Brechane
Prophet Brechane Belvallane Helgath
A humble servant to the Gods that unwittingly became the voice for a new religious movement, the Goddes Brechane was not only a prophet, but became leader of a nation. Much has been made of her humility and dedication to her visions, even when she did not fully understand them.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Brechane was fairly average in height for a dwarf, but was wide and stout in overall frame. It was said that she had the natural build of strong mother, though such a fate never befell her.
Apparel & Accessories
Brechane maintained her simple, mundane attire throughout her life. Despite attempts by those around her to have her adopt the finery they deemed appropriate of a Queen or other ruler, she would also refuse it. She was, above all things, a servant, and would wear the same manner of clothes she had when she started her journey as a reminder both of her origins in life, as well as what her true purpose and goal is; to be a religious steward to the people of the land.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Little is known about the early life of the Prophet Brechane, as her story didn't fall into major prominence until her visions.
It is generally understood that she was born and grew up in Jahnish, a city state dedicated to and presumably protected by the Goddess Hjanda, Fourth of Six Sisters, Goddess of Dwarves, Tools, and Families. To the best of anyone's knowledge, she was an only child, and one who quickly dedicated herself to the divine. Although her city sought the blessing of the Fourth Sister, she was a cleric of all Gods, administering as many of the rites and traditions as she could understand properly, and as many as she had the time for. This also put her on the road, as an itinerant cleric and minister, providing her knowledge and service to the broader community. This endeared her to wider perspectives and people, in a time when the various city states had their own distinct cultures and ideas. After several years of being a humble traveling cleric, Brechane began to have visions in her sleep. At first, they just seemed strange, unusual dreams, possibly caused by too much wine. She slowly had more of them, and with greater clarity. She began to understand that the dreams were in fact visions being given to her by the divine. She saw Hjanda change into each other The Six Sisters, and than into the other Gods. In a later dream, she would see all of the Gods, including some whose face she could not recognize converge into one another, each with an increasing bright light, until she was blinded. With these visions, she understood that the Gods were in fact different faces of only one solitary being. This drove her to try and understand the literature and cosmology of the Gods even more than she already had. As she worked, she began to see the Gods creation, and their edicts, to not be disparate and competing ideologies, but in fact one in the same. Covering left and right extremes of any duality, adhering to them all would enable someone to achieve a balanced and fulfilled life. She would preach this belief, which would become known as The Divine Balance.
The people she preached to were quickly receptive to her voice, and soon the belief began to have a form and shape of it's own. It quickly began to intertwine with political movements, especially in areas where the Vishy refugees were most prominent. The need to reform understanding of the Gods, in city-states that placed heavy emphasis on worship, would also come to mean dramatic governmental reforms, and ousing of the corrupt and tyrannical. Seeing her as the source of the dissent and dangerous forces brewing in Aetern, Brechane was held captive as a prisoner. While she was not tortured in her imprisonment, her capture was seen as a moral outrage. No law of Mastro had been broken, no harm had been done to anyone. A Coup occurred shortly thereafter, which resulted in the deposement of the Lord ruling the city, and Brechane being placed in his stead, against her will.
Matters moved quickly thereafter. Being a ruler of Aetern was one thing; she desired not to fill the position, but it was the will of her followers, and no other person seemed better. She did her best to learn and guide the city, and her followers elsewhere. Actions quickly became unmanageable, as the people rallied to form an army, to do with the other city states what they had done with Aetern, protecting the people and enshringing The Divine Balance into the very structure of society. So began The Unification War, a conflict that Brechane was against from the start and had tried to find peaceful solutions to. To the prophet's credit, many states did join the movement peacefully, thanks to her diplomatic spirit. Conversely, it must be said that for all her protestations, she did little to castigate or punish the military or political leaders who caused the war. Conveniently, she noted that war was as an aspect of life created by the Gods such as any other, and that regardless of her personal feelings towards war, it must be said that at times war is necessary.
With the war over, Brechane stood not only as leader of a city-state, but as a newly formed nation state, unified by the religion formed by her prophetic dreams. Churches and schools were built in glorious frashion to ensure that the Divine Balance would remain the sole faith of the nation, and that all citizens would have the knowledge to read and understand the scripture of the Gods, as Brechane understood them. Still a comparitive novice at statecraft, she tried to manage the nation as she thought best and as the Gods would want. It is said that she was most responsible for bringing the Sacred Reich of Vishy to glory, but little is said about her specific acts or accomplishments as a head of state to do so.
Brechane's last prophetic dream would be of the one who was to replace her, a dream she held shortly before her demise. The storied Prophet, responsible for such dramatic change of the world from such meager beginnings, sought to end things where they began. She is buried in Jahnish, in the simple robes that she began her journey in, with a meager headstone and inscription.
It is generally understood that she was born and grew up in Jahnish, a city state dedicated to and presumably protected by the Goddess Hjanda, Fourth of Six Sisters, Goddess of Dwarves, Tools, and Families. To the best of anyone's knowledge, she was an only child, and one who quickly dedicated herself to the divine. Although her city sought the blessing of the Fourth Sister, she was a cleric of all Gods, administering as many of the rites and traditions as she could understand properly, and as many as she had the time for. This also put her on the road, as an itinerant cleric and minister, providing her knowledge and service to the broader community. This endeared her to wider perspectives and people, in a time when the various city states had their own distinct cultures and ideas. After several years of being a humble traveling cleric, Brechane began to have visions in her sleep. At first, they just seemed strange, unusual dreams, possibly caused by too much wine. She slowly had more of them, and with greater clarity. She began to understand that the dreams were in fact visions being given to her by the divine. She saw Hjanda change into each other The Six Sisters, and than into the other Gods. In a later dream, she would see all of the Gods, including some whose face she could not recognize converge into one another, each with an increasing bright light, until she was blinded. With these visions, she understood that the Gods were in fact different faces of only one solitary being. This drove her to try and understand the literature and cosmology of the Gods even more than she already had. As she worked, she began to see the Gods creation, and their edicts, to not be disparate and competing ideologies, but in fact one in the same. Covering left and right extremes of any duality, adhering to them all would enable someone to achieve a balanced and fulfilled life. She would preach this belief, which would become known as The Divine Balance.
The people she preached to were quickly receptive to her voice, and soon the belief began to have a form and shape of it's own. It quickly began to intertwine with political movements, especially in areas where the Vishy refugees were most prominent. The need to reform understanding of the Gods, in city-states that placed heavy emphasis on worship, would also come to mean dramatic governmental reforms, and ousing of the corrupt and tyrannical. Seeing her as the source of the dissent and dangerous forces brewing in Aetern, Brechane was held captive as a prisoner. While she was not tortured in her imprisonment, her capture was seen as a moral outrage. No law of Mastro had been broken, no harm had been done to anyone. A Coup occurred shortly thereafter, which resulted in the deposement of the Lord ruling the city, and Brechane being placed in his stead, against her will.
Matters moved quickly thereafter. Being a ruler of Aetern was one thing; she desired not to fill the position, but it was the will of her followers, and no other person seemed better. She did her best to learn and guide the city, and her followers elsewhere. Actions quickly became unmanageable, as the people rallied to form an army, to do with the other city states what they had done with Aetern, protecting the people and enshringing The Divine Balance into the very structure of society. So began The Unification War, a conflict that Brechane was against from the start and had tried to find peaceful solutions to. To the prophet's credit, many states did join the movement peacefully, thanks to her diplomatic spirit. Conversely, it must be said that for all her protestations, she did little to castigate or punish the military or political leaders who caused the war. Conveniently, she noted that war was as an aspect of life created by the Gods such as any other, and that regardless of her personal feelings towards war, it must be said that at times war is necessary.
With the war over, Brechane stood not only as leader of a city-state, but as a newly formed nation state, unified by the religion formed by her prophetic dreams. Churches and schools were built in glorious frashion to ensure that the Divine Balance would remain the sole faith of the nation, and that all citizens would have the knowledge to read and understand the scripture of the Gods, as Brechane understood them. Still a comparitive novice at statecraft, she tried to manage the nation as she thought best and as the Gods would want. It is said that she was most responsible for bringing the Sacred Reich of Vishy to glory, but little is said about her specific acts or accomplishments as a head of state to do so.
Brechane's last prophetic dream would be of the one who was to replace her, a dream she held shortly before her demise. The storied Prophet, responsible for such dramatic change of the world from such meager beginnings, sought to end things where they began. She is buried in Jahnish, in the simple robes that she began her journey in, with a meager headstone and inscription.
"Here lies Brechane Helgath
humble servant to her people,
voice of the divine spirit"
Sexuality
For all of the great documents that tell of Brechane's life and story, none ever mention having a spouse, or even a love interest. Much has discussed speculating as to this possibility.
The first is that the Dwarf did have a lover, but that it was so menial of importance in the grand scheme of things that none thought it relevant to write of. Some have similarly argued that the writers of the time thought it would have simply been poor manners or bad taste to write about such things, and leave her personal affairs to herself. Given that her childhood is also left out of the historical record, this could be true.
A secondary theory is that the prophet Brechane was simply too wrapped up into her mission and her role to provide much time for romantic pursuits. Brechane was fully comitted to being a servant to the Gods, even before her dreams began, and servant to the people who needed her faith and her knowledge. Even as she was reluctantly pulled into leading her congregation, and as head of state, it was vehemently against her ideals to give it anything less than her best effort. Despite this, there are those who have similar tales who were able to find a relationship and have a spouse, and even children. So, while the theory is plausible, there are some holes and lingering questions.
A third theory is that Brechane was simply uninterested in any form of relationship or physical intimacy. People of a truly asexual nature are rare, and even rarer that historical record would make note of it. It's more common for those looking at a person's history to assume that someone wanted a relationship and intimacy and merely failed to find it. Some have even argued that she was so in tune with the will of The Divine Spirit that she couldn't possibly hold a romantic attachment, as such things were not written about or spoken about by any of the Gods. This in of itself has some flaws in it's logic as well, as well as having any shred of proof or documentation to back it up. Supporters of the theory retort simply that an absense of evidence is not evidence of absense.
Education
Despite her humble beginnings, Brechane would spend her life trying to learn and understand the world around her, especially as she was put in charge of a country and all of the souls within it. Though never an expert in any field, she developed a functional understanding in law, logistics, economics, military strategy, and diplomacy.
Failures & Embarrassments
Brechane's greatest failure would be her inability to control and prevent the outbreak of war that lead to the formation of Vishy. Although that she saw that the formation of the state was necessary, and would never punish the soldiers or generals who fought, she thought it would have been possible, eventually, to have reached the same ends without fighting.
Social
Family Ties
It's unclear if any of Brechane's extended family survives to this day. She never had any children, of that historians are certain, so there are no direct progeny of hers. It's thought, but not confirmed, that she was an only child, meaning her families line died with her. Any familial ties would have been carried on through cousins or second cousins; tracing the ancestry back through this is complex and unclear from the First Age to current day, centuries later.
Species
Children
Sex
Female
Eyes
Brown
Hair
Brown
Height
4'2"
Belief/Deity
Hjanda (Formerly)
Aligned Organization
Other Affiliations
Comments