gloire à mes genoux

XIV!Nika doesn't have any societal disenfranchisement going on as much as he has a personal one. He's a weird kid with weird powers, whose life turned upside down when his father died when he was seven and his mother moved herself and her son to another city far away from his birth one. As a result, he never quite feels at home anywhere - not in his birth city, not in his new one, not in his body, not in his mind.

That kind of alienation and a general lack of purpose in life leads him down a path of doing something for someone else - having his feelings used against him to make him do that - which in turn leads to a deep resentment and dissatisfaction. Add to that his lack of friends and general loneliness and he's just.. not happy. He's miserable, actually, but he doesn't know how or where to move from moot point.

Cast adrift as he is, his struggle with self acceptance is much steeper considering that he lacks the support system required to even manage his neurodivergence, let alone change his life again and actually deal with his grief and trauma accrued along the way. Sure, he meets a guy who helps him and who he eventually marries. Sure, he has some friends here and there. But by and large, the support system isn't there as much as it is in ShoH!verse.

ShoH!Nika on the other hand is dealt a societal ostracization due to being a Mage and an Enchanter at that, on top of his personal issues mentioned above. However, he has a goal and a dream he's working towards, so that's something? But then again what is just an unhealthy dynamic on both ends in xiv!verse turns into an actual abusive relationship (an older, poweful woman preying on a financial, societal, emotional and just general insecurity of a man barely out of his teens.)

The silver lining is that yeah, he has a purpose this time around. And he has friends! Good friends even! And he's able to actually heal and be a happier version of himself! Sure, he has to manage his symptoms, but he doesn't have to do it alone. And that makes all the difference, honestly.

(Pathfinder!Nika is still cooking. Ask me about Pathfinder!Nika in a few months.)

Wayfarer!Leonor is simmering and I have to work on that verse more, but the inherent feeling of being cursed comes out as being born magianis. For a clan in the middle of a forest, fighting for power and survival in a world where magic is everything, an anti-magic kid who is, on top of that, scrawny and small and sensitive is not a good trait to have.

While he was never disowned by his family, they pitied him and generally cared more about other members of the family. Only person who remotely cared for Leonor to a big extent is Lev, so when he left his clan and the forest, he was being given a new chance. It's a chance he used well and things were going great until they were not.

WotR!Leonor is similarly a sensitive, (relatively) small child who's also a third son of a noble family in a world that functions on feudal inheritance laws. That means that he gets nothing but his his surname from his family. He was also born an oracle - a cursed magic caster who suffers for using their magic.

I have yet to finish the game so I'm not 100% sure on the lore, but at some point he becomes his own man, offering services as a divine herbalist and a healer. He then becomes the commander of a crusade against demons and finds he has some very weird fucking powers. Issue? He's never been trained to assume responsibility over anyone but himself, and even then he tends to blame it on other factors just to avoid dealing with himself.

WotR!Leonor is on a journey of self-acceptance, yes, but also of growing up and maturing. He may seem mature enough - with his high perception and emotional intelligence - but deep down, in his dealings with himself, Leonor is still a young adult figuring shit out. He also has to learn to not let his kindness, his generosity and sensitivity become a weapon people use against him, and that "negative" feelings are a part of life as well as "positive" ones.