Rinh Panipahr

Rinh Panipahr
Gender	Female
Race	Miqo'te
Clan	Keeper of the Moon
Citizenship	Limsa Lominsa
Age	26
Height	4 fulms, 10 ilms
Weight	98 ponze
Profession	Maelstrom Officer
Patron Deity	Nymeia, the Spinner
Server	Balmung

Captain Rinh Panipahr is a Keeper of the Moon refugee who fled the Calamity with her newborn son, eventually building a new life for herself as a respectable officer of the Maelstrom in Limsa Lominsa. She is intelligent, dedicated, fiercely protective, and extremely badly socialized.

She represents Limsa Lominsa's interests abroad when the Maelstrom is need of an uncompromising negotiator, or as a bodyguard when the Maelstrom is need of a compromising negotiator. As such, she is often seen in the furthest corners of Eorzea, sweating in her heavy officer's overcoat.

Appearance

Rinh is short, slight, and watchful. She has short black hair, bright golden eyes, and a face speckled with freckles. Although she is now generally well-groomed, well-dressed, and carefully made up, her body is criss-crossed with scars, including a particularly visible one across the bridge of her nose.

History

Rinh was born to a small Keeper band living on the fringes of the Black Shroud, where the forest began to fade away into scrublands. The game was leaner and harder to come by, but it was well beyond the reach of the Wood Wailers.

For the first eighteen years of her life, she lived a typical Keeper of the Moon girl's life. Her mother, Vash Panipahr, matriarch of the family, taught her how to shoot a bow, how to survive in the wilderness, how to stalk game and hunt it. Her aunt, Sizha Panipahr, a chirurgeon, forest-witch, midwife, and family wise-woman, saw to it that in spite of the Panipahrs' isolation, Rinh still knew about the larger world they lived in-- the peoples of Eorzea, its great works of literature and histories, the nature of aether, the geography of far-off lands that Rinh only visited in her dreams. Her father visited from time to time. Later, he visited infrequently. One day, he stopped coming entirely; he'd wandered farther west, in search of thicker woods and easier hunting. Still, life was mostly good-- if game was sparse, it was still more than sufficient to feed the Panipahrs and the handful of other families who followed them.

Rinh's mother, Vash Panipahr

Everything changed in Rinh's eighteenth year.

After a night spent with a handsome young man around her age who'd wandered through the Panipahr hunting grounds, Rinh discovered she was expecting a child. Her sisters congratulated her, her mother and aunt fretted over her, and the family prepared to welcome its newest member. Rinh stayed up every night, wondering what her life would be like, wondering what the future held for her on the brink of something so life-altering.

And, in the sky, Dalamud loomed ever-larger.

Rinh'a Panipahr was born the day of the Battle of Carteneau Flats as Bahamut's rage rained down, shattering the very earth itself. He and his young mother were the only survivors of their band.

Rinh went south, following a band of Immortal Flames making their way back to Ul'dah who took pity on the bedraggled Miqo'te teenager and the infant bundled in her arms. Rinh knew from her aunt's books that Ul'dah could be a harsh, uncaring place, where gil meant everything and it was terribly easy for ordinary people to slip through the cracks. But she also knew that everyone she knew was dead, and that the forest that had sustained them for generations little more than ash and charcoal, unable to feed even a single Miqo'te and her child.

She languished in the refugee camps of Thanalan for months before her agility and endurance caught the eye of a member of the Gladiator's Guild. Not seeing any better way to provide for her small family-- which she was, she figured, the matriarch of by default-- Rinh learned to fight with sword and shield, and took the blood sands. She fought fiercely and tenaciously, and even achieved some small amount of fame-- she had little choice, because it was literally what put food on the table.

She despised every moment of it, and the instant she'd saved up enough gil, she took Rinh'a down to Vesper Bay, took the first ship she could find out of Thanalan, and came to Limsa Lominsa. She presented herself to the Maelstrom, and offered them her sword and her bow. If she had to fight, she'd rather fight to protect-- her family, her adopted home, and all of Eorzea.

And then... life got better.

Rinh'a is six years old now-- a bright, precocious child too young to even remember a time when his home wasn't safe and his belly wasn't full. Rinh climbed up the ranks of the Maelstrom, eventually being commissioned as a Lieutenant, and put to work keeping the often fractious and chaotic Eorzean Alliance together and working in Limsa's favor. And, best of all, she was reunited with her half-brother S'vash Tia, who had left the Shroud with his Seeker of the Sun father when Rinh as a very small child.

It wasn't the life she'd been brought up to lead. But it was a life, which was more than she'd dared hoped for when things were at their worst.

She reads books, she shelters the vulnerable behind her shield, watches her son grow and thrive, and eats dinner at the Bismarck every week. Sometimes she sits in the company of a pretty girl or boy. Sometimes, though, she sits alone, sipping wine, watching the ships come and go as the sun dips below the horizon.

Things certainly could have turned out worse.

Recent Events

Rinh was recently transferred to Maelstrom's 1st Squadron, 9th Levy. She was initially mainly concerned with logistics and war preparation, but she was dispatched to Castrum Oriens when Baelsar's Wall fell and open war with the Empire began, and took part in joint-Alliance actions against the Garlean Empire in Gyr Abania.

She served in Operation: Rhalgr’s Beacon with distinction, being promoted to brevet captain, but pushed herself well past her limits in doing so. She was badly wounded in street fighting in the city of Ala Mhigo. Due to her personal bravery and unyielding commitment to the liberation of Ala Mhigo, she was promoted to full captain and awarded the Ruby Anchor by her Alliance superiors.

Personality

At first glance, Rinh cuts a slightly imposing figure. At social gatherings, she sits impassively, quietly, guardedly watching her surroundings, holding her counsel.

Occasionally, in her capacity as an officer of the Maelstrom, she leverages this reputation to good effect. Whether it's in the forests of the Shroud, the blood sands of Ul'dah, or the stateroom of a pirate baron whose loyalty to his nation is wavering, Rinh knows the advantages of seeming intimidating.

Most of the time, though, it's actually just that she's not very good with crowds. Would you be if you'd spent the first eighteen years of your life living in a tiny band in the middle of an unsettled forest? Rinh tries her best. It's just sometimes all a bit much for her.

She's fiercely loyal and devoted to her ideals, the adopted home that gave her refuge and succor, and her family, but her protective streak extends well beyond them to the peoples of Eorzea at large. She's very cognizant of the fact that, for all the traumas she'd endured, she'd been given a chance to land on her feet and rebuild her life-- a chance many never get. She'd fight to the last breath to save everyone she can in this shattered, broken, and so often cruel world.

Thanks to her aunt, she was highly educated and well-read even when she was still living as a hunter in a traditional Keeper of the Moon family. Now that she's living in a thriving trade center, with all the learning in Eorzea at her fingertips, she reads voraciously, trying to keep a finger on the pulse of Eorzean culture, politics, and scholarship. Rinh'a is growing up in a house with tall bookshelves lining the walls, and a mother who always has parchment close at hand and inkstains on her fingers.

Affiliations and Known Associates

Family

S'vash Tia is her half-brother. Rinh'a Panipahr is her young son.

The rest of her family did not survive the Calamity.

Characteristics

• Nicknames:
• Age: 26
  • Nameday: 1st Sun of the 3rd Astral Moon
• Gender: ♀
  • Sexuality: Bisexual
  • Marital Status: Married to Jack Crooktail
• Alignment:
• Height: 4 fulms, 10 ilms
• Weight: 98 ponze
• Body: Slight
• Hair: Black
• Eyes: Golden
• Skin: Dark
• Clothing: Generally, a Maelstrom Officer's uniform. Ornate dresses with high hemlines when out and about off-duty. Mom jeans at home.

Likes

• The Bismarck
• Reading
• Writing long, romantic letters
• Dressing up
• Helping refugees
• Wine

Dislikes

• Monetarists
• The Garlean Empire
• King Poach
• Wood-wailers (although, as an Eorzean Alliance officer in good standing, she's trying to get over that one)
• The weather in Ul'dah

Areas of Expertise

• Martial: Her time as a gladiator taught her to fight with sword and shield, which she still relies on in most circumstances. She has kept up the archery skills she'd learned from her mother, though, and remains adept at the traditional shortbows favored by Keepers of the Moon. Further information on Rinh's fighting style.
• Crafting: Basic nautical skills from her Maelstrom training, including repairing sails or rigging. Pretty good at tying knots.
• Other: History. International law. Military logistics. Looking intimidating when she's not even five fulms tall. Figuring out what on Eorzea an excitable six year old wants.

Other Notes

Religion

Like most traditional Keepers of the Moon, Rinh Panipahr was brought up venerating Memphina. After emerging from the Calamity, however, Rinh adopted Nymeia as her patron, in gratitude for a fate in which her son's future was still woven.

Rumours

The following rumours can be heard about Rinh. (If your character has an opinion about her, feel free to add it here.)

Feel free to know any of these-- even the rare ones if you can think of some sort of IC reason you'd have heard them. No OOC permission needed!

Common rumours

• "She seems... quiet. Taciturn sort, I suppose. Not much for smalltalk, but she always tips well." -Woebegone Waitress (Limsa Lominsa)
• "Conscientious. Reliable in a way commissioned officers often aren't. Knows when to go easy on the lads and lasses so they'll give it their all when she finally pushes 'em hard." -Storm Sergeant (Limsa Lominsa)
• "Her kid's cute, but he keeps on scribbling all over my nice parchment. Rinh just says he's 'precocious'." -Stressed Scholar (Limsa Lominsa)

Uncommon rumours

• "I've seen Lieutenant Panipahr come through a few times on Maelstrom business, or else mindin' somebody else on Maelstrom business. Important diplomatic work in both cases. Sat stiff as a board the whole time, barely said a word except when she needed to, and between that an the scars she's got she was pretty frightening. Turns out she's just shy, though, the poor girl." -Kindly Culinarian
• "Always wondered what happened to Rinh-- hadn't seen her on the blood sands in years and years. Always figured she just... you know, died. When she stepped off the airship in a red Maelstrom overcoat with a lieutenant's badge pinned to her chest, it was like seeing a bloody ghost. Thought it might be some other Rinh Panipahr, 'til I saw that scar across that pretty nose of her. I'd recognize that scar anywhere. Saw the fight where she got it, even." -Spooked Spectator
• "Oh, she doesn't talk about it much, but it's no great secret-- Calamity damn near wiped out all her people. Mind what you say around her. You wouldn't want to touch a nerve." -Meddling Merchant

Rare rumours

• "Rinh'a's father is probably still out there somewhere; he could've been long gone by the time the Calamity hit the Twelveswood. Has he looked for his child? Has Rinh looked for him? You don't know much about Keepers of the Moon, do you?"
• "I'm fairly certain she spent the night with some important Ishgardian dignitary after that diplomatic dinner."
• "I've no idea when she sleeps, to be honest. Sometimes she shows up at my café in the middle of the night, orders a cup of tea, and then just stares into space for hours on end. Don't get it. Don't get her."

Known Haunts

You might have run into or otherwise know Rinh from:

• The Maelstrom. Her duties take her all over-- you might have seen her on business nearly anywhere in Eorzea.
• Keeper communities in the Black Shroud before the Calamity
• Thanalan refugee camps in the immediate aftermath of the calamity
• Ul'dah gladiator fights around ~4-5 years ago. She was rather good.

References

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