ROSCOE BRAMBLEWOOD
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EARLY LIFE

Roscoe was born in Ala Mhigo, ten years before the imperial takeover, to Dunesfolk parents. His mother, Mimiru Miru, was an Ala Mhigan engineer and general tinkerer, while his father, Yuyuhari Lilihari (known as Hari) was a merchant originally hailing from Ul'dah - one whose stall was frequently hard to spot behind crowds of much larger bodies poring over his wares, while his child dozed peacefully in his papoose, soothed by the noises around him. They were not a wealthy family, but they were happy.When he was fourteen, Roscoe came out to his parents as transmasc, and subsequently shed his birth name in exchange for the masculine Lalafellin name Rurukequ - or Ru, as he was known for short. Unbeknownst to him, it wouldn't be long before necessity had him shedding this name as well.When Roscoe was sixteen, his parents were targeted by Imperial forces for their undercover work for the Ala Mhigan Resistance - he was separated from them and forcefully conscripted into the army, informed not long after of their deaths at Garlean hands. Roscoe's memories of the period after this are patchy at best; he doesn't remember fleeing or fighting, but he does remember coming back to himself in the wilds of Gyr Abania, far from the city, with only the clothes on his back and a bloodstained knife gripped in trembling hands. It would be many years before Roscoe understood this blank, bloodied space in his memory to indicate the first appearance of 'Esteem', a shadowy figure he would not become well-acquainted with until he had walked many weary steps in his journey as an adventurer.A merchant, finding the traumatised young lalafell at the side of the road, offered him safe passage to the Black Shroud, where they made it cautiously through the checkpoint - and where Ru took a moniker from a poster of a smiling bard and adopted the name Roscoe as his own. Later, he would go on to seek shelter under the roof of a kindly Elezen family, with whom he stayed for some time before moving onto Little Ala Mhigo and then Ul'dah. He never forgot that family's kindness, and kept the name of their establishment - the Bramblewood inn - as a part of his identity: a name that he would one day sign on the pages of the Adventurers' Guild's ledgers.

THE SEVENTH UMBRAL CALAMITY

After many years trying and failing to put down roots, Roscoe finally managed to build a new home and find steady work as a musician - and later, a music teacher - in Ul'dah. It was during one of his evening performances in a local tavern that he met Khali'ra, a half-miqo'te, half-viera man on leave from his place in the Brass Blades due to an injury (a position that Roscoe would later learn he held unwillingly only thanks to the persuasion of his family). Initially a misunderstanding led to Khali'ra asking Roscoe to leave him alone because he found him irritating, but later that night when he had packed up and finished for the night, Roscoe dropped his extroverted bard persona and approached him to apologise. They ended up chatting late into the night, and found that they quickly forged a connection. This connection grew into more, and eventually the two of them became a couple, with Khali'ra moving into Roscoe's small home within the city.Years passed peacefully until unease spread through the realm at Dalamud's steady and unnerving descent. As the Garlean army encroached on Carteneau, members of the Brass Blades were conscripted into the newly-formed Immortal Flames, Khali'ra was called to the frontlines and Roscoe, having no combat training and not even a fleeting memory of the one instance in which he had had to fight for his life, unable to do anything but wait and hope for his safety. However, a happy reunion was not to be; as the earth shook, the seas roiled and the very world transformed when the Calamity struck Eorzea, a voice then unknown to Roscoe called out to him, and he vanished as surely as if he had never existed at all.Khali'ra returned, scarred both emotionally and physically, from the battle of Carteneau to find no trace of Roscoe; despite asking neighbours and colleagues, he received no answers at all. The immediate assumption was that his partner had died in the chaos and destruction of the Calamity, but Khali'ra refused to accept this until there seemed to be no other explanation. No body was ever found, but this was the case with many who had perished. Broken and grief-stricken, Khali'ra followed the only path he could process: returning to his unwilling role in the Flames, the spark that Roscoe had brought into his life extinguished.Five years later, Roscoe appeared, bewildered and frightened, in the middle of the Black Shroud. His once-grey eyes and dark freckles had taken on a pale lilac hue that seemed to hold a peculiar glow all their own, and any scars he possessed seemed - bizarrely - to have become crystallised. When he looked at them, the faintest flicker of memory teased the back of his mind: those same crystals, surrounding him, and a woman's voice... but those fleeting glimpses were gone as quickly as they came. Most alarmingly of all, those five years had seemed to pass in an instant.Desperate to immediately return to Ul'dah to be reunited with Khali'ra, Roscoe attempted to set off, only to be rescued from harm's way by a hyur woman and a lalafellin man whom he would later come to know as Yda and Papalymo. The Shroud was not as he had once known it: twisted and dangerous, it was now impossible for him to traverse, and airship travel was reserved only for the most special of cases in the realm's new state of uncertainty. He would need to train for battle and arm himself ready to step into harm's way before he could even begin to make his way home, and so he joined Gridania's Adventurer's Guild and enrolled as an archer.

THE FOURTEENTH SEAT

Roscoe and Yuyuka's journey to the Tempest, to the dizzying heights of the Crystal Tower to confront Elidibus, and later to the unsundered land of Elpis, gave them the answers to some of their most burning questions from their journey together. Why had an uncanny sense of deja vu nagged at them since the day they had first met on that beach in La Noscea? What was it that Emet-Selch saw in them - something beyond the mantle of 'hero' that had been laid on their shoulders? The answers lay in the seat of Azem - or rather, seats.Somewhat unconventionally, when Venat left the Convocation of Fourteen, she chose two successors: family, who accepted the role of Azem between them. Euphony and Meraki were uncle and niece, practically joined at the hip with how little they were seen apart. If it had been permitted, they would have quite literally shared the single seat of Azem until Emet-Selch insisted for the sake of professionalism that another be brought into the chamber.

Initially, the new Azems' position in the Convocation was somewhat contested. Venat's attention had been drawn to them during a rather chaotic sequence of events in which both Meraki and Euphony had fully transformed in the centre of the city: Meraki in a misguided attempt to impress her parents in which she accidentally set fire to a building, and Euphony to help her escape the scene and calm her down. In defiance of others' doubts and attempts to vilify the both of them, Venat saw only potential. Despite Euphony's lack of experience working for a ruling body, and Meraki's young age, she believed them both to be powerful and to hold fast to the beliefs that the seat of Azem represented. Euphony and Meraki had travelled together, seen the world, made friends and invented unconventional solutions to any problems they encountered along the way. Venat believed that with her guidance, she could bring out their full potential - and the rest of the Convocation soon discovered that the new Azem (plural) also shared her sense of mischief.

Euphony lived in Amaurot prior to joining the Convocation, but was born in a village far enough away from the metropolis to be entirely unfamiliar with its hustle and bustle upon their first arrival. Initially brought up as a girl, much as Roscoe was, Euphony did not align to any particular gender but would happily be addressed as 'they' or 'he' and would introduce themself as Meraki's uncle. Unlike Roscoe's, however, their chosen name was not picked by them, but was equally unexpected. A very young Meraki took a liking to the word 'euphonious' one day when Euphony was reading a poem to her, and when she came to understand that it referred to a pleasant-sounding voice, she announced that it should be her uncle's name. This was shortened to Euphony (and occasionally 'Euwy' before Meraki learned to pronounce it successfully), and the name stuck. This name was to become ever more appropriate over the years, as Euphony initially travelled to Amaurot to train their singing voice, and then became known for their gentle, yet rousing, speeches to the populace in their position as Azem.

During their time in the role, Euphony became known as the 'Starlit Seat of Azem', while Meraki took the moniker of the 'Sunlit Seat'. These names suited in multiple ways: Euphony's magicks manifested in the form of tiny, glowing star clusters across their skin, which formed wherever a significant event, touch or impact had taken place. They had stars for scars, freckles, and places where they had held loved ones, including a scattering on their finger where a baby Meraki had once gripped them with tiny hands. In addition, Euphony channelled the power of the stars to heal and bring relief to others, utilising beloved memories to do so: Meraki's childhood drawings, sketches of well-loved places, playing cards and other items from their travels. Rarely did they use these abilities to do harm. Euphony was a pacifist, and would avoid confrontation at all costs, sometimes to their detriment. Meraki was a firecracker to Euphony's calm and starlit sea; sometimes she would act where they would not (and sometimes should have). They complemented one another, and maintained a balance in the role of Azem.During their time with the Convocation, Euphony became close friends with Hythlodaeus of the Bureau of the Architect, and slowly began to fall for him. They occasionally worked together, sometimes in secret, including a point when Hythlodaeus allowed Euphony to borrow one of Lahabrea's concepts to save a village from an erupting volcano. However, nervous from previous experiences in which they had been told that wearing their heart on their sleeve made them 'too much' for people, Euphony did not confess to their feelings. This internal conflict would be swept aside as the Final Days loomed, and the Convocation became embroiled in debate on the best way to save their star.

Euphony and Meraki vehemently opposed the suggestion of Zodiark's summoning; they feared the result, and thought the mere suggestion of sacrificing so many lives unthinkable. The conflict continued until cracks began to form in an organisation that had previously represented a unified front. When a decision was made on Elidibus, who had grown close to Meraki, becoming the heart of Zodiark, the Azem could bear this seemingly unstoppable sequence of events no longer, and defected in protest. To their dismay, the summoning went ahead - and to Euphony's horror, Hythlodaeus was one of the many souls sacrificed to bring Zodiark into existence. This, combined with Euphony's realisation that they would not be able to save Meraki, the person they loved most in the world, from the Final Days, struck them with a wave of regret at their own perceived passiveness - an impact so powerful that it transcended through rebirth after rebirth. Roscoe was born twelve thousand years later with that tiny seed of Euphony's lingering remorse, so strong that it physically manifested in the shadowy alter-ago that is Esteem - and twisted to form into a sense of recklessness, an urge to protect the people he loved with everything he had, to the point of flying heedlessly into battle and taking every hit in their place. Euphony's pacifism was long gone, but the echo of their last wishes still lingered.Another feature that, unbeknownst to him, Roscoe inherited from Euphony is a series of birthmarks that correlate to many of the places where Euphony received important touches in their life; one on his finger, another on his shoulder where Hythlodaeus once rested a hand on Euphony's. Hythlodaeus sensed this upon their meeting on the moon, but did not mention it. Echoes of Euphony's existence can be seen in Roscoe's, but they are not the same person: serenity turned to a flaring temper, a heart once worn on the sleeve now tucked warily away. For all that they are different, however, Hythlodaeus saw that these fragmented pieces of his friend's soul still held a bountless font of love - and for this, he was glad.Roscoe's feelings towards Euphony are complex: initially, he felt almost a sense of resentment at merely being a small part of someone who had been so universally revered, as if a pressure had immediately landed on his shoulders - an expectation to be more than he is. However, as he learned more about his unsundered self, processed the similarities and differences between them and came to understand Euphony's values, he developed a peculiar fondness to them. Their love for their niece was undeniable and as Yuyuka's adoptive parent, Roscoe understands this deeply. To him, Euphony feels like a distant family member he never got the chance to know. He knows that only the ending of Euphony's life allowed for the beginning of his own, but a soul-deep sense of sadness comes with this understanding.To this day, it is unknown where Euphony and Meraki were when the sundering took place, if they understood what was happening, or what they did in their last moments. Roscoe and Yuyuka are sure, however, of two things: that they were together, and that their deep familial love held fast through millennia until that fated day when the two lalafells met on a beach, and one asked the other, "Do I know you?"