Thulsa Doom

Thulsa doom

"Kull tore the veil away with one motion and recoiled with a gasp. (...) The face of the man was a bare white skull , in whose eye sockets flamed livid fire!" -- Robert E. Howard: "Delcardes' Cat"



In Kull's time, 8,000 years before the time of Conan, Thulsa Doom was already an undead sorcerer. The flesh of the skull-faced wizard was that of a man long dead, and normal weapons could not harm him.
In that time, his were the gifts of illusion, planar travel, and of invisibility, which only he possessed.
Thulsa Doom serves the Great Serpent and is the master of the serpent people. In the time of Valusia, his sworn enemy was King Kull, who broke the power of the serpent-men.
The undead sorcerer returned in Conan's time, when the barbarian unwittingly rescued him from the pits of Arallu. Later, Conan separated Thulsa's physical body from his skull.
Now, Thulsa's form is that of a grinning skull with the powers of telepathy, levitation and summoning of demonic servants. Until his body is restored, Thulsa is somewhat limited to defensive sorcery. His current enemy is Thoth-Amon, with whom he contends for control over the serpent-men.
He later becomes an enemy of the Celtic hero Cormac mac Art, another Howard character further expanded by Andrew J. Offutt. He is apparently immortal and is visualized as a skull-headed sorcerer, or as an albino when taking on the illusory appearance of a living man.
The similar concept of an evil, skull-headed sorcerer wearing a hood and operating in a serpent themed base was later used for He-Man's arch enemy Skeletor ! (^.^)


A character of the same name is the antagonist in the 1982 movie Conan the Barbarian. Played by James Earl Jones, the cinematic Thulsa Doom is considerably different from the literary one, who is described as having a skull-like face. This version of Thulsa Doom is essentially the classic "Conan" villain Thoth-Amon, servant of the serpent-god Set; as such, he appears to be an ordinary human in the film, and possesses the power to transform into an enormous snake. Though immortal (never aging throughout the course of the film), it is revealed in the film's climax that he is not invincible when Conan successfully beheads and kills him.

This Thulsa Doom/Thoth-Amon hybrid appears to have been re-invisioned as a cult leader in the manner of the real life demagogues that had popped up in the decade previous to the film's release. In the movie he is shown to have an extraordinary command of his followers. For example, in one scene, after Thulsa Doom commands one of his female followers on a high ledge to come to him, she jumps off the ledge to her death. In this he resembled Hassan-i-Sabah, the Nizari leader, who according to Arab sources had one of his followers leap to his death to demonstrate his power to visiting dignitaries.
Notably, the antagonist has Conan crucified, an act which has dire results for the Barbarian in the film.
Recently an adventure of Red Sonja opposed the She-Devil with a sword against Thulsa-Doom. I did'nt read this comics for the moment, but it will coming soon!