Warriors of Eternity (Guardians of the Sword of Strength; Conan characters)

WARRIORS of ETERNITY

Membership: None identified

Purpose: Challenging those who wished to claim the Sword of Strength;
Hyborian era

Aliases: None

Affiliations: Connection to the Elder Gods (see comments);
if the Sword of Strength is an incarnation of the Sword of Bone, then they would be affiliated with Oshtur to some extent

Enemies: Conan, Noyo, all previous challengers

Base of Operations: A graveyard in an unidentified region in the Black Kingdoms (see comments), the expanse of lands south of Kush in the Hyborian era

First Appearance: Conan the Barbarian I#128 (November, 1981)

Abilities: Giant in stature (perhaps 15' tall), the Warriors are superhumanly strong and durable. They were unharmed by conventional swords, even when wielded by one as strong as Conan.

Despite their size, they were swift enough to side step an onrushing, seasoned warrior.

The Warriors wielded longswords and/or rocky maces, weapons befitting their great size.

They had limited intelligence and were fairly single-minded in their goal of fighting off attackers seeking the Sword.

They were described as immortal, but it is unclear if they continued to exist as guardians until being slain by the Sword of Strength or whether they were restored after such a death to again serve the Elder Gods (see comments) again.

The Warriors of Eternity rested in graves surrounding the Sword of Strength until someone arrived and sought to claim it.

History:
(Conan the Barbarian I#129) - The Warriors of Eternity were all once human warriors who had sought to claim the Sword of Strength, one of the Cornerstones of Creation, created by the Elder Gods (see comments).

Failing to overcome (and presumably being slain by) the existing Warriors (see comments), they each became one of the Warriors of Eternity, immense, virtually immortal zombie-like creatures serving as guardians of the Sword.

(Conan the Barbarian I#128 - BTS) - Under duress to recover the Cornerstones of Creation for the wizard Pau-Styss in order to save her husband, Laynnen, the Priestess of the Elder Gods Noyo transported herself, Conan, and her son, Dreeme, to the Black Kingdoms a short distance from the Warrior's graveyard.

Noyo's powers shielded the three visitors from the dinosaur-like creatures that inhabited that region.

(Conan the Barbarian I#128) - As the trio arrived at the graveyard surrounding the Sword of Strength, Conan, overwhelmed by the palpable energy charging the area and ignoring the gravestones, rushed forward to claim the Sword.

However, as Noyo warned him of the threat, the Warriors of Eternity began to emerge from their graves. warriors_of_eternity-cornerstones-closeup

warriors_of_eternity-cornerstones-closeup

(Conan the Barbarian I#129) - As Conan drew his sword and rushed the giants, one side-stepped his initial charge and then, unharmed by a second sword-swipe to the shin, swatted him back into a tombstone, dazing him.

At Noyo's urging that her magicks were useless against these creatures and that the Sword of Strength could only be won by strength, Conan charged the warrior anew.

warriors_of_eternity-cornerstones-defeated

warriors_of_eternity-cornerstones-defeated

    When Noyo urged him to reach the Sword as it was the key to victory, Conan leapt past the Warriors and raced to the Sword. With supreme effort he pulled the immense Sword from its sheathe, after which it shrunk to fit his frame.

    Noyo noted how the Elder Gods had rewarded Conan after he had proven himself worthy of the Sword and that, backed by their power, nothing could bar his way.

    As even their feeble minds could sense that the balance of power had shifted, the Warriors hesitated, and Conan rushed forward, swiftly gaining confidence in the Sword's power and using it to hack into the Warriors.

    Though they initially felt under Conan's assaults, the Warriors rallied and surrounded him anew. Calling on the war-cry of his Cimmerian tribe, Conan attacked savagely, slashing at the Warriors relentlessly.

    As he progressively dismembered and/or felled the Warriors, Conan achieved union with the Sword, accessing the Elder God's power and becoming the embodiment of strength. Against such power, the Warriors were slaughtered.

    Conceding defeat, the Warriors returned to the ground from which they had crawled.

(Conan the Barbarian I#129 - BTS) - With the Warriors having failed at their goal of protecting the Sword of Strength, the vengeance of the Elder Gods would be great.

Comments: Created by J.M. DeMatteis and Gil Kane.

The region of the Black Kingdoms in which the Warriors of Eternity dwelled was apparently the same region in which Conan had ruled as war-chief of the Bamulas.

If each of the Warriors of Eternity was once a human seeking the Sword of Strength, then it would logically follow that there was once a first warrior to seek the Sword, and what stopped him (I'd say or her, but they were all males) is unrevealed.

Perhaps the initial challenge was just the drawing of the immense Sword from its sheathe (which took all of the mighty Conan's strength), and that warrior failed that and became the first Warrior of Eternity, with subsequent challengers either being slain by the Warriors or failing to unsheathe the Sword.
Or maybe there was some other initial challenge, with the Warriors becoming the new challenge only after a sufficient number of them were accumulated?
Or maybe the Elder Gods' magic allowed them to magically bypass temporal limitations, such that there was a group of Warriors of Eternity even first human sought and failed to claim the Sword.

Elder Gods

In the past, we have always considered the Elder Gods of the Hyborian Age (never specifically named and sometimes referred to as the Primal Gods and the Creation-Lords) to be distinct from the true Elder Gods (Chthon, Gaea, Oshtur, and Set; with others having long since perished) and to possibly be the major gods mentioned elsewhere in the Conan series: Crom, Mitra, Asura, and Set..."
However, the Mystic Arcana series included the Cornerstones of Creation (created by the Elder Gods of the Hyborian era) and revealed them to be associated with the true Elder Gods; further, the Crown of Wisdom was shown to a form of the Serpent Crown (associated with Set); the Mirror of Beauty was shown to be a form of the Darkhold (associated with Chthon); the Rose of Peace was shown to be the Ebon Rose (associated with Gaea); and the Sword of Strength was shown to be a form of the Sword of Bone (associated with Oshtur), used by Cadaver.
Interestingly, the one image in Conan the Barbarian I#130 that shows the Elder Gods looks to at least three completely human-looking males. Is this just an image from Noyo's understanding of her masters? Did she lack understanding of their true forms/natures and just assume them to be human males who mystically combined their energies to generate a living being? Were these beings actually avatars of the Elder Gods, rather than the Elder Gods themselves? Or are there two different sets of Cornerstones of Creation?
I know the author of Mystic Arcana, David Sexton, intended the Cornerstones in his stories to be the same ones from the Conan stories.
This issue will likely remain unrevealed...and perhaps moot, depending on how the new Conan series fits in. It's supposed to be a continuation of the older series, although they don't necessarily plan to revisit much outside of classic Robert E. Howard story themes. We shall see.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Warriors of Eternity have no known connections to:

warriors - Island (Koma Koi?) native, controlled by Giger, apparently destroyed in the destruction of the Giger portal--Marvel Comics Presents I#137
Warriors of "Don Russell"'s race - extraterrestrial, plan to assault Earth aborted after Steve and Nan Miller discredited Russell--Strange Tales I#93/2
"Warriors from Story Times" - see CROSS-WALLACE's warriors--Marvel Comics Presents I#68/2
WARRIORS of the DEAD - see GRATEFUL UNDEAD--Marvel Comics Presents I#93/3
WARRIORS of the WORLD of 1000 GALAXIES - see WORLD of 1000 GALAXIES--Thor Annual#2
WARRIORS THREE (Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg) – Asgardians, apparently slain in the destruction of Asgard at the hands of Thor--Journey into Mystery #119
ETERNITY - Seven Friendless, abstract entity, manifestation of the entire timeline, supreme time being of the universe, together with Infinity makes up entire space-time continuum, possible progenitor of Eon, father of Entropy and Epiphany--Strange Tales I#137/2 - BTS, 138/2
other Warriors or Eternity groups

"Graveyard of Eternity"

It was located in an unidentified region in the Black Kingdoms (see comments), the expanse of lands south of Kush in the Hyborian era.

The graveyard was surrounded by a jungle inhabited by dinosaur-like creatures

The Warriors of Eternity rested in the Graveyard surrounding the Sword of Strength, emerging from their graves when a challenger came seeking to claim the Sword. Those who failed joined the ranks of the Warriors of Eternity.

Noyo's powers shielded the three visitors from the dinosaur-like creatures that inhabited that region.

(Conan the Barbarian#128-129) - Conan, Noyo, and Dreeme arrived at the Graveyard, and Conan ultimately claimed the Sword and defeated the Warriors, who returned to their graves to face the punishment of the Elder Gods.

--Conan the Barbarian#128

images: (without ads)
Conan the Barbarian#128, pg. 18, panel 2 (land and dinosaurs surrounding the Warriors' graveyard);
       pg. 19, panel 2 (graveyard);
       pg. 21 (Warriors emerging);
    #129, pg. 2, panel 2 (Warriors confronting Conan);
          panel 4 (face; bludgeoning Conan with mace);
       pg. 8, panel 2 (slaughtered by Sword of Strength-wielding Conan)

Appearances:
Conan the Barbarian#128 (November, 1981) - J.M. DeMatteis (writer), Gil Kane (artist), Louise Jones (editor)
Conan the Barbarian#129 (December, 1981) - J.M. DeMatteis (writer), Gil Kane (pencils), Gil Kane & P. Craig Russell (?) (inks), Louise Jones (editor)

First posted: 05/12/2019
Last updated: 06/02/2019

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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