Thule (Kingdom)

Age of Kull[]

The scholar Malakar spent his childhood in Thule, where he developed the wish to unravel the legend of Qar, the City Beneath.^[5]

Bakas once encountered a water nymph in Thule. Despite multiple attempts, he and his fellows were unable to slay it.^[6]

During King Kull's rule over Valusia, around the time he was usurped by "Ardyon" (Thulsa Doom), outlaw hordes from Thule allegedly crossed into Valusia to steal from the tribe set at the northern peaks of Valusia.^[7]

At some point, a Ghost Rider emerged in Thule. Driven mad by the Spirit of Vengeance, he was chained in a prison in Thule.^[8]

King Governi's rule[]

During a week long festival held to celebrate the union of two kingdoms through the marriage of Elise, daughter of King Governi of Thule, to Rashver, son of the King of Verulia, the rulers of the various nations of the Thurian Continent and the surrounding islands were invited to enjoy King Governi of Thule's hospitality. Kull of Valusia and his retinue, including his Pictish chief warrior Brule the Spear Slayer, his advisor Tu, and the select of Valusian royalty, including Kaanub were among those in attendance, as were Ku-Var, self proclaimed ruler of Atlantis and his woman Iraina.

King Governi proclaimed a tournament for the entertainment of his royal guests with each ruler pitting their champion against the others. Finally it came down to Kull choosing his favorite soldier, Brule, and Ku-Var picking his, Iraina. Both the crowd and Kull were amused by a woman being chosen to face the Spear Slayer. Brule to fight and was eventually humiliated, but before Kull could speak with him, the barbarian king was approached by his old friend, the shaman Ram-Os, now a slave. Before being called away to Ku-Var's side, Ram-Os told Kull of how all the men of the tribe were now slaves, and the women were taken to Ku-Var's harem, all except Iraina, whose ambition knew no bounds. Ku-Var's love for the wild woman drove him to conquer all the world. Kull recalled how Iraina claimed she was no man's mistress, and Ram-Os replied that it was true, and that she locked Ku-Var out of her room.

Some days later, the festival ended. Beneath the full moon, Iraina stood with her lissome army of warrior women, confronting King Governi and the army of Thule. The army of women slowly walked forward to meet them, their tiger skins becoming real stripes, and their eyes turning yellow and slatted. Suddenly, the men of Thule found themselves facing an army not of women but of tigers. The slaughter that followed was swift and merciless.^[9]

Some time later, in an icy cavern Kull and Gorn rushed Roc of Lemuria and his pirates and freed the kidnapped senators.^[10]

Great Cataclysm and Hyborian Age[]

When the Great Cataclysm occurred, the lands of Thule were presumably incorporated into Nordheim^[2] (through Thule's exact location remains blurry, see notes) and its people became the ancestors of the Vanir and Aesir peoples of the Hyborian Age.^[4]

The Ghost Rider was trapped by the Cataclysm in a remnant of the civilization of Thule set in a freezing cold land of the Southern Hemisphere,^[8] presumably the South Pole, which became Antarctica.^[4]

Modern Age[]

In the modern age, in the remnants of the long-lost civilization of Thule in the Southern Hemisphere, the now-mad Ghost Rider was kept captive for ages, until Mister Eleven led the depowered Danny Ketch to him. Ketch killed him, allowing him to finally rest, while Ketch absorbed his power and was himself restored as Ghost Rider.^[8]

• Bay of Thule^[10]
• Fabulous ice-caves^[2]

The Great Salt Marsh of the Border Kingdom of the Hyborian Age was possibly a much larger inland sea, or an arm of the Western Ocean south of Thule.^[11]

Presumably a colony, outpost, or possession presumably in the South Pole/Antarctica.^[8] (see notes)

• Governi - King of Thule
• Elise - daughter of Governi
• Malakar - Valusian palace librarian (spent childhood in Thule)
• Water Nymphs
• Ghost Rider

• Thule was a "lost land",^[12] and the farther north point of ancient Greek and Roman cartography.^[13] It was used in Cthulhu Mythos tales by authors such as Clark Ashton Smith, who is stated to have "created" it within the Mythos, in "The Double Shadow" (1933), as well as Robert E. Howard, or Lin Carter.^[12]
• The setting of Thule after the Great Cataclysm remains unclear:
  • The people of Thule becoming the Nordheimr (the Aesir and Vanir, precursors of the Scandinavians) in Nordheim (Aesgaard/Asgard and Vanaheim which became the Scandinavian Peninsula and the Norwegian Sea).
  • In Thule's entry in A Gazetteer of the Hyborian Age, Part VIII, in Savage Sword of Conan #40 (May, 1979), the lands of Thule were stated to have presumably been incorporated into Nordheim.
  • In Conan the Adventurer #2 (July, 1994), it was stated that in the Pre-Cataclysmic Age, the Vanir dwelt in a "distant land".
  • In Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch #3 (February, 2009), Thule is set in the Modern Age in the southern hemisphere, seemingly in Antarctica, which seems odd, given Thule was located on the northwesternmost part of Thuria (the continent that became Hyboria, then Europe). Much like Valusia's possession of Nameless Isle, Atlantis' colonies and outpost in Valusia and Pangea, or Lemura and the Lemurans being refugees from Lemuria in Pangea, it can be assumed that Thule also operated and established outpost outside of its mainland borders.

• The adjective for Thule is "Thulian".^[9]