ghost Snake and Gullah the gorilla-god.
Unlike the Cimmerians, the Picts have no aversion to human sacrifice, and their altars are permanently stained with the gore of their civilized enemies.
In the kingdoms of Aquilonia, Argos, Ophir, Nemedia and Zingara, south of Nordheim and Cimmeria,
Mitra worship is almost universal, rivalled here and there only by cults of small numbers such as that of Asura, Ibis, Ishtar, and even, to some degree, the Stygian serpent-god, Set. Unlike the battle-minded gods of the north, Mitra is a gentle god. Blood sacrifice is expressly forbidden in the Mitran religion, the rituals of which are marked by simplicity, dignity, and beauty. Unlike pagan idols, the statues of Mitra are mere emblems meant to represent the god in idealized form and not to be worshipped themselves.
Koth, which at one time knelt to Mitra, afterwards fell under the influence of Shem and Stygia and abandoned the gentle god for the more sensual rites of Ishtar, as did Khoraja and Khauran.
The citystates of Corinthia may each have patron gods, though Mitra-worship is known there, as is the cult of Anu the bull-god. Zamora, on the other hand, never accepted Mitra but plays host rather to any number of weird and mysterious cults and divinities. Most notorious of them is Bel, the god of thieves, borrowed from the Shemites of Shumir, and most horrible is the nameless spider-god of Yezud, worshipped in the form of a giant tarantula sculpted in black stone.
The land of Shem also worships a plethora of divine beings, most of them fertility gods and goddesses, as befitting an agricultural people. Each city-state owns its own patron deity such as Bel, noted earlier, and Pteor, the male sky-god, mate to the Earth-Mother; the latter appears in several guises as Ashtoreth, Derketo and Ishtar. Ishtar, in particular, is worshipped in rich temples and at lavish shrines with rituals of blood sacrifice and orgiastic frenzy performed before sensuously carved idols of ivory.
To the Zuagir tribesmen of the Eastern Desert, Yog, the ancient demon Lord of he Empty Abodes, is considered most sacred. South of Shem, in Stygia, Set the Old Serpent reigns paramount, a reminder of the Elder Gods worshipped everywhere in the pre-human period of history and later feared in the Hyborian kingdoms as the most abhorrent and foul of demons. Indeed, the gruesome rituals of Set worship, carried out in temple, tomb and pyramid, and including live human sacrifice and sorcerous obscenities, only underscored the reason why Set's very name evokes disgust and terror among most peoples.
Among the Black Kingdoms Set holds some sway, but native gods such as Jullah, Jhil and Gwahlur have large followings of their own, as do countless local demons and spirits.
Turan in the east holds Erlik and the Living Tarim as holiest of gods, while Zamboula bows to Hanuman, the horrible man-ape god.
Farther east in Kosala, the cult of Yajur offers their bloodthirsty god strangled humans, while in Khitai Yun seems to be worshipped less violently with incense and prayer.
