Virara Wakuwa
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✿ RACE Plainsfolk Lalafell ✿ GENDER Female ✿ NATIONALITY None (Doma in Exile) ✿ AGE & NAMEDAY 18-19, Unknown ✿ ORIENTATION Indeterminate ✿ MARITAL STATUS Single |
✿ CURRENT RESIDENCE The Still Shore, Mist ✿ HEIGHT & WEIGHT 3 fulm, 5 ilm, 52 ponze ✿ BUILD Toned, slim (For a Lala) ✿ Guardian Llymlaen ✿ ALIGNMENT Chaotic Neutral ✿ TRUE NAME Unknown |
Her life has been dedicated to the cause of becoming stronger and she knows no other way. Having communicated through her fists practically since she was old enough to walk, a lifetime of hardship has left Vira profoundly alone, and her Master is the only human connection she's truly been able to enjoy, a fact that leads her to blind worship. Yet at the same time, the adversarial nature of her training leads her to regard her master ultimately as an enemy. The complexity of emotions she feels towards her Master leads Virara to put little stock in defining her emotions, and she scorns introspection to her own detriment. To Virara as she grew up, feelings were a force within her to be channeled into her blows; precisely what she felt was never a question to her, but rather how hard she felt it. Virara only truly feels alive when fighting. Her Master raised her to exercise self-control, but the pugnacious Lala is actually quite hot-blooded underneath it all. The more dangerous and potentially fatal the situation, the more at home she feels. Though she was 'civilized' by her martinet Sensei, a sort of feral undercurrent drives her most instinctual actions. She plays at being a cynic, something she picked up from her Sensei, but ultimately has a moral compass and inwardly admires those who fight for an ideal, rather than self-gratification. She's capable of things like kindness and compassion, but in her early life these were in such low demand that they confuse and bother her inwardly.
Virara is very brave, almost suicidally fearless, but loses her nerve when it comes to supernatural things (Because she is too much of a materialist and fears things she can't punch like ghosts.) and typhoon/hurricane weather. (Childhood trauma.) Her overly literal and realist way of thinking also makes her more or less a complete dunce when it comes to the magic arts.
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Her gaze is intimidating on a primal level that disconnects with her short stature, complimented by her generally dour, emotionless countenance and tendency to stare. Though she might be small and cute, Virara's stare is withering. At times, it is like a rabid animal. At times, a haunted doll. Her voice is quiet, breathy, smooth and almost pleasant to listen to; yet with her yells comes a terrifying force. She's also somewhat scarred across her body from extreme training, though she rarely shows these.
Though it is hard for non-Lalafell to see her in any light other than the generic, cherubic cuteness common to her species, Vira possesses something akin to statuesque dark beauty. Her height and enigmatic looks lends her a mysterious air uncommon to either Ul'dahn or Lominsan/Merlthor Lalafell, but that also makes her appear cold and unapproachable.
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These rumors do not necessarily need to be accurate, or even true. They are rumors, after all~! Use with care. ◢ Common Rumors - Easily overheard.
◢ Uncommon Rumors - A little more difficult to hear.
◢ Rare Rumors - Very rarely overheard.
◢ Player Character Rumors - Feel free to add rumors of your own!
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Childhood
- Orphaned at sea by a typhoon, a tiny Lalafell child was cast away in a worm-eaten barrel to the shores of a coral atoll halfway between Othard and Eorzea. Murky colors and sounds, viewed through an opaque haze in her deepest memories, were all that remained of her past. Hunger agonized her and thirst drove her half mad. She forgot her name, her family's faces, even her old language. Now nearly feral, the tiny girl fought fiercely to survive at no older than six. Only through an uncanny strength and copious luck did the castaway live for more than a year. Tiny and alone, everything and later, everyone, was a potential threat.
- At the same time the insignificant speck found another insignificant speck to eke out an existence upon, Garlemald solidified its powerful claim on its holdings in Othard. What once was a proud nation controlled by a warrior nobility now genuflected before a new master, and rebellion already was already seething beneath placating faces and bowed heads. Many refugees fleeing oppression retreated from their continent, particularly from Doma. What started as an unremarkable atoll visited only by the occasional smuggler gradually grew into a shanty town full of the runoff from Garlemald, and from there expanded into a series of small fishing, trade and supply communities tailored to the cultural needs primarily of those from Othard and Doma. Cities were sometimes more water than earth and stone canals rose up seemingly out of nowhere. Incredible masses of Doman refugees poured in; their numbers would nearly double years later as the rebellion began and ended almost as abruptly, and the former Garlean territory was consumed in a worldly hell.
- The young Lalafell had become a stranger to civilization. Tentatively entering the territory of the intruders, she secreted herself into the remote alleys and canal ways of the settlement, soon to become a tiny, unremarkable dot named Llymlaen's Necklace on Eorzean maps. The girl stole and mugged her way into a higher calorie diet, and grew stronger. Soon she could easily beat and rob any refugee children and relieve them of what little food kept them from starvation. She had no conscience any more than a wild animal, and lacked the ability to recognize the harm she did to others, and as a result grew stronger and bolder, eventually even attacking weakened adults. Her body was laced with a wiry strength that seemed out of proportion with her tiny figure. Sometimes she beat refugees, if they resisted fiercely, until they stopped moving. On her small island, she became hated and was driven out of town whenever they caught sight of her. But neither could they capture the girl.
- After a few close calls, she became semi-civilized, learning their language through observing from the shadows. She knew she needed some basic ability to communicate as the intruders became more numerous and their towns grew larger. She smuggled herself from island to island by offering food she stole, never staying in one place more than a night. Eventually, the locals grew wary of her once more at somewhere around ten or twelve years old; she'd lost count long ago. By that point in time, Virara had become a savagely clever child, as well as possessing abnormal size even compared to fully grown Lalafell, with strength and agility beyond that which her tiny frame would suggest. She was a threat even to hale adults on a good day, and was only growing stronger, and hungrier.
Captivity
- One day, the pickings had been slim. The children hid from her bullying, and unable to mug or steal anything from the Domans' store rooms and fish pots, she became acutely aware of her hunger and desperation set in. She set eyes on a tanned, grim woman missing an eye, sitting in a rude street front tea shop. Her build was strong, her posture confident, and she stunk of blood. The way she carried herself, and the grisly tattoos on her arm would have normally been warning enough to tell her to keep a wide berth from the stranger, but she was too famished to notice. She gambled. With an eye missing, she was doubtlessly blind on that side and pickpocketing should have been easy.
- After slipping her hand into the woman's robe around her waist, where all the Domans kept their coin purses, the urchin abruptly found herself on the ground, beaten raw, her arm numb and unmoving. The woman bore down upon her. "Steal from me, would you? I've never met a child so eager to die. I shan't oblige you." Carried off to no objections by the locals, the girl found herself bound and collared in a drafty house redolent of sandalwood and incense on the biggest island in the Necklace.
- The woman who held her prisoner her stated simply that since the girl conducted herself like an animal she would be treated like one, and thus was given the epithet "Wakuwa," which in the stranger's peculiar dialect from an island near Doma, meant simply "pig," in reference to her build and size.
- In the hellish half-year she spent in captivity, she initially took every attempt possible to escape, but in all cases found herself thwarted and beaten horribly. Eventually her rage over boiled. She had thrashed a few refugees hard in her years, sometimes until they stopped moving, but it was the first time she wanted to do so purely out of malice. The woman seemed aware of this, and one night opened the store room door to the small, stuffy chamber "pig" was tied up in.
- "You hate me, don't you?"
- Though she was smaller than her, the girl's violent nature, contrasting with her inhumanly focused glare, provoked a flinch in the older woman. With every reckless blow the captive girl threw, futile as it was, her eyes took on a quality the Doman lady had seen before in shark infested waters off the coast of the Necklace. The essence of void, entered before the fatal bite, was the state of innocent brutality known only to a beast. When Virara's eyes grew wide with rage, their dark pupils seemed to eclipse everything sentient inside her. Perhaps it was this inner nature that the coldly smiling woman resonated with.
- "Enough to kill me, huh?"
- A few wild, reckless swings and desperate clawing at the room's dirty floor were answer enough.
- The woman hunkered down, nursing a long, smoking pipe, as she was wont to do.
- "You're not the first. Many men and women came before you, and all have failed. I was stronger, better than them. And you, a bloody pig, have the gall to think you've got what it takes to retire me?"
- Clearly interested, the woman undid her collar... and immediately pinned the flailing child to the floor, foreseeing her obvious assault before it came.
- "Only a Spoken can kill me. Spoken have names. A pig has no use for one. I'll grant you a name fit for a Lalafell."
- Combining some haphazard syllables in a manner roughly resembling her race's typical rhyming name scheme, Virara was born anew as a person. The name was meaningless and odd to the ears of her kind, but her keeper didn't care. The woman, who demanded Virara merely refer to her as Sensei, underwent a dramatic metamorphosis in how she regarded the girl. What once was arbitrary, vicious behavior for no other purpose other than reprisal or amusement, focused itself into an intense reformation of her character. She took on the Doman language and lifestyle, as taught to her by Sensei in between puffs on her long pipe. Virara was no more than a servant, but she ate better than she had in years, often times several magnitudes more than Sensei herself. Though Sensei knew she was hated by literally everyone in every settlement in the Necklace, she sent her out regardless on errands, and Virara often had to find and pay merchants and traders for foodstuffs and goods as secretly as possible.
- With time Virara grew hale and strong, and when obedient, Sensei didn't harm her, though she was casually dismissive and rarely spoke to her conversationally. While Spoken now, Sensei still did not regard Virara as anything approaching an equal. She demanded more from Virara, and Virara obliged, giving up her life of theft and violence for one of constant study and dutiful toil. Her personality radically changed, molded as if she were an infant again in the hands of her watchful master. There were times when Virara forgot that she had meant to kill this woman altogether, and her seething hatred slowly evaporated into a mist of forgotten grievances.
The Labyrinth Fist
- Virara began to exhibit an unnatural constitution. She was constantly hungry and required more food than Sensei initially intended to give her, eventually forcing the woman to train Virara to fish for herself. Vira helped Sensei plant a small orchard in the uncleared land behind her home, and they dried apricots to save them for the spring.
- In addition to this strange metabolism, Virara seemed to have no real grasp of her own strength, which was already disproportionate to her size. When chopping wood, Vira would often hew the logs straight through, and leave deep rend marks in the stone beneath. Her arms would be red and sore afterward, and sometimes even needed medical attention. Sensei believed that something in Vira's mind was shattered from since she was castaway, transcending exhaustion and pain, but her servant didn't fully understand anyway.
- Vira's unnatural constitution piqued Sensei's interest once again. "You've become Spoken now, Virara. Far from the pig you once were. An animal does not kill out of hatred, nor for some flimsy concoction of 'reasoning.' You recognize a distinction between right and wrong, a quality most Spoken either possess or claim to. Which applies to you, I don't have a care for. A thinking being has the ability to weigh the life of another in her hands. Do you wish to become fully Spoken, with all that truly entails?"
- From that day forward, something in the woman's eyes changed. Virara could tell, merely by looking at her, that Sensei had recognized her. No longer a servant or an animal, she was a true student.
- "Watch yourself, brat," Master warned her, "For the very instant I deem you a failure is the instant I stop your heart."
- Sensei was the inheritor of a style of combat from Doma, compiled from many nations' martial arts long before their nation was formed, long before Garlemald and the occupation. This style was Shichisei Meikyuuken, or the Seven Star Maze Fist. She had left for reasons she wouldn't divulge during the early years of the Rebellion. In her own words, it was a method of fighting, unarmed or armed, that would render its masters either a god or demon. This sounded like an excellent tool to kill her master with, so she agreed outright. Such was the reasoning she provided herself consciously, but Virara felt an unfamiliar, rising sensation in her chest when her Sensei gazed at her more softly than before. Her face often began making a faint expression alien to her, the corners of her lips curving upward. The feeling was good, though she scarcely understood what it meant.
- The training was harsh, almost as much so as the mistreatment she endured during her early stay with Sensei. Five years were spent in enhanced study; both her civilizing and fighting training became feverishly intense. Master's method of instruction was merciless to the point of insanity, and countless times her new student courted instant death simply by sparring with her. Virara learnt of foreign languages other than Doman and how to cook for herself at the same time she was shattering iron spheres with her palms and cutting down orchard trees with her forearms. Eventually Virara was honed into a fist fighter of prodigious skill. A natural, her abnormal muscle power and hyperactive metabolism meshed keenly with the explosive, lethal blows of the style. Meikyuuken was a direct style, in comparison to its convoluted name, but perhaps its simplicity belied a more subtle insidiousness. Even the most innocent of testing blows could easily transition to a fatal hit. Its guards were deflections and strikes at the same time. A seemingly linear step in fact involved countless subtle curving movements and changes in speed. Economy of movement, a strong defense, and mythril-like core body conditioning were its areas of focus, on top of penetrating defenses and ending the fight in a single blow. With time, Virara could slay next week's dinner (The rare, expensive aldgoat not common on the Necklace) with a single blow to the forehead, the thickest part of its skull. Prodigy was a term oft used and rarely deserved, but in some sense it did apply to her.
- In time Sensei also conversed more with her student. She told of Doma's history and its culture, the war with Garlemald. She mentioned in passing that she once had a family, and that she was the only student of the style left. Sensei expressed a disgruntled hatred of both Garlemald *and* Doma, and stated in vague terms that her nation "betrayed" her, but in what way she never said, and she only spoke of the matter when thoroughly drunk. Sometimes Virara could her her master praying alone outside in the grove at night. The list of names she prayed for was long. It soon became her lullaby.
- The Calamity came and went for Virara. Unlike most, it was not a happening of significance in her life. As with everything, the inhabitants of the Necklace merely adapted. Their remote location helped protect them, slightly, from the wrath of the cataclysm. Though some died in the horrible storms and massive waves, both Virara and her master escaped unscathed, though they lost their home and had to live amongst the locals in their new floating raft and boat community. Much of the landmass was submerged, but the Necklace was part of the sea and its inhabitants were hardy people. Virara became accustomed to the steady rock of ships and boats beneath her feet, soon beginning to find dry land unnatural.
- The two increased in strength together as summers and winters passed like migratory birds. Eventually, Sensei's past in Doma caught up to her. Often she would leave to walk along the piers and canal ways late at night to deal with 'urgent business.' On rare occasions she would leave the islands entirely for days on end. She often came back disheveled and scratched up. Sensei's excuse was that she fell down, drunk, which Virara typically believed because she was very much addicted to rice wine, but eventually the excuses stopped flowing and the injuries became more severe. It appeared not all of the past she'd left behind in occupied Doma wanted to be forgotten.
- One night, a man dressed in black and wearing curious weapons greeted Virara as she rose groggily from her sleep to relieve herself. A desperate struggle ensued, in which Virara's life nearly ended, if not for Sensei's intervention. The killer was obscenely skilled, and quickly had even her Master on the defensive, but he hadn't counted on Virara breaking his knee in twain from behind. When the assassin reeled in pain, Virara simply did as she'd done with the aldgoats before. It ended quickly. A muddy, dark film seemed to cross the iris of her eyes as she locked gazes with her Sensei. Something lay there in her Master's single eye, something nostalgic and painful, a sense of agonizing recognition. That brought Vira back to reality, but before the significance of what she'd done set in:
- "Virara, your training, as it has been until now, is over. You're not ready to face me and kill me yet, not until you've inherited the art from me fully."
- Days later, Sensei prepared a satchel full of supplies, some rugged traveling clothes, and a pair of bone hora, meant solely to protect Vira from her own freakish strength, and told her to go to Eorzea, as a test of worthiness to begin learning the succession techniques of Shichisei Meikyuuken. Told to seek out a man that Sensei supposedly crossed paths with in an arena years ago, Virara set out on a trade vessel bound for Ul'Dah's bay of Dha'Yuz, hunting for the man known as "Holyfist" to challenge him. But Virara did not leave without a final, taxing "gift" from her exacting Sensei...
The Power to Slay
- Arriving in Eorzea, Virara was immediately beset by a suffusion of sounds and sights utterly alien to her. Ul'dah was dry and teeming with people, the marketplaces overflowing with goods Virara could scarcely imagine in her time on the Necklace. Immediately she began setting out to find the Holyfist and crush him, in accordance to her Master's wishes, but her lack of physical strength after the woman's crippling acupressure technique left Virara feeling a sense of vulnerability and frailty hitherto unknown to her. Hamon did not take the Lalafell girl seriously and instead set her about the Pugilist's Guild attending to menial tasks and doing strength training. Virara assumed that Hamon was pitying her, or felt she was unworthy of a match, humiliating the girl. Hamon for his part may have felt she was pushing herself too hard, or just wanted free labor.
- In any case, Virara would eventually get her wish to face Hamon in a match, but as a method of rehabilitating the aged warrior after events Virara was not privy to reignited his fighting spirit. This fulfilled Virara's obligation to her master. In her short time as a member, Virara spoke little with other pugilists and absorbed tremendous knowledge of the typical Ul'dahn hand to hand combat styles with typical ease, but the culture of the locals remained bewildering to her.
- One day, in the Quicksand, Virara met a tiny boy. Having never spoken to or known another of her kind before, Virara engaged him as awkwardly as could be conceived. This was Chachanji Gegenji, a swordsman training to become a hero. Idealistic and naive in the extreme, Virara initially found "Chagenji" curious. His name was hard to say, his stature was small despite his fairly athletic frame, and he had the awkward air of a cowardly runt, the kind Virara used to pummel on the islands. But when she looked at his earnest, well-meaning gaze, something hot and fearsome boiled within her. This was a boy who endured hardship that did not even compare to her own; he knew suffering but felt it was something others could be saved from indefinitely. It was unacceptable to Virara that he could maintain such a gilded impression of the world around him, ignorant of her own limited experiences and worldview.
- Though initially appreciative of Chachanji's attempts to befriend her and help her adjust to Eorzean culture, his peaceful attitude and heroic tendencies perplexed the comparatively merciless and hard-hearted Virara. Her relationship with him grew more and more tense, and with time Chachanji's presence in her mind became overwhelming. Every waking thought was of how he vowed never to take a life needlessly, and his boundless confidence in his ability to protect others close to him. Virara only understood the strength necessary to kill.
The Power to Save
- This eventually culminated in a furious duel in Thanalan, in which Virara prematurely exerted her strength, despite still being crippled, against a reluctant but determined Chachanji. Meikyuuken roared loudly that day, with her forms in weakened but prominent use. Such a display could hardly go unnoticed. Though she shattered his armor and nearly killed him outright, Chachanji cemented himself as a true warrior by being the first person to stand up after one of Virara's blows, outside of her own Master. For the first time, Virara understood that the intensity of emotion she felt towards Chachanji was respect, not hate. This was the 'power to protect,' to save others, that Virara had failed to grasp. To prioritize the survival of another being was inconceivable to a girl who struggled to survive from birth. That personality, and that line of thinking, began to quickly enthrall her. A stranger to happiness, Virara felt the odd sensation again, much as she had once her Master allowed her to take up their art.
- Her sense of closeness with Chachanji deepening, she allowed her first friend, and the first boy she'd ever known, to guide her to a more tame state, wherein she did not challenge anyone she found strong enough to be worthwhile to a duel, and could interact with Eorzeans more normally. She met others such as Warren and Sei Castille, who trained Chachanji and thus earned interest from Virara quickly. Ququki Quki, another Lalafell, amazed the ignorant Virara with her knowledge of aether. She met Dren Gonne, another boy with a similar background to her own, and a feral streak she understood all too well. With time, however, it was no longer sufficient for Virara to live out of the Quicksand as a boarder. While she made money from time to time working odd jobs out of the guild, and as an unnervingly destructive extra hand in Momodi's kitchen, Virara wished to see more of Eorzea, and to have a solid base from which to stage those endeavors.
A Place to Rest
- Determined not to become reliant on her new acquaintances, Virara trained herself to the limit, traveling across the land from each great city to fight dangerous fauna, traverse hazardous terrain and bolster her stamina through more frequent cooking. With time her old strength returned, though her ability to perform the techniques of her art still seemed limited. But the lifestyle of drifting from inn to inn, sometimes sleeping in alleys or under the stars as she did before she met Master, was draining, not to mention lonely. It was a fact that Virara herself would never admit, but she felt keenly the distance between Eorzea and the Necklace. Sometimes she would sit for hours, watching the surf lap the shores of La Noscea in utter silence. Other times she would train, perform long and short kata, almost hoping a watchful eye over the horizon would find her, even if her islands were far from that horizon in the other direction.
- On an excursion to train in Mist, Virara came across Memeli Meli and Chachanji, who had recently joined the association "Coral Sea." Over time, Virara's visits to Mist became more frequent, and her friendship with the other two deepened. Memeli in particular was a strange girl, full of good humor and warmth, whose behavior differed greatly from Virara's despite the similarity in their ages, and Virara began to consider for the first time if her own upbringing wasn't abnormal in comparison to her new Eorzean friends. Virara also noticed that the way she tended to focus on an opponent with all-encompassing attention when angry seemed to happen to her around Chachanji often, even when she was calm, but remained ignorant and thought little of the strange feeling.
- Virara eventually signed on with Coral, though the loose association and lack of direction in such a free-spirited group confused the girl. She boards with Memeli and Chachanji, as she was already practically a resident before joining due to her homelessness. For the first time, Virara had found a place she could consider home outside of that waterlogged, odorous longhouse in the Necklace. Yet the image of her Master still remained forefront in her mind. Could she maintain the power she owed her benefactor? With the softness of her new lifestyle, could she slay her Master when their fated time of confrontation finally arrived? Virara seemed convinced that would be impossible, especially after a humiliating loss (By her perception) in a friendly duel against Memeli, for which she admonished herself mercilessly inside.
- She resumed her training with an obsessive vigor, incorporating new knowledge of Aether and Eorzean culture into her education. When Virara focused on moving her body and training her physique, she could not think deeply. When she was free of deep, irrelevant thoughts, she didn't need to feel unease. Something about her new friendships, the triumvirate she had formed with her Coral companions, was eating away at her, but with her mind empty as it was, Virara could not perceive it even with the slightest of awareness. She understood she was frustrated with something, but what it was she could not begin to describe. Confronting her feelings, she resolved to allow herself to become closer to her "first boy" and "first girl" friends, but feared the worst; that her presence in their relationship would disrupt the accord they shared.
- She also began to train to cook in a manner befitting sane people, to make herself more useful to her new home and not frighten the others with her martial culinary practices.
Bloody Roots
- After a day at the Grindstone, Virara, Memeli and Chachanji returned home. Virara, more or less a vagrant with no address nor any relations outside of acquaintances and her Master, received a small package in the mail. Upon opening it, the grisly visage of a severed pig's head greeted her, along with a cryptic poem in Doman. Thus did begin a long series of harassments and a difficult investigation to find the sender. At times watching from parts unseen, Virara could feel her stalker draw near, and her highly honed instinct became a double-edged sword sharp enough to cut herself on, straining her relationships at the house and wearing her composure thin. After a traumatizing experience over dinner, where Virara quite unexpectedly found 'the eyes' upon her, she resolved to hunt down the stalker and exact retribution. The knowledge of her childhood name suggested the enemy was someone close to her, or had watched her for years.
- When in groups with the rest of her free company, Virara was safe from the prowling terror, and thus was able to assist Chachanji in taking down his ambitious but highly disturbed older brother. She also assisted Memeli in seizing back her very face from a malevolent spirit, whom Virara never quite forgave even after she indicated a desire for just punishment, and demonstrated Memeli's guilt. Her closeness with Memeli, Chachanji, and others of the company and outside, such as Jancis Milburga and Flickering Ember, grew as well. It became clear that though Virara did not put much stock in what she felt, that did not mean she felt nothing. Gifted with a pair of peach blossom earrings and tortoise shell hora by her first friends, she felt a compulsion to be near them; a desire that they never stray far from her. It was unfamiliar, but pleasant.
- That was why when Virara was taken by surprise, paralyzed with a neurotoxin and maimed by metal wires at the hands of her foe in Summerford at the final leg of their investigation, she came to believe that those same bonds had made her vulnerable and distracted. Faced fully with the extent of her unpreparedness, only the timely intervention of Virara's allies in Coral allowed her to make it out of her foe's clutches. The stalker, who called himself, or herself, Tsuchigumo, demonstrated that it not only had watched Virara, it has spied upon the others for some time, and clearly had some connection to her Master. A combatant of uncanny ability, it put Coral's rescue party to the test, but they ultimately triumphed, taking one of its arms. What sort of hideous truths lay behind the assailant's smiling, cordial Doman mask? Judging from the path of disappeared persons Tsuchigumo seemed to leave in its wake, it could be nothing a sane mind would willingly engage with.
- Virara, however, had only one truth to glean from Tsuchigumo; that for all her strength and determination, she was wholly unprepared to face and kill her Master. Unhinged to a certain extent by her experiences in the cave behind Woad Whisper Canyon, Virara began to train like a girl possessed, straining her injured body to its limits, the phantom wires still binding her inside the mind. Only the increased pressure of her allies delivered Virara from irreparable damage, at perhaps the expense of her pride.
- Tsuchigumo was not alone, however. Among Gogonji's Khamja organization, two others who seemed connected to Tsuchigumo had emerged, all wearing the Doman Noh theater masks and bearing unique and deadly skills. These disloyal subordinates seemingly abandoned Gogonji to his fate, their treachery only exceeded by the cryptic nature of their true plan. Were they acting independently? Did they value one another as close allies, or loathed one another as rivals working towards some undefined objective? Very little made sense, and each clue grew more befuddling than the last.
- No sooner than Virara had almost fully recovered from her maiming, she was confronted by yet another threat; an unnatural power flowed through her friend, Memeli, threatening not only her life, but the continent itself through the machinations of a primal-like being. Her own demeanor grew darker and more unstable; a powerful compulsion took root at the back of her head, the emotions behind her friendship driving Virara to unhealthy obsession with dragging her friend back from the brink. Her desire to deliver Memeli from her predicament bordered on madness. Perhaps she had never been fully sane to begin with, given who raised her.
- Though the incident was resolved, Memeli was left catatonic and drained. Virara stayed by her bedside like a loyal servant until exhaustion claimed her against her will, night after night, only stopping to train herself to up to the point of breaking. When she questioned herself, which she was loath to do, Virara had no answers for why someone other than Master mattered so deeply. When the time came for Virara to face the creature's new host, Stefan Delumiere, she held nothing back. The result was a single strike that seemed to rend reason itself asunder for a split second, a sublime art that Virara seemed unaware of even as she released it. This was the crystallization of her undiluted malevolent intent given flesh, a subconsciously concocted ars magna. Whether it was something her Master granted her, or a product of her unhealthy mind, Virara did not know and did not care. She'd "expressed her displeasure" in her original language to the false primal. If Memeli recovered or not would be a matter of time, and fate, but that moment where she struck Stefan down, Virara for the first time understood an emotion within her implicitly; a rage born of concern for a precious person, uncontrolled and dominating in its power. It was unlikely, even as Virara recovered her composure after the battle, that she would ever truly be the same.
- ■ Character Background Material: Placeholder for section on fan-made NPCs, organizations, terms and concepts related to my character's background. Sections will be hidden if containing spoilers, and there will be a "knowledge level" to determine whether or not another rp character can reasonably know about these topics with sufficient background.
UNKNOWN ( ♥ ♥ ♥ ● ● ● ) - Sensei |
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A notorious manslayer from Doma, whose shadowy exploits and wanton atrocities during the country's ill-fated rebellion were innumerable. Everything Virara says about this enigma suggests a martial artist of such transcendental skill that only the term 'monster' could properly describe her. Amid monks and pugilists, she is a pariah that stands truly alone. For years Virara's only window into civilization was Master. She owes everything that she is to her. Murky, undefined feelings flow through Virara towards Master, stronger than anything she knows, but in truth they are neither friends, nor family. Since the day they met Virara has been determined to kill her, and when she thinks of Master, a horrifying blood lust overflows from within her. The backbone of Virara's world is her equal animosity and admiration for this enigmatic woman, but both sentiments are far from understanding.
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Tsuchigumo ( ● ● ) - Enemy |
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An assailant wearing 'Okina' the Laughing Old Man mask in Noh theater. It is uncertain whether Tsuchigumo is male, female, or even a person rather than monster or voidsent, but its animosity and murderous lust are all too apparent. It seeks to procure 'the pig' for slaughter, but after a disastrous first encounter, Virara is determined on pain of madness to never let that happen. A master of acrobatics, it has joints that flex in ways a contortionist would cringe at and a mastery of tetsugen, metal wire. It displayed an inability to speak using its own words, "borrowing" the phrases and body language of those it observes, and an almost childish fascination with simple distractions such as bright, flashing lights. Virara's allies took its arm, but it managed to slink away, and a second confrontation is inevitable.
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Masked Man ( ● ● ) - Enemy |
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One of Gogonji Gegenji's Khamja, a hired killer wearing 'Hanya,' the Horned Demon mask. He was referred to as "Kirin" by his ally, meeting Virara in battle beneath The Shroud. A young man who appears to have real horns and a thick tail, he is likely Au Ra, but other than his unmotivated disregard for his employer, nothing is known for certain. A skilled martial artist, he favors kicking heavily. He carries himself with a brash, terse demeanor, and refused to fight his utmost against Virara and a party of friends including Jancis and Jajara, instead unleashing trained war hounds upon them. He stated that for Doma, no amount of blood spilt would ever truly be wasted, but his words and actions do not seem to match up.
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Masked Woman ( ● ● ) - Enemy |
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One of Gogonji Gegenji's Khamja, a hired killer wearing 'Fukai,' the Grieving Widow mask. As a last line of defense before Anunu and Gogonji, she was hired to obstruct those who would stop Khamja's attack on an Imperial Castrum, as part of a false flag operation meant to thrust the city states into open war with Garlemald. She spoke in an odd rhythm and referred to Kirin as an 'upstart,' suggesting some degree of personal animosity between them. Although claiming to be a rebel for the cause of lost Doma, she also acknowledged it as "mere pretense" upon being pressed. She fights with a poisoned metal chain whip, but the lackluster effort mirrors Kirin's. Like him she abandoned Gogonji to his fate gladly and with no sign of remorse. Neither she nor Kirin seem to have much interest in Virara personally, unlike Tsuchigumo.
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Bozu (Priest) ( ● ) - Stranger |
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A self-proclaimed "Emptiness Monk," this enigmatic Hellsguard, who wears a sedge basket upon his head, advised Virara on her training journey to the Sea of Clouds. He has an odd, absent-minded demeanor and a generally friendly disposition, supposedly running an orphanage for refugees in Mor Dhona. His open mind and listening ear are typical of Doman errant monks. Those scars he bears, many of them appearing to be from near-fatal injuries, are not. A practitioner of an odd faith that claims to do away with the "illusions of the world," he is by choice blind even when he removes his basket. He also seems to be an expert of an equally odd method of aetheric manipulation, utilizing a bell and a bizarre golden compass and board. Virara asked him to keep her whereabouts secret, and to perhaps teach her the methods of his art, but being a man of extremes, he honored her words so severely that he confronted several pursuers trying to abduct Virara and bring her home to the Still Shore and fell to his death as a result. Yet just as mysteriously as he appeared, Bozu returned again to meet Virara and her friends at his tiny orphanage in Mor Dhona. Who or what is this man? How did he survive the pluge at the Sea of Clouds?
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Chachanji Gegenji ( ♥ ♥ ) - First Boy |
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Initially agitated by what she thought was a softhearted and weak boy, Virara's fascination with him has grown to something more. He is her first friend, the first Eorzean she knew, the first person to challenge her worldview, and the second person to withstand her strikes, after her Master. It is possible that her attachment to him is more intense than she lets on, but Virara's poor grasp of emotions ensures that what form it takes remains ambiguous. Virara seems to want to be close to him, regardless. Chachanji, for his part, appears to see her as a younger sibling, but Virara considers him too immature to take seriously in that role...
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Memeli Meli ( ♥ ♥ ) - The Other Eye |
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This diminutive rapscallion is Virara's first female friend close to her own age. She both admires and envies many qualities Memeli possesses, such as her bright demeanor and knowledge of aether. However, having lost to Memeli in a match, Virara's passion has risen from a faint smouldering to a dancing flame. Their closeness is akin to sworn sisters, or something more, but as with Chachanji, Virara feels an indistinct desire to be close. She's sworn to become Memeli's "other eye," after she lost hers to a malevolent spirit, and Virara keeps her promises. Currently, Memeli is teaching Virara to obtain the secret technique known as "cuteness." Virara solemnly swears to stand atop this new technique and become invincible to all foes!
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Jancis Milburga ( ♥ ) - Jancis Lady |
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Jancis seems to have a natural poise and ladylike nature that intrigues Virara, who does not possess the qualities herself. Yet at the same time, there are deeper similarities between the two that aren't immediately apparent. It seems very likely they will come to understand each other even better soon. She has the atmosphere of an 'older sister,' if Virara had any grasp of what that actually was. The sight of her ponytail for some reason makes Virara grow calm.
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Flickering Ember ( ♥ ) - Another Wild Child |
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More than anything else, Virara knows the terror of living in a bestial state, half mad and concerned with only her own survival and safety. When she locks eyes with Ember and sees the raw instinct there, she feels a sense of nostalgia that epitomizes its original definition of "the pain of returning home." But as Ember grows in humanity, so too does Virara's trust in her. The fact that she fed Virara doesn't hurt. Their feral origins draw them together, but Virara's forced training sadly separates them almost as much.
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Jajara Jara ( ● ) - A Respected Elder |
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An associate of Memeli's through her organization. Virara knows a fist fighter when she sees one, and immediately wanted to challenge her, though she held back. She seems to respect her as the first older Lalafell she had met, but sadly, Vira's intensity and lack of social awareness made for an intimidating first impression, as she is wont to do. To Virara she is a wise, older lady, and she sometimes calls Jajara Aunt, much to her chagrin.
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Chuchukepa Hohokepa ( ● ) - Uncle Chuchippit Hepkop-Forget It. |
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Virara met this strange man whose name is hard to say in the Coral house. Not accustomed to meeting others of her race, let alone older ones, she reacted in a similar manner to how she regarded Jajara. Naturally she was surprised to find the two not only know each other, but are very close in a way Vira scarcely understands. She sees him as fretful and meticulous, but wise about the Aether, which Virara barely understands. 'Master' Chuchukepa trains Virara in how to cook like a more sane woman.
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Leanne Delphium ( ● ) - The Hat Woman |
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One of Chachanji's friends. She has a distinctive look about her that piques Virara's curiosity, but she seems also very aloof and mysterious in some ways. However, Virara doesn't dislike her in the slightest. In fact, she grows more and more attached to Leanne as time goes by. She is weak against her openness and sense of simple warmth, and admires her ability to sing, which Virara is piss poor at. She is not fond of Leanne's tendency to disappear at a moment's notice, however...
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Ququiki Quki ( ● ) - Cookie |
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An acquaintance of both Virara and Chachanji, Virara is impressed with "Cookie's" fighting spirit, despite her physical weakness and debilitating condition. Quki is a wellspring of arcane knowledge, despite being significantly younger than Virara, so often the conversations between the two boil down to Quki attempting to explain something that seems simple to her, but is far too complex for an ignorant Virara to grasp. Virara, unlike probably most people, is impressed by Quki's tendency to overdo it when training and somewhat cautiously encourages the dangerous behavior.
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Warren Castille ( ● ) - Serwarren |
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Chachanji's mentor, and thus a person who Virara innately respects. But in Virara's case, respect can sometimes also mean 'wants to drub mercilessly.' Ser Castille is a prying sort who seems to be aware that Virara came from an abnormal upbringing. She respects Warren greatly for his insight into her and wants to learn from him to better understand how he and Chachanji think, and to improve herself accordingly.
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Ha'uruh Nunh ( ● ) - Howl |
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A friend of Warren's. Virara doesn't know him well, but was startled to know he trained under the same master as Sei. She feels some curiosity as to what caused them to become so different, and wants to know more. "Howl" was strangely protective of her when she took a contract from Surge, and Virara quickly noticed his irregular behavior..
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Tausenadel Geispyrsyn ( ● ) - Animal Keeper |
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"Animal Keeper" Tau is as marvelous for his size as he is for not eating the many creatures he raises. He fascinates Virara, but she does not understand why he frowns at her whenever she suggests they eat one of his critters. Tau is also an unwitting demonstrator of the emotion of "grief," as Virara watched the trial of Sigurd Rainecourt involving the untimely death of his wife, Dhemgeim Shyrdoenwyn. She observes him when he's angry as well as when he is content, trying to grasp the alien feeling locked hidden away within his massive form.
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Valentinoix Thibault ( ● ) - The Stranger From Underground |
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An ally from the Coral house. A man of few words, this Duskwight proved his reliability several times over in battle alongside Virara. His difficulties in adjusting to the world above ground remind Virara she is not the only one struggling in a foreign land. Indeed, all land above ground is "foreign" to him, yet he suffers inconvenience with only mild complaint, and is a stalwart figure regardless. Conversations between the two typically involve a great deal of uncomfortable silence.
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Tiergan Vashir ( ● ) - The Silver Cat |
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This man's history of violence is plain as day to Virara, who watches a stranger's movements long before she even speaks to them. Virara aided him once in tracking down and attempting to subdue a rival... or friend, of his. Tiergan's profound obsession with an equally blood-drenched man, Zaius, is for once a feeling that Virara can recognize, a rarity. Much as Tau, she sees him as an interesting model of behavior; the extremes of fixation and hate she herself hasn't identified yet. His atmosphere of violence is nostalgic to her as well, and no amount of principled behavior or restraint will expunge it from her mind. Also, he kneels to talk to her, which Chuchukepa told her was rude, but she doesn't seem to care.
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Renzhen Berkuul ( ● ) - Boss |
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A woman of many mysteries, Virara is indebted to her for allowing the vagrant Lalafell to stay in her home. Though Virara's extreme formality with her seems to amuse the Coral Sea's leader, she also has taken a liking to Virara and encourages her to cultivate an independent spirit. Despite this, Virara has difficulty comprehending what it means to live for a goal of her own, and her sense of self is weak. She is respectful and will abide by Renzhen's orders, though she and Staelufre, whom Virara sees as her blood-oath sibling, speak in a language she struggles to comprehend. However, Virara's transparent stubbornness suggests that while she doesn't dislike 'Boss' and will fulfill her obligations out of a desire to repay the shelter and care she receives, her only true allegiance is to her Master.
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Staelufre Lysmerl ( ● ) - The Riddle Lady |
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On one hand her manner of speech is frustratingly obtuse for the direct girl, but on the other hand she can relate to her innate affinity for violence. Virara is honored to the point of bewilderment by receiving what perceives to be a 'style name' (Rhetidaeg) akin to those granted to warrior nobility in Doma, but at the same time a name given by someone other than Master is a blasphemy to her. It may be that Virara can communicate better with the "Pink Cat" more easily through her first language of the fist than with spoken words alone. In order for them to be closer, Virara must learn to expand beyond her rigid world view.
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Dren Ghonne ( ● ) - The Two Drens |
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Lonely and frail-looking, Dren met Virara in the midst of a strange engagement near the chamber of rule, beating a giant adamantoise taken in for a leve to death, hungering for tortoise soup. Dren's soup immediately got on her good side, but his past in servitude, so readily volunteered, innately struck a chord with her, being not dissimilar to her own. In an attempt to both help her new goal of using her strength for others, not merely herself, and also out of empathy for Dren, she volunteered to let him stay with her in her room at the Quicksand. Dren's strange instability puts Virara on edge, and she is becoming progressively more guarded around him.
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Edda Eglantine ( ● ) - A Mysterious Noblewoman |
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The woman of noble breeding is a strange, unfamiliar existence to someone whose life has always been deprived of everything. Virara does not know how exactly to regard Edda. She is, however, a person who promises greater knowledge of a subset of society that seems as real to Virara as one of Chachanji's hero stories. Her interactions with the heiress have been stilted and awkward, but not for want of trying. Neither of them are accustomed to communicating, after all.
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Liliro Liro ( ● ) - Memeli's 'friend' |
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A girl who seems interested in Memeli. Virara was wary of her at first, and watching them together troubled her; not out of jealousy, but of an extreme desire to protect Memeli, and to remain useful. She seems to see Liliro as enabling Memeli's recently deprecated self-confidence, but Virara does not blame Liliro in the slightest for Memeli's slump. For her part, she has no real animosity towards Liliro whatsoever, even after getting kicked out of Memeli's bed and punched in the nose a few times... Naturally, Virara's ignorance of social mores causes tension between the two of them, a fact she is utterly unaware of.
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- ■ RPG Style Statsl: These are just for fun, and give a vague impression of what she is skilled at. The FATE-14 sheet is for use with events requiring the roll-based system.
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Design and Influence Notes
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- ■ Do: Walk up, tell, pretty much anything! The eyepatch is the symbol of my burning commitment to rp! Or it would be, I'm trying to get better about that... Send me a friend request if you want to play more-I am very busy with two characters and quite a bit of PVE, so forgive me if I cannot RP with you always. I am very busy early in the week, and cannot rp much Sun, Tues, Wed evenings PST, with some floating days for extra raid practice. For combat scenes, I prefer honor system, or for the result to be decided beforehand, but will do /roll, and am thinking of making a Fate-14 sheet.
- ■ Ask: Common sense, but most of this wiki is OOC. I trust most players to be responsible as it's more fun that way; however, if you're ever even slightly unsure you can use information from my wiki in RP, please ask me before doing so. I'm always open to getting involved in new events and plotlines. I'd especially be receptive to having your character involved with Virara's past or that of her enormous NPC supporting cast, if yours is Doman or from Othard. However if I am busy or there is something going on that might interfere, I would like to make sure everything is squared away, so please do ask. Basically just ask if it's something that will occupy Virara significantly for extended periods of time.
- ■ Don't: My only real limit is ERP. I will not do it under any circumstances, sorry.
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Deirdre Ta'ea. Bancroft Gairn. Xheja Rajhera. Unnamed Mercenary. Lucaell Tareth'eian. D'lyhhia Lhuil. Edda Eglantine Thank you! I bow to your skills.