Nemia the Still
Custodian of Silence, Warden of the Monastery of Still Ash
Custodian of Silence Nemia
"She did not speak, but the flame obeyed her."
A legend whispered in ash and doctrine, Nemia the Still is the longest-serving field Custodian in living memory. Known for her absolute silence — a vow she has kept for over three decades — she is a living reminder that enforcement need not roar to be absolute.
Assigned permanently to the Monastery of Still Ash, she is its protector, warden, and final line of containment should the Severed stir beyond their bindings. Though she has not spoken since her reassignment, her presence alone carries the full weight of the Codex.
Appearance
Nemia stands tall and statuesque, her presence sharpened by years of motionless watch. Her hair, once black, is now streaked with grey and worn in a simple knot. Her uniform is unadorned save for three glyphs stitched in jet-thread: Vigilance, Containment, and Sacrifice.
She wears no blade. Her Codex Seal Plate is scorched along the edges — a relic of the event that cost her voice.
Personality
Disciplined to the point of asceticism, Nemia is both revered and feared. Though her vow of silence prevents formal communication, her gaze, gestures, and ritual forms carry unambiguous authority.
She is not cold, merely resolved. Custodians and pilgrims alike refer to her as the "Still Flame" — enduring, watchful, and merciless only when necessary.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Raised in a household that blended minor doctrine with folk ritual, Nemia showed unusual aptitude for reflective magic. She entered the Scholae Arcanii at fourteen and was noted for her extreme focus and aversion to unnecessary speech.
Her first exposure to field work — the containment of a breached Sigilwell in Breccan Hollow — cemented her path toward the Custodians.
Education
Nemia trained at the Bastion of Quiet Flame and earned the Sigil of Containment two years ahead of standard progression. She mastered glyph choreography and null-matrix intercession, but refused promotion to Tribune rank.
Her Oath of Containment was completed without witnesses, save for the Doctrine Flame itself — a rare but sanctioned allowance.
Employment
Nemia served in three Custodian Circles before the Still Ash Assignment. During the Silence of Harrenvale, she single-handedly subdued a rogue elemental convergence using only layered containment runes — no incantation, no strikes.
Following the Glass Binding Collapse in 466 AR, which claimed eleven lives, she took a vow of silence and accepted permanent post at the Monastery of Still Ash. She has not left it since.
Accomplishments & Achievements
- Survived and suppressed the Glass Binding Collapse
- Single-handedly prevented a Severance breach during the Night of Failing Rites
- Finalised the Ashfast Sigil Chain, now used in Severed containment rites
Mental Trauma
Nemia bears the scars of the Glass Binding Collapse not on her skin, but in her soul. The collapse left her the sole survivor of a containment ritual gone fatally wrong, in which eleven fellow Custodians were either annihilated or warped beyond reclamation. Her voice vanished that day — not through physical injury, but as a conscious severance.
Some among the Arcanii argue it was a trauma-born vow. Others believe her silence is ritual, a way to forever bind her mind from reliving what she saw within the shattering.
She is known to wake during the black hours of Stillpeak nights, standing watch over the Severed in perfect stillness — not sleeping, not moving, not blinking — as if listening to ensure no echo of that day returns.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Nemia believes in containment as compassion. To her, silence is not absence — it is clarity. She does not punish; she prevents. She is said to see magical instability the way others see movement — a flicker in the air, a fracture in the soul.
She considers speech a luxury she can no longer afford.
Representation & Legacy
Within the Arcanii, Nemia is spoken of in hushed reverence. Her name is invoked when doctrine demands discretion. Her likeness is etched in the Hall of Custodians, not with eyes open, but veiled in ash.
For those who dwell in the Monastery of Still Ash, she is both warden and witness — the keeper of their silence and the guardian of their shame.
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