Tara Celica
 Tara Celica
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| Gender | Female |
| Race | Hyur |
| Clan | Midlander |
| Citizenship | Sharlayan |
| Server | Sargatanas, Balmung |
| Age | 18 |
| Height | 5 fulms, 2 ilms |
| Nameday | 23rd Sun of the Fourth Astral Moon |
| Guardian | Thaliak, the Scholar |
| Primary Discipline | Red Mage |
| Occupation | Adventurer |
Tara Celica is a young Hyuran girl who moved to Ul'dah with her caretaker, Rezia, five years ago in the hopes of learning how to use magic. After feeling unfulfilled by her work with thaumaturgy, Tara learned of astromancy during a trip to Rezia's home in Ishgard, only to feel unhappy with that magic as well. Recently, she learned of red magic and has instead decided to study that in hopes of using it to protect others. Suffering from deep social anxiety, she is quite uncomfortable around people she doesn't know, but given time and affection, shows herself to be sweet, energetic, and witty. Despite the bubbly nature she shows her friends in casual situations, Tara also has a bad habit of internalizing her negative emotions, having difficulty in telling others about her personal problems.
Appearance
Tara is a young girl with a fair complexion, and at five fulms and two ilms, she is rather short, and she is also rather thin, as she does not work out or train herself physically (although now she practices fencing), which, combined with her youthful look and small bust, occasionally makes others mistake her for someone a couple years younger. Tara's face has a luminous cast, and could certainly be considered pretty, but generally does not stand out much. She has medium-length blonde hair, most of which she wears down, although she ties some of it into a tight braid at the back of her head. Tara has a habit of fiddling with her hair, especially when bored. Her pale blue eyes have a distinct thoughtfulness in them, conveying her emotions sometimes more easily than Tara can with words. Being a Disciple of Magic, Tara can often be found wearing robes or other clothes typical of mages, with a preference for clothes that have either an elegant, ladylike or a cute, girlish aesthetic. In addition, she often prefers to wear white clothing over any other color, as she thinks it happens to look nice on her. Tara is not very comfortable with her body and prefers not to show very much skin. This is not out of embarrassment over her physique, as Tara is very happy with having a smaller chest and less "sexy" features. In fact, it's something of the opposite, as Tara is very uncomfortable with the idea of sex, and as such prefers to look more wholesome or modest so as to discourage the idea of her being sexually viable.
Personality
Initially, Tara is an incredibly shy girl, as she feels lonely and isolated and, despite wishing to make friends, is constantly worried about somehow bothering people, scared that her presence might be unwanted and she'll find herself being unaccepted. As a result, Tara typically does not speak to or approach strangers without the necessity to. Upon being spoken to by someone she is not comfortable with, she typically clams up, expressing herself in a quiet manner and avoiding eye contact, sometimes even breathing heavily due to her paralyzing fear. Her initial reservation and tendency to spend most of her time alone causes most to label her as the stoic intellectual and overlook her desire for companionship.
In order for Tara to become comfortable around someone, she needs reassurance that they actually want her around. By engaging her with a common interest or simply expressing that they care about her and would actually like to be her friend, a person can get Tara to be more confident around them very quickly. Once this happens, Tara shows herself to be a sweet, sensitive, and idealistic girl with a vibrant energy and emotionality and a sharp wit to match. She's also very thankful of her friends for spending time with her, and she likes to repay them in any way she can. She harbors a strong love for and interest in magic, and is quite intelligent and fond of reading, be it a spellbook or a storybook (she particularly likes more emotional storylines, or those about magical heroes), and also likes to write a bit herself, being a skilled storyteller and poet. When talking about things that pique her interest, Tara is very excitable, often freaking out in an endearingly geeky frenzy. She exhibits a similar reaction upon seeing things that are cute or pretty, such as small children or flowers. Tara is unaccustomed to praise, and is easily flustered by compliments from her peers. Tara also deeply enjoys helping people, be they friends who are having bad days or wounded people in need of healing. If she can put a smile on someone's face, Tara will feel deeply fulfilled. On top of that, she's actually rather skilled at cheering people up. Tara has a talent for understanding people and can typically offer wise, mature advice about dealing with personal issues, most likely as a result of reading plenty of deeply emotional stories in her free time. However, her inexperience can also cause her to be somewhat naive.
However, even with those who she is comfortable enough to speak plainly around, Tara finds it very difficult to confide in other people. She thinks that her emotional issues are not as important as those around her, hiding whenever she's in pain because she doesn't want to become a burden to other people. It's easy for her to help others with their problems, but remarkably difficult for her to ask for help with her own. Instead, she usually attempts to cope with everything by herself. What Tara seeks is someone who lets her know that they think of her as an equal, and that they care about her issues, since, having spent much of her life without any close friends, Tara has never had anyone to confide in. On the concept of love, Tara is also something of a hopeless romantic, and, having read many, many books in which main characters share romantic scenes, she has a somewhat idealized view of romance, and finds herself fantasizing about being swept off her feet rather often. She typically gets even more shy than usual around boys she finds handsome, and develops small crushes easily. However, Tara is mature enough to know that they're silly little crushes rather than legitimate feelings for someone, and as such never acts on them. Put simply, she lusts easily, but loves seriously. As she's grown older, she's also started questioning whether her lack of interest in sex is something that's alright for her to have.
While in battle or other such urgent situations, Tara is very serious, devoting all her focus and effort to the task at hand. Also, she is able to use her intelligence to her advantage quite well, coming up with strong plans and solutions to problems, and being good at solving puzzles or riddles under pressure. Tara acts on a clearly defined set of morals and principles, and expresses disdain for those who do evil things. As such, she will not hesitate to act in a situation where she feels she needs to stop something bad from happening. She believes that to do good is an obligation, and that she should put doing good first.
History
Tara was born in the old Sharlayan colony, the ruins of which lie in the Dravanian Hinterlands, three years prior to the exodus that occurred as a reaction to Garlemald's conquering of Ala Mhigo. Tara hails from a long line of powerful mages on her dad's side of the family. However, Tara's parents, Nathan and Daphne Celica, both had poor experiences with magic in their own lives, with Nathan constantly being ridiculed for his lack of talent by his family members, and Daphne's parents having used her as a test subject for many of their painful aetherial experiments. They had trouble conceiving a child for several years, but upon doing so, were overjoyed. However, they wanted to raise their daughter in a place far away from magic, and used the exodus as a convenient opportunity to sneak the young girl away from Sharlayan and pursue another lifestyle. As Nathan's family was rather affluent due to their talent and status as mages, the two of them left the Sharlayan colony with a fair amount of gil and used the money to buy a vineyard on a small La Noscean island that was a short ferry ride from Limsa Lominsa and begin a business that shipped certain types of plants to places like Wineport or the Alchemists' Guild. This business worked out remarkably well, allowing them to increase their fortune even more. Only one thing remained out of place: their daughter.
Unfortunately for the couple, Tara found herself exposed to magic through reading and hearing about it from other kids living on that small La Noscean island, and she developed a firm, unshakable interest in the subject. They tried their hardest to discourage such behavior in the girl, who was normally rather well-behaved, but found that despite their best efforts, they could not curb her desire to learn more about this subject which fascinated her so. She came to idolize the heroes in her storybooks who used powerful magic to save and assist others, and longed to learn to use such arts herself. She even began practicing some basic conjury spells when she was alone, using whatever spellbooks she could sneak into her room as guidance, and found that using magic came easily to her. Her parents learned of this and became increasingly frustrated with their attempts to discipline their child, scaling up the intensity of their scolding. Their relationship unfortunately spiraled into abuse, as the fear that their daughter might end up like the people who gave them such awful childhoods overrode their rationality. At first, being too young to realize it, Tara did not know that her parents' incredibly harsh punishments, such as hitting or starving her when she tried to learn more about magic, were uncommon and cruel, but soon found out that her fellow schoolmates were not treated as such by their own parents. Rumors of a poorly behaved young girl began to pervade the island, and soon Tara found herself being avoided by other children who had heard from their parents that she was a bad girl who would never listen to her parents. As she realized how horrible her life had become, Tara began sinking into a depression that became deeper and deeper as the years grew on.
This changed, however, when Tara was thirteen years old, a few months prior to the Calamity. Finally having had enough of her parents' treatment of her, Tara took some money and food, put them in a bag, and ran away. She went straight to the ferry, rode it to Limsa, ran out into the meadows of La Noscea, and tried as hard as she could to find somewhere better to live and attend school. Unfortunately, this wasn't how things turned out. Tara was quickly located by the authorities and was returned to her parents, where their abusive habits came to light. After Tara's relatives in the Old World learned about this, in their outrage they tried to seize custody of her. However, when Nathan and Daphne pointed out their reasons for running from their own families in the first place, a third solution was established. Neither party would have custody of Tara. Rather, she would be sent to live with a third-party guardian who both groups felt that Tara would be safe with. This came in the form of Rezia Lune, a native to Ishgard who had left the cloistered city-state to travel to Ul'dah for a business opportunity with the Ashcrown Consortium and had become friends with Tara's mother. Rezia did not possess much magical talent at all, making her ideal for Tara's parents, and, after her Sharlayan relatives did an extensive background check on her, they were sure of her ability to care for Tara lovingly, particularly because Rezia herself had wanted to have a child, but was tragically infertile. They thought that allowing her to care for Tara would be filling a need she couldn't establish herself. And so, Tara left her little La Noscean island and went to live with Rezia in Ul'dah.
Upon her arrival in Ul'dah, which was unfortunately postponed for some time by the Calamity, Tara became immediately overjoyed by the presence of the Thaumaturges' Guild and seeked entry, despite her tender age. Now that she was free of the influences of her parents, she was able to finally pursue the practice of magic, and, being a more reasonable authority figure, Rezia allowed her to do so. While the guild was originally skeptical about letting a girl of only thirteen years practice thaumaturgy, Rezia spoke on her behalf and attested to Tara's budding maturity for a girl her age. Thus, Tara was able to register at the Adventurers' Guild and begin practicing magic. She was overjoyed! She could finally achieve her dreams of being a mage, and in time, she showed that indeed was quite skilled! The Ossuary was even filled with books she could read! However, while she originally enjoyed using thaumaturgy, she found that she didn't so much enjoy its association with destruction and death and questioned whether or not she really wanted to be associated with it. Also, while she continued her schooling, she realized that she didn't really know how to talk to kids her age. It seemed to Tara that nothing had really changed for her. She could practice magic now, but ultimately felt unfulfilled practicing this particular sect of magic, and while she had found a loving parental figure, she still had no friends to confide in. Once again, Tara began to slip into a depression.
However, after a few years, Rezia asked Tara if she'd like to accompany her back to her home in Ishgard for a small visit. While she was there, Tara stumbled across a woman named Leveva entering the Athenaeum Astrologicum and saw her performing astromancy. Upon witnessing this form of magic, Tara felt herself be overcome with nostalgia, seeing how this kind of magic could help others in a manner similar to the storybook heroes Tara idolized. After fretting over her social anxiety with Rezia for a few days, Tara finally worked up the courage to ask Leveva for lessons, to which Leveva agreed. Tara became even more interested upon learning that the form of astrology she practiced was native to Sharlayan, Tara's homeland. Unfortunately, even this new discipline failed to satisfy her, specifically due to the fact that the practice of astromancy was deeply rooted in the concept of fate, a concept which Tara, who would rather believe in her power to make her own destiny, intensely dislikes. She also grew frustrated with being a healer, having to patch up people's wounds instead of being able to prevent others from being hurt in the first place.
The answer to her plight would then come to her in the deserts of Southern Thanalan, where she would go to assist some refugees of Little Ala Mhigo who had come under attack from an unusually large and powerful sandworm. Despite her best efforts Tara was unable to prevent casualties or protect the refugees - that achievement instead went to a young red mage who appeared on the scene without warning and destroyed the monster, saving Tara and the surviving refugees. Feeling inspired by the man's heroism and intrigued by the unfamiliar form of magic he had used, Tara inquired about his powers and found herself introduced to his teacher, X'ruhn Tia, who graciously allowed Tara to train under him as he did many others. She took to the magic like a fish to water, and her knowledge of the red mages' history - particularly its peaceful nature as a fusion of black and white magic after the Calamity caused by the War of the Magi - allowed her to finally connect with the goals and interests of some school of magic, a benefit neither thaumaturgy nor astromancy had provided her. While learning to use a rapier did not take especially long since her parents had made her take fencing lessons in her youth, trying to give her some way to protect herself in lieu of magic, she struggled to refine her swordplay due to her meager strength. She eventually came to overcome this obstacle by improving her skill rather than her strength, and by enchanting her rapier like the other red mages to increase her striking power.
Now, Tara is more confident in her abilities to protect others as a result of learning to fight as a red mage. However, that did not solve the problem of Tara's social anxiety. Despite her newfound vigor in the practice of red magery, she is, currently, relatively unknown as a result of rarely associating with anyone, and does not get many big adventuring jobs, and still has nobody she could call a friend. In the present, Tara passes her days by finishing her schooling, continuing her practice of red magery, and spending her free time reading alone in a library, the Ossuary, or her own room in the house Rezia bought for them in The Goblet, wishing that somehow, some way, she could find a way to overcome her shyness and make a few friends.
Abilities
Tara possesses a high amount of skill in using magic. Magic simply comes naturally to her, most likely due to her intelligence and family history of strong mages. These days, Tara is most often found using the red mages' fusion of black and white magic, which has become her favorite type of magic. Because of this, Tara is capable of using both offensive and restorative magic proficiently. Her intelligence is another asset of hers in battle, making it less difficult to trick or outsmart opponents, as well as allowing her to come up with solutions to dangerous problems quickly. Also, since she practiced thaumaturgy and astromancy for several years, she is also rather skilled in that form of magic, but it isn't as often you'll find her using it, and she knows some basic conjury spells, such as Protect, from practicing them as a young girl.
In terms of physical strength, however, Tara doesn't have much going for her. Her upper body and torso are rather thin and weak, making it incredibly difficult for her to lift heavy things or struggle physically against a foe. Tara is also very light due to her small size, which makes it remarkably easy for opponents to grab or restrain her. This does make Tara rather quick, however, and she has decent reflexes, meaning that so long as she can continue to dodge or outrun attacks, she should be alright. She's also learned to fight with a rapier regardless of her lack of strength, using her wits, her dexterity, and red magic to enchant her blade to make up for the deficiency. In addition, she is very strong-willed and determined, meaning that she gives her all in every fight, and will usually try to fight even if wounded rather than surrender.
Outside of battle, Tara has taken up a few hobbies, such as weaving, goldsmithing, and alchemy. She was surprised to learn that she wasn't bad at sewing, and typically repairs her own clothes when they're damaged, and she occasionally enjoys making potions and other alchemical substances as part of her constant study of magic. She is not quite as skilled at goldsmithing, but is still able to make repairs to her weapons if necessary. In addition, since her parents tried to keep her occupied as a child to keep her from pursuing magic, she has acquired a few artistic talents, such as singing, acting, and playing the piano.
Relationships
Non-Player Characters
Nathan and Daphne Celica: Tara's parents, with whom she has a very difficult relationship. Tara suffered a history of abuse from her parents, who's poor experiences with mages in the past caused them to discipline Tara more harshly than should have been acceptable. Tara understands that they acted irrationally because of their own fears, as well as their somewhat understandable desire to "protect" her from making bad choices. Tara sometimes wonders if she made the right choice by running away, feeling guilty for leaving them behind when all they were trying to do was protect her, but feels that as long as they're unwilling to accept her as she is, she cannot return to them.
Rezia Lune: Tara's current legal guardian. In her own past, Rezia had fallen in love and gotten married to a man who had shared dreams of starting a family with her. Upon learning that Rezia was, unfortunately, infertile, a strain was placed on their relationship that ended in her husband divorcing her. This gave Rezia mixed feelings about taking care of Tara at first, as she wondered if she would hate the fact that Tara wasn't her own daughter. However, she ended up sympathizing with the girl, who was afraid of getting into another poor parental situation, and began to warm up to her. Nowadays, Rezia and Tara treat each other very lovingly, as though they were actual family, and the two of them try their best to make one another happy.
Player characters
Coming soon~!
Rumors
Non-Player Characters
Common:
- "A blonde midlander? Yeah, maybe I've seen her around here before. Some girl in white likes to sit at a desk read the books. She doesn't ever talk to anybody, though. Doesn't even look at them, usually." -Studious Thaumaturge
- "TThere used to be some foreigner girl who would come by the Astrologicum. She seemed interested in that weird Sharlayan astrology. What's somebody like that even doing in Ishgard? She doesn't come around anymore, so maybe she finally learned her place." -Judgmental Ishgardian
- "That little hyuran girl? The one who's always got her nose in some book or another? Yeah, I've seen her around, but I can't think what you'd want with her." -Absent-minded Ul'dahn
- "Just some girl who wanted thread to repair her clothes with. She started fixing it herself right here in the Weavers' guild, and she wasn't half bad." -Solitary Weaver
Uncommon:
- "Hmm, yeah, I know someone like that. Seems like a painfully shy girl. She has a lot of trouble speaking to people normally, but she's pretty good at handling whatever small jobs she gets." -Watchful Adventurer
- "It's a shame that she doesn't seem to make much of an impression on people. She just spends all her time alone, usually reading, so most people hardly even remember seeing her. I wonder if that's lonely?" -Curious Mage
- "I've actually stumbled upon that girl a few times. She always seems so stoic, but once I caught her sitting somewhere with a big smile, and another time with a sad look. Both times she ended up blushing and leaving after I saw her. What's going on with her?" -Wandering Civilian
- "There's this young hyuran mage with a sword who comes here, with blonde hair and blue eyes, and she always asks to take a whole stack of big books with her, and then she comes back in a few days saying she already finished them all! Does she just spend all her time reading?" -Awestruck Bookkeeper
Rare:
- "One of my colleagues took that girl in a few years ago. Apparently, she's a sweet girl, but very shy, and the Elezen woman taking care of her says that she gets lonely a lot. Sometimes she sees the girl crying all by herself in her room, and it really concerns her." -Ashcrown Worker
- "She started young, she did. She was only thirteen when she started dabbling in thaumaturgy, and she seemed pretty elated. Guess she had a rough life before moving here. Doesn't seem like it panned out, though. I still see her around the Ossuary, but hardly ever practicing or carrying a thaumarturge's staff. She just reads and keeps to herself, like she always has." -Mature Thaumaturge
- "I'll never regret taking her in. She's like the daughter I never had, and she's such a nice girl, always wanting to be of help to people, and she's got a lot of heart. I worry about her sometimes, though. She gets so lonely and sad, and I think it affects her self-esteem. I wish I could help her, but all I can do is hope that someday soon, she's able to learn that she's better than she thinks she is, and that anyone would be lucky to have her as a friend." -Rezia Lune
Player Characters
Feel free to submit your own if you'd like!
