M'datha Tia

GENERAL
•   name:   M'datha Tia
•   age:   37 (born 1540 6E)
•   alias:   Redmane
•   gender:   He/Him
•   orientation:   Bisexual, Polyamorous
•   people:   M Tribe, Seeker of the Sun
•   trade:   Fiendhunter, AdventurerPHYSICAL TRAITS
•   eyes:   Green
•   hair:    Red
•   height:   1.75 meters
•   weight:   95 kg.
•   build:   Broad-set, Very Muscular
•   skin:   TanSPIRITUAL TRAITS
•   alignment:   Chaotic Good
•   elemental aspect:   Wind
•   patron:   AzeymaCHIEF ATTRIBUTES
•  PRIMARY:   Strength, Wisdom
•  SECONDARY:   Constitution, DexterityJOBS
•  master: Samurai
•  expert: Monk
•  journeyman: Gunbreaker, Sage
•  apprentice: -
•  novice: -•  misc. skills:   Hunting, wilderness survival, counselling, poetry, Hingan courtly manners, war strategy, athletics, acrobatics, medicine❝ COMBAT STYLE - All RounderM'datha merges Iaijutsu and Monk techniques of Hingan and Gyr Abanian origin to achieve a martial arts style favouring raw physical power, speed and versatility. He is at his deadliest in melee combat with foes large or small, well-used to facing off creatures many times his size. He can employ gunblades and their associated defensive arts in a pinch and carries a set of nouliths fitted for combat somanoutics and field medic work.

TASTES
•   likes: people, fighting, wandering, philosophy, tradition, poetry, exercise, meditation, interesting conversation, warmth, passion, humility, generosity, fine liquors and whiskeys, fine trinkets of all kinds
•   dislikes: boredom, incuriosity, greed, cruelty, sedentarism, nihilismBACKGROUND
•   birthplace:  Gyr Abania
•   current residence:   Ul'dah
•   nuclear family:   mother and father deceased. Two living sisters, five dead. One dead brother (stillbirth)
•   extended family:   M' Tribe
•   pets:   A riding alkonost named Alicante
•   partners:   Several
•   children:   Unknown❝ + VIRTUES : Sincere above all, to the point of coming across as guileless. Kindly, tender in demeanour, rarely one to slip into negative modes of interaction. Resolute in the face of adversity. Resilient to hardship. Deeply curious and passionate about the world and everyone he meets. Observant and keen on the workings of people. Gregarious and easily affectionate. Patient. Thoughtful. Wiser than might at times appear. A cultured epicurean, glad to savour all of life's pleasures with moderation.❝ - VICES : Long experience oft has him slip into presumptuousness. Attentions stray when bored, and he grows bored with ease. Inconstant and flightly as a result. Given to self-destruction when struggling with his demons, at times paralysed by them.❝ - CHARACTER INSPIRATIONS AND INTENDED VIBES:IROH - Avatar: The Last Airbender
CAPTAIN AMERICA - Marvel
HIMURA KENSHIN - Rurouri Kenshin
TREVOR BELMONT - Castlevania

If wisdom is bought with pain, M'datha Tia is a wealthy man indeed. Born to the M tribe of Gyr Abania, his early days were marked by the increasing austerity of life in the highlands and the unrest brewing in Gyr Abania during the reign of Theodoric the Mad, a trying time that would only be made worse by Garlemald's conquest. This would not be a change he would witness first-hand in the tribe; at sixteen he set out to grow stronger and make a name for himself, leaving his tribe behind to deal with the occupation by themselves whilst he walked the Tia's path.In Ul'dah he would rise to meteoric prominence as one of the foremost pugilists of the time. Dubbed the Redmane, he enjoyed three years of stardom before personal tragedy cast him down into a pit of addiction and self-destruction. Defeated by no other but himself and with a life in tatters, he would slip aboard a ship of the East Aldenard Trading Company bound to Kugane.In the Far East he reinvented himself. Rising from his torpor with the aid of a kindly retired samurai, M'datha lived out a long decade as a yojimbo, a sword for hire, guarding the backs of highborn lords and merchant princes. The quietly prosperous life was interrupted by a dramatic overturn of good fortune and a spurious accusation by one of his patron's retainers.With no other option but to flee the East, M'datha would go on to experience the life of a vagrant adventurer for a short while, until he crossed into western Othard and into Dalmasca. Here he was confronted in force with the horrors of Garlean occupation and, overcome with grief and shame over abandoning his tribe to its fortunes, he poured his every effort into Lente's Tears, the Dalmascan rebel group. The war was long fought, continuing into the Bozjan frontlines in a blur of ceaseless conflict and loss. At the end, weary with toil, he resumed his journey to the West, bound for Eorzea.

Meteor Blades
A katana and wakizashi pairing commissioned recently from a Doman bladesmith to suit M'datha's combat style. Fashioned of star-fallen adamant, it is thrice the weight of a blade of its kind, denser by an order of magnitude and exceedingly aether-conductive, intended in the fullness of its design to be the primary weapon in his singular fighting style. Its wielding requires stamina, muscle and aetheric control to spare, and boasts excellent penetrative capability - not even Garlean alloys withstand its cut.

Swallow's Passing
A sword-saint's relic bestowed by a mysterious entity in the parivir's past. Ablaze with Light, its true powers slumber, fit for the wielding of a sword-saint alone, yet even as a parivir's weapon it is well-suited for battling oni, voidsent and creatures of similar ilk, against which it is anathema. The blade will cut little else, despite ostensibly having a vicious edge; a wielder must use kenki to make it in any way effective against other foes, making it a taxing weapon to wield in prolonged combat against the mundane.

Kaz's Gunblade
The weapon of choice of M'datha's closest friend, a Lente's Tears soldier who died tragically in the frontlines. It was later gifted to the miqo'te by his friend's grieving widow. Lovingly fashioned and lovingly maintained, the weapon is a Bozjan feat of magitek engineering. Its weight is calibrated to pack a heavy blow with each swing, its mechanical components adjusted for increased cartridge firing rate and aetheric discharge capability, to suit its wielder's considerable aether reserves.

❝ 1 - Born to the Badlands
Sired in the year 1540 to the Nunh of the M, M'datha Tia was reared in the austere yet peaceable semi-nomadic way of life enjoyed by his tribe in the fringes of Gyr Abania. History made its march as it always does - the reign of Theodoric the First ushered in dark times six years into the young miqo'te's life - yet the relative distance and uninvolvement in the political affairs of the nation kept the tribe to its quiet existence and the youth's life to the concerns of children until his tenth year, when M'rahz, runt of the litter, overcame the prior Nunh in battle. The death of his father and the ushering of not one but two new tribal leaders - M'rahz Nunh and his best friend M'aht - woke in the child a fervid desire for revenge that would one day become the driving force of his development.❝ 2 - Taught in Shadow
Tumult in the world began to brew. Theodoric's madness boiled into open conflict with the Temple of the Fist - M'datha, in his twelve years of age, would come to witness first-hand the ruination of the temple alongside his mother. With her he rescued from the flames a monk injured nearly to his demise and carried him away into the badlands known best by their tribe. Nursed back to health over the long weeks, the highlander grew affectionate towards mother and son, adopting the young miqo'te as a disciple in the martial tradition of the Fists. A member of the Sect of Shadow and a devotee of its harshest principles, he would subject M'datha to the most gruelling training he could conceive of. To his astonishment the boy not only thrived, he excelled, enduring far past neophytes of equivalent age.❝ 3 - Young Love
Childhood gave way to adolescence as Gyr Abania fell into further disarray. Across the Ghimlyt Dark gathered the might of a new threat, fresh from conquest and rearing for more. This was of no concern to M'datha - he lived and breathed now only for M'lanna, the snow-haired and furred beauty alongside whom he had grown. The broil of their burgeoning passion was an inferno that transgressed every taboo - the young couple consummated their affair in full disregard of tradition. He was but a Tia - she was meant for a Nunh. Determined to make licit their illicit passions, M'datha would deliver himself to his training with a drive that would catch even his austere master by surprise. He was determined to overcome M'rahz and M'aht. Become the Nunh of the M. Take M'lanna as his mate and head of his harem. Thus, with his master in tow, he departed upon his sixteenth nameday, vowing to return and win her hand.

❝ 4 - The Rise
Not a month into his journey Gyr Abania had fallen. Garlemald's takeover was swift and all-encompassing. M'datha stayed the course despite his worry for the tribe, determined to conquer the M in turn; nothing else mattered to pupil and master alike but the growth of his ability. There was only one place M'datha's master knew that would serve their purposes without alerting the jackals eager to persecute his teaching; they would find themselves in Ul'dah proper, where M'datha gave himself over to the Pugilists' Guild.
The youth tore through all opposition, wielding the deadly arts and the opened chakra of the Shadow Sect to a string of spectacular victories. He would further these abilities all the farther through bloodshed, thriving in the Bloodsands as a champion of the arena, opening chakra after chakra in the overcoming of the deadliest opponents. Dubbed Redmane for his bounteous, leonine red locks, his gladiatorial career was meteoric, with few the wiser as to the true source of his strength. Drunk with power and wealth, the aspiring chief would plunge into a vice-strewn, licentious lifestyle that would make even the most vigorous tribal Nunh turn bashful.❝ 5 - The Fall
Three years passed in the glut of glory until one fateful night. He came upon a wandering M huntress in the city who would go on to recount the goings-on of the tribe. Death and persecution, the ancestral hunting grounds they had enjoyed grown lesser and lesser, Garleans trampling the roads in the stead of merchants.
And M'lanna expecting her third child.
She had given herself over to the Nunh after all, willingly and passionately. M'datha's world collapsed beneath him. She had been meant for him - she was why he was doing this! That she had chosen another was heartbreak, and he was faced now with another; to return and seize the tribe from M'rahz immediately, or abandon his pursuit. Remembering what he felt when his own father met his demise at M'rahz's hands and not wishing his first love to look upon him in hatred, he turned away from the M, for good.
Already in the throes of loss after losing his master to long illness and bereft of all guiding principle, the raucous passions of his days turned to sordid decadence. He surrendered to every substance that would let him taste joy and passion again, that would let him forget the world a while. His appearances in the arena became more erratic until he abandoned it altogether. His sponsors would abandon him in turn and, deep in the throes of addiction, the once-champion flushed out of the Bloodsands in the half-daze of somnus, given to prostitution and petty crime for survival.

❝ 6 - The Clawback
Desperate to leave the ruin of his life behind, M'datha sought passage on a ship of the East Aldenard Trading Company bound for the farthest reaches of the world. The strangeness of Kugane served little for a distraction; fly though he may from Eorzea, he carried his demons with him. His downspiral of self-annihilation would proceed apace.
Months into his stay, the broken man fell into a storm-choked gutter in an opiate haze. There he would have drowned were it not for an unexpected hand reaching into the muck. He woke violently ill, under the care and ministrations of an emaciated old man.
So began a slow, torturous and difficult healing process. Rehabilitation came first, in a tempest of pain and anger endured by the old man's indefatigable tranquillity. Next came the questioning, the tearing down of rotted foundations for the placement of something new. The old man was a retired samurai who had seen a lifetime of bloodshed, had turned in his last days to the contemplation of the soul, and M'datha would follow in his steps. The object of derision and fascination alike for being of a kind almost unheard of in the East, he would find ready company among the lowest of the low - the geisha, the sellswords, the pirates, criminals petty and lordly, among whom he made long companionship. The decade that followed was spent dwelling between worlds; spiritual edification in the midst of lowlifes.❝ 7 - Return
M'datha found himself, through a series of fortunate events, in service to a daimyo. It ended in disaster, with accusations of having besmirched the honour of the daimyo's daughter, and he was forced to flee Hingashi with nothing but the shirt on his back and the sword at his hip. Turning to the setting sun of his worship, he at last decided it was time to pursue it into the far horizon.
He did not go by ship. He instead decided to roam all the lands between East and West on his way home, a journey that would prove itself an odyssey. Driven by a desire for absolution in having abandoned his tribe to the Garlean occupation he became involved with Lente's Tears and the liberation efforts in Dalmasca and Bozja, where he would win renown and be faced with the full scope of the horrors of war. At the end of years of campaign he set out once more on his path, thinking himself free of tribulation. He would find himself caught instead in Thavnair right in the midst of the Final Days. Survival brought him to the harbours. No more delay or detour; he took to a ship bound for Ul'dah.The rest, as they say, is History.

▍ ❝   1 - Tribesman of the M
M'datha is perhaps one of the oldest wandering Tia of the M Tribe. While worldly and cosmopolitan, he cleaves close still to the tribal ways of his ancestors, and will always be glad to meet wandering men and women of the M.▍ ❝   2 - Fiendhunter for Hire
The miqo'te has taken up a dangerous career upon returning to Eorzea. He has specialized in facing off against voidsent of all rungs and has developed techniques and gear tailored specifically for facing the demons of the world. He is available for hire and his services are well-spoken of among Immortal Flames, Adventurers' Guild and Free Companies alike. He makes some coin instructing prospective adventurers and Flames recruits in the proper handling of monster and voidsent threats.▍ ❝   3 - Yojimbo
With a decade-more of history as a bodyguard to folk high and low-born in the city of Kugane he has certainly made a reputation for himself, his origin a distinctive thing difficult to hide. Likewise the open bounty still in play for his head, posted by the daimyo he once served.

▍ ❝   4 - Resistance Fighter
Avoidant of the resistance movement in Gyr Abania during his youth, he proved himself fiercely dedicated to the cause of liberation in Dalmasca and Bozja. He won many an accolade and distinction in the conflict, having participated in many of the pivotal battles of the final campaigns to push the IVth Legion out.This is something he will be reluctant to discuss with those he is not intimately or closely familiar with, though he may be recognized by fellow veterans.▍ ❝   5 - The Redmane
Near-twenty years' passing will erase many a memory, especially of the washed-out and the inglorious. But there may yet be those who remember the Redmane's meteor-rise to the top, and three years of glory and dominance.▍ ❝   6 - Auspicious Boons
Do you sense it, the depth to this soul? The soothing calm of his aetheric presence? It is not the mastery of self at work. Something mystical has settled in him like pooling rain. What entity has bestowed him their favour?