Sleeping Sparrow

SleepingSparrow, more commonly known as just Sparrow, is the head of the Kingdom of Aurea’s Ministry of Law, Culture, and Records. She lives in the Old Architect’s House, east of the Capital of New Aurea and West of Gol. Humble and not particularly wealthy or skilled in battle, Sparrow has had to find other ways to carve out her own role in the Kingdom, and perhaps one day on the international stage of Eldham.

Early Life
She once lived in the lands far east of Eldham, living in a village of scholars. The scholar village had produced many sagious scholars who detailed the histories and religions of the lands far east. Sadly, her village was destroyed, burned by raiders and looted. She fled her homeland, never to return. But she always remembers her life before, and holds it close to her heart.

Arrival to Aurea
Sparrow fled westward from her homeland, following the river that eventually led her to the far eastern outreaches of Aurea. Sparrow arrived in the Kingdom of Aurea poor and penniless. Completely ignorant to the many great nations and cultures of Eldham, Sparrow was hoping for a quiet new life away from the plights of war that had destroyed her home.

The Queen kindly took her in and provided a place to stay, and Sparrow quickly grew fond of her new friends and neighbors in Aurea. She loves the scenic Morikomi Mountains and the liveliness of New Aurea’s city streets.

Sparrow settled into the abandoned home of “The Architect", remodeling it to make it her own home. She began cultivating small cattle, poultry, and sugarcane farms around it to make books for the library and food for the Shamans. The area has turned into a lively little village, with frequent visitors passing through on their way east or west, stopping to grab a bit to eat and share a bit of conversation before continuing on their way.

Aurean Minister of Law Culture and Records
Wanting to make herself useful to the Kingdom, Sparrow started documenting the history of the land she now called home. She traveled all over Aurea’s lands writing the histories of abandoned settlements and long forgotten governors and mayors, hoping to one day restore these old towns. The Queen took notice, and appointed Sparrow to the Ministry of Law, Culture, and Records, where Sparrow has served since. She is greatly anticipating the construction of the city’s new library. The library will keep the legacy of the Aurean Kingdom protected and demonstrate to all of Eldham the strength of Aurea. Sparrow is very intent on the documentation and recording of as much of Aurean history as possible. She keeps lots of records and notes about her home, and is building a large collection of books. She makes copies of any book that passes through her hands, and has a both a private collection and a collection she will be sharing with the public upon completion of the Aurean library.

As Minister of Law, Culture, and Records, she has served on the Queen’s council. She takes meeting notes and has assisted in gathering materials for construction projects, as well as keeping up the Wiki pages of the Kingdom and keeping historical records of all that has changed over the years.

Morikomi Shamanism
Sparrow is the founder and High Shaman of Morikomi Shamanism. Her work as the high shaman includes the writing of religious texts, ceremonial prophecy readings, and collaboration with allies in the Dryad Coalition. Her Shamanistic leadership is the focused on growing the cultural wealth of the Aurean kingdom. The Morikomi Mountains are now dotted with gardens and altars to the many deities of Shamanism.

Development in Aurea
Sparrow doesn't consider herself much of a builder like the famous Architects like Effy from New Aurea. Nonetheless, she does know how to roll up her sleeves and get a job done. The small village of Morikomi is very utilitarian and modest, but she built it with her own hands and she considers it home sweet home. She cultivated the sugarcane farms nearby, and tends to the livestock that fill the area. She is also an avid roadbuilder. Sparrow spearheaded the construction of tunnels through Morikomi, connecting New Aurea both North to Necromancia and East through Gol, across Gennisi Point, and all the way out to Adustia. She built several bridges headed out of Aurea as well. She created the Gennisi Forest National Park of Aurea, encouraging native wildflowers to grow and maintaining horseback riding trails through the forest. She built several bridges headed out of Aurea as well. She also cleared the ruins of an old squatter mine in the park to make a gravesite for Aurea's fallen. Recently, Sparrow built a panda sanctuary in heart of the Morikomi mountains. This project was extremely successful in rebounding the native panda population of the mountains. Her most notable contribution to the Aurean kingdom was the purchase of the Aurean Southernlands. With the collapse of Roddinbrok leaving the area ungoverned, she purchased a large portion of land south of the Sea of Wine and Mead for the Majesty the Queen of Aurea. While not much of a builder, she also regularly donates supplies to various construction projects throughout the kingdom.

She also regularly travels the eastern realms of Eldham, gathering potions, exotic wood, ancient weapons, and other rare goods from long-abandoned homes and bringing them home. She sells these goods to travelers passing through Morikomi on their journeys headed east or west on the road,or trades with fisherfolk headed north or south through Gol's waterways. This is how Sparrow frugally has kept the Morikomi region tax free while never asking for funding or aid from the National Aurean government.

Potatus, Amarillo, and Kelpism
Sparrow met her late husband Potatus in the Dryad Coalition efforts to build an international community of nature religions. They quickly became friends and built the Kelpism and Morikomi Shamanism friendship pond together. As they grew closer, they spent time visiting each other's homelands and learning about each other's religions. Potatus was from Amarillo, a member of the Mohadi peoples who called Verdesburg home. Potatus built a cottage in the village of Morikomi, where he resided part time. He helped Sparrow in many of her projects around the kingdom. When Sparrow accidentally stumbled across Potatus' journal, she discovered that he had feeling for her, and she then suggested they get married. They had a small private wedding by the friendship pond they built.

Life and Legacy
Sparrow Inferro Morikomi is an elderly woman living in the Kingdom of Aurea. Nowadays, she holds many public positions in the Kingdom. In the Lower Aurean Council, Sparrow serves as the Duchess of the mountainous Morikomi Province of Aurea. These are Sparrow’s ancestral mountains, sacred to the Morikomi Shamanistic practice, and thus important for her to preserve. Sparrow carries on the generational legacy as the High Shaman, practicing ritual rites and studying the ways of the four winds. In a less mystical setting, Sparrow serves as the Minister of Law, Culture, and Records on the Aurean Royal Council. In her work as Minister, she manages the Aurean National Library Archives and documents all of the history of the kingdom. She’s known for her obsession with books- an obsession that means she will acquire books from book traders and common folk by whatever means necessary. Her fixation on cultural and historical preservation will lead her to trade away goods of much higher value just in hopes of getting a tattered journal that might have a line or two that helps her piece another part of her historical puzzlings together. Sparrow, despite being a public figure in Aurea, is quite introverted and prefers to spend her time alone with books or communing with nature. She increasingly spends time alone since her late husband Potatus Inferro passed away.

Despite her current prominence in the Kingdom, she had modest beginnings. To understand why Sparrow in her old age is the grumpy, powerful, soft-spoken bookworm that Aureans know today, we must first look into her past.

Sparrow is descended from the Morikomi people that have lived high in the mountains going back for Melania. They often interacted with valley people via trade in ancient times- but when the Ellysian Empire spread over northeastern Eldham, that changed. The high shaman Yi-Yunseok (of Sparrow’s grandparent's generation) decided that in order to survive, the Morikomi people had to disappear entirely. Living high in the mountains in rough inhospitable terrain, secluded from the lowland armies, the Morikomi culture was able to endure the war-torn northeast and evade the genocides that ravaged the other cultures of the region. The Morikomi people watched from the mountain peaks, as the smoke and screams of the valley people rose up to the heavens. This painful reclusion from the world deeply wounded the cultural spirit of the Shamans. Sparrow did not live through these dark times- but she did inherit a great deal of generational trauma from her elders. She is slow to trust and scrutinizes people's intentions, as many Morikomi people tend to be.

In her mid-30s, Sparrow was selected to be the new High Shaman, as Yi-Yunseok had reached the age that she wanted new blood to lead the Morikomi people. As a transgender person, the Shamans believed Sparrow to have higher spiritual connections to the polarities of the sun and moon, land and sea, east and west, north and south. Her inheritance of the Spear of the High Shaman in a ritual only performed by the elders established her position as the leader of the shamans.

Under her leadership, she first maintained the ways of her grandparents' generation, ensuring that nobody ascended the mountains and that nobody descended into the valley. However, one lowland man was persistent in his effort to climb the mountains. Sparrow was determined to stop him at first, causing rock slides and cultivating thickets of thorns to keep him out, yet he remained insistent on his effort to ascend the mountain. She began to spy on him, peering out at him from her rocky perch in the mountains. The man lived in a shipwreck at the foot of the mountains on a sand barge. He was a modest potato farmer, but he was also a bit of a mystic himself. Sparrow discovered that he was a sun worshipper- exalting the sun each time it rose and sank in the horizon. She recognized his rituals as familiar to her own people’s relationship to one of the great eight deities, the sun. She decided to experiment. Knowing the man came unarmed, Sparrow allowed him to ascend the mountains. The farmer climbed the steep slopes at night and reached the peak of one of the southern mountains. Sparrow watched anxiously as he entered the land that she was responsible for protecting. On the mountaintop, the man exalted the sun as it rose in the east, meditated all day, and exalted the sun as it sank in the west. As he descended the mountain, Sparrow realized that she had to change. The Morikomi people could no longer be hermits in the mountains.

In the valley, the young nation of Aurea was slowly growing, and the city below was becoming quite a happening place. Sparrow descended the mountains and walked into the city, where she met the queen of Aurea, Beatrice “Bee” Gennisi. The two matriarchs not only arranged to build strong cultural ties between the highland and lowland peoples of Aurea- but they also became fast friends. Soon after, Queen Bee appointed Sparrow to be the Minister of Law, Culture, and Records. Sparrow still holds this title today.

In Sparrow’s youthful years, after descending into the valley, she was free-spirited, hopeful, and jovial. Everything was new and exciting for her- there were so many languages to learn and cultural festivals to attend, and she took it all in. More than anything, she was relieved that her decision to descend into the valley and open the mountains to lowland people had been the right decision. Her people’s religious and cultural traditions were respected and preserved, and she build strong connections with the other people of Aurea. She spent most of her time in the Morikomi village established at the foot of the mountains, cultivating farms and writing. The village is on the road connecting the east and west parts of Aurea, so travelers would pass through frequently. Sparrow was known for her hospitality and would share conversation and a meal with anyone passing by. She became involved in the Dryad Coalition, a summit for religious leaders from across Eldham. It’s here that she met her husband, Potatus Inferro of Amarillo, who was representing the Kelpists in the Dryad Coalition.

Potatus was a man of few words but was a hardworking and helpful friend to Sparrow. For a few years, he served as the Prime Minister of his home country of Amarillo, but after serving the term limit Potatus spent more time with Sparrow in Morikomi. They cultivated the Morikomi Friendship gardens together and tended to the village farm animals together. He was endlessly supportive of Sparrow’s work. One day, Sparrow discovered his journal, and unable to contain her curiosity, she read it. He wrote about his feelings for her- and she knew that it was only right she confess her feelings too. They were soon after married at the friendship gardens that they had grown together.

As Sparrow aged, she took her passion and applied it to her work. Her friendship with the Queen lent her to take a more nationalist tone to her writing, and her obsession with history grew. After the sinking of Rodinnbrok, Sparrow was stricken with grief over the loss of so many cultures. She traveled all over the Northeast collecting the stories of elders, exploring ruins, and collecting books. While Sparrow has been insisting that she’s going to publish a history book for decades now, her library desk remains a huge heap of uncompleted book manuscript drafts. It may be her dying wish to complete that huge history book.

Segra’s violent terror is seared into the memory of all of Eldham’s people, but Sparrow was incredibly emotionally impacted by Segra. An elite group of shamans was formed to fight off Segra’s spawn and vile creatures and was successful in defending the Morikomi Mountains in the early days of Segra’s presence in Eldham. However, after the purge, a collective hallucination of complete disarray… Sparrow was never the same. It was her worst nightmare, becoming vividly true. Sparrow saw her culture and people slain and engulfed in flames- it shook her to her core. Even when she awoke from the Segran trance, it had felt too real. Paranoia gripped her soul, and Sparrow finally understood the distrustful attitude of the Shaman Yi-Yunseok. Sparrow never was the same after that day, even after the defeat of Segra. She became more solitary and distrusting,  rarely speaking to anyone outside of the Royal Council and the shaman. Sparrow retreated into the mountains to commune with the Four Winds.

Now an old widow after her husband’s passing, Sparrow is nearly 100 years old. Her eyes are weak from many late nights reading books by candlelight, and her face is wrinkled from deep thought. Nonetheless, she still serves on the Aurean Royal Council, writes and collects books, tends to the village farm, and carries out the rituals of her ancestors. While her frame may be small, Sparrow holds the many memories of Aurea in her soul and ensures that the spiritual traditions of the Morikomi Shamans will be passed down to the next generation.