Checking the source material I have on pre-historic Western Peloria (i.e. Entekosiad, with small bits from Broken Council, TFS, GRoY and Genertela Box) I came to wonder which culture Daxdarius belonged to. The story of his fight against the Andam Horde calls his homeland Oroninian. Was he an Oroninelan? Did he and his warriors wear blue paint, or even have blue skin?
I still have difficulties getting Daxdarius, Idomon and his grandson Gartemirus, and Bisos into a sequence.
The Tawari seem to have been one of the many barbarian belt "cattle and cart" groups, like the Andams, the Ram People of Plentonic fame, or the tribes of Erlandus and Ovadorudum (like the Ram People, mentioned in the Yolp Mountains myth in GRoY). The Brass Mountains Story in Entekosiad tells yet another version of how the "cattle and cart" people with their swords were destroyed by volcanoes. The only variant of this story where the volcano loses is the invasion of Oronin to Mt. Turos.
The Bisosae invasion encounters cities, but claims that the Pelandan agriculture still was primitive. The Brass Mountains story tells that Digging Stick knew the secret of Pela - i.e. horticulture with grain, like the Amerinds of the Great Plains practised near the great rivers. The Bisosae bring the plow from their homeland in Charg, later Vanstal, where their ancestor received it from the metal people - Third Eye Blue, or the Nidan Mostali.
The dating problem comes with the fact that the Bisosae seem to defeat the Oroninelans effortlessly, while the Daxdarian hoplites defeat the Andams effortlessly. Entekosiad mentions a "Bull Stops Here" battle which seems to have been fought somewhere between the Oronin region and Karantes.
Worse, the Bisosae have stories from Bisos' victory over King Blue to the Bleak Period, and through the kazkurtum. None of these mention Gartemirus or Daxdarius. The Gartemirus cycle ("High Pelanda") mentions Jernotia/us and King Blue, but this could be related to Bisos' victory over him.
One easy solution to the problem would be to say that the Andam Horde stopped by Daxdarius was identical to Herantho's bull army stopped by ArLenish (although that battle might have come from era of the return of the Bisosae to Pelanda). We know from Plentonius and the Yolp Mountain story that the "total destruction" of enemy armies never was that complete...
Still, this seems too easy.
Another subject of indecision is whether Daxdarius or Idomon the Prophet and his grandson Gartemirus came first. In this case a later Gartemirus act (Gartemirus and Eskarlarvus) seems to be connected with Manarlarvus building of the dome, and possibly the original "I Hate Darjiin Usurpers" event. Daxdarius' fight against the Andams seems to predate this, paralleling the advance of the Ram people (under Urvairinus). However, the first war of Urvairinus (against the King of Naveria, the Lord of Seven (i.e. the Pelandan High Gods on Mt. Jernotius?) might relate to this event, too. Worse, Valare Addi mentions that Daxdarius and Gartemirus were contemporaries...
Frankly, I think that Valare's bullshitting of the Carmanian historians at the beginning of the Daxdarian epic is as historically uncorrect as she accuses the Carmanians to be. This doesn't make the Carmanians right, but at least less wrong.
I am left with three post-flood (i.e. post blue invasion), pre-Greater Darkness civilisations for roughly the same period and area - Bisos to the southwest, around Lake Oronin, Daxdarius in the lower Oronin valley, and Gartemirus for the same cities.
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #168
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