Service.
To the Fury and the Church.
It was all Genevieve Moireau knew as she served loyally as a Temple Knight.
Hunting the Church's heretical enemies and as a child of the Brume, working feverishly to prove herself as an example to the downtrodden. That even from poor beginnings, one could raise themselves in the eyes of their goddess (as well as society itself).
Shaken.
However, as time went on, the meatgrinder of the Dragonsong War and its endless suffering with no true results began to wear on her and cause her to question things. Particularly as none of her superiors could seem to answer the question as to why the seemingly eternal war went on or if there would ever be an end. Tired of the futile battles and worse, the zealotry and corruption of decisions that went against her moral and ethical code, she began to lose her faith in the cause and the Theocracy itself.
Sacrificed.
Things finally came to a head in the frozen wastes in Western Coerthas, it was not the dragons and their heretics that proved her greatest enemy. But her own superiors.
Her squad was sent out to ambush the enemy, only to find a village full of exiles with "possibly" heretics mixed amongst them. As she paused at the orders to purge innocents, fire rained down in the form of ballista fire and was accompanied by the arrival of a second squad of Temple Knights who considered all present to be their foe.
The decision had been made and she and her squad were to be included.
A Savior, A Hero, & An Exile.
As she lay dying from grievous wounds, a voice called to her. Offering her power to not only survive, but save her men and the innocent. Desperate and feeling forsaken. She gave in.
To this day, she doesn't recall what happened next. Only that, when she came back to her senses, she carried a more muscular frame and complementary curves. Further to her shock, her men and the innocents were safe and hale and calling her ‘hero’.
Returning to Camp Falcon, the tale of her heroism had already grown to such a pitch that leadership couldn't quell it. She was given high honors by the very ones who attempted to damn her.
Disgusted, she walked out of Camp Falcon. Never to return.
Establishing a new life in La Noscea, and even marrying a Midlander merchant and becoming a stepmother.
However, the fates would not let the story end so easily.
Fallen.
A choice to go to the market alone for a forgotten item would lead to the consequence of her returning home and finding her family murdered. In the middle of this sheer agonizing hell, the voice that had been silent for years whispered in her mind.
The Yellowjackets still speak in hushed whispers of the sheer carnage they found in the days after.
Of a bandit gang torn to shreds as if by wild beast.
After serving justice to her family's killers and conducting funerary rites, she returned Ishgard to pay the consequence of her choice of desertion years earlier. Expecting execution (whether swift or torturous), she was prepared to answer for her crime.
Believing the Fury had punished her treachery by taking her family's lives.
Yet a different choice was made.
A New Challenger Appears.
Literally branded on her right shoulder blade forever as a coward and stripped of all her possessions, Genevieve was cast out Ishgard. Never to be spoken of and never to return.
Taking her exile as actually a mercy, she allowed the voice to guide her away from the frozen climes of Ishgard to the searing heat of Ul'dah.
Catching the eye of an agent of a Lalafell Monetarist looking for new blood in his stable of fighters, she was convinced that, with her looks and battle ability, that she could become a great attraction for the Coliseum and make a comfortable living for herself.
Having no other options, and with the voice egging her on to sate its need for violence, she acquiesced.
Eventually rising in the ranks and becoming not only known, but a champion of various tournaments. Unfortunately, it was then that the other shoe dropped and the unpleasant truth was revealed when an agent of a "highly influential person" approached her.
That truth being that, while she always knew that the fights weren't always necessarily fair?
“Fair” completely went out the window when substantial gil were on the line and certain “interested parties” wanted outcomes a certain way.
Carrying enough scars to know life didn't always play nice, she played along.
After all…
Reputation didn't mean much if she wasn't alive to worry about one.
Retirement.
However, with the joy of true combat stripped from her (and the voice) and her pride gnawing at her, once more the questioning rebellion rose. Though this time she was prepared.
Seeing the writing on the wall and getting wind of plotting of a not-so-pleasant (and rather permanent) retirement for her, she took an offer from a rival "interested party" and, fighting her first real fight in ages, won a tournament that earned her the prize (and the silent patronage) to be free of the Coliseum and its shadow masters.
A Dragon's Lament.
Her reward for her final tournament victory? A substantial amount of gil and the deed to a rundown Ishgardian Manor.
The Dragon's Lament.
The irony of her path weaving her back to the very place she was exiled from has not been lost on her. With the chaotic end of the Dragonsong War, she's worked to keep a low profile and thrown herself into working to renovate the lodge and prepare it for travelers. Hoping that this second time in the city of her birth has a far more pleasant existence.
That said… she did recently hear about the Arcadion and the voice still whispers…