As a warning, this page is incredibly long....... and will only get longer........ I am so sorry........................... There is no need to actually read it, it is more for myself to remember how exactly events play out for Iku................. ;-;

Pre-ARR

Decades ago, a prominent son of House Durendaire was betrothed to a lady of another of Ishgard's High Houses. The marriage had been arranged to strengthen ties between their families, particularly in matters of military cooperation and architecture. Before the union could take place, however, it was discovered that the Durendaire son had been carrying on an affair with an Au Ra immigrant.The revelation caused an enormous scandal. At the time, the Au Ra were poorly understood within Ishgard and often regarded with fear and suspicion. Their horns and scales invited comparisons to the Dravanians, and some among the Holy See even believed them to be kin to the dragons or sympathetic to heretics.House Durendaire could not afford to let such a scandal damage its standing among the other High Houses. The son was stripped of his inheritance and all privileges tied to his birth. He was then exiled from the Holy See and warned that returning to Ishgard would be met with death.With nowhere left for him in Coerthas, the disgraced noble fled east with his Au Ra lover. Together, they crossed the Jade Sea and eventually settled in Kugane, where their daughter, Iku Durendaire, was born.Iku was a quiet and distant child. She rarely showed strong emotion and tended to approach things through logic instead of feelings. Even when she was young, there was a certain coldness to the way she carried herself.As she grew older, her parents told her the truth about her father's past. Iku learned about the marriage that had been arranged for him, the scandal surrounding his affair, and the punishment that followed. She came to understand that her father had once possessed wealth, status, and a place among one of Ishgard's most powerful families. Knowing this left Iku with a deep resentment toward her Au Ra heritage.Her pale scales and heavy horns became constant reminders of the reason her family had been driven from Ishgard. She began to view those features with disgust, believing that everything her father had lost could be traced back to his relationship with her mother. Though her father never blamed either of them for what happened, Iku struggled to see things the same way.Her mother tried to teach her the traditions and customs of the Far East, hoping that Iku might grow to appreciate where she came from. Iku showed little interest. She resisted most attempts to involve her in her mother's culture and openly rejected the idea that it should be a source of pride. Instead, she became fascinated with Ishgard.She had never seen the city herself, yet the stories her father told her held her attention more than anything her mother could offer. She listened closely whenever he spoke of the High Houses, the knights of the Holy See, and the long war against the Dravanians. Ishgard became something distant and idealized in her mind, a place she felt she should have belonged to despite knowing that its people would likely have rejected her on sight.More than anything, Iku became interested in the lance.She repeatedly asked her father to train her in the fighting style used by Ishgardian knights. He was hesitant at first. He understood that much of her fascination with Ishgard came from the resentment she held toward her mother's heritage, and he did not wish to encourage it. Still, he knew that Kugane could be a dangerous place and that his daughter would benefit from knowing how to defend herself.Eventually, he agreed.Iku was taught the broad sweeps, controlled footwork, and precise thrusts favored by Ishgardian lancers. The style required strength, patience, and an understanding of distance, all qualities that suited her temperament well.She learned quickly. Her father rarely needed to correct the same mistake twice, and she showed an instinct for the weapon that surprised even him. What began as basic training soon became something far more disciplined. By the time Iku reached adolescence, it was already clear that she possessed an unusual talent with the lance.

ARR

When Iku came of age, she decided that she could no longer be satisfied with stories of Ishgard. She needed to see the city for herself. Some part of her believed that standing beneath its frozen towers might finally help her understand why her birth had been treated as such a terrible disgrace.Before she left Kugane, her father gave her one final keepsake. It was an old steel emblem of House Durendaire, badly defaced and no longer fit to be worn with pride. The golden bell at its center had been struck through so deeply that the scar remained visible even after years of wear. Iku kept it close all the same.With her lance wrapped for travel and the crest tucked safely among her belongings, she boarded a trade ship bound west...... Unfortunately, Iku boarded the wrong ship.She had been meant to take a vessel bound for one of Eorzea's northern ports. Somewhere between finding the correct dock and actually boarding, she became distracted by a flock of gulls circling overhead and wandered into another line entirely. She only gave the ship itself a passing glance before deciding that she liked the color of its sails.That was apparently enough.Iku spent the following weeks at sea in complete silence, staring out across the water and showing no concern whatsoever for where the vessel was actually going. It was only after she stepped onto the gangplank at the end of the voyage that she realized something had gone wrong.... There was no snow.There were, however, an alarming number of trees.Instead of arriving anywhere near Coerthas, Iku had found herself in Gridania.She took the mistake with the same flat acceptance she gave most inconveniences. Ishgard was north. Gridania had roads. All she needed was a carriage. This plan lasted roughly two days.Iku had almost no understanding of Eorzean currency and even less understanding of what things were supposed to cost. Much of the coin she had brought from Hingashi disappeared almost immediately after she discovered a merchant selling imported chocolate. The merchant charged her an absurd price. Iku paid it without question.By the third day, she was broke.She was also stranded in the Black Shroud, unable to afford a carriage and attempting to navigate Eorzea with a map she had been holding upside down for nearly half an hour.With little interest in starving for the sake of her pride, Iku eventually found her way to the Lancers' Guild in Gridania. She had no particular desire to be taught how to use a weapon she had trained with since childhood, but the guild offered something far more useful than instruction anyways. There were meals, a roof overhead, and gil to be earned by dealing with the creatures that troubled the surrounding woods. Iku easily accepted.Her time with the guild was remarkably uneventful from her own perspective. She treated monster hunting with the enthusiasm most people reserved for sweeping a floor. She would leave Gridania in the morning, return hours later covered in dirt and blood, collect her pay, and sit through dinner without saying more than a few words.The other lancers quickly noticed that her fighting style was unusual. Iku moved nothing like the recruits being trained in Gridanian forms. Her technique carried the weight and aggression of Ishgardian lancework, built around forceful sweeps, controlled momentum, and precise attacks from above. She had also grown considerably stronger than her slight frame suggested. Creatures that normally required several adventurers were often dealt with before anyone else had a chance to intervene. To Iku, this was simply the result of doing the job correctly. To literally everyone else, it was somewhat terrifying.Stories about the strange Raen lancer eventually traveled beyond the guild. While investigating reports of primal activity in the region, members of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn began hearing about a quiet Au Ra woman who fought like an Ishgardian knight and occasionally wiped out Garlean scouting parties for little more than enough gil to cover food and lodging. Those stories eventually reached Minfilia and Thancred.When the Scions approached Iku and offered her a place among them, she listened to the explanation in silence before accepting with a single nod.Their cause meant very little to her at the time. Saving Eorzea was a large and vague responsibility, and Iku had never been particularly interested in heroic ideals. The practical benefits were far easier to understand. The Scions provided steady pay, access to a linkshell, reliable lodging, and connections throughout the realm. Most importantly, though, was that working with them offered the possibility of legitimate passage into Coerthas.Iku threw herself into Scion work with the same detached efficiency she brought to everything else. Ifrit was slain. Titan followed. Garuda came after that. To Iku, these duties were just items on a very long list standing between her and Ishgard.Her feelings began to change when Scion business finally carried her into the Coerthas Central Highlands. There, at Camp Dragonhead, she met Haurchefant Greystone.Their first conversations were awkward, at least on Iku's side. She had little talent for casual conversation and even less for handling genuine warmth. Haurchefant seemed entirely untroubled by either problem.When Iku eventually showed him the ruined Durendaire crest and explained who her father had been, she expected discomfort. She was accustomed to strange looks whenever Ishgardians noticed her horns or scales, and she had already prepared herself for questions about her blood. Haurchefant reacted very differently.He listened to her story without recoiling and showed no fear of her appearance. He even called her scales beautiful, likening them to armor. Iku had no idea what to do with that. She had spent most of her life thinking of those scales as something ugly. They were tied so closely to her father's disgrace that she had never considered the possibility that another person might look at them and see anything else.Haurchefant continued treating her with the same warmth every time she returned to Camp Dragonhead. He made space for her at the fire, pressed hot drinks into her hands after long patrols, and spoke to her as though her presence was something to be welcomed rather than tolerated.For someone who understood weapons far better than affection, Iku became attached to him with surprising speed. Camp Dragonhead slowly became the first place in Eorzea that felt like home. As her work with the Scions continued, Iku found herself returning whenever she could. Her battles against the Garleans, the heretics, and eventually Shiva slowly began to feel like more than obligations. Protecting Coerthas meant protecting the people who had taken her in. It also meant protecting Haurchefant.Their friendship gradually grew into something quieter and more intimate. Neither seemed in much of a hurry to name it. Many evenings were instead spent over mugs of hot chocolate, with Haurchefant filling the silence while Iku listened. For the first time, she began to reconsider the hatred she had carried toward herself since childhood.The peace did not last.Following the Scions' victory over the Garlean threat, they traveled to Ul'dah for what was meant to be a celebration. Instead, the evening ended with the Scions accused of assassinating the Sultana and the entire organization branded as traitors.Everything happened too quickly for Iku to process.One after another, her companions remained behind so that the others could escape. Iku understood what they were doing. She understood what it meant, but she simply could not react to it.Her expression remained blank throughout the flight from Ul'dah, even as the people around her disappeared one by one. By the time she escaped the city, she was left with Alphinaud and Tataru, dragging what remained of the Scions toward the only place she could think to go.They arrived in Coerthas exhausted, hunted, and stripped of nearly every title or protection they had once possessed. Haurchefant was waiting for them. Taking them in placed both himself and House Fortemps in considerable political danger. He did so anyway.He arranged asylum for Iku and her companions and gave them protection beneath the name of his house. For once, Iku had no clever answer and no practical way to reduce the moment into something easier to understand. She simply let him take her freezing hands in his.Soon after, the gates of Ishgard finally opened before her. Iku had crossed half the world to reach the city that had haunted her family for most of her life. She had imagined the moment countless times, usually with anger. She had expected to arrive as the daughter of a disgraced Durendaire, carrying the evidence of her father's exile against her chest. Instead, she entered beneath the protection of House Fortemps, surrounded by the few people she still had left.

Heavensward

Wip :P