Valentinoix Thibault

Valentinoix "Val" Thibault
Obsessed with balance
Gender	Male
Race	Elezen
Clan	Duskwight
Citizenship	Ul'Dah
Nameday	19th Sun of the 3rd Umbral Moon
Age	36
Height	6 fulms 7 ilms
Birthplace	West Shroud
Pronunciation	Val-ehn-tin-wah Tea-bowl
Gladiator name	The blind fighter Valentine

A curious creature, Valentinoix originally hailed from the Western Black Shroud. His family had lived in relative darkness since the elementals drove the residents of the Shroud underground, leaving him mostly blind. Val relies on other senses to fill in what he cannot see, leading many to believe he can see completely. His refined senses and skills in battle set him in the clan's hunting and gathering group. While out hunting and satiating his desire for exploration, Val became separated from his clan during the Calamity and presumes most, if not all, dead.

Val's mannerisms and speech patterns are often seen as archaic. He has an extreme sense of balance and necessity, using both to define and dictate his life and actions. He is skittish and loathes to be touched.

Character

Val is rather awkward, best described by those around him as a literal brick wall. His understanding of people is often skewed, mostly when he attempts to understand situations of romance and affection. He tends to take a neutral stance to many things, though his stance against false imprisonment and torture is very strong. He has trouble understanding thick accents, though due to living in Ul'dah for so long, he understands the Ul'dahn accent best. Due to his seclusion from the outside world for most of his life, Val often fails to comprehend idioms and expressions, sometimes taking them literally instead of figuratively.

As he is a quiet person, Val often listens more than talks, though on the proper subject, he can be quite chatty. His voice is extremely deep with a rasp to it. The rasp originates from his false imprisonment at the hands of the Wailers, where they tortured and abused him until he was left for dead. For some time, he could not speak, which leaves him to silently communicate with others or hiss or growl at those who annoy him. He is well aware much of the world around him can see, making nonverbal communication very easy.

How Val sees the world of light.

Val is not completely blind. He can see in dimmer lights though not always clearly. In dim or even bright lighting, his vision is washed out and forms of people and things sometimes become lost in the light. Anything with sharp contrast or bright colors is easier to see.

Val often uses his hearing or simply touch or smell to navigate the world of the light. He is a talented chef, and he prefers mostly to make stews or simple foods, cooking by feeling the heat and smelling the spices. He often uses touch to feel what's around him, particularly surfaces, though his touching of other people is rare and only by means of necessity. When in combat, he closes his eyes, relying on all the other senses and claiming that sight only gets in the way.

Val is often stubborn and set in his ways, even at a young age for an elezen. While he can adapt to various battle situations, Val's curiosity can get the better of him sometimes, leaving him vulnerable to attack. His refusal for anyone to touch him has left scarring on his body, though recently he has permitted healers to repair his wounds. Touching outside of combat terrifies him, and if he must be touched, he must also place a hand on the other person, usually on their shoulder.

Val has many scars on his upper body, most he prefers to keep hidden. Aside from a select few, most show signs of abuse on his back and his wrists with a small one on his neck. The scars on his face are from being "branded".

Due to the damage to his throat, he speaks like he has an eternal cold, his voice scratchy and often gruff. His laugh is barely recognizable at times, sometimes sounding more like scratchy breaths. While deprived of his voice for nearly two years, Val learned to communicate with grunts and growls as well as facial expressions and movements. As he is somewhat blind, sometimes the facial expressions and movements can be difficult to understand, as he cannot see them himself. When he feels threatened, he will often revert to that more primal form of communication and growl at people.

Gladiator profile

Val's involvement in gladiatorial fights was mostly accidental, bribed into fighting by long-time friend Reginald Ozrik after Regi learned of Val's honed senses when hunting. Val was unable to speak at the time, due to an injury to his throat, often using Regi to communicate for him. Val was unable to fully say his name before his throat choked him up, so all Regi could hear was 'Valentine' and that became his gladiator name.

Val only fought underground for a short time, becoming known as a blindfolded, highly aggressive fighter. He primarily fought with a blade and sometimes daggers. His motivations were never coin or fame. He wanted to fight stronger people and things, to keep his battle skills sharp despite the severe injuries the Wailers had given him. He won a good number of his matches, and even those he lost, he left his opponents with injuries. After accusations of cheating began to fly and Regi simply disappeared, Val also left the underground arena nearly overnight, leaving that life behind.

Some moons later, Val suddenly appeared on the public Ul'dahn circuit as a mysterious advanced fighter in the Bloodsands simply known as Valentine. Like in the underground rings, he arrived fully clothed in leathers and chainmaille and a matching turban covering his eyes. His first match was against beastkin which gave him quite a challenge, eventually knocking his sword from his hand and his turban from his head, which revealed he fought completely blind, giving him the nickname The Blind Fighter Valentine.

His first few matches were awkward, as he knew nothing of hamming up the crowd. He simply wished to put on a good show of skill, but as the fights went on, he learned how to appeal to the crowds, putting on an air of mystery and intrigue before offering a show of skill in blades and eventually shields. The less the crowd knew about him, the less they'd bother him, but in putting on such an air and show, it also made him strangely popular.

For the first half year, Val spoke to no one outside the ring. After encountering a medicinal alchemist who gave him a salve to heal his damaged throat, Val became slightly more vocal, slowly beginning to know some of his competitors yet still avidly avoiding the press and fans.

More recently, Val took a hiatus from the Bloodsands for several moons, pursuing other interests but found even while hunting and exploring, he missed the competitions and has recently returned to the ring, preparing to introduce his new pugilism skill in fights.

Stats

• Gladiator name: the blind fighter Valentine
• Preferred weapons: sword and shield, daggers usually concealed beneath his tunic, recently hora and himantes
• Preferred clothing: leather or cloth with chainmaille beneath and a blindfold. Sometimes he will don light scalemaille, but rarely so. He is always fully clothed and never in the typical gladiatorial gear. He tends to wear protective thigh-high leather boots and short gloves. He never covers his ears as that muffles his acute hearing.
• Preferred fights: gladiator vs beastkin
• Win percentages
  • vs beastkin: 100%
  • vs prisoners (Noxius): close to 100%
  • vs other gladiators: 50%

Fighting style

Val fights very aggressively. Against beastkin, his preferred fights, Val will go for a kill. He is a trained hunter, able to understand the movements, build, and health of a creature simply by the sound. He has come close to being defeated a few times, but each time, he pulls through, his training as a hunter kicking in. Creatures with no legs, such as cloudkin and morbol, will give him the most trouble.

People give him the most trouble in the arena. They are much smarter than beastkin and are capable of creating strategies that pray on his inability to see. Prisoners, also known as Noxius, give him the least trouble, as most often they are unskilled in competitive fighting. Fellow gladiators, however, are quite the challenge. His ability to win drops drastically the more skilled or smarter or simply purely stronger the competitor is. He does not often fight other gladiators, yet when he does, his success rate plummets. He has his share of wins and losses and scars to go with it, but as he enjoys putting on a good show and hamming up the crowd, he continues to remain relatively popular.

More recently, he has also begun to battle paired up with Mhaya against beastkin and Noxius.

Family

The current status of Val's clan is unknown after the Calamity destroyed any means to enter the West Shroud.

Before the Calamity, the clan lived within a network of caves, the remains of a branch of Gelmorra, somewhere between the west and south Shroud and are extremely xenophobic and reclusive. Most never see the outsides of the caves, though a select few with hunting and gathering skills ventured off to gather food and supplies. A good number are blind simply never requiring their eyesight to see outside the darkness.

Once a year or so, the families of the clan would gather together, each cooking a meal traditional to each family. During this gathering, fights strictly were prohibited over dinner. It was a place of balance and respite.

Personally, Val is the eldest of several siblings, most of which were completely blind. He is the only one of them who knows how to fight.

Relationships

Closest friends

• Mhaya Bajihri - a long-time friend within the Bloodsands, Mhaya and Val get along both inside and outside the ring. They had met when Val first entered the Bloodsands, and she was one of the first Val interacted with, even when he wasn't able to speak.
• Reginald Ozrik - a long-time friend from the underground fighting ring who also helped smuggle him out of Gridania. The two have a long-standing relationship though it has turned awkward. Val seeks to rebalance their friendship.
• P'kohta Tia - a fellow pugilist who never seems to wear a shirt. The two met during a hunting expedition for a manticore and drew close in their mutual respect and love of fighting. Their goal was to seek out a monk and learn about chakras to improve their skill.

Friends and allies

• Berrod Armstrong - first met at the Celebration of the Destroyer. Val drew to him after hearing Berrod speak of overcoming fear and hesitations, something which has been plaguing Val since the Calamity. The two have talked since then, and Berrod has offered to help train Val and P'kohta in the way of the Monk. He speaks with a thick Ul'dahn accent, but not thick enough that Val does not understand him.
• Chachanji Gegenji - a spry lalafell who can fight with a smithing hammer. He is a skilled smith with a bit of a confidence problem. He talks very strangely and at times Val cannot understand his accent.
• Flickering Ember - a completely blind roegadyn who helped Val out when he was deafened by a monster and couldn't use his hearing to navigate. She speaks in segmented sentences that are clear enough for Val to understand.
• Jancis Milburga - kind healer with a gentle touch, even if Val tends to fight her getting close to him. She leads all the pilgrimages to the Twelve.
• Shinjo Dawnedge - reckless, but quite diligent fighter. Shinjo lead a hunting expedition to retrieve a manticore stinger and found himself quite banged up as a result.
• Therese Orycia - a dragoon from Ishgard who took Val in when he got lost in a snowstorm. She sometimes sits uncomfortably close to him.
• Virara Wakuwa - has been leading an expedition to find her missing master. She is sometimes reckless, but she is also quite a strong fighter.

Acquaintances

• Cydni Aizah - a friend of Mhaya, dubbed the seeker of muffins
• Lysha Relanah
• Worren Tigre

Trivial information

• Hobbies: Mining, Fishing, Hunting, Cooking, collecting Triple Triad cards
• Favorite foods: pretzels, fish, steamed yarzon legs, landtrap greens
• Least favorite foods: none
• Favorite colors: anything bright he can see.
• Biggest strengths: combat, general balance within his life, curiosity
• Biggest setbacks: loud noises will blind him, obsession with balance, paranoia the wailers will seek him out, aversion to touching, curiosity, fear of losing his ability to fight
• Driving desires: Curiosity, thrill of battling unusual things, balance

Rumors

Common

• "Sometimes I wonder if he's capable of talking. I've never heard him say anything." ~ adventurer
• "That elezen is more formal that the nobles at times, especially with that dramatic bow of his." ~ Ul'dahn merchant

Uncommon

• "That Val guy is actually pretty personable. I've talked with him a few times and he seems like a good guy with a bit of bad luck. I just wish I knew how to pronounce his name." ~ Quicksand diner
• "That duskwight guy? I'm pretty sure that man is really that mysterious blind fighter from the Coliseum, though no one's ever really met that Valentine outside the Bloodsands before. I do wonder." ~ rich tradeswoman who attends Coliseum fights

Rare

• "I hear he's an exile from his homeland of Gridania." ~ Drunk at the Quicksand bar
• "I heard he tried to become a paladin but had no skill in magics." ~ swordsman
• "I heard he did something really secretive when he served with the Flames but no one knows what it is." ~ Immortal Flames sergeant
• "He's some sort of investigator. He broke a kidnapping ring and saved my life and almost lost his in the process." ~ Flames private

Player rumors

• "... He is quiet, cannot see well, and likes to fish... Sometimes he tilts his head. I do not know what it means." Virara Wakuwa
• "I dun always know what Mr. Val's sayin' when he talks, b-but he's nice 'n frandly 'n-n has a good heart!" Chachanji Gegenji
• "Definitely the most unique fella to ask about learnin' the ways, but I can already tell he's gonna do well." Berrod Armstrong

History

Val at about 10, attempting to look like an expert hunter.

Valentinoix was first born into a small family in the Thibault clan living within the caves deep in the western section of the Black Shroud. The family had been there for generations, stemming from a family of elezen who lived within Gelmorra. Like most duskwight, Val's family was incredibly reclusive, living in the safety of the caves. Some members of the clan who could fight left to gather and hunt food. Val found himself among them, enjoying the challenge of fighting creatures, fishing, and growing food.

Val strayed away from the neighboring families, save during times of clan dinners, mostly keeping to himself and hunting on his own. Soon after that, his younger brother and sister were born. Fraternal twins, the two were practically attached at the hip to Val, looking up to him. Val had grown to be a rather formidable hunter, and they wanted to be just like him too, even though neither could properly see.

Years later, while Val was out hunting the larger creatures of South Shroud, the red moon hanging low in the sky finally fell, streaking blinding fire across the sky. Val was forever separated from his clan, presuming them killed by the falling sky.

Post Calamity

False accusations

Without family or a home, Val took to wandering. He lived off the land, taking only what he alone needed. He developed a particular fondness for kedtrap leaves. He took to catching other game as the lands demanded it, however he never took more than necessary. That would throw off the natural balance.

One day, the Wood Wailers set up a trap to catch poachers outside Quarrymill where poachers were a consistent problem. Hungry and in need of food, Val continued about his business, slaying a small antelope. The Wailers ambushed him, surprised to find a duskwight instead of the suspected Keeper Miqo'te. Val hadn't planned to fight, but found it necessary as the Wailers weren't intending on letting him go. The numbers were against him, and he was captured. He put up quite a fight, but still managed to be hauled off. When questioned, he offered a false name and claimed he knew nothing of poaching. He was simply trying to survive, taking only what was necessary to survive and not affect the land.

The Wildwood lieutenant didn't seem to buy Val's story, looking upon him with scorn and keeping him imprisoned for a few months. They abused him and starved him, tormenting him with their words and beating him physically. He had done nothing wrong, and he couldn't understand why they hated him as much as they did. The reports of poaching continued around Quarrymill.

The Wailers there eventually came into contact with the true poachers, which in turn freed Val from any suspicion. The captain demanded all arrested under suspicion to be released. Val was left alone after a severe beating, strewn out on the ground to fend for himself, still no home to return to. They branded him, slashing his face so that if they ever found him again, he would be imprisoned forever or perhaps simply killed. He wasn't entirely sure where to go, but Gridania no longer felt like home. It felt more like a prison. The Wailers had left him to die in a pile of those who had also been falsely imprisoned, though he was the only one still left alive. With the last of his strength, he pulled himself away from the gaol, collapsing in a nearby river.

A new life

A pair of adventurers and a sellsword found Val collapsed on the edge of a river being assaulted by local fauna. They chased the creatures off, discovering Val beneath them, somehow still alive. They took mercy on him, smuggling him out of the Wood under the veil of night. He stayed with them as they attempted to bring him back to health on their journey towards Ul'dah. The adventurers stopped every so often to offer their aid or do odd tasks to make gil.

A moon or so later, Val was beginning to regain his strength, though he had not yet regained his voice stolen from him by the Wailers. He had trouble with the Ul'dahn sun, and he never quite adjusted to it. When the group split ways, Val left with the sellsword, Regi, and set out on their own journey. The two eventually began fighting in underground rings. Val used Regi as a means to communicate with people as he still couldn't speak or even understand the local accents. And little known to Val, Regi and his friends using him to stack the odds into their favor and earn more money. Val used the tournaments as a means to keep his skills sharp and strengthen his relationship with his odd, aggressive friend. Val mostly stuck with Regi, straying from the rest of the crowds when not in battle. Val cared little of the fortune they amassed, silently handing half his winnings off to Regi.

After accusations of cheating began to fly, Regi had disappeared suddenly. Val felt lost without his only friend, and eventually left the underground scene himself, traveling to Ul'dah. There he trained in mining and eventually joined the Blood Sands scene, fighting in the Coliseum there under the pseudonym Valentine, the same one he used underground in the offhand chance that Regi would find him. Here, he met a new friend, Dhemgeim, a seawolf he could barely understand at the time, and Mhaya, who was much easier to understand. While he was rather successful in the Colosseum, he did suffer some losses, forcing him to take breaks. He also took breaks when he'd amassed too much money, fearing that the balance was off. He had no one to hand it off to anymore with Regi being gone.

Val eventually joined the Immortal Flames, placing himself into a position few expected a duskwight to be. The more bizarre his location, the smaller chance he had of being found by the Wailers. He eventually rose to an undisclosed position as an investigator due to his heightened senses and his strong curiosity. The position gave Val the freedom to explore and investigate as he desired. In his spare time, he still searched for signs of his lost friend Regi, each time coming up with nothing. He served in the position for some time before the team was disbanded, and Val eventually fell into the reserves.

The loss of this position left an imbalance in his life. He sought out an old friend from the coliseum, Dhemgeim, and took up a previous offer to join the Coral Sea. Fate had been kind to him, as here he soon discovered his long lost friend, Regi, was a member of the company as well, living within the company house.

A second path

Val found himself still imbalanced, deciding to part ways with the company he had worked with for nearly a year. He turned back to competing in the Coliseum as well as seeking out the meaning of Chakras, a quest he and P'kohta started. His attendance to the Celebration of the Destroyer lead him to find a living monk, Berrod Armstrong, whom Val bravely approached, dragging P'kohta with him.

Miscellaneous

• Val's tumblr
• Balmung Gladiator Directory
• Bloodsands RP LS - an ooc linkshell to meet other gladiators and fans