Xeina

Xeina, the Lost, is a human from a far off mundane alternative reality. Sent to the prime reality instead of the realm of death, thanks to her body being flung across timelines after the Arklight's shattering, she is now stuck living a second life in the prime timeline.

## Lore

### Backstory

An uninspiring character in her own right, Xeina was born into a rather mundane life. A middle-class suburban family, both her parents were absent much of the time. Too often would she arrive home and be greeted by the silence of an empty household. As such, she found much solace in video games, retreating to finding comfort online. The simplistic and unrealistic nature drew her in, but what really kept her sticking around: was she felt she mattered. The fact she had agency, and could present herself as what she wanted was, she had ever wanted.

But that was far from the case in real life. Having grown up without siblings or with many other kids to interact, her lack of social skills combined with her standoff anxious loner demeanour, made her the target of many bullying attempts from seemingly everyone Throughout both primary and high school, she constantly a looming sense of dread and insecurities nipped at her heels every waking second. She alienated herself from her classmates and peers, afraid of how others would perceive her. The ideal life she wanted just felt so far and distant from her, all until the end. Eventually after she had graduated, it was onto university and higher education.

Or at least, that was the plan.

Rejection upon rejection stacked up, as Xeina found herself unable to make it into any university. Even seemingly budget and mundane universities would turn her down. Once again, she found herself up against an immovable road block. If she didn't fail the initial screening process, the ensuing interviews crushed her completely. finding refuge in her fantasy games, disassociating herself as far as possibly from reality. But eventually, those caught up to her: she became numb to them. She wanted something more fulfilling. Xeina then decided to try and spend a few months studying, takin up volunteer opportunities where she could, and brushing herself up to become the person she wanted to be. She saw progress day by day, her confidence was slowly increasing, but increasing none the less.

This time would be different, this time she would make something of herself.

Surely.

But to no avail.

Another year gone; another year she had been set back in life. This chasm of self-hatred and depression, already thought to be infinite, kept on expanding beyond the horizon. Swallowed whole by this wave of sadness, she became a NEET, confining herself in her room to waste away. She sat and laid, watching the minutes of her youth pass by her. Not even her games comforted anymore, with the feelings of inadequacy haunting her even there. She thought she had improved, overcome her issues: but apparently not enough. The sight of herself in the mirror paralyzed her, with her games no longer offering her escapism: she was stuck between a rock and a hard place. The outside world being as uninviting as it was doing nothing to interest her, so she laid alone in her room to disassociate from reality.

As she fell deeper into that despair, she eventually reached a point of apathy where she decided enough was enough. As if struck by some cosmic force, she suddenly gained resolve she didn't think she had. And so she went to the local bridge to end it all. The clouds darkened as she walked her final walk down the street to her resting place. As she climbed up onto the ledge, the gentle spring air blew. Xeina closed her eyes, she felt bliss, and hesitated. Was this it? Was this the end for her?

As she ruminated on this, she heard a faint cry, a cry from the storm drain. She decided to check it out, so down she got from her lonely ledge. The clouds above darkened further, and rain droplets lightly tapped against the steel pipes as she entered the drain. Deeper into the pipes she went, with faint cries echoing throughout the tunnels: calling out to Xeina like a moth to a flame. This was her chance, to finally redeem herself after two years of failure. The cries grew louder and louder, and to Xeina's shock: it was an old classmate of hers. Trapped under some debris, she rushed over to help her as the newly brewing storm began to thunder above them. As she struggled to lift the debris, the tunnels rumbled with an ominous roar.

A wave of water, from the built-up torrent of rainwater, rushed towards them. Indiscriminately crashing through the tunnel, in the blink of an eye, the two were of them were swallowed by the wave. Xeina tried to swim up and gasp for air, but this watery grave of hers had other plans. Try as she might, she couldn't keep up and eventually succumed to the pressure and drowned. She finally thought she had her oppurtunity to help someone, but that was simply the end of her meager existence.

Or at least it should’ve been. By some sheer cosmic coincidence, the second she had been killed by that wave: the Arklight had shattered, sending ripples across the entire Grand Design. This ripple sent her body and conscious out of her reality from the far reaches of the Grand Design into the very heart and soul of the prime existence.

When Xeina woke up, she found herself in a completely new place, far removed from all she knew previously, with all colours seemingly drained from the lands themselves. Composing herself in as best of a fashion as she could, she decided to wander amidst the smog and ash. After wandering for a while, she arrived at a massive, that reached the clouds. Her curiosity got the better of her and she decided to scale the wall into Ninapua. A more familiar sight to her, a sense of calm washed over her.

A short while later, she noticed some local farmers tending to their crops. Xeina called out to the farmers and asked them where she was. This question raised some suspicion from the locals, and they hesitantly asked her where she had come from. Xeina hadn't the foggiest and simply remarked, she found herself from across the wall in the colourless land of smog. This answer immediately turned the atmosphere tense with hostility, with looks of concern morphing into paranoid and disdain. The locals branded her as a monster and began to drive her away. She was confused at their reaction: they seemed about as human as her, what was with the sudden animosity? She wanted to speak up, but the large mob of anger began to spark flashbacks of her previous life, and so she hastily scurried away.

Feelings of despair and sadness washed over her, even in this foreign land she wasn't welcome. An outsider shunned and despised. As she trekked back to the wall to continue her lonely journey in this foreign land, she heard faint screams and shouts. Echoing faded from the top of the wall, she wanted to turn tail and hide elsewhere as her sheltered self-urged her too. But an inner thought rang throughout her to check things out, almost like the same force that urged her to take that fateful step outside, and so she hurried to investigate.

When she arrived, she witnessed some of Ninapua’s border were being attacked by a large feral canine creature, composed of the same black smog Xeina noticed when she arrived. Its jaws and claws tearing away at their armour, shrugging off seemingly every spell or attack they threw at the beast. A small gasp escaped her lips with this huge looming threat no more than a few meters away from her. The immense presence in front of her made her want to simply flee, and not look back. But yet again, that same divine voice whispered in the back of her head: "this was her chance to change everything. Remember the heroes of the various games she enjoyed before; they wouldn't run. Stand and fight."

Just as this thought manifested itself, she felt a remnant of her old life surge with energy and reached into her pocket: her smartphone. As she held it, it began vibrating wildly with power and out of seemingly thin air manifested a massive cannon. With cannon in hand, Xeina felt a surge of confidence amidst her nervous panic and fear, and blasted away at the beast, piercing its thick vile smog. The creature recoiled from the shot, and locked eyes with Xeina sending shivers of fear down her spine. Xeina looked back into the abyss and despite the unmistakable presence of insurmountable power in front of her, she stood determined and faced the beast back. Quivering at the lip and shaking, Xeina stood her ground with an air of mock bravado with gun poised.

The beast then let out a bloodcurdling howl and turned away, the cloud of smog carrying itself away. Once it left, Xeina stood shell shocked for a few seconds, then collapsed to her knees and passed out. For a shut-in such as herself, having to fake that confidence in front of such a presence drained her and she was beyond overwhelmed. When she came to, Xeina found herself in bed. Stepping out and opening the door to the room, she found a crowd of citizens celebrating her presence. They then began thanking her immensely, praising her for aiding the border guards and questioning her uncanny ability to be unaffected by the Lightless Zone’s affliction, if she were some kinds of god. Xeina awkwardly ducked back into the room unsure of how to process all of this.

She had no idea where she was, what that massive monster she had just fought even was, how she even managed to summon that cannon, nor did she even really know how she was alive. Sitting down on the floor, with her back towards the door, she pulled out her phone again and looked at the reflection of herself in it. She had been given a second chance at life, but she didn't really know how to process all of this. Her old life was seemingly behind her, never to be found again. And here she was, in some strangle lands back to square one. Amidst her cheers outside her door, she curled up in her hands and knees, tears dropping down on her phone.

### Recent Events

Since getting acquainted with the Ninapuan locals, Xeina is taking her time to relax and get used to her newfound powers. Despite her reputation as a new town hero, she is as nervous as ever: so, she's mostly kept to herself. However, her encounter with the beast she now knows to be called Xabilysth, awakened something in her as day after day, the lightless zone calls to her. Determined to figure out what that place really was, Xeina vowed to head back there, to unravel the mystery as to why she was here.

But first, she had been asked to investigate a report by two kids who had had an encounter with a strange, yet friendly robot off in the Ninapuan mountains.

## Personality

Xeina struggles with interpersonal relationships, and often doesn't even attempt them due her anxiety. An introverted person by nature, as a child she often didn't attempt to socialize with the other kids causing her to not develop the best people skills, coming off as awkward a lot of the time which often comes through with her overexaggerated facial expressions to situations as she is unsure what is the correct thing to do.

Throughout her life, this developed into her struggling with self-esteem issues to the point that she wouldn't often doesn't try new things at the risk of being scrutinized or embarrassed. Due to years of being rejected and bullied, she had become reserved. While some may have turned this into anger and a vengeful attitude, Xeina took it upon herself and her self-esteem was crushed as a result.

However, despite all this: she has a heart of gold and really does want to do good. Xeina often wants to help other people but is held back by her fear of potentially messing up further. But when push comes to shove, she will more often than not, throw herself in the deep end to help. She has self-motivation issues, so when she has to do something for someone else, she will often put in much more effort for them than herself at the risk of disappointing them rather than herself.

## Trivia

* Xeina canonically is a weeb.
* After her death, Xeina now has a fear of rain as the rain is what ultimately caused the sewer, she was in to overflow and flood.
	+ While not an overpowering case of Ombrophobia, this fear of hers occasionally manifests in the form of nightmares of Xeina drowning again.

## Development Notes

* The alternate dimension where Xeina originates from is one where magic didn't develop at the beginning of time much like the rest of the Grand Design. As such, there was no need for the All-Mother to send forth the Blessed Children and kick start the magical arms race.
	+ In essence, her home dimension is extremely close to the real world earth.
* There are many more constructs hidden in her smartphone that she could create, but as she is new to magic she is unable to unlock the full power of her focus. All these weapons are refererences or directly come from the games she played in her youth.
* Xeina's original conception was as a character born out of the World In between the Walls and using that to jump between the Grand Design. She was supposed to act as an apparent anomaly of Abzulor's influence gaining her own sentience.
	+ This was changed later to make her a spin on the typical Isekai protagonist to explain the dimension hopping aspect of her story.,
	+ Her initial weapon was a massive glowing buster-esque sword.
	+ Xeina in development went through other names such as Zahra, Xeraphina, and Xavia.
* Xeina's first full story had her as more of a direct riff on the isekai genre with her being a high schooler, who dies in the typical isekai truck incident.
	+ However, the story was changed to her being a failed university student and dying a more meaningful death as her prevalence in the story developed.