Farmer has stated that he derived Khokarsa from Ambrose Bierce's short story "An Inhabitant of Carcosa" (1891), in which the narrator's spirit visits an ancient fallen civilization.

Kwasin will have this huge axe through the series, and eventually it will go to Hadon's son, who, after the great catastrophe, will emigrate to the south and found the city of Kôr which appeared in Haggard's She.

And this axe, if you're familiar with the Allan Quatermain novels, later on fell into the hands of Umslopogaas, the great Zulu hero, who shattered it in the city of Zu-Vendis, you remember.

Sahhindar appeared and reappeared among the Khoklem over a period of 2,000 years, teaching them how to domesticate plants and animals, mine copper and tin, make bronze tools, and adopt the concept of zero.

The Khokarsans had a written syllabary, understood the principles of algebra, employed catapults and Greek fire, had an advanced navy of unireme, bireme, and trireme galleys, implemented a solar calendar, and established a samurai-like class of swordsmen called the numatenu who wielded iron broadswords.

This conflict erupts into civil war when King Minruth IV refuses to relinquish the throne to the hero Hadon, whose victory as champion of the Great Games of Klakor should bestow upon him the traditional right to marry the high priestess and assume the kingship.