Ekho Paialthe
The Forest's Silent Song
She/her ● 24 ● Gridania
Keeper of the Moon
Eorzean Sign Language
Mage of the White
Red Mage in Training
FFXIV - Aether (Cactuar)
Ask about RP and AUs!
About
Full Title: Hearer Ekho Paialthe of the White.Nicknames: Ekho, Shira-Kho, The Forest's Silent Song.Family: Married to Salia Paialthe. Daughter of Okhi Paialthe and Shih'to Lohro, older sister of six years to Sohlu (later Hikari) Paialthe. The Paialthes live alongside the Kholau and Vibte families, featuring their own myriad Mooncats.Language: Ekho is nonverbal and communicates exclusively through Eorzean Sign Language. With non-ESL speakers, she uses conjury-based communication magic along with signing.Occupation: White mage of Stillglade Fane and member of the Seedseer Council. While stranded on the First, aether and magicks specialist librarian at the Cabinet of Curiosity.Faith: Disciple of the Elementals and follower of Menphina.Current Residence: The Pendants, awaiting the day she can return to her comfortably modest Stillglade Fane residence with Salia, which you can visit on Cactuar, Lavender Beds 1-44!Style of dress: Formal to a fault. You won't see her out of the house without makeup or in anything but her white mage robes except on rare occasions.Interests: Conjury, magicks and aetherology, flowers, history, and pretty girls.Skill in battle: Red mage-in-training. If she must, masterful offensive conjury and white magic.
Important NPC Relationships
E-Sumi-Yan: The Conjurers' Guildmaster is no less than Ekho's father figure. Ekho trusts the Padjal completely and would go to him for advice and guidance before any other.Y'shtola Ruhl: Ekho carries a deep admiration for Y'shtola's accomplishments as both a scholar and a mage. It is not uncommon to see this pair of Miqo'te excitedly discussing magic and aetherology over tea and desserts at any number of Eorzea's finest cafes.The Crystal Exarch: Ekho's relationship with the Exarch is, to say the least, tense. While she understands his actions, it will take some time for her to forgive him for spiriting her away from her life and love for five years, even if he did go to great lengths to accomodate her presence.
Ekho Paialthe
The Forest's Silent Song
She/her ● 24 ● Gridania
Keeper of the Moon
Eorzean Sign Language
Mage of the White
Red Mage in Training
FFXIV - Aether (Cactuar)
Ask about RP and AUs!
Background
Written by Ada Basilisk
[Can you hear the forest sing? Let me show you what it sounds like.]
Ekho was born aetherdense and largely nonverbal to a Keeper of the Moon family in the Black Shroud. She loved stories of conjurers and the Elementals and silently communing with nature, so when her family left the Shroud, she stayed behind, moving to Gridania and enrolling in the Conjurers’ Guild.Ekho took to conjury quickly, but struggled with the social duties of a conjurer. As a child, she never used spoken word unless she had to; with her family gone and without her peers in conjury knowing Eorzean Sign Language, she had no choice. The stress of her duty and others' expectations only grew after she became a Hearer, and then, one day, an unexpected request for an Elemental intercession left her with one stress too many for her to bear. Ekho could muster no thoughts except to run.She found herself in the forest, her scattered thoughts cursing the day her mind was opened to the Elementals. But, as the adrenaline died down, Ekho saw the beauty around her and recalled what led her down the path of conjury. Then, the Elementals spoke to her. "Be still, child. Let our voice flow through you as a river. Sing a silent song of the forest, as you did long ago." Ekho began to sign a response, and as her hands moved, the Elementals bid life swirl around them, painting her words in water and stone.Ekho understood. She had been given a gift. She returned to Gridania no longer weighed down by the need to speak; she had other ways to communicate her will. And so The Forest’s Silent Song now travels the realm as a White Mage and disciple of the Elementals, her soothing voice singing in eternal unison with Theirs.
Timeline
16, two years before ARR: The Paialthe, Kholau, and Vibte families leave the Black Shroud for La Noscea due to rising tensions between Keepers of the Moon and Gridania. Ekho alone remains, having made up her mind to study Conjury. See background.18, ARR time: Now a Hearer, Ekho is tasked with training a would-be paladin, a Viera named Salia, in the basics of Conjury. The two quickly fall for each other, and Salia takes Ekho's family name and hand in marriage within a year.19-21, Heavensward: Salia's intensive training as a paladin sees her spend three years fighting alongside Ishgard in the Dragonsong War. Ekho, now a full-fledged white mage, travels the length and breadth of Eorzea, offering aid, salve, and succor to anyone in need.24, two months before Shadowbringers: In his effort to bring over Salia, the Warrior of Light, to the First, the Crystal Exarch instead acquires Ekho. Under the guise of Shira-Kho, a mystel, she works for five years as a librarian at the Cabinet of Curiosity and trains in red magic with Alisaie Levellieur, having been moved to shun offensive white magic by seeing the results of abusing the land's aether first-hand in the Flood and the ever-escalating scale of Primal summons.
Ekho Paialthe
The Forest's Silent Song
She/her ● 24 ● Gridania
Keeper of the Moon
Eorzean Sign Language
Mage of the White
Red Mage in Training
FFXIV - Aether (Cactuar)
Ask about RP and AUs!
Screenshot Gallery
Commissioned Art
Shadowbringers Ekho
and Salia by @xkahime
Prince Ekho and Princess
Salia (AU) by @homu_chu
White and Black Mage
by Bee (no link available)
Shira-Kho (Rak'tikan AU)
by @JoshCorpuz85
Ekho and Shimo
by @KrystaYVisual
