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, balms, and potions. 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, and has no patience for moral subjectivity. Miraut is particularly adverse to belittlement and sanctimony. He enjoys playing cello and harpsichord, and occasionally paints with the use of magicked pigments.

House Drauvaix was originally founded in Dravanian Avalonia by the artisans and stonemasons of Anyx Minor, to which Miraut is now the sole male heir. His sharp-tongued sister Cateline is his elder by four years, though she is frail and struggles with chronic illness. 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. Sylvain’s biography can be found here.

While Miraut is not Azem, his journey is entwined with their path. In truth, he is one of the sole remaining fragments of the ancient tutelary daemon, Aratron. A sentient crucible of coalesced elemental polarities, he was a shapeshifter capable of unprecedented aetherical manipulation, and exhibited a remarkable ability to commune with all forms of aether. Aratron preferred two forms—one being that of a towering red-haired man, and the other a monstrous half-serpent bearing wings, humanoid arms, and the head of a jackal.In battle, Miraut wields a dual-focused staff attuned to elemental magicks of restoration and destruction, though he can also use greatswords, scythes, and aetheric firearms.

a summary

Heir to a secretive noble house preserving the history and tongue of Dravania, Miraut flees Ishgard for the North Shroud as a child alongside his mother and sister when they are accused of heresy. His maternal lineage carries the blood of Gelmorran and Amdapori mages—his aptitude for aetheric manipulation is first evidenced in his youth upon restoring life to withered flora. Miraut enlists in the Twin Adder as a conjurer and is sent to Carteneau, where he witnesses Dalamud's fall. Inheriting the Echo awakens his soul as the living legacy of the daemon Aratron: a chimera of primordial aether hailing from an ancient age of Etheirys. An aetherial current, roused from dormancy, erupts at his feet to coalesce a host of elementals around him—sparing his life at the cost of functional blindness and heightened aether sensitivity. In the following years, Miraut trains in alchemy and thaumaturgy, learning to 'see' through his perception of the elements. Questioning his own nature and ancestry, Miraut journeys to Coerthas. He allies with the Scions of the Seventh Dawn to end the Dragonsong War, exposing Ishgard's truth and clearing his family name. Though he primarily resides in Ishgard as an alchemist and apothecary, Miraut's connection to the star continuously entangles his path 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—a valley south of the Highlands where the village of Ferndale lies. Their half-timbered alpine estate is also home to his paternal grandmother Mailys, parents Vaudeline and Ambroys, and elder sister Cateline. As lesser nobility, House Drauvaix pays tribute to the lords of House Dzemael, a tactical alliance used as cover for their unorthodox beliefs. 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. Their family motto reads "faith unbroken unto fate forspoken."

➤ 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 an attempt to distract him from his nightmares 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. A wyvern descends on their carriage and grabs Miraut in its talons, but is forced to drop the boy when an aevis appears—seemingly out of thin air—and tears into the beast. No trace remains of Ambroys in the aftermath, but an accompanying envoy of House Dzemael is found injured while Miraut is discovered unconscious, yet unscathed.

➤ Immediately following the incident, House Dzemael accuses the Drauvaix family of heresy. The envoy claims to have witnessed an aevis emerge from the Drauvaix carriage and join in the carnage, and the absence of Ambroys' remains is taken as irrefutable proof of one such transformation. Staunchly devoted to her family, Mailys brokers a deal with a notorious voidsent to conceal the Drauvaix artifacts and histories ere the estate is seized, inexplicably vanishing shortly thereafter. Though Miraut is relocated alongside his mother and sister to the Brume to await judgement, a slew of misfortunes assail the clergy and postpone the trial. Vaudeline escapes with her two children under cover of night to their sole remaining property—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. An accomplished botanist in her own right, she home-schools Miraut and Cateline while eking out a meager living alongside their distant Duskwight kin. 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. As the impact threatens to tear him asunder, a monstrous roar drowns out his senses, but the sound comes from within—not Bahamut. The Echo floods his mind with alien visions of carnage and a disintegrating sky, and the scorched earth at his feet tears open. Hordes of elemental spirits 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 instead 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 working for the 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 corrupted elements 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 and impressed by Miraut's perseverance, Haurchefant allows him to join the Scions in Ishgard. From this point, his story merges more frequently with that of the main game.

➤ Miraut is present with the Scions in the Dravanian Forelands when they arrive at Anyx Trine. Recognizing familiar aetheric signatures in the stonework, he admits to the dragons of the Trine that he hails from a heretical lineage, yet was raised to observe different customs from those of Nidhogg's horde. They reveal how his forefathers shared faith with Ratatoskr's brood, 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, he fails to prevent the death of Haurchefant; this loss is compounded by that of Ysayle, whom he had deeply (and secretly) admired. Overcome with grief from his journey, Miraut resolves to end the Dragonsong 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 wake of the Dragonsong War, Miraut is only summoned by the Scions for critical engagements, but is later spirited to the First due to a close connection with the Warrior of Light. His familiarity with extremes of elemental imbalance allow him to play a pivotal role in restoring darkness to Novrandt, though Emet-Selch's recreation of the Final Days triggers an unprecedented relapse of rapidly spreading corruption across Miraut's body. Realizing the source of the decay is exposure to the circumstances of his own death, Miraut is at last able to harness the full extent of elemental aether coalesced onto his soul. 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 in averting the Final Days, and later aids in the rekindling of life on Ultima Thule. Yet, 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 experimented on his soul and imprisoned him in the age before Etheirys was sundered, and unravels his origins as a tutelary daemon to the ancients. As of the current day, Miraut has been tasked with assessing the threat posed by the profane abuse of souls and regulator-induced memory loss in Alexandrians, and seeks a method to permanently eradicate the technology, lest it further disrupt the natural order of life and death.

Etheirys unsundered

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➤ [work in progress]

The war of the magi

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➤ [work in progress]