Pitru Punstraia

Pitru Ermení Punstraia also known by his adopted name Senate, was the former Altan (Religious and Political Leader) of the Arcadian Altanate, a theocratic nation serving as the refuge and authority for all adherents to the Mufijo Faith. He was from Ddaza, the central village an Arcadian tribe on Prospit, from which he fled after heavy religious persecution and threats of violence. He was the founder and former mayor/governor of the city of Wahat Almarjan. Pitru ruled the infant Altanate for its first 6 years (6 months OOC), before unexpectedly abdicating the throne (took place at the stroke of midnight on January 1, 2022). Thereafter, he concerned himself with ruling the city he founded, before he abruptly left the realm of Alathra to escape the assassins of Ddaza, which longed to finally kill a man who they saw as a slight on their honor. It is unknown whether he still lives.

Early Life
Pitru was born in the year -17 AZ, in the large village of Ddaza. The village was the center of the Ddaza Tribe, one of the 8 main tribes of the Arcadian ethnicity, then known as Yuvantiyans. While most Yuvantiyans followed the Mufijo Faith (then known as Triple Harmony or Lajrem Qarenna), the Ddazans had never been converted, owing to their relative isolation from other nearby peoples. Though the Ddazans despised Mufijo as a corrupting influence, a few citizens had in the past heard of Mufijo and converted to it. All the Mufijo worshippers in Ddaza had coalesced by the time of Pitru's birth into one clan, the Punstraia, to which Pitru and his family belonged. The Ddazans unsurprisingly discriminated against the Punstraia for being religious dissidents, with Pitru having vivid memories from his youth of the Punstraia leaders being harassed by the magistrates and elders of the village.

Pitru vaguely remembers his parents, two peasants of Clan Punstraia who held no sway or influence within it. His immediate family attempted to lay low and not attract attention, something that likely played a part in Pitru and his immediate family's continued survival. Unfortunately for the rest of Pitru's clan, their notoriety as religious dissidents and more bombastic nature would bring about their destruction. At age 15, nearly all of the Punstraia, from the oldest man to youngest child, were brutally killed by a mob. They were used as nothing but a scapegoat, blamed for a particularly bad harvest year in the surrounding area. Pitru and his parents only survived through their little notoriety and falsely submitting to the Ddazan gods. Although this act would save his life, it would be an act for which Pitru would suffer greatly. With his father now unexpectedly becoming the Sifan (leader) of the severely diminished Clan Punstraia, Pitru became the target of yet more discrimination and threats. he was constantly harassed with weaponry, and carried nothing on him to ensure he could not be robbed. He could not even sleep peacefully, with near nightly attacks on his family's home by disgruntled neighbors and religious fanatics. Despite these hardships, the Punstraia appeared to have a stray hope for their future. A sympathetic family in the village decided they wished to practice the faith of the Punstraia, reasoning that if the Punstraia had been saved from such a massacre, surely the Mufijo gods had some power. This family had a daughter around Pitru's age, who became fast friends with the young Pitru. The two eventually fell in love, and they were to be married, in the hopes they could continue the Punstraia line. Unfortunately, this was not to be.

Pitru's parents, as well as the newly converted family, were both killed in an outbreak of a deadly disease known as the Ašvat Hibra (Great Reaper). The illness nearly took Pitru's life as well, yet he was kept alive as punishment from the gods for his previous false submission to the Ddazan deities. By virtue of the fact that all his relatives were now dead, the title of Sifan of Clan Punstraia passed to Pitru, although it became nothing more than another target on his back. In the years following these tragedies, the Ddazans finally seemed to abate from their crusade against the Punstraia. This allowed Pitru to become a farmer on the outskirts of the village, where he intended to live simply to preserve his shaky safety. The Ddazans, hoping Pitru would die on the farm and thus exterminate Mufijo from their village, allowed him to live. Unfortunately, even this stability would not last.

Flight from Ddaza
In 5 AZ, the Ašvat Hibra devastated several families who lived near Pitru's farm. This would be unremarkable in itself if Pitru himself was not infected, despite living in incredibly close proximity to the deceased. The Ddazan people were outraged, believing Pitru had cast some dark spell to infect and kill his neighbors, or had some secret cure to the disease he would not share. Despite there being no evidence to suggest these rumors were true, the unceasing outcry from the Ddazan people led the elders and magistrates of the tribe to a simple decision. Pitru had to go.

Now fearing for his life, The future Altan took what little he could fit in small sack, fleeing Ddaza into the surrounding jungle in the midst of a terrible rainstorm. In this forest, Pitru collapsed to the ground and fell asleep, weak and weary from hours of running, only to be awoken by a grand spectacle. Before Pitru were the gods of his faith, Afi - the Sun, Jorb - the Moon, Xamu - the Earth. The three gods, the Setrusi, warned him of a search party out to kill him, prepared to carry out Pitru's execution ordered by the Ddazan magistrates. The gods pitied Pitru and gave him the option to stay and make a last stand for the honor of the Punstraia, or flee with their help to a land where he could be free of the ire of Ddazans. Preferring to live another day than to join his deceased relatives, Pitru accepted the gods' gracious offer and was guided out of the jungles, where he collapsed yet again in a large meadow.

Captivity in Lothridge
For the second time in under 24 hours, the exhausted Pitru was awoken from his slumber by the gods. The young man was without a home, possessions, or anywhere to go, now at the mercy of whatever plan the gods laid before him. The Setrusi instructed Pitru to travel south to a city of dual towers, where he would undergo penance and sacrifice to prove his loyalty to them, and to give him vital knowledge for the years to come. The Setrusi further elaborated that Pitru would no longer need their direct guidance once he had reached this city, and that they would guide him through fate rather than instruction from then on. Confused, Pitru accepted, perhaps because he had no other choice. Before they took their leave, the gods decided to gift Pitru with his family's hunting bow, the Malnourished Hippopotamus, an object he had left at his home in Ddaza. Although lost for two years after the Great Alathran War, Pitru would regain the weapon, retaining it in his possession until his disappearance from Alathra, upon which it became a sacred relic for the crowning of a new Gižaraša (Lord) of Wahat Almarjan. The bow was the only object Pitru had left from his old life in Ddaza. Setting off from the pristine hills he had found himself in, Pitru travelled south, encountering the great Acquendavian city of Lothridge. He immediately recognized it as the city of the dual towers, but decided to try to sneak into the city after seeing guards at the gates. Unfortunately for Pitru, his years of living isolated in the jungle did not teach him the skills necessary to stealth into a well-defended city, and he was promptly sighted and captured by two Lothridge guards. The guards mistook Pitru as a Kogongi who had escaped the city, and sent him to the schools established by the Acquendavians to strip him of a culture he, in reality, knew nothing of. The experience in this institution was agonizing for Pitru, made all the worse in that he could not communicate with anyone, speaking only Arcadian (at that time known as Yuvantiyan). As the Acquendavians attempted to "educate" the culture out of the Kogongi within the school, Pitru was left alone, neither practicing nor understanding any of the customs the instructors taught to be "wrong". After about 2 months of enduring and witnessing constant abuse and harassment of the inmates by the Acquendavians, Pitru finally made breakthroughs in learning the Kogongi language, albeit fragments as the Kogongi tongue was banned from use in the school. He succeeded in communicating some general information about himself to other inmates, who, in their kindness, helped Pitru to learn more of the language, instilling a deep sense of gratitude to the Kogongi within him. These Kogongi spoke of a vibrant and peaceful culture across the sea from Lothridge. Intrigued, Pitru bided his time to try to escape to this homeland of the Kogongi, leaving his fate in the hands of the Setrusi, just as they had told him to. One night, the school's guards had become drunk for some sort of celebration, finally allowing Pitru to slink away into the night, reaching a river by dawn. Although he had tried to bring some of the Kogongi inmates with him to help guide him to their homeland, they were separated and ultimately captured by the Acquendavians. The Acquendavians continued to search for him throughout the night, but Pitru was able to hide in a river that he titled the Draxí [drɐˈçi], named in Arcadian from the flowers bountiful on its banks. When he believed the coast to be clear, Pitru made haste towards the coast. Upon reaching a small bay, he found an abandoned boat, which he made use of to row far into the water.

After sailing out to the sea, however, Pitru's tired state and lack of sleep became quite apparent. Phantoms from the sky dove down to harass him as he rowed. Not well experienced with boats, Pitru seemed helpless in his predicament. However, like a beacon in the distance, Pitru noticed a large landmass on the horizon. He rowed towards it with great haste and difficulty, landing near a small fishing village. Going north, Pitru made his way through the Forests of Cotona, happening upon the city of Kais Kogong. Desperate for food, Pitru hiked towards the recently established town, not yet knowing he had found the Kogongi people his fellow inmates had told him of.

Beginning a New Life
As he arrived in the town, Pitru was greeted by a man in a toga. Noticing Pitru's sorry state, the man took him into his house to let Pitru rest and recover from the harrowing journey from Lothridge. When the man began to speak Kogongi, Pitru felt a great relief, finally able to understand an average person in the unfamiliar land he found himself in. The man said his name was Glider Fraemani, a Kogongi man who helped found the anarchist Federation of Kogongu in the very city Pitru stood. Over a drink, Pitru shared his journey from Lothridge, and gave vague hints to his foreign origins. As Glider shared similar experiences in the Acquendavian "schools," the two strangers became fast friends. Hours after his arrival in town, the druid Vasya made a routine visit to Glider's home. She quickly noticed Pitru in the corner of her eye, and the two greeted, with Glider explaining the situation Pitru found himself in. Over the next few days, Pitru would ingratiate himself to these de facto leaders of the Kogongi. Pitru decided he wanted to settle in Kogongu, but still longed to farm as he once had in Ddaza, rather than live in the burgeoning Kais Kogong. Eventually, he came up with a proposition. Pitru told the Kogongi that if he would be allowed to found a town on the sandy Arcadian Peninsula north of Kogong, he would swear to stay loyal to the Kogongi and secure their hold on the peninsula. The Kogongi had little objection to the idea, and quickly agreed, sending Pitru north with Glider. Upon arriving at the tip of the peninsula, Pitru found a suitable spot for a home and began building. He then a held a small ceremony, declaring the town of Wahat Almarjan, and himself as its Gižaraša (Lord). Soon after, Glider left south, and Pitru finished his home and plans for the mosque. The gods had been good. Pitru had a home once more.

As Pitru began to build up his town, mining and farming in peace, he felt a new sense of purpose. He felt as if he was making a mark on the world by helping to secure this peninsula for his new allies in Kogong. However, this simple goal would soon change. One night, while in a deep sleep, the three gods of the Mufijo Faith appeared before Pitru in a dream, bringing a stark warning with them. The Yuvantiyan (later Arcadian) tribes from which Pitru hailed were, according to the gods, soon to be attacked by a great evil. The gods tasked Pitru with saving as many Yuvantiyans as possible, by alerting them to oncoming threat and bringing them to Wahat, where the faith could rebuild its strength away from the eyes of its enemies. As a result of this dream, Pitru tried to coax the various Arcadian tribes into migrating to Wahat. Most ignored Pitru's call, although a few envoys did come to see the town in which Pitru wished for them to settle. These envoys did not find much but a pile of sandstone to begin the mosque, and Pitru's own farmstead. Unimpressed, they returned to their lives of perceived stability on Prospit. This failure ultimately contributed to a period of extreme stress for Pitru. Never a fantastic builder, Senate soon began to feel overly burdened by working on the Grand Mosque, a project he considered to deserve the finest in architectural design. Pitru fell into a great solitude, ceasing construction on Wahat and the Grand Mosque entirely and barely mining. Pitru merely farmed, sitting on the shore of the peninsula everyday, watching the sun rise on side and set on the other. The home Pitru had wished for had provided Pitru a purpose, but one that, to him, seemed unattainable.

Founding Arcadia
Pitru's solace would be interrupted when a Kogongi man, Pmak, arrived in Wahat. He was poor and destitute, looking for a home and friends. Pitru took him in the stranger, teaching Pmak of the faith, to which he soon converted. Within a few scant weeks, Pitru and Pmak acted as practically lifelong friends. Pitru finally began to rise out of his depressive state, and with Pmak's help, felt ready to finally expand Wahat; and to try once more to fulfill his divine mission. Coincidentally, frightening word concerning Pitru's mission would arrive from Prospit. The Acquendavians appeared to threaten the Kogongi, stoking a widespread paranoia and fear throughout the federation. In response, Pitru constructed a wall for Wahat. As a consequence of Acquendavia's expansion towards Koganon, the Yuvantiyan tribes in the area were forced to assimilate to the Acquendavian way of life, or die. Some of the tribes, however, saw another option. Remembering Pitru's offer, five of the Yuvantiyan tribes migrated with haste to Wahat, abandoning their homeland in favor of a land foreign to them, yet free from Acquendavia's influence. The threats by Acquendavia to Kogongu ultimately amounted to nothing, but to Pitru, they were a instrument to complete his divine mission. Pitru welcomed the Yuvantiyans with open arms, working with Glider once more to provide food and makeshift shelters. Here, Pitru took the intiative, promising to secure the future of the Yuvantiyan, now Arcadian, people through the standardization of their faith and development of their new home. The tribes, with no other options, agreed to help develop Wahat, recognizing Pitru's foresight of the invasion as a sign of favor upon Senate from the gods. His power consolidated, Pitru, Pmak, and the tribes set to work making plans to create a bustling port town, complete with reclaimed land and a Grand Mosque for the faith. Pitru would receive yet another new resident around this time. Glider Fraemani, tired of his increasingly slower life in Kais Kogong, made a journey to Wahat to check on the new Arcadian arrivals. After witnessing a Mufijo prayer, Glider grew interested in the faith, ultimately converting and moving to Wahat to aid in the construction of the city. Where before Pitru had felt secure, he now felt both secure and content in his place. However, the gods had other plans. Pitru, Pmak, and Glider each suffered a dream one summer's night, with one of the gods of the Mufijo faith instructing them to found a religious state, whose divine mission would be to spread the Path of Mufijo throughout Alathra. Pitru was visited by the Afi, Lord of Sun and Day, who noted his previous completion of the divine mission to save the Arcadians from squalor and war as a sign of deep piety. The next day, at sunset, Pitru, Pmak, and Glider, now nobly titled Mumbas (founders), would seek and recieve the fealty of the Wahati clans and people, declaring the Arcadian Altanate. Pitru, seen as the most pious of the three Mumbas and the source of conversion for the other two, would become the Altan of Arcadia and the Mufijo Faith.

Reign as Altan
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Post-Altanic Life and Disappearance
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Political Beliefs
During his time in Alathra, Senate believed himself and his two fellow Mumbas to be chosen by the gods of his faith, and thus is a supporter of the divine right theory of monarchy. Over his years of rule, however, Pitru took a liking to the increasingly democratic society of Arcadia, as it took some of the pressure of governing off his shoulders. He came to trust his people more, and supported them in the name of democratic ideals. Pitru supported the creation of the Holy Senate of Arcadia, helped monitor and manage every Arcadian election, and served as the main source for information on the Arcadian government. He particularly admired the governments of Ashina and Lydoneia, for their long lasting and democratic governance respectively.

Pitru personally wrote the Constitution of the Arcadian Altanate, which was approved by the Holy Senate of Arcadia. Senate specifically designed the document to give more power to the people and their elected executive, the Prime Minister of Arcadia, as well as the Holy Senate. Although it took him years to fully complete, the reception of the document was widely positive, and Senate was public in his hopes it may put an end to any lingering political instability in Arcadia. Pitru also planned to construct a palace in Wahat Almarjan, to become his new home, and a defensive stronghold for the city.

Religious Beliefs
Senate was the leader of the faith of Mufijo, and is known to be the hand of creation to the sun god Afi. He was committed to writing down the legends of the faith and the Path of Mufijo for the first time in the faith's history, although this laid incomplete upon his diasapperance. Pitru was, at his disappearance, compiling myths and stories into an official holy book, the Mufijoreon, and wished to distribute it throughout Alathra to finally fulfill the divine mission of the Arcadian Altanate: converting as many as possible to the faith of Mufijo. As a key tenet of Mufijo is constructing works for the faith, Senate ordered the construction of the Grand Mosque of Jiba the Wise, which is to be the centerpiece of Wahat Almarjan. The religious duties above were transferred to his former servant, Dr. Hugosombi, who was ordered by the Altan to complete the manuscripts left behind by Pitru.

Personality and Appearance
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Trivia

 * During his time in Alathra, Pitru was fluent in 3 languages (Arcadian, Kogongi, Dwarvish)
 * Pitru's family, the Punstraia, is one of many clans of the faith of Mufijo. Other notable clans include the Etrec, Vrestó, Dirmaxi, and Biqeš
 * While in Alathra, Pitru was a horse wrangler, owning 4 horses, all of which he passed down to his former servant Dr. Hugosombi
 * In the words of his own player: "Pitru is from Peter Griffin, Ermení is from Armenia because I saw it in the news that day, and Punstraia translates to something like elephant man in Arcadian"
 * Pitru's design was based off Philip the Good, the Duke of Burgundy from 1419-1467