Yenaria Day 2501-2750 - The Brybort Wars

As the population of the Nil Yeni had grown to almost 10 million people, they were united by their common culture and religion. However, politically most of the villages and small cities remained independent. Yet each village balanced a web of diplomatic relationships with other villages. The primary means of maintaining these relationships was through the Unification Ceremony where villages would swap adolescent males to bring the villages closer together and allow the adolescents of both villages an opportunity to form romantic relationships with other adolescents. Before day 2500 there are many stories of the friendships, rivalries and conflicts that these villages participated in. However before this time most of these drama only involved a few villages. The days before the Early Yenari Empire saw a marked increase in the size and scale of the inter village conflicts. One reason for the increase in conflict was the continued increase in population. Villages located along important trade routes or at important river location saw there populations reach several thousand; for the city of Rel it population surpassed 10,000. Higher populations of the cities meant that many Himoths were in one city, increasing their sense of shared destiny and multiplying their political influence. Additionally, most of the navigable river valleys were completely settled leaving the villages to expand into the interior or to compete with other river settlements. The increase in the scale and quantity of the conflicts led scholars to call these 250 days the Brybort wars time period.
Another consequence of the increased conflict was the start of a practice of sending Esse, slaves and prisioners, to the the Cradcresse Islands. During this time many valuble metals and gems were found on the islands. In order to better exploit these resoursource, the city of Rel would send its criminals and prisioners to work in the mines.
While many small conflicts took place during this time. There are 4 generally recognized major conflicts during the Brybort Wars. The 1st Brybort War resulted in the complete dominance of Yeni over the Strepslim and northern part of lake Lake Resbort. During the last part of the war when it appeared inevitable that Yeni would crush the suroundings villages. The villages launched a desperate attack on the city of Yeni. They caught Yeni unprepared and while they were ultimately defeated they stole the Staff of Yen used by the most prestigous Himoth of Yeni. The Yeni quickly ended the war but were unable to recover the staff.
Soon after the 1st war, the yenari leadership learned that some of attackers had fled across the lake to seek refuge in the city of Mar by the Den Shar swamp. The Yenari sent an army to recover the staff. In the ensuing struggle the city of Mar was burned to the ground and its population was forced to flee, and the staff was never recovered. With the help of the city of Rel, the displaced Marrish are said to have fled from Greater Yenaria and settled the land Marrish. Many folktales from the time claim the refugees of Mar fled into the swamped and were consumed by the Den Shar spirit and they haunt the swamp sinking any ship that ventures in. Other scholars have suggested that the refugees are the ancestors of the modern day Denites - culture.
The 2nd Brybort War involved the cities of Rel and Ancient Delnari. Rel was the most powerful city in the lakes region, located at the edge of the Fertile Shar. Delnari was located at the mouth of the strepslim and able to control any trade entering Lake Resbort from the lower Strepslim and the ocean. As the island chains became more settled and the ocean bound trade increased, Delnari became another important trade city at the mouth of the Strepslim . This quickly escalated tensions between the cities and resulted in a trade war lasting serval days. The war ended when the Delnarian fleet was crushed and Rel bloackaded @Delnari. With the war over and Delnari under Relian influence, Rel became to dominate power in the Tresbort Lakes.
Yet during the 2nd Brybort War trade with the Northern Tresbort cities suffered due to the burning of Ancient Mar who were experts in navigating the Den Shar. With the Den Shar quickly gaining a reputation of being cursed and ship captains unwilling to travel through it, the trade situation quickly worsened. After the war, Rel attempted to adress the situation. Rel engineers found a flat portion of the isthmus several dozen miles to the north that could potentially be used as portage for ships and cargo. They started building road across the isthmus which later became known as The Great Portage. The engineers also started built two ports on either side of the isthmus and these cities Torm-delfi and Res-Delfi became collectively know as Delfi.
While the city of Rel was successful at constructing Delfi, Rel expended and enormous effort constructing the city and portage. As trade between the lakes increased Rel began recouping the cost of the construction. Merchants not associated with Rel or one of its associated cities were charged an exorbitant amount to use the portage. Even merchants associated with Relian cities grumbled about the price of using the portage, but were left with few alternatives. This strengthened Rel influence in the area, yet also created lots of resentment between the Northern Tresbort Villages and the Rel elite.
The increasing tensions between Rel and the Northern Cities sparked the 3rd Brybort War. The Northern cities wanted equal access to the Great Portage and the Relian merchants wanted to keep their monopoly. At first the war appeared to be trending in favor of Rel. But when the Relian navy was transported over the Great Portage, Yeni used the weakened naval presence to join the war and attack the city of Rel itself. Then the Relian navy was lost as it attempted to cross the Den Shar. This quickly resolved the war and transferred control of Delfi to Yeni. The war also resulted in the formation of a strong alliance between the Northern Cities and Yeni.
The power balance in the region now featured two powers, Rel and Yeni, with roughly equal power. What followed was almost 100 days of a uneasy power balance between the two nations. Their were times when war seemed imminent, but the priestesses of Barsaminism managed encourage dialogue and to avoid major conflict between the two powers. A lot of the nations efforts focused on attempting to influence the priestesses to make them more sympathetic two their point of view. The unstable peace was disturbed when Rel claimed that Yeni merchants were claiming to be pilgrims as a ploy to avoid the Relian navy on the lower strepslim, and therefore all ships entering Lake Resbort from the Den Mar had to be search for contraband.
Demanding that all Nil bound ships be searched angered the Priestesses and caused them to side with Yeni and declare a demilitarized zone within sight of the Promethean Crater. This demand would meant that Rel would have to abandon its navel fortress The Smiling Cresent. Rel refused and Yeni brought its navy to Nil which started the 4th Brybort War. The war raged for almost 2 dozen days. In the end the city of Rel was burned to the ground and its power destroyed leaving Yeni as the only power in Greater Yenaria.