| abstract
| - The Thurian Age is a fictional period within the artificial mythology created by Robert E. Howard, in which the sword and sorcery tales of Kull of Atlantis are set. It is within the same shared universe as the Hyborian Age of Howard's Conan the Barbarian stories, but at an earlier period. The boundary between the two ages is marked by the "Great Cataclysm," which took place ca. 35,000-40,000 B.C. The Thurian Age a specific epoch in the fictional timeline used by Robert E. Howard in his Kull stories. It predates the Hyborian Age of the Conan the Barbarian series and is known to them as the Pre-Cataclysmic Age. The main continent is called Thuria, although smaller continents such as Atlantis and an unnamed Eastern continent exist, as do several island chains. Most of the planet is unexplored wilderness inhabited by "scattered clans and tribes of primitive savages." A great cataclysm ends the Thurian Age some time after the Kull stories. Several countries sink into the sea, others rise from it, and the rest is devastated by earthquakes and volcanoes. Civilization is destroyed and the survivors attempt to build a new culture but warfare and a Lesser Cataclysm strike, creating the Hyborian Vilayet Sea and destroying any last remnants of Thurian society.
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