Manari Onai
 Manari Onai
| |
 "Whether it takes one more sun or twelve more moons, one more life or one hundred, I will find you." | |
| Gender | Female |
| Race | Miqo'te |
| Clan | Keeper of the Moon |
| Citizenship | Gridania |
| Patron Diety | Menphina, the Lover |
| Age | 23 |
Contents
-=Character=-
General Information:
Birth Name: Mnahri Nakuru
Current Name: Manari
Birthplace: Village of the Onai Tribe, deep in the Twelveswood. (The village no longer exists.)
Age: Eighteen cycles (will be twenty three cycles in ARR)
Aliases and Nicknames: Manari (The name she uses now, easily understood by other races), Mana (most common), Nari (used by a few friends and loved ones), Moonlight (used by her father)
Relationship Status: Seeing someone.
Organizations(Linkshell): Crystalline
Occupation: Unemployed
Appearance:
Height: 4 fulms 8 ilms, very short
Weight: 103 ponz
Body: Slender and slim, but with an athletic build from training, with a below average bust.
Eyes: Large bright green eyes with round pupils.
Hair: Long straight bright platinum blonde hair, usually well kept and tied back into two twin-tails, with two small braids on the sides, and long full bangs. (She loves her hair)
Skin: Smooth and bright pale white, has been compared to porcelain.
Scars and markings: As a way to pay tribute to her heritage, she still paints two small white markings near each of her temples on the sides of her face, they are white and can't be seen easily on her stark while skin. Very recently she acquired a scar on her left shoulder from a somewhat serious axe wound.
Clothing: She dresses modestly for the most part, but lately has taken a liking to showing a bit of leg, both for comfort and mobility, and because she likes the way it looks now. She loves to wear green.
Voice: Normally very soft spoken and meek. Her voice is small just like she is. Manari speaks with a very traditional Miqo'te speech pattern, typical of anyone born into a tribe of Keepers of the Moon living deep within the Black Shroud. She usually talks with honesty and enthusiasm.
Skills and Talents:
Archery: Manari has trained in the use of the bow and arrow since a very young age and knows this weapon inside and out. Beyond that, it's much more than a weapon or tool for war to her, it's a means of survival and something she uses to hunt her food with on a daily basis. She's become very good with it, even able to take a bird out of a full speed flight easily. In recent cycles after the calamity she has gotten increasingly proficient at killing swiftly and quietly with this weapon.
Hunting, tracking, and stalking: Another set of skills Manari honed since childhood. Manari has the ability to skillfully hunt, track, and if need be, stalk just about any kind of prey. Almost all of her experience is with beasts and monsters of varying sizes and threat levels, but when she was with The Everwatch, she used her skills and keen nose to track people as well. When in the Twelveswood in particular, she has spent cycles upon cycles to learn to move swiftly through the brush without making a sound. The last four or five cycles since the calamity have caused her to perfect moving silently in most any surrounding. However, if Manari is in her natural element (The Black Shroud) she becomes a phantom. A Shadow.
Daggers: From a very early age, Manari had a natural knack for skillfully wielding this weapon. Like the bow, she uses this most often as a survival tool on a daily basis more than a weapon, but make no mistake, Manari is far deadlier with daggers than even with her bow. Once she began training under the Red Fang directly, she learned to use two at once to great effect. She always has at least one of these on her at all times, a habit forced upon her by the Red Fang. She can effectively wield daggers with a traditional grip, underhanded grip, or a mix of the two when using one in each hand. She can even throw them with good accuracy. Since the calamity, Manari has recognized the dagger as her most useful and practical close range weapon. She has focused almost all of her training on honing this skill to an art form. Manari makes no wasted movements when she wields these short blades.
Axes: A large weapon for a small Miqo'te. Manari was shown the basics of the axe under the Red Fang's mentoring, but didn't understand the weapon until she began training under Nel Turuphant. Because of the different ways that she learned the axe, her style is a bit unique, and combined with the smaller axe she had crafted for her size and build in mind, makes for a very different type of technique from her. She uses the axe as she was taught by her old mentor and Nel, but still uses similar footwork and body movements like when she uses daggers, moving more quickly and hitting faster, but with less power. However, in recent cycles, Manari has completely abandoned this weapon. After many moons of self-evaluation, Manari came to realize her own strengths and her own limitations. Her training with the axe was a childish stubborn attempt to surpass the Red Fang using the Red Fang's own weapon. Given Rera's terrifying strength and skill with the axe, and Manari's lithe build, this was an impossible task that was holding Manari back.
White Magic: Manari studied at the Stillglade Fane and eventually received honors with them in the area of healing magicks. Though her skills with white magic are usually good enough, she has recently developed a serious inferiority complex regarding her ability to use it and be useful with it. This is mainly due to more than one of her peers being naturally gifted with the healing arts without any studying at the Fane at all, while she herself struggled to understand the more complicated areas of the healing aether. She has, for the time being, hung up her White Mage robes to avoid the fear of failure all together, and put her all into more physical training. These suns she will actively try to avoid being placed into a position where she will be in charge of healing the wounded. That said, if someone is in trouble, and she knows there isn't anyone else around who would do it better, she won't hesitate to do her best to help. It has now been at least five or six cycles since Manari has even thought about conjuring up healing aether. Her knowledge of these maigcks has most likely deteriorated significantly.
Beast mastery: The Red Fang saw potential in Manari to learn the secrets of beast taming. Along with her deep love of the Twelveswood is her love of all the life within it. Manari's training was cut very short in this area and she had been trying to pick it back up and teach herself recently. She doesn't yet fully understand it, but the potential that her old mentor saw was a latent and subtle type of aether she gives off, which animals and beasts can pick up on. It allows them to know Manari's mood, intentions, and state of mind. It's nothing more than a way for her to gain the trust of the beasts that can see she means no harm, but it allows her to train then very easily as well. Currently a light novice at this skill, she had trained two large long-tailed hawks that live out in the Twelveswood that she can call almost at will as long as she is within range for the hawks to hear her. Recent events have made her realize she needs to improve her skills in this area most of all. Over the course of the last five cycles since the calamity, Manari has developed the ability to form lasting, loyal bonds with most any beast. Now she fearlessly leads an entire pack of wolves as their leader on her mission to protect the Twelveswood.
Music: Manari was introduced to performing music by her mother, a famous songweaver in her village. She was something of a virtuoso when it came to music and Manari tried to learn as much as she could, becoming good at playing the flute, the lute, and the harp. Manari's singing voice is very pretty, but she never uses it anymore. She's very self-conscious about it after hearing Nel Turuphant's superior singing voice.
Weaknesses:
- Though her knowledge of the Twelveswood is second to none, she knows almost nothing of the outside world, other than what she's learned from a very few number of trips made just this last cycle.
- Thanks to her past, she is completely and totally terrified of drakes.
- She gets very sea sick on boats and ferries.
- No longer the sweet naive Miqo'te teenager she was when she stepped out from her tribe, Manari is now quiet and distant. She no longer attempts to form friendships or relationships of any kind. She now actively avoids most social interaction if she can help it, and spends almost all of her time alone.
Friends and Acquaintances
Nahue Tanner - The man she loves.
Nel Turuphant - Sworn Sister and one of her most dear friends.
Isilme Turuphant - Close friend
Miya Sha - Close friend
Rumors
Townsfolk and Tavern (NPC rumors)
"Patrols found another small camp 'o poachers butchered... Same as the rest. Half 're slain by a dagger, half 're ripped apart by wolves. N' they never saw it comin' from the looks of it. Sick 'o cleanin' up after this so called "Shadow"! " -- Wood Wailer
"I don't rightly care how fair the lass is, she's just a forest savage same as the rest what live beyond the city gates." -- Wildwood citizen
Player Character's rumors
((Nothing yet))
-=History=-
The Onai Tribe:
The Onai Tribe was a completely self-sufficient tribe of Keepers of the Moon who made their home deep in the Twelveswood. They lived closely in harmony with the elementals, having the utmost respect for the Twelveswood and all it's life. Every daughter and son of the tribe was taught how to properly live and survive without fear of angering the Elementals. The tribe was as much a part of the Twelveswood as the beasts and plant life. The tribe worshiped the Guardian Deity Menphina the Lover almost exclusively. The tribe members were entirely nocturnal by nature and would hold prayers and rituals to Menphina regularly at the shrine built in the center of the village. The tribe has several very skilled craftsman and would trade with merchants in Gridania on a somewhat regular basis. They would trade for imported foods and materials for their crafts. The most famous of the tribe's crafts, and the most highly sought after, were the small statues of Menphina they would chisel from stone. The tribe members were mostly female, and the women would be the ones to hunt and gather food, train for war, and be the ones who would venture out for anything dealing with outsiders of the village, such a trading with merchants. The men of the village were craftsmen and homemakers. The birth of a boy was a significant enough event that the village would hold a festival to give thanks. Giving birth to a boy was one of the greatest honors a woman of the tribe could have, and would be a boost to their social status in the tribe, as they would be considered "blessed." The rarity of males caused the village to adapt an unorthodox tradition of male and female relationships. Monogamy was impossible, and polygamy was a necessity. The act of intercourse with a male was always done for the sake of breeding and keeping the tribe alive, and was never allowed for simple pleasures. As such, the women seeking comfort from one another was commonplace.
The Tribal War:
The Onai Tribe's deep respect and love of the woods would cause them conflict with those that were less respectful on more than one occurrence. Skirmishes with bands of poachers was common and normally easily resolved. The Onai Tribe trained for forest warfare regularly because of the number of offenses to their home they faced. The huntresses of the Onai Tribe could track man and beast alike in the woods, and some women of the tribe would become very adept at moving through the woods like a shadow. The greatest threat to the tribe, and in the Onai Tribe's view, to the Twelveswood, came from another tribe of Miqo'te. In many ways, this tribe was the polar opposite of the Onai. They were called the Shlaivan.
The Shlaivan Tribe:
The Shlaivan were another Keeper of the Moon tribe that lived in the Twelveswood. They were extremely militaristic and had a single minded focus to claim the entire Black Shroud as their own. They funded their operations with an extremely heavy amount of poaching, enough to disrupt the natural balance of the woods. Their poaching would kill off natural predators, causing small wildlife to become over populated and kill off the plant life from over-feeding, or at times just the opposite, their poaching would kill off a predator's food supply, causing them to nearly die out as well. They were also a Miqo'te tribe that was dominated by women, though their beliefs and philosophies differed greatly from those of the Onai Tribe. From a very young age, every woman of the tribe was instilled with a very strict superiority complex. The women of the tribe believed themselves the strongest and rightful owners of all the Black Shroud. They believed that if they were strong enough to take something, it was rightfully theirs. They were taught that conflict and battle was a part of life, and to always be the victor was the most important thing. To achieve this, the women of the tribe trained extensively in all area of combat. Most of the women of the tribe were taller than the average Miqo'te already, and their constant training furthered this image. The women of the tribe who pledged themselves to battle were forced to cut off certain "unneeded" emotions such as fear, love, and sadness. This area of the training wasn't always met with success, and served as a way for the leaders to separate the women from the girls. Males were not particularly rare, just kept out of the way. The men of the Shlai'van tribe were often used as squires, servants, and all purpose laborers for the tribe. The ritual of breeding was a matter of trying to raise the strongest woman possible, never a matter of love or even simple lust (Other than the leaders of the tribe, and highly decorated warriors, all of whom were allowed to partake of such pleasures). The women would be given men that suited them for the best chance of strong and healthy girls.
The Onai Tribe was at war with the Shlaivan for a span of eight cycles, and would clash with the Shlaivan on an almost constant basis at one point in the conflict. The strength of the Shlaivan would have easily crushed the Onai, if not for their ability to ambush and fade into the forest. The skill and cunning of the Onai met with the power and numbers of the Shlai'van constantly, leading to an over all stalemate in the war. The situation remained the same, with both sides clashing and taking loses, until the incident that wiped out the Onai Tribe happened, giving the Shlai'van victory by default. They have remained a constant in the Twelveswood even to this day. Without the Onai Tribe to keep them in check, their operation has only grown. Though a place like the City-state of Gridania has nothing to fear from them, they continue to disrupt the balance of the woods.
Childhood:
Born as Mnahri Nakuru, Manari was first born daughter of her mother, Yarala, and the eighth daughter of her father, Lehmen. In a village full of outgoing and extroverted, sometimes even aggressive women, Mnahri was a timid child. Starting at a very young age, Mnahri was taught the bow and arrow, and the dagger from her mother. Her mother was a well known songweaver in the village and very popular because of it, and eventually began to teach Mnahri how to play the lute, the flute, and the harp. Her father was an accomplished woodworker and smith, but was not looked upon as favorably as some of the other men in the tribe, because he hadn't fathered any boys yet. All thought M'nahri had many half sisters from her father, she only had one true full blooded sister, three cycles younger, named Reilah. Mnahri took care of her sister often, taking on the tasks of showing her how to notch an arrow, and thread a bowstring. Mnahri showed a natural aptitude with the dagger. It didn't take long before she was more comfortable with one in her hand than anything else. It even became a tradition for her to receive a new dagger on her namesday each cycle. Her skill with the bow came a bit harder for her, and what was started by her mother was picked up and finished by the tribe's trainer and mentor in all things weapon related. Her name was Nahkokko Rera, and most of the tribe knew her as the Red Fang. She was a tall and very strong Miqo'te warrior. There was hardly anyone in the tribe who could stand up to Nahkokko in a duel. She was a master with blades and with arrows, and easily recognized from her striking bright red hair. Her skill with weapons and her natural ability to teach made her excel as the tribe's chief trainer.
Training under the Red Fang:
When Mnahri was twelve cycles, she had officially become a huntress of the tribe. By the time she was fourteen cycles old, Mnahri had proven herself as such a skilled huntress that she was given the title of Tigress of the Hunt. As the Tigress, she would lead the huntress pack each hunt. Under Mnahri's lead, the pack would nearly always have a successful and fruitful hunt. It was during this time in her life that Mnahri was able to hone her tracking skills, and perfect her archery. From the time they were ten cycles, all girls who would become huntresses and members of the village guard (called Blade-wardens) were sent to train with the Red Fang. She was at times harsh and unforgiving, and at others understanding and kind. Mnahri looked up to her greatly, and had a deep respect built up for her over the cycles. The Red Fang had a passion of her own, something that she didn't teach. Nahkokko was not only a trainer of young Miqo'te, but a master beast trainer as well. Her ability to tame the wild beasts of the Twelveswood and command them was impressive to anyone, but awe-inspiring to Mnahri. Being such a gentle soul, Mnahri loved the wildlife of the Twelveswood. After expressing such interest in Nahkokko's true love of beastmastery, she discovered that Mnahri had potential for learning the skills herself. With her proven skill as a huntress, the potential she showed for beastmastery, and a soft spot for the little blonde Miqo'te that the Red Fang never could admit to, Mnahri was officially taken under Nahkokko's wing for personal mentoring. Mnahri would spend nearly all of her waking moments with Nahkokko now. Under her guidance, she perfected her skill with twin daggers, as Nahkokko recognized how naturally it came to Mnahri, and sharpened her skills with the bow and arrow. Near the end of their time together, Nahkokko had just started to show her the ways of beast taming, and the axe.... the Red Fang's most favored of all weapons.
The forbidden word "Love"
Despite her quiet and shy nature, or more accurately because of her quiet and shy nature, she managed to catch the eye of a boy two cycles older than her. His name was Ithki, and it didn't take long for the two children to become close friends. The two of them would play together for cycles to come. Ithki managed to bring her out of her shell a bit as they spent time together. Ithki was a dreamer and a rebel, and together the two of them got into trouble, all started by him, even sneaking out of the village without permission to seek freedom from the rules, rituals, and confines of the tribe. The concept of "love" was discouraged and frowned upon. A man needed to mate with several women, and there was no way the tribe would survive if men only took a single mate. It was inevitable that young Mnahri would develop feeling for the boy, as did all of the girls Ithki choose to interact with. She knew better than to do something as foolish as expressing her crush for him to anyone, as these kinds of situations were usally quashed rather quickly for the good of the tribe.
It was just as well, due to the abrupt and unfortunate end of the tribe, a very secret and forbidden love affair between Ithki and Reilah, Mnahri's younger sister, was never brought to light.
Flames from within:
There was a time when the wildlife around the Onai Tribe's village had seemingly disappeared. Their tribal hunting grounds, used for generations, were suddenly without any animal or beast. The tribe had turned to fishing more and more to bring in food, but they would disrupt the natural fish population should they continue to do so. This had forced them to send the huntresses out further for hunts. This meant the hunting packs would be a larger number of women, and the time gone from the village was much longer as well. There was an evening that every huntress pack, M'nahri's included, had to be sent out at once. The village could face a serious food shortage if they didn't do something about it, and it was decided that the only course was to send each huntress pack out to search in a different direction to seek out a possible new hunting grounds. It was at this exact time, when it was only the Blade-wardens who could defend the village, when a sudden horrifying disaster struck. Without any warning, an army of drakes flooded into every corner of the under-defended village. The scaled beasts showed a shocking amount of organization in their attack, first swarming every Blade-warden station, post, and watch tower. The drakes cast everything in sight into a violent inferno of raging flames, claws, and fangs. The strength of the Blade-wardens was impressive, but the surgical strikes the drakes had launched both caught them by surprise and then overwhelmed them by shear numbers. As they fought to defend the village, the Blade-wardens watched everything they held dear burning around them. The entire village was ablaze, the men were slaughtered defending the children, and the children were silenced only moments after. Many of the women that were still fighting began to give up as they lost everything. As the battle raged, the huntress pack began to return, almost all of then had suffered surprise attacks and were wounded and weary. The drakes acted as if they were ready for them, tearing each huntress pack apart as they rushed in, shocked and horrified, but ready to defend their home. This was the scene Mnahri found as her and her pack strode into the village after seeing the flames from a distance. Her's was the only pack who hadn't run into any trouble, but also the pack sent the farthest distance from the village. M'nahri had led them to an impressive hunt and were returning early... much earlier than expected. Mnahri had fought in more than one skirmish with the Shlaivan, and began to issue orders to her pack, but it didn't matter. Her huntress sisters were ripped down and burned before her eyes. She stood frozen in terror as what looked to her like hundreds of burning red eyes and blazing hot burning scales destroyed her life. The image of the last half of the attack would forever be burned into her mind. She dropped her axe as the drakes swarmed around her, but they didn't attack. The last thing she heard was something sneaking up behind her, then she felt a hard blow to the back of her head, and then... just darkness.
When Mnahri awoke, she was left with nothing but ruins, ash, and the dead. The village had only four known survivors, counting Mnahri. The four of them found each other as they searched the village, and spend over two full suns giving every member of the tribe a proper burial. Tears stained Mnahri's face for countless moons to come after that. Almost no words were exchanged between the four as they worked to bury everyone and everything they loved. Without so much as a word, the four of them sat in front of the graves they had just made for bells. One by one, each of them left, going their separate ways. Mnahri has never heard of any of them since. To this very day, Mnahri is still terrified of drakes.
A New Life
Mnahri left the ruins of her village, tears still in her eyes, and didn't return for over three cycles. She traveled to the only other place in the world she knew of, the City-state of Gridania. For the next three cycles she would live a rough and somewhat lonely life, trying to make it in the city. One of the first things she had to do was adjust her name. In Eorzean, everyone seemed to pronounce her name as Manari, and she found spelling it and saying it that way made for much smoother greetings with new people. When she decided to take her new name, she set aside her family name, and took up the tribe's name, as a way to remember them, and keep her tribe from completely disappearing. After that, she would always be known as Manari Onai to any she would meet. Her evenings were mostly spent out in the Twelveswood, and she never had an actual residence in the city. Most of the gil she could scrape together was from doing mostly menial tasks with the occasional semi-dangerous job from the Gridanian Adventurer's guild. I wasn't until three full cycles after arriving in Gridania that she found a place where she felt she might belong. She hunted on her own and stayed mostly to herself. She did manage to make a very small number of friends at this point in her life, the best of which was Selene Artemis. These three cycles were a very difficult time for her. She had never had to live alone, or make it completely on her own before, and she lived with the still-vivid memories of the inferno of death she had to witness first hand. It look a new family for her to begin to move past it.
A New Family - The Everwatch:
Manari had heard several stories about a group in Gridania. They were called The Everwatch, and it seemed they were sworn to protect the Twelveswood. Manari was nervous and unsure about such a group, especially when it wasn't even a tribe of forestborn, but she decided to sign up and see if their work suited her. This ended up being one of the most memorable times in her life after she left her tribe. This was the start of the rest of her life, and as a way to never forget the things she began to experience, she started to keep a rather detailed journal. The journal contains all her thoughts and feeling on almost every single event that happened from the time she joined Everwatch until the time Dalamud finally hit. It can be found here:
Finding Out the Truth
It was about three cycles before the fall of Dalamud when Manari set out on a mission to scout out the previous location of the Shaivan tribe. With that chapter of her life still not closed, she felt the need to see what had become of her greatest foe now that the Onai tribe was no longer there to keep them in check. What she found was a giant fortress of wood and a large area of her homeland poached almost beyond hope of recovery. It was during this shocking moment that the Red Fang appeared behind her, and suddenly attacked. The Red Fang gave her formor pupil no real explination for her sudden violence, but it was clear her powerful attacks were launched with a tinge of regret, and a slight hesitation. Hopeless to defeat a warrior as powerful as Nahkokko, Manari used the last of her strength to splinter the shaft of Nahkokko's axe. Angered at having trouble against a smaller and yonger Miqo'te, Nahkokko summoned her personal pack of trained drakes. Surrounded by her worst nightmare, Manari realized at the last moment that it was the Red Fang, the most skilled beast master she knew, who had slaughtered her tribe using these very same beasts.
Manari was frozen in terror, and badly maimed. For the second time, however, Nahkokko couldn't bring herself to murder the pupil she had accidently formed a strong bond with. She called off her drakes and left Manari battered, broken, bleeding and unconscious. As she walked away, leaving her there to die, she made an anonymous call for help over her pearl to the Wood Wailers, stating that a member of the Twin Adder lay dying in the Eastern Shroud.
(For an in depth, detailed story about this encounter, please read this: )
