Founding of Dunmar

This is the story of the founding of Dunmar, as told by the Dunmari:

These events occur in DR 1171 - DR 1173

When the great exodus of the Dunmari from the south reached the River Kharja, Bhishma, already a leader of her people, stopped and ordered the construction of a great temple, and began to pray. Begging Jeevali to save her people, she prayed without food or water or sleep for five days and five nights, until Jeevali answered her prayers. As Bhishma prayed, the rains began. Jeevali wept for her people, crying tears that poured from the heavens, cleansing the land and purifying the soil. But as she cried, she put so much of her power and spirit into her tears that she began to fade away. She diminished, and was gone.

The people wept, but Aagir appeared to them in a vision, angry, saying “My sister has sacrificed herself for you. To you, I say this. Her sacrifice was for you alone. This land is made whole and new, and a great kingdom can grow from the ashes. But it must start with bloodshed. Take this land in my name. You will be blessed, but you are not special, you are no different from other kingdoms. I do not give you the land, but tell you to take it with violence. Your empire will grow from a seed of destruction, as all things must, for death is necessary for new life to begin.” 

Asuddha, the brother of Bhishma, then took up arms, and called an army, and the people rode across the land, conquering and killing all who would stand before them, until the new Kingdom of Dunmar stretched from the Mahar river to Nevos Bay. But Bhishma and many of the people of Dunmar stayed at Temple, and wept for Jeevali and for the people slaughtered in the name of the gods. After a year of battle and conquest, and tears and prayers, Asuddha returned to the temple and stood before his sister, saying, “I have made you the ruler of a great land, a land of plenty.”

As he spoke, he was amazed, for his sister Bhishma stood and the spirit of Jeevali was beside her, and she said, speaking, “I have not been idle either, my brother, for as you conquered we prayed, and made sacrifices in the name of Jeevali, and lo she is returned.”

And then Jeevali rose, and stepped forward to the people of Dunmar gathered at the Temple, and they rejoiced in her name and praised her and Bhishma, and Jeevali admonished the people to forget not this day, and every year hence the Festival of Rebirth has been celebrated at the driest time of the year in the spring, before the seasonal rains come, to mark the death and life of Jeevali and her cleansing of the land for the Dunmari. 

Among the Lakan Mystai, it is said that Laka was there as well, and turned to Bhishma, and gave her the secret knowledge that the land was not given freely. A great cost would be paid, that the people of Dunmar were a bulwark against the fall of night, and that what was dealt upon their enemies would be returned to them many fold, but the sacrifice would earn the Dunmari the gratitude of the world. 

It is also said among the Lakan Mystai that Bhishma and Laka spent the night together, and from that union two children were born, twins, one divine and one mortal. The Divine, Shakun, looked to dangers and needs of the people that were not visible; the moral, Kotana, looked outward to the physical needs of the people and the land, and would become the next ruler of Dunmar.