Player Name: Saffy Contact:fonfabre / saffy#0318 on discord Invited by: Yuff, technically Other Characters: n/a
Character Name: Amal Vasiya Canon: Final Fantasy XIV (OC) Canon Point: Post Shadowbringers (patch 5.5) History: A very general overview of the expansions here, but something more personal follows!
Born in Radz-at-Han to a merchant's daughter and a very enthusiastic Hyuran adventurer, Amal was nevertheless consigned to a life of difficulties. He was abandoned soon after birth-- his father having run off, and his mother embarrassed by a child out of wedlock-- and taken in by the local orphanage. As these things go, times were incredibly difficult for the orphanage and he never quite felt like he belonged. He fell in with a crowd who didn't care about his heritage, and they taught him how to steal enough to survive, and then how to fight. His childhood thus troubled, he was caught and punished several times up through adulthood for petty theft and scamming people out of money. With every scar he earned from their ire, he got a new tattoo. The targets of his thievery were always the same: wealthy people, and those who seemingly deserved to be taken down a peg. And when he could, he gave to the other hungry kids in the slummy parts of the city he grew up in. When the Calamity hit he was seventeen and in chains, which would end up being a sort of reoccurring theme, unfortunately.
The turning point for Amal was a rough stay in a jail cell followed by a grueling couple of years on Radz-at-Han's infamous "pleasure barges". His disobedient nature refused to dim no matter how much he was punished, and he was traded between several high-profile barge owners until he was able to escape. The whipping scars on his back, though covered by a tree tattoo later, were difficult to miss... which was why he generally kept them covered afterward. After that experience, he decided that stealing wasn't worth nearly dying for it, and began to pursue dancing (and looking attractive) more seriously.
Radz-at-Han wasn't a terribly small port city but it was still an island, and Amal's reputation was unshakably that of a thief and ne'er-do-well by the time he hit adulthood. This penchant for trouble would earn him several misadventures in taverns during his youth and even as an adult. His passion for music and adventure and freedom only served to make him seem more like a burden than a virtuous thief, even when he had had enough and tried to earn a living the right way. He needed a new start... and Eorzea after the Calamity was a good place to do that. Despite the treatment he received from his fellows in Thavnair, a kindhearted Arkasodara helped get him onto a boat to Limsa Lominsa, a hint that perhaps things weren't as dire as he thought.
Amal wasn't looking for attachments, exactly. Living life constantly on the move made it difficult for him to make friends, let alone keep them. And it was safer that way, too, if he just helped people anonymously and vanished back into the night, as some kind of atonement for all the hurting he'd done to others over the years. That was how he made his start in Eorzea, attributing the headaches and visions and weird voices to aether sickness-- until he was told the truth and handed a destiny he didn't ask for.
A REALM REBORN The mission of the Warrior of Light only convinced Amal that isolating himself was the right thing to do. And he was doing a good job of it too, just going from town to town, helping people, not staying long enough to develop feelings for anything in particular. He lived life as free as the wind-- until he was called back to the Waking Sands and found his colleagues kidnapped, missing, or slaughtered. Numb with shock, the care of the corpses was placed in his hands (quite literally), and Amal came to realize that this... was not a game. Not at all. There were lives at stake. The uneasy mantle of 'hero' didn't suit him, but there was no one else to shuffle this responsibility onto.
So it... fell to him, the reluctant ex-thief who danced with knives as much as chakrams. He played his part well enough, taking down Gaius van Baelsar and ushering in (what they thought) was a new, brighter turn for the Scions. But it became clear that things were not as simple as that, and suddenly, Amal found himself a refugee once again, outrunning a bloody name and wondering if he'd lost his only family.
HEAVENSWARD Amal's reserved nature began to crack and reveal the deep-seated bitterness beneath. Though he was "exotic" to most Eorzeans, this was only magnified in Ishgard, where he was painfully outlandish and of mixed heritage. (He found some similarities with Hilda, surprising absolutely no one.) His traveling companions, varied as they were, became his dear friends-- but none more than Haurchefant, who had taken him in before. Haurchefant and Amal had quite a lot in common, but Haurchefant had purpose. Drive. A family. He was kind and protective, and Amal fell for him so very hard.
It made losing Haurchefant all the more painful. As Amal was drawn deeper into the war, he no longer attempted to mask any disdain he had for the upper class. This earned him more than a little trouble with the knights under Thordan's command, something only exacerbated as the man's ambitions came to light. By the end of the Dragonsong War, Amal had lost that little spark of optimism, or at least buried it beneath his grief. He existed only to do what needed to be done, and his victories-- though important-- felt incredibly hollow. More and more he was convinced he was the wrong man for the job, that if he had been stronger or perhaps someone else entirely, Haurchefant wouldn't have died. And this guilt would follow him into the next adventure, and the one after that, while he pushed through it for the sake of the Scions.
STORMBLOOD Amal played the role of hero but his spirit wasn't in it. The conflict against Garlemald hit a fever pitch and he was everyone's ace up their sleeve, fighting for independence for two countries he had no ties to as a diplomatic favor. Of course he felt for the subjugated, and of course he didn't support Garlemald in the slightest, but to him it became less about the Resistance and more about taking out his anger and frustration on imperial forces as he cursed his powerlessness. More blood was spilled, and in the end he was even denied the chance to put Zenos' reign to an end, as the prince took his own life. Naturally that wasn't meant to last, though, and he would end up facing down Zenos again and nearly losing to the Ascian possessing his body, as his friends fell unconscious and were spirited to another realm.
SHADOWBRINGERS That other realm held a familiar voice, the tone of a friend. He heeded the siren's call as he had no other choice at that point and discovered more about the workings of the reflections, the truths hidden from him by Hydaelyn, and how much he hated self-sacrifice. G'raha Tia had taken everything Amal had started and turned it into something beautiful and hopeful and everlasting, had saved these people had given his bitter journey meaning, and only then did Amal finally begin to realize he wasn't alone. No one else was going to do this hero stuff for him. He wasn't destined to be here, though-- he was doing this by his own volition, now. And so, he made a promise he intended to keep: a promise to take his old friend G'raha on a new adventure when they returned home.
Naturally, they only got a brief reprieve before Zenos and his pet cackling robed wizard started bringing about the apocalypse, so this adventure would have to be postponed.
Personality:
🔆 Charming. He is energetic, mostly positive, and very magnetic. He likes to entertain and make people laugh. 🔆 Deceptive. The other side of this is that he hides what he's feeling behind a mask of nonchalance, pretending he hasn't a care in the world when it comes to his own problems. 🔆 Manipulative. He sometimes likes to push buttons for the sake of pushing buttons. He also has a silver tongue and can talk himself out of trouble. 🔆 Puts others first. He wouldn't need to talk himself out of trouble if he stopped running headlong into it in the first place. He'll easily rush in to protect others, which has gotten him nearly killed a few times. 🔆 Impulsive. Violence isn't the answer. It's the question and the answer is 'yes'. 🔆 Thrillseeker. He likes to push the limits, whether it be climbing to great heights, exploring new places, eating food hot enough to burn skin, or simply testing the boundaries of someone's patience. 🔆 Passionate. Amal is truly creative and he loves expressing himself through dance and music. He also loves stories, whether it's telling them or hearing them. 🔆 Distant. Though warm and seemingly straightforward about some things, he keeps people at arm's length. One might realize they know him but don't know what he's thinking. This is by his own design. 🔆 Slow to trust. As a half-elf he earns the ire of some he meets for being neither Hyur nor Elezen, while others treat him as less than human because he's a foreigner and an oddity. He has a high opinion of literally no one. But if someone surprises him in a good way, he might be fond. 🔆 Vain. He takes a lot of pride in his appearance-- his scars, his tattoos, his weirdness, all of it. Dressing and acting provocatively is his way of taking control of the narrative. 🔆 Stubborn. Sometimes he needs to be yelled at a couple times for something to get through his thick head. 🔆 Despises authority. The caste system he grew up with has made him resent the rich and powerful. Ishgard, the frozen land of Catholic elves and nobility, is his least favorite city he's had to live in. 🔆 Lone wolf. He thinks he's better off alone because he just brings misfortune to the people around him, something that comes up later to bite him in the ass. He's working on it, though, and learning to ask for help. 🔆 Thinks he's weak. He still feels like he isn't worthy to be the hero everyone paints him out to be, but he does it because no one else can. 🔆 Haunted. Amal is unable to forgive himself for not being strong enough to save everyone, particularly the man he fell in love with. He has a lot of deep-seated trauma from all of the head injuries his checkered past. 🔆 Denial. Amal's solution to many of his problems is to run, though he's tired of running at this point. Still, he has held the truth of his troubled background back from the Scions and his other friends, and he ran away from home to escape jail time. Facing the truth is difficult for him. 🔆 Fears abandonment. Though he feels like he needs to shoulder his burdens alone and never tell anyone anything, by that same token he's terrified of being abandoned by the people he loves. His lowest point was when most of his friends were presumed missing or dead and he lost the man he admired. 🔆 Loves freedom. Amal values his personal freedom above all else. If he feels that he's being manipulated or used, he has no problems vanishing. 🔆 Loyal? On the other hand, if something is very dear to him, he will do everything in his power to protect it. 🔆 Share the wealth. Amal is motivated by good deeds. Though he's a shady bastard by choice, he likes to help those less fortunate. He has a soft spot for the poor and downtrodden as he was one of them. He doesn't want fame or fortune, he just wants to be free to travel and make people's lives easier for a time, to meet new people, to... make friends. 🔆 Berserk button. Amal wears so many masks and plays so many roles for people that he sometimes forgets what he's really feeling. He has deep-seated resentment and rage at the way he was treated in the past and-- on rare occasions-- this can end with him losing control. 🔆 Reluctant to forgive and forget. However, if someone shows signs of wanting to repent or they weren't all that bad in the first place, he's willing to keep an eye on them and give them a second chance. Begrudgingly. 🔆 Competitive. Amal loves a good throw down. 🔆 Do no lasting harm... unless you're terrible. Amal isn't afraid to get his hands dirty and kill someone, but he hates doing it unless it's the merciful option or there simply isn't any other choice.
Time of Arrival to Kaisou: Six months! He couch surfs, but otherwise he's been taking jobs exclusively under the table. Labor in cash, busking, bodyguarding, fetching weird ingredients-- he's also good at Miscellaneous Adventurer Stuff on top of petty crime. He doesn't like to kill people though & will only steal from people who are rich and deserve it (in his eyes), which does make him something of an oddity.
Items: - set of chakrams for throwing - at least four throwing knives (sorry, it's more weapons) - one curved dagger/jambiya of Thavnairian make (oh look, another weapon) - the dancer gear that he's currently wearing - a well-loved lute (also a weapon, if pressed)
Retained Ability: Ummm his retained ability will be absolutely nothing because Amal's luck is either really good or really bad and nothing in between!
Saffy | Amal Vasiya | Final Fantasy XIV | OU
Contact:
Invited by: Yuff, technically
Other Characters: n/a
Character Name: Amal Vasiya
Canon: Final Fantasy XIV (OC)
Canon Point: Post Shadowbringers (patch 5.5)
History: A very general overview of the expansions here, but something more personal follows!
Born in Radz-at-Han to a merchant's daughter and a very enthusiastic Hyuran adventurer, Amal was nevertheless consigned to a life of difficulties. He was abandoned soon after birth-- his father having run off, and his mother embarrassed by a child out of wedlock-- and taken in by the local orphanage. As these things go, times were incredibly difficult for the orphanage and he never quite felt like he belonged. He fell in with a crowd who didn't care about his heritage, and they taught him how to steal enough to survive, and then how to fight. His childhood thus troubled, he was caught and punished several times up through adulthood for petty theft and scamming people out of money. With every scar he earned from their ire, he got a new tattoo. The targets of his thievery were always the same: wealthy people, and those who seemingly deserved to be taken down a peg. And when he could, he gave to the other hungry kids in the slummy parts of the city he grew up in. When the Calamity hit he was seventeen and in chains, which would end up being a sort of reoccurring theme, unfortunately.
The turning point for Amal was a rough stay in a jail cell followed by a grueling couple of years on Radz-at-Han's infamous "pleasure barges". His disobedient nature refused to dim no matter how much he was punished, and he was traded between several high-profile barge owners until he was able to escape. The whipping scars on his back, though covered by a tree tattoo later, were difficult to miss... which was why he generally kept them covered afterward. After that experience, he decided that stealing wasn't worth nearly dying for it, and began to pursue dancing (and looking attractive) more seriously.
Radz-at-Han wasn't a terribly small port city but it was still an island, and Amal's reputation was unshakably that of a thief and ne'er-do-well by the time he hit adulthood. This penchant for trouble would earn him several misadventures in taverns during his youth and even as an adult. His passion for music and adventure and freedom only served to make him seem more like a burden than a virtuous thief, even when he had had enough and tried to earn a living the right way. He needed a new start... and Eorzea after the Calamity was a good place to do that. Despite the treatment he received from his fellows in Thavnair, a kindhearted Arkasodara helped get him onto a boat to Limsa Lominsa, a hint that perhaps things weren't as dire as he thought.
Amal wasn't looking for attachments, exactly. Living life constantly on the move made it difficult for him to make friends, let alone keep them. And it was safer that way, too, if he just helped people anonymously and vanished back into the night, as some kind of atonement for all the hurting he'd done to others over the years. That was how he made his start in Eorzea, attributing the headaches and visions and weird voices to aether sickness-- until he was told the truth and handed a destiny he didn't ask for.
A REALM REBORN
The mission of the Warrior of Light only convinced Amal that isolating himself was the right thing to do. And he was doing a good job of it too, just going from town to town, helping people, not staying long enough to develop feelings for anything in particular. He lived life as free as the wind-- until he was called back to the Waking Sands and found his colleagues kidnapped, missing, or slaughtered. Numb with shock, the care of the corpses was placed in his hands (quite literally), and Amal came to realize that this... was not a game. Not at all. There were lives at stake. The uneasy mantle of 'hero' didn't suit him, but there was no one else to shuffle this responsibility onto.
So it... fell to him, the reluctant ex-thief who danced with knives as much as chakrams. He played his part well enough, taking down Gaius van Baelsar and ushering in (what they thought) was a new, brighter turn for the Scions. But it became clear that things were not as simple as that, and suddenly, Amal found himself a refugee once again, outrunning a bloody name and wondering if he'd lost his only family.
HEAVENSWARD
Amal's reserved nature began to crack and reveal the deep-seated bitterness beneath. Though he was "exotic" to most Eorzeans, this was only magnified in Ishgard, where he was painfully outlandish and of mixed heritage. (He found some similarities with Hilda, surprising absolutely no one.) His traveling companions, varied as they were, became his dear friends-- but none more than Haurchefant, who had taken him in before. Haurchefant and Amal had quite a lot in common, but Haurchefant had purpose. Drive. A family. He was kind and protective, and Amal fell for him so very hard.
It made losing Haurchefant all the more painful. As Amal was drawn deeper into the war, he no longer attempted to mask any disdain he had for the upper class. This earned him more than a little trouble with the knights under Thordan's command, something only exacerbated as the man's ambitions came to light. By the end of the Dragonsong War, Amal had lost that little spark of optimism, or at least buried it beneath his grief. He existed only to do what needed to be done, and his victories-- though important-- felt incredibly hollow. More and more he was convinced he was the wrong man for the job, that if he had been stronger or perhaps someone else entirely, Haurchefant wouldn't have died. And this guilt would follow him into the next adventure, and the one after that, while he pushed through it for the sake of the Scions.
STORMBLOOD
Amal played the role of hero but his spirit wasn't in it. The conflict against Garlemald hit a fever pitch and he was everyone's ace up their sleeve, fighting for independence for two countries he had no ties to as a diplomatic favor. Of course he felt for the subjugated, and of course he didn't support Garlemald in the slightest, but to him it became less about the Resistance and more about taking out his anger and frustration on imperial forces as he cursed his powerlessness. More blood was spilled, and in the end he was even denied the chance to put Zenos' reign to an end, as the prince took his own life. Naturally that wasn't meant to last, though, and he would end up facing down Zenos again and nearly losing to the Ascian possessing his body, as his friends fell unconscious and were spirited to another realm.
SHADOWBRINGERS
That other realm held a familiar voice, the tone of a friend. He heeded the siren's call as he had no other choice at that point and discovered more about the workings of the reflections, the truths hidden from him by Hydaelyn, and how much he hated self-sacrifice. G'raha Tia had taken everything Amal had started and turned it into something beautiful and hopeful and everlasting, had saved these people had given his bitter journey meaning, and only then did Amal finally begin to realize he wasn't alone. No one else was going to do this hero stuff for him. He wasn't destined to be here, though-- he was doing this by his own volition, now. And so, he made a promise he intended to keep: a promise to take his old friend G'raha on a new adventure when they returned home.
Naturally, they only got a brief reprieve before Zenos and his pet cackling robed wizard started bringing about the apocalypse, so this adventure would have to be postponed.
Personality:
🔆 Charming. He is energetic, mostly positive, and very magnetic. He likes to entertain and make people laugh.
🔆 Deceptive. The other side of this is that he hides what he's feeling behind a mask of nonchalance, pretending he hasn't a care in the world when it comes to his own problems.
🔆 Manipulative. He sometimes likes to push buttons for the sake of pushing buttons. He also has a silver tongue and can talk himself out of trouble.
🔆 Puts others first. He wouldn't need to talk himself out of trouble if he stopped running headlong into it in the first place. He'll easily rush in to protect others, which has gotten him nearly killed a few times.
🔆 Impulsive. Violence isn't the answer. It's the question and the answer is 'yes'.
🔆 Thrillseeker. He likes to push the limits, whether it be climbing to great heights, exploring new places, eating food hot enough to burn skin, or simply testing the boundaries of someone's patience.
🔆 Passionate. Amal is truly creative and he loves expressing himself through dance and music. He also loves stories, whether it's telling them or hearing them.
🔆 Distant. Though warm and seemingly straightforward about some things, he keeps people at arm's length. One might realize they know him but don't know what he's thinking. This is by his own design.
🔆 Slow to trust. As a half-elf he earns the ire of some he meets for being neither Hyur nor Elezen, while others treat him as less than human because he's a foreigner and an oddity. He has a high opinion of literally no one. But if someone surprises him in a good way, he might be fond.
🔆 Vain. He takes a lot of pride in his appearance-- his scars, his tattoos, his weirdness, all of it. Dressing and acting provocatively is his way of taking control of the narrative.
🔆 Stubborn. Sometimes he needs to be yelled at a couple times for something to get through his thick head.
🔆 Despises authority. The caste system he grew up with has made him resent the rich and powerful. Ishgard, the frozen land of Catholic elves and nobility, is his least favorite city he's had to live in.
🔆 Lone wolf. He thinks he's better off alone because he just brings misfortune to the people around him, something that comes up later to bite him in the ass. He's working on it, though, and learning to ask for help.
🔆 Thinks he's weak. He still feels like he isn't worthy to be the hero everyone paints him out to be, but he does it because no one else can.
🔆 Haunted. Amal is unable to forgive himself for not being strong enough to save everyone, particularly the man he fell in love with. He has a lot of deep-seated trauma from
all of the head injurieshis checkered past.🔆 Denial. Amal's solution to many of his problems is to run, though he's tired of running at this point. Still, he has held the truth of his troubled background back from the Scions and his other friends, and he ran away from home to escape jail time. Facing the truth is difficult for him.
🔆 Fears abandonment. Though he feels like he needs to shoulder his burdens alone and never tell anyone anything, by that same token he's terrified of being abandoned by the people he loves. His lowest point was when most of his friends were presumed missing or dead and he lost the man he admired.
🔆 Loves freedom. Amal values his personal freedom above all else. If he feels that he's being manipulated or used, he has no problems vanishing.
🔆 Loyal? On the other hand, if something is very dear to him, he will do everything in his power to protect it.
🔆 Share the wealth. Amal is motivated by good deeds. Though he's a shady bastard by choice, he likes to help those less fortunate. He has a soft spot for the poor and downtrodden as he was one of them. He doesn't want fame or fortune, he just wants to be free to travel and make people's lives easier for a time, to meet new people, to... make friends.
🔆 Berserk button. Amal wears so many masks and plays so many roles for people that he sometimes forgets what he's really feeling. He has deep-seated resentment and rage at the way he was treated in the past and-- on rare occasions-- this can end with him losing control.
🔆 Reluctant to forgive and forget. However, if someone shows signs of wanting to repent or they weren't all that bad in the first place, he's willing to keep an eye on them and give them a second chance. Begrudgingly.
🔆 Competitive. Amal loves a good throw down.
🔆 Do no lasting harm... unless you're terrible. Amal isn't afraid to get his hands dirty and kill someone, but he hates doing it unless it's the merciful option or there simply isn't any other choice.
Time of Arrival to Kaisou: Six months! He couch surfs, but otherwise he's been taking jobs exclusively under the table. Labor in cash, busking, bodyguarding, fetching weird ingredients-- he's also good at Miscellaneous Adventurer Stuff on top of petty crime. He doesn't like to kill people though & will only steal from people who are rich and deserve it (in his eyes), which does make him something of an oddity.
Items:
- set of chakrams for throwing
- at least four throwing knives (sorry, it's more weapons)
- one curved dagger/jambiya of Thavnairian make (oh look, another weapon)
- the dancer gear that he's currently wearing
- a well-loved lute (also a weapon, if pressed)
Retained Ability: Ummm his retained ability will be absolutely nothing because Amal's luck is either really good or really bad and nothing in between!