Syrian

A colorful character with a fascinating history.

In the 20th Dynasty, Pharaoh Ramesses XI sent his trusted general Unamunu by ship convoy to Tyre, which was nominally under Egyptian dominion, to being back the cedars of Lebanon. The mission did not go well. Hiram, the new half-elven king of Tyre, blustered up and down that Tyre was independent. Never had it been subject to Egypt. Cedars he would sell, at a fair price, yes, but as tribute never. Unamunu blustered back, but he was out-blustered, and he finally left Tyre for Byblos, where Lord Zakar gave up the wood, at only a nominal cost. And so, successfully, Unamunu began the voyage home, only to be swept off the deck in a storm and washed up in Israel. There he was condemned (justly, one might add) for idolatry, and imprisoned by Samson, judge of Israel, who forced the general to wrestle for his freedom. He always lost. Finally, tired of the blustering judge, Unamunu offered his soul to Ammon, and at the next match, Samson fell into a swoon. Before anyone can really work out what’s happening, Unamunu declared himself victorious, and therefore free, and he booked it to the shore, where he launched off on a passing driftwood log. Tossed by the sea for days, he finally washed up on the shores of Alasia, or Cyprus, where he found his ships. Assuming he was dead, they had headed back for Egypt, only to become lost (Unamunu was both general and navigator) and impounded by the Alasian Queen Hatba. She arrests the general, too, because why not? Is she not Queen Hatba? And so Unamunu blustered again, for he was by now more or less a creature of hot air, and threatened, until Hatba let him go, and reclaiming his ships, he returned to Egypt a celebrity. He told everyone a very bowdlerized version of his adventures, cozied up to Pharaoh, and, at Ammon's suggestion, suggested that Pharaoh’s daughter might want to marry Pinedgem, high priest of that very god. This accomplished, Unamunu slew Pharaoh's other children, and grandchildren, and Pharaoh himself. The priests of Ammon ruled Egypt, thereupon, for years. Unamunu though he was done with it all, but the priests had other plans. They slew him and summoned him back form the underworld after a day and part of a day, forcing him to serve as long as their dynasty should last. He became a free agent afterward (and strove to keep Ammon caged, lest that god re-exercise his control over him. "The Syrian" he was called, after the site of his most famous venture, to conceal his true name. During the reign of Pie, Oi built him a metal fortress in the desert, and life was a caper for many years. Eventually he ran afoul of people with no sense of humor, and, after chumping them several times, he got chumped.

His symbol was the spiral, hieroglyphic for U.