Jarpr

Jarpr
Statue of Jarpr in Gdylowa
Grand Chief of the Bosrei
Personal details
Born	418 CE?
Died	465 CE
Cause of death	Assassinated

Jarpr was a warlord and Grand Chieftan of the Bosrei in the mid-5th Century. He is most famous for waging war against the Symmerian Empire between 456-461 CE.

The son of Orthlo, Jarpr was a member of the Gylmer, a tribe of Bosrei that inhabited the present-day province of Siedlce in Górska. The Gylmer, along with the rest of the Bosrei, were an offshoot of the Nordic peoples that competed with the expansionist Symmerian Empire that had colonized the southern coast of Górska. By the 5th Century the Bosrei had been steadily pushed back into northern Górska, ceding much of the land to the Symmerians. This increased pressure on the Bosrei led to severe infighting, which Jarpr took to at an early age. According to the Symmerian historian Nikomedes, Jarpr had subjugated two rival tribes, the Helmnir and the Churrigo, before the age of 25. Jarpr's exact birth date is unknown, but believed to be around 418 CE.

Jarpr turned his attention towards the Symmerians following the death of his father at their hands in 445 CE, after which Jarpr began pushing for Bosrei unity as a means of driving the Symmerians out of Boreagros entirely. this ultimately required a lengthy campaign of subjugation of several warring tribes, which lasted until 453. On more than one occasion Jarpr brought others to heel by defeating selected champions in single combat, which further increased his prestige and recognition among the Bosrei. With the Symmerian Empire embroiled in the 16 Years' Crisis, Jarpr began acting against the Symmerians directly. In 456 Jarpr publicly declared that no further Symmerian presence across the Hrimhal River would be tolerated.

In 457 Jarpr marched his forces south and sacked the city of Sephatateous, enslaving the inhabitants before marching west and assaulting Alkininya (modern day Górnitom). Jarpr then met a Symmerian army under Telephos of Chryse in battle at Prothiam, which Jarpr won. The Symmerians rapidly fled in the face of his army, while Jarpr's numbers swarmed to over 100,000. Jarpr's actions had drawn the attention of the Symmerian King Alexarchus, who abandoned his campaigns in Mansuriyyah to return to Syara and raise an army. The unpopular Alexarchus struggled to acquire the forces deemed necessary to battle Jarpr, but the Symmerian King chose to embark and head for Boreas despite his relatively small force of 40,000 men. Although he purchased the services of some 10,000 mercenaries upon arriving in Eracura, Jarpr still outnumbered Alexarchus significantly.

Jarpr was surprised by the speed and audacity of the Symmerian advance and his vanguard was annihilated at Iselo. Uncertain of Symmerian intentions, Jarpr headed west to besiege Eptimalgos along the coast, hoping to cut off the Symmerians from their primary base of operations. The Symmerian pursuit against surprised Jarpr, who found himself pinned between the Symmerian garrison at Eptimalgos and Alexarchus, but with numbers on his side Jarpr decided to give battle. Despite the advantage of more troops, the Bosrei were defeated by the cavalry maneuvers of Alexarchus's companions and Tennaiite mercenaries, and the center body of the Bosrei ruptured after intense infantry combat.

Jarpr fled north with what remained of his army, camping during the winter and trying to rebuild his strength. In the spring Jarpr settled his army near Selmentaris, hoping to use the Borean River as a defensive line from which to prevent the Symmerians from pillaging Bosrei lands in the north. Jarpr expected to fight another battle, but it never came; while leading a recon-in-force in 459 CE Alexarchus was ambushed by Jarpr's men and the Symmerian King captured. Jarpr had Alexarchus brought before him, planning on ransoming Alexarchus to the Symmerian Royal Court as a means of reversing Symmeria's presence in Eracura. Jarpr's plan fell apart when Alexarchus revealed that his long standing rivalry with the Court meant they would not spare a single coin to save their King. Furious at this revelation, Jarpr slit his throat and dumped his body into the Borean, where it was recovered by the Symmerians the next day.

The Symmerians temporarily withdrew, which allow Jarpr to resume the offensive. He briefly regained the initiative by sacking Tellmus and moved south with his army, but after a year of relative peace the Symmerians returned under Eurymedon and defeated Jarpr in a series of battles along the Hrimhal and Borean Rivers. Jarpr was forced to retreat back into Siedlce, with his reputation badly damaged. Without an army to resist the Symmerians and their people once again compressed into a constrained region, infighting once again resurfaced among the Bosrei. Jarpr attempted to maintain unity among the tribes but struggled to do so in the face of his repeated defeats. In 465 he was killed in a duel with Gyyrmohr, a rival chieftain after an argument over leadership of the Bosrei broke out.

Jarpr remains a folk hero in modern Górska, despite being from a different ethno-lingusitic group than modern Górskans. A statue of him stands in Gdylowa, near the reported homeland of this tribe, and several locations across the Republic bear his name.