Summary

Born to the Arulaq of the Azim Steppe, her mother passed away during, and her father, unable to find peace with this, disappeared entirely, never to be seen again, leaving Alun to be raised by her aunt, Sechen. Sechen cared deeply for her and raised her practically at her hip, where Alun was content to stay through much of her childhood, happily tending to the sheep and to the younger children - that was, of course, until the visions began. Visions in which Alun would experience the memories of those around her as if they were her own - she would see them, feel them, whether she was quite old enough to process so much pain or not. Frightened and confused, Alun grew distant even from her own tribe, even from her own aunt, and would spend many of her hours by herself.

Alun's visions never went away, though they became slightly less frequent, over time. In her heart, she felt truly alone - the Arulaq were an isolated folk, and Alun felt, somehow, even more so than the rest, even from her own. She understood them, far more than she wanted to, but they could not ever understand her. Even now, she was afraid, and more than ever, she wanted answers, answers that she would not and could not find in the Azim Steppe, and even the very possibility of gaining them haunted her day and night. It was with this in mind that Alun made a decision that would change her entire life.

In the cool night, Alun fled the Azim Steppe with only a small bit of supplies upon her person, to the Ruby Sea, where she took any steps necessary - some that she is not entirely proud of, these days - to reach the shores of Hingashi, where she ventured to the port of Kugane. Her journey was long and exhausting, and not entirely knowing where to go next, Alun found herself confused and aimless, for a time. She did a variety of small, odd jobs - enough for a meal a day, and an inn room - but not enough to help her build much of a foundation to work off of. It was a great fortune that, during one of these jobs, she met a woman who would become both one of her dearest friends, and biggest inspirations.

This woman introduced herself as Sayo, a retired courtesan who married a trader and subsequently learned his trade, settling down into a comfortable life of relative wealth. The two talked and talked, and Alun found that, perhaps out of loneliness, maybe out of stress, that she bared her soul to the other. Sayo, concerned, took the Xaela under her wing, offering her a room in her home, where she was fed and clothed and looked after in exchange for helping with some chores around the house. Sayo became as a mother figure to Alun, who helped her grow into herself - in her care, Alun discovered many things about herself, and in this period, Alun became Alun. Sayo taught her how to dress, how to care for her hair, how to apply makeup, and all manners of things about being a woman. She missed her aunt more than ever, and wondered what Sechen would think of the woman she had grown into - but, she could not afford to look back.

Though she grew fond of her little place in Kugane, Alun slowly came to feel that she would not find her answers here. It became comfortable, and she feared that comfort was not what she needed, though it had become easy to indulge in such easy days. She spent much of her time picking up a variety of crafts and trades, and soon, almost in the blink of an eye, Alun had spent six or so years in Sayo's care. She learned the ways of Kugane and Hingashi, and determined, in this time, that she had another ability she had not been aware of: it mattered not the language, she could read it, understand it, and even speak it as if it had been her very own. Once again, she found herself wanting to know why. She was roused from her sleep one night by a voice - "Cross the seas," this voice spoke. "To Eorzea. You will find your truth there." Behind her eyelids, all was blue, and light. And when she opened them, she could had sworn she set eyes upon a vast crystal - but it was gone, gone as sure as she sat up straight in her bed.

Alun made plans to leave the very next morning. Sayo, ever understanding, and ever her hero, shared a tearful farewell with her, and sent her to the docks with a myriad of supplies in tow, leaving her wanting for nothing on her journey to Eorzea. Alun was amazed by how much easier travel was, when one had the coin for it. Though her journey was fairly uneventful, Eorzea was not, as she arrived in the wake of the Calamity. She found herself contributing to various rehabilitation efforts, using her previous knowledge of foraging for medicinal plants upon the Steppe to further her knowledge in the ways of botany and alchemy, where she contributed to healing those in need with various potions and tinctures.

Over time, she began to delve into the history of the strange new continent she found herself upon in an attempt to understand it further, something that became her niche of sorts, as she used her strange abilities to translate ancient texts and decipher the pasts of ancient artifacts. The history of Eorzea became a near obsession of hers. Though she never stayed in one place for too long, her research into the lost city-state of Belah'dia lead her to Thanalan, and subsequently to Ul'dah, where she discovered her other niche - Thaumaturgy. Joining the Thaumaturge's Guild, she found that she had some manner of innate talent for the art of dark magic, and she found a fondness for studying its intricacies. It was in no time that she became a very strong Thaumaturge, something that assisted her greatly in her journeys.

These two things occupied much of her time, and while she did not exactly find the answers she sought on her own, she did find a good part of them when she was contacted by the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, who explained to her the nature of her abilities, calling it the Echo - calling it a "gift", which she did not quite agree with, admittedly - and offered her a place among their ranks. Alun didn't think twice about accepting, and thus became a Scion, and there found a bit of a place for herself.

It was not terribly long after - a bit less than a year, perhaps - that the Warrior of Light joined their ranks, and things began to change at a rapid pace. Alun helped at a distance, often from the Waking Sands - and later, the Rising Stones - offering her insight when able, and only became actively involved in their adventures when they set out for Hingashi. During this period of her life, Alun assisted both in ways of her knowledge of the places they journeyed to, and by accompanying the Warrior of Light in their battles, soon finding a valuable friend in them. She reunited with Sayo in Kugane, and later, in the Azim Steppe, she reunited with her tribe, and with her aunt Sechen, who now introduced to her her niece, Altani. Alun was given the chance to meet her family once again as herself, now, and she treasured this above all else. Even after their adventures in Doma had come to an end, Alun made it a point to visit the Steppe when able, bringing small gifts and stories to her niece. For a while, things seemed hopeful.

Things took a turn for the worse when the Scions began to drop as flies, falling into a deep slumber one after the other. To her great disdain, Alun was included in these numbers, finding herself in a strange world with a wealth of equally strange history to learn. Tediously, she combed over the troubled history of the First in search of anything that might help in preventing its end - and more worryingly, in her mind, the foretold death of the Warrior of Light and the potential Calamity that could follow - and assisting in staving off the waves of Sin Eaters, all the while.