Tobatyr

Location of Tobatyr in Duilintinn by tumblr user @thewatchau

Tobatyr is an agricultural town in central House Brody, Duilintinn, directly north of Cordoire.

## Name Origin

Tobatyr roughly translates to “water well territory,” though misspelled. Like most settlements built during the Waldren Occupation, the name was a clumsy attempt to imitate the Feadhainn language names of the surrounding towns. While the intended meaning is unclear, some wonder if “tobar” was mistranslated (and misspelled) as “source,” which the Waldren occupants interpreted as “source of goods” rather than “source of water.”

## History

Tobatyr is a prime example of the agricultural communities created by Waldren occupiers in the fertile lands of (future) House Brody, which dominated the region’s culture and politics well into the Interim Years.

The town was originally founded during the Waldren Occupation to cultivate resources in the more fertile northern region of the Monaidh Plains. Farmers arriving with the ships from Waldren made a living settling the area with massive farm complexes, leaving a local agricultural empire to their descendants.

These plantation dynasties prided themselves on preserving the traditional way of things, especially after Waldren abandoned Duilintinn. The town continued to thrive during the Interim Years, becoming a prosperous farming community that took great pride in how long their families had held the land. The conservative families that ran these massive plantations tended to cling to significant cultural perspectives from their days under Waldren, which are especially prevalent in the way they viewed land ownership and entitlement. After decades of self-rule, these families grew to distrust the idea of being ruled by someone who could potentially change that order.

As a result, Tobatyr was one of the many parties that initially resisted the idea of joining the kingdom of Duilintinn, only agreeing to join after an intense series of negotiations. This distrust of outside authority from towns such as Tobatyr is part of the reason why King Sean didn’t appoint a Noble Lord over the region until it became necessary due to the first attempt upon his life.

It was only the founding of House Brody that began to finally shift the cultural perspectives of Tobatyr and towns like it away from the elitism and entitlement of the old Waldren occupiers. The exact causes of this shift are described in this post. In the end, the catastrophic effects of the First Great Famine, combined with a whole generation having been born knowing only Duilintinn and its emphasis on community and generosity, quickly shut down any residual culture of entitlement in the face of the famine.

### Lord Brody

Again, this story is not unique to Tobatyr. However, Tobatyr’s specific history is most often cited as an example of this cultural shift for one specific reason: Tobatyr was the hometown of Lord Brody. Chase Brody and his friend Chad were both from the established plantation families of Tobatyr, leaving home during The Quest for Duilintinn.

## Trivia

* The cultural shift between generations that took place in Tobatyr and similar communities in the face of crisis is very similar to the generational conflict between real-world Baby Boomers/Gen X and Millennials/Gen Z.