Characters / Conan the Barbarian – King Yezdigerd

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King Yezdigerd

Yezdigerd is the King of Turan, an Eastern nation in the distant Vilayet Sea and considered the mightiest empire to have ever existed. He is the son of King Yildiz, one of Conan's former employers. First referenced in The Devil in Iron where he is Jehugir Agha's boss, and referenced again in The People of the Black Circle, where he is the boss Kerim Shah, who arranges the assassination of the King of Vendhya. Yezdigerd makes his first full appearance in the pastiche novel The Return of Conan, where Yezdigerd and his minions hunt for Conan, who left Aquilonia in order to rescue his wife Zenobia from the Evil Sorcerer Yah Chieng. However, Conan turns the tables on Yezdigerd and kills him once and for all. Yezdigerd is expanded in the Marvel Comics where he is a frequent rival to Conan after initially employing the barbarian as a mercenary against the people of Makkalet. In the Marvel Comics, Yezdigerd is also father to a woman named Yolinda, and the grandfather to her two Half Human Hybrids, Salbatanu and Zosara.

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• 0% Approval Rating: In The Road of Turan, Roxana claims the the Turanian people are afraid of him, and even Artaban, one of Turan's own generals, is willing to betray him. Later in the same story, another Turanian general is introduced, who also planned to betray Yezdigerd in favor of Teyaspa, claims that "the people will rise against [...] Yezdigerd if they have anyone else to follow".
• Abusive Parents: Towards his daughter, Yolinda, in the comics. He would would have had her stoned if Yildiz let him have his way.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: According to The Return of Conan, Conan and Yezdigerd never met in person until the events of the novel, which is set after the events of The Hour of the Dragon. In Marvel Comics, however, Conan and Yezdigerd have several face-to-face meetings over the years, going as far back as when Yezdigerd was still only a prince.
• Adaptation Expansion: In Marvel Comics, Yezdigerd is a reccurring on-page character, both as a prince and as a king.
• Ambition Is Evil: In order to increase his territory, Yezdigerd wages war, and even orchestrates the assassination of the King of Vendhya.
• Arch-Enemy: He regards Conan as one of his most hated foes for repeatedly spoiling his plans and never managing to get payback. The narration of The Return of Conan refers to Yezdigerd as "His [Conan's] most implacable enemy." Interestingly, The Return of Conan also mentions that Conan never met Yezdigerd personally until the events of said story. In Marvel Comics, on the other hand, Conan and Yezdigerd meet directly on several occasions, with Conan even having been a subordinate of Yezdigerd, then a only a prince, before their falling out. The comics establish that Yezdigerd also despises Conan for disfiguring his face, which was a souvenir from the aforementioned falling out.
• Bad Boss: In the Return of Conan, he has several of his men put to death.
• The Bad Guy Wins:
  • Despite not appearing in person during the story, The Road of the Eagles ends with both his father, King Yildiz, and his uncle, Prince Teyaspa, dead, clearing the way for him to become the ruler of Turan.
  • In The War of the Tarim Arc in Marvel's Conan the Barbarian, Prince Yezdigerd sacks the city of Makkalet. Slightly Downplayed, in the sense that the Living Tarim's death prevents Yezdigerd from taking him alive, but Yezdigerd simply covers his failure up with an El Cid Ploy.
  • In Savage Sword of Conan #235, Yezdigerd orders to kill his daughter Yolinda are successfully carried out.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: In Conan of the Red Brotherhood, he allows the wizard Crotalus to experiment on a puppy.
• Badass Normal: Despite having no supernatural abilities, Yezdigerd is one of the most powerful characters in the setting, turning Turan into the most powerful nation in Hyboria through his intellect and ruthlessness.
• Beard of Evil: In The Return of Conan, he is described as having "a short black beard." He also has a beard in the War of the Tarim Arc in Marvel's Conan the Barbarian.
• Berserk Button: In Conan the Barbarian #19, he becomes enraged after Fafnir insinuates he is Hiding Behind Religion. He was about to draw his sword against Fafnir before Conan successfully appealed to the prince's sense of pragmatism.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Yah Chieng in The Return of Conan. Although Yah Chieng triggers the main plot of the story by kidnapping Zenobia, the efforts of Yezdigerd and his forces to hunt down Conan after he sets off to rescue her take up a large portion of the story.
• Big Fancy Palace: As seen in The Return of Conan, his palace in Aghrapur has many rooms and is decorated luxuriously. His throne room alone is descibed as holding what was likely a thousand people. On the outside, it's appearence is compared to "a giant vulture of gold and marble."
• Bling of War: In The Return of Conan, he goes into action wearing "silvered Turanian mail and a gold-spired helmet."
• Blood Knight: According to The Return of Conan, Yezdigerd enjoys being a direct participant in the field of combat.
• Breakout Villain: He was The Ghost in Howard's stories, and made his first on-page appearance during the pastiche novel The Return of Conan, where he was killed off in the middle of the story. However, he becomes a recurring character in the pages of Marvel Comics.
• Bring Him to Me: He has a captured Conan brought before him in his throne room in The Return of Conan.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: In Conan the Barbarian #19, he prepares to attack Fafnir for offending him, but is convinced by Conan to spare his life after being reminded that he will need all the help he can get for his upcoming war against Makkalet.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: He has one in Savage Sword of Conan #112, when he offers to make Conan a general, while three scantily-clad women present him with a heap of treasure.
• Classic Villain: Ambition, Greed, and Wrath. While Conan's adventures end with him being a responsible king Yezdigerd expands his kingdom no matter the cost as he can just plunder more to recoup his losses.
• Climax Boss: In The Return of Conan, Yezdigerd is killed by Conan midway through the story, he is a far more prominent figure in the overall franchise than the story's actual Big Bad, Yah Chieng, who is merely a Villain of the Week. Many of the adversaries Conan faces in the first half of the story answer to Yezdigerd.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: After Yezdigerd's minions capture Conan, they imply that this fate awaits him. After Conan escapes Yezdigerd's place, Yezdigerd announces his intention to inflict this on Conan and Rolf after they escape his palace.
  King Yezdigerd: When I have caught these dogs, they shall suffer the agonies of a thousand deaths in the torture chambers of Aghrapur.
• The Conqueror: Under his rule, Yezdigerd has made Turan more than twice as large as it was before.
• Conspicuous Consumption:
  • As shown in The Return of Conan, his palace is extremely luxurious, and shows off his empire's wealth. He also has a silken couch to sit on in his war galley.
  • In Conan the Barbarian #23, one of the pavilions of Yezdigerd war camp has an interior of golden lion statues, a golden throne for Yezdigerd, and a golden chair next to it for his councilor Sulimar, while several dancing girl perform for him.
    Conan the Barbarian #23: Few men notice when evening falls again on the pavilions of the Turanian camp...for the golden splendor of Prince Yezdigerd makes the night scarcely less glorious than day.
• Creepy Souvenir: In Savage Sword of Conan #131, Yezdigerd's Jegungir Agha threatens Lord Khovan, another one of Yezdigerd's subordinates, by telling Khovan that Yezdigerd keeps a collection of preserved heads.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • He is on the receiving end from Conan during their Throne Room Throwdown in the Aghrapur palace in The Return of Conan.
  • He is also on the receiving end of one from Conan in Conan the Barbarian #20. When Yezdigerd tries to prevent Conan from escaping his ship following Conan's killing of a Turanian officer, Conan "[slashes] his cheek [sending] him reeling backwards."
• Decapitated Army: After Yezdigerd is killed by Conan, his surviving crew on his war gallety promptly surrender to Conan's pirates.
• Decapitation Presentation:
  • In The Return of Conan: Ghandar Chen sends Yezdigerd a message promising to give him Conan's head.
  • In the comics, Mikhal "The Vulture" Oglu and Oshmaan the Executioner both intend on bringing Conan's head to Yezdigerd. Both of them fail.
• Defiant to the End: He utters his last words at Conan during their final fight in Return of Conan, moments before losing his head to the Cimmerian warrior: "I saw your hand in this, Cimmerian cur! By Erlik, now you shall reap your deserts! Die, barbarian dog."
• Demanding Their Head: In Conan the Barbarian #23, he tells Mikhal "The Vulture" Oglu to bring him Conan's head.
  Prince Yezdigerd: I know only that, when you bring me the infidel's head, your reward shall be thrice its weight in gold.
• Dirty Coward: Conan insinuates that Yezdigerd is a coward when he is brought before him, mocking him for "[waging] your wars with the help of women" instead of getting his own hands dirty.
• The Dragon: In The War of the Tarim Arc in Marvel's Conan the Barbarian, he is acting on the orders of his father, King Yildiz, to massacre the city of Makkalet.
  Prince Yezdigerd: Nor would wise Yildiz trust any to lead the hosts against Makkalet save his own son and heir.
• The Dreaded: In The Road of the Eagles, Yezdigerd, who was still a prince back than, is mentioned by Roxana as being feared by the people of Turan because of his cruelty.
• Drowning My Sorrows: In The Return of Conan, he is drinking wine while complaining about the difficulties he faces in pursuing Conan.
• El Cid Ploy: After the Living Tarim is killed, Yezdigerd conceals his death by covering his remains in clothing and parading it through the city of Makkalat.
• The Emperor: Of the Turanian Empire, and yes, he is very despotic, brutish and expansionist.
  The Devil in Iron: Yezdigerd, king of Turan, was the mightiest monarch in the world. In his palace in the great port city of Aghrapur was heaped the plunder of empires. His fleets of purple-sailed war galleys had made Vilayet an Hyrkanian lake. The dark-skinned people of Zamora paid him tribute, as did the eastern provinces of Koth. The Shemites bowed to his rule as far west as Shushan. His armies ravaged the borders of Stygia in the south and the snowy lands of the Hyperboreans in the north. His riders bore torch and sword westward into Brythunia and Ophir and Corinthia, even to the borders of Nemedia. His gilt-helmeted swordsmen had trampled hosts under their horses' hoofs, and walled cities went up in flames at his command. In the glutted slave markets of Aghrapur, Sultanapur, Khawarizm, Shahpur, and Khorusun, women were sold for three small silver coins—blonde Brythunians, tawny Stygians, dark-haired Zamorians, ebon Kushites, olive-skinned Shemites.
• Enemies List: Invoked in Conan and the Grim Grey God by the Evil Sorcerer Tevek Thul, who pretends to be in the service of Yezdigerd.
  Tevek Thul: And King Yezdigerd records the names of those who impede his allies, lest their discourtesy goes unforgotten.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: According to The Return of Conan, his throne room hold a gathering of people from various races throughout the Hyboria, including Nemedians, Ohpirans, Shemites, Vendhyans, and the Black Kingdoms. Yezdigerd uses these people as a way of either building ties with, or conspiring against, their native lands in order to increase his own power and influence. One comic has him recruit Conan as war counselor, a position that was before inherited, to see if Conan would make a better job.
• Evil Is Petty: In the comics, Yezdigerd is obsessed with killing Conan because of a scar Conan gave across his face.
  Prince Yezdigerd, Conan the Barbarian #21: For, so long as the black-maned barbarian who gave me this scar still walks the face of the earth...Even for so long is Yezdigerd the most miserable of men.
• Evil Laugh: He let out one after telling one of his generals about his intention to torture Conan and Rolf.
• Evil Overlord: He rules over an massive empire which practices slavery, and he wages war against other nations for the sake of increasing his wealth and power.
• The Evil Prince: In Marvel's Conan the Barbarian, Yezdigerd orchestrates an assassination attempt against his own father, King Yildiz, only to be foiled by Conan.
• Evil Versus Evil:
  • In The People of the Black Circle, Khemsa and his lover plan to raise in army (which they plan to fund by selling Devi Yasmina to him) to "oust [Yezdigerd's] Turanians from the hills" so they can build their own empire. However, they are killed by the Black Seers of Yimsha before they get that far.
  • In The People of the Black Circle, Yezdigerd is competing with his former ally, the Master of Yimsha, for the possession of Devi Yasmina. The Master even kills Kerim Shah, one of Yezdigerd's minions, over the issue.
  • In The Road of the Eagles, Yezdigerd is being conspired against by Artaban, a Turanian general who plans on putting Yezdigerd's uncle, Prince Teyaspa, on the throne instead. Within the story, he is described by Roxana as being a "cruel, gloomy youth," while General Artaban is mentioned in the narration to have once massacred a ship of innocent merchants in order to pay off his gambling debts.
• Expy: He was originally based on Suleyman the Magnificent from Robert E. Howard's short story The Shadow of the Vulture, since he sends an skilled hunter known as the Vulture to track down The Hero.
• Famous-Named Foreigner: Shares his name with the last Sassanid king of Persia and several dynastic predecessors.
• Fiction 500: According to The Devil In Iron, Yezdigerd's palace holds "the plunder of empires."
• Finger in the Mail: In Marvel Comics, he receives the head of one of his underlings, Mikhal "The Vulture" Oglu, in a chest.
• Fluffy Fashion Feathers: His turban in The Return of Conan is described as having bird-of-prey feathers. The feathers get damaged by Conan's scimitar.
• Foil: To Conan. Both are the rulers of powerful nations, with Conan ruling the Western nation of Aquilonia, and Yezdigerd ruling the Eastern nation of Turan. However, while Conan was a foreign barbarian who won his throne by overthrowing a powerful tyrant, Yezdigerd inherited his throne from his father Yildiz. In The Scarlet Citadel, Conan mentions that "Today no Aquilonian noble dares maltreat the humblest of my subjects, and the taxes of the people are lighter than anywhere else in the world," while The Return of Conan describes how a struggling fisherman "must also strain and work to meet the taxes imposed by [King Yezdigerd]," and that "[King Yezdigerd's] taxgatherers had supple whips and no compunction about using them." Yezdigerd is a tall and powerful man from being raised as a Warrior Prince while Conan's might come from being a hillman that fights like a wild animal.
• Gem-Encrusted: The hilt of his scimitar has jewels.
• The Ghost: He never appears in any of Howard's stories, but he is mentioned in The Devil in Iron, and The People of the Black Circle. He is also referenced as an important background character in the pastiches The Road of the Eagles and Black Tears, but he doesn't appear in those stories either.
• Gold Makes Everything Shiny: In The Return of Conan, the doors to his throne rome is gold-worked, the trumpets in his throne room are golden, this throne is golden, his clothes are golden, he drinks wine out of a golden beaker, and when he is dressed for battle, he wears a "gold-spired helmet".
• Greater-Scope Villain: Several villains that Conan faces are Yezdigerd's subordinates such as Shah Amurath and Oshmaan, but they are almost always acting in their own accord rather than the Emperor himself.
  • In The Devil in Iron, he is the person who Jehungir Agha, the Antagonistic Governor trying to kill Conan, reports to.
  • In The People of the Black Circle, he enlists the Black Seers of Yimsha, to assassinate King Bunda Chand of Vendhya, in order to make it easier for him to conquer Vendhya. Yezdigerd also plans to make Devi Yasmina his concubine, with his agent, Kerim Shah, serving as the main agent for Yezdigerd's will throughout the story.
  • In Black Tears, Conan spends much of the story pursuing Vardanes, a comrade who betrayed him to Yezdigerd's faction.
  • Sons of the White Wolf, a story from The Savage Sword of Conan #37 features a rogue subordinate of Yezdigerd known as Oshmaan the Executioner as the Villain of the Week. After Oshmaan's imperialist ambitions fall through, he intends to go back to working for Yezdigerd by killing Conan for him.
• Greed: According to The Devil in Iron, he keeps wealth plundered from other empires inside his own palace, and according to The Return of Conan, he forces city-states in Brythunia and eastern Shem to pay him tribute, and his navy robs foreign merchants in his name. The text of The Return of Conan outright describes him as "an insatiable plunderer."
• Heroes Act, Villains Hinder: In The Return of Conan, he interferes with Conan's quest to rescue his wife Zenobia from the Evil Sorcerer Yah Chieng.
• Hiding Behind Religion: In Conan the Barbarian #19, Yezdigerd uses the kidnapping of the Living Tarim, an important Hyrkanian religious figure, to justify his father's decision to wage war against Makkalet. However, upon hearing this explanation, Conan's companion, Fafnir, mentions this war would also rid Aghrapur of an economic rival. In Conan the Barbarian #26, he uses an El Cid Ploy to cover up the Living Tarim's death.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Yezdigerd decides to lead a couple of Slave Galleys in pursuit of Conan. After Conan's pirates free the slaves, they immediately proceed to help the pirates fight Yezdigerd's men.
• Honor-Related Abuse: He wishes to kill her daughter after learning she is pregnant.
• Horrifying the Horror: He is on the receiving end in Conan the Barbarian #23, when he is terrified by the presence of Mikhal "The Vulture" Oglu, despite Oglu being on his side.
  Conan the Barbarian #23: Even Yezdigerd, ruthless heir-apparent to the throne of Turan, can scarcely repress a shudder at the dimly-illumind form which now stands before him. For this is Mikal Oglu, whose name is a quivering on both sides of the storm-corsed Vilayet Sea. Mikhal Oglu—most noted slayer in a nation of slayers...Mikhal Oglu—called the Vulture
• Horns of Villainy: He wears a horned helmet in The Savage Sword of Conan #87.
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: After pursuing a pirate crew led by Conan, Yezdigerd ships crashes in shallow waters, leaving them vulerable to a counterattack from Conan's crew.
• I Control My Minions Through...: Authority (He is the ruler of Turan), Birthright (He is the previous ruler's son), Money (According to The Return of Conan, he uses material wealth to entice people into going after Conan), and Fear (He executes minions who fail him as an example to other minions)
• I Have No Daughter!: In Marvel Comics, he disowns his daughter, Yolinda, after she becomones pregnant.
• I Want Them Alive!: In The Return of Conan, when one of Yezdigerd's minions tries to kill Conan, another one of them insists that Yezdigerd will reward them if Conan is brought to him alive.
• Intimidating Revenue Service: His tax collectors whip taxpayers in order to collect payment.
• It's Personal: In The Return of Conan, Yezdigerd wants revenge on Conan for "[slaughtering] his soldiers, [burning] his cities, and [scuttling] his ships."
• Karma Houdini: He never answers for his actions during the Howard's stories.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: In the pastiche novel The Return of Conan, he is killed by Conan after trying to kill the Cimmerian warrior one time too many.
• Killed Offscreen: Downplayed. In The Return of Conan, the last scene before Yezdigerd's death shows Conan and his pirates preparing to attack Yezdigerd's flagship. The next scene skips over to a tavern sometime later, where one of the pirates who was present during the fight narrates the final confrontation between Conan and Yezdigerd in elaborate detail to other people in the tavern (and the reader)
• The Kingslayer: While he doesn't carry out the deed himself, he arranges the assassination of Bunda Chand, the King of Vendhya, with the assistance of the Black Seers of Yimsha.
• Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil: He is willing to have his own daughter, Yolinda, killed.
• Kneel Before Zod:
  • The narration of The Return of Conan mentions, he forced King Mithridates of Zamora to do this in order to keep his position.
  • However, in The Return of Conan, he is unable to force Conan to do so, even when one of Yezdigerd's men attempts to physically force him to.
• Large and in Charge: The text of The Return of Conan describes him as "a swarthy giant of a man."
• Laser-Guided Karma: Slavery was widespread throughout Yezdigerd's empire, and Yezdigerd's final defeat at Conan's hands was assisted by freshly-freed Galley Slaves.
• Leeroy Jenkins: When pursuing Conan, he sails straight into through an archipelago instead of around it like his admiral and shipmaster suggested, ignoring their warnings that the ship might be grounded. Sure enough, his ship crashes into a sandbank.
• Light Is Not Good:
  • He is described as wearing golden clothing and a white turban in The Return of Conan.
  • In Conan the Barbarian #275, part of his outfit is wife.
• Lightning Bruiser: As shown in The Return of Conan, he is capable of dealing a "swift and powerful blow" which "No ordinary man could have avoided or stopped."
• Lust: He has a seraglio, and seeks to make Devi Yasmina its newest member.
• Man of Wealth and Taste:
  • During his introduction scene in The Return of Conan, he is described as wearing silk and gold clothing, and a white turban with feathers.
  • in the epilogue of Conan the Barbarian #23, Yezdigerd is seen wearing purple clothing, red and golden headwear, a necklace, and a cape.
• Miscarriage of Justice: In Savage Sword of Conan #112, he has Numallah, one of his Captains, put to death after suffering a defeat, unaware that he was being used as a scapegoat by the incompetent General Orne'q, whose orders Numallah was following.
• Mr. Exposition: In Conan the Barbarian #19, Yezdigerd narrates the legend of Tarim and the kidnapping of the Living Tarim by the city-state of Makkalet in order to explain to Conan and Fafnir he is roping them into participating in.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: His flagship is called the Scimitar.
• Never My Fault: He ignores warnings not to takes his ship into unsounded waters, and when his ship crashes, he has two men executed.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • His reaction to seeing Mikhal "The Vulture" Oglu standing over him, despite Oglu being his ally.
  • He also has a shocked expression when he finds Oglu's head in a chest.
• Oh, My Gods!:
  • In The Return of Conan, he exclaims "By Erlik, now your shall reap your just desserts" during his final fight with Conan.
  • In Conan the Barbarian #19, he shouts "By the crimson heart of Erlik, i'll—"
• Off with His Head!: In The Return of Conan, He has two of his men executed in this manner after his ship crashes into a sandbank. Shortly afterwards, he himself is killed by Conan this way.
• Offing the Offspring: In Marvel Comics, he is willing to have his own daughter, Yolinda, killed. He eventually succeeds.
• Orcus on His Throne: Most of the times King Yezdigerd comes into conflict with Conan, he leaves his underlings to do the legwork instead of getting his hands dirty himself. Conan actually lampshades this when brought before Yezdigerd in The Return of Conan.
  Conan: You wage your wars with the help of women. Can you handle a sword yourself? I'll show you how a real man fights!
• Politically Incorrect Villain:
  • In The Return of Conan, Yezdigerd refers to Conan as a "Cimmerian cur" and a "barbarian dog" moments before his death at the hands of the latter.
  • In Conan the Barbarian #23, he refers to one of the dancing girls entertaining him as a "wench."
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Despite his hatred for Conan, Yezdigerd is willing to hire him to bring down a group of conspirators who seek to depose him.
  • In Conan the Barbarian #19, he is talked down from attacking Fafnir by Conan on the grounds Yezdigerd will need as many "living men" as he can get to help him fight against the city of Makkalet.
    'Prince Yezdigerd: True enough. You'll do me no good resting in some shark's belly.
  • In Conan of the Red Brotherhood, Yezdigerd Plays this Trope Straight during his youth by dismisses the idea of slave laber as short-lived and unreliable in battle. By the time of The Return of Conan, set late in his life, however, he's abandoned this pragmatism by using galley slaves to pursue Conan, which results in the galley slaves revolting against Yezdigerd.
  • Also in Conan of the Red Brotherhood, he criticizes the idea of Conscription because he believes that arming and training civilians will make them harder to control.
• Pride:
  • In The Return of Conan, Yezdigerd complains that "The red-handed barbarians have escaped and mocked the majesty of Turan."
  • In Conan the Barbarian #19, he takes personal offense then Fafnir insinuates that Turan's supposedly regligiously-motivated war against Makkalet is actually financially motivated, preparing to draw a sword on Fafnir for "[speaking] thus to the once and future majesty of Turan" before Conan intervenes.
• Purple Is Powerful:
  • According to The Devil in Iron, his war galleys, which dominate the Vilayet Sea, have purple sails on them.
  • In the epilogue of Conan the Barbarian #23, Yezdigerd is seen wearing purple clothes.
  • He wears purple pants in Conan the Barbarian #275.
• Puppet King: Discussed in The People of the Black Circle, where Devi Yasmina questions if Yezdigerd is the Master of Yimsha's puppet upon learning the Master was helping Yezdigerd for unknown reasons.

  The Master of Yimsha: My acolytes in the temples of Turan, who are the priests behind the priests of Tarim, urged me to bestir myself in behalf of Yezdigerd. For reasons of my own, I complied. How can I explain my mystic reasons to your puny intellect? You could not understand.

  Devi Yasmina: I understand this: that my brother died!

  The Master of Yimsha: As Yezdigerd desired. For a while it was my whim to further his ambitions.

  Devi Yasmina: Is Yezdigerd your vassal?

  The Master of Yimsha: Is the dog that licks up the offal in the temple yard the vassal of the god?

• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: According to The Devil in Iron Yezdigerd is known to order cities to be burned, and much of his fortune came from plundering other lands. In The War of the Tarim Arc in Marvel's Conan the Barbarian, he does this to the city of Makkalet on the orders of his father, King Yildiz.
• Red Is Violent: The Marvel Comics sometimes depict him wearing red as part of his getup, and he is a violent man.
• Red Right Hand: The scar on his face in Marvel Comics.
• Revenge Myopia: In Conan the Barbarian #20, then-Prince Yezdigerd orders the death of Conan for killing his henchman Balthaz, who had ordering one of Conan's friends (who was also working for Yezdigerd) thrown overboard after deeming him useless. During his escape, Conan scars Yezdigerd's face after Yezdigerd tries to prevent him from escaping, which causes Yezdigerd to develop a lifelong grudge against Conan. This is Lampshaded by Conan during his confrontation with Yezdigerd in Conan the Barbarian #275.

  Prince Yezdigerd: It's only my personal vengeance that needs concern you—Revenge for the scar you gave me, a decade past, on the Vilayet Sea!'

  Conan: After you let one of your Turanian pigs toss my comrade Fafnir overboard—Because he lost an arm in fightingand was no longer of any use to you! I wasn't trying to kill you then—But on second thought, I should have been—A mistake I'll correct tonight!

• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: He has Zorka, a treacherous former comrade of Conan, put to death by one of his officers, Commander Grimm, after receiveing information from him.
• The Rich Want to Be Richer: Yezdigerd, who is already a king, spends his reign plundering riches and collecting tribute from other lands, as well as imposing heavy taxes on his subjects.
• Risking the King: In The Return of Conan, Yezdigerd personally travels aboard one of the two war galleys he sends after Conan. It gets him killed.
• Royal Brat: In The Road of the Eagles, Roxana describes then-Prince Yezdigerd as a "cruel, gloomy youth."
• Royal Harem: Being an wealthy emperor of a large kingdom, it shouldn't come to a surprise he can afford to have as many wives and concubines as he wants. In fact, this causes a complication in the Dark Horse comics where an Arranged Marriage is made between him and Queen Taramis so she can become his newest wife in exchange for Turan protecting her kingdom Khauran, but due to some dispute with another marriage with a different princess leads to him sending an messenger to call off the union. In The People of the Black Circle, he seeks to make Devi Yasmina on of his concubines.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: In The Return of Conan, Yezdigerd personally leads a hunt for Conan and faces him in battle.
• Sadist: He find amusement at the thought of torturing Conan and Rolf.
• Scars Are Forever: In Marvel Comics, Yezdigerd has a scar on his face, courtesy of Conan.
• Shields Are Useless: His shield is destroyed by Conan during their duel aboard the Scimitar, immediately before Conan decapitates him.
• Shoot the Dangerous Minion: In The Savage Sword of Conan #37, it is mentioned that he did this do his councilor, Sulimar.
• Sinister Scimitar: In The Return of Conan Yezdigerd wields a scimitar when Conan confronts him in his own throne room, which gets wrecked. His also brings a scimitar with him during his subsequent pursuit of Conan. Additionally, Yezdigerd named his flagship the Scimitar.
• Slave Galley: He uses these as warships, pursuing Conan with them after he flees Aghrapur. This end up backfiring on him, as the galley slaves end up rebelling against him.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: According to The Devil In Iron, the slave trade is large in many Turanian cities under Yezdigerd's rule, selling women from various lands. Shadows in Zamboula takes place in a Turanian city-state and has so many slaves they have to let one main group of slave belonging to a cannibalistic cult prey on any strangers they can get their hands on at night because the merchants and nobles would rather have cannibal slaves than paying for workers.
• Slouch of Villainy: He is introduced lolling in his throne in The Return of Conan, which is his first on-page appearance in Conan media.
• The Strategist: He is described as being this in The Return of Conan, having used his intelligence to expend Turan's territory.
• Succession Crisis: In The Return of Conan, Conan mentions that Yezdigerd had no successors at the time of his dearth, and predicts this will result in the Turan being fractured by Shahs and Aghas.
• Superior Successor: He is considered a stronger and more effective ruler than his father, King Yildiz.
• Suppressed Rage: When a captive Conan is brought before him during The Return of Conan, the narration states that "The lust for vengeance churned up within him [Yezdigerd], but he held himself in check while the guardsmen knelt and touched their foreheads to the marble floor." After Conan subsqeuently escapes, Yezdigerd stops suppressing it.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Yezdigerd has complained about his underlings on multiple occasions.
  • He sends Jehungir Agha a message, which Agha described during The Devil in Iron as "[Yezdigerd] [complaining] bitterly of what he calls [Agha's] failures to guard the frontier." Ironically, in The Return of Conan it was him ignoring his subordinates' advice by sailing into unsounded that led into a downfall, as he ended up crashing his flagship, leaving it vulnerable to an attack from Conan's pirates, which ended up costing Yezdigerd his life.
  • In The Return of Conan, Yezdigerd, upon learning Conan and one of his companions escaped his palace, asked "Are my soldiers sucklings, that they cannot lay two men low?"
  • Later in The Return of Conan, Yezdigerd, while in pursuit of Conan, complains that "My cursed amirals need half a day to put my flagship to sea." Moments afterward, after being assured by his minion Thanara that they will have Conan in their grasp, Yezdigerd responds by complaining about his henchmen's repeated failures to capture Conan, saying that "My henchmen have often thought so, yet that scoundrel has tricked his way out of every trap. Now for once I am the hunter!" I will personally see that he escapes not."
• A Taste of the Lash: His tax collectors use this method on the populace. He also subjects his Galley Slaves to this when pursuing Conan.
• The Teetotaler: In Conan of the Red Brotherhood, set during his time as a prince, he abstains from drinking alcohol out of religious devotion to Tarim. He loses this trait as time goes on, as in Black Tears, set early during his reign as king, he is mentioned in the narration as having private wine cellars, and in The Return of Conan, set many years afterwards, he is shown drinking wine.
• Tempting Fate: In Conan the Barbarian #23 he responds to Mikhal Oglu's Badass Boast that "If I bring you not his head...I give him leave to send you mine." (Which itself is an example of Tempting Fate) by telling Oglu "He'd take you up on that, I trow." Sure enough, the issue ends with Conan sending Yezdigerd Oglu's head.
• Throne Room Throwdown: He has a brief swordfight with Conan in his own throne room, before his men take him to safety while Conan fights his wat out of Yezdigerd's palace.
• Title Drop: Played With in Conan the Barbarian #21. Yezdigerd doesn't namedrop the title for the current issue The Monster of the Monoliths, but rather for the upcoming issue Conan the Barbarian #23, which is titled The Shadow of the Vulture, as a method of Foreshadowing.

  Prince Yezdigerd: Soon, though, a shadow will fall across the doomed land...The Shadow of the Vulture

• Tyrant Takes the Helm: He succeeds his lenient (by Turanian standards) father Yildiz as the ruler of Turan, becoming an cruel and aggressive warmonger. In The Road to the Eagles, many Turanians fear that the then-Prince Yezdigerd will become this, so a group of conspirators attempted to put his uncle Teyaspa on the throne instead. They fail.
• The Unfought: Due to being The Ghost, Yezdigerd never fights Conan in any of Howard's stories. Subverted in The Return of Conan, where Yezdigerd finally fights Conan directly, not once but twice, the first time in Yezdigerd's throne room, and the second aboard Yezdigerd's war galley. Averted in Marvel Comics, where Conan had directy fought with Yezdigerd as early as Yezdigerd's princely years, which scar on Yezdigerd's face can attest to.
• Unseen No Longer: After being The Ghost in Howard's stories, Yezdigerd makes his on-page debut in The Return of Conan.
• Villain No Longer Idle: In The Return of Conan, Yezdigerd (eventually) gets personally involved in the pursuit of Conan. He mentions that whenever his underlings thought they had Conan cornered, Conan found a way out. It gets him killed.
• Villain of Another Story: Being a powerful military genius with a massive empire at his disposal and a personal grudge with Conan could have easily made a threat out of him. Yet, he is too busy running his empire to confront his enemy face-to-face. Until The Return of Conan, that is.
  • In The Road of Eagle: The story's main antagonist General Artaban, is seeking to prevent Yezdigerd's rise to power.
  • In Conan and the Grim Grey God, one of the story's main villains, Tevek Thul, pretends to be a servant of Yezdigerd.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • He has one The Return of Conan after being tricked by Conan into crashing into a sandbank.
  King Yezdigerd: I will hunt that dog to the ends of the earth! The whole thing smacks of that devil Conan! I'll warrant he is aboard. Will Khogar never get this cursed tub afloat?
  • In Conan the Barbarian #23, he leaves his pavilion in shock after being delivered the head of Mikhal "The Vulture" Oglu, who he sent to kill Conan.
• Villainous Crush: He wishes to make Devi Yasmina of Vendhya his concubines which puts him conflict with his former ally, the Master of Yimsha, who also desires to have Yasmina as a slave.
• Villainous Demotivator: After his men fail to prevent Conan's escape, he orders a fraction of his guards to be executed in order to motivate the remainder.
• Villainous Friendship: In the comics, he has one with Mikhal "The Vulture" Oglu, as seen in Conan the Barbarian #23. He refers to the Vulture as his friend, although Yezdigerd does fear making an enemy out of him.
  Prince Yezdigerd: ''Better to have you at my side, old friend...than at my back."
• Visionary Villain: In Conan the Barbarian #19, Yezdigerd's dialogue reveals that even as a prince, he had ambitions of expaning Turan.
  Prince Yezdigerd: I, Yezdigerd — Who one day shall spread the borders of Turan beyond my sire's wildest dreams!
• Wrath: He is a brutal warmonger, a Bad Boss who repeatedly executes or threatens his underlings, and has a strong desire for vengeance against Conan.
• Who Dares?:
  • In the The Return of Conan, he uses this as a way of berating his men for failing to prevent Conan's escape from his palace.
    King Yezdigerd: You have dared to fail!
  • He also has this reaction in Conan the Barbarian #19, after Fafnir questions Turan's motives for waging war against Makkalet.
    Prince Yezdigerd: You dare speak thus to the once and future Emperor of Turan!?
• Why Won't You Die?: He screams for Conan to die during their duel aboard the Scimitar in The Return of Conan.
• Would Hit a Girl: In the comics, he is perfectly willing to order a woman's death...his own daughter, to be specific.
• Wrecked Weapon: His scimitar is broken by Conan during their brief fight in Yezdigerd's throne room.
• The Wrongful Heir to the Throne: In The Road of the Eagles, Roxana believes that Prince Yezdigerd, despite being the son of the reigning King Yildiz, is unfit to inherit the throne of Turan because of his cruelty, and conspire to make his uncle Teyaspa king instead. Ultimately, the plan fails, and Yezdigerd becomes king.
• "You!" Exclamation: In the comics, this is his reaction when he wakes up to see Mihkal "The Vulture" Oglu standing over him.
• You Have Failed Me: There are several occasions where he executes or threatens his underlings, or one of his underlings threatens another with Yezdigerd's wrath.
  • In The Devil in Iron, Jehungir Agha, who just received an angry message from Yezdigerd, fears Yezdigerd will have him replaced if he continues to displease them.
    Jehungir Agha: The king grows short on patience. In his own hand he complains bitterly of what he calls my failure to guard the frontier. By Tarim, if I cannot deal a blow to these robbers of the steppes, Khawarizm may own a new lord.
  • In The Return of Conan, he has one-tenth of his guards executed as punishment for failing to prevent Conan's escape (as well as a way "to bolster the courage of the rest"), and later has another two of his men executed after his war galley crashes in shallow waters.
  • Also in The Return of Conan, Thanara tries to intimidate Ardashir into compliance by implying that Yezdigerd might inflict this on him after losing a company of men.
    Thanara: What will happen to you when the king learns you have lost a whole company of his precious Imperials but escaped without a scratch himself
  • In The Savage Sword of Conan #87, he threatens to crucify an underling if he can't fulfill his orders.
  • In Savage Sword of Conan #112, he has Captain Numallah executed after suffering a costly defeat in Rymra Pass. Later in the same story, he does this to General Orne'q, having been informed by Conan that Orne'q was responsible for the aformentioned defeat in Rymra Pass, as well as Orne'q's subsequent failure to prevent Fort Khenat from falling into enemy hands.
  • In Savage Sword of Conan #131, Jehungur Agha threatens Lord Khovan with this fate on Yezdigerd's behalf.
    Jehungir Agha: I grow weary of these revelries, Lord Khovan. The king is weary of your failure to deal with these kozaki.
    Lord Khovan: My lord Jehungir Agha, I swear by Tarim that I shall pile the severed heads of these kozaki before the throne...If not heads, then hands...or ears...or something.
    Jehungir Agha: Be careful the king doesn't appoint your lieutenant, Shah Amaruth, as your successor—After he's had your head preserved with honey and brine to add to his collection.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In Conan the Barbarian #20, Yezdigerd's soldiers throw Conan's friend, Fafnir, who was also fighting for Yezdigerd, off the ship after he loses an arm. While it was Yezdigerd's subordinate, Balthaz, who gave the order to so, Yezdigerd allowed it to happen, something Conan angrily reminds Yezdigerd about in Conan the Barbarian #275.
• Younger Than They Look: According to The Return of Conan, "lines crisscrossed his stern and gloomy features ten years too early".
• You Shall Not Pass!: In Conan the Barbarian #20, he personally blocks Conan's escape route after the latter kills on of the former's subordinates onboard the former's ship, even ordering Conan to stop. However, Yezdigerd is quickly defeated by Conan, who promptly jumps overboard.

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