The Epic of Lesbienne (WIP)
Origins (Pre-MSQ)
Yesun was born into the Avagnar tribe just days before it was conquered by the Adarkim tribe and absorbed into their ranks. The members of the old tribe would stick together more often than not and tried to keep the Avagnar name alive, so Yesun grew up with a significant amount of community in her day-to-day life. She was nosy and had a tendency to disregard rules, which landed her in her fair share of trouble. She never backed down from a fight, which was condemned by some that were concerned for her safety, yet encouraged by others, as that kind of spirit was highly valued in the war-driven Adarkim tribe.
When Yesun was about 10 years old, she had run off to the outskirts of the tribe’s settlement, and ran into a girl she thought had a bad attitude. Yesun thought she was snotty, and the girl thought Yesun was rude and obnoxious. They were about to start a physical fight when Yesun spots a mammoth barrelling towards them, pursued by a hunting party. Yesun pushes them both out of the way on instinct, both of them hitting the dirt and just narrowly avoiding the mammoth’s path. After the hunting party catches up to them, a couple of them immediately start going to this other girl’s aid. Lo and behold, Yesun had just saved the Khan’s daughter, Narantuya. This earned Yesun a lot more freedom and a lot less consequences. The Khan also encouraged her to hang out with his daughter more often in the hopes that Yesun’s fearlessness would rub off.
Over the next few years, Yesun and Nara grew to respect and eventually like each other, with Yesun pushing Nara to take more risks and Nara slowing Yesun down enough to think things through. They grew feelings for each other by the time they were 16.
Meanwhile, the tension between the former-Avagnar and the rest of the Adarkim tribe had been mounting; the Adarkim were too proud to suffer the Avagnar’s continuation of their old name and old ways, and the Avagnar were too proud to abandon it. This resulted in a lot of bloody fights and public executions. One such execution was an old elder in Yesun’s community, the one that encouraged her to live as fearlessly as she did. She tried to put a stop to it, which the Adarkim warriors took to mean she was volunteering to take his place. Before they could kill her, Nara ordered them to stop and to let Yesun go. On account of not wanting to disrespect their leader,yet not wanting to permit the Avagnar to think they’d won, Yesun was then taken to the Khan so that he could determine how to handle the situation. He decided that on account of Yesun being a friend of his daughter, her life would be spared, but for her disrespect to the Adarkim way, she was to be banished from the Steppe.
Yesun was then to wander the Far East alone, forever separated from the community that raised her, that depended on her and that she depended on in turn. With the impending threat of the Garlean Empire encroaching on Othard, however, she was forced to flee further, eventually winding up on a ship to the one and only Limsa Lominsa. She was still young and didn’t speak Eorzean very well, which left her little choice for self-sustainability besides crime. Her language skills improved through the Echo, and her skills as a petty thief grew through practice.
She wound up falling in with the Sanguine Sirens, cheekily dawning the name Iama Lesbienne, which the captain found hilarious. She started at the bottom-most rung, doing little more than grunt-work and chores, but she was given food and a cot and was taught how to fight with daggers and shadows, and for the first time in a long time, she felt like she had her community back.
Becoming a Warrior of Light (ARR)
At this point, Iama had been a member of the Sanguine Sirens for a few years as a skilled rogue. One day, the Sirens had targeted a Lominsan ship, but it turned out to be an ambush. Iama managed to create a distraction and let herself get captured so that the rest of the crew could get away, and the Lominsan ship brought her back to Limsa Lominsa. This is where Hydaelyn makes contact, which she’s confused as hell about and dismisses it as a weird dream.
The ship’s crew take her straight to Merlwyb, who begins to condemn Iama to prison time, before a messenger interrupts the hearing to tell the Admiral about the happenings at Sastasha. Iama jumps at the opportunity to get the hell out of this and offers to help check it out. After a bit of negotiating, they agreed that Iama would pay off her criminal charges through community service instead of imprisonment, which basically made her Merlwyb’s errand girl for a while. It was during this time that Iama started to develop a bit of a schoolgirl crush on the Admiral, which she never pursued. Her close connection with the Admiral did end up costing her her place in the Sirens. This wasn’t the first time she’d been kicked out of a home for something outside of her control, so she comes to the conclusion that she’s just better off on her own. So she proceeds to keep everyone at an arm’s length (ha) and do things solo as much as she can, even when she joins the Scions, which she mostly does just to get out of Limsa Lominsa (and possibly out from under Merlwyb’s thumb).
She meets Monet Th’mlette and H’ai Herbert and has her second encounter with Cadell Kha at Haukke Manor (See Comic in Gallery). At this point, she’d been either doing things herself, but with those three, she actually felt like she was part of a team for the first time since the Sirens. It still took her a while (and some persistence on Monet’s part) to let her guard down, but she eventually joined the Stargazers Free Company and made friends there.
As the WOL business starts to get more intense and her name starts to make its way across Eorzea, Iama found herself getting a little uncomfortable with the attention. She didn’t like that so many people were watching her and looking to her for salvation, because if she made just one mistake, there was a non-zero chance that her fall from grace may cost her her home again.
This is, of course, exactly what happens at the end of ARR. The Sultana is poisoned, and Iama is blamed. She’s chased out of her home once again, and she runs to Coerthas, which leads us to Heavensward.
To be continued…