Yenenesh
Archdeacon Yenenesh
"I am the eldest, the greatest, the last. When I am gone, it will all be over. Can Agbith be revived by those who cannot remember it?"
A lorechanter of the Temple of Inner Agbith, Yenenesh is a legendary historian and one of the most respected advisors of Harhoun's court, who has sat which each of the three Ras Gafhi who have ruled after the fall. Recognized as the highest authority there is on Thaner religious matters and most other scholarship that pertains to the Children of Aktar as well, Yenenesh is nevertheless not the Learned Voice that presides in Harhoun, for she refuses to forsake the Temple of Inner Agbith of her youth.
Learned in many things throughout her long life, Yenenesh is an excellent chanter, and knowledgeable in shaftbuilder lore. A woman of varied interests, she speaks five languages, and understands the fields of literature, medicine and statecraft almost as well as she understands Thaner history and Shaftbuilder lore. Though not magically empowered in her own right, she is one of the few who can use shaftbuilder artifacts.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Yenenesh was born over 30 years before the fall, to an aristocratic family in Debr Haq. A third daughter, Yenenesh's options boiled down to marrying into another house, or becoming a scholar and lorechanter. A well read and curious child, she became a lorechanter and joined the research arm of the Temple of Inner Agbith. Less preacher and more archeologist, Yenenesh spent much of her time on far-flung digs and learned the shaftbuilder lore to such a degree that she could wield the artifacts of the lost civilization. This expertise saw her go even as far as Runber before her thirtieth birthday.
This was what saved her, as Yenenesh was returning from the Gafahraz, when she heard the news that Deim't had fallen to a great scaled beast, and Agbith almost as well. Though she wanted to return to Debr Haq, Ras Gafhi Tsaham bid her to stay back, and stay in Harhoun, where the remnants of Agbith made their last stand.
Though the dragon was defeated that day, Agbith and Deim't were both lost, along with Yenenesh' entire family. Such tragedy was commonplace among the Agbithan exiles, particularly those who did not come from the Gafhi to begin with. Though the first few years post fall were a frenzy of attempting to reconstitute the strength of Agbith and drive back into Debr Haq and the holy mountain, the balance of forces was not in the Agbithans' favour. Yenenesh was ultimately invited into Tsaham's court, where she has remained through three successive Rases.
Since then, she has written prodigiously, recognizing that as her homeland remains under the dragon's wings, the only way its heritage can be saved is by committing it to paper. She has focused her efforts on motivating the Agbithan resistance, and galvanizing the exiles. A spiritual guide to all Thaner, Yenenesh hopes to one day return to Debr Haq and to the Holy Mountain. But for her, time is running out.
Morality & Philosophy
"Our victory is ordained."
Yenenesh the foremost champion of the Correcting Chant, and has written extensively in its defense. A true believer in the Thaner order of old, Yenenesh has kept the faith despite 70 years of failure against the dragon. Such extreme tenacity is a microcosm of the crusade in general, and the death of the white dragon Thatavor in the north seven years ago has only strengthened her faith. As advisor, she has tended to emphasize the importance of ruling as a proper Ras without taking shortcuts, even in the hardest of times.
This may come across as harsh, but since you asked for feedback, I'll be upfront. This article is kind of hard for me to get into as someone who isn't familiar with your world. I don't know anything about Thaner religion or culture, I don't know what shaftbuilder artefacts are, or what the significance of being able to use them is. Character articles can work as an entry point to learning about things from a more personal perspective but this article doesn't really do that, mostly because it's written with the assumption that the reader understands what all these things are. There isn't much intrigue or conflict to keep me invested either. Not that all characters necessarily need that, it's just, well, I don't know what there is here for me as a newcomer. It's decently written, and it's handy to have scholar characters. I'm sure it would resonate more with someone familiar with your world.
First of all, you're not harsh at all. :P You're also absolutely correct. I liked writing this article because I was able to slot it into the context of my world very nicely, but without that context it's of course meaningless. If I restated all the bits about the fall, the shaftbuilders, and all the other lore that this character is effectively a vehicle for, the article would be a kilometer long. So this is not especially actionable for this article specifically, but it's very good to keep in mind for what to post and what to promote in primer articles and stuff like that. Articles like this that are actually reliant on like at least 5 other articles to do what they're trying to do (something I didn't realize until this comment because naturally I already know my setting) should probably be something a reader finds *after' a bit of a wikiwalk. Thanks for the review!
I'm glad you took that takeaway, I think you're right that trying to restate all the context wouldn't really work. Not every article needs to be "entry level/spirit of the age 101", and it helps to know which ones are and which ones aren't. Like you say, there's value to articles that bring the lore together.