Mini-Disclaimer: I use some pics for this part from areas that were not included in the final game. I do it partly because I like these unique looking places and wanted to share some of the stuff with the forumers, and it kinda works to show these images since Avina comes from an area not reachable in the present game. I imagine that these would be the kinds of things Avina would see and the place that Avina lived in, but I don't claim this to be canon material by any means.
Pre-RP: To start, a little bit on Avina's life prior to the beginning of the RP. As a young girl Avina spent most of her life in Grauberg, living with her family on a farm. As the region became difficult to reach after the Crystal War, Avina wasn't able to be exposed to much of the world outside of Grauberg. Many tales, including some of the big holiday festivals were unknown to her (a couple she had heard about such as Starlight Festival but the details were vague).
Avina's life was altered a lot when her mother passed away when she was only six years old. It wasn't her mother's time, she was still a young woman but suffered from some sort undiagnosable disease that the few (and most likely, unpracticed) remaining White Mages in the area could treat. Avina doesn't talk much about this not because its a topic she purposely dodges but because she isn't really aware of how much it affected her. First, it drastically altered her perception of how useful mages were, and in fact made her lose a lot of faith in magic altogether (hence why she more or less stays away from magic until much later). She was particularly skeptical of the abilities of healing magic, believing them to be focused more on curing simple wounds instead of the lifesavers they really are (hence her skepticism of Cire's ability to heal her father's condition which comes much later). Secondly, her mother's death places a much more important role for her on the farm, especially during a few years between the ages of 13-15 where the farm struggles. Avina did this on her own, without the urging of her father, who always asked very little of her, guilted by the fact that Avina would grow up without a mother figure. Taking on a larger role on the farm made Avina physically stronger than most girls her age, but it also imbued her with a strong natural drive. She was a "can do" person.
The physical labor part of her upbringing largely is what influences her to be a craftswoman. Avina likes being self-efficient, hence why she is not against dropping her armor and taking a pickaxe to the mines, or a sickle for harvesting. In fact, she likely has a lot more native crafting talent than she is able to express, due to the fact that the Guilds are currently encouraging Crystal Synthesis which is something she had never had any practice with before.
Around the age of 14-15 Avina naturally became attractive to members of the opposite sex and many boys persued her, some of which she dated. The initiation of these relationships were all carried out by the boys but this is not to say that Avina was not interested. She cared for them quite a lot, but the hardships she had to deal with her life on the farm often kept her distracted. For those who care about the detail, she's still a virgin and all.
As she grew older Avina was faced with some challenges. Around the age of 16, what few friends she had in Grauberg began to dwindle. Particularly many of the men were setting off to become adventurers. This began to fill her head with the wild thoughts and dreams of becoming an adventurer herself, although she was often teased by many of her male counterparts, the more negative of which included comments arguing what could Avina, a woman who refuses to work as a back line job, offer to anyone. This is part of why Avina to this day remains so offensive of anyone who is critical of her, as before she even began her career as an adventurer, she had many already telling her that she wasn't good enough.
Sometime around the age of 17-18 these passing daydreams of becoming an adventurer became something more, and Avina's father Ederick had known for a long time that Avina had too much of her mother in her to stay on the farm her whole life. This simply wasn't going to be a good place for Avina to stay for the rest of her life. And so it was with her father's blessings that she began to prepare to travel and become and adventurer. She spent a year or so being educated by her father on how to conduct herself in Bastok, as well as teaching her the basics of swordfighting. Shortly after Avina's 19th birthday, she set off alone for Bastok, the farm stabilized and in good hands.
Tales of Vana'diel RP: The 'start' of Avina's career of an adventurer, as well as the start of The Returners RP with its original cast of Avina, Daltan, and Zetireti (although Returners RP eventually became ToV). Avina arrives in Bastok after traveling for a few days. She has never been to Bastok before, and given the story I outlined above, she is confident, and yet, also scared. She is the newbie on the street. She is able to get oriented well enough and decides to make some money doing simple tasks around the town in order to start. Everyone has to start from somewhere after all.
Shortly after arriving there she meets two companions, Daltan and Zetireti. Her relationship with these two characters ultimately will profoundly change her over the course of the story. Daltan, who was at the time, arrogant and judgemental, rescues Avina one day in Dangruf Wadi while she was on a mission for Bastok. While he is generally kind in this first encounter he does offend her a little by appearing shocked that she had wandered in here alone, and without a map. However he does something more than just that, he impresses her, and Avina begins to look up to him. In fact, for a brief time she even trains in his Hand-to-Hand Monk fighting style in order to be more like him (and also, to "not let him get too far ahead" of her in skill). This all has to do with Avina's desire for acceptance as an adventurer (or rather, her fear that she 'doesn't have what it takes'). The three of them join up and complete missions together, but over time tensions develop between Avina and Daltan, Avina being too feisty and defensive and Daltan acting extremely arrogant and belittling of her. It comes to a boiling point during one mission where they must travel to the three nations carrying out tasks, where Avina gets offended by the San d'Orian Monarlais Halver, and shows complete disrespect towards him causing Daltan to tell her "Know your place, Hume." This would be a line that would haunt Daltan for how much it hurt Avina, and what it would ultimately cause her to do.
Entering into the 2-3 BCNM fight, Avina rushed ahead to take on the dragon in an attempt to show how strong she really was (ignoring Daltan and Zetireti calling her back), but she was quickly overwhelmed. Daltan came in and got the dragon's attention, and directed Avina and Zetireti attack the eye. They defeated the eye but the dragon had defeated Daltan in battle, but the two remaining friends were able to take the beast down. The after discussion involved Daltan leaving the group enraged by Avina's reckless behavior, leaving Avina in tears due to the stupid and foolish choices she had made. She vowed that she would become stronger and find a way to fix things.
The group separated and each began to pursue their own path, Avina seeking to become more powerful and thus more capable. She learned that the Dark Knight Zeid had returned and ventured to the Palborough Mines where she found him there. He agreed to train her in the ways of the Dark Knight, while relaying to her the grim consequences that such a path holds. Apparently Avina was able to bluff her confidence well enough that he trained her, Avina all the while naively believing that she was entirely in control of herself. If she got stronger, she could get her friends back, because then it wouldn't matter if she was reckless. That's what her thinking was anyway.
It's at this point that Avina begins to approach magic differently, as she begins to teach herself Black Magic in order to enhance her powers as a Dark Knight. Once the story moved to Windurst, Avina also began to study the arts of the Black Mage and Red Mage. She studied the arts of the Black Mage in order to enhance her already growing repetoire of spells, and while she learned some minor cure spells as part of her Red Mage studies, she primarily was interested in the jobs potential for enhancing herself and enfeebling her enemies.
Over time Avina as a Dark Knight became more and more corrupted and focused on bloodlust. With every advance she made she only sought more power, as due to her reckless behavior she was always treated with caution by her other companions. This fueled a vicious cycle of her only seeking more power and conducting more reckless acts which only separated her from her comrades even more. It all comes to a head eventually over an argument once again between herself, Daltan, and Zetireti. Zetireti, perhaps believed to be one of her most true friends in the RP, steps in her way preventing her from attacking Daltan in their argument, and causes Avina to see the monster that she has become. Avina believes herself to be far too dangerous, a shell of what she once was, and leaves the group. She returns to Bastok and you can read what happens there in one of my little side stories in "The Story So Far" section of the forums. In summary though Avina decides, although weakily, to give herself another chance. She decides to continue adventuring, starting with an appointment to Jeuno. But on the way there she chances an encounter with Zeid (DRK AF 3), and after completing it, she is fully a Dark Knight. However, Zeid tells her (this happens in dialogue too) that she must carve her own path as he had. And Avina acknowledges to herself for the first time that she is not the one woman army she hoped to be, that she can't bear all these burdens solo. Unlike Zeid, her path as a Dark Knight would require companions, in order to help alleviate the weight.
This leads up to where Avina is now in the story. She still feels extreme guilt for her foolish actions conducted in the past, her seeking of bloodlust, and it is trying to move away from that dynamic. This is not to say though that those negative traits of her personality are gone forever, or ever will be. I expect that while she will gain more confidence over time she will still maintain a degree of feistiness and feel defensive if someone talks down to her. The same things will still bother her, of course, but she may eventually learn to keep her mouth shut and not throw a fit, with some struggle. Time will tell.
*Unrelated Stuff: This stuff is just parts of her character that don't really fall into the timeline. The first is the level of care, or perhaps better worded, interest with other people. Avina is very perceptive and sees everything that happens in the interactions of others. Even for characters she doesn't particularly like, she will listen to what they have to say even if what they are saying enrages her. In another life, she would have been an amazing gossiper. She has an extreme difficulty of walking away from someone who is talking to her. But not only will she listen to others who she doesn't like, she will help others she doesn't like. She is very whimsical, sometimes being friendly with her 'enemies' and other times being outright hostile. She tends to act on whims due to two clashing emotions, the fact that she is generally a good person and her very prominent defensive nature (you normally only get on her bad side if you criticize her). Thus, it can seem somewhat random whether she decides to be more or less civil towards any given character that bothers her. Usually, if things have been going well for her, and has a decent amount of self-esteem, she can stand to be nice with her 'enemies.' But if things have got her down she might get overly defensive and throw a fit just by the sight of people she doesn't like.
One final note, despite Avina being a Dark Knight, which perhaps is perceived as a job that only the truly battle-hardened would take, remember that Avina rushed into the job without much thought, and certainly not much experience. As a result, she often shows a lack of experience that one would consider a 'typical' Dark Knight would have.
Avina Admin replied
738 weeks ago