Adelpha Sarantas
 Adelpha Sarantas (formerly Aldrisi Shirantas) | |
| |
| Gender | Female |
| Race | Hyur |
| Clan | Highlander |
| Citizenship | Limsa Lominsa |
| Nationality | Ala Mhigan, Garlean (renounced) |
| Nameday | 19th Sun of the 3rd Umbral Moon |
| Age | 28 |
| Guardian | Llymlaen, the Navigator |
| Occupation | Storm Lieutenant of the Maelstrom |
| Prior aliases | Aldrisi Shirantas |
Basic Info
At first glance, Adelpha is both a little bit too tall and muscular to be a Midlander, and a little bit too slight to be a Highlander. She stands at 5 fulms, 9 ilms, with a slightly muscular build, though not nearly as much so as a full-blooded Highlander. She possesses the darkened complexion and fighting spirit of an Ala Mhigan, and the strong work ethic and love of ale that only could belong to a Lominsan. She speaks with a slight accent that's hard for many to place, which is in reality an unusual combination of Ala Mhigan and Lominsan speech patterns.
Fiercely dedicated to protecting her homelands and her loved ones, Adelpha committed herself to the Maelstrom's service in 1572, just before the Foreign Levy itself was formally opened. The majority of the assignments that she undertook for the Maelstrom between 1572-1576 were confidential, though she has recently resurfaced in Limsa Lominsa.
History
Adelpha was born in 1549 in Ala Mhigo, the product of an Ala Mhigan teacher (her mother) and a Garlean military officer (her father) prior to the eventual conflict between the two nations. Shortly after Adelpha's birth, the three left Ala Mhigo for the capital of Garlemald. Though Adelpha rarely saw her father due to his near-constant field assignments, their life continued in peace, for a time. Due to her mother's past occupation as a teacher, Adelpha learned a great deal during her childhood. Aside from reading and writing, Adelpha had a great interest in books about far-away places and cultures.
In 1557, at the age of eight, Garlemald annexed the city-state of Ala Mhigo in the wake of the recent unrest in Ala Mhigo caused by Theodorac. Though it seemed at first that the Empire's intentions were to liberate the city-state from its state of tyrannical oppression, it soon became clear to Adelpha's mother (through a chain of correspondence with her parents still in Ala Mhigo) that the Empire's real goals were far less altruistic. Struck by heavy worry and grief due to her close relationship with both sides of the conflict, Adelpha's mother began to think of a contingency plan that would ensure her daughter's safety in the event of the worst.
The following year in 1558, as political posturing and military saber-rattling continued to intensify in Garlemald, Adelpha's mother made a risky, but calculated, decision. Adelpha's mother arranged to have her daughter carried in secret on a merchant ship bound for the southern trade routes. She would be delivered to an orphanage in Limsa Lominsa, where she would be cared for and could live her life without fear of encroaching military conflict. Far on an island off the distant western coast of Eorzea -- a whole world away, it seemed -- she believed her daughter would be safe from the conflict that was beginning to envelop her homeland. She also gave her daughter a new name, to avoid being traced back to her original family and thereby to avoid deportation. The new name, while similar enough to Adelpha's birth name for the young child to easily remember, was a good enough permutation to conceal her birth name's Garlean origins. The name: Aldrisi Shirantas.
Adelpha's life continued peacefully until adulthood, full of days playing with her fellow children in the streets and alleys of Limsa Lominsa and getting in lots of harmless trouble. As she got older, she began to take on various odd jobs, working as a dockhand here and a barmaid there. As a barmaid, the visiting sailors would often regail the beautiful young girl with stories of their exploits and adventures on faraway voyages, and she was always happy to take their tips and stories both.
As Garlemald resumed open hostilities in 1571, at the age of 22, Adelpha left Limsa Lominsa to study formalized martial training at the Academy of Expertly Trained Hydaelyn Explorers and Researchers (A.E.T.H.E.R.). After completing her studies, she wandered Eorzea for a time in search of some way to apply her skills toward the defense of Eorzea. Uninterested in profit-motivated mercenary work, she eventually fell in with the Eorzean Guard, which, while technically a mercenary organization, possessed a rigid command hierarchy and a righteous code of ethics that separated it from typical mercenary groups, in her mind. She continued to serve with the Eorzean Guard's Third Division until the Grand Companies resurfaced the following year, and for a short time afterward. Throughout this period, Eorzea's tensions with the Garlean Empire soared to new highs, and Adelpha struggled to keep her Garlean parentage a secret, deathly afraid of being imprisoned or executed if her true past were to be discovered.
Over time, Adelpha formed a personal code of morals built on preventing unnecessary harm and loss of life where it's possible to do so. To that end, she began to prefer to contribute to a battle by supporting and protecting her allies, and began to study conjury as a means to that end. She's also developed a slight skill with other aetheric disciplines, though she is far from a master in any of them.
Shortly before the Grand Companies opened public recruitment in the wake of full-out Garlean invasion, Adelpha applied for a position with the Maelstrom, and was accepted. After serving for several months as a low-level enlisted soldier, Adelpha received a promotion and was posted to a series of covert assignments. She was not publicly seen or heard from for four years, even in the wake of the Calamity.
She eventually resurfaced in Limsa Lominsa in 1576, now a Storm Lieutenant. For unknown reasons, she has shed her false name, and no longer conceals her Garlean parentage; she rarely desires to discuss it, but she's apparently given up on her efforts to keep it a secret. Instead, she outright renounces her Garlean citizenship -- if any such thing still remains -- and channels her familial connection with the Empire into an even stronger conviction to stop the Empire's conquest and to return peace to Hydaelyn.
Personality
Adelpha is warm and friendly to those she knows, and a guarded around those she doesn't: a trait that she learned from a life lived around potentially-dangerous strangers. An enlisted member of the Maelstrom for several years -- and more recently a low-level officer -- she tolerates very little interference in the line of duty, and has open contempt for those who disrespect the Maelstrom's efforts (and, to a lesser extent, the efforts of the other Grand Companies) to protect Eorzea.
While previously somewhat uncertain in the face of grave danger due to her inexperience, Adelpha is now noticeably more confident and seasoned than in her youth. Though she still has a strong preference to avoid unnecessary danger and to prevent unnecessary loss of life, she's better able to cope with perilous situations and the horrors of the battlefield when they do arise. Though she ultimately has a fair amount of confidence in her abilities, she possesses a lingering fear of failing her companions when they need her the most.
Affiliations
(Notes from Adelpha's personal journal.)
Deirdre Ta'ea: She served alongside me in the Guard as a superior for a time. Strong, no-nonsense, and a good role-model. She always felt a bit distant, but I admired her.
Diyne Ikapine: Mysterious, but knows how to have a good time. Independent to a fault, and known to play with hearts. I still like him despite all that.
Endermerrin Rosethorne: Don't know much about him, but Xene seems to like him a lot. Seems forthright and honest. He seems like a sort of person I can respect.
Illias Naystar: Despite his disgustingly indiscriminate flirtations, he had a good heart. I saw him get hurt pretty badly once, and I found myself wanting to be there to comfort him, as much as he annoyed me. I wonder where he is now. ...I hope he's OK.
Kannadi Albedo: No-nonsense and studious. I respected her single-mindedness to her work, but she was a bit too straight-laced for me when it was time to unwind. I wonder if she ever finished that tome she was working on?
Kneria Kuthyrn: A comrade of mine from Third Division. Never knew much about her, but we seemed to get along pretty well regardless.
Mho Nhacara: A riddle, wrapped in an enigma, inside a mystery, inside a Moon Keeper. I never did understand what her "visions" or strange riddles were about.
Midge Totonauma: This one feels like the sort who never has anyone stand up to them or shout them down. I did, once. It was fun. She probably thinks she won, though.
Mtoto Wamoto: My old Commander. A woman that I greatly respect, and a good-hearted fighter. It broke my heart to give her my resignation from the Guard, but the Maelstrom left me no time for other commitments. If she's still among the living, I want to track her down.
Myllor Aurelion: Sort of a naive child, but a good soul too. Spoiled more than one good time, but I could never really hold it against him. Maybe if he toughens up a little and loosens his collar to match, he'd really become something special.
Oskar Helvig: Stuck-up, overconfident, and often rude, but with a great sense of duty. Seemed to enjoy being seen on patrol more than actually protecting anyone from harm.
Rio Roulette: One of those First Division kids, right? That whole division treated everything like a game, as though the Guard was a social club or something. Why were they in such an organization if all they wanted to do was play games and joke around? They never liked it when the Commander came down on them, but I got quite a bit of satisfaction out of it.
Tahrara Kivenera: An apparently-renowned author of books that I've never cared for. Saved her once from a kidnapping, unharmed, thankfully.
Talulah Quai: A friend of a friend. Don't know much about her, but hung out around her a lot, and we seemed to get along reasonably well. Has a habit of saying "miqo" a lot. What's up with that?
Verence Meillune: Friendly enough, but, like Kannadi, a bit too straight-laced and socially awkward for casual situations. Taught me a thing or two about my lance technique, though. Not a bad guy.
Xenedra Ambreaus: One of my first and closest friends that I made after leaving home. A bit too much of a party animal for me sometimes, but she's been good about getting me to loosen up. Seemed to go through boyfriends like they were disposable for a while, there, but the last time I saw her it seemed like she had settled down a bit with that Endemerrin guy. I wonder if her theater group is still around; I was involved with it at the very beginning, but my Maelstrom duties took me away from it before even the first production had been put together.
Zolku Elku: My other good friend along with Xene. We shared a lot of conversations together, but the last time I saw him, he looked really rough, like he was sick or something. That tireless smile was there all the same, though. He asked me out on a date, but by the time I had received my assignment, I couldn't find him; I really wish I had been able to talk to him before I left. Along with Mtoto, he's the person that I most want to locate. We have some long-overdue catching up to do.
