Betashu and Ulubar

Betashu and Ulubar face the mighty Kaleb the Subduer of Gubeh and Djal, on the High Sun Road, wondering if, this time, they will depart for the Waters of the Underworld.

Betashu, a hero wearing a helmet in the form of an elephant’s head, holds the trunk of a large African elephant that doesn’t at all fit in the frame.
Betashu and Ulubar

When Edeg Mud-Eater sent her child Betashu to unify the river peoples of Ud and Waget, Betashu was waylaid not by force of arms, but by the delicately constructed words of Duleh, a star-reader who rode the broad back of Ulubar along the river banks.

If you’re into this kind of thing, there’s a whole lot of it in the tabletop roleplaying game The BLOODY-HANDED NAME of BRONZE!

Duleh warned Betashu that the peoples of the river would fight, but not kill, when they quarreled; that she should leave them be, lest rivalry and contest turn to war and bloodshed.

Betashu, driven by her mother’s order, did not heed the words of Duleh, and told the people of Ud that she would fight for them against the people of the Waget; and when they refused her, she made the same offer to the Waget who, weaker in numbers, saw their chance.

In the end, it was Duleh who paid the price for the unification of those peoples, and Betashu mourned the death of the wise Duleh. She pledged herself to Duleh’s dying wish: the seek out those who would drive others against each other for their own benefit.

Ulubar stays by her side, loyal so long as she seeks out heroes, kings, and warlords who stir discontent between others that they might fall more easily.

Modular systems are a function of industrial society. But do people of The Fifth World still know how to agree to standards? With their acute interest in efficiency, I think they might have carried that lesson forward!

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