i have worn nothing but blood and death for years .    i have fought all your battles for you ,  just as you asked me .    i have learned to watch everything die .    i have learned all the tricks you said i must learn .    I have learned not to cry when i strangle a man .    i have learned to watch everything die .    i am not a little girl anymore ,  dazzled by your magic .      it is my magic ,  now ,  too .  

* threads & more ,

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* & apparel ,

  kh: dark road      -  ffxiv: a realm reborn      -  ffxiv: heavensward      -  ffxiv: stormblood      a long violet coat with short sleeves and wide lapels embroidered with gold dragons .  red silk shirt ,  worn loose .    red sash worn around her waist – worn after becoming a red mage .    dark leather trousers and thigh high boots .    forearm length fingerless gloves ,  crystal hand heavily bandaged underneath .    thick gold choker and chain necklace with a lightning symbol and a fire - red jewel representing her affinity to black magic :  fire and thunder .  ffxiv: shadowbringers      a high - collared violet dress with winged sleeves ,  golden thavnairian - inspired embroidery and slits up both legs .    ribbon leather sandals that lattice the entire length of her legs ,  stopping mid - thigh .    the attire was first worn at the dinner party at the ala mhigan headquarters ,  on the night the exarch first reached out to the scions .    her crystal hand is bandaged but slowly loosens throughout the events of shadowbringers ,  and is eventually discarded altogether .  ffxiv: endwalker      a high - collared violet shirt with golden bodice and matching violet sleeves ,  detached from the shirt itself . purple cape - like skirt that reaches her ankles ,  weathered from her adventures .    black ,  lattice like leggings with gold armoured boots .    in heavensward ,  both hands are covered by gold armoured gloves .    however ,  during and post endwalker ,  her crystal hand is completely visible and unbandaged .  kh4 / verum rex      -

 
* & abilities ,

  the echo  
a divination ability which allows shivali to see into a being's past and / or future ,  gifted by the mother crystal hydaelyn .    unlike the canon warrior of light ,  there are limitations to shivali's use of the echo due to her curse -- the extent of hydaelyn's divine strength and protection does not always reach shivali .    shivali cannot understand all languages like other users of the echo ,  nor can she see visions as fortuitously as per canon -- shivali can only see into a soul's past or future if she touches them .    as a result ,  there are certain instances in canon where shivali would not have gained the insight into the truth -- these will be elaborated on in headcanon posts .note :    in her non - wol verse ,  her divination is a result of her parents' experimentation of her .    she also does not have full control over her divination -- she can only see into a person's past or future sporadically .    this ability will only be written with heavy plotting prior .  black mage  ( a realm reborn )  
inheriting her affinity to black magic from her thaumaturge mother ,  shivali decided to enrol in the thaurmaturge guild with the aim of controlling her dark magic and wielding it for the greater good .    shivali no sooner fostered an unlikely friendship with the beastkin circle of black mages :  the amalj'aa kazagg chah ,  the ixal dozol medoc ,  and 269th order mendicant kobold da za ,  who had not only taught shivali not to be afraid of her black magic ,  but also to not allow her demonic appearance to hinder her kind heart .    there was more to monsters than meets the eye .  red mage  ( heavensward onwards )  
following the events of the praetorium  ( msq )  and nald's reflection  ( blm job quest ) ,  shivali decided to retire her pursuits as a black mage .    whilst trusting in the teachings of former masters ,  she feared losing herself to darkness as she so frequently saw in others :  including one of her closest friends .    she instead wanted to balance her affinity to black magic with white magic ,  and rely on herself and not external ,  higher sources that she could fall victim to .    fortunate it was that she came under the tutulage of xr'hun tia ,  who had taught her the intracities of red magic and finding strength in one's own self .  abyss mage  ( red mage + dark knight + reaper + black mage, endwalker onwards )  
during her resettlement in ishgard post endwalker ,  she discovers fray and teaches herself how to master her control of the darkness as she originally set out to do during her days as a black mage .    she accepts that she is not the monster she once perceived herself as ,  and especially post shadowbringers ,  shivali has come to terms with darkness not being inherently evil ,  and that she can still fight for good despite the corruption plaguing her veins .shivali can summons her esteem and allows her inner darkness to take over ,  similar to how reapers allow their voidsent avatars to puppeteer them .    she now adopts the battlecraft and arcane magic of the reaper and dark knight arts into her red mage fighting style ,  whilst also incorporating her thaurmaturgy teachings from her youth . the result is a highly destructive fighting style which safely uses the full extent of her abyssal curse .

 
* & connections ,

  shahrazad ‘ shahra ’ noor      the archmother ,   shivali's biological mother .
the matriarch and founder of samsara ,   shahra was a criminal black mage from ul'dah .   shahra was exiled from the thaumaturge's guild for murdering innocents in her pursuit of forbidden power .   after a whirlwind romance with svarga shakra ,   she founded the order of samsara alongside him .   her excessive practice of the dark arts led her to be permanently bound to the void ,   and after her execution at witchdrop ,  shahra was swallowed by the thirteenth ,   transforming her into the archfiend adharma .  svarga shakra      the archfather ,  shivali's biological father .
the patriarch and co-founder of samsara ,   svarga abandoned a noble career as a thavnairian researcher in devotion to the outlawed black mage ,  shahra noor .   in a hedonistic pursuit of knowledge and divine power , svarga began experimenting on innocents in order to ' ascend ' them to their full potential :   including his own child.   svarga developed the procedure which would later become the synthetic echo ,   which he perfected following his defection to the garlean empire .  elodea ‘ dea ’ matrona      the dragon's heart ,  shivali's former guardian .
samsara's caretaker .    born in the north shroud ,   elodea was a wildwood elezen who sought a new life in mor dhona .  she soon became embroiled with samsara ,   acting as a third parent to shivali ,    whilst shahra and svarga occupied themselves with the daily operations of the cult . following samsara's dissolution ,  elodea took temporary custody of shivali ,  until her ties with the cult led to a warrant for her arrest -- leaving shivali in the care of an ul'dahn merchant .    whilst her current whereabouts are unknown to shivali ,  she has since become an ascian under lahabrea's wing .  akh'andai godsbane      the dragon's hide ,  bastard son of ishgard .
samsara's bodyguard .  half elezen and half dragon ,  akh'andai was the product of an unlikely tryst between alarie de durendaire ,   the heretic heiress -- and a dragon of nidhogg's brood .  akh'andai was the main supplier of dragon blood for samsara's experimentation ,   before being brought into the fold himself by shahra ,   who relied on akh'andai's draconic expertise for samsara's aether experiments .   akh'andai was promised revenge on the ishgardians in exchange for this knowledge .  kshyar gul      the dragon's maw ,  fugitive of sharlayan .
samsara's peddler .  born and raised in old sharlayan ,   kshyar was an extremely intelligent and calculated viera who strived not only to heal those around him ,   but to help them become stronger .   he trained as an apprentice under guildivain ,   who shared his same values in experimenting on mankind ,   and helped him to escape sharlayan .    kshyar eventually escaped himself ,    coming into contact with svarga and was quickly recruited into samsara .    he is responsible for finding new test subjects for samsara's experiments .  m'ayaan ra      the dragon's eye ,  traitor of two tribes .
samsara's reconnaissance .  born to the m tribe in ala mhigo,    m'ayaan was a seeker m'iqote and one of the many victims of the samsara cult's experimentation :   splicing her body with that of a fellow ananta .   unlike other victims who either died or scorned their new ' gift ' ,   m'ayaan wholly embraced it :    quickly scaling the ranks to become one of the main seven ,   in particular gaining the admiration of shahra ,   who taught m'ayaan how to summon fiends from the void .  blynwyda bas torva      the dragon's claw ,  former spy of garlemald .
samsara's executioner .  half sea-wolf roegadyn and half garlean , torva was born blind to a fugitive lominsan prisoner and a wizened garlean reaper .   torva made a bargain with a voidsent to aid with their lost sight ,   and to the garlean army hunting their mother down : work as a spy in eorzea ,   and their mother is spared .   torva was investigating samsara and its connections across eorzea ,   before eventually being brought into the fold itself by shahra . torva is responsible for ' silencing ' those who oppose samsara .  azamir arumir      the merchant ,  shivali's former employer .
shivali's ' employer ' ,  and only semblance of a family she had following the dissolution of samsara . a dunesfolk lalafell ,   azamir is a well - established spice merchant with a plethora of connections across the trading industry ,  including lolorito .    he took shivali in as a servant by the behest of elodea ,   but pitying shivali's curse ,    did not put them to work ,  instead offering shivali free sanctuary until they decided to join the scions of the seventh dawn .

 
* & the road before ,

 
  scala ad caelum ,  post - keyblade war .    13500 years before present day .  The nexus where all worlds spring .   Born in Scala ad Caelum ,   Khara was one of many young prodigies destined to take up the art of the keyblade .   A seat of power for all keyblade wielders ,   masters of the art school the next generations to become keyblade masters in their stead ,   gathering light from mystical worlds in their battle against the encroaching darkness .Khara trained alongside Xehanort , Eraqus , and the five other lowerclassmen under the tutelage of Master Odin .   Alas , following the disappearance and deaths of the upperclassmen of that year , Khara was faced with a choice :   stand against the formidable darkness that took the lives of their fellow students... or learn more about the enemy .Through curiosity , hubris , and the unintentional abandonment of their friends ,   Khara learnt more about the darkness :   at the cost of their own existence .   Through weeks of traversing the Corridors of Darkness alone and armorless ,   the young keyblade wielder succumbed to the darkness they were desperate to defeat :   their body , mind and soul unravelling until they were nothing more than an intangible phantom of what they used to be .

 
* & the road so far ,

 
shivali's story follows the canon events of final fantasy xiv and all of its expansions unless otherwise specified or plotted .    canon divergences are listed per expansion below .  a realm reborn  
set a mere few years after the dissolution of her parents’ cult ,  shivali struggles with her rising fame as the warrior of light ,  and her connections to the twisted transgressions of samsara .    some members of the cult are still very much active ,  and even play a role in the summoning of primals across the realm ,  facilitating crystals to the beast tribes in an efforts to study the god - like beings  ( and the ascians by proxy )  and to recreate the harnessing of aether within themselves .shivali defeats most of the cultists with the help of the scions ,  determined to put a fence between her past and her future .    however ,  her mother shahra and father svarga remain unaccounted for .    shivali is determined to seek out her parents to reverse the monstrosity they turned her into . 
  heavensward  
prior to the evacuation of ul’dah ,  shivali’s investigations into her mother and father’s whereabouts leads her to coerthas .    her father studied at the observatorium in coerthas central highlands ,  whilst shivali later discovers that her mother was executed in witchdrop .    shivali’s past resurfaces once more ,  creating further complications in her relationship with ishgard and house fortemps .    shivali once again has to prove herself a hero and not the monster the world perceives her to be .shivali discovers midgardsormr had made a pact with hydaelyn to protect her ,  on the very night shivali was drowned by her parents in silvertear lake .    midgardsormr had bound his essence to shivali ,  his aether stabilising her soul whilst hydaelyn’s crystal stasis halted the corruption of her casting arm .    dravanians can sense the draconic essence of their sire within shivali and are slightly more receptive towards her . 
  stormblood  
following the end of the dragonsong war ,  and learning that her mother was indeed dead ,  shivali turns her efforts to finding her father .    she discovers that her father is still alive and defected to the garlean empire shortly after samsara’s dissolution .    she decides to hunt down her father to get answers to how to reverse her curse ,  or failing that ,  killing him outright .learning of the empire’s horrific aether experimentation on humans ,  and in particular ,  the creation of a synthetic ‘echo’ ,  it didn’t take long for shivali to realise that her father was actively contributing to the experimentations himself ,  and worked with aulus and his team of scientists to study shivali during her journey and attempted to recreate her abilities .    shivali confronts her father during the battle of ala mhigo ,  and failing to bring him to reason or dissuade him against experimenting on further innocents ,  kills him along with aulus . 
  shadowbringers  
whilst triumphant in the battle of ala mhigo ,  shivali had reached her lowest point .    she is unable to reverse her parents’ curse ,  and had her father’s blood on her hands .    losing each of the scions as they were each transported to the first ,  shivali was close to losing all hope .    she purposely lowered her guard during the battle of ghimlyt dark with the intent to be slain like the beast she perceives herself to be .    throughout her journey in the first ,  shivali learnt that her darkness was not inherently evil and could be used for the greater good .    being reunited with the scions and saving the world with darkness restored the hope shivali had lost .shivali also investigated whether the absorption of light through the lightwardens would help stabilise the darkness her parents forced within her .    she pushed herself to absorb the lightwardens and refused to believe she was suffering as a result .    however ,  she could not deny that light was equally as destructive and shattered her soul even further .    upon the scions return to the source ,  shivali vows not to tamper with herself further ,  learning how precious life can be . 
  endwalker  
shivali had accepted that she was permanently bound with darkness ,  but she still feared that darkness consuming her as she had witnessed in others throughout her journey .    turning into dragons ,  primals ,  sin - eaters ...  shivali’s nightmare was becoming something she could not control ,  something that could hurt those she loved .    the possession of her body in garlemald ,  and witnessing despair twist mankind into blasphemies ,  only heightened shivali’s fears that she too ,  will turn into a complete monstrosity .she was extremely conflicted after discovering that she was a shard of azem ,  because it only affirmed the theory her parents had all those years ago that humans were capable of being more powerful and godlike than they are .    her time in elpis was a bittersweet one ,  but it also pushed her towards protecting etheirys and all its shards rather than sympathising with the ascians or allowing meteion to destroy etheirys all together .    shivali needed to prove to her parents -- and herself -- that mankind did not need to be ‘restored’ to their former glory .    she was strong enough .

 
* & the road ahead ,

 
  radz - at - han ,  thavnair .    present day .  following the events of ultima thule and the decision to publicly disband the scions of the seventh dawn ,  shivali decided to visit her birthplace :  having experienced it again only fleetingly during her journey with the scions .   with the end of the final days, and a sense of normality returned to the star ,  shivali spends these halcyon months reconnecting with her roots :  reminiscing on the days before she became a vessel of her parents' destructive experimentation and making the most of the reprieve .    being the venerable warrior of light ,  it was only a matter of time before shivali was summoned for her next adventure .in shivali’s eventual journey to the thirteenth ,  she discovers that her mother had been claimed by the thirteenth after her execution in witchdrop ,  her soul being bound to the void and her essence becoming that of a greater voidsent .  shivali kills her mother , and with it , the last embers of vengeance .  ❈ through assisting vrtra in his investigation of the void , shivali became more and more uncertain about her connection to it .   indeed , her parents seemingly bound her to the thirteenth ,   yet prophetic dreams that soon haunted shivali told her otherwlse.   every night following meteion's defeat ,   shivali was subjected to a series of trials in a labyrinth of dead and wandering souls .at the end of these sleeping trials ,   shivali tread upon an expanse of sea and stars . there ,   a man with red and blue eyes foretold shivali's return to her true world ,   upon fulfilling their karma in this lifetime .   as ludicrous as the man's claims were ,   shivali could only cast her mind back to venat's dying words :
 

" you're not of this star , shivali . you fell to us like one . "

 
now in full control of her abyssal corruption , shivali now seeks the truth of her origins : and to return to the world she allegedly fell from ...❈   timeline & details subject change based on the story of the upcoming ffxiv patches / expansion .