Ionea Zosime

Ionea is a priestess belonging to the Thaléthri people, born and raised in the city of Kyr-Amnion, a port city known for its stepped construction, built on the slopes leading down to the Crescent Kyr Bay. Born to a rope-maker and a fish-seller, by the age of ten, she was accepted into the temple for training to become a priestess after she correctly predicted that the gods were angry and would punish the city, with the result that any fishermen caught no fish for the following days.   She has the bearing of a woman shaped by rituals and the sea, moving through a crowd like a branch floating on the surface of a river, elegantly gliding around obstacles. Likewise, her hands are always stained faintly with ink and oils from rituals. Wearing a linen robe, slit on the side for better movement and dyed in the colours of the sea, and around her neck is a polished tooth from the Téras she found it as a young girl, diving in the waters of the bay.   Known to be a fair judge, she speaks in a measured tone, but with a faint warmth to it; she is deeply ritual-minded, but not rigid, believing that even the rituals and traditions of her people should evolve, just as the sea always changes, an opinion that is not widely popular among her fellow priests.   In her role as a priestess, she serves as an intermediary between the gods and the merchants and sailors, who come to her, asking for favourable winds and calm seas, and she promises to intercede on their behalf with the gods. Other than this, her duties include blessing voyages, interpreting omens from foam patterns and beached creatures. One of her most respected duties consists of reading the signs and declaring days unfit for sailing. It's not a ban on sailing, but few venture out on days declared unfit.