Zoria
Virtue
Zoria was recognised as a Paragon of Wisdom by the Highborn Assembly of the Virtuous shortly after its founding.
Biography
The common legends date back to when the Ushka were a young people. So legend has it, Zoria was a Sorceress possessed of great insight and knowledge who lived in the depths of the Great Wilds and learned the names of all the creatures of the wild; bird and beast, fish and fowl. Using their names, Zoria could command them and they served her. One day, in return for a kindness done to her by a hunter lost in the Great Wilds, she commanded beasts to serve the hunter by carrying burdens, providing wool, food and companionship. The hunter went on to be the first farmer and their tribe prospered.
She is also credited with weaving the first cloth dyed with iridescent gloaming.
Controversy
In both Dawn and the Marches, Zoria is sometimes called Wise Sara or Wise Sarah. The Dawnish depict her as a far-sighted Enchanter garbed in cloth of gold, while the Marchers more commonly depict her as a stern farmer wearing a shawl of yellow wool. There were several arguments in the early Synod that Wise Sarah was a different inspirational figure. There were so many similarities between the stories of the two figures however that the Synod ultimately determined that the Dawnish had simply adopted Zoria from their northern neighbours. Four hundred years later, there are still troubdours, monks and friars who consider that Zoria "usurped" the recognition that Wise Sarah should have received.