Queen Taramis A Witch Shall Be Born Conan the Destroyer

{otheruses4|

Queen Taramis



Queen Taramis is an evil witch in a short story by Robert E.Howard |the protagonist and principal character is Conan the Cimmerian}}

"A Witch Shall be Born" is one of the original stories by Robert E. Howard about Conan the Cimmerian, first published in Weird Tales in 1934. The story was republished in the collections Conan the Barbarian (Gnome Press, 1954) and Conan the Freebooter (Lancer Books, 1968), and the anthology The Mighty Barbarians (Lancer Books, 1969). It was first published by itself in book form by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. in 1974. It has more recently been published in the collections The Conan Chronicles Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle (Gollancz, 2000) and Conan of Cimmeria: Volume Two (1934) (Del Rey, 2005).

Plot overview
Queen Taramis of Khauran awakens one day to find an identical twin sister, Salome, staring her in the face. As a child, Salome was deemed a witch due to a crescent scar upon her body. Believing this birthmark to be a sign of evil, she was cast out into the desert to perish. However, a magician from Khitai sheltered her and, as she matured, instructed Salome in the arts of sorcery.

Salome — along with a Shemite mercenary named Constantius — rape Queen Taramis and confine her to the palace dungeon. Salome then assumes Taramis' identity as queen of Khauran and appoints Constantius as her royal consort. The palace guard is disbanded and replaced by Constantius' Shemitish mercenaries, an event which turns violent when the captain of the palace guard, Conan the Cimmerian, refuses to obey the order.

Conan is crucified for his defiance. He strains at the iron spikes driven through his hands to no avail. Olgerd Vladislav, the leader of a band of outlaws and thieves, rides by with a scouting party and spies Conan writhing on the cross. Vladislav does not help the Cimmerian; rather he cuts across the base of the cross, leaving it to fate and Conan's hardiness that he is not crushed by the heavy wood. After the spikes are removed from his hands, Conan removes the foot spikes himself. Vladislav refuses to give Conan any water, claiming the Cimmerian must wait until after a ten-mile trek to the outlaw camp to prove his worthiness to his band.

Meanwhile in Khauran, Salome's reign as "Taramis" has plunged the kingdom into darkness and ruin. The farmers suffer under slave-drivers while city dwellers endure excessive taxation and debauchery of their daughters in the royal court. A rebellion is brewing, and the time grows ripe for Conan's return. Conan replenishes his ranks by recruiting every caravan raider in the region, while keeping them content with the loot from merchants marching toward Khauran, then he wrests control of the motley horde from Vladislav but does not kill him in recognition of him having saved his life. Ready to march on the city Conan fakes the construction of towers and siege engines (all that is really built is just mockups), thus causing the mercenary prince Constantius to ride out of the city for an open-field clash where the fate of Khauran, Taramis and Salome will be resolved once and for all.

Adaptation
The story was adapated by Roy Thomas and John Buscema in Savage Sword of Conan #5.

Queen Taramis A Witch shall be born
(A Witch is born; Savage Sword of Conan#5) - A night seven months after Salome's arrival, the Witch showed to her sister the head of Krallides, Taramis' most faithful counselor. Marcios, who had never believed that Salome was Taramis, learned about the real fate of Taramis and organized her liberation.

(A Witch is born; Savage Sword of Conan#5) - A week later, Conan, survived to the cross and now leader of more than 11,000 Zuagir warriors, headed to Khauran with his nomads, plus a secret battalion of 3,000 Khauran Hyborian knights. A battle was fought outside the town. The Zuagirs and the Khauran defeated the Shemites mercenaries. Before the end of the battle, Conan and some soldiers used the secret passages under the city walls and reached the prison where Taramis was kept. But some minutes after, Salome and Zinn slew all the soldiers but Conan and kidnapped Taramis with the purpose to give her to Thaug, a demon. Conan followed the two, Zinn left Taramis to Salome. The Witch tried to kill Taramis but Marcios arrived from behind and stabbed her with his sword. Taramis was taken outside the Temple by Conan who had to defend her from the arrows of some Shemites led by Constantius. Then Salome appeared, she called Thaug and died. Conan and his Desert Wolves killed Thaug. Taramis was the Queen again. She offered to Conan to become Captain again and also to become her counselor. But Conan preferred to be the leader of the Zuagirs, then Taramis claimed Marcios new Captain of the Guards.

Adaptation
The story was adapated by Roy Thomas and John Buscema in Savage Sword of Conan #5. The only difference is unlike the Howard novella,Queen Taramis is blond and not brunette,which was done basically to shack the cliches of blond girl is good and brunette girl is evil.Otherwise,a fine adaption.

The Plot
The name Queen Taramis was also used in the Second Conan movie,Conan the Destroyer,played by actress Sarah Douglas

Queen Taramis (Character) from Conan the Destroyer (1984)

Evil Queen of Shadizar who plans to resurrect Dagoth, the Dreaming God, of whom she herself is a follower. She is also the aunt of Princess Jehnna.Both characters are derivative from the original Robert E.Howard novella,A Witch Shall be Born,where the evil Saleme switches her twine sister the good Queen Taramis and least ways the name of an ongoing female character Jenna,created for Marvel Comics version of Conan.Here Queen Taramis is the evil aunt,pretending like young neice,but really intends to sacrifice to Daggoth the Dreaming God.A switch from the Howard story,but not by much. ==

Synopsis==

Conan the Destroyer, directed by action/fantasy veteran Richard Fleischer (20,000 Leagues under the Sea, The Vikings) as a sequel to Conan the Barbarian, was released worldwide in 1984. It starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan and Grace Jones as Zula. The critical and commercial response was weaker than that for the first film as it was felt by some viewers to have jettisoned the bloody, brooding ambiance of the original John Milius film, instead opting for a more children-friendly adventure. At the beginning, a group of troops led by Queen Taramis surrounds Conan and his comedian partner, Malak. Her force attacks and tries to capture them, but Conan fights back with incredible strength and agility, dispatching several of her troops. When she realizes the impossibility of capturing him, she orders her giant bodyguard Bombaata to signal a truce.

Queen Taramis then asks Conan to perform a task for her, which he declines. To force him, she then uses her magic to show Conan his destiny “praying for his lost love Valeria”. and promises to keep his love alive if Conan will accomplish the task for her. Conan is left with no choice but to join her and the group returns to Shadazar.

After some brief conversation in her palace she sets Conan two tasks: capture a key gem which can only be touched by her niece Jehnna, and get the magic horn from a wizard to awaken the dreaming god Dagoth. In addition, she secretly orders Bombaata and a group of elite guards to kill Conan after he retrieves the key. Conan, Malak, Jehnna and Bombaata set out on their quest.

They soon find two more partners to help them in their journey. First they meet the magician Akiro, who is about to be chargrilled by cannibals. Conan saves him with some judicious head chopping, and he joins the group. Later, when the group reaches a village, they find the peasants torturing an accused thief, a female warrior named Zula. Jehnna orders Conan to help her, so Conan cuts Zula loose, who begins fighting back. After the villagers are pumelled for a bit, they allow her to escape on horseback, screaming like a banshee. She catches up to Conan's party but Bombaata tries to send her away. She takes umbrage at this and the two scuffle for a bit before Conan pulls them apart. Conan then magnanimously allows her to ride with them over the mountains to the castle of Toth-amon.

From within the castle, the magician Toth-Amon has been watching their journey to his castle using the magic gem. As the group comes near, the castle is mysteriously surrounded by a lake. Although Jehnna wants to continue, Conan decides to rest for the night. Toth-Amon knows Jehnna alone can touch the gem, so, under cover of night, he turns himself into a mighty phoenix and snatches Jehnna, taking her to the castle.

The next morning, Akiro is the first to awaken and notice her absence. The group searches for her, but are only able to locate her with help from Akiro's magic. He then uses his magic to find a way into the castle. As they enter through some mysterious stairs, Toth-Amon goes into a secret room and arranges a welcome for his visitors.

When Conan enters a hall of mirrors, the door immediately closes, separating him from the rest of the group. While they're forced to watch, Conan fights a monster of the mirrors Conan is badly outmatched by the monster, but is able to hurt the monster by destroying the mirrors. When Conan finally succeeds in doing so, the “the shadow of the mirrors” is defeated.

Toth-Amon, now desperate, tries to pick up the Gem but is destroyed when he touches it. The magic broken, the rest of the group enters the hall and rejoins Conan. Together, they find Jhenna and capture the magic gem with her help. As soon as she picks it up, the castle starts to disintegrate and collapses completely shortly after they escape in a boat.

On the way back to find the horn, the Queen's elite guards attack and try to take Jehnna, but the group, excluding Bombaata, fights back and stops them from escaping. Conan defeats the guard leader in an impressive swordfight. Bombaata then attacks Conan in order to follow the queen’s order but Jehnna stops him. When Conan recognizes the attackers as Queen Taramis elite guards, he questions Bombaata about the attack, but gets no good answer.

After some rest and some of the funnier scenes in the movie, they reach the place of the horn: a mysterious fortress that looks like a temple of doom. Jehnna leads them through the main entrance down to the crypt.

When they reach the horn, Akiro reads instructions carved on the wall. He finds out who will be able to touch the horn, how to awaken Dagoth and what's going to happen to the world in the future. He tries to inform Conan, but Conan refuses to listen. Jehnna places the gem in the appropriate slot, opening the big cave o' fire. Jehnna grabs the horn of magical power.

They try to leave, but are waylaid by the keepers of the horn, who want it back. After a conversation between Akiro and the leader, a brutal fight ensues and the group retreats to the crypt. There, Akiro defeats the leader in a magic fight, while Bombaata and Jehnaa find a tunnel and escape. Bombaata, seeing the others following, decides to enact the Queen's order and betrays them, starting a landslide that buries Conan, Malak, Zula and Akiro. They survive, and are quite angry.

Bombaata escorts Jehnna back to the Palace. Queen Taramis immediately takes the horn and orders a ceremony for Jehnna’s birthday and Dagoth’s awakening-day. As the ceremony starts, Jehnna plugs the horn into Dagoth's forehead. The Grand Vizier instructs Taramis to sacrifice Jehnna when Dagoth shows the first sign of life. Conan and the remaining members of the group find a secret entrance to the Palace. Conan and Bombaata meet, and finally face each other one on one

The fight is tough, but Bombaata is defeated in the end. During the fight, Conan orders Zula to rescue Jehnna from the sacrifice. Zula does so, killing the Grand Vizier in the process. Seeing this, Queen Taramis screams “she must be sacrificed” and tries to sacrifice Jehnna herself. Time has run out, however, and Dagoth awakens without any sacrifice. As a result, he turns into a monster and looks like a creature of Hell. Conan rescues Jehnna from Taramis and pushes the evil queen towards the evil creature. Dagoth slaughters her fiercely with his horn, showing no sign of respect. Everyone tries to stop this monster. A lightening storm begins and the palace pillars start to collaps, causing more chaos. The situation becomes ever worse for the survivors.

Conan tries to fight the monster but is unable to. He looks like a child stopping a giant. Akiro, however, finally finds the answer. He tells Conan to pull the horn off Dagoth's forehead, which is the only way to kill him. Tearing the horn off the living monster seems an impossible task, but Conan manages to jump behind the creature and grab hold of the horn. After some hard work, he pulls it away. Dagoth weakens and dies.

Jehnna becomes the new Queen of Shadazar and makes Zula, Akiro, and Malak ministers. She also offers to marry Conan, but Conan leaves her palace after a last kiss to search for his own kingdom.

== Adaptations==

* Conan the Destroyer (novel) by Robert Jordan, Tor 1984
Conan: The Horn of Azoth


 * Writers Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway, who wrote the original story treatment for this movie, were deeply displeased by the final screenplay by Stanley Mann and the finished film, so they made their story into the graphic novel Conan: The Horn of Azoth, published in 1990,by Marvel with art by Mike Docherty. The names of the characters were changed to untie the graphic novel from the movie: Dagoth became Azoth, Jehnna became Natari, Zula became Shumballa, Bombaata became Strabo, Toth-Amon became Rammon, and the characters of Queen Taramis and The Leader were combined into sorcerer Karanthes, father of Natari.

Music

 * Basil Poledouris

Production notes

 * In the film, a camel is knocked to the ground and, after struggling to get back up, its hind legs are drawn forward with wires so that it is forced to sit down before falling to the ground.


 * Conan The Destroyer was filmed in a number of locations in Mexico--including Pachuca, the extinct volcano Nevado de Toluca, and the Samalayucca desert (near El Paso)--as well as in the Churubusco Studios (also in Mexico).


 * When John Milius, director of Conan The Barbarian, proved to be unavailable to direct the sequel, Dino De Laurentiis suggested Richard Fleischer to his daughter Raffaella De Laurentiis, who was producing Conan The Destroyer. Fleischer had already made Barabas (1962) and Mandingo (1975) for Dino De Laurentiis.


 * The first Conan movie, Conan The Barbarian, made approximately $40 million at the U.S. box office when it was released in 1982 with an R rating, and another $50 million in foreign markets. Because Universal Pictures and producer Dino De Laurentiis thought it would have been even more successful if had been less violent, they wanted to tone down the violence in the sequel to obtain a PG rating. Fleischer delivered a movie that was less violent and more humoruous than the first.


 * Conan The Destroyer, grossing $26 million in domestic markets, didn't do quite as well as Conan The Barbarian in the U.S., but it performed better worldwide, grossing another $68 million. The film was successful enough that Schwarzenegger, Fleischer, and De Laurentiis teamed up again to make the semi-sequel Red Sonja a year later.


 * Conan The Destroyer was the fourth film on which the great British director of photography Jack Cardiff worked with Fleischer. Cardiff had already photographed The Vikings (1958), Crossed Swords (1978) and Amityville 3-D (1983) for the director. They would work together twice more on Millon Dollar Mystery (1987) and Fleischer’s last film, the short Call From Space (1989), which was shot in the 65mm Showscan process. Cardiff’s other notable films include John Huston’s The African Queen (1951), King Vidor’s War And Peace (1956), and Rambo: First Blood Part 2 (1985). However, he is best known for his extraordinary Technicolor photography on three films directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger in the forties—A Matter Of Life And Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947, for which Cardiff won an Oscar), and The Red Shoes (1948).


 * Carlo Rambaldi created the Dagoth monster,which looked pretty much a tall guy in a suite-nothing the Cthulu creature originally planned in production stages.


 * Originally rated R for excessive violence, the film was recut in order to secure a PG rating.


 * Compared to the first Conan movie, Conan The Destroyer has less violence but more humor. The film's stunt casting includes over 7-foot-tall basketball player Wilt Chamberlain and pneumatic singer Grace Jones. Other actors featured are the 17-year-old Olivia D'Abo (in her first screen appearance) playing the petulant teenage princess with sexy innocence, Tracey Walter as the cowardly jewel-swallowing thief, Malak the Quick, and, of course, Schwarzenegger, who put on 10 extra pounds at Fleischer’s request, as the pectorally-perfect Conan.


 * David L. Lander was originally cast to play Malak, but, due to both his deteriorating health from the onset of Multiple Sclerosis and difficulties with the director, Lander was forced to let go, and the part was recast with Tracey Walter.Malak was very loosely based on another character used in the Marvel Conan comics Bourtai-originally created for

See also


 * Conan the Barbarian


 * Red Sonja


 * Kull the Conqueror

External links



Conan the Destroyer
In the Second Conan movies,Conan the Destroyer Queen Taramis, played by British actress Sarah Douglas, who asks that Conan perform two tasks for her: obtain a special gem — which may only be touched by her niece, Jehnna — and retrieve the magic horn that can awaken the god, Dagoth. In exchange, she offers to resurrect Conan's dead lover, Valeria. Conan agrees. Conan, Malak, Jehnna, and Bombaata set off on their journey. Along the way, Conan enlists the aid of his old comrade Akiro and the group later encounters Zula, who joins the party.

They then make their way to the castle of Toth-Amon, the wizard who is in possession of the magical gem. However, Toth-Amon kidnaps Jehnna before they get to the castle. The party then breaks into the castle, with Conan fighting products of Toth-Amon's magic before the wizard is mortally wounded and the heroes retrieve the gem and Jehnna.

They then set off after the magical horn, which is kept inside of a mysterious fortress. Jehnna retrieves the horn (using the gem). After some difficulty from the cult residing in the fortress, they try to make their way back to Queen Taramis — however, Bombaata betrays Conan and takes Jehnna, leaving the others to fight for their lives. Conan and his friends survive, however, and give chase after learning the true nature of Dagoth's rebirth from Akiro. At Shadizar, the magic horn is inserted back onto Dagoth as Jehnna is planned to be sacrificed to the god in order to appease him and ensure no calamity befalls the city. However, Conan and his friends break in on the ceremony, preventing Jehnna's sacrifice — causing Dagoth to transform into an uncontrollable monster that kills Taramis. A great battle ensues, during which Bombaata is killed by Conan before he battles Dagoth. The battle ends when Conan manages to weaken Dagoth by ripping out the horn that gives him life, landing the deathblow when Dagoth kneels over. The movie ends with Jehnna becoming the new Queen of Shadizar and giving her surviving companions each a place in her court. Conan refuses an offer of marriage, and leaves to search for his own kingdom.

Editors;Which I always felt was very stupid,since only the Marvel Conan,created by Roy Thomas knew he might one day become a king.Roy Thomas kept on having Conan not accept this or that kingdom,for some reason-generally silly,since is Conan the Usurper,who takes his crown and kingdom by force.Conan would easilly run things by way of a queen and screw all kingdom of his one day crap.

CONAN WEEK LIVES: TAFs INTERVIEWS SARAH DOUGLAS! Sarah's tale of high adventures on Conan! Reported By: Randy Jennings Monday May 26, 2002

TheArnoldFans.com caught up with leading actress Sarah Douglas, Queen Taramis, of Conan The Destroyer! Sit with us now as we tell you her saga of the days she nearly conquered the barbarian, wearing only his sword!

TheARNOLDFANS: What did you think of Arnold while working with him on "Conan the Destroyer"?

Sarah Douglas: "I LOVED working with Arnold. He is so generous in every respect and therefore a pleasure to act with. He also has a wicked sense of humor that certainly appealed to me a lot.

I love that he surrounds himself with his friends who work alongside him. What a delight it would be to be able tooffer my friends work when I go off somewhere... very cool!!!"

'''TheARNOLDFANS: We hear of one big deleted scene from The Destroyer... maybe one of your favorites? Can you tell our readers about your LOVE scene?'''

Sarah Douglas: "Yes there was a love scene as such. I remember that I wore little more than a crown [though of course discreetly covered in some bedding] and Arnold kept his sword on for some reason... and little else. I had never been in such close proximity with someone who had such a fabulous physique so it was certainly a pleasure!!!"

TheARNOLDFANS: Did you get along with the director?

Sarah Douglas: Richard Fleisher was an absolute gentleman and the whole experience was fab!!!"

'''TheARNOLDFANS: Arnold's "King Conan: Crown of Iron" is coming up fast! Are you looking forward to another Conan movie and are you aware of so many Conan fans?'''

Sarah Douglas: "I still get terrific response from Conan fans and must admit that looking at the stills of the movie make me wish for another adventure like that. Great costumes too!!!"

'''TheARNOLDFANS: Thank you for the interview. Is there anything else you'd like to add?'''

Sarah Douglas: "Keep up the good work."

For more info, photos and a filmography of Sarah's work, go to the best Sarah Douglass fan site and check out Jacob Rubinstein's site HERE!

Come back all this week for more CONAN WEEK: Volume 2!

Randy Jennings