a brief history of ooranye
35: Tu rim

[continued from 34: Invasion]

Character of the Radium Era

Era 88 lasted 3,889,328 days. This amounts to 158 Uranian years, equivalent to 13,310 Earth years.

Because of the sketchiness of this summary it often happens that we devote more attention to the transitions between eras than to the eras themselves. And so it is on this occasion: we must glide lightly over the Conquered Era, and zoom in upon the extraordinary character who brought it to an end.

It was not in fact an utterly “Conquered Era”. Though in most cities Ghepions seized control, in alliance with the Fyayman invaders or otherwise, in belated revenge for the pogroms of Era 81, and enslaved or dispossessed the human inhabitants, this did not happen everywhere. Thanks to the rear-guard action by fighters of the era of “Syoom’s Last Stand”, four great cities were never conquered: Vyanth, Lysyon, Pjourth and Skyyon itself. They persisted as islands of human rule in a sea of kalyar and Ghepion and general Fyayman domination.

It is also true to say that as time went on the Nenns won back a lot of ground (though they could not yet reconquer any of the lost cities), until by the end of the era, while the Ghepions still possessed twenty-one of the twenty-five great disc-on-stems, free men mostly occupied the plains, the forests and the mountains between them.

Of course, this was not a time of perpetual conflict. For those who lived in the middle of the Radium Era it must have seemed the natural order of things for free men to live on the land and in the lesser towns, and for Ghepions to hold most of the cities.

The Invaded Soul

The sunnoadex was revived early in the era, and it endured under restrictions. In the last few hundred thousand days there was something of a Renaissance of Syoomean pride and culture, and a feeling grew that the great days would soon return and the lost cities be reclaimed.

The man who, more than any other, actually accomplished the reconquest of Syoom, was perhaps the most controversial character in Uranian history – even more so than Fiarr Fosn 723 or Nalre Zitpoidl 4854. Many Uranian historians believe that Sunnoad Tu Rim 78860 could not have been a man at all; to achieve what he did, he must have “sold his soul” to a Fyayman power, or in other words, agreed to a partial mind-switch with a more powerful entity.

We take the view that Tu Rim was merely a man of unusual ability, who was tempted and misled by that ability into over-reaching himself.

He did reconquer the twenty-one lost cities from the Ghepions, and this must always be counted in his favour. However, he did so in a manner which served his own power, and he tried to convert the traditional privileges and aspects of a Sunnoad’s reign into a despotic rule. He had excuses, but none were good enough to satisfy his nemesis, which happened to be none other than the second incarnation of Taldis Norkoten 64702 – the famous Sunnoad of the Osmium Era.

We can visualise the ex-Sunnoad as playing Juarez to Tu Rim’s Maximilian – except that Norkoten had no interest in supreme power this time. All he aimed at was the overthrow of Tu Rim and to free the sunnoadex from the shame of despotism; and this he did. Tu Rim fled, was deposed; Norkoten convened a conference to discuss ways in which to prevent this story from ever happening again. After much debate it was decided that the best way to ensure the future innocence of the sunnoadex was by means of a taboo – a powerful symbolic prohibition. It was therefore agreed and proclaimed that never again could a Sunnoad make his home in Skyyon. Never again could a Sunnoad even spend a night in Skyyon. Henceforth the Sunnoad’s Palace would be used for other purposes – as a city hall, a Noad’s residence, a museum. Henceforth the Sunnoad must be content with having his official home in a hut (well-appointed, to be sure, but shaped like a hut) in the village of Melikon, 90 miles outside the Sunward City.

Some time was spent in discussing how this measure might be put to the people of Syoom for their confirmation. But as the news spread, it was met with such satisfaction and calm joy and acceptance, that the air trembled with an eomasp, and this transition to a new era was regarded as more than adequate confirmation of the rightness of what had been decided.

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