Odekor - Day 16

The Prophet

Her real name was Atira but no one ever used it.  Very few people outside of religious scholars even knew it.  She was better known, simply as the Prophet.
Born in a flyspeck village called Temm, the woman who would become known as the Prophet had a fairly conventional life. She was part of a sprawling farm family. At the age of thirteen, she was betrothed to a neighbor boy.  At fourteen, they were formally married, but did not establish their own household until a few years later.
According to legend, the Prophet received her first vision on her wedding night.  She predicted the victories of Sagatus, who would establish the Empire of Choan.  Most people just thought she had had too much wine and dismissed her prophecy as the ramblings of a nervous new bride.
However, after that first prophecy came others.  They started as a trickle, but soon grew into a raging river.  Atira began to drown in a sea of prophecies.
Eventually, her husband divorced her and cast her out, claiming she was mad.  Atira began to wander the countryside, leaving a trail of revelations in her wake.  Some people began to notice. She began to attract followers and patrons.
Heleal of Nassus, who would become known as Saint Heleal, offered Atira a place in his own meager home.  She accepted and it was at this time that her prophecies began to be recorded.  The act of recording them seemed to lessen the impact of her gift on her and Atira spent days dictating prophecies to Heleal and the scribes he hired.
Eventually, she left Heleal and traveled to the Holy City of Kirr.  The route she took later became known as the Pilgrim’s Road.  At the gates of the Holy City, she was met by a delegation of priests, who took her into custody.
She was sequestered in a tower cell, her physical needs seen to, while she continued to record her prophecies.  Twenty years passed this way, until the morning Atira simply walked out of her cell. She made her way through the city to the Temple of Ormothir, where a bejeweled silver stairway appeared.  Witnesses reported that Atira climbed the stair, pausing after a few steps to look back and smile sadly. Then stairway and woman vanished in a shower of golden light.
The city’s priests declared it a miracle, stating that the Prophet had ascended to the Fields of Joy, her work on Odekor complete.
After her ascension, the Prophet’s writings were gathered and secured within the vaults of the Holy City. They remained there until the third Emperor took formal possession of them and had them relocated to the imperial capital at Askir.  There, they were entrusted to the gnome sage, Kish Ayeto, who was ordered to encrypt them so the Empire’s enemies could not use them. Presumably this is when the gnomes began their long joke.
Since the War, the Prophet’s name has become a curse among the survivors.  Many wonder if she lied about how the War would play out. Others think it possible she was duped by the gods.
The truth may be known only to the Prophet herself and Ormothir.