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[heartofthestar]

OOC INFORMATION
Player Name: Dragon
Pronoun Preferences: he/him
Contact: ultimaweapon
Are you over the age of 18?: Yes.
Invitation Link: linky lunky
Current Characters: N/A
Link to Permissions: heyooo

IC INFORMATION
Character Name: Venat
Species: Ancient
Canon: Final Fantasy XIV
Canon Point: Post-Endwalker
Character Age: 12,000+
CRAU: No

Character Appearance: Lady of Light!
Powers and Abilities:

Creation Magic: Can create almost anything out of her own aether by holding a template or image in mind. The template is the limitation factor; Ancients maintained a storehouse of these and consistently tested and refined new ones. (On regain this will be nerfed into the ground considering how ridiculous it is in canon.)

Battle-hardened: Venat can change between Paladin (tank), White Mage (healer), and Dancer (DPS). These determine whether she is best at enduring damage, dealing it, or healing it, though she has ability to do all these things in any job.

"The Gift": Can understand and be understood by all things with a soul

Endless Lifespan: Does not age and cannot die of old age.

What Did Your Character Wish For? To see Etheirys grow and change, once the Final Days have been forever quelled.
What Potion Did They Receive? Golden.
Did They Drink It? Yes (if not immediately). Her new form is a bluebird-sized phoenix.

Character Questions:
1. Who is the person your character is most bonded with from their canon? Or who is someone they miss the most? The Warrior of Light, who both set her on her path as Hydaelyn and fulfilled her dream of having the strength to conquer despair at that path's end. Much of this can be summed up by the lyrics of "Flow":

Well come and well met, my brave little spark
How long you've wandered, burned bright as a star
Oh, I have awaited you patiently all this time
Past every fate

Adding to this, the Warrior of Light is a reincarnation of her protégé and successor, the Ancient who took the seat of Azem once she retired from it. In so many ways, she has guided the Warrior down the path they took, after millennia of watching and waiting for them to appear. And at the end, she attacks them with lethal intent, the only way she can truly be sure they have the strength to stand against the despair that awaits them at the end. She couldn't have been happier to lose, and not just die, but dissipate into nonexistence.

Notably, they form an instant connection when the Warrior travels back in time to first meet her; she is eager to hear their stories, their insights, and especially their laughter. At the end, they are the one to bid her farewell, and to reassure her as she dissipates.

2. What are they most afraid of? That she has failed, and in doing so, damned countless souls to lifetimes of agony and suffering for nothing. At no point does she ever fear her basic premise is wrong, that people can forge the strength to defeat despair, but her grand plan has several time limits placed on it as the Ascians manage to sabotage it time and again. She prepared every contingency she could to buy the stars more time, but she could do no more than that.

With the Scions proving they have the strength to combat the Endsinger and win, her fear is mostly dissipated -- but that makes the kernel of it all the harder and stronger. After all, she has no idea what will happen past her death, and nonexistence means she will never know. Though she has every faith and hope in her heroes, she has no guarantees. Suddenly existing again, as she will in-game, will not help that. Even if another character told her what happened, she knows that alternate and branching timelines exist. She will never be certain, and that will always sit inside her like a knot.

3. What is their weakness? Emotionally, mentally and physically? Emotionally and mentally, Venat's weakness is her absolute exhaustion. She's been going for millennia, laboring over a plan that existed literally to cause suffering and pain to the people she loved, maintaining her conviction all the while even as she endured so much. Overwhelming her with the weight of her years would be very easy, and without the powerful plan that kept her going, she could easily want to close her eyes and rest forever.

Venat has no singular physical weaknesses, but the trait most likely to get her in trouble physically is her reckless eagerness on a personal level. Though she can be patient and plan on a grand scale, she also thinks charging into a volcano to fight it is a great idea and encourages people to 'get to know her' by attempting to beat them near to death. Lacking much of the power that made her able to do these sorts of things in the past is almost sure to get her in over her head. Even physical combat with swords and so forth relies heavily on aether usage, meaning that at first she'll be far weaker than she expects, even against ordinary scenarios such as blizzards.

4. What would make them happiest? Therapy. In all seriousness, Venat lives and has lived with the knowledge that she did something truly horrible and unforgiveable because it was necessary. She sacrificed her friends and allies to do it. She feels she holds sole responsibility for every ounce of suffering and pain every being of the Source and the shards has ever felt. And she holds onto that as a sort of punishment. Happiness, then, would come from shedding the guilt and the pain, along with all the weight of years and the pain of her own relentless slog forward.

Importantly, Venat would not consider herself happiest if she lost all those memories and feelings. That would betray her core belief, that such pain and suffering is needed to truly overcome despair instead of hiding from it or running from it. Similarly, she wouldn't somehow turn back time to undo it all, either.

5. What’s their type for a lover? Canon offers no evidence as to whether Venat had lovers during the course of her life, though her absolute joy and love of people in general and her desire as Azem to travel the world and experience it, it seems plausible enough. Her type for that is the brightest "beacons of light and life", the one who love life and take joy in living it.

For a true partner, however, be it romantic or platonic, she needs someone who first and foremost holds her without awe, propriety, or distance despite her history and identities. She was profoundly irritated, on becoming Azem, how her friends and comrades now treated her formally, so having a partner in awe of Hydaelyn or even former Azem can simply not do. Profound closeness, and the happiness and joy it fosters, stand paramount.

Following that, her ideal companion would share many of her own traits. In any circumstance they might face, she needs to be able to rely on her partner completely, without regret or hesitation or fear. They might accomplish their goal differently than she would, but their ends would be the same. Thus they need strength, intelligence, and force of personality close to or even surpassing hers.

Beyond that, a man who loved her deeply described her as "A crystal bathed in sunlight. So blinding in her delight she outshone the very stars." That description, or something very much like it, is how she wishes to see her partner. In soul, not in body.

Samples: Laughter, delight, freezing her Azem off.