Lynx Ohd'ai

## Concept and Creation

This is literally just a place where I want to dump all of my headcanons for my FFXIV character. Some of it is accurate to how the protagonist is portrayed in the game, but I'm mostly playing by ear because I adore this game and it's story and I would love to just write about Lynx more. Also I did draw him before I made him in the game, however he looked just a little bit different with lighter skin and the female Miqo'te facial markings

## Skills and Abilities

Lynx is in possession of a special ability only known as the Echo. This rare power gives him the ability to understand other languages, see into the memories of other people (albiet he has no control over when this happens), and is immune to being tempered by a primal, thus making him one of the few chosen people capable of fighting them. Others with this ability have been known to fuse with primals themselves, but Lynx refuses the mere idea of even attempting such a thing.
As a Miqo'te, Lynx possesses strong leg muscles and a heightened sense of smell compared to the other mankind races.

Like all residents of Hydaelyn, Lynx can switch between various jobs which give him different abilities. He has focused his skills into almost exclusively magic jobs, thus falling into both healing and combat roles, but never a tank role.

### Scholar

The Arcanist job was the first skill Lynx picked up upon his arrival in Limsa Lominsa, and ever since then has grown into both the Scholar and Summoner jobs, with the former being his primary use of magic. As a Scholar, Lynx uses codices as his weapon, dealing poison and unaspected damage. However, most of his skills center around healing his allies and providing them with shields that may temporarily protect them from harm. He also possesses the ability to summon two fairies, either Eos or Selene, who remain at his side and periodically grant him or an ally a small amount of healing should he or another sustain enough injuries.

### Summoner

The Arcanist job was the first skill Lynx picked up upon his arrival in Limsa Lominsa, and ever since then has grown into both the Scholar and Summoner jobs, with the former being his primary use of magic. As a Summoner, Lynx uses grimoires as his weapon, dealing large amounts of poison and unaspected damage. However, a large source of his power comes from the Egi that he summons, a small version of either Ifrit, Titan, or Garuda that fights by his side. Each Egi has their own fighting style, Ifrit-Egi being a melee attacker, Titan-Egi being a tank, and Garuda-Egi being a ranged attacker. But as he rarely takes on the role of Summoner, he isn't as skilled in his job as he potentially could be.

### White Mage

The Conjurer Job was the second job Lynx had ever taken on after briefly returning to Gridania from his time in Limsa Lominsa. From there he learned how to listen to and commune with the elementals that resided within the Black Shroud, as well as learn how to tend to them in order to prevent natural disasters. He was taught primarily healing magic, able to rescue many from the brink of death and regenerate their wounds. He also learned some basic self-defense spells focused on the elements of earth, wind, and water.

### Black Mage

The Thaumaturge job was the third job Lynx had taken on upon his arrival in Ul'dah. From here he learned extremely powerful battle spells centered around the elements of fire, ice, and lightning. While much more fragile in this state and much less mobile considering he must stand still to cast a spell, his blasts are incredibly powerful and are among some of the most damaging attacks that any job is capable of performing.

### Astrologian

The Astrologian job was the fifth job Lynx had taken on, sometime after being allowed entry into the Holy See of Ishgard. After unlocking several gates of the stars, Lynx was able to both heal and shield his allies depending on his sect, as well as draw and play various cards that give strength boosts to himself or allies, with varying potency that depends on the target's role. While he is proficient in the skill, the luck-based function of the cards hinder him from reaching true perfection.

### Red Mage

The Red Mage job is the sixth and the most recent job that Lynx had picked up after encountering a fellow Miqo'te by the name of X'rhun Tia. As a Red mage, he is essentially a jack of all trades, having hard focus on both black and white magic, as well as channeling his stored magical energy into his blade for a stronger melee attack. However, as a jack of all trades, he is unfortunately a master of none, making him moderately great at all roles, but not necessarily the best the whole world has to offer.

### Blue Mage

The Blue Mage job is the fourth job Lynx has ever taken on after meeting Martyn. As a Blue Mage, Lynx is capable of copying the abilities of various monsters and using them as his own spells. However, this job is not very powerful or convenient, but he has trained in the skill during his downtime as he has a love for the magical arts and still wants to learn more about how it works, even if it's not particularly useful.

## History

Lynx is the youngest child born to a miqo'te couple that once lived in Gridania. His mother and older half-sisters were displaced refugees of Gyr Abania who had fled west to escape the Garlean occupation. His father, on the other hand, was a native to the Black Shroud and a former thief who had once spent his time in Limsa Lominsa before leaving his life of crime. Lynx was also not born under his current name, being assigned female at birth.

His early childhood was relatively peaceful. Due to some admittedly racial stereotypes, he was urged to take up archery, although the skill never really clicked for him and he would spend most of that time reading books in a hiding spot. In fact he was much more interest in taking up conjury like his mother had, but fate had other ideas in mind.

Lynx was only about 10 when his father received blackmail from those who knew about his history of thievery. The blackmailers demanded that he take a voyage to Limsa Lominsa and bring his youngest child with him. No one else of their family was told any of this, so they and Lynx both thought that this trip would be for personal reasons, not knowing the true intentions.

Lynx and his father learned that the blackmailers were indeed old colleagues of his, who demanded that he leave his current life and rejoin their gang. His father refused, and as consequence, Lynx was yanked away and had a knife pressed to his face, being used as a bargaining chip. His father tried to negotiate, to compromise, but it wasn't the deal they wanted, and so they slashed the right side of Lynx's face, leaving a wound that ran over his golden eye. Now terrified for the safety of his child, his father finally agreed to their demands. Lynx was sent out on a ferry back to Gridania the next morning, alone, and with a cloth bandage wrapped over his eye.

Upon his return, Lynx was too traumatized to form his words and too young to understand what he had just been through. He couldn't explain why their family no longer had a father, and he thought that his father had abandoned them instead. For the next few years, he grew up internalizing this, growing a hatred for the man. He threw himself more into academics after his eye recovered, and with the onset of puberty grew more uncomfortable with his body, a sensation that he would later understand to be gender dysphoria. His mother slowly lost her passion for everything, his eldest sister tried to bury the pain with training, and his middle sister was left to act as a mediator. But as the years went on, things were slowly starting to get better…

Lynx was 15 years old. Only 15 when the skies turned red. Only 15 when beasts ran wild through the city. Only 15 when the lesser moon Dalamud began to fall and unleashed the ancient primal Bahamut. Only 15 when his mother fell trying to protect her children. The Seventh Umbral Calamity was a hell for everyone involved. Homes were lost, families broken and torn, lands ravaged beyond repair, and Lynx was no exception. He and his sisters were all on their own now. The eldest tried her hardest to step up, to take her mother's place, but she knew she couldn't fix this. The middle sister grieved and mourned, trying so hard to keep the memory alive. And Lynx, he couldn't process it, it was like his father all over again and once more there was nothing he could have done to change it. He tried, he tried so hard to help with relief efforts, to dress wounds and care for the victims, and the next five years of the Seventh Umbral Era would only grow his need to help others in a way he couldn't help his mother or himself.

Even though he had become so determined to save others, at the age of 19, Lynx's struggle with gender dysphoria became so crippling that he couldn't continue living on as a female anymore. He formulated a plan on his own, telling no one. He struck a deal with some smugglers for a vial of Fantasia, and so that they couldn't find his sisters, he would run to Limsa Lominsa and join the arcanist's guild under a new name. He had already made it halfway through when his middle sister caught him, right before taking the potion that would make him the man he always was, but didn't stop him. If this was for him to be happy, she would let him have it. In the night, he left. Returning to the city where he lost his father, as his new self, and with hopes of maybe making the world a better place.

## Trivia

* Lynx possesses a scar on his left cheek after the confrontation with an Ascian-possessed Lord Zenos.
* Lynx is also homoflexible, a subsect of bisexuality meaning that he primarily experiences attraction to men, and only very rarely feels attraction to women.
* He owns a white chocobo which he named Chikadee.
* He is quite fond of hot drinks like coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. This is a nod to canonically in game, hot drink type foods usually give a stat boost to piety and spell speed which are the most important stats for healers.
* Unlike other miqo'te, Lynx's nails have started growing into tough and sharp black claws sometime during the liberation of Ala Mhigo. It's unknown exactly why this has happened, but there are so far no detrimental effects.
* Also unlike many Seekers of the Moon, he does not worship Menphina. That honor instead goes to Nymeia, although he is not particularly religious.
* He has trust issues with alcohol. For some reason, every time he has drank any, he ended up being poisoned, drugged, or something else horrible happens. He has learned to associate the smell of alcohol with pure dread.

## Gallery

left hand right hand challenge using him as a test subjectYoung Lynx, not quite getting into archeryOC-tober prompt being Red CarpetOC-tober prompt featuring Lynx and his retainers Caerl and Soleanna wearing outfits I personally ownLynx with his fave minionDrawn in hype of finally reaching ShadowbringersExpression practice