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Despite her name, Yue's upbringing involved very little of the Far East's culture. Growing up, she spent a fair bit of time at sea with her parents--both field researches hailing from Old Sharlayan, where the rest of her childhood was spent. Her parents had hoped that their son (as they thought at the time) would one day be able to join them on the field and continue their research into aetheric anomalies, but fate had different plans.
Yue was a frail child. Her albinism forced her to stay indoors during the peak of day, and her muscular dystrophy left her weak, unable to be quite as active as other children her age. Her disabilities had her spending a lot of time in the nearest library, be it on her parents' ship or in their home in Sharlayan. She did not begrudge her physical (and eventually visual) impairments though: they were simply a part of her, as well as the springboard for her studies.
"How can I use magic to make my life easier despite the cards I've been dealt?"
That was the question she began to ask herself as she entered her teen years--coinciding with her taking the name Yue to replace her birthname (a suggestion from her supportive mother). While her parents continued to travel, Yue opted to stay within Sharlayan of her own volition, determined to study. She began to look into the inner workings of aetheric manipulation, while along the way discovering that, while she lacked any degree of physical strength, she made up for it in aetheric proficiency. She picked up on the arts of conjuration and arcane early on, particularly under her mentor--a member of the Sharlayan forum who was close friends with her parents, taking Yue under his wing in the absence of her parents. He taught her the ways of a scholar, a path that she picked up quickly.
By eighteen, she could claim to have read nearly every book on aetheric manipulation in the Forum's public archives... and yet still, she yearned for more. So, after much deliberation, she left.
For the first time in many years, she returned to see aboard a ship carrying travelers, merchants, and scholars alike, taking the voyage south to La Noscea, oblivious to how her life would change.
[Cue the events of A Realm Reborn and thereafter.]
[To save time, I won't go over the details of every expansion, and will instead focus on highlighting moments unique to her experience. These sections will contain spoilers, so read at your own discretion!]
[Pre-Shadowbringers, Post-Vauthry/Pre-Hades, Post-Shadowbringers]
A Realm Reborn:
[tbd]
Heavensward:
[tbd]
Stormblood:
[tbd]
Shadowbringers:
There's nothing quite like being pulled through literal time and space to do a number on one's aether. Her unplanned venture to the First and her extended period of time under the bright skies of the shard left her feeling particularly weak throughout most of their adventure. Still, she pressed on, persisting even as her body struggled to contain the excess aether that she consumed from the fallen sineaters she and the other Scions slain. More than once during her journey did she begin to doubt that she was cut out for the life that had been thrust upon her: Surely Hydaelyn had made a mistake with entrusting her with the Mother Crystal's power. Surely.
Or so she thought.
When finally the last of the Lightwardens was slain and she absorbed his light, her body threatened to fail her. The excess of light ravaged her form, tearing at her flesh, burning her, leaving her scarred and frail, her body spent. She could do nothing but watch the events that unfolded: a friend willing to sacrifice everything to save her, and a foe that wouldn't let anyone get in his way. The last thing she remembered before losing consciousness was his invitation to join him in The Tempest.
She awoke to a body, torn. Where the light had burst from her very body and ripped at her flesh, it had also crystallized. Not unlike the giant structures of crystallized aether that appeared during the Seventh Umbral Calamity, her limbs now glowed, resonating with aether. Over the days that followed, leading up to her venture down into the Tempest, more of her body began to morph, fragile skin and bone being replaced with solid crystal. Unbeknownst to her, the crystalline formations were a result of her body working to contain the excess of aether that otherwise threatened to burst free of her and destroy her, instead coalescing that aether into a form not unlike auracite.
She was convinced that her death was certain. Even despite her companions' insistence that there had to be something they could do to save her, Yue remained unconvinced. Still, she pressed on. What else was there to do?
With little regard for her own life, she faced her greatest foe yet, and with the help of a new friend, won.
The final blow had the remaining light in her form bursting forth, but even after the excess of aether was spent, her new limbs remained, both intact and now adorned with veins and trails of gold gilding that seemed to accent and help contain the crystallized appendages. Whether she liked it or not, they were now a part of her. As she would learn upon her return to the Source however, her new limbs--though an anomaly at best and (to some) unsightly at worst--granted her a strength she had never experienced.
(After all, muscular dystrophy can't have much of an effect when your muscles have been replaced with crystallized aether, now can it?)
(Needless to say, Krile was immensely fascinated in her new form. Many hours were spent with the lalafell upon her return.)
Endwalker:
[tbd]
