Beast-men

The Beast-men are a race of hulking, anthropoid creatures who dwell in the caverns beneath the Mountain of Power, the stronghold of Thulsa Doom. Known by several names—shadow-dwellers, cave folk, troglodytes, and noglodytes—they serve as the cult leader's brutal guardians, an army of cannibals that protects his inner sanctum from intruders. Their presence marks the physical and moral corruption at the heart of the Cult of Set, transforming the mountain into a place of primal horror where humanity has been replaced by something less than human.

Identity and Origins

The Beast-men are not men who have degenerated into animals, but rather animals who have almost grown into men. Valeria explains this to her companions during their infiltration of the mountain, drawing on the lore of her people. Long ago, she says, there were two branches of man: the forebears of humanity and these shadow-dwellers. The ancestors of the Beast-men could not endure the light of day and chose to make their home in the hollows beneath the earth. While humanity spread across the land seeking daylight and fertile earth, the shadow-dwellers burrowed ever deeper into the ground, feeding on human flesh. This origin distinguishes them from mere beasts or monsters; they are a parallel lineage, a dark mirror of humanity that chose the depths over the sun.

Subotai, the Hyrkanian archer, initially mistakes them for trolls from the legends of his people, but Valeria corrects him. The Beast-men are not mythical creatures but the descendants of an ancient race, dwelling in caves from times beyond man's memory. Their ugliness is shared by both males and females, and their domestic life—women and children pursuing household affairs—reveals a disturbing semblance of society, albeit one that has sunk to the level of beasts. They are a people who have chosen darkness and savagery over light and civilization.

Role in the Cult of Set

Thulsa Doom breeds the Beast-men for his unholy purposes, feeding them on the bodies of his cult-worshippers or on those he teaches his followers to kill. This gruesome practice serves a dual function: it disposes of the cult's victims and sacrifices, and it maintains a loyal, ferocious army that owes its very sustenance to the serpent prophet. Conan recognizes this strategy with grim clarity, noting that the snake prophet protects his mindless children with an army of cannibals whose bellies are filled with the fools who follow him. Subotai adds a chilling corollary: the Beast-men also consume those who wish to follow Doom no more, making them an instrument of terror against both outsiders and wavering believers.

The Beast-men are thus not merely guards but a living embodiment of the cult's power over life and death. They are the physical manifestation of Doom's authority, the brute force that backs his charismatic and ideological control. Their cannibalism is not incidental but essential to the cult's economy of violence, transforming human bodies into fuel for the machine of terror.

The Eye of the Serpent and Command

A crucial secret about the Beast-men is revealed by the shaman who heals Conan after his crucifixion. The Eye of the Serpent, the jewel stolen from the Serpent's Tower in Shadizar, possesses the power to command the Beast-men. Raising it before one and commanding him, the shaman explains, forces the creature to obey without question. This revelation comes as a shock to Conan, who had dismissed the jewel as a mere bauble to be sold. He laments that he had not known of this power earlier, as it would have saved some desperate hand-play during the raid on the mountain.

The shaman reminds Conan that he had tried to question him about the jewel before, but the Cimmerian had refused to speak of it and hid it in his bosom. Conan acknowledges the old man's right, attributing the oversight to a trick of that malicious fate of which the learned speak. He decides the jewel may still prove useful and slips the cord over his head, burying it once more beneath his garment. This power over the Beast-men becomes a potential weapon in Conan's ongoing struggle against Doom, a hidden advantage that could turn the cult's own guardians against them.

Encounter During the Raid

During the raid on the Mountain of Power, Conan, Valeria, and Subotai encounter the Beast-men in their dwelling place. The raiders pass a squad of hairy men in metal-mounted leather who march into the dining hall, tug off their helmets, and settle down to feed. The whispers of the raiders are silenced by the clank of armour, and they shrink back into deeper gloom as the creatures noisily grunt and add to the din. Conan jerks a peremptory thumb to urge his companions on, and they proceed with utmost caution, circling past a seething cauldron with ghastly contents.

Beyond the living quarters, the three raiders reach the far end of the great cavern and find themselves confronted by a bridge of thong-bound poles suspended between two mammoth logs. This narrow bridge spans a wide, deep fissure opened up in aeons past by some violent convulsion within the mountain. Beyond this obstacle, they perceive a generous, man-made portal through which shines a strange, opalescent light. Seeing no guard about, they venture into the open, with Subotai, arrow nocked, in the lead. The Beast-men thus serve as a physical barrier, their presence and their lair forming a gauntlet that any intruder must pass through to reach the heart of Doom's power.

Thematic Significance

The Beast-men represent the ultimate degradation of life under the rule of Thulsa Doom. They are the product of a choice to abandon the light, a race that has become less than human by feeding on human flesh. Their existence challenges the boundary between man and beast, suggesting that the line is not fixed but can be crossed in either direction. The cult's use of them as expendable soldiers and its feeding of them on human bodies reveal the callousness at the core of Doom's ideology, which treats human life as mere material for his ambitions.

In the broader context of the story, the Beast-men stand in stark contrast to Conan's philosophy of steel and self-reliance. Where Conan's strength comes from suffering and the forging of his will, the Beast-men's power is derived from their master's control and their own base appetites. They are the mindless children of the cult, while Conan is the free soul who refuses to bow. Their presence in the mountain underscores the horror of what Doom has built: a kingdom not of men but of monsters, sustained by the bodies of the faithful and the unfaithful alike.