The Background
From an orphaned Hyur to a Xaela by accident...
Saghani - formerly known as Khora - was orphaned at a young age; or that was at least what the Gridanian orphanage told her. That she had been found on the steps of the institue for lost children without anyone in near sight, and thus they assumed her parents had been long gone forever. In fact, Saghani never really cared about that. She displayed a particularly great talent at manipulating aether since she was a toddler, and despite the small funds of the orphanage, was allowed to be tutored by the local arcanist guild. During her teenage years she already managed to summon her own carbuncles with ease, and was determined to study the subject of aethorology further later on. At the legal age of adulthood, she left the orphanage with a small purse filled with coins and her clothes as it was tradition. Originally planning to travel to one of the plenty academies to try and study, her focus soon shifted. Despite still being talented and curious about the ongoings of aether manipulation, she soon began finding a particular joy in reading about the old Allagan ways and experiments. And without much further delay, she decided to try and rebuild those experiments.
Through hard work and her charming attitude, Saghani managed to sell whatever she salvaged from the woods, wrecks, and other places to afford herself a small house in the Lavender beds. From then forth, that house became her main operation base. While the ground floor was nothing but a nice living room and cooking area, the basement was soon filled with lab equipment and cages of animals she caught in the wild. She tried herself at the manipulation of the body, chimeras seemed to be an extraordinarily interesting subject for her. Additionally, she practised self-taught alchemy, mixing potions and experimenting with different ingredients.
In the midst of her work, she met countless of people aiding or sabotaging her. Oftentimes, she didn't bother getting too close to these people, whether they were friend or foe, out of the sheer fear that they would report her to the local authorities for her obviously illegal experimentation. One man, however - a young Hyur going by the name of Talon - had caught her eye. Gazing back at the spectacle, it had been nothing short of foolish to fall for his charming demeanour, but she was young, naive, and absolutely inexperienced when it came down to affection. She fell for him. He enchanted her quite literally, luring her closer and closer into his web. And eventually, she even went as far as to show him her experiments, to which, in all honesty and surprise, he reacted quite calmly. As if he had seen it before. Nonetheless, fate seemed to have something different in store for Saghani, and soon, she reached rock-bottom with the realisation that none of this must have been true. She found out about him entertaining another relationship during their time together, despite his vows of love and dedication, and thus, she left, lest she would snap and be pushed too far with how betrayed she felt.
In the midst of this affair, she retreated back into the Black Shroud for both, inspiration and comfort, watching the local wildlife mingling about their day and more. The day went by quickly and soon enough, she met a particularly attractive, young Mi'qote lady with whom she struck up a conversation. A good one or two philosophical hours later, Saghani was invited into the lady's home, and promptly followed her. Little did she know what the cat-woman had in store for her, and before she could properly defend herself, she was overwhelmed by her companions. She woke later to the prodding of needles through her skin, strapped to a rather uncomfortable table. Not much after, the unbearable pain of something changing and surging inside of her overtook, and due to sheer shock, she fell unconscious once more.
She didn't know how long she had been out. Yet, when she awoke, she felt strange. Sore. Out of herself. It took her hours to readjust to the new sensations of her body. The sounds, smells, the intensity of touch. It was only then that she came to glance at herself through the reflection of a river upon fleeing the death and decay that had taken place in the basement during her unconsciousness, and the realisation of what had happened set it. Once a beautiful Hyur woman, she was now a scaled abomination; or at least, that was what she thought initially. Feeling hatred towards everything she had created and achieved so far, she tossed it all out; her journals, her potions, and even the animals she had kept caged in her basement. A fresh start was what she needed, something that would help her regain her own self. She was trapped in a foreign body, and thus, would seek to do anything in her might to reverse what she had done. In the process of that, she joined a secret alliance fighting the evils of the night behind everyone's back. Their grand nemesis, someone who was working on chimeras himself, proved to be the spark of hope she needed. If only she could get close enough to him, perhaps he would hold the information she needed to reverse the effects of the changes to her body?
None of that happened, though. It was a tedious and long process to be accepted into the midst of this organisation, and yet, it proved to be fruitless. Either it was because she wasn't trusted enough to accompany them on missions, or it was because they were entirely incompetent. She didn't know. Packing her bag, she left in the hurry and cover of the night, leaving behind what was her last spark of hope. There had been one person, a Mi'qote medic she seemed to have grown fond of. But knowing the dynamics of this alliance and the way she had been treated before, she quickly abandoned the idea of asking him to accompany her. Instead, she left. Without a word, without a notice, Missing In Action so to speak.
Despite her new identity, her new looks, and her fresh start, people still grew suspicious. It wasn't long until she was caught on the road after leaving the supposedly safe haven of the alliance's Head Quarters, and was soon dragged away into the shadows of yet another shady clan. Days, weeks, months were spent in their captivity until finally, she managed to escape. And at that point, she realised something very important: "I don't know who I am. But I know who I am not."
The life ever after...
If the apperance is altered due to alchemic means, it has its flaws but also its perks. For the longest time Saghani loathed herself, hated her body and her new appearance to the point of considering self-mutilation. And yet, she grew past that. If she looked so utterly foreign to herself, the same could be assumed about everyone else. And thus, she went to test it. Went to the same place where she found Talon for the first time, knowing he had been employed by the establishment they had first met in. And it was true. While filling out an application for the security staff position - which she later on turned down once more due to intern discrepancies - Talon borrowed her a pen without ever realising who he was talking to. And that gave her, as strange as that was, a new purpose, a new hope. Ever since she worked hard to establish connections all over Eorzea, travelling from land to land, over the seven seas and back, to find contacts. Indebting people with her own 'favours', employing them for information gathering, or making use of the Eorzean black market from which she eventually acquired a pair of illegally shipped Nouliths. She was far beyond moral saving now, and, to put it plain, she didn't care at all. She was a new person, and people would utter her name in fear before stepping over her once again.