Basics

Name: Leliana Hawklight
Race: Raen Au Ra (born as a Midlander Hyur)
Gender: Cis woman (she/her)
Age: 29
Nameday: Third Sun of the Fifth Astral Moon (September 3rd)
Likes: The color blue, training as a mage, writing, cute clothes, cheesecake, her chocobo
Dislikes: Cruel people, the sound of scraping metal, people who mess with her friends or her chocobo
Voice claim: Elizabeth Cook

Backstory

Leliana grew up in Aleport in Western La Noscea. Her parents raised her with the expectation that she would take over the family business (a shop that sold ceramics, glassware, and tableware). Her parents homeschooled her so she could spend more time at home helping with the family business and being trained to run it herself someday. Leliana grew frustrated with this during her teen years, and at age 17, she ran away from home and never looked back. She has not spoken to her parents or younger sister since then. She has had to return to Aleport several times on her adventures, but she tries to be as sneaky as possible and leave as quick as she can.After she ran away from home, she became somewhat nomadic and did not hold a steady job. This was not out of laziness or a lack of skill; Leliana is a hard worker and could easily hold a steady job if she wanted to. Rather, Leliana rebelled against the extreme stability her parents tried to impose, by embracing a lifestyle of instability. For more than a decade, Leliana made her money through various jobs (such as mercenary work, crafting, gathering, and writing) so she was not tied down to any particular job. She eventually got a regular job as a hostess at a lounge, although she does still do some other odd jobs as well. Although she does still enjoy traveling, she has an apartment in Mist and a house in Ishgard, rather than being as nomadic as she was before.Leliana has a very strong bond with her chocobo, who she named Prompto. They have been on many adventures together. She has received other mounts through her work, but she rarely uses them because she wants to spend more time with Prompto. Leliana does not get angry easily, but if you mess with Prompto, you will probably feel her wrath, which may or may not include physical violence.

Recent happenings

After Leliana's mother suddenly passed away from a heart attack, Leliana returned home to Aleport to see her family for the first time in 11 years. Her initial visit was marked by constant fighting with her father, who blamed her for causing her mother so much unhealthy stress. After a few weeks, Leliana's father reached out to apologize for his reaction, and Leliana began repairing her relationship with her father and sister Sierra.Leliana also recently found out that she has some noble blood. After a chance meeting with an Elezen man who turned out to be a long-lost relative (a half-cousin), Leliana urged her father to tell her more about his parents, a topic he had barely spoken of for most of her life. She found out that her paternal grandmother was a Midlander who had a brief relationship with an Elezen nobleman in Sharlayan, although he left her after finding out she was pregnant. She had given Leliana's father the nobleman's last name, in the hopes that one day the child would be able to claim some land or wealth from the noble family.Leliana was shocked by these revelations about her father's parents and a family she never knew about. Her father had not even told her that he was half-Elezen until a couple weeks before this chance encounter with her cousin, a fact he was able to easily conceal because other than being fairly tall for a Midlander, he did not inherit any visibly Elezen traits (such as pointed ears). Leliana's father told her that he had kept this secret until after Leliana's mother died, because Leliana's mother was somewhat racist against non-Hyur individuals. Despite his mother's intentions with naming him, Leliana's father made it clear that he does not have any intentions of attempting to claim any land or wealth from the noble Hawklight family in Sharlayan. Leliana and her sister also had no intentions of trying to claim anything either, which worked out well because her cousin ended up selling off the estate. However, Leliana is glad that she got to meet this long-lost side of her family, and is looking forward to getting to know her cousin some more.After an alchemy accident, Leliana transformed into a Raen Au Ra. Another unintended side effect of this accident was that Leliana started to transform into a ghoul. Fortunately, a local doctor was able to help Leliana understand this part of her, and gave her advice to prevent her from fully becoming a ghoul. One consequence of this is that she needs to consume flesh with relative frequency in order to survive, although since she does not want to become a cannibal, she consumes blood from willing family members or friends instead. In addition, Leliana becomes more ghoul-like when she feels strong negative emotions like rage, and if that is not counteracted with white magic in a timely manner, these further transformations could become permanent.Although Leliana ran away from home in order to avoid working at the family store, she was somewhat forced into this position recently when her father became ill. He is expected to survive but will have a lengthy recovery. Since Leliana is nice enough to not force her sister to run the shop by herself during one of their busy seasons, she decided she would help out while her father recovers. Although she is enjoying getting to spend more time with her sister, she is otherwise not particularly enjoying working at the shop.

Personality

Leliana is kind and tends to see the good in everyone. She sometimes struggles to come up with things to talk about, and she is sometimes a little socially awkward, but she enjoys talking with others. If your character speaks with her, they will likely be asked many questions! Leliana loves getting to know other people and learning more about them, along with showing that they are cared about.Leliana cares deeply about her friends and their well-being, especially their mental health. Leliana has lost loved ones to suicide in the past, including her grandfather at age 9 and a good friend as a teenager. Therefore, Leliana tries to be sensitive to signs that someone may be struggling, and this sensitivity may be oversensitivity to some people with a morbid sense of humor. She is by no means a professional counselor, but she tries to be a good listener.Leliana is a rather open and honest person, and she dislikes lying and hiding things about herself. She does not have many secrets about herself. Some of the things she says she wants to keep on the down-low are really just for the good of other people. The one thing she tries to keep a little bit private is her part-ghoul condition, as she suspects that some people might want to harm her if they knew. When other people tell her their secrets, she can keep those secrets, although she sometimes has trouble distinguishing between what should and should not be kept to herself if the person is not clear about it. If someone specifically and clearly tells her to keep something to herself, that is certainly clear enough and she will respect that.Leliana's friends have also noted that she is sometimes oblivious to humor. She loves to laugh, but sometimes she has trouble understanding that certain things are jokes.

Hooks

-Ask Leliana about her chocobo. (She has a very deep bond with her chocobo and enjoys talking about him.)
-Tell Leliana you saw some of her venue reviews in the Mythril Eye and propose another writing project for her.
-If you have a medical clinic or other place where conjurers/white mages work, ask Leliana if she is interested in joining you.
-If Leliana has already introduced herself to you, compliment her name and ask her about it. (Yes, her first name is a Dragon Age reference and the explanation is too, without breaking immersion in the FFXIV world.)
-Leliana loves getting compliments about her outfit.

OOC

I'm pretty new to RP but so far I've been enjoying it a lot. If you want Leliana to be involved in your plot, feel free to send me a /tell when I'm online (Leliana Hawklight on Zalera). (If you have my Discord, that's fine too, but I'm not putting it on my carrd at this time.)Although Leliana and I do share some similarities, she is not a self-insert and there are many parts of her that are different from me OOC. Do not assume that any particular part of her reflects who I am OOC.I am fine with incorporation of in-game lore/MSQ, but I have not played through the full MSQ yet, so please don't include major spoilers for parts I haven't played yet. (Place names by themselves are not a spoiler in my eyes, but additional details might be. Please try to use good judgment here.) I just started Endwalker.