Profile for Aion

[fightforthejoyofit]

Zenos yae viator Galvus

❖❖❖❖❖ Tarnished ❖❖❖❖❖

FFXIV: Endwalker – end of 6.0 MSQ

28

Male / Male / He/Him

Visionary

Kenoma

❖ First Impressions ❖

Physical

Zenos is, to put it mildly, An Absolute Unit, standing just shy of eight foot tall (7 foot 6 barefoot, closer to 7 foot 10 in full plate) and built like the proverbial brick shithouse. There is something almost angelic about his long blond hair, soft features and very blue eyes, but it's of the avenging rather than benevolent kind; he holds himself like a large cat, one keenly aware of its position at the top of the local food chain, an easy confidence born of equal parts priviledge and might. Like all Pureblood Garleans he has a Third Eye in the centre of his forehead; since being reborn as an Aion, he also has a crystal shard embedded in his jugular notch.

Most of the time he presents as extremely bored by whatever's going on around him; the main exception to this is the prospect of violence, for which he shows an unsettling enthusiasm. His emotions are generally pretty easy to read, either way.

Personality

Zenos is what happens when a culture based entirely on Might reaches the point its elite no longer have to struggle for anything, and leaves its heir-apparent to more-or-less raise himself.; his entire adult personality revolves around intense anhedonia, an inability to understand other people and an almost fetishistic obsession with adversity. He hyperfixates upon things which might relieve the dreadful tedium of existence and fears losing that brilliant spark of joy so much he would quite literally Rather Die. Suffice to say, he is a bit of a dumpsterfire.

❖ Background ❖

Note: this is based on discussion within Aion's FF contingent as to a slightly more sensible timeline than 'it's all one year lol', so dates may vary slightly from other sources

1552 6th Astral - the Garlean Empire succeeds in conquering Doma, and sets its sights on Ala Mhigo

1553 - 6th Astral - Zenos is born, great-grandson of the founder and dictator of the Garlean Empire, Solus zos Galvus. His mother dies shortly afterwards, and his father Varis is often absent, occupied by military campaigns and political maneuvering; his childhood, therefore, is dominated by intense loneliness, as well as (thanks to his strength, intelligence and status) a lack of challenges. When he sleeps, he dreams of a city on fire.

1557 6th Astral - the Garlean Empire conquers Ala Mhigo following a civil war incited by Garlean infiltrators; Sharlayan attempts to negotiate a peace treaty with Garlemald, fails, and abandons its colony in the Dravanian Hinterlands

1562 6th Astral - the Garlean Empire attempts to invade the newly-formed Eorzean Alliance, and is repelled from Mor Dhona by Midgardsormr; the first Eorzean primals are summoned; the first instances of the Echo manifesting are recorded; construction begins on Baelsar's Wall; the Meteor Project begins and is tested on Bozja; Cid nan Garlond defects and founds the Garlond Ironworks

1567 6th Astral - Zenos is assigned a new sword tutor, who repeatedly defeats him in a single stroke and refuses to teach him anything because “The Dead do not learn; they Sleep”; this is the first real adversity Zenos has ever faced, and he becomes obsessed with beating him. It takes 24 days for him to observe and, using the Imperial Library, identify the man's technique (a Corvosi technique called The Unyielding Blade), and a further month to – despite, as a Garlean, not being able to manipulate aether – teach himself to replicate it, culminating in an incident where Zenos embeds aether crystals in his own flesh in order to try and bruteforce his way through this vexing limitation. His tutor (who's supposed to be there as part of a plan to kill Varis but is outraged that a Garlean has dishonoured his nation's legacy) tries to kill him and Zenos makes his first own kill. It is not the euphoria he had hoped for, and he becomes obsessed with finding a more worthy foe

1572 6th Astral - Nael van Darnus occupies Ala Mhigo; Project Meteor 2.0 happens; Cartenau happens; the Calamity happens

0 through 5 7th Umbral - Several Castra are built within Eorzea; Rumours begin to spread that Emperor Solus is sick and may be dying

5th 7th Umbral / 1st 7th Astral - the events of FFXIV occur - Aion's FF contingent reckon over a 5ish year period, with Stormblood being year 2 through 3 - these are documented here

❖ Abilities & Skills ❖

Canonical powers retained upon arrival on Horos:
Increased resistance (basically immunity) to alcohol (innate)

Improved spatial perception (Garlean 3rd eye)

Martial prowess, particularly with swords and scythes – FFXIV-mechanics-wise, he's a bit of a Samurai / Reaper hybrid with some additional tricks expanded on below (training, Garlean 3rd eye, Resonant)

The Unyielding Blade – a Corvosan technique whereby a swordmaster imbues their blade with aether, allowing them to unleash waves of energy for both attack and defence (initially mastered through sheer stubbornness despite the fact Garleans can't manipulate aether, made stronger by Resonant)

Aethyric/Dynamic manipulation in addition to the above: teleportation, projection of barriers, scorching the ground around him or raising it in spikes around an enemy, summoning mirror-images of himself with a very limited duration (usually a single attack) (Resonant)

Limited precognition, specifically swifter reactions due to pre-empting attacks against him (Resonant)

Some limited ability to review the memories of others, as per the true Echo (Resonant)

Update: September 2022:
The spikes he was previously able to raise can now manifest as taloned hands, which will grasp or swipe at an enemy before solidifying

He has also gained the ability to Inflame Emotions for a single target, who must be able to both hear and understand him. He cannot create a new emotional response, only exacerbate an existing one

❖ Resources ❖

Items

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Item One
Item TWo

Hangouts

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Hangout One (City)
Hangout Two (City)

❖ Permissions ❖

Out of Character

Writing Style: I'm pretty flexible – I'll generally match whoever I'm writing with, and revert to prose-style 3rd person present tense otherwise. Ironically given who I'm playing writing combat is very much outside my usual comfort zone, as is anything in the smutty/sexy realm, so expect those kind of tags to take a little longer. If you're ever not sure what I'm saying, please ask - I know i use some odd phrases (there's a reason my other main FFXIV muse is Urianger 'cannot say things simply to save his life' Augurelt) and have a tendency to throw in an ungodly number of asides – and while I'm playing a horrible person I'm not going to be upset or angry if you need me to dial him back some while we're interacting, again just let me know!

Backtagging: Hey, RL happens and usually trumps pretend funtimes. Also, I'm on GMT and GMT is dumb (though I keep weird hours at the weekend, mostly to enable this sort of nonsense). Absolutely fine, though if world-plot's moved on substantially I'd ask you don't drop any major unexpected bombs that should probably have influenced things between “then” and “now”

Threadhopping: Fine with me unless it's marked closed, but give me a headsup you're intending to do so and check with the other people involved too, yeah?

Offensive Subjects: I'm pretty easy-going when it comes to most things, but have a few major triggers around institutional mental health settings, and in particular electroconvulsive therapy (and by extension things like electric chairs, cattleprods or shock collars; magic-based lightning is fine, as are fantasy weapons that call lightning damage, it's specifically medical or disciplinary context that squicks me out). I can deal with references to this sort of content (I'm aware they're kind of horror staples) but if it's going to be something inflicted on a character I'm actively playing (or happen infront of my character to someone they care about) I'd appreciate a headsup ahead of time and may ask to FTB/timeskip if it gets too much for me.

In Character

Physical Violence: *grabby hands* yes please

Death/Dissipation: with prior discussion, sure

Physical Affection: OKAY SO let's talk about this boy and relationships. He is... very not good at them. Pretty much the only way he knows how to relate to people is through violence, the only joy he's ever known is in finding a worthy adversary, and he thinks triggering the apocalypse is a good way to get someone's attention. He is at least aware of quite how fucked up this makes him, so there's that? But yeah. It's complicated (tm). Feel free to initiate, do not be surprised if zenos.exe experiences some funky errors trying to process it

Shipping/Sex: see above; it's not a blanket no, but it's going to take some serious work and probably go to some fucked up places along the way. It's also going to have to reckon with his existing incredibly unhealthy obsession with the Warrior of Light and his disinterest in sex (I'm hesitant to say outright asexual, so much as mired in his general complicated understanding of relationships and pleasure, but definitely somewhere in the ambivalent grey region). Basically, don't go into this expecting an easy ride (pun intended)

Mental/Communion: yes, though be aware the boy is a pretty open book and said book contains some uncomfortable stuff (see potential trigger list below)

Offensive Subjects: Zenos is categorically Not A Nice Person; themes likely to come up include depression / anhedonia, self-mutilation, self-unaliving and related ideation, various other flavours of explicit violence including patricide, genocide and themes of colonialism / occupation, apocalypse-scale events, use of violent terminology to describe seemingly-unrelated positive experiences, brainwashing / forced conversion, obsessive / stalking behaviour, extreme possessiveness, medical experimentation (some coercive / non-consensual), and body horror / metamorphosis / monstrous anatomy. His language can also skew a little uncomfortably ableist, particularly where the nobility of struggling against limitations is concerned. He is both pretty aware of and entirely comfortable with who and what he is, though, so the only things likely to get a visceral IC reaction are violence (good!), cowardly tactics (bad!), and the WoL (complicated! But basically “nobody gets to kill them but me” dialled up to eleven along with some very weird definitions of 'friendship').

❖ Player ❖
CogGirl | GMT | PM / Discord @ CogGirl#2029