None knew the anthem of
the Caste of Merchants, 'Gold has no caste,' better than the pernicious,
plump Saphrar of Turia. A short, fat man with a pinkish complexion,
his head was, as with most merchants, kept cleanly shaven. Over
sharp, bright eyes that missed little were imbedded four golden
drops in the pink skin where his eyebrows had been removed. Two
golden canine teeth, behind a tiny round red-lipped mouth, showed
each time he smiled. At the tip of his pudgy short fingers the nails
were painted a bright shade of scarlet.
Living in Tyros as a perfumer,
Saphrar found himself exiled and his ear notched to mark his punishment
for the theft of several pounds of the nectar of talendars, discovered
concealed within his robes. He made his way to the squalid, malignant
city of Port Kar where he lived as a beggar, eating what refuse
he could scrounge from the alleyways and canals. His fortunes changed
when he met a man with stone gray skin and eyes like glass who set
the repugnant little man up with immense wealth and sent him into
Turia. It was under this gray man's direction that Saphrar sent
Elizabeth Cardwell to the Tuchuks with a message collar around her
neck, hoping the message would incite them to kill Tarl Cabot and
thereby eliminate Saphrar's chief rival for possession of the precious
last egg of the Priest Kings.
His indolent demeanor, save
for the quick eyes and a habit of rubbing his fat fingers together
as if he were trying to rub the gloss from a golden tarn disk, or
assess the texture of fine silk, was in sharp contrast to the attentive,
gracious host Tarl first met at a banquet given in Kamchak's honor
in the chief merchant of Turia's home.
It is during the banquet
that an initial glimpse into Saphrar's devious nature is given.
His speaking of Tarl Cabot's name to see the reaction was but the
tip of the iceberg. His deviousness was outdone only by his lust
for the egg of the Priest Kings, which the obese little man coveted,
not for the pleasure of its possession but for the gold he knew
would be paid for it by the gray-skinned man with eyes of glass.
His fixation for gold manifested
itself many times, but none so blatantly than in his whispered negotiations
with Kamchak, even offering his ward, Aphris of Turia, the richest
woman in Turia, in return for the egg. We see this obsession again,
after Aphris was tricked into standing at the stake in the games
of love war between the warriors of Turia and those of the wagon
peoples. Aphris fell to Kamchak, and Saphrar would not even pay
a copper tarsk for her return from slavery. Of course, being her
guardian, the moment she became slave, all her possessions fell
to him.
His treachery, however, in
obtaining the egg of the Priest Kings was clear evidence of the
lengths he would go to obtain what he wanted. He hired mercenary
tarnsmen and set a diversion to draw the warriors of the Tuchuks
away from the wagon, slaying Kutaituchik, he who was known as Ubar
of the Tuchuks. The depths of his depravity are shown in the manner
of death he chose for Cabot and Harold the Tuchuk after their capture.
He placed Cabot in the yellow pool of Turia, which in reality was
a gelatinous being whose glutinous flesh hardens around its victims
and ingests them by dissolving flesh and bones alike.
His cowardice was unmistakable
as he fled through his house trying anything possible to escape
the wrath of Kamchak for the killing of Kutaituchik, begging those
who had taken his gold to defend him to save him from death. In
his desperation to survive, he bit the Paravaci Torturer with his
venom-filled canines, further evidence of his cravenness. He ran
through the dark, dank corridors and labyrinths of his fortress
in a blind panic seeking to escape the sleen Kamchak had set upon
him.
His fate was sealed when
he stumbled blindly into his own yellow pool, meeting his death
as Kamchak threw a torch, igniting the flammable gases given off
by the pool. The resulting explosion ended the life of one of the
most heinous, reprehensible and nefarious villains upon the face
of Gor.