Earley Hallowfield

About
Backstory
Relations
References
etc.

Home
Backstory
Relations
References
ETC.

About

The Basics

Earley Hallowfield - Warrior of LightRace - Hyur/HighlanderNameday - UnknownAge - 21 (A Realm Reborn) - 27 (Endwalker)
-23 -24 Heavensward + HW Post-Game
-24-25 Stormblood + Post Game
-25-27 Shadowbringers + Post Game (less than a year on the Source)
-27 EndwalkerGender - She/Her (but honestly kind of gender ambivalent)Sexuality - BisexualMain Jobs/Specialties - Dark Knight, Conjurer, Reaper
Secondary - Archer, Gunbreaker
Crafting/Gathering - Weaver, Carpenter, Blacksmith, Botanist, Fisher

Appearance

Height: 5’5’’Hair: Brown, short and messyEye: Reddish Brown (more red post-ShB)

Personality

Calling Earley laconic would be an understatement. Prone to neither grandiose speeches or even mild chit-chat, it is not uncommon for whole days to pass where she doesn’t utter a word. She much prefers to let her companions take the vocal reins in most situations and is content to quietly observe. And despite embodying the heroic role for several years, Earley can never quite shake her discomfort with the spotlight often put upon her.
Beneath Earley’s somber exterior, however, lies a turbulent nature. Only in recent years has she begun to confront and recover from a lifetime of pent up anguish and a deep-seated anger that would find relief thorough the occasional explosion of violent, self-destructive, behavior. But beside this also exists a surprising gentleness. A stubborn kindness born from confronting the cold world she was born into and wanting to make it even a little better.While Earley still prefers to keep any emotional displays private, the years have softened her and steadily she is finding it easier to express herself and a smile finds its home on her face much more often.

Additional Traits

- Illiterate: Due to refusing to engage with the Garlean mandated education available at several institutions, Earley has only the most basic know-how when it comes to reading and writing.- Aether Impediment: Most likely due to an industrial accident, excessive amounts of aether "fog" Earley's vision and/or can cause intense headaches. Covering her scarred eye can help lessen the discomfort but she eventually has special glasses made that help negate the issue. These glasses are most commonly worn when Earley is focused on casting or in locations incredibly rich with aether (i.e. Mor Dhona). After the events of ShB Earley no longer gets headaches

Notes
- A worn expression with a seemingly distant look most commonly adorns her face but there is an unmistakable alertness to her gaze.- Low empathy but high compassion-Constantly torn between a strong survival instinct and utter indifference-Has several tics such as nail-biting, nervously rubbing or scratching at her hands + forearms (especially in fancy/wealthy locations), tapping her fingers, etc.-Subtle and deadpan sense of humor. Also a fondness for puns that has become more apparent in recent years

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Bonus Info

Backstory

Content Warning: This page and other story related pages include mentions of Infanticide, Child Neglect, Child Abuse and Suicide

In one of the Empire’s many annexed territories, the child who will be named Earley is born. The cord is cut and the small wriggling infant is placed in an old military issued bag and left to her fate in a dark alley. Silently the child lays in the dark, gaze fixed on the sliver of cold light that creeps through the unclasped opening of her leather casket. It will never be known how many hours had passed, the snow gently accumulating, before the boisterous sound of children breaks the stillness. Laughing, they take bets on whether the bag is empty or filled with someone’s lost fortune. Only for the alley to become silent once again when instead a shivering newborn meets their gaze…One less infant becomes a statistic that day

In a small orphanage somewhere in northern Ilsabard, Earley aan Tenebrariae is named and given a home alongside other foundlings and orphaned children. The caretakers would describe her as an unnervingly quiet child who never cried. Her first words are not spoken until well into her third year, by which time she spoke clearly in full sentences. And it was not long after this that Earley’s first orphanage caught fire in the dead of night. Over the course of a few hours the toddler, along with her caretakers and fellow children, watched the building burn to the ground. The second time Earley watched an orphanage burn was as the sole survivor and the first seed of survivor’s guilt nestled in her gut.

Rotating through a series of children’s homes would quickly become the norm for Earley. Some establishments simply could not survive under Garlean occupation and shut down, leaving the inhabitants to scrounge for themselves or be relocated. Many times Earley ran away and fended for herself until inevitably she was caught and dragged to a new institution. More commonly she was kicked out, often due to a refusal to engage in the Garlean mandated education. For months at a time Earley would find herself living on the streets, getting by via thievery and odd jobs which paid in food or a small amount of gil. At age 6 she began taking up jobs at local magitek factories, working long hours for meager pay, food, clothes and/or shelter when she did not have her own elsewhere. At age 8 she would get into the industrial accident that scarred her right eye and possibly acted as the catalyst for her aether impediment. It was one of the many times she would be told to appreciate her luck. After all, most children came out of the factories maimed or worse and yet, despite the accident, her eye remained fully functional.

After attacking an Imperial officer, Earley was relocated for the last time to the capital of Garlemald, with the belief that she would be more well-behaved in the stricter environment, eventually age out of the system, and be sent off to join the other aan in the ceruleum mines. Instead at age 11, Earley was adopted by Albanis and Jolania Sanctia, a married Garlean couple and members of the Populares. And for a time she lived as Earley cen Sanctia, a proper citizen. The Sanctia proved to be kind, loving, and patient with a genuine desire to give Earley a better life. Despite this, 11 years of institutionalization, neglect, and survival left Earley unable to cope with or adjust to her new situation and sometime into her second month with the Sanctia, she fled in the night.

After fleeing from the Sanctia household and stowing away on one of trains out of Garlemald, Earley found herself wandering aimlessly through the territories once again. In order to avoid being forced back into another Youth Home, she took up regular work in ceruleum textile factories, where she and other workers would be provided living quarters on site.

At age 14, she had made her way to a port town where she was hired onto the merchant ship the Shilly Shally Forth as a cabin boy. Being out to sea kept Earley confined and, for the first time, unable to run from her discomfort. Now spending several months at a time with the same group of individuals, she began to steadily become more social. Headed by Captain Grymfaeld “Cruel Field” Awyrherlsyn, the crew of the Shilly Shally Forth was diverse, crude, and dedicated. Life aboard the vessel wasn’t wholly unlike the long factory hours Earley was familiar with and she adjusted to the routine and lifestyle quickly (though not before experiencing an initial violent bought of sea sickness). The harsh but not unwelcoming environment, where everyone was expected to pull their weight and pull it well, proved to be much more agreeable to Earley than the cushy life offered by the Sanctia. And while the crew initially found the unusually quiet teenager off-putting, her quick adjustment to ship life, calm disposition and willingness to perform dangerous tasks with little to no hesitation, cemented her as a valuable asset. Towards the end of her second voyage, Earley joining in on the sea shanties for the first time was met with the exuberant cheers of her shipmates and she was officially declared a member of the crew.

Actually learning to live and work with others was not the only benefit of Earley’s years aboard the merchant vessel but it also gave her a taste of life from out under the Imperial boot of Garlemald. Traveling from port to port exposed her to an even wider variety of people and places than she thought possible and a steadily growing curiosity began to build. On several occasions she had to interact with adventures and a handful of times a mercenary was hired as temporary help on the ship. A bored Conjurer who stayed on for several voyages taught her the basics of the art and subsequently Earley became aware of her aether impediment.

After Gaius van Baeslar moved to conquer Eorzea, the Shilly Shally Forth began to engage in illegal trade with the city-state of Limsa Lominsa. And at age 17, Earley was aboard the ship as it attempted to set out from international waters when the lesser moon burst and unleashed Bahamut. Only 4 members of the crew, Earley included, managed to survive the wreck aboard a jolly boat. Another lump of survivor’s guilt lodged into Earley as she watched the smoldering ruin sink into the roiling ocean waters.For the next 2 years, Earley again noncommittally wandered the territories. At 19 she attempted and failed to dodge conscription and was registered into the Imperial army. Due to her understanding of conjury she mainly served as a medic but still received weapons training, namely with swords and the most basic gunblades. Shortly after being stationed at Baelsar’s Wall, she saw a chance to make her escape and fled into the Black Shroud.

Due to the calamity there was no shortage of temp work and, after casting off any physical indications of her background, she had no trouble keeping herself occupied with odd-jobs. Earley was 21 years old when she officially registered herself in the Gridanian Adventurer’s Guild under the surname “Hallowfield”.