Alexaria Whiteraven
 Alexaria Whiteraven
| |
| |
| Gender | Female |
| Race | Hyur |
| Clan | Highlander |
| Citizenship | Ul'dah |
| Place of birth | Ala Mhigo |
| Age | 25 |
| Weight | 12 stone (168 ponze) |
- Alexaria Whiteraven is well-built and her skin is quite tan. People call her pretty, though she has a long scar starting between her eyes and leading down her right cheek. Her nose is fairly long, her eyes are a bright ocean-blue, and her facepaint matches this color. Her most distinguishing feature is her white hair.
- Alexaria (who will answer to Alex) may seem at first turn to be cold, or possibly aloof. People who speak to her, however, tend to point out she's very intelligent and quite concerned with the well-being of others. Her face rarely displays any sort of emotion other than the occasional raised or furrowed brow. She speaks clearly and in an even tone. She is usually very polite and her manner suggests trained etiquette.
★Information here may seem limited. This is intentional. Alexaria does not share details about her life or history freely. Anything listed here is reasonably public knowledge. Many (if not most) rumors about her are false.
Contents
Basic Info
- Alexaria shuns the spotlight. She prefers to listen and watch from nearby or afar, and works by herself. Even so, she is a naturally curious woman like the ravens of her family's namesake, often approaching complete strangers with questions -- sometimes very frank questions. Even so she will stress that her intentions are never malign, and will politely cease inquiry or leave if her presence is an annoyance.
- Alexaria dresses in distinct, personally-made garments most of the time. As a seamstress, she tends to model her own work when in public. She prefers comfort above all else...comfort, in her case, tends to be very revealing outfits that highlight her physique. Even when covering herself, she tries to wear clothing that breathes well and can shed the heat generated by activity (exercise, labor or fighting).
|
|
|
Biography
Alexaria is very, very careful about speaking of her past. She shares some tales with a charming, nonchalant attitude while carefully withholding sensitive information. Anyone asking around the Quicksand is likely to pick up one or two "facts" about Alexaria--if you believe your character has reason to know anything in this section, you may proceed as long as you understand you will never have the whole story.
Childhood
Alexaria was born in Ala Mhigo, but only a few years before its fall to Garlemald. She recalls very little of her time there, as she left "in swaddling", rushed from the city by her father, south, to Ul'dah. He was able to bring a sizable portion of the Whiteraven family wealth, which he used to create a very successful moneylending and moneychanging business.
Alexaria is open enough about her childhood--she describes herself as growing up a bit spoiled, "with a silver spoon in my mouth", as the daughter of a wealthy businessman might be. She never wanted for anything until her adolescence, when her father sent her to an all-girls private school in the Black Shroud. Suddenly, everything Alexaria knew had changed.
No longer able to wallow in her father's opulence, Alexaria was subjected to a rigorous curriculum and made to live in a dormitory on the grounds of her school. As a teenager, Alex found it grueling in contrast to her idyllic childhood; in retrospect, she sees how easy it was--physically--compared to the harshness of life for the unwealthy laborers who support Ul'dah every day. However, she will never forgive her scholastic experiences for anything but what they were: indoctrination to be the ideal wife of a wealthy businessman or noble.
Alexaria railed against her teachers and the school staff, breaking rules and inviting them to punish her as far as their disciplinary mandate allowed them. Her brashness made her popular, and soon she had a clique of girls that seemed to worship her, after only two years. She also butted heads with many of the other popular girls who could not see why Alex insisted on causing trouble and looked down on her for being "sexless, careless and rude" (as one girl put it).
In her second year, Alexaria became aware of a new student who also had little love of the institution, and had been similarly "sentenced" to the school to "straighten her out". Initially the girls fought over nearly everything, being rivals in all physical activities and arguing constantly whenever near each other. Eventually they started having real fights, with Alexaria having the snot knocked out of her regularly by the far more aggressive girl. When confronted on their bouts, the girls lied to protect themselves and ended up protecting each other, gaining a measure of admiration in each others' eyes.
The two started an "extracurricular activities group", ostensibly giving other girls a chance to do more physical education. In truth, it was a fight club--Alexaria saw this as an excellent way to give her classmates confidence, and erode the indoctrination of the school. It was at this time that Alexaria realized how she felt about girls in general, and her one-time rival became her first and closest lover. Other girls in the club began to experiment as well.
When stories began to circulate about the club (and bruises became more visible on the faces of its members), the school sought to suppress all such activity. One girl--a member who had once sought to quash Alex's popularity--decided she would remove Alexaria as an obstacle by pitting her against her best friend. Through her manipulations, Alexaria and the other girl scarred each others' faces in a nearly-mortal knife fight, and were summarily expelled.
This was a week before the Calamity.
Post-Calamity
Alexaria will be the first person to tell you she lost everything in the Calamity--and the first to point out she is hardly unique in this. She shows great sympathy to those who lost loved ones in the tragedy and downplays her own experiences.
In truth, Alexaria lived homeless for a year, selling the clothes off her back just for food, and nearly starved to death. She speaks little of what she did to survive at this time, and certainly gives no reason for her reticence--but its clear this was a major change in her life.
The school which had expelled her was destroyed in Bahamut's attack and Alex knows nothing of the girls who had gone there--she notes that Dalamud's approach sent many of the girls home before the actual attacks began, so its possible many of them survived, but she doesn't seem to care enough to find out.
After a year of barely having enough food to keep her alive and looking very much like an Ala Mhigan refugee, Alexaria started looking for work. Business began to reopen as people sought to rebuild their lives. But without any experience in manual labor, Alexaria was turned away from every job she applied to, until finally getting a job as a waitress... in a Burlesque House.
The establishment known as Up Your Street was located on Pearl Lane and boasted "the prettiest girls in the Thanalan, giving (and showing) their all for our faithful customers!" While some might deride the business as a glorified strip club, Up Your Street actually took very good care of its employees and turned out any patrons who attempted to force the girls to do anything but sing, dance and tell jokes. Alexaria found a measure of family in the business, and for the first time in years, felt happy to be alive.
While she made decent money serving drinks, Alexaria shunned the spotlight, especially the idea of revealing her body to strangers. The malnutrition she suffered previously had left her skinny and eroded her natural athleticism, and she felt clumsy and ungraceful. But, after hours one night, she began to sing as she had at school--unaware that much of the management was having a meeting in back. They asked Alex to show them how she danced, and though she thought she might fall over at any moment, the owners were impressed and offered Alexaria work as a dancing girl (second string) in some of the easier stage shows.
Alexaria started working out and spent her money on healthy food, building back up the muscle she had when the fight club was at its peak. Dancing gave her a smooth, hard body and the confidence to work her way up until she was singing numbers by herself--sometimes the main attraction of the night. Unfortunately, such success was short lived as the laws of Ul'dah changed, allowing dancing girls to appear on the streets. Which such cheap titillation in high supply, Up Your Street found their business dwindle to nothing and closed down.
What happened next is barely known to anyone, but what Alexaria will tell people is that she left Eorzea, and her citizenship was revoked after a prolonged absence. When she returned, her body had changed from that of an athletic dancer to a fighting powerhouse, and her demeanor had become that of a careful and emotionless spectre living at the edges of society. She registered with the Pugilist and Weavers guilds, and began a new and quiet life.
Present
Work in Progress.
Miscellaneous
As stated previously, there are many untrue rumors floating around about Alexaria. Please feel free to add your own rumors under the PC Section. ◢ Common Rumors (Easily overheard)
◢ Moderate Rumors (Moderately difficult to overhear)
◢ Rare Rumors (Very difficult or rarely overheard)
◢ PC Rumors (Rumors from the character's of other players)
(Please feel free to spread rumors about Alexaria.)
|
|
Inspirations
[Placeholder for the moment. I'll include links to music or videos which serve as inspiration to the character.]
Footnotes
- Template credit goes to Chokho Viqqoh and Bancroft Gairn... I mostly copied Chokho's format, and apparently she mostly copied Bancroft. I haven't met Bancroft, but thank you none-the-less.
