Kannadi Albedo
 Kannadi Albedo
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| Race | Hyur |
| Clan | Midlander |
| Citizenship | Ul'dah |
| Age | 30 |
| Namesday | Second Sun, Fifth Astral Moon |
| Occupations | Ecologist, researcher |
| Disciplines | Black Mage, Scholar, Goldsmith, etc. |
| Deity | Azeyma, the Warden |
Kannadi Albedo (KAHN-ah-dee ● al-BAY-doh), Immortal Flames 1st Lieutenant, is a scholar of magic, monsters, and aethereal physics. Somehow she has managed to fit that into an aristocratic upbringing.
Despairing of ever catching up to the new fauna that arose after the Calamity, she turned her studies to magic. She currently serves as the Immortal Flames' Hunt Mark Coordinating Officer, Hunt Mark Investigative Assessment Officer, Hunt Mark Foreign Liaison, and Commander of the Free Brigade Squadron A-113, "Metal Mirrors."
Contents
Physical Description
Though tall for a Midlander woman, Kannadi is more identifiable by her style of dress: even in the oppressive heat of Thanalan, she's rarely out of long sleeves and unbroken skin coverage neck to toe. Gloves aren't uncommon for her either. The style and material of it all trends toward the expensive.
Above the neck, her skin is a medium brown, her eyes are light gray, and her hair is dark brown and very exactingly kept. She often wears jewelry as well, save for field work where it might get damaged.
The typical length and coverage of her clothing conceals a surprisingly fit and toned physique, the sort honed through long days of extensive walking, hiking, and ecological studies. She couldn't out-sprint a cactuar, but she could outpace most creatures, as she occasionally must when they do not take kindly to being studied.
Personality
Polite with permanently proper diction and fastidious attention to detail, which some may confuse for haughtiness but which is simply indicative of her adherence to educated professionalism. She's very much a scholar (both lowercase-s and capital-S) and defines herself by what she knows and doesn't know. What she knows are magic and monsters. On those subjects she is authoritative and (tries to be) interesting.
Kannadi is rarely angered, just annoyed or disappointed -- and even on those occasions when she is angry, she's not apt to show it beyond curtness and withering looks.
Her careful investments and her family's wealth have put her in the enviable position of not needing to do much work at all, which has caused her no shortage of guilt. In response to how Ul'dah's less fortunate live and what other wealthy Ul'dahns do with their freedom, Kannadi donates frequently and generously between her deliberately long hours of work.
She also has a dry sense of humor and occasionally makes observations which employ it.
Lately she has shown a trend of workaholic introversion.
Background
Kannadi is who you get when a decade and a half of expensive high-class education helps sculpt, but fails to completely stick to, a smart young lady who has a passion for scientific observation and a knack for magic. In addition to being a craftswoman of profitable talent, she is a published author of informative booklets on notorious monsters as well as the uncredited co-author of On the Properties of Beastmen. (Don't get her started on that one.)
Her education and personal wealth allowed her to follow her whims, which led her through a geological survey bureau, a research/exploration academy, and most lately a certain league of adventurers. She currently holds an officer's commission in the Immortal Flames as a First Lieutenant, with very good prospects of promotion.
Recently she suffered symptoms of what the considered to be depression -- introversion, lack of interest in once-favored activities, preference for routine and impersonal data acquisition, and choosing study over people. However, it eventually became clear to her that she numbers among the sub-one-percent of sensitives psychologically affected by direct exposure to the irreproducible proximity of Dalamud.
Whereas Dalamud cultists, fanatics, and other lunatics exhibited mind-altering faith more or less immediately, Kannadi experienced a long-arc deepening of her cognitive capacity. She believes she is no more intelligent than she was, but she can do much more with what she has. In short, Kannadi easily understands new information and magics when they either come in well-ordered form or bear contextual similarity to existing forms, but she lacks the true creativity of establishing wholly new forms herself. To her great consternation.
Most recently she collaborated with the renowned craftsman Gerolt (and others) in the construction of a masterwork staff with its own soul, or anima -- aether given life by her own experience. She named the weapon’s soul Lens, which serves her as an external memory repository and executive aide.
Being intimately connected to her own aether, Lens serves Kannadi by absorbing her unneeded memories. The long arc of Kannadi's post-Dalamud condition has progressed to the point where her mind can become overloaded with input from her acute senses, which her brain unnecessarily stores. Over time, this results in certain neurological maladies. Lens, at her command, carefully absorbs the extraneous data, allowing Kannadi to forget such things as the typesetting and font and ink quality of a word written in a newspaper eleven months and thirteen days ago. With a less burdened mind, Kannadi becomes somewhat more personable, but she neither seeks nor wants a permanent solution to her mind's precision attentiveness.
Family
The Albedos are a wealthy family built on finance and carnivorous opportunism. The Calamity claimed many of their records and therefore much of their fortune, but decisive action by family matriarch and former Syndicate member Karen "the Silver Giant" saved them from the depredations of competitors. Though their wealth no longer ranks among Ul'dah's 1% or even 10%, they are still very comfortable and work to stay that way.
The Lahar family, once very prominent in Eorzea's textile industry, has crumbled to a humble standing. The Garlean attack on Ala Mhigo destroyed most of their wealth and claimed multiple family members, and the Calamity's ruin claimed nearly all the rest. The last two Lahars of their generation have no interest in rebuilding what was lost, but rather look to build for the future.
Kannadi's Important Relatives:
- Father: Torrent Albedo (58), curator of the "History's Torrent" Museum in Ul'dah. A former treasure-hunting adventurer even before the term became common, many of the exhibits were "attained" by his hand.
- Mother: Avani Lahar-Albedo (55), full-time priestess for Ul'dah's small Nophican community. Highly devout even before her family's collapse. Very well-read.
- Grandmother: Karen Albedo (??) - Family matriarch and capitalist shark, one-quarter Sea Wolf who retained all the race's dominant traits by quirk of genetics. Legally deceased; actually restored to her powerful youth by a spell devised by her granddaughter Kannadi. Traveled under an assumed identity as Kannadi's long-lost cousin "Karrun" for some time, until Lord Lolorito began suspecting his ancient rival had somehow reversed her age. Now travels under the name "Sylbryss Sylberkwyn," classy bodyguard allegedly from the far northern islands.
Published Works
- Concerning Kobolds
A brief pamphlet on the kobold beastkin. Out of print, copies impossible to find.
An informative booklet of Thanalan's twelve deadliest monster species. Rendered mostly out of date by the Calamity, small numbers may still be found for sale by the Seventy-Seven Caravans.
An informative listing of notorious monsters for all adventurers of Eorzea. Written in 1572, yet out of print by 1577 due to being a whole realm out of date, it is still possible to find among rare book dealers.
- On the Properties of Beastmen
A scientific study of beastmen, for which Kannadi is an uncredited co-author. She was left off the byline over a disagreement regarding the book's sale price; she wanted it cheaper.
- The Ecological Impact of Natural Chemical Changes in Maiden Grass Upon Lava Toad Population of Southern Thanalan
A dry yet interesting report on environmental adaptations in maiden grass of Forgotten Springs, and their consequences.
- Comparisons of Amdapori and Late-Period Sil’dihn Architecture
A detailed juxtaposition of architectural similarities between ancient Amdapor and pre-collapse Sil'dih. Commissioned by the Flames leadership to provide scientific reasons why certain former-Sil'dihn areas of Ul'dah should not be opened to the public. A sleeper hit among Ul'dah's ancient conspiracy set.
An article explaining the basics of thaumaturgy and its potential. Published as a cover article of the Adventurer's Guild Quarterly.
- 108 Methods of Efficient Personal Office Management
A short book for the upwardly mobile.
- On the Bifurcation of Snurble Tufts in Eastern Thanalan as Evidence of Natural Selection Hastened By Climate Alterations
An extremely dry scholarly essay noting a biological change in wild snurble populations.
- The Aquarium Fancy of Ul'dahn Elite: A History
An in-depth look at how nobles amused themselves with keeping fish in the desert over time. Surprisingly her best-selling book, owing as much to the detailed color illustrations as her writing.
- Coin and Country: A History of Ul'dahn Gaming, Unabridged
Originally commissioned as a thin book by the Manderville Gold Saucer to advertise itself, but which Kannadi herself ballooned into a lengthy treatise on how the citizenry of Ul'dah has amused itself with games for centuries.
- Coin and Country: How Ul'dahns Enjoy Games
The original intent of the unabridged version's commission, a short book written in a single week. A skillfully veiled advertisement, describing the histories of specific games which, conveniently, developed into every feature that the Gold Saucer has to offer.
Unpublished Works
A classified document held by the Immortal Flames, detailing in brief the most potentially dangerous members of Kannadi's Free Company.
A classified document held by the Immortal Flames, detailing in brief an exploration of the ancient Mhacian construct.
- [redacted] of the Hound
A classified document held by the Immortal Flames, allegedly reproducing in detail the lines upon the face of Dalamud and discussing at length their similarity to obscure arcanist geometry.
- On [redacted] of [redacted]
A classified document held by the Immortal Flames, allegedly pertaining to methods of repairing a fractured soul.
- How to Craft a [redacted]
A classified document held by the Immortal Flames, allegedly revealing at length the necessary steps in manufacturing a fully autonomous golem.
- On Absorption, Retention, and Extraction of [redacted] Based Upon Observations of [redacted]
A classified document held by the Immortal Flames, allegedly setting out a basic theory of aether-based information storage within a physical object.
- Minutes of the [redacted] Meeting on [redacted] Concerning Aetheryte Travel Taxation
A classified document held by the Immortal Flames, allegedly containing offhand commentary by 2LT Kannadi Albedo about the feasibility of using the aetheryte network in the summoning of a Primal.
- [redacted]
A classified document held by the Immortal Flames, allegedly a report on contradictions inherent in the flight muscles of dragons.
- Notes: M.Scp, & Flow Observed
A personal notebook in Kannadi's possession, detailing an invention of hers called a Manascope, a device which bends aether to reveal the shape of aether in objects. Also includes the tracks and patterns of aether that the Manascope can observe, and how each one seems to behave. Constantly in the process of editing. Will likely never see publication.
Theme Music
- General: Rabao (FFXI Piano Collection)
- Battle: Something to Protect (FFIX OST)
- Travel: Royal Blood, Fraternal Love (Edgar & Sabin) (FFVI Balance and Ruin, Overclocked Remix)
- Emotional: Rose of May (FFIX OST)
- In Study: Whispers of the Gods (FFXI Piano Collection)
- Internal Struggle: Aishou (Fullmetal Alchemist OST 3)
