Keir Loell

Keir Loell

APPEARANCE
Race	Hyur
Clan	Midlander
Gender	Male
Age	33
Hair	Black
Eyes	Blue
Height	5 Fm, 11 Im
Weight	171 Pz
Build	Fit, athletic
Complexion	Sun-weathered
Scars	Puckered sword marks in his abdomen and left thigh, blade marks across his right cheek and left arm.
Markings	Three dark birthmarks in the shape of a claw mark on the back of his neck. Tattoo on the back of his right shoulder of a lightning bolt shadowed by tribal knotwork. Facial hair.
BIOGRAPHICAL
Nameday	5th Sun, 1st Astral Moon
Deity	Halone
Citizenship	Gridania, Kugane
Residence	Lily Hills Ward 2, Apt. 59
Relatives	Olwyn Loell (father, d.) Danae Loell (mother, d.) Regan Loell (sister, d.) Cwen Loell (wife, d.) (unborn child, d.)
Marital Status	Single
Occupation	Wanderer
META
Pronunciation	CARE loEL
Server	Balmung

PERSONALITY

In his youth, Keir was a passionate soul. Hot-headed, even, some might say. He lived and loved hard, and in the end, it was that stubborn spirit that refused to listen to the cooler heads around him. It was a nearly fatal flaw.

These days, Keir has seen more death and betrayal than his parents ever did. He's nearly died twice at the hands of those who would steal his secrets and take his life, and he lost the thing he believed in the most; his family's honor. The fire inside him has tempered and cooled, and in the past decade, he's learned the kind of patience his father always wished he'd had.

Perhaps he still has a spark of humor in him at times, or wit. He's past the days when he would stalk the bars for lovely ladies, but he still enjoys losing himself in a bottle now and then, especially when he thinks about his younger years. Especially when he sees younger adventurers making all the same mistakes he made himself.

HISTORY

Pre-Calamity

Early Years

Twenty-five years prior to the Battle of Carteneau, Keir was born the first child to Olwyn and Danae Loell in a small community near Falcon's Nest in the Coerthas Western Highlands. His father had just been named leader to a small, secretive sect of warriors and mystics who made it their mission to protect certain priceless magical relics from falling into the wrong hands. They were, they believed, the keepers of history. The only thing that dimmed Olwyn and Danae's joy at the blessing of their first child was the birthmark on the back of his neck, shaped as though it were a claw mark. No one knew what it might mean, but Danae refused to speak to the mystics about the mark, instead encouraging him as he grew older to wear his hair longer in order to hide it from prying eyes.

The boy had a happy childhood, nonetheless. He was taught to fight and hunt as soon as he could hold a sword and bow. He had some of the finest tutors - skilled members of the secret society itself. By the time he was ten, he had traveled to every city-state in Eorzea and had learned much of each of their cultures. That's why, when the Garlean Empire struck Ala Mihgo with such force and destruction, a passionate flame was lit within him. He vowed to become a warrior; to work to protect those who could not protect themselves, and to join the ranks alongside his father. At the age of twelve, he was initiated and was apprenticed to one of their most experienced knights.

By eighteen, Keir had proven his own merit within this secret guard. Danae encouraged her son to wed, but found him stubbornly resistant to the idea. He enjoyed a life of independence, and that was made clear when Olwyn discovered that a young woman from Limsa Lominsa carried Keir's child. Keir took the honorable route himself. The moment he learned of the pregnancy, he proposed marriage. There was a hasty and quiet wedding, with a solemn few knowing of the events. Unfortunately, not two weeks after the ceremony, both the girl and her unborn died in childbirth. The event was one of profound impact on his life, and what once seemed a fanciful, flirtatious existence became one of duty and dedication.

The Fall of the Guard

During the next seven years, he turned his attention toward his skills on the battlefield and on learning the values of leadership from his father, hoping to temper his own impatience. Even as Danae continued to urge him to take a wife, Keir kept his attention focused on the guard, renewing his vow to protect and remember for those who could not.

When tension began to grow within the ranks of the wardens, Keir attempted to persuade his father that someone was orchestrating the disruption from within their own ranks. Unfortunately, Olwyn resisted the idea and Keir decided to take matters into his own hands. He warned those loyal to him of his fears and advised them to maintain a heightened level of awareness and suspicion until the next council had convened. Unfortunately, the council never happened. One evening, the entire guard was attacked, not only in Coerthas, but across Eorzea. Their members were slaughtered in their beds and at their posts. Each of their strongholds fell, one by one.

When the bloodshed began, Keir was awake and aware and was able to sound the alarm, for all the good that it did. The battle was bloody and devastating, and in the end, he was grievously wounded. His best friend, Jakih Ishtari, managed to get him out of the stronghold to a small, unmarked hovel in Gridania. She couldn't be sure that if she'd be seen anywhere else that they might be attacked there as well. The miqo'te sat by his bedside for two days until he awoke.

Idealistic Survivors

Keir's first thought as he began to heal was to find the survivors of the attack and form the guard anew. It was idealistic, and perhaps naive, but Keir was stubborn, and having just lost both his parents to the bloody madness, felt as though he was the only one who could carry the torch forward. His sister, Regan, had been in Ul'dah at the time of the attack, and therefore survived, but like Jakih, she cautioned Keir against being too hasty when they had no idea who had brought them low in the first place.

But Keir knew that the most sacred relics had been locked away in a vault that had managed to escape the devastation. With these relics in hand, he believed that he could establish a new, glorious order - one free of the in-fighting that had torn the group asunder.

He was wrong.

Keir struggled for months to find old members who had survived and recruit new ones to their cause. His guard became just as toxic and uncertain as his father's had been, and in the end, he decided to sail east toward Hingashi to look for an artifact fabled to be the answer to his problems. A relic that could once again unite his people. He was never seen again.

Six months later, the Battle of Carteneau took his sister's life, seemingly ending the Loell line.

Post-Calamity

Across the Sea

Originally, Keir was supposed to set up in Kugane for a month or two as he researched a fabled artifact. Funny how plans never seem to go reach fruition. Keir's ship had nearly reached the archipelago when an unknown ship intercepted them and opened fire. These were no pirates - they didn't seek anything but the occupants' destruction. The boat was quickly destroyed beneath superior firepower, and once again, Keir found himself on death's door.

This time, he was in and out of consciousness for weeks, kept alive only by the miracle of healing magic. When he finally managed to begin processing what had happened, he found himself in a small fishing village on the coast, tended to by a young man and his grandfather. It was months before he was capable of walking on his own, and over a year before his memory began to finally return. By that time, word of Carteneau had reached the Far East, and when Keir finally managed to arrive in Kugane, he found messages and packages awaiting him - news of Seraphine's illness, his sister's death, and the relics that Aylis had forwarded to him for protection.

He couldn't process the losses. His sister, his friends, his Guard, his world. He found himself shutting down. He hid the relics away and took up work cleaning fish on the docks to pay for a small room within the foreign city, unsure what to do with himself other than... hide, and drink.

He drank a lot.

A New Focus

It was his drinking that got him into trouble with one of the older families in Kugane. There may have been preludes to a duel. Fortunately, they took pity on him. Or, at least, he chooses to believe it was pity. He found himself with a new position as bodyguard to their young son. It was in this position that he learned of ninjas, assassins who could manipulate the energies of the natural elements. Intrigued, he used his connections to request training under the guise of better protecting his young charge.

The training took years, and even now, he does not consider himself a master, but the art taught him patience and appreciation for the energy of the world around him. It also allowed him to spend his evenings studying in Kugane's archives, learning as much as he could about the artifacts of Hydaelyn that the Guard had never had a chance to seek.

The Return

It was years before Keir finally returned to Eorzea, purchasing a small apartment in Gridania and quietly wandering through the world, learning more and more about what had happened in his absence. For years, he'd had voices calling out to him - old friends, and current, stubborn ones, encouraging the rebuilding of the Guard. It had happened more than once in his absence, and he'd been fine to let that happen. But finally, he found himself agreeing to help pass the torch of the Guard to a new generation.

RELATIONSHIPS

LEGEND

♥ Family – ♥ Platonic – ♥ Romantic – ♥ Physical – $ Business – ✖ Adversary – ✝ Deceased – � Lost Touch

Family
Cwen Loell	Wife ♥ ✝
Danae Loell	Mother ♥ ✝
Olwyn Loell	Father ♥ ✝
Regan Loell	Sister ♥ ✝
{unnamed child}	Child ♥ ✝

Lost or Missing
Almaz Khaltamze	Friend �
Aylis Tessier	Friend �
Evoh Ohrrux	Friend and Advisor ♥ �
Hrodgeir Grimnir	Friend ♥ �
Jakih Ishtari	Friend and SIC ♥ �
Lurial Vashir	Friend �
Mhrii Pericamberih	Friend and Advisor ♥ �
Ryley Sionn	Friend �
Seraphine Winter	Friend ♥ �
Shurin Mizune	Friend �

Current
Kylin Felstar	Friend $
Seventh Pillar	Mentor and Friend ♥ $
Volkai Nailo	Friend ♥