@Draugheru In Howard's works, Conan is the only Cimmerian who ever appears. Indeed he may be only one of a few who've ever traveled far from Cimmeria or the lands surrounding it, because in many introductions other characters often don't know what Conan is, thinking him possibly Hyperborean or some other northern barbarian.

If most Cimmerians remain in Cimmeria, they're most likely going to be affected by that environment, and given that it's described as a foggy, gloomy place, they're going to be lighter-skinned than Conan is described to be due to less sun exposure.

Of course the Picts live in a densely-forested region and are dark-skinned, so environmental factors don't have universal outcomes, but it's a matter of comparison between Conan and other Cimmerians.

@AkaRai Sorry for the delay, sometimes I read a comment, get distracted, then never respond.

The story you're referring to is "Shadows In Zamboula" . I need to re-read the story again, but I think you're correct. There are also mentions in the story "Queen of the Black Coast" , and others as well. For example, there is:

"And survivors of butchered Stygian ships named Bêlit with curses, and a white warrior with fierce blue eyes; so the Stygian princes remembered this man long and long, and their memory was a bitter tree which bore crimson fruit in the years to come."

and:

"The warriors fell into single file, creeping through the primordial twilights like black phantoms following a white ghost."

among others. It's possible that Howard referred to Conan as white in those stories in the sense of the 'white race', as in both he is among many black characters, but it's also likely his actual skin was being described.

I always equated the Cimmerians to Norse/Nordics and Vikings who were know to travel and trade as far south as Babylon in Iraq. So one could imagine some Cimmerians being very tanned.

A trifling thing either way, but I will say every Conan story I've read backs up this view. He's constantly described or describes himself as white. In particular I'm recalling one story -the name of which escapes me- where everyone locks their doors at night and refuses visitors because Darfari cannibals roam the streets for someone to drag off and eat. When Conan is refused entry to a tavern he argues "Can't you see that I'm alone and a white man?"

@Rhodes I'd agree with those interpretations.

There's a lot of wiggle room in Howard's descriptions, for example Conan's skin was often referred to as bronzed or browned from the sun, but bronze skin isn't that dark, and brown can cover a very wide swath of tones. Even then, given the qualifier of sun exposure, Conan would probably be much darker than most Cimmerians in Cimmeria.

I know the Zingarans, weren't portrayed as particularly dark, and they're supposed to be darker than Cimmerians. They're also supposed to be much lighter than the Picts, who would probably have skin tones comparable to Amerindians.

I haven't looked into it too deeply, but I think that Howard may have described Cimmerians in that manner as a mythological origin of the "black Irish", with which he felt some affinity.

Always thought the Cimmerians should be lighter in game. To me, having read the Howard stories, they sounded like they would be olive at the darkest. Mind that at the time Howard was writing, Italians were considered 'Swarthy' i.e. dark skinned. That said, Howard was very, very clear when someone wasn't of 'the white races', regardless of having fair skin or not.

IIRC The Black Stranger (title unrelated, the stranger was a shadow demon) mentions that a very beautiful woman was fair skinned, and 'could have been mistaken for one of the white races at a glance'. She was Zingaran or Zamorian I think. Shadows in Zamboula is also replete with examples.