Estelle Dusoir
| Estera LaRoche | |
 (Image is just a placeholder until I actually create her in the game.) | |
| Gender | Female |
| Race | Elezen |
| Clan | Unknown |
| Citizenship | Unaffiliated |
| Age | 23 |
| Guardian Deity | Oschon, the Wanderer |
| Occupation | Professional Hunter, Adventurer |
| Primary Disipline | Lancer |
| Secondary Disiplines | Pugilist, Archer |
| Nicknames/Aliases | Tera |
Basic Info
Estera LaRoche is an Elezen who currently works as a freelance hunter. She's particularly proficient at fighting with a spear, but she's also rather formidable with her bare hands or a bow. She lives and hunts in the forests that surround Gridania, although she doesn't consider herself a citizen of the city-state. In fact, she doesn't really pledge allegiance to anyone or anything in particular, and usually only looks out for herself. At the start of ARR, she decides to temporarily give up her reclusive lifestyle and becomes a full-time adventurer, primarily to gather the knowledge and resources necessary for her to locate her long-lost brother.
Estera has been living alone in the Twelveswood for about 8 years altogether, and the experience has molded her into a talented and formidable hunter. Her acute hearing, excellent reflexes, and outstanding levels of patience and determination are some of many aspects that make her a gifted hunter.
Being an Elezen of shorter stature is more advantageous than not for a hunter like Estera, as it makes it more difficult for her to be spotted by predator and prey alike. She is sturdily built and definitely has some muscle on her, but she's not exactly what one would call ripped. Her physique naturally comes from the diet and intense physical labour that comes with her hunter-gatherer lifestyle, and as such some of her muscle is hidden under a nice healthy layer of chub. Her diet largely consists of meat, nuts, berries, and tea.
Spending most of her time alone in the forest has had a negative impact on Estera's social skills and manners. To be frank, neither of them really exist. She is constantly covered in dirt and sweat (and occasionally blood). She is stubborn, blunt, brutally honest, and swears often. She can't eat anything without getting it all over her face and clothes, and never uses utensils. She often completely ignores people or even physically pushes them away if they engage in any social interaction that she feels doesn't benefit her. She doesn't take kindly to lying and mind games, and isn't afraid to call people out on their bullshit.
Estera isn't exactly what you would call religious, and only really acknowledges/preys to the Twelve as a force of habit. She still occasionally preys to her guardian deity, Oschon the Wanderer, to bring her brother safely back home before she goes to sleep at night, although she doesn't actually believe that it does anything. She believes that people shouldn't place all their hopes and dreams on the gods, and that if they want to get anything done they should just rely on themselves to do it. She doesn't think less of people who do follow the Twelve devoutly, however. It just isn't for her.
(Estera's clan will be decided upon once the beta/launch happens and I finally get to create her. Sorry about the ambiguousness of her clan until then!)
History
A Somewhat Brief Timeline (WIP):
(Some notes for context: Eveline and René LaRoche are Estera and Aldric's mother and father, respectively. They lived in a small community in the northern region of the Twelveswood while they were married. Eveline was a miner, and René was a mercenary.)
• (Estera, Age 0) Estera’s brother, Aldric, is born. Their father, René, is killed during a Garlean ambush while on a bounty hunt a few months later. Only his friend and fellow mercenary, Caedin Reine, survives. 5 years later, Caedin has a drunken one night stand with their mother, Eveline, after half-heartedly promising to help take care of her and her family. Caedin flees without a word as soon as he discovers that Eveline is pregnant. Estera is born when Aldric is 6.
• (Estera, Age 1~6) Aldric is a fantastic older brother to Estera. He helps look after the family, and teaches Estera the basics of fighting, hunting, and gathering once he feels she is old enough. Estera seems to have a natural talent for stealth, hunting with a spear, tracking prey, and hiding from predators. Her brother is fiercely proud of how quickly she picks up the skills, and they are rarely ever apart.
• (Estera, Age 6~12) As another 6 years pass, Eveline begins showing signs of severe black lung, and her health gradually deteriorates as time passes. Aldric, who grew up despising Caedin and blaming him for all the misfortune their mother has had to endure for the past few years, goes out to either find Caedin and have him pay to find a cure for their mother, or find a cure for her himself. Estera is scared to see her brother go, but she believes he will be successful and that he will come back soon.
• (Estera, Age 12~13) A year passes, and there is still no sign of her brother. Their mother dies in her sleep, and having no other family to turn to, Estera flees into the forest to search of her brother. She winds up getting lost, and decides to hide in a ditch for the night. She covers herself in mud and bushes to keep her safe from predators, and falls asleep.
• (Estera, Age 13~16) For the next 3 years, Estera fends for herself in the Twelveswood. She relies primarily on her extraordinary hearing and the skills her big brother taught her to survive. She is constantly on the move, and never stays in one place for longer than a week. She becomes excellent at hunting, and becomes somewhat of an urban legend in the areas she visits, known as the Twelveswood Geist.
• (Estera, Age 16) While in the middle of a hunt, Estera stumbles right into a Mercenary camp in the middle of dinner. Assuming that she’s just some runaway from Gridania, they capture her and decide to bring her back into town to look for her parents. The female hyur leader of the group, Ashlyn Faerin, has been in the area for a while. She quickly deduces that Estera must be the Geist the locals have recently been talking about. Despite Estera’s stubbornness, she eventually opens up to Ashlyn, thanks mostly to Ashlyn’s persistence. Ashlyn offers to let her go if she agrees to “intern” as her lackey in mercenary work. Estera reluctantly agrees, although she does try to escape a number of times within the first few weeks, all of which ends in failure. At first, Estera is simply stuck doing the grunt work at the small mercenary camps Ashlyn leads for the many different jobs she takes on. But eventually, after a few months, Ashlyn starts taking her aside and helps her work on her combat abilities. She also learns the bare-bones basics of how to cook, mend clothing, and repair weapons and armour while doing grunt work and chores. Even though she is constantly around large groups of people, Estera only really ever grows close to Ashlyn.
• (Estera, Age 18) Ashlyn finally decides that Estera is ready for a job. She takes her along on her latest contract to help take down a small drake who was making trouble for a nearby village. Estera fights bravely, and everyone comes out successful, happy, and alive. Ashyln gives Estera the nickname Drakebane, half as praise and half as a joke. Ashlyn is incredibly proud of Estera, and it looks like Estera is well on her way to becoming a full blown mercenary alongside her guide and mentor. The victory is short lived, however, as Ashlyn and the band she has currently formed are called upon by the Grand Companies to help deal with the growing Garlean threat. Estera feels she is ready to join the fight, but Ashlyn eventually convinces her to stay in Gridania until the situation is resolved. Estera is unhappy with being left behind again, but she eventually complies to Ashlyn’s wishes. A month passes, and finally the Battle of Cartenau begins. The battle quickly ends in disaster, and within a week Gridania receives news about the damage Bahamut wrought. Ashlyn is listed as MIA, and presumed to be dead among many other adventurers who were present at the battle. Estera gathers up what few possessions she has, and silently heads back to the Twelveswood.
• (Estera, Age 23) For the next 5 years, Estera works as a professional hunter in Gridania. She still spends most of her time in the forest, and only wanders into town to take on new jobs, complete current jobs, and to sell any extra food or hides she has on her. She usually prefers to trade the skins and meat she gathers on hunts for certain types of food, clothing, or other speciality items in lieu of gil, as she doesn't really have much need for currency out in the forest. The arrival of Bahamut changed many things within Eorzea, and the Twelveswood is no exception. The forest became a much fiercer and dangerous place over the next 5 years, and in turn became a formidable hunting and training ground for Estera. She's the person to go to if one needs something big and nasty taken down (and with the gradual increase of monsters, big and nasty things always need to be taken care of), but she is willing to take on smaller jobs if the pay is right.
• (Current Estera, Age 23) Now, 5 years after the summoning of Bahamut, Estera has decided to go out into the world and find out what happened to her brother all those years ago. She doesn't really much care about what happened to her birth father, she just wants to find out if her brother is dead or alive. Even if there is only a slim chance that he is still alive, she will stop at nothing until she is either able to see him again, or at the very least lay his body to rest.
Personality
(WIP)
GOOD TRAITS: Patient, determined, creative, honest, and confident (but not recklessly so). Has an incredibly strong will. Fantastic at hunting and gathering. When she finds a goal to focus on, she sticks with it until the end. Very focused and persistent. Incredibly loyal to anyone who somehow manages to get close to her. Willing to help out strangers if someone else is physically harassing them (but unwilling to get involved with them beyond that). Never backs down from a fight. Not afraid to speak her mind. Uninterested in wealth, fame, power, and knowledge (unless it concerns the whereabouts of her brother).
NOT-SO-GOOD TRAITS: Stubborn, unsociable, not easy to get along with, holds people at a distance, has no manners, usually follows no law or rules above her own, doesn't care about politics/the state of the world/laws, not very book smart, can only just barely read and write (and goes out of her way to hide the fact that she's so terrible at them), despises magic and is terrible at it, evasive, doesn't open up to anyone, willing to break the law if it gets in the way of her goal (but never breaks the law just for the heck of it), only relies on herself to get things done, not much of a team player.
LIKES:
Hunting something big, tough, and new. Challenging prey. Painting and sketching. Painting and sketching while taking shrooms. Honing her combat abilities. Running silently through the forest as fast and as far as she can. Discovering secret areas. A good, hard workout/fight. Being by herself.
DISLIKES:
Loud people, obnoxious people, braggarts, people who try to force her into social situations, pointless small talk, sour foods, being touched by people she doesn't know or like, people who try to force her to do anything, liars, manipulators, large crowds, relying on others.
CURRENT GOALS:
• To track down any and all information regarding the fate of her brother, Aldric.
• To become an adventurer. Mostly to help gather the resources and knowledge she needs to find her brother, but also to give her the opportunity to further hone her fighting skills. It also gives her an excuse to finally travel Eorzea and see all the amazing sights her mentor Ashlyn once described to her (this is something she's always secretly wanted to do, but she felt she never really had a good enough reason to just get up and leave the forest).
FEARS:
Getting stuck in uncomfortable social situations with people she doesn't know, heights (or at least anything higher than the lower branches of the trees in the forest), deep water (she can swim just fine; just just gets really anxious if she can't see the bottom), losing people who become close to her (yet another reason she avoids getting too close to people).
Affiliations
Currently not affiliated with anyone.
Secrets and Rumours
(Disclaimer: A lot of these rumours are greatly exaggerated.)
Easily Overheard Rumors:
"I hear the poor girl swears like a sailor, bleches like a pig, and smells like a swamp. It's no wonder she hasn't got any friends."
"Say what you will about the girl and her manners; anyone who can hear the twitch of a rodents nose a malm away or wrestle a bear to the ground with her bare hands has nothin' but admiration and respect from me."
"I heard that someone saw her catching fish with her bare hands in a stream a few days ago, and while she still had the fish in her hands, she just reached over and took a HUGE bite out of it! While it was still raw and wriggling and alive! How can anyone possibly live like that?!"
Difficult To Overhear Rumors:
"So, I hear yer in the market fer quality skins and certain... Speciality items, yeah? Whether it's skins or 'shrooms ye be wantin', I know just the huntswoman you'll be wantin' t' meet."
"Well I've heard that she's actually quite the artist. Didn't expect that, didja? Of course, I've never seen any of her work myself, so I can't say for certain if it's really any good or not. But I heard one day a while back that some poor urchin was caught gawking at some of her work when the pouch she keeps it all in fell and scattered everything in the middle of the street. Poor kid hasn't been seen since."
Impossible to Know (you'd have to be her best friend to know this):
• Before she died, Estera's mother did the best she could to try to teach Estera how to read and write, but even back then she had a lot of trouble with them. She struggled with it a lot, and absolutely hated the lessons because they made her feel stupid and inferior. She would often skip her mothers lessons in favour of going out to hunt with her brother. Presently, Estera can only just barely read or write simple sentences, and she often goes out of her way to avoid doing either of them if she can help it.
• Keeps a beautifully illustrated personal bestiary that lists every animal and monster she's ever hunted. Instead of writing the information down, which she avoids doing whenever she can, Estera translates any information she has into drawings, such as simple diagrams, maps, and arrows. The only time she ever writes anything in her book is if she draws up an entry of a monster she hunted at the request of someone else. It's then that she writes the name of the person who hired her, and the date and time of the beginning and conclusion of the hunt. The book includes may detailed maps and pictures that display information on where certain prey can be found, any weaknesses they may have, dietary habits, and any other information she may find useful for future hunts. There are also a few entries on interesting and useful plants she's come across. It isn't nearly as expansive or detailed as the Raimdelle Codex, but it works for her and it gives her an excuse to work on her art. She primarily uses pencil for basic sketching, and occasionally uses water colour paint she received as a reward for completing a hunt a few years back when she feels like adding colour.
• She especially loves drawing and painting while high on 'shrooms. She's not exactly ashamed of the fact that she takes them occasionally, it's just something she'd really rather keep private.
• Estera's unsociable behaviour doesn't just stem from her lack of social skills; Estera is actually legitimately afraid of getting forced into social situations with people she doesn't know. Being around strangers makes her anxious enough, but being forced to talk to them makes her really self conscious and stressed out. She especially hates it when they try to talk about things she doesn't know, and all she really knows is hunting, fighting, and living off the land, so there is quite a lot that she isn't knowledgeable about. It makes her feel incredibly stupid when she can't respond or doesn't know what someone's talking about, so she often just clams up and forces herself out of the conversation. Whenever she pushes someone aside or pretends to ignore them in order to get out of social interaction, it's less about her being rude or arrogant and more about her being embarrassed and just wanting to get back to the forest so she can be by herself for a while.
WIP SPOILERS FOR LATER ON IN ESTERA'S "QUEST FOR THE BRO(MANCE)" CHARACTER ARCH:
