OOC ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The Jakkya Tribe has always been abnormally large, and this

particular tribe has always chosen to live an isolationist

lifestyle on an island off the shores of Vylbrand.

((unless future-added Lore compels me to alter the location))

Island is at the S.W. end of The Cieldalaeh.

The Tribe has always rejected outside contact, allowing visitors

to come no further inland than the docks, and venturing no

further than Limsa Lominsa themselves for necessary trading

of goods they cannot provide themselves on their home island.

Xelah, born to the name Sahja, was one of the elder children born to the Matriarch, Sah’jaha. Sah’jaha had become Matriarch of the tribe when she was sixteen years old, holding the longest reign of leadership the tribe had seen for as far back as they could remember. Holding her place as Matron for over fourty years, the village thrived under her sharp eye, and flourished each year with exceptionally fruitful harvests. Sah’jaha herself contributed greatly to the tribe, as was her duty as Matriarch. While most Matriarchs were expected to rear a generous two dozen or so children, Sah’jaha took this several steps further than necessary, bringing over a hundred children into the world over the course of thirty and some odd years.

Unfortunately, Sah’jaha took a view on life that was rather diminished of the value of life, believing that it was her job fulfilled to have so many children, and it was not her responsibility to raise them - that was for the village to do for her. Nor did she care when her own brood fell ill, or fought, or died. As they came into adulthood, it was not uncommon for her to send them off to death herself for crimes or misdeeds done to the tribe, or as a means to settle civil disputes.

A curious quirk of this tribe, all the females are born sterile, and never undergo puberty. Only those who are deemed worthy - and the criteria of worthiness is staggeringly superficial - are permitted to undergo an intense and secret Fertility Ritual. This ritual grants the girls Menphina’s blessing, and activates the hormones that transition them from girls to women.

F*ck it, bulletin points:

> criteria for fertility ritual: black skin, white hair, freckles (preferably white; Xelah’s were white when she was young, turned black and stayed black as she got older)

> Xelah underwent ritual at age 12

> From age 12 - 18, permitted to come and go freely from the village and the outside world. This period is to allow her to establish mates who will assist her in starting her own tribe when she leaves the village for good.

> also learning the “matriarch 101” stuff (which really boils down to erotic ‘how to be a good partner in bed’ stuff, along with more practical things like business management, finances, the value of trading, supply and demand, public relations, negotiations, all the things a typical Matriarch would be expected to know)

> Takes this time to travel Eorzea. Decides she rather likes the modern world a great deal more than the tribal practices of her village. She is particularly taken with things that are considered high-class. Aspires to be considered as nobility herself someday.

> Enrolls in the Conjurer’s Guild at Gridania.

> Sometime during her training, encounters a gigantic Morbol, and is nearly bitten clean in half. Should not have survived the encounter. Manages to survive through her own self-healing, until help arrived. Discovers at this time her exceptional talent with restoration-aspected aether.

> Spends the next four years intentionally wounding herself along the scars of the morbol bite ((which extended around her entire body front and back, from left shoulder to right hip)), so that she could heal the new wounds more efficiently; removing the scar tissue of the old wound along with the restoration of the new wound.

> By the time she’s 18, her skin no longer shows any sign whatsoever that she was ever bitten by a Morbol.

> at age 18, is given the choice all women are given. She may challenge the existing Matriarch ((her mother)) in a fight to the death, or she may leave the village peacefully in  honorable exile, and go start her own tribe elsewhere.

> Xelah chooses exile. As she has no mates, she chooses to live in the modern world of Eorzea, establishing her first business outside a Free Company Private Chamber.

> Relocates several times, as her contracts with Free Companies expired, and renewed, looking for better venues to practice her craft.

> Eventually, she is able to afford her own property in The Lavender Beds, where she sets up her Spa in a permanent location.

> Around this time, finally takes her first mate, Zable Kynbiir, a hyurian boy. Talks like a pirate, acts like a pirate, has no stomach for sailing in any capacity.

> …. Fuck, i don’t much remember this part, because now we’re getting into stuff actually played and not written before the character was created. Uh…

> Employs at The Free Company Ohana, working managerial affairs. During this time, acquired her second and third mates, V’yhaar Nunh ((current V’yhaar Tia)) and Fhen’wo “Fate” Lhas.

> Receives a letter from her mother, inviting her to return home for a Gauntlet. Sah’jaha has decided that she is getting rather old, and she’d much rather not have to die at the hands of one of her own daughters when one of them inevitably decides to challenge her and is actually strong enough to defeat her ((she has been challenged multiple times prior)). Sah’jaha assembles a gauntlet that will test each of her daughters’ capabilities of leadership, critical thinking, magical aptitude, and combat. While several dozen of her daughters arrive at the request of the invitations, only about twenty or so agree to compete in the gauntlet.

> Progressing through the gauntlet, more and more sisters fall short of the criteria until six remained. At this time, Sah’jaha revealed that she was accepting three successors. One would take over the Island. The other two would be permitted to take up to a third of the village with them to their own villages they had established elsewhere.

> The final competition proved to be a grand affair, combat to the death. Sah’jaha took great pains to hire on six mercenaries best suited to compete against each of her daughters’ capabilities. One of these Mercenaries turned out to be one of Xelah’s own Mates, Fate Lhas.

> In all, two of her sisters perished in the combat, three survived, besides herself.

> Thankfully, Fate survived his battle. Unfortunately, Xelah’s sister did not. It was a pain Xelah carried with her when it was her turn to fight. Already burned with a self-imposed vow of nonviolence from the Conjurer’s Guild, Xelah defeated her opponent, but refused to deal the deathblow. This infuriated her mother, of course, who then forced her to choose one of her own sisters to fight instead. She would not allow four victors for three prizes. And Xelah knew that she could not walk away. If she did, she would be killed outright, and the other three declared victors. And no matter which of the three she picked, they WOULD kill her, if she didn’t fight them with everything she had.

> Ends up victorious, but due to the emotional trauma of the entire gauntlet, becomes Aether-blocked for several months.

> As the Eldest of the three victors, she is given control of the Island. In her ascension to Matriarch of the tribe, she cast away her child-name (Sahja) and named herself Xelah.

> Over the course of the following three years, Xelah works to change the ways of her tribe, abolishing the law that forced the fertile to be exiled, allowing them and their children to stay on the island. She also opened the doors to the outside, allowing visitors to enter the village and trade in the markets, instead of being forced to wait at the docks.

> Zable Kynbiir, her first Mate, asks her to marry him in a traditional Elezen-stylized Bonding Ceremony. She agrees.

> Zable acquires a black market potion that transforms him physically from a Hyurian Midlander into a Miqo’te. Claiming to have done this for Xelah, so her tribe would better respect her for having a Miqo’te mate than a Hyur, Xelah overcomes her aether-block.

> Xelah takes Grinding Iron as a mate.

> Over four years, Xelah has had four pregnancies, resulting in a total thus far of ten children, two of whom are boys. Three of her four current mates can boast parentage to her children.

**Current Story Arc**

> Xelah has decided to step down from being Matriarch from her tribe. Fearing for her children, she had all ten summoned from the tribe, sent to The Heated Hearth Estate, where Fate and Zable stayed to watch over them. Xelah, V’yhaar and Grinding Iron, together traveled to her home island, where she declared her intention to step down and self-exile herself from the tribe, passing leadership on to the woman she felt best suited to replace her, Jesuka.
> As she was peparing to leave, the entire tribe turned on her, calling her a traitor-matron, and chased her down. Before she could even react to their anger at her, she recieved a spearhead slammed down into her tail. Fleeing from her own people as fast as she could alongside her mates, Xelah suffered several injuries before finally reaching the safety of V’yhaar’s ship.

> Xelah broke her tail, her ankle, received several arrow wounds on her arms, and an absolutely destroyed hairstyle; which she considered the worst of all the damage.