((First of several parts of Xha'lis back story. Feel free to comment on any lore/grammer/spelling issues you spot, or with tips to improve my writing. Rewritten in first person, with a lot more detail, though part 1 doesn't go as far as before it starts earlier.))
“So you want to hear my story? WellI guess I can tell you part of it, but it'll cost you a meal.†Leaning back in my chair I stretch my arms behind my head before taking a breath and beginning, at well the beginning. “As you can probably guess by my name I come from a traditional Keeper of the Moon background, but that’s only in the broadest sense. Xha my mother grew up in the same village I did, just beyond the edge of the Black Shroud. When she came of age she went out to seek fame and fortune as an adventurer, and did pretty well to from the stories she told me and my brothers growing up. Yes I had only brothers, but that’s jumping a head so keep the questions to your self if you want to hear my tale.â€
With a grin I sit back in my chair properly, as I reach for my cup to take a drink.
“Xha continued her adventuring journeys for nigh on ten years, joining up with a Hyur conjurer, a Lalafell marauder, and a Roegadyn archer. Shortly before her tenth year came to a close she found what she called her greatest treasure of all, the man who would become my father. Retiring from the adventuring scene they returned to the small village where she grew up and welcome their first son a year later. Two years after that I was born, along with my older twin brother.â€
Looking up I grin, “Did you expect me to start someplace besides the beginning? For some that might be considered their birth, or early in their life but in my case those events will have a bearing later on. Anyways as I was was saying I was born very early on the thirteenth sun of the second Astral Moon in 1559, my older brother having been born as the twelfth sun ended. Alas I was to be the youngest as all stories I've heard about my father take place before my second name day. Weather he died, left of his own accord, or just vanished I know not.â€
SighingI take another large drink from my cup, looking out the nearby tavern window for several seconds before continuing. “The first twelve years were largely uneventful for my twin and me, our fathers disappearance excluded. In the winter after twelfth. summer, 1571, as was tradition in our village we were given a basic introduction to the bow, and the lance. After a week of training we were tested to see where our proficiencies lay. My bow test was...†here I pause deciding how much to tell, and how to phrase it. Deciding that they hadn't earned the right to the truth-that I'd almost hit my aunt who was conducting the test despite here being off to my side and slightly behind me I sum it up simply, “disastrous. I only shot a single arrow being for being shipped right along to the field where we were to be tested with the lance. Here I did much better even though the lance still didn't feel quite right in my hands. The next year was the Calamity.†Here I must once again pause, taking another long swallow of my drink before continuing, “we were lucky...mostly. None of the pieces of Dalamund fell near us, but they certainly lit up the sky and gave our matriarch ample reason to completely ban the practice of magic within our village.†I don't even bother trying to hind the contempt in my voice at the mention of that Bahamut-spawned fool. “Out of the forty or so of us that were living there we only lost two, though of the ten who had gone off to fight with the alliance only one returned, and she never spoke of what happened at Carteneau. For the next four years the village got by with little contact from out side world except for a trader who came twice a year-once in the spring before the planting season, then once more in the fall after the harvest. Its in the late fall of 1576 that I guess you could say my story truly begins in earnest.â€
“The harvest had been completed less then a week previously, and this years crop of children were being tested with the lance and bow. From where I sat leaning against a tree at the edge of the Shroud in the dappled sunlight of late evening I watched the first group take their turns trying to hit the target that was a good seven yalms beyond where it had been during their practice sessions. Technically I should have been helping with the lance testing, but I had been released earlier after testing to make sure all the lances were in sound shape. This had become my permanent duty after one had snapped a few years previous and given on the kids a new scar up their arm. It had been one I'd already set aside as potentially dangerous before one of the newer lancers had taken over the duty and decided that apparently my judgment was worthless. She was a bright kid, but her ego definitely needed the hit it got that day.â€
Smiling at the memory of how our lance master had reamed her out in front of all of us after sending home the other kids for the day I finish off my drink before continuing. “I didn't know it at the time, but I was for lack of a better word, 'reading' the flow of aether in the wood of the lance, and that was how I could tell if it was sound for fighting.†Chucking I continue, “Oddly enough however I was absolutely hopeless as a conjurer. Try as I might I was never able to hear the elementals. After a few weeks of trying, along with adjusting to being awake for most of the day I left Sillglade Fane, and now I'll be heading to Limsa Lominsa in a few more days to join the Arcanists guild.†Standing up I nod my thanks for the meal and say, “Stop by tomorrow night if you want to hear more, same deal as tonight.†With a wave I turn and head off to my room, glancing only briefly at the moon, rising in the east and head into my room.
“So you want to hear my story? WellI guess I can tell you part of it, but it'll cost you a meal.†Leaning back in my chair I stretch my arms behind my head before taking a breath and beginning, at well the beginning. “As you can probably guess by my name I come from a traditional Keeper of the Moon background, but that’s only in the broadest sense. Xha my mother grew up in the same village I did, just beyond the edge of the Black Shroud. When she came of age she went out to seek fame and fortune as an adventurer, and did pretty well to from the stories she told me and my brothers growing up. Yes I had only brothers, but that’s jumping a head so keep the questions to your self if you want to hear my tale.â€
With a grin I sit back in my chair properly, as I reach for my cup to take a drink.
“Xha continued her adventuring journeys for nigh on ten years, joining up with a Hyur conjurer, a Lalafell marauder, and a Roegadyn archer. Shortly before her tenth year came to a close she found what she called her greatest treasure of all, the man who would become my father. Retiring from the adventuring scene they returned to the small village where she grew up and welcome their first son a year later. Two years after that I was born, along with my older twin brother.â€
Looking up I grin, “Did you expect me to start someplace besides the beginning? For some that might be considered their birth, or early in their life but in my case those events will have a bearing later on. Anyways as I was was saying I was born very early on the thirteenth sun of the second Astral Moon in 1559, my older brother having been born as the twelfth sun ended. Alas I was to be the youngest as all stories I've heard about my father take place before my second name day. Weather he died, left of his own accord, or just vanished I know not.â€
SighingI take another large drink from my cup, looking out the nearby tavern window for several seconds before continuing. “The first twelve years were largely uneventful for my twin and me, our fathers disappearance excluded. In the winter after twelfth. summer, 1571, as was tradition in our village we were given a basic introduction to the bow, and the lance. After a week of training we were tested to see where our proficiencies lay. My bow test was...†here I pause deciding how much to tell, and how to phrase it. Deciding that they hadn't earned the right to the truth-that I'd almost hit my aunt who was conducting the test despite here being off to my side and slightly behind me I sum it up simply, “disastrous. I only shot a single arrow being for being shipped right along to the field where we were to be tested with the lance. Here I did much better even though the lance still didn't feel quite right in my hands. The next year was the Calamity.†Here I must once again pause, taking another long swallow of my drink before continuing, “we were lucky...mostly. None of the pieces of Dalamund fell near us, but they certainly lit up the sky and gave our matriarch ample reason to completely ban the practice of magic within our village.†I don't even bother trying to hind the contempt in my voice at the mention of that Bahamut-spawned fool. “Out of the forty or so of us that were living there we only lost two, though of the ten who had gone off to fight with the alliance only one returned, and she never spoke of what happened at Carteneau. For the next four years the village got by with little contact from out side world except for a trader who came twice a year-once in the spring before the planting season, then once more in the fall after the harvest. Its in the late fall of 1576 that I guess you could say my story truly begins in earnest.â€
“The harvest had been completed less then a week previously, and this years crop of children were being tested with the lance and bow. From where I sat leaning against a tree at the edge of the Shroud in the dappled sunlight of late evening I watched the first group take their turns trying to hit the target that was a good seven yalms beyond where it had been during their practice sessions. Technically I should have been helping with the lance testing, but I had been released earlier after testing to make sure all the lances were in sound shape. This had become my permanent duty after one had snapped a few years previous and given on the kids a new scar up their arm. It had been one I'd already set aside as potentially dangerous before one of the newer lancers had taken over the duty and decided that apparently my judgment was worthless. She was a bright kid, but her ego definitely needed the hit it got that day.â€
Smiling at the memory of how our lance master had reamed her out in front of all of us after sending home the other kids for the day I finish off my drink before continuing. “I didn't know it at the time, but I was for lack of a better word, 'reading' the flow of aether in the wood of the lance, and that was how I could tell if it was sound for fighting.†Chucking I continue, “Oddly enough however I was absolutely hopeless as a conjurer. Try as I might I was never able to hear the elementals. After a few weeks of trying, along with adjusting to being awake for most of the day I left Sillglade Fane, and now I'll be heading to Limsa Lominsa in a few more days to join the Arcanists guild.†Standing up I nod my thanks for the meal and say, “Stop by tomorrow night if you want to hear more, same deal as tonight.†With a wave I turn and head off to my room, glancing only briefly at the moon, rising in the east and head into my room.
