We are defined not by our beliefs,
but by the lengths we will go to defend them.
—Moonlight Esuna


... wait, like the spell?

Author.

 Home Server:  NA, Crystal, Goblin
 Lodestone:  link
 Timezone:  UTC+0, evening/night
 RP preference:  In-game; walk-up RP welcome; SFW
  Clinic address:  Currently demolished (Esuna Physick)
  Apartment address:  Empyreum, Ward 23, Apartment 47I just came back from hiatus, so I'm still getting my bearings! About the Author: Hi! I'm E (they/she), Moonlight's writer. I've been roleplaying for over a decade now, but I'm very new to FFXIV (31 May 2024). I'm a very private person OOC, but I love roleplaying and meeting new characters! If you see me in-game, feel free to walk up in-character! Note that much of it might not be 'canon' beyond that encounter (Moonlight won't be canonically doing FATEs on the First, for example).My prime hours are typically 18:00 to 06:00 UTC+0, though I'm notoriously hard to pin down. If you'd like to set something up, reaching out to me in-game is your best option; alternatively, send a (polite) message to u/_Nighting on Reddit, or leave a message in my apartment guestbook.If you're new to RP, just let me know and I'll gladly accommodate you (and provide tips, if requested); similarly, if English isn't your native language, that's entirely alright! I'll match whatever you give me.

 Literacy:  I'm a native English speaker, and I like to think my literacy skills are capable enough; that being said, I do tire out very easily when writing long (multi-paragraph) 1x1 roleplay. I tend to mirror other writers in length, so if you want consistent results from me, try and aim for a a maximum of a paragraph and I'll do the same. Preferences:  I have a preference towards in-game roleplay with a focus on fantasy - more 'tavern' than 'nightclub'. I like to keep my roleplay accessible for all ages; mature themes and suggestive references are fine, but I won't do erotic roleplay, graphic torture, or anything involving sexual assault. I also don't do romance plots, no matter how cute your character is; you're free to flirt with Moonlight (and she'll respond in varying ways!), but don't expect it to go anywhere, please. Power level:  Moonlight is a skilled healer and a member of the Arcanist's Guild in good standing, but she's no Scion of the Seventh Dawn. The first thing most people think of when they hear Esuna is the spell, not the Viera. Though her research into Allagan technology is promising, she hasn't made any notable contributions or discoveries within the field yet.
Similarly, Moonlight's magical power is sufficient to protect a small group of people and win a duel against an untrained opponent, but not change the tide of a battle or defeat a powerful combatant.

Weird Moonlight Facts.

  • Moonlight has a perfectly normal fascination with carbuncles, and several pieces of carbuncle-themed furniture in her apartment. Her own carby, Flicker, finds this a little weird but doesn't say anything.

  • Moonlight doesn't believe in Astromancy, and remains firmly convinced that Astromancers are just Geomancers with extra steps. That's because she's lived in an isolated village for most of her life.

  • Moonlight's favorite flavor is sugar. 'Sugar isn't a flavor', you might say, to which she won't reply, because her mouth is full of candy. She brews her tea with an extra-special blend of "95% sugary milk, 5% tea".

  • Moonlight likes to think of herself as a refined and dignified rabbit. As such, despite being surprisingly good at Triple Triad, she detests the Gold Saucer and their bunny-outfit attendants, and refuses to enter.

  • Moonlight is an awful pun enthusiast. Speaking a bad pun in her presence will inevitably cause her to respond in kind several times over, to the collective despair of everyone else in the room.

  • Moonlight was recently adopted by the Ishgardian House Vimaroix, who helped her set up her own clinic. Their fervent devotion to Halone is rubbing off on her a little, as much as she hates to admit it.

Character Info.

  • city name: Moonlight Esuna

  • forest name: Eir Kaldbaek

  • species: Veena clan Viera

  • nameday (age): 29 / 05 / 1464 (113)
    In Hyur years... about 30-something?

  • pronouns: she/her

  • orientation: aromantic, asexual

  • profession: physician, researcher

  • origin: Kaldbaek village, Skatay Range

  • residence: Topmast, Limsa Lominsa

  • visual identifiers: dark red hair, reading glasses, emerald carbuncle earring

  • accent: Skatay / Dalmascan

  • demeanour: distinguished, professional, kind of a mess but she won't admit it

  • jobs: Scholar, Alchemist

  • skill proficiencies: medicine, arcana, perception, persuasion, insight, history

  • tool proficiencies: alchemist's supplies, herbalism kit, string instruments

  • aether strength: medium-high

  • aether specialization: arcanima, warding

Biography.

-

It all started a hundred and thirteen years ago, in a small village at the foot of the Skatay Mountains, not far from Dalmasca. Well, to be specific, it started a hundred and thirteen years and nine moons ago, when the village healer had a tryst with a Wood-warder, but we're not going that far back.Moonlight Esuna (or as she was known back then, Eir Kaldbaek) had always had an affinity for knowledge; she took to alchemy like a bird takes to the skies, and her mother often jested that she was born not with a silver spoon in her mouth, but a quill-pen. It is little wonder, then, that Moonlight followed in her mother's footsteps to become the village healer. When a passing Moogle merchant sold her a tome of magical geometries, Moonlight even took the first steps on her path to becoming a true Scholar in summoning her carbuncle familiar, Flicker. By day, she healed the sick, and by night, she studied arcanima, and all was well in Kaldbaek, for a time; the village saw the occasional skirmish with B'nargin scouts, but for the most part, life was quiet, peaceful, still. And then the Empire happened.The IVth Imperial Legion swept through the Skatay Range like a tempest, ceruleum-powered war machineslevelling forests and villages and snapping twigs and bones in equal measure. The Veena villages could not even be described as roadblocks to the Imperial onslaught; many of them were little more than footnotes in the firing logs of artillerists, and every day, Moonlight saw firsthand the cruelty of war, the inhumanity of the Garlean Empire. And she looked to her village, and asked them what they would do; how they would resist this occupation-- no, annihilation. They had no plan. It was a war of survival, and yet, her kin planned to sit there with their ears in the snow and wait? To try and parley with an implacable, irredeemable foe? Or worse, to join forces with the murderous bastards, to abandon every shred of dignity and honor in favor of a few more moons in a gilded cage?No. Better to die for something than die for nothing. And so Moonlight swore to herself an oath: she would find a way to protect her people, and defeat the Garlean Empire. She would see their cities burned to ash and the invaders and collaborators tossed onto the pyre, that their fortresses might be reclaimed by the very forests they destroyed to build them. A solution existed, somewhere, and she would not- could not- return until it was found. That solution, Moonlight was sure, lied in the secrets of Allag. She had read of their fantastical power, their magical artifice beyond compare, and though no blade or bow could stand against an Imperial vanguard machina, even the might of Garlemald would fall to an Allagan weapon.And so though Moonlight had little love for the Dalmascans, it was to Rabanastre that she made haste, aiding the defenders for just six moons before the craven B'nargin dynasty cracked and opened the city wide for their oppressors. And then block by block, house by house, room by room, the city fell. Its people, though, would not be so easily cowed; and so at the behest of a Miqo'te firebrand named N'aiha, Moonlight spent the better part of the next twenty years within the walls of Rabanastre, aiding the resistance movement by day and burying herself in ancient Allagan research by night. She was no guerrilla fighter, no clandestine warfare specialist - but her expertise in healing and warding was invaluable, and she gladly supplied the field teams with the explosives, toxins, and fire-flasks they needed.It worked well, for a time. Too well, perhaps. When the Barheim Incident claimed the lives of scores of Imperial soldiers and collaborators, the IVth Legion swept through Dalmasca again, with Livia sas Junius at its head. They bothered not with such formalities as 'due process' and 'evidence' - anyone even remotely suspected of harboring resistance sympathies was executed without trial. Safehouses and hideaways were raided by Imperial special operations teams, and the bodies of Moonlight's comrades were left where they fell. And so the Empire closed their fist around Othard once more. For the next ten years, resistance cells were slowly identified and eliminated one by one..It was in early 1568 that Moonlight discovered the answer she had so desperately been searching for: an Allagan tomestone detailing the works of the artificer Amyntas, whose creations harnessed the power of the sun itself to destructive effect. A superweapon that could not only defeat Garlemald, but wipe it off the map entirely. Amyntas' work was one of the cornerstones of the technology behind the Crystal Tower; and so, where better place to start than Eorzea?Stowing away aboard a ship to Radz-at-Han was easy enough. The resistance movement had been enlisting the help of smugglers since the start of the occupation, and they were more than happy to accommodate her escape to Thavnair. It was there that she faced opposition: the city of Radz-at-Han had closed their gates to refugees and outsiders some years prior, citing their 'neutrality' (and yet, once Othard fell, would Thavnair not be next?). So Moonlight learned of a trade vessel bound for Eorzea, laden with fine silks and exotic spices for Ul'dahn nobility, and a group of enthusiastic privateers in the Kraken's Arms preparing to hijack the ship. She offered the pirates her services as a wielder of arcanima, and they readily accepted. Even after decades of covert resistance against Garlean rule, taking the vessel was her first true fight, and a bloody reassurance that Moonlight's place was in a study, not a battlefield.Upon reaching Ul'dah, Moonlight used her share of the spoils to secure passage to the Eorzean city of Limsa Lominsa, home of the Arcanist's Guild. It was there, she reasoned, that she had the best chance of finding like-minded scholars to aid her studies; if anywhere a breakthrough could be made, a weapon could be created, a solution could be found, it would be in Limsa Lominsa. The liberation of one city would not be enough, not when her village and so many more were under the yoke of Garlean tyranny. And so she fell into the same old routine as in Kaldbaek, as in Rabanastre: acting as a physician and healer by day, and diving into her Allagan studies by night, praying to find something that could turn the tide in the East, and save her people in Skatay.Kaldbaek had never taken the Word of the Wood too strictly. The 'rule' of exile was more like a guideline, if anything. And with the Empire crumbling, it would be trivial to return; and yet, Moonlight knows deep down she never can.There isn't anything left to return to.

Timeline.

  • 1464: On the 29th Sun of the Third Astral Moon, Moonlight Esuna was born.
    This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

  • 1477: Moonlight reaches maturity, and becomes her mother's assistant in Kaldbaek.

  • 1494: A Moogle merchant visits Kaldbaek and sells Moonlight a tome of arcanima.

  • 1505: After over a decade of attempts, Moonlight summons Flicker for the first time.

  • 1510: The first magitek engine is created in Garlemald, a variation of the steam engine using ceruleum as a fuel source. Over the next decade, the Republic of Garlemald becomes the most fearsome military force in Hydaelyn.

  • 1528: The Garlean Empire invades Othard, sending multi-legged magitek transports through the Burn and stumbling across aether-drained ancient ruins. Emperor Solus zos Galvus orders a withdrawal, and declares a war of annihilation against the beast-tribes and their summoned Eikons.

  • 1547, early: The IVth Imperial Legion, under the command of Noah van Gabranth, invades Othard again, this time using ceruleum-powered airships to bypass the Kingdom of Dalmasca's defenses. The Skatay Range becomes a battlefield and staging ground for Imperial forces overnight. Many Vieran tribes are either killed or forced to capitulate to the Empire.

  • 1547, mid: Moonlight leaves Kaldbaek for Rabanastre.

  • 1547, late: After a six-month siege on Nalbina Fortress, the Kingdom of Dalmasca issues an unconditional surrender. Rabanastre falls, and the Empire annexes Dalmasca. The resistance movement is formed.

  • 1548: Garlean attempts to eliminate resistance across Dalmasca continue. Moonlight acts as a physician and alchemist for her resistance cell.

  • 1552: The Empire annexes Doma.

  • 1557: The Empire annexes Ala Mhigo.

  • 1558: The Barheim Incident occurs in Dalmasca. Resistance fighters rise up and attack Imperial colonists; in response, the XIVth Legion deploys to Rabanastre under the command of Livia sas Junius. Rebel fighters are executed without trial.

  • 1562: The Eorzean campaign is suspended upon the completion of Baelsar's Wall. Garlemald turns its attention back East.

  • 1568, late: Moonlight discovers the works of Amyntas, the Allagan artificer responsible for the solar technology behind the Crystal Tower, and leaves for Radz-at-Han at once.

  • 1569, early: Moonlight meets a group of Limsan pirates at Radz-at-Han and joins them in capturing a trade vessel bound for Ul'dah.

  • 1569, late: Moonlight leaves Ul'dah for Limsa Lominsa.

  • 1570: Moonlight joins the Arcanist's Guild with a specialization in the medical applications of arcanima. Her interest in Allagan technology is known to those in the Guild, and her and Flicker become regular visitors to the libraries of Limsa Lominsa.

  • 1572 (Sixth Astral): The Seventh Umbral Calamity occurs. As a result of the Garlean Empire's 'Project Meteor', the lesser moon Dalamud breaks apart and releases the Dreadwyrm Bahamut. The Sixth Astral Era comes to a close, and the Seventh Umbral Era begins.


  • 1 (Seventh Umbral): In the wake of the Calamity, Admiral Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn offers housing to all those in Limsa Lominsa willing to help with the rebuilding efforts. Moonlight takes this offer, and becomes a permanent resident of the city.

  • 5 (Seventh Umbral): Events of A Realm Reborn.


  • 1 (Seventh Astral): Events of A Realm Awoken and all DLC. Current year.
    Note: due to FFXIV's timeline being a complete clusterfuck, the current year is still 1... even after every DLC. And it's also still the Seventh Umbral Era sometimes. And the Garlean Empire is gone, but also it's still there. And Othard is liberated now, except when it isn't. It's... it's complicated.
    Don't think too hard about it.

Hooks.

These are just a few suggestions on how you might meet Moonlight.
I'm more than happy to run with anything you come up with - surprise me!

  • Moonlight runs a small clinic within Limsa Lominsa, where she provides medical care (both magical and mundane) and alchemical concoctions to those in need. She could easily be convinced to accompany you on an expedition, if you need a field healer.

  • As a member of the Arcanist's Guild for roughly seven years now (and a further seventy years of experience), Moonlight is highly skilled in arcanima; she'd be more than happy to provide tutoring or discuss the finer points of aetheric geometries with a fellow intellectual.

  • Moonlight's fascination with Allagan technology is an open secret within Limsan academic circles; perhaps you're interested in her ideas, or have thoughts of your own you'd like to share... or perhaps you want to stop her before she does something terrible?

  • Though Moonlight swears up and down she's a refined rabbit, certain rumors suggest she's an associate of a dangerous 'ex-'pirate gang within Limsa. If you're looking to take them down, she'd make good leverage... or if you want to join them, Moonlight could get you in.

  • Moonlight has always been a Viera first and foremost, and her love for her people runs just as deep as her hatred for Garlemald. Perhaps you could find common ground with her on those fronts - or even challenge her views on things. She's quite spirited on the matter.

  • Though she spent much of her life in Othard, Moonlight came to Eorzea eight years ago now. It's entirely possible she's crossed paths with you before while doing field research or gathering reagents; do you remember her? What was the interaction like?

Art