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Oracle of Light
This young maiden of the First fought the sin eaters alongside the Warrior of Darkness, and played an instrumental role in restoring night to Norvrandt.
It is impossible to speak of Ryne without first speaking of the Oracle of Light, Minfilia. Approximately a century ago, when the Flood of Light threatened to engulf the First, the people of Nabaath Areng bore witness to a woman who single-handedly halted the encroaching radiance. Amidst the tumult, someone was heard crying out “Minfilia” — and so it was that Norvrandt’s mysterious savior was named.
Fifteen years later, when the Kingdom of Voeburt fell to sin eaters, a girl was discovered who could not be turned by their corruption. With her hair of spun gold and eyes of clearest sapphire, she bore an uncanny resemblance to the legendary Oracle. Inheriting her name, this Minfilia went on to be a beacon of hope in mankind’s struggle against the sin eater threat, but as is the fate of many a soldier, she eventually fell in battle. Some years later, however, another girl would appear who possessed the same distinct features and immunity both. In this way the cycle continued, with a new Minfilia emerging as if to replace the one who had died before her.
This strange phenomenon was brought about by none other than the original Minfilia, the Antecedent of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, who had journeyed from the Source to deliver the First from destruction. Having quelled the Flood, she began reincarnating into the bodies of suitable young girls so that the blessing of Light, the source of resistance to sin eater corruption, might endure. Those who were vessels for Minfilia’s soul invariably manifested her features, serving to identify the bearer of the blessing.
Once Vauthry became supreme leader of Eulmore, however, the Oracle was deemed no longer necessary. In truth, Vauthry feared the Oracle and the hope she symbolized, and so he ordered General Ran’jit to find and imprison the next Minfilia to appear. That girl was Ryne (though she was yet to be called thus), and she was locked up deep in the city’s dungeon before she had seen five summers. For years she languished there, deprived of the opportunity to develop her powers, until she was rescued by Thancred, whom the Crystal Exarch had summoned from the Source.
The days that followed were filled with excitement and discovery for the young maiden. From Thancred she learned how to live and fight, and over time he became as a father to her. Yet even as she grew closer to him, she began to question his motivations for taking her under his wing. She came to believe it was the original Minfilia that he had sought to save — that he would be happier if she surrendered her body to the woman’s soul — and the thought tormented her throughout her journey with the Warrior of Darkness.
In time, the moment of truth would arrive. Tracking down the remaining Lightwardens required that she harness greater power as the Oracle, and it was during a bitter confrontation with Ran’jit that she finally found the strength of will to walk her own path. With Thancred laying his life on the line to secure her escape, she pressed on to inherit her namesake’s power and arise as the Oracle in her own right. Driven by the desire to fulfill the legacy of those who went before her, she returned with her hair and eyes restored to their natural hues, and from the man who was her father in all the ways that mattered, she received the name by which she is now known.
With the Lightwardens that once plagued the realm no more, Ryne now dedicates her days to restoring life to the First. Be it bejeweled with stars or a brilliant blue, the sky never fails to remind her of journeys past as well as her family, whose love she feels no matter the distance between them.