NITOCRIS

Real Name: Nitocris

Identity/Class: Human magic-user;
    Hyborian era (first active several hundred years before Conan's time, and then spirit active again in Conan's time)

Occupation: Former queen of Stygia

Group Membership: Spirit bound into body of Stornella, alongside the spirits of Sabbatha, Ctesphon III, and Stornella

Affiliations: Issus, Rosina
    at least formerly Set;

Enemies: Kha Semblor and his priests of Set and other nobles allied with Kha Semblor against her brother;
    presumably Set after her slaughtering his priests

Known Relatives: Unidentified brother (former king of Stygia; deceased)

Aliases: Avenger of Kings

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    last seen in the Temple of Issus, Luxur, Stygia;
    formerly the royal palace in Luxur, Stygia

First Appearance: Savage Sword of Conan I#216 (December, 1993)

Powers/Abilities: Nitocris wielded great power as queen of Stygia, and she was served by many warriors and workers, including a group of slaves from the deep South who did not speak Stygian.

    She had limited mystical abilities, apparently enabling her to transfer her spirit (and that of those she slew) into crystal (the Tear of Nitocris and the Crystal Conclave, respectively).

    While in crystalline form, she was large and superhumanly strong and durable, and she could project mystic blasts; this form could be shattered by mystic energies.

    Combined with the spirits of Sabbatha, Ctesphon III, and Stornella in the form of Stornella, she was somewhat addled, at least initially (see comments).

Height: Unrevealed (perhaps 5'8"-5'10" (she was described as "tall and graceful")
Weight: Unrevealed (perhaps 135-145 lbs.)
Eyes: Unrevealed (dark; likely brown)
Hair: Black

History:
(Savage Sword of Conan I#216 (fb) - BTS) <Several hundred years before the main story> - The sister of the King of Stygia, Nitocris was famously beautiful, pious, and wise.

(Savage Sword of Conan I#216 (fb) - BTS) - After the King of Stygia vengefully desecrated Set's temples and denied Set's rituals after his efforts to build a bridge across the river Styx failed, Kha Semblor, the High Priest of Set, led an assembly of priests and nobles to storm the palace to pronounce doom for the king.

(Savage Sword of Conan I#216 (fb)) - As a well-organized mob stormed the palace, Nitocris begged her brother to re-light the temple fires and pacify those approaching as they came to kill him. 

    Swatting and silencing Nitocris, the king arrogantly announced that he contended with gods and that he did not fear "dogs of men." As he defiantly faced the mob, however, the king slipped on a loose step and fell down the stairs, after which the mob gained the courage to rush and beat the him to death.

(Savage Sword of Conan I#216 (fb) - BTS) - Kha Semblor and the other priests of Set declared it "the will of Set" that Nitocris become the new ruler of Stygia. 

(Savage Sword of Conan I#216 (fb)) - A week later, a large assemblage gathered at the palace to pronounce Nitocris queen of Stygia. Though she kept her thoughts to herself, Nitocris prayed to Issus to grant her power to avenge her brother's death upon those who had killed him.

    Throughout the winter, Nitocris daily sent large numbers of non-Stygian speaking slaves from the far south Black Kingdoms down the river where they constructed the instrument of her vengeance. 

    Later in the spring, Nitocris announced that a new temple to Set had been built to atone for her brother's sacrilege. She invited all of the nobles and high priests who had been involved in her brother's death to the temple's dedication.

    Nitocris greeted her guests with a smile that was interpretted as gratification over the pleasure which her creation in Set's honor had brought to his worshippers. She then led them into the immense subterranean temple to enjoy a sumptuous banquet, during which she sat alone on a cushioned dais, quietly waiting until all of her guests were in a drunken stupor. 

    Nitocris then silently exited and had her slaves lower the temple's massive stone lid over the hall. The sound of grating stone alerted Kha Semblor, but neither he nor any others could make it out before the lid shut them in; Kha Semblor's terror-stricken face, which seemed to be mouthing a desperate, frenzied curse, was the last Nitocris saw of the vault's interior. 

    Striding down the steps to a stone pier, Nitocris personally used the lever to open a portal into the river Styx; after lifting her face with a quick intake of breath toward the moonlit sky, she lusted upon the triumph-filled second as she pushed the lever to its limit. The water then poured in and drowned everyone in the vault.

    After returning to Luxur, Nitocris -- knowing that she was doomed once the people learned what had happened -- had her servants fill her boudoir with certain hot and smoking ashes and then lock the door. 

    Overcome by the fumes, Nitocris perished, and the angry mob found only her dead body.

(Savage Sword of Conan I#216 (fb) - BTS) - Apparently via a spell voiced by her dying body (and/or via the curse of Kha Semblor), Nitocris' spirit was trapped within the Teardrop Diamond, also know as the Tear of Nitocris.

    Whether via Nitocris' machinations or not (presumably via the curse of Kha Semblor), crystal figurines of Kha Semblor and the other Stygian priests and nobles who fell via her trap were constructed by unidentified parties, and they become known as the Crystal Conclave. These were apparently designed such that, within the Temple of Issus in Luxur, a magic spell could link the figurines with the spirits of their counterparts, allowing these spirits to animate the figurines. 

(Savage Sword of Conan I#216 (fb) - BTS) - Ctesphon III, the female king of Stygia (having undergone religious ceremonies that made her a man in the eyes of the gods), who had been transformed into a death-like state by her traitorous wizards, the sorcererous siblings Stornella and Valxavier, was entombed in a frosted coffin in the Temple of Issus.

(Savage Sword of Conan I#216 (fb) - BTS) - The Tear of Nitocris and the Crystal Conclave were stolen from the Temple of Issus.

(Savage Sword of Conan I#216 (fb) - BTS) - The witch Sabbatha inherited the Crystal Conclave and the Tear of Nitocris from her father.

(Savage Sword of Conan I#216 (fb) - BTS) - Stornella and Valxavier plotted to use the Crystal Conclave and the Tear of Nitocris to revive Ctesphon III while replacing Ctesphon's spirit with Stornella, allowing her and her brother to rule Stygia.

(Savage Sword of Conan I#216 - BTS) - Stornella and Valxavier utilized Simianthros (half-human, half-ape creatures magically bred by the Cult of Luxur) to steal the Crystal Conclave and Tear of Nitocris (while at the same time abducting Sabbatha's daughter, Rosina) from Sabbatha's home in Shem, which they then transported to the Temple of Issus in Luxur.

    Sabbatha enlisted Conan of Cimmeria to retrieve the stolen articles and her daughter.

    In the Temple of Luxur, Stornella and Valxavier began the spell to revive Ctesphon and transfer the spirits. 

    When Conan arrived, Stornella continued the incantation while Valxavier voiced a spell that slowed down time for Conan while Valxavier engaged him in a swordfight. 

    When the fight knocked over and shattered one of the Crystal Conclave, the spell was broken, and Conan slew Valxavier. 

    Nonetheless, as planned, Stornella revived in Ctesphon's form. 

    However, desperate to recover her stolen items, Sabbatha then mystically inhabited Stornella's form, and she voiced a spell while touching the Conclave, transforming the figurines into full-sized crystal-people possessed by those after whom they were patterned and commanding them to attack the guards.

    After the crystal men had slain the Stygian warriors and Ctesphon/Stornella, the crystalline form inhabited by Kha Semblor then confronted Rosina, seeking the Tear of Nitocris.

(Savage Sword of Conan I#216) - Rosina then voiced a spell she had learned from her mother, and Nitocris' spirit was released from the Tear and it created a crystalline figure (hardened from the very air) animated by Nitocris' spirit. 

    Nitocris' and Kha Semblor's crystal forms battled, hurling forgotten magicks at each (the rest of the reanimated Crystal Conclave were immobilized by the mystico-technic display), until both their forms and all of the other crystalline forms were shattered into tiny shards:

    The "final vengeance of Nitocris" met the "ultimate revenge of Kha Semblor, and their souls were "shriven into glassy splinters."

    The form of Stornella was left inhabited by a combination of Sabbatha, Stornella, Ctesphon, and Nitocris, somewhat unhinged by the experience. 

    While Rosina thought to reassemble the shards, Conan headed out to find someone who would take in, care for, and/or employ Rosina and the multiple-spirited Stornella, neither of whom could fend for themselves.

Comments: Created by Roy Thomas, based on "The Vengeance of Nitocris"by Thomas Lanier Williams (later known as "Tennessee" Williams).

 The story behind the story:

    In the Swords and Scrolls feature of Savage Sword of Conan I#216, Roy discusses how, in 1928, the teenaged Thomas Williams sold his first story -- "The Vengeance of Nitocris" -- to Weird Tales (which had already published stories by H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard), inspired by reading of similar events in the work of the Greek historian Herodotus.
    Intrigued after reading Williams' story in 1970's "The Pulps: Fifty Years of American Pop Culture," Roy considered adapting it to Conan (with Egypt becoming Stygia (and presumably Seth and Isis becoming Set and Issus) and eventually did the in story in Savage Sword of Conan I#216. Williams' story was the 10 page prologue, ending with Nitocris' apparent suicide.
    Roy further notes that in the main story, "Stornella" and "Sabbatha" are taken from Tennessee Williams' works, while Rosina was named after Williams' tragic sister, Rose. Roy used the main story to give a tip of the hat to various Williams dramatic themes.
    Courtesy of that same feature, here's the original art from that story.

    The narration noted that while Kull might have pondered whether crystal-Nitocris' mystic powers were inherent or something she had taught herself in her final days... Conan only noted the danger to himself and Rosina from the two struggling crystalline figures. 

    As Sabbatha had projected her astral self from her home in Shem, she may have been able to return to her own body if she desired, leaving just Ctesphon III, Nitocris, and Stornella's spirits in Stornella's body. Perhaps the spirits eventually achieved something of a union, similar to Chorus, or perhaps Nitocris or one of the other's achieved dominance...or...

    The figure(s) on the cover of this issue is/are interesting:

Ctesphon III's was the one in stasis in the Temple of Issus, but the figure on the cover looks more like Nitocris, notably because it didn't have Ctesphon III's false ceremonial beard.

The outfit and everything else looked more like Nitocris, although Nitocris was dressed in black rather than white. 

I think it's just artistic license on the story, as the crystalline jackal-men shown on the cover don't appear in the story, either. 

Here's a close-up of the figure in the sarcophagus and then a fuller image of the cover.

    This profile was completed 01/30/2022, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20^th anniversary 's celebratory event.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Nitocris should be distinguished from:

• other "Nito" characters, places, races, items, etc.

Appearances:
Savage Sword of Conan I#216 (December, 1993) - Roy Thomas (writer), Alfredo Alcala (penciler), E.R. Cruz (inker), Michael Kraiger (assistant editor), Richard Ashford (editor)

First posted: 09/19/2026
Last updated: 01/30/2022

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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