The Shadow Kingdom
core short fiction 1929 Conan / Kull / Bran Mak Morn
Record
| First published | 1929 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | short fiction |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.65 (264 ratings, collected 2026-09-13) |
| Page count | 32 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781473323414 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
The Shadow Kingdom opens with Kull, a barbarian originally from Atlantis, newly established as king of Valusia after conquering its throne. A Pictish ambassador warns him of hidden danger within his own court, and a warrior named Brule reveals to Kull a conspiracy centuries in the making: the Serpent Men, an ancient pre-human race with the power to disguise themselves as humans, have infiltrated the highest levels of Valusia's government and plan to replace Kull himself with one of their own. As the threat escalates, Kull discovers that his palace is honeycombed with hidden passages and illusions, and must survive a string of assassination attempts by enemies capable of wearing any face, forcing the barbarian king to question who around him can be trusted.
Where it sits
- Universe: Conan / Kull / Bran Mak Morn
- Series: Kull of Atlantis (lifetime-published stories) core; position 1 of 2 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Robert E. Howard
Notes
- From the series record (Kull of Atlantis (lifetime-published stories)): The only 2 Kull-as-protagonist stories Howard sold and saw published in his own lifetime (both Weird Tales, 1929) -- confirmed via a dedicated Howard-scholarship source (The Pulp Super-Fan) and Wikipedia. A third lifetime-published story, 'Kings of the Night' (Weird Tales, November 1930), features Kull as a time-displaced guest character in a story primarily about Bran Mak Morn -- registered under Bran Mak Morn's own Core Canon instead (admitted separately, this same run), with the crossover noted here rather than the same book double-registered under two universes.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Kull of Atlantis (lifetime-published stories): position 1 of 2: next The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune (1929)
- Internal chronology, within Conan / Kull / Bran Mak Morn: position 1 of 7: next The Lost Race (1927)
Sources
- The Pulp Super-Fan: REH's King Kull
- Wikipedia: The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_Kingdom
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