The Hyborian Age is the detailed fictive prehistory Howard elaborated in his 1932 essay "The Hyborian Age," set after the submergence of Atlantis and Lemuria and before recorded history. Within it lie dozens of kingdoms — Aquilonia, Stygia, Cimmeria, and more — each with its own culture, religion, and history.
Howard wove his invented epoch into a pseudo-historical framework by positing that Hyborian-Age peoples eventually became the ancestors of historical nations: Celts, Germanic tribes, Slavs, and others. This conceit lends the Conan cycle an unusual sense of depth and quasi-archaeological plausibility.