Coconi
Her Supreme Featherqueen, Coconi Hakirana (a.k.a. The Rabbit)
Coconi was the most powerful Meako of all time and was a legendary adventurer that journeyed across Garadel. She left behind many hidden treasure caches, some of which remain hidden to this day. Her legacy is a mixed one- while she was certainly powerful and her exploits were daring, she had no loyalties and caused many problems she had no intentions of fixing. She is far more famous and beloved out of Loanua than on her home island- she was drawn to treasure and luxury and all of her greatest exploits were in centers of trade and industry rather than pastoral Loanua. Most of her life was spent abroad, and when she died her body was never returned home. Instead, her few remaining bones sit in a shrine in the kingdom of Nalashtra, where she is seen as a patron saint of tricksters. Across Garadel, she has become a mythical anti-hero that ranges from "defender of the downtrodden" to "devious destroyer of stability".
As an individual, she was a rascal and a scoundrel to be sure. She was charismatic but always emotionally distant, never really connecting to anyone but a few travelling companions. She was always on the move and seemed to be chasing some impossible dream of wealth and fame that she could never actually use. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say she was always fleeing from something.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Coconi was born to the Hakirana tribe of the Kalwatha people, who live in North-central Loanua. While an inland tribe that is buffered from most direct raiding, the Hakirana were deeply impacted by the domino-effect of violence that piracy and raiding brought. She grew up discontented and disillusioned, and as the Hakirana sought to hide from the conflict and protect themselves all she wanted to do was leave. She happily left to train as a Meako at the age of 12, and while she remained a vengeful troublemaker she proved to be excellent with animals and a very skilled warrior.
After graduating at age 17, Coconi immediately sought trouble. That trouble dragged her around the island but ultimately landed her in Akitha, where she slew the local monarch and toppled the regime there. She continued lingering in the Southeast, stirring up trouble, until the monarch of the colonial kingdom of Whalena offered to pay for her to leave for the mainland- and she was happy to accept. She was less happy when she arrived and realized that Northwestern Garadel was not the urban wonderland she thought it would be, but was mostly tumultuous Fire Termite plains. She sought out the biggest international player she could: the infant Ember League of Zihari, which had recently gotten a new heirophant. This heirophant sought to model the league to be more like the recently successful Holy League in the East. She ultimately ended up killing that heirophant, seizing their treasury, and then going East to the Holy League to impersonate an Ember League Arsha to con even more money out of them.
For some years, she lived in Zonostra as a false priest gathering money and enjoying the luxuries of Garadel. Eventually she was found out, but was able to murder her way out yet again. Pursued by the Holy League, she hid her ill-gotten goods in a series of treasure caches along the plains- a habit that would last a lifetime and earn her ever-lasting fame. Coconi fled to the Labyrinth-Kingdom of Ezekra, where she lived for a year grifting and acting as a mercenary before being apprehended by Holy League bounty hunters. She was able to talk her way into being tried in Ezekra, where she was found "not guilty" and ultimately released. Fleeing South before they could correct their mistake, she stumbled into yet more political intrigue and ended up jumping into an imperial coup in modern-day Senelon. She fled with the entire treasury, including the famous Blade of Ancients- the first sword to ever be forged to the limit of the Dragon-Forge's powers.
After all these cons and coups, she returned to Loanua briefly only to find that her great power and wealth had responsibilities there to provide for her people. She left some treasure for them, but soon became panicky and anxious and began lashing out. After a year of this she fled back to Garadel, where she began wandering once again.
Back in the burning plains of Tolzel, Coconi met up with a dragon sorcerer mercenary captain named Lorik of Nalashtra, who offered Coconi work that would let her keep her freedom. Lorik was a hard-nosed by-the-books human but was accustomed to working with wild individuals- and his stability and Coconi's chaos meshed in just the right way that they became fast friends. They traveled and fought and conned and partied across Garadel, into Southern Larazel. Coconi began to make a name for herself as something of a celebrity as she used Lorik's writing skills to produce several fantasy novels disguised as "memoirs" that painted herself as an exiled princess from a magic paradise island of superheroic warrior women. Her magical skills, sleight of hand, and magic items allowed her to "back up" these claims as she toured Larazel, "raising funds to return to her homeland to become rightful queen" which she would repay from the legendary Loanuan city of gold she invented. Some of these fantastical rumors Coconi picked up from existing legends about Loanua, but she made sure to twist every embellishment to her own gain.
Eventually, this all came back to haunt her. In the Southeastern Larazek kingdom of Ipekel, Coconi's routine attracted some unusual foreign attention: strange outsiders from the distant land of Sonev, led by a Prism druid of great power. This druid began hunting Coconi, seeking to return her to their enigmatic master to experiment on her. She lost several good friends in this game of cat and mouse, but ultimately slew the druid and escaped with Lorik back to Garadel.
Back in Garadel, Coconi and Lorek finally bit off more than they could chew: they jumped into the great civil wars that had swept the continent and collapsed the great Northeastern empires. They switched sides frequently, working as powerful mercenaries sometimes and just as bandits at other times. Eventually they seized control of a Dragon Forge in the mountains with their crew and began trying to operate their own personal forge-duchy. Spellcasters both, they wanted to see what kind of items they could make- and they mistakenly thought they could be a "neutral power" rich and powerful enough to retire. But seizing control of a seat of power is not as neutral act as they thought- it proved to be a war on the world. Eventually, Coconi was driven out of their forge-fortress; Lorek died in the fighting, along with all the rest. Coconi hid what treasure she had in a legendary cache and escaped to modern-day Zonostra. But she had angered enough people that no escape was permanent anymore. She attempted to con a selkie fleet to return her to Loanua, where she could retire in peace or at least hide for a time- but a dispute with said selkie captain led to her taking them hostage and trying to force them to sail to Loanua at sword-point. In the ensuing disputes, the selkie set their cargo of Fire Termite colonies ablaze and Coconi was killed in the explosion.
While Lorek's sister investigated the wreckage and claimed to find her body, there was no actual way of knowing.
As for Coconi's legacy, it is hard to say. She had no empire, no cult, no bloodline she left behind - only legends. Some of those legends have uplifted and inspired; others have evoked greed and bloodshed. She actively profited off of a legacy of rumor and literature surrounding Loanua that inspired the 1250 invasion- but she didn't invent the genre and it would be deeply unfair to say she actually led to the invasion. Many have killed each other over supposed treasure maps to her hidden wealth- but her legends have also inspired explorers of a less-murderous variety. What caches have been found have benefited both good people and bad. She evades any clear definitions or legacy, almost a thousand years later.
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