Those Gosh Darned Tarkeshites

[midway]

What kind of people do you all imagine Tarkeshites to be?

I ask because in one of the old SB RPG supplements I remember some Tarkeshites were statted up and described as basically Vikings - tall bearded nordic guys in longships, using axes and so forth.

Now I don't doubt that there's some Viking in the Tarkeshites, but there's gotta be this other factor in there too. I mean, even just the name "Tarkesh" is kind of central asian-y or something.

And in the original saga I seem to recall a Tarkeshite ship captain described as wearing silken clothing, and getting flustered when the Pan Tangians attack -- not a very Viking type of guy.

For some reason I imagine the Tarkeshites to be half viking, half phoenician or something - short swarthy bearded guys with curly hair. Phoenicians were middle-eastern type guys but also very nautically inclined, so this makes sense to me.

In my view, they definitely need to wield sea axes as well. Not sure why...

What details from the original saga am I missing?

 

[Loz]

There's next to nothing explored about the Tarkeshites in the saga, save from the description you've already mentioned.

I've gone for them as a split society. In the south, the country is civlised with an extensive ship building tradition. In the north, where the land is more rugged and extreme, the viking analogue prevails, with people keeping themselves to themselves (but still building great ships).

The cult of Pozz-man-Lyrr, which seems to reflect the celtic god of the sea and is mentioned in the saga, will be appearing in Cults of the YK.

 

[havercake lad]

Richars Watts has some excellent file notesgenerously posted on to the Eternal Champion site with what sparse details exist of dress and customs, warfare etc.
I'd hazzard a guess that clan and family ( or location ? ) ties are very important amongst some sections of society as the middle name of Yedn-pad-Juizev strikes me as similar to a Celtic 'map' or 'Mc' or Scandanavian 'sson'.

 

[smiorgan]

Hi,

In fact there are a lot of tiny scattered bits on Tarkeshites in the saga. They do not make a coherent whole but they can be inspirational if one wants to create a full-fledged Tarkeshite culture.

While I was writing a short piece for Richard Watts' Old Hrolmar Chaosium monograph I collected many quotations from the saga. Here are some:

"Elric stepped aside as the captain, a dark-faced Tarkeshite, came running along the deck."

As we headed for it those pirates attacked us in a ship which belonged to history-it should have been on the bottom of the ocean, not on the surface. I've seen pictures of such craft in murals on a temple wall in Tarkesh.

but even he had to admit that this ship was
impressive and would easily win a fight with the Tarkeshite galley.

He patted his horse's nose as more seamen, clad in colourful
Tarkeshite silks, came forward to take the horses and hoist them down to the waiting boat.

He began to whirl like a Tarkeshite dancer, round
and round, and it was as if the sword dragged him faster
and faster while it gouged and gashed and decapitated
the Kelmain horsemen.

A merchant in the dark brocades of Tarkesh licked
his red lips and attempted to conduct himself with more
dignity than his friends.

short, dark-faced men from Tarkesh with thick ar-
mour and black, oiled hair and beards.

Blue-armoured Tarkeshites with brilliant plumes of red,
purple and white, long lances levelled,

Yedn-pad-Juizev was obviously dying and they could do nothing for him. He knew this also and expected nothing, merely rode with them for
company. He was very tall for a Tarkeshite, his scarlet plume still bobbing on his dented blue-metal helmet, his breastplate scarred and smeared with his own blood and others. His beard was black and shiny with oil.

Andrea

 

[havercake lad]

As the Western Continent seems to be the first one to suffer from Melnibonean Imperialism ( and also only managed to liberate itself some centuries after the Southern Continent ) potentially some Melnibonean influences are more ingrained in parts of society.
In my own campaign I included the tradition of using eunuchs as favoured servants in some of the courts of the more 'civilized' areas of the Western Continent. Tarkeshite 'northerners' had a skald type profession as well.
Posssibly giving Tarkeshites a 'Viking' type culture is overworked in existing Chaosium material. The Vikings Elric encounters in 'The Skrayling Tree' remind him of Smiorgan Baldhead and he doesn't reflect on Tarkesh at all.
348

 

[midway]

Smiorgan -

Thank you for those quotes -- they really evoke quite a bit about the Tarkeshites in just a few sentences.

Short, dark, silky, nautically inclined, whirly-dancing, temple-going, plumey-armor-wearing, horse-riding guys that they are.

Very cool. It makes me wish I had a searchable electronic copy of the saga so I could dredge up all kinds of similarly colorful passages.

You the man.

 

[Hervé]

Well I guess that nothing prevents the short and dark skinned Tarkeshites to have a viking-like culture, as the Elric's world is not our medieval earth.
Probably Chaosium made them viking-like because of the northern location of Tarkesh and the use of longships by its people.
I tend to see them more like a Phenician-like people, as Midway stated.

 

[weasel_fierce]

phonecians in long ships.. sounds good to me

 

[TRose]

Short ,dark skinned and wearing colorful silks? I'm thinking Dayaks from Borneo moved North.

 

[havercake lad]

Following is extract snippet from recently published 'Black Petals' ~
a Tarkeshite ship's captain is described as ' dressed up in crisp blue silk and black linen..'