Lyriane

The **Lyriane**, also known as the **Lyrean**, were an ancient and loosely defined human tribe that flourished in the fertile crescent of what is now central Maudet in the Dark Ages.

## History

The Lyriane date back millennia. They were contemporaries of other human tribes such as the Ghiesh, the Oremeni and the Drahanim, though they stayed mostly isolated from them, therefore remaining a strong, distinct people. After the Ghiesh were defeated by the Oremeni around **-1595D**, many of the survivors were absorbed into Lyriane tribes.

In **-203D**, Lyriane forces made up a large part of the armies gathered by the Grey Order to fight the final battle of the First Scourge, known as the Battle of the Silent Steppes. That same year, Juna of the Lyriane, who had married the leader of the southernmost Drahanim tribes to secure an alliance between their clans, gave birth to Sibylla. Sibylla was later married to Thetsoll to form a unified Drahanim border from the Anamene, through the Fertile Crescent and the Thaneholds. Eventually, Sibylla waged war against the Adamantium. For betraying his wife to the Adamantium, Thetsoll was given the lands of northern Morgaea, which he divided between his three sons at the conclusion of the Crusade in **-165D**. The lands of the Lyriane went to his eldest son, Maeriand, whom he tasked with building a nation to rival the Adamantium.

While his adopted mother had been half-Lyriane, Maeriand himself was Drahanim, and was disliked on that account by the Lyriane tribes. To bolster his power and influence among the tribes, he married a local woman, Jesavi, who was proud and well-connected. In **-155D**, in a moment known as the Grand Unification, Maeriand used that power to forcibly consolidate the scattered Lyriane tribes through sweeping changes in trade, forced relocations that broke local allegiances, and the destruction of existing cities to make way for a new capital. Though power was united, cultures were less so. Angered by the upheaval caused by the Grand Unification, Jesavi plotted against her husband by inviting his brother Ranmeld, who had barely escaped his own court with his life after the revelation of Thetsoll's betrayal, and set them against one another. Ranmeld killed Maeriand and his descendants, then married Jesavi himself to grant his reign legitimacy. Jesavi was no more happy under his rule than she had been under Maeriand's; within a decade of their marriage, she had seeded rebellion against him, and was eventually named the first gothi of the unified Lyriane tribes, which she went on to rule for forty-two years.

After Jesavi's death, the Lyriane were ruled by a gothi chosen by the clans of Lyriane and Drahanim. In **-36D**, Castiana, the daughter of a prominent Lyriane chieftain, was chosen as gothi thanks to the expertise of her Adamantine husband, Septimus Volantus, in cutthroat politics. Their son Caecilius was born soon after. He was raised knowing that his mother's throne would only be his if he had the strength to claim it. Starting at the age of sixteen, Caecilius launched military campaigns to unify the disparate cults of the Watcher and the Lyriane tribes, with the support of his wife, Darea Montlaurent, the daughter of a lord of Montelleu. By **-3D**, Caecilius had turned the squabbling clans into the empire of Maudet, of which he was named the first emperor.

## Culture

The richness of Lyriane culture has largely disappeared, though traces of it remain in contemporary Maudesian culture. The oldest families of Maudet still trace their lineage back to Lyriane war chiefs.

### Language

The Lyriane language was still the primary language spoken in Maudet towards the end of the Dark Ages. At least two of the chronicles of the Holy Tome were written in Lyriane around that period. The version of the Chronicle of Lamentations attributed to Matron Augora I was first written in Lyriane between **-31D** and **-11D**, though it is now believed to have been a translation of an older work of oral tradition, likely in Rigoric. The Chronicle of Exaltations, written by then-prince Caecilius Volantus in **-12D**, was also written in Lyriane. Its final draft is kept in a vault in the Grand Temple's archives.

There are very few known words of Lyriane. Gothi is a Lyriane title attributed to Jesavi, the first gothi of the unified Lyriane tribes of Maudet, which means "queen."

### Beliefs

Before the advent of Sibyllism, the Lyriane had their own deities. While not much is remembered about their gods, it seems that they shared some with other human tribes such as the Drahanim and the Cleve.

Like many other human tribes, the Lyriane also had animist beliefs. They believed that draghests were spirits made manifest in the world, hunting those who had wronged their own kin, and then dragging them in front of the gods to submit to their judgment, while Arrowillow was said to be an archer who had traded his heart to the spirit of an oak grove to become the greatest archer in the world.

Around **-20D**, Prince Caecilius Volantus started military campaigns to stamp out lingering worship of the Lyriane deities.

## Politics

The Lyriane tribes were divided into myriads of clans, each with its own war chieftain and its grudges against other clans. Sometime after the Grand Unification of **-155D**, the Lyriane tribes unified under a gothi, Jesavi, who ruled for forty-two years. After her, the unified tribes were ruled by a gothi chosen by the clans of Lyriane and Drahanim. Though bloodlines played a part in the selection process, strength seemed to be the desired attribute. The process grew bloodier and bloodier, until Caecilius Volantus, son of the gothi Castiana, eventually united all the clans by the sword and formed the Maudesian Empire in **-3D**.

## Known Lyriane

* **Darea Montlaurent** – wife of Caecilius Volantus I
* **Juna** – mother of Sibylla
* **Castiana** – gothi of the Lyriane in **-36D**; mother of Caecilius Volantus I
* **Jesavi** – the "Mother of Maudet"
* **Caecilius Volantus I** – founder of the empire of Maudet and of the Ministry; son of Castiana
* **Olyssa of Montelleu** – a general in Volantus's armies; first Matron of the Ministry