The oldest Marumbis say that Tambudze was created when the Great Serpent grew too large and shed it's Skin while slithering through the empty cosmos.  Not *that* Great Serpent.  Well, probably not that Great Serpent. Hm, maybe we shouldn't go there.

          Anyway, the Great Serpent shed its mighty Skin and that empty Skin coiled around itself into a circle and was left behind.  Now even the empty and dead Skin of the Great Serpent is a miraculous thing.  As the Skin lay there, coiled and mountainous, scales began to drop off.  Those scales that fell from the outside, fell away forever and were lost in the cosmos.

          But those scales that fell from the inside... Those scales did not fall away but remained near their parent.  Soon a small ring -- a stacking of loose scales lay around and just within the circle of Serpent Skin.  Those scales that had fallen farthest from the Skin began to crumble into a thin dust which spread throughout the entire circle of Skin.

          Thus the mountains of the Shemele, the middle lands of the Tessemgari and the low lands of the Zerget plains were formed.

          On those portions of the Skin that had been closest to the actual body of the Great Serpent, the Shemele, life sprung forth.  Beautiful, lush and poisonous plants -- vigorous, exotic and deadly animals -- wise, enchanting and evil peoples.

          As the eons passed, this life spread out into the middle lands.  There the bright sun of Tambudze could shine partially upon it and some of the Serpent left the life that grew in the Tessemgari.  The plants grew less lushly, but also with less toxin.  The animals were not as vigorous but also not as venomous.  And the peoples lost some of their wisdom along with some of their malice.

          Further eons passed, and the life spread further -- out across the Zerget plains.  Here the full light of the Sun burned away much that remained of the Serpent.  But in response, the plants, animals and people of the Zerget grew stronger and filled with the light of Sun.

          Thus the lands, plants, animals and peoples of the Shemele, the Tessemgari and the Zerget came into being.

          At least that's what the Marumbis say.
 
 

          Tambudze is shaped as an enormous shallow bowl, thousands of miles across.

          Mountains rise all around the rim, misted and jungle-shrouded on the inside, sheer and dropping away to nothing on the outside.  Few of the peaks of Tambudze are tall enough to maintain a snow cap, though some gain enough altitude that they are sparse with plant life near the summits.

          The inside mountain sides are steep and heavily forested with lush green jungle life.  Many secretive, mysterious animals and peoples live within the perpetual green Shadows of the highlands or Shemele.  Some of the oldest -- and most corrupt -- cultures of Tambudze are Shemele, as are some of the most beautiful.

          A thin strip of foothills, the Tessemgari, blend the mountains all around into the vast plains of Tambudze.  The Tessemgari blend the secrets and mysteries of the mountains with open wildness of the plains as well.  Cultures here tend to be settled, but not as opulent as Shemele nations.  Animal and plant life reflects a thinning of the lush mountain species to the more hardy plains species as well.

          The majority of Tambudze is covered by the Zerget plains, vast tracts of open grassland, crisscrossed by winding rivers, the occasional small freshwater sea or large lake, and isolated forests of hardy scrub trees.  Most Zerget cultures are nomadic, following the great herds in their seasonal migrations across the plains.  Though there are some cities built on where the shallow rivers reach their ends in the few lakes and seas.

          Currently, Tambudze is ruled from the capital city, also named Tambudze, built around a great ziggurat placed where two winding rivers, the Defala and the Lisgretes, merge and flow into a large lake, the Omhanli.

          The enormous ziggurat stands between the veldt and the modest city.  Earth embankments 300 hundred feet high and a mile square support a gleaming marbled palace.  Elegant and extremely functional walls surround the palace grounds.  White columns support wide shady porticos.  Golden domes joyfully reflect the sunlight.  Minarets of gold and sapphire reach for the heavens.  The palace of Tambudze catches both the eye and breath.  It is a testament to strength, pride and elegance.

          Switch backed ramps and stairways lead down the sheer embankments to the city and fields below.  Beyond the ziggurat is spread the city of Tambudze.  From the right and left two moderate rivers wind their serpentine ways across the open veldt and converge to a great open lake.  Great flocks of cranes and other water fowl rest and squabble along both rivers and the shores of the lake.  Slow eddies and odd currents speak of other life beneath the glittering water's surface.  Early morning boats and rafts make their way down and across the rivers, over the open waters of the lake with lazy purpose.

          Green and regular squares of land tell of the agriculture which supports the city sitting on the shore between the rivers.  The city itself is walled in white stucco -- walls that are *not* ceremonial but still retain a grace and harmony with their environment unusual in a fortress.  Dusty roads spread outward from the city, separating the fields, orchards and vineyards into a glorious patchwork of small  farms.

          From behind the white walls of the city peek the thatched roofs of wooden two or three story buildings, the occasional tiled roof of a mansion, the rarer still marbled tower.  The low hum of human activity can be heard.
 
 

          There is no one religion of Tambudze.  Most of the Tambudze have an animist/shamanistic approach to reality and the moderate level of magic within the Shadow seems to support that.  Using sorcery within Tambudze requires training, concentration and time.  Though there are some semi-mythical figures that seem to be inherently magical in their nature.

          Technology has reached a high feudal level within most of the peoples of Tambudze within the last few hundred years.  Some Shemele cultures have a higher level, but they aren't sharing it.  The cities of the Tessemgari and the Zerget  -- and most Shemele cities -- are built of stone, wood or stucco.  Animals are the main source of transportation and energy and either herding or agriculture is still the main economy of Tambudze.  Its main exports to Amber and the other Golden Circle Kingdoms are mineral, agricultural, pharmacological, and trained warriors.

          There are two main spoken languages within the peoples of Tambudze, a third that is almost universally reviled, and several local dialects.  Thari, the language of Men, is the common language used to engage in trade, gossip with neighbors, speak in the household and carry on day to day living with.  Muula, the language of the Sun, is the formal language of the vast oral history of Tambudze.  It is the language of promises, oaths and true namings.  The third, Dr'aala, the language of the Night, is said to have its roots in the Shemele.  It is the language of curses, of dark magics and of evil dreams.  The addition of several local dialects and specialized cultural languages makes Tambudze an extremely polyglot Shadow.
 
 

Chapter One:  Primordia

          Tambudze is an ancient Shadow, predating Patternrise and the emergence of Amber.  The Marumbis and other keepers of the oral traditions of Tambudze tell stories that date back millennia.  Ruins hidden within the jungles of the Shemele show evidence of incredible age.  But much has been clouded or lost by that same oral tradition, and the all consuming growth of the Shemele.

          Both the stories and the faint archaeological traces that remain hint that the first peoples of Tambudze were not human in form.  But rather an amalgam of animal and man-shapes.  These peoples dwelt exclusively in the Shemele and no traces of their cultures has been found outside of those green Shadows, even in the nearby Tessemgari.

          Legends of that time speak of Ak'litac, the Spider-Mage, and his empire of blood that lasted for over three thousand years before falling to internal corruption.  Of the Mua, the Serpent People who filled the nights of Mount Matassas with horror for untold generations.  The Panther Kings and their carnivorous ways.  The Stranglers.  The parasitic Vel'ka.  And other nightmares.

          The legends also speak of white cities of unspeakable beauty.  Of miracles of sorcery and extravagances of conjuration.  Of unbridled ambitions and the power to make them into realities.

          Things have calmed down a little since then.
 

Chapter 2:  Out of the Shadows

          The first men of the Tessemgari were actual men.  Probably refugees from the excesses of the ancient Shemele cultures -- escaped slaves, failed experiments, wandering dreams.  Hard to say, really.

          The men of the Tessemgari were settled in their ways.  They built villages, towns and eventually cities out on the foothills.  Farmed, raised animals, conducted trade.

          Unfortunately, they also made war.  Repeatedly, continually and with great gusto.  War upon each other, and war with the peoples of the Shemele.  They really were quite good at it.  To this day, most of the best weapons, armors and warriors of Tambudze are either made or trained in the Tessemgari.

          The wars between the city/states of the Tessemgari continued for thousands of years.  Three thousand years ago, the Lady Hyena, M'daba, and her band of warrior women, took and sacked nearly three quarters of the Tessemgari before eventually falling to a ... convenient plague.

          A mere two thousand years ago, Ta'ka, the Spearbreaker, managed to bring the five largest -- at the time -- of the city/states together in a mostly successful campaign against much of the Shemele.  Though it eventually cost him his life, the Spearbreaker drove enough of the ancient cultures into extinction, that very few of the original races of Tambudze still exist.

          And one thousand years ago, Beatrice strode up out of the Zerget, an army at her back.
 

Chapter 3:  A Lion of the Sun

          The life and deeds of Beatrice of Tambudze are a matter of legended stories and history intermixed.  The truth seems almost to small to fit around this dynamic woman, and yet stories -- which seem to large to real -- can be exactly accurate.  Perhaps the only one who can truly know the facts of her incredible life is Beatrice herself, and she's not telling.

          Beatrice of Tambudze was born the first daughter of a moderately successful Zerget warlord, who had himself been raised and trained in the Tessemgari before venturing out into the lowlands.  The 'empire' of Taramgi comprised a slice of combined Tessemgari and Zerget lands approximately 20,000 square miles in size.

          When Beatrice was 17, her father died suddenly, most likely of poison.  The resultant interregnum was not kind to the young princess and she and her army were driven back across her father's former lands by the forces of two opposing generals -- each one vying for the throne of Taramgi's empire, but united in their determination to see Taramgi's heir gone from the sun of Tambudze.

          In a climatic battle at the edge of the Shemele, Beatrice's army suffered a crushing defeat due to an internal betrayal.  The princess and a handful of survivors were pushed back into  -- and eventually escaped through -- the dense jungle.  Fearing an eventual return of the princess, the generals built a joint fortress at the jungle's edge and left.

          Taramgi's empire did not survive the struggle.  The guardian fortress faired only slightly better.  It remained manned for some 10 years, first by soldiers of one army, than another, eventually by regimental discards, and finally by the wandering bands of various -- and now 'independent' -- Tessemgari warlords.  But no sign of Princess Beatrice was ever found.

          When Beatrice did eventually emerge from the Shemele, it was two hundred years later and on the other side of Tambudze.  In that time, the Princess had become an unbeatable warrior and, even more importantly, an unparalleled statesman and leader of men.

          Beatrice began her campaign in the heart of the Zerget -- joining band after band of Zerget nomads together into a new empire.  The new warlord proved herself an innovator of vast caliber, building a series of 'drum stations' across her lands.  These 'drum stations' allowed messages to be ferried swiftly and accurately over vast distances, uniting the Zerget for the first time through a means of communication.  Beatrice instituted a regular calvary among the already well-mounted but undisciplined Zerget factions.  She proved herself ruthless in ambition and cunning in diplomacy.

          Over the course of the next 70 years, Beatrice built what would become the first empire to cover the entire Zerget.  Roads were built.  Cities and trade centers established.  Laws were passed.  Laws were enforced.

          Beatrice spent the next 10 years consolidating her empire before pushing into the Tessemgari.  Surprisingly, the warlords offered little resistance to Beatrice's steel gloved diplomacy and soon much of the Tessemgari was either part of -- or tightly allied with -- her empire.

          The Shemele cultures were not so easy.  It did take Beatrice another 50 years to contact -- and either conquer or destroy -- most of the low lying Shemele cities.  But the now Queen of Tambudze was surprisingly flexible in her strategies and even the unfamiliar jungle campaigns did not stop her momentum for long.

          The remaining independent Shemele cultures have been absorbed more slowly into Beatrice's empire as the Queen turned her attention to other frontiers, but they still fall to her whim -- one every 100 years or so.
 

Chapter 4:  Other Worlds

          It was as the Shemele city of C'ordelian fell to Beatrice's army that she learned of the nature of Shadow and the universe.  The sorcerers of C'ordelian, while not strong, were incredibly learned.  Beatrice heard of other Shadows, other Kingdoms and Amber from the testimonies of interrogated prisoners.

          Using stolen C'ordelian sorcery, Beatrice sent parties out into Shadow, most of which never returned.  But enough did.  Enough did.

          Quickly realizing the futility of a cross Shadow war, Beatrice relied on her uncanny insights into the human mind to set up Tambudze's first stable world-wide government.  Advisors, governors and all levels of bureaucrats were found, trained and slotted into positions all over the Shadow.  The reorganization of Beatrice's military empire into a functioning civil authority took several decades, but at last it was done.

          Then the Queen turned her eye to the Golden Circle.  There, Beatrice finally met her peers -- though never her better.  Over the next several hundred years, Beatrice learned, negotiated and bullied her way into the innermost councils of the Golden Circle.

          Stories are still told of that time -- lessons in political ruthlessness, Darwinian sociology and unbridled charisma.  The shaming of El Soya.  The trade agreements with Xx'it'lac.  The Fifty Years War.  The 777th Epiphany Celebration at Ryanoak.  Tambudze -- and its Queen -- grew to be a powerful political force.

          In recognition of that, King Oberon of Amber granted the hand of his youngest son, Benedict, in marriage to Queen Beatrice -- a political decision that both rulers were intensely satisfied with.

          The marriage was... never completely smooth, but Benedict and Beatrice turned out to be well matched.  Though never 'in love' the two managed to remain friends, partners and lovers while each maintained their private own lives and agendas.

          Beatrice bore Benedict three daughters -- a pair of twins, Valerie and Victoria, and a younger child, Vivian.  All have spent some part of their lives in the company of their father.  Though each retains special and binding ties to their home Shadow of Tambudze.
 

Chapter 5:  The Patternfall War

          In more recent years, Tambudze became reluctantly embroiled in the Succession confusion that was sweeping through the Court of Amber.  Oberon had been missing for several years.  His son, Prince Eric, with the support of some of his siblings, had stepped into the vacancy and had been coordinating Amber's political responsibilities -- including those with Tambudze -- for several years.  Prince Eric had decided to make his Monarchy official, and Tambudze backed him as did the other Golden Circle kingdoms.  Though it was not an easy decision, and Queen Beatrice made sure that Tambudze had options in case things did not go well.

          Things did not go well.  As Prince Bleys and the newly reappeared Prince Corwin plotted and executed their invasion of Amber, Prince Eric and Prince Julian made sure that the Golden Circle Kingdoms lived up to their various treaties.  It was with *great* reluctance that Tambudze sent a token force under the command of Vivian to oppose the armies of Prince Bleys and Prince Corwin.

          After Prince, now King, Eric's coronation, all was fine for a months.  Then ugly rumors began to leak out of the Shemele.  There was talk of a growing 'poison of the land' emerging from a new-found crevice in the side of Mount Matassas, an ill-omened place with a long evil history.

          The land itself had become pale and blighted, the soil ashen, the plants withered and dying, the animals strangely twisted, the people nowhere to be found.  Grey dust covered everything, and a dry dead wind blew through the land carrying the ash and it's poison further out over the Tessemgari and toward the Zerget itself.

          An investigatory expedition was set upon by creatures that resembled large sickeningly pale jackals with glowing red eyes.  The Ash Jackals -- as they later came to be called -- were ferocious fighters.  Their jaws carried disease, their claws filth.  Every single member of the group who was even slightly scratched or injured during the attack of the Jackals eventually sickened and died from a horrible poisoning/disease.

          For the next three long and weary years, Tambudze suffered and was slowly consumed by the Ash Blight.  No magic was able to push back the poison ash that seemed to drift everywhere.  No army was sufficient to hold back the Ash Jackals for long.  No tricks or strategies gained more than a moments respite before the blight continued its evil inevitable spread.  Queen Beatrice sent for help from Amber and the other Golden Circle kingdoms only to discover that each and every one was beset by some similar horror.

          Grim choices and hard decisions were made in Tambudze.  Things that none of the royal family are proud of were done.  But it was all for naught.  Soon the Ash Blight completely surround the capital and the Ziggurat.  The once proud city was now crammed with refugees from all over Tambudze.  The rivers flowed with filth down from the completely poisoned Shemele.  The rains had not come for three whole years.  The once great herds and predators of the Zerget were gone.  And the Tambudze knew that they were looking at the final days of their homeland.

          As the people prepared for their last battle on the very steps of the Ziggurat, relief came.

          At the head of a column of the army of Amber rode Prince Benedict and with him, his brother Julian.  They brought the news that King Eric had died defending Amber against the forces of a Black Road, and that Prince Corwin  -- of all people -- had turned the battle with a new weapon out of Shadow.  The tide of the battle was turning.

          Reinforced by fresh forces from Amber, backed by the sorcerous might of Princess Fiona, the Ash Blight was turned back.
 

Chapter 6: Renewal

          While those few remaining heroes of Tambudze left with the armies of Benedict, carrying the war back along the Black Road to the Courts of Chaos, Queen Beatrice remained behind to do what she could to rebuild the once proud Shadow.

          When Beatrice's daughters returned, they found that Beatrice had done well.  Crops were planted, people healed, life going on.  But the animals... the great herds, the predators, the phantoms of the jungle, birds of the air, creatures of the rivers... they were gone.  Only a few miserable survivors remained.

          Princess Vivian took the loss of the wildlife hardest and went into seclusion for two months.  When she emerged, she fled the Ziggurat out into the denuded Zerget plains.  There Vivian began perhaps the only work she had ever seriously pursued in her life.  She began to harbor and nurture the last straggling surviving creatures of Tambudze.  Working with fast time Shadows, Shadows where genetic manipulation and cryonic incubation were common, Shadows where sorcerous breeding and blending were common -- Vivian worked to rebuild the wildlife of Tambudze.

          These projects occupied the young Princess for much of the time following the Patternfall War and recently Vivian has seen much success.  The wildlife of Tambudze, while not fully recovered, is well on its way to becoming once again lush and diverse.  Many of the herds and species that she was personally overseeing have become self-reliant and self-sustaining.
 
 

Beatrice of Tambudze

          Colors:          Gold and red
          Symbol:         A lioness

          Her arms and ears and fingers were heavy with gold, her face smooth and imperious beneath the high wrap of her silken turban.  She was beautiful and dark, a she-panther sprawled on a beaten gold throne, the lines of her body improbably graceful and powerful beneath the flowing red and gold silk of her caftan.  Her eyes were as golden as those of the lions that sprawled on the dais around her, and infinitely less sleepy, and she looked not nearly so well fed.
 

Valerie

          Colors:          Crimson and white
          Emblem:       A white, five-petalled rose

          Her eyes blazed with the heat of suns in the darkness of a face with every claim to character and few to loveliness.  She had high cheekbones, golden eyes, a nose too broad and cheekbones too high and forehead too wise, and lips -- lips, made for kissing.  She was tall and lean, her dark hair twisted into dozens of braids which were twisted in turn into a plait that hung to her waist, and there was a broadsword slung across her back.  The fingers of her long hands spread as if about to grasp, although they hung at her sides and her balance was steady and sure.  She stood at the edge of a field of golden grain, a single tree visible behind her.  Her shield hung on it, a crimson buckler painted with a white heraldic rose, matching the crimson of her trousers and blouse and the white of the sash that bound her waist.
 

Victoria

          Colors:          White, brown, and gold
          Emblem:       A wren

          Ebony skin framed eyes of palest hazel gold.  Her hair hung in snake-thick dreadlocks, a fat ivory bead threaded onto one.  She perched on the edge of a tall chair, wearing a white blouse, brown soft leather trousers, a belt and boots of autumn gold worked with fine stitchery.  I somehow got the idea that she was very tall, and surprisingly strong despite her slenderness.  There were golden rings in her ears, her lip, her nose, her brow, as if in contrast to the beauty of her face.  That face was odd - composed as it was of irregularities that somehow blended into a harmonious whole -- exotic and unexpected and yet irreducible to its elements.  There was a knife at her belt, and another in her boot, and although I knew that she did not fancy herself a warrior, I also knew that she would be proficient in their use.
 

Vivian

          Colors:          Gold and Black
          Emblem:       A lion's paw print

          Gold eyes glimmered out of a face of midnight.  Close shaven dark hair gave the impression of fur spread across a finely shaped scalp.  White teeth gleamed between lips spread in laughter... teeth perhaps a bit too sharp, laughter perhaps a bit too cruel.  Ritual scars swirled in a spiral around one cheek before dancing up over one fine eyebrow.
          Her features were sharp, edged and gave the impression of a face never at rest.  One expression always giving way quickly to another, each one beautiful, each one real, each one dangerous.
          A gold satin shirt clung to her tall thin frame.  Black trousers hugged muscular legs.  Dark boots stood only as high as her ankles and I knew these could be shed in an instant.  No other ornaments, nothing that broke the lady's lines.  Speed, sleekness, mercurial movement was her calling card.
 
 

Throne of the Sun - a massive couch-like throne made of solid beaten gold.  Typically draped with the skins of animals killed by the reigning monarch.

Eye of the Sun/Eye of the Shadow - a large two-sided pendant.  Framed in gold and set back to back are a large fire opal and a rounded onyx of the same size.  Both depend from a heavy gold chain with large links.

Ngu'Budu Drum - A massive drum, nine feet in diameter, that sits behind the Throne of the Sun.  The hide is brilliantly stripped in green and black, and it's tone is deep enough to vibrate bone.