Backstory: Irhya was born the second of four children of a Keeper couple in a little village in the Black Shroud called Hyrstmill, where her mother plied her trade by selling a multitude of handmade sundries to the village and travelers who passed through. From the time she was very little, she'd taken a keen interest in the crafts her mother did, first taught how to knit on a child's loom and gradually moving up from there. She was always close to her father and her older sister, although her younger sister tried her patience to its limits, and her baby brother proved to be a frustrating doormat if there ever was one. However, despite the fact that it was her mother that inspired her passion for crafting, their personalities clashed horribly, in part due to the fact they were so similar in nature.
Things only got more volatile as Irhya became a teenager, and once she finally entered adulthood, she'd had enough. As soon as she was able, she departed for Gridania to become a conjurer, but on the eve of her departure, she and her mother had another argument, one that took an unfortunate turn involving flower pots being chucked about and ended with Irhya saying some cold things on impulse to her. While her mother seemed to take it in stride (at least on the outside), Irhya looked back on it with a cooler head with regret, thinking to herself that she should perhaps write an apology letter, or go back to visit and smooth things over...
But it is not meant to be with the whirlwind of events that follow. Upon discovering a crystal a short ways into doing odd jobs for the adventurer's guild in Gridania, she is quickly scouted by the Scions of the Seventh Dawn for her Echo ability. While she excuses it as wanting to learn more about the blessing itself, Irhya really joins up because she thinks perhaps it'll be more fun than chipping away at menial jobs the way she's been doing.
In time, despite her finding herself at odds with the conjurer discipline, she assists in defeating the first three primals summoned by their respective beast tribes: Ifrit, Titan, and Garuda. With each successive slaying, things appear more and more interesting, even though the looming threat of the Garlean Empire and the Ascians pulling their strings tells her that there are greater trials on the horizon. Soon after, a double agent sells out the location of the Scions' hideout, and Imperials go in for a raid while she and a few others are away, killing and injuring many and kidnapping a few key members in particular to attempt to pry information out of them. With nowhere else to go, Irhya sets out with the remaining members to rescue the kidnapped Scions, entirely by accident uncovering what became of Cid nan Garlond after the Calamity in the process.
The success of the rescue operation paves the way for a counterattack against the Garlean Empire, who has been invasively encroaching upon Eorzean territory with the intent to subjugate the remaining city-states into its fold. During a simultaneous assault on multiple Garlean military bases at once, Ultima Weapon, the threat that Gaius van Baelsar has been hoping to use as part of his plan, is taken down by a group of adventurers, with Irhya assisting the fight.
During the aftermath, in which Garlemald retreats to lick their wounds and deal with a internal war of succession, other primals such as Leviathan and Ramuh become primary threats, which Irhya is again dispatched in a group to deal with. At a later point, Ul'dah, Gridania, and Limsa Lominsa's leaders make an appeal for the Scions to speak with Ishgardian representatives in the hopes of entreating their assistance with pushing back against the Garlean Empire, but notoriously xenophobic Ishgard has its own problems to deal with, and turns down the request. Along the way, she meets a woman named Lady Iceheart, who, after attempting to summon the primal form of Shiva unto herself, suggests that Ishgard is not as righteous or innocent as they would have the rest of the world believe.
Indeed, their problems seem to run much deeper than they would have anyone believe. Upon following the path up to the seemingly lifeless body of Midgardsormr, the wyrm springs to life in a temporary aetherial form, subjecting Irhya to a trial and then completely severing her connection with Hydaelyn for reasons unknown to her until much later. He does, however, provide her with a small vessel for him to observe her actions with before she departs, stripped of her gift.
Following an attack on Ishgard's gates that is only narrowly put down with the help of a team of adventurers, a banquet is held in Ul'dah in celebration of the nation's apparently slowly-renewing interest in rejoining the Eorzean alliance. However, things go awry when the sultana falls victim to an assassination plot that is pinned on the Scions, forcing them to make a messy retreat and scattering them to whereabouts unknown, save for Alphinaud, Tataru, and Irhya. They approach an old Ishgardian friend for asylum, and he works to grant their request while the dust settles behind them.
During the reprieve between these events (between patch 2.5 and 3.0), Irhya learns belatedly of her mother's passing, springing to mind all the things she'd last said to her and the fact she never did get around to issuing that apology. It's something she tucks away inside, for better or for worse, as soon after they are granted entrance to the Holy See as wards of House Fortemps. The members of the house therein eventually grow to become like family to them, bending over backwards to assist them wherever possible.
Her early time in Ishgard is spent transitioning away from the conjurer's cane to take up the dark knight's greatsword, assisted by her mysterious tutor Fray. At first, she is none the wiser that there is something peculiar about her tutor since the moment he appeared before her after touching his soul crystal, but eventually he reveals his true identity, and his purpose in teaching her the arts: it is because Fray has been dead for a long while now, and after having reacted to the aether and the strong will to live housed within the real Fray's soul crystal, a being who is quite literally Irhya's dark side is in fact the mastermind behind her tutelage. It isn't that her dark side hates her or wants to do her in, but quite the opposite; because she feels Irhya neglects her own potential and her own desires in favor of slaving away to nothingness at the whims of others, she rebels, given life through borrowed aether. However, Irhya manages to quell her dark side for a while, coming to a compromise that, although "Fray" will still be there ready to take over for her when need be, she will continue on the way she believes is right.
Just as she subdues her dark side, the real Fray's corpse goes back to being dead, and is promised a burial with full rites. However, having witnessed the spectacle, a few Temple Knights attempt to do her in, a battle during which she meets Sidurgu, a fellow dark knight. He is surprised at how much she has learned, seemingly by herself, though she chooses not to speak the truth of who really taught her what she knows thus far. Sidurgu, or Sid as he prefers to be called, works together with Irhya to uncover the truth behind why the Temple Knights want a little girl named Rielle dead, and they find that because her father was a heretic years in the making before her birth, she is likewise tainted with dragon's blood, explaining in part why her mother, an inquisitor, has committed herself to pursuing and slaying her own daughter in the name of Halone. In the end, during a trial by combat orchestrated by her mother, Sid and Irhya slay her mother and put an end to the crusade.
As time passes and new events are set into motion within the city, the truth behind Ishgard's war with the dragons, particularly the great wyrm Nidhogg, comes to light. While the archbishop of Ishgard and his administration pass it off as a holy war that is Ishgard's right to win, the truth is that man and dragon once lived together in harmony. Yet, the founders of the high houses learned of the power of a dragon's eyes that give them eternal life, and so conspired to trap and kill Ratatoskr, the brood-sister of both Nidhogg and Hraesvelgr, in order to consume her eyes. Those that survived went on to found Ishgard proper, but Nidhogg, driven mad by his grief, seeks revenge against them, their children, and their children's children for their treachery... and so the cycle has continued for a thousand years.
With a mission to end the war peacefully thwarted by Hraesvelgr's unwillingness to turn against his brother, the only solution left seems to be to strike down Nidhogg instead. Irhya journeys with the Azure Dragoon of Ishgard, Estinien, to his den and does the deed, but finds when she returns that she faces accusations of heresy from the archbishop and his knights, upset (and apparently disappointed) with the attempted disruption of the political hierarchy. In their attempt to stop him, a close friend is killed by taking a spear meant for Irhya, a tragedy that becomes the catalyst to the beginning of another chain of events within her...
As for the archbishop? As far as he sees it, it is better for the people to maintain the status quo than to subject them to a harsh truth that will force them to confront their own despair. In order to assert the order that has long been established, he uses the power of one of Nidhogg's eyes and becomes a god-king, one that Irhya is forced to strike down. All seems well until Estinien collects the two eyes of Nidhogg, subjecting him to the great wyrm's influence and causing him to fall victim to possession. Nidhogg then sets out to continue his rampage, only coming to an end after Hraesvelgr is convinced of the worthiness of the Warriors of Light to put an end to the thousand-year conflict. With his help, Nidhogg is expelled from Estinien's body and finally defeated, cast off into the abyss in a split-second decision.
As Ishgard begins to recover and reform itself, Alisaie, Alphinaud's twin sister, is carried in injured with some ill tidings about the "Warriors of Darkness" attempting to spur primal summonings once more. The truth Irhya uncovers is that, in order to same their home world, one of thirteen copies of the original created from Hydaelyn's split from Zodiark at the beginning of time, they are attempting to flood the original world with darkness so as to counteract the flood of light that has overtaken their world. Hydaelyn intervenes, offering to take in the light from the first world and restore balance to it, as well as return the Warriors of Darkness to their original world.
But as one conflict ends, another boils on the horizon. The refugees of Ala Mhigo, having borne witness to Ishgard's salvation, are embittered by the fact nothing has been done to take back their city likewise. Many of the refugees band together under a man named "The Griffin", hoping that stirring up chaos will prompt action. The Griffin reveals his plan when confronted as an attempt to rile up both sides of the Imperial conflict, hoping to end the lull between them, and to summon a primal that would destroy all that threatened Ala Mhigo's freedom using the salvaged eyes of Nidhogg granted to him by the Ascians: Shinryu.
One of the Scions, Papalymo, offers himself up as a sacrifice to buy the Scions time to deal with the threat. It hits them all hard, though they know they must use this gift wisely. In the end, they decide to resort to using the Allagan weapon Omega, designed to deal especially with primals, in order to combat Shinryu, but the two end up locked in a stalemate and crash-land in Garlean territory. In order to recover them before the Garleans can, the Scions turn to the Ala Mhigan Resistance, met with equal parts gratitude and apprehension.
Many residents of Gyr Abania, however, are no longer interested in joining the resistance, having long since accepted that subservience is less painful than rebellion. But while out on a scouting mission, Ala Mhigan natives loyal to the Empire, as well as the Empire's crown prince, Zenos yae Galvus, plow through the Resistance's hideout and slay people without mercy. Irhya, naturally, has to take a stand for this, driven by adrenaline and fury both -- she'd sworn she'd never be blindsided like this again, not after what happened in Ul'dah -- but Zenos handily delivers her a sound defeat, departing without even striking the final blow in order to prove the point that the attack was less about extermination so much as assertion of dominance and wounding the pride of the Resistance.
Outmatched and outnumbered, the Scions decide to turn their attentions to Doma, believing that if perhaps they can free the Domans from Garlean rule, they will be more willing to aid in the cause against the remaining occupied territories. The journey to Othard is long and hardly easy, but they arrive and set out on their quest to liberate Doma, recruiting the various Xaela Au Ra tribes of the Azim Steppe along the way to pad their numbers. Together with the Xaela, who are as eager to test their mettle as they are to rid themselves of encroaching Garleans, they liberate Doma Castle by sacrificing it to a flood that takes it down right on top of the imperial viceroy's head. As Doma slowly begins the long process of rebuilding, they offer what resources they can to the liberation effort in the west.
The fight to relieve Ala Mhigo of Garlean occupation finally begins in earnest, during which Zenos invites Irhya up to the top of the Royal Menagerie for a heart-to-heart. Shinryu is bound by the remaining power of Nidhogg's eye here, and Zenos suggests that, while she could strike down Shinryu if she wanted, it would prove that she and her friends rode on the backs of savagery to get where they are now, that true peace is a futile concept for them when all could be united under the Garlean emblem. Able to do naught but sigh and roll her eyes at the bluff, Irhya summons her strength once more as Zenos merges with Shinryu and takes to the skies, thinking that if none can provide him the fight he desires, then he'll just burn them all to the ground.
It turns out that this was the very fight that he desired, though; as Zenos re-emerges from within Shinryu, defeated, he brings his blade to his neck and slices, escaping any punishment or consequences much to the Scions' chagrin. Without the Imperial prince, Ala Mhigo is free once more, though faced with a bit of a conundrum: while Doma had a leader willing and able to assume the throne in the form of Hien, Ala Mhigo has no such luxury. They are quick to rule monarchy out, but while in the midst of deciding how best to proceed otherwise, the Ananta summon Lakshmi in the meeting hall with the intention of taking revenge for their previously slain primal.
Irhya Pendhula | Final Fantasy XIV [2/???]
Things only got more volatile as Irhya became a teenager, and once she finally entered adulthood, she'd had enough. As soon as she was able, she departed for Gridania to become a conjurer, but on the eve of her departure, she and her mother had another argument, one that took an unfortunate turn involving flower pots being chucked about and ended with Irhya saying some cold things on impulse to her. While her mother seemed to take it in stride (at least on the outside), Irhya looked back on it with a cooler head with regret, thinking to herself that she should perhaps write an apology letter, or go back to visit and smooth things over...
But it is not meant to be with the whirlwind of events that follow. Upon discovering a crystal a short ways into doing odd jobs for the adventurer's guild in Gridania, she is quickly scouted by the Scions of the Seventh Dawn for her Echo ability. While she excuses it as wanting to learn more about the blessing itself, Irhya really joins up because she thinks perhaps it'll be more fun than chipping away at menial jobs the way she's been doing.
In time, despite her finding herself at odds with the conjurer discipline, she assists in defeating the first three primals summoned by their respective beast tribes: Ifrit, Titan, and Garuda. With each successive slaying, things appear more and more interesting, even though the looming threat of the Garlean Empire and the Ascians pulling their strings tells her that there are greater trials on the horizon. Soon after, a double agent sells out the location of the Scions' hideout, and Imperials go in for a raid while she and a few others are away, killing and injuring many and kidnapping a few key members in particular to attempt to pry information out of them. With nowhere else to go, Irhya sets out with the remaining members to rescue the kidnapped Scions, entirely by accident uncovering what became of Cid nan Garlond after the Calamity in the process.
The success of the rescue operation paves the way for a counterattack against the Garlean Empire, who has been invasively encroaching upon Eorzean territory with the intent to subjugate the remaining city-states into its fold. During a simultaneous assault on multiple Garlean military bases at once, Ultima Weapon, the threat that Gaius van Baelsar has been hoping to use as part of his plan, is taken down by a group of adventurers, with Irhya assisting the fight.
During the aftermath, in which Garlemald retreats to lick their wounds and deal with a internal war of succession, other primals such as Leviathan and Ramuh become primary threats, which Irhya is again dispatched in a group to deal with. At a later point, Ul'dah, Gridania, and Limsa Lominsa's leaders make an appeal for the Scions to speak with Ishgardian representatives in the hopes of entreating their assistance with pushing back against the Garlean Empire, but notoriously xenophobic Ishgard has its own problems to deal with, and turns down the request. Along the way, she meets a woman named Lady Iceheart, who, after attempting to summon the primal form of Shiva unto herself, suggests that Ishgard is not as righteous or innocent as they would have the rest of the world believe.
Indeed, their problems seem to run much deeper than they would have anyone believe. Upon following the path up to the seemingly lifeless body of Midgardsormr, the wyrm springs to life in a temporary aetherial form, subjecting Irhya to a trial and then completely severing her connection with Hydaelyn for reasons unknown to her until much later. He does, however, provide her with a small vessel for him to observe her actions with before she departs, stripped of her gift.
Following an attack on Ishgard's gates that is only narrowly put down with the help of a team of adventurers, a banquet is held in Ul'dah in celebration of the nation's apparently slowly-renewing interest in rejoining the Eorzean alliance. However, things go awry when the sultana falls victim to an assassination plot that is pinned on the Scions, forcing them to make a messy retreat and scattering them to whereabouts unknown, save for Alphinaud, Tataru, and Irhya. They approach an old Ishgardian friend for asylum, and he works to grant their request while the dust settles behind them.
During the reprieve between these events (between patch 2.5 and 3.0), Irhya learns belatedly of her mother's passing, springing to mind all the things she'd last said to her and the fact she never did get around to issuing that apology. It's something she tucks away inside, for better or for worse, as soon after they are granted entrance to the Holy See as wards of House Fortemps. The members of the house therein eventually grow to become like family to them, bending over backwards to assist them wherever possible.
Her early time in Ishgard is spent transitioning away from the conjurer's cane to take up the dark knight's greatsword, assisted by her mysterious tutor Fray. At first, she is none the wiser that there is something peculiar about her tutor since the moment he appeared before her after touching his soul crystal, but eventually he reveals his true identity, and his purpose in teaching her the arts: it is because Fray has been dead for a long while now, and after having reacted to the aether and the strong will to live housed within the real Fray's soul crystal, a being who is quite literally Irhya's dark side is in fact the mastermind behind her tutelage. It isn't that her dark side hates her or wants to do her in, but quite the opposite; because she feels Irhya neglects her own potential and her own desires in favor of slaving away to nothingness at the whims of others, she rebels, given life through borrowed aether. However, Irhya manages to quell her dark side for a while, coming to a compromise that, although "Fray" will still be there ready to take over for her when need be, she will continue on the way she believes is right.
Just as she subdues her dark side, the real Fray's corpse goes back to being dead, and is promised a burial with full rites. However, having witnessed the spectacle, a few Temple Knights attempt to do her in, a battle during which she meets Sidurgu, a fellow dark knight. He is surprised at how much she has learned, seemingly by herself, though she chooses not to speak the truth of who really taught her what she knows thus far. Sidurgu, or Sid as he prefers to be called, works together with Irhya to uncover the truth behind why the Temple Knights want a little girl named Rielle dead, and they find that because her father was a heretic years in the making before her birth, she is likewise tainted with dragon's blood, explaining in part why her mother, an inquisitor, has committed herself to pursuing and slaying her own daughter in the name of Halone. In the end, during a trial by combat orchestrated by her mother, Sid and Irhya slay her mother and put an end to the crusade.
As time passes and new events are set into motion within the city, the truth behind Ishgard's war with the dragons, particularly the great wyrm Nidhogg, comes to light. While the archbishop of Ishgard and his administration pass it off as a holy war that is Ishgard's right to win, the truth is that man and dragon once lived together in harmony. Yet, the founders of the high houses learned of the power of a dragon's eyes that give them eternal life, and so conspired to trap and kill Ratatoskr, the brood-sister of both Nidhogg and Hraesvelgr, in order to consume her eyes. Those that survived went on to found Ishgard proper, but Nidhogg, driven mad by his grief, seeks revenge against them, their children, and their children's children for their treachery... and so the cycle has continued for a thousand years.
With a mission to end the war peacefully thwarted by Hraesvelgr's unwillingness to turn against his brother, the only solution left seems to be to strike down Nidhogg instead. Irhya journeys with the Azure Dragoon of Ishgard, Estinien, to his den and does the deed, but finds when she returns that she faces accusations of heresy from the archbishop and his knights, upset (and apparently disappointed) with the attempted disruption of the political hierarchy. In their attempt to stop him, a close friend is killed by taking a spear meant for Irhya, a tragedy that becomes the catalyst to the beginning of another chain of events within her...
As for the archbishop? As far as he sees it, it is better for the people to maintain the status quo than to subject them to a harsh truth that will force them to confront their own despair. In order to assert the order that has long been established, he uses the power of one of Nidhogg's eyes and becomes a god-king, one that Irhya is forced to strike down. All seems well until Estinien collects the two eyes of Nidhogg, subjecting him to the great wyrm's influence and causing him to fall victim to possession. Nidhogg then sets out to continue his rampage, only coming to an end after Hraesvelgr is convinced of the worthiness of the Warriors of Light to put an end to the thousand-year conflict. With his help, Nidhogg is expelled from Estinien's body and finally defeated, cast off into the abyss in a split-second decision.
As Ishgard begins to recover and reform itself, Alisaie, Alphinaud's twin sister, is carried in injured with some ill tidings about the "Warriors of Darkness" attempting to spur primal summonings once more. The truth Irhya uncovers is that, in order to same their home world, one of thirteen copies of the original created from Hydaelyn's split from Zodiark at the beginning of time, they are attempting to flood the original world with darkness so as to counteract the flood of light that has overtaken their world. Hydaelyn intervenes, offering to take in the light from the first world and restore balance to it, as well as return the Warriors of Darkness to their original world.
But as one conflict ends, another boils on the horizon. The refugees of Ala Mhigo, having borne witness to Ishgard's salvation, are embittered by the fact nothing has been done to take back their city likewise. Many of the refugees band together under a man named "The Griffin", hoping that stirring up chaos will prompt action. The Griffin reveals his plan when confronted as an attempt to rile up both sides of the Imperial conflict, hoping to end the lull between them, and to summon a primal that would destroy all that threatened Ala Mhigo's freedom using the salvaged eyes of Nidhogg granted to him by the Ascians: Shinryu.
One of the Scions, Papalymo, offers himself up as a sacrifice to buy the Scions time to deal with the threat. It hits them all hard, though they know they must use this gift wisely. In the end, they decide to resort to using the Allagan weapon Omega, designed to deal especially with primals, in order to combat Shinryu, but the two end up locked in a stalemate and crash-land in Garlean territory. In order to recover them before the Garleans can, the Scions turn to the Ala Mhigan Resistance, met with equal parts gratitude and apprehension.
Many residents of Gyr Abania, however, are no longer interested in joining the resistance, having long since accepted that subservience is less painful than rebellion. But while out on a scouting mission, Ala Mhigan natives loyal to the Empire, as well as the Empire's crown prince, Zenos yae Galvus, plow through the Resistance's hideout and slay people without mercy. Irhya, naturally, has to take a stand for this, driven by adrenaline and fury both -- she'd sworn she'd never be blindsided like this again, not after what happened in Ul'dah -- but Zenos handily delivers her a sound defeat, departing without even striking the final blow in order to prove the point that the attack was less about extermination so much as assertion of dominance and wounding the pride of the Resistance.
Outmatched and outnumbered, the Scions decide to turn their attentions to Doma, believing that if perhaps they can free the Domans from Garlean rule, they will be more willing to aid in the cause against the remaining occupied territories. The journey to Othard is long and hardly easy, but they arrive and set out on their quest to liberate Doma, recruiting the various Xaela Au Ra tribes of the Azim Steppe along the way to pad their numbers. Together with the Xaela, who are as eager to test their mettle as they are to rid themselves of encroaching Garleans, they liberate Doma Castle by sacrificing it to a flood that takes it down right on top of the imperial viceroy's head. As Doma slowly begins the long process of rebuilding, they offer what resources they can to the liberation effort in the west.
The fight to relieve Ala Mhigo of Garlean occupation finally begins in earnest, during which Zenos invites Irhya up to the top of the Royal Menagerie for a heart-to-heart. Shinryu is bound by the remaining power of Nidhogg's eye here, and Zenos suggests that, while she could strike down Shinryu if she wanted, it would prove that she and her friends rode on the backs of savagery to get where they are now, that true peace is a futile concept for them when all could be united under the Garlean emblem. Able to do naught but sigh and roll her eyes at the bluff, Irhya summons her strength once more as Zenos merges with Shinryu and takes to the skies, thinking that if none can provide him the fight he desires, then he'll just burn them all to the ground.
It turns out that this was the very fight that he desired, though; as Zenos re-emerges from within Shinryu, defeated, he brings his blade to his neck and slices, escaping any punishment or consequences much to the Scions' chagrin. Without the Imperial prince, Ala Mhigo is free once more, though faced with a bit of a conundrum: while Doma had a leader willing and able to assume the throne in the form of Hien, Ala Mhigo has no such luxury. They are quick to rule monarchy out, but while in the midst of deciding how best to proceed otherwise, the Ananta summon Lakshmi in the meeting hall with the intention of taking revenge for their previously slain primal.