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Carmine Braddock
Aspiring Mage/Adventurer•
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Race
Hyur
Clan
Midlander
Free Company
None
Introduction
Carmine is a brand-new thaumaturge whose curiosity will spur him far beyond the horizon. How will his tale of discovery unfold?
Player's notes
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Character Information
Basic details about Carmine Braddock
Age
23
Race
Midlander
Partner
Single
Occupation
Thaumaturge
Body Type
Normal build
Birthplace
Thanalan
Background
The story of the character's origins
Backstory
Born to two goldsmith parents, Carmine's lot in life was practically decided from birth - he would become an artisan, much like his mother and father before him. Every bit their progeny, young Carmine took to the hammer with aplomb, creating his first piece before he read his first book. Though his skills took time to develop, he grasped the concepts to apply those skills to very quickly. It was no surprise that he found himself on the fast-track to enrollment in the Goldsmiths' Guild.
Despite his talents, Carmine's favorite moments were spent not shaping jewelry, but traveling with his parents when they went to sell their wares in the other city states. He braved the cold of Coerthas wearing the same wide-eyed smile with which he peered up at the grandeur of Mount O'Ghomoro for the first time, and always tagged along to make himself useful whenever the opportunity to travel arose.
Yet as war with Garlemald intensified across Eorzea, Carmine's travels fell apart. The family trade in jewelry pieces across the realm had fallen on tough times, and soon, he found himself assisting not with the preparation of necklaces and eyeglasses, but of gorgets and thaumaturgical casting implements. He'd never used a staff, wand, or focus, himself, however. Magic had always fascinated him, but it was in the same way that airships did - miraculous that they did as they did, but he was more than content to merely watch others practice it.
Five years ago, Carmine was offered a surprisingly lucrative, and time-sensitive proposition: To assist with the preparation and delivery of wands for an upcoming battle for not only the Immortal Flames, but for any adventurers brave enough to participate in the fight as well. It would not only help his family, but give him the opportunity to contribute to a moment which Eorzea would surely remember for ages.
It was this idealism that saw him approach Northern Thanalan, working on wands from the back of a wagon under the light of the crimson moon Dalamud. He labored for the Grand Companies with myriad other young craftspeople whom he was sure were also eager for the opportunity for coin and some small glory.
When the battle of Carteneau began, he was working on wands for what the Grand Companies thought would be the worst-case scenario: A military loss. None of them could have imagined that it would be so much worse. The shaking of the earth was the first sign that something was terribly wrong, driving Carmine from one of the craftsmen's tents. There was an instant where the most harrowing realization was that something had stifled the distant ring of steel and explosives, before a bone-chilling roar echoed over the ceruleum fields of Northern Thanalan.
Carmine was far enough away that he was lucky enough to survive the Calamity, but his journey back to Thanalan over several weeks was unlike any he had ever taken. Seldom does he discuss the details, but one can imagine them grim.
How different, he later wondered, could that gauntlet had been if even one mage had survived in the vicinity of his camp? Would the trip have been easier? The days and nights in a ruined land safer? Though Carmine was lucky enough to be reunited with his family in Ul’dah, fully recover from that harrowing time, and return to life as a tradesman, these what-ifs were embedded in Carmine's mind like seeds for the next five years, until they finally sprouted.
Though he had continued to make pieces, Carmine had stopped being a Goldsmith the day the moon fell. Only five years later did he finally decide to make it official. He could never become a mage if he spent his life with a hammer in hand, and answer the myriad questions he had about the realm - and what a well-placed wizard could do in it. Thus did he craft his first wand, announce his early retirement, and weather the storm as he set out to join the Thaumaturges' Guild.