Valeria is a pirate and adventuress (a member of The Red Brotherhood of pirates) 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 Barbarian

Conan the Barbarian

Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero that originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films , television programs, video games, roleplaying games and other media...

 stories. She appears in 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 novella Red Nails

Red Nails

"Red Nails" is the last of the stories about Conan the Cimmerian written by American author Robert E. Howard. A novella, it was originally serialized in Weird Tales magazine from July to October 1936. It is set in the pseudo-historical Hyborian Age and concerns Conan encountering a lost city in...

, serialized

Serial (literature)

In literature, a serial is a publishing format by which a single large work, most often a work of narrative fiction, is presented in contiguous installments—also known as numbers, parts, or fascicles—either issued as separate publications or appearing in sequential issues of a single periodical...

 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....

28 1-3 (July, August/September & October 1936). This was the last Conan story written by Howard, and published posthumously. The name was also used for Conan's love interest in the 1982 film Conan the Barbarian.

Events of the short story

In Red Nails, she was wandering through the jungles of Africa after running from a mercenary camp. She had signed up with the mercenaries to guard the Stygian from raids by Darfar. However, she killed a Stygian officer for making unwanted sexual advances and was forced to escape quickly. Conan, who was also serving as a mercenary on the border, follows her due to his own lust, killing the Stygian officer's brother (who was seeking revenge on Valeria) en route. Both end up in the lost city

Lost city

A "Lost City" is a term that is generally considered to refer to a well-populated area which fell into terminal decline, became extensively or completely uninhabited, and whose location has been forgotten. Some lost cities whose locations have been rediscovered have been studied extensively by...

 of Xuchotl. It ends with Conan and Valeria as lovers set to return to piracy.

Roland Green's novel Conan and The Gods of The Mountain (Tor, 1993) continues the adventures of Conan and Valeria just after the events of Red Nails.

Description

Robert E. Howard's description of Valeria in Red Nails is:
She is also described as a superior swordswoman. Valeria is faster and more agile than Conan.

Movie version

Another Valeria had a major role in the 1982 movie Conan the Barbarian, where she was played by Sandahl Bergman, although the character portrayed in the movie differed from Howard's character, having a romantic relationship with Conan and borrowing characteristics from Bêlit

Bêlit (Robert E. Howard)

In the fictional universe of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian, Bêlit is a pirate queen who has a romantic relationship with Conan. She is Conan's first serious lover. She appears in Howard's Conan novelette "Queen of the Black Coast", first published in Weird Tales 23 5...

, another character by Howard. Valeria is killed during the course of the film, but assists Conan in spirit.