From Tapaciore, the online grimoire

For the late-Rioren Dynasty politician, see Gorpen, Governor Eigeran
“Eigeran” and “Yarlen Eigeran” redirect here.  For other uses, see Eigeran (disambiguation) and Yarlen Eigeran (disambiguation)

Yarlen Eigeran Gwymden of Prówit Nod, Lord by the King’s Writ, BE 812-902, [see Deklegion methods of formal address]  was a Deklegion courtier most well known for his part in circumventing/averting the Dekleg–Elherion Empire war in the years of 847-852. He is also renowned (although less so in his own nation) for his work in poetry. Eigeran invented three new poetic forms/styles, one in his native Deklegion dialect of Shoktu and two in Middle Elherith (having spent much of his later life living in the Elherion Empire).^[1]

Among his best-known works and accomplishments are the Treaty of the Cliff, a diplomatic treatise in four languages (Shoktu, Deklegia, Middle Elherith, and Carruph) which is credited not only with ending the conflict at hand but solving several entrenched problems in both Dekleg and in the Elherion Empire.  Because the Treaty was considered a diplomatically manipulative document as well as a translation, he was called The Thief of the Cliff or The Lord of Lies both in life and for many decades after his death. The latter title gained him a resurgence of interest from younger generations in both Elherion and in Dekleg twice — in the 18th century and then again in the 24th century. 

See Full Article: Treaty of the Cliff

Almost as well known and certainly adding to his notoriety was the Canto of Lies, a piece written while cementing the style and rules of his third poetic form, the shotkabo (“repeating”). Also known in poetic circles as the “Canto of Bitterness,” it is said to have been intended as an autobiographical piece detailing many of the ills that Eigeran felt that he had suffered at the hands of his nation of birth.^[2] 

See Full Article: Canto of Lies

Eigeran was well known as a traveler and a connoisseur of the exotic in the years before the Dekleg-Elherion Empire crisis. After the Treaty of the Cliff, he took it upon himself to “discover” every corner of the Elherion Empire in what he called his Tour of the Bear.  His travel memoir, Discovery of a Lost Empire, is a matter of some contention within the Elherion Empire, as few in Elherit feel that they are or have ever been “lost”.^[3]

He sired four known children in his lifetime – two to his wives in Dekleg, Yarlen Gwcherro, Lady of Gwymden Heights, and Yarlen Porioa, and two later to a wife in the Imperial Capital, Claw of the Bear Shoarrin.  It is a common conceit in poetic circles to claim un-written descendance from Eigeran, either with a Deklegion Ranger or with another woman of the Imperial Claw, depending on the story-teller’s preferences and ethnicity, but none of these claims has ever been proven.^[4]

Early Life

Further information: Early life of Yarlen Eigeran

Gwymden Eigeran was born in spring of 812 to a family-marriage of a weaver, a tailor, and a sempstress who lived above their shop in the trade quarter of the Deklegion city of Dóntutse, near the southern border with Halor and on the óDóntutse River.  The family record-book states that he first began to apprentice to the trades of his parents when he was six years old and notes that he was considered a late starter at that age.^[5] He liked the fine fabrics, however, and by the age of 10 had taken up selling his own weaving and making his own weave patterns.^[6]

A portrait painted of the Gwymden line in Eigeran’s childhood — it is dated to approximately 823 — shows him in the style he would later become known for; he is dressed in brocade with an all-over pattern, the colors bright and the cut slimmer than was the fashion.  Records from that era suggest that his innovations were already beginning to make a great deal of money for the Gwymden family. 

See Full Article: Gwymden Family Line.

In 827, Eigeran vanished from the Gwymden family records: He is listed in their weaving books in 826 and not afterwards.  

His own accounts of this time tell that he left Dóntutse and traveled with a trader to Derkorkó.  There, he apprenticed to a wealthy tailor and tripped into a marriage with the tailor’s daughter and her lover, who was also the heir to Prówit Heights. ^{[citation needed]}

Early Career

Eigeran and his equally well-dressed^{[according to whom?]} wives became a staple of the Derkorkgion gossip circuit by 828.  In Lady Yuntegaru‘s letters to Lord Ragaren, a sweetheart of hers in the court of King Shójóarn, she describes not only the fine cut of their clothing but the way that this “upjumped tailor” seemed to simply insert himself and his wives into any situation.  Soon, a second husband and a third wife were added to the family and the Governor of Derkorkó had granted them a family name of Yarlen. [see Deklegion family names in the Shójóarn Dynasty Era].

After a year of letters, Lady Yuntegaru appears to have forgotten^{[editorializing]} that Eigeran was “upjumped”; her mentions of him or the Yarlen family are only of the styles she has had copied and the brocades that nobody else can source. ^[7]

By the age of 24, Eigeran and the Yarlan family had been invited into the court of King Shójóarn, where Eigeran was granted a title of Lord and command of a small troop of Rangers and Elite Soldiers. 

The King’s Register from this time lists Eigeran as being very active in both the capital and in Derkorkó; indeed, the entire Yarlen Family Line was thriving.  Eigeran discusses his career in that era in these terms:

Although I had never before been a Magistrate, I found myself a Magistrate when the Governor liked my scarf.  Although I had never before led a military unit, I found myself in charge of brilliant soldier because the King liked the cut of my trews.  And while my family made brilliant business decisions and my fathers-by-line continued to put forth my fabric and clothing designs to the wealthy, I found myself in position after position of great power while having made no greater accomplishment than simply being very well-dressed.  And so it struck me that I ought to continue to remain very well-dressed. 

I am told that, in my absence (or exile, as we might fashion it), the Family of Yarlen continues to be very well dressed.  May it suit them as well as it did me, and my children climb to greatness with very nice scarves.  

—  Eigeran (863), p9, translated by Pserrun (2006), p12-13.

First Travels

While Eigeran had moved easily from Dóntutse to Derkorkó and from Derkorkó back and forth to the capital, he had not, prior to 838, traveled outside of these places.  Indeed, he had been known to say – such that several nobles of the era and even one priest-scribe wrote it down in nearly the same words – “there is no purpose in seeing the world when the world itself has come to cities such as Derkorkó and the Royal Capital.”^[7],[8,][9]

In the spring of 838, with his wife Porioa pregnant with her second child, Eigeran found himself sent to the Haloran border to resolve a territorial issue.  While he traveled with a troop led by three Rangers, Eigeran had been put in ultimate charge of this mission. 

He came back with a sketchbook of clumsy drawings of the buildings and clothing of this territory^[9] and stacks of samples of the fibers and dyestuffs available there. 

As Yarlen Porioa’s letters to her mother say at this time, “it was as if a floodgate had opened for Eigeran.  The world held more colors and softer fibers! Therefore he must discover everything in the world!”^[10]

As luck would have it, the king would continue to send Eigeran to every corner of Dekleg and from there also to the nearby countries, even to the Elherion Empire, with whom Dekleg had at the time relations that were best described as shaky.^{[citation needed]}

As Eigeran traveled, his letters home became more detailed – Yarlen Porioa collected all of his letters and those from herself and Yarlen Gwcherro, Yarlen Redgoret and Yarlen Porenen and their children which he saved and returned to her on his ventures back to his family – and he became more visibly enamored of the differences across Dekleg and south into Halor and Forenet.  He would often attach his sketches – still clumsy ^{[according to whom?]} but with increasing skill visible.  He’d also send home envelopes of plant stuffs, cloth samples and, as the years turned from the 830s to the 840s, he began to send home translations of poetry and his own attempts at the same.^[11]

One of Eigeran’s most famous poems, The Water’s Edge, comes from that era and was originally “published” in a hand-made woodcut by the oldest child of the Yarlen family line, named Eigerret although family papers say he was Yarlen Porenen’s son.  A replica of that woodcut can be found in the Imperial Museum of History in the capital; the originals are considered lost to history .^[12]

Troubles

Eigeran continued as he had begun in many ways: his best skill, as he himself had said, was that he was well-dressed and had an eye for fabric patterns.  He was directly spoken at times and had no qualms admitting he was unqualified for a position he had been given. This gained him some enemies and some allies, as well as bringing him to the attention of a number of people, including some of King Shójóarn’s allied and cronies. ^[13]

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Talk: Lord Eigeran

Eigeran the Hero?

I have flagged – again – the section of the summary which states that Eigeran was “Credited not only with ending the conflict at hand but solving several long-running problems in both his native Dekleg and in the Elherion Empire.” This is patently ridiculous.  Why not credit the actual Bear citizens who were there? Why credit Eigeran, who – according to Nifanne [1] spent most of the conflict in question in an Imperial prison for invading the Empire?  Redreed (talk) 02:30, 29 Porten, 2407

Maybe because Eigeran is a documented historical figure and Bear-Claw Dedenarrion is a myth? She’s a ghost; there’s no record of her actually existing. It’s hard to write a Tapa article on someone whose best-known accomplishments are impossible and for whom there is not a single primary source.  Toothytooth (talk) 02:45, 29 Porten, 2407

@Toothytooth: What do you mean, “no single primary source?”  You’re not looking in the same places. There’s the portrait in the Imperial complex,^[2] there’s the List of the Bear,^[3] there’s the Memoir of Eigeran himself, there’s the Whispers of the City^[4] from the year of the conflict between the Empire and Dekleg.  If you don’t think she exists, you’re clearly just cherry-picking the pieces you want to prove your point. Redreed (talk) 02:52, 29 Porten, 2407

@Redreed : First of all, the Imperial complex paintings are almost all repaints from the early 11th century.  See The Painter Metronne and The Great Fire for reference.  There’s no proof that Metronne painted from anything but memories of the survivors of the fire, so the fact that an Emperor in that era had a wide line-family in portraits doesn’t specific the existence of any single wife.   Secondly, after that fire, a huge swath of the Imperial records were lost, and the only proof that even the Emperor Mesaruxenne even existed, much less his wives, is suspicious at best.  

Continuing, the Lists of the Bear are great, but there’s no listing of a Dedenarrion anywhere in there.  The Chief of the Claw of the Bear in the time of the crisis between Dekleg and the Empire – at least the legendary crisis and the one Eigeran wrote the Treaty of the Cliff for – was a Deline.  I can see how you’d be confused, but that is not Dedenarrion. And after that, the Whispers of the City were notoriously coded, complex, and context-reliant. Without that context, any connection you’re making is suspect. MilesToGo (talk) 3:09, 29 Porten, 2407

Because obviously MilesToGo is the name you use in everyday life.  Redreed (talk) 3:10, 29 Porten, 2407

@Redreed : Look, if you’re going to start attacking other editors, maybe it’s time to cool off?  Regardless of the existence of Dedenarrion and/or Mesaruxenne, the text as I write this says that Eigeran is credited with solving the crisis.  I think this discussion is clear enough proof that he is credited with that resolution. TellTheCat (talk) 3:12, 29 Porten 2407

Although one has to admit that an actual reference would be useful.  Two added. FriendlyNeighborhoodShadow (talk) 3:12, 29 Porten 2470

I’ve been convinced to, as it was put, “allow Eigeran to be a hero on his own page” and have gone to work on the Dedenarrion page.  Eigeran, by his own admission, even by the things quoted “on his own page”, was a well-dressed man who happened to be in the right place at the right time.  Hardly a hero. But I’m not going to make things worse and start an editing war for the guy. I’ll leave that to you all. Redreed (talk) 4:15, 29 Porten, 2407

Cloth of Diamond added to Tapaciore: List of hoaxes on Tapaciore

I’ve added Eigeran’s “Vest of Diamond” to Tapaciore: List of hoaxes on Tapaciore and corrected the edits that claimed he had such a vest and was buried in it.  I’ve also correct the information on his burial again. 

The Diamond Vest has recently been quoted twice in ‘vid shows but its original source (link now broken – was here) – has been debunked several times.  She was a 2000th-century grave robber who spread rumors about graves both to make her own accomplishments seem larger and to distract other grave robbers. 

According to the Tokerra Burial Site (where Eigeran was actually buried, according to all records of the time), Eigeran’s resting-place has been disturbed so frequently that for 100 years, they stopped repairing the damages and actually left a ladder down into the grave there (after one enterprising but, presumably, clumsy grave-robber fell in and died before they were discovered).  

Of course, the place where Eigeran is said to have been buried,  over on the East Coast in Eliranne, put up three rows of fences and have guards there day and night, and they’ve still been vandalized twice this year – once from the producer of one of the ‘vid shows (although that’s speculation, not proven). 

Anyway, I fixed the burial site and deleted the Vest of Diamond and if we all want to go grave-robbing, we ought to check out the Grave-Robber Hoax site first.  JafenTold (talk) 22:54, 05 Lurxenne 2402

@JafenTold: it’s really a hoax?  I read the Grave-Robber Hoax site twice and it doesn’t actually say anything about the Vest of Diamond.  Perhaps it’s one of those situations where it’s thought to be a hoax, like the Staff of the First Emperor, but it’s actually a true item? BearChild (talk) 12:18, 27 Lurxenne 2402

@BearChild: hope you didn’t have a Rail ticket for Eilranne ready.  The Vest of Diamond is one of the Great Lies people like to tell younger people, and it has been — according to at least three sources I’ve found.  See The Complete History of Lord Eigeran, by Telenar Jaron, Travelling the Land of the Bear, by Western-Sun Cerane, and Diamond Makes Lousy Clothes, an extensive study, found online at [url]. Kekeli (talk), 13:19, 28 Lurxenne 2402.

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While it was my intention to post these on the site where they were prompted, Patreon was not up to the task of formatting this in the least, and voila, you have a wiki article on Lord Eigeran from Running in the Bear Empire.

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