Reniae

***Warning*: This article references strong violence, non-consesual behavior, and other distressing material.**

## Biography

### Early Childhood

Reniae was born in Elde Isle. At 6 years old, she receives the following prophecy from the Goddess Inanna during a trip with her master, a fisherman, to the Golden Forest Temple:

> Reniae of Elde Isle, beloved of Inanna... yours is the love of lords and gallants.
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> Beloved of Inanna. Yours is the fragrance that shall charm many.
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> I see two men, deeply in love with you... two men who you shall love deeply.
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> Two men who shall end your life, two men whose lies you shall end.
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> Yours are two roads of fate, forever divided... north and south, up and down, love and hate, the heights and the depths, good and evil, truth and falsehood, past and future, life and death.
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> Beloved of Inanna, blessing of the Goddess upon you... refuse this blessing, and your fragrance will turn into stench, your fate into doom. You shall lose the love of lords and gallants.
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> At these crossroads, you are bound to choose your destiny.
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As a young girl, after receiving the blessing at 7 years old, she realizes Inanna's blessing endows heightened sensitivity towards violent and dangerous intentions directed at her. Despite her fragile physique, she will fight violently when being attacked, with her advantage of sensing the blacksmoke, an intention to kill, from any living things around her. Moreover, she discovers that Inanna's blessing unwittingly attracts men to her, causing her to severely wounded men who tried to assault her. Reniae believes those around her are harmed because she failed to accept Inanna's blessing. To avoid the gazes of men, she chose to work as sheep herder out in the field, far away from other slaves.

At 14 years old, Reniae was sold to Gizzida by her master, who despised Reniae after she unintentionally almost killed his son out of self-defense.

### A New Master

After escapes the coming-of age ritual in the Golden Forest with Gizzida's help, he tells Reniae that she must return after three days to prevent the fire seal Gizzida inflicted on her from consuming her heart. Knowing the true meaning of seal from one of the High Priestess, she chooses to flee to the Northern mountains instead, where none of the en and nigak of The Golden Forest could work.

### Meeting Kun

Reniae hides in the White Mountains with the cave raiders for three years after fleeing the Golden Forest.

    An excellent hunter, Reniae disguises herself as a young boy. As a Southlander from Elde Island, she holds many of the same prejudices towards Northlanders, believing they are barbaric and beast-like. She is eventually attacked by four cave raiders, new inhabitant of their cave, during a snowstorm who attempt to rape her. As she retaliates and flees, the four men die. Feeling guilty over the fact she killed those men, Reniae heard a distressed signal asking for help in the middle of snowstorm. Following the whistles, Reniae makes her first encounter with a dying Northlander man.

Suprised at how ordinary he looks, Reniae decides to help the man - as she wakes him, she tells him she will bring him back to her shelter on the condition that he never removes the blindfold from his eyes. The young man initially suspects that she is a raider after the divine stones, but eventually introduces himself as Kun. As they struggle to walk back to Reniae's cave, Kun is forced to drop his axe and discovers that Reniae is a woman, who adamantly tells him to keep her secret. Kun agrees, and swears to return her favor once he recovers. They return to the raider's cave where a raider who attacks Kun, who refuses to deny that he is a northlander. Reniae attempts to shield Kun and eventually strikes a deal to bring the raiders meat daily. Reniae ties an unconscious Kun in the back of the rock cave and pledges to herself that she will protect Kun with her own life. She removes the iron spearhead embedded in Kun's thigh while Reniae asks Kun to promise her that he will live to 150 years. Later, he asks her to make a more feasible wish, and impresses Reniae with his passionate committment to justice and firm belief entrusted in himself. Suffering from survivor's guilt, Reniae shocks Kun by asking him to painlessly kill her, who refuses. Reniae eventually asks Kun to grant her wish by having sexual intercourse with her, even if she violently resists. Kun reluctantly agrees on the condition that Reniae is absolutely certain of this.

Reniae gradually nurses Kun back to health, whose voracious appetite begins jeopardizing her standing with the raiders with fewer game to hunt in the winter. Despite this, Reniae enjoys bantering with Kun about his Northlander customs. She also happy to find someone at the same age of her, whom she could talk everything on her minds. The raiders believe Reniae's food stash will begin dwindling and begin plotting to kill Kun. Kun asks Reniae to recover the axe they left behind while he hunts in her stead for the raiders if she takes off his blindfold. Reniae rebuffs him and argues the raiders will remoreslessly kill him for jeopardizing their location. Unpeturbed, Kun states that the raiders should be killed for disturbing the sacred spaces for the deceased, a major violation for Northlander traditions, and insists that she should let him hunt. He attempts to make an oath by giving his sacred necklace with the heart of the Great Eagle that he would return after hunting, but Reniae denies his request.

While Reniae hunts, Kun skins the game once she returns. During a conversation about Southern and Western raiders seeking divine stones, Reniae erupts when Kun brings up the Golden Forest and reveals she is a runaway slave. Kun echoes her sentiments about the atrocities committed by the priests and is infuriated when she tells him that the priests call Northlanders "beasts" that need to be exterminated. Reniae apologizes about her misgivings surronding the Northern tribe, which Kun reveals that his parents and tribe had just been massacred when she found him in the blizzard. Reniae is moved by his story, and Kun asks her to tell him the legend of the **Golden Forest.**

Over several days, Reniae describes the inception of the universe and the unions of the deities that manifested the world. She eventually asks Kun to define love, who says it is when one ardently adores and desires to protect their partner. Reniae is then flustered at his straightforwardness as he says that it is when "I want to put my seed inside of you" - he further states that if his love is unreciprocated, he would fervently pray for his beloved to return his feelings. Later that night, Reniae groggily observes Kun praying in the moonlight, who eventually grasps and kisses her hand while she sleeps. Reniae continues telling him the story of the Golden Forest, and notes that they have already been together for two weeks. Kun mentions that he is next in line for High Priest of the Salt Mountain of Temple in the spring which suprises Reniae, who constantly blasphemies the deities. He then tells Reniae to use his name to take a serious oath after Reniae states she would use her own name to grant her protection and assist her with any needs, even if it costs him his life.

As Reniae continues the story, Kun wishes to know what kind of man she would marry and is frustrated at her persistent reservations toward him after she refuses to explain her hatred towards men. Reniae begins acknowleding her own growing desire for Kun when he asks to kiss her but proceeds telling him the rest of the legend.

One day Reniae is unable to capture any prey during the height of a snowstorm and is assaulted by the raiders. As they viciously kick Reniae, Kun shields her with his body. Seeing Kun as a growing threat, the raiders then plan to kill Kun the next time Reniae hunts. Reniae finally finsihes the story, much to Kun's displeasure that the gods never rekindled their relationship and by Reniae's cynical outlook towards love. However, Reniae tells him Inanna's blessing that grounded her dislike towards men - with him being the exception, and is moved when he says that she is pretty after touching her face. By now, she realizes her feelings for Kun will deeply pain her when they sever ties, and kisses him. Wanting to finally see his eyes, Reniae removes his blindfold and tells him to fulfill her wish now.

After making love, Reniae tells Kun to return home after the snowstorm ends and forget everything that happened during their time together. At night, Reniae hears Kun quietly praying in the name Utu an oracle similar to the one from the Inanna, but instead prays for Reniae walk the path towards happiness and love.

The following morning, the snowstorm ceases. Reniae prepares to send Kun back home and leads him away from their camp to a rock formation. Kun is distraught as Reniae tells him to count to 490 before removing the blindfold, who angrily reminds him of his promise to keep his blindfold until she allows him to remove it. Kun pleads Reniae to accompany him, who begins leaving to ignore her own faltering resolve knowing that Kun would never break an oath made in the name of Utu. However, Kun clutches Reniae and begs her not to return to the cave, which she responds by kneeing him and reminding Kun of her status as a runaway slave. Regardless, Kun promises that after he completes his task, he will return for Reniae by pledging to protect her from all harm. Reniae is touched by Kun's promise and acceptance of her curse and futilely tries to reject him as he hands her his ancestor's necklace as a token. However, when Kun says he will return to repay her kindness, Reniae abruptly runs away from Kun and berates herself for thinking he loved her as he desperately asks for her name.

Reniae returns to the raider's cave and tells them that she brought back Kun's nose and ears (which she gathered from the corpses of the four men that attacked her) after he tried escaping. Heartbroken, Reniae tenderly reflects on the moments she spent together with Kun and dearly misses him. The raiders note that Reniae has refused food and water for several days without going hunting. She finally goes outside, wondering if Kun will truly fulfill his promise when she comes across Kun's axe. Reniae considers returning it, before despairing that she should simply forget him instead.

One morning, Reniae abruptly awakens after sensing something amiss and realizes a sky gondola carried by eagles (anmars) are quickly approaching the cave.

    Reniae is initially joyed to see Kun, but hides in a nearby tree after she feels something is wrong. Upon landing, Kun slaughtering of the the Black Mountain Tribe leads Reniae to believe Kun had no way of knowing if he had killed her or not. Now the leader of the Salt Mountain Tribe, Kun uses the blindfold Reniae used and orders his men to kill all trespassers and impale their bodies on poles. Devastated, Reniae avoids the massacre by staying concealed in the trees and continues fleeing cave to cave to avoid the anmars over the next several weeks. Jaded and disenchanted, Reniae surrenders the hope that Kun launched this massive effort to find her.

Reniae brings Kun's axe to the Salt Castle. There, she is told by a priest that Kun is now the High Priest of the Utu Temple, who successfully conquered the 11 Mountain Tribes and reunited the Northern lands upon his return and crowned Lugal, the new king. Furthermore, the priest says that Kun took a beautiful wife some months ago and is expecting his firstborn. Shocked to hear Kun is expecting an heir, Reniae tells the priest that along the way, a woman found Kun's axe and asked Reniae to bring it to Salt Castle. Devastated, Reniae leaves the Northlands to return to the Golden Forest.

### Return to the Golden Forest

Immediately upon crossing into the Southlands, Reniae's slave brand reactivates searing pain in her chest, indicating that the flames will burn her heart within four days if she fails to return to the Golden Forest. She is eventually thrown off her horse and gives up as she contemplates her fate back at the temple if she were to be discovered as a woman.

## Personality

Reniae was a bright and headstrong young girl who is fiercely indepedent. She intensely experiences guilt for the burden of Inanna's curse.

## Physical Appearance

As a child, Reniae had medium length reddish-brown hair and brown eyes. After escaping into the White Mountains, she kept her hair cropped short.

Upon returning to the Golden Forest, Reniae unintentionally casts Nigak, resulting in her hair transmuting to golden.

## Quotes

"It's a curse. A horrible curse. A curse that'll only end with my death..." - Reniae after killing her four attackers

"I never wanted to hurt anyone. All I wanted was to protect myself." - A young Reniae