Naioba

Naioba was a powerful shaman and the daughter of King Kola'a Ti of Zimbabwe. She became one of the founders of the Dreamspeakers Tradition.

When a plague broke out in Great Zimbabwe in 1439, local sects of mages (the Ngoma and the Madzimbabwe) blamed one another, nearly shattering the fragile truce King Kola'a Ti had negotiated around 1420. Mages and shamans across Zimbabwe had visions of white ghosts attacking their lands, heightening the mood of paranoia. Naioba ventured into the Umbra to seek out the origins of these ghosts, but instead encountered Star-of-Eagles, a Powhatan shaman on his own journey. The two were nearly slain by one of the white ghost spirits, but together managed to fend it off.

The spirits of the Mo-Mo-Keu Dreamlands lead Naioba to a meeting with Ali-ben-Shaar and Sh'zar the Seer, who invited her to the Second Mistridge Convocation. She persuaded the Ngoma and Madzimbabwe to call another truce and send delegates with her to Europe. At the Grand Convocation in Horizon, although the Ngoma withdrew in outrage at the racism of the European Traditions, Naioba reunited with Star-of-Eagles and accepted leadership of the Dreamspeakers. Despite the wide variety of cultures and histories in the new Tradition, she perceived a common thread in their practices that could form the basis of a common paradigm.

Naioba married Star-of-Eagles on October 14, 1456, helping to cement the disparate factions of the Dreamspeakers. The couple had three children together. In 1464 she was assassinated by a Dreamspeaker barabbus who hoped to fracture the Tradition and thus weaken the council. However, if anything, her death served to solidify the Dreamspeakers: many saw her in dreams or visions urging them not to abandon the Council just yet.

The Festival of Lights on Horizon honored the memory of Naboia and her children.