Annezhni Oroyonn Jèredeth (ɑnːɛʒni orojon ʤɛrɛdɛθ)
Hierophant of Annen
One of the heroes of Port Hren, Oroyonn was born on the island-kingdom of Jèrynn but lived large parts of his life in isolation contemplating the infinite and plagued by horrific visions of the future. In his isolation he became a priest of Annenn* and arose in the ranks of its tradition to become its hierophant (Annezhni in Jèredethi). Following his visions, he eventually settled in Port Hren, where he became a founding member of the House of Knives Gang which quickly became one of the prominent factions in the city during a period of great political instability, which consisted of, but was not limited to, the death of a long-ruling mayor, the election of a young and naïve new mayor, the influx of refugees from the Third Qh'énno-Ptarshakkian War, the wolf-murders, and the minotaur-lead peasant rebelion, and the Weird of Port Hren's undercity. One of the primary belligerents was the creature called TBLT, Hierophant of Ptazach. And one of the figures to bring about stability was the new mayor, whom Oroyonn and his gang aided in her consolidation of power despite the many attempts on her life. After the defeat of the creature TBLT, resolution of the temporal crisis, and the solidification of mayoral control of the city, Oroyonn ascended to the rank of Hierophant and was lauded by the city. In a period of relative calm, Hierophant Oroyonn eleceted to remain in his chosen city and therein he married—in the style of the Ptarshakkians—his longtime same sex companion, Slem, a former pirate (and himself a heroic local of Port Hren).
Divine Domains
Oroyonn Jèredeth found his religious tradition spontaneously. He later had some schooling form a tiny Anneist monastic community in the village of his childhood, but largely it was his visions and numerous theophanies that he encountered in his isolation that trained him. As a Jèredethi, Oroyonn uses the local designation an spelling for the name of his divinity, the Goddess of Time: Annenn* who is known to the Qh'Raa speakers primarily as Wharrtaxxé /wʰɑɹtæksːĕ/, but called byth'Annen archaically and Annen by the Ysssians and Ptarshakkians. In a sense, Annenn* is the creator, but in a very distant, aloof, and largely indifferent sense: a generally uninvolved dispassionate first cause. Among her domains are birth, growth, degeneration, decay and death; and finally, the peace and tranquility stemming from acceptance. It is this latter quality that is most significant to Oroyonn. He is unique in that his relationship with Annenn* is predicated upon his morality and his effort to impress upon his goddess that existence is worthy in and of itself. Thus, for Oroyonn, as hierophant of Annen—as he is called in Port Hren—she is also the goddess of hope. Or, perhaps more precisely, she could be.
Artifacts
Annenn* has few artefacts. However, Oroyonn is the bearer of and wields the most significant of the goddess' relics in the material world: the byth'Annen zdu/Cudgel of Deep Time, an ancient fire & time-hardened shillelagh that strikes with the divine essence of time. Among the adherents of Annenn* it is believed that the weapon imparts vastness of time and ages those struck by it, accelerating their degeneration.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
The minotaurs of the realm are large beings. Although Oroyonn is not one of the truly giant beasts, at 7'4' he towers over all but the larger members of his species or full-blood trolls. His skin is darker on his dorsal side, lighter on his ventral. Black and roan hair cover his head and body. His horns are black as is his snout. Although he shares common features with many of the minotaurs (see Family Ties below), his heterochromia are seemingly unique to him. What caused his separate eye colour—red on the right, black on the left—whether it was from early trauma or his bloodline is uncertain.
Identifying Characteristics
Heterochromia: his intense ruby-red right eye contrasted with his seemingly more mundane black left.
Special abilities
Oroyonn has the ability to sense his temporal location, sense temporal anomalies. He always knows where and when he is.
Specialized Equipment
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Oroyonn has no familial knowledge beyond that his mother died birthing him; he does not even know her name. He was told his mother wandered into the fishing village on the southern coast, relatively near the capital, Agnash. She was very ill and very pregnant. Delirious, she offered little meaningful information to the wise women of the village that found her. If his mother knew the father, his identity died with her. The women of the village collectively suckled and raised the child. Yet he was not one of them and he knew it. When he began to speak of horrific visions, he was further shunned. It was then that the local monks attempted to take him in and teach him. But he was not long in their company: he had seen society and rejected it. He retreated into the woods to live in seclusion, all the while plagued by horrific nightmares and visions. Although the monks were kind, he was not a joiner, and they were not for him. He would occasionally appear from the woods to trade and speak with them, but it was stunted, transactional, and brief. When the monks attempted to engage him more than necessary words of trade, he would withdraw. It would then be many months, sometimes years, before they saw him again. In this self-seclusion, Oroyonn had a hierophany and "met" Annenn.* A large blue-grey river stone caught the light in a tiny streamlet. And somehow it spoke to him; made sense to him. He began to understand what his visions were and what his life would be. He would keep the stone with him forever, and would rub it in his hands against his side whenever troubled. If the stone was of Annenn*—beyond the conceit that everything is of her—it is unknown. Regardless, it was for the dawning Anneist the first of a series of theophanies.
After years of seclusion and solitary contemplation, nightmares, and horrific visions, Oroyonn knew it was time to return to the world of people. There was something that had to be done. The where, why, what, and wherefores were as yet concealed from him, but he knew he was compelled into the cities and across the strait to the nation of Hœm. It is in the port city of Hren, Hœm, that he began to understand more of what the visions foretold: the return of Ptazach,** the god of Antitime, the literal antithesis of Annenn.*
Gender Identity
Oroyonn presents as masculine of the more quiet, reserved type.
Sexuality
Homosexually inclined, although of limited of experience, Oroyonn's only long-term partner was a human male, Slem of Port Hren. Previous dalliances were mostly with men (mostly human males), but anyone who could manage to service his ample size. The majority of his recreational experiences were with sex workers at the House of Blue Leaves in the Throne District.
Education
What little formal education Oroyonn possessed came from the fishers, the wise women, and by the monks of the fishing village where he was raised. And then self-taught through years of contemplation and isolation and hierophanies with the divine. He learnt something about what religion is from the monks, and although compelled, he was not much of a follower and rejected their overtures to join their tiny monastic community.
Employment
After decades of personal isolation, contemplation, and religious devotion in the Jèredethi wilderness, Oroyonn had now found some measure of regular social life in Port Hren. He is essentially, working for the city of Port Hren, albeit somewhat clandestinely as an agent and ally of Her Ladyship Mayor Gainrahet.
Accomplishments & Achievements
Oddly, for a social isolate and someone who would have nothing to do with the rest of civilization were not for his divine calling, Oroyonn is rather proud of his physicality and generous gifts. In the few socialization occasions he had before leaving Jèrynn on his divine mission, and subsequently in Port Hren, Oroyonn won some pretty significant drinking contests with the monks he knew in the woods and the thieves and brigands of the Port Hren slums. In Agnash, the capital city of Jèrynn and its largest port, it was said that he won his passage to the mainland on account of his prodigious capacity for ales, meads, wines, and spirits. He first achieved legitimate social capital in his allying with and acting on behalf of the besieged new mayor or Port Hren during the tumult of her ascension to the Throne of the city. Gainrahet, First of Her Name, Ladyship Mayor and Throne of Port Hren, considers the mendicant a hero of the city and a dear and loyal friend. However, for Oroyonn, his crowning achievement was saving two individuals from fates worse than death:
He saved a father, Trevvor Blait, and his son Téi, of Teddicnor, Rheddait. The actions of Oroyonn and his allies freed the father and son from machinations of profoundly destructive forces, restoring their own agency. In defeating the actions of the Cult of Ptazakae that opperated in Port Hren, he was able to liberate the captured child and restore him to his father. Trevvor and Téi Blait now live with Oroyonn, Barris of House Reīn, Akabar the Seet of Ysfet, Creston the Wolf of Illaohh, and Oroyonn's husband, Slem of Port Hren in the west wing of the Mayoral Palace, Throne District, Port Hren, Hœm.
Failures & Embarrassments
Oroyonn's story is one of a societally shunned and stunted forest-dwelling isolate who was compelled by his own morality to return to the world and aid it, however minor his actions and their results would be. The one thing that could be truly said of Oroyonn: he acted without ego. He was a vagabond. A drifter. Unlikeable. But hating to see anything suffer. Seeing visions in hierophany of the river stone relic, he touches the tiniest bit of the mind of the goddess and sees the end of everything. And experiences a profound ultimate question: Does any of it matter? And in his quest to answer the question, to show Annenn* Goddess of Time, that the answer to her question is a profound and unqualified YES!, Oroyonn found love for the first time. And this became the pit of his greatest failure: for a time he lost his love. Drove his pirate partner away because the details of his quest, his divine mission, his goal of stopping the enemies of existence, it superseded everything and made Slem a mere tool to be used in the purpose. And Slem left in great anger. Losing Slem for even a moment because he treated him instrumentally, denying his own agency, choices, hopes and ambitions. Socially stunted and distant, Oroyonn forgot the personhood of the first person who really saw him in totality and did not reject him. Slem and Oroyonn were separated for some time. The righteousness of their cause brought them to work together and in the completion of their glorious purpose, Oroyonn confessed his profound failure and how devastated it was for him to have lost his pirate partner. For having been such a fool. Although Slem forgave and they eventually married, the shame of this forever hangs over Oroyonn, tempering him to be better.
Mental Trauma
The people of the fishing village near Agnash were a pragmatic sort: stalwart, taciturn, not overly warm. Perhaps Oroyonn's alienation began there. True, after his mother died birthing him, they did take of him, but it was base sustenance. There was no love or affection. Work and food and toil and drink. And they failed him utterly when the visions and nightmares began. He was told to seek solace and understanding with the monks. And though they endeavoured to answer questions, their own lives were so different from his. He left them too. He had seen what it meant to live in the world of people and it left him empty. So he left it and that was the reason he ended up living in the wilderness for decades. There was no solace from the visions and nightmares in his isolation, but there was also no empty platitudes or pat explanations or outright dismissals either. In contemplation, Oroyonn could concentrate and filter out the madness world of dreams and see more clearly what the visions were. After four years alone, Oroyonn began to understand the narrative of the violence in his mind: A sudden revelation of the world-ending abilities of Annenn*, visions of all life and time and space collapsing and how it viscerally tortured the living and how he experienced their psychic and physical pain each night. In consultation with a dying wizened monk, Oroyonn learned of two ancient texts the Odzach and the Idzakhé both which likely were describing the same being: Antitime. Oroyonn would later learn the more common—yet still secret—name, Ptazakae. Annenn* might be the source of the visions, but she was not the author of the violence to come that they promised, on the contrary, that was the makings of her antithesis, Ptazakae. Yet, with all things, Annenn* was the eternal observer. Death is meaningful as life to Her. Oroyonn's quest was thus: show an aloof and distant goddess what mattered, even if it was the self-same thing he himself had rejected/been rejected by. The lives of the innocent and the meek mattered and they would be despoiled, but not if Oroyonn could intercede. The violent nightmares about the ends of all worlds were depictions of the wrath of Ptazakae, and their residence in his mind was so damaging that he became inured to the traumatizing effects of psychic visions. He carried with him decades of mental trauma that he had become numb to it and therefore immune to psychic violence. An agent of Antitime, counterpart to Oroyonn, TBLT the Hierophant of Ptazakae, found it deeply frustrating that his primary weapon—psychic attack in the form of mental violence—were useless against Oroyonn. He was complete immune: Oroyonn had grown thick and unyielding callouses. He had seen it all before. "You bore me, TBLT, Hierophant of Ptazakae..." he once snarled in battle with the creature TBLT. "I have lived so much worse than what you have shown me." His trauma remains, but now, among friends, and aided by his husband, Oroyonn endures.
Intellectual Characteristics
Compassionate, caring, wise, and insightful as he may be, Oroyonn is neither a learned scholar or a complex intellect. He navigates the worlds through insight and feeling. He has no pretentions of being an intelligent leader, but he has great awareness of temporal-spatial things. He can always determine where he is located in time and space. When trapped in other realms within the Rift, he knew instantly that he was in a different realm and was best able to navigate an utterly foreign place. When he inadvertently travelled temporally to the Haline Incident, 20 years before his present, as soon as the transportation magics faded he knew when he was. Shortly after Slem declared the nature of the rocky, broken cliffside as being Rheddait, together they were able to glean where on the island they were. With that information, Slem was able to recall the details of the Haline Incident. Oroyonn loved listening to Slem's recall: it was so much more broad and readily available than his.
Morality & Philosophy
Although Oroyonn had no means to articulate the philosophical underpinnings of his morality, it was always present and obvious to anyone that spoke with him for any length of time. It was simple: Cause no pain; do no harm; let others live. And woe to the fool that hurts an innocent in front of Oroyonn: his wrath is that of Deep, Deep Time. The being called Lost in Snow—an evil demon noble with whom Oroyonn shared a common enemy—once toyed with a family of mortals for his own twisted musings. To this day, Lost in Snow remains Oroyonn's greatest living enemy. Oroyonn is incapable of forgiving Lost in Snow's transgressions. Having defeated TBLT, Hierophant of Ptazakae, Lost in Snow is next on Oroyonn's quest.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Although Oroyonn's initial reason for rejoining civilization was the appeasement of his prophetic dreams and the feeling of being compelled to do so on behalf of his patron-goddess. He sought to prevent his nightmares from becoming real which would entail the horrific deaths of innocents. However, as he grew more invested in the world and its peoples, something in him changed. He now sought to "Convince an ambivalent god that there's something about people worth caring for," he once explained to Slem and Akabar the Seer of Ysfet when questioned why he did what he did if he truly hated civilization. Oroyonn, the sour misanthrope wanderer who rejected and was rejected by society, returned compelled to aid people who did not know nor care for, and in doing so, he learnt that there was value in mere existence. Annenn* Herself had also to be taught this truth.
Likes & Dislikes
Oroyonn is, at heart, a simple man. He likes: quiet days in the wild. Warm sun. And Slem, his ally, his friend, his pirate partner, and then, ultimately, his husband. There are specific hillocks in clearings in the Agnashi region woods, close enough to the sea that the brine scents the air along with the scent of old growth temperate rainforests. Oroyonn would go here to contemplate and pray in the warm summer sun. This is his ideal place. But the soft bed in the west wing of the Mayoral Palace of Port Hren with a roaring fire in the hearth is nice too. Oroyonn strongly dislikes: Visions of horror, world-ending threats, violence against innocents, and, oddly, specifically, soft cheeses.
Vices & Personality flaws
There was a time—pre-Slem—when Oroyonn indulged too often and headily in the pleasures of the flesh as it was one time when he could be certain to be free of the visions, if only for a brief time. He was frequenter of the House of Blue Leaves. It is possible he met his future ally Barris of House Reīn, who was also a frequent patron. Both were known to Madame Blue Leaves. Oroyonn can drink to great excess, but his huge size and strong metabolism, makes becoming drunk rather difficult: he would require prodigious quantities of harsh spirits. The odd occasions when it did was also relief from his living nightmares.
Hygiene
Oroyonn enjoys a bath in an icy river of mountain melt. As his current residence, despite, being a port city built on a river delta, its waters are, well not the best for bathing and the residents of the city found his swimming in the locks, canals, lakes and ponds objectionable. As such, Oroyonn is not known to be particularly clean.
Social
Contacts & Relations
Oroyonn's allies include other heroes of Port Hren:
Akabar the Seer of Ysfet; Barkael of Ptarshakk/Barris Reīn; Creston Timbers of Illaohh, and his husband, a local, Slem. He also includes Her Ladyship Mayor Gainrahet and her allies as his patron/supporter. Indeed, his current primary residence is in the west wing of the Mayoral Palace in Port Hren's Throne District. This would include, to a limited extent, the amoral Black Gallu. He has had dealings also with the Six Crows, Pforel Ahuc, and the Dowager Lady Obdanris Reīnrahet.
Family Ties
All minotaurs are said to have originated on the island of Jèrynn, and as they are so few in number, there is a sense of their being collectively one extended family. That said, Oroyonn is not aware if he has any siblings as he was a foundling and raised in a tiny fishing village in Southern Jèrynn, near an ancient monastic community dedicated to Annenn.* The fishers lived communally and although accepted, he was mostly raised by the monks. His tormented dreams lead him to take ordination and seek solace in the service of Annenn.* Minotaurs he encountered in Port Hren had many similar features, most notably the leaders of an anarchist faction (and possible a peasant revolt), for whom he was initially mistaken on numerous occasions (including by his later husband Slem when they first met). It has been speculated that their is some greater kinship among the minotaur rebels encamped outside Port Hren and Oroyonn.
Religious Views
Annenn* is sometimes called "the Questionner," because it was her question that prompted her self-generation from the Ur-Void and the subsequent creation of all things. What does it mean to exist? is the question. Oroyonn's answer is indirect: it is significant: individual lives matter. Thus his quest is to be a living embodiment of this that he can show the goddess his answer.
Social Aptitude
Oroyonn is as stupid as he looks and utterly plagued with social ineptitude. His rejection of/by society has left him lacking in knowledge of social graces as well as little patience for their use when he does know what is expected.
Mannerisms
Oroyonn is gruff and not particularly moved to follow or respect social graces. He very much does not like being touched or interacted with unless initiated by him or it served some specific purpose. Having lived most of his life in isolation, he is definitely skittish around the throngs of people he encounters in civilization. He is outspoken and honest, often to a fault, but because of his aloofness, stature (7'4" towers over all by trollkin), booming voice, and his utter devotion to his religious quest, he became the speaker of the House of Knives Gang despite frequently having to be coached by his allies. He preferred to be the herald of its true spokes person, the naga Akabar of Ysfet, who was far more nuanced and articulate, but the snake-man was often ignored in favour of the giant minotaur holy man. Oroyonn was insightful enough to know his limitations in speech and intellect, but also cunning enough to make use of his imposing presence to make sure that he and his allies were heard, if only to ensure that when they spoke collectively, it was voiced by the Seer of Ysfet.
Relationships
*Annenn has singular terminal N in Raachern and related languages, but Jèredethi spelling rules require it to have two. Hierophant is rendered Annezhni where the affix zhni is cognate with the Qh'énnish snhayth. **The more commonly used designation for the Eater of Worlds is Ptazakae, showing the most noted ties to his cultus originating among ancient Ptarshishin. In ancient Jèredethi sources, two different names arose, Odzach /odzɑx/ or Idzakhé /idzækʰe/. It is not surprising that a primal destructive force would largely be unknown to most given his positive counterpart, Annen herself is not prominent. Oroyonn's visions included violence and terror brought on by a resurgent Cult of Ptazakae.
Alignment
Chaotic Neutral, but like, in a chill way.
Current Status
Seeking to "Convince an ambivalent god that there's something about people worth caring for."
Current Location
Species
Ethnicity
Other Ethnicities/Cultures
Honorary & Occupational Titles
Oroyonn left his homeland of Jèrynn as he was bid by visions he ascribed to Annenn.* At his departure, he was but an Anneist.
His success and triumphs in Port Hren, Hœm, has raised him in his faith and he was proclaimed a hierophant (Zhni).
Formally in Jèredethi, he is Annezhni Oroyonn (Jèredeth):
- "Oroyonn of Jèrynn, Hierophant of Annen."
- Annezhni = Hierophant of Annenn* (his religious rank & title).
- Jèredeth = from/of Jèrynn (used only when he is not in his homeland of Jèrynn; marking him as a foreigner).
Age
75
Date of Birth
11th Nachnir, 335 QA
Circumstances of Birth
Mother died in childbirth; father unknown.
Birthplace
Outside Agnash, Jèrynn.
Spouses
Slem t'Hrenōeth
(husband)
Siblings
Children
Current Residence
The west wing of the Mayoral Palace, Throne District, Port Hren, Hœm.
Pronouns
he / him
Sex
male
Gender
man
Presentation
masculine, aloof, distant
Eyes
Heterochromia: right: red; left: black.
Hair
Black, dark grey highlights; roan.
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Dark skin; dark grey-black fur; lighter on the ventral side.
Height
7'4"
Weight
380 lbs.
Quotes & Catchphrases
"Shut up, Slem!" and "I am not THAT minotaur!" (referring to the anarch leader of the peasant revolt).
Belief/Deity
Annenn*
Aligned Organization
Other Affiliations
- The first is essentially his mother('s) tongue: the southern Jèredethi dialect, the so-called "Minotaur Dialect." Although raised largely by humans, the Agnashi countryside is the ancestral home of his kind, the variant of the island tongue found there among the smallfolk and actual Jèredethi minotaurs.
- He also speaks Raachern, the common language of trade in the central Chaalai environs. It is the unofficial language of the nation of Hœm as it is composed of a multiplicity of races, tribes, and sub-nations.
- And through the hellish dreams that tormented him throughout his life, until TBLT was defeated, Oroyonn was forced to learn one of the devilish tongues.
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