An impromptu article:
A Probable Outline of Thoth-Amon's Careeras depicted in Marvel comics' Conan magazines.
Thoth-Amon is a wizard and high ranking priest of Set from the land of Stygia. He belongs to a coven of Stygian necromancers known as
the Black Ring. The man is sometimes referred to as "Thoth-Amon of the ring", although it's not clear whether that's a reference to the Black Ring or to the magical serpent ring that is the wizard's main magical tool. That ring carries with it much of his power, and has been shown to be able to act as a refuge for his spirit. Thoth-Amon is known to have dealings with the surviving
Serpent Men of Valusia (first seen in
Kull the conqueror vol.1, #2) as well as with
Man Serpents, snakes with a human face and snake-like hair evoking Medusa (first seen in
CtB#7).
Of Thoth-Amon's youth we know next to nothing, but he must be something like two or three decades older than Conan. In
CtB#89, the new ruler of Stygia (who appears to be of an age with the Cimmerian) says to Thoth-Amon "I have not laid eyes on you since you were the most promising of the younger sorcerers who journeyed north from the City of Magicians".
Thoth-Amon has been known to reside in the port city of Khemi, in the capital city of Luxur, in Kheshatta the City of Magicians, and at the oasis of Khajar. He also had to live in exile a few times, notably in Zingara and Aquilonia. He is well-known in the Hyborian lands, as even the Corinthian mercenary captain Murilo has heard of Thoth-Amon's serpent ring (
CtB#52).
Not given to histrionics or grand soliloquies as are too many major villains, the Stygian sorcerer is still as ruthless as they come. He does not shy away from disposing of competitors and opponents. To wit: to a priest of Ibis living in Nemedia named Karanthes, Thoth-Amon sends a "gift"... an urn actually containing a murdering Man Serpent. It is when said urn is opened too early by a greedy collector in the city of Numalia, fouling up the murder attempt, that Conan gets his first glimpse of the wizard's face (
CtB#7). Further proof of Thoth-Amon's vindictiveness is how the vampire Morphola, who means to one day rule serpent-riddled Stygia, suspects Conan of being an assassin sent by the wizard when he first meets the Cimmerian (
CtB#43).
Thoth-Amon is quite power-hungry, be it in the magical or the political fields: meaning to further his skills, he sends one of his acolytes to Argos to obtain a page of the
Book of Skelos because the copy of the book found in Kheshatta is incomplete (
CtB#68). During the reign of King Ctesphon II, against the enmity of the wizard Hath-Horeb, Thoth-Amon deems it more prudent to stay in Kheshatta rather than remain at the royal court in Luxur; he makes sure, however, to ingratiate himself as soon as he can to the king's successor -who is actually the dead king's sister Neftha, who took power under the name of "King Ctesphon III" (
CtB#89). In that occasion Thoth-Amon gains the position of advisor and a type of influence he has not known previously: political power.
Although Thoth-Amon's path and Conan's intersect a few times before the Cimmerian is in his mid-thirties, they never actually meet until the time Conan becomes a Barachan corsair (when he's roughly 35 or so). Their previous encounter in a dream (seen in
CtB#74) was a fake one, engineered by the priest of Ibis, Karanthes (as revealed in
CtB#115). A scene from
SSoC #74, in which an astral projection of Thoth's face warns the Cimmerian not to interfere with his affairs, is from the "bad old years" of continuity-less Conan mags, and should probably be disregarded as apocryphal.
One of the opponents Thoth-Amon has to face during his career is a fellow worshipper of Set and nemesis of barbarian kings: the Thurian Age wizard Thulsa Doom. Doom, of course, is the wizard who opposed King Kull of Valusia in the pre-cataclysmic age; he is a powerful mage associated with the shape-changing and Set-worshipping Serpent Men, and his head has the appearance of a dry skull. Thulsa Doom was killed by Kull during the Thurian Age (in
Marvel Preview #19), but was freed from Hell, thousands of years later, by Conan himself in
Conan Annual #12. Attempting to steal Conan's life for his own, Thulsa Doom failed in the attempt and was apparently killed again (
CtB#203). His skull apparently survived, however, still talking even if now bereft of a body, as revealed in
SSoC#190.
The skull next contrived to have itself brought to a temple of Set in Khemi where Thoth-Amon resides. The Stygian wizard is obviously still in favour at Ctesphon III's court (where he has now been an advisor for a decade or so), but this would not last long, as we'll see below.
Doom and Thoth-Amon, both seeing themselves as the only true vicar of Set on Earth, contend for the control of the Serpent Men and the Man Serpents. It is when Conan goes to Khemi to recover the talking skull that he and Thoth-Amon first meet face to face, and the wizard cannot prevent the Cimmerian from stealing the skull back (
SSoC#191). The Stygian keeps an eye on it, however, by possessing the body of a small monkey that follows Conan's crew; this way, Thoth-Amon is aware of the discovery of an isolated island peopled by Serpent Men (
SSoC#192). These Serpent men lead the skull to the Unknown Land (obviously Australia) where Thulsa Doom's body awaits. Meaning to stop his challenger for good, Thoth-Amon transports his essence into the body of one of the Serpent Men to engage the resurrected Thurian wizard in a magical bout. The
Rainbow Serpent, a mighty god from the southern continent, stops the sorcerous battle and sends Thoth-Amon's essence back to his body in Stygia even as it separates Doom's head and body not only by distance, but also by an epoch, never to be reunited again (
SSoC#193).
Just a few weeks later, resting from the ordeal at his oasis of Khajar, Thoth-Amon learns of an attempted invasion of Kheshatta, the Stygian City of Magicians, by Kushite forces. Although the invasion is beaten back (by the intervention of Conan, Zula and Imhotep, the ravager of worlds), Thoth decides that the Black Ring has decidedly fallen very low and intends to whip it back into shape. After chastising a few malcontents, he is hailed anew as master of the Black Ring, still intent on dividing his time between Kheshatta, Khemi and Luxur (
SSoC#206). It is noteworthy that as has happened a few times in the past, his path and Conan's intersect without the two of them meeting on this occasion. Thoth-Amon appears to be triumphant and at the apex of his power.
Shortly thereafter, however, Ctesphon III dies (in circumstances that we readers will be made privy to in
SSoC #216). Falling out of favour under the new king Mentupherra, Thoth-Amon has to flee Stygia for Zingara. There he remains for a year or so, very likely in secret, even after Mentupherra dies and king Ctesphon IV takes the throne. Thoth-Amon is however eventually denounced to King Ferdrugo of Zingara, for it is illegal for priests of Set to reside in that country. (This last bit is told in flashback by his denouncer himself, count Valenso, in
SSoC#48; Valenso had hired the talents of Thoth-Amon to get rid of a rival, decades before, and had balked at paying the usual price for such services). Returning to Stygia despite the presence of hostile competitors there, Thoth settles at the oasis of Khajar, deep in the desert.
Barely returned from Zingara, Thoth-Amon is visited at Khajar by envoys from a Zingaran nobleman, Duke Villagro, who would enlist his power in his schemes to gain the Zingaran crown (
SSoC#41). In exchange, Villagro would make the cult of Set the official cult of the land. Thoth-Amon, who has long thought about expanding the cult in the Hyborian lands (a concept that might have dawned on him during his exile), agrees to help Villagro's henchmen capture Zingara's princess, Chabela, whom Villagro intends to marry. The Duke's envoys bring the wizard a chance discovery to sweeten the deal: a very rare copy of the
Book of Skelos, of which only two other complete copies exist; one in Tarantia, capital of Aquilonia, and one in a secret temple in Vendhya (on top of the incomplete one in Kheshatta that we mentioned above). Thoth-Amon, pleased with the gift, is then dismayed to learn that the book was found on a certain lost island where he knows a greater magical item, the legendary
cobra crown was also to be found (
SSoC#41). Using his magic to pinpoint the crown's current location, the wizard teleports to its side and steals it from Gamburu, the capital city of the Amazons (
SSoC#42). Now intending to use the cobra crown's power to take the throne of Zingara for himself (and perhaps getting even with King Ferdrugo, whose mind he controls thanks to the magical crown), the double-crossing wizard sees an upset Duke Villagro don the cobra crown himself (in case you wonder, Thoth had to take it off to put on the Zingaran crown) and engage him in a sorcerous battle. In the ensuing chaos, the crown is burned out as a magical device; Thoth-Amon's attempted coup fails, and he returns to the oasis of Khajar (
SSoC#43).
A few months later, Thoth-Amon decides that the time has come to settle accounts with count Valenso, who betrayed him to the authorities at the end of his exile in Zingara. He tracks Valenso all the way to the Pictish Coast, where the nobleman thinks he could hide from his sorcerous enemy, and there the Stygian uses both local Pictish tribes and a local demon to get even with the hapless Zingaran (
SSoC#48).
The following two years go poorly for the Stygian wizard. His ring is stolen, and with it much of his power; this allows his powerful enemies to force him to flee Stygia and gain employment as a servant to the Aquilonian adventurer Ascalante. These enemies, naturally, are probably the wizards who were cast down by king Ctesphon III when Thoth-Amon gained favour in court back in
CtB#89, and who were probably afraid to strike at him directly, even with the backing of a new king, as long as he had his serpent ring. With his new manservant, Ascalante makes his way back to Aquilonia, where he takes part in a plot to murder the recently crowned King Conan. One of his co-plotters is baron Dion, who just happens to have bought a certain ring from a Shemite thief claiming to have taken it from a southern wizard! Sure enough, it is Thoth-Amon's own ring, and murdering the baron the sorcerer regains his ring and his power. Bearing a heavy grudge, he immediately uses the ring to send an otherworldly creature to slay Ascalante, and all those who might be with him (just because Thoth is really, really upset... Ascalante shouldn't have whipped him nor rubbed his nose in his despondency). Note that Thoth-Amon doesn't seem to bear Conan any particular animosity at this point; his hatred is reserved for Ascalante (
Conan Annual #2).
Naturally, the Cimmerian escapes both the murder attempt by Ascalante's crew and the attack of the magical creature. Conan then makes his way to baron Dion's estate (knowing of his part in the failed coup), where he finds that Dion's villa has been turned into one vast magical death trap. Thoth-Amon, who appears in astral form, explains offhandedly that feeling the death of his creature, he feared Ascalante might have survived and so rigged the meeting place of the conspirators. He still doesn't hold any particular ill will toward Conan, but doesn't bother to remove his spells either... resulting in several deaths (
SSoC#227). Thoth-Amon's body is already far away, off to kill a Kothian hermit who is supposed to contact certain Stygian wizards in case anything happened to Ascalante. Also on the wizard's agenda is to reaffirm his power down south. This doesn't take long, for just a couple of years later Thoth-Amon calls himself "prince of wizards" and is once again a lord of the Black Ring, with powerful and jealous colleagues like Thutothmes of Khemi (
SSoC #10).
More than twelve years then elapse before Thoth-Amon's and Conan's paths meet again.
The Stygian is one of a quartet of sorcerers from the four corners of the world who plan to take over the world in
King Conan #1. The other plotters are
Pra-Eun from Khitai,
Louhi from Hyperborea and
Nenaunir from Zembabwei. Conan is roughly 58 or 59 at the time, but Thoth-Amon himself doesn't seem much changed from his earlier appearances. The wizard refers to Conan as the most dangerous man in the world, which might come as a bit of a surprise considering the very few interactions the two men have had in the past; however, it is entirely possible that Thoth-Amon refers to Conan managing to defeat the extremely powerful sorcerer Xaltotun in
The Hour of the Dragon (
Giant-Sized Conan 1-4). Pra-Eun and Louhi die after the quartet abducts Conan and his first-born son, but Thoth-Amon and Nenaunir manage to escape.
Thoth-Amon promptly thereafter causes trouble in Aquilonia, leading the Zingaran duke Pantho to attack the southern Aquilonian province of Poitain (
KC#2). It is not uninteresting that Thoth-Amon once again deals with Zingarans, a recurring but never emphasized theme in his career. A certain Ligurean druid reveals that Pantho's attack is meant as a diversion, as Thoth-Amon wants the Conan away from Aquilonia's capital while the wizard's hired thieves unsuccessfully try to steal something from the city (the
heart of Ahriman, that supremely powerful magical jewel first seen in
The Hour of the Dragon). This political interference by Thoth-Amon prompts Conan to lead an Aquilonian army all the way down to Stygia, to finally settle accounts with this thorn in his side. In
KC#2, we learn that Thoth-Amon no longer resides at the oasis of Khajar, but in the desolated city of Nebthu (located further east), the headquarter of the Black Ring. The Black Ring had last been based in Kheshatta, but things may change over time. Perhaps Thoth-Amon decided that the sybaritic lifestyles of the wizards in Kheshatta was incompatible with his own vision of what the Black Ring should be, and he relocated them to a more sinister and spartan locale.
The Black Ring has a subterannean temple located beneath a huge jackal-headed black sphinx; it is there that Conan meets Thoth-Amon surrounded by hundreds of magicians ("welcome to my empire, Conan of Cimmeria", says Thoth). Not only does Thoth-Amon command an army of wizards, now, but he can also count on armed troops that attack the Aquilonians. During that meeting, the wizard tells of their troubled relationship: "For too long, Cimmerian, have you stood in my path. I saw you venture into the southern lands from your frozen north some forty years ago. I should have crushed you then, when you were young and weak. Had I known how your power would grow, I would have struck you down with a blast of magic-- that first time, when you meddled in my affairs in the house of Kallian in Nemedia (
CtB#7), or again when you spoiled my schemes to wrest the throne of Zingara from King Ferdrugo's feeble grasp (
SSoC#43)". (This is probably hyperbole... Thoth-Amon was quite unaware of Conan's existence before becoming Ctesphon III's advisor, and even then he dismissed the barbarian as unworthy of note.)
"There were other opportunities as well... for instance, when I first glimpsed you in count Valenso's stronghold on the western ocean (
SSoC#48)... or even in your earlier years of kinging it in Aquilonia when I was Ascalante's slave in Tarantia (
CA #2)."
That speech is very interesting. First, it explains why I was convinced for so many years that Conan had first met Thoth-Amon in the flesh in
SSoC #43, the Zingaran episode, even if nothing to that effect is said in the actual issue. More importantly, it shows that Roy Thomas was very careful not to overuse the wizard, a very wise form of restraint considering that familiarity breeds contempt. The Marvel Comics Thoth-Amon remained formidable throughout his decades-long career. (I think Dark Horse erred by producing an "origin of Thoth-Amon" mini-series. The character lost a lot of his mysterious aura as a result).
Taking continuity into account, the wizard's speech leaves the possibility of stories where he and Conan didn't interact directly, and does not even contradict the later-written
SSoC 190-193 (which happened a few years before the Zingaran episode, chronologically speaking), in which Thoth and Conan are not outright opponents.
After the speeches are done, fighting erupts and the Black Ring is decimated by the power of the heart of Ahriman, which Conan has brought with him.
Thoth-Amon has to flee from Stygia and beg the hospitality of his colleague Nenaunir in Zembabwei, where Set is worshipped under the name of Damballah (
KC#3). Thoth has to eat a large part of humility pie there, even after Conan is captured, because his Stygian power base is now in shambles and Nenaunir fully intends on stressing who the boss is. No longer meant to rule half the world, Thoth-Amon might now be appointed governor of some minor province if he behaves himself. Heaping scorn on the Stygian is not a good idea, however, as later on when Thoth-Amon has an opportunity to save Nenaunir from being stabbed by Prince Conn, he does nothing. A palace revolt brings Nenaunir's reign over Zembabwei to an end, and Thoth-Amon flies south on the back of a flying reptile (
KC#3).
Magical means allow Conan to trace his enemy all the way to world's end (the tip of what would be South Africa nowadays) where Serpent Men still inhabit an old temple. Conan is once again captured, and he and Thoth-Amon face each other for the last time
mano a mano. Unfortunately for him, Thoth-Amon is too busy fighting Conan to realize that prince Conn is creeping up on him to stab him in the back (
KC#4). Thoth-Amon's body dissolves into dust and Conan throws his magic ring to the waves. (Why would the body crumble? An old fantasy trope is that evil wizards are centuries old and that time catches up with them after death, but Neftha claimed in CtB #89 to have seen him as a young man just a few decades earlier. Perhaps it's his accumulated sins that did the job).
Several years later, the serpent ring is found by a Stygian fisherman in the belly of a fish. The man touching the ring causes Thoth-Amon's soul to be reincarnated in a new body, somewhere in Aquilonia (
CtK#27). For a time, this new Thoth-Amon will work as a wizard-in-residence to the petty and vain baron Maloric (
CtK#22-26). Thoth then travels south to Stygia to try and locate his ring, which as ever holds most of his power. The wizard does find the fisherman he's looking for, but both the man and his wife have been murdered, leaving only their mute son behind. The ring is gone, and an oracle tells Thoth that "one of his own kind has it". Supposing that this means another sorcerer, he travels to Nebthu where a reformed Black Ring congregates, and feeling both frustrated to be deprived of his prize and outraged to see how low his fellow wizards have again fallen without his guidance, he murders the lot of them. Returning to Aquilonia, who should Thoth meet but the fisherman's son, who is actually an ambitious, evil imp (not to mention the one who stole the ring in the first place(
CtK#53))?. Since the ring is an extension of Thoth-Amon more than a simple magical trinket, the imp cannot use it to defeat his opponent and is slain easily. Thoth-Amon regains his ring, his power, and his original appearance... now complete with the two ram horns that used to be part of his headgear but are now extending directly from his own skull (
CtK#53).
Thoth-Amon takes over Aquilonia's capital, waiting for Conan to return from an embassy to Khitai (
CtK#54). The sorcerer is finally defeated after prince Conn, armed with a magical sword used in
CtB#200 against the Devourer of souls, severs Thoth-Amon's right hand (the one with the ring), allowing Conan to break the wizard's neck (
CtK#55).
Thoth-Amon's spirit (or at least his evil influence) would remain bound to the ring, according to Robert Howard's short story
The haunter of the ring