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unmeiha-arc · 29 days

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tentative ff16 verse notes maybe??!

this involves some very headcanon-based worldbuilding because i can't help myself so i'm expanding the world beyond what we see in the game. it shouldn't effect any of the canon events, but canon is my playground either way.

i'm more than happy to plot to make it work better if any of it conflicts/is an issue because i am definitely not nearly as familiar with 16's lore as i am 14's and didn't really have anyone to bounce this off of (i'm on my knees begging) so i am majorly winging it HGLHJGDSKA

i'm so sorry this is so long and also kind of jumbled because i cannot keep my thoughts in order to save my life and i had A Lot of them.

major ff16 spoilers ahead! literally the first line under the cut is an endgame spoiler, so don't look if you haven't finished!

there were sixteen gods in the cutscene at the core of origin (presumably because haha final fantasy 16), but it was implied (or at least, that's how i took it) that there was one god-spirit freed per mothercrystal, which means that there were more crystals than the five clive destroys in the twins. eleven more, to be precise — one at the core of origin, and ten more unaccounted for.

the ten crystals that we do not see in storm or ash are scattered across the other continents of valisthea. this was to maximize the amount of aether the mothercrystals were able to gather for ultima's spell. having them all in a centralized location means it takes longer to drain the aether from other parts of the world. therefore, more crystals = faster and more abundant aether absorption.

after the first mothercrystal is destroyed at drake's head and the first god-spirit ultima is freed, he manipulates leaders in the locations of the other crystals to have them be destroyed, either directly or consequentially as a result of conflict he incites.

by the end of the five year time skip, all ten of the unaccounted for mothercrystals have been destroyed and all that is left are the ones remaining on storm and ash. this averages two of the unaccounted for crystals per timeskip year.

koharu hails from the eastern continent of othard, from the kingdom of doma.

othard itself is divided into several nations and is home to three of the ten unaccounted for mothercrystals: one in doma itself and two in the northern territory of ilsabard; one in garlemald and one in sharlayan. doma's crystal was the last to fall of the othardian mothercrystals.

with the crystals in ilsabard both being destroyed, the blight spreading rapidly, and aetherfloods occurring with frequency, doma had some warning as to what was in store for them and were able to make preparations to get some of their people to safety.

in the midst of securing passage for doman refugees to storm, war broke out with those fleeing from ilsabard, the garlean empire seeking to expand its territory to claim doma's mothercrystal and its bounty (and perceived safety) for themselves. the war claimed not only the lives of doma's king, but also saw its mothercrystal, the last in othard, destroyed in the conflict.

in the resulting chaos, only a handful of boats managed to safely leave doma's shores, and the rest of its people were consigned to their fate.

koharu was on one of the boats and arrives in storm just under two years after the first mothercrystal is destroyed.

it takes about a year for the two othardian mothercrystals to be destroyed after the first falls, another six months for doma's mothercrystal to fall, and then approximately three months at sea on the boat from doma to arrive in storm.

the ships originated in the east and and sailed eastward! meaning they went ⊳ that way around the map, circling around to the northwestern (top left) side of the iron kingdom, and then southeast (↳) to land in rosaria in storm.

doma considers bearers as blessed, and treat them as such. because of the toll magic takes on them, they are people who are revered and respected, and often end up in positions of power because of it, regardless of their station at birth. their culture regarding bearers is vastly different from that of the twins, which is only natural given how far removed from each other the continents are.

it's worth noting, however, that they are not completely unaware of how the twins treats their bearers. othard as a whole exports a great deal in trade, with doma itself having a focus on fine silks and textiles as well as pottery and lacquerware. as a result, the nation regularly communicates with nations outside of the continent. though the news of current events is often very slow, it does circulate nevertheless.

the doman royal family carries the line of the water-aspected eikon susano-o. when prince kaien did not awaken as susano-o's dominant, it became clear that he would need to produce an heir as quickly as possible in the hopes that this heir would in turn awaken in his stead. thus did he marry a noble water-aspected bearer by the name of mina. shortly thereafter, the young prince hien was born. kaien would rule as regent until hien's awakening, when hien would ascend the doman throne as its king and dominant both.

koharu was born and raised in a noble warrior family whose loyalty was pledged to the royal family. generations of her forefathers served the doman throne as the personal protectors and attendants to the royal family, and koharu was no exception.

though not a bearer herself, she proved her martial ability at an early age, and was eventually given a position as the young prince hien's attendant at the age of sixteen (16). he (12) awakened as susano-o's dominant later that year, though his father would reign as regent until he came of age on his eighteenth (18) nameday.

three years after her assignment as his protector, koharu very unexpectedly awakened as a dominant herself at nineteen (19) in defense of the prince (15) during an assassination attempt — the dominant of the light-aspected eikon amaterasu.

this awakening lead to the arrangement of a marriage between the two that would take place after hien was crowned king. the marriage itself didn't actually take place until three years after his coronation, so that he might have time to acquaint himself with ruling before taking a wife. they were married at twenty-one (21; hien) and twenty-five (25; koharu) respectively.

vic if you're reading this and you're seeing the inspiration from olympia soirée shut up no you don't go away.

it was only four (4) years later that the mothercrystal in drake's head fell. shortly after the drake's head crystal was destroyed, the crystal in sharlayan would also fall, and leave a massive aetherflood in its wake, consuming the entire nation, turning nigh the entire populace akashic overnight. the bearers that survived fled for garlemald and doma.

when garlemald's crystal fell and the empire invaded, the blight pressing in behind them, it was hien who proposed an evacuation of the nation's people; doma was, after all, more than a place, it was its people. wherever the people went, the heart of their nation would go as well. thus did they formulate their plan: susano-o would occupy the garleans' attention on the battlefield while koharu, now thirty (30), would see to the evacuation, making use of amaterasu should the need to protect her charges arise. immediately, they commissioned as many ships as possible to be built as quickly as possible.

it was only six months later when the garlean empire claimed the king's life. koharu, in her grief, turned her rage on the invaders. amaterasu's might decimated the garlean army, but in the process also claimed innumerable doman lives, destroyed the majority of the harbor the ships were docked in, as well as laid waste to doma's mothercrystal itself.

horrified and ashamed, koharu gathered as many survivors and supplies as she was able to fit on the remaining boats and fled with them, abandoning the rest to their fate — whatever that might be. in truth, after leaving she no longer has any idea what the current state of doma is, or the state of whatever people might be left there. she simply assumes that the land and its people have succumbed to blight or aetherfloods or both.

when she arrived in storm, koharu hid her identity as the widowed queen of the fallen doma and took up the alias azem, desperate to distance herself from her sins. this could prove to be a very big bargaining chip for her or a very big weakness, depending on how it's used. that said, it is not hard to tell that she was raised as a noble.

those sins, however, followed her with every step — quite literally, as she attempted to seek out shelter for herself and the terrified refugees who arrived with her. those that remained, anyway.

one ship capsized on the journey in the midst of a raging storm. one ship was seized by the ironborn upon docking in the iron kingdom to resupply. the last she saw of that ship were flames so high she thought they might touch the sky. another ship was immediately searched and seized by the imperials, the bearers aboard immediately taken into custody and branded. the final two ships, koharu's ship and one other, were fortunate enough to make landfall relatively unseen.

relatively. for better or worse, the ships were spotted off the coast before docking by one of the hideaway's scouts and, after investigating, those who had been aboard were welcomed into cid the outlaw's home, where they offered whatever skills they had in return for the hospitality and safety they were shown.

there, koharu also offers herself in service primarily to the cursebreakers, though when she isn't doing that she can be found running errands for any who might need assistance in the hideaway, all in gratitude for sheltering what few of her citizens she was able to save. the last of her people.

she is not immediately aware of clive's intentions to destroy the remaininig mothercrystals but, given her history, is very resistant to the idea at first.

when priming, koharu's hair, normally a dark brown (essentially black), becomes a stark, luminous white, highlighted in glowing gold, and her eyes, usually green, become a glowing gold. she will not fully prime unless she absolutely must in order to conserve her strength and slow the spread of the crystals' curse, as well as to keep her identity hidden later on.

priming comes with its own risks of being found out as a dominant, but becoming amaterasu would outright reveal her entire identity and all that she had done, assuming people are aware of the state of the mothercrystals outside of the twins. what she isn't aware of is that until she works through what happened in doma and the mental block it puts on her, she can't fully prime. should she try, she will find herself unable. she is still a force to be reckoned with in her own right as a swordswoman, however.

she also has a change of weapon when she arrives in storm. whereas in doma she used to wield a katana, neither the smiths of the twins, nor anyone aboard the ship she arrived on have the knowledge to repair or reproduce the sword she used. instead, she opts for something completely new: a massive, claymore to parallel her ffxiv canon of samurai to dark knight teehee and spends much of her free time learning how to wield it properly and applying the skills she already has to adapt the new fighting style to something more of her liking. by the end of the second timeskip period, she has become more than proficient.

for timeline purposes: koharu is sixteen (16) pre-timeskip, twenty-nine (29) first timeskip, thirty-four (34) second timeskip, but it's important to note that she doesn't arrive in storm until she is thirty-one (31), during the second timeskip. this also means she never met the original cid — at least canonically — as it is the second hideaway she and her people are brought to.

#❀ IC : VERSE 「物語」 another story : ffxvi ❛ a tale of eikons.#ffxvi spoilers *#slides this back on the dash now that i've finished the crossover event

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