Yeder Wars

The Yeder Wars were a series of military conflicts between the Shár Empire and the various Proto-Elven clans that took place during the late 4th millennium BEKE and early 3th millennium, and resulted in the permanent displacement of the Proto-Elven tribes from their homeland, forcing them to migrate them eastwards, where they would eventually depart from the continent to colonize islands and island-hop to the continent of Artograch.

For the Proto-Elves and their descendants, the Yeder Wars became largely mythologized and as a result became parts of both Titanist and Naturalist mythologies.

The High Elven version
According to the Book of Visions - Titanist mythology the Yeder Wars started because of the Aureanorri - known as Re Ngor in Shár - and Tálavali - known as Tár Wár in Shár - tribes.

According to Titanist mythology, at the time, Proto-Elven society was going through a turmoil: for an unknown reason, women seemed to have grown prefer the company of women instead of men. Being a tribal society where men fought often deadly duels for women - yet paradoxically non-consensual sex was taboo (at least among fellow elves) -, this meant societal chaos, large number of men fighting each other for the remaining available women.

At the time, the Tálavali tribe was one of the most ferocious in raiding Shár settlements. However, due to the perceived shortage of elven women, a number of young males in the tribe threatened to leave and form their own tribe if the tribe's leader refused to outlaw homosexuality. The tribe's leader refused, so the leader of the young males, Adbánus - or Re'ngor Atbán in Shár - took the men, and founded his own tribe: the Aureanorri, immediately declaring a tribal feud on the Tálavali and vowing to exterminate them. During the first Aureanorri raid into Shár territory, they were stopped, but the clever Shár Emperor at the time offered them a chance to work with him. He said to them "Work for us against the raiders, and we will give you wives, gold and land. Refuse our offer and we will display your severed heads on our castles." Adbánus accepted the offer, and every single one of his men received a Shár wife.

Not so much later, Adbánus and his Aureanorri men made their move against the Tálavali, and with Shár support, they completely exterminated the Tálavali tribe. Shocked at this sudden and horrific act of aggression, the various other Proto-Elven tribal leaders decided to have a council: in that council, they agreed to unite their forces and declare an all-out war against the Shár. Later on, due to the number of young men defecting to the Aureanorri, they decided to outlaw homosexuality and force Proto-Elven women to marry Proto-Elven men. For Proto-Elven women, homosexual activity became an act of treason.

During the Yeder Wars - as described in the Book of Visions - even though the Proto-Elves eventually lost, the Aureanorri tribe was still punished fairly for their treason, getting completely exterminated.

It is very apparent that the High Elven version of the story is highly mythologized and is far from the reality: people do not simply go to war over trivial things such as sexuality. It is very likely, that the early Titanists wanted to write a cautionary tale about the downsides of absolute sexual freedom, and used the Yeder Wars as a basis. In fact, Shár records say that the Proto-Elves always lacked sexual freedoms, and the ritual execution of homosexuals was one of their savage rituals that Shár travellers wrote about from before the war. However, Adbánus was in fact a historical person. The Aureanorri on the other hand was not an offshoot of the Tálavali, but likely a separate and weaker tribe instead.

Shár records
The Shár version of the story is not mythologized, and likely has more truth to it than the heavily mythologized Elven versions. According to the Shár version of the story, the Yeder Wars started in 3201 and lasted until 2933. "Yeder" was the Shár name of the Proto-Elves, who migrated near to and raided the Shár Empire's eastern borders as early as 3300 BEKE, albeit trade happened too.

Before the Yeder Wars however, these raids were mostly weak and the equivalents of bandit activity: they mostly involved the stealing of farm animals and crops, rarely did rape or killing of massive numbers of Shár civilians actually take place. It is either that the Shár border guard was effective at keeping the Proto-Elves at bay, or that the Proto-Elves were not strong enough to challenge the Shár yet.

Then, several decades before the Yeder Wars started, Proto-Elven raids got much more intense and aggressive, with killing, raping and enslaving of Shár civilians taking place. This was already giving the Shár a valid casus belli against the Proto-Elves, but the complacent ruling class was unwilling to go to war, preferring to burry their heads in the sand and believe that the problem will eventually sort itself out. The problem however did not solve itself, but in fact got much worse. Through word of mouth, rumours about the Proto-Elves calling a massive tribal council to plan an invasion of the Shár Empire reached the ears of the Shár Emperor. Then, the Re Ngor tribe came running to the Shár, surrendering on spot and explaining how the other Proto-Elven tribes were planning a massive invasion, and that the Re Ngor was declared a tribe of traitors for disagreeing.

Supposedly, Emperor Shiu Bou Rí decided to hire the Re Ngor tribe, paying them with gold, pastures and prostitutes, in exchange for helping to defend the Shár Empire against the other Proto-Elves, and trying to infiltrate the other tribes and find more traitors who would be interested in working for the Shár. The Re Ngor tribe however - blinded by promises of rewards by the Shár Emperor - overreached its authority and attacked another Proto-Elven clan, completely slaughtering them and taking away their supplies. While the Emperor did in fact reward tribe for their performance, little did he know that this action effectively started an all-out war - the other tribes called their tribal council and declared the invasion. So started the series of devastating wars that would be known as the Yeder Wars.