Gyadrul

The Gyadrul were feared warriors, settling much of upland Duran.

The Gyadrul (Namkha: བརྒྱསྦྲུལ), Hundred Drul, or sometimes Drul, were an assortment of ethnic groups which invaded and settled Duran during the period of the Namrong dynasty, the first major Nampa Valley state. Believed to be uncivilised by the Namrong due to their unsedentary lifestyles, artefacts have been recovered which instead attest to skilful metalworking and their skill at weaving is attested in many historical records.

Though viewed as related or confederated peoples by the Namrong, recent genealogical and historiographic research into Gyadrul typesites has revealed that they were likely successive waves of migrations of peoples displaced by the expansion of the Shangean state to the south which violently assimilated other ethnic groups. The Gyadrul migrations occured over a period of roughly 700 years, with varying degrees of violence between the Namrong state, migrating peoples, and established people groups in the Duranian highlands. The mountainous regions of the South Coian Massif functioned as a shatter zone, absorbing large and diverse populations of refugee groups. For much of the Namrong dynasty, the Gyadrul were seen to be the major existential threat to the state's existence. As the Xiang dynasty emerged as a larger existential threat, Gyadrul groups were settled in border regions more frequently and the terminology was eventually phased out.

Many of the modern day hill tribes are descended from the Gyadrul, as while some tribes would be wiped out others were able to successfully settle the highland regions. This has affected the usage of Gyadrul as a term, as it is viewed as highly derogatory in the modern context.

Naming

The word "Gyadrul" (Namkha: བརྒྱསྦྲུལ) first appeared in classical court annals around 650 BCE, coinciding with the early expansions of the Xiang dynasty in Shangea. The term is formed from the words བརྒྱ gya, meaning hundred, and སྦྲུལ drul, meaning dog. The word drul was used to designate the way that the Gyadrul "fled northwards like stray dogs driven away, and now scrap amongst themselves and with civilised peoples for their leavings". The Shangean term used for such peoples was 北狄 Běidí, meaning "Northern Barbarians". In modern times the term Drul is often seen to be a slur against tribal peoples in Duran.