Zeniba Ridley

### Relatives

Lady Ridley of Usjoll (mother).Rika Ridley, JoJack Ridley, Hone Ridley, (siblings).

## Lady Ridley, Princess Zeniba of Usjoll

Zeniba is a 30 year old popular entertainer who combines traditional song and dance with pyromancy.

In her youth, Zeniba was inspired by tales of the witches in her mother's homeland, and decided to learn witchcraft for herself. Despite a worldwide ban on it, Zeniba was able to master many of the arts of witchcraft by contacting imprisoned witches, meeting with witches who were in hiding, and recovering written material which was lost or restricted.

Zeniba leads the charge on a political movement to legalise and de-criminalise witchcraft on cultural and spiritual grounds. She remains unsuccessful, but her immense popularity amongst average citizens is such that she is able to openly practise withcraft without backlash or legal consequence, and in fact, it's part of her act.

Currently, she is on a music tour around the globe. Before and after her concerts, she meets with political leaders and spreads awareness about anti-witch persecution.

## Notable Powers, Abilities, and Talents

### Burning Curiousity, Brilliant Intellect

*"You seem fun. I'll keep you around."*

Zeniba has a natural curiousity about the world around her, although she prefers to explore it and the people she meets through the lens of an artist, rather than that of a scientist. These deeper, more meaningful connections she shares with the people she meets and the ideas she adopts, makes her one of the most popular people on the planet, not just for her talents, but her genuine affability.

### Largely a Medium

*"Ghosts aren't so bad once you get to know them. Kinda clingy though."*

Zeniba is descended from a long line of spirit mediums from the Zant city-state of Uzoba. She's never met anyone from that side of her family, nor has she ever set foot in Uzoba, but her connection to those spiritual traditions is so strong that with very little effort, she demonstrates a complete mastery of Uzoban spirit magic. Normally this requires years of apprenticeship, but she has read about it in books and heard about it in stories from her mother, so she has mastered it all the same.

### Witchy Woman

*"I'm tired of waiting for freedom."*

Zeniba is a legendarily powerful pyromancer, which is a skill she acquired in her traditional schooling. However, as part of learning of her heritage secondhand from her mother, she also learned of the plight of witchcraft, a special school of magic that has been outlawed for thousands of years. Starting in her teenage years, she would sneak out of her mother's palace and wander the woods hoping to find a witch who would teach her about this forbidden craft. One day, she found exactly what she was looking for, and an Usjolli coven took her in and told her the hidden history of witchcraft, and their persecution by The System. Zeniba now works to expose the hypocrisy of suppressing witchcraft as a form of free speech, and to deliver witches all over the world the freedom she believes they deserve. Although Zeniba is actually not a full-fledged and initiated witch, she has made witchcraft a core tenet of how she practises magic, and has renounced traditional sorcery.

## In-Game References

**Represented in:**

1. Zeniba, the Constant Flame

**Depicted in:**

1. Rapid Fire (Her fireballs only)

**Quoted and/or Referred in:**

N/A

## Trivia

* Zeniba's mother is Lady Yridja Ridley, the ruler of the duchy of Usjoll, a tiny secluded country on the continent of Ymiron. Her father is an unknown pyromancer from the city-state of Uzoba.
* Each of Zeniba's siblings has a different biological father from the other, whom none of them have ever knowingly met.
* Zeniba's musical career is wildly successful; While her family's own estate is quite lucrative, Usjoll as a whole is not a very wealthy country. Zeniba sends enormous amounts of money back to her homeland to help her people prosper.
* Zeniba has reached some of the highest levels of witchcraft, all without ever having been a part of a coven or witch apprenticeship. Regardless, even Zeniba will need to serve under a more powerful witch to learn the ultimate secrets of witchery.
* The character of Zeniba is named in honour of Zeniba, the older twin sister of Yubaba, the owner of the spirit world bath house in the 2002 animated film, Spirited Away by Studio Ghibli. Her name means something like "money witch" or "old money woman".