Reýleni Mural

The Reýleni Mural is the name of the larger piece of art to which fragments unearthed by an archaeological dig at the banks of the Reýlinë River. It is believed that the fragments belonged to a fresco painted onto the western wall of a nearby ruined temple. Analysis of the composition of the plaster, as well as the underlying masonry, shows a near-perfect match with stone used in the construction of the nearby temple ruins, and there is evidence that the western wall of the temple was, at some point in its history, painted. However, the fragments of the mural were unearthed near the riverbank, half a mile from what are believed to be the original temple grounds, leading some scholars to argue that perhaps the mural was part of a second, freestanding structure built by the river. Regardless, it is widely accepted that the temple ruins and them fragments of the mural are from around the same time period.
Of greater interest to archaeologists is the scene depicted by the fresco. Though the fragments so far unearthed do not paint the full picture, enough have been put together to allow researchers to get a sense of the subject of the fresco. Entitled The Great War by modern scholars, as the name suggests, the scene depicted on the Reýleni mural is one of war. Though many of the colors are faded, the distinctive style of the period comes through. Humanoids are drawn with rather simplistic featureless oval faces and heavily stylized bodies. As all the humanoid entities in the scene are painted in the same shade of grey, it is impossible to distinguish the belligerents in the depicted battle by skin color alone.
The most significant distinguishing characteristic between both sides of the battle are their cloaks. On one side, the troops are depicted with white cloaks, while on the other they are depicted with multicolored cloaks, usually in some combination of shades of reds, greens, and yellows. In the context of other archaeological finds from the same time period in the same general region, it is thought that the white-cloaked entities are early tretâllë, while the entities with multicolored cloaks are Aen_evë. Besides the style of the painting and the age of the underlying masonry, the relative lack of cavalry on the side of the tretâllë firmly roots the mural's origins in the pre-Dominion era.