Adalhaid Rask

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Adalhaid Rask
Gender	Female
Race	Hyur
Clan	Highlander
Citizenship	Ul’dah
Age	17
Sexuality	Heterosexual
Occupation	Wandering Fighter
Guardian	Halone, the Fury
Namesday	15th Sun of the first Astral Moon.

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Character

General

Adalhaid Rask is a young woman hailing from Ul’dah, the daughter of an Ala Mhigan warrior and a famed Coliseum fighter known as Annaliese Swiftstrike. After being orphaned at ten years old due to a pit-fight that turned into a bloodbath, Adalhaid was taken in by the Pugilists’ guild, and eventually found work as a quiet, hardworking cargo porter and dock worker, operating between Ul’dah, Horizon, and Vesper Bay, as well as a serving maid for the Quicksand, a job for which she earned her room and board. She briefly worked with a band of adventurers, carrying their goods for them, and eventually fighting alongside them in a limited capacity, before the group settled down to create a proper Free Company. After leaving the newly-formed Company due to her worry that she was simply holding them back with her hesitant nature, she began wandering the world on her own, looking for ways to improve her skills.

Appearance

Adalhaid sports messy, black hair, parted to keep it out of her eyes and cut short to prevent it from getting in the way while fighting. She has the dark, deep-brown skin of a desert dweller, with matching brown eyes. To many, she qualifies as surprisingly androgynous at first glance, with somewhat boyish looks coupled with a small chest, and a rather nonthreatening face for one that wishes to call themselves a fighter. Despite her somewhat weak nature and innocent appearance, she is actually quite athletic and well-muscled for someone her age, especially a female. Due to her daily training regimen, she is often adorned with scars and scratches, especially on her legs and arms. Although they are small, and therefore tend to fade away, she gains them with such frequency that their presence seems to be nearly constant.

She often wears light, loosely fitting clothes in order to allow for as much movement as possible when fighting and practicing, usually donning large cotton shirts and pants like most pugilists in training. Underneath, she always wears a set of heavy, weighted braces on her arms and legs, only ever taking them off to replace them with heavier weights once she can no longer feel the effects of the previous ones.

Behaviour

A rather odd girl for her age, Adalhaid Rask has the combat skill of someone decades ahead of her, and the confidence of a timid child. Despite spending the majority of her life honing her skills, she never considers herself good enough, and has, as a result, managed to limit herself with nothing but the powers of her doubts and fears.

Her lack of presence is her distinguishing quality to most. She rarely speaks, except when she is spoken to. Even then, her words come in short, easy to understand sentences, and she rarely says more than she has to get a point across. She stands to the sidelines when others speak or act, and is strangely reluctant to provide input, even when it is requested of her. She does not display intense emotions outwardly, instead giving slight smiles or modest frowns at most. She does not pry into the business of others, finding that she has neither the drive nor the assertiveness to do so, and believes that such things are none of her business to begin with.

Despite her skill, Adalhaid believes herself to be worthless, and unintentionally holds herself back in fights by believing that she is far below her true capabilities. She prefers to simply believe that she cannot do something by default, rather than take the time to try. Nevertheless, she trains every day, pushing herself as hard as she can in the hopes that she will some day be able to aspire to what she believes she must be, even if she has passed that point already without knowing it.

Combat

Adalhaid has trained in a myriad of combat styles, and tends to put them all together like most pugilists do. However, she has also modified what she knows in order to come up with an experimental fighting style that she uses purely for hand-to-hand combat. It often abandons hora and claws for armored boxing gloves and cesti, and uses a firm stance coupled with lot of grapples and holds in order to take advantage of her strength and an enemy's momentum. Regardless of what style she uses, she relies mostly on her strength, speed, and technical precision to win a fight, sometimes improvising in order to get the upper hand when she can. Due to her lack of confidence, however, her stances are often shaky, as she often cannot decide between standing her ground and putting distance between her and the enemy. As a result, she usually leaves herself in an unsteady stance which allows her to perform neither strategy with much effectiveness.

More recently, her intense training and deep meditation has caused her Chakra to surface. She has an extraordinary amount of it locked within her, and her lack of control over it often causes the energy to harm her just as much as it harms her target. The chance of her Chakra hurting someone has led to her only attempting to experiment with it in private, and she has started keeping an even tighter lid on her emotions than usual, just in case something should go wrong. Although she hopes to find someone to train her, she has not worked up the confidence to try and find anyone that might have knowledge of such things.

Tendencies

Likes ■ Sparring and Training, and watching others do so ■ Meditation, often for long periods ■ Silence ■ Light breezes ■ Caring for Chocobos, especially Wildheart, her own companion.

Dislikes ■ Large bodies of water (she can’t swim) ■ The smell of fresh fish ■ Loud noises ■ Her own timidness

Hobbies/Talents ■ Prodigious fighter ■ Surprisingly good singer ■ Good at taking care of Chocobos (they especially seem to like her singing) ■ Excellent climber

Favorites ■ Favourite Food/Drink: Rice with any sort of spiced meat, not picky when it comes to drinks. ■ Favourite Place: The rooftops of Ul’dah, especially at sunrise or sunset. ■ Favorite Weather: Sunny, warm, and with a light breeze. ■ Favorite Seasons: Spring and Summer. ■ Favorite Color: Reddish Orange. ■ Favorite Scents: Anything that smells as if it’s cooking.

Relationships

♥ Romantic Interest ♥ Sexual Desire ♥ Platonic Love ● Good Standing ● Neutral Standing ● Poor Standing

Friends & Acquaintances ● Onuma Ahntifi - Adalhaid holds this woman in both awe and in terror, especially after sparring with her. Despite being rather casual in most circumstances, she still commands a level of respect from others that Adalhaid believes she can only dream of one day possessing. Although Adalhaid does not completely understand the miqo'te's mannerisms, she is glad that Onuma is there to guide the Company along. ● Rhesh'ir Zhwan - Adalhaid finds his playfulness somewhat discomforting, especially when she is due to spar him at some point in the near future. Although she has seen brief glimpses of the reason why he is the leader of the Company, she often wonders why he does not choose to live that side of himself, instead of something that strikes her and some others as markedly less serious. ♥ Kodaro Ba'rococo - Originally a passing curiosity, then a sparring partner and teacher, and now someone she deeply worries and cares for. Despite not knowing much about him, the time that the two have spent in each other's company, along with Kodaro's faith in Adalhaid's abilities, has caused Ada's friendly concern to blossom into feelings she is desperate to hide. ● Y'lyfriel Sikah - A pleasant lady that was one of the first members of the company that Adalhaid actually spoke to, and also, along with Onuma, the first to ask her to join the company in the first place. She is often baffled by Lyfriel's claims of worthlessness, especially when it is clear that she is well-respected by those around her, and very good at her chosen magic. Ironically, she also failed to understand Lyfriel's point when she attempted to explain that Adalhaid views herself in the same exact light. ● Rinha'li Dhavha - Adalhaid sympathizes with his lack of assertiveness, a trait that she shares, and then some. He was the one that suggested that she start a journal in order to keep track of her feelings, an idea which struck her as quite thoughtful, and eventually somewhat useful, despite her hesitation. She hopes that he eventually learns to speak up for himself, as she feels that he is full of good ideas that could be of some benefit to the others, assuming that he decides to make them known in the first place. ● ● ● ●

Enemies & Rivals ●

Rumours

Easily Overheard Rumours

■ "The Rask girl? Sure, I know 'er, pretty popular cargo hauler 'round these parts. They say she's got th' strength of a Roegadyn or two, but without tha' bumblin' clumsiness. Don' know how a girl that size can tie three crates her size onta' her back an' keep walkin', but I'm not gonna question it. In Thanalan, a damn good deal's a damn good deal!" -- Vesper Bay Dockworker

■ "Word is she likes to meditate a lot. I've heard a few merchants at the bar talking about some girl that likes to sit out in the ruins around Southern Thanalan and other weird places like that. Don't know for sure, but I bet it's her. I tried to get her to talk about it when we were serving together, actually! But she doesn't talk to anybody. Maybe she's just shy." -- Quicksands Serving Girl

■ "Oh her! You know who her mother was, right? Annaliese Swiftstrike! Hell of a fighter, that one. See, for us Coliseum Insiders, she was one of the safest bets out there for her time! That big guy she had wrapped around her finger wasn't too bad either, but Swiftstrike was the main event! If that girl's as good as her mother, I'd pay an arm and a leg to get her in that ring. Think of all the money I'd make! Shame what happened to her folks, though." -- Coliseum Enthusiast

Somewhat Difficult To Overhear Rumours

■ "Heard she's really set on becoming a 'Fist of Rhalgr', or somesuch. Hell if I know what that is. Bothered a few of my mates over at the Mirage to teach her. One of them just got annoyed and refused a few times. Apparently another agreed, but saw her splitting rocks with her bare hands out in Thanalan one day and chickened out." -- Ul'dahn Merchant

■ "Thinkin' back on it, I don't think I ever saw a report sayin' they nabbed the guy that went off on Swiftstrike an' her partner. Guess the guy's still at large." -- Brass Blades Lieutenant

Rarely Overheard Rumours

■ "Lemme tell ya somethin'. Back when I was...When I was uh...When I was workin' fer a bank, this big guy I used t' see hangin' around with Annaliese came by, an' he handed me this...This big ol' package, an' tells me t' lock it up 'til his little girl gets big. Hells if I know what's in it. Equipment 'a some sort, I bet." -- Pearl Lane Drunkard

Player Character Rumours</div

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History/Timeline

Footnotes

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