Tela Network

The barbarian's eyes were smoldering with fires that never lit the eyes of men bred to the ideas of civilization. In that instant he was all wild, and had forgotten the man at his side. In his burning gaze Balthus glimpsed and vaguely recognized pristine images and half-embodied memories, shadows from Life's dawn, forgotten and repudiated by sophisticated races - ancient, primeval fantasms unnamed and nameless. Then the deeper fires were masked and Conan was silently leading the way deeper into the forest. / "Barbarism is the natural state of mankind," the borderer said, still staring somberly at the Cimmerian. "Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph." - Robert E. Howard, (1935) 'Beyond the Black River', in "The Masterworks of Robert E. Howard. Volume II: American Violence" (2024), pg. 248, 280