[mcman]

Name: Athena Godfrey
Gender: Female
Race: Leonderian (Mesalian)
Age: 31 years old

Profession: Handmaiden of the Sulenic Oracle
Occupation: Fortune-Teller, Huntress, Folklorist

Traits

Appearance: Decently tan complexion, long grey-brown hair with amber eyes, with a slightly tall and athletic build for a female. She wears a burgundy cloak over a black robe, with a glaucous scarf and mustard sash.

Behavior: Owing to her work as a fortune-teller, her speech can be quite cryptic at times, but the silvery tone of her voice can sometimes contradict her harsh words. Her movement is graceful and deliberate, but her overall impression is slightly withdrawn. She lacks somewhat with regard to refined etiquette and can sometimes seem like a bird of prey in her behavior.

Personality: While mostly calm, prudent, wise, and principled, she can occasionally be vengeful to those who betray her trust or calculating in that she believes that the ends sometimes justify the means. She is usually courageous and very assertive, resisting any conventional gender roles that might idealize more timid and passive femininity, but she can be stubborn at times. Her sarcastic sense of humor might be off-putting, and she is slow to trust, projecting a guarded demeanor to strangers. That said, she warms up to those who confide in her and offers counsel eagerly to those who seek it. Her spirituality continues to be very important to her, and she leads of lifestyle of purity, abstaining from drinking and smoking.

Capabilities

Skills
"Fortune-Telling"/Divination (palm-reading, astrology, augury)- adept
Archery (hunting, combat)- adept
Handicraft (weaving, ceramics, origami, wood modeling)- competent
Sculpture (specialized masonry)- competent
Herbalism (foraging, healing)- apprentice
Musical Instrument: Hand Drum- apprentice
Kite Flying- novice

Knowledge
Religious practices (rituals and prayers)
Historical architecture
Folklore pertaining to the pilgrimage

Backstory

Born into a middle-class Leonderian family just a couple years before the end of the War of Veld, Athena was an only child. Athena’s father was a respectable civil engineer who earned enough money for her mother to stay at home, tending to housework. The family lived quite comfortably, but it was a rather conservative household and devoid of siblings Athena never really came to bond with other children. She wasn’t bothered by this though, as she had plenty of imaginary friends to keep her company. As far as little Athena was concerned, the worst part about her family was that she never liked the things a young girl was expected to. Rather than wanting to learn how to sew clothes like the other girls, Athena wanted to learn how to build things like the boys got to. Her pragmatically-minded parents were having none of this though; someday she would have to make a good wife to a hard-working man like her father. The best compromise they would grant her was lessons in sculpting, which she took eagerly for several years; her tutors also taught her origami and how to build and fly kites.

Eventually the girl began to fight with her parents over how she was allowed to spend her time, and one day she ran away from home in protest. She had always been a bit stubborn, but this was intended to make a statement to her parents. Instead, she would only come to regret that she never had the opportunity to say goodbye to them. After wandering the streets for a couple days, she was kidnapped and sold to a slave caravan, which soon set out across the desert to distant slave markets. Before the caravan reached its destination, however, it was intercepted by a mysterious group of women who routed the slave traders and liberated the captives. Athena would never know how or why they picked her out, but they saw great potential in the trembling young girl and took her in as one of their own.

These women called themselves the Cult of Sulena, and while she could recall having heard mention of Sulena before, these were unlike any women Athena had encountered before. She quickly came to idolize their strength and eagerly imitated their ways, and they responded in kind by training her as a fellow priestess and handmaiden. Eventually she was fully accepted into their ranks and given the title "Serenitas", meaning the one who brings calmness. Their leader was a mysterious oracle who allegedly had great powers of divination, and as with the other priestesses protecting her would be Athena’s primary duty. The cult lived in a remote temple complex, supporting themselves and only leaving for the occasional raid to liberate slaves from caravans much like the one that Athena traveled in. This lifestyle was as close to paradise as Athena could possibly imagine, and despite missing her parents a bit she thoroughly preferred it to her earlier home life. However, it would come to an end, as most good things do.

Civil war had broken out across the Middle Realm, throwing the lands into chaos and disorder; marauding bandits raided the countryside freely and pillaged at will. One night as Athena was returning from an expedition, she arrived to find that the temple had met a deplorable fate; it had been raided and razed, and there was no sign of the others. Athena would never see them again but she had faith that wherever they were the Oracle was safe; after this loss, she struggled to figure out what to do with herself. She considered returning to Leonderia, but pride kept her from so seeking refuge on her parents’ doorstep. Rather than surrender her dignity to anything too desperate, she would turn to fortune-telling, utilizing what she could remember of the Oracle’s ways as she traveled the lands. Mostly successful in this endeavor, she nonetheless took to selling assorted handicrafts on the side to supplement her income.

In this capacity, Athena sailed to the Forbidden Lands, eager for a new beginning, and continued her work and travel. Through the course of her work and given the kinds of people it brought her into contact with, she began to learn more and more about some particular folklore that greatly interested her. The legends had it that there lie a glorious lost city across the desert, apparently founded by Vagrants more than a thousand years ago. She heard whimsical tales of the long and difficult pilgrimage that many Vagrants would take to witness this place, and not long thereafter she heard rumors to her excitement that the city had in fact been rediscovered. Some even said that this town contained a rare temple devoted to an old primal deity no longer worshipped by the Mesalians. She resolved to investigate and to see this place for herself, and after compiling as much as information as she could come upon about this city, she set out on a journey.

[mcman]

1st Journal Entry, early winter

My time of solitude in Ravenna has been cut short... a group of settlers has arrived and they wish to bring the city back to life. They are poorly organized with not much in the way of leadership, and their resources are limited. I have tried to be cordial with them, but I get the impression they do not take kindly to my wary manners... though I doubt that they would act so differently in my situation. At least they do not seem to be bandits whose aim is to plunder the town though, as I initially feared.

However, so far they have offered little help with acquiring access to those districts of Ravenna that are blocked off. That said, to their credit they have brought up the possibility that someone has already established a fortified position up there, an complicating turn of events that I had not considered. I need to do more investigation of the town mines, but with the oncoming winter continuing my research shall have to suffice.

A couple of the settlers seemed to have initially taken particular interest in me, but that seems to have waned over time. They have seized control of the inn that I was living in, and now I will live among them, but I have not yet bonded with any members of the group in any significant manner.

[mcman]

2nd Journal Entry, late winter

I recently attended a public meeting that sought to explore the matters of politics in Ravenna's future. Called by the woman Margretha, apparently an ex-mayor, it also featured the presence of a Mr. Conrad who was relinquishing his position as leader, and who is thus also assumed to have political experience. I believe he was among the small party that first stumbled upon the inn and took me by surprise.

It seems that they are intent on introducing a council system almost similar to that which I suspect existed in Ravenna's past. Obviously, security, industry, agriculture, and reconstruction are priorities to them, but I think I successfully lobbied for some representation of academic, cultural, and religious influence, if in a somewhat lesser capacity to the aforementioned categories. I was not, however, able to encourage further curiosity regarding the upper level of the city, as it seems that Margretha- who will apparently lead the council- favors a strategy of extreme patience and caution.

I am not sure whether I am truly in the running for a council position, but if no one else is seeking the position then I suppose that there would be little in my way. Of course I very much wish to reach the city's upper district as this is where the city's religiously relevant structures appear to be located. Perhaps if I stress my interest in the secular history of Ravenna and see to it that the market stalls are repaired for artisans' use, this will help make up for the fact that many of the townspeople don't seem to prioritize religion in the same way that I do. At any rate, it is naturally of great concern to me who holds this position, but I must also think about making preparations for expeditions now that the winter is coming to an end.