FFXIV Swap Poem Thingy
I had the honour of being matched with the very marvellous @paintedscales for the FFXIV Swap. I really enjoyed learning about Nomin and her backstory and it's given me the opportunity to do a lot of background reading on Xaela lore and the history of the Azim Steppe. Definitely worth reading Nomin's Carrd if you want more detail on the events described below.
However I was a bit worried that a poem might not be as exciting as some of the beautiful artwork created by others for this project, so I took the liberty of commissioning a custom character banner for Nomin as a little extra.
Anyway Poetry Time (mostly under the cut as it's quite long).
The Nameless Child.
The nameless child, left by design,
Bound tight with rope to sacred pine,
As tribal customs did dictate,
But was resolved to change her fate,
And once she had her bonds untwined,
She chose to leave her tribe behind,
From that day forth, without regret,
She was no longer a Tumet.
Having swiftly named herself,
Quietly and with practiced stealth,
She made her way across the plains,
To the lone town the Steppe contains,
Where, seeing one so young exiled,
They grudgingly took in the child,
Gave her food and clothes withal,
And raised her as a young Saghal.
The traditions of this peaceful tribe,
Among many other things proscribe,
The killing or the subjugation,
Of beasts with whom they share creation,
And thus, bitter irony indeed,
The adherents of this gentle creed,
Were enslaved, or left for dead,
Their lives destroyed by the Jhungid.
Having beheld her brother slain,
She had to work quite hard to feign,
Any form of acquiescence,
As she grew through her adolescence,
Under the watchful, callous, eyes,
Of custodians who she despised,
So she knew exactly what to do,
When battle dawned with the Kharlu.
As each tribe faced the other’s host,
In battle for the Eastern coast,
She drew the arrow in her bow -
And turned her back upon the foe,
Without pause, without remorse,
She shot her leader from his horse,
Before riding back to burn their yurts,
Administering their just deserts.
Having freed her former tribe,
She knew that she must circumscribe,
Her kinship with them all thenceforth,
To keep them safe, so journeyed North,
And West across the Steppe alone,
In search of tribes as yet unknown,
And, from spending time with each,
She’d learn all that they had to teach.
Whether across a glacier,
Travelling with the Angura,
Or racing upon an Oroq Sled,
She absorbs all that they’ve done and said,
And be it Himaa, Gharl or Mol,
Each colour's blended in her soul,
And every one that she recalls,
Is carried forth in her footfalls.
(For those that are interested in such things I opted for rhyming couplets as the nearest form I could find to traditional Mongolian Epic Poetry (known as tuuli). There are six variations of narrative in these epics, and (extremely loosely) I opted for The Mythicised Epic, where the hero fights to restore order, as the basis for Nomin's tale. The most famous version of this narrative in Mongolian Folklore is the Epic of King Gesar, but there are lots of other ones. Definitely worth learning about if you enjoy cultural history.)
Many thanks to @paintedscales for their patience in waiting for me to pull my finger out and finish this - and also for helping me with the pronunciation of the various Xaela tribes with which Nomin has been associated. Needless to say, until this assistance, I was apparently getting most of them very wrong (aside from the Mol - I could manage that one!)
I hope you enjoy my silly poem and the nice Custom Banner!
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