⸺  Biography

"Koh, a-are you almost done?"The crunch of snow under their feet made the miqo'te ears twitch. Delicate metalwork covered the tops of the miqo'te ears, finely worked gold cuffs and delicate chains made of the same material swayed whenever the cold Coertha winds blew. Koh turned their attention back to the plants that were just under their feet. The younger elezen girl hugged the coat around her a little tighter and inched forward to Koh who was dressed all in black save for the white brightlilies that seemed to decorate the wavy and locks of black hair; Rielle took note of the soft grey strands here and there, a curious thing for the miqo'te looked younger in age. And still, Rielle couldn't help but wonder just how old Koh was, their mannerisms and speech made them seem older and wiser sometimes."Almost done, Rielle…" Koh's voice was delicate. It was always pleasant to listen to, especially inside the shop whenever they would read something funny in the printed notices that were delivered to the little cottage back inside the Firmament. Out here in the cold it seemed a small comfort for Rielle.She'd be back inside soon with delicious tea, papermint tea that Koh would sweeten with honey and give a sweet or two. Rielle could hardly wait as she watched the miqo'te fingers delicately pluck herbs. Dark thick gloves plucked the fresh plants that laid nestled in the snow, the top of the plant peaking ever so slightly. Koh's sight, despite the eyepatch was sharp. Experience perhaps? They always seemed to know where to go to find something growing."Alright, there we go… last one…" Koh had been crouched in the snow, their thick busy tail was twitching from time to time as they looked at the herbs that were in the small dark wicker basket. A soft smile against black colored lips, a soft little tinge of blush against grey skin sometimes, the muted nature of their clothing there was something otherwordly about their overall appearance that she couldn't parse. Tired eyes, often a soft raspy little voice here and there, the frequent headaches that sometimes made them give pause or render them exhausted the whole day… it was a miracle that Koh had done so many extraordinary things.She had heard stories of the Brightlily Dragoon, and never once had the young Elezen expected it to be Koh. But all the signs had been there, the lance shined almost white with thin stretches of gold that seemed to make it as delicate as its owner. Yet there it rested in a corner in the downstairs area of Koh's apothecary, along with a staff that seemed to have a shooting star at the top of it. Rielle had seen Koh wield the staff some time ago, when a wandering patrol from Dragonshead had encountered a deadly monster. Brilliant flames and thunder, and Koh wielded that magic so effortlessly…
___"Koh?""Hmm?" their eyes flitted up for a moment, tearing their attention away from the newsletter."Whe-... where were you born?"Koh cocked an eyebrow and flashed a sharktooth grin at the young Elezen. She had meant to ask when, they knew it all too well but Koh decided to let it slide. Rielle squirmed a little in her chair and cleared her throat, she knew Koh had caught her slip up."I was born in Gridania.""R-Really?!""Please don't look that surprised, Rielle. You wound me…" Koh covered their mouth with the back of their palm. The elezen girl on the other hand let out a small chuckle of relief. She wasn't sure if Koh would've glared at her the same way they did with Sidurgu sometimes. "But yes, I was born inside the city proper. It was…" they paused for a moment, eyes seemed to stare off into the far distance, a sad smile painted their lips for a moment, Rielle took note. "It was an okay life. I had my lancer training there and made my way to Ul'dah when I was about 17 summers.."Koh left out some parts of course. They didn't mention to Rielle that it took a while to gain entrance into the city. Hunger filled days and strange dangerous nights till they earned enough money while guarding caravans. They danced around the past. "I worked as an apothecarist there…" it would've taken too long to explain why they became one. An alchemist who worked in a bordello ran away after sleeping with one of the girls there, and Koh while filling a courier request helped out and eventually found a permanent room there as the house apothecarist. For a moment Koh mulled over telling her some of the stories that courtesans used to tell them, amongst other things; like how they learned to dance and even entertained guests. Or the stories that dealt with matters of the heart, what exposure to dark arcana does to the mind and body…"What brought you to Ishgard then?""Oh, that… well I fought and tracked down monsters.""Sidurgu did mention that," Rielle narrowed her eyes staring into Koh's right eye. It was the only one she could see. She had grown used to their strange affliction, an accident caused the whites of their eyes to turn black. The other was hidden behind a black metallic eyepatch. She had seen what was underneath once scars ran down the top of the eyebrow down to lower eyelid, but whether the eye itself functioned or Koh ever opened it was a mystery."No one just wanders into this place." Rielle retorted, a little too hastily. Koh had a tendency to dance around things. Like about the tattoos on their body, or the scars and burn marks on their hands. Those... phantom pains they felt sometimes. The dark circles under their eye(s)..."The only thing that matters is that I'm here for good," Koh shrugged their shoulders and sat back in their chair. The wood creaked slightly as the sound of the tea kettle whistled. It was the wince that made Rielle worry as the Miqo'te touched the side of their head. Another headache, a metallic taste danced on their tongue. "Rielle, can you go and get me some tea?"___The truth of Koh's journey to Ishgard was a sore subject, and not one they liked recounting. Not even with alcohol. It was a simple enough tale on the surface, a young thaumaturge met a young gladiator and the two of them formed a fast friendship during their stay in Ul'dah. In the blink of an eye, some years passed and the two were delving into dungeons to make some coin. In wanting to prove themselves the two took a job as scouts for suspicious activity that was happening back in the Black Shroud. For Koh it was a strange homecoming, having renounced their life in Gridania. And sadly it was to be a source of most of their woes.
Tam-Tara Deepcroft had been home to a cult, the Lambs of Dalamud. Everyone in the party was unprepared for the voidsent that crawled around thanks to the efforts of the cult. Koh seemed to have been the only survivor. It took time to mend the strange state that had befallen Koh.
Fear and anger drove them to try and experiment with materia, to affix it to the body in some manner and seek revenge on the voidsent that took their friend's life. Koh's left eye carried their folly plain, the corruption that emerged on their body a result of tampering with forces against their better nature. Koh was expelled out of the Thaumaturge Guild because of that.
They made it almost their entire life to hunt down voidsent and in doing so caught whispers of a Black Mage hiding somewhere near Ala Mhigo. Claiming that power for themselves, to be strong enough find the voidsent that had changed their life; it was almost all consuming. Taking the Black Mage's soulstone wasn't without sacrifices, blood stained their hands several times over. But it was necessary no matter the cost.Still... it was a victory that felt short lived. The soulstone cracked while hunting voidsent, and in the process flames kissed their body leaving scars in its wake. At around the same time wind of Koh's meddling in affairs relating to the death of several individuals in their quest of hunting voidsent had started to almost catch up to them, and so they made their way to Ishgard. To lick their wounds, lie low and figure out way to mend the soulstone. That was until talk of a war started to loom over the horizon, Koh decided to lend their service as a lancer (they had trained in their youth back home).
The War itself took a toll on Koh, the horrors and the psychological damage brought back to the surface old wounds of the mind that were long since untreated, and with it a strange urgency to want to stay. With a knack for botany and carpentry (it was in their blood), Koh sought to help rebuild and treat the people of the Brume with poultices and other ailments that they could offer.Then, one day... the soulstone itself had mended. Koh felt that stir to go back and resume their journey, but they had started a modest life here in Ishgard. They had a home, a small little business, and friends of the sort. Even that couldn't erase the scars and marks that their journey had left them with...
___Truth be told some days were harder than others for Koh. Seeing and hearing things that aren't there. They weren't even sure if their body was done changing from the materia corruption and whatever lingering effects came from Deepcroft. It always felt like there was something there under the skin begging to come out."What if I did actually die there?"Sigurdu forced the tea down his throat and coughed a little. "Koh, what are you implying?""It felt like I was trapped in there for years," he noticed the way their hands were shaking while trying to hold their teacup steady. "What if I'm not really -"Sidurgu placed a gentle hand on the Miqo'te's arm and gently applied some pressure there. Koh didn't flinch, both their eyes were fixed on his hand. "You told me a long time ago, our memories and experiences shape us, but it cannot truly define us. For all I know you've always been you, Koh."His first meeting with Koh was a small altercation outside of the Foundation. A black mage facing off against a dark knight, it should've been an easy thing and yet the Au Ra felt almost outmatched. How long the match could've gone was anyone's guess, but the miqo'te had stopped fighting when catching a glimpse of Rielle, and that was that. The two of them struck a sort of odd friendship, Koh goaded him sometimes to show them how a Dark Knight channeled energy to fight. All in an effort to have a plan of contingency in case their soulstone broke again."But what if I'm not me? Y-You weren't around when I..." that feeling was coming back. The ringing in their eyes, the strange dimming of their vision, something crawling under the skin. It reminded them of the time their teeth had started to fall out and change. Something was there... but what?

  Fragile    : enemies to lovers, 21+ mature themes, slow burn romance, angst/tragic characters
A dog of war finally freed of its shackles... learning what it means to live by ones own accord.
Living a simple life of wanderings and chasing bounties, running free.
A mage that's found solace in a cold place, tries their best to live relatively peaceful life. Plagued with nightmares of a past they want to forget.
Until the bounty on the mage's life brings the two face to face with fragility of mortality and love.  Drinking buddies    : one-shotGridania... for Koh it brought back a lot of memories of first loves and happier times, and yet it felt like it sealed her fate all those years ago. She flipped through one of her old journals she had found in her storage, old memories coming back. A brief moment of pain making her stop, pressing a hand against the eyepatch on her left eye until it passes. Another drink's needed.
You find an empty table and sit down after a hard day's work of adventuring until a voice makes you look up. "Sorry... uh, do you mind if I sit here?" A miqo'te with an eyepatch and a staff, a scar across her face, and apparently a journal she had been reading was on the table you had failed to notice.
"I could leave if you..."
"No, no. I could use a drinking buddy." She let out a small chuckle and sat down. "My name's Koh, what's yours?"  Hollow [wip]    : mystery, dark themes, romance. 21+ themesIn the stillness of the night Koh could see it, the faint outline of something. Years of hunting voidsent didn't dull those particular senses, but the miqo'te wondered if mayhaps the rest of their sanity was starting to fade with it. Yet the folks of Ishgard seemed to call on them for whatever particulars when it came to things that went bump into the night.A disgraced noble house, abandoned and left alone. Gardens that once had such an air of regalia were now left as husks. A black wrought iron gate was all that stood between Koh and whatever was there. A strange translucent thing that seemed to shimmer in the moonlight.All Koh had to do was stretch out there hand. A shriek filled the air. Koh covered their ears and fought the urge to scream as a searing pain entered their left eye.'Curious little thing that you are... tainted little soul.'Koh woke up in a pool of sweat, gasping and choking for air. The pain in their eye was a dull ache as the miqo'te sat up. The little wolf pup made a little grunt in displeasure of having been woken up so rudely before noticing the state of its owner and cautiously approached, and the little crow that was resting on a makeshift nest near the bed barely flinched before opening its eyes.It was a tricky business chasing ghosts and hunting voidsent. Or whatever ilk. It left Koh ragged for some days, enough to close the shop for days to rest. A faint knock was coming from upstairs.
"On all that is merciful, pray let this not be another job..."* for this RP it would be a mixture of the 'contract' RP with like occult stuff happening in the background. Both of our characters would be contracted to hunt down a voidsent/monster that starts from Ishgard. but your character would be using it as a ruse to fulfill the bounty on Koh's head.