Dirure Voana

First Sovereign Dirure Voana

People always ask me why I keep being a sovereign since I can't explore anymore. I say it all depends on your definition of exploration. Sure I don't get to explore the land anymore, but I get to explore and chart out the future of a sovereignty. I think it's a fair trade. And if the people think I'm not doing a good job exploring their future, they can vote for someone else and I can return to the sea.

— Dirure Voana

Dirure Voana was a renowned explorer and the founder of the Duvi Sovereignty. She started out as a merchant but quickly turned to exploration. As her findings grew the size and settlements of the Virsens, she started advocating for a stronger central government. After she was elected sovereign she ruled until her death in 445 UE.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Dirure was a slight, muscular woman with tanned skin. She almost always had her hair tied up in a bun. Her hair was a medium brown colour that was streaked with gray as she got older. Her eyes were particularly notable because they were blue, a fairly rare colour even in Virsen. She was born deaf.

Apparel & Accessories

Even as a sovereign she preferred plainer clothes. She would wear a v-necked shirt, undershirt, leather pants, and leather boots even as a sovereign and her crown was a simple gold band. After being elected sovereign she also started wearing earrings, and clothes with gold accents.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Dirure started as a merchant but she soon realized that her passion was traveling to new places, not trading goods. She saved her profits until she could buy her own exploration ship and appoint someone else in charge of her merchant business as she set out to explore Virse . As she explored new lands and word reached other people, other Virsens started to settle the lands that she discovered. Soon she was financed by the nobles that ruled the Virsens to find good land for settlement. It was during this time that she first started creating Dirure Stones. Despite her new financiers, Dirure continued to take an interest in places that weren't always the best for settlement but were instead beautiful or unique.

As the land controlled by Virsens continued to grow, she started to advocate for stronger government to help the settlers and unite Virsens together under one sovereignty. The nobles began to listen to her ideas and soon created a central government, with Dirure as the sovereign. Although she was surprised and unsure, Dirure accepted the position and began work on bringing together the new sovereignty. She did insist though that the position of sovereign be an elected one. he nobles agreed but set the sovereign's term to fifteen years.

While Dirure really wanted to stop being sovereign a little less than halfway through her term due to unhappiness about not doing what she loved and the pressure of being a sovereign of a forming sovereignty, Dirure stuck with the job. By the end of her term, both Duvi and Dirure were doing much better and she had begun to think of the sovereignty as a form of exploration. During the start of her second term she continued this line of thinking and enjoyed ruling much more. She also started the system of sovereigns taking the candidates with the second and third most votes as advisors. She also began to think about exploring new lands as a sovereignty.

As she helped settlements that she had found the locations of years earlier grow into towns, she turned her eye towards Awari. After a lot of negotiation and a bit of conflict, Awari joined the Duvi Sovereignty. For the rest of her life, Dirure would work on integrating Awari fully into Duvi especially through increasing transportation between Awari and Virse. She also worked on improving Duvi's role in world trade by building more and better ports, docks, and ships. She also fought against smuggling and pirates. In her third and final term, Dirure spent a lot of time preparing her potential successors and trying to plan for the future of Duvi after her death. She died in 445 UE, and was succeeded by Vunih Dhade.

Sexuality

Dirure was only attracted to men

Accomplishments & Achievements

Dirure was responsible for exploring a sizable portion of Virse's eastern coasts. Although trading ships do sail past, she was the first one to fully explore the land along the coasts and map the coastline accurately. She was responsible for the placement of many of the towns and cities along the eastren coast from Virse's bridge to Vada Mountain . She also explored several miles of inland territory, including a lot of the area around Vada. Quite a few towns and natural landmarks are named after her, as are Dirure Stones and Duvi itself. In Virsen, uvi means 'spirit' with the D at the beginning alluding to her. Like most other namings, this was an honour granted after death. During her time, Duvi was called the Virse Sovereignty. 

Dirure advocated for more teaching of Virsen Sign to children that weren't deaf so that deaf people would be less reliant on a single person to translate for them. Because of these efforts, many Duvins know at least a basic amount of Virsen Sign, many other major sovereignties encourage the teaching of sign languages, and Virsen Sign is one of the most known sign languages in the world.

Failures & Embarrassments

Despite becoming more comfortable with being sovereign of Duvi, Dirure still had plenty of periods of regrets and unhappiness. She frequently regretted not being able to incorporate exploration, especially exploration of Awari, into her role as sovereign. Awarins who want to separate from Awari view her much more negatively than others and dislike her for adding the island to Duvi. Other Awarins also blame her for not doing enough to incorporate Awari into Duvi.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

Even in early childhood, Dirure was easily motivated by seeing new things and finding new places. As a merchant, she only became more motivated by this and discovered how much she enjoyed seeing the untamed, uninhabited coastlines. After she was elected sovereign she was spurred on by her need to do well for all of the people who had voted for her and later in her term, by her desire to help chart out a new future for her people. Always being dependent on a translator pushed her to advocate for more teaching of Virsen Sign.

Virtues & Personality perks

Dirure had an easy-going attitude, always trying to make the best of what life threw at her. She was curious and loved finding even small and seemingly insignificant new things. She was also very determined and could be quite persistent when she had her mind set on a goal. This, along with her hard work, her insistence on letting the people choose, and her down to earth attitude all made her very popular with the people.

Vices & Personality flaws

While most Virsens and even many Awarins don't like to admit it, Dirure had her flaws just like anyone else. She was very proud of her accomplishments and could act very egotistical at times. This flaw was known to be especially bad when she was talking about her exploration. Additionally, her driveness in pursuit of a goal could lead to her entering bitter disputes with those who opposed these goals. Her usually easy-going demeanor would disappear when someone became an obstacle to her goals and she could be quite nasty to those who did so trying to wear them down or bypass them so that she could succeed.

Social

Contacts & Relations

Dirure was friendly with many members of her ship's crew and was especially close to the navigator, boatswain, and scribe. She also became close friends with several of the Virse nobles and her other advisors.

Family Ties

After she left her career of being a merchant in favor of exploration, it took quite some time before her parents and her had good relations again. She was especially close to her older brother, Kieve, who eventually joined her crew and her older sister, Reki, who took over her merchant business. She married Vef Dhanan who acted as her primary translator for many years. They had three surviving children together.

Religious Views

Like the vast majority of sailors, she worshipped Sovereign Zinnayas  and the deities regularly. After she became sovereign,  she began to worship Neja and towards the end of her life, Uran , more frequently. She still kept up her worship of Sovereign Zinnayas and some say that because of this, Zinnayas looks on Duvi kindly and there are plenty of myths in the sovereignty of Zinnayas showing her favor. Others attribute parts of Duvi's success, including its continued rise after Dirure's death to Neja's or Uran's favor.

Wealth & Financial state

Dirure had much less wealth than many people think she did, as she insisted on not accepting much money or luxury items as sovereign, instead taking payment in the form of a small house, food, and clothing. She was also careful only to take as much food as her family needed and to accept only a few items of clothing. This trend of the sovereign being paid in limited amounts of living items has continued to this day in Duvi although the sovereign's palace has grown significantly as has the type of goods the sovereign receives. Still, Dirure was paid fairly well as an explorer, was careful about saving money, and was given part of her former merchant business' profits. Out of this, she was able to pass on a fair amount of wealth to her family.

Honorary & Occupational Titles

First Sovereign, Sovereign of Duvi, Captain

Date of Birth

14 of Impar 382 UE

Life

382 445 63 years old

Pronouns

she/her

Gender

female

Eyes

blue

Hair

medium brown

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

tan

Height

5'5"

Weight

137 lbs

Aligned Organization

Duvi

Known Languages

Virsen Sign