☾
“The moon is a loyal companion.
It never leaves. It’s always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do. Every day it’s a different version of itself. Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human.
Uncertain. Alone. Cratered by imperfections.”
― Tahereh Mafi
About
☾
Name: Rhaya Okami
Birth Name: Rhaya (last name is secret)
Gender: female (she/her)
Race & Clan: Miqo'te | Keeper of the Moon
Nameday: 5th sun of the 2nd umbral moon
Patron Deity: Menphina, The Lover
Height: 1,52m
Hair Color: greyish blue with light strands
Eye Color: blue
Birth Place: The Black Shroud, Gridania
Status: taken
Estate: Empyreum, Ishgard
Main Job: Redmage
Hobbies: Fishing, Sewing, Engineering, Decorating the house, Glamouring, Reading, Increasing her collection, Picking up challenges and casually exploring Eorzea
Personality
☾
☾
"Look to those who walked before
To lead those who walk after."
― Answers, Nobuo Uematsu
☾
Rhaya is introverted, friendly, polite and a bit shy as well. But beneath her soft impression hides the strong will to follow her dreams. Rhaya learned to use her politeness in a way to keep people distanced without appearing rude. She needs a lot of time, until she opens up to new people. She also doesn't like being in crowded places - one of the reasons, she loves fishing so much is discovering all those lonely and calm fishing spots. In her early years as an adventurer, she used to travel alone, but she learned to appreciate good company from time to time. Surrounded by those she trust dearly, she can be very open-hearted and laughs a lot. Rhaya also has a very sarcastic side, but she prefers to not show it.During her journey as Warrior of Light Rhaya learned to always look forward and to face her fears. In combat Rhaya is fierce and focused, she works hard for her goals and makes those her priority. She always tries to be independent as possible. Focusing on goals and fights leads her to being a little competitive - sometimes more than would be good for her.Rhaya has one weak spot: love. Since she left her home early, she didn't experience the love of a family as much as others did. This also affects her way of handling friendships and romantic relationships. She has a hard time expressing feelings - though she deeply cares a lot for those she let into her life. She won't admit it, but Rhaya would love to have a significant other by her side - especially someone, who can keep up with her. Of course she made some experiences, but she learned from broken hearts. Rhaya wanted her adventuring goals to be her priority and not care for love any more.... until one Viera boy found his way into her heart. ♡
Appearance
☾
☾Some of her favorite items:
Rhaya has a pale skintone with light grey clanmarks on her cheeks and forehead. Her hair is mostly greyish blue (sometimes darker, sometimes lighter) with highlights. And from time to time she changes her hair color to a more purple tone. She has a small variety of hairstyles and switches between them. But she prefers keeping her hair in a ponytail or wear it around shoulder lenght. Since she likes how they frame her face, Rhaya's hairstyles always includes bangs - either straight or sideways, but bangs are a must-have for her.Rhaya is proud of her clan marks, so she doesn't want too much make up that could hide them. She mostly uses a bit of red eyeshadow, soft blush on her cheeks or a bit of lipstick every now and then.Rhaya likes to change outfits quite often. Her looks vary between casual clothes and battle attires. She prefers fabric based clothing, even in battle, she doesn't like wearing heavy or bulky armor. The same goes for helmets, instead she decorates her head with ribbons, small hats or a variety of flowers. But Rhaya's signature accessory is probably wearing one earring - like her beloved Glass Pumpkin earring. She also completes her looks with necklaces and bracelets, if they fit.Colorwise Rhaya mostly uses darker shades. Her wardrobe contains lots of black, blue and dark red. For a long time Rhaya was against wearing softer colors - especially pastel pink. But growing up she learned to also combine these - though pink outfits are still very rare in her closet. In contrast to all of her dark looks, she loves to dress in white as well and often combines it with soft shades of blue.
Background
☾
Rhaya was born into a “Keeper of the Moon” clan living in the Black Shroud near Gridania. Even though her tribe was slightly open for the modern life in the city of Gridania, they still stuck to their traditions. In her clan a single individual doesn't count as much as the greater good of the whole clan and all members have to follow that rule. Besides that her clan was famous for being the greatest hunters around the Black Shroud, especially with bow and arrow. That’s why Rhaya had to learn archery as soon as she could walk. To combine the traditional archery of her clan with modern archery techniques, Rhaya was sent to Gridania as a young adult and had to join the archery guild. Her mother was one of the clan leaders and of course Rhaya should take over her place one day.
But Rhaya never liked that role. She always felt out of place in her traditional clan. Although she is talented with bow and arrow and a proud Keeper of the Moon, Rhaya never wanted to become a leader of her clan and living in the Black Shroud as a huntress for the rest of her life. Forced to give up her own individuality to make safe the clan persits. She always was a dreamer, less down to earth as most of her clan mates. She also was very interested in different kinds of magic – which her mother disliked a lot. There weren’t a lot of casters in Rhaya’s clan, most of them uses simply white magic to support the hunters or care for the old or ill people. And more than once Rhaya found herself fighting with her mother about her future. Her mother was very strict and forced Rhaya to stop developing interest in anything outside of the ideology of her clan. The turning point came when Rhaya was old enough to join a Grand Company and her mother wanted her to accede the Order of the Twin Adder.One day, when her mother was visiting Gridania to set everything up for her daughters career within the Order of the Twin Adder, Rhaya decided to finally leave her clan and her home in the Black Shroud. Since Rhaya knew her mother would be away, she has packed all her goods the night before. She left a short message, telling her that she can’t accept the life forced onto her and that she wants to find her own way. Rhaya then changed her last name to “Okami” – which is simply, because she likes the "Lone Wolf" reference and wolfes in whole. Rhaya keeps her real last name a secret and never told anyone about it, so no one of her old clan, especially not her mother, will be able to find her.
Rhaya traveled to Ul’Dah, a place her mother and her clan dislike a lot. Not enough forests, too hot deserts and a city way too big and busy. The areas around Ul’Dah are mostly populated by Seeker of the Sun clans, since they prefer the hot climate. In Ul’Dah Rhaya stumbled across Black Magic. She still got her bow, because archery was the thing she could do best, but because of her past she didn’t liked it a lot. In order to let go of her past and her interest in different kinds of magic, Rhaya threw her bow away and started Thaumaturgy to become a Black Mage. Although she was passionate about it, there were days, she struggled with her new passion a lot. Mastering black magic wasn’t as easy as mastering archery for her. But when she met her fate as a Warrior of Light, she decided to walk this path as a Black Mage.
As her own decision, Rhaya joined the Immortal Flames, because they fit her more than The Order of the Twin Adder in Gridania.The path changed, when her adventure brought her to Ishgard. Rhaya was a good Black Mage at this time, but not as good as she wanted to be. One evening, while she was walking through a cold Ishgardian night, Rhaya saw Hilda Ware wielding a gun (back then Rhaya didn't knew, who this woman was and which role she would play in the future of Ishgard). This left such an impression on her that the next day Rhaya walked right into the Machinists Guild. This was perfect for her. She was able to profit from her talent with archery, but without being an archer - she wasn’t even a Bard at this time. And since being a Black Mage left her struggling from time to time, she was looking for something that fits her better. Stephanivien – the leader of the Machinists Guild – was amazed by Rhaya’s outstanding talent. He became one of her closest friends and he was also the one, who taught her the basics of engineering. Rhaya learned quickly and nowadays she always repairs her tools on her own and is able to build new ones.
Ishgard plays an important role in Rhaya's life, not only because of her becoming a Machinist, but also because of everything that happened after the Dragonsong War. One night, a few days after piece had returned in Ishgard, Rhaya found herself standing pieceful in the cold Ishgardian wind, having the feeling of finally being free from the bonds of her past. She made this way on her own and for the first time in her life, she was proud of herself.
Long time the gun was her best companion. But after fighting Zenos in Ala Mhigo, Rhaya spent some time thinking about her abilities. Of course she was a great engineer and a very talented gunner. But she found herself struggling again. She decided it was time to try new things in order to grow and to become stronger in her role as a Warrior of Light.
Stephanivien once told her about other job guilds in Ishgard and one of them was the Astrologion's guild. Rhaya has made some experiences with healing before, since her clan had White Mages. But those always stood in the shadow on the great hunters with bow and arrow, which made it never look appealing to become a healer in first place. With Astrology it was different: the whole apsect with having cards helping during fights and the feeling of holding a whole cosmos in her hands amazed Rhaya. So this job quickly became her number one pick, when it comes to healing. Another job that helped her growing a lot is Dark Knight. Stephanivien told her some infamous Dark Knight stories. Rhaya was interested, but being in the role of protecting teammates during fights scared her. It took some time until she finally picked up a greatsword by herself. Until today she might not be the most confident in this role, but she worked on herself and became a lot stronger (not to forget she really like these impressive swords).Rhaya even managed to go back to Gridania and to grab a bow again. Overcoming her bad memories with archery she decided to continue her old class and learned to be a Bard as well. Which was very helpful, because there was a short period, in which she had to put her gun aside. An old-fashioned leader of the church spread false rumors about Machinists and Rhaya was forced to grab a bow instead of a gun, to feel safe. This was also the time, she learned to be a Red Mage - not knowing how important this job will become for her. But as soon as those spread rumors turned out to be wrong, Rhaya put bow and rapier aside and the gun was her number one pick again.
Rhaya made her biggest developments during her time in The First. Not only the incidents that happenend during Rhaya's journey on becoming the Warrior of Darkness shaped her a lot, but also the way she took the progression of her capabilities further. Being able to join fights in many different ways became way more important to Rhaya and it helped her growing confidence. Of course she didn't like all jobs, especially close combat is something she would only pick, if there was no other option. One of the favorite things Rhaya learned during that time, was to be a Dancer. Not only it was a good alternative to stay ranged, when she can't use her gun and doesn't want to use a bow, but also she enjoys the movement and fighting style the Thavnarian Dancers tought her.During the last years Rhaya also mastered all kinds of Disciples of Hand and Land - with her being also very talented at weaving.
And Rhaya found one of her biggest passions: Fishing. She had been fishing before, but it was during her time in Crystarium, when she learned about rare, big fish. And due to her being competitive and taking up on challenges, she quickly went into that Fisher lifestyle. Nowadays she uses fishing to get her head free in between battles and to find new hidden spots in the world of Eorzea. It's her way to relax - at least when the fish bites.Rhaya's path started changing slightly again before her adventure brought her to Old Sharlayan. A job she really enjoyed before she went to The First came back into her life: Red Mage. Because of some big, important battles she learned that her gun would be a bad pick and that magic was needed. So she exchanged her gun with a rapier. During those fights and a lot of training the rapier grew a lot on her. Being a Red Mage reminded her of her past as Black Mage, but with a twist and more mobility. Of course she's still an engineer and Machinist at heart, but she decided to continue her way as Red Mage, because it just felt right. And she thinks her younger self would also be happy, because she's finally able to use those kinds of magic, which her mother never allowed her to use.
Besides all those fights and her life as Warrior of Light, Rhaya managed it to settle down a bit. She always had a hard time relationshipwise. Starting with her past of running away from her family, that's why it wasn't easy for her to create new bonds. Though she found a circle of people she trusts. Those friends taught her, that you don't have to be connected by blood to be a family. One of them - "best bnuuy boy", how she called him secretly - got a special spot in her heart. Not expecting to getting this close, they started adventuring together some time ago. He gave her a new home and one day both noticed that it's more than friendship.
He means the world to her and Rhaya can't wait to explore new horizons with him.To be continued...
Gallery
☾
