5 Character Associations: A'myrrhis

↠ Emotions

✽ love in all its facets ✽ hope against all odds ✽ courage to face the unknown ✽ perseverance in the face of adversity ✽ grief for those lost

↠ Colors

✽ a rich red ✽ a deep black ✽ a slightly tarnished gold ✽ a brilliant white ✽ a soft violet

↠ Scents

✽ a crisp ocean breeze ✽ freshly chopped wood ✽ flowers ✽ worn leather ✽ the smokey smell of a warm fire

↠ Objects

✽ a well-loved wooden hair clip ✽ a crystalline necklace ✽ a matching pair of bracelets ✽ a sturdy shield with hairline fractures ✽ a portrait of her family, carefully tucked away and kept close to her heart

↠Body Language

✽ a steady, open gaze and confident posture ✽ reassuring touches; squeezing someone's shoulder or ruffling someone's hair ✽ subtle ear twitches that give away lies ✽ humming quietly to herself while doing mundane tasks ✽ absentmindedly playing with her hair when in thought

↠ Aesthetics

✽ the endless open sky ✽ a crackling campfire under the stars ✽ sparks of magic, and of steel hitting steel ✽ a meadow of wildflowers stretching as far as the eye can see ✽ warm hands firmly holding on to each other

listen. i'm gonna be honest. i don't like the sunseeker miqote lore where it's like oh the women are for all intents and purposes a harem and only one guy in every clan gets to fuck to "keep the blood strong" or whatever, like there is so much to unpack here that's just.... ehhhhh. so idc how lorebreaking it is but a'myrrhis' parents def didn't care about this and her dad is def very much "just" a tia. like they were both sailors who met and fell in love and decided you know what fuck tradition we're moving to a small fishing village at the ass end of nowhere and have a litter of kittens (read: 2, myrri and her lil sis a'ruta) and anyone who judges us for that can eat shit.

after all the pandaemonium stuff went down you can BET that myrri came bursting through thancred's door mum holy fuck style to give him all the dirt on lahabrea and that he not only turned out to have been a dad but a SHITTY one at that, and then they just proceed to drag his ass over a bottle of wine or two for the next six hours or so. i feel like that would be fun and cathartic for both of them :)

Have some Myrri lore because I can't sleep despite being exhausted from travelling, and I have nothing else to do:

- She comes from Venko, a village in traditional Veena Viera territory, so the forests bordering the Skatay Range. Other than that though her village used to be pretty non-traditional, only very loosely following the Green Word, mostly by respecting and caring for the forest. There was no seperation of genders though, no wood-warders, and the village frequently welcomed outside visitors in the form of traders due to being relatively close to the forest's southern edge (about 3 days of travel).

- Her mother is the chieftess and her father was a hunter and woodworker. As the oldest child her mom put a lot of pressure on her from a young age on to grow into a good leader who had their people's best interests in mind at all times to take over her position one day, and Myrri struggled with not wanting to let her mom down while also not really being that interested in the responsibilities in the first place. She preferred to go hunt and forage with her dad, since she loved to roam and wander the forest more than being confined in the village.

- The rose she wears in her hair is actually a carved and painted wooden hairclip her dad made for her. It also has a small vitality enchantment because her dad knew she was struggling and hoped it would just be a lil extra boost to keep her spirits up.

- She was about 10 years old when the Garleans invaded Dalmasca, and soon their village's proximity to the forest's edge which had helped it to thrive for so long proved to be its downfall as it didn't take long for them to get attacked. Though the adults tried to organize a defense they soon got overwhelmed - many died fighting back, many got taken prisoners, and what little survivors remained scattered and retreated deeper into the forest.

- Her dad was one of the unfortunate who got taken prisoners. Her mom, who had been fighting after entrusting her children to those fleeing to safety, managed to escape alive. Once the Garleans were gone she gathered the survivors and they retreated as deep into the forest as possible to tend to their wounds, mourn their dead, and eventually begin the painful process of rebuilding their lives.

- Her mother and the entire village changed after this. It was decided that they would adhere to the traditional Viera way of life from now on, that maybe by following the green word as it was intended the forest would protect them from another tragedy like this. And so men left the village, the women stayed, and any outsiders were to be kept away - those mostly came in the form of desperate refugees, the few and far in-between who had been driven deep enough into the forest by fear of the Garleans and survived long enough to stumble over their village. But the doors stayed closed and Venko's guardians, with arrows and blades pointed, would tell them to get lost. Growing up Myrri lost count of all those desperate, fearful faces she had seen turned away, dirty and gaunt, some begging, some bargaining, some demanding to be let in but all being left to the mercy of the forest. And as she grew older she began trying to speak up, but nobody listened, so she had to learn to live with the growing sense of guilt building up in her chest.

- Her pivotal moment came after she ended up befriending a refugee who was hiding out in the ruins of their old village which Myrri liked to frequently return to to be alone. A miqo'te girl, called A'ruta, who had escaped from a garlean labour camp after being shipped there all the way from far away Eorzea. Over the following weeks Myrri returned regularly and brought her supplies and showed her how to hunt and forage, but after a close call with a Garlean patrol she finally decided to take her to Venko, hoping she could sway her mother to make an exception just this once and allow A'ruta to live with them.

- Her mom would not be swayed. Which was the point where Myrri was like Alright then. If you won't let her stay, then I will take her back to Eorzea myself. Because her loved ones are praying for her to come home just like we are waiting for our loved ones to return, and while doing this might not bring THEM home I can only hope that someone out there will extend them a helping hand when they need it most as well. And so Myrri left her home with her new friend, knowing fully well she would never be able to return, but too fed up to care.

- Getting to Eorzea was a long and arduous jorney but by the time they made it A'ruta and Myrri were close like sisters, and after reuniting with her clan Myrri stayed with them, basically getting adopted into the family.

- By that time she actually still went by her forest name, Hlif, but soon after she took on the name A'myrrhis, whike keeping her village's name as her last name.

- She lived with the A Clan until after the calamity, when she decided to become an adventurer because she wanted to travel more and help people in need, but even after leaving she considers them her second family, and they consider her family just as much.

13, 20 and 22 for the wol asks?

aaaah these were fun, thank you kels!! 💖💖💖

13. Are they close with any of the other Scions? Who do they get along with the best? 

Myrri is definitely close with Alisaie, she loves both of the twins with all her heart but Alisaie in particular reminds her a lot of her own little sisters and also herself, and gods she's so young and carrying so much weight on her shoulders. Knowing what a bleeding heart Alisaie can be, she makes sure to always check in and let her know that she can come to her anytime if there's something weighing on her. She also gets along well with Estinien, besides bonding over what happened back in Ishgard and the fact that he shares a similar fondness for Alphinaud as she does for Alisaie they are also the only two scions who are not scholars in any capacity (besides Tataru), so she finds it refreshing to have someone around who brings a different perspective on a lot of things and is also a little more down to earth in most matters. After Shadowbringers she also becomes rather close with Urianger. I mentioned that it before but he's the one who trains her to be an Astrologian after she approaches him about it, and this is where their friendship really starts to take off.

20. Of all the places they've been to, which is their favorite? Do they like to go back there? 

I think Myrri would have a hard time picking her ultimate favourite place among all the places she's ever visited, but one that definitely left an impression on her was the Azim Steppe! As someone who lived in a forest for most of her life there was something about those rolling fields of lush green grass that stretch on seemingly endlessly, the wide open space only occasionally interrupted by rocks, small settlements and flocks of karakul, that really tickled her brain. Looking at the ocean gives her a similar feeling (which is why she also loves Limsa and similar places), just that in the case of the Steppe you can actually walk all the way across if you wanted to! She'd definitely love to go visit again, both to catch up with Cirina and learn more about the different Xaela tribes that roam the Steppe, and also maybe explore more of it on her own terms! Besides that, another place that really stood out to her was Il Mheg. Very whimsical and colourful, which she very much enjoyed (and would have enjoyed even more if it hadn't been for... everything else going on at the time). She definitely wants to go back sometime as well - and even if she didn't she probably would have to at some point to say hi to Feo Ul or else she'll never hear the end of it, haha.

22. Do you have a unique tale for their job class or is it pretty much like what it is in the game?

She went through the Arcanist/Summoner and the Red Mage quest pretty much as they were in-game, the Astrologian quests are not canon for her though! She learned that from Urianger instead, like I mentioned above. Also technicallyyyyy she was an archer before the game started, it's what she learned and trained back when she still lived with her family, to hunt and to fight. I think few people actually know that she knows her way around a bow quite well, and I've been playing with the thought of her picking it up again at some point, but not really sure if and how so yeah!

here's a fun little headcanon that just came to me during a conversation with my partner:

so myrri wanted to pick up healing after shb, and with urianger being right there (and her having a new-found appreciation for the stars and the night sky at this point for NO particular reasons haha ha ) she approached him and asked if he could teach her how to become an astrologian. he gladly obliged and so the two of them spent quite a few weeks training together, and i like to think during that time his way of speaking ever so slightly rubbed off on myrri unbeknownst to her. like it was by far not at a level where it would be noticeable at all to the majority of people who don't know her all that well, but like to the scions who very much knew that urianger and her have been hanging out it's definitely something they pick up on when she suddenly casually throws in words like "hark" or "prithee" - and they only make fun of her a little bit for it x)

my two vague lightwarden concepts for myrri are either

some kind of fucked up creature that's kinda like a lovechild between zurvan and philia, something in that vein appearance-wise. like the overall sineater aesthetic slapped on a centaur-esque thing with a thick beastial main body and a tail and claws and all that fun stuff with something reminiscent of her original body and appearance as the humanoid torso part. and maybe it has some flavour details of the other lightwardens she absorbed sprinkled into the design (like i have this image of this thing and it has philia's gaping maw and tongue where the human abdomen and the creature's chest meet, maybe remnants of vauthry's robes draped loosely over it or something, things like that). idk i like the idea of it just being really grotesque looking and barely recognizable as the person she once was.

or

just. big. a really fucking big humanoid being of pure light. if you squint you can still make it out as having features of the former warrior of darkness but it'd be hard to make anything out at all at the scale i'm imagining this thing as. and if you read this rn and think "huh okay. big." then listen. i want you to think BIGGER. i'm talking big enough that she'd have to manifest in fucking space, big enough that she can just reach out and wrap her entire cosmically large being around the entire fucking planet that is the first, cradling it tenderly to her radiant, blinding chest in one loving, protective and all-consuming embrace, devastatingly gentle and violent at the same time, that finishes for good what the flood of light started. all sins forgiven at once. all life gone in a literal flash.

oh oh, for the wol questions meme you reblogged earlier: 13, 18, 22, 26? :3

thank youuu!!! 🥺🥺💖💖 i answered 13 & 22 here!

both these questions were stuff i haven't actually given that much thought before tho so i enjoyed this a lot :>

18. Does your WoL fully embrace their role as the WoL or do they try to remain humble? 

For a good long while in her journey Myrri simply saw herself as an adventurer who helped people first and foremost! Receiving a shiny crystal and unlocking the Echo didn't really change anything for her as far as her daily life went - she was traveling and helping people before that, and it was what she continued to do. The only difference was that she had a fancy nickname and more allies now, the latter which she thought was pretty neat! She never referred to herself as a "Warrior of Light" though unless it was to clarify when people asked if that was her, and it was more of a job title than anything else in her eyes. That attitude persisted throughout HW and to mid-SB. She still didn't really realize the sheer magnitude of what "Warrior of Light" really had started to mean to the people, what kind of symbol it had become, until reports started rolling in after Doma's liberation that colonies all over were rising up against their garlean opressors because the Warrior of Light gave them enough hope and strength to do so. That was an "OH." moment for Myrri, and she becomes a lot more aware and conscious of the title afterwards when interacting with people in any official capacity, or with those who do not personally know her. She definitely feels a disconnect between what people see her as and who she actually is, but to keep the symbol alive she will play the part when necessary and be what she needs to be when she needs to be, and otherwise she doesn't try to think too much about it.

26. Do they suffer any traumas from any of their adventures? How do you foresee this affecting them going forward? 

Between the Light corruption wrecking her body and almost twisting her into a Lightwarden in Shb and Zenos stealing her body and forcing her soul into that of a stranger during EW there is definitely trauma related to having control over her body violently taken away from her in any capacity, to the point where i could see it become a reoccuring theme in her nightmares - which she didn't have often to begin with, but they've definitely gotten more frequent since those things happened to her. I also think after the whole thing with the sultana's banquet went down she definitely became uncomfortable drinking any kind of drink that other people poured for her, unless she explicitly trusts them.

I've been thinking about Myrri's Azem.

Her name was Hemera. ☀️

Thinking about Myrri and her Chocobo and that she canonically never actually had a company chocobo to begin with because she was afraid that she lacked both the know-how and the means to take care of it.

Like... she's never really looked after a large creature like this, she's always out on the road, constantly in dangerous situations... she just didn't feel like it was an ideal living situation for an animal, even if said animal was meant for adventuring life since, well... she wasn't really your average adventurer even back then.

So she's good!! She's used to walking and there's always the porters if she is in need of a Chocobo at any point temporarily, and she can do so with the knowledge at the end of the day it will be back in a warm stable with food and someone who knows how to take care of it properly.

BUT. Then comes the point where Haurchefant rolls up to her and gifts her a Chocobo and what is she supposed to do other than smile and say thank you and accept it because she sure as hell isn't gonna look him in the eye and refuse his gift. That would be rude!! And possibly make her friend sad!! And she doesn't want that, and it's not like she hates animals, not at all!

So she names it Sesame and asks Haurchefant if she can stable it at the keep for now, and she takes it out a little bit for the less dangerous errands every now and then but mostly tries to keep it away from any real danger by leaving it in the stables and spoiling it with treats and pets when she has some downtime instead.

Eventually Myrri gets an apartment in Ishgard, the city famous for how great they are with Chocobo husbandry, which makes her feel a bit less guilty for intending to leave Sesame there p much permanently from that point forward.

She's gotten really attached! And she wants him to have a nice and comfortable life!

So she hires some stablehands and promises to visit whenever she has time, and in her mind that's a good and solid plan, at least until one of the people she hired contacts her like two weeks later like "Hey uhhhh I'm really sorry but you need to come home, your Chocobo has been acting increasingly more crazy and we can't calm him down no matter what we do."

So she comes back and spends some time with Sesame before she is needed elsewhere again but a week later the whole thing repeats.

And when she comes back this time the keepers she hired are like sorry but we think your Chocobo just really loves you and just really hates to be left here without you, have you considered taking him with you?

So she decides to just. Do that. Maybe Sesame just needs a lil enrichment and once he's got his fill he will be happy to stay in his cozy lil stable after all.

And it turns out her Chocobo just REALLY wants to throw hands! He's a menace and Myrri is bamboozled that she has to make sure her cute bird buddy doesn't try to fight every squirrel they pass, and it takes her a hot second to eventually figure out that he's just really protective of her, and in his silly little bird brain everything that moves is a potential threat apparently !!!

And Myrri can't help but be reminded of who raised her Chocobo, after all, and comes to the conclusion that of course it kinda makes sense he would have a protective streak a mile long, doesn't it? :')

So she resigns to the fact that her Chocobo is going to be her permanent travel buddy now just as the gods intended, and in her free time she brushes up on her animal care skills as much as she can, and Sesame is v happy and v content.

tl;dr myrri's in-game company chocobo is canonically the black chocobo haurchefant gifted her and they are besties who care for each other very much and i have lots of thoughts about them

i wanna go on record and say that i take all the killing the story makes us believe the wol does with a giant grain of salt, at least personally for my wol. like myrri did not go around during arr gleefully murdering garlean footsoldiers by the dozens regardless of how much she despised garleans at that point, and she definitely didn't indiscriminately kill all the small-time criminals and similar folks she came across during her adventuring also. while she enjoys a good fight she does not enjoy taking lives, she's not an executioner, and she's very quickly learned to knock out her opponents cold to let the proper authorities take care of them (if any). and when there really is no way around and she DOES have to take lives for whatever reason - be it to protect others or herself - she finds no enjoyment in it.

so when the game is like "so you run through this area blasting lil low level baddies to hell left and right" i'm always like. hmmmm. yeah i will choose to ignore that.

obsessed with paladin myrri atm and the fact that i have the invisible shield glam on her at all times so something something i don't need a shield, i AM the shield because her body is what stands between evil and eorzea LONG before she even picks up that job so really, what difference does a tiny plate of metal make?

Been debating with myself for a while now whether the oldrose hairpiece is canon for Myrri or not since she's been consistently wearing it for so long (ever since she became bunny in late HW) and it mostly started out as her default because I didn't really have any other options that looked nice, but now I'm at a point where I even glam it over nice headpieces she could be wearing instead like. It's just part of Her Look to me and she looks naked without it. Soo yea I think it's not an actual flower but a hairpin or smth that has sentimental value to her.

me yelling at myself to just FUCKING level a tank already so i can finish the shb role quests

putting this under a read more because i know that someone (hi sweetie) follows my blog and hasn't played shb yet so i'm hiding some big bestie-related spoilers down there

i think about this way too much and then never talk about it but i just wanna go on record to say that ardbert being a shard of azem as well is probably the least compelling part for me when it comes to shipping my wol with him

do i think myrri and him are soulmates? yes absolutely

is it because they are literally parts of the same ancient soul? not really

i am a huge enjoyer of the idea that soulmates are made, not found - even with a solid foundation or fate bringing you together or whatever. even if some 13000 years ago you were literally the same person.

ultimatively they're their own people now and people are complicated and messy and wonderful and the reality will always be that they have to put effort into their relationships to grow and nurture them, and those two are no exception, at least to me.

what i do find a lot more compelling is the dynamic that comes from both of them actually knowing what it's like to be a warrior of light, both of them having been put in a hero position and all the pressure and dehumanization that comes with it, with being seen as a weapon and a solution to any problem rather than a person with autonomy and feelings and fears and hopes and dreams.

like... recognition of the self through the other. he's her and she's him in a metaphorical sense but at the same time each is also a glimpse of what the other could have been had the circumstances been just slightly different - had they been born on the other's respective world, had they made different choices, had fate dealt them different cards....

and also finally having someone to talk to about all of this who just gets it. who gets you. who you can be completely open and honest and vulnerable about all this because they understand.

idk!

I just think they're neat ;w;

just unlocked the final ew alliance raid and man the whole storyline is very satisfying with all the lore drops, and even more so because oschon is myrri's patron like... i never thought that decision would lead to much but i'm happy to be proven very wrong