Arya Thorne

Song on the Wind

The story of the Viera currently named Arya Thorne would begin like the majority of her Veena clan, starting in the reaches of the original primeval forest lining the southwestern foothills of the Skatay Range. At birth, she was given the forest name Freyja. Any scholar of Viera traditions would see this naming as auspicious, as it was borrowed from old Viera legends of their earliest stories. The one where the name Freyja comes from details the story of two very different tribes with opposing ambitions, which eventually came to live together in harmony after a prolonged war. Freyja was a character of hope in this tale, as the legendary persona would be a tribute to end the war. Unknown to her mother and tribe, Arya would end up leaving her forest homeland for similar reasons much later in her life.

Before she departed the ancient forests, her early years were spent much under their boughs, structured by the myriad of legends retained by her people, like the story that gave her forest name. For a Viera, tribal legends were oft but a portion of education for the young. The other most important aspect of her forest homeland teachings regarded its laws. The Green Word was the strict regulation that explained the reasoning for all that they do, and careful attention was required of every tribe member. She would learn of the beliefs of how the forest was sacred ground. Understanding would come in regards to how the Green Word's strict observance gave unity to the wood. Continued lessons demonstrated the principles of how the Green Word promoted survival, a sensitive perceptivity to nature, and co-existence with the multitude of wildlife that also called the old-growth forests of the foothills home. 

A unique demonstration of this co-existence is represented by the Viera's ancient and unique ability to speak the different tongues that echoed through the forests, a skill often mastered a few summers before Viera coming-of-age at their 13th nameday. At this time, the tribe's young would come to understand the Master Words that allowed them to claim protection from all the jungle. The tribes have many names for the speakers of these words. To Arya's tribe, they were known as the Logue, and each had a different variety of sounds used to communicate with each other and the Viera. 

The Veena that Arya emerged from gave her a third source of instruction during her formative years. Her tribe played a unique role in having access to remnants of much older civilizations than their own that left clues throughout the land. The most prominent of these remnants took a direct focus in her upbringing, as her tribe self-proclaimed themselves keepers of this particular culture's secrets. Known as the Larai Cliff, this archaeological marvel challenging to access on foot consists of a steep rock face that became the final resting place of a civilization rumored to have traveled to the region in archaic times to escape destruction.

Features of the Larai Cliff include a massive series of chambers and staircases worked into the stone and rumors of treasure that drew no few numbers of undesirables to try their luck against the traps and the beasts that hid within. These treasure seekers would find their efforts denied by the sharp eye of Arya's sisters. The members of the village use these events as instruction for their young, telling them that the people of the Larai Cliff have given much in their rest and deserve to be disturbed no further. The elders explain that the ancient people of that ruin had also granted their tribe unique gifts, and this furthermore earned great honor and respect.

One of the unique gifts of the Larai Cliff that Arya's village received was an acute awareness of music. The rock face featured several effigies that, while in contact with the relentless winds of the mountains, would respond by "singing" as their unique construction would turn the wind into a sequence of notes. The standard style of Spoken ears might hear this as a melody, but distinctive Viera ears allowed Arya's people to understand much more than just song. The Elders retained a memory that the people of the Larai Cliff possessed no written language, and left all their legends within songs. Vague music to the casual observer than became a record of powerful lessons for this Veena tribe, and all her young life, Arya would be introduced and instructed to several of these unique sounds. For the tribe, it was a way to maintain the legacy of the ruins in their custody. Due to this, Arya would find a personally meaningful way to use these song stories much later down her own life.

The events of 1547 of the Sixth Astral Era, or in the 26th year by Imperial reckoning, would end up affecting Arya's tribe, turning them into one of the several numberless victims to the fervor of the Garlean Empire. Leading after Dalmasca's conquest, an entourage of Garleans would be led by a traitor of the tribe to seize the rumored riches of the Larai Cliff. Arya's village took to action, and although they were successful in routing the Imperials away from the sacred tomb, they were cut off from fellow tribal support, and a great many of them were slain or captured. Remnants of her remarkable home would be forever scattered due to greed. Arya was still considered incredibly young by Viera standards, and this inexperience led her to wander lost after getting separated from her tribe, eventually ending in her collapse from exhaustion in the Estersands.

She would be rescued by traveling performers of Troupe Raillefal, where she would be nursed back to health. They initially did this to ease their conscious, but would find out the choice to help her would provide much in interest. Namely, Arya would reveal she was no stranger to music. The most exciting thing they thought about her was that it wasn't the Hannish tunes that would drive a passion for her dance, but the very same melody she retained from the Larai Cliff, what she described as the song upon the wind. These colorful words used to describe the origin of her unique ancient music would inspire the troupe's leader to design a performance exclusively for Arya, giving her both the stage name and act titled Song Upon the Wind.

Her dance partner and mentor, whose birth name was Arya Thorne, would grant the newly appointed Viera performer her very own soul crystal of the martial tradition. Expert care and support following this ceremony would allow the Veena rescued from a painful desert end to become a magnificent practitioner of Skatay and Hannish blend performance. Song Upon the Wind became one of their most lucrative presentations, and Troupe Raillefal would eventually reveal their intent for mastery of the dance, to serve as a source of secret funding for the Dalmascan resistance. Once word reached their ears of the Doman liberation lead by the Warrior of Light, the troupe would take arms alongside their resistance allies, only to end up summarily crushed under the heel of the IVth Imperial Legion.

The leaders and mentors of Troupe Raillefal would be detained and eventually publically executed, including the original Arya Thorne. The Viera of the troupe would witness this in horror, silencing her dance for the long years to follow. Rounded up into various groups of prisoners, she would get set to be part of an airship prison escort heading for a secure facility located in central Ilsabard. This deployed craft would never make its destination, as once it began to pass over the border of the Skatay Range passing through the continent's delineation, a volley of fire aspected aether grounded it and the Garleans within were slain by a band of Hellsguard insurgents. The Hellsguard explained that sustainable tactical recovery of non-Garlean victims ferried to the capital was their goal. When asked why, they would explain they chose this mission as atonement for the choice of their ancestors to have aided the Garleans in the ancient past, allowing them to thrive to their dangerous mission in more modern times.

The Viera known as Freyja in her homeland would introduce herself to her Hellsguard rescuers as Arya Throne, once her shock wore off. She was unwilling to support yet another resistance effort after the one she had participated had ended so violently. However, the gentle strength, kindness, and storytelling capacity of the Hellsguard tribe that comprised the organization won her over. They offered to gift her knowledge of their traditional Warrior methods, seeing that her unique background offered her a keen insight on the management of the Inner Beast's principles. Arya would earn her own Hellsguard weapon and declare by its blade, she would no longer allow those she loved to fall to tyranny. An oath only as strong as one raised by the Green Word, she would take her mission to Eorzea during the methods of access obtained by Ala Mhigo's liberation, to aid the cause of freedom in the West. 

Eventually, the dance would return in the heart, giving voice to honor all the lessons she had learned from the Larai Cliff, from her Veena sisters, and the love of the original Troupe Raillefal's Arya Throne. When morale could not be lifted by her music and performance, she would deploy her mastery of the Inner Beast, oft accompanied by the frenzied war cries in the Master Words and a force equal to the might of mountain wind. It is in war and song Arya Thorne the Viera would carve her deeds for freedom for all.