Yaz Buraldkin, the first King of Abun

Story by vpn on SoFurry

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This is a quite old drawing I made back around 2008/2009. At that time it didn't represent any character in particular, just a dragon dressed in Aztec clothes, but after I've rediscovered this artwork after all these years, I thought it would be the best depiction of the legendary first king of Abun, Yaz Buraldkin.


Yaz (clan name unknown), also known as Yaz Buraldkin (Yaz the Commander), Yaz the Unifier or Yaz the Great, born in year 29 of the Proto-History and died in 51 of the Ancient Era , was the first king of Abun and the man who unified all the little states that were scattered in the southern region of Nakti, merging them into a single state.

Born in Theren, in the kingdom of Enit, in year 29 of the Proto-History, many details of Yaz's past and childhood are unknown to us. The only things we know are that he was a Tokaya and he belonged to a noble family of rich Enitian merchants, and that he studied at the great temple of Say'Rada in Enit, since he wanted to become a priest. Those years were quite tumultuous, because the kingdoms of Enit, Faza, Faywar, Sul'Asha, Shibban, Or'Mat and Nalul were in war with eachother, since they fought to establish their egemony on the region.

In that period, the Enitians signed a truce with the Sul'Ashan, since the previous war that they fought with them lasted 24 years, and heavily affected both the countries in their economy and conditions, but after the assassination of an important Enitian noble, whose name has been unfortunately lost, who was going to build a palace in that kingdom and was planned to become the next king of Enit, the Enitian broke the truce and declared war to the Sul'Ashan, in year 13. The young Yaz was studying to become a priest during that time, but he volunteered in the army to defend his country and crush the Sul'Ashan for good, and was sent to the Enitian border, where they fought the battle against the Sul'Ashan. During the war, Yaz proved his courage and bravery, and despite he was injuried by an arrow, he managed to stay on his horse and keeping fighting the Sul'Ashan soldiers, and became an important support to the Enitian general, Ban'Athu (the clan name of the general has been lost).

Indeed, Yaz suggested that the best way to crush any kind of resistance from the Enitian, was to surround the capital, Sel'Ghai, and spread salt on the Sul'Ashan fields, in order to cripple their agriculture and make them surrender. So, in year 11, the Enitian army successfully reached Sel'Ghai and surrounded it. The siege lasted for nine months, while the soldiers arrested the peasants who lived outside the walls of the city and spoiled their fields with salt. During the siege, many Sul'Ashan died of starvation and diseases, and despite every attempts done by the Sul'Ashan army to resist against the Enitian, they later surrended to them, while the Sul'Ashan general, Nismorat of the Dra'Tan clan, committed suicide by swallowing some glass shards. After his death, the Sul'Ashan king, Ittia, sent a messenger to the Enitian king, Che'Yer II of the Tanck clan, asking him to form a league between Enit and Sul'Asha, and merge their armies to become more powerful and hoping to establish a common hegemony on the region. While Che'Yer accepted Ittia's offer, in the same year, Enit was struck by the Black Plague, killing more than 2500 people, including king Che'Yer himself and his two sons, leaving the throne vacant. So, due to his great gestures during the war, the Enitian priests thought that the young Yaz would've been the best king for Enit, and under his guide, the Enitian-Sul'Ashan league would've managed to expand itself.

So, Yaz was elected king by the Enitian High Priests in year 10, 78 Ireth of Ankdan-At; and right after his election, he swore to The Gods that he would've unified all the southern kingdoms into a single, strong entity. During the first years, Yaz, alongside Ittia, ordered the rebuilding of the Enitian and Sul'Ashan cities destroyed during the war, and Sul'Ashan and Enitian workers worked side by side, in order to familiarize with eachother and suppress hostilities between the people. The league also increased its commercial and military relations with foreign countries, such as the kingdoms of Nylus and Hat'Ny, and also received men from the city-states of Surak and Ald'Hin, forming an economic and military alliance between those countries, called simply "The Alliance". Thanks to this alliance, Yaz thought that they'd be prepared enough to fight against the Fazan and the remnant six kingdoms. The best chance came in year 7, when Ittia died for an unknown illness (although some historians say that he was poisoned by an Enitian who lived in his court), letting him claim the title. After Ittia's death, and the lack of successors at the Sul'Ashan throne, Yaz declared himself king of Enit and Sul'Asha and didn't meet any resistance from them, and prepared the alliance for the upcoming war against the Fazan, that begun one year later. Unlike the Sul'Ashan, the Fazan (who didn't technically have an army, since it was made exclusively by mercenaries) quickly surrended to the Alliance, and asked to join the Enitian-Sul'Ashan league, that changed its name to the League of Abun'Rynbanir, which means "League of the Holy Land" in Enitian language.

So, in foreign politics, The Alliance went forward, crushing any kind of resistance against them, easily defeating all the southern kingdoms and making them join the league. Unlike other countries, Yaz didn't treat the defeated countries as inferior entities, but he gave them the same rights of the winner one, in order to not make them feel inferior and prepare them for the definitive unification, which arrived in year 0 of the Proto-History: the High Priests of Enit nominated Yaz the king of Abun, a new country made by the previous seven kingdoms of the South, and made Enit the capital of the new kingdom. In order to show his intents to the people, Yaz chose seven people from all the former kingdoms as counselors, and married a young Faywarite princess, Nejuz, who was 14 at the time, and was a Tokaya, according to most of the historians. The former kingdoms were re-organized into provinces, and each of them had its governor called "Rayos" and retaining their former laws. The Enitian dialect became the official language in all the provinces, where it begun to be studied along the local ones, and the same was done with Enitian alphabet. But the unification wasn't a straight-forward process, and Yaz knew that. There still were some groups of people who opposed the unification and led to unrests in some cities, while some of them planned a conspiration against the young Abunese king. The unrests were heavily financed by a nearby country, the Hexarcate of Zoniza, that officially opposed the unification of the southern Kingdoms, since it wanted to impose its egemony on the region and make them its colonies.

So, Yaz chose the strong manners to settle the unrests, and ordered the Army to arrest and kill everybody who opposed the unification, without passing through a trial. From year 3 to 7, also known as the "Years of Terror", hundreds of people were arrested and sentenced to death by decapitation or being feed to feral animals. During those years, people lived in fear and it was very easy to led someone to its fate by suspecting him of being an opposer of the unification, plus there wasn't a trial, so it's not unlikely that during those years many innocents were sentenced to death, but this cruel strategy proved to be effective, since every kind of resistance was defeated and from year 8 onwards, Abun was finally recognized as a united state and was recognized by the Zonizans, who previously refused to recognize it.

After the Years of Terror, Yaz changed his leadership strategy, focusing himself on improving and consolidating the economy of the entire kingdom and the provinces: many old buildings were demolished and rebuilt, new roads and public buildings were built, and it was in this period, year 10, that an Abunese engineer, Zuwor, discovered how to channel water into pipes and make a working plumbing system, allowing people to perform something that later would become an important ritual in the daily life of the Abunese: the Irul. The priests built new schools, called "Houses of Life" throughout all the kingdom, and the Enitian religion became the official state religion, without suppressing, the local religions and traditions, but integrating them into the Enitian one, paving the way to turn Abun into a united yet cosmopolitan country. A new calendar system was introduced too, and the year count begun after Yaz's election at king.

People were galvanized by what Yaz did, because he managed to do something that his predecessor never did, and under his reign, Abun became a rich and prosperous country. Due to his education as a priest, he also heavily financed culture and invited to his court many historians, poets and artists. He had twelve sons from Nejuz, but their names have been lost as no document mentioning them has been found yet. Yaz died in year 51, at the age of 78, leaving a new and powerful country to his successor, Nirini, a Fazan prince chosen by the Priests as the new King, who also became the first Emer king of Abun.

Today, the Abunese consider Yaz as a sort of a "mortal God", because he managed to merge seven states that did nothing other than fighting eachother, and his strategies kept them united even nowadays. Most of the traditions and the rituals that the Abunese currently do were born under his reign, and there are many temples, statues and frescoes dedicated to him. Usually, before a war, the Abunese generals pray to Yaz asking him to protect and guide them on the battlefield. However, despite the figure of Yaz is treated with high regard by all the Abunese, the archaeologists haven't found the location of his tomb, nor anything that belonged to his past: the family palace that was located in Theren is believed that was destroyed by an accidental fire in year 961, and nothing has been found of the original Royal Palace in Enit too, since it was demolished in year 524, to replace it with the current one, and no records of his twelve sons has been found in the libraries of the kingdom. All these things also contributed to increase the aura of myth around the first Abunese king, leading some historians to believe that he in fact never existed, but he is just a symbolic way to incarnate the power and prestige of Abun, in the figure of a king. The location of his tomb is unknown as well. According to the few documents that belong to that era, the tomb of Yaz was located in the outskirts of Enit, but the location was never specified in details, and this attracted a lot of archaeologists and looters, who kept (and keep) searching for what remains of the legendary king's tomb.

Very few are the artistic depictions of Yaz as well: a small alabaster statue that dates back to some decades after his death, and a fragment of a papyrus that is considered to be one of the best portraits of the Abunese king, that later gave the inspiration to the Enitian artist Nal'Elda Ryndra of the Peboya clan to make what later became as one of the most famous imaginary portraits of Yaz, that we can see above.