Much to Irhya's surprise, Fordola, the leader of the unit of Ala Mhigan natives with loyalty to Garlemald, lends her blade in the fight to regain control of the forum. A prior conversation reveals that Fordola has been artificially granted the Echo via Garlean engineering, and is having visions almost constantly in her prison cell; she takes one look at Irhya's past and asks her straight-up how she has not broken yet. Thinking mostly of Haurchefant, her response feels a bit hollow, but it is as true as ever: "For those we have lost... For those we can yet save."
Once Lakshmi has been dealt with, Irhya journeys back to Ishgard to meet with Sidurgu, who offers her a friendly patrol session. During this, though, her soul crystal audibly breaks in half, only for the other half to appear in the hand of a peculiar boy named Myste who appears at first glance to be a Brume rat. He claims he has the power to conjure illusions of those who have passed with Irhya's stolen aether, though only for a limited amount of time and distance traveled. In this way, he gives a bit of closure to a few people he believes deserve it, including Sid, but eventually lashes out at Irhya, claiming that she, as the Warrior of Light, has reaped so many lives that didn't deserve it, people that deserve to live again using his power. With the help of her dark side, she pacifies Myste's tantrum, and it is implied that he is a part of her that had splintered off from the guilt of losing Haurchefant, and the weight of all other lives ended by her hands. She accepts Myste back into her heart, feeling deeply unsettled, but at least more whole now that her aether has been reclaimed and her soul crystal repaired.
Soon, the Scions receive word that Yotsuyu, the imperial viceroy who was thought to have been killed in Doma Castle, has been seen alive, and set out on a mission to recover her before the Garleans do. They find that she has lost her memory (seemingly), and has been sheltered by an ally thought to have perished with her in the castle's collapse. Once Garlemald finds out that she has been taken in by the Scions, they dispatch an emissary to barter for her return, who happens to be her stepbrother Asahi. He seems pleasant to deal with at first, but as Irhya and Asahi part ways without having struck a deal, he utters some harsh words to her, and she finds out that he is bitter and vengeful over the death of his idol, Zenos. Perhaps he's only waiting for the right opportunity...?
Personality: If only her life had been set up as such, Irhya might have made an excellent scholar if she didn't lack the discipline and focus for it. From a very young age, she's always been bright and quick-witted, a fast learner who absorbs knowledge of craft (among other things) like a sponge. Her mind is always moving or doing something, and if not her mind, then definitely her hands, which can make her seem restless at times... and perhaps that's not far from the truth, as she is just as easily exhausted and grows bored of things easily. Nevertheless, she's engaged in a constant search for stimulation, or a project to apply herself to, for without it she grows lethargic and listless.
While she's an excellent jack-of-all-trades, talented and proud of that, she will not, however, take commissions for anything, under any circumstances -- which means if she makes something for you without it having been requested, it's a sign of great, heartfelt fondness. Suffice it to say, she's stubborn and a bit stiff at times, a total perfectionist who often is unwilling to bend and is her own harshest critic. Pragmatic and straightforward, she doesn't like to beat around the bush about most matters (excluding when it comes to her own feelings), and can be a bit volatile in her responses. She's a terrible liar, too, and her ears and tail are frequently a tip-off of her real feelings, a fact she hates.
Having so much mental energy means she wears herself down quickly, though. She uses her works largely as a coping mechanism, entrenching herself in crafting during times of stress and denying all but the most basic of physical needs until she's satisfied with herself... or has drained herself dry, whichever comes first. It's very easy for Irhya to burn out and need to turn to a more physical way of letting off stress, like sparring or exercising, which often times just leaves her feeling dissatisfied and unhappy for allowing herself to hit rock bottom. It's true of her interactions with others, too; she can be short with people, sometimes a little less than tactful, especially when she's at a mental low point.
When it comes to fighting, she's usually the one who will voice the obvious (but less than desirable) solution as a matter of course, and it's usually the one that involves death and misery. As a conjurer, this didn't lend well to her relationship with her tutors and superiors, who were frequently guilty of using the "will of the Elementals" to justify their actions (or lack thereof). It does, however, suit her much better as a dark knight, disciples of whom need to adhere to their own codes of morality in order to administer justice to those who would abuse their positions of power.
Deep down, Irhya doesn't feel she has the emotional freedom to get close to people, prioritizing her work and her assistance of others over her own desires more often than not. It's self-defeating behavior and she knows it, but it never occurs to her to actually change, that people might not want her to drain her own resources just for the sake of making other people happy. Secretly, one of her greatest desires was to perhaps one day have a family of her own, something she feels extremely bitter about in retrospect... but even then, she questions whether it was a genuine desire or whether it was simply a goal she adopted to prove herself better than her own mother, with whom she shared a difficult relationship and a whole host of lingering issues. Her older sister has always been good at calling her on her bullshit, helping her settle down when she's brimming with aimless energy and forcing her to clear her mind of excess emotion to be able to focus on things better. Without that guidance, she can be prone to losing sight of her goals and getting overwhelmed by her troubles in moments of weakness.
Irhya is a bit of a whimsical character, ruled largely by impulse and only rarely left to actually construct plans. She can think on the fly like a champ, but not so much in the long term, and in fact looking at things from such a temporal distance actually scares her when she considers she's at the top of many people's hit list, among other things. It just seems easier to take things day by day and not think about it, even though it strips her of the sense of constancy she longs for. For all that she seems like a stable person when not flitting from one idea to the next, she spends more time avoiding her problems than actually dealing with them, from past mistakes to present and future challenges. Even though she ends up hitting those problems head-on more often than not, for better or for worse, there are times when it's a surprise she doesn't break down from all the stress she brings upon herself. As much as she tries to unlearn her self-destructive habits, it may take a helping hand for her to realize when she's veering back into them again and burning herself up from the inside out.
Abilities:Dark knight and conjurer Wiki entries. White mage, the job class of conjurer, is considered a bit special snowflake in terms of the lore, as the player is considered the "only one" outside of the Padjals for a good chunk of the story, so I do not assign those specific abilities to her.
Dark knights spend their body's aether in battle with Darkside as sort of a mortgage arrangement with the abyss through the body's natural connection to it, and the only way to keep from killing oneself in the process is to learn how to recharge that aether. For example, Grit helps anchor a dark knight's emotions down, and blunts external sensory input to keep them stable during battle. Meanwhile, Living Dead outright severs that sensory input, both pain and pleasure alike -- it's incredibly dangerous to do so for obvious reasons, and requires the touch of a truly skilled healer to restore enough bodily function for the user not to succumb to their wounds in short order. Other abilities related to the dark knight are all linked to their calling upon the power of the abyss, from creating a field of damaging abyssal energy to firing that same energy off point-blank at enemies. Irhya in particular has a preference of letting the arcane side of the dark knight's toolset do its job in favor of less armor, granting her increased mobility but making her a little squishier than average. However, she's exceptionally skilled at manipulating her shields and damage reduction abilities as a result.
She is still capable of utilizing the conjurer's arts, too, which are rooted in the borrowing of environmental energy in order to quickly heal the body's wounds, or to likewise channel natural elements to inflict damage upon enemies. The actual practice of it bores her to death and brings back some messy feelings about the Padjals and other stuffy-arse conjurers, so she seldom uses it anymore, but the ability is there if she ever needs it.
Also, lots and lots of crafting of all different schools. It's what she spends a huge chunk of her time on. The crafting classes in XIV include carpenter, blacksmith, armorsmith, goldsmith, culinarian, weaver, leatherworker, and alchemist. While she is capable of dabbling in all of them, there are some she is better at than others; weaving appears to be her specialty, like her mother, and she's quite good at tinkering with goldsmithing as well, while the rest tend to see more situational use. But in order to do things like repair and maintain weapons or fix bits of equipment, the fundamentals are necessary first, and she's constantly trying to grow her repertoire of abilities in that regard. Among other things, she's also a halfway decent artist and writer in her spare time, too.
The Echo grants her a few passive abilities, as well. The ability to see scenes from someone's past, while not able to be controlled by the viewer when or what it triggers, is occasionally afforded to the person who possesses the blessing of Hydaelyn. The Echo also provides protection from mind control or possession, and, as it is described as a blessing that breaks down the barriers between souls, allows all languages to be understood by the listener.
Outside of that, her race as a whole is gifted with strong agility and powerful senses of hearing and balance, and for Keepers in particular, excellent night vision.
Alignment: Daimonia. Irhya in particular is equally prone to deep, black depressions and sincere, passionate enthusiasms. It's something she arguably needs help moderating, so I thought it would be fitting to make it her alignment in this case.
Emotion Sample: Irhya's coping mechanisms are not all healthy. Crafting has always been her go-to for stress relief, to work with her hands and narrow her focus to one thing and block out all else in the process, but she tends to take it too far. She's currently staring down at the broad back of a jacket, wondering what to hand-embroider on it for lack of anything better to do. Something simple, perhaps... She starts outlining something, trying to solidify the image in her head.
Everyone tells her, to the point where she gets irritated, that she should find work that puts her talents to use. Looking for jobs is a lot easier when you can apply skills you already have to the prospect, but that she refuses to make a business out of her crafting only hurts her in the end. There are plenty of other things she could do, right? Bookkeeping, maybe... if she just had the discipline...
Adventuring really does seem the next best thing. It means she's only left with the image of her weary, world-worn mother after draining herself dry on her own crafting work rather than the image of her wasting away on her deathbed. Or perhaps it was worse -- did she go quickly? Was it painful, sudden?
Gods. she thinks back to the time Redolent Rose had asked her to collaborate with the guild's most notorious control freak on a rush commission, the way that conversation had gone... It had almost been like an argument with her mother, of all things. Why does she have to get so damned touchy about her crafts--
"Like hells you'll get me to make the same mistake my mother did."
The needle breaks.
Irhya stares at the two halves in shock.
"Bloody-- Are you kidding me right now?!"
As frustration wells up like a liquid thing inside her, the thread she'd been working with starts to discolor and fray as if having gone through many years of wear. Her mouth starts to open; she shuts it, then opens it again.
"This is..."
Without realizing her output, she's outlined and begun to fill in the shape of a woman's silhouette, much like those found on cameos. It doesn't appear to be anything that important, but as she throws the jacket down on the floor and steps over the shards of her needle as if walking over an entire bed of them, she realizes it's strikingly similar to her mother's profile.
"Sod this. I'm going to bed," she grouses. Next thing she knows, the damned thing will catch fire -- and maybe it will be better off that way, frankly. At least then she could use it as a flare...
Questions: I'm hoping to app Irhya as "a" Warrior of Light, one that none of the NPCs (or PCs) in Empatheias remember -- in fact, I would prefer it that way just for the delicious conflict it will create. If anything in the app conflicts with existing rules in place for this sort of thing, though, please let me know and I can tweak it a bit!
Irhya Pendhula | Final Fantasy XIV [3/3]
Once Lakshmi has been dealt with, Irhya journeys back to Ishgard to meet with Sidurgu, who offers her a friendly patrol session. During this, though, her soul crystal audibly breaks in half, only for the other half to appear in the hand of a peculiar boy named Myste who appears at first glance to be a Brume rat. He claims he has the power to conjure illusions of those who have passed with Irhya's stolen aether, though only for a limited amount of time and distance traveled. In this way, he gives a bit of closure to a few people he believes deserve it, including Sid, but eventually lashes out at Irhya, claiming that she, as the Warrior of Light, has reaped so many lives that didn't deserve it, people that deserve to live again using his power. With the help of her dark side, she pacifies Myste's tantrum, and it is implied that he is a part of her that had splintered off from the guilt of losing Haurchefant, and the weight of all other lives ended by her hands. She accepts Myste back into her heart, feeling deeply unsettled, but at least more whole now that her aether has been reclaimed and her soul crystal repaired.
Soon, the Scions receive word that Yotsuyu, the imperial viceroy who was thought to have been killed in Doma Castle, has been seen alive, and set out on a mission to recover her before the Garleans do. They find that she has lost her memory (seemingly), and has been sheltered by an ally thought to have perished with her in the castle's collapse. Once Garlemald finds out that she has been taken in by the Scions, they dispatch an emissary to barter for her return, who happens to be her stepbrother Asahi. He seems pleasant to deal with at first, but as Irhya and Asahi part ways without having struck a deal, he utters some harsh words to her, and she finds out that he is bitter and vengeful over the death of his idol, Zenos. Perhaps he's only waiting for the right opportunity...?
Personality: If only her life had been set up as such, Irhya might have made an excellent scholar if she didn't lack the discipline and focus for it. From a very young age, she's always been bright and quick-witted, a fast learner who absorbs knowledge of craft (among other things) like a sponge. Her mind is always moving or doing something, and if not her mind, then definitely her hands, which can make her seem restless at times... and perhaps that's not far from the truth, as she is just as easily exhausted and grows bored of things easily. Nevertheless, she's engaged in a constant search for stimulation, or a project to apply herself to, for without it she grows lethargic and listless.
While she's an excellent jack-of-all-trades, talented and proud of that, she will not, however, take commissions for anything, under any circumstances -- which means if she makes something for you without it having been requested, it's a sign of great, heartfelt fondness. Suffice it to say, she's stubborn and a bit stiff at times, a total perfectionist who often is unwilling to bend and is her own harshest critic. Pragmatic and straightforward, she doesn't like to beat around the bush about most matters (excluding when it comes to her own feelings), and can be a bit volatile in her responses. She's a terrible liar, too, and her ears and tail are frequently a tip-off of her real feelings, a fact she hates.
Having so much mental energy means she wears herself down quickly, though. She uses her works largely as a coping mechanism, entrenching herself in crafting during times of stress and denying all but the most basic of physical needs until she's satisfied with herself... or has drained herself dry, whichever comes first. It's very easy for Irhya to burn out and need to turn to a more physical way of letting off stress, like sparring or exercising, which often times just leaves her feeling dissatisfied and unhappy for allowing herself to hit rock bottom. It's true of her interactions with others, too; she can be short with people, sometimes a little less than tactful, especially when she's at a mental low point.
When it comes to fighting, she's usually the one who will voice the obvious (but less than desirable) solution as a matter of course, and it's usually the one that involves death and misery. As a conjurer, this didn't lend well to her relationship with her tutors and superiors, who were frequently guilty of using the "will of the Elementals" to justify their actions (or lack thereof). It does, however, suit her much better as a dark knight, disciples of whom need to adhere to their own codes of morality in order to administer justice to those who would abuse their positions of power.
Deep down, Irhya doesn't feel she has the emotional freedom to get close to people, prioritizing her work and her assistance of others over her own desires more often than not. It's self-defeating behavior and she knows it, but it never occurs to her to actually change, that people might not want her to drain her own resources just for the sake of making other people happy. Secretly, one of her greatest desires was to perhaps one day have a family of her own, something she feels extremely bitter about in retrospect... but even then, she questions whether it was a genuine desire or whether it was simply a goal she adopted to prove herself better than her own mother, with whom she shared a difficult relationship and a whole host of lingering issues. Her older sister has always been good at calling her on her bullshit, helping her settle down when she's brimming with aimless energy and forcing her to clear her mind of excess emotion to be able to focus on things better. Without that guidance, she can be prone to losing sight of her goals and getting overwhelmed by her troubles in moments of weakness.
Irhya is a bit of a whimsical character, ruled largely by impulse and only rarely left to actually construct plans. She can think on the fly like a champ, but not so much in the long term, and in fact looking at things from such a temporal distance actually scares her when she considers she's at the top of many people's hit list, among other things. It just seems easier to take things day by day and not think about it, even though it strips her of the sense of constancy she longs for. For all that she seems like a stable person when not flitting from one idea to the next, she spends more time avoiding her problems than actually dealing with them, from past mistakes to present and future challenges. Even though she ends up hitting those problems head-on more often than not, for better or for worse, there are times when it's a surprise she doesn't break down from all the stress she brings upon herself. As much as she tries to unlearn her self-destructive habits, it may take a helping hand for her to realize when she's veering back into them again and burning herself up from the inside out.
Abilities: Dark knight and conjurer Wiki entries. White mage, the job class of conjurer, is considered a bit special snowflake in terms of the lore, as the player is considered the "only one" outside of the Padjals for a good chunk of the story, so I do not assign those specific abilities to her.
Dark knights spend their body's aether in battle with Darkside as sort of a mortgage arrangement with the abyss through the body's natural connection to it, and the only way to keep from killing oneself in the process is to learn how to recharge that aether. For example, Grit helps anchor a dark knight's emotions down, and blunts external sensory input to keep them stable during battle. Meanwhile, Living Dead outright severs that sensory input, both pain and pleasure alike -- it's incredibly dangerous to do so for obvious reasons, and requires the touch of a truly skilled healer to restore enough bodily function for the user not to succumb to their wounds in short order. Other abilities related to the dark knight are all linked to their calling upon the power of the abyss, from creating a field of damaging abyssal energy to firing that same energy off point-blank at enemies. Irhya in particular has a preference of letting the arcane side of the dark knight's toolset do its job in favor of less armor, granting her increased mobility but making her a little squishier than average. However, she's exceptionally skilled at manipulating her shields and damage reduction abilities as a result.
She is still capable of utilizing the conjurer's arts, too, which are rooted in the borrowing of environmental energy in order to quickly heal the body's wounds, or to likewise channel natural elements to inflict damage upon enemies. The actual practice of it bores her to death and brings back some messy feelings about the Padjals and other stuffy-arse conjurers, so she seldom uses it anymore, but the ability is there if she ever needs it.
Also, lots and lots of crafting of all different schools. It's what she spends a huge chunk of her time on. The crafting classes in XIV include carpenter, blacksmith, armorsmith, goldsmith, culinarian, weaver, leatherworker, and alchemist. While she is capable of dabbling in all of them, there are some she is better at than others; weaving appears to be her specialty, like her mother, and she's quite good at tinkering with goldsmithing as well, while the rest tend to see more situational use. But in order to do things like repair and maintain weapons or fix bits of equipment, the fundamentals are necessary first, and she's constantly trying to grow her repertoire of abilities in that regard. Among other things, she's also a halfway decent artist and writer in her spare time, too.
The Echo grants her a few passive abilities, as well. The ability to see scenes from someone's past, while not able to be controlled by the viewer when or what it triggers, is occasionally afforded to the person who possesses the blessing of Hydaelyn. The Echo also provides protection from mind control or possession, and, as it is described as a blessing that breaks down the barriers between souls, allows all languages to be understood by the listener.
Outside of that, her race as a whole is gifted with strong agility and powerful senses of hearing and balance, and for Keepers in particular, excellent night vision.
Alignment: Daimonia. Irhya in particular is equally prone to deep, black depressions and sincere, passionate enthusiasms. It's something she arguably needs help moderating, so I thought it would be fitting to make it her alignment in this case.
Other: N/A
General Sample: This thread gets NSFW at some point, but I feel it displays her character a bit better than most of the others I have.
Emotion Sample: Irhya's coping mechanisms are not all healthy. Crafting has always been her go-to for stress relief, to work with her hands and narrow her focus to one thing and block out all else in the process, but she tends to take it too far. She's currently staring down at the broad back of a jacket, wondering what to hand-embroider on it for lack of anything better to do. Something simple, perhaps... She starts outlining something, trying to solidify the image in her head.
Everyone tells her, to the point where she gets irritated, that she should find work that puts her talents to use. Looking for jobs is a lot easier when you can apply skills you already have to the prospect, but that she refuses to make a business out of her crafting only hurts her in the end. There are plenty of other things she could do, right? Bookkeeping, maybe... if she just had the discipline...
Adventuring really does seem the next best thing. It means she's only left with the image of her weary, world-worn mother after draining herself dry on her own crafting work rather than the image of her wasting away on her deathbed. Or perhaps it was worse -- did she go quickly? Was it painful, sudden?
Gods. she thinks back to the time Redolent Rose had asked her to collaborate with the guild's most notorious control freak on a rush commission, the way that conversation had gone... It had almost been like an argument with her mother, of all things. Why does she have to get so damned touchy about her crafts--
"Like hells you'll get me to make the same mistake my mother did."
The needle breaks.
Irhya stares at the two halves in shock.
"Bloody-- Are you kidding me right now?!"
As frustration wells up like a liquid thing inside her, the thread she'd been working with starts to discolor and fray as if having gone through many years of wear. Her mouth starts to open; she shuts it, then opens it again.
"This is..."
Without realizing her output, she's outlined and begun to fill in the shape of a woman's silhouette, much like those found on cameos. It doesn't appear to be anything that important, but as she throws the jacket down on the floor and steps over the shards of her needle as if walking over an entire bed of them, she realizes it's strikingly similar to her mother's profile.
"Sod this. I'm going to bed," she grouses. Next thing she knows, the damned thing will catch fire -- and maybe it will be better off that way, frankly. At least then she could use it as a flare...
Questions: I'm hoping to app Irhya as "a" Warrior of Light, one that none of the NPCs (or PCs) in Empatheias remember -- in fact, I would prefer it that way just for the delicious conflict it will create. If anything in the app conflicts with existing rules in place for this sort of thing, though, please let me know and I can tweak it a bit!