Red Sonja is a fictional character, a sword-and-sorcery comic book heroine created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Windsor-Smith for Marvel Comics in 1973, partially based on Robert E. Howard's characters Red Sonya of Rogatino and Dark Agnes de Chastillon. In Marvel's comics she originates from Hyrkania, during the Hyborian Age period, and is a contemporary of Conan the Barbarian - like Conan she has a dark backstory, involving her rape, and the murder of her family - a prayer to Scáthach gave her the fighting skills enabling her to revenge herself.