Side note: Before you begin reading proper, Electra's gallery was taken before a redesign that made her a bit larger in stature. Use her gallery as a sort of reference, but it is not ideal or exact.
Electra bas (Formerly quo,) Rufinus was born Asami Harada to two loving parents. Four other children would follow her, making her the eldest of five in her family. Her home was the Ruby Sea, her home but a tiny bubble surrounded by the tides. Her life was just like all the others that came before her in such an environment: A life of rice paddies and undersea foraging, with just a little bit of spearfishing if her parents allowed. Being the eldest and of average beauty she was fit to have a marriage arranged for her when she became of age. Of all the things a young Asami had experienced so far, a lack of the freedoms she enjoyed as a child scared her the most.
In an act of rebellion Asami would leave her family in the night. Just a note - no longer than a page - explaining that she needed to go out and see the world before she could even think of being forced to settle down. Being so close to Hingashi, it was not even a question whether she would join the Confederacy or try and make her own way in the Far East in the city. It was here she was given a reality check to the brutality of the world outside, living the life of a waitress in a teashop working for scraps. It was hard work and hardly fulfilling, lacking any and all of the adventure she had craved when she left home. She could not see the world if she was tied down in a perpetual cycle of emptying her purse every week after she was paid.
Then the Imperials came.
Adventure? Food? A career? She signed up for the foreign legions almost immediately. Anything to get herself out of the proverbial rut she had dug herself deep into. The training was grueling, as well as the indoctrination. Asami would prove herself a valuable asset to her commanders, her years of work in the fields and swimming having given her astounding endurance. Her service in the foreign legions would leave her with an excellent record of obedience, strength, and a willingness to do what needed to be done, pushing herself on several occasions far beyond the call of duty.
Over a decade of service Asami rose to the rank of quo, formally becoming a specialist as well as earning early a privilege of citizenship. She chose Electra - "Shining, bright" - and the surname Rufinus. A strong name, one that she hoped could match her reputation in the IIIrd legion to which she was newly attached. She was given control over a group of Hingan samurai in her century, a lot of whom were already those she had served with previously. With such a strong rapport, the group of a couple of dozen or so meshed well in their leadership roles.
Her career involved a lot of dangerous deployments. These included the region of Doma, Rabanastre, and even some part of Ala Mhigo. Electra and her century was proficient in small-scale tactics, the small composition of her detachments not particularly useful as full-on shock troops that her deployment in the Dark required. Repeated failures to capture ground from Eorzeans resulted in - astoundingly - a demotion. The stress of the Dark and the defeat both left the young woman slighted, and an emotional outburst followed. The presence of another officer in the wrong place at the wrong time would summarily result in punishment.
By violating lese-majesty guidelines she was sentenced to be discharged and used as a subject for testing at the Castrum Abania, a Magitek research facility. She was given to Aulus mal Asina - one of the project leads on both the Resonance and Soul Extraction project. The only closure her family would receive is - in a merciful act by the legion - that she was killed in battle. With no use for the Resonance research instead she was used for the Soul Extraction project, one of many who would have their aetheric essence and their physical body torn apart. The weapon tested on her would find it's second use on the Warrior of Light, though unsuccessful in felling such a rampaging beast.
She survived the process, just not in a way that could be considered ideal. Death would be preferable, her consciousness trapped in a horrible world in-between the aetherial sea and the source. Some could call it 'Hell,' a place of madness and where negative emotion is tangible. Electra - through the sheer force of will and hatred for all who had tortured her - persisted in this state for some time. To most she is but a shade, but to those who are more magically inclined she is quite real, appearing as any other may.. and to those blessed with aethersight you might be surprised to find a gaping hole in the aether currents. Ambient aether allows her to appear for fleeting amounts of time.
She now wanders the lands, a sour and angry shade plotting to try and right the wrongs done to her. Physical appearance is fluid, her body made of pure aether and malleable. Electra comes in many shapes and forms, different aspects of her original personality escaping its hellish prison and wandering the streets and wilds of Eorzea and Hydaelyn as a whole. She cares not if the war is over; Eorzeans and the Garlean nobility alike look the same when you're hungry enough.