demeanor & relations

➤Despite his impressive stature, the heir to House Drauvaix is reclusive, preferring shadows to spotlight. He bears two prominent scars on his freckled face, the angularity of which is softened by a prominent pout. Miraut is functionally blind in both eyes—his vision is compromised by astigmatic shapes and colors emitted by the elemental energies of his surroundings. While he can yet make out blurred physical shapes, his sense of 'sight' primarily relies on aetheric perception. The scent of pine tar laces his clothing, and olfactory notes of petrichor, geosmin, and wormwood are a hallmark of his presence. Miraut's aptitude for sorcery has proven to surpass his own mortal limitations, causing his hands and forearms to gnarl and wither in decay. He binds his arms in warded gauze and leather for protection, and has devised alchemical treatments to alleviate his symptoms.

➤Miraut is a taciturn man of few words, though many find his low, resonating voice soothing to the ear. Despite manners that evidence a noble upbringing, he has a fierce distaste for pomp and circumstance. Ishgardians know him as a master apothecary—the first floor of his residence is wholly dedicated to the purvey of tonics, perfumes, incense, and herbal remedies. Miraut values solitude, favoring the solace of his greenhouse to social interaction, and prefers aether-thin environments. He adheres to a dual-faith ideology that bridges the Halonic virtue of fortitude with worship of nature as a divine force. Miraut is particularly adverse to belittlement and sanctimony. He enjoys playing the harpsichord, and occasionally paints with the use of magicked pigments.

➤Miraut's sister Cateline is his elder by four years, and has fought chronic illness since birth. She lives in the North Shroud with their mother Vaudeline, the child of an Ishgardian baroness and a Gridanian Duskwight lancer ennobled in Ishgard following his heroics in the Autumn War. Miraut's father, Ambroys, has been missing for over 20 years; his half-brother Etienne of the Vale† fathered Miraut's two cousins Ataash and Asala—the former of which is known to Eorzea as the Warrior of Light. Miraut is demisexual and rarely forms romantic connections. The scandalous matter of his current partner, Sylvain Boudreaux, is the subject of whispered rumor.

➤While Miraut is not 'Azem' in the world of Etheirys, he is one of the last remaining fragments of an ancient tutelary daemon. A sentient crucible of coalesced elemental polarities, this entity was a shapeshifter capable of unprecedented aetheric feats, and exhibited a remarkable ability to commune with all forms of life. Named Aratron by those he first encountered, he was known to appear in two preferred forms—one being that of a towering red-haired man, and the other a winged, serpentine beast bearing antlers and the face of a jackal. Miraut taps into his connection to the elements by wielding a dual-focused staff to channel restorative and destructive powers alike, though he can also wield longswords, scythes, and aetheric firearms. He is commonly seen holding a thurible, and employs arts of poison and restoration through smoke and incense.

a summary

➤ Heir to a secretive noble house dating back to a druidic tradition of Dravanian Avalonia, Miraut flees Ishgard for the North Shroud as a child alongside his mother and sister to escape trial for heresy. His aptitude for sorcerous arts ts first evidenced upon accidentally restoring life to withered flora in his youth. Miraut enlists in the Twin Adder as a conjurer to support his family and is present on the fringes of Carteneau for Dalamud's fall, causing him to inherit the Echo and awaken his soul as a fragment of the daemon Aratron—a primordial aetheric chimera hailing from an ancient age of Etheirys. A surge of volatile elemental aether shields him from the red moon, albeit at the cost of his eyesight and heightened aether sensitivity. In the following years, Miraut trains in alchemy and thaumaturgy, learning to 'see' through aetheric perception. Questioning his own nature and ancestry, he journeys to Coerthas and allies with the Scions of the Seventh Dawn to end the Dragonsong War and redeem his family name. Though he primarily resides in Ishgard, as an alchemist and apothecary, Miraut's path often entangles with that of the Warrior of Light.

The sixth astral era

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➤ Miraut is born on the second sun of the first astral moon to House Drauvaix in the Coerthas Eastern Lowlands—an alpine valley south of the Highlands where the village of Ferndale lies. Their half-timbered estate is also home to his grandmother Mailys, parents Vaudeline and Ambroys, and elder sister Cateline. As decreed in an asymmetrical treaty of vassalship signed at the outbreak of the Dragonsong War, House Drauvaix pays tribute in labor and services to the lords of House Dzemael in exchange for their protection and title. Miraut's birthname is recorded in Old Dravanian as Mor'rohs Draonienn to their family tree, and he is taught the ancient language as a liturgical tongue. A hidden chapel contains effigies of both Draconic and Halonic nature that predate Ishgard's founding.

➤ As a boy, Miraut is classically trained in the arts as heir to his father, a master architect. By his eighth summer, his dreams are consumed by scenes of burning structures and mutilated beasts, and he obsessively renders them onto canvas. Concerned for the boy's wellbeing, Ambroys brings his son along on architectural surveys in attempts to distract and acclimate him to the family business. Nidhogg's assault on Eastern Coerthas occurs during one such survey, and their convoy is targeted in the line of fire. Knowing inaction would lead to his death, as well as that of his son, Ambroys imbibes the hidden sanguine contents of a Dravanian relic pinned to his finery as a last resort. No trace remains of Ambroys in the aftermath, but an accompanying envoy of House Dzemael is found alive, albeit injured and hysterical, while Miraut is soon discovered unconscious and unscathed.

➤ In the weeks that follow, House Dzemael publicly accuses House Drauvaix of heresy. The condemnation is a thinly-veiled ploy to ease public unrest and gain political favor in the wake of the attack, emboldened by the envoy who had witnessed the transformation of Ambroys. Acting quickly to save her son's legacy, Mailys brokers a deal with a voidsent to protect the Drauvaix family and conceal their artifacts and histories ere the estate is seized; she herself vanishes shortly after. When Miraut is relocated to the Brume with his mother and sister to await judgement, a slew of misfortunes assail the clergy and postpone the trial. Vaudeline seizes this chance to escape with her children under cover of night to their final refuge—a cottage in the North Shroud, the birthplace of her late father.

➤ Determined to shield her children from further suffering, Vaudeline buries the Drauvaix traditions in all but name. A botanist in her own right, she home-schools Miraut and Cateline while eking out a meager living alongside distant kin in the Shroud. By age 12, Miraut teaches himself to craft pomanders of healing after finding a petrified sample in the Gelmorran ruins near their home. While tending to his sister's ailments one night, Miraut prepares a batch of medicinal dried herbs and inadvertently channels life into their withered leaves, restoring them. Miraut’s newfound aptitude for conjury—paired with a desire to support his family—leads him to enlist in the Order of the Twin Adder by age 20.

➤ Dalamud descends when Miraut is deployed on the fringes of Carteneau at the age of 23. When the impact threatens to tear him asunder, a monstrous roar drowns out his senses, but the sound, surprisingly, emanates from within. The Echo floods his mind with alien visions of carnage and a disintegrating sky, and the scorched earth at his feet tears open. A horde of elementals emerge from the fissure, melting into a torrent that both shields and nearly consumes him. He regains consciousness days later, but is hardly able to perceive his surroundings; his body bears severe marks of aetheric corruption and his sense of sight is permanently marred. Miraut refuses to return home for fear of becoming a liability, and departs for the alchemist guild in Ul’dah in hopes of finding a cure.

The seventh umbral era

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➤ By age 28, Miraut completes a residency at the Ul'dahn Alchemist guild. Though he gains renown for developing restorative elixirs, both his blindness and corporeal instabilities persist, the latter of which often manifests as corrupted elemental wounds on his skin. He takes up thaumaturgy and learns to perceive the world anew through aether, as well as channel the frenzied aether coursing through his veins. When rumors of Lady Iceheart reach his ear, he begins to question his own nature, as well as that of his ancestors. He returns to Coerthas, where he meets the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, and offers his services as a mage and alchemist in exchange for information. At Camp Dragonhead, Haurchefant Greystone of House Fortemps recognizes the Drauvaix family name. Intrigued by Miraut's perseverance, Haurchefant allows him to join the Scions in Ishgard. From this point onwards, his story grows more entangled with the narrative of FFXIV.

➤ Miraut is present with the Scions in the Dravanian Forelands when they arrive at Anyx Trine. Recognizing aetheric signatures in the stonework reminiscent of his father's lineage, he seeks counsel from the dragons of the Trine on the obscured history of his House. He learns that his forefathers shared faith with Ratatoskr's brood, once bonding with them through blood covenant in an ill-fated attempt to end the war. The name Draonienn refers to the valley of Avalonia—their homeland, now an abandoned ruin. When Miraut is called to aid in the siege of the Vault, his attempts to prevent Haurchefant's death cause the aetheric decay in his arms to spread and nearly claim his own life. The loss of Ysayle shortly after, who he had secretly admired, further devastates him. Overcome with grief and haunted by the ghosts of his ancestors, Miraut resolves to end the war at any cost.

➤ At the war’s climax, Miraut channels Nidhogg's rancor into his own aether to gain the upper hand; he saves Estinien through the same form of communion. The corrupt aether causes lesions of decay to rapidly spread across his skin, and he collapses. Miraut awakens days later, wounded yet whole, and is informed that the nobility of his House has been restored by Count Tarresson de Dzemael. As the Coerthan Drauvaix estate was destroyed in the Calamity, Miraut relocates to Ishgard and establishes himself as an apothecary. His provision of healing elixirs, tinctures, and pomanders quickly disrupts a nefarious business operated by the selfsame voidsent pacted to hide his family’s heretical artifacts. The two become rivals, and later, lovers. Following this, he gains access to his long-lost family tree and learns that he is cousin to his friend and comrade, the Warrior of Light.

➤ In the aftermath of the Dragonsong War, Miraut is only summoned by the Scions for critical engagements, yet is nevertheless spirited to the First due to his close connection to the Warrior of Light. His familiarity with extremes of elemental imbalance allows him to play a pivotal role in restoring darkness to Novrandt, though an unprecedented relapse of decay begins to spread rapidly across Miraut's body upon witnessing Emet-Selch's recreation of the Final Days. This corruption awakens a primal consciousness within Miraut, allowing him to again harness the full breadth of abilities he first inherited during Dalamud's fall. Upon his return to the Source, Miraut recovers a holy magestone from the ruins of Amdapor and forges it onto the opposite end of his thaumaturgy rod, crafting a weapon capable of channeling a wide array of magicks at lower risk to his corporeal form.

➤ Following his newfound mastery over the manipulation of aether, Miraut plays an integral role alongside the Scions during the return of the Final Days, and later aids in the rekindling of life on Ultima Thule. The appearance of Pandaemonium in the underworld of the present day coincide with an onslaught of abnormalities affecting Miraut's magicks, prompting him to again journey alongside the Warrior of Light. He learns that the facility imprisoned the very first incarnation of his soul in an age before Etheirys was sundered and unravels his origins as a tutelary daemon to the ancients. In the current day, Miraut has been tasked with assessing the threat posed by the profane abuse of souls by Alexandrians, and seeks a method to permanently eradicate their technology.

the origin of house drauvaix

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➤ The Draonienn, or "valley-dwellers," were a prominent druidic commune in Dravanian Avalonia. Their rituals of nature worship began with raising menhir—stone monoliths—and carving intrcate patterns into them. Elemental aether embedded in the carvings would illuminate at night. Druidic practices of carving amulets, summoning stones, monuments, and open-air temples evolved into complex feats of stone masonry reaching their peak in the construction of Anyx Old, Anyx Minor, and Anyx Trine. Architectural ornamentation and symbols shared across the majority of Dravanian ruins suggest common Avalonian origin.

➤ The cultural rites of Avalonia were inherited from survivors of the great flood; Elezen who petitioned Ratatoskr and her brood for safe passage to the Churning Mists until the waters receeded. There, they listened to cautionary songs of the Dragonstar, and came to revere wyrms as heavenly messengers. Dragonspeak influenced their local language while the virtues of elemental balance and harmony shaped their beliefs. After returning to Avalonia, they remained in service of Ratatoskr and her kin, carving stone warding circles that blocked passage to their valley from warring outsiders.

➤ Only upon Shiva's death did those who called themselves "Draonienn" emerge to mediate between their estranged Coerthan kin and dragons. During years of peace, they were celebrated as master stonemasons and keepers of arcane knowledge—only to be branded sorcerers and forsaken when Ratatoskr's blood was spilled. When the construction of Ishgard ground to a halt as casualties of the war mounted, Sylveterel de Dzemael took it upon himself to bring Avalonia to heel for the explicit intent of bringing the disgraced Draonienn masons under his yoke to finish the construction and fortification of Ishgard. Peace came at the tip of Dzemael lances, giving way to the final abandonment of Avalonia.

➤ To expedite their forced assimilation into Ishgardian society, the Draonienn name was erased and replaced by Drauvaix. After generations of exhaustive service in exchange for their survival, they were rewarded with the tight leash of vassalry as lesser nobles under the Holy See through House Dzemael, and relocated to the Coerthas Eastern Lowlands.