Phemonoë

Tell the king the fair-wrought house has fallen. No shelter has Apollo, no sacred laurel leaves. The fountains now are silent. The voice is still.

Phemonoë is a human woman in her late twenties. Born in the small kingdom of [enter name of kingdom], in southern Nimbiasa, she was never attracted to the common religions of the region. A deep inner feeling that everybody and everything was a part of God haunted her for years, while she tried to unify this with the beliefs she was brought up with. Her parents were fervent worshippers of the Graian Pantheon - in fact, her father was a priest of Hi'ellios, the god of the sun, though not one of those priests born with the Gift. Phemonoë slowly became more and more dissatisfied with this religion, and she secretly started attending the worships of other churches. The Filishan religion was even worse than the Graian one - basically the same, but the gods seemed to be mere humans with superior power - not truly Divine at all. The Church of Ulian seemed a bit more promising, but their God was a being within the Universe, not something Holy that all beings were part of. Disillusioned, Phemonoë decided to leave organized religion behind and started to try and find God within her own mind.

By this time, Phemonoë was 19 years old. She had learned the skills of the scribe at her father's temple, and her parents expected her to become a priestess - preferably to Hi'ellios, but at least to one of the Graian gods. It was only for this reason that Phemonoë was not given away in marriage, as was customary for girls of her age - the priestesses of Hi'ellios had to be virgins.

Not interested at all in serving this god she believed to be false, but not able to support herself, Phemonoë feigned devotion to her father's god. She was trained in the arts of the priestess - all except the use of divine magic, for it was thought that she did not have the Gift. As priestess-apprentice she earned a modest reputation for her hymns, which were beautiful poems - even though the true passion behind them seemed missing. Still, her parents and the priests and priestesses who taught her were well pleased by her performance, and all thought she would make a successful career as a priestess.

But in private Phemonoë was on a very different quest. She spent her copious free time on meditating and poetry, trying to come near to the one true god - the All - and singing praises of her experiences in self-wrought hymns. Her religious beliefs ripened, and she came to the following insights: There is but one God, who is everything, and everything is this God. You are God, I am God, every living being, every stone and river and plant - everything is a part of God and shares in Holiness. Everything and everyone is sacred, and bound together by the nature of God, which is love. Therefore, it is wrong to kill, it is wrong to hurt, unless if it is normal through the Order of Nature, which is the Divine Will. All actions should be directed towards the creation of beauty, of love, the constant consecrating of everything. There is no such thing, really, as death. All who live will live again and again, reborn eternally - though not necessary as human beings. In your next live, you may be an animal, a plant, even a stone or a sound - not as reward or punishment for your deeds, but by the necessity of the Divine Will. Since everything is part of God - and equal part of God - it is not more worthy to be a human than a flower or a cow. There is only one true difference, which is that a human can come into the closest contact of all with God - through meditation, a human can temporarily become one with God and feel conscious of all the world, of everything therein, of what happens, what has happened, and what must yet happen. A human who achieves this can become truly one with God, and the cycle of rebirth will stop when all have achieved this maximum of consciousness, which is also a maximum of love. Still, it is not a bad thing if a human does not become one with god in his lifetime - he will have the whole of eternity to achieve it - and in the end, all will achieve it.

This set of beliefs, which was quite contrary to the beliefs of the Graian religion, made Phemonoë more and more averse to their tradition and rites. She felt that, although it was right and proper to kill an animal for food, it was against the Order of Nature and the Will of God to slaughter an animal for sacrifice. Yet sacrifices were the order of the day in the Graian religion. The moral philosophy of the Graians also dissatisfied her - though not as self-righteous as that of the Church of Ulian, it still talked about passing judgments and punishing criminals. Feeling that the only good reactions towards a crime - an act against the Will of God, which is one of Love and Compassion - are sadness and pity, Phemonoë was appalled at the practice of punishing crimes, which invariably involved doing yet more acts against the Will of God, such as inflicting pain or even death.

When she was 22 the time had come that she would be made a true priestess of Hi'ellios. This involved a large amount of rites, including the sacrifice of a young lamb. Phemonoë knew she could not do this - but not doing it would result in discharge from the services of the temple, and there would be no welcome for her in her father's house. Worried, Phemonoë spent her free time in the last weeks before the initiation not in meditation, but in making long walks around the city.

It was 4 days before the initiation when she was walking across the biggest marketplace in the city that she heard a priest of Ulian debating in angry tones with a young man. The youth remained very calm and composed, though his answers seemed to infuriate the priest more and more, until the priest suddenly slapped him full in the face, turned and walked away, denouncing him for a heretic. Luckily, the influence of the church of Ulian is small in Nimbiasa. The strange thing, however, was that the young man seemed not enraged by the priests outrageous behaviour, but instead only sadness came over his face. Intrigued, Phemonoë walked towards him and asked him what the debate had been about. The youth, who introduced himself as Fradas, told her that his religion taught that everyone was a part of God, and that the priest of Ulian had denied that this was so. Phemonoë immediately exclaimed that she thought that everyone was a part of God too, and before she knew it she had told him all of her troubles. Fradas suggested she came with him and he would introduce her to his religion.

Phemonoë went with him, and he brought her to a gathering of a sect known as 'the Congregation'. A very small religion in a world dominated by the three great religions, the Congregation was tolerated because they posed no threat to anybody. Their teachings were almost identical to the truths Phemonoë had discovered on her own. Impressed by what she had thought up by herself, they offered to take her in if she would reject the Graian pantheon. Immensely relieved to have found people who believed as she did, Phemonoë went back to her temple complex. She sought out the High Priestess, and told her she was going. The incredulous woman tried to show her the error of that decision, until Phemonoë spoke the following words:

"Do not think I feel fear, resentment, disappointment or hate towards you or any part of your religion. All I feel is sadness, sadness at the way you remove yourself farther and farther from God as you attempt to come closer to the manifold gods you have created in your own image. All your rites and sacrifices only serve to desecrate - true consecration is always an act of creation, of love - never one of death and destruction. I will no longer live the mistakes you have sanctified, I will serve God in the only way one can - by hallowing the world that He is."

Recognizing that the child was lost forever, the high priestess was filled with anger. She called the temple's council together. In the presence of all the priests and priestesses, of all the apprentices and clerics, Phemonoë repeated her decision. The council, of which her father was one of the members, decided quickly what her fate should be. From the mouth of her own father she was condemned to excommunication, and without ever having the time to gather her belongings she was forcibly thrown out of the temple. Standing in the street, with the angry crowd looking at her accusingly, tears streamed across her face. The high priestess came forward and spoke thus:

"Now you weep? Do you at last regret your decision? You have been condemned by your own words, but the Graian gods are nothing if not merciful. Atone for your sins now, and if your heart and words are true you will be forgiven. It is never too late."

To which Phemonoë replied:

"I weep not for myself, dear priestess, I weep for you. I weep for all of you who will not be able to feel the omnipresent God. May you be luckier in another life, for this I tell you: everybody's time will come. You offer me forgiveness, but this I tell you: to forgive one has to be a judge, and judgement is the negation of God."

The high priestess looked upon her for a moment, before replying:

"I see that you continue in your blasphemy. Go, and leave the love and life of the gods behind forever."

One last thing Phemonoë said before turning around and walking away:

"Not behind but before me is the love, the love that is the true God."

All the ties to her former life thus severed, Phemonoë went back to the Congregation where she was accepted warmly. One of the members of the Congregation was a rich noble, earl Stravastos, and his house was were the meetings were held. Stravastos offered Phemonoë a chamber in his house where she could stay until she found a way to earn a living. The Congregation has no priests or priestesses, since everybody is a part of God, and therefore almost all members have a normal job. For the first time in years Phemonoë could discuss religion with people who felt just as she did, and she was introduced to many things she had not yet thought up herself. The most important were new techniques of meditation, allowing her to come ever closer to God. The Congregation knew the ways to create from herbs a number of intoxicating kinds of incense, which were burned at meditation sessions - the smoke of these herbs bring the meditating people in a trance-like state where it is much easier to make contact with the spiritual God. Enthusiastic, Phemonoë tried this way of meditating. Sitting on the ground in a circle of fellow believers, she inhaled the fumes of the incense - and was transported to a new kind of consciousness.

How to describe it? The world around her became more and more vague, until only the slightest shadow of it was left. In darkness, but not with a feeling of loneliness, Phemonoë drifted peacefully. Then, a warm, soft light appeared, and she willed herself towards it. The light grew and in the end it seemed to encompass her completely, this light that was also love, God and the whole world. When it was all around her and within her, she let herself go completely - and became one with it. In a blinding flash of consciousness, she felt the whole of God, the whole of the world, the whole of everything. She felt what was happening, what had happened and what would yet happen - not as individual thoughts, but as one great feeling. Phemonoë was in a state she had only dreamed of, she had reached unification with All. Time had no more meaning to her than space, as she beheld the wonder of the great Unity.

But then a part of the Unity suddenly rushed towards her, and she saw it and comprehended it - not as one comprehends something in the world, but in a metaphoric way. And her mind suddenly conceived of the following words, and she felt that she spoke the words aloud:

"Clear water flows from the sacred spring, and it is a healthy draught to women, men and children. Yet - a shadow falls over the spring, the waters turn to black - not life but horror streams from it and untold suffering!"

Confused and startled by her own involuntary act of speaking, Phemonoë suddenly found herself back within the chamber, where the incense was already burnt up. All the members of her circle were looking at her strangely. They asked what she meant with her words - and Phemonoë realized that she didn't know. Although she remembered the words clearly, and the emotions she had felt when she said them, she had no idea what she meant by them. Though this was an unknown phenomenon to them, the members of the Congregation didn't worry about it - it had happened in a trance, and nothing bad could possibly happen in a trance.

All this changed when a few days later rumours came from a nearby village. Their sacred well had turned bitter, but as this slowly happened in the course of days many people didn't notice it immediately. Now, all who had drunk from it had become ill, and many were dying.

This news shocked the Congregation, not only because it was dramatic that many people were dying, but also because it was quite clear that Phemonoë had prophesied it. Phemonoë herself was most startled of all. It seemed that she was a prophetess! Luckily, many of the Congregation saw the inherent danger of having an accurate prophet in their midst - such as jealousy of the other faiths - and convinced the rest of the members that it would be in everyone's best interest to keep this secret. Phemonoë herself started going into trances more often. When she did not use incense, she never truly reached God. But when she did, she almost invariably became one with the All - and almost every time she spoke a prophecy.

As far as could be seen, the prophecies were always accurate. Some seemed to be about things far away, but very often there were prophecies about nearby events. After a few weeks, everyone within the Congregation was completely convinced of Phemonoë's accuracy. Yet they kept her talents secret, even though the urge to try and prevent things that were spoken of was often strong.

She lived as an honoured member of this small community for 4 years. All her prophecies were written in a book, called the Book of Phemonoë, of which there were two copies: one in the possession of Phemonoë herself, and one in the possession of Stravastos. Then one day she had the most frightening prophecy of all:

"The golden crowned ruler falls to the sword of a child. In his blood justice is smothered, and death will walk the streets, as fear and pain obtain dominion. Words are drowned with laughter, and laughter drowned with cries."

The meaning seemed clear. The present king, Robert IV, had a son who was known to be both cruel and ambitious. The prophecy seemed to say that this son would kill Robert and bring great terror to the people. The Congregation debated for two days whether they should bring this news to the king or not. Finally, Phemonoë decided that she would go to the king, and the rest of the Congregation conceded. Stravastos used his influence, and Phemonoë was granted an audience.

Nervous yet hopeful, she went to the king and told him that she had prophesied that his son would kill him. He and his advisors never took her seriously, and she was sent away amidst gales of laughter. 'Words are drowned with laughter', she thought, and suddenly a terrible realization came over her. Her own actions had fulfilled part of the prophecy - did that mean that without her it would not have come to pass? Her only hope was that the king might take some extra precautions against his son.

He never had the chance. That night he was killed with the sword of his son - which was wielded by his most powerful advisor. Phemonoë's words had given him the luminous idea to kill his liege and let the king's son take the blame. That way he would be able to dispose of the royal family and become the new ruler. Unfortunately for him, he was seen, and a furious battle took place between those loyal to the king's son, those loyal to the advisor, and a few other people who thought they could grab power. The streets of the city ran red with blood.

In the end it was the king's son who won and brought some peace back to the land. The heads of all traitors were displayed on pikes all over the city, and everybody of suspect loyalty was arrested. This included the entire Congregation, whom the new king, Robert V, held responsible for the rebellion and his father's death. All those who would swear to abandon their beliefs and enter one of the established religions were allowed to go, but all those who remained loyal to their beliefs were executed. Only Phemonoë was spared this fate, as Robert V had her thrown into a dark dungeon - he was not sure whether she was a real or a false prophetess, and he was too careful to kill a potentially useful person.

Phemonoë spent a year in her dungeon cell before the king had her brought to him one day. He told her that he had a problem, and if she could help him with it, she would become one of his trusted advisors. If not, she would be killed. The nature of the problem was this: two kingdoms next to his, both about as strong as he was, were at war. Their armies were heading towards each other, and within a few weeks they would meet in a great battle that would probably decide the war. Wishing to ally with whomever would be the winner, Robert V needed to know its outcome.

Phemonoë was given a quiet chamber to prepare for her meditations and the herbs necessary to create the incense she needed. Although she knew she could not invoke prophecies at will, Phemonoë saw no better course of action that to try and hope that her trance would tell her what she needed to know. Weak after her year of imprisonment, she fell into the deepest trance she had ever experienced. She marvelled anew at the sensation of unity with the whole world, and for a timeless eternity she seemed to drift in the grand consciousness of God. There came a moment, however, when she had another prophecy, and these were the words she spoke:

"The snake and the eagle meet on fields of vermilion, and fang meets claw in anger. The eagle triumphs momentarily, but then slow poisons bring him down. Their bodies lying on the bloody meadow, the lion steps in and crowns himself with gold."

Robert V was very excited with this news. The snake and the eagle were the respective sigils of the two kings that were fighting - but the lion was his own. Deciding to follow the prophecy, he secretly prepared to strike both kingdoms at once. When word reached him that the two armies were within a day's march of each other, he attacked. It turned out that the prophecy had been very accurate. Though the snake-king had lost the battle, assassins from his side killed the eagle-king three days after his victory, leaving both countries in turmoil. The armies of Robert V marched through them almost without meeting resistance, and both kingdoms were forced to bend their knees to him.

Overjoyed, Robert V bestowed many honours upon Phemonoë. She was given spacious apartments within the palace, named one of Robert's council of advisors and showered with wealth. None of these especially pleased Phemonoë, but she accepted them as graciously as she could. Not interested in court politics, her advisory role was mainly limited in telling the king her prophecies. The two books of Phemonoë, which Robert had acquired after his ascension, were continued. The three great churches were very unhappy with the course of affairs, but none of them dared to denounce the king's favourite as a false prophetess. Still, Phemonoë's influence on the state's stance towards religion was small - the three great religions were still the only ones officially allowed.

Phemonoë's prophecies were not always helpful for the king - they were often about things far away or unimportant, but in general Robert understood how to make use of the few that were about matters that concerned him. His intelligence, however, was not accompanied by any compassion for his fellow human beings. His rule, though efficient, was harsh and cruel. People were killed in atrocious ways for even small crimes, existing state welfare was abandoned and all those who were a danger to Robert's rule were silenced in a variety of ways. Phemonoë was very unhappy that she was working for a man like this.

Then one night, almost two years after she was first taken form her dungeon, she had a prophecy that seemed to mean that Robert would be assassinated soon and the churches would take control over the kingdom. Knowing that the death of Robert would increase the happiness of many, she decided not to warn him. However, the churches weren't her friends either, so Phemonoë started planning an escape.

Indeed, her interpretation of the prophecy had been right insofar as the assassination of the king was concerned. He suddenly died late at night three weeks later from a poison in his wine. When his body was found, the palace became a pandemonium. Phemonoë grabbed hold of her already packed belongings, and quickly ran through the large palace gardens towards the back of the palace, which was least guarded. Under the cover of darkness, she took the ropes she had hidden under a bush, climbed a tree next to the wall and used the ropes to descend safely. She was now in a quiet part of the city - but how long would any part of the city remain quiet? When Phemonoë had walked a few streets away from the palace she already heard people shouting to each other. At the news of the king's death some decided to flee the city for safety, some went to the palace to find out everything they could and a few daredevils went as far as to celebrate openly. Phemonoë went into a small park and stepped into the bushes to take off her clothes and dress in less suspicious garb. Now clothed as a simple peasant woman, she fled the city afoot.

The churches did try to take over, but they weren't as successful as they had hoped. A few nobles united against them, and a civil war raged through the land as more and more independent groups wanted to take over. Without the strong leadership of Richard V, the two annexed countries rebelled and soon the entire region was in an uproar. Meanwhile, there were hushed whispers about the killer of Richard V. Some said the churches had done it, some blamed the nobles or their own political opponents - but one of the most heard stories was that his witch, who had disappeared mysteriously, had killed Richard. Knowing that she was far from safe anywhere in the vicinity, Phemonoë started calling herself Cassandra and began a journey away from her past. The world was big, she was still young, and she wanted to serve the true God.

Details, stats and skills

Phemonoë, who currently calls herself Cassandra, is a 29-year old human woman. She has light brown, long hair and a fair skin. She normally dresses in colourful silks and satins, wearing a veil, but at the moment she is clad in much more common garbs, including a blue dress that any peasant woman might own. Her other possessions include a backpack, a belt knife, a pouch with incense and herbs for incense, a copy of the book of Phemonoë, ink, a goose feather pen, a small mirror, some cosmetics, two sets of her normal clothing, some of the most beautiful jewellery Richard had given her and a fair bit of money. Most of this is stuffed in her backpack under an old cloak, to ensure that none see it.

Phemonoë's strength is rather limited. She is not used to do heavy physical work and is rather slight of build. Her health is not too good either. It was rather permanently weakened by the year of imprisonment in the damp dungeon. Furthermore, her frequent use of incentives does not help. She is handy enough though, not clumsy at all. She doesn't have the fine finger technique needed for playing a musical instrument or picking pockets, but she has a steady enough hand to write in a very clear hand. The grace of her movements is not remarkable.

Phemonoë is quite perceptive. In her opinion all perceiving is a perceiving of the divine, and she greatly loves beauty, whether natural or artificial. She always has her eyes and ears open, and her eyesight and hearing are pretty good. Only when she is under the influence of incentives does her connection with reality lessen. When in trance she is completely unaware of what happens around her, and afterwards she is dizzy for a number of hours.

Phemonoë will never be called beautiful, but she is attractive. Most people think she is rather vague, but those who know her well often love her deeply. Her greatest talents, however, are her mental abilities. She has always been a very intelligent woman, whose unrelenting questioning of all beliefs has led her far away from her education. Though her talents lie not in the realms of mathematics or finance, she has a great grasp of language, literature and philosophy. Her insight into human nature is quite good, if not phenomenal. Phemonoë does have a great willpower, however - although she often conforms to her surroundings in order not to create any trouble, she will always go her own way if she feels the divine will necessitates it.

She has learned a number of skills in the course of her life. Apart from those everyone knows, she has been trained as a cleric and a priestess. She can read and write both the common language and ancient [Axel, tell me what kind of languages exist] very well, she knows the history of the world, she is well versed in the Graian religion and has some knowledge of the other ones, she knows quite a bit about philosophy and has some training in the medical arts. Furthermore, all who knew her hymns once recognized her poetic abilities. In the Congregation, Phemonoë learned some herbalism, especially the creation of incense. Her time at court has shown Phemonoë the ways of etiquette and intrigue, though she abhors the latter.

Her most obvious skill is of course her ability to prophecy. She only has prophecies when she is meditating under the influence of intoxicating incense. Such a meditation session often lasts for three hours or more, and she remains dizzy for as many hours thereafter. She has no control at all over the prophecy she receives. They can be about her personally, about something in her vicinity, or about something on the other side of the world. They can be about very important events, or sometimes about the almost trivial. Still, the truly important events in the world around her are very often the subject of prophecy.

Prophecies are given in the form of a few lines of prose. A prophecy is often obscure, but it is always completely accurate. It cannot be changed by any action whatsoever - once Phemonoë has prophesied something, it will occur. She herself does not necessarily know what a prophecy means either.

Phemonoë never uses weapons. She has her belt knife to cut food, but she will never attack a living being unless it would be natural to do so. So she might set a trap for a rabbit if she intended to eat it, and she might kill a hornet that was biting her, but she would never kill a lamb in sacrifice and she would never kill a human being for any reason at all. When attacked, Phemonoë will either try to reason with her attacker, surrender or flee.

Personality & morals

There are a number of emotions Phemonoë never truly feels. Anger is one of these - though she might feel it for a short moment, it is always instantly suppressed. Others are envy, hatred and arrogance. Predominant emotions in Phemonoë's character are love and sadness. Love towards all and everybody, and sadness towards all those who break the will of God. Compassion and pity too, towards all those in misery, whether by their own fault or by the actions of others.

Phemonoë wants to bring other people closer to God, she wants to ensure they behave in a right way, she wants to lighten their suffering, she wants to live fully, see and create beauty and in the end become one with God. Once she was very passionate and almost naïve in these things, but - alas - no longer. Bitter experience has shown her the ways of the world, and a cynical shadow has fallen over her joy. Though by no means defeatist, Phemonoë sometimes despairs about the amount of ungodliness and misery in the world and her ability to change it. Still, she is dedicated to try and change as much as she can.

Her philosophy is one of pacifism and non-resistance. If someone tries to rob her, she will not try to stop them. She might try to talk about it, she might try to run away - but she will never forcibly resist. Neither does she believe in justice, in punishment. A punishment is always some bad act, like imprisoning or killing someone. How could two bad acts cancel each other? Two bad acts are just twice as bad as one bad act; there is no 'guilt' that can be paid by being punished. Punishment and justice are merely tools for the powerful to ensure that people do as they say.

Phemonoë is not anarchistic though. She has a respect for laws as rules of conduct that help people in a society get along. But she feels that one who breaks the laws should be pitied - at most feared or scorned - not hated. Condemning anyone as criminals or, even worse, sinners, is the last thing Phemonoë will do.

However, Phemonoë is not quick to trust anyone either. She knows that many people will lie, betray and steal without thinking twice. Once a person has earned her trust, that trust is very strong - but earning her trust is a slow process.

Though she has a good eye for the bad things in a person, she tries no to dwell on them too much. Seeing the beauty in the world is more important than seeing the ugliness, so Phemonoë tries to concentrate of the good aspects of a human being. She does not expect everyone to be perfect, but can appreciate many different forms of goodness. She would respect a man who ardently believes in Ulian and tries to please his God by giving much alms to the poor. She would even respect a thief who steals in order to feed his family; even though she would feel sadness at the way he removes himself from God.

Phemonoë will help anyone in need. Even someone who has done her great wrongs. Revenge is completely antithetical to her nature - just as forgiveness. Both revenge and forgiveness presuppose judgment, and Phemonoë refuses to judge anyone.

Still, Phemonoë does have priorities. She knows she can't help everyone, so she helps only those she can help. She will also help someone who is dear to her sooner than someone she doesn't know. This is merely human - everyone cares most for those they know and love. Phemonoë will not take unnecessary risks either, if she can avoid them. Though it is a task of love to help other people, it is also necessary to protect yourself.

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