#his meme bg is that he’s from modern AU eorzea but isekaied into FF14 cuz I accidentally built him to look too much like an office worker

[xaelatailchomp]

Nagakage backstory cuz I should write it down somewhere.

A lot of it is honestly me fumbling because I didn’t know the lore and creating backstories for those accidents lmao.

I honestly think it’s only interesting to me cuz idk. This stuff will probs only be used if I RPed lmao.

Warnings: unedited, magical transition (incomplete), will probs be edited the more I learn about the lore of this game tbh

(977 words)

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The baby Xaela was discovered by an old couple in Yanxia when they found it cradled in the arms of its wounded, unresponsive mother. They tried to help her but it wasn’t long before she succumbed to her wounds, having shielded her newborn from what seemed to be an attack on the merchant caravan she was travelling with. From talks with survivors, the newborn’s father too had perished trying to protect the caravan.

The child had no name, anyone that could have known had been slaughtered in the attack. The couple, named Okeya, gave the child theirs and a name they held onto, waiting for the Kami to bless them with a child that never was.

The child spent less than five years with them in Yanxia until Garlemald succeeded in taking over Doma. The family Okeya, consisting of two elderly and one small child were given priority to board the boats, seeking refuge where they could.

They found refuge on the outer fringes of thanalan, amongst a small commune by the sea, where they kept to themselves. But it wasn’t long before the Patriarch Okeya found himself a widower.

Age was catching up to the dwindled family Okeya, their child only eight summers old before the lone patriarch could feel his mind going. Once a man of the sword, he taught the child everything he could remember, using sticks because Eastern blades were uncommon in this land. He taught the child the differences between Au Ra and Hyur, knowing not much of the Xaela himself, only that the child’s mother had been clad in yellow and that yellow was of the Oronir. It wasn’t long before the child was left alone.

Children fending for themselves weren’t an uncommon sight in Eorzea, especially in times of war, Thanalan is no different. The Xaela child grew alongside other orphaned refugees, relying on the kindness of strangers before that became infeasible as the war grew worse and many more refugees found themselves on Thanalan shores.

The child heard of Ul’dah, the towering jewel of the desert, but kept away where the other children dreamed of robbing the rich merchants that found home there. There were trade routes ripe for exploiting where they were, and the family Okeya never ventured farther than where their roots had been replanted.

And the Xaela child lived in fear. The child’s body wasn’t growing right, already taller than the midlander women they’ve grown up around, scales darkening farther than the other Xaela girls the child’s age. He was growing up an anomaly, but that anomaly was good. Because if he bound his chest and took on a variation of his father’s name, he would be given a blade and hired into the local mercenary group, almost taller than their shortest midlander man.

It was when his growth reached a plateau, nearly as tall as a Highlander man, that Nagakage considered doing something about it. He had spent his puberty as a man and found it fit him better than girlhood ever did.

He’s been hearing whispers of an underground potions trader, who’s been working on a product that could change the faces of those running away from the law. There’d been japes over tankards that it could enhance things where they mattered, ragging on the only man in their company that’s managed to keep a steady woman no matter how many times the couple fought.

Nagakage hunted down this man, giving an excuse that he needed to hone his strength alone and away from distractions. Though his sword skills were merely passable, he was known for being able to hold out on his own, so the mercenary troupe had waved him away, with no one bothering to volunteer after him. Their numbers had grown steadily over the years and though he knows he would be welcomed back if he were to return, he will not be missed. Alone on the fringes of Thanalan, he found his man and struck a deal with the alchemist.

He worked as the man’s errand boy and bodyguard as the potion he required was tested and perfected on his body. The process was slow going and Nagakage frequently found himself waking abed, body aching, having to recover from the side effects of the slow acting experimental potions. But it was working.

Nagakage found himself towering over the pale midlander Alchemist one day, and found his horns that once curled daintily forward, had now grown larger and thicker. They looked stronger now and curled inward over his face, pointed down, level with his chin, and tipped in red. His tail had grown longer too, though that had meant nothing to him. The Alchemist touched it often, measuring it with particular interest. Nagakage was possibly the only Au Ra the Alchemist had ever set his eyes on.

Though it is possible the Alchemist merely measured his tail because, even with the experiment going this far along, there has yet to be anything growing where it mattered. His body everywhere else was distinctly male, even his chest had flattened out. The only issue now was that he lacked manhood. He’d now woken up plenty of times now, sore between the legs with nothing more than an ache to show for it.

When his growth had plateaued here too, he decided to leave the Alchemist. The potion wasn’t perfect but on his errands he’d been hearing of this new underground potion that could do things better. A potion that once, rumors say, changed a Hyur man into a delicate Miqo’te girl. A fantastical potion people have been calling Fantasia.

Eyes on the city of Ul’dah, the jewel of the desert he’d once sworn off, he goes.

(Only to find later that the experiments he’d undergone had only allowed Fantasia to work for a single sun before being reverted where the changes were wanted)