Kitali Moonblade - Ask Her Anything

Kitali Moonblade

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Occupation(s): Mercenary, Scion, Artisan, Warrior of Light
Age: 30s? Probably?
Title(s): Daughter of Dragons, Viscountess de Borel, Ul Tyr the Fae-touched, Imperial Nuisance, Stealer of Pants
Job(s): DRG/NIN, MCH, DRK / omnicrafter, BTN
Partner(s): Haurchefant (briefly 2.5-3.0), Aymeric de Borel (3.3), Estinien Varlineau (6.0)

Basic Info



Kitali is the only daughter of two Xaela mercenaries. Her father was a Gesi lancer and her mother was a Dazkar archer. Both left the Azim Steppe, along with several dozen other families, in the face of encroaching Garlean forces from the west when she was still an infant. She has no memories of her life on the Steppe. They exited the tunnels under the mountains into Doma, where they remained for much of her childhood. They had no home but their own feet, in and out of inn rooms and rest stops.

She learned to use a lance from her father at the age of 6, where she would accompany him on only the safest and lowest stakes jobs he could take. By the time she was 15, she was negotiating her own contracts.

Her father died when she was 8. They were hired to accompany a travelling merchant and were attacked by AWOL Garlean soldiers turned highway bandits, and he sacrificed himself to give her and her mother time to flee. This has, understandably, lead to a lifelong prejudice against Garlemald.

Tensions between her and her mother came to a head when she was about 20, and Kitali left to strike out on her own. She was adopted into a small adventuring party and stayed with them for about 7 years before she wound up crossing into the Black Shroud via Gyr Abania.

Description

The first word that usually comes to mind when meeting Kitali for the first time is "unnerving". She is very closed off, and is curt and direct to the point of rudeness. The way she carries herself gives the impression that she's likely to spring into action at a moment's notice. This would be a correct assessment. She's pessimistic, paranoid, and has little respect for authority figures. Kitali is very much the "anti-hero" school of protagonist and is frequently refusing the call of the greater narrative.

Despite her prickly disposition, Kitali is fiercely protective of the people she packbonds with. She has adopted the Leveilleur twins as her younger siblings after the events of HW. 

Joining the Scions

Originally Kitali joined the Scions of the Seventh Dawn for 1) a steady paycheck and 2) promises of answers about her Echo. She received only the former, and resents Minfillia for a lack of the latter to this day. There is a great deal of depersonalisation from the rest of the Scions, particularly during the events of ARR and Shadowbringers. It was not until well into Heavensward that she was able to make any genuine connections.

At present (6.58), the only Scions she will listen to are Estinien, the twins, and Thancred.

Personal Life

When she is not tearing through a region like a destructive force of nature, Kitali prefers a quiet life, and will aid in rebuilding and repairing damage she's left behind. She was a key factor in the Ishgardian Restoration following the end of the Dragonsong War and is still enrolled as a guild member of the Skysteel Manufactory. She enjoys reading immensely and is slowly working her way through her husband's personal library. To fill the hours left empty by a lack of need for sleep, she has picked up nearly every hobby available on the star and occasionally takes commissioned work.

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I am slowly getting better at doing these sorts of intros but I still feel like it's lacking. I have SO Much Lore to talk about it's hard to get it all condensed and coherent.

Answers will always be OOC since the IC answer to any personal questions would be getting told to fuck off, which is not exactly conducive for an AMA  

I love that the stealer of pants is an actual title of hers lmao

So let's start with an easy question: what's her relationship with Urianger, Y'shtola and Lyse?

Skaar wrote:

I love that the stealer of pants is an actual title of hers lmao

So let's start with an easy question: what's her relationship with Urianger, Y'shtola and Lyse?

 It's only half serious, but when Hancock said that line I thought it was so funny I immediately set it as my tumblr header, and it has remained there to this day lmao.

Let's start with the easiest! Lyse is one of her closest friends, as she was one of the Scions, if not the only Scion, to make an effort to make Kitali feel welcome. As a Gridania starter, she and Papalymo were the first Scions Kitali encountered. They're also close in age, Kitali was 27 at the start of ARR and Lyse is 25 iirc? Kitali thinks that Lyse can be a bit too naive for her own good, but she's confident that Ala Mhigo is in good hands with her. 

Urianger is in a weird limbo post-EW. Kitali likes him, certainly. He's interesting and clearly cares for the well-being of both Leveilleur twins which is a solid point in his favour. But she doesn't trust him as far as she can spit. He has acknowledged his failings and habits of keeping secrets and has promised to do better. She wants to believe him but will hold judgement until his actions prove whether or not his words mean anything.

Y'shtola is hovering around the top of Kitali's shit list. Which is a pity because Kitali used to really look up to her as a mentor figure in ARR and HW. But I don't like what they did to her character in ShB At All, and after being treated once again as a mere tool to end the eternal Light as well as colluding with Urianger to keep secrets from her, Kitali doesn't trust her and is not at all receptive to her friendly approaches. She feels like Y'shtola is trying to sweep everything that happened on the First under the rug and pretending it never happened. 

I'm going to wait and see how Dawntrail pans out, because the 6.x patches feel like they've seeded grounds for an eventual reconciliation between them. Right now, though, Kitali is keeping her at arm's length with polite apathy.

Is that tea that I see? What tea do you most prefer (taking notes for the Tea and Tomes shop)?

Spot Of Mummery wrote:

Is that tea that I see? What tea do you most prefer (taking notes for the Tea and Tomes shop)?

It is tea, you are correct! Her preferred tea is something green. She will add various blossoms to it but her favourite is jasmine. And having an in with the one who supplies the tea to the Firmament shops means that she can get proper Doman sencha every now and then

I've seen your posts on Tumblr about Kitali! She seems super neat.

How did Kitali feel about returning to the Azim Steppe during the MSQ? How much did her parents pass down to her about their lives there - if any?

rabbitr wrote:

I've seen your posts on Tumblr about Kitali! She seems super neat.

How did Kitali feel about returning to the Azim Steppe during the MSQ? How much did her parents pass down to her about their lives there - if any?

 -holds her up like a potato- I also think she's super neat!

The return to the Steppe was very much the "child of diaspora coming back to their parents' homeland and feeling like a complete stranger" gamut of emotions for Kitali. It was the first time in a long time that she saw people who looked like her, and sounded like her, and who didn't immediately shun her as an outsider. She ended up standing at the gates to Reunion crying outright, which gave both Lyse and Alisaie a shock since I don't think they'd ever seen her cry before. She had grown up hearing about Reunion, because that's where her parents met, but she didn't ever expect to see it for herself. She does wish it had been under better circumstances.

As far as passing down culture, the biggest thing (as is the case with a lot of diaspora cultures) is food. Making buuz with her mom with whatever ingredients they could buy or forage/hunt is one of her earliest memories as a kid, and making it as an adult is a big nostalgia thing for her. She speaks Dazkar as her first language but will use some Gesi versions instead here and there. Having two parents from two separate tribal cultures meant that she grew up seeing both parents being the strong independent one who goes and provides for the family, and there was never really a concept of gender roles for her.

Not that she would ever admit it, but seeing the homeland of the Xaela was the first time she ever wondered how different her life could have been. It's not missing a home so much as missing an entire family. I'm still back and forth on how much I want to include her family trees, because it does make a difference in how the Naadam was handled (holy fuck that arc was only just barely playable because she's a Xaela, I am not looking forward to playing that on my alts) but the woman selling buuz right at the front gate is her first cousin.

Spending more time there as her year as khagan, Kitali has spent a lot of time with Sadu since of the leaders she met, Sadu is the easiest for her to get along with. Sadu has expressed hope that Kitali will be reborn into the Dotharl tribe when she dies, and that thought has given Kitali a lot of comfort. Knowing that whenever her death comes, she'll have a place she knows to return to. (And man, that whole House of the Crooked Coin side quest and Temulun in general is gonna hit so fucking different on my clone alt playthrough).

As an aside: Astute players may have noted that Alisaie does not accompany you to the Azim Steppe in MSQ and stays behind with Alphinaud to assist with the aetheryte. I seem to have downloaded the version of the game where she does accompany you and Lyse because so many plot points I have thought about during that arc involve her, so I am taking the "fuck it, my canon now" approach and just. Putting her there. Alphi will be fine on his own.