Borna

Borna was the king of Valusia until he was overthrown and killed by Kull. At first, Kull was hailed as a liberator who had delivered the people from the iron grip of Borna's tyranny. However, many Valusians eventually turned against Kull, largely as a result of loyalist propaganda by the royal minstrel Ridondo. This was so effective that, despite Borna's past cruelty, a statue of him was put up in the Temple of the Serpent where the people mourned for their former king and praised him as a saintly monarch unjustly slain by a red-handed barbarian. This also despite the fact that Kull had once led Valusia's armies to victory as a soldier and that his status as a foreigner had been overlooked because of this.

Borna was, by all accounts, a genuine tyrant who deserved his fate. Men were routinely blinded, maimed, and left to die in his dungeons for their transgressions, while their wives were stolen for his seraglio. Valusia was in a severely weakened state under his rule until Kull took the throne, brought much needed reforms, and restored the nation to its former strength and unity.

Borna was a native Valusian and a direct heir of the old dynasty. The events leading to his overthrow are not chronicled in detail in the original stories, but it is known that Kull had led a group of rebels while he was an army commander and had the support of the barbarian mercenaries.

After Borna's death, there were at least two remaining members of his dynasty who had legitimate claims to the throne. These included Gomlah, a cousin of Borna, who fled to Verulia and took refuge there, and Baron Kaanuub who remained in Valusia and often plotted against Kull. The statesman-turned-outlaw Ascalante considered it a mistake on Kull's part to have let them live.

Borna was portrayed by Sven-Ole Thorsen in the 1997 movie Kull the Conqueror.