Oliva Jin

Olivia Jin was a sixth century leader of the Rossa religion who rose to power over the Ethite tribes. She was killed by Bridget Venalinen, marking the rise of the Ethite religion and ultimately leading to the creation of Ethion as a country.

History

Jin was born into poverty, but studied the Rossa religious texts in the hope of succeeding as a member of the clergy, though most Rossa clergy were male. Not only did she achieve status as a member of the clergy, but she was shortly thereafter chosen to be the head clergyperson and personal advisor to the tribal king. When the king died, Jin took over as tribal leader, creating a task force among her most personal advisors to inform her of crimes that her competitors might have committed. When she learned of these, she had these competitors "brought to justice," which usually included both torture and murder.

if they were lucky, only murder

First, these were other men who might have eliminated her leadership and taken it for themselves. This was followed by the leaders of other religious tribes in the area, though some of them were saved by agreeing to swear fealty to her.
Jin's actions did lead to the unification of the Ethite tribes. Though much of this was done by destroying tribal leaders, she also eliminated corruption in many places and adopted various aspects of the different religions into her own, creating the beginnings of a unified Ethite identity. Overall, however, she was not liked as a ruler, and numerous stories have been told about her crimes, the truth of which is difficult to discern. The people of the Ethite religion were particularly resistant to her leadership, creating traditions around the sharing of anise cakes to pass secret messages between one another.

Death

Similar to her own rise to power, Jin became close to Bridget Venalinen, a Nemon prostitute, who had been born into poverty. Nightly, she would sleep with Venalinen, until Venalinen took this opportunity to hammer a chisel into her head, killing her. This brought an end to Jin's "reign of terror," and allowed the Ethite religious leaders to take control of the newly united group. Venalinen has since been awarded the title of Most Honored Ethite for her actions.