Adelpha Sarantas
 Adelpha Sarantas (formerly Aldrisi Shirantas) | |
| |
| Gender | Female |
| Race | Hyur |
| Clan | Highlander |
| Citizenship | Limsa Lominsa |
| Nationality | Ala Mhigan, Garlean (renounced) |
| Nameday | 19th Sun of the 3rd Umbral Moon |
| Age | 28 |
| Guardian | Llymlaen, the Navigator |
| Occupation | Storm Lieutenant of the Maelstrom |
| Prior aliases | Aldrisi Shirantas |
Basic Info
At first glance, Adelpha is both a little bit too muscular to be a Midlander, and a little too slight to be a Highlander. She possesses the swarthy complexion and fighting spirit of an Ala Mhigan, and the strong work ethic and love of ale that only could belong to a Lominsan. She speaks with a slight accent that's hard for many to place, which is in reality an unusual combination of Ala Mhigan and Lominsan speech patterns.
Fiercely dedicated to protecting her homelands and her loved ones, Adelpha committed herself to the Maelstrom's service in 1572, just before the Foreign Levy itself was formally opened. The majority of the assignments that she undertook for the Maelstrom between 1572-1576 were confidential, though she has recently resurfaced in Limsa Lominsa.
History
Adelpha was born in 1549 in Ala Mhigo, the product of the union between an Ala Mhigan teacher (her mother) and a Garlean officer (her father) prior to the eventual conflict between the two nations. Shortly thereafter, the three moved to the capital of Garlemald to start a new life. Though Adelpha rarely saw her father due to his near-constant field assignments, their life continued in peace, for a time. Due to her mother's past occupation as a teacher, Adelpha learned a great deal during her childhood. Aside from reading and writing, Adelpha had a great interest in books about far-away places and cultures.
In 1557, at the age of eight, Garlemald annexed the city-state of Ala Mhigo in the wake of the recent unrest in Ala Mhigo caused by Theodorac. Though it seemed at first that the Empire's intentions were to liberate the city-state from its state of tyrannical oppression, it soon became clear to Adelpha's mother (through a chain of correspondence with her parents still in Ala Mhigo) that the Empire's real goals were far less altruistic. Struck by heavy worry and grief due to her close relationship with both sides of the conflict, Adelpha's mother began to think of a contingency plan that would ensure her daughter's safety in the event of the worst.
The following year in 1558, as political posturing and military saber-rattling continued to intensify in Garlemald, Adelpha's mother made a risky, but calculated, decision. Adelpha's mother arranged to have her daughter carried in secret on a merchant ship bound for the southern trade routes. She would be delivered to an orphanage in Limsa Lominsa, where she would be cared for and could live her life without fear of encroaching military conflict. Far on an island off the distant western coast of Eorzea -- a whole world away, it seemed -- she believed her daughter would be safe from the conflict that was beginning to envelop her homeland. She also gave her daughter a new name, to avoid being traced back to her original family and thereby to avoid deportation. The new name, while similar enough to Adelpha's birth name for the young child to easily remember, was a good enough permutation to conceal her birth name's Garlean origins. The name: Aldrisi Shirantas.
Adelpha's life continued peacefully until adulthood, full of days playing with her fellow children in the streets and alleys of Limsa Lominsa and getting in lots of harmless trouble. As she got older, she began to take on various odd jobs, working as a dockhand here and a barmaid there. The visiting sailors would often regail the beautiful young girl with stories of their exploits and adventures on faraway voyages, and she was always happy to take their tips and stories both.
As Garlemald resumed open hostilities in 1571, at the age of 22, Adelpha left Limsa Lominsa to study formalized martial training at the Academy of Expertly Trained Hydaelyn Explorers and Researchers (A.E.T.H.E.R.). After completing her studies, she wandered Eorzea for a time in search of some way to apply her skills toward the defense of Eorzea. Uninterested in traditional mercenary work, she eventually fell in with the Eorzean Guard, which, while technically a mercenary organization, possessed a rigid command hierarchy and a righteous code of ethics that separated it from typical mercenary groups, in her mind. She continued to serve with the Eorzean Guard's Third Division until the Grand Companies resurfaced the following year, and for a short time afterward.
Shortly before the Grand Companies opened public recruitment in the wake of Garlemald's reinvigorated hostilities, Adelpha applied for a position with the Maelstrom, and was accepted. After serving for several months as a low-level enlisted soldier, Adelpha received a promotion and was posted to a series of covert assignments. She was not publicly seen or heard from for four years, even in the wake of the Calamity. She eventually resurfaced in Limsa Lominsa in 1576, now a Storm Lieutenant.
Personality
Adelpha is warm and friendly to those she knows, though she can come across as a little cold or rigid to those she doesn't: a trait that she learned from a life lived around potentially-dangerous strangers. An enlisted member of the Maelstrom for several years -- and more recently a low-level officer -- she tolerates very little interference in the line of duty, and has open contempt for those who disrespect the Maelstrom's efforts to protect her homeland.
While
