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{{character
|image=Pai by Dragontrill.jpg
|profession={{tag+|ardent}} of the Devotary of Denial
|died=Executed {{Rosharan date|1173|missing-date=y}}{{book ref|sa2|i|12}}
== History ==
=== Early Life ===
Nothing of Pai's early history is known. It is uncertain when she joined the ardentia, but she chose the Devotary of Denial as her sect of Vorinism.{{book ref|sa2|i|12}} She began living a life of asceticism and abnegation around the year {{Rosharan date|1168}}, eating only simple meals of boiled [[tallew]] with the occasional piece of fruit on special occasions. Around the year {{Rosharan date|1172}}, Pai began serving as an ardent in the [[Alethi]] capital city, Kholinar. She requested with some persistence to be assigned to be a member of the retinue of the Alethi queen, [[Aesudan Kholin]], and after a year working in the city her request was granted in late {{Rosharan date|1173}}. Pai's superiors were worried that her
=== Member of the Queen's Retinue ===
Lhan took Pai to the service yard behind the kitchens to show her a number of piles of rotting food, explaining that the extra food there had once been distributed to the poor by another ardent who had died.{{book ref|sa2|i|12}} Lhan told Pai that if she kept quiet and did not interfere with the ardents' lives, she could do a great deal of good for the needy of the city by regularly distributing this food. He also told her that if she made too much of a commotion, nothing would change and she would simply be sent away. He asked Pai to think about her decision, and left her sitting by the piles of rotted food.
Pai sat and stared at the food until that evening, when Lhan returned to speak with her asking after her decision.{{book ref|sa2|i|12}} Pai asked him what he thought of the spiritual cost of his actions. She wondered if any of the Alethi elite even cared for or believed in the Almighty anymore. She also asked him why no one heard from the Almighty anymore, why the [[Herald]]s had not returned to denounce the [[
=== Protest and Execution ===
Pai left Lhan and went to the [[People's Hall]], the location from which the monarch typically addressed the people of Kholinar.{{book ref|sa2|i|12}} Working by [[sphere]]light through the night, she wrote the [[glyph]]s of the ten foolish attributes before the dais upon which sat the [[Common Throne]]. Beneath each glyph Pai wrote explanation of how the queen exemplified the attribute. These paragraphs were not just an attack on the queen, but a denouncement of the lighteyes and the government itself. Pai remained bowed there before the Throne until she was discovered by Lhan and the other ardents in the morning. Pai was executed the morning of the very next day for her actions. Queen Aesudan would later falsely claim Pai had been trying to refound the Hierocracy.{{book ref|sa3|84}}
=== Legacy ===
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