PLAYER

NAME: Quix
CONTACT: quixocalypse or PM
OVER 18? Yes!
CURRENT CHARACTER: N/A

CHARACTER

NAME: Estinien Wyrmblood
CANON: Final Fantasy XIV
CANON POINT: Post-Endwalker
AGE: Unspecified, but probably around 35.
SPECIES: Elezen (Elf)
INFORMATION: Wiki!

CHARACTER PITCH: Once a legendary dragon-slaying knight known as the Azure Dragoon, Estinien spent twenty years of his life obsessively pursuing revenge against Nidhogg, the great wyrm that butchered his family and village when he was still a child. For decades, the only thing on his mind was achieving this revenge, which has resulted in him having a severe lack of social development, no hobbies, no life prospects, and few skills outside of combat. After becoming possessed by the very dragon he was striving to kill, and discovering that the two of them actually had a lot in common and were both seeking revenge for the unconscionable wrongs done to them, he finally achieved some level of peace and was able to break the cycle of violence that ruled both his life and perpetuated the war destroying his nation. Having become hybridized with dragon aether and imbued with the emotions and memories of his old enemy, he vowed to become a champion for dragon and mankind both.

These days he's learned the power of love and friendship and, while still being inept at living a peaceful life for many reasons, is trying his best to honor his hard-won faith in peace by doing whatever the heroes need him to do. Despite his love for his friends, he's still only really good at killing things.

POWERS: As a general note to all of Estinien's powers, they are rooted in the concept of "aether" which is the life energy that literally everything in his universe is made out of. Magic, souls, plants, humans, rocks, technology, memories - all of it is made by aether, and warriors also use their aether in a manner similar to the concept of "chi" to empower their techniques to supernatural heights. There are eight elemental forms of aether that have different properties, and members of mankind are meant to have a perfect balance of them in their natural state. Estinien is not any kind of mage, but he has honed his abilities as a dragoon, which involves reaching these supernatural levels of prowess by tapping into his own natural aether.

Additionally, he has learned how to channel the unique aether belonging to dragons - he used to do this by manipulating a stolen dragon eye, the wellspring of a dragon's strength, but then later he is fused with the soul (and the eyes) of one of the most powerful dragons of his world. The dragon's spirit is eventually exorcised and its eyes are destroyed, but Estinien has inherited a significant amount of dragon aether from the experience and retains dragon abilities even though said dragon (the Great Wyrm Nidhogg) is dead. Estinien considers Nidhogg to be "a part of him", and retains some of his memories and emotions. He can also do things as a result that are considered absurdly powerful even by the standards of his high fantasy universe.

General Nerfs: Estinien's powers are mostly just different ways of exploding/destroying things so all of this will be reduced to accommodate the game's power cap. I don't think anything else is in conflict.

DRAGOON LEAPS AND DIVES: The signature move of the combat style Estinien has mastered, dragoons are able to leap to great heights and control the trajectory of their movements while airborne. They harness this ability for enhanced mobility against flying opponents, as well as delivering punishing attacks to those on the ground - mostly in form of hurling themself at their opponents, striking with the full force of their body placed behind their lance. While it isn't quite like flying as Estinien cannot stay in the air indefinitely, he can leap so high and far that the difference may not be apparent to those on the ground. He's been shown leaping into the clouds and then diving all the way back down to the ground without sustaining any damage. The game never outlines how these techniques are mastered but based on the extended Final Fantasy 14 canon, it's probably from manipulating wind aether.

FIRE EMPOWERED ATTACKS: Estinien can empower lance blows with fire aether to essentially cause a destructive explosion at the location he hits with a dive. This was something he could do before his fusion with Nidhogg, but its power has been enhanced by it, namely through a technique called "Stardiver" which is inherited from Nidhogg directly. While the game doesn't go into more specifics, destructive fire magic is generally within his wheelhouse, though specifically in the context of his existing dragoon techniques. He doesn't breathe fire or throw fireballs. (That we know of. See "Nidhogg Wild Card" below.)

NIDHOGG DESTRUCTION MAGIC: There are other magical abilities he's inherited from Nidhogg that are not specifically fire, and seem to instead be unaspected or dark-element destruction. This includes techniques like Nastrond (a blast of destructive energy following the line of a spear thrust), Ala Morn (a magically empowered lance strike), and Horrid Roar (a psychic/sonic wave emitted from his body that basically destroys everything around him, canonically shown to blow up a room full of small robots. It may also cause victims to panic.). Darkdragon Dive is his most ultimate attack, creates his biggest explosion, and can only be used once when he's already on battle high. (AKA, a Limit Break, for those familiar with Final Fantasy.)

Many of these abilities are primarily used when he is in a powered-up state, calling upon the spirit of Nidhogg to destroy their enemies. He's been shown blowing up giant robots and decimating large portions of machinery/architecture by doing this, neither of which seemed to tax him that severely.

NIDHOGG WILD CARD: While this list covers the major beats of what we've seen him do in-game, recent canon has indicated that when Estinien enters his state of enhanced communion with Nidhogg's aether, he may end up pulling techniques from Nidhogg's repertoire that he has never performed before. Most of these abilities are just variations on the stuff I've mentioned above (different animations for similar effects, as it were) but in this particular instance, he spontaneously reproduced a move where Nidhogg split himself into six temporary copies to deliver a total of seven simultaneous attacks. These clones can't do anything besides this and have no utility purpose outside of delivering an attack and disappearing immediately afterward.

QUESTIONNAIRE

What is the worst or most malicious thing your character has ever done? How do they feel about it now? Was this sort of action typical of them?

Generally speaking, the worst thing he's done is participate in the circle of violence that plagued his homeland for hundreds of years. While he was growing up, Ishgard was locked in an ages-old feud with a Nidhogg'd brood of dragons - a conflict which ultimately turned out to be unjust on both sides, but was started by Ishgard's ancestors. Having lost his family to those dragons as a child, Estinien swore his revenge, and spent most of his life obsessively training to one day kill Nidhogg, their leader. He killed many dragons along the way, dragons that may have had no choice but to fight, and now that he has seen the mutual pain caused by the war he regrets his part in it. There was no one instance that was "worse" than the rest of it, his life was just centered around inflicting misery and death upon the 'enemy' for many years. At the time this was typical for him, of course... it was only with the benefit of hindsight that he's come to see how unjust and meaningless it was.

What is the most altruistic or selfless thing your character has ever done? How do they feel about it now? Was this sort of action typical of them?

Estinien has always been fairly self-sacrificing, but in the past, it was simply because he didn't see his life as having any value outside of his potential ability to kill Nidhogg. In recent days, though, this has changed somewhat to become an enduring faith in his friends. When FFXIV's heroes made their quest to Ultima Thule, the realm of the being that was threatening to destroy their entire world, there came a moment where Estinien realized he could enable the rest of his team to continue onward by sacrificing his life. With no assurance that he would be revived or that they would even make it to the end, his faith led him to make the sacrifice, believing wholly that they could save the world without him. He got completely obliterated for the team and did it with a smile on his face. He'd absolutely do it again.

What do they desire above all else? How far would they go to accomplish their goals or fulfill those desires? Do they have lines they wouldn't cross?

For most of his life, Estinien has had no ambitions besides achieving his revenge, so this is a tricky question. Nowadays he mostly desires the simple things - the safety and happiness of his loved ones and the continuance of peace between mankind and dragons. The world he lives in is changing for the better and he wants it to keep flourishing. Wholesome as that is, he would probably kill just about anyone to prevent things from going awry. Though he highly respects the altruistic and peace-making philosophies of his comrades, he doesn't actually have a very stable moral compass without them.

GAME DETAILS

LEGACY: The Firebrand. Estinien has always grated against cultural expectations, and once he had the power to do so, he started defying authority at every turn if he thought it would bring him closer to his goals. His approach to most problems is to bulldoze through obstacles rather than finesse them, and is fully prepared to keep moving forward rather than being stuck in the past. He's also famous for his destructive capabilities and his dogged pursuit of revenge. If something is hurting him or his loved ones he is inclined to tear it down.

INTRODUCTORY SECT: Pleroma. Estinien just finished fighting against a god-like embodiment of despair in his canon, and while he's certainly shaken by the introductory scenario to Aion Teleos, it will take more than that for him to surrender to something like the Kenoma. Strength of will is one of his most central traits, even if it's complicated by his emotional damage. He believes it's his responsibility to keep fighting for his world even if it might be gone.

SUITABILITY:

SAMPLES:
TDM Toplevel
Philosophy with Binghe