Tafamus proved to be unfit to rule, he did many foolish things, such as appointing to Veldang pages to govern Sarro and Tavu et Teba and he replaced the Head Astrologer of Karkisso with an old woman who had given him a cup of water while hunting hippo on the Gargos River. After only two years of rule he was overthrown by the High Priest of Darleester the Noose and his Enkidu eunuch warriors and imprisoned once again within the "Crypt", along with two concubines and Tafamus' beloved cameleopard (2).
Jalenga Kosem had taken the infants Soman and Nomas to the city of Siwah El where she had employed the magics of that city to change her infants into youths. She however angered the Sorceress and so had to flee to far Yngortu to evade the witches demonic servants.
In Hombori Tondo was torn by internal conflict, and Kareeshtan leaders looked greedily upon the Coral Throne and the lands of Afadjann. Once again the High Priest of Darleester the Noose intervened and sought out Jalenga Kosem and the two princes. In 1049 Soman II was made Jann of Afadjann. The younger brother Nomas was not incarcerated within the "Crypt", as it was already occupied, but instead was married to the daughter of a Faladjian noble and thus revoked all his claims to the throne (3).
Soman and Nomas had both been initiated into the cult of Two Brothers during
their stay in Yngortu, a fact that became clear after their seperation. Soman II
became immensly sadistic after his brother left. He was very fond of a crossbow
he had been given, and praticed its use daily upon slaves and pages. He invoked
the ancient rite of the Jann to kill seventeen innocent people a day and would
practice the use of his bow from the palace roof killing any who passed by,
marking his kill upon a great slate for all to see. He began to become envious
of his brother, even though the two had not met for many years and ordered his
excecution, when Jalenga Kosem told him this was foolish and may cause a war
with Faladje he flew into a rage and ran about the streets killing all that he
met, including children and livestock.
In 1055 Soman II attempted to have his mother killed, but his plan was spoiled
and instead the Palace of the Jann was stormed by the Eunuchs of Enkidu. Soman
II resisted bravely and slew twenty of their number before he finally fell.
Jalenga Kosem was reported to have taken her sons body in her arms and cried
"You have taken my son the madman, a mad Faladjian woman holds my other in
bondage. Go release the mad man from the crypt, he can do no worse!" The body of
Soman II was then taken, divided into the seventeen parts and buried beneath the
dynastic temple.
Tafamus had become increasingly deranged while in the "Crypt", during the coup nobody had bothered to feed him and so he had ravaged his concubines and consummed their flesh. The gaurds were so horrified at the scene that met them that they threw themselves upon their swords, rather than remember it. Tafamos was eventually dragged "giggling" to the throne and once again performed the Ritual of Compulsion, but got all the words wrong. Tafamus then order the excecution of all those who had slain his nephew, Soman II, proclaiming him to be, "the most sane Jann to sit upon the Coral Throne for a long time, and I should know!". Thus was the end of Jalenga Kosem and her manipulations.
Tafamus then set about begatting an heir for the throne, or more truly the High Priest of Darleester the Noose arranged it. Before Tafamus were brought the finest and most beautiful women of Afadjann, which he inspected from the stock into which he was strapped. He showed no interest in any, but instead looked to his cameleopard and said, "I will lie only with a woman who has female part like those of my beautiful cameleopard, I decree it." Seeking to keep his master pleased, the High Priest of Darleester the noose sent a representation of the creatures parts, made of gold throughout Afadjann. Eventually a woman was found, living in a hut in the Kanem Dar hills, her name was Seki Pumra (4), a hag of a girl weighing some two hundred jars (5). Immediatley Tafamus fell in love and began the begetting.
Tafamus died in 1067, it is said he died of love, but doctors of the ime say that it was more likely a broken back. His sole concubine Seki Pumra had given birth to five daughters and one son. The daughters had the beauty of their mother, the son the wit of his father.
(2) Cameleopard - very similarto earths giraffe, but with a shorter neck. A
favourite of Fonritan nobles as it is the only animal that knows how to bow in
order to drink.
(3) Husbands of Faladian princesses are considered slaves of their wives. Nomas
was a paricularly willing slave to the homocidal Princess Nefreti, although it
is said that on their hooneymoon he wore a breastplate and magic at all times.
(4) Seki Pumra - Afadjanni for Sugar Lump or Sugar Sack, only the Jann called
her Seki, everybody else referred to her as, Her Majesty the Grand Pumra,
glittering jewel in the Janns Crown, Mother of Plenty.
(5) Two Hundred Jars - About three hundred earth pounds.
(to be continued)
Cheers Simon.
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #43
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