Genevieve

Genevieve is a monk, and the founder of Weycoln Monastery. She is a devoted follower of the Creed of Tamiril, and has dedicated much of her time to documenting the Creed’s philosophy and teachings. She also performs rituals in the waters of Lake Agilaro to both honor and seek help from the spirit Tamiril.

Early Life
Genevieve was born Mihalis, son of Titos. Her mother and father were permanent members of a trading caravan that made its living on the roads across Syltör and Ummarnu. From a young age she helped labor for the camp. Chores like cooking and cleaning were expected of every member of the caravan, but Genevieve would also help her father hunt, gather firewood, and present goods to potential customers. It was this last duty that led to her developing a rudimentary understanding of many different languages at a young age.

When she became a teenager, she grew into the role of an active trader. She would speak with merchants and travelers from many different cultures and peddle the caravan’s goods to them. It was an enriching existence, but it was also not what she wanted. She had tried on numerous occasions to express how she did not feel like Mihalis, son of Titos. However, her parents did not understand what she meant, and neither did she. For years she was distressed and melancholic. The smile she shared with her customers was but a practiced fake. She did not have answers, and had no idea where to look for them.

It was just a few days after her twentieth birthday that her life was changed. After haggling with a merchant from Yimmu-Audal, Genevieve procured a bound collection of ancient writings. The merchant cared little for them, but Genevieve was elated. Life on the road could be boring, and the challenge of deciphering texts was one of the few things that she considered a hobby.

This stack of aged parchment was the oldest written account of the Aedith, a story about Jalak the Wanderer, and his encounters with a wise spirit named Tamiril. The record was damaged, and some of what was told was indecipherable. Nonetheless, Genevieve found the parts that would matter the most to her. Genevieve, like Jalak the Wanderer, did not know herself. She only knew that her caravan said she was Mihalis, son of Titos. Just as Tamiril had said, she would not know who she was until she disposed of who society, or her caravan, thought she was.

One month after this revelation, she gathered what she would need to travel and left in the night. Her journey of self discovery would last two years, and much of it was spent in seclusion.

Meeting with Hávi Asagrim
The last leg of her journey was spent on a voyaging longship, captained by Hávi Asagrim. He and his crew had come from the far north of Rathnir, and Genevieve met them while wandering the continent of Haven. Hávi’s ship had landed in a cove, and the crew was out on a hunting trip. Genevieve stumbled onto the path that they were watching, and found herself surrounded. The tension was defused when Hávi told them to stand down. They were adventurers and explorers by choice, occasionally raiders, but not murderers. Genevieve had no loot to offer them, but she did have information.

After trading pleasantries with the crew, she told them of a den that was home to an old beast of a bear that the local villagers referred to as Tarkus. It had lived long, and the locals feared its great hunger. So the adventurers took it upon themselves to earn both their dinner and some glory. It took them half a day to reach the den, but their prize was well worth the trek. Their battle with the beast was great, many of them were injured, but no one was killed.

For her part in tracking the bear, Genevieve was offered passage on their longship. It happened that they intended to reach the continent of Cymru, and that was Genevieve’s own destination. She spent many months with Hávi’s adventurers, both at sea and at port. At first they did not know her as Genevieve or as Mihalis. She introduced herself as a monk and they named her Monk Tarkus, after the bear she led them to.

Arrival in Cymru
After two long years of travel by road and by sea, Genevieve landed on the Northwestern coast of Cymru on October 8th, 2021. At the time, Cymru was controlled by the Eternal Archonate of Viodoxa. It was the Province of Silvay in which Hávi Asagrim's longship made landfall, and Genevieve then parted ways with them for a time.

She didn't walk far beyond the coast before deciding to rest by a pristine lake, untouched by civilization. While resting, she decided to bathe in the lake, and it was there that she was first contacted by the spirit who she had spent two years searching for. As Genevieve was fully submerged in the waters of the lake, Tamiril came to her under the face and name of Agilaro. The spirit told her that the waters of the lake were sacred, and had been saturated with the spirit's magic. It said that so long as the lake was respected, and integrated into any settlement without rampant exploitation, it would provide bounty to those who lived there. The spirit confirmed that Genevieve's journey was at an end, and that the lake and the hills around it would be her promised land.

It was then that Genevieve changed. For on her long journey across Rathnir, she had disposed of who she was told she was- Mihalis, son of Titos, traveling tradesman. In the process, she learned who she was inside- Genevieve, daughter of Titos, faithful of the Creed. She emerged from the waters of the lake as the woman she chose to be, and after a brief rest, she set to work foraging for supplies to construct a holy site.

Weycoln Monastery and Silvish Citizenship
WIP