Zoziyu Inyoni

Zoziyu Inyoni is an umSanemi human and last claimant to the throne of the Kingdom of Sanemi. Ethnically, she came from a mixed Shani and Nkondo household, and her father was a bureaucrat related to the previous legitimate monarch. She currently resides in the rural village of Udongajete.

Early Life
Zoziyu was born about 20 years BKS to the Inyoni clan, and the only child of Tafara Ukhozi and Themba Inyoni. Her name is not a traditional seSanemi name, meaning "left-green", after her heterochromia. Her father was a bureaucrat with blood ties to the then-ruling Queen Sarudzayi, and her mother was a common-born merchant. She was, unlike most common folk, taught to read and write at an early age, and was exceptionally precocial at these tasks.

In her youth she was often left alone by her parents, as they struggled to maintain connections and her safety in a time where the kingdom of Sanemi was in a steep decline and wracked by hunger and disease. Instead, her primary companions became books, and she grew enamored with maps, diagrams, and stories. Through her connections, she had contacts with several high scholars and wizards in the old city.

Intent on becoming a royal scholar, she continued schooling in Okidza as long as possible. At the age of 16, about 4 years BKS, her father passed away of plague, endangering the family's finances and good standings with the government. A year later, the city of Okidza was burned during an attack by feral undead, and the original library and university were not spared. Continuing with her education was an impossible task, and the government was all but collapsed. Her mother went missing mere months later, and she moved to the countryside with her mother's sister Aramata.

Life in Udongajete
With what few books she could collect from Okidza's collapse, she brought them to the small but well-protected rural village of Udongajete, where her aunt Aramata Inyoni lived. From there, she slowly worked on constructing a local library, with which she could read stories to the village children, and also helped locals enchant tools as most folk there were illiterate.

Living with her aunt, she became not a scholar but a farmer, learning how to reap, sow, and tend to crops and livestock. She grew friendly with the locals, and while she was often doubtful of her own skills in physical crafts, she was nonetheless welcomed. She lived on her aunt's farmstead until the first year PKS, during a meet with one Afamefula Ukhozi. Afamefula, a former advisor to Queen Sarudzayi, informed her that she had effectively been made the heir to the throne of Sanemi.

At the time, it did not mean much, as many self-proclaimed heirs had rose, been usurped, or otherwise lost power. However, starting by building a power base in Udongajete out of the same farmer's hut her aunt lived in, she and the former advisor began to establish control over the villages that comprised the kingdom prior to its collapse.

Return to Okidza
In the later Tribal Period, Okidza began to be reconstructed after several years of abandonment and the salvaging of its building material by nearby farmers and merchants. While nominally queen, however, Zoziyu still seemed to be in a figurehead role as Afamefula and his associates began to build up their own power. A power struggle played out in the early years of her rule, where Zoyizu- primarily focused on wresting sole control into her own hands and giving generously to the peasantry from which her power base came from- attempted to combat Afamefula's clique, who while also preoccupied with restoring the kingdom and having skill and experience, were also mainly in it to enrich themselves once again at the expense of the commoners.

Besides the slow and quiet backroom struggle, Zoziyu began to study once more. Statecraft primarily, as well as Southeastern Hand Talk- a system of sign language used by various tribes on the continent outside of Sanemi. She even began to learn Tsaytsa, the language of the neighboring tribe to the east. These were all earnest preparations for her as a leader of a new Sanemi kingdom.

However, her reforms were not enough to keep the struggling state alive, and by 13 PKS found herself in a difficult position. The difficulties of statecraft caused the nation to collapse once again, and Zoziyu resigned from her leadership. Deciding that it was forced upon her anyways, she instead returned to Udongajete and began working on an academic career, maintaining a small library in the former home of her late aunt Aramata.