Rin Maelark

Rin Maelark
Gender	Female
Race	Au Ra
Clan	Raen
Citizenship	Doma
Age	22
Nameday	19 Sun - 2 Umbral Moon
Height/Weight	4 fulms 9 ilms/92 ponz
Guardian	Oschon, The Wanderer
Occupation	Maid/Retainer
Alignment	Lawful Good

Rin Maelark (pronounced /'rin malärk/) is a Raen Auri Scholar and retainer of Doman heritage, specializing in healing magics. Daughter to a humble family of librarians, she eventually found herself caretaker of the Silver Mercenaries, a modestly-sized yet extremely capable mercenary band with Doman roots and a network that once reached across Eorzea. Upon disbanding of the Silver Mercenaries, Rin spent her time using recources gathered as being her former band's retainer to search for the whereabouts of it's missing members. Satisfied with her findings, she now travels looking to further her studies.

Basic Info

Likes ✦ Ambient light at night (Moon, stars, lanterns, fires, etc...) ✦ Harpsichord music ✦ Hot black tea ✦ Books ✦ Rolanberries

Dislikes ✦ Splintered Quills ✦ Shroud Hares ✦ Thunder ✦ Hats ✦ Tripping

Hobbies/Talents ✦ High pain tolerance ✦ Gardening ✦ Aether analysis ✦ Organization ✦ First Aid ✦ Reading

Other ✦ Favourite Food/Drink: Spiced Black Tea with Orange blossom Honey ✦ Favourite Creatures: Chocobos ✦ Least Favourite Food: Boiled Cabbage ✦ Least Favourite Creature: ... Shroud Hares

Appearance

Height: 4 fulms, 9 ilms - Rin stands among the shortest of adult female Au Ra, looking as if she barely grew past the onset of puberty.

Weight: 92 ponz - Matching her short stature, Rin holds little muscle or fat on her body. Some might categorize her as scrawny or borderline bony. Her limbs are long, slender, and generally soft, indicating her lack of muscle formation.

Complexion: Fair and pale, showing a general lack of sunlight attributed to years indoors spent studying and performing general housely duties. Prone to easily blushing, the color of her cheeks are a clear indicator of the Au Ra's internal temperature. Across her smooth skin lay a series of soft, almost iridescent scales holding a pale, golden undertone, the quantity of scales greater than that of the typical Au Ra, snaking over her arms, legs, neck, and midriff in gentle curls branching from a trail along her spine.

Face: Features soft and rounded, her face follows a loose heart-shape, coming to an attractive point of her chin. Below a slightly-upturned nose lay a pair of soft, rather plush-looking pale-pink lips, reflecting an idle, gentle smile. Her expression is often described as "sleepy" thanks to her gently sloping eyes and long eyelashes, framing a pair of dark-rimmed violet irises. Within low lighting or with varying stimuli, wisps of swirling violet aether can be seen trialing through the light-colored fibers.

Hair: Usually kept short and layered, her lush dark-green hair holds faint lighter-green highlights. Always combed to perfection, few hairs ever lay out of place, creating a smooth, pleasingly soft crown upon her head.

Scent: When wet or sweating, Rin typically holds a faint floral-sweet lily-like scent that feels very light and clean to the nose thanks to her penchant for regular and thorough grooming.

Oddities: While having the typical physiology of female Au Ra, Rin carries a few extra that may or may not be easily overlooked. Along with her unusually high scale-count and chubby gator-like tail, she also holds a pair of pearly white, sharp fangs none too different than that of the Miqo'te Keepers of the Moon, and behind those fangs is housed an extra-long almost reptilian-like tongue. Her body lacks the capability to produce its own heat, much like cold-blooded reptiles, leading her to being very susceptible to the elements.

Personality

Voice: Soft and gentle, her voice has difficulties rising over bustling crowds or buzzing rooms. When asked to raise her voice, her pitch often increases, as it does with embarrassment or nervousness. Otherwise, her tone is warm around those whom she is familiar and comfortable, or generally quiet and laced with the occasional stutter around strangers.

Demeanor: Proper and polite, Rin takes pride in her refined appearance. In private or parties of few, she is thoughtful and pensive, often kind yet still maintaining a general wariness. However in large groups or with unfamiliar or intimidating individuals, she becomes much more reserved and easily startled, often leading to fumbles or accidents, seemingly wearing her heart on her sleeve. Rin is humble of her own abilities, always of the mind that there is always more to be learned, along with not having many opportunities to demonstrate her talents with healing magics or other aetherial manipulation.

Intelligence: Having been a child of books and learning, attending proper schools until her tweenage years, Rin has always had a love for reading and studying. Because of this, her intelligence level is above average, lending to her being able to pick up new subject matter rather quickly and with general ease. Though when she reaches a personal road block, it is typically met with extreme frustration. With her occupation, she is familiar with many regions, and is quick on the draw with mental calculations.

Quirks: Never without some form of way to take notes, Rin is often found with mini-tomes tucked away in her pockets or satchels, containing many important scribblings of her often wandering mind. She is very often found seeking warmth in one way or another, whether it be through fires, warm clothing, sunlight, or physical contact, Rin is unable to tolerate extreme temperatures well, being chilled leading her to acting sluggish and sleepy. Withdrawn around unfamiliar persons, Rin is very self-conscious of her appearance, namely her physical oddities, fearing as if they will be pointed out or picked upon. Has an extreme fear of thunder.

Combat

Specialization: Healing. More specifically aetherial manipulation. Rin is able to manipulate the natural aethers within a body, encouraging rapid production and growth of new cells and tissue, effectively knitting and mending marred or damaged flesh. Along with the ability to heal, she can also incapacitate, using that same aether manipulation to temporarily paralyze muscles -- effective in both halting the frenzied movements of a panicking patient along with making a quick getaway in a tight situation.

Weaknesses: Combat on the field. With almost no experience in the heat of actual battle and little to no physical training, Rin suffers on the battlefield, finding herself easily tired and lacking stamina.

Gear: With no neaed for armor of really any kind, she wears mostly lighter clothing in warmer climates, or heavier coats for cooler, focusing on comfort rather than the functionality beyond a satchel or bag for books, parchment, or graphites.

Biography

Rin Maelark is an Auri of the Raen clan, born to the keepers of a small library within her hometown. Constantly surrounded by knowledge, the small girl wasted little time in developing a passion for books and studying as she grew older, showing her prodigal nature as a healer and living aetherial battery.

1555 - 1560: Early Childhood

Nurtured lovingly by her parents within a humble village in Doma, Rin quickly shows a promising talent with learning, speaking, walking, and showing more complex comprehension at an early age. She expresses a great interest in the subject matter of the books that patrons of her parent’s library check out, asking question after question until they leave the building. It wasn’t uncommon to see Rin re-shelving books, or rather find her among a ring of books on the floor, trying to understand their contents as she became distracted from her chores. With her father, a man well-known to allies against the Garleans as a hub for information for the resistance, she would travel to nearby villages and tribes, delivering and trading books and parchments, meeting her first and longest-standing friend, Odtsetseg Qestir. Showing great promise thanks to her natural desire to study, she begins her formal schooling early. From there, the small Auri child begins to rapidly learn of her abnormalities -- Being teased by classmates for her small size, excess of scales, and embarrassingly long tongue, Rin begins to draw into herself and become more reserved. In avoiding the other children, she begins to venture into the nearby woods, finding solace in the smells and sounds of nature, and the solitude to read and study in peace.

1561 - 1564: Childhood

As her school years go on, the teasing persists. Children calling her “Lizard Girl” thanks to her odd features. Trips and ‘accidental’ smacks to the back of her head become increasingly common to see the comical unraveling of her tongue make the girl tight-lipped and rarely speak. Though bullied at school, Rin never let her passion for learning die, simply replacing social interaction with time spent reading, placing herself at levels beyond those her age.

After noticing a faint glow coming from the stone adorning a rather complicated book within a rather dusty portion of their library, Rin discovers that this particular book details a wide series of complicated magical topics beyond her understanding. Stealing that book from the library and tucking it within her belongings, she begins the study of very elementary magics.

In 1563, Rin falls prey to a roaming band of notorious bullies, cornered and helpless as they begin to pick and tease, harsh words quickly escalating to physical violence. It was then she met Gaius Valtierre, the leader of a group of children that called themselves the Ahriman’s Eye, when he stumbled upon the altercation and quickly broke it up. Inspired by his selflessness, Rin is unable to shake him nor the group from her thoughts. The rare times the girl left her home, she would keep an eye out for the young Elezen and his friends, always watching from afar as she admired their bravery.

Sadly, someone could not always be around every corner to save her.

1564: Keystone

Due to Rin’s unwillingness to venture outside most days, local children furthered their teasing and bullying against her, seeing her as an odd shut-in. During a trip to the local market for more quills and parchment, a local group of children cornered the Auri girl, verbal teasing quickly escalating to physical confrontation. In a moment of desperation and frustration, Rin released an Aetherial burst, effectively paralyzing the children and any within a 100 fulm radius of her location.

Thanks to her outburst, Rin quickly became a target for ridicule and aggression, as did her parents. With threats to their livelihood, Rin’s parents reluctantly encouraged the girl to assume and maintain the Miqo’te form that had been reserved soley for trips made with her father, convincing the village that the girl they had once known as Rin had been sent to a facility in a distant city to keep the innocent from harm’s way. Thanks to her natural overabundance of aetheric energy and uncanny control, she was easily able to maintain her new form indefinitely, even through sleep and extreme exhaustion, only releasing it to exchange for another, slightly aged form when appropriate. With that, she lived within the library, posing as a new attendant to replace the girl who had been sent away. However with her new form came a new false confidence, the pink-haired Miqo’te soon finding herself able to wander the village without snary a grimace or scowl directed at her. Delighted, she immediately made to join the Ahriman’s Eye, acting as a source of first aid and retainer.

1565 - 1566: Life Rebuilt

However unknowing to the girl, that very group would have contributed to the destruction of the village she called home and the loss of her parents. With the Ahriman’s Eye uncovering an invasion plot devised by the Garleans, the small town was consequently razed, the survivors scattered to the winds searching for anywhere that would welcome refugees. With the library being a hub for knowledge distribution, her parents were ruthlessly trapped within the building and burned alive, Rin having having been out with members of the Ahriman’s Eye, only able to watch helplessly as the life she once knew lit up in flames.

Upon fleeing, eventually she would come across Gaius once more, the small group of newly homesless youth taking up residence in an abandoned cottage along the Doman countryside. From there, the group made a place for themselves, hardened by their childhoods cut short.

1567 - 1572: The Silver Mercenaries

Living alongside her new friends and comrades, Rin fostered her love of study and healing, filling in for small needs whenever their resident healer was otherwise indisposed, and practicing her new techniques upon herself in private. Though as her healing prowess began to plateau, her interests began to fall into the surplus of aetheric charge that fueled her outburst during her last day as an Au Ra. In time, she began to hone that ability, learning to utilize it for controlled paralysis.

Over the years she put her thirst for knowledge to work, refining herself as a well-rehearsed maid, combing over etiquette books, learning to present herself as a poised and proper servant. Though as she made aquiantances and friends, Rin often feels an emptiness within her intractions, the faces she know only trusting a false version of herself, yet she continues to convince herself that the change was for the best.

In time, the small band became known as the Silver Mercenaries, their captain leading them to renown status through victory after victory. But with the advencement of Garlemald within Doma, they found themselves forced to flee to Eorzea.

1572 - 1577: Post-Calamity

With the headquarters of the Silver Mercenaries destroyed in the Calamity, Rin sets off in search of information of her dispersed and missing crew-members. For two and a half years she searched relentlessly, using whatever resources she could muster to learn the whereabouts of the former members, learning much to her dismay that many were killed in battle or simply missing. Slowly her efforts began to die as hopes of finding those lost began to wane. She began to bury herself in books once more, repeatedly returning to the tome she liberated from her hometown's library. Eventually through her studies, she manages to manifest a faerie, finding that the glowing stone within the binding of that tome was in fact a soulstone.

However as rumors began sprouting of many missing individuals from the Battle of Carteneau reappearing, Rin's hopes sparked once more as she began her search anew, setting her studies into the scholarly arts of healing aside as she began to look for her lost companions once more.

1577 - Present: Reemergence of Au Ra

Upon locating the former leader of the Silver Mercenaries, Rin reinstitutes herself as a retainer and maid, traveling as she sees fit to further her studies and make a living. During a confrontation, Rin discards her Miqo'te glamour in desperation and vows to remain as her true self henceforth, learning how to live once more as a frail, cold-blooded Au Ra. Realizing her frail body as a major weakness, she has begun endurance training in the form of dance lessons, kept in private out of embarrassment.

Rumors Some of these rumors are untrue or are greatly exaggerated. Please feel free to add your own rumors under PC! ◢ Common Rumors (Easily overheard) ✦ "I fell and scraped my knee while playing with my friends. She looked at it for a minute before touching it. Her fingers glowed pink and everything! After that there wasn't a scrape anymore." - A Young Child of Gridania ✦ "She's got a little booklet in her pocket that she references a lot. Never seen 'em that tiny before" -- Marketplace Vendor ◢ Moderate Rumors (Moderately difficult to overhear) ✦ "The poor girl just can't seem to hold her liquor. One drink and she's flushed as a bride on her wedding day." -- Barmaid ✦ "I seen a bright thing flittin' around her while I was walkin' back to me ship at night, looked a bit like a butterfly, but with a little person instead o'a bug. I think I need to stop drinkin' so much o'tha cheap swill." -- Drunken Bar Patron ✦ "Such a frail girl, and yet she's so persistent with those dance lessons." -- Ul'dahn Dance Instructor ◢ Rare Rumors (Very difficult or rarely overheard) ✦ "I thought I once saw someone by her name, though the girl I remember was a pink-haired Miqo'te..." -- A Guardsman of Limsa Lominsa ✦ "Saw someone speak ill of a friend of hers once, never seen anger literally flash in anyone's eyes before." -- Bystanding Citizen of Gridania ✦ "I-I tried to sneak up on her one day -- seemed an easy target, a frail thing. But as soon as I laid a hand on 'er my entire arm went numb! C-couldn't move it for hours, I don't know what she did! " -- Backalley Bandit ◢ PC Rumors (Rumors from the character's of other players. IC please!) ✦ ??? ✦ ??? ✦ ???

Gallery

Footnotes

Theme Song: "Promise"

TV Tropes: A-Cup Angst, Adorkable, Book Snap, Bullying a Dragon, But I Read a Book About It, Conveniently an Orphan, Dark and Troubled Past, Doomed Hometown, Freakiness Shame, Girls Love Stuffed Animals, I Just Want to be Beautiful, I Just Want to be Normal, Kids are Cruel, Mistaken Age, Shrinking Violet, Spell Book, Squishy Wizard, True Companions, Trying Not to Cry, WIP~