Editing Ezra (section)

===Valeri Antonin & The Rhiannon Heresy===
Introduced in [[Books of S|The Book of Sacrifices]], Valeri Antonin is a vengeful odem who has dedicated his unlife to the destruction of the Ezran faith, founding the Rhiannon Heresy to carry out his goals.

In life, Valeri Antonin was born the son of a minor noble family in Borca, some 40 years before the Great Cathedral of Ezra was completed. Born a singing prodigy, he fell under the attention of an ambitious anchorite named Sergei Kristovich, who coaxed Valeri's parents into allowing him to join the Ezran choir, which attracted much-needed funds.

However, this wasn't enough for Sergei; he wanted to keep Valeri and his beautiful sporano voice to glorify Ezra forever. And having visited Lamordia, he knew there was a way to preserve Valeri against the effects of puberty: by bribing Valeri's parents, and playing on the youth's devout faith in Ezra, he convinced the lad to become a castratti.

For several years, Valeri brought fame and fortune to the church with his wonderful musical prayers, becoming an anchorite himself and writing his own musical compositions. But, the fame his voice earned did not bring with it respect. Within the church, he was mocked and sneered at for his gelding, with some even denouncing him as an atrocity who had no place in Ezra's church. Sergei was his only friend. In the end, at the age of 23, he was found mysteriously dead in his sleep, canonized as St. Valeri and the date of his burial marked as a religious holiday.

Unbeknownst to the faithful, Valeri had actually been killed by accident by Sergei, when the two fought one night over Valeri's feelings of betrayal and having been cheated of a normal life. Even as his body was enshrined in a monument before the Great Cathedral, his spirit rose as an [[odem]]. Driven for revenge, he  used his possession abilities to follow Sergei, who had left for Port-a-Lucine in Dementlieu. But, rather than take his revenge quickly, he possessed his treacherous ex-friend, spending six years secretly riding in his mind and absorbing as much information as he could. Then, he began the first phase of his revenge, seizing control of Sergei's body and writing a confession of Sergei's true role in Valeri's death before devouring his life.

After this, he struck out, ready to enact the second phase of his plan. Firstly, he possessed a Richemulot dandy named Arsene Montcalme, for the man was strong, healthy, pale of complexion, dark of hair and bright of eyes; physical characteristics important to his plan. Next, he sought out a dark haired, bright-eyed, radiantly beautiful woman with a beautiful, serene voice, finding what he sought in Melodie Elysia. Wooing her, he impregnated her, then abandoned Arsene's body for hers, setting fire to her former house before fleeing for Kartakass.

There, he settled into a trapper's cottage, murdering the original owner, and waited until his host gave birth; not just to the daughter he needed, but to an unexpected bounty in the form of a twin brother. In the deep woods, Valeri-as-Melodie reared the two as the instruments of his vengeance, teaching them that they were an immaculate conception gifted to her by Ezra herself, with the daughter - Rhiannon (probably not ''intentionally'' an homage to the [[Fey]] Goddess [[Rhiannon|of the same name]] from [[Dragon Magazine]] #155) - being the mortal incarnation of Ezra and the son, Andreas, being Ezra's sworn protector. Finally, when he deemed them ready at the age of 11, he disposed of Melodie and visited them, claiming to be the voice of Ezra herself.

For years more, he trained the two, instructing them in a heretical envisioning of Ezran doctrine that he had created, teaching them the arts of combat, and tutoring the ecclesiastical knowledge and rituals they would need in order to "prove" their claim as Ezra's mortal incarnations. Finally, he deemed them ready and set them out into the world, hoping to bring the Church of Ezra crashing down around its ears.