Miyagi Yumeko
Miyagi Yumeko was one of the most celebrated travelers in history. A member of the noble Miyagi family of Shima, she is known to have traveled all around the Great Ring, and her letters to her children make up the most comprehensive account of the islands ever assembled.
Yumeko was the third daughter of the matriarch of the Miyagi family, Miyagi Shirogitsune. She had always been known for her curiosity and wanderlust, even as a young kitsunejin. But she was a dutiful daughter, and it was not until her sixtieth year, when her children had grown and left home, that she felt free to indulge in her desire to see all of the million islands. She then embarked on a journey that spanned the next four decades, filled with more adventures and seeing more of the world than virtually any other living creature could claim. Throughout it all, she wrote constantly of her experiences in a long series of letters to her children, which her eldest son, Miyagi Yūko, compiled into a comprehensive memoir of her journeys. This document is considered by scholars to be one of the most informative works about the islands as a whole that exists.
She began her journey by travelling north, into the Empire of Wamato. She spent two years travelling around the Empire, visiting with peasants and nobles alike. Her wealth and legendary charisma ensured that she was greeted with admirable hospitality wherever she went. As her reputation grew, she was even invited to attend upon the Emperor in the city of Wamato, and was then invited to join his retinue on the annual summer journey to the Himiyuki Matsuri festival on Sazanami. She accompanied the Emperor on his climb to meet with Izanagi, the god of Mount Izanagi, and hers is one of the only first hand accounts of this meeting to exist.
Eventually, her wanderlust drove her to move on from the Empire, continuing north to the Utari Islands and Kitlineq. She continued to charm everyone she met, and was surrounded by friends wherever she stopped. Her politeness and honest curiosity about everything she encountered made her a beloved guest of every people she met. She also demonstrated an incredible prodigy for languages, and some claimed that she could learn a new language within three days of hearing it for the first time. Her letters from Kitlineq include tales of the vast beasts that roam the island, and her encounter with the monster of Paninnaq is one of the most exciting elements of her early letters.
As before, she soon yielded to the urge to continue onward, traveling around the Great Ring. She went east, visiting Umingmak and Eyju, before turning south towards Ynys. She became an honorary member of a Dòbhran Selkie clan, and brought a stone from Shima to the Aurelian Bridge. In Nisi, she was borne aloft by Aethry friends, and her letters about the experience of flight are a delight to read. She shopped in Tarshish, taking tea with the Naga council of elders. Notably, she was not invited to meet the Malika of Saba - one of the few major figures that showed no interest in greeting the now-famous wanderer.
It was in her journeys in the Southeastern Region that one of her most famous encounters occurred. Her ship was destroyed in a storm to the northeast of Lahat, a storm which drove the ship into the Middlesea. Stranded and adrift, clutching an old door from the ship, she was rescued by a tiny boat that proved to be a Wavewood Tree. She formed a bond with the tree-ship, which she named Yukinu, and it was her vessel for the remainder of her voyages.
After this harrowing experience, she decided to visit home again. She stayed there for only seven months, but scholars are grateful for that time at home, as she spent her time recreating the letters that had been lost over the fifteen years prior. Many had made it to Yūko, but her recreation of the lost missives allowed her narrative to be cohesive and complete.
Still, she was not one to remain at home for long. She soon set out on more journeys, traveling to all the places she had not visited during her first voyage around the Great Ring. Shortly before her hundredth birthday, she took her ship into The Middlesea, determined to visit some of the most remote and dangerous islands known to exist there. Sadly, she never returned from that trip - neither she or Yukinu, were ever seen again.
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