Yuhvi'to Mhilse
Arcanist, scholar, Carbuncle specialist and aspiring professor of Teratomimicry.
Backround
Early Years
Born in the Western Shroud into a hermetic tribe of self-proclaimed 'coven of witches', Yuhvi'to was fascinated by magic from a young age. He was raised to learn how to use aether in order to manipulate the natural and invoke the unnatural by the women of his tribe, taking part in their convocations and rituals.Initially the tribe was content to delve in their closed and relatively benign practices, but after the 7th Umbral Calamity laid waste to the Western Shroud and practically decimated the majority of his tribe, the coven migrated to the South Shroud in order to survive.With the goal of survival though, came a newfound necessity for power. His tribe swiftly delved into darker practices, preying on the enemy tribes, passerby travelers and adventurers in order to protect themselves and rebuild what they had lost. Soon, the coven turned to tenebrous rituals, invoking Voidsent and using sacrifices as a means of empowerment.This fall of their once disciplined tribe horrified Yuhvi'to who did his best to abstain from these new practices. Family and friends were twisted into faces he could no longer recognize.By the age of thirteen, his mother turned on him, seeking to invoke a powerful Voidsent into his body in order to ensure his 'survival'. Unwilling to be sacrificed and twisted into yet another abomination, Yuhvi'to fled on a moonless night, bringing with him naught but two stolen grimoires, his clothes and a cloak.He wandered aimlessly for weeks, traveling to nearby villages and exchanging chores for the tiniest amounts of gil in order to survive, while also doing his best to avoid the places where his tribe now hunted for victims. In due time, a wandering caravan arrived with a Lominsan Arcanist on its cart, Carbuncle resting on his shoulder.The young Miqo'te looked in awe at the creature, reminding him of his tribe's familiars and thusly approached the scholar, inquiring about this being. It was then that Yuhvi'to learned of Limsa Lominsa, the Arcanist Guild and the art of Arcanima. Knowing there was barely any future left of him in his wandering state, he pleaded the Arcanist to take him along and help him make something of himself, exchanging one of the two stolen grimoires of his tribe as recompense.The Arcanist, fascinated by the boy's fervor to learn and survive, but also tempted by the potential of such uncharted, mystical practices withheld in that grimoire accepted the boy's pleas, taking him along to Limsa Lominsa.With the arrival of the caravan, Yuhvi'to accompanied by the Arcanist was led to the Guild where he offered all the gil he had left in hopes of being allowed to join. After a series of trials, his natural talent for the magical arts granted him a seat in the guild, and thus began his tutoring in the world of Arcanima.
Adolescence
The years passed rather quickly during his time in the Arcanist Guild. By the age of 14 he had already summoned his first Carbuncle, and by 15 he started showing significant talent at the summoning and manipulation of aetherial constructs. His natural proclivity to this art drew the attention of Astraegant Glavinaux, a Sharlayan Archon specialized in the field of summoning aetherial constructs, who was at the time instructing some promising young students in the summoning arts. Astraegant asked to take Yuhvi'to under his wing, fascinated by the Miqo'te's talent.The Archon offered to help the Miqo'te fully develop and hone his skills, in exchange for work in his library, 'The Bibliotaph's Envy', which the basement of would soon become the Miqo'te's place of residence, even to this day.Under this Archon's tutelage, Yuhvi'to's abilities in the summoning arts improved quite rapidly, and by the age of 20 he had shown significant skill on the field. That's when Yuhvi'to started pondering the possibilities of combining the mystical arts of his tribe with the newly acquired knowledge the Arcanist Guild had provided.
Adulthood
As Yuhvi'to aged, so did his ambition in the arts of summoning. Brainstorming an aetherial construct that could evolve according to the enemy and mimick their power, he sought to combine the traditional and chaotic witchcraft of his tribe with the precise, calculating order of Arcanima.With the help of Astraegant and thanks to several sleepless nights, Yuhvi'to eventually managed to come up with the concept and blueprint of Teratomimesis. But this was uncharted territory for the Miqo'te, and while the Archon was quite elated to help this promising student find his way, he also acknowleged that the development of this art was not his path to walk. Instead, this would have to be something Yuhvi'to should devote his entire life into developing.Of course, research and experimentation alone were hardly enough to feed someone, and that's when Yuhvi'to sought to join the Adventurer's Guild for 'easy' gil. The cost and procurement of materials required to develop this new discipline would be quite large, and while work at the library helped him survive it simply would no longer be enough for what he required.The rest of the Miqo'te's 20s would be spent doing research and development for Teratomimesis while also performing quests and jobs for the Adventurer's Guild, saving up any gil that wasn't spent on his research to spend on travels and expeditions across the land, gathering up any knowledge on summoning, aetherology and wildlife that could possibly help him develop this budding aetherial art.At the age of 27, he had finally managed to create some solid form of Teratomimesis, using his beloved Carbuncle as the conduit through which he'd channel the parasitic witchcraft of his tribe in order to absorb the essence of the enemy and pour it into the Carbuncle itself, mutating it into a new chimeric, albeit quite unstable, familiar.
Meeting Siban and Current Times
At the age of 28, during an expedition of his in the Far East his travels led him to the Azim Steppes, where he had heard about the shamanic practices of a Xaelic tribe which he deemed could be useful.At Reunion, the Miqo'te was hounded by a large, imposing and proud soldier of the Steppes, Siban, who was mistrustful of the foreign ambitious scholar, fearing that he would harm, steal or otherwise betray the hospitality of the Qestir tribe.This mistrust soon led to the warrior to confront Yuhvi'to outside of the village, renouncing his studies as intrusive. This confrontation though would soon be interrupted by a rare strain of Morbol, who attacked the pair and gravely injured Siban. Yuhvi'to managed to repel the Morbol, immobilizing it just enough for the two to escape its maws, but the beast's toxins had thoroughly infected the warrior's body. The Miqo'te used some of his magic to provide first aid to Siban, just enough until they could make it to Reunion once again where he delivered the warrior to the tribe's healers and shamans, just in time.After several days of treatment, Siban was finally cured and now feeling indebted to the foreign scholar, he apologized for his initial mistrust and pledged his blades to his side. He proclaimed a life's debt, promising to safeguard the scholar in his travels until this life debt was repaid in full. Yuhvi'to, knowing quite well how dangerous traveling in solitude could be, could only accept albeit with some trepidation, feeling guilty for potentially tearing this man from the only life he knew.Over that year, the two had began growing closer, learning more about each other, their struggles and ambitions, finding friendship where they never thought they'd find it.
Eventually, the days of study and research in Othard came to a close, and Yuhvi'to decided it was time to return to Hingashi and afterwards back home to Limsa Lominsa. Siban elected that the life debt was still not yet repaid, and thus he accompanied him still, bitterly saying goodbye to his home to make way for stranger shores.Over the several months long travel to Eorzea, Yuhvi'to and Siban kept growing closer and closer to each other, and in due time their friendship blossomed into affection. By the time the two reached the shores of La Noscea, they were no longer simply companions, but lovers.At the age of 31 the two have been together for three years, bonded, no longer beholden to one another over a life's debt, but rather a soulful adoration that one would perhaps deem was mandated by a time before time, when the world was yet Unsundered.Now, the two accompany each other still, inseperable, adventuring together for gil to assist the Miqo'te's endless research and development of Teratomimesis. Still, the call of foreign knowledge tug at the Miqo'te's mind as news about a 'Masked Carnivale' spread across Eorzea. And while Yuhvi'to is hardly interested in gladitorial spectacle, the root of the Whalaqee tribe's 'Blue Magic' itself sounds like it would provide profound help to his own research. Thus, a new expedition is slowly starting to be in the plans, a trip to the New World where perhaps the Miqo'te could find the catalyst to solidifying his magical art, for good.
Appearance
Yuhvi’to is a fairly short Miqo’te, standing at 1.54 meters tall (5.0ft) with pale complexion and a slightly tubby body, a testament to his rather idle lifestyle and sugary indulgences. His hair is of deep crimson with orange highlights, wavy, reaching down to his nape and covering parts of his face, occasionally held back with a short ponytail. His eyes are vibrant blue, often seen behind a pair of large, circular brass glasses as years of reading and studying have compromised him of his once stellar vision.A pair of large, fluffy ears can be spotted on top of his head, two tufts of long fur standing out their very tips akin to the ears of a lynx. Their underbellies sport decorative piercings: two brass ear cuffs on his right ear and one more elaborate earring on his left, often adorned with a small piece of hanging quartz. His nails can grow quite long and sharp, and he very often has to clip and smooth them, while another racial characteristic is a pair of sharp canine fangs that can be clearly seen whenever he speaks.
Teratomimesis
Teratomimesis, the mimicry of beasts, combining the Sharlayan words "Teratos" (meaning 'of a monster') and "mimesis" (meaning 'imitation').
"Monstrous Imitation", a specialized Arcanima school in which a summoned being, most commonly a Carbuncle, is infused with the essence of wild beasts to acquire their offensive and aetheric capabilities.Developed by Yuhvi'to several years into his Arcanima studies, it was inspired by his desire to combine his tribe's aetheroparasitic withcraft with his expertise of summoning.The principle of the art lies in the aetheric mutation of the summoned being by absorbing the qualities of a selected beast via aetherial ingestion. This aether ingestion is rooted on the practices of Yuhvi'to's tribe, where a summoned aetheric construct promptly referred to as a 'familiar' is used to rip the enemy's aether and make it primed for absorption it into the summoner's body for their own empowerment. As absorbing someone else's aether though can be highly corrosive to one's body depending on the aetheric structure of the target, Yuhvi'to elected to use the Carbuncle as the conduit of the absorption, letting it mutate into a chimeric aetherial construct which will then be controlled and manipulated as any other summon would.For example, should the Carbuncle absorb the essence of a Morbol, its body will begin becoming slimier, unseemly fangs will sprout from the Carbuncle's maw and depending on the amount of aether absorbed, it might even spawn tentacle-like appendages. After that, the Carbuncle will be able to efficiently mimick any attack the Morbol performs, from its phlegm spit to its infamous putrid breath. This act of aetheric ingestion and thus occuring mutation is called Teratomimesis.After this mutation is complete and the combat is resolved, blood from the selected creature is drawn and used to inscribe a new Arcane Circle in the grimoire, which in turn allows the utilization of the beast's mutation without the immediate ingestion of aether, albeit in a less advanced and less potent form.Physical mutation can only occur via the fresh consumption of aether, so it's always advised that a Teratomime always carries with them dried pieces of a beast's flesh, so that their aetheric construct of choice can ingest that aether in case of combat.As a summon's aetheric capacity is only as vast as that of its host, the bigger and stronger a beast is the more difficult the ingestion and thus occuring mutation is for the summoner. As Yuhvi'to has found out himself, that also means that more powerful a beast is, the harder it is to draw upon its aether and create a new Teratomimesis.Of course, every flaw can be perfected with time and intense study. The art of aetheric manipulation is one of constant discovery and improvement and while Yuhvi'to might lack some virtues, ambition is certainly not one of them.Already having achieved a few strides into his research and development of Teratomimesis, Yuhvi'to ceaselessly continues his study, constantly looking for ways in which he had utilize stronger beasts with higher efficiency.
RP Hooks
► Cryptozoologist and researcher: Yuhvi'to often sets off on expeditions to research the fauna of a selected region, usually accompanied by Siban who acts as his guardian.► Knowledge-starved: More often than not, Yuhvi’to is always looking to learn something new, his craving for new knowledge tends to gravitate him towards places that accumulate it.► Teratomime: Yuhvi'to created the discipline of Teratomimesis and is more than happy to discuss or even instruct others on this new, experimental art.► Library owner: Yuhvi’to is (rarely present but still legal) co-owner of the Bibliotaph’s Envy, a lending library in downtown Limsa Lominsa which he shares with Astregeant Saireaux, an Elezen from Sharlayan.► Limsan citizen: Having lived in the port city for several years now, Yuhvi’to considers Limsa Lominsa his home and often is found hanging around the city.► Perpetual traveler: Having abandoned his post in the library in all but name, Yuhvi'to spends most of his time traveling the world in search for knowledge and insight.► It takes two: After his return from Othard, Yuhvi’to will most often be accompanied by a rather tall and imposing Xaela, Siban, who has made it a mission to guard and protect the small scholar wherever he may go.
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