Kurenai Nagi
A young refugee from the defunct Kingdom of Doma, Kurenai Nagi is a somber Au Ra girl of the Raen clan seeking a new life in Eorzea, ideally as a magus.
Though gifted, her secluded upbringing and unreliable health hasn't exactly prepared her for the role.
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| Gender | Female |
| Race | Au Ra |
| Clan | Raen |
| Citizenship | None |
| Server | Balmung |
Barely four fulms eight ilms tall, Kurenai is short even by Au Ra female standards. Illness throughout her childhood robbed her of "blossoming" as other young girls "blossomed", leaving her thin in a boyish way that many would not consider beautiful. Her eyes are the color of her namesake, with a vivid purple limbal ring that makes them stand out oddly on her skin, which unfortunately bears a sickly pallor despite her days of illness being behind her.
Thankfully she does have a saving grace in her thick, dark blue hair. Presently chopped haphazardly short and hidden beneath a hat whenever she can manage. Kurenai prefers to cover up as much as possible with clothing that a magus would stereotypically wear, even though it isn't much like the clothing worn back home in Doma.
Although she's fond of jewelry, makeup is not something Kurenai bothers with.
Kurenai speaks formally and with as much poise as she can muster, though she is prone to uncertain pauses and when stressed can sound almost like a petulant adolescent.
Kurenai was born in the misty valley the Raen called home to the Nagi family, a small house relatively recently ascended to the gentry. Kurenai's grandfather, rather than choose a new name for his family, merely wrote the family name with a different character. This changed the meaning of the name Nagi from 'evergreen logger' to 'destroy the enemy'. Kurenai's father Kyokuho considered this move a mistake, as he thought it too close their humble origins.
Unfortunately her mother Ochimi - plagued by illness during her youth - died in childbirth, and it was thought that the infant Kurenai would soon follow. Kyokuho, blaming Kurenai for his wife's death, callously told his maids to 'take care of it', and to not bother him with the child unless something worthwhile came of her. Because of this Kurenai did not really know her father until her seventh year, as Kyokuho descended into his politicking and solitude.
Kurenai turned out to be a sickly child, though unusually bright, and adored by her maids. She was speaking and reading well before expected, and it was then that Kyokuho took interest. Ochimi herself was a bright, kind person, though meek. Despite her frail health she was the sort of woman that Kyokuho considered an ideal wife. When Kurenai started displaying the same personal tendencies along with a strong likeness for his deceased wife, Kyokuho took a disturbing interest in his daughter.
All but one of Kurenai's maids was dismissed, and Kyokuho forbid her to go out without guard or trusted chaperone. Over time he seldom allowed her off of the family grounds at all other than to study and work as an apprentice scribe under strict supervision.
Kyokuho's visits became frequent rather than non-existent, and they became riddled with questions and discussions designed to undermine Kurenai's trust in anyone but himself.
In her thirteenth year Kurenai demonstrated a talent for magicks. Kyokuho brought on a mysterious stranger from the west to tutor her, a stoic Hyur woman exiled from a land called Sharlayan who called herself Lina, though Kurenai herself would later question if that was her real name or not.
At first Lina was distant and all business with Kurenai, but after Kurenai innocently explained to Lina about how her father would on occasion insist on physical "inspections" where he would have her disrobe before him for his scrutiny, Lina suddenly became very interested in being around Kurenai as much as possible.
Kyokuho initially resisted Lina's constant presence, and a silent battle between the two ensued. Lina had no legal right to remove Kyokuho from his own house, so she instead insisted that her tutelage of Kurenai would carry out exactly as her own time with her own mentor, that being constant presence and interaction. Kyokuho allowed this, as there was no better tutor for Kurenai, and he wanted foreign magicks in his line to make his house strong.
Lina became Kurenai's best and only friend. Her fondest memories of her youth occurred during her tutelage under the firm, but kind woman.
In her fifteenth year a young foreign man came into Kurenai's life, a Xaela man named Tuyaa who seemed to have a connection with her father. Lina vanished suddenly shortly before an attempt by the Doman resistance was made to free Doma from Garlean occupation, an attempt that would fail despite the Garlean succession crisis providing an opportunity to catch the Empire off guard.
Tuyaa found Kurenai during the chaos and convinced her that he had promised her father to extract her from Doma and get her west to Eorzea now that it was evident that the failed uprising would be answered with complete obliteration. With some reluctance Kurenai agreed, though it pained her to leave her father and tutor behind.
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