The Kingdom of Shadows

The short story "The Kingdom of Shadows" by American science fiction writer Robert Howard was written in 1927 and first published in August 1929 in Weird Tales magazine. The story was later adapted for Kull the Conqueror comics #2, September 1971 (Marvel Comics) and Kull #22, December 2008 (Dark Horse Comics).

The plot of this story, written in the fantasy style, is quite simple:

The story begins shortly after the Atlantean barbarian Kull conquered Valusia and became its king. Kull is invited to the feast by the Pictish ambassador Ka-nu. Despite the fact that the Picts are ancient enemies of the Atlanteans, Ka-nu trusts Kull and tells him to expect the arrival of Brule Spyzer the assassin later. As a guarantee that he can be trusted, Brule must demonstrate "a golden bracelet in the shape of a winged dragon, wound around his arm three times, with three ruby horns on his head."

Early at night, Brul goes up to Kull's room and explains that Kull's life is in danger, after which he shows him the secret passages that lead out of the palace. Through the hole in the door of the secret passage, Kull sees that his guards, assigned to guard the palace for that night, are dead. But after returning to the room, Kull sees the same guards on duty through the hole in the door. Brul begins to tell Kull the legend of some kind of battle, but does not finish, because the figure of the chief adviser Tu is shown outside the door. Tu tries to kill the King, but meets him armed. After the fight, it turns out that it was not a real Tu, but a snake man who took his form.

Brule tells us that the snake people are an ancient prehuman race that built Valusia. For a long time they controlled everyone from the shadows, using the religion of the snake cult and the ability to magically disguise themselves. They intended to replace Kull with a disguised Snake Man, as was the case with his predecessors. One of them turned into a Brule, but there was no bracelet on his arm, so Kull killed him. During the conversation with Brule, Kull recalls his past adventures and realizes that he has already heard about the snake people. In the secret tunnels, when they get rid of the corpses of the snake people, they meet the ghost of Eallal, the king of Valusia, who died a thousand years ago.

Kull and Brule have been waiting for an attack for two days, but it doesn't happen. The next attempt takes place at a Council meeting, where all the councillors turn out to be snake people in disguise. After they are all killed, Kull realizes that they are not in the Council Chamber, but in the cursed room where King Eallal was killed. The real members of the Council at this time meet in the Hall with the fake snake-man king.

The fake Kull is killed by the real one, and the truth about the existence of the snake people is revealed to the public. Kull curses the room for the second time and swears to hunt and destroy all the people forever.

This story is considered the progenitor of the modern image (both appearance and abilities) of aliens known as "reptilians", as well as the very idea of their conspiracy against humans. Therefore, the creatures described in the work, as well as their ideas and behavioral features, we will refer to the phenomenon of "Alien".

In the present work the Ghost - the disembodied spirit of the king of Valusia of Allala, who died a thousand years before the book narration. He was killed in the room, which since then became known as cursed.

In the book his appearance is described as follows:

The corridor turned, and they saw a strange ghostly glow. [...] The glow took the form of a vague silhouette, like that of a human, its contours are constantly changing, as if he was enveloped in a cloud of smoke. The closer the outlines of human shapes became more distinct. Finally they saw a huge beaming eyes on her face, which seemed to have experienced all possible pain and suffering. They were not threats, only the boundless sadness, and that face... Oh that face...

Almighty Gods! whispered Kull. Is Aalll, king of Valusia, who died a thousand years ago.

[...]

The Ghost calmly walked, not paying them the slightest attention. Kull stepped back, as he passed, feeling his face cold as a gust of the North wind, the breath. The shadow of Mallala quiet measured steps marched on and disappeared around the bend of the corridor.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»

In the story described some of the "snakemen" - creatures with the body of a man and the head of the snake. However, as a disguise, they can take any shape completely:

They are somehow magical spell to throw on the veil spell, and they can not be distinguished from a living person.

These creatures live in caves, appearing in public only in the human form. Initially they are represented by priests of the cult of the Snake, however, gradually supersede people of all ranks.

In the book the amphibious serpent people has a peculiarity that distinguishes them from ordinary people: they cannot wear a bracelet with a dragon is the main enemy of the snake ("gold bracelet in the form of a winged dragon, a wound on the hand three times, with three horns of ruby on the head") and to pronounce the words "ka nama Kaa lyerla".

Also the priests of the Serpent have an interesting ability to control the ghosts of dead people, which is demonstrated on the example of the spirit of the king of Mallala:

...people die at the hands of the serpent men, his soul is doomed to eternal slavery.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»