Khusei of the Dotharl
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'Ominous' -Nisemonogatori
The soul, is a complicated thing. One desperately wishes, to make an impact on this world, but how far will you go to do so?
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In a life before:
Azeryn Malaar was a scholar of exceptional skill and one of the foremost researchers among the Mhachi elite. Her focus on soul magicks was revolutionary, setting her apart from her peers who were more concerned with offensive void magicks or the binding of voidsent as mere tools. Azeryn's ambitions went deeper: she sought to understand the essence of life itself, how aether shaped the soul, and how both could be preserved, transferred, or even manipulated in ways thought impossible. Her experiments touched upon knowledge and techniques that would resonate across the ages, ultimately laying the groundwork for the soul manipulation found in more modern practices...
"The soul, is a complicated thing. One desperately wishes, to make an impact on this world, but how far will you go to do so?" - Khusei Dotharl
In a life before:
Azeryn Malaar was a scholar of exceptional skill and one of the foremost researchers among the Mhachi elite. Her focus on soul magicks was revolutionary, setting her apart from her peers who were more concerned with offensive void magicks or the binding of voidsent as mere tools. Azeryn's ambitions went deeper: she sought to understand the essence of life itself, how aether shaped the soul, and how both could be preserved, transferred, or even manipulated in ways thought impossible. Her experiments touched upon knowledge and techniques that would resonate across the ages, ultimately laying the groundwork for the soul manipulation found in more modern practices...
In this Life...
Khusei, reincarnated as a Dotharl warrior, was born with an innate fire affinity, a passion that burned within her from a young age. Though her tribe reveled in battle and reincarnation, Khusei felt a deeper yearning to understand the world beyond mere conflict. As a child, she was drawn to pursuits of the mind more than body, hoping to use her gifts not just for war, but to heal and help others. Her initial dream was to become a scholar, mastering aetheric arts to aid her people in practical ways, contributing to their survival through knowledge and magic.Growing up, she pursued the path of a Scholar. Using her exceeding intelligence and wit, combined with profane knowledge of esoteric formulae. Khusei's naturally overflowing well of aether and anima was a blatant gift that could help others, following in the footsteps of her birth mother.
Though she continued to try, Khusei Dotharl struggled to control her aether from an early age. Unlike other spellcasters whose magic flowed in harmony with their elemental affinities, Khusei’s aether was volatile, heavily attuned to fire. The raw, untamed energy within her made her magicks unpredictable, often flaring up at the most inopportune moments. What should have been simple healing spells would instead surge with uncontrollable bursts of heat, scorching her surroundings and leaving her physically drained. She pushed herself to master more refined techniques, trying to subdue her flame and wield aetheric healing arts. Eventually, she set those formulae aside, accepting that it was not her gift to heal in that way, but she was determined to find another way to aid.Following the fervent pull of her determined spirit, she pushed herself relentlessly to master the more refined techniques of aether manipulation, hoping to subdue her flame and wield it in a way that would allow her to heal and protect others. Her passion to help others burned as fiercely as the fire within her, yet the more she tried to control it, the more it seemed to slip from her grasp.In her search for balance, Khusei redoubled her attempt to become a Summoner. Drawn to the primal might of Ifrit, the embodiment of flame, she believed that if she could harness the power of such a destructive force, she might learn to temper her own fiery aether. She hoped to strike a balance between the primal’s untamed fury and her desire to use magic for good. Perhaps, she thought, by controlling Ifrit, she could finally balance the destructive tendencies within her own soul.However, her attempts to summon and control primal energies only deepened her frustration. The summoning arts required a delicate control over tempered aether, and Khusei’s natural affinity for fire—combined with a dormant, unseen influence within her soul—made it impossible to maintain stability. Her fire-aspected aether surged wildly every time she tried to call upon Ifrit, and the primal's fiery power always seemed to overwhelm her control. Healing magicks became chaotic, and even elemental summons bent to her will only briefly before breaking free in destructive outbursts. Amid these struggles, Khusei began to hear whispers—at first, barely perceptible, but growing stronger with time. At first, she thought them beckonings of Ifrit, but she came to realize these whispers came from deep within her aether, from the very heart of her flame.One night, during a particularly intense bout of training, she was consumed by a vision—a great being of flame, its form shifting between the primal visage of Ifrit and something far older, more primal- it spoke of a time when Man did not crawl, but was a master of this realm. After a mysterious exchange, it offered her a pact. It called itself the Soul of Fire, the eternal flame that had burned since the star’s creation, and in exchange for control over her aether, Khusei became its chosen vessel. The Fire and the Pact was not just a reflection of her affinity—it was the mark of something far greater.
Yet, the pact came with its own cost.The Soul of Fire, though ancient and powerful, was volatile—it demanded to be fed, to burn ever brighter. Whenever Khusei called upon its strength, she felt its influence deepen within her soul. It granted her incredible power, but she could sense something darker stirring beneath the surface, as though the flames were consuming not only her enemies but part of herself. Each use of its power came with a growing sense of loss, as though fragments of her very soul were being burned away, leaving behind a hollow, void-like feeling in their wake, Thus, she offered up the souls of those she encountered in battle. Feeling the strange sense of loss as they were sublimated by the Pact, it unsettled her, but the power she gained allowed her to vanquish many foul voidsent and Spoken alike. Having done this though, Khusei is very careful to use her more potent magicks, for she knows that they come at great cost.
After making her pact with the Soul of Fire, Khusei found herself changing in ways that unsettled those around her. Her fire-aspected aether had always been volatile, but now, it took on a new intensity. The pact with the flame had made her more powerful, but it also alienated her from the scholarly world she had once sought to belong to.Khusei had been teaching at a school for aspiring adventurers and scholars when a misunderstanding occurred. One of her colleagues had been dismissed after a controversial incident involving forbidden magicks and a disagreement over their veracity, and Khusei was caught in the crossfire. Though she had no direct involvement, her association with the accused professor—combined with her growing reputation for wielding dark, unstable magicks—cast suspicion on her. The incident fractured her relationships with some of her peers. Bridges were burned as misunderstandings piled up, and though Khusei wasn’t bitter about what had happened, she realized that her place was no longer in the academic halls. She bore no ill will toward those she left behind, but the Soul of Fire had changed her in more ways than one. She needed a new direction.After leaving the school and her former colleagues, Khusei turned her focus toward applying her magic in a more active, militaristic role. She knew she would have a constant fire to stoke, so she needed a constant supply of aether and souls, so to speak. She joined the Maelstrom, where her prowess with magick quickly drew the attention of her superiors. Khusei demonstrated an extraordinary ability to bolster and enhance the combat effectiveness of others, using her fire-aspected aether not only for offense but to empower those around her. With her unmatched strategic mind and raw power, she quickly rose through the ranks. Her company, being known for their strange tactics. While many in the Maelstrom were skilled fighters, few could match Khusei’s unique blend of aetheric manipulation and battlefield tactics. She became known for enhancing soldiers with her magicks, weaving flames through their weapons to make them stronger, faster, and more resilient. Her battle strategies were bold, blending offensive magic with intricate defensive tactics. After setting a new record for battlefield encounters without a reported ally casualty—and being an entire female regiment— they earned the nickname "The Valkyries."Her ascent to the rank of Field Marshal was rapid—unheard of, even. Her ability to read the battlefield and turn the tide of war using her unique magicks set her apart from others. Where others saw destruction, Khusei saw opportunity. Her Bond with the Soul of Fire allowed her to channel flames that were as much a shield for her allies as they were a weapon against her enemies. But Khusei’s methods were not without risk. Her fire-aspected aether was often tinged with an unnatural, umbral quality, a deep stygian blue that flickered like shadows in the wake of her flames. This was the influence of her pact and the remnants of Her true soul coming to the surface. In battle, blue flames would erupt from her, sometimes taking the shape of ethereal wings or armor, strangely reminiscent of a Blackguard, twisted and assuaged with voidal energy. This raw, stygian power made her presence on the battlefield both awe-inspiring and fearsome, thus earning the Callsign "Omen". Her mastery of power, entwined with her esoteric knowledge of aether and voidal energy, made Khusei the ideal Field Marshal to lead the charge into warfronts steeped in powerful magicks.Khusei’s first significant campaign as a Field Marshall was in Eureka, where she led a contingent of Maelstrom forces to uncover ancient relics and battle the untamed forces within. It was here that Khusei’s skills were further pushed to their limits. The anomalous aether of Eureka resonated deeply with her, amplifying her power and further warping her magic with voidal energy. In Eureka, she found herself battling not just the dangerous beasts and elemental forces of the land, but her own growing connection to a voidal legacy. The wild, chaotic aether seemed to awaken fragments of her past life, offering her fleeting glimpses of ancient soul magicks and rituals long forgotten.Continuing her tenure, Khusei served long enough to witness the Bozjan Southern Front, where she was sent as part of the Allied effort to push back the IVth Imperial Legion. The magicks of Bozja—particularly the use of crystallized memories—resonated deeply with Khusei’s soul. As she fought alongside the Resistance, she began to see connections between the crystallization techniques used in Bozja and her own past work in Mhach, back when she was Azeryn Malaar.The crystallized memories in Bozja reminded Khusei of the soulbinding experiments she had once conducted as Azeryn, though she had not yet fully realized the connection. Bozjan mages, unaware of the ancient knowledge they were tapping into, had discovered techniques remarkably similar to those Azeryn had pioneered centuries before. For Khusei, these battles were not only a test of her power but also a revelation—a reminder that her past was still tied to the present, and that her work as Azeryn Malaar had not been forgotten by history.By the time Khusei returned from the front lines of Bozja, she had not only cemented her reputation as one of the most powerful and strategic minds within the Maelstrom, but she had also come to realize that her power—and her soul—were linked to far darker forces than she had once believed: The result of having successfully completed the voidweapon, she learns her use of the Soul of Fire had allowed her to master her flames, but it had also drawn her closer to the voidal energies lurking within her. With each battle, each campaign, she found herself edging closer to unlocking the secrets of her past life.By the time Khusei returned from the Bozjan front, she had not only cemented her reputation as a tactical genius within the Maelstrom, but she also came to a deeper understanding of the darker forces intertwined with her soul. Her Bond with the Soul of Fire had allowed her to control the chaotic flames within her, but it had also awakened the latent voidal energies tied to her past life, leading her to form and maintain a wide variety of new Voidal and Daemonic Pact. Every battle, every campaign, brought her closer to the long-hidden knowledge of void magicks, culminating in her completion of the voidweapon —a masterwork that combined her past knowledge and present expertise to uncover the secrets of binding voidsent to weapons. This required great personal attachment to the process, drawing directly from her own past, and her powerful will.However, Khusei's growing power attracted the attention of Xenshen, once a well-intentioned scholar of white magic and Onmyoji arts, who became consumed by his desire to stop Khusei, believing her growing connection to void magicks posed a grave threat. In his desperation, Xenshen sought to summon a being of pure light, one powerful enough to vanquish Khusei entirely. However, the ritual went horribly wrong. Instead of the radiant protector he hoped for, Xenshen inadvertently pulled through the soul of a Lightwarden, a twisted being of unchecked light. The Lightwarden’s soul bonded to Xenshen, corrupting his will and turning his once-pure intentions into a desire for control and destruction.Xenshen, convinced that his actions were righteous, used his mastery of light-based wards and seals to trap Khusei in an arcane box that was one of her own making, a powerfully horrific artifact, meant to be used to seal the Cloud of Darkness. He believed that by imprisoning her, he could halt what he saw as her inevitable descent into darkness. However, Xenshen’s corrupted mind could not see the truth—that his own soul had become a tool of destruction, a puppet for the Lightwarden’s will.
Unfortunately, Xenshen succeeded. And in time much chaos has occurred. The End Times came and went, and now, upon her release, Khusei discovered that Xenshen, now fully under the Lightwarden’s influence, had begun sowing chaos across the Yanxian countryside, using his powers of light not to heal, but to impose control and devastation.
Present-day
Khusei now tries to re-orient herself in this new world. Learning of the changes since her time in the box, and coming to terms with what memories are from this life, and from her past life, or even from those beings she has made pacts with. As she faces her former colleague on the battlefield, knowing that his fall is not entirely of his own making. Her next steps will require not only her growing knowledge of void magicks and the soul, but also the ability to confront Xenshen's corrupted intent—without losing herself to the darkness she has fought so long to master.
- Mhach and Void Magick.
- Soul Magicks
- Urban Language and Culture
- Contracts & Deals
- She speaks of times past as if they were fond memories...And, by times past, she means from Millenia past.
- Aether, Akasha, & Auracite
- Bozja and Eurekan conflicts
With how dutiful she is to the Maelstrom, Khusei needs a place to handle things her way. A place that can do what needs to be, but still bring balance to the star as best it can. Thus comes in Sukuna Jinja the free company founded with her wife and closest friends, it is where she truly is able to delve into her occult curiosities and give back to the world what she knows it needs.
Though her void weapon project is a bit of an outlier compared to her normal work, she will be more than willing to help anyone in need.Though she is curt and direct, she has an odd interest in pop culture, and will try to stay 'hip' and with the current times. So you will see her sporting the latest fashion and tomephone, even if she can barely work it. Do guide her on any new phrases that the kids and "urban youth" are saying, she would be glad to hear it and eagerly use it at her earliest convenience.
Age: [Redacted]
Height: 4 fulm 7 ilm (4'7")
Weight: 110 ponze (110lbs)
Relationship status: Married
Class: "Reaper"
Name: Ric
Age: 28
Pronouns: They/ThemHello, I'm a mortician as my human profession, so my time in game sometimes becomes few and far between. However, I've been a writer for about 18 years now and its been a great source of enjoyment over the years for me. I love FFXIV for the roleplay, the gameplay, and the community really have brought much enjoyment to my days. We're all here to RP and have a good time, if there's anything you want to work out between our characters- be it plotting a scene, or working out a conflict- feel free to DM me and I will be happy to try and work it out together! I also do amateur Calligraphy.
Discord: The Divine Chaos