Zorala the Blessed

Zorala is the legendary founder of the First Zeshem Empire, an important figure in Zesheko religion. Zorala is simultaneously a semi-mythical prophet-monarch and a real historical figure who lived and died almost a thousand years ago.   Zorala is often remembered as the ideal monarch, who possessed a divinely-inspired wisdom matched with a stoic and impartial attitude. A common story is that she fell terribly ill as a young woman and watched her home perish in a terrible storm - allowing her to use Tragedy Magic to wish for the wisdom to lead her people in rebuilding. From that wisdom came power, wealth, and magical ability (or so the stories say). Among the faithful, Zorala is a model for good leadership and a symbol of legitimate government: that a monarch should not just have correct breeding but a careful temperament and a cunning mind. Zorala does have a supernatural bloodline according to legend as well, of course. She was born from two sacred lines: Norinar the prophet and Nilen the Moonkeeper (something not possible prior to the emergence of a large Zeshem Half-Dryad community just a generation or two before her). Legends often frame this 'joining of the bloodlines' as some powerful act of destiny that led to her being hidden away in poverty as a child, disguised as a common fisherwoman.    The real Zorala was certainly not a hard-scrapping child of poverty; she was raised as an elite scion of two prestigious clans. She did spend some of her early years exiled to a minor township due to political machinations within the clans, though - and it is possible that she did really use a Tragic Wish for wisdom. But by the time that she came of age and emerged from exile to seize power within the Urzava clan, she had a great deal of experience in political intrigue and posturing. She moved quickly to unite her parent clans (the Urzavas and the Ostrozeks) and to consolidate power through legal reform and conquest. She was a brilliant woman who was born into a position of authority at the perfect time: as she built her power base, the Zeshem tribes were panicking at a renewed Selkie colonial effort under Grand Admiral Sammaeli. The Northern Pratasa (religious converts to Samvaran religions) were gaining ground under the new kingdom of Vikama, which was pushing further and further South. A new religious revival movement was sweeping the Zeshem tribes, which Zorala was able to quickly co-opt for her own purposes. By the age of 32, Zorala had united the Zeshem under her banner. She claimed to have a gift of prophecy granted by the God Alima, which she used to justify radical political centralization: a bureaucracy, city-building, a disciplined army apart from clan affiliation, an expanded professional navy under a single banner.    Zorala's empire drove the selkies out of Zeshema and snuffed out the last colonies - driving the settlers North to join the convert-kingdoms. She defeated an army of plains nomads known as the Anavako, who were united under their own prophet-warlord and who had harnessed the massive ecological disruption caused by spreading Fire Termites to build an army of considerable size. More than that, Zorala negotiated peace with the selkies and established a formal religious code and priestly hierarchy. She even created the modern Zeshem Calendar.    Zorala's grave memorial remains a key component of the imperial palace of Kozmio - kept sacred even while the other First-Empire royal tombs have been largely ignored or even destroyed for new buildings. She is honored during the holiday of Suminyeb every year in June.