Moxima Sutia
The Blessed Moxima Tenatala (a.k.a. Su-Tia)
Moxima was the most powerful Dhampire to ever live, and many would say the greatest. Their writings have influenced over a millennia of philosophy and their organizations have multiplied across the globe and permanently shaped public perceptions of Dhampires. The religion of Sumoxa is based Moxima's teachings. Even now, they remain the center of their own corner of Paradise, where they sit in perfect eternal meditation.
Moxima spent years as a soldier, a priest, a monster hunter, and a championship fighter, but it monasticism where they ultimately felt at peace. Their followers adopted this model of living to better control the potential violence of new Dhampires, and eventually the connection was strong enough that people assumed that Dhamprisim made one a better monk. It is from this tradition that most Dhampiric monasteries began.
Tenets of Faith
As a philosopher and religious figure, Moxima was an advocate for a kind of agnostic pseudo-nihilism: that the world and the Gods were so wild and unknowable that full or true understanding within a single person was impossible. Rather than try to perceive cosmic truths, one should accept that the world is beyond comprehension and instead focus on knowing oneself. Moxima went as far as to suggest that objective truth does not exist and that every person lives in slightly different, ever-shifting worlds that slightly overlap. In order to navigate such a incomprehensible world, each individual must work to control themselves as best they can. We only have power over ourselves and only through self discipline, moderation, and modifying our expectations of the world can we achieve happiness.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Moxima was born in the petty kingdom of Natekara in what is now Sumaren - a tropical, equatorial belt of jungle and riverlands between Sonev and Samvara. The Kingdom of Natekara was an example of an "Erzalelsa", a form of government commonly found in 400s and 500's ME Sumaren dominated by a ruling class of Dhampires that were revered as divine receptacles of sacred power. Dhampires in these Erzalesa kingdoms were regarded as more-than-mortal and had become a kind of priestly-warrior caste apart from the rest of the population. Competition within these castes was tremendous and this ruthless competition fueled a culture of cold-hearted dominated and hierarchical violence.
Moxima was born into a warrior-caste family and grew up in a fiercely competitive atmosphere. The fought with their siblings for rank and status, and then with their parents when they came of age. For much of their childhood, they reveled and excelled in this environment. As their success bred loneliness and resentment, they staked their happiness and confidence on the approval of Liazun, Natekara's warrior-monarch. They doted on Liazun, desperately fighting their way up the ranks to become their bodyguard. But Liazun saw their ambition as a possible threat, and had them publicly humiliated with threat of having their dhampirism removed. Moxima was humiliated, isolated, and hopeless. Liazun had gone too far in their punishment too quickly, and Moxima's faith and confidence was utterly broken. In this moment of darkness, one of their fellow warriors by the name of Ulara reached out to them. Ulara was a long-time peer that admired the parts of Moxima that they had tried so hard to suppress- their curiosity, their kindness- and saw a chance to reach out to them. Ulara shared their doubts in the system, in their authority, and in the legitimacy of their violence. Moxima initially rejected Ulara and their doubts, but slowly found them to be a lifeline in a world that had turned upside down.
Moxima was eventually brought back into Liazun's circle, but this time they payed attention to the violence underpinning Liazun's military rule. Moxima was horrified, and with Ulara they formed a conspiracy of young officers to reform or even overthrow the system. As it became more and more clear that Moxima's former idol was in fact a deeply cruel warlord, Moxima gave up on reform and launched a full-fledged coup. Moxima lost their fight with Liazun and was horribly wounded, but Ulara and the others were able to remove Liazun's Dhampirism before fleeing. Liazun was delegitimized, and the Kingdom of Natekara began to collapse into civil war. Ulara and the others formed a rebel group to try and seize control, but few Dhampires willingly joined their ranks and they were forced to rely on a large number of newly-infected novice Dhampires. The rebels ultimately fled Natekara, but as they fled into the neighboring kingdom they brought the chaos of their movement with them. Likeminded rebels began to crop up across Northern Sumaren, and for a decade Moxima bounced between kingdoms, helping who they could.
Ultimately the Dhampire-Lords proved too numerous and too entrenched, and Moxima and Ulara gathered who they could to flee into the wilderness. In the wilds, Moxima was struck by strange visions of massive otters, of a star-tipped tower of Gods, of a shimmering lake surrounded by golden castles. They decided to go North, searching for these visions- and eventually wandered into the region of Tianar in far Southern Samvara. In the borderlands of Tianar, Moxima encountered a curious figure: a Prism explorer by the name of Sensa. Sensa helped translate for Moxima and was an eager learner. She was fascinated by Moxima's stories, by the politics of Sumaren, and by the strange visions. Sensa guided the rebels Northwards into the heartlands of Tianar, to meet up with a different clique of Dhampires: the Azraic Mysteries, a group of mystery-cults that featured Dhampirism as a central component. The Azraic priests turned Moxima's knowledge of Dhampires on their head: they were mystics, partiers, and ritual guardians that avoided involvement in petty wars. While the Azraic Dhampires were not as skilled in combat as the Sumaren Dhampire Lords, they were numerous and skilled in their own ways. Ulara and Moxima begged them for assistance, and went to work gathering an army to liberate their homeland.
But while Ulara yearned for their homeland, Moxima was compelled by a powerful curiosity. Sensa had informed them that they knew of each of those envisioned locations, that they waited Northward. Moxima wanted to explore, to begin life over again with a fresh perspective, and to flee the shame of their past. So when Ulara had the necessary soldiers and called on Moxima to return home with them, Moxima refused. The ensuing fight with Ulara broke the one relationship Moxima considered 'home' and left Moxima adrift once again. Seeking comfort and meaning once more, they returned to Sensa and begged for guidance going North. Sensa, always happy to learn and debate with an interesting figure, agreed.
Moxima and Sensa were joined by a small group of Tianaran and Sumaran dhampires and followers, and their merry band headed North to the land of Eshima seeking a ship and money for supplies. There, they found a patron: Namika of Swemet, a wealthy Pratasa druid that had ventured Southeast to both evangelize their religion and gather weapons and allies for their sect. Dhampirism was strictly controlled throughout Samvara by the Shekotan Healing Church, and a group of unknown Dhampires could give Namika the potential to mass-infect and levy Dhampires for her cause. She also recognized the potential of Moxima as a weapon, and was careful to encourage their training as they traveled North.
Upon arriving in Empria, Namika used Moxima and their companions as weapons and assassins. Overwhelmed by this alien society and foreign politics and ideology, Moxima initially accepted their new role as divine enforcer. But Namika took Moxima's isolation for granted, and Moxima continued discussing both the world and philosophy with their fellow mystics and with Sensa. They realized that while they might or might not be doing good cosmically or politically, they were doing evil personally. That they were contributing to a world that was like the one they had grown up in back in Sumaren, one of violence and control. Moxima and their followers fled Namika, traveling West to meet Kailio and to better understand their visions. It took some time to get the proper permissions, but they finally were able to talk their way to the giant immortal otter. They entered talks with Kailio, and no one knows what was said or what Moxima traded, but they emerged as one of the few mortal non-selkies allowed to walk on the Khilaian Isles. They spent some years there, learning about the world and talking with Kailio.
Before leaving North, Moxima decided to finally stay and solve the problems they started. They informed the Shekotan Healing church of Namika's plans and launched a joint operation to take her down and contain her strain of Dhampirism. It was a vicious campaign of intrigue, as Namika continued feuding with them for years before she was finally detained trying to sneak onto the Khilaian Isles. Moxima took the Dhampires she had made under their wing, and ventured North with them to speak with the immortal sun goddess Aysha. This began the halcyon days for Moxima: they met the immortal god Haru, ventured around Samvara, built Dhampire monasteries, wrote books, foiled the occasional nefarious plot.
At a certain point, they achieved such skill with Dhampirism that they simply stopped aging altogether. For decades they wandered, talking with some of the great thinkers of the time. From the great cleric Ponder to the famed druid Vetka the Liberator, Moxima had a wide cast of friends and rivals. But, to Moxima, it was all procrastinating before returning to what they ran from so long ago: Sumaren, their first home. As an old dryad, they finally returned to find Ulara long dead and their rebellion having only partially succeeded. For another twenty years, Moxima toppled the last of the Dhampire-Lords and reorganized the dhampires into monasteries to protect rather than rule. Finally sated and ready to rest, Moxima waited for a sign that it was time to stop.
Such a sign arrived with remarkable speed in 712, when a school of Leviathans began terrorizing the tropical region of Atotha to the East of Sumaren. Moxima died fighting them off, as they intended. It was the kind of heroic death they had wished for as a child- the sort of send off they had been raised to expect for a true warrior. They may have killed the martial culture that demanded such a death, but they never were able to fully extricate themselves from it.
Moxima left behind many questions: who or what gave them those visions? What did they speak with Khailio about? Who was Moxima, beneath all the layers of posturing and stone-faced stoicism? What even was their legacy? Who was Moxima, as a person? We do not know if Moxima left behind any children, or other close family after their flight from Natekara. They certainly had close friendships, but even with them Moxima seemed to be an entirely different person behind closed doors than in public.
Gender Identity
Moxima is non-binary, occupying a third gender in Sumaren culture
Relationships
Divine Classification
Ascended Saint
Religions
Alignment
Lawful Good
Current Location
Species
Conditions
Church/Cult
Life
505 ME
712 ME
207 years old
Circumstances of Death
Eaten by a Leviathan
Birthplace
Sumaren
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Eyes
Black
Hair
Pale grey flowers
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Green-brown with orange flecks
Height
5'5"
Weight
150 lbs
Aligned Organization
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