Eruantien Valandiel

Eruantien Valandiel
Gender	Male
Race	Elezen
Clan	Duskwight
Citizenship	Ishgard
Age	28
Nameday	Fifth Sun of the Ninth Astral Moon
Height	6 fulms, 8 ilms
Family	None (thought deceased)
Alias	Ochir Shrikelance/The Shrike

"My place will always be on the battlefield, weapon in hand."

Former slave, Ishgardian warrior, Wood Wailer, wandering mercenary, and ex-Dragoon, Eruantien is a lost son of the Twelveswood that has finally found his way home only to leave again. He bears scars that belie his life of fighting - first in illegal pits in Ul'dah, and then from his wanderings as a mercenary and monster hunter. Despite many hardships, Eruantien seems content for the time being to wander from conflict to conflict, a wandering warrior seeking new heights where he can keep honing his deadly craft.

Basic Info

Likes ■ Books ■ Sparring ■ Learning ■ Vanity items (clothes, jewelry, etc.)

Dislikes ■ Ul'dah ■ Slavery ■ Dragons ■ Shrewd Merchants

Misc. Info ■ Alignment: N/A ■ Favorite Locale: The Ninth Vare, Coerthas Western Highlands ■ Favorite Color: Black

Looks and Mannerisms

Appearance

Eruantien is on the taller side of average for an Elezen, with dark grey skin that belies his Duskwight heritage. He enjoys wearing his hair long and styled, typically indulging in a few highlights of blue here or there in his dark purple locks. Recently however, he has cut his hair in remembrance of his past. A tiny scar adorns his cheek while a more noticeable and longer one stretches across his face - courtesy of a narrowly avoided sword blow. Underneath his armor Eruantien is built to endure, with wiry muscle covered in scars from his time in captivity. His back bears the worst of it - with scars from both claw, whip, and steel alike. An encounter with a fell Dravanian has left him with a massive scar that stretches from his left shoulder down to his right thigh. Another noticeable set of scars are splotchy marks on both his right and left collarbone from when he was hung and tortured by Garlean mercenaries. Eru also sports a gnarled scar against his abdomen, where an almost near fatal magical attack pierced him clean through. Eruantien enjoys dressing in dark blues, purples, greys, and black, and has a taste for finer pieces of jewelry.

Due to an injury while protecting a friend against a cultist attack, Eru had his right eye removed. A scar now runs down that side of his face.

Personality

Eruantien is mostly a no-nonsense individual. Years of serving in militaristic organizations has given him a brusque demeanor, although he has developed over his travels and dealings a sort of dry wit to temper it (or worsen it, depending on who you speak to). His enslavement has taught him much about the darker natures of people, and it takes time for him to warm up to anyone. While he has read as much as he could manage after learning how, he is certainly not as knowledgeable as he would like to be.

In recent times, Eru has grown much since his early days as a mercenary and a wanderer. While still slow to trust others, he began to reach out to those around him. His journeys and trials have given him a thoughtful perspective on the world around him, and while he is still quick to raise his weapons for battle, he now has the judgment and foresight to see when it would be valuable to keep his weapons sheathed. He still retains much of his bad habits though, usually preferring to leap headlong into danger by himself before involving others. In addition, when it comes to his companions' wellbeing, Eru is fiery and passionate, always ready to strike for his friends first and ask questions later. He struggled to see that his life too has value, and each loss in the fight against the Horde and his friends' enemies cuts deep.

Lately Eru has changed but little. Outwardly he appears gregarious and charming, always ready with a pleasant smile or an easy laugh or something to say. It is the front with which he faces the world, a mask to put people at ease. Underneath he is still rather cold and calculating, always ready and willing to manipulate people for his goals or to advance those of his friends. Killing is a solution he will not hesitate to employ, no matter what sort of moral or legal problem someone may have with it. But to his friends Eru continues to be warm, loyal, and ever willing to provide council or a sharp blade to deal with whatever life throws at them.

Biography

Before the Calamity

Eruantien was born to Thermidor and Umiel Valandiel under the boughs of the Twelveswood, in the cavernous regions the Duskwights called home. A pair of former sellswords, his parents had eventually settled down to start a family, intending to leave their life of bloodshed behind them. Their idyllic life did not last long, however. A life of fighting inevitably leaves behind bitter enemies. So it was that Eruantien's parents were eventually tracked down by rival mercenaries from Ul'dah that had lost companions to their blades in the past. They were faced with an ultimatum: sell their son to slavers, or he would face certain death at their hands. Cornered, caught off guard, and with the life of their son threatened, the couple agreed to their terms, desperately hoping that slavery with the chance for escape would be a better choice than certain death. Thus Eruantien was kidnapped by the Ul'dahns, taken while he was out playing near the caves. Sold then into slavery in his fifth year of age, Eruantien was carted away from his homeland of Gridania to fighting pits in Ul'dah, where he grew up, learning quickly when he came of age to fight that he must kill or be killed. It was there that he earned his nickname of the "Lightning Prince," after his preference to silence his foes in a single, swift blow after patiently waiting for them to exhaust themselves. It was a name he heard often, and came to curse the utterance of it. Yet, beholden to his captors, Eruantien could do little but accept the epithet and continue fighting. Though scars piled upon him and others fell before him, he continued to dimly cling to the hope of eventual escape in a dim corner of his mind.

Finally one day, the young Elezen saw a chance for escape and took it, fleeing due to a lax in security before a fight - such was his obedience to his captors that they had taken to leaving him unchained before a match, believing him to be too broken to try anything. Lost, but desperate to leave behind the wretched chains of bondage that had held him since childhood, Eruantien wandered far in Thanalan, past Mor Dhona, into the unforgiving snows of Ishgard. There, bleeding, broken, and half dead from starvation, he was found by patrolling soldiers and brought to Whitebrim, the nearest Ishgardian outpost.

After being nursed back to health, he pleaded to become an Ishgardian soldier in service to the Holy See and Halone. The Ishgardians laughed at the idea - a Duskwight, not of Ishgard, in service to the Holy See? But as time went by, and Eruantien became more insistent, the officers' scoffs turned to shrugs, and they acquiesced. Coerthas was tightly pressed by the Dravanian menace - what was one more soldier that would soon become fodder for a hungry dragon? And so Eruantien became a son of Ishgard, albeit in name only. While they accepted him into their ranks and taught him the ways of the Ishgardian lancer - even some skills in the way of the dragon-hunting dragoons, Eruantien was never truly accepted as a comrade-in-arms. Distrustful of his Duskwight heritage, the Coerthas soldiery shunned him, and command would place him in the most miserable posts. Though he felt gratitude to the nation that saved his life, Eruantien eventually grew weary of their treatment of him. It was not long until he resigned his post before his commanding officer, turning his back on Ishgard. Former slave and now oathbreaker, Eruantien left Coerthas with his failures heavy in his heart.

After his time in Ishgard, Eruantien finally returned to the Twelveswood, walking yet again beneath the boughs that he scarce remembered. While he was accepted with open (albeit wary) arms to the Lancer's Guild and proved his worth in martial skill and deeds, he could not help but feel a sense of mis-belonging. While service to the Wood Wailers was enough for Eruantien, it was nothing more than his life in Ishgard, albeit his companions treated him with a bit more respect. However, a Duskwight Wailer still bore the problems of being a Duskwight Wailer. While he cherished his connection with his Gridanian companions, Eruantien knew that he would never be able to truly belong there like he wished. And so it was with a pained heart that he took his leave of the Wailers, and set his feet upon the traveling path once more. Now Eruantien wanders Eorzea, selling his services to those that have the gil, searching for a time and place that he can call home.

After the Fall

Dalamud's fall has had little effect on Eruantien's day to day. Arguably, it has increased his business dramatically; since the Grand Companies have had to divert their resources and stretch themselves thin, services of capable mercenaries such as he have been in demand. However, the Duskwight engages in recovery efforts from time to time, contributing some of his profits and abilities to refugee camps throughout Eorzea. He particularly spends much of his time in Ul'dahn refugee camps, ensuring that families do not fall prey to enterprising merchants and ne’er-do-wells.

In addition, the specter of his enslavement has begun to weigh again on Eruantien's mind. Before, during his time in Ishgard, he had tried to remember or find clues as to who had sold him or taken him, but to little success. But the recent events and refugees have caused him to look back again, and he has begun taking a deeper interest in the comings and goings of suspicious Ul'dahns. He can often now be seen asking travelers or citizens from Gridania about his parents, usually to little success.

Heavensward

After destroying the band of slavers that had captured him all those years ago, Eru glamoured his appearance, though with the side effects of a curse placed upon him when the spell was cast, the change may have been permanent. Taking on the form of an Auri warrior, he headed north, to the Holy See of Ishgard. Though initially there were suspicions about him, Eru forged onward regardless, proving his worth by skill and by deed. And with already some knowledge of the fighting skills of Dragoons, after some time he was accepted into their Order so that he could finish his training. Despite their confusion and wonder at how he had acquired the skills in the first place, they could not deny his skill nor his loyalty to the Holy See, despite being an outsider. And with the Dragonsong War reaching a crescendo in violence and intensity, they saw no reason to turn away another lance that could be turned towards the Dravanian threat. Eruantien served under his Xaela alias of Ochir Shrikelance, taking a stand shoulder to shoulder with his brothers and sister dragoons. While initially he had misgivings about returning to a country that had shunned him in the past, he found that he could not turn his back on a place that served as the closest thing to a home.

Eru has served with distinction amongst his Order, but still has misgivings about his direction in life. He has since taken a temporary leave of his brothers and sisters in the Order, and departed to try and discover what it is that he lacks. Swearing victory or death, Eru resolves to search for an answer to his troubled thoughts, and takes up the greatsword in lieu of his lance to once again wander Eorzea to find the solace that has eluded him for so long.

A while after his departure from the ranks of the Dragoons, Eru managed to remove his glamour with the aid of others, and walked the world as an Elezen once more. Ironically, a series of events lead to his drinking of dragon blood to save a friend, and Eru began the long journey of taming the dragon within him, and learning to harness its power.

Through the sorrow and bloodshed of the Dragonsong War Eru saw and experienced much and lost just as much. But he also gained a partner - Reinette Sompt, a companion and lover that weathered many trials with him. At the end of it all they bonded - not quite marriage, but an old ritual to the Twelve that was just as meaningful and for all intents and purposes the same. It is with both having lost much and gained much that Eru looked towards Gyr Abania and Hingashi, to the rallying horns of war, and a storm of blood that threatened to engulf Eorzea.

Stormblood

In truth, the war for Ala Mhigan independence was not Eru's primary goal. He was far more interested in the plight of Doma, and the rumoured lands that lay beyond: The Azim Steppe, home to the Xaela tribes. So with Reinette in tow he journeyed across the sea to Kugane, and from there to Doma and by land the Steppe. Along the way he had taken up the sword, deciding that new beginnings warranted a new yet familiar weapon to master. Though his fighting style was ill-suited to the ways and strange swords of the Hingans, he nonetheless spent much time observing their traditions and ways of combat. And he put this knowledge and his own fighting skill to use in the Steppe, challenging their warriors and dancing like thunder across the rolling green grass of their lands.

Miscellaneous

Rumors Behind every rumor is a grain of truth. Please feel free to add your own rumors under PC! ◢ Common Rumors (Easily overheard) ■ "Fellow turned down a ten thousand gil contract! Can you believe it? Said he didn't trust 'A snake oil Ul'dahn merchant deal'! The nerve, really…" - Rejected Ul'dahn Merchant ■ "He came back with the beast's skull on one shoulder and his lance on the other. Surprisingly reliable, for a Grey." - Summerford Farmer ■ "Don't try to stiff his pay. I heard he cut off a finger of the last person that did!" - Drowning Wench Patron ■ "I see him pretty often at the Carline Canopy, but he never seems to speak to anyone or order anything. Why bother showing up? Then again, who knows why Greys do anything…" - Gridanian Worker ◢ Moderate Rumors (Moderately difficult to overhear) ■ "I was told by my cousin he used to be in the Wood Wailers! Why they would accept a Duskwight into their ranks is beyond me. What was the guildmaster thinking? He probably tried to steal money and that's why they kicked him out." - Lancer's Guild Trainee ■ “We contracted him for a job and he fell in ranks just like a soldier. He's got military training that one, mark my words." - Immortal Flames Lieutenant ■ "He came into our camp clad all in steel, with an axe over his shoulder and a sword on his belt! I thought that Grey was a lance wielder! How many gods-damned weapons does he know how to use?" - Former Pirate ■ "You know, I've never seen him buy anything outside of necessities. Why do you suppose he charges such high fees?" - Isla del Sol merchant ◢ Rare Rumors (Very difficult or rarely overheard) ■ "The Lightning Prince! Do you think that's him? He was popular in the fighting pits for a time…" - Shady Ul'dahn Citizen ■ "I thought I saw him in Coerthas years ago, when I made a supply delivery…what's he doing here?" - Revenant's Toll merchant ■ "Have you ever seen anyone jump around with a lance like that? I thought only dragoons from Ishgard could do that." - Maelstrom Sergeant on leave ◢ PC Rumors (Rumors from another player's character)

Abilities

Skill at Arms

Eruantien is skilled at all manner of arms, though at different levels for each. Since his departure for Ishgard, he has focused more upon his lancework, though he still practices forms with longsword and greatsword alike. In addition, Eru has spent a considerable amount of time during his tenure with the Knights Dragoon improving his hand to hand and dagger skills.

■ Lance - Eruantien's primary weapon of choice, and the one he is most skilled with. It is the weapon that earned him the nickname of "Lightning Prince," and he is familiar with both defending against attacks with the shaft as well as flicking the deadly tip quick as a viper towards his enemies. It is his most developed weapon form, and as of late he has been working tirelessly to adapt his precise, quick attacks to the heavy Behemoth lance he now wields. Having since lost his Behemoth Lance, Eru favors the standard lance of Dragoons: spears made in the image of the legendary relic Gae Bolg. Though certainly containing none of the power of the legendary weapon on which its design is based, the lance serves Eru's fighting style well - "One strike, one kill." While Eru fights with the lance no longer, he is still incredibly dangerous with one in his hands, and he has reached an almost superhuman level of skill with the weapon.

■ Blades - Eruantien is relatively familiar with all manner of one-handed blades, having spent some time with them during his days in the fighting pits. He wields a sword much the same way it wields a lance - defensively until he can drive its point into the heart of his enemy. Eru prefers a sword when in the confines of a city. While Eru now typically sports a straight sword, he commonly used curved blades during his time as a gladiator. He now also wields two-handed swords as well. Since his journeys towards Gyr Abania and Doma, Eru has focused more upon his swordwork, and has also taken the time to observe the weapon skills of the Hingan samurai. However, his fighting style revolves much more around Eorzean techniques blended with his own unique personal flair.

■ Battleaxe - Eru's choice when having to crack the shell or score the hide of a particularly tough monster. He picked up mastery of the weapon after adding monster hunting to his catalogue of services, realizing quickly that there were moments that a sword or lance just would not do. He hates to admit it, but wielding an axe feels primal and fierce, and it reminds him of the bloody days of gladiator combat. For this reason he both enjoys and dislikes wielding one in battle, though he continues to do so when necessity requires. Less refined than his lance form, Eru wields his axe with reckless abandon, fighting with a ferocity that leaves little room for defense.

■ Bow - A relatively new venture for Eru at first. There was never much opportunity to wield a bow in the fighting pits, where Eruantien gained most of his fighting skill. He has since received lessons for the appropriate usage of the weapon, and is keen on improving his abilities with it. For a while, usage had gone on for mostly hunting and gathering. But during his stay in the Steppe, he put his skills to more practice both for defense and hunting still. He is now far more familiar with the weapon, though he would still never use it overmuch in real battle.

■ Hand to hand - Eru studied the ins and outs of manipulating a person's body throughout his travels, and most of his hand to hand combat involves the disarming of an individual, rather than the prolonged striking and hand and foot forms of pugilists or monks. Eru isn't one to put his faith into empty hand combat, preferring a weapon of any kind.

Relations

♥ Love     ● Good Standing     ● Neutral Standing     ● Poor Standing

Family

● Thermidor Valandiel (Father - Deceased) - Eruantien's father treated him well, regaling him with stories of his former sellsword days, and promising to teach the young Elezen boy the ways of the sword and lance. Eruantien scarce remembers him, but cherishes the memories of his father's stories - especially now as a mercenary.

● Umiel Valandiel (Mother - Deceased) - Eruantien remembers the small amount of time he has spent with his mother with a certain sense of longing - it was plain for all to see during his scant days with his family that while the young Duskwight loved his father dearly, it was his mother that he truly bonded with. His memories of her are bittersweet - filled with warmth yet marred with the pain of their separation. After many years they reunited, only for their time to still be cut short. She was eventually kidnapped and murdered, although she did not go down without a fight. And eventually, was avenged by her son.

● Julien Valandiel (Uncle - Whereabouts unknown) - Julien is Eruantien's uncle on his father's side, a duskwight Elezen that often lived up to his kind's unfair reputation. Scheming, petty, and vainglorious, he was bitterly envious of Thermidor's skill at arms and the respect he commanded among his fellow sellswords. Unbeknownst to either Eruantien or his parents, it was Julien that revealed their home to the Ul'dahn mercenaries, in return for a sizable amount of coin. He has since been murdered by Eru.

Others

Possible Character Relations

You may know or know of Eruantien if your character has links or knowledge of the following:

■ Your character has ties to the Ul'dahn criminal underworld - you may know that Eruantien was an illegal fighter in his youth, with the moniker "The Lightning Prince."

■ Your character has gone to seen or has been part of illegal fights in Ul'dah about 10-18 years ago - you may have seen him fight or have fought against him (although most of his fights have been to the death, he has at times participated in matches to submission).

■ Your character is a mercenary - you may know that Eruantien takes jobs primarily in monster hunting, bounties, and caravan protection. You may also have worked with him in the past. You may also know that he usually refuses contracts from wealthy or suspicious Ul'dahns, but frequently spends time in Ul'dah in refugee camps.

■ Your character has ties to Wood Wailers - you may know that Eruantien was a Wood Wailer for a time, before resigning.

■ Your character has ties to Ishgard - you may know that Eruantien was stationed at Whitebrim for two years before resigning.

■ Your character engages in recovery efforts - you may know that Eruantien donates money and occasionally time helping refugees, especially in Ul'dah.

■ Your character travels frequently - you may have encountered Eruantien on the road to his next job, or simply wandering.

Footnotes

★ The template for this profile was made by Bancroft Gairn and kindly provided for use by everyone.