Kelka

Origins[]

In the days of the Great Cataclysm (see notes), a civilized people that claimed descent from mainlanders of Thuria built the city of Kelka upon an island set eastwards of Mu and took Ashtoreth as their new goddess.

When Astarta, daughter of a king of Mu and immortal bride of a sea-god, was lifted away from the Cataclysm by her husband and onto the shores of Kelka, the Kelkans garbled Astarta's name, and believed her to be Ashtoreth herself.

Though, the high priests feared that she would become a threat to them, and thus had her locked away.^[1]

Age of Acheron and early Hyborian Age[]

Somehow, the Kelkans devolved into savages, with the men being local brutes while the women were beautiful slaves harvested from the ships tossed upon the isle.^[1]

• Temple of Ashtoreth^[1]

• Akkheba - priest of Ashtoreth^[2]
• Aluna - handmaiden of Ashtoreth^[2]
• "Ashtoreth" (Astarta)^[1]
• Wartho^[1]

• Kelka was created in Marvel Comics in "The City in the Storm" (Conan the Barbarian #70;^[3] January, 1977), written by Roy Thomas and penciled by John Buscema, freely adapting the story "Marchers of Valhalla", by Robert E. Howard,^[2] originally a James Allison story as Hialmar. In the original story, the city was named "Khemu".^[4] It was possibly to avoid confusion or resemblance with the Stygian city of Khemi.
• It is unclear whether the Kelkans were refugees from the Great Cataclysm, or pre-Cataclysmic colonists.
• No indication is given for whether or not the Kelkans were Thurian in culture.
  • Given the Kelkans allegedly worshiped Ashtoreth, a Shemite deity, since the days of the Great Cataclysm, while the Sons of Shem are mentioned only until thousands of years after the Cataclysm^[5] and Lesser Cataclysm,^[6] it is possible that the Kelkans and the Sons of Shem shares a common ancestor on Thuria.