#Holuikhan

[chadhunkler]

FISH INFORMATION TIME YEAYEYAYEYAEYAYEYAYEYAYE

Tagged by @sundered-souls , @oneiroy , and @iron-sparrow ! Thank all of u!!! ♥♥♥♥♥

B A S I C S

Name: Holuikhan Haragin

Nicknames: Holly, Holui, Hol, Fish

Age: around 25-30? But they have no clue, no sun to help keep time.

Nameday: 30th Sun of the 6th Umbral Moon (But they don't know that either)

Race: Au Ra-adjacent fish from the deep sea

Gender: Female

Orientation: What is that (Probably pan, and prefers people she gets to know first)

Profession: Traveling spearfisher, trinket trader (unemployed)

P H Y S I C A L A S P E C T S

Hair: Well contained in a fancy bun, with all the ends just short enough. She didn't like it getting in her face during quick maneuvers undersea. On land, it looks a litle rough, accustomed to the water more. Eyes: Blue, with a variable brightness depending on if she wants them to glow bright or not. Bioluminescence yeyaeyayeyae Skin: Abnormally dark, absorbs light when underwater, also has bioluminescent properties to shimmer and glow, confusing prey. On land, the scales/skin have a hard time with how much light there is, she gets burned easily. To combat this, she has a parasol she takes everywhere! Tattoos/scars: No tattoos, maybe a few bite scars from battling fish.

F A M I L Y

Parents: The two most important people in her life - taught her how to hunt and gather, how to live in the depths she was born in. Siblings: She's probably got siblings, but she hasn't seen them in a while. Grandparents: Unknown. In-laws and Other: None. Pets: A large manta ray, a 'pet' of sorts, more akin to a summon. Helps her travel longer distances underwater by attaching to her back, also providing some protection from the sun.

S K I L L S

Abilities: Expert underwater hunter, using a variety of skills to conceal and confuse - kicking up sand, creating little lights to distract as she zips through the seas. Also able to eat most things with fairly low risk. Living in the deep sea's tough. Hobbies: Exploring and collecting trinkets! She enjoys searching sunken ships for harpoons, gold pieces, bits of armor, anything shiny, along with flowers.

T R A I T S

Most Positive Trait: Always happy! Enjoys new things, nothing scares her.

Most Negative Trait: Stupid fishe, too excited about the new world, will routinely get in trouble because of her instinctual curiosity.

L I K E S

Colors: ALL OF THEM!!!! Sure, bioluminescent blues, purples, greens are pretty, but she's more interested in the colors she's never seen before. Smells: Fish and fishblood. She's also taken a liking to a few underwater plants, keeps some close by both to help mask her scent, and just to smell for herself. (I had to look up if fish can smell) Textures: She needs things to be super smooth, or else it'll irritate her skin. ESPECIALLY beds - if the thing she's trying to sleep on isn't super silky, she'll just go sleep in the water, tying her harpoon to herself and sticking it in the sand so she doesn't drift far. Drinks: Originally it was all water water water. Once she surfaced, she quickly realized the power of fruit juice.

O T H E R D E T A I L S

Smokes: Holly's not come across smoking yet. Drinks: She very recently had alcohol in a fruity cocktail, enjoyed it but felt strange afterwards. She got super dizzy, fell over multiple times. Drugs: She's been stung by a pufferfish once… Not good. Mount Issuance: If you consider the manta ray summon an issued mount, sure, but it can only be underwater. Been Arrested: What's that?

Thank you for reading! aaaah now it's time to tag others uhhh @shroudkeeper @rasenkaikyo @varrok @verysmallcyborg and @miqojak ! If you see this and wanna do it, go for it! I may or may not be doing two more of these for Kasha and Chad, lemme know if u wanna get tagged too!

[karniz]

2021 Commission; A Cast of Characters from Final Fantasy XIV.

Dubbed affectionally as the Shasiverse. Characters from left to right; Reno, Messalina, Vita'ya, Sokhatai, Y'shtola, Syn'thiel, Dzhambul, Shpoki, Holuikhan [Au Ra], Stenya [Hrothgar], Karniz, X'shasi, Thancred, V'jaela, Mani [on phone], Lensha, X'raleth.

Nothing rendered in 3D, no tracing. Yes, I do like to suffer. Hehe~

This was a very extensive project that took about six months from planning to finish. I don't normally offer full blown background art in any commission, but I have exceptions for an exceptional person.

♥ you star, you are truly a patron of the arts. [and soon to be Blender masstterrrr!]

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Get Early Access to illustrations & commission work I do when you become a Supporter! [Yes, these illustrations are fairly old!]

♥ Be a Supporter today! For more information and details, visit my: ✐ Patreon; patreon.com/karniz/ ✐ Ko-fi; ko-fi.com/karniz

[paintedscales]

Does your OC find it easy to remember names or faces? Do they need to write things down in order to remember them properly? Perhaps they rely upon others to remind them?

Thank you so much for the ask! Sorry it took me a bit to get around to it. ; w ; ! ♥

Herbal OC Questions

Looking back on my writing in recent time and seeing some trends I've given Nomin -- whether consciously or not -- it seems I've more a penchant for making her forget some names and some faces. There's a girl from the Dataq tribe who Nomin met (Holuikhan) where she remembers that they got along during their time together because they both had scales that were splotchy or different from other Xaela. But... five or six years down the line, and that's all Nomin can remember. She can't remember her name.

Similarly, there was someone within the Jhungid tribe that she met, and later on, she was just, "who... is this guy?" Someone who she trained with on occasion, but she felt like he didn't really make an impact on her enough to really remember his name or face.

Now, on the flip side, there's someone that Nomin met within the Dotharl tribe (Arik), and he is remembered, name and face. But she also gave him something that was meaningful to her in a way. So he probably always stuck in the back of her mind; "I wonder if he still has that piece of copper I gave him." Stuff like that.

And then there are instances like Laurentius, who she did remember just because he kind of made himself memorable with run around he gave her. Just to fuck with him, she asked him who he was again (she doesn't like him. At all).

All circumstantial, I feel!

[canalstreetbaker]

I GOT A THING

@starcunning had a Crimbo present done of Holuikhan Borlaaq, who does not understand what fat is and believes dzo are to be wrestled and not ridden.

@karniz does excellent art (as you can plainly see) and I am uncertain as to how much fudge to send on return.

Many is the likely answer. Many fudge.

[chadhunkler]

Tarot Cards

made some tarot cards for my characters!

Chad, Ace of Swords - "The moment in which one can see the world from a new point of view, as a place that is filled with nothing but new possibilities."

Kasha, Ten of Wands - "You are now the sole problem solver, flooded with responsibilities to maintain success."

Holuikhan, Seven of Cups - "A dreamer who is both excited and afraid of the things they see."

[chadhunkler]

I was tagged for WIP Wednesday by @iona-xiv !!! (didn't have time to answer yesterday ;_;)

i have so many thing kinda hanging in my brainspace, between Chad eye ideas (eyedeas? hmm), Kasha meeting new yokai/showing them to Toyo, and maybe getting Chad into the adventuring business. The biggest thing, though, would probably be the new character I'm working on, Holuikhan Haragin!

She's from a part of the Haragin tribe that split off and swam deep into the Ruby Sea generations ago, a place where no light touches. Still working on the nitty-gritty of her backstory/lore, but I've got the basics down, and some neat physical descriptions sort-of based on real life! Did you know there's certain deep-sea fish that have capsule-shaped melanin cells that absorb an insane amount of light? I took that and modified it a bit, so her skin's super dark underwater, and her fins/scales/eyes can shine bioluminescence like an anglerfish to attract prey! yeyeyeyeye fishe

Thank you again for tagging me! I'm gonna tag @archaiclumina @airis-ray @oneiroy @sealrock @shroudkeeper @verysmallcyborg @rasenkaikyo @captainkurosolaire @ythealleycat @cadrenebula @varrok and anyone else who'd like to! To be honest, I'd ping everyone I'm following if I could

[chadhunkler]

Send 🌟 for a screenshot associated with fame or renown. [For whoever you'd like!]

Kasha's probably the best fit for fame/renown, even though her reputations a little shaky... Chad's barely known in the world, and Holuikhan's even less so - at least Kasha has /some/ sort of rep, being a powerful Onmyoji.

Thanks for the ask!

[chadhunkler]

Send 🧞‍♂️for a screenshot associated with wishes or hopes.

Tried to do something a little ambitious, might be too much....

Holuikhan thinking about all the places she could go! So many things she just HAS to see!

Thanks for the ask!

[karniz]

Patreon Early Access: Holuikhan Borlaaq from FFXIV ♥ view on my patreon @ patreon.com/karniz/ ♥

Interested in being a Patron? If you enjoy my work, for only one dollar a month, you get access to monthly sketch requests by me as well as early access to commissions & illustrations I’ve done! There is also a Patreon-exclusive commission queue which includes full body quick commissions!

[canalstreetbaker]

Prompt #30: Darkness

@sea-wolf-coast-to-coast

I could probably write a book on this scene.  Or at least a third of a book.

Go on and save yourself for someone else.

---

Everything hurt. 

Above her, a twinkling blanket of lights glittered in the yawning void.  Smoking balls of earth and flame descended as if called into being by providence, lazily falling to the sphere below.

Home.  

To hear Emet-Selch describe it, the things C’arliani Khilo was experiencing were portions of the Doom of Amaurot, when the laws of reality became warped and the Star itself decided it would wipe itself clean of the masters of Creation.

These, of course, were things she already knew.  

The Miqo’te lay on her back, staring upward.  The blast from Emet-Selch’s magic had torn open an earlier wound and she could feel her life’s blood ebbing from a new rent in her body - contained, as it was, by her armor.  The rest of the Scions were down, but Holuikhan was making her way towards the Ascian.

Step.  By agonizing.  Step.

It’s nearly time, a voice said.

Indeed, said another.  It is time for our part to be played.

In the periphery of C’arliani’s vision, she could see three sets of feet.  One passed her by, the Hyur they belonged to giving her the barest of nods as he walked to the Xaela who was collapsed in a heap, the Light she had absorbed from the First trying to break free.  Without assistance, she would clearly fail.

She won’t fail, the voice said.

C’arliani could feel her breath catch in her lungs as Fray helped her up.  Shattoto lent her cane - and her power - and the Miqo’te could feel her pains subside.  

“Are we certain?” she asked.

“Yes,” Fray said.  “You know what we must do.”

---

To the Hurricane, the stillness of the Doom of Amaurot was anathema.  

To her empty palm, the grit of dirt and crystal prevented the flow of aether to her chakra.  The slick earth prevented her feet from finding purpose.  

To her sight, the Light that she had been tricked into taking, the Blessing-Yet-Curse that had been delivered to her - blinded her.  

Holuikhan collapsed.  The collective efforts of the Scions had met with failure as their impassioned pleas for survival - coupled with their efforts, as they were - came to naught.  The Ascian would have his due, and for the sins of another this lone Xaela would bring a second Doom to the First - and perhaps to the Steppes from whence she came.  

Such thoughts were enough to fill her with rage, but her body - broken, Light-swollen as it was - betrayed her at every moment.  The saccharine taste of pure Light-aspected aether caused her to choke, filling her sinuses with mucous the consistency of honey inexplicably gone rancid.

And yet, as she lie there with her vision turning white, Holuikhan saw a familiar pair of feet.

Ardbert had returned.  The Shade of the First.had stood next to Holuikhan as she spat up pure, concentrated Light and asked the simplest of questions.

If you could take another step and save this world, would you do it?

“What could I say but yes?” Holui said.

Then let us do this together.

A blinding flash enveloped the Xaela, blinding all who beheld it.  

---

C’arliani took step after confident step towards the Ascian and the Warrior of Light, strength flowing back into her limbs as the shadows of her soul fed her the aether required to remain alive.  There was enough of it in the air, after all - and Light-aspected aether was ideal for keeping things in stasis.

Things such as wounds, for example.  

She stood next to Holuikhan as the Xaela closed her eyes and dropped into the most basic of unarmed stances.  Around her, the Light swelled and twisted, forming great clouds of pure energy.

The Hurricane had come to Amaurot, and Holuikhan Borlaaq was its Eye.

“You yet stand,” she said, eyes still closed.  Ardbert’s focus had given her a keen insight as to the workings of the aether within her, and while it took all of her focus to twist it, the Xaela could see beyond her sight.

Emet-Selch would not take this lying down.

“I do,” C’arliani replied, shouldering her battle-scarred blade.  “What do you need from me?”

“Can you keep him in place for six heartbeats?” Holuikhan asked.

“If you aim for his heart,” C’arliani said, “Yes.  I will give you six heartbeats.”

Holuikhan nodded.  “I will remember this.”

---

Hades was furious.  These upstart things had bested his memories of the Doom.  His friend was a split, shattered thing - and the one beside her was no better! He had shot the one when he took the Exarch, but the cat.  Yet.  Stood.

Even now, as he looked at them both, the spot of darkness and the point of light conmingled, shifting into one and then the other.  Yet, even as he looked, he could see the darkness step forth, formless void taking shape into-

“No,” he spat, horrified.  “It couldn’t be you!”

“Hello again,” C’arliani said, letting her blade fall to the earth.  “Old friend.”

“I can’t believe it!” Emet-Selch thundered.  “I shan’t believe it!”

“Allow me to disappoint you,” the Miqo’te replied, and she moved with a speed unlike anyone considered mortal.

---

While nether one of them held weapons, the Ascian and the Miqo’te battled as if they were heavily armed.  They moved and weaved, seeking and exploiting weaknesses, only to be blocked away as either grew close.  

This will not do, C’arliani thought.  It is time.

“How does it feel,” she asked as she parried another blow, “To murder your old friend?”

“How dare you!” was the response.  “You are nothing!  She died before the very thought of your species’ existence was a speck of imagination!”

“And what will you do about it?” she asked.  “Hades, who carries the false memories of millions?  Hades, who failed?”

There was no response but rage.  Darkness swelled around the two as the Ascian grew two, three, five times in size.  Bare hands grew to claws that grasped for C’arliani, slashed at her, pulled at the armor, and crushed.

Ah. There.

With a burst of energy from a failing body, the Miqo’te slipped through, bursting past the Ascian’s guard, her own arms slipping through the unholy form to find the being underneath.  From the outside, all one could see was a glimmer of light in a swell of pitch black.

It was the only signal Holuikhan required, and with a step, reality shifted.

---

Time slowed to a crawl.  

C’arliani came face-to-face with Hades, eyes locked.  Blood dribbling from wounds too terrible to mention, she could only smile with bloodstained lips, tears crinkling from mismatched eyes.

“Listen to my voice,” she said.

"What is this?” Hades asked.  

“Listen to our heartbeats,” she whispered.

What?  What are you doing? came the response inside.

“Listen,” C’arliani said with a smile as the Light swelled within and without.

Holuikhan Borlaaq’s fist met with flesh, and then passed through.  Augmented with the full Light absorbed from a world out of balance, the energy was forced into a single point, penetrating two beings out of time.

“I forgive you,” she told Hades.

“I forgive you,” she told Hydaelyn.

“I forgive you,” she told herself.

In Hades’ eyes, there was understanding.  And, perhaps, relief.

Light filled C’arliani Khilo, and in those moments she thought of the place her heart called home.

---

A woman appeared on a snowy bluff overlooking the towering spires of Ishgard.  Crafted as if by the Lifestream itself, she was clad in naught but thick hooded robes, though the hood itself was pushed back to let russet hair and furry ears blow in the chilling winds.

Alighting upon the snow, she made her way to the bluff’s edge where an Elezen man sat, gazing in serene wonder at the spires below.  With an exhausted sigh, the woman flopped to a seat next to him, and worked an arm around his waist.

“I’m home,” C’arliani Khilo said.

“The things you do to be remembered,” Haurchefant Greystone said with a smile. “Will you be staying long?”

“I have all the time in the world,” she replied.  

Both sat upon the edge of the bluff, locked in each other’s arms, while behind them were a pair of gravestones, their script long faded.  All that remained, preserved as if by the will of the star itself, was a shield broken by lance. 

And a leather-bound tome of poetry, author unknown.

[canalstreetbaker]

Prompt #28: Attune

@sea-wolf-coast-to-coast

---

Holuikhan Borlaaq pulled her scarred hands away from the crystal, the aether flows attuned with the rest of the network.  Above her, a towering precipice of crystal cast what little shadow this world - The First - received.  

It had been a journey, of sorts, to get to this place, bodily thrown as she was from the depths of a dig in Mor Dhona to here.  And yet, here she was - an oddly dressed man of half-crystal had bade her come, and now she had a way to return.  

Yet for the ability, Holui didn’t feel a pressing need to sweep an Eorzean battlefield clean once more.  Here, in a world that knew no darkness, she would find the rest of the Scions and journey forth to get to the bottom of this new and unique mystery.  She turned from the aetherite to start towards the Crystarium tower, though she quickly stopped short.

In the archway between her and the grand staircase that led into the Tower proper stood a figure clad in black armor, a battered greatsword on her back.  

“What are you doing here?” Holuikhan asked.  Her hands slowly curled into fists, and the glare from her eyes could melt stone.

“I can explain,” C’arliani Khilo said, “If you’ll give me a-”

The Miqo’te was blasted back into the main plaza as Holuikhan’s fist met steel.  The Xaela had moved faster than the eye could follow and her fist had carried untold years of rage.

Below her, the clattering and screeching of metal came to a halt as C’arliani lay on her back, looking up at the sky.

“I deserved that,” she wheezed.

[canalstreetbaker]

Prompt #26: Slosh

@sea-wolf-coast-to-coast

hey isn’t it awesome when you get 26 days into writing an AU fic and realize you’ve been spelling one of the deuteroganist’s names wrong this whole time?

yeah that’s me

---

“Hold still.”

Holuikhan Borlaaq, called The Hurricane by some, stood next to a young Elezen boy upon a isle floating in a sea of clouds.  They both were in a partial squat with their backs straight and their hands clenched in fists at their sides, looking straight ahead as a Miqo’te woman delicately balanced teacups on their heads.  

“You’re certain of this?” C’arliani Khilo asked.  “It would be just as well for me to teach him to swing a blade.”

“No,” Honoraint said.  “I would like to try the Warrior of Light’s way!”

The diminutive Elezen boy was currently on loan from House Fortemps as his master had charged off with a unit to acquire glory and fortune for their House and Kingdom - perhaps not necessarily in that order, but one can never be too sure.  As neither the Warrior of Light nor her unusually sanguine companion had anything directly ordered of them, they found that fulfilling Honoraint’s request of training was an excellent use of time and space in the endless blue sea.

C’arliani wrinkled her nose and looked to Holuikhan, who in turn looked straight ahead.  Nominally serious, the Xaela’s eyes had a glimmer of enjoyment as the corners of her mouth tugged in a smile.  

“Continue,” she said, and C’arliani could but nod.  

“Very well.”

“You will remain still and in this stance for as long as you are able,” Holuikhan said.  “This is the stance we use for riding, be it dzo, or horse, or shar’dzo.  Your power builds from here, and when someone tries to push you, it is they that will fall.”

“What’s a shardzo?” Honoraint asked.

C’arliani laughed, removing the kettle from a crackling fire nearby.  

“She means a chocobo.  In the language of the Steppe peoples, a shar is a bird.  A dzo is a larger animal, not as large as the mammoths, but used for meat and milk and packing.  Now hold still as the Warrior of Light says, or you’ll spill the tea.”

With great care, the Miqo’te poured a steaming liquid into the teacups that the two wore as hats.  The surface of one remained as glass while Holuikhan exhaled and fell stone still.

Honoraint, to his credit, was able to mimic this for a full minute before the trembling in his legs traveled up his torso and into the teacup.  The liquid inside began to ripple, then slosh over the sides as the squire’s eyes screwed shut.  It was all he could do to try and stay standing.

“You’re trying too hard,” Holuikhan said.  “You must release the fear you carry within.  Let it fly from you as you breathe.  Slowly.”

 The squire was all a-jitter as he tried to exhale as the Xaela did.  Honoraint gulped air in so he could breathe out for a long, slow moment - though as he did, a fly managed to get caught in the inhalation.  

It was a full moment before he realized what he’d done, and he collapsed in a coughing, yelping fit as he was drenched in tea.

[canalstreetbaker]

12. List some items your character deems valuable, and would like to keep around. Either because of usefulness, sentiment, or monetary value!

C’arliani possesses a shield of particular make and heraldry that I’m certain many others would should they exist in my headcanon.  I’ll leave that to you to guess what. 

She also has a scrap of fabric taken from the body of one Zenos yae Galvus, a brilliant shade of scarlet and quality only known to the elite of Garlemald.  It’s used as a polishing rag.

Holuikhan Borlaaq (Holli to her friends, Hurricane to those who aren’t) keeps a Dzo tooth that was the very first thing she punched out of another thing.  Naturally, the Dzo knocked her on her ass and shuffled off to greener pastures, but the tooth is kept on a thin leather strap around her neck.  

Holli also has a pouch filled with a strongly-smelling concoction of herbs ground down and mixed with this-and-that to make as close to an approximation of IcyHot that Eorzea can manage.  She punches a lot of stuff, and it’s great for working the soreness out.

[canalstreetbaker]

11. Does your character pay attention to politics? Why or why not? / 6. Does your character worship any gods? Why or why not? / 5. Where is your character’s ideal place to live? What are their reasons?

:D

> 11. Does your character pay attention to politics? Why or why not?

C’arli and Holli are of the same mind.  They don’t pay attention to politics and don’t really care for the Greatest Game beyond what it forces/allows them to do.  Both of them are wanderers for different reasons - C’arli is trying to escape something, Holli is doggedly searching for the experience of everything.

Conversely, Estrelle is very keen on the political situation as it ties directly into her personal fortunes.  If Dzmael is ascendant, then she may be relegated to a backwater posting as the Valeriant name is not well regarded in those circles. Her loyalty is to Ishgard first and her family second - as it should be - and she is keenly aware of when and how she may be poised to take advantage of a particular situation.

> 6. Does your character worship any gods? Why or why not?

C’arliani does not.  She was born under the sign of Oscheon, the Wanderer (of which, hey, she totally adheres to) but if any of the Twelve were inclined to answer prayers then why the hell didn’t they lift a finger?

Their summoning during the battle at Cartenau is conveniently ignored.

Estrelle worships Halone.  God, she’s so stereotypical.  I think above all, though, she worships the strength and honor of the Ishgardian people.  I cannot wait to send her through Heavensward.

Holuikhan, being a Borlaaq, reveres Nhaama the Dusk Mother.  

> 5. Where is your character’s ideal place to live? What are their reasons?

C’arli has none.  Home is whatever inn is nearby when she drops dead asleep.  She’s got a bedroll and some basic camping equipment lashed to the back of the weird little airship she somehow acquired out of the Alphascape and prefers to spend her time outside the normal confines of civilization, yet near water.

Coincidentally she really likes the Ruby Sea and Yanxia.

CONTRARY TO MY STEREOTYPE Estrelle would prefer a homey cabin perhaps in The Lavender Beds or a nice stucco home in Mist.  She is a sucker for warmer climates, but as always duty will trump personal comfort.

Finally, Holuikhan is comfortable with a hide tent on a plain somewhere and a couple dzo to keep her company.  Of course, she’d carve that tent out of a Behemoth if she got a hold of one.

(She’ll probably get a hold of one.)