Medari of Kastros

Medari of Kastros was a merchant, naval leader, and explorer active in the Armaidan Empire in the 3rd century. She is most known in the modern day for funding the settlement of an Armaidan colony in the northern Sunscald, now named Medaris in her honour. Consequently, she is well-remembered and respected in the city-state of Medaris to this day, and is often considered the founder or 'spiritual patron' of the city.
Details of Medari's life are based chiefly on Sunscald Armaidan oral and folk history, as any contemporary accounts have likely been lost to the Great Fissure. However, scholars are relatively confident she originated from the city of Kastros, known to be Armaidas's major port on their northern coast. Medari is presumed to have come from a well-off family, which allowed her to enter the Armaidan navy as an officer, eventually working her way up to captain. Later in her life, she left the navy and used her maritime skills to establish a substantial mercantile enterprise, importing exotic goods from faraway lands to Kastros. It was as part of this enterprise that she opted to become the patron of a group of settlers aiming to establish a colony in the sugarcane-rich northern Sunscald, to harvest and cultivate the expensive crop. Medari provided the settlers with both the funding and boats for this enterprise, which would eventually blossom into the city of Medaris - some Medarian accounts additionally claim she personally sailed the settlers to the eventual site of the colony, though this may be an invention aiming to reinforce her importance to the city. Scholars - usually those outside Medaris - suggest Medari may have been compensated with a monopoly over the settlement's sugar trade for the first ten years of its development.
As the city of Medaris was eventually renamed to Nearmaidas and rose in power and prominence, Medari of Kastros was largely forgotten - an irrelevant footnote in the story of the 'Jewel of the Sunscald'. However, following the city's destruction at the hands of Leth Bloodaxe, and the refounding as the city, once more de facto named Medaris, the city's new residents began to draw more attention to the city's alleged founder, who "recognised the beauty of the Sunscald long before any other Armaidan". This was part of a wider wave of 'localist' sentiment in the city, that rejected the harkening back to the long-defunct Armaidan Empire in favour of honouring Medaris's own achievements. Consequently, Medari of Kastros served as a useful founding figure that could be said to have came to the city by choice and on its own merits rather than as a replacement to Armaidas. Medari is now hailed as the founder of Medaris - there is a large, idealised statue of her (made without visual references) in the city's main square, and 'Medari' remains a popular given name within the city's sphere of influence. Some more spiritualist citizens even worship her as the 'spiritual patron' of the city, claiming her spirit rests within its walls rather than in the ruins of Kastros in the Great Fissure. It should be mentioned that it is entirely plausible that Medari of Kastros ever actually visited the city that now venerates her.

Date of Birth

Early to mid 3rd century

Date of Death

Late 3rd century or early 4th century

Sex

Female