Who is Surkukteni?

[vestablackclaw]

 

Name: Surkukteni Sekiguchi
Age: 24 (ARR) -> 31 (ENW)
Gender: Bigender (socialized as female, is intersex - doesn't care if you call her a woman)
Pronouns: she/her exclusively
Sexuality: Bisexual
Race: Mixed (Xaela/Raen)
Occupation: Warrior of Light
Jobs: Dark Knight, Dragoon, Reaper - plus many assorted side jobs such as Red Mage, Astrologian, and Machinist
Physical Appearance: The best word to describe Surkukteni is, "large."  She stands at 6'1", is built like a tank, and continues to improve upon this aspect of her.  She has broad shoulders and a somewhat slim waist in comparison to how much bulk she has (it's not actually slim, just not as wide as it would be for non-au ra) despite her best attempts (it's that damn manra waist, 'tis unfortunately apart of the deal).  It gives her a very inverted triangular shape until you get to her hips and thighs.  Her thighs have been developed over the 7 years of her career as first a Dragoon and then a Dark Knight, making them thick and extremely muscular.  Her hips used to be slimmer, but after having twins it's just made her that small bit curvier.  She has a bit of pudge - as it's just natural for resting muscle - but some of it is left over from gestures at the fact she's a mother to twins.  She also has a fairly large chest; this is normal for her, even in spite of how active she is, but it does cause her a bit of dysphoria so you'll see her binding from time to time.  She has stretch marks on her arms, breasts, torso and thighs from just living as a muscular person (it happens and they're normal, don't @ me <3), and a myriad of scars all over her body from being a Warrior of Light.  Calluses and scars cover her worn hands, but the most notable ones are a large scar on right side of her body (our left) from the fight with Nidhogg at the Final Steps of Fate, two pale scars that run parallel down her back from failing to contain the light at Mt. Gulg, and three scars over her left eye (our right) from a fight gone wrong with the voidsent, Lilith.

She has dark brown skin with a cool undertone that's absolutely covered in dark freckles from head to toe.  While they are visible, she doesn't fully buy that they're as visible as people say due to the fact she does need glasses.  Her eyes are naturally green and glow in dim light, but her left eye has been stained gold from the events of Shadowbringers - her sclera, a natural jet black.  Her hair has changed a lot over the course of the story.  While it remains the same dark purple as ever - turning a lighter fuchsia when exposed to the sun - she's gone from a close cropped, slicked back style, to a long braid with a fringe for several years to honor who she assumed she'd lost, to a much shorter and messier "breakdown cut" with two braids (and beads and feathers, given to her by Lyse), to her current shaggy mullet - but the braids remain.  Her hair does hold a lot of significance to her, but she doesn't seem to particularly care about presentation as much anymore.

Her scales are as black as obsidian and cover a good chunk of her body, yet if you look closely you can see bone white speckled scales - one of the only signs she's half Raen, along with her blue tongue.  Yet on her back are pale, bleached scales where they've begun to regrow over the light scars - horrifyingly pale, and not at all what she used to have.  She's also tattooed, covered in intricate patterns and roses with a sleeve of a red and gold dragon on her right (our left) arm...but the dragon seems to move?  And change position?  She has fangs, and an extremely long and thick tail with large spikes at the base - and keep in mind, this tail is a menace in how expressive she is with it.  Another auri quality of hers is that she does have double eyelids, but the other set (vertical) are completely invisible and you can't quite see them unless you catch the way the light glares off of them - very useful underwater.  Unlike other au ra, she has vertical slit pupils...that she got soon after that dragon tattoo, as she didn't always have them.  How curious.

Personality: Brash.  While Surkukteni was known to be a quiet child, she's grown into a very outspoken adult.  She often speaks her mind, can be very stubborn and bullheaded, yet it's (usually) not from a place of maliciousness.  While she can be selfish and mostly cares about herself and those around her, she still has a strong moral compass...just not one that's convenient for the Allied Nations.  She's very political and opinionated, her most notable hills she'll die on being the better treatment of Ala Mhigan refugees and the Eorzean tribes (such as the Amalj'aa and Ixal).  She's deathly curious and a bit of a natural academic, yet when you look at her and her antics you'd assume her to be a jock - because she is one, sort of.  She's into athletics and shows of physical prowess, yet very well read and interested in aetherology, archaeology, anthropology, demonology, and botany.  Yet you'd never know this unless you personally got to know her as she stuffs all of her actual interests, eccentricies, and otherwise "unfitting personality traits" down to present as a more serious and more stern Warrior of Light and Dark Knight.  While yes, she can be broody, dour, and rude - and truly, she is quite rude - and while she can be a selfish, competitive asshole; she's not a terrible person.  Deep down, she's just prickly for her own personal safety.  She's physically clingy, she has a big heart and really loves her partners and friends - but to look at her?  You'd never figure that out at a first glance.

To others, she's brash, cocky, rude, and confident.  To her lovers, she's...competitive, yes.  Obnoxious, yes.  But also deeply loyal, trustworthy, and someone who would go to the utter ends of the star (and has) for those she loves.  Self destructive and self loathing, sure, but reliable to the very end.

Notable Abilities: Besides the canon universal translator and past-viewing powers, Surkukteni's Echo allows for her to see the fetters that Fate has established that pull people to their intended course - namely, as it concerns death.  If someone is to die, she sees how it pulls them to that fate or roots others so that they can't stop it.  As per this ability - and should her will be strong enough - she can alter the course of Fate, and has done so several times.  Accidentally or on purpose, she has saved individuals who were meant to die - with each twist causing the ability to mature and grow stronger, while simultaneously Fate's resilience growing firmer.  Foulques, Moenbryda, Ilberd, and Ysayle were all unintentional - Ysayle so indirect she'd assumed her dead for four years - while Yotsuyu and Venat were very intentional.  Papalymo's was a bitter failure that haunts her to this day, more so now that Ahewann is the most recent salt in the wound.
She also has a unique Voidsent in the form of Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, an immeasurably ancient Voidsent that's rumored to be as old as the Void itself.  He's a large dragon, with scales of ruby and gold - yet his face is this horrific skeletal form with no eyes, yet something electric blue sometimes sparks to life in them.  He has twin tails that consolidate into red or yellow, and hand-like front legs.  His size is variable to how he so feels like appearing, and can also appear as dense smoke.  ...Or a humanoid, much like a demon you'd see out of Devil May Cry.  Surkukteni doesn't have him as an Avatar like Reapers should have, she instead summoned him into her - so it's a bit odd.  There's been much negotiation between them over how to fight - as he apparently used to fight with twin swords and twin lances - until they settled on a summoned scythe.  As of Endwalker, however, Surkukteni has partly fused with him - his choice, as she was dying - and now she has access to her own unique form.  It's very similar to his, but is modeled after her armor in Shadowbringers.  Who is Diarmuid, though?  That's another story in its own right, but he does get oddly quiet when the topic of Cylva is brought up...or a Voidsent known as The Morrigna.

Shards and Past Lives: 

• Charon: Also known at the time as Azem, Charon was Surkukteni's self in the Ancient world.  They were a wanderer and researcher - specifically responsible for Carbuncles as we know them, and the Proto-Carbuncle.  They were trans masculine and genderfluid, exclusively went by they/them pronouns, and were bisexual.  They were the sibling to Hermes and the two shared very similar views on the ways that the Ancient society wasn't exactly the utopia people preached it to be.  Both saw the horrors of the world for different angles - non-human life versus non-conforming peoples - and they often took matters into their own hands...much to the horror of the Convocation.  Charon was originally in a relationship with Hades and Hythlodeus, but things quickly broke down as they turned out to be very complacent with the status of things in Etheirys.  They left the two for their steadier partners: Khione (Ancient Ysayle), and Venat.  Charon remained with these two until the Final Days, dying before they could become the Heart of Hydaelyn after falling into a grief-stricken rage at the death of Khione.  Their rage continues to burn yet still.
• Ammut: Ammut was an Allagan elezen from the higher echelons of the Empire.  He was a trans man, and the brother to Amon.  Yet despite having such a prestigious birth - shown through the fact he was a 12ft menace, and allowed access to only the best medical technology of the time - he was a staunch opponent of the Empire.  He loathed what his brother was apart of and often advocated against further expansion.  While his words were tempered, his actions were the furthest from it.  Ammut himself was an ally of Meracydia and a vassal and pact-bearer of Bahamut, as well as the lover of Macchi Jakhya (a Mithra, 3rd Era Khione/Ysayle) - a revolutionary, powerful general of the Meracydian armies, and pact-bearer and deeply devoted companion to Tiamat.  Yet despite all of his attempts, Ammut was still outsmarted and caught by Amon.  He and Macchi were executed in the most horrific ways: used as living vessels for powerful Voidsent that would be used to crush the Meracydians and kill Bahamut.  Macchi was used as the vessel for a being known as Macha, while Ammut was used as the vessel for Diarmuid Ua Duibhne.  Their anger burned in their souls for 3,000 years - kept close to Hydaelyn for safe keeping before being allowed to reincarnate as Surkukteni and Ysayle.
• The Morrigna: Surkukteni's shard from the Thirteenth.  She doesn't know much about this person, besides being Cylva's ex.  They didn't part on bad terms...it's just the world ended and one survived as the Shadowkeeper and the other became a terrifying Voidsent.  The Morrigna is said to be either one person or a group of three, but both are true.  The individual - The Morrigna - lords over the Morrignae in their vie for further territories in the Void.  Most descriptions of her place her as some kind of draconic being, when in reality her appearance is quite fluid and ink-like.  Draconic is a close description of her most common form, but she has many.  Like Surkukteni, she has control over fate.  Yet unlike hers, it's to ensure the worst fates and outcomes as that's "just realistic."  She can rewind healing and ensure that it sticks, and seems to know when and how you'll die - and if you don't?  She ensures it.  She maintains swaths of land in the Void, enforced by the Morrignae under her: Macha, Badb, and Nemain.  All three of the Morrignae are the shards of people close to Surkukteni - Macha, especially.  Diarmuid is a fascination of The Morrigna's and someone she pursues...but for what reason?  He doesn't hold much stock in the territory battles, yet remains a powerful Voidsent nonetheless - what is their relation?
• Zirnghota Zwynachtwyn: Surkukteni's shard from the Fourth.  This fact is unknown to the group and even Zirnghota, as she and her brother - Glyndwr (a shard of Hermes) - were found in Meracydia by their mother, Zywnacht.  It's not known how they wound up there or what happened to the Fourth, but Zirnghota and Glyndwr had some sort of encounter and some aetheric fuckery that caused their dark-blue hair to scorch pure white.  Zirnghota's hair has returned to blue (somewhat), but Glyndwr's remains white...?  Regardless, she's an ally of the Warriors of Light, a powerful Black Mage and Summoner, yet there's so much about her that's similar to Surkukteni - her drive, her abilities, that standoffish brother that doesn't fully see the worth in humanity (in Glyndwr's case, he cares greatly for the environment and can't stand the impact humanity has on it).  As of 6.2, they do know that she is a shard of Surkukteni's and Glyndwr of Fandaniel...but from where?  The group is not sure, and Zirnghota can't tell them.
• Katsuro of the Malaguld: Not a shard in the typical sense, Katsuro is the literal other half of Surkukteni's soul and her twin brother.  Charon's soul is tied to Hermes' intrinsically - the two always reincarnate together.  So when Amon did not, Charon's split in two: into Surkukteni, and Katsuro.  He has his own Echo and strange abilities and both have grown unique souls of their own to compensate for the missing bits of Charon's.  He has the ability to see the color of souls - as Charon once did - and has many of their memories, yet looks and acts a lot like Hermes.  While Surkukteni continues to break from the Ancients - despite being the most like Charon - Katsuro seems to embody them and empathize with them.  This has caused problems in the group many times, and undoubtedly will continue to.  But he's still her brother, whether she likes it or not.

Partners:

• Ysayle: Fiancé.  Technically enemies to lovers, the two are very similarly politically aligned, and Surkukteni fell head over heels for her soon into personally working with her.  The two are literal soulmates (thanks to Charon and Khione) and have repeatedly reincarnated together only to meet worse and worse fates and be split: yet this time, it worked.  This time, they're together and Surkukteni's going to damn well keep it that way.
• Estinien: Fiancé.  Theirs was a relationship they had to work towards through a friendship strained by war, but the two are very close and honest with each other.  He was the first person she'd gotten with after her abusive ex-girlfriend, and remains a close confidant, ally, and rival.
• Aymeric: Fiancé.  First man she ever fell for, the two were coworkers at first who played a lot of will-they-won't-they games with each other.  Politics are a bonding interest of theirs, as well as trying to talk the other in circles and get them to slip.  Very good friends turned lovers - as well as deadly accomplices.
• Venat: Girlfriend.  While not dating because of Charon, that has outlined much of their relationship to get to know each other now.  Surkukteni helped her recover from the Hydaelyn fight, and now she and Ysayle are both seeing Venat.  "Immortal with perpetually reincarnating lovers," and in this case she was so distraught from what happened to Ammut and Macchi that she gave them both her traveler's ward - yet...it still couldn't protect them from everything.
• Gwendoline: Girlfriend.  Surkukteni's first ally after coming to Eorzea, Gwendoline is the party healer and a terrible enabler when it comes to Surkukteni's less-than-legal interests.  A necromancer herself, the two have bonded greatly over the course of their journey.  From best friends with homoerotic tension to actual lovers, Gwendoline means the world to Surkukteni and is glad she can keep her by her side - as an ally, a friend, and a lover.

Family:

• Allie: Oldest daughter, adopted after Werlyt.  She lived with Surkukteni and her partners for a while to get on her feet after the events of Sorrow of Werlyt, and has ended up living with them as family - basically adopting herself into the group.  She takes machinist and engineering lessons with Stephanivien, is very close with Ysayle, and cares a lot about her new family.  Has made Alfonse a new robo-body that looks like a small dragon in its "energy conserving state," but turns into a larger humanoid in combat as her custom Automaton.  Stays in contact with Milisandia through her work on the Werlyt restoration effort (as Milisandia survives in this).
• Toskr: Oldest son, Yukiko's twin.  Born just before Endwalker, he's Surkukteni's son with Estinien.
• Yukiko: Second oldest daughter, Toskr's twin.  Born right before Endwalker, she's Surkukteni's daughter with Estitnien.
• Orianne: Youngest daughter.  Born during 6.X, she's Surkukteni's daughter with Aymeric - like her mother, she's intersex.  Like her father, she's trans - trans fem, specifically.
• Tseren: Youngest son.  Born during 6.X (conceived during 6.2), he's Surkukteni's son with Ysayle.  He's their only kid conceived after Surkukteni's partial fusion with Diarmuid.
• Katsuro of the Malaguld: Twin brother.  See Shard entry.
• Altan of the Borlaaq: Younger half sister.  They share a mother, while Altan's father is Bayar of the Dotharl.  She cares a lot about this little brat, even if she didn't grow up with her fully.  She'll kill for Altan, basically.
• Satomi Osada: Older half sibling.  They share a father, while Satomi's mother has passed.  Satomi (they/she) was a fisher from Sui no Sato before being banished for interacting with their newly-discovered half siblings and now lives in Limsa Lominsa.  As a way of trying to rebuild, they've joined the Sanguine Sirens under Rhoswen, and are scarily good with a bow.
• Emegen of the Borlaaq: Youngest half sister.  They share a mother, while her sire is Ulan of the Borlaaq.  She's only 11 and Surkukteni doesn't know her too well, but she seems nice enough.
• Odtsetseg of the Borlaaq: Bio mother.  Surkukteni doesn't get along with her.  She's very uncomfortable with this woman, she's the reason why Surkukteni ran away from home, and she never wants this woman to find out about her kids - as she has previously tried to get Surkukteni to abandon two of her partners to live with the Borlaaq again.  While she understands and respects that a lot of this is from trauma she experienced at the hands of Kousuke, that doesn't mean that Surkukteni has to bend to it or that Odtsetseg should expect this of her.  She is the mother of Surkukteni, Katsuro, Altan, and Emegen.
• Ulan of the Borlaaq:  Step-mother to Surkukteni (technically), Katsuro, and Altan - sire to Emegen.  She's a hardass of a woman that Surkukteni doesn't know well, but the two at least have mutual respect when Ulan joins the Ilsabard Contingency along with fighters from the Borlaaq.  Ulan stands with Odtsetseg, but at least she doesn't force Surkukteni into anything she doesn't want to do.
• Kousuke Osada: Bio father to Satomi, Surkukteni, and Katsuro.  Surkukteni doesn't know him, but apparently Katsuro does as he was exiled from Sui no Sato and went to the Malaguld - where Odtsetseg was originally from.  All she knows is that he's an abusive asshole with chronic wanderlust, and she wishes her mother would stop comparing her to him.  She has no plans on meeting him.
• Kitase Sekiguchi: Basically her father.  Kitase's her captain from when she worked in Kugane as a dockhand and shiphand on the Atsushi Maru.  He's a tiny bit of a prick and a right old ass, but she cares a lot about this man - he's the only one of the people she could call parents who has met her kids.  Even if he's a crotchety old geezer, she loves this guy to death.