Editing Character:Larana Sirai (section)

== History ==
Larana Sirai, the Most Radiant Artisan Bathed in Sunset, She Who Walks Unhindered, both loves and hates Nexus at the same time.  It is here that she finds security (when she needs it) to study and perform her experiments.  It is here that she has always had her best business.  It is here that she finds the Firewander District, a convenient source of raw materials.  And it was here in Nexus that she first came into her power, though not here that her story truly begins.<br><br>

Larana never knew her parents, but she has never had too much cause to regret this.  She was fortunate, she recognizes now, to have been given into the care of an architect in Thorns as an infant.  She never discovered why her parents gave her up, or why of all people they gave her to Mikal Yir, but she has only recently ever had cause to care.  He was not a loving man, Mikal, but neither was he cruel.  He kept her fed and housed, and he never beat her as he did some of his apprentices.  Perhaps it was frustration at those selfsame apprentices, or perhaps it was the discovery of her remarkable mind, but Mikal eventually took her on as his own, though in secret.<br><br>

Over time, it became easier and easier to rely on Larana's work, and Larana took no issue with this.  She recognized, even if Mikal didn't, that practical experience was more useful to her than anything else.  And atop that, she discovered she was fascinated by the design process... and even moreso by the work of talented geomancers who so often made demands that had to be met.  It complicated design, of course, but Larana found herself with an almost intuitive understanding of the requirements, or at least the reasons behind them.<br><br>

The day that Mikal told her she could learn no more from him, she surprised him with an odd request... that he help her gain her apprenticeship with a local mason.  He balked, at first, explaining how difficult that would be at her age... though Larana knew the real reason had more to do with wanting her to take over for him when he retired.  But she was adamant... She needed to understand the construction process in addition to the design process.  When Mikal finally relented, he contacted someone he knew, and gave her into his care.<br><br>

From the mason, Larana learned construction, and moved then to a carpenter.  From the carpenter, Larana began to understand that the suppleness and flexibility of wood could be, on occasion, preferable to the strength and solidity of stone.  From there, Larana moved into metalcrafts, and from there into forging.  And so it went, for over a decade and a half, until Larana was perhaps one of the most experienced mortal artisans in Thorns... who had not a single masterwork to her credit.<br><br>

This time ended, of course, as all things do.  In learning from so many masters, Larana had a broader understanding than any other artisan in Thorns, but at the same time, she made several local guilds very nervous.  Though Larana had little intention of setting up shop within Thorns, the guilds felt she had circumvented too many of their rules to be allowed any leeway.  Larana managed to learn of the assassin before he arrived, and after leaving a missive for Mikal (who she still felt fondly for, even years later), fled Thorns for somewhere safer.<br><br>

She took up shop, eventually, with a Guild caravan on its trails through the East, but found the work unfulfilling.  There was no challenge, she felt, nor did the caravan have much in the way of moral fortitude.  Even worse were the liberties the caravan's guards thought they had rights to. When Larana took her leave of them, she took with her two of those guards' offending manhoods.  She made it all the way to Nexus, in fact, and even had nearly a year of peace before they found her.  When they came upon her, she was working in a forge as an overseer, and when they came to kill her, in that instant the power of the Unconquered Sun flowed through her, and with a hammer in her hands, she smashed a hole in the forge with a single blow.  Her strike was perfect, and the metal flowed exactly as she intended, boiling her attackers alive and leaving the remainder of the workers unharmed.  An instant later she turned and, without a second thought, pushed the crack closed as if it were clay with her bare hands.<br><br>

That was years ago, and in those intervening years Larana has made Nexus her home.  Here, the Wyld Hunt does not seek her out, and she finds security in the masses.  And here, of course, she can buy nearly anything she needs... or make what she can't.  She does, of course, take extended trips out and to the deeper East, though she has carefully avoided Thorns... for the most part.  She has never felt she would be welcomed there... not as she is.<br><br>

That, in truth, is Larana's greatest regret.  Of all her many adventures, the one thing Larana wishes she had done, was revisit Mikal.  To the best she can discern, Mikal was killed in the invasion of Thorns, and as saddened as she is by this, she can only hope he is at peace now... though she doubts it.<br><br>

Larana's love of building and creating has never waned, nor has her fascination with the way Essence flows... and now she has the methods she needs to truly understand it.  Larana's greatest hope is to build a better and more perfect world... and she truly believes that is no reason she couldn't.  If the Unconquered Sun gave her this power, she thinks, it is only right to make the workd more perfect and glorious with it.