The Witches of Shem (Conan characters)

The Witches of Shem

Membership: Renrutanit, Tetra (Pathir), at least other nine (names unrevealed)

Aliases: The Witches of El Shah Maddoc;
"Wood-demons" (Conan's name calling)

Purpose: Unrevealed, probably power

Affiliations: The monster guardian of Maddoc's Reign

Primary enemies: The rulers of El Shah Maddoc (Maddoc I, Maddoc II), Imhotep the Ravager of Worlds

Secondary enemies: Conan, Keiv, visitors of the Dark Forest, the Kothian army (General Soto);

Base of Operations: The Maddoc's Reign, the tower of Maddoc, in El Shah Maddoc, Koth;
secret keep in the most obscure and unexplored part of the Great Forest swamp, Shem;
Hyborian era

Powers/Abilities: Through magic they could fly, they could sustain other creatures, enabling them to live without food, water and proper shelter.

Their eldritch powers remain mostly unrevealed.

First Appearance: Conan the Barbarian I#180 (March, 1986)

History:
(Conan the Barbarian I#180 (fb) - BTS) - The witches were a force to take into account, in the lands around El Shah Maddoc.

(Conan the Barbarian I#181 (fb) - BTS) - After Maddoc I had ruled for about thirty years, he built a tower, as a symbol of his self -addressed divine power. Afew months later, the witches of El Shah Maddoc kidnapped the King and imprisoned him in his tower.

For fifteen years, the people spoke of witches and demons, about the tower of "Maddoc's Reign". Actually, a monster protected the King's prison, and the ones who tried to discover its secrets were killed by the guardian beast. The witches' magic kept the king and the beast alive, both prisoners there. Five years before the coming of Conan, the King disappeared. No more hints arrived from the tower.

(Conan the Barbarian I#180 (fb) - BTS) - Meanwhile, the witches protected cruelly their secret Keep in the Dark Forest. Many unlucky travelers that crossed the Dark Forest were captured and hanged onto their Monolith under the hidden swamp. Their dead bodies remained carved into the big rock for years.

(Conan the Barbarian I#180) - Five years after the King's disappearance, the witches were still feared, and their Queen Renrutanit was considered the most powerful and dangerous of all. However, the queen knew they were on the path of Imhotep the Ravager of Worlds, so Renrutanit deceived the Kothians, to save the witches.

The witches hid in the swamp of the Great Dark Forest, where the Kothian Army chased them, and where Imhotep found the army. The devastation caused by the Ravager of Worlds annihilated the Forest and the entire army, but the witches survived. Renrutanit's plan worked, almost, because her place as Queen (and her own head) was taken by the demon Pathir (in the human body of Tetra).

(Conan the Barbarian I#180 - BTS) - Tetra brought back the witches back to El Shah Maddoc, to Maddoc's Reign.

(Conan the Barbarian I#181) - From that moment on, Pathir used the witches to fulfill her vengeance against Conan. The witches obeyed the new Queen, because she possessed the head of Renrutanit.

In the following days, Tetra visited the time stream several times to fulfill her plans, but neither the witches nor Renrutanit were seen again.

When Tetra traveled twenty years in the past and kidnapped King Maddoc I, she was addressed as a witch by the Kothians.

Comments: Created by Jim Owsley, John Buscema and Bob Camp.

    The Witches of Shem messed with El Shah Maddoc, even if it was a City-State of the Kothian empire.

    Maddoc's Reign crumbled when Tetra died. It is reasonable that Renrutanit's daughter were there no more, for Tetra's behavior had become somewhat insane, and she enacted her vengeance using Maddoc II.

    Why did Renrutanit suspect Tetra of any trickery? How did Tetra mess with Ren's plans? The events don't show it, nor were there are behind-the-scenes hints. Was it Conan's fault? Imhotep sensed the presence of the amulet he sought when Conan was hidden in the Great Forest. Anyway, Imhotep would have destroyed the Dark Forest as well.
    In the end it was Ren's fault. Kidnapping Keiv, she put herself on Conan's path. Without involving Conan, Imhotep would have annihilated the Kothian army and the forest, and the witches would have escaped as well, and Ren would have kept her head on the shoulders. Unless... Tetra acted way before Conan's arrival.

    In Conan the Barbarian I#185, Tetra travelled twenty years in the past, she kidnapped the King, and imprisoned him in the Tower.
    In Conan the Barbarian I#181, Maddoc I told that many years before his liberation, Renrutanit and the witches imprisoned him in the tower. He also told Conan that he knew no red-haired girl.
    In Conan the Barbarian I#186, letters page, it was confirmed that the witches put the monster in the Tower (this event could be happened after Tetra's kidnapping).
    Time travel can cause paradoxes and absurd situations. The easiest way to explain the differences is that Tetra was still inexperienced at time-travel, and slipped into an alternate reality. The bad alternative is that she rewrote the past, so that almost everything that happened to Maddoc I, and something supposedly done by the Witches in CB181 should be considered to have never happened.
    The third hypothesis is that Owsley had a more complex plot in mind, but the final result was not as clear as he wanted to be.

"Witches" should be taken with a broader meaning, at least in the geographic and cultural regions between Shem and Koth. Tetra was addressed "witch" by the Kothians because they saw her flying. Tetra herself addressed Swan the seer with the term "witch", and Swan did not belong to the Witches of Shem, nor were her abilities used against men, nor were the origin of her powers were revealed to be magic.

Profile by Spidermay.

CLARIFICATIONS:

The Witches of Shem have no known connection to:

WITCHES (Jennifer Kale, Satana, Topaz) - united for training by Dr. Strange, destroyed the Hellphyr--Witches#1
WITCHES OF ENDOR - disfigured men, attempted to make Eve one of them, thwarted by Tuk and Tanir--Captain America Comics#2
WITCHES of INFINITY - dwelled within the realm of the God Quarry--Thanos II#4
WITCHES of NEW SALEM - who left Salem for the persecution in the 17th century--Fantastic Four I#186
WITCH MEN of HYPERBOREA - warriors and agents of the ruler of Hyperborea--Savage Sword of Conan I#39
or any other "Witch" group or character.

The monster guardian

The monster was a magical mutated beast.

Its only task was the defense of Maddoc I's prison in the Maddoc's Reign tower.

The witches of El Shah Maddoc sustained it with the same magic they used to keep Maddoc I alive without giving him water or food.

It was believed to be a demon by the people of El Shah Maddoc, mainly due to his growls.

The monster was very aggressive, probably because it was a predator in nature. Its strength and agility were likely inherent to its species but they were also derived, to some exent, from the sorcery that the witches of El Shah Maddoc used to sustain it. In the rare cases it met an intruder, it assaulted and killed the intruder, eating his or her flesh, sometime dismembering the body. It had sharp talons, but its killer feats were likely its fangs.

Height: 7 feet (by approximation)
Weight: 500 lbs (approximately the average weight of a male gorilla; I'd think probably closer to 800 lbs. due to its broad frame in combinaton with its height)

History:
In the years of Maddoc I's imprisonment (about 20 years), the monster inhabited some high floors of Maddoc's Reign, killing at least seven men who tried to reach the top of the tower.

When the beast spotted Conan, the Cimmerian wasn't aware of its presence until it assaulted him. The monster grabbed and tangled with Conan, succeeding in biting him. Despite the wound, the pain, the grabs and the beast's superior weight, Conan managed to stab the white haired beast, repeatedly. The monster, bloodied, died from the wounds.

--Conan the Barbarian I#181

images: (without ads)
Conan the Barbarian I#181, pg. 22, panel 3 (some witches)
Conan the Barbarian I#181, pg. 22, panel 1 (Maddoc's Reign)
Conan the Barbarian I#181, cover (monster guardian)

Appearances:
Conan the Barbarian I#180 (March, 1986) - Jim Owsley (writer), John Buscema (penciler), Bob Camp (inker), George Roussos (colors), Larry Hama (editor)
Conan the Barbarian I#181 (April, 1986) - Jim Owsley (writer), John Buscema (penciler), Ernie Chan (inker), George Roussos (colors), Larry Hama (editor)

First Posted: 04/08/2024
Last updated: 04/09/2024

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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