Rowan Argentas

Rowan Argentas, Warrior of Light

Duskwight Elezen, around 25 summers at the start of ARR. 

Combat Classes: Bard, Dragoon, Red Mage. Later picks up Arcanima and Astrology but does not use them in combat.

A shy, soft spoken woman, Rowan may not initially fit people's expectations of what a Warrior of Light should be. That is until they see her acumen in combat and her willingness to help her fellow man. Though she often acts with a gentle demeanor, Rowan will fight to the edge of her abilities to save the Star.

Relationship: Slow burn Romance with Urianger Arugelt.

Rowan finds herself drawn to the mysterious Urianger nigh instantly when she joins the Scions, finding his enthusiasm for magic and velvety voice attractive. Thanks to her mother's obsession with an Ishgardian playwright, she doesn't find his antiquated speech patterns hard to parse and almost revels in the ease that she can understand him.

Though his secrets have hurt her on at least two separate occasions, Rowan finds Urianger's reasons for keeping them natural and reasonable, and quickly forgives him each time. This spurs him to do better and to amend his ways. Though it takes them years for them to finally get together, the pair relax into a courtship where they can learn to express their wants and fears while receiving gentleness for both.

Key Traits: Acts of Service as a Love Language, musical, gentle, shy, martyr/Atlas complex, secret keeper, eager learner, holding others to accountability.

Family Members: Jeaneaux Argentas (adoptive father, deceased), Alfinne Argentas (adoptive mother, living), Ellant Argentas (adoptive brother, missing in action, later found), Louineaux Argentas-Arugelt (future son), Luninne Argentas-Arugelt (future daughter)

Tags: Rowan Argentas, Aether and Anatomy

Minthe, former Conceptual Consultant, one-time Holder of the Seat of Azem.

Rowan's Ancient Self

A mage of both healing and offensive magics, Minthe would be considered a Sage due to her use of Noulith like foci.

A woman who tries to hold herself to ethical hedonism, Minthe spent a good portion of her young adult life avoiding responsibility so she could maximize her time spent on the personal projects she enjoys. If one doesn't make a promise to be responsible, then there is no broken promise to be disappointed about. Having inadvertently visited the Underworld with Hades at a young age, Minthe is often beset by those who see her potential to rise up to it, much to her chagrin.

Relationships: Young love that soured with Hades, fun love that drops with Ariadne (@yloiseconeillants), and devoted love that persists through the Final Days with Daedalus (@azure-dragonsinger).

Hades

Having been told that they were destined to be a couple since childhood, Hades and Minthe decide to truly try out a relationship after they initially graduate from Akadaemia. While Hades continues his studies in an academic manner so that he may better the Star, Minthe spends her time tinkering with various spices to increase their potency and flavor. Finding the pursuit frivolous, Hades chides her for wasting her talent nigh constantly, urging her to return to the Akadaemia so she could do something useful. After one of her spice concepts catches the eye of Hythlodaeus, she is offered a job at the Bureau of the  Architect. Once Hades learns that Minthe is not going to take time to return to the Akadaemia, he dumps her and tries to move on. Were it not for the Final Days, things may have had time to truly mend between them.

Ariadne

After the break up with Hades, Minthe isolates herself. She does keep to her responsibilities at the Bureau of the Architect, but once her required time for the day was up, she returned to her apartment to tinker on her spices alone. After some coaxing by various coworkers and acquaintances, Minthe attends a mixer where another scientifically minded woman, Ariadne, also attends. With her quirky approach and determination, Minthe finds Ariadne to be enchanting and continues to see her after the party. The two of them enjoy each other, and even turn the fact that they both saw Hades during their years in the Akadaemia against him rather than at each other. 

While Minthe assumes all is well between them, she finds that Ariadne had been squirreling away various memories into crystal rather than face embarrassing moments with maturity. After some time hemming and hawing, Ariadne starts the process of returning her memories with the biggest secret that she was hiding - that she knew that Minthe had visited the Underworld as a child. Already frayed and exhausted with her at this point, Minthe ends the relationship then and leaves Amaurot for a time.

Daedalus

After traveling with her brother, Sideritis, for a while, Minthe prepares to return to Amaurot and her job at the Bureau of the Architect. But before she enters the city proper, she finds her friends at the feet of a colossal machine, which Icarus (@hermits-hovel) calls Alexander. Fighting their way through the maze like structure, the group finds it's creator, Daedalus at the center. After a spectacular battle with his brother, Icarus, Daedalus finds himself rather weak. After being told he needs help, Minthe tries to replenish his aether but finds that Daedalus has a unique form of soul unlike she's ever seen. She relays this information to Hades, who then swears to restore Daedalus to a proper state.

After returning to work, Minthe took the time to visit Daedalus at Alexander one day. Seeing that he was still in a sorry state, Minthe complains to Hades that nothing he is doing is working - otherwise he would be healthier. Annoyed, Hades tells her that if she's so worried, she should take the reigns on the project herself. With hesitance, she does, noting that she never really took the time to learn much about Daedalus beforehand. But through her time spent with him, Minthe finds Daedalus to be bright and passionate about his creations, magic, and eventually herself. The pair bond over their lives in spent creative pursuits and Minthe coaxes Daedalus to enjoy each day as it comes, which becomes much easier with her by his side.

Key Traits: Acts of Service and Gift Giving as Love Languages, ethical hedonism, food, fun, devotion vs duty, living life one day at a time, realist.

Family: Parents (both returned to the Star while Minthe was in Amaurot), Siderits (brother, survived until the Sundering of Etheirys)

Tags: Azem Minthe, I Melt With You, Plant Girlfriends, The Unstoppable Force and the Immovable Object

Other Shards

Throughout Etheirys' history, Minthe's Sundered Selves have found themselves in important events. In chronological order:

Lamiales, a silent protector. Alive during the Calamity of Wind, this Hrothgar travels with their companion, Caelo, who turns their whispers into spoken word. The pair of them seek their third friend, Selene, who was flung far from them in a large gale. Along the way they meet other travelers in similar situation and band together to find all their lost loved ones.

Lucky Apple, alchemist of some renown on the Twelfth Shard of Etheirys. As powerful lightning storms rend the very land asunder, Apple spends her days wandering and trying to purify what little fresh water is left, all with a cheery attitude and a smile on her face. With the uncanny ability to see the souls of the departed, she is recruited by a Mr. Selch from the city of Eutopia to investigate means of transporting souls from one locale to another. Unaware of the consequences of such a thing, she gladly helps him with his task, and even helps others in the city with their experiments and discoveries. After it is revealed that Mr. Selch is actively seeking the destruction of her world, Apple feels so betrayed that she leaves Eutopia to focus on what good she can do elsewhere.

Though she has made peace with the fact that her world is ending, Apple still seeks to ease the pain of others for as long as she can draw breath. After all, why would she waste her time feeling sorry for herself when she can smile instead?

Miranda of Allag, or M'randa of Zurvan. Alive during the end of Allag's reign over Eorzea, M'randa and her brother, M'cutio, seek to end the dark deeds of the corrupt state from the inside, hiding as servants in high places. Finding her brother unable to fulfill the task from the inside, she murders his master and urges him to work from the outside. When M'cutio asks her to come with him, she says she cannot. She received a part of her master's aether to infiltrate the upper society of Allag, and she fears Merycidia would not accept her. M'cutio correctly deduces that M'randa has feelings for her master, Prospero (@azure-dragonsinger), but swears to relieve her of her burden some day.

As Miranda continues to serve Prospero and surgically cut through Allag, a mysterious man enters his life and irrevocably changes him. While Miranda found her master to be a ruthless, devious and aspirational architect before, the man who takes his place, Daedalus, is actually full of kindness and despairs at their situation. But he his bound by duty, as well as to the man who changed him, Emet-Selch. Finding herself more and more tangled in Allag's web of lies and politics, Miranda finds that the simplest way to deal with it is to finish what she started and tear down the Empire from the inside, taking Emet-Selch down with it.

Moth Orchid, Ally of Ronka. A Viis of the First, Moth Orchid never sought much more honor than that of an adventurer. Through a fated encounter with Ambrose of Ronka, he gains favor with Princes and makes friends with the nation he sought to avoid. While Ambrose pulls him out of his aloof nature, the Viis is suspicious of many, including a mysterious man named Emet-Selch, who claims to have knowledge his friends seek.

Aoife Redbranch. A magus in the time of Mhach, Aoife was well known for two things: her raw power in the aetherial arts and her rivalry with one Bricriu Honey-tongue (@yloiseconeillants). That is, until she vanished one day in the woods. As she told Bricriu later, Aoife was drawn by a strangely familiar aether, full of power. The aether belonged to a certain man who called himself Emet-Selch. With promises of magicks not known to Mhach, Amdapor, or Nym, Aoife took his offer to stay by his side as he watched the world she knew crumble.

It didn't take that long for Aoife to become tired about the arrangement, however. After enough begging, Emet-Selch allows her to visit her rival, who she then tells that Emet-Selch is a Voidsent under her spell. More than annoyed at the falsehood, Emet-Selch humiliates Aoife in front of Bricriu. After a heated argument, Aoife manages to kill the mortal form of Emet-Selch, not knowing that the Wizard of Eld was able to come back from such a thing. Though he was prepared to return the favor, Emet-Selch finds he cannot kill Aoife, seeing something in her eyes that catches on what little remains of his heart. He does, however, tell her he cannot let her go free, lest she ruin his plans for the Rejoining inadvertently. So she asks him to gild her cage and allow her some luxury. He obliges, and the two start their relationship anew.

While it is still a bit lonely, Aoife is more or less content with the life she has with Emet-Selch. That is at least until she hosts a party of four adventurers trying to heal the world and themselves during the floods that have been occurring. Finding herself compassionate for the souls and liking herself more for it, she wonders if she could have always been kind, and if that could have saved her. Only time will tell if that holds true.