History Literature / ThePeopleOfTheBlackCircle

* ArcherArchetype: Kerim Shah is a great archer wielding a strong Turanian bow. He is able to break the first line of defense of the wizards by shooting two acolytes from a far distance while the ground was shaking.

* {{Redshirt}}: When Conan and Kerim Shah agree to an alliance to rescue Yasmina, several of Kerim Shah's men come with them. Their main function is to be killed so we can see the Black Seers' magic in action.
* ResistanceToMagic: Conan is immune to Khemsa's hypnotism since as a Cimmerian he doesn't have the centuries of traditions that helped the people of the East believe in hypnotism and thus being more vulnerable to it. when Khemsa goes for his TouchOfDeath pat on the neck, which was able to break a guard's neck in an earlier chapter, Conan falls but survive because his neck muscles are that strong.

!!Tropes Included

"[[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_People_of_the_Black_Circle The People of the Black Circle]]" is a Literature/ConanTheBarbarian novella by Creator/RobertEHoward. Published in three parts, from September to November, 1934. [[http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600941.txt Entire text online here]].

* VillainousValor: Khemsa is an evil wizard in a Conan story, so of course he is doomed, but he is also the best-developed such character Howard had created up to this point. His lover, Gitara, induces him to betray his masters, the Black Seers of Yimsha, (just as she has betrayed her mistress, Yasmina,) in the hopes that the two of them can conquer an empire together. When he does, they retaliate, and four of them bring their full sorcerous might down on him. But his love for Gitara is genuine and allows him, in defense of both himself and her, to draw on a strength of will not even he suspected he possessed. For a time, he is able, alone, to withstand the power of the four together. Unfortunately, one of them recognizes the source of his newfound strength and forces Gitara to throw herself from a cliff. This breaks Khemsa's will and allows them to defeat him. When Conan finds him later, broken but still alive through a combination of his magical power and burning desire for vengeance, he gives Conan the means to defeat the Black Seers. Khemsa is so remarkable that it's probably best the story didn't end in a showdown between him and Conan, because some readers might have found it rather difficult to root for the Cimmerian by that point. It's not like Conan never betrayed anyone to get what he wanted...

* LoveMakesYouEvil: Yasmina's servant Gitara loves Khemsa enough to betray Yasmina, and convince him try a career change from EvilSorcerer to SorcerousOverlord.

* DyingAsYourself: [[spoiler:Yasmina stabs her brother Bhunda Chand on his command to stop the Black Circle from imprisoning his soul in an EldritchAbomination.]]