Dyaba Ladura

Raanyuwuruging Dyaba Ladura

I'll never be able to tell them all that they were right. About all of it. The escape, the dragon, this land. All I can do is write it all down, so that one day they'll know.

— Dyaba Ladura, 386 AC

Dyaba Ladura was a Yulemto archivist, who was instrumental in organising the Dyiiladuun Fleet that set out in 386 AC in search of the possibly mythical Yulemto homeland of Dyiiladuun. Their success at finding Dyiiladuun was undermined by the destruction of the fleet and the deaths of the majority of its crew, as well as their inability to return home.

History

Dyaba was born in 351 AC in Naburiguum, one of the larger towns in the Yulemta Islands. At the time, the Islands were nominally independent, and experiencing a resurgence of pride in native Yulemto culture which had been squashed by the Vosti Empire for centuries. Chief among the things to be brought back was the Yulemtan language. Dyaba's mother championed the revival movement, ensuring that by the time Dyaba was old enough to attend school, Yulemtan was an optional but strongly encouraged part of the curriculum. Dyaba took to their studies eagerly, often attending external classes with their mother to learn even more.
Dyaba's passion for Yulemtan eventually lead them to read many old Yulemto texts, gaining a love for history that never went away, even later in life. They would soon travel to the Republic of Skarhu to study Abravosti history, made easier by the Islands' becoming a Skarhan county in 365 AC. On noticing the lack of mention of the Yulemta Islands, they endeavoured to fill the gaps with help from a variety of local leaders and some Skarhan historians. They were able to identify that the Yulemto could not have been in the archipelago any earlier than 800 BC, leading the historians on a wild hunt for an explanation.
For Dyaba, the answer was obvious - that the Yulemto 'myth' about leaving their homeland must be true in some form, and that they had come to the archipelago from far across the oceans. They spent most of the 370s trying to convince someone, anyone to fund some kind of trip to see if that land could be found, to no success. In lieu of this, they became an archivist, preserving and translating old texts for foreigners and future generations.
A breakthrough came in the 385 Skarhan Presidential Election, where incumbent Pazruen Gakler met with prominent Yulemto figures to figure out how to secure the local vote. Among them was Dyaba, who was able to propose the exploratory fleet directly to the president. Shortly thereafter, Gakler presented this one of his campaign promises, pledging to fund and set a fleet to ocean within a year of the election. With his victory later that year, he set straight to work, bringing Dyaba on as an adviser as well as many current and former Skarhan navy captains.
This fleet would set sail in early 386 with a shockingly quick turn around, with Dyaba sailing out on the TPS Resaven helmed by Captain Jemi Numaatu Muushadang, with 3 other ships to carry supplies and experienced sailors. After it left the port in Naburiguum, no-one aboard stepped foot on any part of Abravost again.

Fleet and Thurásin

The fleets journey was less than smooth, suffering through a deadly storm, a desertion, and an attempted mutiny. When at last foreign land was in sight, the fleet was utterly destroyed by a powerful dragon, with only Dyaba and a handful of others escaping the carnage by lifeboat, though they shortly thereafter crashed into the rocks near the shore of the south-eastern islands of Thurásin.
After being rescued by Merfolk, Dyaba and the others were brought to Lawaguum. There, Dyaba became the translator for their group, as their dialect of Yulemtan was distantly related to the local dialect of Garanya - both derived from the language spoken in Dyiiladuun. With significant effort, over the course of many years, Dyaba was able to tell the locals many things about Abravost, and they likewise taught her much of the history of Thurásin, including the fate of Dyiiladuun.
While her two companions found small places within local society to occupy, Dyaba became a historian for the leader of Lawaguum, compiling as correct a history of Abravost as they could remember and translating it into Garanya. They even travelled to a few of Lawaguum's neighbours to talk about Abravost and particularly the Yulemto, which the majority Dyiiladuunawa audience were desperate to know more about.
Dyaba would only retire from their position in 418 AC, or 32 Return, spending their final years in a small house that overlooked the craggy bay where Dyiiladuun once was. They died in 420 AC, and were honoured with the title 'Raanyuwuruging' - the Keeper of Lost Knowledge. They were buried in accordance with Yulemto practices, and a memorial erected in Lawaguum's capital sees many visitors every year.

Species

Human

Ethnicity

Yulemto

Life

351 AC 420 AC 69 years old

Co-Author of

Diaries of the Dyiiladuun Fleet

Blame

Dyaba Ladura is a complicated figure in their home county. On the one hand, their work as an archivist and teacher of Yulemtan and Yulemto history makes them well liked. On the other hand, the fleet never returned, damning all aboard to a tragic death on the seas in the eyes of those at home. Due to their long advocacy for such an expedition, many consider them at fault for all that befell the fleet, including the shipwrecking of one of its lifeboats a month after it left.
Others choose to place the blame for what presumably befell the fleet at the feet of President Pazruen Gakler, who was forced out of office by his efforts to cover up the identities of the shipwreck victims. The unreasonably short turn around from election to leaving Abravost and the fact their supplies would likely run out before they could make it back cemented in the mind of some that Gakler had expected the fleet to fail.

Ship Shipwreck by Comfreak