Editing Conan the Barbarian (section)

==Personality and Character==
Conan is a Cimmerian (<strike>a Scythian tribe from the north of the Black Sea</strike> a likely fictional ancestral people to the Celts given the same name by Howard due to a presumed connection between the two), a barbarian of the far north. One of his grandfathers, however, came from a southern tribe. He was born on a battlefield and is the son of a village blacksmith. Conan matured quickly as a youth and, by age fifteen, he was already a respected warrior who had participated in the destruction of the Aquilonian outpost of Venarium. After its destruction, he was struck by wanderlust and began the adventures chronicled by Howard, encountering skulking monsters, evil wizards, tavern wenches, and beautiful princesses. He roamed throughout the Hyborian Age nations as a thief, outlaw, mercenary and pirate. As he grew older, he began commanding larger units of men and escalating his ambitions. In his forties, he seized the crown of the tyrannical king of Aquilonia, the most powerful kingdom of the Hyborian Age, having strangled the previous ruler on the steps of the throne. Conan's adventures often result in him performing heroic feats, though his motivation for doing so is largely for his own survival or for personal gain, implying that the character displays the characteristics of an anti-hero and could be described as the archetypal "amoral swordsman" of the Sword and Sorcery genre. This observation could however be said to be in contrast to the assumption that Conan was merely another barbarian hero as envisioned by Howard for Weird Tales magazine.

On the other hand, Conan shows some character development through the stories, and to say he is amoral wouldn't be exactly true, instead it's more like he has his own code of ethics, which over time evolves to answer to new and more complex scenarios. During the story "Rogues in the House" he stays true to his contractor despite having a chance to just slip away because he felt he was in debt with him. Similarly in "Queen of the Black Coast" he didn't betray a friend despite being threatened with punishment, because according to his own views "he was a friend of him" and hence he couldn't betray his trust. In "The Scarlet Citadel" it's said he took Aquilonia's crown mostly for his own gain, yet Conan decides to face death rather than to sell his kingdom to his enemies in exchange for money and freedom. A similar scenario happens in The Hour of the Dragon, where rather than just abandoning Aquilonia Conan embarks in a quest to save the day, and he makes clear to the antagonist he will have all of his subjects sold as slaves returned without exception, on the grounds that Conan makes no difference between fellow warriors and rogues, commoners and nobility; they all are "tribe" to him and hence his own. Perhaps the most obvious moral trait of Conan is his sense of chivalry; despite occasionally being very aggressive in pursuing women (to the point by modern standards he'd be committing sexual harassment), he views the very idea of actually attacking or raping a woman as extremely repugnant, and doesn't hesitate to help any wenches who happen to be menaced by the local monster or villain. In "Jewels of Gwahlur", he goes so far as to abandon the treasure he spent the entire story trying to steal in order to save a woman he knew for only a few hours at best, without any hesitation. While Conan is certainly no feminist, his mercy towards women stands out noticeably in his brutal era full of people who only see women as fit for being sex slaves at best, human sacrifices at worst. 

Conan is quite emotional but in no way weak, described by Howard as a man of "...great melancholies and great mirth".  Said mirth can be seen in Conan's sense of humor, a trait largely absent in the comics and movies but very much a part of Howard's original vision of the character.  This is particularly evident is found in "Xuthal of the Dusk," also known as "The Slithering Shadow"; quick example, instead of slaying his treacherous ex-girlfriend he dumped her... literally... into the ancient equivalent of a septic tank, and then laughed about this feat(though this is a bit strange, considering how he murdered an innocent bystander just to get to her).  He is a loyal friend to those true to him, with a barbaric code of conduct that often marks him as more honorable than the more sophisticated people he meets in his travels. Indeed, his straightforward nature and barbarism are constants in all the tales.  Another aspect of him from the beginning that crops up to various degrees is Conan's dislike of magic, even fearing it at times; this comes from the fact that physical prowess and wit are of limited use against supernatural power, the amount of evil magic users he's fought and the fact that [[Satanic Panic|casting magic in the Conanverse usually involves horrible ingredients or immoral acts]].