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CONTENTS
Aquilonia - Flower of the West
Credits
Author
Vincent Darlage
Editor and Line Developer
Richard Neale
Cover Art
Chris Quilliams
Interior Artists
Storn C. Cook, Anthea Dilly, Stacy Drum, Sergio Villa
Isaza, Chris Quilliams, Chad Sergesketter, Ronald Smith,
Ursula Vernon & Alejandro Villen
Studio Manager
Ian Barstow
Production Director
Alexander Fennell
Proofreading
Eric Micheals
Special Thanks
Theodore Bergquist & Fredrik Malmberg at Conan
Properties.
Support
Continuing support for Conan the Roleplaying Game can
be found at www.conan.com, www.mongoosepublishing.
com and in the pages of Signs and Portents magazine.
Introduction
Contents
2
3
29
44
52
56
60
64
96
137
141
147
156
196
200
The Proudest Kingdom
A Breed Apart
Might & Majesty
Pomp & Pageantry
Illnesses & Ungents
Faith & Fervour
Governance & Law
Beyond the Gardens
Ways & Means
Lords & Masters
Foes & Fiends
Serfs & Sell-Swords
Danger & Destiny
License
the Judgement Throne 187
Conan: Aquilonia - Flower of the West
is © 2005 Conan Properties International LLC. CONAN®, CONAN THE
BARBARIAN® and related logos, character, names, and distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Conan Properties
International LLC unless otherwise noted. All Rights Reserved. Mongoose Publishing Ltd Authorized User. Conan
the Roleplaying Game is released under version 1.0 of the Open Game License. Reproduction of non-Open Game
Content of this work by any means without the written permission of the pulisher is expressly forbidden. See page
200 for the text of this license. With the exception of the character creation rules detailing the mechanics
of assigning dice roll results to abilities and the advancement of character levels, all game mechanics and
statistics (including the game mechanics of all feats, skills, classes, creatures, spells and the combat
chapter) are declared open content. Printed in China
1
introduction
Introduction
Welcome to Aquilonia
Aquilonia, a land
rife with intrigue, murder,
horror and the setting for untold campaigns. From the
palatial splendour of the capital, Tarantia, to the rural
tranquillity of the Tauran and the brooding nobles of
Poitain, this sourcebook for
Conan the Roleplaying Game
details Hyboria’s greatest kingdom, Aquilonia, the Flower
of the West, destined to be ruled over by the mighty Conan
himself!
Aquilonia is the wealthiest and most powerful of the
Hyborian kingdoms, peopled with a proud population
better off than most in that distant epoch. Its barons
and counts maintain ancient feuds from generation to
generation and the frontiers fight Picts, Cimmerians,
Nemedians, Ophireans and each other. Throughout the
chronicles of Conan, Aquilonia plays a dominant role in
the history of the Hyborian Age. From stories such as
Phoenix on the Sword
and
The Scarlet Citadel
where Conan
is King to others like
Beyond the Black River
and
Wolves
Beyond the Borders,
featuring Aquilonia’s struggles with the
Picts, all draw their readers into the provinces and streets of
Aquilonia and the rule of its barbarian king.
Unlike many of the other nations of the era, Aquilonians
is described as being comprised of many different racial
types: Gundermen, Poitainians, Bossonians, Taurans and
others appear in the various tales of Conan, all of them
Aquilonians. What characteristics do these races have in
common? What characteristics make these races different?
How are these heterogeneous populations controlled by a
single Aquilonian king? This volume attempts to answer
those questions and more.
The early chapters of this book discuss what an Aquilonian
is like, including details of appearance, the importance of
honour, the function of allegiance, the role of women,
love and marriage, how property is acquired and
managed, the existence of slavery, the part occupations
and guilds play in society, how trade works, what
taxes are normally paid and who pays them and
the social strata of Aquilonians. Information
concerning government and politics,
feudalism and the manorial system,
Aquilonian history, law, military,
government as well as
information on the inclusion of Aquilonia in your games
can be found in the later chapters of this book.
Throughout this text appear sample Non-Player
Characters appropriate to the section they are attached
to. More Non-Player Characters appear in the
Notables of
Aquilonia
chapter. The Non-Player Characters used in this
sourcebook are not given fate points or languages. There
are several reasons for this omission. First, if Non-Player
Characters’ use fate points as much as Player Characters,
no one would ever get killed and the Player Characters’
jobs will be that much harder. Fate Points exist primarily
as an opportunity for players to influence the game in a
favourable direction. Games Masters do not need that
particular contrivance. Second, who knows what a Non-
Player character has been through in his life? In both cases,
the Games Master’s discretion is required. If the Games
Master wants to give the Non-Player Characters described
throughout this book Fate Points, he is at leave to do so.
Languages function in a similar manner. If the Games
Master wants a character to speak a given language or
not, then the character speaks or does not speak the given
language. The needs of the game is paramount here, not
a whimsical choice of mine. Thus, both Fate Points and
Languages are left off the statistic blocks of the characters
throughout this text.
The tantalisingly vague descriptions and hints given about
the various Hyborian nations serve as a springboard for
the imagination. As even a casual perusal of
The Hyborian
Age
shows, these are not stagnant cultures, forever framed
by a single phrase in a story. These cultures and kingdoms
should live and breathe. Borders should change and
waver. Every Game Master should not fear to put a bit
of themselves into this world. Take these seeds and see
what grows from your own imagination. Not everyone’s
Aquilonia needs to be the same, with the same borders
and culture. If you want Aquilonia to wipe Nemedia off
the map, then do it. If you want Tarantia to burn to the
ground, then let it burn. Just because some Nemedian
scribe hyped up Conan to be the greatest hero of the age,
do not let that stop your players from being greater.
Let the Hyborian Age live and never let it stagnate. We are
the kings of the world tonight!
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THe Proudest Kingdom
Life inAquilonia
Aquilonia’s people are
varied and interesting
in appearance. The original Hyborians were tawny-haired
and grey-eyed, though by the time of Conan, intermarriage
has diversified their appearance considerably. Overall,
Aquilonians have a long head and are a tall, rangy race.
The people of southern Aquilonia have mixed with the
brown Zingarans until black hair and brown eyes are the
dominant type in Poitain, the southernmost province. The
people of Gunderland have kept their race pure, leaving
them tawny-haired and grey-eyed. Bossonians are of
medium height and complexion, with brown or grey eyes
and are descended from an aboriginal race, conquered by
a tribe of Hyborians early in the first ages of the Hyborian
drift. They have medium-size, normal heads. Taurans are
of medium height and also tend to have tawny hair. City
dwellers tend to be portly in rich Aquilonia and relatively
few suffer from hunger.
The Aquilonians were a tall race,
averaging five feet, ten and three-
fourths inches in height, and were generally
inclined to be rangy, though in the last
generations the city dwellers inclined toward
portliness. They varied in complexion largely
according to locality. Thus the people of Gunderland
were uniformly tawny-haired and gray-eyed, while
the people of Poitain were almost uniformly dark as
their neighbors, the Zingarans. All were inclined
to be dolichocephalic, except a sprinkling of peasantry
along the Bossonian border, whose type had been
modified by admixture with the latter race, and here
and there in the more primitive parts of the kingdom
where remnants of unclassified aboriginal races still
existed, absorbed into the surrounding population.
Robert E. Howard,
Notes on Various Peoples of the
Hyborian Age
proudest kingdom
Clothing
Most people in Aquilonia wear woollen outer clothing and
undergarments made of linen. Most merely wear simple
tunics with hose and soft leather boots. The wealthy all
across Aquilonia dress well, preferring brighter colours,
better materials and longer lengths than styles worn by
the peasants. Elaborate silken jupons, close-fitting jackets,
with gilt-braided skirts and jagged sleeves are typical
outfits worn in the courts of Aquilonia. Hair is usually
curled and scented, bound with cloth-of-silver or cloth-
of-gold bands. Plumed caps adorn the head of most of
the male aristocrats. Most nobles wear a sword, though
many of them are merely ceremonial weapons. Aquilonian
fashion for men often includes a moustache. Despite these
similarities, clothing styles vary from region to region in
Aquilonia.
In the Tauran and the central baronies and counties,
women wear woollen hose fastened to a belt to cover their
legs. A cote, a long-sleeved, low-waisted, long-skirted
dress, is added over the hose. A short-sleeved surcoat
is worn over the cote and a cloak is fastened over one
shoulder. Wealthy women wear a wimple, a scarf worn
over the head, and a gorget, a scarf covering the neck.
Men in the central regions wear hose and a pleated jacket.
The wealthier the family, the more ornate and exotic the
designs and material are for these clothes, although the
basic designs change little.
In Gunderland and Bossonia, women wear a pelicon,
which is a short, sleeveless slip, as an undergarment. A
long-sleeved, ankle-length chainse is worn over the pelicon.
A shorter-skirted kirtle with long, flaring sleeves is worn
over the chainse. A cloak or cape is often worn fastened
at the throat. Hair is worn braided, although unmarried
women and girls may wear their hair down. Men wear a
tunic with a surcoat.
In Poitain, the undergarment for women is a low-necked,
long-sleeved chemise. Over the chemise is worn a short-
sleeved corset that displays the chemise. A houppelande is
worn by wealthier women, a voluminous dress with long,
flaring sleeves. Waistlines are worn high in Poitain. In
poor weather, a mantle is worn, fastened by a strap across
the collarbone. The women also wear elaborate
headwear, often tall steeple caps with gauzy veils.
Men wear hose and a skirted jacket. The longer
the skirt, the wealthier the man.
In the Westermarck, clothing is a
difficult problem. With all the
hard labour performed by the
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settlers, clothing brought with them from the east doesn’t
last long. Boots last a few weeks, and other clothing ends
up in tatters in a far shorter amount of time. Stores and
merchants are few and far between, so clothing must be
replaced and they must be replaced often. Due to the
necessity occasioned by the scarcity of shops, virtually all
clothing worn by the Westermarck settlers are homemade.
Frontiersmen and women often fashion garments from
soft animal-hides: buckskin boots laced halfway to the
knee; leathern breeks; deerskin shirts and jackets; fur
or straw hats. The buckskin clothing is not without its
own problems. The Westermarck is a wet land, filled
with rivers, creeks and swamps. Repeated wettings and
subsequent dryings eventually will stiffen buckskin to
unwieldy shapes, so such clothing needs to be replaced
often. Wealthier frontier Aquilonians might trade with the
Bossonians for linen or silk cloth from the central provinces
and dress in more traditional, Aquilonian fashions, though
generally few borderers are concerned about fashion and
decoration.
Prostitutes are usually required by the cities to dress in
a distinctive fashion, although this varies from region to
region – even from city to city. Many Aquilonian cities
simply require skimpy, minimal clothing modelled after
Eastern fashions. Other require gloves or a cloak of a
certain colour or a particular type of scarf worn in a certain
manner.
Typically, fashion is not a large concern for young
Aquilonians. The Hyborian age is not an age where ready-
to-wear clothing is available and stylish. It takes years and
decades for styles to really change. Peasant styles tend
to remain the same for centuries. Also, given the cost of
elaborate clothing, most wealthy young women will still
only have a few gowns.
proudest kingdom
also extends to his wife, his family and his beloved.
Impugned honour will usually result in a duel or other
form of violent redress. Among the aristocracy and the
knighthood, honour is his measure of standing among his
peers, setting him apart from the common man. To those
who hold a code of honour, it is as real as a castle, yet vastly
more important, for a castle can be rebuilt if destroyed
and honour is wounded forever if stained. Honour is
so important that, in matters of honour, acts normally
criminal are excused. For example, a man is allowed to
kill his betrothed or wife if he suspects her of adultery
without facing criminal charges because the man’s honour
and integrity had been tarnished.
In the case of women, honour often relates to sexuality.
Maintenance of virginity and/or exclusive monogamy
equate to honour for women. There is more to virginity
than sexual inexperience. Virginity and chastity also
include married women who remain sexually loyal to
their husbands. Indeed, in Aquilonia, virginity is a form
of performed, gendered identity. Essentially, for an
Aquilonian woman, a modest demeanour is a sign, a proof
of virginity. Girls who dress in pretty clothes (ornate
above their station) and are free with their wit are often
thought unchaste. Essentially, if a virgin learns to have
frank discussions with men, she disgraces herself in the
eyes of others. True virginity is endangered by verbal
intercourse. Unfortunately, since Aquilonian society holds
Honour
Aquilonians in general tend to hold to the civilised
code of honour (see the rules on Honour in the
Conan
the Roleplaying Game).
Some Aquilonians hold to the
mercenary or to the chivalrous codes of honour (see pg.
188). Few merchants bother with codes of honour for
reasons discussed later. Honour for the Aquilonians is
a very real concept, built of the character’s reputation,
moral identity and self-perception. This sense of
honour is the guiding principle of Aquilonian society
and is never a matter of mere lip-service. Indeed,
honour is an all-important issue. Aquilonians
of honour are always alert for insults.
Actual or suspected, insults will
impugn an Aquilonian’s honour.
An Aquilonian’s honour
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