"For the Fury, for Fate, for the god named Dream."Raphael Delarue | Balmung | PST/PDT | 21+

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OOC INFORMATION.

  • Call me Raph. He/they transmasc, born in 88', too old for bullshit.

  • Lightless code available upon request.

  • M-F availability: ~7pm PST onward. Weekends are variable.

  • This is a drama-free zone. OOC communication and respect is a given. Conflicts, concerns, and potential triggers will be discussed amicably.

  • Lore-bending is fine. However, I prefer to write with characters who are meaningfully engaged with canon lore in order to avoid isolation.

  • 21+ plus only, please. No child characters.

  • I prefer not to interact with canon characters since their stories are attached to the MSQ, which is unaffected by RP.

  • Raphael is an antagonist. I am not interested in "fixing" him; I want to enjoy the logical consequences of his fuckery.

  • Open to possible AU plotlines that may not be suited mainline RP, but offer cool narrative potential.

  • I am LGBTQ+ friendly and consider myself a queer individual.

  • Walk-ups preferred. Tells okay, but RP will be public unless moved to a private location or we determine party chat is the best place for it.

  • Long-term & slow-burn, baby. Even better if we have contrasting or complementary aesthetics to fuel the feedback loop. I am a sucker for foils.

  • Low-moderate power levels, please. No godlike characters, no canonical WoLs. This just means I don't want to engage that aspect of your OC; it doesn't mean you can't play with me. Unsure? Just ask!

  • Discord is reserved for friends and potential friends; we should RP for a little while before exchanging ours.

  • Discord RP is enjoyable but not my main focus; happy to finish a scene there if need be.

  • I keep IC and OOC strictly separate and expect the same respect.

  • Plot-relevant ERP is welcome. Plot-free ERP is not.

  • If you are interested in a romantic or sexual plotline, please consider this list for compatibility.

BIOGRAPHY.

"A shred of things in themselves, the world as it is apart from me, apart from everyone. A force of nature. A matter of fact. Perhaps the truth is there are no gods after all.Only men like you."

NAME. Raphael Delarue
ALIASES / NICKNAMES. Raph; "Brat Prince"
DOB | AGE. 10/12 | 24 summers
GUARDIAN DEITY. Halone, The Fury
RACE. Hyurezen (Midlander/Ishgardian elezen)
HEIGHT | WEIGHT. 6'1" | 160 ponze
GENDER | SEXUALITY. Male | Homosexual
JOB | OCCUPATION. Spellblade (PLD/RDM) | Mercenary Leader; Dancer
PLACE OF ORIGIN | HOME | AFFILIATION. The Brume, Ishgard | Empyreum, W3 P37, The Hawks | Empyreum, W15 P60, The Lavendals
FAMILY. Ser Julius de Dzemael, Father; Ser Lirael Gauvin, Sister
EYE COLOR | HAIR COLOR | SKIN TONE. Blue | Silver | Alabaster
AETHERIC SIGNATURE. Prone to imbalance. Astral ice.
ALIGNMENT | ROLE. Chaotic Neutral | AntagonistNOTABLE FEATURES. Slitted pupils; tends to stare a little too long. Pointed canines and strong, tapering nails. A vertical scar to the left of his midline stretches from sternum to belly, thick as a dark knight's blade. Printed on his right side is a series of scarred punctures in the shape of a dragon's mouth. Always wears a small vial of dark glass strung on a leather cord around his neck.PERSONALITY. Ambitious. Charming. Ruthless. As far as Raphael is concerned, the Dragonsong War ended too soon and now all that unfinished business with Halone is everyone's problem. The ex-military Brume-rat has the charisma required of a mercenary leader-- or a cultist, hard to say which. He will say only as much about himself as may charm his company, preferring to subject his favorites to the kind of zealous devotion only the Fury's faithful can convey. Raphael will be whatever it takes to get his own way, as eager to please as he is to provoke.LIKES. Control. Sweet wine. Spicy food. Xaela. Duskwight. Poor, downtrodden folks. Restless soldiers and ex-military. Dueling. Chocobo racing. Gambling. Song, especially hymns. Strong, silent types. Loyalty. Straightforwardness. Honor. Sincerity. Snowball fights. Being challenged.DISLIKES. Distractions. Clergy, particularly Halonic Orthodox. Summertime. Nobility. The rich. Sycophants. Unsalted food. Clownery. Wasted potential. Compromise. Being on a boat. Being misunderstood. Duty. Water. The dark.

BACKGROUND. When Julius de Dzemael sired a child with his hyuran maid, there was little question what would happen next. Raphael was born in the Brume and raised by a gang of war orphans after his young mother's passing, and it was from this vantage-- ever looking up-- that he witnessed the final years of the Dragonsong War.Naturally, he enlisted, and was squired to a knight who begrudgingly received the full brunt of Raphael's worship. Though the training was hard, Raphael considers these the best years of his life. They were cut short, however, during a routine patrol near Whitebrim, where Raphael sighted a white hawk racing away from the dawn. He followed it to a cavern, where a grim encounter drove the teenage soldier to desert his unit and flee as far south as he could go. Ever faithful, Raphael had hoped to muster an army unburdened by Halonic Orthodoxy in order to redeem himself and achieve knighthood, but the war ended before he could accomplish this goal.Disillusioned, Raphael remained in Thanalan. He worked as a sellsword and joined an Ul'dahn gang called Diabolos' Due, protecting its leader until it eventually dissolved. A priest of the Order of Nald'thal became, after a rocky friendship, the closest thing that Raphael had to a father, and remained Raphael's strongest connection to the Arrzaneth Ossuary. It was via Father Salem's teachings that Raphael's understanding of Halonic Orthodoxy was shaped according to notions of balance and desert.As a mercenary, Raphael primarily offered protection services to Ul'dahn merchants and Monetarists, though clandestine work for the Ossuary continued off the books. The liberation of Ala Mhigo and Doma from Garlean control shifted Raphael's focus from local concerns to matters that affected all of Eorzea, and he expanded his allies accordingly. Clients became friends; friends became comrades. A dream was forming in his mind, a place brighter even than Halone's hallowed halls.Inevitably, Raphael gathered a small band of individuals-- some sworn, others paid-- to assist in the completion of private contracts and other, more mysterious work. Based in Ul'dah with strong connections to its underground, they called themselves the Silverbrands. No voidsent were left unslain under their gaze, no slaver left with their bowels intact. For years their record continued to be, by Ul'dahn standards, curiously spotless.But when it became clear that leading the Silverbrands ran contrary to the very dream it had been founded for, Raphael stepped down. The safety of his friends and the home they had built was not something Raphael was willing to sacrifice. With the company left in capable hands, he returned to Ishgard, where he has begun something at once new and old. A small knot of soldiers held like a fist and named for the very hawk that had led Raphael astray so long ago, this new company is the promised brand of silver.Now, it is from within the belly of the past that Raphael assesses the vulnerabilities of Ishgard's new orthodoxy, biding his time while he builds force worthy of bloodying the Fury's spear anew.

PLOT HOOKS.

  • Resident of the fringes, be they Ul'dahn underground, Brume catacombs or Gelmorran underdark, Raphael remains a steadfast phantom.

  • Regular patron of local fight clubs and speakeasies, the grittier the better. Raphael was as often in the ring as he was at the bar; perhaps you were an opponent.

  • Raphael is a friend of the Lavendals, a Gelmorran troupe known for its dealings with surface folk.

  • Gelmorran? Are you looking for connections to fellow Duskwight and traditional ways? Raphael may be willing to help you.

  • Garleans-- be they refugees, staunch nationalists, or conscripts-- will find a friend in Raphael.

  • Tribal Xaela, especially Buduga, Uyagir and Qerel, will find Raphael an inquisitive companion.

  • Patrons of certain nightclubs and brothels may remember someone bearing a strong resemblance to Raphael working the crowd and the pole.

  • If you're itching for a friendly (?) duel then Raphael is your man. Especially if you put a wager on it.

  • Fellow Brumeborn? Open to old Brume gang friends, soldier buddies, maybe you saw him at the cathedral too often.

  • Halonic priests may be subject to interrogation and potentially worse. If you want to be the victim of anti-Halonic violence we can discuss it.

  • Priests of the Church of Saint Adama Landama may know him as "that gravedigger kid" who helped bury locals several summers past.

  • Wax poetic about aetheric metaphysics and Raphael will cheerfully indulge you.

  • Those sensitive to aether may notice something strange about Raphael's, like a hole where something ought to be. A skilled mage will notice a great deal more.

  • Characters with large aetherpools or noteworthy vitality may be oddly distracting to Raphael.

  • A fading rumor holds that Raphael used to be a voidhunter, preying upon the beasts in a manner much like their own.

  • When in doubt, feel free to walk-up IC and strike up a scene, I love organic roleplay.

Please note that I have taken liberties with interpretation of lore involving voidsent and the effects of awakened Dravanian blood in Ishgardians. This description is not intended to be taken literally, only to give an impression to aether sensitive characters.

AETHERIC SIGNATURE. Vast emptiness, the dark matter of a marred soul where more should be but isn’t. Embers flicker throughout the fabric of it, celestial clumps coalescing in scattered clusters. Yet their radiation is dense enough to blind should one look too long.White fire, cold fire. Blue-tasting astral ice, the steadiness of frigidity indistinguishable from inferno. Biting, burning, endless cold.Darkness as memory. Lightless ink an outline of what used to live there. Voidstained scars still seep their energies into the aetherwell, umbral spikes catapulting otherwise stagnant aether to quicken, to seethe its own irregular tides. Voidstain as first cause, voidstain as interloper, voidstain as the reason why the astrally imbalanced soul does not simply stop and die.There is no voidsent here. But perhaps once, there had been. And in its wake a precarious balance has been struck.Hunger throbs. It twists the fabric of the aether, tangling mind, body and soul into knots. The gravity of it draws aetheric webs into one mass, something that Raphael can direct. It is dense. Volatile. Precious. Easily spent because it wants to be spent; it cannot be held for long in this state. Compressed ice forced to bursts of blue flame, like being cut by star’s breath.Penumbra pressurized, crushing itself to sparks. The body wearing the husk of itself like a post-nova halo.And beneath it all an ancient, rattling undertow, alien and essential. A Dravanian scream echoing through tissue twisted by repeated awakenings to it, bloodborne rage and despair foaming at the shores of the mind.A vessel empty and not empty, broken and repaired but missing a few shards, still prone to steady leakage through cracks. Never filled, never satisfied, ever craving the missing piece.