The Blemmyae Tribes

The Blemmyae are a nomadic and warlike race of magic humans who occupy the Red Sea Hills and the Nubian Desert, as well as the Libyan Desert in the west. A Blemmya has no head or neck; his face is borne on the upper part of his torso. Libyan Blemmyae are merchants, who lead camel trains across the sands. Nubian Blemmyae are much more aggressive, and are rightly feared by travelers across the Nubian Desert.

Blemmyae herd camels for wool, leather, meat, and milk; they hunt gazelles and ostriches to supplement their diet. They also raid caravans traveling from Nobatia to Alodia and steal any luxuries they find; their reputation is such that they expect no resistance from Nubian merchants. As a consequence, most raided merchants escape with their lives, and often with any bulky goods that the Blemmyae are unwilling to steal. The Bedouins that have invaded from Egypt are treated more roughly; Blemmyae have no treaties with these people, and see them as interlopers. No mercy is shown to them. Some Blemmyae families mine gold and emeralds from the Wadi Allaqi in the north of their territory, and they control the flow of gold into Makuria and Egypt.

The Blemmyae divide themselves into five tribes, named for the five Blemmyae cities that they used to inhabit: Phoinikon, Khiris, Taphis, Talmis, and Prima. All five tribes are ruled by a single king, who is sometimes resident in Sawakin, but more commonly is found living much like any other Blemmya among his family. The Blemmyae show great respect for their king, and tend to obey him, but his reign is not absolute; he depends upon the agreement of the five phylarchs, the chiefs of the separate tribes. The King of the Blemmyae chooses one of the phylarchs to be his heir upon taking the crown, but cannot choose the phylarch of his own tribe. Once made, this choice can not be unmade — if the phylarch dies in the interim then the honor passes to the phylarch's closest male relative. Under the phylarchs are the hypotyranni, or sub-chiefs, each in charge of a band of fifty or so families of Blemmyae.

Blemmyae men outnumber the women ten to one; however, unlike the men, Blemmyae women do not naturally age, and contribute to multiple generations within her tribe. Bloodlines are carefully tracked to avoid a woman marrying her own descendants.

The Blemmyae have not been converted to Christianity or Islam despite attempts to do both, and instead they worship the stars and the Kushitic gods, particularly Mandulis the Sun God. They speak their own language, called Beja, which is a descendent of Meroitic.

Magic Might: 5 (Corpus)

Season: Summer

Characteristics: Int 0, Per +1, Pre 0, Com

–1, Str +5, Sta +2, Dex +2, Qik +1

Size: 0 Age: 30 (30) Decrepitude: 0 Confidence Score: 1 (3)

Virtues and Flaws: Magic Human; Craftsman; Affinity with Profession: Miner, Long-Winded, Warrior; Essential Flaw, Generous, No Sense of Direction

Magic Qualities and Inferiorities: Improved Abilities x 2, Lesser Powers, Minor Virtue (Great Strength) x 2, Minor Virtue (Improved Characteristics) x 2, Minor Virtue (Puissant Thrown Weapon), Minor Virtue (Tough), Personal Powers; Major Flaw (Age Quickly), Monstrous Appearance*; Minor Flaw (Hunchback), Minor Flaw (Poor Hearing)

*free with Magic Human

Personality Traits: Charitable +3, Diligent +2, Brave +1, Excessively Generous (Communication)* –3

*Essential Flaw

Combat:

Pick*: Init +2, Attack +11, Defense +7, Damage +13

Sling: Init –2, Attack +11, Defense +7, Damage +10

* treated as mace

Soak: +6

Fatigue Levels: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious

Wound Penalties: –1 (1–5), –3 (6–10), –5 (11– 15), Incapacitated (16–20), Dead (21+)

Abilities: Animal Handling 3 (camels), Area Lore: Nobatia 1 (Pakhoras), Area Lore: Red Sea Hills 3 (ore-bearing areas), Bargain 4 (evaluating value), Folk Ken 1 (gold merchants), Leadership 2 (miners), Native Language: Beja 5 (Phoinikon), Living Language: Nubian 3 (Dongolawi), Organization Lore: Phoinikon Tribe 2 (gold merchants), Profession: Miner 6 (8) (gold), Ride 3 (camels), Single Weapon 5 (pick), Thrown Weapons 5+2 (sling)

Powers:

Ease the Labor of Ten Miners, 2 points, Init –2, Terram: Ababdah can weaken rock in an area ten paces by ten paces, and up to ten paces deep, making it easy to excavate. PeTe 15 (Base 2, +1 Touch, +1 affect stone, +3 size) Lesser Power (15 levels, –1 Might cost)

Gold-Miner's Keen Eye, 1 point, Init –1, Terram: Ababdah can see gold through up to three paces of intervening material. He can estimate purity and quantity of any gold present. InTe 20 (Base 2, +1 Conc, +4 Vision, +1 see through intervening material) Personal Power (20 levels, –1 Might cost)

Equipment: Miner's tools, partial leather armor

Encumbrance: 0 (Burden 0)

Vis: 1 pawn of Terram, in eyes

Appearance: A stocky Blemmyae wearing leather armor on both forearms and upper arms and a skirt of leather strips. He carries a pick and leads a camel burdened with equipment.

Ababdah is a Blemmyae miner who has made his tribe rich through his discovery of seams of gold. He is often shadowed by one of his younger cousins, because his family are aware of his propensity to get turned around in the sand dunes and unable to find his way home. In human society, Ababdah would most likely have the Magical Covenfolk Social Status Virtue.

Blemmyae Characters

Blemmyae have faces on their chests, lacking heads and necks. The shoulders of blemmyae are spaced wide apart, leaving their faces larger than those of a normal human. Their hearing is poor, since their ears are positioned beneath their arms. Blemmyae women do not have breasts and do not suckle their children, but give them goat or camel milk instead. Blemmyae have hairless bodies, and wear no clothes on the upper part of their body. Fortunately for them, their bodies are naturally resistant to damage. Blemmyae who wish to wear armor must devise some means to permit themselves to see; this normally requires them to wear rigid armor like boiled leather or plate-and-mail with eye holes or a visor. They cannot use large shields effectively. Blemmyae warriors tend to be mounted skirmishers armed with slings rather than front-line fighters.

Blemmyae are Magic Humans (Realms of Power: Magic, page 32) who have the following Inherited features:

• Magic Qualities: Minor Virtue (Puissant Thrown Weapon), Minor Virtue (Tough)
• Magic Inferiorities: Minor Flaw (Hunchback), Minor Flaw (Poor Hearing)

Male Blemmyae also have the Age Quickly Major Flaw as a Magic Inferiority, meaning that they have a lifespan typical of that of a human. Female Blemmyae do not share this Flaw. Blemmyae take a Social Status Virtue or Flaw appropriate to their role in their tribe, but should they join human society they should take one more appropriate to their magical nature.

Numerous treaties between the Blemmyan and Makurian kings have established the limits of Blemmyae territory, but these treaties last no longer than the lives of the signatories involved. Blemmyae regularly offer tribute to the Makurian and Alodian thrones, which are thinly veiled fines for past raiding or bribes for future raiding. Broadly speaking, the region between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea belong to the Blemmyae tribes. The Pakhoras Road to Atbara describes their western border. The port of 'Aydhab is in territory claimed by the Blemmyae, but is in Egyptian hands.

Over the last half-century, the Blemmyae and Makurians have found a common enemy in the Ja'alin, who have stolen territory from both kingdoms.

Badi

Badi has been abandoned by honest merchants, and has become a fetid pit of lawlessness and debauchery. The only ships that regularly dock at Badi's extensive quays are pirate ships that prey on merchants navigating the Red Sea. It is said that anything can be sourced from Badi; for things that cannot be bought, unscrupulous men can be hired to procure it to order.

The Blemmyae of the Red Sea Hills keep overland travelers from Badi, for their own sakes. Likewise, the sea approach is difficult because few captains dare to ferry passengers here; standing orders from the Egyptian and Arabian authorities state that ships known to have docked at Badi forfeit the lives of their captain and crew, and any passengers are sold into slavery.

The characters encounter an escaped Aithiops slave who has run away from Taqasi. Her command of Nubian is poor, but she is seeking someone to free her grandmother from the king's control. The slave begs the characters for help. The slave's 'grandmother' is a magical lion held at Taqasi; she is the lion-equivalent of a sorceress and has several powers including the ability to take human form. The king of Meroë discovered her secret, and holds her cub hostage to her good behavior. Not all the pet lions are friendly with the lioness, since she has The Gift and they distrust her because of it; some might betray her attempts to escape to the king. If they succeed in freeing her and her son, she might permit her cub to become a familiar or animal companion of one of the characters.

Known to Ptolemy as the Port of Good Hope (Limen Evangelis); the Blemmyae know better: both Sawakin and the Beja name of the port U Suk mean "prisons." When King Solomon had finished with his jinn servants, some of the most troublesome were banished here. As far as anyone knows, the jinn are still inmates of a magical jail of unknown location.

Sawakin occupies a circular island at the end of a long inlet. It is a fantastic town built entirely of coral. Many of its buildings are made from bands of white, pink, and red coral; and its famous lighthouse is so cunningly constructed of delicately shaded colors from white at the base to red at the summit that it is virtually invisible at dawn or dusk. Red coral

There are 111 jinn buried beneath Sawakin in prisons of coral, all of them inimical to man. They vary in Might; most are petty annoyances that Solomon did not feel comfortable releasing back into the wild. There are a few that are truly terrifying, and one is rumored to be Ashmodai, Prince of Temptation and one of the ten most powerful demons save Satan himself (Realms of Power: the Infernal, page 27).

Story Seed: Black Coral

Whether or not Ashmodai is imprisoned under Sawakin is unknown, but what is certain is that there are any number of jinni who claim to be him. A recent earthquake opened a crack in the coral in the basement of a warehouse, and an Infernal jinn was able to communicate with a laborer sent to clear up the rubble. This menial is now the leader of a cult devoted to the worship of "Ashmodai."

A character who comes to Sawakin in search of coral — either for trade or for enchantment — might be sold stone corrupted by the diabolic cult. Rather than having an apotropaic effect on demons, the corrupted coral instead attracts the attention of evil spirits. The cult keeps track of those to whom it sells, seeking to recruit the demons attracted by their product — once the buyer is dead or corrupted, of course.

has a powerful sympathy with controlling demons (as evidenced by its Shape and Material Bonus, ArM5, page 110), and this might provide clues to those seeking for the jinn prisons.

Sawakin has a long rivalry with the other ports of the Red Sea: 'Aydhad, Badi, and Qusayr. Currently, Sawakin's fortunes are on the rise at the expense of those of Badi, profiting from trade with Arabia, Persia, and distant Hind, as well as selling passage to Mecca for Muslims on the hajj. Coral is an occasional export from Sawakin, most of it of a variety called "snake's tongue" and taking the form of a forked twig of rough red stone.

As Dedwen, the Egyptians adopted Dedun as the god of incense, but to the Kushitic priesthood he was much more than that. Dedun stood for the things that are gathered in this life in preparation for life in the next. So he was a god of prosperity, because like the Egyptians, the Kushites interred their dead with grave goods for use after death. He was also the god of fame and reputation, and the patron of priests who praised the dead and kept their memory alive, and his chief cult center was at Napata (see earlier). He was guardian of the dead, lord of the fields of prosperity, and as well as incense he was the god of salt, natron, naphtha, and other substances used for preservation.

The struggle between priests and kings is often symbolized by the uraeus (the symbol of Dedun, god of priests) fighting the lion (the symbol of Apedamak, god of royalty).

The priesthood of Kush contained Canaanite necromancers (Ancient Magic, Chapter Two), some of whom had arrived here with Tribe of Dan, and others who had settled here after Saul's purge of the Israelite priesthood in Canaan. Characters pursuing this mystery seeking insight may receive clues leading to Kush. By taking possession of the royal dead, the Kushite priests were able to control their living relatives, through the threat of wracking their spirits after death.

Monsters in the Sea

The Red Sea is home to all manner of immense creatures and monsters. These occasionally chase shoals of fish up from the depths, and in their attempts to escape the fish beach themselves in large numbers or else leap clear out of the water into boats. The monsters come in a variety of shapes: colossal fish such as sea-eels, sharks, and whales; tremendous turtles; and frightening horrors such as massive sea-centipedes and worms.

The giant eels can be simulated by using the statistics for the elephant-eating serpents, but adding the Aquatic Quality and the Slippery Quality twice. They gain Swim 5, and can breathe water; if caught in a grapple they have a +9 to Defense Totals.