Aether, Faerie
Yna Iryen
「 i shine a light into a thousand eyes all watching, waiting」
General Information
| Birthname | J'Rheya Rhel |
| Aliases | Yna Iryen | Warrior of Light |
| Age | 27 |
| Gender | Female |
| Measurements | 4 fulms 9 ilms | 120 ponz |
| Nameday | ♓︎ 5th Sun of the 2nd Astral Moon 1550 6th A.E |
| Race & Clan | Miqo'te | Seeker of the Sun |
| Tribe | J tribe |
| Birthplace | Gyr Abania |
| Disposition | Neutral Good | ENFJ-T |
Personality
Yna has always been restless, even as a young child – never wanting to sit idly – and patience was never her preferred virtue. In her early life, she was vivacious and idealistic. She often dreamed of one day journeying throughout the reaches of the star, and seeing all there is to be seen. That curiosity has always guided her, nurturing her adventurous disposition. At her best, she is brave, intuitive, and empathetic.At her worst, she is despondent, melancholic, and self-destructive. Her experiences with grief and loss dimmed her once-fiery spirit, reducing it to a gentle flicker. She became hardened, jaded, detached – a hollowed out shell of herself, controlled by anger and resentment for the world she once loved so fondly.Her amnesia following the calamity allowed for her long-lost optimism and wayfarer’s yearning to resurface once more. Desperate to learn more about herself, her quest for answers put her on her fated path; however, she found her subsequent rapid ascension to herodom to be disorienting. She rigidly latched on to her persona as the Warrior of Light, but the sense of identity it provided was fragile. Underneath, something else festered – a violence, a rage, a sadness, lingering deep within. Quiet, but nagging – unignorable. Once her memory was restored, the weight of her grief returned. She was then faced with the profound inner conflict of reconciling the unrelenting despair she had forgotten with the symbol of hope she had since become for so many.In the present day, Yna has a renewed sense of self. She is relearning to appreciate the beauty of the world, its flaws and wonders alike. Having hung up her mantle as the Warrior of Light, she is rediscovering how to live for herself — as an adventurer — immersing herself in discovery at every opportunity, just as she always longed to do.She is quiet, but intentional with her words; she always says exactly what she means to. Her wit is dry – and sometimes her jabs are harsh – but it disguises her softness. Underneath her sometimes peppery exterior, Yna is considerate and kind. She cares for her friends and companions above all else, and is frighteningly protective of those she holds closest.She is also an unforgiving and intimidating adversary. She would never admit it out loud, but she can never resist a good fight – always yearning for the next challenge, always aching to put her strength to the test. There is a ferocity within her, one she prefers to keep locked away. She is not one to be made an enemy of.
Appearance
Standing at just 4 fulms 9 ilms, Yna is notably small - even for a Miqo'te - but despite her size, she is strong. Her build is athletic, and she oscillates between higher and lower volumes of muscle depending on how much she is working at the time. Her body is covered in myriad scars, all accumulated over time through various battles and skirmishes.She keeps her hair long; she takes pride in its length, even if it is a little unkempt. When she tires of having hair in her face, she ties it up into a tight bun. As an homage to her Gyr Abanian heritage, she often incorporates a braid or two into her hairstyling. Matching her head, the tail at her base is equally as shaggy. These days, her hair is the color of starlight and her eyes are a delicate grey - but this isn't how it's always been. Before her time in the First, Yna's hair was brown, and her eyes were dark and heterochromatic, her left blue and her right green.
Despite being a Seeker, she has prominent canines; growing up, she was teased by the other children in her village for them, but she learned to appreciate their uniqueness as she got older.As time goes on, she finds herself preferring to wear darker colored, practical clothing over anything else - a stark contrast to her affinities in her early career as a Scion, when she would gravitate toward lighter, flashier ensembles.
「 i am what i am, but we are not the same 」
Lore
Warning! There are spoilers for the FFXIV main scenario questline in the information presented on this page. If you have not completed the MSQ, please proceed with caution! Additionally, the character history included on this page is mostly intended to be compatible with the in-game lore, but there are some headcanons incorporated for narrative purposes.
History
Early Life, 1550 - 1557 6th A.E.
J’Rheya was born red-faced and screaming, swaddled in the gentle light of the moon that hung high above the arid terrain of Gyr Abania. Her mother, while reminiscing that night, sometimes quipped that the stars shone twice as bright for fear that they would be outdone by her radiance. Rheya was fiery and effervescent, full of a fierce vitality from the first. “On your best days,” her mother would often laugh, ”you threaten to outshine the sun itself.”Her exuberance blossomed into unwavering idealism in her early childhood, nurtured by cherished bedtime stories depicting great adventurers from across the realm. As her natural affinity for magicks began to emerge, she oft dreamed about becoming a sorceress – one who would adventure to the ends of the star leaving nothing left unseen, no stone left unturned.
She was only 7 summers old when the Empire invaded Ala Mhigo. She and her mother narrowly escaped as their village – nestled not too far beyond the city walls – was decimated in turn. Dirt and sweat clung to their skin, and thick smoke from the fires burning behind them poisoned their throats while they ran.As they crossed the sands and made their way toward Gridania, they encountered an archer – a mercenary returning home after escaping the newly captured city-state, where he had been on a job when the chaos erupted. Refusing to let a vulnerable mother and daughter travel alone, he joined them, and together, they continued their journey bound for the Shroud. They soon crossed paths with a rogue group of Imperial soldiers, their egos swollen with arrogance and cruelty in the wake of their recent victory. The soldiers made it clear they had no intention of letting the trio pass. They engaged in combat, and in a struggle to protect her daughter, Rheya’s mother was killed. The archer seized the girl and fled, carrying her away as she screamed in horror and anguish.
The Shroud, 1557 - 1567 6th A.E.
From that day onward, the archer took Rheya in and raised her on the outskirts of Gridania, granted the rare mercy of the elementals to remain. Though grief fractured her spirit, she slowly began to heal, and her bond with her adoptive father grew stronger as the years passed – and so did she. He taught her archery and encouraged her to refine her talent for magicks, which had since begun to grow into a formidable force; her natural combat prowess became ever more apparent, sharpening with every lesson. Likewise, he nurtured her love for adventure, bringing her along on quests whenever he could and regaling her with vivid tales when he could not. Rheya flourished beneath the boughs of the Shroud, and spent much of her time outside, exploring the winding paths of the forest, studying its flora and fauna, and finding solace in its quiet, ever-thrumming heartbeat.Tensions between Eorzea and the Garleans began to grow; peace prevailed for the time being, but an invasion of the Empire from Ala Mhigo was imminent. Not long after Rheya’s 17th nameday, the archer set out on what was meant to be a routine assignment from the Adventurers’ Guild; reports of Imperial soldiers lurking near the border of the East Shroud were increasing in frequency, and he was recruited to join a patrol to investigate. Such jobs had become commonplace in recent months – driven, perhaps, more by paranoia than truth – but when days passed without his return, unease settled deep in Rheya’s bones. This time, she feared, was different.He had been dead for days when they found him – one of many, alongside several members of the patrol; his body lay undisturbed in the underwood, his bow still clutched in stiff fingers, a single, precise gunshot through his chest – Garlean steel, cold and unerring in its purpose.Rheya drifted through time aimlessly in the days that followed, lost in a haze – numb, hollow, the world dulled at the edges. Grief festered, and rotted. The Wood Wailers and Adventurers’ Guild made efforts to form a search party to track down the soldiers, but it was not enough – she needed to see them fall by her own hand. She hunted them, tacking their path through the tangled wood, and when she found their camp – quaint, improvisational, little more than a scattering of tents and a dying fire – she unleashed her fury. Flames erupted, devouring canvas, searing flesh, splitting trees. When the last soldier fell, she stood amidst the ruin, expecting relief, justice… something. But there was nothing.
Ul'Dah, 1567 - 1572 6th A.E.
Not long after, she left for Ul’dah, seeking to escape her grief and to forget the destruction she had wrought – of the violence she was capable of. But the city offered no solace. Overrun with Ala Mhigan refugees and aspiring adventurers, opportunity was scarce. She lived hand-to-mouth for many moons; uncomfortable, impoverished, and alone. She came to be jaded and detached – no longer the fiery, spirited girl she once was. She became disillusioned with the world, not enamored with its wonder, and instead disgusted by its faults. Her hate for the Empire still simmered deep within, but lied buried beneath cynicism and bitterness. She scraped by on petty larceny and odd jobs, which eventually gave way into freelance sellsword work. She took on any manner of jobs – some innocuous, others less so, occasionally finding herself doing dirty work for the rich and powerful. She became quite adept at combat; having abandoned the use of magic when she left Gridania, she rediscovered her affinity for the bow and quickly honed her skill with a blade.One sleepless night, she opened her window to find stars falling from the heavens. She watched in awe, a flicker of bewilderment kindling to life within her chest for the first time in a long while – until a piercing pains hot through her skull and a voice resounded within: “Hear. Feel. Think.” A vision overtook her: the city aflame, the sky burning red. She blinked, and it was gone – but as her gaze returned to the sky, she noticed the lesser moon burning an eerie crimson.Dalamud drew closer with every passing day, and with it, chaos in the city. Upheaval began to erupt, small and localized at first, but quickly intensifying into isolated incidents of riots and looting. All the while, her visions continued in waves, that same voice echoing throughout her mind, now urging her to leave. As the lesser moon hung ominously low overhead, unrest in the streets reached its boiling point, and Rheya, heeding the voice’s warnings, decided to flee. On her way out, she slipped a satchel from the body of a dead woman—innocently struck down in the commotion—throwing it over her shoulder as she made her escape.She traversed the sands of Thanalan for days, the voice guiding her northward; however, she didn’t make it far before calamity struck. The world around her looked as it had in her visions; above the Carteneau Flats, Dalamud rent apart, sending burning fragments of itself all across the realm as the elder primal Bahamut emerged from within. The land trembled beneath her the from the impact of the falling wreckage all around, flames consumed her horizon, the elder primal’s roars echoing from hundreds of malms away. She ran – though there was nowhere to go – until she stumbled, tumbling to a stop as devastation closed in. She began to cry out – to the Twelve, to that strange voice, to anything – begging for answers. What was the point of it all – all of the pain, the suffering, the despair – was it all for nothing, to end here, in this way?Suddenly, a soft blue glow enveloped her as a spell washed over her – and then, in an instant, she vanished, just as calamity engulfed the realm.
Continuing Story
Note: Yna Iryen's story from this point forward follows the canon warrior of light narrative; however, I occasionally write short fictional pieces to supplement the story for fun, and archive them here. As mentioned before, they are intended to conform to the FFXIV canon, with headcanons sometimes included. For example, I do not adhere to the in-game timeline, and headcanon that each expansion takes anywhere from 3 months to 1.5 years.
A Realm Reborn, 1577 - 1578 7th U.E.
Gallery
Art
Out of Character
Hello! Thank you so much for taking an interest in my character!I started putting this page together because I wanted a place where I could properly chronicle the lore I was writing. Character building is such a huge part of why I love Final Fantasy XIV so much, and I've had a lot of fun bringing Yna Iryen to life. Her story started as little more than just sloppily-typed, half-formed bullet points, and slowly started to turn into something that I'm proud to share with people. This project is very special to me, and working on it brings me a lot of joy. At the moment, I am primarily focused on continuing to flesh out her story as the canon Warrior of Light; however, I would like to create an alt character based off of her for in-game roleplay in the future!In real life, I'm 26, and I have two cats and a wonderful fiancé, the latter of whom I have a deep appreciation for for tolerating the amount of time I spend playing this game. I work in nonprofit fundraising, and considering the amount of grant writing I do, I've loved having a reason to practice writing creatively in my free time.If you're interested in reading my FFXIV posting and emetwol brainrot ramblings, you can check out my twitter. I'm also on ao3 and tumblr. And, if you ever see me out in the wild in-game, feel free to say hello!See you around!
Music
This is Yna's character playlist. All of the songs in this playlist remind me of her in some way!
✦ I also have an emetwol playlist, which can be found here.