growing up i was the problem that they didn't solve

ㅤbiographyㅤ In a harsh and cold Ishgardian winter, a woman from the Brume was charmed and invited into the home of a noble of high renown. He was charming and handsome, and they found warmth with each other for the night. Just the one night. He kicked her out the next morning and threatened her life if she ever spoke of it again. When she learned a few weeks later that she was pregnant, he upped the threats to forget she ever saw his face, or both she and the child would be killed. As such, Callon never knew his father.His mother, Airell, was once a squire to a Knight in her youth; but due to events that were buried, forgotten, and never spoken of, she ended up as a serving girl in a tavern. She was known as a witty, kind, and beautiful woman who could drink anyone under the table. She did her best for her son, even with what little they had to speak of. She made sure he knew how to read at a young age and started his love for the written word. Sadly, when he was six, she got sick after a particularly cold night. A few weeks later, she was gone and her son was left alone in the world. He didn't know it at the time, but on the day of her death, the spark of magic within him grew.Callon grew up among street rats and fell in with a bad crowd early, but at least he learned a fair few practical skills. Pickpocketing, counting cards, how to tell a convincing lie, how to fit in enough with high society, sewing, and other basic life skills. It wasn’t the upbringing his mother wanted for him, but it was better than starving. By his young adulthood, he was hungry for more. He wanted fame, money, power, and all the finer things that came with it. To achieve those ends, he was ready to beg, steal, borrow, or barter. Any work would do as long as it left gil in his hands by dawn. He was a mercenary, a thief, a growing mage, and even a whore. Secrets learned over pillow talk got him far enough that he could make his way to Ul'dah.He spent two years there learning the way of the Thaumaturge under a group of Lalafels. As his power grew, so did his want for more. He had a romance or two along the way, but most he came across couldn't cope with his loose morals or wound up left behind in his ambitions. Finally, he reached what he felt was the apex of his abilities and found himself thoroughly dissatisfied with even having a ceiling. He had heard rumours of the Black Mages of old, a forbidden art that held untold destructive power. People cautioned him away from it, some outright scolded him; yet, only one would aid him in his search. Luna.She was just like him in so many ways. She wanted that power for herself, to seek out some revenge mission on a small group of bandits she used to run with. They had spent months searching for an answer, any answer. Finally, by chance or so they would believe, Callon found a note in a forbidden tome locked away in the ruined vault of a keep with a forgotten name. It led them to Tural where there was supposedly a creature that embodied the spirit of a Black Mage. The two rushed off without a second thought, abandoning their lives in Ul'dah. They would soon find themselves in a place where a thousand more souls like them had been led to their deaths in the same way.Deep in the jungle was a temple where a Cult had sought to conjure a creature from the Void. They believed that it could help them seize power in a cause that was lost to history. Most of them died when the thing they summoned broke free of their control, leaving few survivors. Callon and Luna would learn only sparse details about the location they were in as not long into their journey there, they set up camp for a night and Callon being the man he is, got them both drunk enough for a night of pleasure. They didn't know about the eyes on them. The creature that watched from the shadows with a curious gaze. But as the moon ascended to its highest point and its light peered into the bowels of that cursed place, they would meet her, and she would have a proposition for them.
Her name was Rajah, and she was a Voidsent. Some higher form of Succubus, and although not the creature that was summoned here intentionally, she was one that slipped through and been trapped here ever since. If not for the few surviving Cult members who grew to worship her like a dark goddess, she likely would have starved. With their aid, however, she only grew stronger and stronger. Their descendants would lead other witless fools here for her to drink her fill. She only has one or two followers remaining to this day, but they were all she needed to get Callon and Luna here.Rajah confronted the two of them with a simple offer: kill the other, and she would sign a pact with the survivor to grant them the power they sought. One of the Cult members who died here was a Black Mage and she held his soul stone, a pretty black gem she liked to keep as a necklace. While Callon and Luna were fond of each other, they both knew the kind of people they really were. Both of them looked at each other with uncertainty. Callon hesitated longer than she did. He never killed anyone who didn't deserve it, and even he doesn't know if he would have attacked her or not. The two battled it out in that place for nearly a day. They chased each other, fell into traps, threw spells with intent to kill, and when it was all said and done, a very exhausted Callon was left standing next to Luna's charred body.Rajah kept good on her word as deals were important to her. The pact, however, was not so simple. It had several parts. The first of which would be that she would reside within him, sipping on bits of aether now and again. Just enough to weaken him when she does it, but not enough to kill. The second of which would be that she would grant him the power of a Reaper only if he would use it to hunt other Voidsent so she could feed upon them. Of course he accepted without even thinking much of it. Even more power sounded like she was just sweetening the deal. When he asked why she would offer this to him and not those that came before, she told him that the wards that the Cult had placed to trap Voidsent there had grown very weak and Callon was the first who was strong enough to break them down. Their deal struck and, with the wards broken,he left with the treasures that remained inside that amounted to a small fortune.With newfound power in hand, he set his eyes on his homeland, currently in the climax of its Thousand-Year War. Not that fighting in it had any real appeal to him, but many would die and that would open opportunities for him to exploit. He made one stop along the way, to a cave where Luna's former bandit group made their hideout. He entered at dusk and before midnight. Only bodies remained inside as he took his leave.When he arrived home, there was a large attack by their dragon adversaries. The Warrior of Light held back the brunt of them on the main bridge, but several still slipped inside. One of which rampaged through the streets, killing many until Callon got to face its fire with his own. The battle burned many of the nearby buildings and several onlookers, but enough people saw him take it down. Those he saved earned him a small title and paired with the treasure he gained in Tural, it was enough to buy the vineyard of one of the nobles who died during the fight. There were some nasty rumours that were whispered in the dark that Callon knew the noble and it wasn't dragon fire that burned him, but they were just rumours...
Finally, he had achieved his goal and started to break into higher society. He wasn't going hungry anymore and the vineyard he held was on the edge of Gridania and Ishgard, safe from the attacks. He thought the parties and social gatherings would be like the tomes and tales he heard about growing up; sadly, reality isn't nearly as glamourous as Archerton. The food and drink were nice, but the people he found incredibly... dull. They would just go on about their legacies. How they are the descendants of some idiot who revolutionized how gears turn in a clock and that makes them the most important person in the world. There were those that would pretend they are the classiest and most virtuous in the world, but would spread their legs with just a few drops of wine. He missed his old life. The people he knew who, although they were far from reputable, felt like they had life in their veins. Unfortunately, in the years he had been gone, most of his old associates had wound up dead, imprisoned, or just gone. He hired a few of them to help him manage things, but most tried to then steal from him. He had everything he thought he wanted and found himself incredibly alone, other than Rajah, of course. Sin and vice became his day to day and at least that was fun. He made new enemies: some Garleans that didn't like he had the power of a Reaper and the nobles that didn't like this commoner muck who gained a title without going through their "proper channels."Recently, he was at a bar when he met a small blue Raen named Ahma that intrigued him. Rajah said there was something about the Raen that screamed danger and he should keep his distance, which of course only made him more interested. They shared some drinks, had an amazing night together, and when he got up to get water, he wandered into her library. The tomes she held in it were old and rare; his curiosity led him to open one, and then another, and another, and before he knew it, there was a small stack on a table as he read along in candlelight. Ahma found him there when she got up after assuming that he just left in the middle of the night with their one-night stand over. Instead, he offered to bring some of his own books and pick up breakfast in the morning so they could read and get to know one another.After a little over a month together, she was set to return to Kugane and Callon looked at his life as it was. He could stay with things as they are now, or he could follow this girl to the other side of the world and start over. He decided his life would be all the better with her in it, and so, as impulsive as he was, he asked her to marry him. She agreed, and they had a blood ritual wedding with customs of the old forgotten ways that were lost to time.Now, he's living in Kugane with Ahma and seeking a new path.