Lehon'a Nhavareh - Ask her anything!

Lehon'a Nhavareh | 24ish? | she/her | trans/bi

Raised as a boy among keepers of the moon despite being born a sun seeker herself, Lehon'a Nhavareh now graces the stage as a member of the Sapphire Sky Ensemble: a traveling group of performers sharing music and dance across Eorzea. Her primary skill is percussion, but she's grown into her own as a dancer, too.

She grew up in the Shroud after being abandoned there as a child, not yet old enough to remember anything of her parents. Despite her being an outsider, she was taken in by a childless female keeper of the moon, who raised her as a member of their tribe out of kindness. Living among those who looked so different from her was definitely a challenge, but as her musical talent developed, so too did more common ground with her tribe-mates.

When she came of age in her 18th summer, she left her home to roam the land (as male moon keepers often do). Though not entirely her choice, her travels carried her many places. They began with a stop in Gridania to learn the very basics of conjury and ultimately culminated in a journey to Limsa Lominsa, where she discovered the Sapphire Sky Ensemble (or more aptly, they discovered her). After persistent recruitment from the group's director, she finally agreed to join, on the condition of regular breaks to return home and visit her mother.

Lehon'a did a lot of soul searching while traveling with the group, and after a spiritual experience with Menphina and confiding in close friends, she realized that she was transgender, and began to live as a female miqo'te. After her transition, she grew even closer to her mother and their tribe, and any given break from touring will usually result in a long visit back home.

On the rare occasion she's not performing or at home, she can usually be found caring for the troupe's chocobos, attempting to spot wild birds and animals, or losing horribly at whatever board or card game is popular amongst her fellow performers.

(I'll try to answer in character as best as I can! I'm very very rusty so please be patient!)

Does she lose the games she plays on purpose? Or is it a deliberate method she uses to keep people interested in playing Triple Triad or other games with her?

Traveling with your troupe, what are some of the more amazing sights and scenes that you've witnessed? Anything that stood out about a place you ended up going to?

angel_dlatu wrote:

Does she lose the games she plays on purpose? Or is it a deliberate method she uses to keep people interested in playing Triple Triad or other games with her?

"Twelve, I wish I was clever enough to pull off a scheme like that!" she says, between chuckles. "I know, I know, the truth is always less exciting, but I'm not here to try and trick ya."  She closes her eyes for a moment and shakes her head, resigned to the fact this is something she can't really change. "Truth is, I just can't think in that sort of way. Never was too good at planning far into the future or making some fancy strategy."  

"Triple Triad's probably the game I understand the best, but since I just play the cards with the art I like looking at, I don't do a whole lot of winning. On a longer tour to the east, someone bought a set of those tiles for... Mahjong, I think was their word for it?" she says, trying to scour her memory for confirmation that she's got the name right. "Well anyroad, you get what I'm talking about. The game with the tiles with symbols on 'em. I never really understood the hands too well, and every time it seemed like I was an ilm from winning, someone else would win on the tile I'd just thrown away. If we ever played for money, I'd have half a mind to think they were cheating!"  

She laughs at that, which softens into a smile of reminiscence. "There really is no better way to pass an evening on the road. Friends gathered 'round the fire, playing cards on whatever nearby surface is flattest. Even when I'm not doing much winning, it's just nice to spend time together and watch your friends get excited about something."

PaintedScales wrote:

Traveling with your troupe, what are some of the more amazing sights and scenes that you've witnessed? Anything that stood out about a place you ended up going to?

"Hmm..." she says, deep in thought. "Choosing just one standout hardly seems fair, so how's this: you get three answers for the price of one. Sound good?"

She leans back and looks upward, trying to recall as much as she can.

 "I think the city that stood out most was Kugane.  It's not a place most folks where I'm from are able to go, so even though I figured I'd long for home terribly by the end, I knew it was a tour I couldn't miss. There were truly so many amazing things about it: the food, the new types of creatures I'd never seen before, the architecture..." she trails off, wistfully. "It truly felt a whole new world for me, and getting to experience all those firsts was really something. Inspired me to build my small home away from home in the eastern style, too." She pauses for a moment, letting herself get a little lost in the memory before a new thought jolted her out of her reverie. "And how could I forget: the music! We were lucky enough to visit during a festival, and hearing all these new instruments over the bustle of the city and the glow of paper lanterns everywhere was something else. Music truly like nothing I'd heard before, and the folks there were so eager to share with us. I tried learning as much as I could, but admittedly I've forgotten a great deal of it in the intervening moons."

"Outside of the cities, nothing tops the trip we made to Tailfeather and the chocobo forest. I've made it a goal to see as many new kinds of birds & beasts as I can in my travels, you see. It reminds me of younger days exploring the Shroud, and keeps my focus off how much I miss being home with mom when I've been gone too long." She stops to refocus, narrowly averting a long tangent about her birdwatching exploits. "Anyroad, we were up in Coerthas doing a couple small shows before setting up shop in Ishgard for a while, when we got word that some of the trappers in Tailfeather wanted us to play, and would pay pretty handsomely for a show. It was definitely a long trek from where we were, but we eventually made it past the snow & ice and into Dravania. And while the settlement wasn't much to look at, the surrounding forest was so beautiful. Just seeing wild chocobos running free under these strange-looking trees with really long roots that jutted out of the ground was really magical. I love our group's birds dearly, but watching them in the wild with the water of The Hundred Throes crashing in the distance just doesn't compare!" she exclaims, passion for her feathered companions showing through.

"Beautiful chocobos aside, that show was still one of my favorites. Somehow, the smallest crowds feel larger than anything you'd get in a big city once they really get into it. And the way those Tailfeather folks got into it, you'd think they hadn't heard music in years! By the end of the night there wasn't a morsel of food or drink uneaten and every soul was dancing around the room. It was truly a sight to behold!" She then lowers her voice a little, as if to thwart any eavesdroppers. "I'd never say this on stage, but there's not a crowd so far in Eorzea that's got them beat."

"No matter how many new birds or beautiful festivals or giant wonders of nature I see, though, home in the Shroud is always where I find myself wanting to be. I know, I know!" she says, laughing at the absurdity of it. "It's quite ironic I'd choose a touring profession as such a homebody, but life is a strange thing that way. As bad as it feels sometimes to be away for so long, I think not being able to exercise that passion for music would feel worse. Kinda like how you lose your muscles if you don't use 'em." She pauses for a moment, looking into the distance. "I really couldn't ask for a better place to return to. It didn't always feel like I quite fit in, but my mom has really tried her best to make it a place worth coming back to. And in that, she's truly my favorite part of my travels. Coming home to the place she's made for me. For us."

What do you miss the most from the Twelveswood when you're away?

Skaar wrote:

What do you miss the most from the Twelveswood when you're away?

"Finally, an easy one!" she says, laughing. "Well, there's the simple answer, and the real answer. Simple answer is my mother, Lehon. She's... such an incredible woman, and I truly owe her my life. She took a huge risk taking me in, and got no end of grief for her trouble, both from some of the tribe and from me banging on every surface in sight from the moment I could walk. It was definitely difficult in the beginning, but she always stood behind me. She didn't take lip from anyone, and eventually they learned to live with me or at least keep it to themselves. Not to mention she got me my first couple of proper drums so I'd leave the pots & pans alone! As I got older and started playing music more, the other folks softened a lot. Hard to be mad at someone when they're part of the band you're dancing to, y'know?"

She takes a long pause before continuing, punctuated with a sigh. "And of course, she accepted me when I... became who I am now," she says, gesturing to herself. "I had never been so scared to come home. I'd figured things out, had my meeting with Menphina and told a couple close friends, but it was really hard telling her. She'd been so important, and I dreaded losing her and the families I'd grown close to as a youth."

She pauses again, tears starting to form around a soft smile. "Never should’ve worried. She gave me a big hug and no end of well-meaning questions, and said she'd break the news to the tribe, who also ended up being pretty understanding." The tears had spilled over at this point, though there was no sadness behind them. "She even got enough folks together to do a sort-of coming of age ritual that the young girls usually undertake, but for me. It meant a lot, to go out of their way to make sure someone like me felt included, and well…” she trails off, recognizing the emotions to be too much for the moment. “Maybe we should save that story for another time."

She wipes her face, suddenly aware of how far off track she's gone. "Oh gosh, that was supposed to be the simple answer, wasn't it? Well to get back to the real answer, I think it's the forest itself I miss most. Growing up under the shade of so many trees makes you feel exposed in the barren deserts of Thanalan or on the open seas and rocky coasts of La Noscea, and it's nice to come back to that feeling of seclusion. When you spend a lot of life on a stage, being away from the bright lights and prying eyes becomes a luxury you didn’t know you had.” She seems to realize she’s implied something she maybe didn’t mean, and hastily backtracks. “N-not to say I’m famous or anything like that!” She composes herself, and continues. “Thankfully I don’t have to deal with legions of fans, but being truthful, even one creepy person staring at you is still one person too many. I’d rather have a pack of hungry coeurls eyeing me for dinner than one more of those seedy drunkards. And speaking from experience, the beasts of the Twelveswood aren’t half bad company. Sometimes I find I miss their presence as much as the trees or my people, ‘cause home just wouldn’t be the same without a few good neighbors.”

she's cute!!! i love seeing trans characters around, it makes me really happy :')

((as someone who's also trans and kept their birth name lol,)) did she ever consider changing her name upon discovering her inner identity, assuming she hasn't? what made her decide to keep it? or if i'm wrong and she did change it, did anything in particular inspire what she chose?

thefinalwitness wrote:

she's cute!!! i love seeing trans characters around, it makes me really happy :')

((as someone who's also trans and kept their birth name lol,)) did she ever consider changing her name upon discovering her inner identity, assuming she hasn't? what made her decide to keep it? or if i'm wrong and she did change it, did anything in particular inspire what she chose?

"I certainly had a lot of time to think about it before I told most of the important people in my life, and I definitely went back and forth a few times. A very close friend of mine, Rosalinde, our group's tailor, was the first person I told, and she, bless her heart, got me in contact with other folks who were like me. At that point, I thought changing it was something you more or less had to do, see. As I talked to more and more people who were in the same boat, I realized that I had it wrong, and that a good percentage of folks kept their old name, whether for reputation reasons or just cause they liked it."

She cracks a sheepish smile. "So I'll admit, a part of why I kept it was just that changing it would've been a lot to explain to not only the people I work with, but also to any of our fans all over the place. Even though I look pretty different on the outside, I guess I still wanted to show that it was still me, after all that." She chuckles to herself. "That, and it would've been double the paperwork."

"Logistical hassle aside, there was one more reason," she says, preparing to depart on another tangent. "I'm sure you've got the basic idea of my life story, but the stuff you'd need to know is that I grew up adopted by a keeper mother, even though I wasn't born a keeper myself. Since I was a boy back then, I took her name as my own with the 'a suffix to show I was her first son, as is tradition." She looks up at the sky, a wistful look in her eye. "I was always so proud to be my mother's son wherever I went. She's such a strong woman, and without her being committed to raisin' me, to protecting me from the less... friendly members of our tribe and teaching me everything she knew about caring for other folks, I wouldn't be half the woman I am today. All that to say, I mostly kept it in honor of her. So that whenever anyone notices something good I'm trying to do for others, they know exactly where it came from. That I'm my mother's daughter."