While A'shev’s mixed heritage has never given him much of a problem, life has not exactly been kind to him either. His father disappeared when he was a young boy, and his mother died in his early teens, forcing him out with a younger sister to provide for before he was even a man grown. He had no real notable skills aside from an interest in swordplay, so when the time came to finally leave his home in the Black Shroud he traveled to Ul'dah and began a new life. There was only one problem with this, though: He had no idea where to start.At first, A'shev begged on the streets alongside many impoverished youth, but eventually he made his way to the Quicksand, where he began cheating the wealthy out of their money at dice and cards. Once he'd become familiar there, A'shev moved to another tavern and began his new profession there. As with many things that require deception and dishonesty, though, he eventually ran afoul of the wrong wealthy Lalafell, and the result was serving a bond of repayment (with significant interest) in the Bloodsands. Until this offense, A'shev had not really been much of a fighter, only having really picked up weapons to occasionally hunt at his mother's side before she'd fallen ill.It wasn’t long until he figured out he was good at it and began a lucrative career in the Bloodsands, sending any extra earnings he got through a mutual contact to his younger sister. Several months into this, an opponent took off most of his tail, and the balance problems that followed delayed his repayment of the gil that he owed. Shortly after that, he was informed that his sister had gone missing, and all of his earnings that were supposed to be tucked away instead went to paying investigators to attempt to locate her. When he finally won his way out of the Bloodsands, it was in defiance of a staged defeat and, once freed, he began his quest to find his missing sister, hopping onto a merchant ship to start building a network of eyes and ears far and wide. There, he fell in with the crew of a trading sea vessel named the Illusion. He was only with the crew for a few months before he hopped ship, and the following years of his life had him in the company of the Rogues’ Guild, where he learned how to fully compensate for his lack of tail.During his travels he ended up in Ul'dah again, and met a charming dancer named Khei in the Quicksand who took an immediate shine to him. Through their instant connection, the pair got together and quickly married--but married too quickly. Years later, they fell out of the love they had spiraled into, and decided to break it off and continue as friends. Now A'shev works with an adventuring company called Nightingale, and has since found his family.

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From a very young age, Darian cen Geras showed the inquisitive nature of a researcher and problem-solver. By the time he was eight summers, he was building little toys and machines for play. For his parents, his path was clear, and they encouraged his propensity for tinkering with the goal of securing his usefulness to the Empire as an engineer. Little did they know he would take to the field like a fish to water.Darian’s need for answers was not merely satiated by repairing equipment or building it; rather, his passion lay in design and quality of life improvements for existing and future machina. It was this desire and the talent that he had for it that propelled him from field engineer to Magitek Engineer in a matter of months working directly for the Empire. From there, he worked with a team to build innovative Magitek devices and develop new weapons. He was by far not the biggest fish in the pond, but Darian nan Geras did well for himself nevertheless.His patriotic tendencies disappeared once he became privy to some of the Empire’s more vigorous ambitions, and as it became more evident to him that he disliked the practices if the Empire’s military and leaders, he and a small inner circle of friends created the Deorsum Ferri Laminis, or the Downward Blades. The group’s sole purpose was to subvert the military’s tactics and attempt to guide efforts away from expansion and toward the cultivation of already-subjugated territories. When it became clear that this would not work, Darian began sabotaging other engineers’ designs, marking flaws into their final drafts after they’d been approved, making their magitek highly volatile weaponry.Perhaps he would have stayed with the Empire and slowly broken down their Magitek weapons had it not been for his fiance’s death. Alanora commanded a small unit of soldiers, and on one of their trips to Castrum Occidens, she met her end at the same time that a group of mercenaries destroyed half of the facility. Though the Empire called her death incidental, they would not share any of its details with Darian. He became so angry that he left Garlemald (after blowing up a Magitek manufacturing facility) and traveled to La Noscea with intent to investigate the circumstances of the woman’s death. There, he managed to get himself captured by a mercenary company and eventually became their ally.Though rocky at first, he managed to befriend and later marry a Miqo'te woman by the name of C'arliani. Throughout the course of their relationship, they decided to shed their past identities and carry on with something new. Thus, the Vaeltore name was born. Today Darian and Arli continue to assist Nightingale Company, as well as pursue their own adventures together.

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Born in the Azim Steppe, Saikhan Dotharl was the embodiment of his last life–a warrior true, meant to come to the defense of his tribe with a massive weapon and a fearless heart. Well… he was supposed to be, anyway. What really ended up happening was that he was lost to the sands as a toddler and thought dead by his tribe. By some turn of fate or perhaps mere chance, a Raen woman found him wandering and badly dehydrated near the mountains. Without being able to talk, finding his family was a matter of finding a traveling tribe. The ever-present danger of the Steppe, however, meant that she could not travel alone with him for long, so when the Raen woman found no one over multiple trips into the Steppe, she adopted him as one of her own. Thus he became Hinan Akaruta, and grew up in the Doman mountains with three adopted siblings, none of which were blood related to each other.Much of Hinan’s childhood was learning Doman customs, language, and horsing around with his siblings in their remote home. He was slower to pick up on things in the area of academics than his siblings, and as he grew he found himself more and more hands-on and less bookish. That did not mean he was less intelligent, and his carefree attitude certainly never left him. These were the things that he brought with him when he went to Eorzea.He took up work as a laborer in Thanalan–after all, good, hard manual labor was something that he had come to love. He quickly found, though, that when he was gathering wood, people tended to jump when he came around. Maybe it was his looks, or the fact that he was carrying an axe–or both–but he started to carry the thing around with him, slung on his back, and suddenly he was being offered favors and never having to ask someone to do something for him. One day, as he headed out with his axe, a kindly old man asked if he would escort his wagon to its destination some few hours away, and when he was offered a healthy sum of money, he agreed.That was when Hinan learned that he had a natural talent for fighting, and he never put the axe back down unless he was reaching for a bigger one.

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From a very young age, Khalan'a knew what was expected from him: He would come of age, become a vagrant, and sire children, as the males of his kind had done for generations. It was a duty he would have performed willingly... that was, until his mother was cursed to bear two more sons and no daughters. Knowing that his family's name would not carry on, his mother became less concerned with tradition and more enamored with the possibility that her sons might make something more of themselves than mere breeders. So it was that, by the time Khalan'a came of age, he had been instilled with the will and desire to rebel against his traditions, and he left his family to travel away from the Shroud to other parts of Aldenard.A few months after he left his home, his mother was killed in what was explained to him as a hunting accident, and he returned to find his brothers gone. With nothing left to tie him to the Shroud except the odd chance of running into one of his younger siblings, he took off again.It was shortly afterward that he met a traveling street-busking musician named Zheyn'a Lihuel, and from the first the two got along famously--he had his own knack for dancing and knife-juggling, and together they travelled and performed for crowds of all sizes. He realized he'd fallen for the goofy Keeper, and their partnership evolved into something of a more romantic nature. A couple years later, they were in the Quicksand when they came across a man they thought looked like he needed a bit of cheering up. When they sat down at his table, they were both immediately taken by the brooding Seeker, and managed to convince him to gamble with them to see if he would allow them to spend more time with him. With a fateful roll of the dice, Zakash Firemane found himself stuck with Khalan'a and Zhey's company, and later, their undying affection.

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For most of his childhood, Masahiro was a street urchin. An intelligent and enterprising child, what he lacked in formal education he certainly made up for in his aptitude for picking up information on his own. He lived with the clothes on his back and whatever he could filch from Ijin travelers, unwary locals, and briefly unattended cargo on the docks. That was, until he was thirteen.As is wont to happen when one lives on the streets, eventually Masahiro ran afoul of the wrong man—a member of the Inagawa family, one of a few families leading an underground Doman crime syndicate. Rather than punish the young Raen, the man saw promise in the boy, and took him in as one of his own. From then on, Masahiro strove to catch up to his peers. He received a private education, lessons in various fine arts, and lessons in darker arts of the shinobi as well. To any looking in, Masahiro had become an upright citizen. Those who knew his family and the role that they played, however, knew that they could employ Masahiro for any number of shady tasks.Masahiro was still a relatively young man when he rose high enough among his colleagues to take a student of his own, and for several years he had a young apprentice. Later, he was contracted by a noble family to guard their heir, a young man by the name of Liu-lin Hua. He and his student parted ways, and he became Liu-lin’s shadow. He has been with him ever since, though their bond has since evolved into something much more.

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Naivaria was born in Ala Mhigo to a single mother. Her father hadn’t gone off to some war or died doing something heroic; no, according to her mother, Naivaria’s father was a deadbeat traveler who’d never wanted a child, so her mother had never contacted him. Nor did Naivaria know her grandfather, for when she was still but a babe, Ala Mhigo fell to the Garlean Empire. Rather than stay in subjugation, her mother fled with her to Ul’dah, and she was raised with so many other refugees outside its walls.Many Ala Mhigans had known Naivaria’s grandfather as a talented jeweler, and while her mother had trained under her grandfather’s wing, she turned to weaving long before Naivaria could remember to make sure they would stay clothed. This, the seamstress, was how Nai knew her mother, and it was how the Silverstone name became a brand among the refugees. They were often well enough off and well-protected due to her mother’s trade. Naivaria began to learn weaving at her mother’s side, intent upon continuing the tradition once she was out on her own.It wasn’t long after Naivaria’s thirteenth nameday that her mother fell ill and, after a month of suffering, passed on. It threw Nai’s world into disorder--she was grieving, she was young, and she had no idea how to take care of herself without her mother’s skills to back her up. What she was not, however, was completely alone. Those she’d neighbored outside the walls took it upon themselves to make sure she was safe and fed.It was during her teen years that Naivaria discovered a few things about herself--that she had a knack for growing things, had an eye for detail, and had the echo, which had manifested itself in her ability to feel others’ emotions as if they were her own. Soon enough, she was growing all manner of plants in a tiny greenhouse that she and a few others protected. These plants she sold to apothecaries and harvested for food. Eventually, her little operation grew, and she started a second, more aesthetic garden that produced a variety of flowers that she sold for those who could afford such luxuries. Doing these things, Naivaria began to make enough gil to stash some away, and now she continues to save what she can in the hopes of starting up her own boutique, combining her love of weaving and fashion with her uncanny ability to grow beautiful things.

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Like every male Xaela born to the Borlaaq, Qorin was destined from the moment he was born to be left behind by his mother and adopted by the Iriq tribe. Unlike many male Xaela, though, this boy did not grow up tall and strong. He barely cleared the tallest of his female counterparts. His face never sharpened like the other men of his tribe, and no matter how he tried, he never could get the muscle mass or masculine shape that his brothers sported so easily. With his softer, rounder face and his diminutive stature, he was often mistaken for a female. It wasn’t until he was in his teens that he realized that he was actually somewhere between genders. Unfortunately for him, signs of weakness on the Steppe are often viciously exploited, and the knowledge that he was not the man he’d thought he was and would never be the man he aspired to be pained him deeply.But still, he tried. Training with a spear, fighting alongside the men and women of his tribe, he never quite measured up. In training with a bow, or an axe, or most other weapons, he struggled to keep up. Even the realm of aether and spirituality fled his oppressive mind, and eventually he found himself caring for the tribe’s young ones and doing the tribe’s more domestic tasks. In that, he was highly skilled. In that, he was highly unhappy, and tensions grew between Qorin and a few of the more overconfident males. When those tensions came to a head, they came in the form of an assault that left him embarrassed, violated, and broken, and he decided then to leave and strike out on his own, so he went someplace far away: Eorzea.It was once he’d traveled halfway across the world and emotionally isolated himself that he found the clarity he’d been seeking on the Steppe and discovered that he did have a talent for healing and shaping elements. Hearing rumors of a guild in Gridania devoted to healing, he ventured there and began learning conjury in earnest. A few years later, Qorin began travelling and made his way to Coerthas, where he observed and practiced with the dragoons in Ishgard’s outlying settlements while acting as a live-in healer for a time. Finally, he’d found what he needed, and began to rebuild his confidence in himself little by little. Now he travels, offering his healing services where he goes, and hopes to reconnect with his people in a way that will make him want to go back home.

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Takahane was born in Hingashi to the noble House Haruta. As the only child of Takahiro and Kana Haruta, Takahane grew up in the lap of luxury, himself being groomed to take over as head of the family someday. As a boy, he took to magic and swordplay in equal measure, refusing to commit to the way of the samurai, but equally unwilling to follow the path of traditional magic. He wanted to learn it all, and learn it all he did. All through his adolescence, Taka studied magic in its various forms, and took a special interest in the animation of otherwise inanimate objects.When Taka reached adulthood, another powerful family turned his world upside down. He met a woman and fell in love, only to later learn that his partner was herself a married woman–married to a member of the Bafuku. By the time he found this out, it was already too late; a plan had been set in motion, and the Bafuku official paid off a corrupt Sekiseigumi to bring Taka in for political tampering. The Raen, however, resisted arrest, and in the fight that ensued accidentally killed him his assailant. Taka was arrested for the murder of a Sekiseigumi officer, and while he was in captivity the rumors of his attempts to steal a high-ranking official's wife circulated like wildfire. Ashamed, his father was left with a choice: defend his son or disown him. He chose the latter. Though Taka expected foul play, without his family's considerable wealth and resources, he was unable to hire someone to aid him in an investigation and he could not go home, so he changed his family name to “Michiharu” and set out for the mainland across the Ruby Sea to make a fresh start for himself.He first arrived in Yanxia, and that was where he stayed for a year or so, until it became plain to him that there was no place he could really go to escape the Garlean occupation. After the failed Doman rebellion he assisted a few refugees and took them back with him to Kugane, where he linked them up to those who were fleeing to Eorzea. Rather than go to Eorzea himself, though, he decided to stay in Kugane. It was, after all, a place that felt like home to him. Now he sells his services as an enchanter and a stage magician at the markets in Kugane, and though he doesn’t advertise it, he still keeps up his martial training, weaving his magic into it in the style of the Crimson Duelists.

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Born in the great Garlemald Empire, Aiden Lander was the son of a public official. Though his family never struggled monetarily, those around them did, and Aiden’s penchant for kindness even as a child earned him the love and loyalty of many of the despots who stayed nearby. He found throughout his childhood and teenage years that he enjoyed helping people, and when it came time to choose how he wished to spend his life in service to his country, he chose the path of the Medicus and entered the Garlean military.Aiden met several people with whom he became friends after his enlistment, and through a series of military tours and other events, formed a secret bond with them that none would speak of save in seclusion. His goals shifted; instead of an unflinching loyalty to his homeland, Aiden jen Lander spent his days traveling to where he was assigned and quietly working with his friends to bring down the machine from the inside--a feat as impossible as it is crazy and dangerous.When one of his best friends, Alanora, was killed during a raid on Castrum Occidens, her fiance went missing, destroying as much as he could on his way out. Since then, Aiden has been closely watched for signs of contact with his friend, and sent only to places where observation can be constant. Now, Aiden is stationed at the Garlean Embassy in Kugane.

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Born the fourth son to a lesser noble house, Alu’eth was the child that his parents had not planned and, frankly, didn’t know what to do with. As a child this was somewhat easier to deal with--he was schooled, tutored, and groomed to act as a noble should--but by the time his adolescence was upon him his parents had decided that he better serve the family’s status and standing as a servant of the church. Alu’eth had never been a pious person, so when this was pushed upon him he fought with his parents on the subject. He much rather would have been a Dragoon, but he had never so much as picked up a lance. This was an argument that was repeated many times until the day the priests were to collect him and take him to the Cathedral.Unwilling to give his future over to the Church, Alu’eth packed what he could, stole some of the family’s money, and snuck out on his own to find his own path. For a young man with no real survival experience or knowledge of the world, it was difficult to figure out where he wanted to go once he left the city, but the nagging sense that his purpose lay beyond the Coerthan snows drew him to the Black Shroud, and eventually Gridania. It was there that he first picked up a lance, and there that he met a young Keeper of the Moon named Sohfea’li. Sohfi captured his interest, and the pair began spending more and more time together, until eventually Alu professed his love and they were married.As is wont to happen when one has the echo, however, Alu’eth found himself drawn into very dangerous jobs. He’d taken up a mercenary’s life and met a group of adventurers, and though he was away from home quite a bit, he provided for his husband and spent time with him as often as he could. Little did he know that the battle of Carteneau would change everything, because he wasn’t just a fighter on the battlefield; no, he was a Warrior of Light, and he and his compatriots were destined to become forgotten.Fast forward. Alu’eth returned to his home in Gridania to find that no one he spoke to remembered his face or his name. Even Sohfea’li, when he found him, showed no recognition when their eyes met. The Keeper still wore a wedding band, and when Alu’eth introduced himself with his full name, the pair sat down to talk about what had happened. Sohfea’li had waited and mourned for a husband he could not remember and did not know would ever return. At first, Sohfea’li was angry with him, especially when Alu could not explain where he’d been. The truth was, though, that Alu had lost five years of his life that he couldn’t remember. Everything felt as fresh to him as if he’d been gone a day. After a lengthy discussion, the pair agreed to start over. They began a small mercenary group named Riverwind Company, vowing to do any adventuring together.Alu’eth Lamiere never thought he would be dating his husband after they were married, but now he is.

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Born to the Ura tribe, Khavryn spent most of her childhood as Ura children often do: playing and helping in the caves, cliffsides, and mountain slopes that her tribe calls home, and occasionally accompanying her parents when they traveled to trade with other tribes. This was how she got her first taste of just how big the world was beyond her home, for it was one thing to see the lay of the land from the top of a mountain, and another thing entirely to know how vast that land was from the ground. Even as a little girl, Khavryn's heart wandered to the possibility of what lay beyond the horizon.That desire to explore only grew as Khavryn aged, and by the time she was in her teen summers she had begun to beg her parents' permission to branch out and learn about the different parts of the Steppe--to study the depths of other mountains, to know the age of the earth elsewhere. And as she grew into adulthood, she knew it wasn't just the Steppe that she wanted to explore.However, fate did not look kindly upon her family, for as she was preparing to strike out on her own, her father died under the weight of a mine shaft's collapse, and her mother fell ill shortly after. She stayed, then, to take care of her, and it wasn't until years later when her mother passed that Khavryn finally left, with the promise that she would one day return with a wealth of knowledge and stories.For now, Khavryn wanders Eorzea, putting her knowledge to work smithing weapons and armor, making jewelry, and studying all manner of dirt, stone, and metal.

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M’rath was not a special child. He did not excel in hunting, did not seem particularly cunning when it came to battle strategy or fighting. He tended toward intellectual pursuits, though his propensity to abandon projects before they were done was high enough that his parents began to wonder if he had some sort of attention problem.As an adolescent, while other Tia were having contests of strength, Rath was largely uninterested in one day becoming the breeding male. Instead, he began poring over tomes and experimenting with magic, and that was where things began to change for him. He found out that he actually held some latent talent for aetheromancy, and as he began to learn on his own, his peers became gruffer and gruffer toward him. He was easy prey, see, because he was not strong. There was only one problem with this.Melorath was granted the Echo, and when it manifested itself it was in the hearing of surface thoughts of those around him. Suddenly M’rath could pick up on others’ movements, intentions, and insecurities. If he focused it enough, he found that he could delve much deeper than the surface, but there were seldom times when he wished to do so. Once he’d reached adulthood, M’rath found that he had no interest in his tribe’s schools of thought, and he’d exhausted his options insofar as magical training was involved, so he chose to leave the tribe and venture out into the world at large. He ended up in Ul’dah, where he used his abilities to swindle people out of their money while he was training at the Thaumaturge’s Guild. He also took an interest in alchemy, and began studying that on the side. Today he is an accomplished mage, living in the city and working out of the Alchemist’s Guild.

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There is not much that Shieke talks about when it comes to her past, save that she grew up in the jungle with her sisters, and that she left because she wanted to see the world. She does not speak of her capture and subsequent imprisonment by Garleans, or what information she may or may not have given up during rigorous torture sessions that have left permanent scars, both mental and physical. She likewise remains quiet regarding the method of her escape and the involvement of one of the other prisoners.One thing she does speak of is her prowess on the field and how dangerous she and hers can be when provoked. She speaks of justice and charity, and the shame of the rich leading the poor to further misfortune. She waxes poetic about the futures of nations and the doom of complacency, about the importance of education and empathy, and the need for a system of care for those who need it. And if someone is truly in need of help, Shieke may just try.

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Akira Sakai was born to a pair of Hingan merchants, and spent the first four years of his life travelling with them to various places around Hingashi. On their way to Kugane by boat, however, the small vessel that they had purchased passage on was beset by a storm and sank, taking everyone but Akira with it. Somehow, the boy washed up on the beach near the city, and from there was taken in by a group of young Au Ra orphans who called themselves “The Clutch.” They taught him how to beg, how to steal, and how to avoid getting caught by the Sekiseigumi for either of those things, and after a couple years he became very good at it.When Akira was six summers old, he ran afoul of an enchanter named Takahane Michiharu in the Kugane-dori markets, and when he was caught stealing from the stall, instead of punishing him, the man took an interest in his well-being and struck a deal with him--if he would avoid stealing from his stall, he would have a good meal guaranteed twice a week. It turned into a ritual of sorts for them, and by the time he was seven summers, he knew Takahane as his big brother of sorts and the meals began to come with supplements of coin to support The Clutch.Just before Akira turned eight summers, Takahane adopted him formally, and though he has some catching up to do, Akira has taken to life off the streets as well as can be expected--though he still likes to visit The Clutch from time to time.

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If one were to ask C’thari Tia about his tribe, he would not be able to answer. When he was barely a year old, his mother left the Coeurl tribe, taking him with her. They travelled for a long time between cities and settlements, and when they finally settled in Vylbrand it was in a little village not far from the big city. At nine summers of age, C’thari’s mother found work in the city and the pair moved into a tiny apartment nearby. Not long after they had moved, however, an accident took his mother’s life and C’thari became an orphan.Being in a new place was rough for any child, but being there alone, with no one to support him was harder. At first, he could exchange things that his mother had owned for food and clothing, but that was not a currency that would last forever, and eventually he had to resort to other measures. So it was that, by the age of sixteen, C’thari had been forced out of his apartment, had become a homeless resident of the streets of Limsa, and become a master pickpocket.It began with orphaned youths. When C’thari saw them, he felt an intense need to help them, so he would begin pinching money and items and leaving them to the children in secret. It continued with the infirm and the elderly who could no longer care for themselves. He would pinch money, trade it for medications and food, and then leave it for them anonymously. This happened for years, and no one figured out who the kind helper of the downtrodden was. He made his hovel in a hidden room of a warehouse, and stored what few things he kept there. Though he still continues to do this, there are things that keep him from opening up to people--or at least extending a hand in friendship.

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Born to C’anah Nunh, C’lydi Anah was a precocious child. Much of her early life was spent with the other young ones in the tribe, and in that way it was rather unremarkable--that was, until she was offered up in trade to the Y tribe for one of their female children. It was a practice that was fairly common, and one that she, as a young teenager, balked at. Nevertheless, she eventually assimilated with the Y tribe, and as she grew into an adult, became the favorite of one of the tribe’s Nunhs, Y’rhen.As is the way with Seekers of the Sun, Y’lydi entered the breeding cycle with her Nunh, but when years went by and there was no sign of a pregnancy, she began to worry that there might be something wrong. When she brought up her fears to one of the healers, it was like a switch had flipped. No longer was she a favored mate. No longer was she asked to warm a bedroll. In fact, it almost seemed as if Y’rhen was ignoring her. After months of this cool dismissal, Y’lydi became disgusted with him and decided to leave the tribe. She felt like she held little worth to them anymore.At first, she went to Limsa Lominsa, and it was there that she became interested in guns--specifically, in the construction and sale thereof. Renting a tiny space above a shop, she began making and refurbishing guns, and selling them to collectors. Eventually she made enough money to buy herself a small beachside house in Mist, and began to work from there. It was around this time that she felt the desire to travel, so she began to visit the other major cities. In Gridania, there was not much luck, as the use of bows was standard fare there. When she went to Ul’dah, however, she ended up doing fairly well for herself, and not only sold what stock she’d brought with her, but took a few mercenary jobs as well to pay for lodging and still make a profit.She met a Midlander blacksmith named Arandor Steele in Ul’dah, and the two of them struck up a casual conversation that turned into lunch… and then dinner another day… and then a travelling partnership. It lasted a while, but when they parted it was with a promise to one day get back together for drinks. Y’lydi still tinkers, but she now trains to use the guns she makes.

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