Forgiven Dissention (Yalden)

A kind-hearted, simple, divinely blessed fisherman from Kholusia who narrowly escaped his end.

E'er our vows endure,

and remain forever strong

Appearance & Mannerisms

Body: Light -poisoning has transformed Yalden's original appearance. He recalls that his hair was originally dark, though he cannot say exactly what color, and assumes his eyes and pale skin tone were also different. He has an extra pair of twisted horns upon his head, feathered wings that sprout from his back and can 'melt' to retract, and pointed clawlike fingertips as well as sharp teeth and fangs. He attempts to hide some of these features and usually keeps his wings hidden in public or situations where he feels they may frighten someone or draw too much negative attention toward himself. He is very tall, and rather muscular as a result of daily heavy physical activity throughout his life.

Mannerisms: He moves in a cautious and slow manner, sometimes appearing stiff and statue-like. He frequently keeps his head down and does not look people in the eyes. This might be a habit of humility or some custom carried over from his hometown.

Voice: His voice is very deep, but gentle and melodic. He has a jovial laugh and speaks with an obvious tone of worry or concern when expressing it. He rarely shows anger in his voice even when speaking to an enemy.

Preferences &Tastes

Favorite foods: fresh grilled fish, salted dried fruit

Favorite colors: white, tan/beige, gold, brown

Favorite drinks: spring water, matcha, anything mint-flavored

Favorite scents: the ocean, burning firewood, cinnamon, apples

Favorite locales: the Kholusian shore of his hometown, La Noscea

Favorite city/civilization: Limsa Lominsa

Likes: fishing, cooking, nature, reading (even if he's slow at it), gathering lumber, helping the less fortunate, children

Dislikes: cold-heartedness, greed, senseless environmental destruction

Abilities & Activities

Job/Income: Yalden is a humble self-sufficient man who does not like to depend on currency. Since he lives in a city-state, though, he does make a livable amount of coin from selling his talents and wares. He donates a certain amount of his monthly income and produce to local charities and those in need and keeps only a modest amount for himself to enjoy. He will never be seen purchasing luxuries or very expensive things, or in places like upscale bars.

Magic: Yalden has tried studying Eorzean magics, including conjury, but never seemed to develop much skill in it. He wants to learn healing magic and while he has a connection to nature, his aether perception and own reserves are just not very strong. He can perform a few basic healing, wind and earth spells at a time.

Physical: He has excellent endurance because of fishing, hunting, and chopping wood as part of his lifestyle. He is very tall even for a drahn/au ri man and has a rather powerful body because of this as well. While not especially well-trained in any combat art, these qualities and experience with weapons (axes and spears) make him well-fit to do adventurer or guard work, enough to have been pestered for recruitment by the Maelstrom multiple times and even once by a few Wood Wailers despite their strong tendency toward racial discrimination.

Senses: Yalden has acute senses, especially hearing and scent - not to an unnatural level, but what one would expect of a lifelong hunter-gatherer. He cannot perceive aether but has a slight ability to sense strong disruptions or unusual gatherings of an element. Since he is a partial sin-eater, he can sense and is drawn towards light-aspected aether though he may not always be aware of what he is doing. His echo, when it successfully activates, helps him strengthen his will, numb pain, and sense the next movements of his opponent.

Transportation: He doesn't mind walking very long distances on foot, and is a decent swimmer. When his wings are out, he can fly and hover, though he doesn't like extreme heights and his wings get tired much faster than his legs. He can use an aetheryte about as much as any average folk, but is prone to aether-sickness especially when traveling long distances and prefers to just take the roads.

Languages: Norvrandt Common (fluent), Eorzean Common (almost fluent in speaking, intermediate reading skill)

Performance & Arts: He can play hand drums and shaker instruments with good rhythm. He also can play a pan flute somewhat, and likes simple step-dancing and ritual dances. He likes to do abstract and primitive style paintings (usually of fish or natural objects) but does not consider himself skilled.

Psychology

Yalden's mind is slow and unable to process much at once because of light-poisoning that partially transformed him and nearly made into a sin-eater. As such, he is patient and prefers life to be uncomplicated, but he also has a lot of love for the way of life that he grew up in. Being in a small village community taught him compassion, sharing and caring - values he carries with him even in his life on another world in a city-state with plenty of greed, self-absorption, and downright malice. He doesn't like to see people suffering and is very empathetic.

He will always try to see good in everyone he meets, and believes that most malicious behavior in sentient beings or animals is temporary and due to some unresolved pain in the person's life. Almost all of the danger he has ever experienced came from monsters or arcane forces, not from people - it was in fact the collaborative effort of people that fought off those dangers.

He sees himself as part of something wherever he is - the world, of nature, of a community - and respects nature and the cycle of life greatly.

His unclear memories sadden him somewhat but actually protect him from feeling too much emotional pain - if he were to clearly remember all the suffering of the 'family' he once knew, he would be stricken with trauma and grief. Though he badly wants to remember it all to honor them and everything they meant to him as well as where he came from, not knowing allows him to live his life without much of a care.

Yalden often feels alien and left-out wherever he goes, and even has low self-esteem about not fitting in or being accepted. He will often go overboard trying to make people happy or make himself seem helpful, and is afraid of being perceived as a monster or threatening outsider.

Behavior

In Battle

Yalden will always prioritize defense and protecting those around him. He is happy to take the front of the line protecting others or charging into battle. However, he does not like to kill unnecessarily. He will often try to disable or trap an enemy, or distract them and run rather than kill it. He usually stops to say a quick prayer for those he is forced to slay.

Toward strangers

He is very polite, but shy and awkward, desperate for approval and wanting to share his values and culture, but also fearful of what they might think of him as they learn more about him.

Toward friends

Yalden is extremely loyal and caring to those he forms strong bonds with, though it takes some time. He likes to spend time with his friends doing simple things and sharing food with them. He highly values people that he really feels he can trust and that care for him, and might even behave in a fatherly, overprotective way.

Toward crushes

Yalden is asexual, but not aromantic. If he feels love for someone, he will be very dutiful and try to take the role of a provider and court them by showing his ability to serve their every need, but be shy about it. He likely will not take the first step in solidifying a relationship, but if he does it will be in a very formal manner with symbolic gifts and dates, probably attempting to do what is normal in their culture to express love.

Toward lovers/partners

As a lover, Yalden would be rather submissive and willing to do whatever his partner likes just for their pleasure. He likes simple romantic outings and will want to spend a lot of quality time alone together and enjoys physical closeness like hugging and cuddling.

Toward enemies , traitors, or nuisances

Yalden will do what it takes to stop someone who is a threat to himself or loved ones, but always prefers not to kill and leans toward forgiveness. He will try to demonstrate kindness and give them a chance to change, and will always attempt to talk before striking.

RolePlaying Hooks

The Light-Flooded World:

Do you have a character from the first reflection who somehow ended up in the source or travels to it? Yalden might be very excited to meet someone from his homeland and speak his own language to them, as well as learn about ways to freely visit...or potential danger of a sin eater making its way to the source.

Helping the Meekest of Folks:

Yalden loves to participate in charity works. If you've got some event for helping orphans, picking up stranded disaster refugees, or something of that sort, he will be all aboard.

Adventurers in Need:

Whether it's all RP or an in-game duty, Yalden will usually be happy to help anyone in need with his skills if time allows it. He is signed up with the Eorzean adventurer's guilds and can be contacted for jobs that suit him well and will occasionally check the boards.

Chef of Light and Darkness:

Cooking events and competitions? Sharing love of food and recipes? Going on an outing to learn about the foods of other cultures, wine tasting events, cheese festivals, etc? Yalden is all about it.

Romance:
Do you have someone who would love a big strong cuddly fisherman for a partner? Feel free to message me about possible romance storylines.

Fishing:

Just about the only thing that gets him as excited as cooking and food is fishing. I'm happy to do some RP fishing trips with fellow worm-on-hook enjoying characters and let our anglers swap stories about the One That Got Away.

Memories:

Yalden would be very interested in anything that could help him regain his memories, whether it's magic, fortune telling, or some sort of unorthodox, possibly unsafe therapy or potions. Go ahead and cause him some trouble, he's too comfortable...

~ Story Thus Far... ~

Forgiven Dissention, whose real name is Yalden, was a fisherman and cook who lived in a small Kholusian village (an original locale) that was completely destroyed by the flood of light. When sin eaters attacked his village, he was taken and transformed into one of the mindless beasts but he fought to hold on to his consciousness with the aid of Hydaelyn's blessing. He was able to wrest control of what was left of his mind and fight back against his lightwarden, but was quickly subdued by the overwhelming numbers and an attempt was made to further poison his resistant mind with light. This time, Hydaelyn's last effort to save her brave little spark was to send him into a rift where he could escape to another world and be closer to her - the Source. Although permanently deformed, devoid of most of his memories, and slow of mind as a result of the light overdose, Yalden settled into Eorzean life as best as he could, attempting to hide what he was and where he came from at first.

He earned his keep quietly as a fisher and chef as well as lancer for hire while wandering the land and exploring it in search of a place that felt enough like home to settle down, even if it were to be alone - for in nature, no one was truly alone. He was not easily accepted and felt alien everywhere he went, but eventually became comfortable living in Limsa Lominsa and foraging in the lands of La Noscea, places that reminded him of his homeland. There, he studied culinary arts diligently and worked at the famous Bismarck restaurant before opening his own restaurant.

~ The Sin Eatery Arc ~
Yalden's restaurant was a success, but he found something missing in his heart from running a luxury restaurant. Though his food was appreciated, he wanted to do something to help the needy rather than reward the greedy. After a meeting with a Sharlayan scholar who had been to his world, and another who had a run-in with a sin eater and suffered a slow transformation, he became very concerned about the possibility of the light-creatures spreading to the Source. He could potentially encounter a lightwarden and be converted completely, finally losing himself. He has been practicing combat skills as a result and attempting to make contact with other warriors of light and Scions who may know more about the current state of the first reflection to lend what skill he can. Although he is bravely facing the problem, he is terrified of facing them in battle again with the apparent loss of Hydaelyn's voice. In order to think on all of this and reform his restaurant, he took a break and closed it down and then set out for a trip across Othard to study authentic Eastern cuisine.

~ Connections & Relationships ~

Other OCs

Kampfer Antarctos - A Sharlayan sage and researcher who met a lightwarden and was tainted with light. They once crossed paths on a treasure-hunt posted in the adventurer's guild, but he met Yalden again by wandering into the restaurant one night and they discussed his past and worries about the possibility of new rifts opening to allow a lightwarden to pass through to the Source and further corrupt him.

Sabriscia - A Roegadyn woman he'd run into in several outings that was kind and talkative enough to him to help break him out of his shell socially a little. She was helping some researcher in Sharlayan and knew about some rifts to the first that were opening, and came in with Kampfer on the night they divulged all the details.

Family & Unplayed OCs

Yalden is unable to remember anyone distinct from his past.

None of his family or village are alive.

Significant NPC Connections

None besides a brief meeting and cooperation with The Warrior of Light & Scions of the Seventh Dawn.