Zenobia is a seraglio

Seraglio

A seraglio or serail is the sequestered living quarters used by wives and concubines in a Turkish household. The word comes from an Italian variant of Turkish saray, from Persian sarai , meaning palace, or the enclosed courts for the wives and concubines of the harem of a house or palace...

 concubine who has a romantic attachment to King Conan in the fictional universe

Fictional universe

A fictional universe is a self-consistent fictional setting with elements that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed or fictional realm ....

 of Robert E. Howard

Robert E. Howard

Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....

's Conan the Cimmerian

Conan the Cimmerian

Conan the Cimmerian may refer to:* Conan the Barbarian, Robert E. Howard's fictional character* Conan , Dark Horse Comics' comic series about that character...

. After freeing Conan from the dungeon of Xaltotun

Xaltotun

Xaltotun is an evil wizard from Robert E. Howard's stories about Conan the Barbarian. He appears in The Hour of the Dragon as an ancient resurrected wizard, and serves as the main enemy to Conan...

, she is later chosen by him to become the queen-consort of Aquilonia

Aquilonia (Conan)

Aquilonia is a fictional country created by Robert E. Howard as part of his Hyborian world, created for his character Conan the Barbarian. Conan eventually becomes king of this country....

. She appears in Howard's only full-length Conan novel The Hour of the Dragon

The Hour of the Dragon

The Hour of the Dragon, also known as Conan the Conqueror, is a fantasy novel written by Robert E. Howard featuring his seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian. It was first published in serial form in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1935 through 1936; and in book form in 1950 by Gnome...

, first published as a five part serial in Weird Tales

Weird Tales

Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....

between the months of December 1935 to April 1936.

Appearance

She is described in Hour of the Dragon as "lithe" and "beautiful." She has long, luxurious black hair and a notably pale skin tone. Her eyes are particularly stunning. She was dressed in a few scant scraps of clothing in Hour of the Dragon, but it was suggested she would normally be attired as such.

In other media

An action figure

Action figure

An action figure is a posable character figurine, made of plastic or other materials, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, video game, or television program. These action figures are usually marketed towards boys and male collectors...

 of Zenobia was released by McFarlane Toys

McFarlane Toys

McFarlane Toys, a subsidiary of Todd McFarlane Productions, Inc., is a company started by Todd McFarlane that makes highly detailed models of characters from movies, comics, musicians, video games, and sport figures...

 in April 2005, as part of their Conan Series 2: The Hour of the Dragon.

Zenobia appeared in the Marvel Comics series, The Savage Sword of Conan

Conan (comics)

Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard was first adapted into comics published Marvel Comics beginning with the series Conan the Barbarian in 1970...

, and in the latest Conan series by Dark Horse Comics. In the latter series, she is depicted as pregnant with Conan's heir to the kingdom of Aquilonia.

Zenobia will feature as a major character in Age of Conan, a massively multiplayer online

ONLINE

ONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....

 roleplaying game (MMORPG

MMORPG

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....

).

The historical Zenobia

There was an actual queen named Zenobia

Zenobia

Zenobia was a 3rd-century Queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Roman Syria. She led a famous revolt against the Roman Empire. The second wife of King Septimius Odaenathus, Zenobia became queen of the Palmyrene Empire following Odaenathus' death in 267...

, who had a prominent place in the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

's history. While in no way identical to her fictional namesake, Howard is known to have been inspired by the names of actual historical as well as mythical persons and nations.