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| | <div align=center>[[File:Glio_coinpurse.png|300px|thumb|center|"Everything always moves forward. You'd be an idiot to think you can stop progress."]]</div> | | <div align=center>[[File:Glio_coinpurse.png|300px|thumb|center|"Everything always moves forward. You'd be an idiot to think you can stop progress."]]</div> |
| | <div align=justify><div style="padding:0px 10px; font-size:16px;color:#5F5F5F;font-family:Georgia;text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px silver;border-bottom:1px;border-bottom:1px dotted;letter-spacing:0.2em;font-variant: small-caps;">Early Age, Sixth Astral Era</div></div><br><br> | | <div align=justify><div style="padding:0px 10px; font-size:16px;color:#5F5F5F;font-family:Georgia;text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px silver;border-bottom:1px;border-bottom:1px dotted;letter-spacing:0.2em;font-variant: small-caps;">Early Age, Sixth Astral Era</div></div><br><br> |
| − | Ul'Dah...a land where sand turned to gold, and gold to power. It was here, for some several of tens of generations that the Sandstone family had established itself as a prominent force to reckon with. As implied by the surname, its name to fame stemmed from the waves of sandstone the first of its namesake came across as but one of many humble miners to grace the early ages of the lands...and with the boom of use in the rock, the Sandstone line grew in wealth and influence as time passed.
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| − | Rogue Ox was far from an exception in this case; having spent the bulk of his years doing his utmost to keep his family name in the forefront of the business and competing against the likes of Amajina & Sons for the vast majority of it. As the Chairman of the Sandstone Sorority—an operation whose reaches included the likes of the Sapphire Avenue—it fell to him to keep the miniature empire their line had cultivated in check. However in the twilight of his years, Ox and his wife ultimately knew retirement was soon at hand, and the torch was slowly being passed to their eldest son, Stone Elm.
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| − | Joyous was, simply put, an accident. She'd certainly not been expected, and when it was found she was on her way, the family was rather estatic. Whence it was she came, Rogue Ox aptly named her after the flowers blooming outside their estate window.
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| − | Spoiled beyond all belief, and raised to be what one might expect of a rich young lady, Joyous found herself an object of beauty, grace, and perfection by the time she'd reached her teenage years. It was by this time however that the family's influence and wealth had slowly begun to dwindle. With the Garlean Empire looming overhead, having but just taken Ala Mhigo for their own, the sandstone they'd been so well known for was beginning to dry up. As panic and unease took hold of their workers, progress slowed to a grind. Demand lessened. Profits were beginning to dry up. Determined to keep themselves afloat, Singing River and Rogue Ox did what—at the time—seemed like the only viable option...to attempt to secure trade with the ever-growing Empire.
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| − | The result drew front pages of every paper in print at the time; two members of one of the wealthiest families in Ul'Dah, not only shot down in their proposition, but in cold blood to boot. To the merchant world, it was a clear sign that the Garleans were incapable of making peace in terms of monetary means, but was ultimately overlooked by most. Surely, many thought at the time, that they'd done something to offend them—alas, it was but a prelude to the ever-violent nature the people of Eorzea would soon come to know firsthand. With the heads of the Sandstone family lost to tragedy, Stone Elm took hold of the wobbling company reigns, and began his painstaking work keeping things in one piece.
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| − | :Joyous, however, did not take this message with such lightness. To her, they'd been her parents, people she loved and cared for. Whereas her brother had been coddled and raised by nursemaids, River had kept rather close to her daughter, and had all but taken care of her on her lonesome. The Empire did not need a slap on the wrist, as she viewed the new sanctions against them, but a knife to the gut. Where she had once, much like many of the wealthy around her, ignored and guffawed at the plight of Ala Mhigan, Doman, and Dalmascan invasion, seeing it as a problem that didn't belong to them, now it had become personal. They had taken two of the people she had loved the most...cut her family into half, and wounded the confidence of people in the Sandstone Sorority to boot. As though Stone Elm had nothing else to worry over in addition to mourning the loss of his parents, with the news came an even harsher strain on their wealth and power in the city-state...a condition Joyous loathed seeing it in.
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| − | :Fueled by bitter anger and mournful loss, the daughter of the Sandstone line elected to begin plotting her revenge against the Empire through whatever means. Faking a letter from a false suitor in Sharlayan, Joyous convinced her brother to allow her to travel to the city-state, in hopes she would find a hand in marriage. However, Joyous's sights were set on learning more practical things...such as magic.
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| − | :Upon arriving to Sharlayan however, Joyous soon learned the hard way that wealth was not the language the native people spoke, but wisdom—a feature she realized she lacked quite a bit of even sooner. Finding most of the populace rather unfriendly to outsiders, particularly Eorzeans such as herself, Sandstone struggled to seek out a teacher to aid her in her ultimate goals. It was by sheer happenstance that she eventually ran into Zazaro Zulzazo—a professor in the arts of Aetheric Tactics.
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| − | :Zazaro was rather unimpressed with Joyous at first, seeing her as little more than a spoiled child demanding justice and throwing a tantrum. Frankly, he was not far from the truth. He was a pragmatist, a man who believed in hard work and dedication over all other things would see the day through, and was a battered student in the school of life. He viewed Joyous with a great deal of disdain upon their first meeting, the grizzled old veteran of Sharlayan simply telling her to go home and get over her parent's death. Revenge, he informed her, would simply not bring them back, and investing into it was a waste of time. Eventually however, becoming ever-so-sick of seeing the girl sitting on the ground every day on his way to work, the Lalafellan took her under his wing—a rather harsh and unforgiving one. What lessons of prim and proper etiquette of nobility were almost immediately flushed out overnight; Zulzazo was a man who did not beat around the bush, and was intolerant to it in kind. Days and nights were spent grueling over textbooks, practicing livithiomancy (Zazaro's calling card) and brawling on the floor of rather unsavory taverns. (“Fighting in a safe space is absolute shite. You're not safe in combat, now do as I say, and go punch him.”)
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| − | :Shortly after Doma's occupation by the Garlean Empire, Zulzazo admitted there was little left that he could teach his pupil, her skill at the arcane having reached their peak. Sensing there was no more she could gain from remaining in Sharlayan, though loathe to leave it as she'd become used to its charms, Joyous set out to find a proper tutor in swordsmanship. Her time in Zazaro's care ('care' being used rather loosely) had all but made it clear that magic would only be half of her strength.
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| − | :Balking at the idea of returning to Ul'Dah, and having no money on her person by this point in her life, Joyous elected to find a teacher within the pirate city-state of Limsa Lominsa. Surely, her thoughts went, someone in a place full of cutthroats would be a worthy and willing teacher to help her see through her vengeance.
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| − | :While money spoke better in Limsa than it did in Sharlayan, Sandstone was quite lacking in it now. Having no desire to wallow in more unsavory means of acquiring funds, Joyous offered herself up to any captain that would have her as a healer—a move which eventually landed her in the roster of the Sanguine Sirens.
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| − | :Thankfully Joyous had been of the right sense to visit Sharlayan first, rather that Lominsa—it might well have been her undoing had Zazaro had not taught her so well. Now more of a practical and blunt creature under the Lalafell's watch, the Hyur had little problems blending in with the other members of the crew...and in fact, rather relished her time with them. The Sirens were curt, never mincing words, and always putting power behind each one; what a pirate at their caliber said, they surely meant, and if it came to violence they were certainly not without means to do so. Joyous admired their captain, Rhoswen Leach, and her laid-back, devil-would-care attitude and thoroughly enjoyed her time plundering aboard some of the swiftest ships of the pirate armadas. Serving as their medic for six summers straight, eventually Sandstone found herself wealthy enough to make off on her own.
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| − | :The excitement and fun of her life as a pirate had all but satisfied her lust for fighting and revenge, however...Having both participated and taken care of the aftermath of violence and near-war, blood and guts and the screams of agony having stuck with her, fighting the Empire by the side of rebels no longer fueled her passions. Joyous now found herself woefully empty. Knowing full-well she would never be happy returning to the tables of nobility and wealth, she was at a loss of what to do next. Her coffers would only be full for so long, she admitted, and her only skillset in which she had full confidence was the tutorship her mother and father had given her on the matters of business. With few other options on her platter, Joyous used her funds and began a small but humble trading company based off the Isles of Umbra—the Onyx Pyrolisk Trading Front.
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| − | :With renovations on Pharos Sirius underway at that present time, the need for materials was at an all-time high—Sandstone could not have picked a better opportunity or a better place to begin her little empire. Independent sailors began flocking to the isle looking for employment, hearing word of a new company that would overlook past acts of piracy and one's past, so long as they earned an honest living. Joyous began with shipping to and fro from Limsa Lominsa to the Isle, but soon even that became small popotoes to her—she sought out far more reputable prey, and so struck a deal with the incredibly seclusive nation of Ishgard to begin shipping out lumber—a move that caught the attention of competitors far and wide. To this day, it's entirely uncertain what it was Joyous did to persuade them into business...though speculation only adds to the fantastical rumors that quickly piled up around Joyous's presence.
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| − | :With the grim shadow of war looming over Eorzea however, profits began to slow. Once again, the Sandstones' enemy had reared its ugly head, and she began to feel the pang of hatred spark back up within her. Knowing full-well that throwing herself into the fray would cause further chaos for those under her employ, most of whom she had come to think of as a second family and a good many more of them being former Sirens, Joyous did what she could to aid the Alliance's cause, sending supplies their way when they could be spared. This, of course, would not satisfy her newly kindled thirst for blood...and upon the Garlean Empire's attempts by sea to take Limsa Lominsa, Joyous found herself upon the Brygot's Creed—a vessel mimicking the Lady Infernal and crewed by nearly every former pirate within the Onyx Pyrolisk's ranks—on their way to strike at Doma in hopes they might break the Empire's hold upon it.
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| − | <div align=justify><div style="padding:0px 10px; font-size:16px;color:#5F5F5F;font-family:Georgia;text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px silver;border-bottom:1px;border-bottom:1px dotted;letter-spacing:0.2em;font-variant: small-caps;">===After the Calamity, Seventh Umbral Era===</div></div>
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| − | Nobody, however, could have predicted Bahamut. Even pirates, creatures prepared for near-about everything, could not have been less caught off guard by the sudden appearance of a primal far more powerful and far more vicious than any ever seen before. Having but just made it past the Rothlyt Sound, their journey was abruptly cut short when pillars of ancient rock began to rain from the heavens. With the new Calamity now upon them, the Brygot's Creed was tossed and turned upon the now broiling and raging seas, before being swallowed whole. Torn to splinters in a mere instant, a great many of the Creed's crew would never live to see the next morn.
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| − | :Joyous was, to say the least, extremely fortunate. Where the waves had been unpredictable in whether they would carry their victims to safety or see them as corpses, she had been of the former category. Washed up upon the shores near Gridania, the world being a bit worse for wear with the latest Calamity having just passed, Sandstone found herself within the care of a stranger's home...A residence that belonged to a native of the area, a dragoon by name of Osrich Arkwright.
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| − | :Osrich was by no means a talkative man, largely silent as he tended to her wounds and bombarded with questions from a near-hysterical Joyous. He felt it best to allow her time to heal before presenting the state of the world as it was...a decision that was rather well received later on. With several broken bones and a liver pierced by debris, it was a small wonder that Sandstone had survived at all, and it took some several moons to fully recover.
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| − | :By the point in which Joyous was able to walk on her own again, she and Osrich had become close companions. Loathe to leave the quiet peace of the Shroud and the company of her new friend, the former Siren begged him to come with her to Limsa Lominsa, to which he denied. His place, he told her, was here to help Gridania heal, and hers was in Lominsa. Arkwright informed her that he would sent her post, and visit when he could find the time, promising that once he felt the Shroud was back in order, and his home on its feet, he would reconsider coming back with her to Vylbrand.
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| − | :Joyous returned to Limsa Lominsa, now with a fire in her heart to not only see her home restored but to be with Osrich once again. With passion unlike she'd ever demonstrated after leaving the Sanguine Sirens, Sandstone began using the Onyx Pyrolisk Trading Company as a means to rebuild her city-state. Where many would have believed the impact of the Brygot's Creed's disastrous voyage might have ruined her reputation and marked a black pall over the company, it instead had come to inspire many common sailors to join up into the ranks, swelling the number of ships overnight. Changes to the landscape had not gone unnoticed by Joyous either, trade routes by way of land around the island severely disrupted and changed entirely; so it was that she commissioned a series of mechanisms be created in order to better passage of goods from Lominsa to the main island hub—a system that would later be known to folks as the Skylift.
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| − | :Strangely, the Onyx Pyrolisk Trading Company took very little hits in spite of the Creed's misfortune, an opportunity Joyous took full advantage of. With the bulk of her competitors having suffered massive losses in the Calamity's wake, what merchant sailors remained flocked to the company for work and aid. Other companies collapsed in on themselves, or went bankrupt entirely, with Sandstone picking up the pieces and adding them to her already growing expanse.
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| − | :Eventually, things began to normalize in Limsa Lominsa, and Joyous found herself atop the pinnacle of wealth and influence within her city-state. Once again, she extended her invitation to Osrich Arkwright, whom she had continued to keep in contact with over the summers. This time, he accepted.
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| − | : Osrich was a proud man, a Dragoon raised and born in Gridania who had taken up the lance to defend his home from Ixali threats after his brother had been stripped of his sanity through exposure to Garuda. A hunter of beasts by nature, a boastful man who relished in fighting things for the sake of the thrills, his personality meshed perfectly with Joyous, who had been longing for something to fill the void she'd harbored since leaving the Sirens. Together, they made a near-perfect couple.
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| − | <div align=justify><div style="padding:0px 10px; font-size:16px;color:#5F5F5F;font-family:Georgia;text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px silver;border-bottom:1px;border-bottom:1px dotted;letter-spacing:0.2em;font-variant: small-caps;">===Seventh Astral Era===</div></div>
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| − | : Eventually, Osrich and Joyous were wed, and settled down together within the Onyx Pyrolisk Estate. Joyous continued to fund Osrich's campaigns to hunt and travel, while managing affairs of her company from the privacy of her home. However, as time went on, the Lady Arkwright was beginning to become restless once again...she needed something...but what? All of the wealth and influence in the world didn't seem to give her any satisfaction, and the creeping shadow of boredom hovered over her constantly. Travel and combat had sated her for a brief time, but with her family still unavenged, a hole lingered in her heart that even her husband could not seem to keep filled. Discontent with her situation and emotional conundrum, the lady Arkwright sequestered herself from the public and nearly all of her employees for nearly an entire summer.
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| − | :Eventually, Osrich had become fed up with her pouting, and returned home one day after a long hunting trip in the Dravanian Forelands. Among the many trophies he had claimed for himself during the escapade lay the pelt of a rare coeurl, which he presented his wife. Amazed by the purity and quality of the beast's fur, and impressed by its rarity, Joyous was struck with an epiphany. Money and power were nothing without something to focus it upon. Instead of throwing her fortune towards the rebellions of Doma and Ala Mhigo (a move that would likely as not be traced back to her with severe consequences to follow suit,) and investing in petty revenge, perhaps putting it towards something much great was in order. Anyone could donate goods and services...but few people had the connections, the intelligence, and the ability to pave the way for future generations. Gazing at the pelt, Joyous began to formulate what she could do to not simply give something wonderful to Eorzea, but the means of the whole world. It was a mere matter of time that it would be united...whether under the banner of the Garleans or the free nations, nobody could be certain of, but neither side would dare openly destroy a collection of rare and valuable items...but both sides would most definitely be interested in preserving the nature of something so extraordinary. <br>
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| − | : Joyous loathed the idea of calling such an establishment a museum. A museum was dull, and disinteresting. Museums were where one could look, but not experience...a dull matter, to be certain. No, the Onyx Flower was keen on making something far greater than any one museum...a research center where advances could be made from exploring the past, a hunting hub where the greatest could present their rarest finds, a hall of adventurers in which only the bravest and boldest could serve, a place where things could live on in infamy standing the tests of time, where things that were dead could return back into the light of day...an Emporium of Wonders.
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