Vellen Thematos

Vellen Thematos
Gender	Male
Race	Hyur
Clan	Midlander
Citizenship	Sharlayan
Age	28
Height	5' 10"
Profession	Scholar
Server	Balmung

Appearance

Vellen does not appear to have many distinguishing physical characteristics about him, except for the scar going across his left eye. He tends to wear simple clothing which doesn't restrict his movement or hinder him in his duties. He is slightly tan with black hair and blue eyes. He tends to have a smile on his face and greets everyone warmly.

Biography

Origins
Vellen was born and raised in Sharlayan. Raised by his parents, Sophia and Tarian Thematos. His mother was a professor at the Studium teaching Ancient History and Advanced Thaumaturgy. His father was an alchemist and an archaeologist who frequently went on trips to uncover ancient ruins around Eorzea, his particular specialty was in Nymian artifacts. Ever since Vellen learned to read he would grab whatever book he could. His thirst for knowledge was unquenchable and he would constantly beg his parents for more reading material. He loved hearing the stories his father would bring back from his excavations and he would even try to make sense of his mother's lecture notes whenever she wasn't looking. Vellen began to study and learn arcanima at a local arcanist guild a few years before he was accepted into the Studium. His eagerness was matched by his natural talent at arcanima and he would follow around the other arcanists in order to gain as much as he could from them. This sometimes led him to get in trouble with some of the arcanists but they never viewed his habits as anything more than a nuisance. One man in particular took him under his wing, the man's name was Samael Thalik. Samael allowed Vellen to accompany him and even tutored him on multiple occasions, impressed with his hard working mentality. When Vellen turned 16 his parents allowed him to apply to the Studium and he was accepted. Vellen had always been interested in the healing arts but didn't have a taste for conjury. Therefore he focused on both the chirurgeon sciences and his arcanima studies. Because of his dual studies it took him longer to graduate from the Studium than normal but he was perfectly fine with that. After graduating from the Studium, Vellen joined his father in his work as both the group chirurgeon and arcanima researcher for their archaeological team.

An Unlikely Crystal Vellen's 5th excavation with his father started out like any of the others. They were digging in a Nymian ruin which was partially underground. The team had just recently set up and had began the painstaking process of gently removing the dirt and debris which had fallen in a collapsed room. As Vellen was focusing on clearing a rather unique piece of pottery away from the rest of the group the building began to shake. Confused for a second on what was going on he heard his comrades yell "EARTHQUAKE!!". Vellen tried to escape the room, but it was too late. The ceiling came crashing down and the floor below him caved in. He awoke sometime later dazed and confused but somehow mostly unscathed, only his left arm hurt. Being in the pitch black Vellen used arcanima in order to light the area around him and quickly searched for his satchel. He found it not far from him and was relieved to find the contents left intact. Vellen had enough food and water to last for 2 days as each archaeologist is instructed to bring supplies just in case an emergency occurs. Gathering his wits about him he looked around to see exactly where he was. The room he was in was oddly preserved, except for the now caved in ceiling near him. He looked to see if he could get back up from where he fell but it was completely sealed off. Realizing he was stuck he shouted to see if anybody could hear him, but his efforts were fruitless. Instead of just sitting there and waiting for something to happen Vellen decided to explore the chamber he found himself trapped him. Quickly scanning the area for something interesting he discovered there was a small chest in the corner near a bed. Approaching carefully not sure what to expect he examined the chest to see if there were any obvious signs of potential traps. Knowing he didn't have the expertise some of his comrades did he decided to find something to gently prod the chest with. Looking around he found a slender piece of debris and slowly poked the chest...Nothing happened. He pocked it harder...still nothing happened. Feeling a bit like an idiot for poking a chest with what was essentially a stick he then tried to lift the top of the chest with the debris. Having absolutely no leverage or grip he was unable to lift the top of the chest. Vellen sighed and decided to look around the rest of the room. As his light shined through the room he caught a gleam of something shining on a bookshelf filled with ancients tomes. Knowing better than to disturb the tomes for the sake of damaging them he instead looked to see what was gleaming. Suddenly Vellen began coughing. "Damn", he thought, "The air must not be entirely suitable for breathing". He quickly looked back at the shining object and identified it as a crystal. He grabbed a cloth out of his satchel and carefully picked it up, wrapped it in the cloth, and put it in his bag before going to rest against a wall in order to slow his breathing. As he sat there he hoped the others were not hurt after the earthquake. "How fortunate to find such an intact room, hopefully I actually live long enough to find out more about it" he thought to himself. After some time had passed he began to feel dizzy and slipped in and out of consciousness. When next he woke he was at the campsite covered in bandages and could barely move. "What...what happened?" Vellen groaned out in pain. "An aftershock hit and opened up the room you were presumably trapped in, we found you half buried in debris." His father said, "you are lucky to be alive". Vellen snapped up and quickly cried out in pain forgetting he was injured. "The books, were you able to recover the books?!", He shouted. His father sighed and told him that most of the room was buried but to not fret as digging up buried artifacts is what archaeologists do. "Though unfortunately I doubt any books you may have found would be intact after a collapse like that", his father stated. "I did find one thing father, I put it in my satchel", Vellen replied. "Oh?", his father inquired before grabbing Vellen's satchel to look through it. His father's eyes widened as he took out and uncovered the crystal. "This...this is a soul crystal!", His father quietly exclaimed. "A soul crystal in Nymian ruins...could it be?", His father began musing out loud. "Don't say a word of this find to anyone!", His father instructed as he covered the soul crystal and put it back into Vellen's satchel. "We will talk more about this when we get home, you will be going back early because of your injuries and I will accompany you", he said. "But father, I can just hea...", Vellen tried to say before his father shushed him, "None of that! We are going home!".

Scholarly Pursuits When Vellen and his father arrived home his father explained to his mother what happened. She was in agreement with his choice and reinforced that Vellen should not tell anybody of this crystal. Vellen asked why but they simple said to listen for now and they will explain when they found out more about it. His father, being an archaeologist who specialized in Nymian artifacts, knew if Sophia checked out books for him at the Studium library that it wouldn't draw attention. Once Sophia got the books and brought them home his father poured through them and finally found what he was looking for. "Aha! I knew it!" He exclaimed. "This is indeed a Nymian scholar soul crystal. " He said quietly, "Unfortunately there is almost no information about them but there is no mistaking it". He opened a book which had a drawing which looked very similar to the crystal. "And by almost no information about it this is basically all we have" he said with a sigh. "Father, why do we have to keep this a secret" Vellen asked. "Because this is one of the rarest soul crystals in the world. I know you and you want to keep it don't you?" His father asked. "Well...yeah of course I do! It is am amazing opportunity!" Vellen said excitedly. "That is exactly why we have to keep it a secret, money and prestige can't buy these and because of that there are those who would try to take it despite whether or not they can use it." said his father, "If you can learn to use this in secret then you can keep it and we can more than likely go public with it, but if you can't we will donate it to the Studium". Vellen agreed and got to work almost immediately in researching soul crystals to get ideas on how to even start. His father told the archaeology team that he was a bit shaken after the close encounter and would come back after an extended rest. Vellen was tireless in his research and testing of the soul crystal. Finally after 6 months of failed experiments and dead ends he was able to get the crystal to respond to his attempts at using it. The number of successes he had increased after his initial success with the soul crystal, though not by much. It took another 6 months before he was able to summon a faerie. When he summoned the faerie he practically fell out of his chair in excitement with this beautiful little creature flying in front of him with a smile on her face. "You...you're a faerie!" Vellen exclaimed in excitement. "I am master, and you're a a hyur!" she giggled back. "Uh..uhm p..please c..call me Vellen!" he stuttered out in excitement. "Ok, Vellen", she smiled, "call me Fiera". Regaining some of his composure Vellen cleared his throat and said "It is a pleasure to meet you Fiera! I am looking forward to working with you in the future". "You're funny and nice Vellen", the faerie giggled again. Fiera proved to be a wealth of knowledge in terms of researching and performing scholar abilities, though she didn't seem to remember everything. He was able to initially gain from her that she could help him with healing and aiding allies in various ways. As it had been a year since he found the crystal he figured it was a long enough absence from the archaeological team and joined his father during his next dig. For the next 2 years he would skip every other excavation and stay home in order to continue to study, research, and practice using the soul crystal. In time he was able to reliably use the crystal but knew he still had a great deal more to learn if he was ever going to master the crystal.

The Nefarious Event Vellen and his parents decided it would be best to still keep the soul crystal a secret and to only practice it in private and never have the faerie out in public. Everything was going fine and he was able to continue his research and the development of his skills as a Scholar until one fateful excavation. The team was doing an excavation in Northern Thanalan and on that day it was particularly foggy and overcast reducing visible range by a great deal. Vellen was uncovering a segment of an old tablet with an origin not yet discovered. Vellen suddenly felt the hairs raise on his neck and he immediately stood up and looked around. Out from the fog came a figure in a black cloak which covered their face. "Give me the stone, boy", the figure demanded. "Who are you?", Vellen asked with suspicion of the figure, a feeling mostly alien to him. "I won't ask again", the figure simply stated. Before Vellen could respond again the figure began channeling some sort of magic. Vellen barely had time to put up a barrier before a surge of fire shot forth from the figure and crashed into the shield, shattering it and knocking Vellen back. The sound of the explosion rung out and Vellen began to hear the other members screaming in panic "WHAT'S GOING ON?!". "HELP! I AM BEING ATTA" Vellen tried to shout before another surge of fire exploded near him sending him tumbling away. Vellen tried to scream again but no sound came out. Not knowing which direction was which he only knew he had to run. When he found a large rock he hid behind it and put up another barrier and tried to calm his mind enough to think of a plan. Too late. The rock exploded in front of him sending him flying back, he was expecting to hit the ground at any moment but he didn't...he kept falling. He realized he must have fallen off a ravine. One of the rocks from the explosion smashed through his barrier into his head. As he blacked out he could only think "Is this...how I die?".

The Lost Scholar
It was a cold morning in the first umbral moon when Vellen awoke in a strange place with beds lining the walls. No sooner had he began to stir did a man approach him “Ah good, you are awake. How are you feeling?” Vellen didn’t respond to the man as his mind was fuzzy and he couldn’t remember anything. The man sensing this asked him, “Do you know where you are?” Vellen shook his head quietly with a quizzical look on his face. “Do you know your name?”, the man asked. Vellen hesitated for a moment before slowly squeaking out, “Vellen”, and then putting his hand on his throat curiously. “Yes that can happen when you haven’t spoken for a little while, the cold probably doesn’t help either”, The man said thinking Vellen was surprised at his squeaking. Vellen shook his head at the man, “No…the vibrations in my throat feel funny”, The man looked at Vellen not sure what to say or think. Vellen began to get out of the bed before the man stopped him “Woah now you just woke up, you need to take your time! You’ve been here for a week”, Vellen paused a moment before asking, “Been where?”, "Hmm…that’s right it seems you’ve lost your memory”, The man replied, “you are in Camp Drybone”.

Having lost his memory, the church he was in, which belonged to Saint Adama Landama, made efforts to restore his memory, but nothing worked. Despite not knowing his past Vellen knew an unusual amount of information about obscure topics which most should not know. On top of this unusual ability of recollection within the belongings that were found with him was a unique purple crystal with inscriptions on it. When Vellen grabbed the soul crystal from his bag a faerie bolted out from the bag, apparently hiding within its contents, and immediately hugged Vellen's arm. Somehow Vellen knew the faerie's name, Fiera. "Fiera...your name is Fiera...", Vellen spoke curiously. A distraught look came over the faerie's face as she opened her mouth to speak but no sound came out. The faerie tried to communicate with Vellen but it was to no avail. Despite this unique occurrence, Vellen couldn't turn away from the many who needed medical services.

During his off time though he began to ask others about faeries. In his search for more information regarding the faerie, who refused to leave his side, he ran into a Duskwight Elezen thaumaturge who was being attacked by a group of villagers just because she looked different. After reasoning with the villagers and tending to her wounds she thanked him and introduced herself as Sylitherra. Noticing the faerie sitting on Vellen's shoulder she asked him whether or not he was stupid, or just ignorant. Surprised by the response he stuttered for a moment about not knowing what she was talking about. "You brazenly have a faerie out in a world which tries to find reasons to kill others" she said flatly. He gave her a pleading look and asked "I am sorry I lost my memory and am kind of stumbling through things I should already know, if you know anything could you please help me?" Sylitherra looked upon Vellen with pity and told him she would answer what she could for his assistance with the villagers. They spent several hours talking about the origins of faeries and how the soul crystal that Vellen had was in fact a scholar soul crystal. She didn't know much more than that an apologized for being unable to help him further, but she advised him to hide his faerie otherwise he would eventually find himself in a load of trouble. She also told him he was an idiot for trusting her so much as he just met her. He laughed it off and thanks her for her help. Before they parted, as another way of thanks she also gave him a lock of her hair tied to a wind crystal, enchanted with the magic of wind. He looked at it quizzically before thanking her for such a unique gift. She explained to him that whenever he wanted a wind to appear he could say her name as he held the crystal and a breeze would appear around him or another. She then told him that she must go and one day they will meet again.

Not knowing what else to do for now, he decided to stay at Camp Drybone in order to help the locals with whatever they needed. It did not take long for the church to recognize his incredible talent for healing and his incredible ability for recalling random bits of arcane knowledge and he was well liked by everybody. He had a knack for being too trusting and giving away church resources to those he thought were in need which landed him in trouble a few times; most of the time nothing came of it though as they knew he did it from the goodness of his heart. Despite his skill in magical healing, Vellen was also an incredibly talented chirurgeon and made his own healing kits to help others when magical healing wasn’t necessary. Because of his talent both mundane and magical he became renowned in Eastern Thanalan for healing wounds of many types. People would travel to him from all around, not merely because of his skill, but because of his willingness to help others for free. This also caused some others within the community to grow to despise him because he was destroying others’ healing businesses by giving his services away.

His Closest Friend
His closest friend became the man who tended to him, whose name was Leno Forrster. A talented conjurer in his own right, he did not show the natural knack for healing that Vellen had. Leno did not mind however as it was nice to have another around who was passionate about helping others. Something always irked Leno though; Vellen did not seem to have any concept of mistrust in other people and rarely saw threats for what they were. Several times Leno had to save Vellen from his own naivety. At one point Vellen even tried to befriend a rampaging minotaur who was directly in the middle of trying to gore a fighter. Leno can’t help but chuckle when he thinks about it. Watching Vellen try to politely grab the minotaur’s attention saying “Excuse me sir! Sir! Maybe you didn’t notice but there are people in the way of your horns!” The minotaur then turned around as Vellen looked back at Leno and shrugged. Just as Vellen began to walk away from the minotaur, it began to charge him. Vellen then noticed a small coin on the ground and bent down to pick it up just as the minotaur was about to skewer him. Instead, the minotaur missed and tripped over Vellen and ran straight into a wall getting itself thoroughly lodged. That wasn’t the most peculiar part to Leno though. The most peculiar part was Vellen trying to help the minotaur out of the wall while the people fighting it stood there in disbelief. All the while the minotaur was trying to attack Vellen seeming to miss every time. When he later asked Vellen what he thought was going on Vellen replied “That creature was just so upset about being stuck in the wall he was flailing all about, poor thing!” Vellen’s kind heart was his greatest strength and his greatest weakness. He never turned down someone in need and Leno found this the greatest quality about him.

A Path of His Own
After spending about 2 years in Camp Drybone, Vellen decided he wanted to explore and help others in different areas. He began a nomadic life in order to learn more about his origins and being a scholar. He traveled to many places in Eorzea healing and giving what support he could to the people he ran into. He even managed to save a rather aggressive Xaelan from what should have been a mortal wound. This rather feisty Au Ra was named Jin Karasu. He decided to stop a bandit group from terrorizing the area for the reward offered. Though such an encounter was unique there were many others with adventurers requiring aid throughout the land. He also offered help in any capacity he could, whether that be woodworking, smithing, tailoring, or gathering. Back when he was in Camp Drybone he found he was most adept at alchemy and he would even weave his own bandages for his practice. This proved to be incredibly useful during his travels.

Personality

Vellen is kind-hearted and altruistic. When met with someone who is suffering he would do whatever he could to help them. Though not shy he is quite naive when it comes to anything romantic and has never felt a need to pursue any romantic interests. He is incredibly curious and can sometimes get ahead of himself, a trait he both dislikes in himself and others. Vellen doesn't much care for ritualistic thinking, but he does understand that it is important to others so he tries to accommodate them when he is aware of it. He rarely dresses up and is never against getting dirty in order to do what he believes he needs to do.

Likes

• Helping others
• Researching
• Reading
• Archaeology
• Learning new things

Dislikes

• Violence
• Willful ignorance
• Prejudice
• Thoughtless action
• Taking advantage of people

Strengths

Vellen cares for anybody he comes across. He goes out of his way to help others. He is compassionate and attentive. This has brought him many friends and comrades during his travels.

The healing arts seem easy and familiar to Vellen, like they were just an extension of himself. He has always been praised for his ability to heal even the most grievous of wounds. Back when he was in Camp Drybone the other healers would come to him when they believed they had a lost cause to see if there was anything he could do to save them. He wasn't always successful, but he was able to save lives which others would have thought as lost causes.

Vellen is rather knowledgeable about the sciences and ancient lore. He also has always had a natural talent for alchemy.

Weaknesses

Vellen always believes in the best of people and tends to trust they are telling him the truth without much thought otherwise. This has caused him to get into rough situations and be taken advantage of frequently. His naivety plays a role in this as he foolishly doesn't even see commonplace enemies as immediate threats.

Vellen abhors violence and absolutely refuses to use his magic or his natural abilities to do anything that would harm another, even if it means he must refuse to help someone. Due to this he has not seen much combat and can sometimes forget himself in the heat of battle.

As knowledgeable as Vellen is he sometimes gets caught up in his own excitement about knowing something and forgets to keep the feelings of others' in mind. This has caused him on more than one occasion to say something he later regretted.

Other Notes

WIP

Quirks

• Hopelessly hopeful of others' intentions.
• Gets incredibly nervous and stammers around women who he thinks are flirting with him.
• Will stop every once in a while to take in the scenery.
• Can be typically seen carrying around a book which he almost always seem to be writing in.

Equipment

WIP

Rumors

Common

• "Such a caring young man, sometimes his altruism comes at a price he doesn't realize though." - Eastern Thanalan Farmer
• "I once tried to pay him for his services but he absolutely refused! How does he even sustain himself if he never charges?" - Camp Dry Bone Merchant
• "He is so adorable! I once flirted with him and it was like he lost his mind! He didn't know WHAT to do!" - Limsan Waitress

Uncommon

• "This upstart is ruining the healing business wherever he goes! It isn't right I tell you and he should be held accountable for ruining others' lives!" - Ul'dah healer
• "I hear he doesn't like violence, if that is the case why did I see him break a woman's leg eh? Something isn't right about the lad." - Arcanist Guild Receptionist
• "Sometimes he gets this scary look in his eye as if he is in a trance. I once approached him about it but he didn't seem to know what I was talking about. I really wish we could figure out more about his past." - Camp Dry bone conjurer
• "That man that goes around healing people for free? Yeah I heard of him, he ain't going to be doing it for much longer I guarantee that." - Unk

Rare

• "That faerie is just so adorable! He once patted a child on the head after healing him and she went up and did the same! So cute!" - Farmer's Wife, Eastern Thanalan
• "I swear that little creature following him around is pure evil! Every time I see them I always seem to misplace my keys!" - Camp Dry bone herbalist
• "Vellen? Yeah a miner picked him up in a ravine which bordered Northern and Eastern Thanalan" - Camp Dry Bone Guard

OOC Inspirations

Robin from FE Awakening