Teruko
Mogami
The Crimson Liberator
intro
NAME: Teruko Mogami
AGE: 21 (24 by ShB)
GENDER: Female
RACE: Far Eastern Hyur (Doman)
GUARDIAN: Azeyma, the Warden
NAMEDAY: 7th Sun of the 6th Umbral Moon (12/7), 1555
HOME CITY: Ala Mhigo
SEXUALITY: Bisexual
JOBS: BRD, NIN
Appearance
Naturally dark black and slightly wavy hair. She prefers it long! Brown eyes. Short by Eorzean standards, but slightly taller than average for a female Doman Hyur, at 5'3" (164 cm). Has a small mole under right eye.
Takes her appearance very seriously, keeping her skin and hair clean and healthy despite her adventurer lifestyle through a significant amount of time and effort. Goes the extra malm with makeup when appropriate.
Has prominent combat scars along her forearms and lower back.
Personality
Extremely extroverted, always happy to meet new people and can keep conversations easily. Deeply empathetic and quick to take action to help others. Has a strong sense of justice and outspoken enough to openly challenge any wrongs she sees. Relies on creativity and cleverness to overcome her problems, and has the determination to climb back up after failing. Hiding her true feelings when she deems necessary is second nature to her. Those who've angered her know she has quite the sharp tongue.
Strengths
Confident and persuasive with her words.
Excellent voice and skilled with the flute and Doman zither.
A skilled combatant, trained by her samurai father in archery and the Doman refugees in ninjutsu and dagger fighting.
Quickly takes responsibility, and will step forward when others will not.
Open minded and easily adjusts to unfamiliar settings.
Weaknesses
Once angered, difficult to talk down or bring to compromise. Has a long memory of those who hurt her or others.
Horrible with money - prone to impulsive spending.
Idealistic to the point of resisting pragmatic compromises.
Keeps emotional trauma and internal frustrations to herself... until she is unable.
A poor craftsperson - often needs to turn to others (or the market) to fix or replace things.
Attirbutes
| Strength ★★★☆☆ | Although her duties as a Warrior of Light often test and exercise her raw strength, Teruko isn't actually much stronger than the average adventurer - before Hydaelyn's blessing steps in, anyway. |
| Dexterity ★★★★★ | Having been trained since childhood as an archer and taught various movement and combat techniques by the Doman Ninja, Teruko's agility and accuracy with her bow truly set her apart among her peers. |
| Vitality ★★☆☆☆ | Teruko doesn't take to injury well, and tends to prefer lighter armor. If it weren't for Hydaelyn's blessing, she would have far more scars than she has. |
| Intelligence ★★★☆☆ | Enrolled in a high-quality formal education in occupied Ala Mhigo, and is quick to learn and adapt to new knowledge and experiences. |
| Mind ★★☆☆☆ | A mixed bag: Teruko has a high degree of willpower and is able to pick up on subtleties of her surroundings well. However, growing up the spoiled, sheltered daughter of a rich family, running away to Eorzea, then accidentally becoming a Warrior of Light is not the path of someone with well developed common sense. |
| Charisma ★★★★★ | Teruko's other standout strength - her ability to speak to and inspire others. She is persuasive, confident, and thoughtful with her words. Both as a musical performer and a speaker, she can read an audience easily and say what they want. |
traits and trivia
Learned several languages before being blessed with the Echo, including Garlean, Ala Mhigan Eorzean, and Doman. She could read and write the former two, but only learned to read and write in Doman after the arrival of the Doman refugees in Eorzea.
Speaks Eorzean with a strong accent due to the influences of her parents. (If everyone speaks "English," Teruko speaks singlish!)
Fond of hearing folk tales and legends - the more heroism and romance, the better. She's quite the storyteller herself, as well.
Prefers red outfits, to the point that it's become something she's well known for: her main titles on both the Source ("Crimson Liberator") and Norvandt ("Lady in Red") both allude to her trademark attire.
Extremely uneasy around dogs, particularly the Garlean Pugnaxes as a result of her first Echo vision.
Although she is a skilled archer and songstress even during ARR, Teruko doesn't actually become a capital B "BRD" until Stormblood, when she is invited to train with the Gridanian forces under Guydelot. Until then, she's best described as an exceptional archer that supplements her abilities with ninja techniques... and sometimes sings outside of combat.
Speaking of ninja techniques, she's taught NIN techniques by Yugiri and Tsubame, in addition to Oboro. By Stormblood, Teruko has mastered two-mudra ninjutsu and learned how to competently use short blades to defend herself.
Very lightweight when it comes to alcohol.
Is a cabaret club hostess in my extremely self-indulgent FFXIV Yakuza 0 AU
Backstory
I. From distant shores of othard, to lakes of aldenard (1555-1557)
Teruko Mogami was born to a pair of Doman samurai, in the year 1555. As a direct descendant of the clan head, her grandfather Kagetora, she would have been expected to one day take leadership of the Mogami Clan under Doman tradition.
By the time of Teruko's birth however, tradition meant little in the realm of Yanxia. The Kingdom of Doma had been conquered and subjugated by the Garlean Empire only three years before. The Imperial government allowed the Mogami clan to continue token rule over their existing domain along the One River, as the clan betrayed the ruling Rijin clan and surrendered to Garlemald without fighting.
As the Garleans consolidated their iron rule over Yanxia, they grew to identify the Mogami as competent loyalists to the Empire. As a reward for their dilligent service, the clan's highest members were invited for a chance to rise above their aan status and station in occupied Doma and become official government workers supporting the military government in the Empire's newest conquest: Gyr Abania.
The offer promised a status and standard of living that the clan head Kagetora, as well as Teruko's parents, Saburo and Yachiyo, could ever dream of maintaining their minor holdings in Yanxia. Faced with such a rare chance for real upward mobility as conquered subjects of Garlemald - and with the local populace holding a deep resentment against their clan for turning traitor against the Kingdom of Doma, the clan turned over their land to the Empire and renounced their titles.
Young Teruko had seen only two summers in Yanxia before her family were relocated to Ala Mhigo. The verdant farmland and glittering waterways of Doma would become only vague, hazy memories, pushed to the deepest corners of her mind.
Rather than her ancestral home, Teruko would grow up within the high walls of Ala Mhigo, in the Gyr Abanian highlands.
Backstory
II. Beneath the Ivory Standard, A Gilded Cage (1558-1572)
The Mogami family settled into an estate in Ala Mhigo's merchant quarter, populated mainly by Ala Mhigan collaborators. With their combined salaries, the elder Mogamis - Kagetora, Saburo, and Yachiyo, can afford a life of luxury. Every day, the family table is decked daily with the figurative and literal fruits of the Empire's reach: meat of animals raised in Gyr Abania, rice imported from Doma, and herbs and spices from Dalmasca. Teruko never goes to bed hungry or wanting for anything, while streets away, Ala Mhigan commoners must carefully manage each handful of grain, toil away for a pittance in magitek factories and fear conscription into slave labor.
As the only child of the Mogami house, Teruko finds herself constantly doted on and spoiled as she grows up. Her parents pick up on her growing fondness for song and music, hiring musical instructors and buying her instruments. To her parents' delight, Teruko develops an interest in Doman martial arts after hearing enough of her mother's folk legends - though in the end, Teruko favors learning archery from her father over her mother's expertise with the naginata. When she grows older, her musical talents become honed enough to make a meagre income on as an entertainer in the merchant district. Rarely, her gigs even take her to the city's Garlean quarter, to entertain those who hold true power over the city.
Looking to secure her future, the elder Mogamis hire private tutors and study materials for Teruko, with the hope that she will one day earn the privilege of attending an academy at the Imperial capital. At fourteen summers, she is enrolled in classes attended by the children of Ala Mhigan collaborators and even a few Garleans. Unfortunately, the otherwise outgoing Teruko finds herself ostracized by other students - she is still a "savage" in the eyes of the Garleans, and the Ala Mhigan students single her out for being unfamiliar with Ala Mhigan customs and mannerisms.
She is further isolated as her parents tightly restrict how much freedom she has to travel unsupervised. The image of a 1565 incident - where a wealthy Ala Mhigan with ties to the Garlean establishment was stoned to death before his terrified daughter - is permanently etched into Saburo and Yachiyo's mind. The Mogamis, much like the other collaborator families in the city, have a firm siege mentality against the oppressed masses.
In spite of this, Teruko finally is able to claim a few close, if unexpected friendships. By her sixteenth summer, she befriends two of the estate servants who are only a few years older than her: M'adebh Ohl, a Miqo'te botanist in charge of the rooftop garden, and Elysande Blackburn, a highlander culinarian. Although initially hesistant to get too close to Teruko, they bond over shared interests: M'adebh able to express her interest in art and painting, while Elysande takes delight exchanging local Ala Mhigan legends for the Doman tales Teruko picked up from her mother. She is able to go out into the city with them, as their status as family servants conveniently satisfy her parents' requirements for supervision. As she gets to know her friends more, she also slowly, but surely, becomes aware of the deep struggles and injustices inflicted upon them by Imperial rule.
Even more unexpected of a friendship is Teruko's familiarity with Pallas oen Helvia, a Garlean soldier and Elezen of twenty-one summers and frequently posted in the Merchant District. Originally from Although M'adebh and Elysande are extremely way of him, they come to tolerate his presence as he develops a reputation for being surprisingly friendly, helpful and lenient to passersby - no matter their origin or citizenship status.
In various ways, these three people are responsible for why Teruko would go on to become Eorzea's Warrior of Light.
Backstory
III. In Calamity's Wake (1572-1573)
In 1572, Dalamud shatters over Cartenau Flats, releasing the Elder Primal Bahamut and ravaging the lands of Eorzea. Gyr Abania emerges relatively unscathed by the Seventh Umbral Calamity, but fear and uncertainty - as well as rumors that the fall of Dalamud was the work of Garlean hands - lead to a resurgence of unrest and resistance activity across the territory. Shellshocked legionary units limping back from the disaster at Carteneau are quickly pressed into suppressive activities to bolster local garrisons, force the commonfolk to order, and enforce curfews. The reach of the crackdown spills into even the usually "empire-friendly" districts such as the Merchant Quarter.
Three days after the Calamity, Teruko has a strange dream in an unending heavenly expanse. A strange force compels her to float forward, closer and closer to an immense blue crystal, aglow with a warm, radiant light. When she wakes up, she realizes that she can suddenly understand her parents perfectly when they speak in their native Doman tongue together - something she only had the lightest grasp of before. Although she does not understand this at the time, she has received the blessing of the Echo,touched by Hydaelyn's light.
After the city quiets down after days of unrest, guard activity and lockdowns in the Merchant Quarter are relaxed. Joining Elysande and M'adebh to visit the reopening market stalls, Teruko greets Pallas as he stands guard at his usual post. Contrasting his normal affable demeanor, the Elezen soldier is nearly silent, with a solemn weakness in his voice and unable to look the girls in the eye. Before Teruko can ask him what is wrong, she finds her mind and consciousness pulled into the recent past, of a part of Ala Mhigo she has never seen.
She finds herself watching Pallas' squadron chasing down an unarmed Roegadyn man of the Ala Mhigan resistance through the streets during the lockdown of the last days, with Pallas being given the reins over one of Garlemalds' infamously ferocious Canis Pugnax dogs. The resistance member is cornered and attempts to surrender, but the commanding officer of the unit gives no quarter, and orders Pallas to release the gnashing canine on the man. Pallas protests repeatedly, but reluctantly gives in when he is told that he will follow orders or be arrested for insubordination himself. The Elezen, as well as Teruko, can only watch with horror as the Pugnax rushes the Roegadyn down, gnashing and tearing his flesh, snapping bone, and splattering blood against the ivory banner on the wall behind him. After beholding this, Teruko comes to, finding her friends shaking her with worried faces. Elysande and M'adebh try to tell her that she closed her eyes, clutched her head, and stopped responding to anything they said for a moment... but find themselves chasing their friend down as she runs back home with tears in her eyes. Though neither she nor her friends understand what it is, Teruko has experienced her first Echo Vision, unwillingly evoking the power to transcend time.
A month after Teruko's first Echo vision, M'adebh uncharacteristically stops reporting in for work at the Mogami estate. By the third day, Elysande goes to the Seeker's home to check on her - and appears at the Mogami estate with a burning fury in her eyes and the company of a heavily bruised Miqo'te man with a bandage across his eye. Teruko, the only member of the family at home, receives the Miqo'te man at the door - and is pulled to the past for the second time as he bluntly and quietly states his daughter can no longer serve the Mogami household.
Teruko is suddenly thrust from day to night, and finds herself in M'adebh's home, as the family's dinner is interrupted by violent knocking on the door. They answer, and several Imperial soldiers march themselves in. They proclaim that to replace loses among the civilian "volunteer" support staff attached to the legions at Carteneau, they are drafting laborers from the population of the Ala Mhigan Quarter - and M'adebh, as the youngest able member of the Olh household, will be following them along with scores of other drafted smallfolk to serve the Empire to labor for the military for an indefinite period. Outraged, M'adebh's father protests and tries to put himself between M'adebh and the soldiers, and is beaten down with steel boots and the blunt sides of the Garleans' polearms. M'adebh is dragged from the home in tears, leaving her weeping mother trying to help her father, and her younger sister wailing from under the table in fear to hide from the soldiers. Teruko tries to intervene, pleading with the soldiers to stop hurting M'adebh's father and attempts to reach for her friend's hand to pull her back - but her cries are ignored and her hands pass through her friend. Her Echo only shows her what has already transpired - and it is thanks to the Echo that she catches this last glimpse of her friend.
Devestated by her last vision, Teruko confides to her elders what she has experienced and seen - and asks if they, as government officials, could do something to get M'adebh and the other conscripted laborers returned home. Rather than offering support, however, her grandfather Kagetora and father Saburo suggest that she is simply being influenced by hearing "dangerous, misleading stories" spun by the uneducated and barely-controlled Ala Mhigan masses - and that if what she saw was true, she should be glad that she wasn't anywhere near it. After all, as model aan turned citizens, why would they dare to bite the hands that feeds the family? Teruko's sincere cries for guidance are, again and again, swept aside by her own family.
Backstory
IV. Wayward Daughter, step into the light (1574-1577)
In the years following M'adebh's kidnapping by the Imperials, Teruko begins to confine herself to her room, frustrating her concerned parents as she neglects her studies and spending less time partaking in her hobbies. Compounding her distress are the scenes of suffering and injustice routinely inflicted upon the Ala Mhigan people that her visions continue to show her when she does go out with Elysande. Feeling disgusted with the way the world works in Occupied Ala Mhigo, her place in it, and most of all, the sense that she is powerless to change any of it, she wastes hours away in her bed, staring at the ceiling or out the window blankly, humming ghostly, sorrow-filled songs to herself. Her parents are keenly aware that something is wrong, but their efforts to reach out to Teruko go nowhere as she maintains a facade of normalcy when they speak to her, remembering their reactions the first time she opened up to them. She speaks openly with only two people: Elysande, who keeps a close eye on her at the family estate and is often found by Teruko's side, and Pallas, who, following the incident with the dog, has quietly grown disillusioned with the "Imperial mission" in Ala Mhigo.
The relationship between Teruko and her elders deteriorates even more as, having ceased her studies, she fails every single qualifying exam for Imperial education。She also ceases accepting jobs to perform. Now hopeless for their daughter's prospects, Teruko's parents suggest she allow them to find a husband for her - only for her to firmly reject the possibility. Kagetora suggests that Teruko's defiance may be a result of Elysande's influence, and is about to fire and forbid her return, prevented only by the intervention of Teruko's mother, Yachiyo.
The false peace within the Mogami household finally collapses in 1577, when Elysande accidentally spills a drink on an important guest - Kagetora and Saburo's direct superior, a pure-blooded Garlean. Embarassed in front of his boss, and still internally blaming the Highlander for Teruko's demeanor, takes her aside and strikes at her repeatedly with a wooden sword - an old keepsake from Doma.
Teruko immediately stands up and pushes Kagetora away from Elysande, putting herself between them. Unfortunately, the damage is already done - and after the beating, Elysande's leg is seriously injured. After cursing out her parents for standing by silently while letting this happen - and cursing the Garlean for good measure, she takes Elysande and helps her home in the rain - all the way to the Ala Mhigan Quarter.
Teruko immediately stands up and pushes Kagetora away from Elysande, putting herself between them. Unfortunately, the damage is already done - and after the beating, Elysande's leg is seriously injured. After cursing out her parents for standing by silently while letting this happen - and cursing the Garlean for good measure, she takes Elysande and helps her home in the rain - all the way to the Ala Mhigan Quarter. There is a curfew for Ala Mhigans in place, and fear the worst when an Imperial guard approaches - only to be relieved when they find it is Pallas, who immediately goes to help Teruko bring Elysande home and shoo away any other guards that may give them trouble.
At Elysande's cramped home, her family look over their daughter's wounds. Kagetora's assault was furious enough to cause lasting damage, and would make it difficult for her to walk in the future. Though scarred, Elysande made it back home thanks to Teruko's intervention.
Worried about her friend's future with her family, Elysande speaks with her family and asks if she can divulge a secret. When they agree, she confides to Teruko that she and her family were planning to escape the Imperial boot in Gyr Abania with the help of a smuggler friend, who knew a route under Baelsar's Wall and into Gridanian territory. But with her leg injury, it would be impossible for her to make the journey - and her family would not leave Ala Mhigo without her.
Elysande suggests that Teruko takes this path out of Ala Mhigo instead - to find a better life in Eorzea. Although she initially refuses to leave Elysande behind, Teruko is persuaded eventually as she does not want to return home to her family and has nowhere else to go.
That night, Teruko concocts a plan with Pallas: being the guard usually posted near the Mogami household, he would distract her family and draw them away from the estate to accept their missing person report. Meanwhile, she would sneak back into her house to fetch any belongings - as well as steal away any money and valuable items to help cover the smuggler's fee and pay for Elysande's treatment.
The plan goes off perfectly, and Teruko comes to terms with the fact that she will be leaving her old life - and her friends, behind. She gives Elysande and Pallas a tearful goodbye - and promises one day, that she will return for them.
Under the cover of a Chocobo wagon, then through a dark tunnel under Baelsar's Wall, Teruko was smuggled out of Gyr Abania along with a small group of Ala Mhigan refugees. She was left to her own devices on the west side of the border, in the dense forest of the Black Shroud - carrying only a meagre amount of remaining money, a few necessities, and some important mementos from home: including her bow and flute.
Under the cover of a Chocobo wagon, then through a dark tunnel under Baelsar's Wall, Teruko was smuggled out of Gyr Abania along with a small group of Ala Mhigan refugees. She was left to her own devices on the west side of the border, in the dense forest of the Black Shroud - carrying only a meagre amount of remaining money, a few supplies, directions to Gridania, and some important mementos from home: including her bow and flute.
It is here that Teruko started her journey as an adventurer, in a land totally unfamiliar to her. As Eorzea itself was being reborn after its devestation in the Calamity, so too did Teruko begin her new life, dreaming that one day, she would reunite with those who she lost, and help those she left behind.
Relationships
Coming Soon!
Gallery
By @omegascape
By @kibashi8a
By @kokuuhakuu
