Among the elders of the Liyue Harbor it is common knowledge who they turn to when they run into trouble, be it with shipment problems or their wares being cut or anything of that like. Despite the fact she retained her youth since they were children, they never questioned her longevity - as in the land of Adepti and Illuminated Beast such individuals were a sight not uncommon.
Categorized as one of the Adepti that settled among their kind, Jerenika gets quite the respect as one, much to her own dislike, although she is eternally grateful for their hospitality and affection. She never fails to return the gesture when she gets the chance, and to many she represents a reliable colleague or friend. People tend to come up to her in the streets and ask her about many things, and it is rare that she doesn't direct them on the right path, even if she isn’t able to resolve the issue with her own hands.
Just be sure to catch her during her work hours; if you catch her for questioning in the evening she will not be overly pleased, but will help you regardless. The people of Liyue have helped her more times than she could count, and far more than her own kin did, and for that Jerenika is forever indebted to them.
It is told time and time again how a road of normality is a paved road filled with ease, but no flowers grow there, and no knowledge is bound to flourish on such. Where one places gates around themselves, and deludes their mind into belief that such a habit is for the greater good, they’d be greatly mistaken. No road to a better life is easy, Jerenika is a witness to that, and she is still walking the path to a better life each day, even if the darkest of her days have already begun to collect dust in her memories. To those who reveal that they share in this belief of stagnancy, Jerenika can only say “Repetition of the same thing that previously did not yield growth, cannot yield any different results on the next try. You must explore new grounds and paths to get the desired result, and that is not always the easiest or the most comfortable - but the end result is worth the labor”. She does not look down on the individuals that have this train of thought, as she was once one of them, but it's more so a wave of nostalgia and desperation to not let them go down the same path as her that urges her to be more firm in her wording and strict in her teachings when such a topic is brought up. The adults are the ones that get most scorn, but the youngsters on the other hand get a gentler hand.
To the young children around the Harbor, Jerenika is quite cryptid in the way she talks, yet even they understand her words have merit, and some even expressed desire to walk in her shoes. Hardworking and successful, in the end, is the wish of many, especially in the Land of Geo.
“Criminal activity is one of the things this Harbor works on erasing. It will take time..but I will ensure the day comes when the thieves and criminals will fear to even look to the way of this Land”
In many places in recent times, you may find traces of the Fatui mingling in the business where they don’t belong. The Qixing do well enough to keep the threat of their existence, on a diplomatic level, low, even in military terms they’ve got the area covered. But what about the rats that sneak onto ships and carriages? The little mice that prow about the corners of restaurants and behind each jewelry shop? What about those that do not make their presence known to the Qixing under the well coined disguises? Well, even small rats have their sewers smells, and they carry it no matter where they go and which flowers they roll in. The smell of the sea would never blanket them, nor would the cave tunnels ever protect them.
The moment they set foot into the Harbor and made contact with the manager in white, they’ve made their intentions known and have been caught in her clutches. Work hours are limited, but the hunt of pests can never be put to rest, and thus Jerenika makes it a goal to sniff each and every one of them out and exterminate the threat in the best way possible, given each of the different situations. The ones that are of “higher importance” are promptly lured in and sent to the Millelith of the Qixing. The Fatui are yet to figure out where their spies keep on disappearing, and even those who have returned are too fearful to mention anything more than “lady in white” in their short recollection of blurry memories. It would be an understatement to say that Jerenika holds any favor towards these individuals, much less the organization itself.
Once before, years long ago, Jerenika would have not been so confident in her dealings with the Fatui, and even to this day she carries the dislike for their kind and her bitterness grows with each word of their missions that the winds bring. Unbeknownst to the people of Liyue that praise her as an ‘Illuminated Human’, she was once apart of the Fatui herself, just a human like them. Having been raised in the family whose father worked as a Commandant who trained new recruits, it was difficult to avoid the organization's strict and cold influence that overtook her father’s mind. After an unfortunate injury which had her father retire from his work, his line between a child and a recruit swiftly blurred, causing him to seek an outlet to his frustrations and the duty he still felt responsible to uphold for his motherland. Jerenika had the endure the brunt of it, the training, the bladework, the academics of it - all of it. The land of ice was an empty wasteland whose influence was swiftly growing after the cataclysm, and now the rapid growth of the Fatui brought on more stress than relief. Yet, Jerenika endured, only pursuing knowledge and further enhancement of her skill. She rose through the ranks within the Fatui as both a diplomat and an on-field officer - known for her skill, but little for her sociability. The famous blade, Morning, and its silent wielder were a stuff of legends that got lost over time, but in the peak of their existence they made great progress in paving the road further for the Fatui. Jerenika clearly recalls the days, with a frown on her lips and a grip too tight on her tea cup. The harsh, everlasting winter, heavy coats and the deadly silence in the negotiation halls. The bloodshed and screams of terror. And most importantly of all - she remembers the unlucky day she got sorted into the regiment under the command of The Doctor. Pride is the word opposite of the one she feels. But the fate she encountered in Liyue through her dark past, brought about her longevity which brought purpose to her past suffering.
It is said that Jerenika sometimes mentions having a sister. No one knows where this sibling is or who she is, if she even truly exists with how scarcely and vaguely the woman mentions her. Some suspect that she is another adeptus, perhaps long dead in the Archon war, or turned to stone by the Lord Geo. Yet no one knows for sure, except the old woman that tends to Glaze Lillies on the Terrace.
Madame Ping is one of two people Jerenika entrusted this past of hers to, after years of building up their bond, brick by brick. “Aylen, was her name.” She’d say one night when she sat down next to the adeptus, overlooking the glowing Liyue Harbor one summer night. The crashing of waves against the docks and shores setting a comforting, rhythmic background noise. It had been a few years since Jerenika came to Liyue and truly settled down. Years prior, she made quite a mess of several Fatui groups that were sent to Liyue with the real mission of retrieving her to the Fatui, dead or alive. It was said she protected the Liyuen people from them as well, and the last time she used all her power against an entire hoard of them, she would have died protecting the two village kids and their parents, were it not for Moon Carver noticing the cacophony. “She was sick with that dreaded eleazar, which at the time we called serpent sickness due to how it looked like snake scales… For that reason our father never gave her the harsh treatment he did me, but I was fine with that, as long as it meant she gets to live a little easier. The Fatui work is.. no light work. I promised to find a cure for her but for that I needed mora.. power and rank.. that’s why I stayed so long within their ranks and why I accepted doing their dirty work. It gave me the chance to look for answers, the number of books I’ve read is.. quite large. Once I moved down south with my regiment I noticed how much more literature was being written on the subject, and no sooner than later, our parents sent Aylen down for me to take care of her, as the sickness flared within her. The cold winters no longer agreed with her condition, and our parents didn’t have the resources to treat her anymore. She fit right in with those Sumerian kids, and they liked her as well, she finally made friends. But it is due to my.. short moment of uncare, my work had me spread too thin and I made one slip-up by accepting to help out an injured comrade in my own home, and it led to her identity being known and being brought before my superior.. The last time I saw her, she was leaving to play with her friends. I kissed her cheek goodbye and she asked me to bring her one Bulle Fruit. Just one.. I never got to give it to her. My promise to her is one that I will never forgive myself for not fulfilling.” Madam Ping would go on to ask about her other promises, and she’d go to reply with a simple response: “My promise is to help those that are unable to help themselves, I can be their shield and spear if need be, or a gentle hand on their shoulder. Aylen is one, but she is gone, but I must keep on carrying her memory, and help the others that I can.”
After so many years gone by, so have the days of her being a Fatui been left to rot. Many have forgotten her, both her name, existence and influence, and not many elderly would even recall the name besides the ‘Morning’ which belongs to her trusty blade. Despite all this, sleep comes hard to Jerenika on many nights, disturbed by the sights she had witnessed and the crimes she had committed all for the sake of searching for the answers. A dim glow of golden chains is a common sight when she stirs from her restless slumber, her hands clasped around the links which bind her to the bed and keep her grounded.
The memory of her delusion being the most painful. Having to hide her own vision from when she was young, Jerenika suffered the effects of the delusion any time she used it. The night that marked the turnaround of her life was inevitably the night she abandoned the Fatui. One of the science henchmen of the Doctor that witnessed the fate Aylen suffered had turned himself into an exile and a traitor by stealing documentation and setting a good portion of the laboratory ablaze. Still in the dark about her sister’s whereabouts, Jerenika continued what work she could as to not draw suspicion, and was sent after this exile to bring him to justice for the offense he made. Upon finding him right before he crossed the border into the Chasm, he revealed the truth of her sister, calling her to join forces with him and do something. Shattered and beyond enraged by her grief, Jerenika unleashed all power she was in possession of when the squad she was sent with attacked her - vision and delusion both. The cave tunnel they were in collapsed onto all of them, leaving Jerenika as the sole survivor on the other end, lost in the dark winding tunnels of the ley-line infested Chasm. ‘Rodrik’ is a name that still burns her to think about, as well as the identity of the ‘Doctor’ she served. Rodrik was the man she helped, and the one that took her sister toThe Doctor, who conducted his set of experiments until Aylen’s little body could take no more. In the following days after the incident which rendered her severely injured, Jerenika would be shown the hospitality of the people of Liyue, who even took it a step further as to hide her from the Fatui agents should one come knocking at their doors. They welcomed her at every table, she met their children and helped take care of them, teaching them the long history she knew of, she tended the fields and helped fishermen with their bait and helped the elderly pick their garden yields. ‘Home’ is the word she associated with Liyue and its people.
Still on the run from the organization that wished her harm, she never could linger in one place too long, fearful she’d bring harm to the villages she stayed in. Inevitably, the two kids she often saw in the woodlands, and helped collect wood for, never heeded her warnings to stay their distance. Their father, too, was rather warm and welcoming of new stories and company Jerenika brought to the table, and despite being a soldier himself, he never had the time to properly discipline his kids about this safety - believing he was enough to protect them in the time of need. This connection to Jerenika led to them being made a target, as well as the entire village being put under the scrutinizing eye of the Fatui special-operation-squad next sent after Jerenika. They threatened the kids, the elderly, already putting a few houses to the flame. Jerenika was caught, but instead of negotiating the head captain of the squad, who Jerenika trained, had the plan to make her watch the consequences of betraying them. With no other way out besides violence, Jerenika used both her vision and delusion simultaneously once more and to an even greater extent, breaking the bonds that held her and valiantly fighting off the squad in an abrupt explosion that shook the earth itself. Rain began to fall, and quell the raging flames of the houses. And Jerenika laid far off in the distance, among the corpses that were bound to the earth in golden chains. Her delusion was broken beside her, and Moon Carver soon descended upon the battle-tattered grounds, standing right above her. The memory of the pleading voices of the children and the adults over her exhausted body make Jerenika’s spine tingle with unease. But it is precisely these voices she owes her life to, they saved her without any reason to do so. Due to Moon Carver’s intervention, and her own blood’s anomaly, Jerenika gained a new chance at life, a long one at that.
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Star Shapes and Golden Chains |
If you ever ask Jerenika about the source behind the star shaped skin on her forehead, she’d shortly tell you how that’s only a side effect from the years she spent around the ley-line disorders. In Sumeru she had to spend quite a lot of time around them, either taking samples or observing them, or simply lingering too long around them. She could tell you quite a few things about the ley-lines that you otherwise would not be able to find in the academic research books. And although such a reply is not wrong, it’s not said in its entirety. In truth, she has gotten the blemish all the way back when she was still in the Fatui, but over time, and especially under the guidance of adepti later on, she found a way to store power within that point of her body which keeps the balance of her own blood. With that in place, she doesn’t even need to be in the possession of her vision physically, and she’d still be able to do a good amount of damage with a certain extent of the elemental power which is manifested in a form of glowing chains. Vision or not, she still poses a formidable foe. Another rumor that goes about among the few that witnessed her chains - It is unclear what her methods are, but it is said she is able to read minds with the chains and force prisoners to speak, if she wraps the chains around them. She is never clear about it, either shrugging her shoulders or dismissing the question off as ridiculous. One thing is for certain though, and that is that she is truly a master of the chains.
The list of the tasks and goals had only risen by several more that day, and only a few were checked out as complete. It had been a vigorous several months since she had begun the official academic training, and the physical part of the schooling was not letting up either. Jerenika was beyond exhausted and tired, feeling utterly defeated and broken in both body and mind. The living circumstances at home were not welcoming or warm, and haven’t been able to sustain her spirits for even longer. The only little comfort Jerenika found that night when she was still so young was the fact she walked home under a clear open sky, stars glittering down at her in a myriad of broken glass shards. Going forward would mean bidding farewell to that beauty, she believed, that peace and solitude. With a hazy mind she entered her little room, taking up the blade her father had so graciously bestowed upon her upon the first time she passed his own examination. The pale blade gleamed even with the lack of light in the room as the young girl approached the mirror to look at the face she knew had changed. Yet she did not expect the face that stared back at her to be so unrecognizable. A lonely, tall child looked back at her with hands grasping onto her hopes and dreams, squinted eyes glistening with unshed tears. The face looked much like hers, and Aylen’s, and so many other little faces she saw around the snowy roads. With her hand still on the blade that had been lifted up to her skin, she faltered - feeling utter shame now instead of grief. No one cared about the children much, nor about her, they all cared about the man force they could be used as, even if it cost them their own lives and minds. So, Jerenika promised, by her own life, to be the one to bring about change, to find her sister a cure, and give them a better life.
That night as she retired to bed, a dimly glowing jewel manifested on top of her heart, cradled by her hand in her sleep. For the first time, in a long while, Jerenika slept peacefully and warmly, with her dreams filled with visions of a warmer land. Yet the warmth only lasted during the nights, as the reaction her father had to the vision, that was encased in the traditional style of Liyue instead of Snezhnaya, was an awful mix of betrayal and bitterness. In his eyes, the god above had exposed his daughter to him as a traitor to the motherland. And from that day forth, Jerenika took a habit of hiding her vision, not using it, and even accepting the graciously given electro delusion in its place to hide her ‘treacherous’ nature.
- Jerenika can use her geo vision to enhance her sword and esentially turn it into a very light-weighed claymore
- Although mainly known for her managing business in the harbor, she is known to be able to give legal consultations
- There is a lost painting of her in Dragospine mountains. Some say her sword is lost there as well, but Jerenika would disagree. Her sword is right there with her
- Her least favorite food "slimy food cooked by those that can't cook". This includes most of the seafood and noodles that are overcooked. But most of all she hates wallnuts, with a near burning passion and can't stand even the smell of them
- Her favorite food is cabbage and tomatoe soup with chicken - the latter which shows in her signature dish as well
- Is quite cautious and careful with her money, even if she has more than enough to support her entire family and her friends. She can be quite a cheap-skate from time to time, but it stems from her fear that all her money will suddenly poof out of existence
