MISHA LLIED

name: misha llied
title: azure dragoon / of the sunless sea
age: 26+ (ARR) 30+ (SHB)
race: rava viera/keeper miqo'te
gender: male (he/him)
job: bard / dragoon

only son of a viera adventurer who left dalmasca and settled herself in the shroud. he was raised in gridania without his absent miqo'te father, and came to idolize adventurers and his mother.after the calamity, he took it upon himself to embark on his own journey, and found himself among the scions ere long.

From the moment he was old enough to understand it, Misha has had an adventurer's heart. His earliest memories are of him accompanying his mother through the Shroud on quests and errands, watching from a safe distance as she dispatched her targets. His mother trained him in archery from childhood, but Misha found his calling in lancing.His father was an adventurer as well. In spite of his very involved parenting, he quickly found himself bored of fatherhood and unsettled by his kit's odd tendencies, and left to make a name for himself. As such, Misha doesn't remember him ever being a present figure in his life, and has no strong feelings about his departure.Although he receives the usual visions as well, Misha's Echo manifests most frequently in dreams--he gleans memories and emotions from those who lay at his side while he is asleep. He is not fully aware of these visions when they occur, and often wakes up with knowledge he did not have before. He has learned not to repeat things that he cannot remember being told.Through a convenient intersection of character traits (autism), Misha is entirely submissive to people he considers to be in positions of authority. He will follow orders from these people without question. While these include Alphinaud and the Grand Company leaders, the highest authority in his life is Minfilia (of the Source).He's also trans but that's not really a big deal

> Before the CalamityMisha grows up in the Shroud to a lone adventurer mother, his father having left them years prior. He looks up to his mother and hopes to one day become an adventurer of some renown, gaining fame as he helps people across Eorzea. She takes him under her wing as an apprentice of archery to appease his fantasies.

As a teenager, Misha branches off from his mother and joins the lancer’s guild. Having found his true calling, he quickly becomes one of their star pupils.His mother insists that he continues practicing archery with her, but as he becomes more celebrated as a lancer he starts to view these meetings with some disdain.With growing tensions in Eorzea that he is yet oblivious to, his mother keeps finding excuses to keep him in Gridania, in spite of his many attempts to leave.

> A Realm RebornNow that things from the Calamity have started to settle, his mother has finally given him her blessing to journey on his own. With lance in hand, he travels to Ul’dah and is eventually recruited into the Scions.His unprecedented success in defeating Ifrit elevates his ego to unbelievable proportions. Finally, he is going to achieve what he has aspired to. He will be a real adventurer. He will be a hero.

Misha spends a lot of time back and forth between Thanalan and Coerthas at the behest of his guildmaster, eventually training as a dragoon under Ser Alberic. The discovery that he has been chosen as the second Azure Dragoon feels only natural—of course he should be, as both an Echo-bearer and the man whose lance felled Ifrit.Mentioning this to any of the Scions conveniently slips his mind, and this era in his life is short-lived. He underestimates the power of the Eye, believing that the Echo will protect him from its influence as it does primal tempering. He is adamantly not thinking about watching Estinien call down its power. He is not allowing himself to remember that he heard the whispers as well.

After the raid on the Waking Sands, Misha can no longer set aside his feelings about the Eye. He is a liability. Without a word to his remaining allies, he returns to Gridania to train in archery under his mother, then studies song under Jehantel in hopes of getting stronger.He returns to his allies as a fully realized bard, and does not speak of what happened in Coerthas. It no longer matters. He is strong enough now to defeat Gaius, and no one will ever know. His arrow is the one that ends this.

> HeavenswardAfter his success at the Praetorium, stories of the Warrior of Light begin to spread. An archer, they say. A bard. Though some still remember the tales of the lancer who slayed Ifrit, their voices are drowned out by his more recent endeavours.This works to his benefit in Ishgard, where he wants to avoid being recognized as the foreign dragoon. His hopes are cut short when he is put in direct contact with Estinien, who remembers Misha's strength well. Throughout their travels, Estinien continues to goad Misha about his job change and insist that he take the hunt seriously by picking up the lance. He does not relent until after Nidhogg is slain, but their relationship has already been damaged beyond repair.When Estinien loses himself to Nidhogg, Misha considers it proof that his worst fears were correct. Even so, he cannot bring himself to answer the Scions when they ask why he changed vocations so suddenly.

> StormbloodFollowing the bloody banquet, his unwilling stint in Ishgard, and losing Minfilia to the First, The Warrior of Light is disillusioned with being a hero. Time and time again he has had to consider whether putting down the lance was worth it, and whether he still finds joy in his role.He resigns himself to only doing what is necessary in Ala Mhigo. He is there to accompany his friend, not to be a hero. His hopes are cut short when he is defeated utterly by Zenos, and the only thought in his mind is "this wouldn't have happened if I'd stayed with the lance".Although he stays steadfast as a bard, he falters over and over. But he cannot pick up a lance. As much as he wants to. As much as he hates the thought of it.And then Zenos is dead, and he is a hero. And then there is Omega.

> ShadowbringersShortly after coming to the First, Misha finds himself inundated with thoughts of lancing. They are different, now. He has not had nightmares in a long time, finding his terrors in the night replaced by the Father of Dragons.During Minfilia's rescue, Misha takes a chance on himself and takes up the lance once more. Though there are few left to remember his bygone days, his own body has not forgotten, and his memories of the Great Wyrm guide him in lieu of his discarded soul crystal.In reclaiming the lost part of his heart and being faced with Minfilia, Misha finds himself not only a reborn lancer, but a new hero as well. Though his arrow was known to pierce the heavens, his spear will be the one to cleave the Light.