Thancred Waters

Appearance
Thancred is a Midlander Hyur, similar to a human, around 5’10, with ash blond hair (practically white) and silver eyes that seem to have been drained of life and color. He also has a tattoo of a symbol on the side of his neck indicating him as a member of the Circle of Knowing.

Generally, he favors wearing a long, duster jacket over leather body armor and boots and favors black and white as his colors. Thancred is never without a long, vicious looking blade that also seems to act as a gun, with its own trigger, barrel, and cartridge storage.

Thancred speaks eloquently - sometimes even poetically - despite his humble upbringing. It's clear that he has had years of schooling, in art, culture, and history.

Talents
Although he once fancied himself a bard, Thancred grew up and trained with the skills of a rogue, a professional with knives and daggers, subterfuge and intelligence gathering.

However, after Minfilia’s departure and the loss of his own magick, he took on a more protective role with Ryne, learning how to use a gunblade to protect those he cared about. Stealth has always been his way of life, however, no matter the role he found himself in. And, as always, Thancred’s silver tongue has gotten him out of more scrapes than he’d care to admit.

Interests
Thancred has been trained to fit into almost any situation, be it the backroom card game of a seedy tavern or flirting with courtiers at the palace. Wherever he goes, he's bound to fit in - and enjoy it. He loves poetry, flirting, and alcohol, though he's cut back a bit on that recently. He's somewhat a cheat when gambling, or just very good at it. For the most part though, he simply enjoys the finer things in life, and having a life to enjoy them with.

Early Life
Thancred’s early life is not one he likes to share, mostly because it involves his being a street urchin in the port city of Limsa Lominsa; a member of a group of thieves and pickpockets who happened to one day prey upon one of the most talented minds the lands of Eorzea had ever known.

It was in attempting to steal from Louisoix Leveilleur that Thancred found himself caught red-handed. However, instead of turning the boy in to the authorities, Louisoix asked him to help aid his fellow man with his talents. That was how Thancred found himself returning with the man to the nation of Sharlayan to learn survival and intelligence gathering techniques, becoming first an Archon, then a member of the Circle of Knowing.

Later, at the age of seventeen, he was visiting the city of Ul’dah on the day of a big festival when a large beast broke free of the parade and began to stampede through the streets. Thancred helped to distract the beast from injuring many of the passers-by, but afterwards, questioned the actions of two men for organizing the event that cost the life of the father of a young girl in order to make themselves seem like heroes. Thancred’s persistent questions eventually led to him being exiled from Ul’dah. However, having discovered a larger underlying conspiracy, he helped the young girl develop a new identity in Ul’dah so she would not be in danger.

The Calamity
Over the years, the girl, Minfilia, became like a sister to him, and he drifted in and out of her life until the day of her eighteenth birthday, when he delivered an invitation from Louisoux to help them in the coming battle against a warring empire called Garlemald. But, as the war drew closer, all was for naught. In the end, the war was less of a war and more of annihilation, as Garlemald released a calamity upon the battlefield. The only thing that kept more people from being killed was Louisoux and his sacrifice. At the time, all Thancred could do was offer prayers to the Twelve. It was the only reason he survived the massacre.

A Realm Reborn
Five years later, Eorzea was still trying to rebuild after the tremendous loss of life and damage to the realm. Louisoux and the Circle of Knowing were gone, but Thancred and a few others who fled from Sharlayan’s impending destruction made a new home for themselves outside of Ul’dah, renaming themselves the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. It was there that he discovered the Warrior of Light - a man who seemed to be able to face dangers that no one else could. He guided the man to the Scions, then helped him in his battles...until the day that all of his missions and infiltration were his undoing.

Thancred found himself possessed by a powerful being who took his body to secretly aid the beastmen of Eorzea and the Garleans in bringing about the ‘one true god.’ It was only the Warrior of Light who managed to defeat the weapons created by the Garleans and stop the ritual, ridding Thancred of his possession and saving him from a fiery death.

Heavensward
Later, after ample time brooding over his mistakes, Thancred found himself unknowingly involved in a scheme to kill the sultana of Ul’dah. In fact, the schemers planned to destroy the Scions with the same stroke in order to keep them from meddling. At a feast and celebration in the palace, he was confronted by palace guards while attempting to woo one of the attendees, and managed to escape only by the skin of his teeth. Meeting up with the other Scions, they fled through tunnels beneath the palace, but couldn’t outrun the guards. In order to let the Warrior of Light get free, Thancred stayed behind and ended up getting caught up in a powerful spell that went utterly awry.

He was thrown leagues away by the teleportation spell, lost in the wilderness, stripped of clothes, but worse yet, also stripped of all of his magick. All he could do was attempt to stay alive, and work with beastmen in the hopes that someone will find him. When he was finally found, his lighthearted demeanor has dimmed, and it was clear from the fact that his eyes had lost all color that something had inexorably changed in him.

Shadowbringers
From that point onward, he was quieter, and angry, especially when Minfilia was lost to him. In a strange series of events, he ended up rescuing, then adopting a girl who had inherited Minfilia’s powers, eventually naming her Ryne. For five years, he cared for her and trained her, taking on the role of father even when it wasn’t something he wanted. His demeanor soured, and his behavior could, at times, have been described as abusive. His fear that she would strip him of the last remnants of Minfilia drove him nearly mad, until he was forced to see the truth, and to embrace her for herself, not the power within. Only recently has he left her side, with love and pride, confident that she has the power and the knowledge to survive on her own.

Within Wall
Thancred made his start in Wall as a bard, using his craft as an entertainer to gather secrets and information about the city just as he'd done in youth. This allowed him to find out that Mischa Nicolaivich, the Warrior of Light, had also been drawn into this strange world. Though he didn't quite believe that Mischa had completely forsaken the life of a hero, he accepted it all the same, assuming that Mischa would eventually come to his senses.

In the meantime, Thancred took work as a bard and a massage assistant at The Lotus Moon in order to continue gathering information about the new world he and the Warrior of Light found themselves in. He soon found distraction in the arms of several lovers, including the ephemeral Caden Hynes and witty TJ Wagner. He also discovered Gilmore's Glorious Goods, where he was able to have his ammunition imbued with aether.

However, it wasn't until he began to listen to TJ's stories of adventuring in Wall that he began to realize that the city lacked a familiar institution from Eorzea - that of an Adventurer's Guild. Determined that someone should fill that void, he's begun making plans to remedy that situation.

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