In an arid mountain-locked plain of Gyr Abania, two traveling Miqo’te tribes set up their new homes. The smaller and weaker was the K tribe, who eked out a living by the salt lakes clustered near the center of the plain. They had a longstanding rivalry with the notorious J Tribe, which was larger, stronger, meaner, and occupied the only exit to the coast. Unable to expand and unable to leave, the K tribe made do with what food it could find and searched night and day for a fabled treasure long rumored to be hidden in this very plain. They dreamed of discovering it and using its riches to beat the Js at their own game, but as months turned into years, such prospects seemed increasingly unlikely.
The leader of the K tribe, K’darin Nunh, was a kind-hearted but not particularly strong leader. The rest of the tribe consisted of his eight wives, their many children, and his idiot brother K’arl. The fifth wife was K’velle, with whom K’darin shared an almost brother-sisterly bond. K’velle was the only wife that bore him no children, and in fact had no interest in sleeping with him whatsoever, but he loved her nonetheless.
But that all changed when M’tata arrived. A fiery orange-haired pugilist from the distant M tribe, M’tata had fled her home after coming of age and refusing to marry the M tribe Nunh. After being denied sanctuary by the J Tribe, she asked the K tribe for permission to temporarily live with them until she recovered from her long journey. M’tata and K’velle instantly developed a very close friendship, one that K’darin was not a fan of but tolerated out of love for his wife. The two were inseparable, staying up till the late hours talking, laughing, and sharing stories. M’tata taught K’velle how to hunt, and K’velle taught M’tata how to cook, care for livestock, and appreciate things in life other than punching.
When the time came that M’tata was fit to resume her search for a permanent home, K’velle pleaded with K’darin to let her stay indefinitely, citing a “burgeoning friendship.” K’darin reluctantly permitted it, but K’velle’s split devotion caused strife within the once-united tribe. The other wives started resenting the many things K’velle kept getting away with, K’darin was growing tired of playing second-fiddle in her affections to an outsider, and K’arl was mad that M’tata kept pointedly ignoring his repeated offers to go start a new tribe together.
They all nevertheless maintained an unstable peace…until the day K’darin discovered that K’velle was pregnant. He quickly flew into a furious rage, demanding to know who she’d slept with and why she would lay with somebody else when he’d been so patient with her as a wife. K’velle tried to claim it was divine providence, but he quickly suspected K’arl despite both parties insisting they would never have done such a thing. Angrily, he jailed both of them and expelled M’tata from the tribe, never to return on pain of death.
But that very night, M’tata sneaked her way into the village and freed K’velle from her cage. As they prepared to flee, K’arl interrupted, begging to be let out and offering to lead both of them to a new land, where he could be their Nunh. They politely declined. So instead he asked, if they were truly leaving forever, to at least reveal what K’velle had done to get pregnant. He knew it hadn’t been him, so who?
So M’tata disclosed that she’d found a hidden mountain pass on the far side of the plain, and at the end of it was the fabled treasure of lore. But rather than bring it home, she sold the whole thing to the J Tribe in exchange for two potions of Fantasia; one to swap her biological gender for a single night, and one to turn back. K’arl promised he wouldn’t reveal their secret, but he totally lied and explained everything to K’darin the next day, when M’tata and K’velle were long gone. The K tribe searched for many nights, but were unable to find this mountain pass, or the wayward couple.
But M’tata hadn’t been entirely truthful to K’arl. She had indeed found the fabled treasure, but not in the mountains; it had happened during a late hunting trip on the banks of a lake near J territory. At the stroke of twilight, when the setting sun was at a very specific angle in the sky, did it reveal the mouth of a barely-visible underwater cave. It was in this cave, populated by a colony of friendly salt-swallow larvae, that M’tata and K’velle originally found the treasure, and where they now lived in secret.
K’lyshna was born a few months later, and lived her early years with her parents among the salt-swallows. They would only leave the cave at night to hunt and gather resources, and for many years they were a happy, if isolated, family. But as K’lyshna grew older, K’velle knew their daughter couldn’t live like this forever. She argued with M’tata that it wasn’t healthy for a growing child to have no contact with kids her own age, and that there was a whole world out there she needed to go experience. It didn’t help that K’lyshna inherited M’tata’s rebellious streak and was constantly asking when she’d be allowed to make friends who weren’t flying nudibranchs.
Once she came of age, M’tata brought K’lyshna to the J tribe and asked that they allow her daughter passage out of the plains. She lied about K’lyshna’s heritage (claiming M’tata had been pregnant with her when she first arrived) and the J tribe permitted it, rationalizing that their only beef is with anyone from the K Tribe. So K’lyshna hitchhiked out on the J Tribe’s next supply run to Limsa Lominsa, and M’tata returned to the cave to live happily with K’velle and the salt swallows.
K’lyshna soon found herself in an exciting new city without a friend or coin to her name. And despite her best efforts, she was unable to find anywhere to live within her price range of ‘free.’ Her initial hopes of finding a pugilist guild were dashed when she discovered it was located in an entirely different region. Making use of her only other skill, swimming, she began exploring the ocean depths hoping to find a new underwater cave to make her home. And she succeeded, in probably the least-convenient place possible: the flooded shafts of Blind Iron Mines, which had shut down years ago after running out of ore. Here K’lyshna clandestinely carved out a meager but familiar living situation for herself while looking to build her future.
And that was how things stayed for some time. K’lyshna only visited Limsa for supplies and mostly kept to herself, unable to venture much further than the cave and lacking any sort of marketable skills to find a real job and improve her lot in life. Until one day, when she returned from a supply run to find an unexpected visitor waiting for her.
It was a salt swallow! And not just any salt swallow; after several moments of surprised confusion, she recognized the runt of the litter she’d raised while growing up in Gyr Abania. Nicknamed Hap for his cheery attitude, she’d left him behind when immigrating to Limsa Lominsa, and he’d gone on an incredible journey to find her as soon as he grew old enough to leave the nest.
Sadly, he was dangerously weakened from his journey, and K’lyshna needed to act fast if she wanted to nurse him back to health. She began learning alchemy to brew some basic health potions and other ointments, and succeeded in saving her earliest friend’s life. And with his arrival, she now had a faithful steed to brave the oceans and gather reagents for her budding alchemical interests.
With her horizons broadened, K’lyshna found herself living much better than when she was whiling the days away in Blind Iron Mines. She began earning an actual income selling potions and cordials, and started seriously considering trying to find somewhere to live more hospitable, perhaps with walls or a door! Unfortunately, she was forbidden from even renting an apartment due to not being considered an ‘adventurer’, nor was she close to the 500,000 gil needed for even a basic flat.
But eventually a more esoteric opportunity presented itself when she overheard two members of Mimosa Manor, a prominent Lominsan bakery, discussing company finances while she was picking up her monthly supply of distilled water. V’tori Gale, the workshop operator, was explaining to H’atari Nunh, the proprietor, that one of their submarines had crashed during an expedition with all mammets and supplies lost. This was unfortunate news for Mimosa Manor, but a golden opportunity for K’lyshna to throw caution to the waves and take her housing into her own hands.
Loitering long enough to learn the rough location where the sub had been lost, she struck out on Hap the very next morning, armed only with several explosive vials in case angry sealife tried to interrupt her plans. And find the submarine she did, admittedly a tight fit for somebody not mammet-sized, but still roomy enough for a young miqo’te to call her new mobile home, provided she could repair the damage and get it working again.
It took weeks of steady work; by night she’d purchase supplies and training using her alchemy proceeds, and by day she’d implement what she’d learned, relying on potions of water breathing to remain submerged for hours while Hap guarded the wreckage from any aquatic threats that snooped too close to the sub. But eventually she was successful, and triumphantly fired up the engines of her new domicile, the Victory or Fish, to become the seafaring alchemist she’d always hoped to be.
Of course, there was the tiny matter that her submarine was stolen, incriminating her under Eorzean piracy laws, but it was a small price to pay for her newfound freedom. If you’re in the market for plunder, ocean-sourced potions, or swashbuckling adventure, don’t hesitate to seek out Cap’n K’lyshna, the pirate alchemist!
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