Qara Qalli

Qara Qalli
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The Dreamteller
Gender	Female
Race	Au Ra
Clan	Xaela
Citizenship	N.A. (native of Othard)
Tribe	Qalli (previously related to the Tumet)
Age	Late 20s
Marital Status	Single
Occupation	Witch doctor, medicine & drug peddler, herbalist, street performer
Server	Balmung

"We are often two, and they make war in us." [WIP]

BASIC INFO

Qara Qalli is an Au Ra recently arrived in Eorzea. The self-proclaimed healer is almost never seen without a large, casket-like case in tow, and is quite happy to reveal its contents upon request - 'Chora', her zither (a yatga). This she plays on and sings to more than willingly to any poor, unfortunate soul who would lend his or her ears. Typically, the subject matter covered is grimmer or more morbid than would have been expected of the sweet, smiling (if overly cryptic) Xaela, who is likely afterwards to hand a perplexed listener 'dreamweed' from Othard. Visions are her mission - she'll read your pulse and what you see in slumber to lead you to your destiny. If you believe her...

Recent Events

She is mostly found wandering in areas in the Twelveswood and Thanalan, especially in areas of religious interest, such as the Church of Saint Adama Landama.

CHARACTER (IN-DEPTH)

Appearance

Qara's most recognizable feature is her waist-length red hair, kept long and mostly worn loose, only braided for prolonged hunts. Qara applies tribal concoctions and oils to her hair, smoothing out her curls for ‘civilization’. Days out in the wild, however, can produce a bright, oblong puff of red, likely a hive of tiny bits of leaves and grass too.

Her pale green eyes seem too large and staring for her face, giving her a deceptively forlorn, childlike appearance. Few see the ghosts lying just out of reach in them. Her complexion and liberal use of face paint also help to mask the dark eye rings she possesses from regular sleep deprivation. (“Sleep is a sacred space," or so she claims; she both fears and yearns for the visions in her dreams.)

Her skin is a dark loam-brown, adorned with the deep blue of Xaelan scales and tiny scars in places, liberally tattooed down her back, thighs and arms. Her left calf sports a large, wide scar from having been pierced through years ago. This is the leg she tends to drag behind her from a phantom pain, and which gives her a somewhat awkward walking gait.

While lean in physique, Qara seems awkwardly put-together. She is broad-shouldered, also possessing a generous chest and hips that do not seem quite congruent with the thinned-out rest of her from long periods on the move. She seems to be a woman stunted, not yet fully formed, yet not a girl anymore either, as if something happened to stop growth in its tracks. Her hands are another characteristic feature - small broad palm and long fingers with an uncanny grip. Tiny and dark overall, with her wrists and ankles adorned with jewelry and charms, Qara gives the impression of a webbed swamp creature jingling its way through tall grasses.

Personality

The musician is usually smiling and cheery, and always in earnest, though those who interact with her for some time may realize that she’s actually often nervous when interacting with people. She gets by on pure will. When speaking, Qara has a tendency to ramble and reveal a little too much about herself - details that most people might consider private or better kept secret. The common assumption is that this is innocence and naivety, but the real truth of the matter is that Qara doesn’t see herself as having anything to lose.

This, along with what Qara sees as a gods-given vision, makes her all too willing to put herself in danger for others without actually investing in or depending on them emotionally.

In fact, she doesn’t actually trust anyone with the important things. Those who are in closer contact with Qara may begin to realize that she hardly ever asks for personal favors. When someone gets a little too close emotionally, Qara may become curt and distant, wanting to spare herself inevitable hurt.

While Qara is mostly calm, she can lunge into violent rages if aggravated enough. Qara's religiosity and music serve to contain an erratic personality and what she considers her inherent ‘unruliness’. If deprived of these, one might observe a significantly crankier, bitterer Qara.

Beliefs / Values

Life is an ongoing battle against oneself, which is essentially a microcosm of what happens on a larger scale between clans, lands, polities. Qara does not believe in self-abnegation, rather, in balance, in harmony. She 'preaches', then, the necessity of both the monster and the leash. She is herself an often clumsy specimen of that ideal. She believes in the redemption of all living things, and that death can also be a sort of redemption. All lives and deaths have their purposes in the achievement of the will of the gods; she is but a servant of theirs sent to reveal the destinies of others.

Thus, while as a healer Qara is committed to alleviating pain, she can just as likely believe in the purpose or necessity of suffering, death, or even cruelty, and even deliver these things herself. On Her / her own terms, of course.

Abilities ■ General musical proficiency - especially skillful at the use of drums, percussion instruments, and zithers. ■ Has knowledge of herbs, psychoactive plants and the use of traditional medicinal methods and poisons. ■ Though by no means the best, she is decent at the use of knives in battle by Eorzean standards, as all members of her tribe undergo basic training in this. In her tribe, however, she'd be considered mediocre. ■ Qara also specializes in dream interpretation. ■ She feels a spiritual connection with 'nature', and is most at home in open spaces, also possessing a keen understanding of the land.

Weaknesses ■ Only semi-literate - knows her alphabet, but her reading is limited to simple signs. Distrusts technology and those who appear too ‘well-read’. ■ Lacks confidence and is easily hurt, but also tends to nurse her wounds in tears and quiet without retaliating or standing up for herself - unless provoked to fury ■ Sarcasm and humour may sometimes elude her, as she tends to take people’s words as earnestly as she gives hers. ■ Sometimes socially awkward and has a tendency to commit social blunders because of cultural differences. Is terribly out-of-place indoors as well. ■ Her complete lack of self-preservation - in various aspects - lands herself, and perhaps even others, in trouble more often than she expects.

Likes ■ Artists, artisans and their creations. ■ Patterns - the more intricate, the better. ■ Music, sound - in fact, Qara delights in sensory abundance of all kinds. ■ Nature & open spaces. ■ Storms - she's almost home then. ■ Children - believe it or not. ■ Animals / 'beasts' - she is especially drawn to the grotesque. Though she may sometimes be disposed to deep kinship with them, she's just as likely to hunt and kill for various purposes. ■ Eating - do not contest her appetite when unleashed. She may display the worst table manners ever. ■ Being of service to others, though she sees no need to like the people in question...

Dislikes ■ Being indoors for a prolonged amount of time. ■ Garleans, magitek and most forms of sophisticated technology. Qara can be quite the Luddite. ■ Those who intimidate, trap or inflict verbal cruelty on others. ■ Those who take pleasure in displaying their erudition and expansive vocabulary. She doesn't understand you. Speak plainly, please. (As if Qara does... she's potentially the most cryptic and confusing of you lot.)

Other Traits ■ Exhibits some childlike mannerisms - habits such as biting her nails, twirling her hair, picking at scabs, nervous girlish giggles, etc. It’s almost as if she’s making up for lost youth. Also tears up easily when agitated or over-glad. ■ Sometimes speaks in a half-excited, breathless manner, as if she’s been holding words back for too long. Her years as a member of the Qalli tribe have introduced a distinct, uneven lilt to her voice. ■ Qara's singing voice is airy, breathy, high-pitched - a little too sharp at times - people who actually appreciate her singing would consider it an 'acquired taste', really. (She might sound like this or this.) ■ Hoards. She collects everything and anything, and is known to casually pocket little items that belong to others without quite registering what she’s doing. Strangely enough, on the other hand, she is also fond of sharing everything and anything she possesses. ■ Seldom sleeps - is known to go for 2 days straight without slumber and then crash for another forty-eight bells after.

HISTORY

(The following is likely to be common knowledge or hearsay for Tumet-related groups.)

Some of the older ones still remember this: Qara (as she was known as after) was born slow. 'Slow' for what it meant to a more esoteric offshoot of the Tumet clan, at any rate, and of course such an unfortunate distinction caused the girl more than her fair share of problems from young. At ten, she was the last of the children to free herself, and the last of them to reach the camp before it moved... she'd barely passed the test. She'd barely survived at all, and divine intervention alone, or so it seemed, ensured her survival. It was a better year by all accounts, and she alone did poorly.

Deemed 'unfit' for most direct battle, yet possessing a substantial amount of Aether, ‘Qara’ was taken under the wing of a prominent ‘Seer', or diviner, of their sub-clan. She taught her the ways of medicines, poisons, and dreaming; they took turns to play the war drums, and sometimes the Seer would let her sing the dirge, the only song of the tribe. It is said that after Qara's first bleeding, victory always went to the clan whenever she was behind a drum. There was considerable frenzy generated about this, and they called her 'walking death', 'singing death', then.

Not all of this attention was undesirable. Qara became the object of quasi-religious fascination for the angry and equally isolated Sarnai, a cloak-and-dagger assassin of the clan. Qara returned Sarnai's worship with a passion she hadn't known she possessed, and slowly, quietly, they amassed a list of strange crimes. The older ones aren't certain about the specifics anymore, and debating the facts through the years has become a favorite past-time - had the two mangled a couple of horses? meddled with their enemies' corpses once? - or tortured a captive indiscriminately when it came to their turn to watch the night? People observed, too, a notable rift growing between Qara and her mentor. The younger one had begun to question, challenge and make song, breaking her characteristic meekness in a manner undesirable to Tumet stoicism.

Still, Qara was useful. Until, for reasons still largely incomprehensible to all, she turned upon the Seer at Sarnai’s urging, and the spiritual mother of the tribe was slain.

Much of the whole affair remains an enigma. Whatever the pair’s motivations had been, the elders knew they could no longer turn a blind eye to their misdeeds. While Sarnai’s fate is unknown, Qara’s punishment was clear, and far more straightforward. There was the ritual performed to strip her of her given name, and, as per custom, she was speared through the leg and left to seemingly certain death in perilous territory.

Yet, somehow, Qara lived. And returned.

She has held on defiantly to her first name to this day. Those who come back in this way are chosen, and the Xaela are not wont to question the will of the gods, who had stayed death’s hand a second time for Qara. Qara drifted among various tribes for years, bearing a vision from the Dusk Mother, only settling with the Qalli a long time after. There she learnt and grew, in music and in her strange arts and philosophies - but remained, as always, the ‘odd’ one. It came as no surprise to anyone when she finally left them, and Othard, too, singing of blood, redemption, fate, and of herself... guiding those who care or dare to listen dream their own destiny into being.

MISCELLANEOUS

Rumours Some of these rumors are untrue or are greatly exaggerated. Please feel free to add your own rumors under PC! ◢ Common Rumors (Easily overheard) ■ "'Er voice's as coeurl's claws draggin' themself across ma axes 'ere, and it's them blades' ringin' that loses. Pit-fully. Don't get 'er started!" - A bounty hunter based in Gridania ■ "The horned girl pilfers a couple of faerie apples from my stall, right, and so we chase her, and down she goes, juice down her chin, brow to ground. She forgot! she says, and turns goddamn baby's eyes on me, 'sorrys' all over the sky, talks like a snake at its own tail... and thrusts the half-eaten fruits back at us! Then spills her pouch and gives us this - this thing - for my daughter, as if I had one - and, I don't know, nutritious Othardian centipede dust as recompense? All this while fiddling with the hilt of those daggers, goddammit, and you wonder why we just let her go? Do you want this doll?" - an agitated merchant from the Golden Bazaar ■ "She is terribly good with her hands." - a coy Miqo'te street dancer ■ "Look here - for all our sakes, you've to stop tossing her name all over the place like that. She's a gift, godsent or voidsent, parts with those 'happy herbs' for almost nothing at all." - a dubious, well-dressed, pipe-smoking Ul-dahn ◢ Rarer Rumors (Difficult to overhear) ■ "Believe what you must of her, but do not think her gentle." - An Au Ra Xaela from an unidentified tribe ■ "Some would call her a kinslayer. I have seen one or two reasons not to think otherwise." - a venturing Elezen retainer ◢ PC Rumors (Rumors from the character's of other players) ■ None yet.

Relationships ♥ Romantic Interest    ♥ Platonic Love     ● Good Standing     ● Neutral Standing     ● Poor Standing ●Yorumei Uranakei: Two chance meetings. Two cryptic conversations. She feels an inexplicable sense of connection with the Raen. It's not trust, not fondness, and certainly not actual understanding in any way - only that, so far, they seem to occupy the same 'realm' of language. That, and the fact that he acknowledges Chora without questioning her strangeness. Or questioning at all. ●Ogudei Ayanga: Xaelan bandit who managed to make off with her daggers, after a prolonged stand-off involving a bargain for his poisoned partner's life. Ogudei only came close to breaking Qara by holding her zither hostage and snapping its strings. He is a beast of a man, even to Kana, the afore-mentioned accomplice (as observed). Qara does not fear him, and her attitude towards him is the same that she bears towards all who mindlessly plunder - she regards him simply as a sad, if necessary, fact of existence. ●Kana Miyumi: Ogudei's partner-in-crime, more child than fighter, nearly falling to Qara's poisons. Qara pities the girl, but sees in her a quiet strength that has yet to grow its leaves. ●Ieyasu Ryushin: He made soup at a refugees' camp, and readily furnished a passing Qara with some. Of course he's a Good Person - all who cook for others are. Calm and compassionate, if altogether unreadable, there is far more to him than what meets the eye. Qara does not know him well, but she respects him and is grateful for his offering her a temporary home in a little refugees' villa. Gallery Error creating thumbnail: File missing Error creating thumbnail: File missing Error creating thumbnail: File missing Error creating thumbnail: File missing Links & Footnotes IC / inspiration tumblr: http://monstressmarvel.tumblr.com Additional profile details on tumblr here (her player's just too lazy to merge it into the wiki document...) This weird mystic is always looking to meet new people! You can contact me via PM on the RPC or on tumblr. Layout courtesy of Bancroft Gairn.