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[wellnamed]

Dawn is her city name! Her forest name is Sigríður. Pronunciation here. (Meaning is “the beauty of battle,” “powerful silence,” “peaceful victory.”) It actually took a while for Dawn to pick a city name even after she left the Golmore Jungle (she may have been in denial for a while that she’d never be able to return home), but she eventually got sick of no one being able to say her name and also went through character development, etc. etc. More on that later.

She spent most of her life, as expected of any Rava, within the Golmore Jungle. This was her home, and she was content and comfortable there. Thoughts of leaving never really entered her mind, with the law of the Word of the Wood seeming absolute.

Due to her inherent magical ability, she was often tasked with culling the wide variety of vermin and other creatures that also called Golmore Jungle home. Dawn feels very connected to nature, as most Viera tend to, and so this was always done out of necessity rather than anything else. She knows how to hunt, though relies on her magic rather than a lance or bow and arrow as so many of her compatriots did. She’s also quite skilled at tracking, knows how to prepare meals, along with any other skills that would come part and parcel with living in a jungle.

So, about that magic stuff. Dawn does use what is essentially black magic, though she didn’t really call it that when she lived in the jungle. She was born with the natural ability to control and twist her own aether to great effect, and it’s in fact her closeness to nature that allowed her to create great conflagrations, to turn the moisture in the air into ice, and to call down storms of lightning. Much of this ties to her own convictions and her strong will, rather than anything related to death. The theories about thaumaturgy and black magic that are common to Eorzea she only learned after traveling there, and she had to reconcile those concepts with her own understanding of how her magic worked.

She is, naturally, older than she looks, but she isn’t centuries old or anything. So on the younger side for a Viera, but she can still come across as having an “older soul” than what one might assume from first glance -- along with that just being a facet of her personality.

She has a younger sister, Tyr, who she’s attached to and responsible for, or at least that’s how Dawn sees it. They lost their parents during a Garlean invasion of the jungle when both of them were still kits, which means that Dawn has kinda-sorta raised Tyr in a half-parent, half-sibling situation. She had the rest of their tribe to help with this, so ultimately it’s still a sibling relationship, but Dawn very much views herself as responsible for Tyr. There is definitely some (over-)protectiveness going on.

Which is why her entire life got turned upside down when one day, the restless Tyr, searching out a life of adventure, just up and left and banished herself from the jungle forever in the process. This threw Dawn for a complete loop. Yes, her younger sister had always been a bit wild and headstrong, but she never could have guessed she would go this far. It struck Dawn as selfish, and while she wouldn’t admit it, she was also hurt by it. Did Tyr think so little of their home, that she’d leave just like that? Didn’t she realize that meant they would never see each other again?

And so, after some hand-wringing, Dawn ended up doing what had to be done, and she left the forest as well in hopes of finding her sister. Maybe a part of her hoped that she could bring Tyr back and somehow beg permission back into their home, but even at the time she realized how much that was a lie she told herself. There was no going back, but she couldn’t stand the thought of knowing her sister was out in the great big wide world, in over her head, possibly in danger. And also, Tyr’s her only blood relation. There was really no other option.

This meant that Dawn ended up thrust into a wide world full of customs, peoples, and cultures that she had never given much thought to before, as she’d already accepted she would never see any of it for herself. Her world had been the jungle, her life had been the tribe, and she had been fine with that. Or so she thought, anyway.

Maybe the Calamity happens sometime around here, delaying the reunion between sisters even further. Either way, Dawn does a whole lot of traveling in her long search for her sister, and there is some resentment that takes root and grows at this time. She had to exile herself because of Tyr’s rash decisions, after all, and Dawn has quite a while to stew in that as she travels all over Hydaelyn.

Speaking of those travels, here’s the thing. Despite the fact that Dawn is the quiet and stoic type who had a very set idea of what her life was going to be like, none of which involved leaving home ever, she is at her heart not the sort of person who can see someone suffering or in need and simply do nothing. So during these travels, she does end up learning more about the world through helping people she comes across, relying on her magical ability to get her through some binds and assist others as well. And she begins to realize that being contained to a single jungle when there was this expansive, diverse, rich world out there was… maybe not the best thing after all.

There is a lot of culture shock, though! A lot she has to adapt to, a lot she headtilts at because she has no idea what people are talking about, and her life was rather sheltered and narrow in many ways before now. She does learn to adapt slowly but surely, but even now there will be times where she’s like ??? because she’s never seen/heard of something before. And it just perplexes her.

Anyway, eventually she does track down her sister all the way in Ul’dah, which also leads into the start of ARR stuff, where she can go down the WoL track or not, depending on the situation. She can definitely work as a straight-up adventurer who’s just bumping up against the world and trying to help here and there, too.

She and Tyr have a Big Fight when they finally see each other again because Tyr is mad she came after her, Dawn is mad that this happened in the first place (kinda-sorta, it’s complicated), and you know how sibling fights can be. (Big Winchester vibes, SIGHSSS.) Despite that, they do eventually end up traveling together after that, bun sisters seeing the world together, etc. Plus they have some shit to work through after all this, lmao.

It’s around here that she picks the city name Dawn, inspired by a breathtaking sunset she sees while in Ul’dah/Thanalan. She is just always going to be blown away by nature, okay.

While she starts off as a black mage, I see her as eventually coming into red magic as a parallel to her finding balance within herself, going through Character Development and coming into her own, etc. Or really, just accepting what her life has become and being okay with that. Even happy with it. Anyway, she is all caster, all the time, baby. I’m trying to decide if that means she should shift all the way into the white mage realm or not, and if summoner should be a thing she does too. BLM and RDM for sure though!

She isn’t super feminine, and her clothes tend more toward practical adventuring gear, but she does like bits of pink (and gets pink highlights in her hair because she can, dammit! The outside world does have some perks like this) and often wears flowers in her hair as well, etc. Not so much into flowy dresses, but yes into pink and flowers and nature things.

SHE HATES THE COLD. All she ever knew for years was hot and muggy weather, she flourishes in that. Ishgard can go to hell.

Her chocobo is named Dusk because she’s a nerd. She loves Dusk to pieces, I assure you. Dusk gets ALL the greens.

She has an accent! I picture something similar to how Lyna speaks.

To reiterate: All she wants to do is cast (and maybe a little heal, as a treat), she’s allergic to physical DPS.

Personality tl;dr: comes off as stoic/severe/quiet and generally is, but she has a strong will and convictions and at the end of the day wants to help people. She is very protective of her younger sister and that’s where most of her nurturing tendencies come from. She’s in tune with nature and that connection is where a lot of her raw magical ability originates. Be at one with nature, make things explode. You know how it goes.