Rhostel Evenhand
 Rhostel Evenhand
| |
 "Same old Ul'dah." | |
| Gender | Female |
| Race | Hyur |
| Clan | Highlander |
| Citizenship | Ala Mhigo |
| Namesday | 24th Sun of the 5th Astral Moon |
| Age | 23 at the start of A Realm Reborn |
| Occupation | Immortal Flames auxiliary |
| Family | Father: Gebhard Goodsmith (deceased) Mother: Priska Shielden (deceased) Sister: Rikke |
| Guardian | Azeyma, the Warden |
Mien
A shade over six fulms tall and solidly built, few would mistake Rhostel for a Midlander. Her pinkish-auburn hair has been cropped short, though it now frequently falls over her reddish-brown eyes. She wears a serious expression most of the time, which the battlescars on her face only serve to amplify. Her smiles are not quite infrequent, though they're awkward and a little goofy.
Rhostel prefers to speak to the point, using short words. Her voice is even and pleasant outside of combat. In battle she shouts as fiercely as any. Her movements are similarly smooth but do not lack for speed or power when needed.
Temperament
Having to deal with hardship for herself and all she cares about for as long as she can remember, Rhostel has acquired a very even temper. That is not to say that she is unaffected by anything, rather that she mediates her responses to that which will be useful.
As befits one born under the aegis of Azeyma, Rhostel is keenly perceptive. She notices details that others overlook and has an excellent knack for reading the body language and facial expressions of others. This has both kept her alive and given her an edge in trade dealings on numerous occasions. Her own guarded emotional state extends this advantage by making her hard to read in turn.
Yesteryears
Rhostel was born in Ala Mhigo, only a few cycles before the invasion. Unable to comprehend those events as a mere toddler, she has no clear memories of the time. What she knows is what her father told her: How her mother gave her life to protect Rhostel and her sister from the invaders; how her father lost his foot to beasts on the long trek to find a safe haven.
One of her earliest clear memories is of the night their refugee caravan arrived in Thanalan. They were three score Ala Mhigans by that point, having lost more than a dozen over time but absorbed several small groups in their cycles of wandering. Though dry, hot and untamed, the older refugees told her often that this was the land of opportunity, a place of calm with the wealthiest city in the known world at its heart. That city would shut them out once they reached it, but they were allowed to settle nearby and trade what they could scrape together off the land for everything else they truly needed.
Her father was a smith and would become one of the more respected craftsmen of what came to be called Little Ala Mhigo. As she grew up, Rhostel became her father's barker and errand runner, first around the settlement, then to other parts of Thanalan escorted by one apprentice or another. By her mid-teens she was skilled enough with a spear to be permitted to advertise or deliver on her own for the most part.
On her eighteenth birthday Rhostel asked that her only gift be permission to travel to Gridania to see if the famed Wood Wailers would allow her to train with them. Her father assented, but gave her one more gift, a brand new spear of his own craft.
After attending a Cleansing and proving her good will to Gridania and the Twelveswood, the Wailers accepted Rhostel as a student. This has become strained slightly since her return to Ul'dah and joining the Flames, so it is unlikely she will ever be accepted as a true Wood Wailer. Nonetheless, there is no true ill will as she explained her decision before making it.
During the Battle of Carteneau Flats, Rhostel was stationed in Ul'dah among the Flames' reserve forces charged with keeping the city safe no matter what should happen on Dalamud's impact. With the Umbral Era's onset, she assisted in the rebuilding of the Flames forces, but was distracted by a sudden illness taking her father. He struggled for nearly a cycle, before passing. Ignoring her grief, Rhostel threw herself into her work, but after a disastrously sailed assignment was relieved of duty temporarily then resigned in full. She left to pursue her own desires.
The next two cycles were spent training with Dragoons in Coerthas when they would let her and acting as a courier for the Ala Mhigo resistance when they would not. Though she learned much and helped keep hope alive for many, a time came when she realised she was no longer achieving anything. Looking for new ways to grow, she sailed for Limsa Lominsa.
Though she had no fondness for pirates, the Marauder's Guild offered martial expertise which could be of great use to her. To turn those skills to practical use, she hired on with the Arcanists' Guild, hunting down stolen shipments and seeking out rare goods for honest trade. Though she came to have great respect for the Arcanists and their intellectual approach to magic, she did not feel that their arts would contribute to her goal of self-improvement.
Accomplishments
With Dalamud approaching Eorzea and Garlemald beginning to act against the three city-states overtly, Rhostel decided it was time to throw in with one of the nascent Grand Companies. In the interest of protecting her family in Little Ala Mhigo and inspired by the leadership of fellow Ala Mhigan Highlander Raubahn Aldynn, she decided to sign up with the Immortal Flames. Raubahn's example also inspired in her a determination to earn Ul'dahn citizenship, if only to rub it in the faces of Ul'dah's less egalitarian gentry. Her talents earned her the rank of Flame Corporal in very short order.
Rhostel has furthermore earned her own chocobo steed, naming him Sear. While most of her accomplishments in the Flames are past any practical worth, and her goal of citizenship totally aborted to pay her father's medical and funeral expenses, Sear is still with her, Rhostel's only constant companion.
Miscellanea
((Rikke is available as a character seed for someone wanting to play a female Highlander if they seem a good fit. Details about her have been left highly flexible for this reason. Contact me on the RPC forums if interested.
Rhostel's surname was originally Donlan, however as it was never mentioned in character it was simple to change to reflect the naming guidelines released in the lead-up to A Realm Reborn. It may yet be Donlan will be the surname that floats over her head if character renames are not available for ARR, which is as yet undetermined.))
