M'rina Rhodes, Dark Knight, professional lost cat.
ARR & Heavensward involved lore after the cut.
How'd a six month old Moonkeeper from the Black Shroud end up with the M tribe? Funny story! The official report is they found her hidden in a tiny oasis near their camp and nobody ever came for her, so they took her in. Lost kitten.
The real story though... Do you know who the Coeurlclaw Hunters are and how they treat females who refuse the tribe leader's "protection"? If you do, then you know why her mother fled with her into Gyr Abania. The official story is still the same though, lost cat.
Wait, then how'd she end up in Ul'dah doing black magic?
Funny story! She initially went to Gridania to seek out the Padjals and learn healing magic. Getting past Van Baelsar's Wall was quite a trick. Except she ran into that super racist Elezen guy from the Archer's Guild and he shot his mouth off about worthless Miqo'te savages not just within earshot, but to her face. Well she beat him to within an inch of his life outside the Shaded Bower before the Wood Wailers intervened, and she was ejected from the city. Except when she told them she was from the desert and not whatever this other tribe was they were having problems with in the Twelveswood, they weren't thinking Rhalgr's Reach so they put her on a carriage to Ul'dah. Well, she slept most of the way and by the time she got there it was way too late. Cat was lost again.
"You must be an adventurer" was certainly an assumption, but there was promise of food and shelter. Honestly, she didn't even know what Thaumaturgy was but she had a piece of wood with a rock on one end and if it meant the Lalafell lady at the inn would let her stay there for free she'd give it a whirl. Honestly, she was terrified the entire time and had no idea how any of the magic worked or why it worked so well for her, but fake it until you make it, right? It carried her through until she ran up on the limit of her skills. Dead set convinced that summoning a long-dead Black Mage from the books of Nald'thal, even at the behest of Lalai, is a task for a far stronger mage, she fled Milvaneth Sacrarium and never returned. That night she was invited to dinner at the Palace, that night everything fell apart. She was once again lost in the wider world.
This time she followed her companions back to Ishgard. Following the whole mess in Ul'dah she was afraid of going back there and unable to return home to the Peering Stones to seek the counsel of M'rahz Nunh. Weeks later, having stood accused of heresy and then crushing two Temple Knights in front of the high court with all the black magic she could summon, everything still felt wrong. She could at least shelter among the high stone walls and try to find her way, and took off walking the city one night with a head full of vengeance and a heart full of fear. It was that night she ran up on a rambling citizen who pointed her in the direction of the Temple Knights dumping the body of another "heretic" in the Brume. That night fate put a sword in her hands and everything changed.
She got odd looks from the locals and her compatriots when she arrived at their next meeting with jagged black armor on her shoulders and a fire in her belly. Given the looming reports of a black-armored knight tearing through two dozen Temple Knights and freeing a peasant girl accused of heresy a couple evenings before, those gathered thought it wiser than to ask questions. Someone had introduced this nervous cat, the one rumored to be a Warrior of Light, to justice through direct action. There was to be no more throwing spells and hoping for the best, for the first time in her life she had put a soul to the sword. That lingering fear had been stripped out of her heart, channeled into strength, and she was now fully prepared for what lay ahead. It's a good thing, too, because the world was soon to demand all she could muster and yet more.
