Azemi of Thran

Azemi mil Memras, more commonly known as Azemi of Thran, was a preacher and a saint who lived in the 3rd and 2nd century B.C.E. in what is now known as Keltheron. She was the first follower of the Azemian religion, which is named after her, and remains by far the most important figure in the faith.

Life, Death and Teachings

Born in the year 229 B.C.E., Azemi of Thran was the daughter of a fruit farmer. When she was eight, the family was forced to relocate after their farm failed following a drought. They traveled far in search of fertile land on which they could make a new home, but found only inhospitable soil or, where the soil was good, inhospitable neighbors who drove them off. After months of travel, the family decided to rest overnight in some untilled fields outside the small village of Thran. Azemi's father, Memras mat Kez, had already determined that the soil there would not be able to support their farm, although the local people were warm and welcoming. However, the now nine year old Azemi had a vision as she slept under the open sky and woke up to tell her parents that this was where they should make their home, and that if they did the land would flourish, their family would never suffer ill again and they would become beloved pillars of the community. When asked about how she knew this, her response was "God told me". She spoke of her visions with such fervor and in such detail, that her father was swayed and the very next day he laid down the first stones that would make the foundation of their new home.
As the house was being built and the land worked to prepare for the orchard, Azemi continued to receive visions in her sleep, which guided the building and sowing process, determining which trees would be planted were and how the house would be laid out and decorated. During this time, the family built strong bonds with the local community, trading help with the construction process for help with whatever their new neighbors needed - sowing and harvesting, cooking and cleaning, washing and mending, and more. Azemi, too, participated in this exchange of labor, and the charismatic, hardworking girl quickly became much beloved by her neighbors.
When the final stone in the wall surrounding the initial orchard was set, witness testimonies say that Azemi went to sleep in the new house, and did not wake for four days. After this, the nature of Azemi's night-time visions changed from being practical and directly related to the family's immediate situation, to being more general in nature and largely concerning morality and spirituality. She spoke of her visions incessantly. Due to her young age, her audience at first consisted of her family members, but before long she begun preaching to her neighbors in the village and eventually to people in nearby villages where she would travel with her father to sell fruit.
The core tenets of the faith she preached were love, compassion and hard work. She strongly emphasized the importance of taking personal responsibility for one's own growth, and encouraged her followers to be humble and modest in their behavior and lifestyle. Caring for the sick, giving to the poor, feeding the hungry and comforting the downtrodden were central to the conduct she prescribed, as was performing certain rituals and meditations to show your gratitude and humility toward the divine and to further your own personal development.
In addition to preaching the messages she received in her dreams, she also begun to tell fortunes and give people advice on a range of topics, whether they be conceiving a child, recovering from an illness, achieving a bountiful harvest or winning the heart of a beloved, instructing them to preform certain rituals or offerings in order to find solutions to their problems or achieve their goals.
Her following grew slowly, but one by one the other inhabitants of Thran began turning away from the old pagan faiths of the region, and Azemi's status changed to that of preacher, leader and, eventually, saint.
Azemi passed away in 146 B.C.E. and was buried in her father's orchard where she first received her calling. At the time of her death, her followers numbered in the 400s. However, this number grew quickly once reports began coming in of people receiving guidance in the form of visions and omens when worshiping at her grave site, and of prayers of prayers being answered after making an offering at the orchard. The spot has become a a pilgrimage site which is now visited by thousands every year, particularly around the harvest season.

Appearance

Written sources from Azemi's lifetime and the centuries immediately following describe her as a short, somewhat heavy-set woman with dark hair and brown eyes, and art from the same period often depicts wearing a head-wrap with a tri-colored fabric braid of green, brown and white encircling it. Imagery of fruit, trees, seeds, pruning knives and sickles is also common. Later art has a tendency to emphasize and exaggerate Azemi's heavy build, probably due to the strong associations with fertility and motherhood that have developed, and water imagery in the form of rivers or rain has also become common.
Some art, both contemporaneous and later, also depicts Azemi as having a large port-wine stain over her left eye. However, many religious scholars claim that this tendency stems from folk beliefs common to the region, in which the size, shape and position of port-wine stains are held to have prophetic significance. These beliefs are now considered paganistic superstitions by the church, and although older depictions featuring the port-wine stain have been preserved, new art featuring it is not sanctioned by the church.