Yelthiss Tyri
Yelthiss Tyri | |
|---|---|
 Yelthiss Tyri in 1963 | |
| Lady Protector of the Senari League | |
| In office 14 July 1963 – 8 August 1989 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Myros Delkyni |
| Governor of Teren | |
| In office 17 April 1961 – 14 July 1963 | |
| Preceded by | Sourik Delenir |
| Succeeded by | None (Governorship dissolved) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Mylakiri Tyri 6 September 1936 Tirynn, Teren Governorship |
| Died | 4 July 1998 (aged 61) Teren, Senalan |
| Cause of death | Brain cancer |
| Resting place | Yelthiss Tyri Mausoleum, Teren, Senalan |
| Spouse | Dyssi Mylai (m. 1968–1994) |
| Parents |
|
| Occupation | Politician, farmer, military leader, political philosopher |
| Awards | Order of the Serpents (awarded by Lord Protector Myros Delkyni but declined by Tyri) |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Senalan |
| Branch/service | Army |
| Years of service | 1954-1969 |
| Rank | Warchief of the Senari |
| Battles/wars | |
Yelthiss Tyri (born Mylakiri Tyri; 6 September 1936 - 4 July 1998) was a Senari stateswoman, farmer, military leader and political philosopher who served as the first Lady Protector of the Senari League. She is referred to as the "Mother of the League" in Senalan for her role in the restoration of a centralized Senari government following a 44-year period of multisided civil wars. Tyri is unique among Senari political leaders due to her posthumous deification by the Priesthood of the Four Courts, owing to her pivotal role in their establishment as a political and cultural force in Senalan.
Tyri was the daughter of a prosperous peasant family near modern-day Teren. Drafted by the military of the Teren Governorship in 1954 shortly after her eighteenth birthday, she developed a strong desire to put an end to Senari civil strife, articularly influenced by the writings of Southin Mylithis, the pro-League Warchief of the Senari who attempted to restore the federal government to power before being assassinated. Seeing her military service as an opportunity rather than a burden, Tyri quickly rose through the ranks of the Tereni Grand Army, a meritocratic institution that saw itself as the rightful continuation of the defunct Grand Army of the Senari League. By 1961, she had risen to replace the ailing military governor of Teren, and she ultimately led the Grand Army to victory against all other remaining factions fighting in the Bleeding Years. By 1963, the Bleeding Years had ended and Senalan was again proclaimed.
Tyri is widely considered to be one of the greatest modern Senari leaders, despite constant postwar political struggle and health problems. Following the reestablishment of the Senari League, she remained in power for some 26 years thereafter in order to oversee the country's postwar reconstruction. She solidified her control through a series of land, cultural and institutional reforms in order to bring the country through its period of stagnation. In 1965 she declared the organization of the Four Courts, a centralized Senari priesthood directly affiliated with the state, formally banning all other forms of worship, and in 1967 she launched the Great Blossoming, a rapid and traumatic overhaul of the Senari economy that intended to drive it from domination by subsistence farming to an industrialized, production-based economy which resulted in a deadly period of famine and unrest rivalling the worst of the Bleeding Years. Her reforms marked almost a decade of violent class struggle and the development of a fanatic cult of personality despite controversies within and outside Senalan. Though she had seized dictatorial powers for herself by 1963, Tyri continued to assert that her ultimate goal was a return to the democratic tradition that defined the Senari League before its collapse in 1919. After publicly acknowledging a diagnosis with brain cancer in 1989, Tyri retired and permitted Myros Delkyni to succeed her as Lord Protector following a public pledge from the man to uphold her dream of an eventual return to democratic rule.
Tyri has been praised for transforming Senalan from a wartorn backwater to a prominent power in Meredonne, expanding literacy, industrial capacity, healthcare, education and life expectancy. Her government, however, was responsible for the deaths of millions of Senari through starvation and persecution, as well as the repression of many diverse Senari religious practices in favour of a single, unified cult.
Early Life
Youth and Drafting
Tyri was born on September 6, 1936 in Tirynn, a farming village near the city of Teren. The only daughter of the most affluent farmers in Tirynn, Tyri described her early life as comfortable and relatively privileged considering her family's peasant status. The Tyri family were devout worshipers of the Spring Serpent, the fertility goddess commonly associated with the Tereni Senari, and at the age of twelve Tyri was briefly considered as a candidate for ritual sacrifice to the Spring Serpent in Tirynn's Tsuna-Atsar celebrations. She was spared in favour of a healthier girl, as Tyri had developed asthma shortly after birth.
During her time working with her parents at Tirynn, Tyri was an avid reader. She credited her father's gift of the memoirs of Southin Mylithis with kickstarting her political awareness, greatly admiring the murdered Warchief for his political and military brilliance as well as his often-stated adoration for the Old Senari League, which had, by that point, been defunct for over thirty years. Her political beliefs were shaped by a combination of her reading and the ongoing turmoil between the Tereni Governorship and the Priestly State of Goltiris, two of the myriad factions fighting in the ongoing Bleeding Years. When she came of age at eighteen, Tyri was summarily drafted by the Tereni Grand Army in order to defend the state against increasingly ambitious attacks by Goltiris. She would not see her family again. Tyri later credited her drafting as a key moment in her life; she claims it was the moment she truly decided that she would do all she could to put the Bleeding Years to an end.
Markswoman: 1954-1956
Having ample experience with guns as a result of her agrarian upbringing, Tyri was quickly recognized by her immediate superiors as a skilled markswoman. She was credited with no fewer than fifty kills with a long-ranged rifle during her time in foot service; Tyri would later claim a figure of seventy-eight, though the extra 28 kills cannot be conclusively verified. The majority of her time would be spent holding defensive positions along the shores of Lake Teren, a key front in the Goltiric advance.
Fighting continued on and off for roughly two years; these long, protracted, gradual campaigns were typical of the mid-stage Bleeding Years. Towards the end of 1956, in service along the northwestern shore of Lake Teren, upon hearing about the death of her commanding officer, Tyri left her post to temporarily assume a leadership position and hold the line as the most senior soldier present. A short time later, as the Goltiric advance stopped and Teren declared victory, Tyri had received a number of commendations from her superiors for her leadership. She was promoted to the commanding role of Sword-Sayer following the conclusion of the Goltiric advance.
Military Command
Goltiris and Qiescashi
Within a month of Tyri's promotion to the role of Sword-Sayer, Goltiric farmlands were wracked with blight. With food distribution already difficult as a result of infrastructure and institutional decay brought on by decades of civil war, crop failures were always a deadly possibility. Goltiric advances into the neighbouring agricultural state of Qiescashi had the goal of securing farmlands and stored crops in order to bolster their own stores, but their progress was slow and Goltiris' priestly leadership grew increasingly desperate to find a solution. A second invasion of Teren was launched in early January of 1957, a mere month after the fighting between the two states had concluded. Between the continued struggle against Qiescashi and Tyri's scorched earth tactics during her command on the eastern front, Goltiris quickly grew to be incapable of continuing the war effort. The entire state was partitioned between the victorious republics of Teren and Qiescashi, who entered into an uneasy alliance - brokered by the Governor of Teren upon Tyri's recommendation - in order to prevent the same sort of two-front war that doomed Goltiris. This alliance would endure until the end of the Bleeding Years; Qiescashi was one of the states that voluntarily submitted to Tereni hegemony.
The Landing at Vaisi Canal
During the time of the Old Senari League, the Vaisi canal - which divided the eponymous Isthmus of Vaisi, permitting access from Lake Teren to the greater Gulf of Senar - was directly operated by the federal government despite its location within the greater state of Vsiirin. Old Speakers of the Senari League claimed the title of Warden of Vaisi as a result; as the Teren Governorship claimed to be the rightful continuation of this government, its leadership coveted the title as well as the economic boon that the canal would bring. Tyri, who had quickly become the favourite of the Tereni Warchief for her tactical ability, was given direct oversight of a planned Tereni landing at the canal which would quickly transform into an occupation of Vsiirin.
In 1959, some 20 000 Tereni soldiers landed at numerous points along the northern shores of the isthmus using specially-designed landing craft. Amphibious armoured vehicles were also employed in their first large-scale use in Senari history. Combined with the support of famed admiral Nylik Myndi, who successfully suppressed shore batteries with his bombardments of the area as well as Tereni codebreakers, Tyri's landing was immediately successful in securing the canal and its surroundings for the Tereni. A halfhearted counteroffensive by Vsiirini troops was launched shortly after the landing, but the Tereni were able to hold their own and eventually secure the entirety of the isthmus, stationing garrisons at both ends and entrenching themselves. On April 4th, 1959, Tyri was named Warden of Vaisi by Governor Sourik Delenir, though this provoked the anger of Admiral Myndi, who was himself expecting to receive the title. The two would continue to campaign together despite a frosty interpersonal relationship.
Entrenching, the Warchief and Entrapment
Tyri's recommendations to the Tereni Warchief were to not pursue any further territorial gains until it could be guaranteed that none of Teren's neighbouring states were planning to take advantage of any potential distractions. A two-year period of relative peace ensued, where Tereni garrisons were bolstered and traffic through the Vaisi Canal helped to fill the state's ever-increasing need for funds. Though border skirmishes with the remnants of the Vsiirini and the neighbouring Degyru Rectorate continued throughout this time, very few territorial changes along Teren's borders occurred at this time. Following the death of the Warchief in early 1961, Tyri assumed the position - again, to the anger of the more senior Myndi.
The ailing Governor of Teren and the new Warchief devised a plan to connect their territories in Vsiirin to the rest of Teren, which would involve taking over, at minimum, a coastal corridor along Lake Teren that presently belonged to the Degyru Rectorate. Tyri, however, intended to secure the entirety of Degyru's territory for Teren in spectacular fashion. She would execute - and apparently fail - a planned coup against the Governor, and flee with her forces to find new employment in Degyru, before seizing control of the country for the Tereni.
In March 1961, Warchief Tyri executed the plan. Mock demonstrations wracked Teren for a day, and then she quickly withdrew south. In a meeting at the border with Degyru, the woman was quickly ushered in, as her reputation was already known beyond Teren. Just outside the city of Degyru - which her soldiers could not enter armed - she gave the signal, and the city was surrounded. Unwilling to abandon the northern and eastern borders to the Tereni, only a token force was sent to reinforce the city. By the time they arrived, the capital had already capitulated to the Warchief, who promised amnesty to the state's leadership in exchange for annexation. The Rectorate was incorporated into the Tereni government as the Order of Mechanists at Tyri's behest, and they would eventually play a key role in her reorganization of Senalan twelve years later.
As the news broke of the coup being a farce, the people of Teren rejoiced, as their so-called hero had not abandoned them. When elections for the Governorship were held months later, Tyri won in a landslide, holding both the offices of Warchief and Governor of Teren. Her state now stretched from the northern shores of Lake Teren to the south, and her allies in Qiescashi held the east following a successful invasion of the priestly state of Giel-Andek. For the first time since 1919, the sound of gunfire was not heard around Lake Teren.