Zakash Firemane

Error creating thumbnail: File missing  Zakash Firemane
Error creating thumbnail: File missing
Gender	Male
Race	Miqo'te
Clan	Seeker of the Sun
Citizenship	Limsa Lominsa
Age	37
Marital Status	...It's a bit complicated
Occupation	Shopkeep
Height/Weight	5'8"/~150lbs
Orientation	Effectively homosexual
Relatives	Tsunhe (son) Ishi (son) Kashti (mother of his children, deceased) Syrri (mother, deceased)

A world-weary and questionably reformed thief getting his world back to equilibrium.

Basic Info

Born and bred in Limsa Lominsa long before its "reformation", Zakash Firemane has spent most of his life working on keeping his life, although his definition of "keeping" has changed, considerably and multiple times, over the years. He has been a thief, a teacher, a father, a brother, an adventurer, and a lost soul, usually all at the same time. Recently, he has been learning how to be something new: his own man, living his own life.

LIKES ■ Luxury ■ Books ■ Family ■ Stability with a little excitement to keep things interesting

DISLIKES ■ Ul'dah in general ■ Boredom ■ Seeker tribal mentality ■ A quiet life

OTHER ■ Alignment: Neutral with good tendencies ■ Vice(s): Smoking ■ Favorite Food: Fresh fruit ■ Favorite Drink: Wine ■ Favorite Color: Green

Appearance & Personality

Zakash is tall for a Miqo'te -- over five fulm eight -- and well built, although in a way that suggests athleticism rather than brute strength. His hair is a striking deep red, worn long and only haphazardly tied up (when he bothers to tie it at all), which actually goes quite well with his golden eyes and deeply tanned skin, and his jaw is usually scruffy and in need of a shave.

The Miqo'te's muscular body is an intricate map of scars, most superficial and uninteresting. The only one that really catches the eye is what looks like an old burn scar that covers most of his left shoulder, upper arm, and ribs. There's a story behind that one, clearly, and Zak isn't at all adverse to telling it if asked. His hands are callused and his claws kept sharp, but his touch is gentle, and he can usually be found with a smile.

On the surface Zak is as he appears to be: warm, gregarious, and caring. He's also an incurable dadcatte, insisting on caring for those he cares about, despite any objections... although he usually never gets called out on it and is often proven right even if he is. Such is the nature of his dysfunctional little family. He is also more clever and competent than people often give him credit for; how else do you think the law has been kept off his doorstep for so many months and years? Someone has to forge all those documents and pay all those bribes, after all.

Underneath it all, though, in the dark places Zakash doesn't like to admit he even has, is a lost, lonely man almost utterly incapable of dealing with his less pleasant emotions. He has a fear of abandonment -- although it's questionable if he's even aware of it, and he certainly wouldn't admit to one if asked -- and a nasty habit of inwardly blaming himself when he is abandoned, no matter where the fault lies, even if outwardly he's happy to share blame. He also has little idea how to be anything than what he has always been: the eternal father and caretaker, the one who cleans up the messes, who waits in the background. Ideas like passion, impulsiveness, and carelessness are foreign to him. It remains to be seen if anyone or anything will come along to successfully jar him out of this lifelong rut.

Biography

Childhood

Zakash was born in the underside of Limsa Lominsa to a dockside prostitute, never knowing his father and not much caring besides. He learned how to steal, how to hide, how to wield knives, and how to talk himself in and out of trouble as a matter of survival, and eventually his talents landed him with the Upright Thieves. He was personable and gregarious, counting most of Limsa's young urchins among his circle of friends and acquaintances, but one in particular was his constant companion from they time they were both children, a Miqo'te girl named Kashti.

Teenage

As the two Miqo'te grew older, their relationship took something of a natural course, and Kashti ended up pregnant with twins at fifteen. Unfortunately, Kashti was a tiny girl, ill-suited to bearing twins, and too young to be bearing at all, in fact. The birth was hard, nearly killing her, and although the boys were born strong and healthy, Kashti never fully recovered. She died just after her sons' first birthday, leaving a seventeen-year-old Zak to raise their children alone.

Then, around the time he was twenty-five, Zak was introduced to a teenage Duskwight named Aiouxdaux Beaumont. At the request of Aioux's parents, Zak sought to direct the boy's energy and penchant for getting into trouble to towards the rogue's arts, and during their time together, the Miqo'te found himself developing feelings for his pupil... feelings he kept entirely to himself, both because of the difference in their ages and their relationship as mentor and student.

Adulthood

Zak kept their friendship purely platonic for the next ten years, even while picking up the pieces of Aioux's life when the Elezen returned to Limsa following a catastrophic shipwreck. Circumstances, however, took the matter out of his hands eventually, revealing both the Seeker's long-held secret and the fact that his feelings were returned. Sadly, the relationship was doomed almost from the start; Zak was still in love with the boy he had known over a dozen years before, and Aioux was unwilling and unable to compromise his own lifestyle to accomodate a monogamous relationship. Things ended... poorly.

Heartbroken and disillusioned, Zak threw himself into his work for the XI:7 corporation and the family he found in its owner, Garryson Shipkeeper; Garryson's wife, Aireiel; and the couple's young children. Eventually, the Miqo'te found another balm as well, in the form of another Seeker recentely self-exiled from his tribe and seeking a place to belong. Zakash and J'cyn fell in love and eventually married... but this, like all Zak's relationships it seemed, was not meant to be, and less than a season after their wedding, J'cyn returned to his tribe. Around the same time, Garryson and Aireiel abruptly decided they had tired of public life, choosing to move to Aireiel's family orchard in the country to live quietly and raise their children. Zak was utterly alone.

Now utterly lost, Zak fled Limsa Lominsa for the first time in his life, seeking succor with his children. He stayed for a time with his older son in Ul'dah, before Tsunhe convinced his father that now was as good a time as any to live his life for himself, rather than for anyone else. Taking his son's advice to heart, Zak left again, this time for the north, for Coerthas and Dravania, determined to learn what it was like to live, rather than simply guide other people through their lives.

Present

Recently, Zakash has finally returned to the place he will always really call home. Not much has changed in the city-state of his birth, and he's not sure if that's a good thing or bad. His homecoming was... rough, as he was immediately confronted with the knowledge that Aiouxdaux was engaged, as were Zak's friends Julien and Amedee. It has taken some time to readjust, but it's been helped along by having something to do, as he has ended up something of a spymaster for his new, unusual, unexpected family -- a full time job thanks to Amedee's incessant troublemaking. The recent reappearance an old friend of his past, and the kindling of long-dormant embers into something more, has done even more.

Miscellaneous

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) ■ "You need anythin' while yer in the city, head on down to this li'l shop dockside, ask fer Zakash. He'll hook you up, an' no questions asked neither." -- a patron of the Drowning Wench ■ ■ ◢ Moderate Rumors (Moderately difficult to overhear) ■ "Oh, him? Nah, he's never even looked at a girl. Not since his wife passed on, and that was ages ago. She must've been something special." -- definitely not one of the members of the Upright Thieves who's known Zak since childhood ■ ■ ◢ Rare Rumors (Very difficult or rarely overheard) ■ "Menphina Herself must be displeased with him! How else do you explain such bad luck in love? Poor fellow." -- an unnamed resident of the Mist housing district to her friend ■ "Don't try to beat him in a drinking contest. You'll be under the table before he's even tipsy." -- wise advice overheard at the Drowning Wench ■ "He might not look like much, but I've heard he's got eyes everywhere. Some kind of weird spymaster for that Ishgardian he lives with..." -- Unknown ◢ PC Rumors (Rumors from the character's of other players) ■ "'e 'as a tendency to be e'ery sod's dad, yeah? If ya look e'en a li'l downtrodden, 'e'll come 'long 'n try ta fix ya right up. As aggravatin' as it is cute as shite." - Niyu'to Subdi ■ ■ ■

RELATIONS ♥ Romantic Interest ♥ Sexual Interest ♥ Platonic Love ● Good Standing ● Neutral Standing ● Poor Standing ♥ Niyu'to Subdi : An old, old friend of Zakash's from the days when they were both young men in the Upright Thieves, who recently turned up on Zak's doorstep, out of the blue. An offer of shelter somehow turned into a friends-with-benefits situation, tempered by age and familiarity, while an unexpected set of exposed truths has made it something more. Only time will tell where it will go from here. ♥ C'vesh Tia : Something of an adopted son, Zak took in the young Seeker when C'vesh was newly arrived to Limsa Lominsa, teaching the boy how to fight and how to survive in the wider world. He feels awful about abandoning him, but C'vesh doesn't seem to harbor any ill will towards Zak for it, something the older Miqo'te is immensely grateful for. ● Julien Fortier : Zakash gets along well with Julien, which may or may not be quite a feat, depending on who you're talking to. Well enough, in fact, to leave the little house in Mist in Julien's care while going on his rather unexpected pilgrimage. Since coming home, Zak has begun to view him as family. ● Amedee Delacroix : Although he and Amedee have started disagreeing rather vehemently on the nature of fate and free will, Zak still likes the Duskwight very much. As with Julien, Amedee is becoming something akin to family to him. ● Cerelaut Levesque : Thanks to Amedee (it's funny how much of Zak's life can be prefaced by that phrase), Zakash ended up with an injured Elezen recuperating in his bedroom, and the two have bonded surprisingly quickly and well. Zak finds himself fretting over the old man more than is maybe warranted, but Cerelaut seems to enjoy it, so... no harm done? ● Kitri'a Dusmoni : A spirited young Keeper Zak was introduced to not long after returning to southern Eorzea. Zak thought something might come of their mutual attraction... until he realized Kitri'a wanted nothing to do with the older Miqo'te's history or baggage. His pride has been bruised, but he holds no particular ill will towards Kit, who is, really, just acting his age. ● Aiouxdaux Beaumont : The opposite of love isn't hate; it's apathy. Love is out of the question these days, and apathy is something Zak could never feel for Aiouxdaux. It's complicated.

Gallery

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  Limsa Lominsa's resident gay single dad

Footnotes

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