'tis the storm that doth see the petal soar
A refugee from the Far East. Though Kotone's upbringing was humble, her bloodline is not—her maternal bloodline can be traced through generations of samurai and her paternal grandmother was once the famed songbird of Hingashi, Mikoto Kyomei, descended from generation after generation of performers.
✧─Family History
A Song Carried Over the Sea
There are several families in the kingdom of Doma that call themselves the Naeuri, but there is one particular clan of the village of Torimori that are not actually of Doman descent at all but hail from their sister across the sea—Hingashi.
In Hingashi, locked behind the gilded gates between Kugane and the rest of her isles, there was once an esteemed songbird whose voice bewitched her every audience. Men vied for her hand, but her parents would let none wed her except one of the country's most wealthiest bugyo, a man directly related to the imperial family. The songbird was put in a cage, her voice and throat trapped beneath her husband's imposing hand.
No longer could she stand where the performing troupes stood when they gathered in her husband's banquet hall. No longer would her song carry over the valleys and rivers of Hingashi. And in the time she mourned this the most, one of their family's entertainers gave her comfort.
✧─Early Life
A Melody Upon the Wind
✧─The Hero's Journey
A Realm Reborn
Kotone is not present in the MSQ or Eorzea during A Realm Reborn, living a quiet existence in a Doman village under imperial reign. She and her best friend, Xiaodan, pray for any word from Kotone's absent cousin Hanami.
A TAILWIND POINTED WEST
After Emperor Solus's passing left Garlemald in a succession crisis, the people of Doma and Yanxia banded together to rebel against their oppressors. The crisis ended much quicker than suspected and the rebels were crushed by Zenos yae Galvus and the XIIth Legion, scattering what remained. Kotone's parents sent her and her sister Honoka to Lady Yugiri to seek refuge outside of Othard, and they would see nor hear anything of their family again for three years after.
Kotone and Honoka hid in Yugiri's shadow as their group of refugees traveled from port to port, looking for sanctum and being turned away at every door. When eventually they found safety in Mor Dhona they decided to do everything they could to repay their hosts, and Kotone began to regularly join patrols of adventurers around the wasteland. It was on one of these patrols that she met H'lios Tia, who was taken with her at first sight and began to learn Doman to get to know her.
Heavensward
Stormblood
Shadowbringers
Kotone and H'lios take up their old posts patrolling Revenant's Toll while the Archons and the twins are unconscious in the Rising Stones. During one of these patrols, Kotone
Endwalker
As the team splits up for damage control while some of the Warriors search for answers on the Source, Kotone heads to Doma to check on her family and to help Hien with rising reports of blasphemies.
WHEN ALL THE SONGS ARE SUNG
H'lios proposes to Kotone shortly after the finale of Endwalker and moves to Doma to be with her. They quietly elope in Plum Springs with only Kotone's family as witnesses, and by 6.55 discover they're expecting their first child.
Dawntrail
With a child on the way, Kotone remains in Doma during the events of Dawntrail.
✧─The Warrior of Light
Appearance
Image
4'8", a fairly normal height for an Au Ri woman. Slender but not quite skinny, with well-toned arms from years of archery experience. While she has all the potential to carry herself as gracefully as her mother, she comes off as awkward and nervous, hands folded and gaze cast downward. Her tail ends in soft spikes.Demure and shy, Kotone's body language is very restrained and subtle. Her movements are very soft and careful—a small wave, a hand covering a little laugh, a tilt of her head in confusion. If she notices someone watching her she immediately becomes stiff.
Features
Her face is round and her eyebrows are rather thin and awkwardly shaped. She has wide and flat fin-shaped horns and ivory scales over her body, but the ones on her face are sparse.
While it's easily mistaken for being black, her hair is actually dark violet with gray tips at the end. While she kept it long throughout her teenage years, she chopped it up to her chin following the events of Patch 4.3 and has been slowly letting it grow back a bit longer and longer each year. It's straight and thick.
Her eyes are nearly raven black and accented with luminous gray limbal rings, though they don't quite glow in the dark.
Wardrobe
Wanting to reconnect with the parts of her culture that the Garleans tried to stamp out, Kotone likes to wear traditional Doman styles when she can. She likes fabric with a comforting weight that's still easy to move in and mostly doesn't care too much about maintaining a perfect appearance. She tries to minimize how much skin she shows when possible but has been getting braver since post-Stormblood.
Voice
Soft-spoken. While you'd expect her to stutter frequently, it often ends up with her being unable to say anything at all in her shyest moments. She has a Doman accent and tends to pronounce her l's as r's.
Repertoire
SONGSTRESS─Bard, Rank SS
Kotone's mother comes from a long line of Doman samurai, and the Yumishi clan produced many talented archers in its prime. Kotone herself is no exception, and she's practiced in kyujutsu as taught to her by her mother. She favours a traditional bamboo yumi with bloodhemp string, and most Eorzean archers are surprised by the size of her bow (212 ilms to her 142) before they can even comprehend its asymmetrical shape. She knows how to use an Eorzean-style bow only out of necessity and prefers to stay in her comfort zone. As a songstress, Kotone learned to inject aether into her voice to project it further and strengthen her allies.
Kotone's only major match in hunting among «lode» is H'lios. What she lacks in his ability to trace scents is made up for in her naturally excellent spatial recognition. She's much more sensitive to tremors and vibrations than any other Warrior.
Ready Check!
HW DUTIES
The Vault | Neverreap | Xelphatol | Baelsar's Wall
SB DUTIES
The Sirensong Sea | Shisui of the Violet Tides | Bardam's Mettle | Doma Castle | Ala Mhigo | The Swallow's Compass | The Burn | Hells' Lid | The Jade Stoa | Hells' Kier | The Wreath of Snakes
SHB DUTIES
Paglth'an
EW DUTIES
The Tower of Zot | The Tower of Babil | Vanaspati
Relationships
| A'dewah Tia | |
| H'lios Tia | . |
| Lunya Lanya | . |
| Xiaodan Li | Kotone's best friend since girlhood. They were inseperable until the day the failed uprisings tore them apart. |
| Hanami Hagane | Kotone's maternal grandmother was a member of the Hagane clan, and as such Kotone and Hanami are actually distant cousins. Eorzeans think this is a very elaborate joke of theirs, but they can trace the exact link to each others' family with ease and Hanami frequently babysat Kotone as a child. If Hanami had it her way, Kotone would never have gotten into the whole Warrior of Light mess, but things are how they are and at the very least the two can look after each other on the battlefield. Kotone has both a deep admiration and great fear of her cousin. |
| Kanon Naeuri |
| Hien Rijin |
The Unsundered
Clymene
(she/her)
✧─Miscellaneous
Trivia
Her first kiss was with Xiaodan when they were 8. Her favourite food is sweet popoto soba.
TV Tropes
Shrinking Violet.
Pets
Suzuko:
Hayato:
Motifs
Similar Characters & Inspirations
Kuronuma Sawako (Kimi ni Todoke) Sakura (Fire Emblem Fates) Talim (Soulcalibur II) Yuna (Final Fantasy X)
Etymology
Kotone is made of koto 琴 (koto/harp) and ne 音 (sound). Kyomei (共鳴) means "resonance" in Japanese. Her true surname, Naeuri, is a lore-canon name used by Doman farmers. The Raen name lore post says it literally means “seedling seller.”
Footnotes
Original characters referenced on this page, with Tumblr URLs.
Header photo by Zetong Li.