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The People of the Black Circle

265 statements
51 feature instances
8 referencing feature instances

The People of the Black Circle	type	TVTItem
The People of the Black Circle	label	The People of the Black Circle
The People of the Black Circle	page	ThePeopleOfTheBlackCircle
The People of the Black Circle	comment	Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })"The People of the Black Circle" is a Conan the Barbarian novella by Robert E. Howard. Published in three parts, from September to November, 1934. Entire text online here.In the kingdom of Vendhya, the king, Bhunda Chand, is in his death-throes, after having suffered through long days of unholy torments. Though the court's healers and priests can find no answer, his sister, the Devi Yasmina, can deduce the cause all too clearly: sorcery of the foulest kind. Her suspicions are confirmed when, during a moment of lucidity, he babbles to her that the fearful wizards of the Black Circle are drawing his soul away, seeking to rend it from his body and use it to breathe life into some daemonic homunculus. At his behest, she is forced to kill him, and for this she swears revenge.But the Black Seers of Mount Yimsha are known through all of Vendhya, the wizards feared for their terrible powers and unearthly servitors. As beloved as King Chand was and his sister Yasmina is, no man of the Vendyha could be roused to confront the Black Circle. And so, Yasmina hits on a plan; she has the governor of Peshkhauri, the most northerly province of her empire, nestled in the foothills of the Himelians, capture seven headmen of the tribal barbarians who live beyond, seeking to use them as bargaining chips to force the savage and fearless Afguli to wage war on the sorcerers for her.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_2'); })In this, she succeeds... but her arrogance costs her, for she is present when the Governor of Peshkauri is visited in the night by the current chieftain of all Afguli; Conan, having striven to make of himself the most powerful raider in all of Afghulistan. Realizing he has a golden opportunity, Conan abducts Yasmina and flees for the hills, planning to ransom her back in return for the lives of his headmen.But Conan and Yasmina both are betrayed; Yasmina's maidservant, Gitara, secretly goes to her lover; the sorcerer Khemsa, an agent of the Black Circle who had been responsible for King Chand's death. The Circle's original plan was to support the ambitions of King Yezdigerd to conquer Vendhya and take Yasmina for his harem, but Gitara, greedy and ambitious, fills her lover's head with ideas of instead betraying both sides to make themselves emperor and empress instead. Madly in love with her, and carried on by her enthusiasm, he goes to the prison and slays the Afghuli headmen before transporting himself and Gitara into the hills in pursuit of Conan and the Devi, determined that they must both die.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_3'); })Behind them, the Hyrkanian agent Kerim Shah seeks to turn this turmoil to his king's advantage.Conan and Yasmina take shelter for the night in the village of the Khurum Wazulis, another hill-people whose chieftain, Yar Afzal, owes Conan a life-debt. However, they are forced to flee for their lives after Khemsa's magic slays Yar Afzal and goads the Wazulis into a vengeful fury. Stopping only to buy the clothes from a Galzai hillwoman in order to better dress Yasmina for the trip, they continue making their way into the mountains, only to be attacked by Khemsa and Gitara.Conan and Khemsa's duel is short-lived when four of the Black Seers arrive. Angry by their student's disobedience, they try to strike him dead with the power of their wills alone, only to be stymied; stronger than they had realized to begin with, Khemsa's love for Gitara is giving him the strength to fight them in order to keep them safe. The moment they realize this, the Black Seers turn their power on Gitara, who is compelled to leap to her death. Before Khemsa can recover from this, they cause an avalanche that sweeps him off the ledge and then abduct Yasmina, leaving Conan behind.At first just glad to be alive, Conan turns and heads back down the trail, only to be met by his own Afghulis - who turn on him in a fury for having failed to save the lives of their headmen. Forced to flee, Conan turns back up the trail, only to encounter the mangled wreck of Khemsa. The sorcerer clings to life long enough to gasp out some vital clues to defeating the Black Seers to Conan, gives him an enchanted girdle that will protect him from the Seers' sorcery, and then dies.Thoroughly annoyed with everything, Conan decides to go to the Black Seers' stronghold on Mount Yimsha and recover the Devi. Along the way, he encounters Kherim Shah and a small band Hyrkanian warriors, the last survivors of a band that was ambushed in a pass elsewhere. Driven by a mutual goal, the two forces agree to team up to fight the Seers.After many battles that sees Kherim Shah's men, and the Hyrkanian himself, slain by sorcerous defenses, Conan manages to kill all of the Black Seers and rescue Yasmina. Heading down from the hills, they discuss where to go from here; ultimately, Yasmina returns to her kingdom, although Conan claims he will one day collect her ten thousand gold piece ransom from her palace in Ayodhya, though Yasmina rebuts that she will instead meet him on the shores of the Jhumda with a hundred thousand men first.
The People of the Black Circle	fetched	2023-03-19T02:27:30Z
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The People of the Black Circle / int_10d386ea	type	Master Archer
The People of the Black Circle / int_10d386ea	comment	Master Archer: Kerim Shah is a great archer wielding a strong Turanian bow. He is able to break the first line of defense of the wizards by shooting two acolytes from a far distance while the ground was shaking.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_12dd1d4c	type	Rape as Drama
The People of the Black Circle / int_12dd1d4c	comment	Rape as Drama: Through Mind Rape via Past-Life Memories, Yasmina experiences this, described in a subtle-yet-lurid fashion that only Robert E. Howard could pull off:
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The People of the Black Circle / int_1b8cef9c	type	The High Queen
The People of the Black Circle / int_1b8cef9c	comment	The High Queen: Devi Yasmina. Apparently the highest authority left in Vendhya after the death of her brother, the King, she inspires loyalty, respect, and love from almost all her subjects.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_1edfa2c7	type	Royals Who Actually Do Something
The People of the Black Circle / int_1edfa2c7	comment	Royals Who Actually Do Something: Yasmina. She bravely goes alone to the Peshkauri governor's place with just her maid, to describe her plan to get Conan's help. Later, when she hears the horns of the Vendhyan army looking for her, she immediately demands Conan's horse, rides to them and leads them to fight the Turanians.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_1fb440a6	type	Voluntary Shapeshifting
The People of the Black Circle / int_1fb440a6	comment	Voluntary Shapeshifting: In addition to getting Scaled Up, the Master of Yimsha takes the form of a giant vulture for a last-ditch attempt on Yasmina.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_2740531a	type	She Cleans Up Nicely
The People of the Black Circle / int_2740531a	comment	She Cleans Up Nicely: Inverted. Conan obtains some clothes from a lowly hill girl to replace Devi Yasmina's royal costume, far too delicate and impractical for the rugged terrain of the Himelias. Upon seeing her dressed in them, Conan exclaims that she's much more attractive: dressed in her royal silks she was beautiful in an almost illusory sense; but dressed in the garb of tribeswoman, she seems more real.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_2af6bbeb	type	Break the Haughty
The People of the Black Circle / int_2af6bbeb	comment	Break the Haughty: The necromancer's plans for Yasmina, which he attempts by forcing her to live the worst memories of all her previous incarnations, subjecting her to a parade of memories as a lowborn peasant, of a slave, of a mother giving birth, and otherwise experiencing all the indignities and pains of a woman not born into queendom.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_2fc1775a	type	Somewhere, a Herpetologist Is Crying
The People of the Black Circle / int_2fc1775a	comment	Somewhere, a Herpetologist Is Crying: When the Master of Yimsha Scales Up to attack Conan, he tries biting him with venomous fangs. Conan draws a dagger and pins the giant snake's jaws shut, so it attacks with "the only weapon it has left"... trying to constrict Conan to death. This is a magically shape-shifted snake.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_30ab0aa1	type	Worldbuilding
The People of the Black Circle / int_30ab0aa1	comment	Worldbuilding: After fleeing from the Wazulis, Conan mentions the black bead that was given to Yar Afzal reminds him of the beads worn by the dancers in the temple of the Spider-God of Yezud, and that the spider which killed the chieftain looked like a much smaller depiction of that abominable arachnid deity. This story would later be fleshed out by L. Sprague de Camp in the novel Conan And The Spider God.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_420e223e	type	Girl in the Tower
The People of the Black Circle / int_420e223e	comment	Girl in the Tower: the Devi Yasmina is imprisoned in a tower after being stolen by the Black Seers.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_454e6cf5	type	Hypnotic Eyes
The People of the Black Circle / int_454e6cf5	comment	Hypnotic Eyes: Khemsa's main power. He can compel people to do his bidding by looking them in the eye, up to and including killing themselves. Of course, it utterly fails against a certain Cimmerian.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_504a1991	type	Body Horror
The People of the Black Circle / int_504a1991	comment	Body Horror: Khemsa, after being carried down the mountainside by an avalanche. He's essentially nothing but a mass of torn flesh and broken bones in a vaguely human outline, clinging to life solely through a cocktail of The Power of Love and The Power of Hate.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_53915db9	type	The Laws of Magic
The People of the Black Circle / int_53915db9	comment	The Laws of Magic: Referenced during the conversation between Khemsa and Kerim Shah, specifically the Law of Synecdoche, in that it was the theft of a lock of hair from King Bhunda Chand that allowed them to begin their work of stealing his soul.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_5989e3b6	type	Enemy Mine
The People of the Black Circle / int_5989e3b6	comment	Kerim Shah, like many Howard villains, is also physically courageous and doesn't flinch from danger. He's the one who proposes to Conan an Enemy Mine alliance against Yimsha, while admitting he and Conan have no reason to remain allies once they've rescued Devi Yasmina... but they can fight that battle after dealing with the Black Seers.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_5a0e88d8	type	Bring It
The People of the Black Circle / int_5a0e88d8	comment	Bring It: At the end of the story, Yasmina tries to offer Conan a ransom for rescuing her. He promises (threatens) to collect his ransom in his own way and time, with fifty thousand men "to see that the scales are fair." Yasmina laughs and promises to meet him with a hundred thousand men. The two part, considering each other a Worthy Opponent.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_5fb5dad8	type	Royal Blood
The People of the Black Circle / int_5fb5dad8	comment	Royal Blood: Yasmina is proud of hers.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_5fd14ab3	type	Sacred Hospitality
The People of the Black Circle / int_5fd14ab3	comment	Sacred Hospitality: When Gitara goads Khemsa into turning on his masters and abandoning their plan to support Kerim Shah, he refuses to kill the Hyrkanian, commenting that he has "eaten his salt" as justification.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_64edb99c	type	Always Save the Girl
The People of the Black Circle / int_64edb99c	comment	Always Save the Girl: Conan has absolutely zero interest in challenging the Black Seers of Yimsha... until they abduct Devi Yasmina. Conan then states he'll have her back, even if he has to tear the mountain down with his bare hands.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_663b22d9	type	Dying as Yourself
The People of the Black Circle / int_663b22d9	comment	Dying as Yourself: Yasmina stabs her brother Bhunda Chand on his command to stop the Black Circle from imprisoning his soul in an Eldritch Abomination.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_6682d6e4	type	Dying Moment of Awesome
The People of the Black Circle / int_6682d6e4	comment	Dying Moment of Awesome: The opening scene where Bhunda Chand commands Yasmina to kill him while he's lucid, so the evil forces won't get him. She does it, and he dies with a "grim smile". In these few lines, we learn all about Bhunda Chand and mourn his loss.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_69f4d99b	type	Shockwave Stomp
The People of the Black Circle / int_69f4d99b	comment	Shockwave Stomp: One of the Rakhshas uses this to cause the avalanche which ultimately claims Khemsa's life.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_80621707	type	Arranged Marriage
The People of the Black Circle / int_80621707	comment	Arranged Marriage: The Devi Yasmina rejects Conan, despite their mutual attraction, because she says that she must make one for the good of her people. Conan jeers at such a concept.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_82a4fadc	type	Our Liches Are Different
The People of the Black Circle / int_82a4fadc	comment	Our Liches Are Different: The Black Seers of Yimsha, at least the higher-ranking ones, seem to be something like this. Conan is warned to destroy a Crystal Ball, and when he does four very powerful Seers drop dead. Kerim Shah notes the sound made by the ball break was of a thousand crystal panes shattering all over the castle, and wonders if the wizards bound their souls into crystal. The Master of Yimsha himself survives this and a tussle with Conan, and makes remarks indicating he's studied sorcery for a very, very, very long time.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_82f05a5d	type	ConservationOfNinjitsu
The People of the Black Circle / int_82f05a5d	comment	Conservation of Ninjutsu: Conan fells four tribesmen in a single sentence trying to make the safety of a reinforced hut with but one blow each. But once he's inside with but a single tribesman, a furious duel ensues with the lone warrior holding his own for some time against the Cimmerian.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_8437cb10	type	Made a Slave
The People of the Black Circle / int_8437cb10	comment	Made a Slave: The necromancer resolves to do this with the Devi Yasmina. Yezdigerd likewise desires the Devi's kingdom for his empire and the Devi herself for his seraglio. Thanks to Conan, neither of them get her.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_86b21114	type	Badass Boast
The People of the Black Circle / int_86b21114	comment	Badass Boast: Conan proudly claims to have achieved more things in his life than any average king could hope to have done in an attempt to impress Yasmina into staying with him.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_8a4988bb	type	Mind Rape
The People of the Black Circle / int_8a4988bb	comment	Mind Rape: The necromancer does this to Yasmina via Past-Life Memories, making her recall lives where she had much more suffering and hardship than she does currently. She is horrified, but does not lose her mind.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_8e27e5ac	type	Our Homunculi Are Different
The People of the Black Circle / int_8e27e5ac	comment	Our Homunculi Are Different: During the opening, the King declares that the Black Seers have summoned up some "homunculus from hell" that they wish to bind his soul to in order to give it life, a fate so terrifying he begs his sister to give him a Mercy Kill instead.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_970c790a	type	Big Bad
The People of the Black Circle / int_970c790a	comment	Big Bad: The Master of Yimsha. Once Khemsa is dealt with by the other Seers and Kherim Shah joins forces with Conan, the Master of Yimsha is the final threat. He set the Black Seers to the death of Bhunda Chand at the request of Yezdigerd, but the Master claims to have had his own reasons for going along with it.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_974b47a7	type	Men Are the Expendable Gender
The People of the Black Circle / int_974b47a7	comment	Men Are the Expendable Gender: Lampshaded by Yasmina; when Conan says she needs new clothes and a peasant girl happens by, Yasmina worries that Conan will kill the girl and take her clothes. Conan says he won't and simply pays the girl. Yasmina is relieved.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_97d97c28	type	Revenge Before Reason
The People of the Black Circle / int_97d97c28	comment	Revenge Before Reason: Yasmina is so outraged that the Black Seers would attack her brother that she becomes determined to slay them all in revenge, despite being well-aware of their infamous reputation and their terrible powers. Averted; when Khemsa betrays Kerim Shah, the Hyrkanian is simply relieved that the sorcerer didn't kill him before leaving and casually turns his mind to turning the situation to his advantage.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_9bfa1697	type	Eye of Newt
The People of the Black Circle / int_9bfa1697	comment	Eye of Newt: The king's hair was needed to perform the ritual that ultimately killed him.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_a1b76006	type	Nerves of Steel
The People of the Black Circle / int_a1b76006	comment	Nerves of Steel: Kerim Shah is able to feign unconsciousness while Khemsa and Gitara are feet away and arguing about killing him.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_a675997a	type	Scaled Up
The People of the Black Circle / int_a675997a	comment	Scaled Up: The Master of Yimsha fights Conan in this fashion. Indeed, it does not help.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_ade384ea	type	Red Shirt
The People of the Black Circle / int_ade384ea	comment	Redshirt: When Conan and Kerim Shah agree to an alliance to rescue Yasmina, several of Kerim Shah's men come with them. Their main function is to be killed so we can see the Black Seers' magic in action. They are completely aware of this too but being already deep in hostile territory it's either follow Kerim Shah to die fighting wizards or die flayed by hillmen staying there.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_ae3d6438	type	Deadpan Snarker
The People of the Black Circle / int_ae3d6438	comment	Deadpan Snarker: Kerim Shah has his moments. Upon overhearing a conversation the participants definitely didn't want overheard, he muses to himself:
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The People of the Black Circle / int_b3c730b	type	Celestial Deadline
The People of the Black Circle / int_b3c730b	comment	Celestial Deadline: The king's murder is governed by this; the spells that the Black Circle are using on King Chand can only function during a certain celestial alignment, after which magical protections woven into the palace will reactivate and shield him from their efforts.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_b807624a	type	And Show It to You
The People of the Black Circle / int_b807624a	comment	And Show It to You: One of the Master's spells lets him rip out a man's heart from afar by compelling it to burst from their chest and fly through the air at high speed to his hand. This is how he slays Kherim Shah.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_c3191ad7	type	Smooch of Victory
The People of the Black Circle / int_c3191ad7	comment	Smooch of Victory: Yasmina passionately kisses Conan after he rescues her from the Master of Yimsha. That's as far as she's willing to go, however.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_c81e2bba	type	Necromancer
The People of the Black Circle / int_c81e2bba	comment	Necromancer: The Master of the Black Seers of Yimsha, and how he murdered the king. Khemsa calls it necromancy, and Bhunda Chand states he can feel his soul being drawn from his body, as well as attempts to sever the connection between them and shove his soul into an abyssal monster.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_caf8c66c	type	The Chains of Commanding
The People of the Black Circle / int_caf8c66c	comment	The Chains of Commanding: Conan resolves to take Yasmina with him. Yasmina feels some desire to join his wild existence (and some attraction to him), but believes more strongly that she must return to her people.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_cd9d3d92	type	Past-Life Memories
The People of the Black Circle / int_cd9d3d92	comment	Past-Life Memories: The mechanism through which the Master of the Black Seers inflicts Mind Rape on Yasmina.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_cf0a35a	type	Resistant to Magic
The People of the Black Circle / int_cf0a35a	comment	Resistant to Magic: Conan is immune to Khemsa's hypnotism since as a Cimmerian he doesn't have the centuries of traditions that helped the people of the East believe in hypnotism and thus being more vulnerable to it. when Khemsa goes for his Touch of Death pat on the neck, which was able to break a guard's neck in an earlier chapter, Conan falls but survive because his neck muscles are that strong.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_cf9b131f	type	Muscles Are Meaningless
The People of the Black Circle / int_cf9b131f	comment	Muscles Are Meaningless: Despite being fairly slenderly built, Khemsa's dark magics allow him to deliver immensely powerful physical strikes that even Conan finds hard to shake off. One of the Black Seers, even more unimposing than Khemsa, effortlessly shatters a cliff ledge and causes an avalanche to sweep Khemsa away with a casual stamp of his foot.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_da4d59ae	type	Memento MacGuffin
The People of the Black Circle / int_da4d59ae	comment	Memento MacGuffin: Where they got the king's hair. Aware of the power of sympathetic magic, the royal family has everything that was once part of their bodies burned to ash and the ashes hidden. But the King sent a lovely princess a lock of his hair as a token of affection, and it was stolen and replaced with a fake, allowing for the magic that's killing the king at the start of the story to happen.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_dae5c997	type	Action Girl
The People of the Black Circle / int_dae5c997	comment	Action Girl: The Devi Yasmina. She's made of some pretty tough stuff and is not just a wilting lily. She pro-actively seeks her brother's murderers and intends to hire Conan to help her get them. And, when subjected to magical Mind Rape, faints but does not break.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_dd6ce5db	type	Artistic License
The People of the Black Circle / int_dd6ce5db	comment	Artistic License: Conan is described as using a "yard-long Zhaibar knife" in this story, as befitting his current role as leader of a tribe of Afghulis. Afghulistan is obviously Afghanistan, the "Zhaibar knife," is named after the Zhaibar Pass, so is likely based on the "Khyber knife," likewise named after the Khyber Pass. Except a Khyber knife is just over a third as long as a Zhaibar knife is stated to be. So it seems likely Howard knew Afghani warriors used long knives named after a mountain pass, but dramatically misjudged how long those knives were (three feet is long by sword standards).
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The People of the Black Circle / int_e2d7b14c	type	Made of Explodium
The People of the Black Circle / int_e2d7b14c	comment	Made of Explodium: One of the defenses of the Seers are cloudlike balls which explode on contact with steel, hot enough to melt it instantly, but contained enough men standing right next to one who touches one off are unharmed.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_f7883b17	type	Love Makes You Dumb
The People of the Black Circle / int_f7883b17	comment	Love Makes You Dumb: Bhunda Chand knows what can happen if the wrong people get hold of his hair, fingernails or anything else of that nature. But when his romance with the Princess of Khosala didn't work out, she asked for a lock of his hair in remembrance, and he gave it to her.
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The People of the Black Circle / int_f788b2c5	type	Love Makes You Evil
The People of the Black Circle / int_f788b2c5	comment	Love Makes You Evil: Yasmina's servant Gitara loves Khemsa enough to betray Yasmina, and convince him to try a career change from Evil Sorcerer to Sorcerous Overlord.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

The People of the Black Circle	hasFeature	American Literature (# to D) / int_1819e748
The People of the Black Circle	hasFeature	I Cannot Self-Terminate / int_1819e748
The People of the Black Circle	hasFeature	Made a Slave / int_1819e748
The People of the Black Circle	hasFeature	Necromancer / int_1819e748
The People of the Black Circle	hasFeature	Sex Slave / int_1819e748
The People of the Black Circle	hasFeature	The High Queen / int_1819e748
The People of the Black Circle	hasFeature	Girl in the Tower / int_1819e748
The People of the Black Circle	hasFeature	The Chains of Commanding / int_1819e748

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