The most racially indentified of all of Howard’s heroes was his fictional King of the Picts, Bran Mak Morn, who might have been inspired by Bran, a brother of the Pictish King Eogan who fell in battle alongside his brother against the Vikings in 1839. The line of Pictish kings was broken at this date. If Howard was looking for a “last King of the Picts” compositing Bran and his brother king would have been an obvious starting point, particularly since much of Howard’s historical fiction focused on Gaelic versus Norse warfare, with no fewer than three other heroes of his taking up the sword against the Vikings.

Howard does not give dates for Bran Mak Morn’s reign. However, it is clearly after the Reign of Hadrian and before the known reigns of kings appearing on the early historical lists. It appears that Howard placed Bran Mak Morn’s reign at the end of the Roman Peace [late 100s], the same period as the movie Galdiator.

Below are some possible dates that might have inspired Howard to write of a Heroic King of the Picts.

-The Antonine Wall was abandoned in 163-4, with the Romans falling back on Hadrian’s wall.

-It is likely that the Romans were paying tribute to their Pictish enemies throughout the mid to late 100s.

-In 175, a large force of Sarmatian cavalry, consisting of 5,500 men, arrived in Britannia, probably to reinforce troops fighting unrecorded uprisings.

-In 180, Hadrian's Wall was breached by the Picts and the commanding officer or governor was killed there in what Cassius Dio described as the most serious war of the reign of Commodus. This may be the historical inspiration for Worms of the Earth.

-Severus invaded the Picts homeland of Caledonia with up to 20,000 troops in 208 or 209

-Constantius Chlorus invaded northern Britain in 306 and died soon after, with the provincial defenses having been rebuilt in the preceding years. Little is known of his campaigns. Sources suggest he reached the far north of Britain and won a major battle in early summer before returning south.