Lady Faye Covington

The Fairest of Them All
Balmung / Crystal Data Center

A vision in white hailing from the Black Shroud where she is the proprietress of a well-known teahouse, the prim and proper, demure noblewoman hides many secrets behind her sharp eyes and coy smile--some of them dangerous, perhaps.

Appearance

Faye stands tall for a Midlander woman at 5'8" and carries herself with poise, grace, and dignity; her shoulders squared, her back straight, and her head held high. Her skin is porcelain pale and smooth, free of any freckles, moles, or blemishes. The woman's hair is soft and snowy white with hints of platinum blonde. Her hairstyle often changes, but is most often left long and loose in ringlet curls that fall down to her waist, or pulled into an intricate up-do. An oval-shaped face houses a small, wide, up-turned button nose and plump, glossy, full pink lips. Her irises are an icy blue surrounding pupils that shine a subtle red, eyes almond-shaped and sultry, lined with thick, long eyelashes. Her eyebrows are the same ivory color as her hair, delicately arched and neat. Her earlobes are each pierced once, no other piercings or tattoos to be found on her body.Her frame is soft and slender, with a small waist, medium-sized breasts, and an hourglass-shaped figure. Her left hand is a Magitek prosthetic, made of a sleek, lightweight, white metal adorned with a gilded filigree design and shaped to be a perfect match to her dainty and elegant right hand, though it is almost always hidden beneath a glove. There is some scarring along her wrist where the flesh meets metal. The Hyur has a calm and confident demeanor about her. She wears jewelry, usually gold and pearls, and often opts for the more feminine in her outfits, choosing dresses and skirts over shorts or pants, leaning toward more modest and formal attire. She is usually seen in white or pale colors (pastel blue and pink in particular), though she does seem to have some fondness for red and gold. Her appearance is always neat and orderly: no wrinkles, not a speck of dirt, and not a hair out of place.Her voice is smooth and melodic, her speaking tone just barely high-pitched enough to be considered soprano. Each word is clear and articulate, carefully pronounced and measured. Her normal speaking voice is soft without being meek or difficult to hear, but when she is dishing out orders, the woman is commanding and able to be rather loud if she pleases. The tone of her voice can snap from demure young noblewoman to demanding leader in a single moment. Her speech is not overly formal or archaic, but is certainly not casual. She uses words most often to get her way and will therefore change her style of speech accordingly.

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Personality

Faye’s mother raised her to be a proper lady of the upper class, her father to be strong, resilient, and fearless. Though each had their own ideas and their own approach, at the heart of their wants for their daughter, they each instilled in her the same core tenant: never to be weak. Faye did not grow to disappoint either in that regard. In fact, as she made her way through life, the world only drove that message home. The weak were fodder, prey to the predators, the ground to be trampled upon by stronger things. That would never be her, so she learned to be strong, in every regard.Something of a social chameleon, Faye molds her personality and words to suit those currently in her presence, keeping just enough consistency and sincerity not to be seen as disingenuous. As far as she is concerned, social interaction is a war, every conversation a battle she intends to win. Something of an actress, she wears whatever mask she needs to at any given moment. She is eloquent and knows how to weave her words well, possessing the education, intelligence, and vocabulary to hold her own in most any conversation. She plays to whatever she believes will keep her on top of the situation, be it offering an ear and a shoulder and some kind words of wisdom and advice, coquettish flirtation and flattery with a side of eye-batting, or posturing and thinly-veiled threats to intimidate a foe.Possessed of grace and dignity, she is polite, well-mannered, and reserved, most always minding proper etiquette. She is no introvert despite it, friendly and outgoing, not shy or shrinking from having eyes upon her, never struggling to chat and make pleasantries. She has the level-head and magnetism of a leader. Some find her formality to be cold or distant, but for those who can look past it, she is charming, charismatic, pleasant, and witty, with a warm demeanor toward those for whom she is fond. She is playful, mischievous, and teasing toward the people she fancies, even capable of some humor, though never to the point of immaturity or absurdity.However, she is not above dropping her propriety for sass, snark, snippiness, and sarcasm toward those who annoy her. She can be petty and hold a grudge for anyone who has offended her. Those who do find her aloof are not without argument. She is secretive and quiet, keeping her thoughts and feelings close to her chest, speaking very little of herself on any deep or meaningful level. She is somewhat out of touch with other people and their emotions. She is persuasive and manipulative, telling lies and hiding truths with relative ease. She keeps her emotions in check, rarely showing a crack in her calm and composed demeanor with her nearly ever-present smile. This can make it difficult for others to get to know her or relate, and creates an obstacle for her to bond with anyone on a significant level, many of her relationships only superficial. She prefers not to be tied down with those bonds, anyway. Her grand ambitions do tend to burn the people around her.Faye is bold and confident enough it could be called arrogance or egotistical, were it not tempered with some measure of modesty. She appreciates those who treat her with the attention, respect, and reverence she believes she deserves, and she enjoys compliments and flattery, so long as she doesn’t find them to be insincere and laden with ulterior motives. She delights in others who act with some level of servitude, pampering, or chivalry toward her. While she does enjoy living a life of luxury and has a refined taste for all things lavish and elegant, greed for gil is not actually her vice. Rather, it is power for which she hungers, be it in the form of connections, social status, reputation, knowledge, or just plain muscle on her side.Courageous and near fearless, not to mention stubborn and fiercely determined, she will let very little get in the way of her pursuit of such things. She is a go-getter who hates to feel bored or idle. When something or even someone catches her interest, her pursuit can become almost an obsession. She despises feeling weak, vulnerable, or like she has failed in any regard, and she will stop at next to nothing to avoid that outcome. Setbacks and failures bring out a certain, unbridled fury in the woman, that anger as dangerous as it is rare. Violence and bloodshed that she deems worthwhile do not seem to weigh on her conscience, her thirst for blood almost ravenous for those whose crimes are great enough. She believes the ends justify the means--her ends, and her means, that is.Unable to shake her high society upbringing, she dislikes dirtiness, PDA, disorganization, vulgarity, and crassness. She is not easily embarrassed, and she is not afraid to get her hands dirty if need be, but it shall probably be accompanied with some complaints, pampered princess she is on some level. Despite her faults, she does possess a moral code and a heart. She is generous and will help those in need, even if it means putting herself at great risk. She resents those who prey upon the weak or harm others without good cause. She turns up her nose at unnecessary cruelty, uncalled for rudeness, and petty acts of crime or trickery. She is fiercely protective of those few for whom she cares or for whom she feels some manner of responsibility, such as those in her employ. She can, however, become possessive, controlling, and smothering of those whose company she enjoys.Faye fancies people who are useful to her in some way, who possess some strength she finds admirable, or preferably both--of course, those who are only useful may unfortunately find themselves expendable to the woman once they have outlived their purpose. She has few qualms with using others. Because of these odd qualifiers, she often keeps company one would not expect of the gentlelady. She is disinterested in anyone cowardly, spineless, and weak-willed, and gets frustrated at others who are lazy, naïve, or directionless. People who can challenge her, see through her deceits, and are willing to butt heads with her while still treating her with respect are those who captivate her the most, earning her fondness but also an air of competition. She likes the thrill of being kept on her toes, relishing in the banter and the game of back and forth. Perhaps she really just enjoys someone who can see through to glimpse the heart of her without having to actually lower her walls.She is a detailed-oriented person who prefers organization. True to her profession, she is perceptive, sharp, and clever. Ever curious, she hates the unknown. She loves to chase a mystery. Unfortunately for those who end up in her path, that means she can be nosey and get herself involved in their business, often earning her some enemies. Scheming and conniving, she always has a plan for something and a backup besides, no shortage of tricks up her sleeve. She is always prepared for any outcome, and while she doesn’t consider herself a pessimist, her penchant to prepare for the worst does leave her closed off and untrusting of others. After all… one should never show weakness.

History

Born the only child of Selene and Nicholas Covington, Faye wanted for nothing growing up at their lavish estate in the East Shroud--nothing that could be bought with gil, that is. Selene, the daughter of a wealthy family that some generations ago was part of a minor noble house in Ishgard before scandal forced them out of Coerthas, was something of a classic narcissist, critical and smothering of her beloved daughter. Nicholas, a high-ranking soldier of the Order of the Twin Adder, was often away from home on duty, and even in his time home was usually distant and preoccupied with his work. Young Faye preferred her father’s distance to her mother’s pestering.Nevertheless, the two prepared their daughter for success in all facets of life. She received a well-rounded education, the days of Faye’s youth consumed in lessons from private tutors in everything from art to arithmetic to literature, to history and etiquette, all things an academic and lady of refinement should know. She was dragged along to high society functions, entertaining adults and mingling with the children of other aristocrats. Her father even saw to it that she began visiting the Conjurer’s Guild at a young age to learn their arts and make the most of her aptitude for manipulating aether. Most all her obligations bored her, but she had little choice in the matter, and she excelled in most pursuits despite her lack of enthusiasm.By the age of 15, she was afforded her first taste of freedom, and she gladly took it. For the first time, her father had entrusted her to run an errand alone outside of the Black Shroud, despite her mother’s protests that her time was better spent ensuring she became proper marriage material for the coming years. So Faye set off alone to make a delivery to La Noscea, not reaching her destination before she stumbled upon the very recent wreckage of a seaside fishing village attacked by the Sahagin. She found but a single survivor--an injured boy near her own age, all the other villagers dead or escaped. The budding conjurer tended to his wounds and brought the boy, Zularti Vensar, to safety. However, his family had not been so fortunate, and the Covington family took in the orphaned boy as their ward.It was an odd thing, suddenly having someone her own age and someone so very different in her home. Quickly--maybe too quickly--Zularti moved on from his shock and grief, and gone were Faye’s quiet and lonesome days. Brave, adventurous, and plucky Zularti drew out those same traits that had been buried beneath the prim and proper veneer of the spoiled girl. Her teen years were suddenly consumed finding adventure and keeping Zularti out of trouble with her conjury, whether it was helping him fend off the foes of the forest, or tending to his wounds despite his protests. He had dreams of being a hero, and Faye was dragged along for the ride whenever she could escape her lessons.However, all things change, and it was only a couple years later Faye caught Zularti sneaking off in the middle of the night with all his belongings in tow. He yearned for things he couldn’t find living comfortably in a mansion in the Twelveswood, wanting to see the world, grow stronger, help others, and make his name as a hero. They parted ways and said their goodbyes, and life for Faye went back to normal; back to the quiet, peaceful days she had once known, but now the silence held a certain emptiness it hadn’t before.The peace and quiet was not to last forever, either. When Faye was at the age of 20, Dalamud fell and the Calamity struck. The world changed for everyone, but for all the tragedy around them, the Covington family suffered very little personally. They did their part to help rebuild the wreckage, and Faye, having spent so much of her youth studying healing with the Conjurers seeing all manner of illness and injury, was not particularly shaken by the horrors she saw. Soon enough, a sense of normalcy returned--and was, like all things, fleeting.A couple years after the Calamity, the Covingtons faced a Calamity of their own. In the dead of night, Imperial soldiers stormed their home. In all the chaos and bloodshed, Nicholas appeared just in time and held off their attackers so Faye could flee. She ran and ran until she reached the gates of Gridania. The Covington manor burned to the ground, the only survivors Faye and some of the household staff, many of the bodies found in the remains too charred to identify. With no one left and nowhere to go, Faye sought refuge at the only place she knew would take her in: Stillglade Fane.There was little space for her to mourn with so much confusion and uncertainty about what exactly had happened to her family and why. A few moons passed at the Fane until an injured adventurer came seeking aid. It was Zularti, the pair reunited after so many years. His adventuring career had not been going quite as well as he hoped, and he roped Faye into his plan to turn things around by forming a Free Company. Thus, the Harbingers of Dawn were formed, and the two set off on their adventures, slowly but surely searching for others to join them along the way as they beat the baddies and aided those in need.While Zularti, ever the “act first, think later” type, was efficient at getting things done when it came to slaying foul beasts and helping those in distress, he didn’t have the patience or focus for the other tasks that kept a Free Company afloat, such as the paperwork, funding, or recruiting and managing the members. Thus, those tasks fell to the much more organized Faye. Often left behind to handle the administrative work while Zularti was off saving the world, she discovered a new problem: the Garleans who had attacked her home were not done with her yet. She found small groups following her, seizing the chance to strike.She could not imagine what they wanted with her, or why. But she did know she could not fend them off alone forever, and she could not always count on Zularti to be there. And so, begrudgingly, she hired as her bodyguard a rough and rakish mercenary she’d recently had a less than pleasant run-in with, Val Nunh. The two seemed like opposites in every way, butting heads and arguing at every turn. Only their contract, her need for his protection, and his need for her gil kept the two from cutting ties.Yet through the trials and tribulations of the Imperials hunting her down and Val fending them off, the two eventually bonded and found not only a surprising amount of common ground, but also admirable traits within the other. Their newfound feelings and chemistry did not make things any easier or less tense between them. Val was a man who would not be kept, and Faye was a woman who would settle for nothing less than full commitment. But for all their stubbornness, the two eventually gave in--or as Faye would tell it, she won. Within a few moons, the mismatched pair were lovers. All the while, the Harbingers grew in size and status to become a company with renown and success in their work independently and with the Grand Companies alike.

Then everything turned on its head when the Imperials caught up to Faye at last, capturing her and Val. At last she learned the truth, when she came face to face with her father, alive and well in Garlean armor. Nicholas Covington--or rather, as he had properly introduced himself, Stanislas van Corinthius, the Blue Viper--had been working undercover in Eorzea for over two decades. When the time came to return to Garlemald, he’d staged the attack on their home to fake his death, destroy any evidence potentially left with this home or family, and tie his loose ends--but in the end, he could not bring himself to kill his own daughter, and helped her escape the onslaught instead.But now his work had brought him back to Eorzea, and he did not enjoy having unsettled affairs. He regretted his former weakness. He offered Faye a simple ultimatum: return with him to Garlemald, or he would cut down her and Val. Faye refused, bargaining for another option. His single compromise was that he would give her until his work was once more complete in Eorzea to make her decision, if in the meantime she would do his bidding to aid him in his work. With little choice otherwise, she reluctantly agreed. The Harbingers arrived just in time to “rescue” the couple from the Imperials who pretended to put up a fight.Of course, Stanislas wasn’t going to simply take her word for it. He was not where her Garlean family ended. His eldest son, Aelius sas Corinthius, Faye’s half-brother, joined the Harbingers undercover to keep an eye on Faye and ensure she did as their father ordered. And thus, the Harbingers of the Dawn became Stanislas’s tool as he sought to follow in the footsteps of Gaius van Baelsar and create a weapon that could harness the power of Primals. Whether it was facing down against Leviathan or leading the company straight into Imperial ambushes, he pulled the strings behind the scenes, wracking up a count of collateral damage, limbs and even lives lost among the Harbingers.Each day, the anger in Faye swelled higher and higher, but she felt trapped under her father’s thumb until at last, the breaking point was reached. Zularti died saving his company mates like the hero he had always hoped to be, crushed beneath the rubble of a collapsing Imperial laboratory, setting the rebellion in motion. Faye outed Aelius as a traitor to the Harbingers, pinning all their recent troubles and information leaks on him, and the Harbingers took him into custody. The simple act was a declaration of war. Faye knew it meant that confrontation with her father was inevitable, so she went prepared.With a small group of her most trusted company mates, she went to face her father in the deep in the desert of Thanalan while the rest of the Harbingers and their Grand Company allies clashed against his legion. It was a hard fought battle, those who faced Stanislas barely surviving the struggle. As he swung his sword straight down to cleave Faye in two with no hesitation, Faye understood his threats had been no bluffs and none of the reservations he once held about killing his own flesh and blood remained. Val leaped into the way, saving her life, but the blade still caught her arm, cleaving off her left hand. Considering Faye down for the count, Stanislas set his sights on Val.Not about to watch her beloved die in front of her at her father’s hand, Faye summoned the last of her strength, picking up Val’s discarded dagger and plunging it into her father’s neck. The Blue Viper was slain by his own daughter’s hand, and she was never again to be anyone’s puppet. With Zularti dead and Stanislas and his forces defeated, the Harbingers of the Dawn had no more purpose, as far as Faye was concerned. Eventually, they disbanded. It had been Zularti’s dream, after all, not Faye’s--a dream now dead alongside him.She found a Magitek mechanic to make a functional, prosthetic hand for her. Without the Free Company to consume her time, Faye could focus on her own pursuits. She doubled down on the one thing she had always truly wanted: to be strong. She would never again be weak, never again be taken advantage of. She leveraged her name and her gil as she always had for social status and connections. She learned how to wield a rapier, better honing her body to make use of the blade. She branched out into other fields of magic, studying all manners occult, arcane, and aetherial, learning to interweave them together under the tutelage of her one time foe and now something other, Melfice Vainchelon.However, she could only be content without something more to keep her hands busy for so long. Rather than seeing someone else’s dream to fruition, this time she sought to create something for herself. Thus, Shroudrose Teahouse was born, filling the vacant building that once housed the Harbingers of Dawn. Of course, she would not be satisfied selling only tea and pastries. While the teahouse proper was no less legitimate for it, she seized the opportunity to use the teahouse for the selling of secrets and information.

Though several years passed since her father’s death, her past had haunted her ever since, always catching up to her, be it in the form of the surviving soldiers of his legion coming to seek revenge, or more dastardly happenings, like a corpse reanimated. It served as a constant, nagging reminder to get stronger. And so every day, she strove to that end. She did not allow her new business venture to distract her from her own self-betterment, continuing her studies in all manners of magicks and anything else she could get her claws on, from commissioning a custom pistol for herself and learning how to shoot, to some… questionable means of bolstering her magic, even if she stumbled into them somewhat accidentally.An investigation gone awry into a cult that involved Melfice’s sister, Liliana Vainchelon, led to Faye receiving fatal injuries, brought back from the brink of death by way of Liliana forcing Voidsent blood upon her. It left her with some curious changes. Near limitless aether, but no way to replenish it without drawing it from an external source. And an odd, specific sort of thirst. While Faye didn’t terribly mind the side effects, she knew such an imbalance of dark aspected aether would probably not bode well in the long run. So she arranged an ambitious trip to the First after learning of its existence, speculating that consuming Sineater blood could offset the Voidsent blood. In application, it didn’t really work that way… but, well, she didn’t entirely mind. After all, it made her more powerful, and isn’t that all that matters?Life resumed as usual back upon the Source, if Faye's life could ever be called "usual," but to one who feared ever being collared once more, even the bonds of love began to feel like chains. What was having love for another if not a distraction? A weakness to be exploited? The truer the love, the deeper the wound. So she pushed away the person she loved the most, far from for the first time, but this time, unlike the others, he did not return. But life went on without Val, as it always did. Regret, despair, heartbreak... that was all weakness, too. She ignored those feelings, as she always did.