Adelpha Sarantas

Adelpha Sarantas
Gender	Female
Race	Hyur
Clan	Mixed
Citizenship	Limsa Lominsa
Nationality	Ala Mhigan, Garlean (renounced)
Nameday	19th Sun of the 3rd Umbral Moon
Age	28
Guardian	Llymlaen, the Navigator
Occupation	Strategist, Maelstrom Command (Storm Lieutenant)
Prior aliases	Aldrisi Shirantas

Basic Info

A half-Midlander, half-Highlander Hyur hailing from Limsa Lominsa. At 5 fulms 9 ilms, she stands taller than most Midlanders and carries a similar body shape to a Highlander, but with less muscle mass. She possesses the tanned complexion and fighting spirit of an Ala Mhigan, and the strong work ethic, quick tongue, and love of ale characteristic of 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.

Though she possesses mixed Ala Mhigan and Garlean ethnicity, Adelpha is presently a "Garlean" in neither nationality nor allegiance, and she holds no respect whatsoever for the Empire. Her present allegiances, such as they are, lie primarily with her present home-state of Limsa Lominsa. She holds some amount of ancestral pride for Ala Mhigo, and hopes to see it liberated someday.

Adelpha is fiercely dedicated to protecting her homelands and her loved ones. To that end, she joined the Maelstrom's ranks in 1572 and has spent most of her life since dedicated to its service: first as a rank-and-file soldier, and now as a lesser strategist.

History

Early Life

Adelpha was born in 1549 in Ala Mhigo, the product of an Ala Mhigan teacher (her mother) and a low-level Garlean military officer (her father) prior to Ala Mhigo's eventual occupation. 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 unrest 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 attractive young girl with stories of their exploits and adventures on faraway voyages, and she was always happy to accept their tips and stories both.

Pre-Calamity

As Garlemald resumed open hostilities in 1571, at the age of 22, Adelpha left Limsa Lominsa to study formalized martial training -- particularly with the lance, inspired by Limsa Lominsa's patron deity, Llymlaen -- 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 partial Garlean parentage a secret, deathly afraid of being imprisoned or executed as a suspected spy if her true past were to be discovered.

Shortly before the Grand Companies opened public recruitment in the face of the imminent Garlean invasion, Adelpha applied for a position with the Maelstrom, and was accepted. Around this time, Adelpha began to explore the practice of conjury and, finding that she had some level of aptitude for it, traveled to the Stillglade Fane to study the lost art of white magic. Over the following months and years, she began to pour more and more of her training time into developing her protective magic skills, using them to aid her friends and her allies in the Maelstrom alike.

After serving for several months on a series of short assignments as a Storm Private, Adelpha received a promotion to Sergeant and was selected for a prolonged series of assignments. She was not seen in Eorzea for four years. During this time, however, she served the Maelstrom diligently, and began to study strategy and arcanima under the teachings of the Maelstrom's scholars. After completing her training, she was transferred to Maelstrom Command to serve as a lesser strategist and received a promotion to the rank of Storm Lieutenant.

Post-Calamity

Adelpha continues to serve the Maelstrom as a strategist.

Skills

Adelpha is competent with protective magic, and dabbles a little bit in the other aetheric disciplines (enough to use cantrips). As far as martial skills go, Adelpha is also competent with a lance, but has not used one in combat for a number of years. She's quite street-smart and has the ability to talk her way out of many difficult situations. Lately, she has developed an aptitude for strategy and tactics due to her studies under the scholars from Mealvaan's Gate, and in the process has further bolstered her knowledge of protective magic with the teachings of arcanima.

Personality

Adelpha is warm and friendly to those she knows, and guarded around those she doesn't: a trait that she developed from a life lived around seedy strangers in Limsa Lominsa. 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. She has little patience for immaturity, especially from people from whom she expects better. When not on duty, however, she has a great love for the simple pleasures in life: good friends, a good drink, and a good laugh.

Affiliations

(Notes from Adelpha's 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 respected her discipline.

Diyne Ikapine: Mysterious, but knew how to have a good time. Independent to a fault, and known to play with hearts. I still liked him a little bit despite all that.

Endemerrin Rosethorne: Didn't know much about him, but Xene seemed to like him a lot. Seems forthright and honest. He seems like a sort of person I can respect. He's recently started up an adventuring company. Sounds like it might be a good way to make a few gil when I need it.

Illias Naystar: Despite his hilariously overwrought 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: Studious and well-bred. I respected her single-mindedness to her work, and although she came off as a bit straight-laced, I felt like I could see a little spark in her eyes when it came time to have fun. I wonder if she ever finished that tome she was working on?

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. I want to find her and see if she's still among the living.

Myllor Aurelion: A little naive and a little bit stuffy, but a good man. Spoiled more than one good time, but I could never really hold it against him. Maybe if he toughened up a little and loosened 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. Apparently was pretty popular with women, but I have no idea how.

Tahrara Kivenera: An apparently-renowned author of books that I've never cared for -- the books, that is. She seemed nice enough, but perhaps a little sheltered. Saved her once from a kidnapping, unharmed, thankfully.

Verence Meillune: Friendly enough, but didn't ever really seem comfortable in casual conversation. 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.

Other Notes

This character has been retired. Aside from special exceptions, no further IC development is planned for her.