The Influence of Robert Ervin Howard

Robert E. Howard was an incredible writer, writing deep, fascinating characters, characters that I never thought I’d love. But when one goes deeper in analysing characters such as Kull, Brule, Conan and Solomon Kane, there’s a deeper layer to them. And many love the spirit, but they usually end up falling flat when they try to imitate what makes them individual characters.

Many of us have been at that DnD table, or on those RP Forums, with that one individual playing that moody edgelord with a tragic backstory, blaming the world for their problems… Most of these players want to channel their inner Kull or Conan, but it doesn’t come out properly. Conan, Kull and Solomon may be gritty, and may brood, but the difference is, they don’t blame the rest of the world. They view it as a test for their inner strength. Conan may worry about his Kingdom, but he’s also aware that not only are his enemies to blame for his army falling, but he also takes responsibility himself for what happened.

Conan is an orphan that was born on the battlefield, and he was bound to have a difficult life, and he had to learn how to survive, and he learned that he was the master of his own fate. Did he think the big questions? Of course he did. He was extremely talented at what he did, and that included philosophy. Many underestimate him, thinking he is a “Conan Smash!” type of character, or in other words the “dumb Barbarian” archetype.

Conan’s dark humours ae often something that many wish to bring to their writing or role play, and unfortunately, it only ends up with potentially 6 people in different corners of the tavern, wanting to be told the mission, and brooding their way through everything, also falling to the trope of being “bad-ass” murderhobos. (Even in writing, some may follow the same habits that those who play such characters in TTRPGs comes through.)

Another character that seems to have something fascinating, with the vengeful personal vendetta, and Solomon Kane is a crusader that will hunt down enemies who brings harm to innocent people around him. Deep down, Solomon is a man of peace, but he understands he needs to fight the good fight.

They are good people who are willing to fight the good fight, and help the weak and helpless, but in both Sword and Sorcery and TTRPGs, characters that follow the archetypes of REH’s characters, often miss something that the originals had, and it makes the characters seem incomplete. Even writing Erik Einnarson wasn’t easy, as I wanted to try my hand at Sword and Sorcery, I realised that there is a lot more than a brooding character that bemoans his fate. The character needs to have layers, and even Conan smiles from now and then, as he can’t be the dour King forever.

I get you want gritty anti-heroes, but we want them to have more than just brooding in the tavern, and trying to convince the loner that it’s in his best interest to follow and join the party. Even REH predicted the oft used “Quest starts in a Tavern” trope in the “Elephant Tower”. Conan heard what kind of quest was being offered, and he agreed to it. The questgiver in the tavern is such a classic that REH started, that people use it to this day to start stories. Even Dragonlance followed that storytime tradition, with the Heroes of the Lance meeting each other in a tavern. It’s a very easy way to segue into a story, as it is a good start, especially if there are trouble with ideas because it allows the writer and/or the DM to to work from there.

There are even influences with the evil wizard or warlock that draws inspiration, even subconsciously that draws inspiration from Conan fighting mages like Xaltotun, that lives on, and established a particular tradition that created a foe in the magic of the world itself, if it was a threat to the hero himself, starting a mighty tradition in American fantasy.

Even works like Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles takes a page from Howard’s book, bringing in European fairy stories, mixing the two together in a really good way, with Taran sometimes brooding about his identity, and being confronted with powerful magical beings like the Horned King and the seductress sorceress Achren. A lot of Howard’s tradition influenced that, and it may have been more cultural than many might think. It is fascinating how Alexander does take a page out of the European handbook, but he is a Celtophile American at his core. And as much as Taran and Gwydion may play the role of Conan at times, it is indeed more of a coming of age story with a boy as the central lead, compared to the masculine figures of Conan and Solomon Kane.

In Dragonlance, Raistlin Majere has a cynical viewpoint of life, but for most of the story, he is loyal to his allies, even if they have disagreements on him being a mage.but the black humours Conan faces, Raistlin deals with. Even his speech about hope being the carrot for a blind donkey is very similar to what Conan would say, especially with Conan wanting to help as many as he can.

Solomon the holy avenger, is a character that has many imitations, and none can live up to him. Quiet and thoughtful, he is the spirit of Justice, sent down by God to protect the people around him, and avenge those that are fallen, and those that have dealt with great harm. Nothing will stop him from fighting against evil.

When he wrote for Western Pulps, we see the John Wayne type characters. Confident, thinking deeply, and wild living out in the open space, under the stars above. A part of that stems from how Howard wrote the Western, And we see the results in Westerns, even to this day, in stories like Bone Tomahawk. Main characters in these stories are often cocky, they brood quite a bit, and wonder what kind of would be settling down. Cowboys are seen as agents of justice fighting the outlaws that would come and raid towns for money. The cowboy arrives, and is given a great task, such as bringing back something stolen, or even told to track, capture and return with the crook in question.

Dick Tracy also has a tradition of brooding over his issues, even his narrations are over the top, and a part of that pessimism does fall back to Howardian tradition. Solomon Kane is tasked by a dying individual to either find their loved one, or to kill the monster who killed the person they love.

Many would say that following tropes is bad, but that’s not necessarily true. Some of them are good, and we shouldn’t shy away from it. How many of us having TTRPG characters meet in a pub? The brooding warrior-thinker who tries to find meaning in life. The avenger swearing himself to a dying woman to save her child, or to avenge the killer of her child or husband. Very important. Even the idea of being born on a battlefield goes back to Robert E Howard, with Conan being born and raised on the battlefield with others that would follow in the traditions, Such as Taran from the prydain chronicles.

All these fantasy tropes and storytelling traditions from the Sword and Sorcery, the Western, detective and even loner and edgy character tropes have Robert E Howard as a grandfather helping them with their storytelling. And there’s nothing to be ashamed of.

Happy Howard Days.

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