A short summary of The Desdydyn Epoch and the Epic of Yenyna
The Desdydyn Epoch of Ymarr, named for the Valleyhome King at the time
1, is widely regarded as one of the most turbulent and influential periods in the recorded annals of Ymaryn history that we have available to us today. It is also one of the most highly detailed portions of Ymaryn history left intact. The period extends from roughly the twentieth century BCE through to the mid seventeenth as measured through radiocarbon dating of the Xohyr Plate
2 and the recently excavated Tiruchel
3 and compared to the written chronicles at The Wall of Kings
4. It was during this period that the Ymaryn civilization underwent a fundamental metamorphosis from an admittedly prolific agrarian culture into the mammoth regional power we see up until the Anatolian Extinction in the second century CE
5.
The Desdydyn Epoch of Ymarr can be divided up into four distinct phases of action and development on the part of the peoples of the Yllython coast
6 and the surrounding regions
7. Naturally, for such a turbulent time, the Desdydyn Epoch begins and ends with war.
The First Phase of the Desdydyn Epoch begins with the reign of King Phygrif the Nomad and the sack of the city of Xohyr as told in The Xohyrd
8. The reliability of the Epic and its translations is debatable, and even the existence of Phygrif himself is questionable as his name appears only within a small temple site to the northeast
9. The sack, however, is a known event; evidence of which can be found below the Old City of Xohyr in the form of the Xohyr Plate
2.
The two and a half centuries following Phygrif's supposed reign which delineates the Second Phase of the Desdydyn Epoch is marked by a massive period of expansion and shift in the Ymaryn culture group and an extremely prolific period of peaceful development known as the Peace of Desdydyn
1. The end of this period is marked by the election of Desdydyn to the throne, Ymaryn contact with Ancient Egypt
10,11, and a following series of extremely bloody conflicts along the Yllython coast and throughout the Ymarr Basin
12.
This period of conflict that marks the Third Phase of the Desdydyn Epoch is well known and majorly chronicled as the Epic of Yenyna
13 and corroborated by numerous sources found across the region. The period can be can be further subdivided into four distinct sections: The decades immediately preceding the first arc of the Epic and the first through third arcs of the Epic.
The early decades of the Third Phase are poorly understood, and there are few extant primary sources to corroborate what inferences can be pulled from the Epic of Yenyna. What information does exist, paints a picture of a series of relatively low-level border skirmishes between Ymaryn and Egyptian combatants and the opening series of battles that marked the entry of the Deyrnah Ucheldich
14 and the Ceffyll Taranch
15 into their own individual conflicts with the Ymaryn and the other regional polities. Together, these conflicts are called The Bryniah Wars
16.
Within twenty years of the onset of conflict, Yenyna appears as the Dragon General in the historical record outside of Ymaryn influenced territories
17. The events that follow in the historical record are captured in remarkable detail in even more modern translations of the Epic of Yenyna. Those events will not be recounted here save for the mention of the recent recoveries by a UC-Berkeley team excavating portions of Dôl Gwayadd
18. The climax of the third arc of the Epic of Yenyna is described as a battle of massive proportions; proportions often argued as far too large for the age. Indeed, Dôl Gwayadd and its surroundings have always been a veritable hotspot of Early Iron Age Ymaryn artifacts, Egyptian Bronze, and human remains. However, from the distribution of artifacts and bodies, the accepted number of combatants was judged at no more than four thousand total; a number far below the numbers suggested in the Epic. The Berkeley team, utilizing information from a relatively new study on Ymaryn burial practices, unearthed a mass grave containing some fifty-one thousand individuals interred in traditional Ymaryn fashion. After further investigation, a similar grave containing an approximately equal number of corpses was found at the opposite end of the valley and showed signs consistent with removal of the eyes common to the Middle Kingdom era burial practices.
The decades immediately following the Battle of Dôl Gwayadd, covered in the fourth arc of the Epic of Yenyna, are commonly considered to be closing years of the Desdydyn Epoch and the events collectively form the Fourth Phase. The early years of this period were marked by a short but prolific peace for the peoples of the Yllython coast and the establishment of the Ancient Lancosh Games
19. The final years, however are aptly described in the final, tragic, verse of the Epic of Yenyna as '
The Regret of Ymarr,' and today, the results of those years can be seen in the half-melted ruins at Tiruchel.
The events of the centuries following the Desdydyn Epoch, up until the Extinction, should not be discounted, of course and every year new translations form the Judean Archives and the Wall of Kings are released. Few periods, however, have had so much impact on our modern world and such is why scholars have devoted themselves to the subject from as far back as the Renaissance.
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1. Ymaryn kings reigned, on average, for an estimated fifteen to twenty five years. The names of the Epochs are a modern creation and named for the King whose name appears most in the record. Please keep in mind, that the entries inscribed on the Wall of Kings are essentially undated until the sixteenth century BCE, as the Ymaryn had no developed calendar system. The entries are divided up into distinct and named Epochs based on the kings who presided over the pivotal moments of the era.
2. The Xohyr Plate, discovered in 1963 during construction in the Old City of Xohyr is a sediment stratum that exists below the originally accepted ruins of the Old City. This layer is characterized by an extremely high amount of char and solidified pools of precious metals. The Xohyr Plate exists
only under a 4.54km
2 section of the Old City.
3. Tiruchel – Ancient Ymarish for Highland. The location was the regional capital for a relatively small kingdom that bordered Ymarr to the south. According to the Epic of Yenyna, in response to repeated treachery, the Brenn Uchel (Ancient Ymarish for Highland King), his family, and his courtiers were barricaded in the royal palace and burned alive. The fire was hot enough to produce the melted columns of Tiruchel we see at the site today. The city itself caught fire shortly afterwards and also burned to the ground.
4. The Wall of Kings is an overhanging cliffside along the ancient road leading from Old Valleyhome to the coast where the history of the Ymaryn was carved into stone.
5. The Anatolian Extinction was a bolide impact of truly massive proportions on par with the Tunguska Event of 1908, though it occurred at a much lower altitude. In an instant, the entirety of the Ymarr Basin and much of the Yllython coast was devastated. Only a few colonies on the far side of the Yllython Sea escaped intact.
6. The Yllython Coast Peoples collectively refers to the civilizations that developed around the Yllython sea and the Ymarr Basin.
7. Numerous other regions were in regular contact with the people of the Yllython coast, including the ancient Egyptians, ancient China, and the other proto Ymarr groups of Northwestern Europe.
8. The Xohyrd is a Ymaryn Epic Poem covering the sack of Xohyr and is dated to roughly the twentieth century BCE.
9. At some point, nearly all mention of Phygrif was erased from the Ymaryn record and only remains on a single remaining wall at a temple site to the far north east of what was considered the core of Ymarr.
10. Prior to this, the Ymaryn did, in fact, have contact with Egypt for centuries; as evidenced by the presence of Ymaryn mercury globes in the tombs of the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur and some rare Ymaryn iconography in the walls of Heliopolis. The majority of this contact, however, was conducted through the Strait of Trell and was likely facilitated by the unnamed civilization present there.
11. Contact here was an almost immediate clash of ideology.
12. The Ymarr Basin is a watershed that extends south from the Central Asiatic Steppe to the Indus Desert. It is bordered on the west by the Yllython coast and the Ucheldi Uplands, and bordered on the east by the Caspian Rise.
13. The Epic of Yenyna is the most widely known Ymaryn epic poem and chronicles the rise and tragic life of the Dragon General of Ymarr.
14. Deyrnah Ucheldich – The Ancient Ymarish name for the kingdom that bordered their southern reaches in the Ucheldi Uplands. Translates roughly as Highland Kingdom.
15. Ceffyll Taranch – The Ancient Ymarish name for the kingdom that bordered their eastern reaches in the Ymarr Basin. Translates roughly as Thunder Riders. The leading theory is this was a group of settled steppe nomads or similar group.
16. The Bryniah Wars – A phrase coined by Sir Francis Dollen who published the first translation of Ymaryn script in 1893. Bryn is the ancient Ymarish word for 'hill,' though it can also be translated as 'king' or 'chief.'
17. Ancient copies of the epic can be found inscribed as far away as Karnack and the tombs of The Valley of Kings, the Judean Archives at Cyprus, and on a Ymaryn tablet found in the tomb of emperor Zhaoxiang. The epic also survived through oral tradition and was known well before the ancient records were rediscovered.
18. Dôl Gwayadd – The name of the final battle of the The Bryniah Wars and the location in which it was fought. The name of the valley survived to the modern day intact and is one of the few complete words in ancient Ymarish to survive unchanged to the modern day. It translates to 'The Bloody Vale.' Curiously enough, the name of the location is nearly identical in reconstructed Kemetic and is considered evidence for the vast amount of cultural exchange between the Ymaryn and Ancient Egypt.
19. The Lancosh Games, revived in 1936, were, in the ancient world, an international athletics competition that drew together parties from all over the known world. They were named for the Ymaryn city of their origin: Lancosh, which loosely translates to "Red Shore."
