Born to one of the Mauxi tribes, deep in the Mwangi expanse of jungle, Mawimbi had never seen an ocean or a ship. At an early age, he began exhibiting an uncommon talent for connecting with nature.
Such a talent was well respected by his tribe, and he was quickly apprenticed to the local druid sect, which provided for the spiritual needs of the village. Animals seemed to flock to him, and he could uncanningly predict the weather. Such power hadn't been seen in generations; the druid mentor knew that Mawimbi would long be venerated among the most influential ancestors.
However, tragedy struck during his final trials to earn the druidic mantle. He returned from his vision quest haunted by images.
At first, he was assaulted by a quite sound of rushing water. This gradually became a torrent of crashing waves.
This affliction, known as the salt curse, affects few powerful druids in the jungle- and without a cure drives them slowly insane.
The last tribal member found relief only by plunging his head into water; he survived months by spending most of his time swimming. However, soon the call to the ocean became overwhelming and in his madness he drowned himself to become one with the water.
Mawimbi faced a dilemma: stay and be driven slowly insane, or follow his internal compass away from the tribe to the ocean, and live in exile.
Gozreh's salt curse is considered a damning sentence to the Mwangi tribes; yet for those who heed it's pull it becomes a boon.
The afflicted are driven to the sea: the further from shore and wave, the louder the crashing in their ears and the weaker they become.
But plunging oneself into the ocean, and sailing above it's majestic waves reduces such a calling and fills the hearts and minds of the afflicted with clarity and strength.
Particularly, the cursed are infused with power where the ocean and sky meet, and still connect to the warm fire of the heart, and the strength of the ocean floor which holds up such great weight beneath them.
So Mawimbi left his tribe, bringing only his spear and his companion, Mkutubi the Orangutan.
Mkutubi, already well into his senior years, had bonded with the boy prior to the curse. Although he knew his time was near an end, he still followed Mawimbi away from the village.
Mawimbi, barely older than a boy, stumbled to the shore, half mad and half starved, and fell into the waves. The ocean embraced him, and the crashing sound was replaced with soothing silence. It was in that calmness that Gozreh fully spoke to him for the first time.
Elements of nature are out of balance, and the only way to return them to peace is to end some of the human influence on the surface.
A balanced ship attones for the cost of the lives of the trees that form it's hull and decks by sacrificing to Gozreh, whether it's goods or animal life.
As a 'salt cursed' druid, it is Mawimbi's mission to return as many of the ships to the bottom of the sea to be reclaimed as he can.
However, his drive is only to find the ships that most egregiously destroy balance of nature, and as long as he helps maintain his crew's balance, Gozreh will continue to favor him.
Of the most hated types of imbalance are the devil worshiping Chelaxians. Gozreh admires Besimara's prowress on the sea, and maintains that her worshipers are kindred to the salt cursed.
Since his rebirth as a salt cursed druid, Mawimbi found himself working the rigging of a number of ships and working as the surgeon on others, pirate and otherwise, with his orangutan companion. Some of these ships upset the balance, and Mawimbi was forced to undertake efforts (disabling the rudder, cutting holes below deck, or various other forms of skullduggery) to send the vessels to their watery graves. That is how he found himself adrift on a liferaft from his last employer and arriving at Port Peril.
