High Priest Oksifer

**High Priest Oksifer** is the current High Priest of the Citadel, preaching the Starry Rites known to some as the **Starry Septon**. Oksifer has served in this capacity only briefly, having been elected to the seat at the turn of five years back.

## Appearance and Character

Perhaps a strong and athletic youth, such a past is lost to Oksifer, and few (if any) would know of the young man that once was. In that man's place now exists an aged body and a constitution that grows ever-more feeble with each passing year.

Through, this, however, Oksifer remains the kind and generous man he has always been. Oksifer is a man of the people, one who offers hope, comfort, and guidance through a life of hardship and toil. His patience for the nobility can be easily tested, but his capacity to care for the people he considers his own is unending.

Oksifer was born in 1,285 AC to parents he never knew. Before he could talk, walk, or even think, he had been given over to one of the septs of Vakar. There he was raised as a member of their commune, and would learn the ways of the faithful and the words of the Starry Rites.

Oksifer was well cared for in Vakar, but his life was nonetheless meager. Life under the shadow of the Palace of Fire ruled by the then-young Rhaelarys Vakerian II was a constant reminder of the chasm that existed between those of noble birth and those of smaller status.

Oksifer struggled with this fact for a number of years, until his anointment in 1,340 A.C. A Septon in his own right, Oksifer left the walls of Vakar to take up a humbler station further south, closer to the heart of the rites he held most dear. Oksifer founded a small sept along the Goat pathway, and with the aid of the local smallfolk, created a pleasant and pious existence.

During the start of the War of Three Dragons, the Ocean Road saw a great deal of movement, with many fleeing from or rushing towards sights of unrest and rebellion. For the few years of calamity, Oksifer's humble sept would be filled almost daily, as the young septon grew to care for any and all who needed it regardless of their side. His duty was to the Gods, and their people, not to lords and their politics. During these few short years, Oksifer earned a reputation on the southwestern coast of the continent.

Whispers of Oksifer would soon find the ears of those in the Citadel the very heart of Oksifer's faith. When summoned to meet them, Oksifer happily obliged, but did not bring much with him as the journey had only seemed temporary to him. The septons there were most impressed with Oksifer, and asked that he join the Citadel as one of their own. Though perhaps not wishing to abandon his own flock, Oksifer could not deny such an honour, and acquiesced.

For nearly three decades since, Oksifer has served the Citadel as one of its most prominent septons. The young man would grow old within Vakar, and would earn the friendship and love of a great many of the city's denizens, and even some of the lords that traveled to and from the city regularly. He however could not grasp the love of the King, who thinks that his helping of people on the Blacks and the Golds side was an act of treason that must be answered... His son Laenyx seemed to take a liking to him however and at that the King calmed his approach against the faith leaving it for another day. His calming words and offerings of hope were most noted in the first decade after his arrival, when famine, war, and winter tore apart the continent.

The passing of High Priest Zakar had left a vacancy in the position of High Priest of the Citadel. As the septons gathered, the vote would last no longer than a single night, such was the unanimity of their choice. Without a single vote cast in opposition, Oksifer was elected by his brothers as High Priest of which the King and the Queens came to congratulate them offering their support for the new High Priest.