Matina Kath'lani

Matina Kath'Lani
"Do not take your eyes off the target. Do not let them rest."
Gender	Female
Race	Hyur
Clan	Midlander
Citizenship	N/A
Age	24?
Server	Balmung
Place of Birth	Coerthas
Company	None

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Character

General

Matina is a young woman who has been asleep for a long period of time. The twin sister of Sabathius Kath'Lani, she considers herself the fiercer and more forthright of the two of them. She is spunky by very definition and extremely aggressive. While Sabathius had always tended to be more methodical and calculating, she was always more brazen and ingenious. Leifon would often describe Sabathius as being much more of a fox, while Matina was much more of a hawk. She would swoop on a target, forcing them to make mistakes. Sabathius, would wait for a target to make a mistake, and then attack them with full force.

Appearance

Matina has chin length black hair and cold blue eyes, standing at roughly five fulms and nine ilns. She still looks young, as though untouched by time. Sun spots marking the peaks of her cheeks, and a single beauty mark just below her lips. Her skin is tan, cooked by the sun during travel through the desert or over the ocean. She is not incredibly muscular, though one could easily tell she has seen combat and trained rigorously. If her muscles were not apparent of this, pale colored scars can be found all over her body from her exploits the most clear being the one across the bridge of her nose. She also carries a tattoo under her right eye of a swooping bird.

Behavior

Spunky, brazen, and aggressive, Matina is a fiery woman that is not afraid to speak her mind. Not as cunning and charming as her brother, she is exceptionally blunt and honest. Wearing her emotions and thoughts on the outside like a mantle. She will never shy from conversation, and can often be found attempting to assert dominance with those around her. Playful banter is common place, with exchanges of challenges being even more common. Easy to get worked up at the slightest question of her ability, she shares her brother's sentiment about being talked down to.

A terrible planner, and often thriving in situations where improv or off-script action is necessary, she is still proven to return results through brute force. Her constant need to improve and refine herself this often leaves her in a position where she is too stubborn to accept failure as an option.

Combat

General

Matina was considered a prodigy with the sword from the beginning of her learning the art from her Father. Though it was apparent she was much better at the sword than her brother Sabathius, who gravitated more towards the bow, she constantly felt the need to get better. From the age of 8, she had dedicated herself to the sword, learning from her Father to use swords, knives, and daggers. She did learn to use the bow from her mother as well, but she did not feel as passionate about it as she did the sword. Their training would be cut short, as they would flee Coerthas, and the fate of their parents would leave them without learning more from their parents skills.

In her travels first to Southern Thanalan and then after to Limsa, she would continue to hone her abilities with bladed weapons. She would often be found training, and if not training, she was challenging others. She never felt fear from a bigger enemy, learning the hard way how to approach fighting larger Highlanders that would stand over her small frame by many fulms. With time and dedication, she would be able to best any opponent she was faced with. Her command over the sword, her body, and battles made her something to be feared. While fighting larger creatures, such as Amal'Jaa, she was regarded as being exceptional at taking down much stronger opponents with a grace that few could match and even fewer could immitate. This would later earn her the title of "Scarlet Dancer" among her allies, intended to remark her ability to dance around her enemies, cutting them repeatedly before laying the killing blow.

Matina would later utilize part of her nickname "Scarlet Dancer" in the naming of her sword technique which she would have fully developed at the age of 14. This sword technique would be called "Scarlet Wing" which focused on grace, agility, and utilizing the enemies force against them with a curved sword. She would later teach to Sabathius, who was better at other things, but still picked up on it quite well. Both being Midlander in stature, they all too often could be overpowered by their larger Highlander cohorts. "Scarlet Wing" allowed them to contend with them as well as the much larger Amal'jaa that they would oft fought against.

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The sword technique that Matina employs is known as the "Scarlet Wing", which utilizes cunning for feint strikes at the target to create openings, agility to be able to maneuver around the enemy to more vulnerable locations, and coordination to execute quick cutting motions with a curved sword at weak points of the body. It focuses on attacking joints, and weakening it's prey, before delivering a killing blow. Built for a smaller framed woman to fight much larger and stronger enemies (such as Amal'Jaa, or Highlander bandits), it's defensive maneuvers often utilize feints and parries that seek to draw in an attacker's strength to throw them off balance and open them up to attacks. Matina developed this technique and worked to perfect it from a very young age. This technique, though most effective with curved swords, is fully capable of being used with other bladed weapons.

Matina is quite literally a swordwoman, though she is capable of handling herself in hand-to-hand, and utilizing other weapons, she is less of a generalist than her brother. She is not as good at stalking prey, as she is a much more aggressive and straight forward combatant. She prefers to fight her enemies head-on, assessing and re-assessing as she fights them. She is poor with firearms, and even poorer with bows. Her throwing arm is on par with her brother, as they would routinely challenge eachother to knife throwing contests to pass the time while on ship voyages. But it is quite apparent what her focus is, and that is wielding swords and knives.

Matina has very little aetheric atunement to speak of, though she is capable of speeding herself up or empowering herself through light manipulations of aether.

Tendencies

Likes

• Spicy foods.
• Beaches and sunshine.
• Winning.
• Fighting strong opponents.

Dislikes

• Losing
• Bland foods.
• Dragons (With good reason, with much passion).
• Wearing a lot of armor or clothes.

Hobbies/Talents

• She can spin a knife on her fingers, and likes to do so.
• She can juggle.
• She likes to dance and sing, though more so the former.

Relationships

Family

Father - Godfrey Kath'Lani - Deceased
Mother - Katalina Kath'Lani (Maiden: Martehb) - Deceased
Brother - Sabathius Kath'Lani - Unknown

Uncle - Leifon Martehb - Alive - Limsa Lominsa -

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Leifon Martehb, is a seafaring Highlander who currently operates out of Limsa Lominsa. He is Ala Mhigan by heritage, but took to the seas for his adventure. He would met Godfrey while ensuring his wares were transported to their destination, and would later introduce him to his sister, Katalina. He knew they would become close following a journey to and from a client, delivering goods as they would never leave one another's proximity to discuss the world around them.

Leifon would play a role in helping Ala Mhigan refugees escape the clutches of the Garleans in the beginning of it's occupation. He helped in every attempt to keep them alive by smuggling supplies, weapons, and other goods to help them leave successfully to Southern Thanalan where they would take up residence. He routinely smuggled people, goods, and other items to and from to aid the Resistance, which included fighting against them on occasion. Increasingly so when Ul'dah had officially announced they would offer no assistance to the Ala Mhigans. He was incredibly against Katalina getting involved, despite her protest. It would be a good opportunity to keep her from harm, when Godfrey would come to him asking for her hand in marriage, requesting he allow him to take her to Coerthas to being a life in safety. He allowed it whole-heartedly and would help the two with Hands to help them build the foundations of the Hamlet they would eventually begin a life with two children in.

He was on his way to visit the day both Katalina and Godfrey were killed, appearing next to the husk of a building that was once their home with nothing but the cloak clasp he had given Katalina on their wedding day, and the sword of Godfrey he had forged in Ala Mhigo before it's falling. But the most important that was left to him, were their son and a daughter of equal likeness that he would soon raise as though his own.

Lover

At present, Matina has no lovers.

Friends

Unfortunately... Matina has no friends.

Enemies

At present, Matina has no enemies.

Combat Crushes

(This section, despite the use of 'crush' is reserved for people that Matina has observed in combat, and hopes to engage in combat at some point in time. This is not to imply attraction.)

Rumors

Common Rumors

• "Oh yeah, that bitch that keeps running around saying she's hot shit? She danced around three of my guys before slapping them on the back of the knees. Where does she get off?"

Moderate Rumors

• "Never seen her before, said she was good with the sword, had no idea what I was talking about when I talked about the Calamity. But she took two thugs down and got me where I needed to go."

Rare Rumors

• "I saw her come out of a cave in the desert, no idea how she got in there... it's rife with Amal'Jaa."

History/Timeline

Matina' Backstory:

Matina was born in the Coerthas Highlands alongside her twin brother, Sabathius. Their father, a Hyur Highlander, was an excellent swordsman and man-at-arms to a Knight of one of the great houses. Their mother, a Hyur Midlander, was a La Noscean woman with exceptional skills with the bow. At a young age, both Sabathius and Matina would be trained in both art forms. Matina, gravitating towards swordsmanship, and Sabathius towards the bow and arrow.

At the young age of 10, their parents would be killed by a dragon that ran rampant across the Highlands. It destroyed much of the area they lived in, and ultimately caused Matina and Sabathius to have to leave their home with the help of their uncle, Leifon. They left Coerthas to live on a ship off of the coast of La Noscea where their Uncle would care for them as if they were his own children.

For five years, Matina and Sabathius lived on their Uncle's ship assisting him in delivering supplies to the Ala Mhigan resistance. Matina would slowly perfect her abilities with the sword, and eventually develop a sword style of her own known as "Scarlet Wing". A product of her nickname as "Scarlet Dancer" amongst her cohorts, and among some of the Ala Mhigan's that inhabited Little Ala Mhigo that had watched her and Sabathius fight the Amal'Jaa. They would learn much from these people in the means of combat and survival, being able to sustain themselves in the desert for periods of time.

At sixteen, Matina would convince Sabathius to join her and several other Ala Mhigans in an operation to save a small group of children that were taken by the Amal'Jaa to be tempered. In typical fashion, she had not planned their attack, going straight into attacking them without any knowledge of the Amal'Jaa Priest that was wielding a 'blessed' aetherial scepter.

After the initial assault, Matina and Sabathius had isolated the Priest, engaging it in combat. The Priest proved to be much more than they could combat even with their combined skill and combat style. Matina having attacked the Priest head one, was first to fall and was at the mercy of the Amal'Jaa Priest. Acting immediately, Sabathius threw himself in front of the Priest's weapon, scarring him greatly. Defiantly, he would use Matina's sword, 'Splitting Song' to cut the Amal'Jaa Priest in kind only for them to destroy the very platform they fought upon causing most of it to plunge deeper into the earth.

Matina, weakened and unconscious, unable to prevent herself from falling into the depths, was held up by Sabathius until he could no longer sustain his grasp on her. She fell into darkness, where her fate would be unknown.

Other Exploits

-Twins of Blood-

Matina and Sabathius were born at the same time looking identical to one another at a young age.

When both of them were at the age of 10, they had left with their Uncle from Coerthas to later go to Limsa. They were separated only for a short term from their Uncle and left in the care of one of his pledged brothers. They were on their way to Southern Thanalan to meet again with their Uncle who had gone ahead to secure their routes to Limsa when their small caravan was attacked by a set of bandits.

The twins were taken as hostages and brought to the location the bandits had been working from. In the night, the two twins whom still had the fire of their loss in their veins, would escape their holdings and brandish the weapons the bandits had foolishly left for them to use upon them as they slept.

They later surprised the Ala Mhigans who had tracked the bandits from the ambush site, who would find them sitting huddled together near the fire for warmth. The bloodied weapons still in their hands as if ready should more bandits come. Covered in the gore of their captors, the group of Ala Mhigans would dub them the "Twins of Blood". Which they would continue to call them even upon their return many years later.

-The Ship of Scoundrels-

-The Scarlet Dancer-

Annotations

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