Thongor in the City of Magicians

by Lin Carter

  “Hai—Thongor! Sark-of-Sarks and Lord of the West!”

  And thus was The Last Battle fought—and won—or so it is Written in the Lemurian Chronicles.

  EPILOGUE

  WHEREIN THE TALE HATH ENDING

  “. . . Yet over all did Thongor triumph, for the immortal Gods themselves were leagued with him in war against the Dark Ones. Armed with the very lightnings of Heaven, Thongor the Mighty broke asunder the black bastions of Zaar and the ancient City of Magicians, with all its evil wisdom and dark science, sank beneath the overwhelming waves of the unconquerable sea and was gone forever from the knowledge of men. And thus did the worshippers of the Third Lord of Chaos perish utterly from the earth, and thus shall the Servants of Darkness ever fail and fall, in whatever age or land they strive to dominate . . . for is it not written in The Scarlet Edda that Light shall forever be victorious against the Dark?”

  —The Lemurian Chronicles

  And thus the vengeful ocean broke

  The grim Black City’s age-old reign

  And freed Man ever from the yoke

  Of Druids drowned beneath the main.

  And Thongor with that stalwart friend

  Who sought him long in lonely quest,

  Their perils done ... at journey’s end,

  Turn homeward to the distant West.

  —Thongor’s Saga, XVII, 30-31.

  IT IS ENDED.

  APPENDIX

  GLOSSARY OF CHARACTERS MENTIONED IN THE LEMURIAN BOOKS

  (NOTE: Major characters, with the exclusion of the gods or other mythological beings, are given in alphabetical order with a brief explanation of their role in the series. Where necessary, the individual books in the series are referred to by the following abbreviations: TAG—Thongor Against The Gods; TCM— Thongor In The City of Magicians, etc.)

  ADAMANCUS. One of the Nine Wizards of Zaar, slain by his own magic when Thongor entered his tower to rescue Sumia and Shangoth, in TAG.

  ALD TURMIS. A young swordsman of Zangabal who served with Thongor as a mercenary in the legions of Thurdis and later companioned him during many adventures. When Thongor became Sark-of-Sarks he elevated Ald Turmis to the dais of Shembis as its Sark.

  ARZANG POME. The cruel Sark of Shembis who leagued with Phal Thurid to conquer Patanga in TL. He was slain the following year when Patanga whelmed the forces of Tsargol.

  BARAND THON. Daotar of the Fourth Cohort of Thur-dis in which both Thongor and Aid Turmis served as mercenaries. He was later created Sark of Thurdis when the House of Phal Thurid came to its end.

  CHANGTHU. A warrior of the Black City in the service of Lord Vual the Brain.

  CHARN THOVIS. A young recruit who served in the Black Dragons and saved the life of Thongor when his party was ambushed at the Hills of the Thunder-Crystals in TCM. Thongor made him Otar of a hundred warriors and a kojan of the empire.

  CHUNDJA. A warrior of the Jegga attached to the retinue of Shangoth who accompanied his prince to Patanga where he became a member of Thongor’s personal guard.

  DALENDUS VOOL. Baron of Tallan. A treasonous noble of Patanga, secretly an agent of the Black Druids of Zaar.

  DIOMBAR. The Singer of Nemedis. A poet of the First Kingdom whose Song of the Last Battle preserves a first-person account of the Battle of Grimstrand Firth wherein the Dragon Kings were broken and The Thousand Year War was ended. Diombar’s Song is quoted in part in WL.

  PRINCE DRU. Sumia’s cousin, the third peer of the realm and a member of Thongor’s councils. Also hereditary Daotar of the Patangan Archers.

  DRUGU1NDA THAL. Sark of Tsargol, slain by Thongor when he escaped from the arena with Karin Karvus in WL. Yelim Pelorvis the Red Archdruid assumed the dais at his death.

  EODRYM. Wise old hierarch of the Temple of Nineteen Gods in Patanga and one of Thongor’s chief advisers.

  FALVOTH PTAR. A young Air Guardsman, pilot of Thongor’s personal yacht. He was slain in the Zodaki ambush at the Hills of the Thunder-Crystals.

  GORCHAK. The old shaman of the Fire-People, a tribe of neanderthaloid Beastmen who captured Thongor, Sumia and Karm Karvus in TL, and from whom they are rescued by Barand Thon.

  HAJASH TOR. The would-be conqueror of Patanga. As Daotarkon of Thurdis, and later, when leagued with the Red Archdruid of Tsargol, he twice attempted to whelm the City of Fire. He was slain by Prince Shangoth of the Jegga at the close of TAG.

  HASSIB. Chamberlain to the court of Bragunda Thai, Sark of Tsargol.

  HIMOG THOON. An alchemist and priest of Yamath in service to Vaspas Ptol the Yellow Archdruid. He devised the black vapor of madness wherewith the Archdruid planned to destroy the Host of Thurdis in TL. Lord Mael slew him in the first moments of the revolt that freed Patanga from the Druids.

  HOSHKA. A chieftain of the Zodak Horde, leader of the ambush party that seized Thongor at the Hills of the Thunder-Crystals.

  INNELD. Eldest daughter of Lord Mael; a handmaiden to Princess Sumia.

  IOTHONDUS. The Sage of Kathool, a young natural philosopher in the service of Thongor who designed the sithurl-weapons wherewith the Air Guard demolished the City of Magicians. Later, he adapted the sithurls as a power-source to drive the engines of the airboats of Patanga. He is remembered as one of the wisest of The Wise, the first and greatest Nephelos of Lemuria.

  JAXDOR. A great hero of Nemedis the First Kingdom of Man, and father of Thungarth of the Star Sword who whelmed and broke the Dragon Kings at the Battle of Grimstrand Firth.

  JELED MALKH. Heir to the House of Malkh in Thurdis the Dragon City and Otar of the company wherewith Thongor served during his time as a mercenary swordsman. Thongor slew Jeled Malkh in a duel described in WL, which occasioned his outlawry from that city and set in action the sequence of events which led to the Valkarthan’s fateful meeting with Sharjsha the Wizard.

  JOMDATH OF THE JEGGA. Mighty Rmoahal warrior. Lord of the Jegga and Father of Prince Shangoth, whom Thongor encounters first in TAG. He later became the first Sarkon of the Five Hordes, and the most powerful ally of Patanga.

  JUGRIM. A member of Shangoth’s retinue who joined Thongor’s personal guard with his Prince.

  KARM KARVUS. A Prince of Tsargol the Scarlet City and heir to a noble house under the persecution of Drugunda Thal. He met Thongor when they were both imprisoned, awaiting death in the arena of Tsargol. Escaping together, they became firm friends and comrades. Karm Karvus later became the first Daotar of the Air Guard. When Patanga conquered the Scarlet City in TAG, Thongor raised Karm Karvus to the Sarkdom of that city.

  KHORBANE. A warrior of ancient Nemedis who fell at the Battle of Grimstrand Firth. One of the Sons of Thungarth.

  KOGUR. A Beastman whom Thongor encounters in the jungle country of Kovia in TL: the chief of the Fire-People.

  KONNAR. A warrior of Nemedis, mentioned in Diombar’s Song of the Last Battle.

  LULERA. Younger daughter of Lord Mael, a handmaiden in the service of Sumia the Sarkaja.

  LORD MAEL. Grizzled old Baron of Tesoni near Patanga, one of Thongor’s chief peers and advisors, and a leader of the revolt wherein the City of the Flame was set free of the rule of the Fire Druids.

  MALDRUTH. The Prince of Red Magic, one of the Nine Wizards of Zaar; slain by Thongor in a duel in TCM.

  MARDANAX. The Black Archdruid and supreme Lord of the City of Magicians. He alone escaped the destruction of Zaar.

  MUGCHUK. A Beastman, or Gunthya, of Kovia; one of the tribe of Fire-People encountered by Thongor, Karm Karvus and Princess Sumia in TL.

  NARJAN ZASH DROMOR. One of the Ommya befriended by Thongor and Karm Karvus when they were imprisoned in the Lost City of Omn in TL. It was he who slew the immortal morgulac, Xothun, and saved the life of Thongor.

  NUMADAK QUELM. A Yellow Druid, highest of Vaspas Ptol’s henchmen; he succeeded his master to the Archdruidship after he was slain in Mael’s rebellion, and later conspired with Arzang Pome of Shembis, Hajash Tor of Thurdis, and the Red Archdruid of Tsargol to whelm Patanga. He was slain by Thongor in
battle before the gates of the Scarlet City, and with him died the Yellow Brotherhood.

  ONGUTH. A Gunthyan of the Fire-People of Kovia who rescued Kami Karvus and the Princess Sumia from the embrace of the cannibal trees, only to imprison them.

  OOLIM PHON. The old Alchemist of Thurdis who discovered the secret of urlium, the magic metal that makes the flying airboats of Patanga possible. He first succeeded in isolating the synthetic isotope in the Year of the Kingdoms of Man 6999, eight years before the opening of WL, and constructed the prototype airboat which Thongor stole in making his escape from Thurdis in the same novel.

  ORVATH CHOND. Sark of Patanga and father of Sumia Sarkaja. The last Sark of the House of Chond, his dais was usurped by Vaspas Ptol the Yellow Archdruid.

  PHAL THURID. The Mad Sark of Thurdis. Driven near the brink of madness by the sorcery of Thalaba the Destroyer, an Archimage of Zaar, and tempted in dreams of world conquest by the ambitious Hajash Tor, the last Sark of the House of Thurid sought to seize the Sarkdom of Patanga as the first step in his conquest of all Lemuria, but died when Thongor broke the Siege of Patanga. He was succeeded to the Sarkdom by Barand Thon when Thurdis became part of Thongor’s empire.

  PHANTHAR. A Zaaryan warrior in the service of Vual the Brain.

  PHONDATH THE FIRSTBORN. In Lemurian myth, the First Man who was created by the Nineteen Gods at the beginning of The Thousand Year War against the Dragon Kings from far and fabulous Hyperborea. His sons founded Nemedis and the First Kingdoms.

  PYTUMATHON. One of the Nine Wizards of Zaar, slain when the City of Magicians was demolished by the air fleets of Patanga.

  QUONIDUS OF YB. An ancient philosopher of nature, one of the worlds’ first Nephelim, or scientists. Iothondus quotes from his works in TCM.

  RAMADONDUS VOTH. The only member of the Nine Wizards absent from Zaar when the Black City was whelmed and sunken beneath the waves of Takonda Chann the Unknown Sea. He had taken the place of Sarganeth among the Nuld.

  RORIK OF THE AX. A Jegga warrior who joined the personal guard of Thongor along with his Prince, Shangoth, and Jugrim and Chundja.

  SARGANETH OF THE NULD. The Gray Prince, one of the Nine Wizards of Zaar. Shangoth slew him shortly before the City of Black Magicians was destroyed.

  BARON SELVERUS. Lord of Athnome near Patanga. A member of Thongor’s council of advisors, one of the highest peers of the Sarkdom.

  SHANGOTH THE NOMAD. Prince of the Jegga Horde and son of Jomdath. It was the Rmoahal Prince who accompanied Sumia on those of her adventures chronicled in TAG. When Thongor rescued them from the tower of Adamancus of Zaar, the Jegga warrior laid his ax at the feet of the Valkarthan in token of an oath of homage. From that hour he has been one of Thongor’s staunch friends and comrades and a member of his personal guard.

  SHARAJSHA THE GREAT. The mighty Wizard of Lemuria was one of the great mages of Zaar, but turned from the evil ways of the Black City to dwell in a subterranean palace beneath the Mountains of Mommur centuries before he persuaded Thongor to join in his quest against the Dragon Kings. It was Lord Sharajsha who recreated the Star Sword with which Thongor broke asunder the Black Citadel and brought doom to the last survivors of the reptilian sorcerers who sought to open a Door to Outside wherethrough the Lords of Chaos might gain entrance into Creation. One of the mightiest magicians of the Elder World, he aided the young empire of Patanga and when he passed to the Shadowlands he left his great Grimoire and Testament in the keeping of the Patangan Sarkons forever.

  SSSAAA. The Lord of the Dragon Kings who led the handful of his people who survived the fall of the Black Keep at Grimstrand Firth to their new home on the isles of the Inner Sea. He it was who sought to open the Portal to Chaos of the Night of Destiny. Thongor of Valkarth brought his unnaturally prolonged life to an end when he whelmed the Isles with the Star Sword in WL.

  SUMIA. The only child of Orvath Chond, Sark of Patanga, whose throne was usurped by Vaspas Ptol. Thongor and Sharajsha aided her to escape from Patanga, where they had gone for the second stage of the creation of the Star Sword; the Princess of Patanga accompanied them throughout the adventures that culminated, in TL, with the overthrow of the Fire Druids, whereupon she wed Thongor and became his Sarkaja, in the Year of the Kingdoms of Man 7008. The tenth month of that year saw the birth of their son, Prince Thar.

  TENGRI. A shaman of the Jegga Horde who plotted the exile of the rightful chief, Jomdath, but was himself exiled by the chief when Thongor rescued him.

  THALABA THE DESTROYER. One of the Nine Wizards of Zaar who acted as the secret power behind the throne in Thurdis, to further the progress of Zaar’s master-plan against the West. His life ended when Thongor broke the Siege of Patanga and ruined the schemes of world-conquest which Thalaba had implanted in the brain of Phal Thurid.

  PRINCE THAR. Tharth ko-Thongoru—known as “Thar”—is the only son of the mighty Valkarthan and his mate, the princess Sumia. He was born in the tenth month of the Year of the Kingdoms of Man 7008, and is six years old at the period described in TCM.

  THOM PERVIS. Warrior and nobleman of Patanga who became second Daotar or commander of the Air Guard, when Karm Karvus relinquished that post to assume the Sarkdom of Tsargol.

  THONGOR OF VALKARTH. The greatest hero of all Lemuria was born at Valkarth in the Northlands in the Year of the Kingdoms of man 6982. He became a homeless wanderer at 15, the sole survivor of a mighty battle between his people, the Black Hawk clan, and a powerful foe, the Snow Bear tribe. Precise dates are lost, but Thongor was about seventeen when he reached the cities of the South. From 6999 to 7002 he roamed from city to city as thief, assassin, and wandering adventurer—ending as a slave on the galleys of Shembis, from which he escaped in a slave mutiny at the age of twenty. For the next four years he roved the high seas as one of the pirates of Tarakus. He was driven from the Pirate City when he slew the monarch of the corsairs in a duel and wandered North to Zangabal, where he met a young swordsman named Ald Turmis who persuaded him to enlist with the mercenaries in Thurdis, whither Ald Turmis was bound. Thongor served in the Fourth Cohort of that city for seven months, his daotar being that same Barand Thon whom he later created Sark of the Dragon City. Near the end of that same year, 7007, he was forced to flee from Thurdis, making his escape in the stolen prototype floater which Oolim Phon had perfected. The remainder of his career has been chronicled in the Lemurian books in detail. At the period of TCM he is about thirty-two.

  As founder of the Golden Empire, he became a legendary hero to his Imperial descendants and was later deified. In the pre-Sanskrit Puranas from which I have adapted the basic plot-structure of the Lemurian books, he is remembered as Mahathongoyha (Thongoyha the Great), a divine hero. To the early Saite Period Egyptians of the pre-Dynastic era, he was Tahon, a god of warriors. His descendants ruled as kings for a quarter of a million years.

  THULAN HTOR. A warrior of Thurdis whom Thongor slew when he stole the airboat and made his historic escape from Thurdis.

  THUMITHAR. The father of Thongor, a direct descendant of Valkh of Nemedis, founder of the Black Hawk people of Valkarth.

  THUNGARTH. Son of Jaidor of Nemedis and leader of the expedition which went up against the Black Keep in the battle of Grimstrand Firth wherein, armed with the glory of the Star Sword, he whelmed the Dragon Kings and brought The Thousand Year War to its close. Among his seven sons was Valkh.

  TOLE PHOMOR. An Otar in the legions of Tsargol the Scarlet City who served with the Arena Guard at the time when Thongor and Karm Karvus were imprisoned therein.

  VALKH THE BLACK HAWK. Seventh son of Thungarth of Nemedis, founder of Valkarth (Valkh’s garth —Valkh’s holding) and father of the Black Hawk people from whom Thongor and Prince Thar are descended.

  VAR TAJAS. A warrior of Thurdis who rode a zamph in the racing arena and lost. A wager on his winning was the cause of the fateful duel between Thongor and Jeled Malkh, the Otar of his Hundred.

  VASPAS PTOL. The Yellow Archdruid, head of the Fire Druids of Patanga who worshi
pped Yamath the Lord of the Flames, an aspect of the Triple God of Chaos. The evil influence of Zaar was allied with the Yellow Brotherhood, but when Orvath Chond, father of Princess Sumia, died, Vaspas Ptol sought to seize the throne by marrying the Princess. He became so maddened with the lust of power that he broke with Zaar, whereupon the Black Magicians, working through Thalaba the Destroyer, set Thurdis against Patanga in War. When Thongor broke the Siege of Patanga and Mael overthrew the Yellow Druids in rebellion, Vaspas Ptol was hurled to his death from the walls of the City of the Flame. Thongor spared but exiled his successor, Numadak Quelm.

  VUAL THE BRAIN. One of the Nine Wizards of Zaar; he was slain by Shangoth of the Jegga in the Temple of Chaos.

  XOTH THE SKULL. Another of the Nine Wizards who met death in the Fall of the Black City.

  XOTHUN. A morgulac who artificially prolonged his life for centuries through a form of vampirism. A brilliant Nephelos, or scientist, Xothun held the entire population of Omm the Lost City in the jungles of Kovia helpless beneath his power, and preyed off the people of the Lost City for untold generations, until he met his death as described in TL at the hand of one of his slaves, Narjan Zash Dromor.

  YELIM PELORVIS. The Red Archdruid of Tsargol, head of the Red Brotherhood who worshipped Slidith, another aspect of the Triple Lord of Chaos. He shared rule of the city with the Sark, Drugunda Thal, until Thongor slew the Sark, whereon he ruled alone. In 7008, Hajash Tor and Arzang Pome, together with Numadak Quelm, took refuge in Tsargol, having been driven from their lands by Thongor the Victorious. The following year they combined forces and sought to destroy Patanga in war—an attempt chronicled in TAG.