Leyana Raynsford

Name: Leyana Kaldemiri Raynsford
Age: Late-TwentiesRace: Hyur, Midlander
Nationality: Ala Mhigan
Accent: La Noscean
Occupation: Engineer, Sniper
Personality: Upbeat, social butterfly. Always interested in meeting others.
Server: MateusHair: Blue with red highlights, kept in a ponytail and Gyr Abanian braid.
Eyes: Sapphire
Height: 5'4"
Distinguishing Marks: For those who ever see her without a jacket on or when she's at the beach, she has several scars on her torso from knife wounds and a gunshot scar on her back.
Accessories: Leyana is rarely seen not wearing her trademark goggles, which amplify her vision at night and even has a limited ability to discern different types of aether. Even in casual settings, she is almost always carrying a revolver on her hip.Likes: Coffee, airships, technology, new experiences.Dislikes: Garlean Purebloods and imperial sympathizers, voidsent, talking about her time in the Resistance.Quick Bio: Born in Ala Mhigo but raised La Noscea, Leyana is one of the many displaced Ala Mhigans that fled her homeland when the Garleans invaded. Unable to wield aether as effectively as others, she followed in her father's footsteps as a blacksmith and took on engineering at an early age. Throughout the years, Leyana spent some time working for Skysteel, then made her way east to join the Ala Mhigan Resistance until her people's liberation. After the fall of Garlemald, Leyana decided to finally take up a quieter life and pursue her love of invention. She is currently the co-owner of Dire Wolves Engineering, an Ishgardian-based airship repair shop that also offers services in adventuring equipment and magitek.Abilities: Leyana is a talented engineer and a skilled sniper. Her low aether potential would be a crutch to many, but she's embraced this and focused on developing her skills elsewhere. It's not unheard of for her to stay up late at night tinkering away at one of many projects.

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A Trial of IronBorn in Ala Mhigo, Leyana's family was forced to flee from their homeland when she was still a child. She grew up far away and knew little of war besides what she could recall from that fateful night.Later on in life, Leyana, full of optimistic youth and wanderlust, made her way back to her childhood home and joined the Ala Mhigan Resistance with the fantasist idea of liberating it from Garlean occupation. A tale of adventure to call her own, armed with a song in her heart and a rifle on her back.However, she quickly found herself in over her head. The enemy was ruthless, their technology advanced, and her own people turned on each other. The song had ended. The fantasy had died. She was with no way out. The young girl was now in a war-torn land. It was hunt or be hunted.

__The Silver Bullet __The years that followed were difficult for Leyana. Constant fear of death or capture at the hands of the Garleans was part of everyday life.If it wasn't the Garlean patrols, it was the magitek armors that wandered the scarred lands of Gyr Abania.She had no practical skills with aether manipulation and she was not particularly strong with a sword or blade. She was, by a wide margin, out of her league here.However, she was a fast learner. Her time in Ishgard had familiarized herself with machinery and that of the rifle. While it did not even the playing field completely, it gave her a fighting chance. She learned quickly that at a certain velocity and caliber, a bullet could puncture almost any armor.She then learned that, depending on where she shot, even the smallest hit could fell the biggest adversary. A figurative "silver bullet".When she was not back at camp, she was out in the field, studying the wreckage of Garlean weaponry and magitek, learning how they operated, what powered them. And, ultimately, where to hit them. The sniper saboteur was born.

Brother against Brother, Sister against SisterBut the Garleans were not her only concern. The Wolf's Skulls, Garlean sympathizers, traitors. They had many names. Fellow Ala Mhigans, tired of the constant fighting. Whether to live peacefully with their Garlean masters or to simply earn their next meal, they hunted people like Leyana.Some days were worse than others.It was easier when it was a Garlean in her crosshairs, easier to associate the helmed mask of a Garlean officer as some monster from a distant land. The kill felt different, felt almost right. Like she was correcting an error on the star. Yet this was something else. Whatever the Skulls were today, they were once a brother. Once a sister.But no more.

Hard Days, Harder ChoicesVictories were hard fought and the prices were often high. To adapt, Leyana poured herself into her craft and honed her skills as a sniper.She lost friends.Some days, she lost herself.These were the days she doesn't talk about. The days where the line between the optimistic girl and the hardened sniper began to blur.

__Ghosts of the Past __But that was years ago.Wars end. Wounds heal. Necessity in war turned into fascination at peace. Leyana returned to Ishgard to become an engineer and found a love for magitek. She also, just, found love.Today, she is the co-owner of the Dire Wolves Engineering company, a small airship repair shop based in Ishgard. She owns it along with her spouse Sharon, who handles most of the paperwork for her. As chief engineer, Leyana spends most of her day tinkering away at some project or another.The war is long behind her now, or at least she hopes it is. Mere ghosts of the past.For now, she found her happy place. Even if that happy place is reading a book while lounging on the top of a twenty-ton high caliber quad-canon.

The HorizonEvery memory fades and every day begins anew. What's next for her is anyone's guess. But whatever it is, she's looking forward to it.For now, she's living her best life. Going places, meeting people, exploring cultures, and tinkering away to her heart's content.The war is behind her now. Maybe. Who is to say what scars remain, what ghosts may appear? She doesn't think about it. There's too much light in the world to spend her days in the dark.She prefers the sunshine.

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