#some tauvane backstory :]

[sealrock]

the order of saint jehanne ; a look into the past

motto: rage of the fury, temperance of the maiden

active: c. 1410-1558 (148 years)

the order of saint jehanne, sometimes known as the blue sorority, was an officially endorsed ishgardian military order comprised of female knights and were active participants in the dragonsong war. fighting alongside their brothers in arms roughly 150 years since they've been founded, the order set an example for coerthan women everywhere.

rich or poor, young or old, the order accepted any who would answer the call. the knights that joined the order, known by the commoners as 'swordsisters', served for life. taking a strict vow of celibacy and following the creed of the order's patron saint, the swordsisters dedicated their waking moments to honoring the fury, helping the destitute, and striking down the dravanian horde at any cost.

history:

'the blessed one, jehanne tarc' (c. 1340) painted by beittent de tofaux (1276-1356), oil on canvas

jehanne tarc (c. 1154-1173), once a poor farmgirl in the coerthan lowlands, lived a short but illustrious life that propelled her to sainthood two hundred years after her death. hers is a tale that's been spoken by bards and idolized by the smallfolk long after she returned to the earth: guided by visions from none other than the fury herself, jehanne led a campaign of victorious battles against the dravanian horde, only to fall in a fiery blaze by her archenemies.

purportedly the third daughter of eight children, jehanne lived a simple and uneventful life. she was fourteen when she received her first vision of halone, surrounded by her valiant knights in resplendent golden armor; it was said she wept for days afterward for that she could not believe the fury would reveal herself to such a lowly servant. the visions continued soon after that, but instead of being fearful, jehanne fully embraced her visitations—even if no one believed her.

around this time, rumors of a prophecy descended from the highlands about an armored maiden would come forth and strike a grievous blow against nidhogg's horde. lady reinette also lived in the same period as jehanne, but she had already put down her lance to devote herself to the church after avenging her beloved.

at sixteen, jehanne's family was killed when the village was razed to the ground by amelth, a fiercesome and high-ranking dragon with impenetrable scales that has already devastated the armed forces of the holy see's temple knights. believing the prophecy to be true and seeking revenge, jehanne rode to the capital and demanded an audience with the archbishop of the period. backed by her visions of the fury, jehanne was given the archbishop's blessing to fight. with no military training or skills in weaponry, jehanne quickly proved herself to be blessed by the fury. her arrival bolstered the moral of the troops no one has seen before or since her death, and with her leading the charge the holy see managed to drive back the horde at a pace no one could believe.

at eighteen, jehanne struck down amelth; for three days and three nights, they fought a bitter battle that ultimately ended with jehanne as the victor. with so many battles won, the people of ishgard viewed her as the fury reborn. but with all good things, they must come to an end. a year later, jehanne was nineteen years old when she was killed in retaliation by amelth's brood. facing death unflinchingly, jehanne's life was snuffed out by dragonfire.

surprisingly, the church was slow to canonize jehanne as a saint, much like they did saint reinette, despite her glories and virtures. in 1309, jehanne was beatified and canonized as a virgin saint to the cheers of the lowlands who had venerated her. it would take another century before the military order would be founded in her name. with much of her life embellished by folktales and song, jehanne continues to inspire many of the commonfolk.

during her life, jehanne never wavered in her faith and maintained her maidenhood when many men wanted her hand in marriage. she devoted herself fully to halone, and in death her virginity was recognized as her most admirable trait. this sentiment was followed by the order to the fullest, its swordsisters vowing to never fall in love with anyone, for their mission would be compromised by mortal desires.

insignia:

the order's coat of arms was humble in design; its chequy pattern of white and blue was not meant to be excessive or ostentatious, much like the order's patron saint. the white symbolized the swordsisters' unwavering and unsullied purity, while the blue represented the fury's grace and divine favor to her knights.

attire:

the order, being both a military unit and a community of religious sisters, has two modes of dress: combat and clerical.

the order's combat uniform consists of the medium armor variety—a mix of leather, metal, and chainmail. the tunic worn by the swordsisters consists of the same chequy pattern as their coat of arms, quickly distinguishing themselves from temple knights and dragoons alike. the helms worn by the order offers protection in close-quarters combat: while other knights wear enclosed helms in battle, the order opted to use a crowned mail coif with an open, but barred, visor to improve vision.

while most can identify the order's offensive soldiers, those who wield swords, lances, and maces, the order carries defensive swordsisters who are the healers and mages of their units. they wear the same uniform as the offense.

when not in active duty, members of the order fulfill their daily tasks around their convents in their clerical dress. more ornate (and at times offensive to the more conservative members of the church) than a simple nun's habit, it follows the same pattern of elements with the tunic, coif and veil, but decorated with stripes and jewels.

internal organization:

the order has a hierarchy like any other order in coerthas. while it's easier to refer to everyone in the order as swordsister, they are organized by 'levels':

quaternaire: aka the reverend mother. an elderly head of the order usually elected with votes after serving half of her life to the organization. like her name suggests, the reverend mother runs the convent much like a parent would, with a strict no-nonsense attitude. she received the vows of the swordsisters, admit new candidates, or send them out on missionary work or to the battlefield to offer aid.

tertiaire: after a certain amount of years have passed, or if the younger sister excelled in her work, she'll graduate to become a tertiaire, or 'older sister'. these swordsisters are most common in the field as their survival skills, discipline, and dedication lead them to confront dragons head on. besides combat expertise, some older sisters are more adept to administrative work, performing religious rites, and overlooking the younger sisters and novices.

secondaire: primaires who pass the training are officially initiated into the order, thus becoming secondaires. they are called 'younger sister [x]' as a form of address. contact with the outside world would be cut off from this point forward. the initiate would then receive a new name chosen from the church's beatified saints or known virtues to signify her 'death' to the world. these new sisters continue to receive training from the higher-ups, and their responsibilities are given based on skill. they apprentice under the older sisters in the field and in the convent.

primaire: fresh faces to the order who must undergo a rigorous, and often torturous, physical and mental training initiation that last for one year. during this period, novices are not addressed with special titles, they're allowed to maintain contact with family and friends, and if they choose to, leave the order if they're not capable of enduring the training. novices endure no penalty.

the training initiation does not spare bright-eyed girls and women from its wrath; most novices leave after 3 months of training. only the resolute and pious souls of halone are able to suffer through it. it was modeled after the trials of saint jehanne to bring those closer to the tribulations she once did.

even after becoming a swordsister, one must continue to prove their worth to the saint and to grow closer to the fury through mortifying their flesh (abstinence, self-flagellation, wearing a chain cilice, steam baths as penance). to know what the patron saint went through, the swordsisters put aside their apprehension to train both body and soul in the ways of the maiden. their faith makes it so they can stare down the enemy with no fear.

the end of the line:

once a woman is initiated, she cannot leave under any circumstances. to serve halone is to serve for life, and that means laying down your life in the name of the fury without fear. a swordsister renounces worldly pleasures in the name of her patron saint, and to consider leaving is akin to heresy in the order, often punishable by death.

alas, their mission was cut short by one of their own. the order was destroyed from within by someone whose heart was anchored with mortal desires and temptations. none survived except for the traitor.

older sister tauvane, now tauvane the godless, turned her back on her swordsisters. once a bastard babe born in the sins of her parents, she was given to the care of the swordsisters who treated her as one of their own. while society didn't accept her, the order saw her as who she was: a lost lamb needing guidance. but she committed the ultimate form of treachery in the act of love.

a young temple knight, a heretic injured in battle and nursed back to health by sister tauvane, lured her away from the order. justice was wrought on the nonbeliever, but tauvane retaliated in the most horrific way imaginable: aligning herself with the enemy. the order of saint jehanne was wiped out by tauvane, once a beloved sister and friend, in the year 1558. she nows leads a crusade of her own—a war with the holy see in the name of her beloved.

may the fury receive her flock with open arms and cast down the wicked.

[sealrock]

been rotating my sadboy hector in my mind like a hot pocket in the microwave for a while, here's a very long random lore dump in no particular order as I write up his backstory:

like gaia, hector doesn't remember much of his past. he's not sure if his name is even his real name, but people tend to accept 'hector wormwood' despite his garlean origin well enough

his memory is spotty and he can't go into detail much, but he can recall his nameday, living in a place with bright blue roofs (terncliff), a white room, and that he had a twin sister who died early in his life. he can't remember his parents or the life he lived before he 'woke up' in the middle of the dravanian hinterlands

he met andromache on the road and joined her group of adventurers (yves and tauvane). the four of them took on odd jobs and hunted down monsters for the clan centurio. he would later be romantically involved with her and have a child (paris)

his third eye is usually hidden behind his bangs, and he doesn't like to talk about it with others. he doesn't know why, but he experiences negative emotions when someone points out his third eye

he's very withdrawn and skittish and is intimidated by others to the point that he'll freeze up if someone tries to take advantage of him. which happens often

he likes horticulture and cooking. when he lived in the west shroud hector had a beautiful garden of flowers, vegetables, and fruits

he doesn't remember how he ended up in eorzea, he just knows that he's running from something

at some point he picked up a rusted sickle to defend himself with, but he's not that good at melee combat

he's extremely short for a garlean, standing at 5'4. yves liked to pat his head and call him 'mouse' despite hector's embarrassment

he doesn't like being around other people, bad things always happens to others whenever he's around, usually death. hector blames 'the shadow' that's been following him for as long as he can remember (the shadow is halmarut without a human vessel, not that hector knows this)

the shadow is something that hector is most afraid of, even though the entity has saved his life countless times. this was halmarut's plan in making hector isolated and totally dependent on them

similar to gaia and her time/darkness skillset, hector has shadow-based abilities a la nier that are seemingly psionic in nature, and deadly to boot. garleans can't manipulate aether, but how hector can be able to apparently summon dark aether is a question even he can't answer. he hates using his powers because of its malevolent nature and will apologize to those he has to fight

he has terrible and horrifying nightmares and hallucinations because of the shadow. sometimes he'll be found on the floor in a ball or crying

besides the shadow, hector is followed by the 'spirit' of his dead sister, she speaks to him at times and hector appears to address no one. this tends to creep people out

andromache and yves can't see the shadow, but they feel an menacing and oppressive presence hovering around hector at times. but paris could actually see the shadow and shared their father's fear of it as a child, especially at night

hector hates the feeling of being stared at, people who tend to stare tend to not have good intentions. he feels like he's being watched 24/7

hector has a near 1:1 counterpart shard on the first that halmarut attempted to possess. the joining was unsuccessful, however, and the shard ended up going mad because his soul was damaged. he was killed by andromache and paris during the events of shb

when halmarut's influence began to overtake him, hector's mental state slowly began to deteriorate when paris was a child. hector began to remember a life he never had and a dream of a burning world. the straw that broke the camel's back came when andromache, who already left him because of his descent into madness, wished to take paris with her and away from hector, leaving him completely alone. the resulting mental breakdown was what halmarut needed to possess him

[sealrock]

last line tag

I was tagged by @archaiclumina for this meme, ty for the tag!

Rules: Post the last sentence you wrote and tag as many people as there are words.

Tauvane found it ironic that she had a son who looked so much like her and her father—Tauvane had a boy that she should've been.

something I wrote in tauvane's backstory draft before I clean it up one last time, here's some tauvane musings just after she gave birth to achille and a peek into her thoughts

I won't be tagging anyone for this, so I'm leaving this an open tag. feel free to do it if you want! :D

[sealrock]

some extremely scattered thoughts dealing with achille and his overall backstory that have been haunting me this week under the cut:

when I first made achille I imagined him as a high energy and equally rageful young man with the power to knock out a crowd with his trusty axe. his title of 'stormlord' and storms in general were meant to reflect this as he was originally born on the open seas and has the temper of a raging hurricane, but things have changed since then. I could say that I indirectly based him off of the myth of susanoo

I obviously based achille and tauvane off of thetis and achilles from the iliad, I just restructured their names to fit the elezen naming convention and their relationship as mother and son is completely different from their counterparts: despite her failed attempt of making him immortal, thetis genuinely cared for achilles, did everything in her power to help in during the trojan war, and greatly mourned his death, tauvane has always regarded achille as her biggest mistake and refused to get close to him, which led to her abandoning him

tauvane (aka thetinne) in this instance is not a god or related to anything godly, she does not have supernatural powers or inhuman strength, she is a simple mortal. this is where things diverge for them as I originally made achille's father a random no-name npc of the ruby sea confederacy tauvane met during her flight from eorzea. but with mount rokkon and the lore within it (I still have to finish the whole thing but one particular boss kickstarted this whole thing), it's been making the wheels in my head kick into overdrive

with his father's (whose name I haven't figured out yet still) overall mysterious origins and possibly being connected to mount rokkon, I started molding lil plot points for him:

he was a simple monk who was raised at the temple and just so happens to see spirits, he was forced to flee due to circumstances against him when he was younger

he was born into a family of demon slayers or priests who exorcised the realm. a relative came into contact with a powerful yokai, said yokai cursed his bloodline for all eternity to succumb to 'the rage of the beast', which would pass from father to son

he's a kami or yokai in disguise and wanted to live amongst humans out of curiosity, he fell in love with a mortal who ended up breaking his heart

so in essence, achille is not a regular human; I've wanted to subtly hint at the prospect of him having some sort of extraordinary power the more I would reveal his backstory. maybe it's as simple as achille can see spirits but has no idea why, or maybe he's a vessel for a powerful and destructive demon that feeds off of his anger and grief. time will tell