Full Name: Merai hin'Dana, of the Anboren Family, known as Merai Starchild
Species: Earthbound Celestial, Formerly Cursed Human-Theriomorph (cat)
Allegiance: Kyia, Meraist Church, Lothanasi
Religion: Meraist
Social Status: 6 (salary M100,000/yr., plus perks)
Age: 1307 as of 5/19/1999
Eyes: Brown, catlike pupils
Hair/Fur: Mahogany brown/white
Height: 168 cm (5'6")
Physical Notes: Merai is a rather plain-looking but quite human cat-morph, species unknown. She has unmarked white fur all over her body, lighter on her chest and stomach than on her back. Her ears are long and pointed now, and seem to sit slightly higher on her head than before (though this is likely an illusion, due to the physical complications involved in having ears atop one's head). Her nose is higher and straighter than a normal human's, and it ends in a light brown leathery tip; further, her nostrils have flaps to the sides, like a lioness's. She has retained her long brown hair from before the change brought on by the Curse. However, when she encountered the Divine Source at the Mountain of the Sun1, her fur (which had been tawny after she was changed by the Curse) turned white. Her eyes are still the same mahogany shade they were when she was "normal", though her pupils now close vertically, like a cat's. She has short claws on her fingers and toes, and her palms and soles are covered by thin leathery pads. Her long tail is very much like a domestic short-haired cat's in appearance. Merai is slender in build, of average height (5'6").
Behavioral Notes: While understanding the need for formality, she does not appreciate it in private (e.g. she threatens to assign Janus to scrubbing the temple floors for a month if he calls her "your Eminence" again in private). Merai wears white robes and seems to be fond of tea and old books. Merai's assistant wears brown robes.
Supernatural Abilities: Can channel and convert divine/cosmic energies (the "Starchild's gift"); immortal; standard powers for Avatar of Kyia
A Priestess of Divine Origin
Merai hin'Dana was born in 692 C.R., the daughter of Alexander and Dana, two scouts in the Metamor Army. To all appearances, she was a rather ordinary child, though obviously intelligent and with an innate desire to help others. In 706 she discovered that she had a gifting for channeling divine magic, and the high priestess of Metamor, Karenna hin'Elric, inducted her into the Lothanasi. (After her ordination as a priestess, Merai would become one of the few people who called Karenna by the name Raven, often using the term "Sister Raven".)
Unbeknownst to anyone in the mortal realm, Merai was actually the daughter of Kammoloth, who took on the form of Alexander and slept with Dana the night that her husband left on an extended patrol. The two mortals never discovered the deception, and Alexander raised Merai as his own daughter. Merai would not discover the truth about her birth until 708, when Kammoloth appeared to her in order to recruit her help in a grand deception that would bring about the downfall of the daedra lords. This plan backfired, however, when Merai unexpectedly sided with Iluvatar against the entire pantheon, bringing about the Great Fall.
After the Great Fall
The Lothanasi were divided over whether to praise Merai as a deliverer or curse her as a traitor. Merai believed she had received a direct revelation that Iluvatar was Eli, the god of the Ecclesia, and that Yahshua was his avatar. In the months immediately following the Great Fall, she spread this message widely among the Lightbringers, advocating that it be adopted as a central element in the theology of the reformed Lothanasi Order. Instead, Karenna and the other high priests issued a statement that, while Iluvatar clearly intended to re-establish contact and relationship with mortal-kind, the true depth of the Creator's nature was too great for any human to grasp, and any image a mortal mind might see when confronted with True Divinity would necessarily be a product of his or her preconceptions, at least in part. They urged that each person must pursue relationship with Iluvatar individually, and emphasized that the reality of Him is greater than any of the names we might use to describe Him.
Merai was furious at this decision, which she saw as a cop-out on Karenna's part for purely political reasons. This led to a falling-out between the two, and Merai resigned as a priestess of Metamor.2 She left Metamor to accompany Akkala, Artela and Velena on a tour of Lightbringer communities around the world — the three goddesses had been among the first of the deities to accept the validity of Iluvatar's judgment, and they sought to learn what they could by traveling among their worshipers, helping people as best they could. For Merai, it was an opportunity to continue her holy mission while maintaining a lower profile; she was unlikely to be noticed as much in the shadow of the goddesses, and their power would help to protect her from the threat of assassination by disgruntled Lothanasi.
Beginnings of the Meraist Church
Years later, Merai reconciled with Karenna and returned to the Northern Midlands. She settled in the small fishing town of Sorin, where she soon became the leader of a community of former Lothanasi and Ecclesia members who had devoted themselves to her teachings. There she and her husband, Brother Calvis of Bozojo, raised their family, bearing five children over the course of ten years. Their children eventually grew up, moved out, and had families of their own, and the community of believers Merai founded eventually grew to become the Meraist Church. The town itself grew in size as it became the center of the new religious movement, and in 808 — a hundred years after the Great Fall — the town elders renamed it Meriton in Merai's honor.
The First Avatar of Metamor
After Calvis died unexpectedly in his mid-50s Merai was called back into the service of Metamor at Kyia's request. Both of them sensed, in the chaos of those years, that she would have a great deal to do for a long time to come, and after receiving an inward confirmation from Eli Merai accepted back a portion of her former power, becoming an avatar of Metamor.
As the first avatar, Merai is in many ways a relic of a bygone age. After the fulfillment of the Starchild Prophecy, she had to find a new purpose for her existence. She found it, to a great extent, in service to Eli, and she served as a prophetic voice in the duke's court until the time when Kyia officially became Majestrix. Kyia is her closest friend, and the two women share a strong bond that is not easily categorized — not really mother-daughter or sister-sister, but not exactly "just girlfriends" either.
Continuing Role in the Lightbringers and Meraist Church
Lightbringers
Merai played little role in the initial redefining of the Lightbringers' purpose and agenda after the Great Fall, but she has been one of the most consistent hands keeping the Order on track over the years, especially since Lothanasa Tessariel's death in 961 CR. She was influential in the transition process that turned the Lothanasi from a religious order into a supernatural police force.
The Lightbringers do consider her to be, if not their leader, to be a primary influence in the organization. When she talks, the High Command listens.
For example:
Winter Solstice, 2000, Janus is relieved of duty that night off by Lothanasi High Command, based on the recommendation of Merai (he's advised of this on Dec 18 by Merai in person). His personal war with the Holly King (Saint Nicholas) has become a PR nightmare to the Lothanasi (due to reporters getting pictures of St. Nick's head in 1998 and St. Nick getting past the Metamor City Lothanasi HQ to leave a lump of coal for Janus and wrap Candice up in ribbons as a threat to keep Janus away.
"The Lothanasi can survive being seen as fanatics. We can not survive being seen as incompetent. If a sidhe lord breaks into our stronghold a second time, the public will start to question why they're trusting us to protect them. If that happens, we're finished.
- Merai, to Janus - A Lightbringer's Christmas Carol
Janus did formally protest being relieved of duty, resulting in a call from the Director of Lothanasi High Command, reminding him that "the Starchild had once dethroned an entire pantheon and that he (Janus) should consider himself damned lucky to be getting off with a one day suspension."
The Church of Saint Merai
Merai tried to keep her distance from the church that developed based on her teachings (so she does not stifle it's development), but from time to time she has had to step in. For instance, in the mid-1400s there was a movement called the Parity Doctrine where Merai was considered to be a "co-redemptrix" of creation. It was said that, as Yahshua had been the avatar of Iluvatar's masculine nature, Merai was the avatar of His feminine nature. Worship began to be directed equally to Yahshua and Merai.
When Merai found out, she acted quickly to stop this heresy and went through a process of house-cleaning the church.
In the years since, Merai has taken a more visible role in the Church, tackling difficult theological questions before they become crises. For the most part, she has been successful, and no other heresy has yet reached the magnitude of the Parity Doctrine. She prays earnestly that none ever does.
Why She Remains
Merai knows that she could leave this world and pass on to the hereafter whenever she chooses — all she would have to do is give up the divine energy that is sustaining her — but she senses that she still has some part to play. She sometimes grows weary of the modern world, with all of its clamor and noise and chaos, but the inner voice of Eli continues to tell her "Not yet." She once received a dream that seemed to indicate that Nasoj was not yet truly dead nor finally defeated, and she is at least partially sticking around because she wants to see if that's true — and to help make sure he stays in the ground this time for good.
Current activities
Outside of her advisory and oversight roles, detailed above, Merai is not above meddling taking an interest in various projects.
Most recently, Merai enlisted the assistance of Nocturna and Klepnos to assist her in a "family matter" — and the three of them brought Janus Starson into a pocket of the Dreamlands and with subtle illusions (based on astute analysis and projections) encouraged Janus's sympathetic/"human" side which has resulted in him taking the first steps of a relationship with his fellow Lightbringer Candace Wright. In the process, Nocturna was able to call Karenna's spirit to the Dreamlands then guide her back… hoping that Karenna could now pass through the Veil. However, Nocturna is not sure if Karenna did actually go through the Veil or simply back into the First Hell since Nocturna is "stuck on this side"- i.e. on Earth.3. It was their hope that with Karenna's similar experience and insight, along with the other visions they developed for him, this would setting Janus on a path that might release his father's spirit from Asariel's self-imprisonment on the mortal plane.
However, this project was not just personal for Merai. Merai, Kyia, and all of the gods know that something bad is about to happen, and what little information they can get from prophecy4 and more mundane analysis methods indicate that they have more of chance of survival if Janus isn't the duty-bound stick-in-the-ass warrior that he was before this "remarkably positive encounter with a unique set of spiritual entities."5
Merai's Home
Merai lives in the Citadel. Her study has walls that are lined with bookcases almost to the 5 meter high ceiling. Stone floor with thick rugs. An elvish longbow and a short sword hang over a fireplace.
Known Descendants
- Asariel Starson *deceased
- Janus Starson
Known Allies
Known Enemies
- none stated to date
Story Appearances6
A Lightbringer Carol
To Walk in Shadow
Sources
Great Fall, Lothanasi, Meraists, Original MK2K Bible Entry- Merai Starchild, MK Wiki Entry- Merai , A Lightbringer Carol
Author's Notes
text
Voice Actor
none set
