Audriq Solterre

Primal || Hyperion || FC: KARMA **~ Twitter: @audriqsolterre

FULL NAME: Audriq Solterre
NICKNAME: --
MAIN: PLD/DRG
SUB: DRK
AGE: Unknown (30s?)
Wildwood Elezen ♂
NAME DAY: 8th Sun of the Second Astral Moon
BIRTHPLACE: UnknownAudriq is a masculine Elezen that stands around 6’5” (196cm), with deep brown skin and mossy green hair, either seen braided or chopped off short. He keeps facial hair on his sides and under his chin. His natural eye color is amber, but a strange wound on his left eye has made the iris a bright red. Built and sturdy.In this world's Eorzea, he is one of four known champions of Hydaelyn, the Warriors of Light.

Persona and Skills

Audriq is a man whose first impressions come off as hard and silent, focused solely on his own goals. It is sometimes difficult to fully engage him, as he frequently gives short, straight forward responses that need no reply. Enough time around him though, and one will realize that he is just incredibly awkward and bad at talking.Internally, Audriq battles many fears of how to best do his work as a designated Warrior of Light, and this leads him to isolate himself as a means to ensure others are not dragged unnecessarily into his personal trials. He feels he works best as a weapon and shield to loved ones, rather than a charismatic leader or guide, and is very passionate about using whatever abilities he can to help those around him, to recompense for his 'cool' exterior.Towards his allies he is protective and supportive, and does not mind carrying bigger burdens, whether physically or emotionally. When others hesitate, he is not afraid to make the first move and endure whatever comes next. He gives his everything to saving this star, but never intends to die for it; he has taken to heart that you cannot defend your loved ones from a grave.He does have a bit of a binge drinking problem that has gotten him into trouble multiple times. He does not become violent, but confrontational and much more vocal on his personal opinions. After these nights he usually vows "never again", but a few weeks or months later temptation usually wins over him again. He is working on this issue. (As of post-EW, so far he has successfully kicked the habit!)

History

(Preface: in Audriq’s canon he is one of at least four known Warriors of Light; he does not experience every storyline/event in the game, and not always in the same order!)Before A Realm RebornIn Central La Noscea, Audriq woke up in the wake of the Calamity nauseous, heavy and disoriented. It was unclear if the Calamity had happened days before, or mere hours, and complicating the matter was that he had acquired terrible amnesia: he had no idea what his name was, what had happened, and the land and people looked strange and foreign. He had a heavy, awkward accent that received strange looks, but gave him enough communication skills to navigate the new world.Audriq struggled the first few months as he formed his identity (and 'temporary' name), and tried to puzzle through what had happened. Getting nowhere, he eventually became caught up in reconstruction jobs for Limsa Lominsa, and set aside his problems for the time being. He moved from odd job to odd job, eventually finding a steady line of work through a kitchen that helped deliver meals for workers and those needing aid. He started by helping move stock and inventory, but with the cooks short of hand, he became familiar with many kitchen skills, and was quickly stolen by staff as a permanent employee. The kitchen owner enjoyed Audriq’s work ethic and steady presence (ignoring his occasional tardiness), and the two became easy friends.A Realm RebornOne day, Audriq’s boss confesses to him a dilemma: an old friend in the culinary field is in dire need of employment. Audriq had been promoted to sous chef in the kitchen months earlier, but the boss could not keep both him and the friend. Audriq volunteers to step down, and decides to take the time to go back to other jobs that would allow him to explore the realm freely.The Adventurer’s Guild leads Audriq to assist caravans back and forth through La Noscea and The Shroud towards Gridania, delivering cargo from the ports. During a routine trip, bandits unexpectedly jump the wagons. Audriq instinctively grabs a lance and fights back alongside the guard, killing a bandit and causing the rest to retreat. The caravan, thrilled by his skill, asks about his fighting experience, to which he states he was unaware he had any. The group encourages him to join the lancer’s guild at their arrival in Gridania, starting Audriq’s journey proper, and is eventually pulled into working with the Scions at the Waking Sands.The most significant event for Audriq in ARR would be his time in Crystal Tower. Audriq becomes very close to a few individuals during the expedition, most significantly with G’raha Tia. Amused by his excitable and enthusiastic nature, Audriq would take small breaks to follow the miqo’te on excursions to sites of interest. During these, both would also sit and talk for hours in the evening, Audriq being pressed for stories. When G’raha seals himself away in the Tower, Audriq is heartbroken, realizing his growing influence in the world is farther from his control than he had imagined, and the consequences have become too painful.Seeking distance, he leaves Eorzea for Coerthas to take up an offer he had been given to train further as a Dragoon. When it is revealed that Audriq has been marked by Nidhogg’s eye as an Azure Dragoon, Audriq is thrown into another crisis. He cannot understand why the Echo has only now begun to dog him, and why, through no desire of his own, he has become so integral to the future of so many people. Still no memories have returned. The burdens now crush him, and he runs into the Coerthas Highlands, into hiding.HeavenswardAudriq would find little rest; eventually through sporadic contact with Haurchefant he hears the events of the Banquet that have taken the Sultana’s life and scattered the Scions across the realm. Haurchefant tells him that several of his friends had sought safety at Camp Dragonhead. Seeing Tataru and Alphinaud plight worries Audriq, and he decides to join them, despite his hesitation to continue to involve others in his struggles.Audriq around this time falls down the road of the Dark Knight. He finds his familiarity with the class and weapon unsettling, and is, somehow, uncomfortably at home in the role. He struggles to interact with Fray, realizing eventually what he is intrinsically tied to - the self he does not remember. It seems that this 'lost self' was angry, bitter and defeated by the time he met his 'end', and knowing this leaves Audriq uncertain that he will be able to help the realm at all, if he is someone who could eventually yield to such destructive anguish.Heavensward is a major storyline for Audriq, and he is involved in nearly all the MSQ. The events in the Vault stun and infuriate him; he is sure that the fatal blow by Ser Zephirin was meant for him, and throws his rage into an oath to eliminate the threats created by the Archbishop and Heaven’s Ward. Ysayle’s death would destroy him further, and yet it causes him to stop and reflect on his own desires. Finding her actions too eager to embrace a road of self-destruction, and seeing a glimpse of his own nature within them, he commits to a role of perseverance rather than sacrifice. Audriq confronts the Archbishop as a Dark Knight, one of only two major battles he does so. He has found himself at a truce with Fray for the time being, determined to live another day where he may yet find answers.Audriq also leads the fight in defeating Nidhogg, as the Azure Dragoon, finding strength in his desire to protect his comrades around him. He leaves Ishgard feeling a little stronger and steady, and while he does not find closure or answers to his continuing amnesia, there is at least hope that, maybe, this time, the man he’s become will not give in to despair.StormbloodThe battle with Zenos in Rhalgr’s Reach leaves Audriq gravely wounded, and he ends up recovering alongside Y’shtola for most of the story, having to trust on his comrades to come through on their journey. Alone in recovery he begins to have nightmares that do not quite feel like nightmares; he stands before faceless, familiar people, crying and shouting, asking him why, how could he come to betray them? A dead body lies between, and the only emotions he can feel are a cold bitterness and despair.During his recovery, Audriq visits Sidurgu and Rielle (probably a bit too soon after his wounds and recurrent nightmares). Meeting Myste is a terrifying experience; the child speaks gently and with a pain and guilt for those gone, feelings Audriq is too familiar with. His appearance leaves Audriq unnerved for reasons he has trouble understanding. At the end of their trials together, he hears Myste’s plea to end suffering by ending everything, and the nightmares begin to make sense; whatever had happened before his memory loss, he had conducted something destructive; something irreversible, and possibly unforgivable. When Fray steps in to assist Audriq in quelling Myste, though, Audriq becomes confused; would his past self not wish to assist the child? Even as they leave him once again, speaking of love and forgiveness towards himself, he cannot yet understand or accept those words for himself.Audriq eventually becomes too anxious having left everyone behind, and receives assistance from Alphinaud and Tataru to get to Kugane. He eventually comes back to the team before the seizure of Doma Castle. Audriq would eventually become most involved in the restoration of Doma, contributing heavily to its construction (and learning much about the cuisine of Othard from Mitsuba, whom he befriended quickly).Returning to Ala Mhigo, Audriq stays in Rhalgr’s Reach until the Scions are pulled into talks with Garlemald. As the Scions and his other comrades fall unconscious or disappear one by one, Audriq is left as the only one with Alisae on the fields at Ghimlyt Dark, and also the only one to face Zenos on the field. He is saved from certain death by Estinien, and recovering, Audriq has first contact with the Exarch, leading him to his travels to the First.ShadowbringersIt takes very little time for Audriq to parse out that the Exarch is, in fact, G’raha Tia. Evasive as he is and despite his denial, he is near certain that at least some part of him continues to exist as G’raha. However, he does not confront the Exarch on the issue, trusting that there is a very good reason he does not wish to reveal himself, or cannot, and keeps quiet.Audriq immediately finds Emet-Selch irritating and does not take his observational role or assistance as genuine.The task of defeating the Lightwardens does not phase Audriq, and he handles it with relative ease. The Exarch seems sure that he is the one able to shoulder the role, and Audriq does not question it, still believing in his goals. After the Crown of the Immaculate, the Exarch reveals his plans and is stopped by Emet, and both disappear, leaving the Scions and his team to deal with Audriq’s condition. He wakes up struggling to keep in his fury at so many things: G’raha’s masked plan to sacrifice himself from the start, Emet’s disgust at their failure, and how paralyzed he had become by his infliction. However, even faced with the real threat of turning into a terrible beast himself, his vow to persevere and leave no one behind keeps him steady and determined. G’raha had called him his inspiration; it was time to live up to that title.Audriq fights Hades as a Dark Knight, the only other battle thus far that he trusts Fray to assist with, and with the help of his team and their Azem (and Ardbert!), they defeat him. Despite his bitterness towards Emet Selch, he promises to remember, as asked of him, and commits to saving the realms, for the sake of all that have come before.In the aftermath, back at the Crystarium, Audriq and the Exarch have a bit of a tense atmosphere between them; confronted alone at night during festivities, Audriq is forced to confess the struggles he has experienced to the Exarch - losing his friends in Ishgard, near losing faith in himself, that he could ever be trusted to save the realm. He had no intention of dying or letting others die for him; he would build the road Hydaelyn wanted him to tread; not walk upon the bodies of others. He was bitter at the Exarch’s choices, angry that he could only see himself as a means to an end instead of someone worth living to see the world they helped shape. But he can only be so mad, for someone dear had returned to him, someone he thought he would never see again. How could he not feel relief and joy? Many tears were shed by the Exarch, many quiet words whispered to each other in the night, hands clasped tightly between them as they looked over the celebrations in the Crystarium.Elidibus breaks this peace, and though Audriq finds an understanding between himself and the Ascian during the fight, he accepts that there can only be one future and gives everything he has.The sacrifice is great, and the goodbyes said to the Exarch near break him. Holding the vessel with his soul and memories tightly, Audriq is found sobbing and heaving in front of his crystalized figure. This is a moment he had lived, once, and within him a horrible history threatened to repeat. With encouragement from loved ones, he is talked off the precipice of destruction, and holds on to the most fragile of hope that G’raha Tia will return, not knowing what he will do, or who he will become, if he never sees him again.Soon after returning to the Source, the recovered Scions receive word that G’raha has awoken from inside the Crystal Tower, now resting at the camps with Rammbroes and his team, Audriq looking over him. Meeting up again later, the two are all smiles and at peace. Neither ever speaks of the events of their reunion in the Tower.After the events at Paglth’an and meeting with Forchenault from Sharlayan, Audriq has a strange vision of a woman. That night, another dream, a memory, comes to him: he lies on the floor dying, his vision blurred. A faceless stranger stands at his body. A woman’s voice asks if he truly wanted to destroy everything; Audriq hears himself answer: no, no, he did not. The woman’s voice asks if he would ever accept a second chance. Audriq hears himself say yes, he would, again and again, but the person that the world shaped him to be would never succeed. Maybe he could, in some other life, but he feared he would only continue to fail as the man he was.Audriq finds himself searching for Sidurgu, receiving a strange letter. He follows the trail to a spot on a cliff, where Frey appears. They both have found peace, and hope, and whoever Audriq had been, wherever he had come from… it mattered not anymore. Frey disappears, leaving just Audriq, feeling like a whole being for the first time since he opened his eyes to Eorzea’s skies.

More Lore and Trivia

Trivia/Facts

  • Audriq’s name is an unintentional amalgam of historical Ishgardian figures. When trying to find a title that sounded natural to Eorzeans, he pulled from here and there in books and papers and settled on one eventually. At the time this worked out very nicely, but in Ishgard it took quite a while for people to get over his strange name.

  • His favorite food is pasta; he dislikes heavy foods with too much dairy or starch. Despite this, he is not picky, and does not fuss with whatever food he’s given.

  • Audriq can see fine through his scarred eye, and has almost no vision problems.

  • Audriq was nervous around chocobos until he received one from the Grand Companies, and Bobby is now one of his dearest companions. (He did not know she was a girl when he named her.)

(more coming soon!)