Chris Ganale
 Chris Ganale
| |
 Chris in his combat attire. | |
| Gender | Male |
| Race | Hyur |
| Clan | Midlander |
| Citizenship | Ul'dah |
| Place of Birth | Ul'dah |
| Nameday | 6th Sun, 4th Astral Moon (Age: 29) |
| Guardian | Althyk, the Keeper |
| Profession | Mercenary, professional bodyguard |
| Theme Song | Battle Born |
Chris Ganale is a male midlander hyur hailing from the city-state of Ul'dah. Formerly a non-commissioned officer of the Immortal Flames, he fought as a phalanx trooper at the Battle of Carteneau and survived the ensuing Calamity. Afterwards, he was discharged from service and changed his primary combat arms field from sword and shield to the axe, taking up work as a mercenary for hire and professional bodyguard.
Contents
Biography
Early Life
Born to a middle-class family in the city-state of Ul'dah, the desert jewel was all that Chris knew in his early life. His father a deadbeat that vanished less than two years after his birth, he was raised by his mother and grandparents, along with five aunts and an uncle--with their own respective families--living nearby in the city. His grandfather in particular acted as a stand-in father figure whom he has looked up to all his life and used as the measuring stick against which to judge his worth. Though not so well-off as to never want for anything, the financial status of his family meant that he never went hungry or lacked well-fitting clothing to protect him from the elements. This is not to say he was not unaware of the class warfare rampant in the city, as he was shunned by the richer kids and the poorer alike. Because of this, he developed an introverted personality very early on, preferring to keep to himself and thereby avoiding the shame of being ostracized by others.
Of his large immediate family, the vast majority had or were presently serving in the military, instilling in him a strong sense of patriotism and the values of honor, integrity, and dignity. Because of this, he settled on a career in the military from a young age, and spent most of his youth preparing for that by studying military tactics and history, weapons and armor use, and preparing himself physically for military service. He discovered a favor of swords and focused on the development of that particular combat arm, but kept his training in the other fields balanced for the sake of not handicapping himself.
Aside from his continuous drive to prepare himself for the military, little else of note occurred during his teen years.
Military Service
At the age of eighteen, he enlisted into the Immortal Flames and was assigned to the 5th Phalanx Corps, a unit specializing in the use of heavy shields and spears to serve as a mobile blocking force against enemy infantry units. He displayed high skill with the combined use of shield and spear, as well as an impressive talent for tactics and improvisation. Though the majority of the Flames' military activity at the time consisted of ensuring the territorial integrity of Ul'dah and the occasional skirmish with the Amalj'aa, Chris distinguished himself well and earned several promotions over the course of the next five years.
Even as his military career rose steadily, events in his private life were not going so well. Only a year into his service, his grandfather passed away from age and failing health. As devastated as the loss of his role model and father figure left him, it was followed shortly by a series of ill-fated efforts at romance. A miqo'te woman he had been trying unsuccessfully to court for three years prior, despite repeated warnings from friends and family alike that she was merely taking advantage of his affections, finally drew his ire by making unflattering remarks about his grandfather. The next several would-be significant others followed the pattern of being highly-affectionate and ostensibly in love with him, only to be caught within months by any number of his friends in relations with other individuals. As this trend continued, his trust in people he didn't already have established camaraderie with withered as an unwatered garden, and he in turn grew more taciturn to people outside his close group of friends, family, and the Phalanx Corps.
After close to a year, it seemed at first as though his luck in love would finally turn around, with the arrival of a new member into his unit, Rinh Orho. Possessed of a strong professional attitude when on duty, she was warm and friendly when out of uniform, and her interest in Chris was genuine. Despite initial misgivings by their commander, their relationship served to strengthen their bonds in the field and assisted in increasing the proficiency of the formation overall. As is often the case, however, it was not long before the ultimate test was put in their path.
The Battle of Carteneau
War had come to Eorzea. Spearheaded by the VIIth Imperial Legion, the Garlean Empire advanced into the heartland of the region, bent on conquering all that laid before them. Along with the threat of the Empire, another peril presented itself in the form of the lesser moon Dalamud, falling from the heavens to the earth below. Though capable of scant little against the threat presented by the falling moon, the armed forces of the Eorzean Alliance could very well contest the Garlean invasion. Knowing that the very site of the battle they would wage against the Empire was also ground zero for the falling moon, Chris bid his family goodbye and departed with the Immortal Flames to give his life preserving as much of the world as he could.
At the fields of Carteneau Flats, the Alliance met the Empire head-on in a pitched battle. Despite the clear technological edge of the Garleans, the Alliance managed to hold their own through clever application of magic and the desperate strength born of a fight for utter survival. The 5th Phalanx Corps, their shields and arms magically-treated to resist the heavier weapons and magitek of the Garleans, wrought havoc on the light infantry that comprised the bulk of the Imperial force, all but invincible to the blades of those ground troops while seeming to strike down numerous platoons' worth of troops with frightening ease. Singular attacks by Garlean magitek reapers were ineffective at breaking the Corps or halting their advance, as the magicks applied to the Corps' shields diffused the energy of their cannon fire across the entire formation, rendering their energy impotent. Attempts by multiple heavy Garlean weapons to turn their attention to the Corps left them vulnerable to devastating flank assaults by the Alliance's lighter infantry and chocobo knights, or unexpected attack from the 'mobile artillery batteries' of the Alliance's thaumaturges.
Working alongside archer teams from Gridania and marauder units from Limsa Lominsa, the Corps further disrupted Imperial efforts to track and neutralize them by breaking apart unexpectedly into smaller strike units, making swift lightning raids through the enemy lines before regrouping into their full phalanx and, aided by the other allies keeping the enemy distracted, hammered them with the full force of the phalanx. In this method, the Corps was credited with the total destruction of two full Imperial companies. To all outside appearances, it seemed that all the Eorzeans needed was time to let attrition and the furious combat of their armed forces swing the battle in their favor.
Time was not an ally of Eorzea on that fateful day.
Without warning, the falling Dalamud disintegrated, flinging monstrous chunks of itself in every direction. By unfortunate happenstance, one such falling fragment wiped out two-thirds of the 5th Phalanx Corps in the blink of an eye. As it turned out, those among them that were killed instantly happened to be the fortunate ones. The elder primal Bahamut revealed himself from within the shattering lunar prison, his roar of rage unleashing utter hell upon the battlefield. In an instant, nearly all animosity between Eorzean and Garlean was forgotten, both sides fleeing together from the wrath of the wyrmking. No second order to retreat needed have been given by the Three Commanders, as the very sight of Bahamut had routed both sides near immediately.
Bahamut's awakening had occurred in the midst of another of the Corps' breaking maneuvers, leaving the different squads separated from one another, and most worryingly to Chris, leaving him separated from Rinh. Barely refraining from uncompromising, animal-panic flight from Bahamut, he strove to find her as he retreated from the field with the rest of his squad. Initially unable to find her, he directed his squad to shelter behind a rocky outcrop that offered some protection from Bahamut's meteoric storm, considering going back out into the battlefield to find her, or at least some trace of her. As he increasingly considered this, a stray bolt of energy from the wyrmking's assault struck their path of retreat, directly where they would have been had they continued running.
A unit of Garleans, seeing that attack, also dove behind that rocky outcropping, and for once, Chris' immediate reaction to having a Garlean within reach was not to choke the life out of them, but demand if they had seen an Ul'dahn miqo'te matching Rihn's description. The Garlean leader, initially taken off-guard by that question, soon realized the purpose behind it and responded sadly in the negative, but pointed out that it did not mean that she was not still alive, and that if they stayed in that place any longer, they were likely to die. Reluctantly agreeing with that assessment, Chris gave the order to move out, saying nothing when the Garleans came with them.
In the darkness of that day, hope returned when a linkpearl signal broke through the aetheric interference of Bahamut's presence: contact from Rinh's squad. Wasting no time at all, he changed the direction of their flight to rendezvous with Rinh, who was down to just three men of her squad, and also with a small number of surviving Garleans in tow. There was no time for dramatic reunions; the glow of the sky indicated that some effort was underway by a force beyond their power to contain Bahamut, and there was nothing more the lot of them could do but escape with their lives.
As they fled, a blast of energy struck the rear of their group, killing several of Chris' squad and some of the Garleans as well. Expecting it to have been one of Bahamut's energy blasts, they looked to see the attack had come from a magitek reaper, its Garlean driver half-burned by a near-miss from the wyrmking's attack. The Garlean squad leader demanded the soldier stand down and escape with them, but the reaper driver, either mad with pain or consumed with the single-minded intent to kill the Eorzeans, ignored the order and trained another cannon blast directly at Rinh and her survivors.
Without hesitation, Chris charged into the path of the blast, shoulder-checking Rinh out of the way as he raised his shield to intercept the attack. Its magicks saved his life, but without other shields around it to diffuse the energy, it couldn't handle the force of the blast. The shield shattered on impact, superheated shards of its metal and residual magic energy of the reaper's cannon attack peppering his left arm with shrapnel and rendering him unconscious.
Aftermath
The Garlean squad leader himself had shot the frenzied driver of the reaper dead, then ensured the rest of the survivors safely escaped from the killing fields of Carteneau. Instructing his troops to burn their Imperial uniforms and cast off their ties to an Empire that had knowingly sent them to their deaths, the squad leader and the few survivors of the 5th Phalanx Corps made their way back to Ul'dah.
It took three days for Chris to regain consciousness, plagued now by blinding pain in his left arm. The twisted fragments of metal and aether were practically fused to his arm now, and he was informed that, despite the best efforts of every conjurer they could call, there had been a reaction between the magicks of the shield and the Garlean magitek energy that rendered the shrapnel unable to be healed or removed by magical means. Though this was a major concern, and the pain made it difficult to think, he ignored the damages to himself and inquired as to Rinh's whereabouts. No sooner had the conjurer at hand given the answer than Chris was gone, stumbling down the halls of the medical ward until he found Rinh's room.
When she became aware of him, he was shocked that instead of the greetings he had expected, she snarled in hatred and sent the meal she had been struggling to eat flying in his direction. Evacuating quickly, he was met in the hall by the Garlean squad leader, who had since adopted Ul'dah as his new home and already begun a career as an adventurer. His former enemy explained that moments after Chris had pushed her to safety from the path of the reaper cannon, an energy blast from Bahamut had struck the nearby cliff face, scattering superheated shards of rock in every direction. Those shards had taken off Rinh's right leg above the knee and right hand at the elbow, and deeply scarred her side. Though she had been healed well--disregarding the loss of her limbs--it had become apparent that some combination of the sight of Bahamut and the trauma of her injuries had damaged her mental state, inexplicably causing her to lay the blame of her trauma on Chris.
Stunned speechless by that turn of events, Chris had simply gone back to his recovery room and spent the rest of his stay in silence, speaking only enough to give full and direct answers to any questions asked, and then resuming his silence. He didn't recover from this state until after being allowed to return to his home to continue healing, where he learned that his family had survived what had come to be called the Calamity. Even still, the wound in his heart from losing Rinh in spirit but not to death, whom he had truly considered to be his one love, did not mend so easily, and to this very day still colors his actions when dealing with the opposite sex.
After recovering enough so that the pain in his arm was not an intolerable constant in his life, he returned to duty with the Flames. He discovered, less to his horror and more to cynical resignation, that he was unable to effectively wield a shield anymore as a phalanx trooper, nor could he wield a bow properly. Because of his exemplary service record and the performance of the 5th Phalanx Corps at Carteneau, he was offered to transfer to any of a number of non-combat duties, but he no longer felt as though he had any value to the Flames, and chose to leave the service instead. He was honorably discharged from the Immortal Flames within a week.
The Broken Shield
For several years, Chris bummed around Ul'dah, doing nothing with his time and merely living off the pension provided from the Flames. He spent a considerable amount of time drinking in an ill-advised attempt to forget Carteneau and everything he had lost, but because of his distaste for most of the stronger alcoholic substances, he could only manage to consume 'bitch' drinks which lacked the alcohol by volume to let him get drunk. One by one, he lost contact with the survivors of his squad, and unwilling to burden his family with what he perceived as his weakness, he took to living in the streets, shunned as much by the refugees already living there for his military service as he was by the more well-off citizens.
This state of affairs continued for four years following the Battle of Carteneau, despite numerous attempts by his family to intercede and convince him to return to them. Eventually, they accepted that he was doing what he was doing as a form of self-inflicted punishment, an atonement for the events of Carteneau that he saw as his own failing, and unanimously agreed to stop trying to force him to do what he didn't want to, simply watching from afar and ensuring that, at the least, he kept himself clothed and fed and out of trouble with the law.
Little were they aware that he had been fully intent to spend the rest of his days in that state, and would have done so, had not an intervention arrived one late summer evening. The former Garlean squad leader, now a successful adventurer and free mercenary in his own right going under the name Mattias Breaker, happened to be passing through the market district of Ul'dah, on the way to receive a newly-commissioned set of jewelry from the Goldsmiths' Guild. Normally of the mindset to try not to pay attention to the homeless living in the streets of Ul'dah, lest he feel a compulsion to try and help every downtrodden individual he could, the movement of Chris adjusting the way he was sitting caused the light of the lamps to reflect from a silvered ring he wore around his neck, the light catching Mattias's eye. At first, the man wasn't sure that the disheveled individual squeezed in between two slowly-rotting crates was the same soldier who had been a member of one of the Immortal Flames' most feared infantry units, but a closer inspection revealed that it was the very same man beneath the years of unkempt hair and unshaven beard.
Chris, now long acquainted with adventurers coming along and entertaining themselves by abusing the homeless and other refugees, initially cursed his choice of "home" for the evening and attempted to get away, until the former Garlean identified himself as the one whose life Chris had saved all those years ago in the Killing Fields. Both men were completely unprepared emotionally for such a reunion; Mattias was heartbroken that the man who had given him the opportunity to lead his new life had fallen so low, and Chris humbled by the reminder that there might have been people out there beyond his own family who cared if he lived or died.
His previous errand in the city forgotten, Mattias pulled Chris from the gutter and promised him that everything would be fine, that he was going to get him help.
A Change of Arms
After a short trip to the Weavers' Guild to acquire Chris some clothes that didn't look like they'd fall apart in a stiff breeze, the two went to the Quicksand, where after a filling meal, refreshing drinks, and long conversation, the former Garlean pushed his once-enemy to take up the life of adventuring as he had, espousing it as the ultimate rebirth that even he, a former cog of the Garlean war machine, had been welcomed into the realm on account of. Chris didn't feel as though the wanderer's life of an adventurer was something worth living, and in turn the other man suggested mercenary instead, as it would more closely resemble the military life that Chris had loved so much. That was an agreeable plan, and so the two went to Momodi to get Chris signed up for the adventurers' guild on the spot. The lalafellin innkeep, very outwardly pleased that Chris was finally deciding to make something of his life again, reminded him that he needed to be pledged to one of the combat arms guilds in the city to officially be put into the adventurers' guild, but enrolled him anyway on good faith, suggesting that he just go put his name to the Gladiators' Guild given his extensive skill with the sword.
After fulfilling that requirement and officially entering the adventurers' guild, Chris remarked offhand that he wasn't like to be of much use since he couldn't use a shield anymore. Mattias, pondering, suggested that he might try to switch over to using an axe, telling of an axe-wielding warrior he had seen on the fields of Carteneau using a monstrous, two-handed axe with just one hand and still managing to lay waste to the Garlean army. Initially unsure of whether or not he'd be able to perform the same thing, the other man acquired a worn axe of the type favored by Lominsa's marauders and suggested that Chris give it a go. After a few false starts, Chris found that he could indeed use his dominant, uninjured arm to perform the bulk of the maneuvers with the axe, only using his weaker arm to hold the bottom of the haft and guide its swings.
Pleased with the outcome of his work, Mattias traveled with Chris to Limsa Lominsa, seeing him officially enrolled in the Marauders' Guild and commissioning a high-quality set of starting armor from the Blacksmiths' Guild. While it was being constructed, he also paid for Chris to see an aesthetician to get his hair and beard back under control, resulting in the style that Chris has worn ever since. As they were waiting to see the aesthetician, the other man asked what that ring had been that had first caught his attention back in Ul'dah. His mood plummeting, Chris explained that it had been an engagement ring for Rinh that he had spent several months' pay on before Carteneau, that he had been intending to propose with after the battle, if they survived. Without word of warning, Mattias reached over and snatched the ring and its chain from around the newly-minted marauder's neck, looking over the tarnished jewelry as he commented that Rinh had thrown away her chance to be with Chris, and that the only reason he had still carried around the ring was so that it would attract his attention in Ul'dah, and with that task finished, he no longer needed to carry a reminder of such a painful event in his life. Mattias told Chris that he needed to look ahead to the future and find his own happiness and someone who would love him for the man he was going to be, regardless of the details of his past. With a knowing smile, the former Garlean remarked that the lucky lady would probably wind up being another miqo'te.
The former soldier agreed with that assessment, and also to the unspoken challenge presented by the other man. With that, the new career, and the new armor now in Chris' hands, the ex-Garlean determined that he had done as much as he could, and now the rest was up to Chris. With a promise to drop word in the ears of his contacts of the promising new mercenary hanging out in Limsa, Mattias headed back off into the wilds of Eorzea, leaving Chris to his own devices.
The Professional
Though the attitudes and manner of speech of the Marauders' Guild members in Lominsa was not particularly to his liking, Chris dove into the training with a gusto, using his new lease on life to put his past behind him. Though it had shaped him into who he was, he would no longer be shackled by it. His previous military service enabled him to swiftly and easily undertake the training of the axe, becoming well-renowned in Limsa Lominsa in just a few months. And true to the word of his former Garlean friend, individuals began to seek him out for mercenary work. It was simple enough work at first, filling in manpower for patrols and watches on the farms around Limsa, but as his reputation grew as a punctual and professional mercenary, the rate and esteem of the jobs he was asked for grew steadily. Before long, he had become well-known as a skilled and reputable bodyguard. He even once was hired to serve as part of an additional, non-Maelstrom bodyguard force for Admiral Bloefhiswyn, thus substantially increasing his reputation.
In-between jobs and training his skills with the axe, he began to professionally pick up blacksmithing and armor-working at the guilds in Lominsa, mostly as a means to keep his armor and weapons upkept, primarily ignoring the arts of crafting entirely new armor and weapons. To support this endeavor, he determined that he should take up mining to provide himself with the necessary minerals and thereby avoid paying the high prices from markets and vendors. Waiting for a slack period in his contracts, he departed to Ul'dah to join up with the Miners' Guild in order to learn the basics of breaking rocks in the hot sun.
The Contract
After a few weeks spent in his home city familiarizing himself with the ins and outs of mining, and spending time with his family and apologizing profusely for his behavior after Carteneau (though none of them were having it and were all just glad he had turned his life around), he decided to see if there were any mercenary or bodyguard jobs available in the region. Checking in with Momodi, he was presented with a veritable mountain of potential contracts, ranging from the sort of jobs he'd started out on to contracts for the assassination of various Garlean officers in the Castrums built around the region. Unwilling to deal with the truly insane contracts, nor the mind-numbing boredom of patrolling tracts of desert, he selected what appeared to be an easy, short contract: traveling with and safeguarding a local arcanist investigating aetherial disturbances in the region.
Accepting the contract, he waited in the Quicksand while a messenger was dispatched to alert his client, taking a seat at the bar and having a short meal while observing the comings and goings of the bustling tavern. It only took a few minutes for the client to arrive, a Moon Keeper miqo'te named Sabine Aislihn, appearing to be in quite a hurry. With quite an imperious air, she rattled off the specifics of the contract--namely that they would go where and when she said, and he was to follow her directions at all times, and of course he would be the one to face any wandering beasts, nefarious brigands, or bowel-emptying voidsent that happened to assail them in their travels. Typical hubris of a mage, he initially thought, that attitude of superiority. But as he had little else to do and no word of new training from the Marauders' Guild, he decided he might as well humor the uppity arcanist for a while. Too, he didn't want to damage his reputation by accepting a contract and then abandoning it; especially as this arcanist seemed the type that would let the whole realm know he'd dropped her contract.
And truth be told, when first she had entered the Quicksand and Momodi had pointed her out to him, before she'd come up and started speaking, he'd been initially smitten by her beauty, something that no one who knew him would have been surprised by. Even despite her less-than-stellar attitude, he still felt as though this might be a worthwhile investment of his time and energy. Even if he couldn't succeed with her, it wasn't like he wasn't used to being emotionally trampled on by miqo'te by now.
And so, bidding thanks and farewell to Momodi, Chris lifted his axe and set off to wherever Sabine's travels would lead them.
Her investigations lead them hither and thither all over the realm, from the dusty Qarn crypts of Thanalan to the floating Nymian ruins of La Noscea, and even into the ancient and deadly remnants of the Allagan Empire. This last of which would not have been a very productive venture were it left to Sabine's means of magically opening the sealing mechanism on the door; Ganale, having heretofore run afoul of cursed mummies, rancorous tonberries, fifteen different assortment of traps, and nettles from Sabine when he lagged behind, simply took one look at the sealing device and took his axe to it, then forced open the door just enough to allow access. Welcomely, the Allagan ruin was barren of monsters or any traps that still functioned, its contents as dead as its former creators, but it was not a wasted venture. She recovered some trinket or two, as well as the remains of the locking device, and even managed to find a few Allagan tomestones to supplement his pay for that particular outing.
Time passed, and soon he had spent a full season in her employ. Despite that she never lifted a finger to aid in battle in the tombs they plundered, forcing him to become quite adept at multi-combatant threat mitigation and directional management, she was honest and fair in her dealings, even throwing in a healthy amount of hazard pay for the work done. Before long, they could be commonly seen together at the Quicksand, where they would meet before their missions and return to share an evening meal. Initially, though most such meals were in silence, with her face buried behind a tome of some sort or another, they eventually gave way to jibing back and forth in a largely good nature. She also began to concede to his greater knowledge in the paths to take through a dungeon, when to engage or avoid enemies, what provisions to take along, and the like, further strengthening their business relationship.
As the number of ruins and crypts they had not yet explored waned, they filled the empty time by accepting contract to a free company based out of Wineport, moving for a time to the company headquarters. Most of his time in the company was spent posting patrol in the surrounding jungles, mining gems from the rocks of nearby Bloodshore to sell to pad the company's coffers, chopping firewood, or just sleeping; this when he and Sabine weren't out on another dungeon crawl. Though he learned the names of most of the prominent members, he interacted little with the majority of them, mostly with a highlander mage named Vervara Rozthan who picked up on his well-concealed, tiny feelings of more-than-affection for Sabine with a greater speed than had he told her himself and spent her interactions trying to subtly prod him into making a move on the miqo'te. The only real group activity of note involved a void-possessed individual whose relation to the company Chris was never quite sure of, that led to a battle in which he got to run the offending individual down on his chocobo. In the ensuing conflict, the attempt was made by Sabine to draw the voidsent possessing the adversary out with her tome and bind it, but the attempt was unsuccessful, resulting in the individual's death.
As it turned out, that individual was a rather well-placed member of a small noble house who had been missing for some time, and the resultant backlash saw the company discharging all of the individuals involved in an effort to save face, managing to catch a fair few innocents in the cross-fire at the same time. Unperturbed by this turn of events, Chris and Sabine merely moved their operations base back to Ul'dah, returning to the plethora of ruins in the Thanalan region. All was not entirely as normal, however.
The Cost
For a brief time prior to being discharged from the company, he began to notice a disquieting change coming over his employer. Though she was by no means a people person to begin with, there were days when her attitude toward him could generously be described as scathing. Though that didn't overtly bother him, more concerned was he by the days when she would miss scheduled appointments to venture into some dungeon, only for him to discover her still in her room, looking ragged as though she'd gone a round in the Colosseum.
Unbeknownst to the mercenary, she was suffering from the possession of an ancient Belah'dian priestess who had penned a cursed tome that Sabine had inadvertently read some time before hiring him. On her own accord, she had spent time since returning to Ul'dah trying to ascertain the nature of this taint and any way she could remove it. Before too long, she had ceased her dungeon-delving entirely, and not long after that, ceased contact with him entirely. Wondering if he perhaps had done something to offend her, he spent his days wandering about on his daily routine in a daze, an uneasy pain in his chest the entire time.
The days continued to draw on in uncertain anxiety, until one day he was met in the Quicksand by Pachoulili, who told him that Sabine had set off for the Sagolii desert in an apparent daze, after briefly regailing him of what she had been up to in recent days. Leaving behind an unfinished meal, he donned his gear in record time and set off in chase, driving his chocobo near to exhaustion to catch up and plowing through would-be Amalj'aa assailants as though they were little more annoyance than flies.
He arrived in the desert in time to find Sabine succumbing fully to the possession of the priestess, her murderous attention turning upon him. With great reluctance, he drew his weapon and engaged in battle, fighting his way through a gauntlet of summoned creatures while at the same time while suffering the afflictions of Sabine's debilitating magic and the void magics of the priestess. The odds were stacked heavily against him, yet he dared not falter, the cost of failure being Sabine's very soul. But against the combined might of corrupted egis, arcane debilitation, and void spellworking, his determination and perseverance mattered little. With his lungs filling with blood, organs failing left and right, armor burned and blackened by the arcane onslaught, he felt sure that this day would be his last, until the demon in Sabine's form made a critical error: it taunted the worth of his love for Sabine. Hot rage flooding his veins in lieu of his spilt blood, he put his entire being into one last mighty cleave, the backwards-delivered blow shattering the arm of the woman he sought to protect. Stunned by the pain of the blow, he was able to then club her in the side of the head, rendering her unconscious.
Barely clinging to life, he draped her unconscious form over his chocobo and managed to guide the bird--and hers--to Forgotten Springs, where the U tribe arranged safe passage through the lands of the Amalj'aa back toward Ul'dah. Under the guidance of the thaumaturges' guild, he delivered her to Thal's Respite, where it seemed the entirety of the guild had turned out to help contain the threat of the priestess. Days passed until she came to, days that had been partially spent healing the mercenary, whereupon he had tended a constant vigil by her bedside. When she finally awoke, Cocobuki proposed a means by which they could purge the voidsent spirit's taint, but that might also result in her death. Stating that she had nothing to lose, Sabine bade them perform the purification.
Taking her into Thal's Respite, they barred Chris at the entrance, where he waited in what, to him, seemed worse agony than any he had endured in the battle in the sands. As the hours passed, his own demons came to visit him, berating him for having failed to protect her from the voidsent spirit, when in truth she had become afflicted with its presence long before ever knowing him. By the time that the purification effort had succeeded, purging the voidsent's presence from Sabine's body, he had come to a decision. With their success, he broke through the thaumaturges who had previously barred him entry, gathering her up in his arms and returning her to her home in Ul'dah to recover from the ordeal.
But as he planned it, it would be the last time he ever saw her.
Operation Archon
With whispers filtering through the military circles of Eorzea that the Garlean Empire had a terrifying new superweapon under their control and were threatening the realm with destruction lest the city-states bow to the wishes of the Empire, Chris turned his attention to this new state of affairs. When word came that the City-State Alliance would once more band together and give the collective finger to the Empire, he knew that his place would be with his brothers- and sisters-in-arms on the field of battle. Emblazoning the sigil of the Immortal Flames on the shoulders of his armor and the head of his axe, Chris immediately sojourned to the Hall of Flames in Ul'dah and presented himself to Commander Swift to partake of the Eorzean counteroffensive. Swift, noting the difference in arms and armor of the former Flames sergeant, readily accepted him into the operation.
Knowing his skill at leading small tactical units, Swift assigned Chris command of a small group of adventurers and directed him to proceed to the Immortal Flames encampment in Northern Thanalan to meet his unit and prepare for the coming battle. At Camp Bluefog, he met with his adventurer squad, which included his old friend, the former Garlean squad leader from Carteneau. Upon being briefed of the coming operation, and his unit's part in it, Chris sat and waited at the edge of camp, sharpening his axe in preparation for some 'aggressive therapy' against the Garleans. Shortly before the operation was to begin, Sabine arrived at the camp and quickly located her wayward bodyguard, berating him for having chosen to go off on his own to battle without saying a word to her, though it was clear to all observing that she was more annoyed at the 'without telling her' part. She continued on her tirade up until the moment that the troops were called to arms. Silencing her with a gentle finger to her lips, he explained to her that he didn't deserve to be contracted to protect someone when he had failed so utterly at the job and canceled his contract with her.
When the order came to march on the Garlean positions, Chris and his squad formed the edge of the right flank of the combined army, assisting in closing up the right quadrant and sealing off any route of escape and reinforcement for the Garleans. With the enemy thus fully encircled, the battle began in earnest. Remaining mobile at all times, lest they allow the Garleans to bring their heavier weaponry to bear, Chris and his squad wrought a large number of casualties amongst the Garleans, while at the same time picking up strays from other units while on the move. Before too long, with the beleaguered force of the Garleans either slain or taken prisoner to the last, the main host of the Immortal Flames-led army entered Castrum Meridianum proper and moved to wrest control of the garrison from the remnants of its former occupants.
The extent of the damage done by the infiltrator team of adventurers was clear; the vast majority of the garrison's war machines and soldiers lay scattered where they fell in various states of disarray, large openings blasted through adjoining sectors of the base, and even the tribunus Livia sas Junius laid low. With the leadership of the castrum destroyed, the majority of Garlean resistance was swiftly overcome, but a few pockets of fierce resistance still existed. One such pocket was encountered when Chris and his squad moved to aid a number of other squads in capturing the castrum's command post and raising the flag of the Immortal Flames over the garrison. Battling their way through entrenched defenders keen on retaining control of the castrum, the larger Flames task force eventually overran them, eventually making their way to the top floor of the command center. The last of the resistance there, before they were obliterated by several barrages of magic rocks from the sky, gunned down the flag bearer. Nearby, Chris snatched up the fallen flag and pressed on toward the parapet, where one last Garlean, badly wounded from the meteoric rain, took a shot that hit the lighter chain armor between cuirass and sabatons. Mattias immediately came to his aid, taking the replica Bravura from his back and executing the enemy soldier in a most brutal fashion. With the assistance of his comrade, Chris managed to plant the flag of the Immortal Flames on the rampart before passing out from the injury.
The Lonesome Road
Due to the plethora of healers on-hand for Operation Archon, the gunshot injury was not life-threatening, and he recovered from it quickly. In the months that followed the wholesale route of the Imperial force and the near-obliteration of the XIVth Legion, Chris found that, though wantonly slaughtering the Garlean forces had been incredibly cathartic, it did little to fill the void he still felt from the aftermath of the Calamity. He still suffered from difficulty getting to sleep, trouble staying asleep, and finding himself with far too much time on his hands with little to fill that time, allowing him far too many moments of reflection upon Carteneau, moments that found him harshly criticizing each of his own actions during that day. It was all too swiftly threatening to overwhelm him with crippling depression.
In order to stave off the empty time spent in self-deprecation, he applied for numerous job postings around the city, but the days continued to pass without anything meaningful to distract him. With the growing tension in the city stemming from the plight of the Doman refugees and the protests and riots, and having recalled a mention of Sabine having rented out a semi-permanent residence in the Oak Inn, he took a sojourn out to the Black Shroud to pay a visit. Taking a corner table in the tavern, he spent some time catching up with her, and was surprised to hear her admission that she had missed his company. It went without saying that the feeling was mutual, and when she remarked that she wished she might see him more, he proposed that perhaps he could acquire a room there as well. This concept pleased her, and it did not take long for him to take up residence in the vacant room across from hers.
Just as things began to move toward an interpersonal growth between them, he was contacted for a steady job by the Amajina & Sons Mineral Concern, which he quickly accepted by dint of needing a better source of income now that he had the rent at the Inn to consider. The job was one of hard labor, an extra hand to mine a newly-discovered deposit of mythril at the far southern end of the Sagolii desert. Were it not for the considerable pay, consisting of hazard pay for proximity to Amalj'aa territory and travel expenses to and from the Black Shroud on top of the generous pay for a miner's hard labor, he would have balked at a job so far from his new home. But it was such that he decided for the job, which saw him rising before the dawn to head out to the dig and not getting back to the Inn until after dark. This had the all-too-predictable drawback of leaving him with scant few free hours at the end of the day, the majority of them spent exhausted and barely able to interact with others. Further, this put his schedule at odds with that of Sabine's, whose nature as a Keeper saw her awake during the night where he had to sleep. The short amount of time available for them to spend in one another's presence further fell during the Inn's peak hours, which has left him unable to nurture any further relationship with her.
This sad state of affairs had not gone unnoticed by Vervara, who in her self-appointed role as Chris' wingwoman had spent a great deal of her visits to the Inn dispensing advice and attempting to lay what groundwork she could. She also secretly crafted him a plush doll of Sabine's likeness to take with him into the desert in an effort to ease his loneliness slightly, though she'll never admit she was the one who made it. After a few days, he took the doll to the Goldsmiths' Guild to have it converted into a wind-up that performs the following actions: randomly shakes a finger at him in a sassy manner, randomly bops him (usually in the ankle or whatever else can be reached) with the tiny book, and when exposed to water on the head, will cover its head and run for cover (usually underneath him).
For some weeks, this was the routine at the Inn, and he did not notice that she had begun taken to attempting to stay awake during the day so that she might see him when he returned from the fields, as this usually wound up resulting in her asleep on her desk and missing his available time entirely. One evening, her perseverance paid off, and as he entered the tavern, it was to find her seated at one of the tables alongside regular resident Ashiirra Azaria and her adopted daughter, Ariilyn. Over the weeks previous, he had become accustomed to Sabine not being present when he returned, and had fallen out of the habit of putting away the doll when he returned. At first, Sabine had not noticed it, and he considered himself lucky, going to tuck the thing away in his empty hip pocket.
And then the nine-year old Ariilyn caught sight of it and drew everyone's attention to it.
Knowing he was busted, and with all the enthusiasm of a man marching to the gallows, Chris brought the doll over to the table for them to inspect. Ariilyn was absolutely tickled by it and its wind-up actions, wishing to get one of her own made. While Chris remarked that he suspected Vervara had crafted it and she should be the one asked, he watched with bated breath to see Sabine's response to it. To his relief, she wasn't immediately disgusted by the thought that he had a wind-up doll in her likeness, but his uneasiness with being caught with it prompted him to flee to his room, ostensibly to clean up from the day's work.
Though he did bathe and clean himself up, it was several long minutes before he worked up the courage to return downstairs, whereupon Ashiira and Ariilyn left for the evening, citing time for their evening bath. In the awkward silence that ensued, Sabine expressed her unhappiness that he had suddenly broke the contract. He answered that he did not deserve to be paid to do a job which he had failed at. Knowing that he referred to her prior possession, she adamantly stated that such had been beyond his control, and that he had in fact saved her from a fate worse than death, then implored him to concede to being her guard again. Knowing that he would not persuade her otherwise, he acquiesced and commented that he did not wish to fail someone he cared so much for. Asking him to clarify, he sensed an opportunity and, taking a gamble that would change his life for one way or another, he confessed his feelings of love to her.
For a distressing amount of time, she was silent, her expression betraying her complete surprise. She began to respond that she did not fully understand such feelings, coming frighteningly close to crushing his heart, but clarified that she was also very fond of him, just unused to such interactions due to the way her life had been led. She promised to think on his words, leaving him with a dim hope flickering in the darkness of his personal life.
Character
Appearance
Standing at six fulms and weighing two hundred and ten ponzes out of his armor, Chris is a pale midlander hyur with auburn hair cut in a rough, jagged pattern that hangs loose on his head, parted around his face to allow clear vision. A very thin amount of stubble adorns his chin, kept stylishly in check so as not to become an annoyance or interfere with the wearing of a helmet. He is largely unscarred, due to the sound protection of armor he wore through his military service and in his career as a mercenary and bodyguard. The only prominent injury on his body is on his left arm: a series of blackened chunks of metal fused to the limb between his wrist and shoulder, a memento of the Battle of Carteneau. This injury prevents him from using a shield for longer than a few minutes without suffering from extreme pain, and also is prone to ache when rain is coming or during rainstorms.
His armor for battle is a magically-enhanced suit of highly-crafted mythril armor, its magic wards offering protection equal to that of the high-grade legendary armor that Rowena charges an arm and a leg for in Mor Dhona. He frequently wanders about without the protection of a helmet unless he anticipates trouble, whereupon he wears a mythril barbut with enchantments to match the rest of the armor. He's also known to wear the helmet as a sort of "shame hat", an outward indicator that something has occurred for which he feels the need to punish himself, thereby hiding his face from the outside world; this almost always happens in relation to his feeling that he's offended Sabine in some way. When not wearing his armor, he typically wears a white cotton shirt, black leather culottes, armor-plated sollerettes, and black mythril vambraces. Notably, he always wears something that covers and conceals the injury to his left arm.
Personality
Chris is a very introverted individual, far preferring to be left to his own devices and disliking having to interact with people. Due to events in his past, he has great difficulty trusting people. Despite this, people who have made their way into his inner circle of trust are treated to his undying loyalty and willingness to assist them with whatever help they need, often dropping his own tasks to see to their needs.
Though he has a sense of humor, he rarely shows it, as he has found most people are not amused by excessive amounts of snark and cynicism. Because of this, he can outwardly appear to have no sense of humor at all. He believes wholeheartedly in the leadership of the Sultana and the Flame General, and would remark to his close friends with very little provocation his desire to see the Syndicate brought low. Though an Ul'dahn first, he strongly believes in the promise of a united Eorzea and does not suffer any who would threaten such a future. He has an especially strong hate-on for the Garlean Empire, though as demonstrated with the former Garlean squad leader who pulled him out of the proverbial gutter, he's willing to forgive individuals who renounce the Empire.
While presenting the outward demeanor of being headstrong and unwilling to bend, he is a slight bit of a doormat in that he doesn't like confrontation and therefore typically goes along with what others wish so as to avoid the hassle of arguing his case. He also suffers from an inferiority complex that prompts him to automatically assume that anything that goes wrong is his fault, though this is internalized rather than being obvious to others, with the outward signs of this being either going off to sulk or becoming even more withdrawn than is normal.
Chris suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the Battle of Carteneau and the immediate interpersonal events of its aftermath. For the most part, he is largely in control of it and is not prone to outbursts, his stresses instead manifesting in trouble sleeping and a marked tendency to reflect on the battle and the loss of Rinh while not otherwise occupied with something that requires his attention.
Lastly, he has a pronounced weakness for miqo'te ladies. While he holds no qualms about ending the life of one seeking to do the same to him, he is far more likely to do something if asked by a female miqo'te. This is not to say he would do something life-threatening or completely contrary to his morals, but for simple requests--such as mending of gear or acquisition of mined materials without payment--it takes little more than a miqo'te lady to bat her eyes at him and he's off to get the job done, even while grumbling about being such a pushover.
Powers and Abilities
- Weapon Proficiency (Sword): Even to the current day, the sword has always been Chris' preferred method of combat, as he just found himself inexplicably attuned to that type of weapon. He is highly skilled with swords, favoring two-handed great weapons, and his style combines overwhelming power with a swiftness of strikes and footwork to overtake nimbler foes.
- Weapon Proficiency (Axe): His primary combat arms field, Chris is exceptionally skilled with an axe, capable of leveling much larger and more powerful foes with crushing blows with the weapon. Because of his injury, he is fully capable of manipulating his massive weapon--a replica of the legendary Bravura--with one hand.
- Weapon Proficiency (Unarmed): Less a practical combat arms field for him, he received unarmed combat training during his time in the Immortal Flames, but he feels that if he's in a hand-to-hand contest with someone, he has made a horrible mistake. Whereas most pugilists focus on fancy footwork and maneuverability, Chris's meager unarmed skill is more of a ground-and-pound style, taking an enemy to the ground and pummeling them with whatever happens to be at hand.
- Combat Leadership: In a battlefield situation, Chris is skilled at directing the tactical movements of a small formation, best when the entire formation are all composed of the same type of combatant.
- Armorworking: Primarily intended to keep his own armor in a repaired state, he's become rather skilled in both maintaining and crafting armor pieces.
- Weaponsmithing: As with armorsmithing, this is primarily to upkeep his own arms.
- Mining: Doubling as both a source of alternate income and a means to not shell out gil hand over fist acquiring the raw materials to upkeep his armor and weapons, he is surprised at how easy mining seems to be, as well as a good means to get away from it all and just spend some time thinking.
Trivia
Likes
- Sweetened mulled tea
- Miqo'te ladies
- Smoked raptor shanks
- Rolanberries, fresh or otherwise
Dislikes
- Garlean Empire
- Rain
Hobbies/Talents
- Mining
- Fishing
Other
- Due to the game engine's word filtration, Chris' in-game name is Chris Ga'nale. This is not reflected on this wiki or anywhere in his in-character interactions.
- He always carries a white dagger fashioned in the form of a hawk, that was gifted to him by Sabine.
Rumors and Relationships
Some of these rumors are untrue or are greatly exaggerated. Please feel free to add your own rumors under PC! ◢ Common Rumors (Easily overheard)
◢ Uncommon Rumors (Moderately difficult to overhear)
◢ Rare Rumors (Very difficult or rarely overheard)
◢ PC Rumors (Rumors from the character's of other players)
|
|
Music
|
|
|
Annotations
22-Sept-14: Page created. More to come.
23-Sept-14: Added some quotes.
26-Sept-14: Added theme song.
25-Oct-14: Huge history dump. Stopped cos I was depressing myself and because new reveals about Heavensward dropped.
27-Oct-14: More history. Almost there-ish? Maintenance days suck.
01-Nov-14: Yeah, basically done now, barring that last bit of history that requires collaboration.
