bound by love, purpose fed
The youngest Sharlayan to ever receive the title of Archon for her thesis on voidsent, Athanasia has been groomed since she was young to fulfil the wishes of both her father and her teacher. But when what should have been the pinnacle of her work resulted in her best friend being possessed by a voidsent, Nyneve cast aside her dreams and fled south to Eorzea.
✧─Family History
A House Fallen
In its golden days, House Shallot was a minor but prestigious noble house of Ishgard, its reputation earned in combat and in prayer. Through generations they passed down an art unique to them, using ice-aspected magic with Halone's blessing to strike down their draconic foes. Ninian Shallot was regarded as the House's most talented daughter since their own founder, and as a teenager she earned herself the title "the Wings of Death". But when her whole family was slaughtered in one of the Dravanian attacks, she left Ishgard and her family's history behind and disappeared into Dravania, never intending to look back. It was in the Dravanian colony that she met a man named Morgain Pond, who saw her at her most vulnerable and comforted her...
A Light in the Dark
The youngest Sharlayan to ever be granted the title of Archon for her expertise in cursed relics and spell-breaking at merely 16 summers. Nyneve is so passionate about her research she left Sharlayan to get her hands on more supremely dangerous artifacts with ancient curses on them (and also maybe find her knight-in-shining armor, teehee!) but ended up getting wrapped up in Eorzean affairs when Hydaelyn slapped the Echo on her forehead and told her to go help kill some primals. She's just considered this part of her research (is she herself technically cursed?).
Growing up, Nyneve was best friends with Athanasia Lethe, the only daughter of the voidsent scholar Elgo Lethe. Her friendship with Athanasia meant she spent much time at the Lethe's home than her own, and for the longest time she held a great interest in Elgo's research. At her request, he took her under his wing as a student on her tenth nameday, and it was through his mentorship that she became an Archon six summers later. Athanasia was overjoyed for her best friend, and Elgo couldn't be more proud of his first student.
Except it wasn't that simple. In truth, Athanasia was deeply jealous of Nyneve overshadowing her as her father's student, and Elgo had ulterior motives. It was his belief that the void held answers to long-debated answers of immortality and death. After a few years of more research, at Elgo's order and under the impression that it was simply for a study, Nyneve summoned a high voidsent named Styx in the frozen highlands of Coerthas... and she would have forced herself on Nyneve to use her as a host if it weren't for Athanasia interfering out of both concern for her best friend and a desperate desire to prove herself useful to her father.
Elgo was killed by Styx on the spot, but Athanasia gained control over her body long enough to allow Nyneve to flee—and flee she did, into Eorzea with hope of finding some way to free her friend from the voidsent's control without killing her in the process.
✧─The Hero's Journey
A Realm Reborn
Hoping that studying the Tempered of Sastasha Seagrot could provide some sort of lead on how Athanasia's voidsent possession could be undone, Nyneve requested a party of adventurers to accompany her in Limsa Lominsa. Baderon set her up with three new but dependable companions—Lunya, Majj, and Theo
Heavensward
After just over three years of searching, tomes locked in the depths of the Great Gubal Library cross-referenced with her own research finally gave Nyneve the right idea on freeing her best friend. She left the team to hunt down Styx on her own in Coerthas.
Stormblood
As Athanasia recovered from her time as a voidsent vessel, Nyneve stuck doggedly to her side. The two girls stationed themselves in Rhalgr's Reach within distance of Krile and Y'shtola.
Shadowbringers
Being the FC's resident experts on voidsent, Nyneve and Athanasia were dispatched to the Bozjan Resistance under «lode»'s name. They tore up the Southern Front and Zadnor, thriving in their element.
Endwalker
After seeing Nyneve hopelessly pine after Estinien too many times, Athanasia finally hits her limit and shouts out an angry confession at her as they recover from their injuries in Vanaspati.
Immediately after Endwalker, Nyneve and Athanasia left the party to work along the coast of Corvos and mitigate the damage caused by the Final Days. They were called in to Thavnair during 6.1 to offer their expertise on voidsent and the Thirteenth and rejoined the main party.
Dawntrail
To be continued...
✧─The Warrior of Light
Personality
Appearance
Image
Standing at 5'5" without her heeled greaves, Nyneve desperately wishes she was taller or more "womanly". Her figure is best described as "a carpenter's dream of a plank of wood"—she's all sharp edges and muscles, and her elbows are notoriously pointy.
Features
Pointy-chinned. Considers her nose to be weirdly-shaped like a champagne flute. Whether or not this is true depends on who you talk to. Her eyebrows are very thin. Like all Archons, there are a pair of fuchsia tattoos on either side of her neck to indicate her status.
Wardrobe
Voice
Despite growing up in Sharlayan and having a serious noblewoman for a mama, Nyneve speaks in a very casual, very tongue-in-cheek way instead of like a scholar. No one's really sure where she picked up this manner of speaking. Her voice is a more mature and lower pitch than one might expect from such a bubbly woman.
Repertoire
VALKYRIE─Paladin, Rank SS
Nyneve learned how to fight from the very best—her mama. Even before ever stepping foot into Ishgard she knew how to wield a blade like the best of the Temple Knights, and her prowess in fighting is augmented further by her strong affinity with legendary blades. She hasn't realized it yet, but what she just considers heavily umbral-aspected magic is actually something a little more divine—Hydaelyn's direct influence on her aether. She also has a Halonic blessing as she was given an Ishgardian-style baptism as a baby. Nyneve's magic feels like standing beneath a freezing waterfall.
Relationships
| Athanasia Lethe |
| Estinien Varlineau | A rather disastrous pick by Nyneve to be infatuated by. She wasn't ever actually in love with him and he was mostly just baffled—if not outright disgusted—by her fawning. They tend to awkwardly avoid each other these days, Estinien more purposely than Nyneve. |
| G'raha Tia | An old friend of Nyneve's that she never actually met in person until the Crystal Tower expedition. While penning her Archon thesis in her first year at the Studium, Scholarch Montichaigne put her in touch with a pupil of his old friend Galuf—that was G'raha Tia, fifteen summers old and already brimming with knowledge of Allag. They wrote many letters to each other over the moons, equally questioning and social in nature, and developed a witty rapport that developed into a true friendship when they finally got to meet. She was among those who encouraged G'raha to write his own Archon thesis. To say she was delighted when she learned he had a crush on Lunya would be an understatement. |
| Y'shtola Rhul | Nyneve never really picked up that her admiration for Y'shtola was a whole lesbian crush, but everyone's been a little in love with Y'shtola Rhul at one point or another, so it's hardly noteworthy. |
| Lumelle de Lipine | Lumelle reminds Nyneve of herself a lot, between her hardworking nature and loyalty to a mage best friend (though she hasn't really caught on that Lumelle's crush on Alisaie is also reflected in her own feelings for Athanasia). As a fellow Warrior of Light and a senior in the art of swordsmanship, Nyneve's gravitated to thinking of Lumelle as a younger sister, and one she worries about frequently because of the quiet anger that burns in her heart. |
| Lunya Lanya | |
| Theodaux Valerian |
| Morgain Pond | Nyneve has no idea what her father's research field actually is. Morgain is rarely at home, and when he is, his favouritism for Nyneve is so obvious it makes dinner at the Pond house incredibly awkward. Before the incident with the Lethe family, Morgain was pushing very hard for Nyneve to find a husband. |
| Ninian Shallot | Nyneve's mother is also her idol. In her youth, Ninian of House Shallot was known as Ishgard's Wings of Death for her deadly accurate ability to cut down dragons from the sky and her cold, relentless demeanour. She was always a warm and gentle mother to Nyneve, however, never once raising her voice at her children their whole lives. She taught Nyneve both swordsmanship and conjury. |
| Vyvien Pond | Her twin brother and most trusted confidant. Things were never particularly easy for Nyneve and Vyvien—their father clearly preferred Nyneve and Vyvien was often left in her shadow, but Nyneve's never stood for this injustice when she noticed it and is more proud of her brother and his achievements than anyone else on the star. |
| Elgo Lethe | Nyneve's mentor until his death at Athanasia's own hands. |
The Unsundered
Eleos
(she/her)
✧─Miscellaneous
Trivia
Nyneve was originally named Philia, which changed when Shadowbringers released and revealed the very first boss of the expansion was named Philia. She was peach-themed, a palette that later was given to Mimi. She's approximately fantasy French-Canadian. Her dad is the kind of guy who's like "I'm 4% Polish, 20% German, 37% British, 13% Irish..." She can't craft anything at all. Animals hate her.
TV Tropes
The Ace.
Verses
TO THE EDGE OF OUR FATEPacific Rim AU. Nyneve's a Strike Trooper, a SCION operative that focuses on the evacuation of civilians on the ground when primals make landfall. |
Motifs
Similar Characters & Inspirations
Corrin & Azura (Fire Emblem Fates) Honey Lemon (Big Hero 6) Kanroji Mitsuri (Demon Slayer)
Etymology
Nyneve is a name of the Lady of the Lake from Arthurian legend, the enchantress who gave King Arthur the Excalibur. Her twin brother, Vyvien Pond, also has the same naming origin, as does their mother Ninian. Her dad is named Morgain after Morgan le Fay. Her mother's maiden name, Shallot, is a reference to the Lady of Shallot, another water lady. Her second baptismal name, Filothea, approximately means “friend/lover of god.” It's a callback to her original name Philia. Pond……… pond. It ties in with her being named for the Lady of the Lake.
Footnotes
Original characters referenced on this page, with Tumblr URLs.
- Lumelle de Lipine - @fistsoflightning
Header photo by Erin McKenna.