Niren

**Niren** is a Freyjan High Priestess of Sessrumnir. Unlike her friend Zhed, Niren doesn't trust outsiders and is very conservative about upholding the religious-based rules and regulations of the Arunafeltz States. However, despite her alignment with the hardliner faction, she respects the natives of Arunafeltz and goes as far as to help them out from time to time.

## Story

**SPOILER WARNING:** Plot and/or ending details follow.
Niren learns that her friend Zhed had allowed a Rune-Midgartsian adventurer to visit The Pope and goes to confront him about it. She tells him that it was unwise to let an outsider visit the Pope during such a fragile time in Sessrumnir. Zhed argues that the mana leak from the mysterious crystal fragments within the Holy Ground should addressed quickly before the situation gets out of hand, but Niren assures him that it will be taken care of.

After that conversation, Niren goes over to meet the adventurer and warns him/her to not do anything they will regret. She then leaves, but not before accidentally dropping the key to the Holy Ground's gate.

She heads over to the storage area where the imitation Heart of Ymir shards were being held to see how the holding unit could be repaired. Since many of the Sessrumnir workers have become infected by mana energy leaking out of the broken unit, it cannot be repaired by proper means. While investigating the cause of the leakage, Niren runs into the adventurer that Zhed had allowed into the temple. She tells him/her that he/she has made a big mistake in infiltrating the Holy Ground and knocks him/her out cold.

Eventually, Niren encounters the adventurer again, this time asking about smugglers in Veins. She doesn't seem to recognize him/her, but was still willing to answer his/her questions. She says that she knows a bit about the smugglers, but is unable to tell the adventurer certain information about them as they're classified information. When the adventurer brings up the high rank official that that smuggler captured, Niren notes that she is aware of the official but hasn't decided what to do with him. She says the captive was placed in a secret place only known to a few people. But then one day, the temple lost all contact with them. Investigators were sent; all but one failed to return. She then asks the adventurer to go to the secret location, which used to be a working monastery but is now repurposed as a prison. The adventurer agrees and Niren says that she will send a message to the Veins magistrate.

When Niren next meets the adventurer, the adventurer presents her with a Research Note, which is tell-tale evidence that the situation at the monastery is of utmost priority since the threat there is greater than anything going on at the moment. She assures the adventurer that both Arunafeltz and Rune-Midgarts will be too busy with their own internal affairs to go to war at this point.

Niren meets the adventurer again while she was in the Sessrumnir Garden. The adventurer asks her about Zhed, to which she firmly responds that she desires war and that she will not cooperate with Zhed knowing that the moderate faction committed atrocities that are just as bad as the hardliner faction. The adventurer then leaves, but returns some time later with a letter from Zhed himself. Seeing this, Niren angrily takes the letter from the adventurer, rips it open, and begins reading. Her hardened expression softens upon understanding why her friend felt the way he does about everything. At long last, she decides that she wants to give her friend another chance.

With that resolved, Niren then tells the adventurer that he/she was lucky to have been able to meet the Pope, but it was going to be a lot harder to meet her in private. She notes that the Pope is always surrounded by priests and followers under High Priest Vildt and that the adventurer will have to figure some way to get Vildt's spies away from the Pope. The adventurer agrees and away he/she went back into the Sessrumnir temple.

The adventurer reports back to Niren to tell her that the Pope is always accompanied by the priests, even when she is asleep. Niren comments that it has always been like that for years. Just then, her assistant Sippie says that she wishes she could go on vacation, which initiates an idea for Niren. Niren says that if the priests were dismissed for vacation by their leading high priest, the Pope would be free to approach in private. However, Vildt's priests cannot be dismissed without his official signature. Niren recalls helping bless a native family whose daughter Ishmael knows how to perfectly forge handwritings. She then sends the adventurer to seek out the girl with a copy of High Priest Vildt's handwriting.

The adventurer later returns to Niren with a perfect forgery of Vildt's handwriting. Niren then passes off the vacation request to her assistant Sippie to send to all the priests and priestesses in the Sky Garden. She then tells the adventurer to return to Zhed while she heads over to the Pope. She meets up with Zhed at the Sky Garden and together they approach the Pope with the adventurer by their side. The two of them tell the Pope everything that has been going on within Arunafeltz and the conflict between the hardliner and moderate factions. To their surprise, the Pope reveals that she had known all along, but did not know how to respond as everyone viewed her as a child and not a person of high rank. She thanks them for coming to her about this and commands Niren to compile proof of the hardliner faction gearing up for war in Thor's Volcano. The two of them are then dismissed along with the adventurer.

Niren meets up with the adventurer afterwards to express how proud she felt for her Pope and that she feels ashamed for trying to throw Arunafeltz into a war. She hopes to redeem herself by working with Zhed. She thanks the adventurer for what he/she has done and sends him/her to Zhed.

## References

1. ↑ Recommendation from High Priest Zhed
2. ↑ Nameless Island Entry Quest
3. ↑ Peace for Arunafeltz Quest