Axzem Hildegard

North America | Dynamis | Maduin

"This contradiction in my heart has become a familiar friend, I'm afraid-- 'tis as close to me as even my dearest comrades."

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About

Physical

Axzem is a tall and weedy man of six fulms in height; though he is technically half Highlander by lineage, the only sign of his father's Highlander genetics in him are his height and the telltale dark patches of skin around his eyes. He has otherwise inherited most of his features from his Midlander mother, including his round, boyish facial features and the pale green discoloration of his left eye. The same eye bears a red tattoo of a Gyr Abanian design, given to him by his father as a boy.Though on balance he is not particularly athletic, being the habitually bookish type, an upbringing of botany apprenticeship has lent him a sort of lean musculature. He is slightly nearsighted and wears glasses to correct his vision.

Personality

Soft-spoken and gentle-hearted, Axzem despises conflict-- which puts him a bit at odds with his role as a Warrior of Light. He is trusting to a fault, preferring to befriend first and ask questions later; thus, he has many friends, but is easily taken advantage of.What, at the start of his journey, presented as a wavering sense of self-confidence and a certain timidity toward combat was galvanized over time into an iron-clad commitment to mercy and compassion. His trusting nature was once a product of his youthful naïvety; now, it is a conscious choice he makes in defiance of the cruelty he has witnessed.Axzem is somewhat religious, having inherited his patron deity-- Menphina-- from his mother. He keeps the faith as a source of comfort and familiarity, but religion is not a central presence in his life.

History

Axzem was born to Ariana and Deren Hildegard in the Peaks of Gyr Abania in the year 1556 of the 6th Astral Era. However, he was not old enough to remember the land where he was born before his parents were forced to flee to Gridania when the Garlean empire invaded Ala Mhigo scarcely a year after he was born.The Hildegards were more fortunate than most refugees, however, as Ariana's family connections managed to buy them a comfortable life in the small hamlet of Quarrymill. As part of the arrangement, she and her husband were to take over management of the family orchard; Deren took to the business with aplomb, being a botanist by trade. Eager to pass on the trade, he began teaching it to his daughter and son as soon as they were old enough to pick up a hatchet.Axzem's older sister, Leann, began to show an affinity for conjury as she matured, leading her to step away from her apprenticeship with her father in favor of training with the hearers in the conjurer's guild in Gridania. Not being on the friendliest terms with the elementals, Deren allowed this arrangement only begrudgingly, doubling down on Axzem's training to compensate for his sister's absence. However, Axzem still held his sister in high esteem and always seeked to emulate her-- and sure enough, as he grew older, his interests began to bend toward conjury as well.After some few years of training, Leann decided not to become a hearer after all-- opting instead to leave the Twelveswood and put her conjury skills to the proof as an adventurer. Though she wrote back home on occasion, eventually, her letters stopped. Her family never learned what became of her, but Axzem kept an eye trained on Gridania-- forever wondering.With time, Axzem's own aptitude for conjury became apparent, and he begged leave to take up training with the conjurer's guild. His father resisted the idea, but on joint insistence from Axzem and Ariana, he eventually relented. It was not to be, however; Axzem's discipleship with the conjurers was abruptly cut short with the coming of the Seventh Umbral Calamity.Axzem hurried home amidst the chaos to find his parents alive and largely unscathed, but their livelihood in shambles; the family orchard was destroyed in the floods that swept the South Shroud. Grateful nevertheless to see his parents unharmed, Axzem put his conjury training on indefinite hold to stay and help them rebuild. Thus, he picked up his hatchet and resumed his apprenticeship, and he and his father began their work to restore some small part of the forest's natural bounty that had been lost. Days turned to weeks, weeks to moons, and moons, to years; the old orchard could never be replaced, but the three of them together were able to eke out a living of sorts.Inevitably, Axzem's thoughts turned once again to conjury, and to his missing sister. This time, however, Deren would have none of it. He forbade Axzem to return to the conjurer's guild, or to leave the Shroud. He would not allow what happened with Leann to happen again. His stubbornness eventually sparked a falling-out between the two, and Axzem left for Gridania in a rage. He was determined to find his sister, and he knew that the best way to find her was to follow her path-- as a conjurer and adventurer both.

Related Characters

Retainers

Emmeric Arkwright• Race/Clan: Hyur Midlander
• Birthplace: La Noscea (???)
• Occupation: Pirate (Former)
• Trust Class: Musketeer (MCH/GNB)
• Musical Motif: SantianaFormer first mate of a pirate crew that terrorized the Indigo Deep in years past, Emmeric was fiercely loyal to his captain, Keltwaen "Riptide" Hyrtrymmsyn. So loyal, in fact, that when the man retired from his life as a pirate to settle into a life of peace and quiet, Emmeric followed him as his retainer and caretaker to his estate, Finder's Keep.But the slow life was short-lived for the erstwhile captain, who felt the call of the sea once more. And so he chose to sell the home he'd built to a passing adventurer: one Axzem Hildegard.Riptide would not suffer Emmeric to follow him again, so he gave him a choice: continue looking after the estate as Axzem's retainer, or go his own way. Emmeric begrudgingly chose the former, though he was bitter and hostile toward his new employer at first.As fate would have it, Emmeric found himself swept along in the Warrior of Light's adventures, after Axzem managed to save him from a pack of turncoat Crystal Braves that descended upon the Keep in the wake of Ilberd's betrayal.Thus did he find his icy disposition toward his master thawing, even as he followed him to the wintry city of Ishgard...

Bram Newton• Race/Clan: Hyur Midlander
• Birthplace: Coerthas (Owl's Nest)
• Occupation: Temple Knight
• Trust Class: Pactbound (PLD/RPR)
• Musical Motif: Hills of Radiant WindSer Bertram Newton-- more privately known as Bram-- is an Ishgardian Temple Knight under the command of Lucia Junius.Hailing from a small hamlet in eastern Coerthas, he and his family found a new home in the Brume after the icy winds of the Calamity hollowed out their old home and left it a frozen husk. While his parents managed to eke out a humble living as crafters, Bram set his sights higher-- and managed to earn his place as a Temple Knight squire at the tender age of 14, ascending to knighthood some few years after.The course of his duty saw him gravely wounded defending the city during the heretic uprising. Limping through the city streets, bleeding profusely and barely hanging on to consciousness, he had the good fortune to stumble across Axzem Hildegard and his allies just before collapsing. Axzem's white magic was able to pull him back from the brink of death, whereupon they carried him to the Forgotten Knight to convalesce and await more thorough ministrations. Axzem would later return, after the fighting died down, to nurse him back to health as best he could.Some time later, after he was back on his feet, Bram expressed to Axzem his fervent desire to pay back the favor of saving his life-- coincidentally in earshot of his commander, Lucia. With a glint in her eye, she offered him an assignment: accompany the Warrior of Light as his guard detail. Bram eagerly accepted.

Trivia

⚠ Under Construction ⚠Come back later for more information!

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OOC Info

About the Author

Hi, my name is Matt, also known as thetaCriterion, also known as TC. I'm just some dude who likes games and dudes and plays at being creative occasionally.

About the Character

The current iteration of Axzem Hildegard was originally created during the open beta of Final Fantasy XIV 1.0, but the name "Axzem" goes back much further than that-- he started life as my character on Maple Story back in 2006, where his name was just an arrangement of syllables I invented on the spot that sounded nice. I've since used the same name for my main characters in many MMOs, such as Mabinogi, Aion, Flyff, and World of Warcraft. (The "Axzem" on Gaia Online, however, was not me; by pure chance, the name was already taken there, and only there.)I promise that the name bears no connection to Azem, though imagine my surprise when that name was first revealed!His last name was originally "Hildebrand" when I first created him, as you can see in some of my old screenshots. This surname slightly predates my time in XIV, so the resemblance to Hildibrand is purely coincidental; I later changed his last name to Hildegard to avoid confusion. The name is partially a reference to the airship Hilda Garde in FFIX, and more specifically, to the airship's theme song in the FFIX soundtrack, "The Airship Hilda Garde". The name's in-universe origins are a different story, which I might explore in more detail at some point in the future.In spite of the fact that I originally created him during 1.0, Axzem is not a legacy character and does not have the Mark of the Twelve, either in-universe or in-game. This iteration of him was re-created from scratch in 2.0. This is because I never actually purchased the retail version of Final Fantasy XIV 1.0, which was a requirement to migrate a 1.x character into ARR.That said, the Gridania storyline of 1.0 is canon to Axzem's backstory, with the exception that he never joined the Path of the Twelve, nor met any of the Scions other than Yda and Papalymo (whose memories of him were wiped during the Calamity and did not remember him when they were re-united in ARR.)

Regarding Roleplay

Looking at this page, you'd be forgiven for assuming I'm an RPer, but I actually have pretty much no roleplaying experience-- in XIV or elsewhere! Axzem is an OC of mine who I sometimes write about, but mostly just Imagine in Situations. This is not to say I Would Never RP as him (given the right pitch), but I've never done it before, I have no idea how it works, and I kind of suspect I'd suck at it.

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