Empatheias Application

[lifelight]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Raini
Contact: infel
Age: 32
Current Characters: Serah Farron (mooglebow)


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Caelia Silverarch
Age: 33
OC Type: MMO OC, FFXIV, non-Warrior of Light
Point Taken: End of Stormblood

World Building: Have a link for that... or two! Caelia is no Warrior of Light, so while she'd be on the sidelines for the most part, this is what was happening during those times.

Backstory: Caelia Silverarch was born to Adela and Tynan Silverarch in the Orn Wilds, home to a hamlet built up by some Amdapori survivors of the Sixth Umbral Calamity. While most of the numbers of the 3 ancient city-states of Nym, Amdapor, and Mhach had melded with other nations, some had stayed out of all of that, and instead stayed in the regions they had fled to escape the floodwaters of the Calamity. As such, the Amdapor line in this case stayed seculded and hidden through magic - think the barrier surrounding Rhalgr's Reach, but a lot more powerful - though their secrets of some of their most powerful White Magicks were lost. As to not bring another Calamity down on their head, over the years most of the now-forbidden magic was separated in such a way that more than one person would be needed to cast it, if not outright forgotten save for a few people who kept the knowledge safe.

Caelia, however, was an anomaly - she is unable to cast the same magic as her bretheren, and instead wields the very magic that sought to destroy them so many centuries ago. Funny story on how all that went down!

When Caelia was 4 years old, some of her older friends kept teasing her that her magic wasn't as strong as theirs, as kids are wont to do. As she insisted more and more that it was so, stop teasing me, it finally came to a head when they finally dared her to take out her grandmother's book of forbidden and ancient magic and cast something from it. Caelia being a stubborn girl, agreed to do so, took her grandmother's book, and began her search for the most complex spell she could comprehend and actually say the words in the incantation. However, being so young, she didn't realize that it wasn't just the ability to say all of the big words correctly to cast, and the needed amount of aether was also a component of the spell, and because of that, her aether - and the spell - went wildly out of control. With her friends panicking and yelling for help, Caelia's parents rushed in to find their daughter a veritable ticking aether bomb and in the same panic as the children in the room, pooled their own magic together to save their child... at the cost of their lives. Her grandmother rushed in not long after to find her unconscious grandchild and aetherically weak son and dead daughter-in-law. Hearing what had happened as her son finally returned to the lifestream, she used her knowledge of the old ways to seal Caelia's memories, as well as the children in the room. She didn't wish for her son's only child to carry the burden and the guilt it would likely wrack her with to know she was the cause of her parent's deaths.

As the children grew, they ventured a little too close to Sharlayan, and they were found by the scholars there. Intrigued that people that they had all but thought integrated into modern society were still holding pureblooded lines, they invited the children, now in their teenage years, to talk with them and give them some information. While their hamlet elders were wary, they did tell them what was and was not all right to speak on to those in Sharlayan who were ever curious. It was during one of these excursions that, upon looking at their great library full of books and study, did a Soulstone call out to Caelia - one that she swiped for herself. It wasn't until she returned to her home and the safety of her room that she found it was a Black Mage Soulstone. Why it called to her, she didn't know, but she had heard enough from the scholars that Soulstones chose their masters (for the most part.) While she did eventually tell her grandmother, and then the rest of her friends and those she considered close, she kept it a secret as long as she could, not wanting to scare anyone that she had interest in learning the same magic that wiped out their ancient city. Once the cat was out of the bag, it was found more to be a boon than a curse, and the years leading up to the Sharlayans leaving their settlement in the Hinterlands behind gave her access to books and knowledge on the art of Black Magic - it was also in this time that she found she had a love for studying and learning of the different types of magic, and her frustration of her inability to use the magic of her people also began.

During these 12 or so years, she had built up friends with the children of the hamlet, though most were a couple years older than her, she still found a close companion who later became her lover in one Locke Grayleaf. He had always been her protector, never wanted to see her cry or get hurt, and fussed over her the most. Soon those feelings turned to love, and somewhere around her 17th year they were known to be dating. Nothing really notable happened in the time between the Sharlayans leaving and the Calamity in her 25th year beyond Garlean scouting ships crashing into the forests and Caelia making the merciless (or perhaps in very veiled mercy) decision to end the near-fatally wounded pilot's life before the ship was scrapped for their own purposes. All of the children (and the adults) knew that if they were found by the Garleans, life wouldn't be so pretty, and a worry that turned to an almost hatred was formed in Caelia - a few of her other friends had been going back and forth on how to deal with the soldier, but it was ultimately Caelia who said she would kill him as he was too far gone to mend with their magicks. When word spread of Nael van Darnus' plans and ideals, they saw more and more frequent Garlean visitors overhead going into Eorzea proper to fight the adventurers who rose against them. The night of the Calamity was seen from their homes, and when they awoke from everything after... well, they knew it was a spell most forbidden but couldn't remember much regarding it. It wasn't long after that things started changing.

There were plenty of other hamlets and small settlements around the fringes of the Wilds, where traveling merchants made their way through the paths to sell wares... but their visits dwindled to nothing over the coming months. Curious on what had happened, others ventured out to either not return, or return almost on their deathbed. All reports were the same: Bahamut had changed the ambient aether as the Seventh Umbral Calamity had been ushered in, and things would only grow worse for them. While the Hinterlands were largely unchanged, the sudden freezing of Coerthas and many trade routes that relied on what had been snowed over in Abalathia's Spine stopped, and soon hunger and sickness came. When the widespread sickness also came from parts of the land being poisoned by the aether changes, the hamlet called it what they thought it to be: a Curse of the Elementals. Seeing as how they had angered the Elementals so many centuries prior with their war with Nym and Mhach, they could only see it as the Elementals punishing them, though they didn't have next couple of years, a then-untreatable sickness ravaged the hamlet, taking many lives out as it spread. One of the lives taken was Locke's, and on his deathbed was Caelia allowed to see him - she had been much too upset and her grandmother dared not tempt the Elementals to poison her granddaughter if she were allowed unlimited access to his sickroom - and it was before he drew his last breaths that he handed her a ring and expressed how he was upset that the Twelve wouldn't allow him to marry her as he had planned to do.

Caelia had to be forcefully dragged out of the room as he passed on with a smile on his face.

After losing so many and trying to decide what they could do to survive, ranging from migrating out to the old and abandonded Sharlayan settlement, to settling one of the other abandoned settlements around them, or even just assimilating into one of the still thriving hamlets in the area. Ultimately, they found that too many were sick to make the move, and settled on the best sounding scenario: send out a few of those who were well enough to cover a long distance to be able to send back medicine, food, money, or whatever else would help them. Caelia was one of these, despite her protesting and anger at being chosen to leave. She and three others were packed up, given small gil reserves, and sent out to Eorzea, one of the last free of the Empire places left that was easy to get to. She chose to continue on to Ul'dah, taking on odd jobs for whatever she could feasibly do while living on her own and training in the Eorzean's Thaumaturgy art - she had to blend in somehow after already knowing what they were teaching her considering her ability as a Black Mage.

Eventually she ran into a job she couldn't do alone: while some other adventurers had cleared out Sastasha, there were still some pirates holed up in there that just wouldn't leave. So, Caelia begrudgingly sought out help from three others to escort her through. She had paid them off, sure, but it wasn't until after that the leader of the group, S'neha Qimi, gently let Caelia know she hadn't paid off her debt in full and she'd be a swabby for S'neha's Free Company, the Seaswarm Privateers, if it meant she'd pay off her debt, and if she ran? She would hunt Cae down and drag her back if she had to. So began her time with the Seaswarm, eventually moving up to be a go-between for the Swarm and an Ul'dahn Consortium of exotic and imported goods, with whom the Lalafellin owner covets a seat on the Syndicate... a bit of a dangerous thing. Caelia does that in her spare time between her odd jobs and the like, up to and including working as a free agent for Ishgard during the time of the Dragonsong War as a lookout. Couldn't have their soldiers possibly getting surprised by dragons, so why not outsiders?

In this time, Caelia met someone within the Free Company before he left: Terris Blackthorne. To date, he is the only one Caelia trusts with her life, and it's not only because they've been together for some time now. He had left the Seaswarm, but kept in contact with Caelia in some way. She stumbled on him after she had a run in with a rival Syndicate-trying Uldahn business's thugs gave her a beating... and she caught a few of them on fire, ultimately starting the underground rumour that there was a Thaumaturge that was able to cast spells without some sort of Foci which, wasn't entirely untrue either (what with jeweled ringbands and other Foci points on her that she adrenaline-rush casted when they attacked her.) When she found Terris, he took her in to make sure she wasn't found for a retaliation beating and/or death and to also make sure she was cared for as she healed up. He ultimately offered her a place to stay and told her "don't leave here 'til we know it's safe, I'll always protect you."

And Caelia being Caelia, decided to test out that last part by slipping out of Ul'dah and traveling to Costa del Sol. She figured if he really cared, he'd go looking for her, and look for her he did. He found her fairly quick and gave her a sound scolding about leaving, which only led Cae to ask how he found her so quickly. Turned out, he could sense aether but couldn't use it - and only one nation of people were unable to do that, the Garleans - and he had followed that trail, so to speak. He had no connections to his prior life of being in a shoot off of the Garlean's royal family as the Garleans are assholes when it comes to eating their own, though he didn't remember much of what had transpired. While it made Caelia wary, he eventually broke down many of the walls she had put up around her and she not only grew to trust him (and trust that he wasn't going to go back to being a crazy Imperial and haul her back to Garlemald to do whatever unspeakable things they'd do to a pureblood Amdapori) but they eventually got together. While she was gone, he gifted her a pet to keep her company, a red panda she named Kineta. She loves the red panda almost as much as she loves Terris, but she'd never admit that freely! He's been with her through thick and thin, up to and including extracting her out of the Dravanian Hinterlands when she had gone crazy with homesickness and fled home while working for Ishgard during the War. She was not lucky in coming back unscathed, as she'd been blighted with the Curse... but she had poor Terris worried sick after her regular letters stopped coming to him, so he found her on her own way home. Her grandmother had started pushing her in the direction of Astrology from Sharlayan since she couldn't use White Magic, and since then she's started undertaking other magical talents, though they aren't as refined as her Black Magic.

She can, with more knowledge, try to convert some magic to a way she can cast it. It takes some work, but that's what keeping your nose in books to study will do. She put this to use when she was contacted by someone she had met and talked about the old nations in the Fifth Astral Era - Inquisitive Mentor, a Roegadyn, had some old blight on him that ultimately Caelia helped remove with some help from one of his students - Anton Borneheld - and digging around the old Gubal Library. She got in contact with one of her close friends from her home who had been sent to look for Cae as her letters home had stopped (through her forgetting) and together they cast an old spell that they had converted over for Caelia to use. Any large casts wipes out a good chunk of her aether anymore, so she was out of comission for a while - but she's since bounced back; hopefully being far enough away from the source of her sickness will get her back in proper order. Until then, she's started sending things back home and hoping for the best.

Despite the Curse, she still gets up to trouble - much to Terris' unhappiness about it - and has expressed her interest in taking back Ala Mhigo from those disgusting Garleans. She has more good days than bad, but is still as stubborn as ever when it comes to helping those back home - and in her new home in Eorzea. In those few bad times she's had visits? Visions? Both? Of Locke who has given her guidance in her times of uncertainty, though those aren't something that happens often. Still, she continues on to work and get enough to help those she cares for in both homes. Time will tell how far she goes to those ends, however.

Personality: The short and simple of it: hard exterior, soft interior who at the very least will be baseline polite to people if she needs to be. Her default state is sassy, sarcastic brat.

Caelia is a very distrustful person on the outside and has so many walls put up for people to break through that most don't even really want to try. She's a cold, bitter bitch to just about everyone - to the point where when she was working with Ishgard she was called an Ice Queen because of how cold and uncaring she was toward the other people in the barracks. She's fiery and will run her mouth if she's irritated - or just wants to get under someone's skin. Sure, she has a filter but unless she knows the outcome won't go in her favour it's... well, it's there, but not often. She'll speak what's on her mind, even if it's cutting to someone else, and she has no problem telling someone where to shove their opinions of her. All in all she's very much an untamed wildfire of scathing looks and comments.

However, this doesn't extend out to those that have shown her kindness, children, and those who can't help themselves. When she takes odd jobs and the person requesting help can't pay in gil? Caelia will take whatever they offer as to not be rude about her reward - she's made that mistake before and not only offended the request-giver, but also upset them greatly. She's not made that mistake again. She's taken food, clothes, children's drawings, things that she's afraid that has sentimental value even though she's been told it has none... but she'll use a lot of those same rewards to give back. She has no issue giving out clothes, food, and blankets out to the refugees on Pearl Lane before some go back to her friends and family back in the Wilds. Of course, some of that money stays with her, especially from the higher-paying jobs. She has a good taste for fashion and has a small house she shares with Terris in the Goblet when they're both not out for jobs or work.

Though she may dislike people and is distrustful of most everyone, however, she will still help out - sometimes begrudgingly - should they be in trouble. In order to help Mentor she had to work with Anton, and her opinion of him is incredibly low. She knew that the only way to get into the library and deal with the nasties that took up residence would only really be doable with two people, and having a second set of eyes, even untrained for what she knew they would be looking for, would be a bigger boon than working alone - especially against the clock. With someone like Terris, and anyone who gets close, she becomes fiercely loyal - going so far as to give her own life for that person. Her friends and family are of course in that place, but anyone else that gets that close? She would do anything to help them. That is, of course, if they can stomach her craptastic attitude leading up to that point.

Once someone gets to know her, Caelia will be a lot softer toward that person. She'll still have a bit of sass to her, but she won't purposefully try to get under their skin - she becomes an actual person as opposed to someone who doesn't want to let someone in and does anything to prevent that. She has more of a sense of humor, helps people out without a fuss, and smiles a little more. It's still rare to draw an Actual Smile out of her, but letting her guard down is easier around people who she's closer to. If it's broughht up with her, she'll deny that she's being a softie, and will chalk it up to them being crazy - and she'll do it with a smile.

The one thing that doesn't change, no matter if she's close or not close to someone is how utterly reckless she can be. Charging in to fight a bunch of Garleans? Jumping up on to one of the walls in Limsa Lominsa to spin around with the biggest shit-eating grin on her face (to be met with a Very Unhappy and Disapproving Look from Terris)? Casting magic in a place that's unsafe for her to do so but still does because it kills off voidsent or other nasties? That's Caelia. She has very little regard for herself when it comes to doing anything, really - if it gets her to her destination faster, she'll go through a dangerous area, if she finds something she wants to study in more detail? She'll go and do it, no matter what she has to do to get there. She was recently holed up in the Lost City of Amdapor's lower depths doing her own independant research simply because she wanted to see if there was more she could learn from her ancestral home, magicks-crazed statues be damned.

Building on that, Caelia loves to read and study, though studying new forms of magic and such is the most fun for her. She picks up magical formuale and incantations and their requirements quickly, something her grandmother has always been proud of. It made it easy for her to at least become adept in the art of the Astrologian and the art of Arcanum and the way of the Arcanist in Limsa Lominsa. They're more of a hobby, though the healing arts they both teach help her out in the field since she has no way of casting Actual White Magic. Overall, learning is something she enjoys, and even with her general distaste for people and all, she can overcome that wall with a good learning session with someone else, be it giving a good book recommendation, knowledge she didn't previously have of magic, up to and including how to make some basic food (she's not good with her hands to cook or make things.) She enjoys a good challenge.

On top of all of this, Caelia can be very prideful. While she won't outright admit her status of being an Amdapori (which loops back around to trust; to date the only person that knows this about her is Terris) or anything like that, she finds it difficult to sometimes speak her true feelings. This past Valentione's Day celebrations, she very nearly told Terris that she loved him, but refrained from doing so, citing that she was afraid he'd leave her. Most of the time it comes down to a fear that she's got with telling people her feelings. She's good at keeping them locked away, and it takes a lot to get her to actually speak on them - a feat not even Terris has done. Letting her guard down and fully trusting someone is difficult for her, and few people have gotten to that point with her. Freely admitting anything about her or her innermost thoughts is a surefire way for her to dodge the questions or change the subject entirely as subtly as she can.

A quirk of Caelia's is that while she's fairly well-spoken when she talks to people, biting commentary or no, if she's angered enough she loses that well-spoken tone and could probably make a former pirate blush with what comes out of her mouth, and how it comes out of her mouth. She doesn't like it when it happens, and tries to keep her cool, but when people push her buttons once they see the fire burning in her eyes... well. It doesn't end nicely.

Abilities: Despite her blood being of those of the White Magic users of the past, she has no ability to cast them. She has figured out how to cast some larger, more ancient (and sometimes forbidden) magic through changing magical properties, but for the most part she won't cast them - casting them that way takes a toll on her body and her innate aether, something she won't do no matter how reckless she is... with some exceptions. She'll do so if there's someone willing to shoulder half of the aether burden, something she did when Mentor was aging rapidly. When she got in contact with Kine, a friend from her hamlet, the two of them cast an old spell found in one of the tomes Caelia had brought back with her from the Gubal Library - it still took a nasty toll on her, and she slept for a week after.

As for what she can do without little thought or toll on herself, a list of Black Mage abilities is here - all abilities to level 70 are what she can do. Through Terris' military training, she can handle a bow and a dagger, though that's more for if she gets into a scrape she can't cast magic in, or she needs a distraction - he taught her with the idea of her protection in place, just in case he couldn't reach her in time. Nothing fancy, but she does know them. Swords or anything too heavy are a no go for her, she's a noodly mage after all!

As for other schools of magic, abilties from the Astrologian tree are here - Caelia is only adept enough to know the basic spells, and does not have a Deck of Sixty to be able to draw the cards - not that she would know what to do with them anyway with no formal trainer. (So in plain terms, the abilities to 26.) Her abilities as an Arcanist are lacking as she's not had the time to actually study it in any real capacity beyond "basic". She can cast things up until Miasma at level 10 - her ability to sustain a Carbuncle is still shaky, but she can summon one for a short time.

As stated in her history, she has no ability to cast White Magic. The most she can do is convert it over to a different element, and she really only has interest to do so if it's a bigger spell. She would love to learn as a Red Mage, and has a basic understanding of how it works, but no real investment has been made to learn the inner workings thus far.

To go along with her being a fast learner, she has an insight to the history of the War of the Magi, and can prattle on about what she knows. Not entirely an ability, but she does enjoy the history for as far back as she can learn, and she knows her facts.

Alignment: Piphron - Caelia works heavily on trust and how much she trusts someone. However, her emotions also run on how she's fiercely loyal to someone once they've gotten far enough into knowing her and broken down walls to get to know her. Considering she's highly distrustful of people for a good amount of time before she starts to maybe warm up to them (and that's the main source of her dislike of people) since they could just be her friend for the power they think she posesses... Piphron is perfect.

Other: Kineta will be coming along for the ride with her into Emp if that's cool!


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉
General Sample:
[Upon her return home, or at least home enough to be in La Noscea and not half a world away, Caelia found herself running an errand – job? – errand-job for someone, leading her to the U’ghamaro Mines for some specialized ore. It wasn’t the most glamorous job, but it was going to line her pockets nice enough. There was really no issue getting into the mines undetected, but when she looked at her orders again to see what exactly she needed, it gave her pause.

Iron ore, sure. That was easy. But from the coblyns– er no, doblyns? Same family, same difference– instead of just grabbing it out of the mine carts the kobolds had amassed. A few of the creatures skittered by her, with their weird gurgle-cries, almost as if they were playing tag or something. They were out of sight for a moment, before skittering past again, still playing coblyn tag or whatever it was they were doing. Cae almost felt bad that she was going to need to end their silly lives, but… money talked.]

Dunno what sort of money coblyn ore rakes in, but it’s enough. And to think, someone some time ago thought that you weird rock things would be good eatin’ too. How, I’ve no idea, you don’t look appetizing– I mean, I guess hunger does weird things to people, but you things are the last creatures I’d want to try to eat.

[With how they skittered and gurgled and were almost… cute, oblivious to their impending doom to be used in some jewelry or somesuch, it gave Caelia stay of her hand after she watched them for long enough.

Lucky bastards.

After a few bells, Caelia was back on her way to Limsa Lominsa, iron ore in hand– ore she had just rifled through to find the purest rocks of to bring back. They’d not know the difference, she didn’t think they would.

At least she didn’t eat them.]

Emotion Sample:
[Plenty of things about this place were nice, but they were also weird. She had heard tales that her emotions could have adverse effects - or positive effects! Depending on what triggered it and all. She had seen a positive side effect so far when she was reunited with Kineta and all of a sudden she felt warm - come to see that she had a glowing aura and emitting heat - like a warm fireplace; comforting and bright. It alarmed her at first, though the red panda she had been snuggling didn't mind the warmth. Once she learned it was because she felt a surge of happy emotions, it intrigued her more. Happy emotions as hiding in the streets a day or so later after she arrived, is what she surmised had been what triggered the surge of emotion. Kineta was, after all, a connection to the man she'd not gotten the chance to tell how she felt before she ended up in Verens.

But so far, nothing had really set her off to see what the negative effect was, not yet.

Not until her second day that was. The day where everything was going wrong.

First, she had woken up on the literal wrong side of her bed and in her turned around confusion, ran face first into a wall. Next, in trying to make something fairly basic for breakfast she burned it beyond something that was remotely edible - which, while would almost be the norm for her, she had been getting better up until today! - so... well, there went some of the welcome money she had gotten for a breakfast not made by her. Not long after she tripped and dropped the contents of her coinpurse on the street, followed by heavy foot traffic to stop her from picking it up as quick as she'd like.

The final cherry on top after she had felt her ire rising was as she was walking home in defeat after only getting some of her money back? Was as she passed under some windows to be met with someone opening their window and throwing some dirty water out. She didn't know why they'd do that, but it landed square on her, drenching her from head to toe. It was in that instant that she let out a roar of frustration and the ground - and the building closest to her, at least to a small degree - as well as parts of herself began to ice over.]

Godsdamnit this isn't funny anymore! If I'm going to be used for some... some gods' comedy show, I want out of here! Wait, what the--

[The realization of the ice finally hit her, and as she glanced around, the ice slowly thawed. Was that the reaction to her negative feelings? As she thought about it, the person who had thrown the water out poked their head out to see what the fuss was and yelled out a quick apology. One Caelia didn't hear.]

Thal's balls, that's-- that's definitely something. Reminds me of switching from Astral to Umbral in my magic... I like it!

[Well, crisis for the day somewhat averted? Sure, she still needed to go and get into something dry and probably lock herself in her room for the rest of the day, but it was at least a small light at the end of the really dark tunnel of bad luck.]


Questions: None! Just the one in the "Other" section regarding her pet!