Stats

Name: Feather AshleafGender: FemaleRace: Rava VieraHomeland: RabanastreCurrent Location: Ul'dahJobs: Scholar, MachinistOccupation: Healer

Personality

Charismatic, with the ability to change her attitude on a dime; be it sharing crude, sassy jokes with drunken dockworkers or calmly discussing the finer points of nobility to a perfumed oligarch.She's rarely seen without a smile across her face, and does her best to make sure everyone about her is the same.Beneath a charming exterior lies an argumentative, venomous, and opinionated edge- she holds strong and often unwavering convictions, and is quick to shut down people who she disagrees with.World-weary and more than a bit cynical. Often times arrogant and self-aggrandizing, in the same breath: she's innately aware of the world's flaws, and believes she knows better than everyone how to solve these problems.A vigorously-trained academic with an itch to study all things niche, fringe, or forbidden- determined to know what is forbidden for a good reason, and what isn't.Often-times petty- Feather is slow to forgive, and slower to forget, holding onto grudges far longer than most would find reasonable.A natural teacher: Feather loves to find talent, nurture it, and teach it new things. A quick way into her heart is often just to simply ask her for advice, and follow her recommendations.Deeply principled: she has a few lines she absolutely will not cross, and will hold others to those same principles until the bitter end. She’s motivated by higher ideologies and an overarching goal.Iron-nerved, with an expert poker face. Is extremely good, though not perfect, at hiding her true emotions and intentions.Hedonistic and spoiled; Feather has tasted the good life, and refuses to lower her standards.Vain, narcissistic, and quick to judge- though she's just as quick to invest in others, with a knack for noticing talent and developing it to work for her.Fancies herself an expert schemer, but often overlooks fine details, underestimates her enemies, and overestimates her own intelligence.Paranoid and untrusting; she sees enemies in every corner, even if they genuinely intend to help her.

Backstory

From humble beginnings within the Golmore Jungle, Feather's humble life of stewardship was interrupted when the volcano-side village was visited by travelling merchants from Dalmasca. While the details of their profession were a mystery to her, Feather was absolutely enamored by their stories of the outside world: completely captured by the legends of the Dalmascan people, the legacy of Ivalice, and the promise of a wider world as a whole. When the world was obviously so much bigger than her village, how could she stay in one jungle her whole life? How could anyone be content merely surviving in one corner of the world- when the stars above promised so much more wonder and potential in the outside world? Enamored with the idea of contributing to the wider world, Feather left the confines of Eyrut Village to explore the wondrous world of Dalmasca- soon gaining enough coin to enrol herself in the Royal Rabanastre University to study Astromancy.Still, Feather was a child prodigy in her years; studying hard, acing tests, and earning quite the name for herself in the medical circuit nearby. While her track record was undoubtedly insane, she had more than a little controversy to her name; patients left with miraculous recoveries and she cured illnesses thought fatal, but the methods she did it in were the sort to leave more than one type of scar... and often had a list of side effects that stretched on to look like a particularly morbid contract. While studying Astrology at the Royal Rabanastre University, Feather's education took her into field work, as well: learning to heal and mend people on the job, as well as care for herself amongst the excursions conducted by Rabanastre's royal guard.Over the next few years of her life, Feather would serve as a healer all around Dalmasca. Believing it to be her god-given duty to heal the sick and wounded, Feather did just that: but, rash, arrogant, and inexperienced, Feather's zeal in applying her knowledge often did more harm than good. She tried to heal wounds beyond her talents, causing severe in the process. She overpromised, and underdelivered. She focused on individual good, rather the bigger picture- her haste and inexperience soon finding her on the wrong side of the law- the inefficiencies of Dalmasca's monarchy and her own quick wit keeping her from the gallows as she continued her lifestyle of healing, "helping", and spending her rewards on a lavish, savings-free lifestyle.When Dalmasca was conquered by the Empire, thirty years ago, Feather was finally brought to justice by the ruthless arm of the Garleans. Rather than facing the gallows, Feather was instead given a second chance by a figurehead of the Populares movement- a young Blue Mage, who saw the potential in her. Using this second chance to it's full potential, Feather was quick to learn the Garlean way of life- the same fervent zeal that took her to study Astronomy quickly being used to learn the secrets of Garlean engineering and design.But, the man who saved her was a prominent figure in the Populares- and as he proved effective at his work, the powerbrokers in Garlemald wouldn't suffer him to live. The Blue Mage "went missing" on one of his expeditions south of Rabanastre- and while Feather was unable to find him or proof of foul play, to her, it was clear what occurred. Disillusioned by the corruption of the Empire, Feather was quick to turn her back on the power structure she learned to love- serving as a spy within the growing Resistance army.When Zenos van Galvus fell in combat, Dalmasca saw a chance to rebel. While Feather refused to participate in the front-line fighting, she instead manned the sick bays, infirmaries, and hospitals in the Resistance territories- healing the wounded, sick, and dying as best she could. By war's end, she'd seen only the worst of the conflict- too far from the front lines to see the liberation and the triumphs, but just close enough to see every maiming, crippling, and death that occurred- each crushing her spirit further and further, until the end of the war loomed near. Just when the Resistance was poised to win the conflict, Rabanastre was bombed out of existence- the capital city of Dalmasca, the cultural hub of the desert, and the heart of knowledge that Feather had spent her life learning, reduced to ashes and lonely ghosts. When members of her squadron wanted to charge for one final, heroic stand to avenge her homeland, Feather simply had no more stomach left to fight- abandoning her post and her comrades in the middle of the night, and deserting to flee for greener pastures. In the end, she was wanted as a deserting coward by the Dalmascan resistance, and wanted as a war-criminal enemy spy by the occupying Garleans. Dalmasca had nothing left for her- and after squandering her second chance, she hoped to find a better life in Eorzea.And a better life she found! Floating from place to place and job to job, Feather eventually settled on the Golden Sands Caravan. In truth, she expected this to merely be another temporary affair- she was atrocious with money, and she held little respect for the greed and pretension of a merchant's guild. Despite this, she quickly grew to find her place within the Golden Sands- the kind hand of the caravan's leader quickly adding her to the fold.Hoping to preserve what little good could be gleamed from Garlean magitech, Feather currently aims to remaster the technologies of prosthetic limbs and Hypertuning, and use them for collective good. In this way, she hopes to redeem not only herself, but the technology itself- striving to bring meaning to all the horrid, human cost to gaining the knowledge in the first place.

The notion that healers are kind, high-spirited and gentle is spread high and wide between all forms of fiction, and for good reason. The kind of person who pursues the power to heal wounds and tend to the injured must be appropriately just; usually rocking a sense of innocence and happy-go-lucky attitudes to them. Any angst following them usually comes in the Superman flavour of "I could've done more" or complaining that their super-awesome-healing powers weren't quite enough to save everyone, rather than any real internal conflict or weakness of character.It's not really true, though, is it?Anyone who's played a game that both requires co-operation with a group of people as well as a class for healing or support (or worse yet had the misfortune of playing one of these classes themselves), knows the kind of frustration and animosity that comes from being the poor sucker stuck into being the healer, cleric or medic instead of something fun and cool, like the axe-wielding viking, the reality-bending warlock or the cunning, sneaky rogue.Very few things in games rival the frustration that comes from giving your companions and endless amount of opportunities, only for them to ignore them out of incompetence and wind up as another dead body for you to waste time and resources reviving. Despite the design of many of the character, it is also not a class for the meek or submissive sorts; when something goes wrong, it's almost inevitably shifted towards the healer not doing their job correctly, whether or not that's the case. The sort who likes to avoid conflict or who has trouble defending themselves is almost certain to become the whipping boy for the rest of the players whenever something goes wrong.Still, there's an enormous amount of power for someone who knows what they're doing. Healers are the most sought out and important role in the holy trinity, and usually the least popular one of the three. A healer that knows their value can be rude, blunt and controlling in a way that would make the poor, replaceable swordmen punished, and get off scott free. They can demand greater shares of the reward, or a greater level of respect from the other adventurers."Always thank the healer" exists purely because healers have the ability to demand respect for simply existing, even if they do a mediocre or even sub-par job. Can you imagine if the tank or DPS asked for that? They'd be kicked out straight away, and replaced within the minute. Healers, however, have both the power of being extremely useful and extremely rare; most arguments can be won over with the kick back of "have fun finding a new one" when you're done.