Strange divinity...

NAME
lux iliunove
ETHNICITY
bozjan & dalmascan
BIRTHPLACE
varigrad, dalmasca
OCCUPATION
traveling healer, "sorceress"
FAMILY
nikandr quo iliunove MIA
penelope iliunove (née khurje) †
AGE
twenty-five

She's like a distant sunset, this sorceress from afar—bright and warm and yet so drenched in melancholy, like the slow fall of twilight. There's a ghost in her eyes; she speaks, too, with a ghost's tongue, a Dalmascan lilt that all but confirms hers must be a tragic history indeed.That she's Dalmascan would be obvious even without that, though: she's never without an icon of the Kildean faith, especially those depicting Faram. Of special importance is the periapt of the Father of Light she wears around her neck, though nothing about it seems especially expensive or even antique.She's never one place very long; her aspect is an itinerant one, and she doesn't seem keen on sticking around anywhere long enough to be remembered. But everywhere she goes, she leaves a wake of whispers behind her: she's a miracle healer, a saint of the masses, Faram's will given flesh, given body. That itinerant aspect lends her its nastier habits, too, and her casual grace is rimed with the variety of paranoia you might expect of an old soldier, not a young woman. The scars that groove her body, too, are the make of a soldier's; she lacks the military discipline that ought to accommodate them.Her voice is patient, placid; she seems hard to rouse, but her convictions make themselves obvious when they need to, hard and sharp like any barber's blade. Despite her even temperament, she's hard to pin down—but she'll never tell you a lie, if you can get her to tell you anything at all.What she lacks in courtly graces she makes up for in the warmth of her personality; she's amiable, relaxed, and even if she takes in every ingress and egress long before she settles down, she makes good enough company.

Years on the run have left her with a healthy caution and a tendency to make snap judgments. Hard, lean years: she has a runner's physique and a litany of scars. That she's a mage is less obvious—but she carries herself like one, her head held high and proud, like she's crowned with some majesty.She's hard to miss in a crowd, her long, fiery hair unbound and loose. As much a boon as a burden: in Varigrad and elsewhere, they tell the sick and the ailing to look for the woman with hair like fire, and more often than not they find her, her leonine mane like a signal fire in the crowded streets.Her Bozjan heritage—some might remember her father, Nikandr, and his reputation as a signifer in the Imperial army—is harder to spot, betraying itself mostly in the curious way her Dalmascan lilt catches on certain syllables, or the way her skin pales in the winter, as if she draws her vitality from the nourishing embrace of sunlight.

Why are you still so stubborn to beguile me?

RUMORS

MIRACLE HEALER...

If you believe the rumors, Penelope's daughter is as close as they come to a genuine miracle-worker—the sick and the ailing of Dalmasca flock to her, if they can find her. What veracity these rumors have is unclear: between Lux's mysterious comings-and-goings and the greater mystery of where exactly she and Nikandr disappeared to after Penelope's execution at the hands of Imperial soldiers, plenty are skeptical that the young sorceress has the best intentions. Still, her skill with healing magic brokers comment—and interest—even if she isn't working genuine miracles.

THE CAGE...

Though she's not often one to talk about her home, Lux hails from the penal state of Varigrad—a Dalmascan province used by the Empire to house signifers and imprisoned mages; often called "the Cage," Varigrad's history is bloody and checkered, and the city still bears the scars of the heavy gouges of the Empire's claws. Prior to the conquest, Varigrad was a port city and a trade hub, often called the "key to the Westersand."

DAUGHTER OF THE CLOTH...

Few outside of Varigrad would know Penelope; to those inside the Cage, however, she was a welcome face, providing alms and forbidden vespers by candlelight to the condemned mages imprisoned in the penal state that had once been her home. Shortly after Lux's birth, Penelope was executed by Imperial soldiers on the steps of her former church for spreading seditious worship. Lux has few mementos of her mother, but always wears a periapt her father gave her to remember Penelope by. Like Penelope, Lux is an ardent worshipper of Faram and the Light of Kiltias.

ORIGINAL SIN...

Nikandr quo Iliunove, Lux's father, was a conscripted Bozjan signifer in the IVth Legion; in his time he came to live in infamy for his talent with magic, performing feats that would spell his meteoric rise in the ranks of the IVth. Before long, he was named centurion and given command of a centuria deployed primarily in Dalmasca and based out of Varigrad. During a confidential operation in the heart of the Estersand, Nikandr infiltrated a sacred temple attached to a cult the Empire would see riven; in the course of that operation, nearly his entire centuria fell—for which Nikandr would be blamed, since he himself deserted there in the Estersand. Shortly thereafter, he returned home to Varigrad; Lux was born less than a year later, and he fled with her after Penelope's execution. He has since gone missing, leading Lux to search for her itinerant father.

IMPERIAL DESIGNS...

Though the Empire is but a shadow of what it once was, Lux and her father once attracted its attention; attention that may yet persist even long after the Empire's death throes have sounded. Perhaps the reason for Lux's itinerance—her paranoia, her soldier's mien—is the shadow of the Empire that follows her. In Varigrad, cloaked soldiers ask after her whereabouts; elsewhere, a wealthy patron by the name of Adrianus hires findsmen to locate the young sorceress. But what do they hope to find?*This rumor could lead to characters being hired by Adrianus or seeking Lux out for more information. Please send me a tell if you'd like to pursue that! ☺

CONTACT...

lux iliunove@mateus
If none of the hooks resonated with you, feel free to reach out to me with your own ideas for how our characters could meet!

PLAYER...

I'm over the age of 21 and would prefer that people interested in RPing with Lux are as well. I have ten thousand years of RP experience, or however it goes; I typically prefer "grounded," narrative, and immersive RP, and I'm a fairly avid DM and storyteller, so I'm always happy to get roped into people's stories (or rope them into mine).

LORE...

Much of the Dalmascan content involved in both Lux's roleplay and this Carrd are the product of headcanon informed by ingame lore, FF12/Tactics, et cetera. Some things—like Varigrad—are spun whole-cloth to fill in gaps in the lore; while all of it is designed to be lore-compliant, we may not always agree on the particulars! Feel free to reach out if you'd like to brainstorm together; I'm always interested in collaborating with like-minded writers. ☺

THEMES...

War, trauma, love & romance, pain & loss, justice, religion, power and powerlessness, empire (and capital 'E' Empire), Garlemald, Dalmasca, magic, inheritance, political intrigue, and power struggles.

AESTHETIC...

Lux has a Pinterest for aesthetics, character inspiration, and "look-and-feel" of the character. She also has a Spotify playlist!
As a character, Lux is meant to invoke tragic heroines—in particular Helen of Troy from Homer's Iliad; Isabella from Shakespeare's Measure for Measure; Hawke from Dragon Age 2; Cirilla from The Witcher; Tattersail & Silverfox from Stephen Erikson's Malazan; Egwene al'Vere from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time; Jill Warrick from Final Fantasy XVI; Serah Farron from Final Fantasy XIII, and Lunafreya nox Fleuret from Final Fantasy XV.

I'll build myself a secret fellowship
That may defy impeachment: what is treason

Muttered by one mouth, earns another name
When many shout it.

Mordred, A Tragedy, Henry Newbolt