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Akasha Xueqi

Home: Shirogane
Job: Yamabushi (YMB (Comp: SAM/GLD/THM)

Character Details

Nicknames: Aka, Kasha
Gender: Female
Race: Hyur (Doman Midlander)
Age: 36
3S: B120/W60/H97
Sexuality: Bisexual

Biographical Details

Birthplace: Doma
Hometown: Shoukaze
Residence: N/A
Occupation: Ronin
Affiliation: Adventurer's Guild
School: Shingyōtō-ryū (心経刀流)
Blade: Hasshōdōmaru (八正道丸)

Relationship Details

Mother: Natsumi†
Father: Shouhei†
Siblings: Akihiko†, Heihachirō†, Hiroki†, Jirō†, Masatomo†, Kanon†, Momoko†
Friends: — — —
Spouse: Miu Judori

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Xueqi

The Xueqi clan were renown for their loyalty to their master. Thus when Garlemald invaded Doma, it was no surprise that their number joined lord Kaien's ranks in defense of their homeland. But no number of samurai could match the might and magitek of the Empire, Doma would be forced to surrender.

Akasha was a girl of just eight summers when these events took place. She had only just gone through the family tradition of akai eda, her hair dyed a radiant red with a mysterious concoction made by a tribe of tengu that the Xueqi consorted with. She had left home with a senior tengu who would teach her the way of the blade, as all members of the Xueqi had done.

When she returned home, now a blossoming woman of some martial prowess, she found her village had been razed in the conflict, her family thrown to all corners of Yanxia. Some had perished in the war, others retired in obscurity, yet more still found themselves in the employ of Garlemald, working with lord Kaien still, in his capacity as deputy viceroy to a Garlean overseer.

Though he played the part of friend to the Garleans, in secret, Kaien continued to lead his countrymen in shadowy resistance, through the Doman Liberation Front. However, not all that took up the banner were willing to sit in the shadows. Akasha found her elder brother among one such group of radicals, and with their reunion, he convinced her to join them as well.

This group, though small in number, had no shortage of supporters. Doman smiths provided them arms in the shadows. Villages provided them food and supplies skimped from their tithes to the Empire. Their ranks made up of veterans and untested warriors alike, and as soon as fervor reached its pitch, they struck.

Their leader expected the attack to be a spark that would ignite rebellion across Doma, but the reality was far less ideal. Their small band led a furious assault on Castrum Fluminis, which ended in tragedy for them. Many members of the group were slain, those who fled were marked as criminals by the Empire. Akasha's brother was among the casualties, and for her part, she was taken prisoner...

Garlemald imprisoned her for a time, and as other groups like hers rose and fell, they discovered a use for her. She was pressed into service. "Still an honourable samurai", they told her. "In service to our great, glorious Garlemald".

Her initial reaction was disgust and refusal, though the only options they offered were service or death. A missive arrived in her cell one day, carried discreetly in the hands of a shinobi. A mysterious benefactor pleaded with her to take the offer. Not for her own survival, but for the sake of events to come.

Thus it was with heavy heart that Akasha took up her blade for the Garleans, rooting out bands of radicals and extremists through the underground channels that she knew. Carefully, of course, ensuring that the quieter side of the Doman Liberation Front could continue, but nevertheless, her actions in public had thoroughly marked her as a traitor and enemy in the eyes of most Domans.

She was left isolated. She was not welcome among her Garlean masters, who took every chance to abuse and toy with her, knowing she couldn't fight back. She was not welcome among her people, who saw her as just another Garlean appeaser.

Her long grim vigil would at last come to an end twenty five years after the Garlean occupation began. Solus zos Galvus died without naming an heir. The empire erupted in crisis as factions arrayed to put their candidates on the throne. This was Doma's chance.

Lord Kaien let loose the call to arms, and all across Yanxia did the Domans rise in open rebellion. Akasha flocked to her lord's side, across battle after bloody battle. She would never meet with him. The succession crisis in Garlemald ended sooner than anyone could predict, sooner than the Domans could shake the yoke of the empire.

Crown Prince Zenos and the XIIth Legion arrived in Doma, putting a violent end to the rebellion and Lord Kaien with it. Akasha, having just arrived in Doma castle was forced to fight her way back out of her liege lord's palace and into the arms of the Liberation Front.

But knowing what she had done in the years prior, they cast her out. With no recourse but to throw herself on a Garlean blade or flee further, she elected to head towards Hingashi. A sympathetic fisherman saw her across the Ruby Sea... in exchange for her sword. Though reluctant, she had already lost her lord, her home, and her honour. The sword could be reclaimed, someday. Thus she parted with it.

In the bustling trade city of Kugane she found no solace. It was no stranger to Doman refugees, and Garlemald was already there. Though they had agreed to a non-aggression pact with the Hingans, their spies kept tabs on those entering Kugane nevertheless.

Her face known to them, Akasha knew she could not stay. Passing up whatever trinkets she carried, the samurai managed to bargain herself passage aboard a merchant ship from the West. They would take her with them to Limsa Lominsa, a city-state in the land of Eorzea.

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• Next: Eorzea

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Eorzea

Mere days after they had set sail however did Akasha's stroke of good fortune turn to yet more misery. The ship was not host to tradesmen, but, pirates. Unable to fend off an entire crew with nothing more than her fists, she was taken prisoner, joining others below deck. Human traffickers, she realised.

She was sold to a roegadyn merchant in the city of Ul'dah as a slave. His plans for her none too savoury. Kitted out in armour that left nothing to the imagination and weapons purchased from low-rent blacksmiths, he made her fight in the coliseum.

On the surface, slavery had been abolished in the city, but the underground had ever profited from the bans of polite society. Thus the armour he gave her was ceremonial, ornate. Its inherent flaw being how exposed it left her.

Thrown to the wolves, Akasha did her utmost to persevere. The weapons in her grasp were unfamiliar, their very weight unusual to the samurai. Her first bout was a grueling duel against a fairly green miqo'te competitor. Swings fumbled, shield arrayed haphazard. Though she eked out a win, Akasha did not do so easily, and much of her first matches played our more like comedy than combat. Though she had brought him a full purse, her owner, acting as her sponsor nonetheless met with ridicule at the pitiable performance of his fighter.

She was punished. Harshly. Torture, starvation, humiliation, degradation, if he could do it, he did. Anything and everything to show Akasha her place beneath his heel. To his glee, it seemed to spur the doman's development. Her bouts became cleaner, her victories smoother, and soon enough the samurai turned gladiator was becoming a popular name in the Bloodsands. Her arm grew accustomed to the Eorzean-blades she was forced to use, and the shield became something of a handy tool, even if Akasha's use was atypical.

Doman technique mixed with ingenuity and observation allowed the redhead to fell many foe. From lalafell and roegadyn to petrifying peiste and tempestuous behemoths. The determination of this hyuran woman would not see her falter, and as a result, her owner's coffers grew fat with coin. No small amount of attention ended up upon him and his charge, something he had not anticipated. Cracks in his facade began to form.

Enter Visrhianne Orreine. A viera of some renown in the Ul'dahn arena, having come from nothing some years prior, she had won countless bouts in the sandswept halls of the Bloodsands and nary a list of stories failed to include her exploits. Her fame far eclipsed Akasha's, a fact that become the talk of the steps of Thal in the following days. As the samurai continued to topple challenge after challenge it became apparent that the next draw for the crowds of Ul'dah would ride on a duel between her and the battle-hardened hare.

When that tumultuous day arrived, the seats of the coliseum were filled to bursting. Bodies flooded the stands, the halls, and the betting tables. Even members of the Syndicate were said to have given this duel their attention. The picture was a perfect contrast. Visrhianne entered the arena with trademark confidence, dawning armour of her own purchase and bearing weapons of fine make.

Akasha stood before her, haggered and fraying. Her weapons chipped in so many places that they might as well have been razors. Her armour covering nothing for all the gems embossed across it and curves made of its plating. To the crowds it was a perfect up-and-comer story. The underdog versus the champion.

The two certainly put on a show befitting such a tale. Fanfare and fervour fell away to silence in the crowds as Visrhianne and Akasha brought their blades against one another. Though the rules forbade killing, one could hardly tell with how furiously they unleashed each blow. Both women brought with them techniques unfamiliar to the typical eorzean warrior and secrets that would be unusual even among their own kin.

The viera was possessed of an almost preternatual ability to predict the attacks the doman threw at her, dodging and repelling blows with an impossibly keen arsenal. Meanwhile the samurai made use of the aetherial arts passed down to her from her tengu teacher.

In this deadly dance of swordplay, precognition and aether, Visrhianne ended up with the clear upper hand. Shallow wounds and decisive blows were shared on both ends but repeatedly Akasha was brought low by her foe. Each time, she refused to fall, no matter how badly the viera struck her. Each and every time she returned to her feet, refusing to let the battle end in anything less than her own victory. When they locked eyes in that flurry of combat, Visrhianne saw the determination that kept Akasha coming back.

Not that possessed of someone seeking fame or their next coinpurse, but the resolve of someone without recourse. This was survival for her. Suddenly, the long-eared combatant withdrew from the engagement and with a solemn raise of her arm, forfeited the match.

An upset roared through the crowds, though Akasha had been declared the victor, it was hardly the satisfying conclusion that many were expecting. Though the samurai's master was no less happy for the overflowing coffers he reaped in reward.

In the days that followed Visrhianne and Akasha's duel, with the cityfolk still referring to it as an upset with a capital U, the viera's thoughts found themselves drifting back to it. Something just didn't click in her head to no end of irritation, and only after pouring over it, did she begin to realise what was up.

Despite the samurai's modicum of fame, no one had ever seen her outside the arena. Even the gate guards that called themselves her fans had never so much as spotted a glance of her near the city limits. There was no house under her name, no lodging that could recall her patronage, she didn't even have lodging in the gladiator hall within the coliseum. Something stunk.

As she was leaving the Bloodsands, she happened to catch sight of a particular Roegadyn, Akasha's sponsor, and she decided to tail him. In the back alleys just outside of the arena she found him engaged in talks with members of the Brass Blades, the closest thing to a police militia in Ul'dah. Acute lagomorph ears allowed her to listen in without getting particularly close, and the information she received was very juicy indeed.

The details of illicit transactions and bribes, dead drops and illegal goods. There was just one more thing she needed. The trail continued until the roegadyn, fully unawares, lead Visrhianne all the way back to his home, and place of business, where she struck in a way only she would.

Rather than wait until he was away the following morning, the gladiator kicked down his doors and strung the bungling fool up by his own drawers so that she could snoop over his belongings at her leisure. By the time the Blades and Immortal Flames showed up, she had already found a paper trail that highlighted his bribes with the former, and she'd found the cellar-turned-prison that housed Akasha as well, though she had enough of a mind to leave that door locked until the authorities could see for themselves.

The ensuing scramble resulted in an arrested "merchant", asset confiscation, the beginnings of an investigation into the Brass Blades, and one free samurai. Though she certainly tried, Akasha could not make amends to Vis in any meaningful way that the rabbit was bothered to accept. She shrugged off the platitudes and told her to settle the debt with a real fight someday before meandering off into the darkness of the city.

The Flames took Akasha into their care and with a few days of bed rest, chirurgical visits, and statements for the record the redhead was eventually let loose on the streets of Ul'dah, at last a free woman once more. From the goods confiscated from her former master, she was paid a modest sum to allow her to catch her bearings.

In the grand scheme of things, the amount of gil that the Flames bequeathed to Akasha for her hardships was little more than a pittance in the City of Merchants. By the day's end, her purse was almost empty and she had barely managed to secure a room in a rundown hostel in Ul'dah's back streets, and a hot meal for the evening.

However, the samurai was content. Her first real meal in the last year, a Far Eastern dish at that, to give her that longing taste of home. She slept like a log that night, and woke with a plan in mind.

Among the goods she was allowed to keep was the armour she wore in her many coliseum battles, something she managed to trade away to a scrap seller who happened to be carrying an old worn out katana, something he claimed to be a legendary weapon. Her remaining coin bought her scraps that she sewed herself into an attire far more covering than she has been used to in the Bloodsands.

With that final step she was ready. Within the halls of the Quicksands she signed a contract that made her an official member of the Adventurer's Guild.

Though the promoters of the coliseum and even the Gladiator's Guild offered to sponsor her, Akasha was reluctant to return to the arena, instead choosing for herself to take a job as an adventurer. With her lacking knowledge of Eorzean language, performing tasks that required her to communicate with few people was ideal and with many of the tasks appointed to her, she could explore the further reaches of Thanalan and learn more of the land she now resided in.

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Akasha's Regard

Akasha is warm, peaceable, motherly. She has a light tendency to baby those she surrounds herself with, unintentionally pampering them with attention and care, often to their discomfort. All within a reserved veneer, though gentle, she keeps herself in check — preferring only to show a kinder face to others.

For, though she is kind, she is not a woman without her scars. Surrounded by Garleans, cast out by her own, enslaved by Eorzeans. She is used to isolation in some form or another, and though she doesn't desire a solitary life after so many years it comes naturally to her. Though she may act as a mother to others, she is nevertheless always at arm's length. This is further exacerbated by a resistance to Eorzean culture. She is often times ignorant, or at least naive, on the rituals and customs of Aldernard's city states, which some may educate her on and others try to take advantage...

For all her issues however, Akasha, is a woman of great tenacity. Perseverance and resolve are the backbone of her identity. Backing down is rarely a thought she considers, much preferring to push forward regardless of what must need be done, though it often comes at a cost. Some would even say her tenacity is so ferocious as to be sinful.