Damari Amisys (1436-1492) was a Santharian priestess of two Goddesses. She was born with the gift of seeing, but was unable to pinpoint exactly when her visions occurred. In her twenties she was a Seyellan acolyte and was heralded as being the next Voice - but left the sect to find a better life. In Damari's final home in Nepris, Baveras also blessed her with a gift of the sea.

Picture description: Damari Amisys, a priestess of Seyella and later Baveras, the Sea Goddess, endowed with the gift of seeing. Image by Enayla.

Biography. Youth. Cala Amisys was a widow, living in New-Santhala. Her husband Dimaro was murdered for his purse shortly after Damari's conception.

While the couple did not struggle financially, they did have to work to make ends meet from time to time. But Dimaro regularly saved money, and when he died, Cala kept a tight budget and lived off the savings while she awaited her child. When Cala gave birth, She named her Damari after her husband, re-arranging the syllables to suit the female baby.

With an infant and a house full of sad memories, Cala turned to Dimaro's family for help, and they offered a room for a small fee. Cala agreed and sold most of the possessions as well as the home She and Dimaro shared.

Cala then turned to the work-force, leaving Damari in the care of her grandparents. Cala found work in a bakery, often working late nights to prepare breads for the day. This meant that Damari rarely saw her mother, but what she did see of her made it very special.

In her youth, Damari was a calm child. She rarely cried and did not speak often, she preferred to gesture and only spoke when someone did not understand her. She enjoyed sitting and observing the world, most often looking out the window with sharp grey eyes - which was notably odd as her father had blue and her mother brown. She did not find solace in playing with other children, but preferred to watch them as they played, often cheering them on instead of joining in.

During her youth, her grandmother (affectionatley called Gagi by Damari) took care of the girl. Gagi was an avid worshipper of Seyella, the Goddess of Destiny. Gagi told the small child stories of the Gods, but mostly she spoke of fate. It tended to slide on the side of gossip, but Gagi was sure that Seyella had a hand in all things and that all was meant to be, no matter the circumstance. Gagi would talk for hours with Damari; whether Damari understood or not.

It was Gagi that began to recognize the talents that Damari had, and chalked it to the true touch of Seyella. It was said Damari had a tendency to stand close to the hearthfire and watch the flames, then quickly scurry to Gagi - often with soot around her eyes. Gagi noted that Seyella also liked to watch the flames of the Tree of Life in her books for hours, and wondered if Damari had understood the story.

The First Prophecy. When Damari was 10, an event occured that would change her life. Cala, working at the bakery, had met the head baker, Abert and over several years had come to like each other very much. They were to be wed in the spring.

Gagi did not mind this twist of fate - Damari was getting older, and the house seemed to get smaller with each inch the girl grew. She told Damari that fate had dealt her mother a new hand. A few days before the marriage Damari started to experience visions:

"I fear it is a losing hand, Gagi. I had a terrible dream last night. I see a gown of white covered with river mud... and a carriage wheel without a wagon. I do not know what it means... and I do not know if it will happen, or if it has..."

-- "A Gift of Two Gods" by Rubus Idaeus, pg. 52.

Gagi was afraid of this realization, and told Cala. Cala took precautions; She and her husband-to-be would borrow the delivery horses from the bakery to ride for their honeymoon and Cala would wear a cerubell dress.

The wedding went well and all was as beautiful as could be. Damari saw that the vision was averted and enjoyed herself. When Abert and Cala left for a honeymoon in Vezash, nothing was wrong.

But late that night, Damari awoke from a deep slumber, screaming. Gagi came to her and asked her what was wrong.

"I was drowning... being dragged down... Mud was in my mouth... the water around me swirled with blood... And there was another in the water... a bearded man in livery... he floated above while I sank..."

-- "A Gift of Two Gods" by Rubus Idaeus, pg. 136.

Gagi tried to calm the child, but without success. Damari stayed awake all night, sitting by the hearth fire and waiting for her mother to come home.

The next day, Damari and Gagi were surprised by a knock at the door. A livery-clad messenger told Gagi that her mother and her husband were attacked and killed by robbers. The Duchess of Sanguia had come across the carnage and saw fit that their royal messenger would tell them. But Damari had no need to hear the messenger - she spoke from her seat by the hearth fire- eyes mussed with soot...

"The carriage received damage; a wheel fell into the river. Several guards were killed. The Duchess fled from the wagon onto the river-banks while the wagon was pillaged, marring her white gown with mud. She came across two people, a man in finery and a woman in cerubell. Both were drowned, the woman seemed to have been thrown to the bank and beaten before drowning."

-- "A Gift of Two Gods" by Rubus Idaeus, pg. 209.

She so stated before her mother's mother of the next words... "Gagi. I believe I am Blessed by Seyella. We must take care of me!"

The Temple of Seyella. And so they did. Gagi quickly prepared the home and took Damari to the Seyellan Temple in New-Santhala. While the Inner Circle was unsure of the child's talent they took Damari in as an acolyte and soon her prophetic skills became apparent.

Through years of refinement, Damari was able to see many things, but was as unable as ever to understand where exactly the event fell - the future or the past. This pained Damari greatly, for she claimed to see visions that saddened her a lot and to not know if they could be averted made her ill.

The only portrait of Damari was painted during these years. It shows the plight and pain the young woman had, and it can be visually understood why she felt so pained. She is seen to be a beautiful woman (it is rumored that the artist was hired by a man who was enamored with Damari) but she did not take any suitors. She had noted on several occasions that she did not wish to see the fate of another person she loved pass before her eyes - like what had happened with her mother.

The Inner Circle and even the Voice herself spoke of Damari being a promising prospect for the next Voice - one that needed refinement but held promise. This was the last straw for Damari. To live all the days of her life with the pain of knowing things that she could not affect hurt her immensely.

By the age of 28, Damari became so sad with the strength of her visions and the plight of those she could not help, that she left the Seyellan sect, and New-Santhala alltogether. All her life, Damari had known of Seyella and her powers, and wished no more to be of it.

Turn to Baveras. Damari travelled for a long time, without a home or much money, using what skills she had as a seer to garner some change to feed herself and continue on. She made her way to the Adanian coast of Santharia, and wandered among the fishing villages. She still had a heavy tie to Seyella, and it seemed that being near the element of water calmed Damari and dulled the visions.

It was not until Damari reached the small fishing village of Nepris at the age of 35 that she realized that it was not that she was losing Seyella, but rather learning of Baveras. Damari was pleased to learn that another Goddess had seemed to take favor with her.

Damari liked the small village of Nepris, and decided to settle there. From time to time she used her Seyellan skills for money, but most of the time she was quite content to being yet another woman who fixed the nets.

But as she aged, her blessing with Baveras grew, as did her talents. Men would ask Damari to bless the boats by way of Baveras, and by Seyella, tell them the fortune of the Craft. Damari's skills were still unrefined to the point that she could not tell if the event was the future or the past - she regularly told the boat-captains of storms the ship had already weathered, or places in the hull that had been repaired poorly due to another owner. She also tended to scare the men by speaking of storms due to happen. That used to be her greatest folly - she had a touch for the disastrous. Soon she was no longer asked to tell stories of the ships; just to ask Baveras to bless them.

Soon, all she knew of was the sea, and her Seyellan skills would only arise in great need. Damari became reclusive - staying at home and peering out the window, only repairing nets when she was asked. Some nights she would arise from a slumber and shriek. But as she lived alone, she had no fear of having to disturb others with her fore- and hind-sight.

Last Years. In Damari's last years, she developed cataracts, that made her unable to see. She still had great skill in repairing nets, as if she could still visibly see the holes and repair them. Some assumed it was still with Seyella's eyes that she saw, the eyes of fate. Others simply chalked it up to experience.

Damari was only 55 when she fell terribly ill, and she was bed-ridden for the last year of her life. People visited Damari during her bed-ridden time; she had the knowledge of an elderly elf, and the kindness of a halfling. During the last year, people spoke of her dementia; speaking to people that were not there and of things that had never happened.

Several Neprisians believed that Damari was far more in tune with Seyella now that she herself was blind, and that she was speaking of things in the past and the future. The writer of her biography, Rubus Idaeus, was but a youth when Damari experienced her last years, but took notes of all she said in her supposed dementia. His book is the only published source for which all the prophecies spoken by Damari are recounted, word for word. The last days of her life, she spoke of many things, save for the last day of her life, when she spoke not a word and faded from the world with a small gasp.

Damari Amisys died at the Age of 56, and was buried just outside Nepris.

Importance. Damari Amisys is considered by locals to be a very blessed individual and still garners respect to this day. Rubus Idaeus had noted her prophecies - just in case those that see themselves within it may be capable of averting disaster.