The Durha occupied the harshest, most unfavorable swath of grassland. Never particularly numerous, they were the most backwards and isolationist of the great tribes. Among them, Vathris’s teaching found little purchase. They had little to do with the outside world; their sacred traditions taught them that the Old Ways nurtured and protected them, providing all that they required. They saw no need to garner additional succor. While their eastern neighbors were taking the first tentative steps on the path to nationhood, the Durha yet dwelled in tents. Their chiefs and wisemen viewed farming and building as effeminate and unworthy of their proud warrior heritage, and thus their doom was wrought.

It is no surprise, therefore, that the Durha caused the invading Sulmi forces little trouble. While individually brave – even foolhardy – in battle, their warriors died by the score in desperate charges against Sulm’s disciplined spearmen. Most of the survivors retreated into the deepest parts of their territory to wage a bitter, but ultimately futile, guerilla war against their hated foes. A few sought sanctuary amongst the lower peaks of the Abbor-Alz, among which the Sulmi declined to follow.

Ancient History of the Bright Desert