Rëžýnð

Režýnð was the brother of Šïk-hórom and the first leader of the Arðor-Úŋï during the Crisis of 24982 AYM. He was killed in the massacre of Rëžýnð on 15 Anta-Eimarae, and was succeeded by Lŋórak.

Biography

Early Life and the Ýmor-Šapariž

Like most other figures in this time period, their early lives are largely unknown and unrecorded. Instead, historians often rely on conjecture and the sentiments that were dominant across the entire tribe to hypothesize on the upbringing of these individuals.

Rëžýnð was born on 25036 AYM as the 3rd son of Týyšat; the second-born was Šïk-hórom, who was born 4 years earlier. Born of them would thus experience the bulk of the second period of natural disasters, which spanned the years 25045 to 25021 AYM. The overall sentiment at that time is largely understood in the context of the overall period; the Ýmor-Šapariž (25100-25032 AYM) as a whole largely featured the gradual movement of tribal sentiment (and thus the effective power and influence) away from the Hyvamto-Rhïlýrhonid and Alaghúl-Garhifiŋ, that is, the central government, and instead put it in the hands of the 12 Hyvamto-Žö-Ýšïb, or familial Heads. The second disaster period was perhaps the clearest example of this movement, as the failings of the central government to protect the people from physical harm would eventually cause the wholesale departure of the Ýlëntuk Family in 25020 AYM.

Rëžýnð and Šïk-hórom provide interesting perspectives on the overall situation due not simply to their royal nature but also to the sheer depth of information surrounding them (primarily because of the Crisis). It is often asserted that the two were in positions of massive influence, as was the case during the Crisis, and of course, the attention drawn to the Head of the Family and his immediate relatives during this time would certainly have been the cause thereof. However, it does also imply that the brothers were at least complacent in the mistreatments and stigmatizations of the Fýr-Hŋýtor (the descendants of Öhr-Fëkahr), which ultimately would be the root cause of the Crisis. Ultimately, one does not know the extent to which they are responsible for the ensuing violence.

The Heta-Ýmor-Vëtam

Following, the Ýmor-Šapariž, what became of this power and influence during the Heta-Ýmor-Vëtam (25032-24981 AYM) is far less certain. This period was a reversal of the trends in the Ýmor-Šapariž, as the Familial powers were proven to be similarly incapable of protecting their subjects, and the rising influence of Zümiža, the new Hyvamto-Rhïlýrhonid, would take back this power by means of doing exactly that. The Kholteð Family in general found itself to be in a unique position as its populace became increasingly divided between the 'purebloods' and the 'corrupted', the latter being the rapidly-growing Fýr-Hŋýtor. All throughout the Heta-Ýmor-Vëtam, the familial leaders, and by implication the two brothers, would repeatedly subdue and force back the increasingly militant Fýr-Hŋýtor. Records indicate that the pureblood populace seemed to be somewhat united against the Fýr-Hŋýtor, insofar as they still remained fiercely aligned with the familial leaders at a time when most other families were shunning their familial leaders in favor of Zümiža.

The Crisis of 24982 AYM and Death

Main Article: Crisis of 24982 AYM

The Crisis of 24982 AYM erupted in 12 Anta-Eimarae as a direct result of the longstanding ostracization and oppression of the Fýr-Hŋýtor, who by then had renamed themselves as the Arðor-Tal and formed a proper army. Estimates show that, by the time of the Crisis, their rapid growth in comparison to the stress-induced lull in birth rates had resulted in them making up around 25% of the entire Familial population. In 24982 AYM, Týyšat died, and as per the rules of succession, the second-born Šïk-hórom was to succeed him.

However, mere moments before his ascension, the Talians swept into the Ëzó-Rhažóval (the Familial Palace, where the ceremony was to be held), kidnapped Šïk-hórom, and held him hostage within their territory of the Krëšŋ-Ðórr, to which they had been relegated since 25080 AYM. Raising up an army known as the Arðor-Úŋï (made largely of those conscripted in the earlier First Ýlëntukian War), Rëžýnð would engage the Talians in the outskirts of the Krëšŋ-Ðórr, forming a massive front on which brutal hand-to-hand combat would ensue. The Krëšŋ-Ðórr, made of inedible sand and barely-edible bedrock, was, unbeknownst to Rëžýnð, hollowed out to a depth around 5 meters below that of the rest of the Familial lands.

Rëžýnð, impatient with the lack of progress, would conduct several assaults himself, and on one crucial offensive, he and a small band of troops pushed through and broke the Talian lines. Some later historians attribute this to his youth and inexperience; others argue that he felt personally responsible for his brother’s abduction. However, taken by surprise at the sudden drop in altitude, this small band became trapped in the pit of the Krëšŋ-Ðórr, and the hordes of Talians subsequently closed off the breach in their lines and began surrounding them. Despite Rëžýnð and his men's best attempts to hold out, and ultimately futile offensives by the Úŋïans to rescue them, all members of this small band would be massacred within days, with Rëžýnð being felled in 15 Anta-Eimarae.

Subsequent Events and Impact

Rëžýnð's successor Lŋórak would mount a large-scale assault across the Talian lines after Rëžýnð's death. By 19 Anta-Eimarae, they had advanced far enough to reach Rëžýnð's battered corpse, which was given a proper funeral rite as befit Familial tradition. By 22 Anta-Eimarae, they had advanced sufficiently to reach the Ëzó-Akëð (where Šïk-hórom was held), thus releasing him. By 25 Anta-Eimarae, the still-advancing Úŋïans had fully crossed to the other side of the Krëšŋ-Ðórr. Lŋórak, likely to avenge the death of Rëžýnð, would raze the Krëšŋ-Ðórr in what is known as the Massacre of the Krëšŋ-Ðórr, the first of many atrocities in the war.

Šïk-hórom was similarly affected by the death of his brother. He took a largely absent position throughout the Crisis, disappearing from the public sphere all the way until the 24982 AYM Ultimatum. It is likely that, instead of fully targeting the Talians, he wished to simply put an end to the cycle of violence at large, but the conflict, and perhaps the destructive rage of Lŋórak, left him very little effective power. When the Ultimatum gave Šïk-hórom temporary leadership during the eviction of the entire Khólteð Family, the death of his brother was almost certainly still on his mind, as his entire strategy behind the random partitioning of tribal lands was chiefly an ultimately-failed attempt to curb the spread of violence.

However, for the public, Rëžýnð's death was very quickly overshadowed by the brutality of the Massacre of the Krëšŋ-Ðórr and subsequent engagements like the Battle of Arhžvóo. These later events were the cause behind the emergence of the Arðor-Kýï, who perceived in the violence an apparent lack of leadership and dignity in the endless bloodshed that surrounded it. Comparatively, the scale of the subsequent atrocities eclipsed the significance of any single death.

It is only through Šïk-hórom that Rëžýnð's name and story was preserved past the Crisis. He was venerated to near-godlike status by the devoted followers known as Ðýhëk-Ýïr and Ïlðúš-Ýïr, who viewed him as the exemplary figure in the Úŋïan struggle and representative of both the determinated and noble aspects of the cause. This was often placed in contrast with Lŋórak, who was seen as someone guided by his personal emotions more than the overall will of the cause. In such a way, Rëžýnð's death served as the breaking point of the brotherhood between him, Šïk-hórom, and Lŋórak, and it is largely due to their actions that the opposing Talian ad Kýïan causes became so prominent within the Crisis itself and the Khólteðtian Wars.

Legacy

Rëžýnð’s legacy in the centuries following his death has been shaped by two competing interpretations: a celebratory tradition that views him as a paragon of sacrificial brotherhood, and a contextual, critical reading that places him within the broader failures of the Khólteðtian nobility.

The more celebratory views praise his actions as sacrificial, especially in terms of expending one's own life to ensure the survival of a brother. This notion of sacrifice is one that is common across many communities in the Heta-Alšewharžar and beyond, most notably in the Žömëp-Fýtaŋ, in which the people are said to lose their individual identity to become that of the overall community in an abstract sense. This Fýtaŋïan view of Rëžýnð was immensely popularized by the tribes of Ðýhëk-Ýïr and Ïlðúš-Ýïr, who, as discussed earlier, already saw Rëžýnð as possessing the exemplary qualities representative of the Úŋïan cause at large. Modern views, however, generally reject the Fýtaŋïan view due predominantly with the overall context involving the Fýr-Hŋýtor and the actions of the brothers leading up to the Crisis.

This contextual view is the 'other side' that sits in contrast to the Fýtaŋïan view. It looks at the overall conduct of the reigning Khólteðtian nobility, especially in their treatment of the Fýr-Hŋýtor all the way from 25080 AYM onwards. This mistreatment and widespread ostracization was undoubtedly the cause of the Crisis as a whole, and given its unchanged nature throughout the nearly-100-year period, it is widely accepted that Šïk-hórom and Rëžýnð were at least complacent, if not actively participating in this behavior. As such, Rëžýnð would be seen in a much more similar light to Lŋórak, in which both figures effectively doubled down on their divisive views and actions that had led to the buildup of violence, and in doing so, led irreversibly to the first cases of mass murder and a level of bloodshed unprecedented in Ïlýrhonidian and Khólteðtian history.

Regarding the latter side, historians are often split regarding how responsible Rëžýnð was in causing this violence. It is without doubt that Lŋórak was the instigator behind the acts of extreme violence, and thus the question becomes whether Rëžýnð's death had caused Lŋórak to pursue such means in the first place. It does seem that the death of a loved one would spur an individual to such measures, and Lŋórak does use the same battlefield strategies that Rëžýnð had briefly used. Thus, there are a number of different opinions one could take, all contingent on a factor that is utterly lost to history, that being how big of an influence Rëžýnð and Šïk-hórom were on Lŋórak. Those who find Rëžýnð to have been almost completely responsible for the violence in the Crisis assert that Lŋórak's impulsive behavior and lust for violence was wholesale inherited from his time with the two brothers. Those who are more sympathetic to Rëžýnð, which includes those that adhere to the 'celebratory side' explained earlier, see him as being complacent or even unknowledgeable of the stigmatization of the Fýr-Hŋýtor, and the lust for violence came from the innate personality of Lŋórak that would have existed regardless of Rëžýnð's fate.