Zhed Bekento

 is a Freyjan High Priest of Sessrumnir who greets visitors from inside the temple itself. He lives in a mansion just outside the gates of Sessrumnir and has many servants. Despite his social stature, Zhed is very much kind to his servants and quite open to change in Rael's current social structure which favors immigrants over natives.

Zhed is currently at odds with the other priests and high priests of Sessrumnir for his open-mindedness about outsiders and his views on the social and legislative structure of Rael and the Arunafeltz States as a whole.

Story
Zhed meets an adventurer who was delivering a message to him from his servant Vincent. After reading the message, Zhed sets it upon himself to allow Vincent and his wife and child to interact without prejudice within his household. Meanwhile, he suggests to the adventurer that he/she should visit The Pope of Rael. However, before the adventurer could do so, he/she was to bring 40 Glacial Hearts as an offering in addition to Zhed's own written permission for the adventurer to meet the Pope.

After the adventurer met the Pope, Zhed requests the adventurer's presence in order to ask him/her what he/she talked to the Pope about. Soon, a colleague of Zhed wishes to speak to him and so Zhed asks the adventurer to rest in the other room while he talked to his friend Niren. Niren argues with Zhed that the adventurer cannot be trusted and that it was dangerous to allow outsiders to interact with the Pope. Zhed responds back that the mana leak from the mysterious crystal shards stored within the Holy Ground should be addressed before the situation gets out of hand. Niren assures Zhed that the accident will be dealt with and warns him that he should watch himself lest he gets on the priests' bad side.

Niren then leaves, after which Zhed asks the adventurer to come back into his office. He warns the adventurer to not enter the Holy Ground during his/her visit to the temple and goes to rest for a bit.

Some time later, Zhed learns that he was suspended from work for allowing the adventurer to roam free throughout Sessrumnir because the adventurer had gone into the Holy Ground while he was resting. Zhed eventually runs into the adventurer and tells him/her of the situation. He assures the adventurer that he was already at odds with the temple priests and that sooner or later this would have happened to him. He asks that the adventurer tells no one of what he/she saw in the Holy Ground and bids the adventurer farewell.

More time passes before Zhed meets the adventurer again. This time the adventurer approaches him about the encampment within Thor's Volcano and wants to know why a child was captured and imprisoned there. Zhed is disturbed by the revelation and explains that there are two factions vying for control over the Arunafeltz States: a moderate faction in which Zhed himself is a member of and a hardliner faction that is willing to use violent means to get what they want. Zhed goes on to explain that the hardliner faction is the one that established the base camp within the volcano. Even though it is also a geology camp, the fact remains that the hardliner faction is training soldiers there.

Despite their differences, both factions believe that reassembling the Heart of Ymir will revive Freyja. In the interest of avoiding conflict, the moderate faction hired scientists to reproduce Ymir's Heart, resulting in an imitation of it. The imitation was produced in the Holy Ground and Schwarzwald Republic. Unfortunately, the moderate faction was only able to produce unstable Ymir Heart imitations, causing the hardliner faction to gain more support from the people. Taking advantage of this, the hardliner faction allowed the moderate faction to continue its research while it bolstered its military might unopposed.

Hearing all of this, the adventurer asserts that the hardliner faction will be going to war with both the Schwarzwald Republic and the Rune-Midgarts Kingdom. Zhed agrees and asks the adventurer to infiltrate the camp to sabotage the hardliner faction's plans for war. The adventurer is willing to do so, but counters that the camp is heavily guarded and would be near impossible to infiltrate. Hearing this, Zhed tries to think of a way for the adventurer to get in and asks the person to give him some time. The adventurer does so by leaving the high priest to his thoughts.

The adventurer returns later with a thick file folder that he/she snuck out of High Priest Vildt's office. The folder spoke of geology reports to be taken around the volcano to monitor its activities. Zhed believes this is a perfect opportunity for the adventurer to sneak in as a geologist. The adventurer goes with the plan and disappears from the temple.

Zhed meets the adventurer again after more time passes and asks if he/she was successful in sneaking into the volcano encampment. The adventurer responds that he/she did just that in addition to sending the entire camp into a panic over a false volcanic activity report. Zhed is grateful to know that the adventurer aided in stopping the going-ons in the camp and bids the adventurer farewell until the next time they met.

It turns out the next time they met was sooner than expected, for the adventurer encounters Zhed once again to ask about some smuggling activity going on in Veins. Remembering all the adventurer had done for him, Zhed is more than willing to help out but he was unfortunately preoccupied with other issues. Instead, he advises the adventurer to seek out his friend Niren. The adventurer then leaves Zhed to his business.

Zhed eventually sends an agent to contact the adventurer in Morocc. When he meets the adventurer once again, he tells him/her that the time has come to stop the hardliner faction once and for all. He suggests trying to convince The Pope by telling her about everything that has happened, to which the adventurer agrees. However, due to his continued suspension and the lack of support from the other priests at Sessrumnir, Zhed is unsure if he would be able to get the Pope on his side. To that, he thinks of his friend Niren, but is hesitant to include her in the plans as she is currently at odds with him. The adventurer argues that he should at least try to reach out to his friend and Zhed eventually agrees.

The adventurer returns to Zhed with the disappointing news that Niren is all for war and will not cooperate with him. Zhed is saddened, but still determined as he begins to write a letter. When he was done, he asks the adventurer to deliver the letter to Niren and the adventurer leaves again.

Zhed meets the adventurer in his office to learn that Niren had found a way to gain a private audience with the Pope. Zhed is thankful to the adventurer and goes off to meet with the Pope. He meets up with Niren at the Sky Garden and together they approach the Pope with the adventurer by their side. The two of them tell the Pope everything that has been going on within Arunafeltz and the conflict between the hardliner and moderate factions. To their surprise, the Pope reveals that she had known all along, but did not know how to respond as everyone viewed her as a child and not a person of high rank. She thanks them for coming to her about this and commands Zhed to write up a report about the moderate faction's Heart of Ymir experiments in the Holy Ground. The two of them are then dismissed along with the adventurer.

The adventurer meets up with Zhed one more time in his office to see him ecstatic about everything that has happened. He admits that he had underestimated the Pope and hopes to redeem himself with his new workload. He thanks the adventurer for being an integral part of keeping the peace in Arunafeltz and assures the adventurer that he/she has a place in Valhalla for certain.