“Conan, born in the bleak, cloud-oppressed, northern hills of Cimmeria, was known as a fighter around the council fires before he had seen fifteen snows. In that year, the Cimmerian tribesmen forgot their feuds and joined forces to repel the Gundermen who, pushing across the Aquilonian frontier had built the frontier post of Venarium and begun to colonize the southern marches of Cimmeria. Conan was one of the howling, blood-mad, horde that swept out of the northern hills, stormed over the stockade with sword and tourch, and drove the Aquilonians back to their frontier border. At the sack of Venarium, still short of his full growth, Conan already stood six feet tall and weighed 180 pounds. He had the alertness and stealth of the born woodsman, the iron-hardness of the mountain man, the Herculean physique of his blacksmith father, and a practical familiarity with knife, axe, and sword.” -- "Legions of the Dead", de Camp, Carter & Nyberg I wanted to depict a young Conan, as I think he looked in his 15th year, right before the sack of Venarium.