Early Life to Joining the Empire

A Dalmascan native by birth, Cen, his birth name being Sacaph Cen Denki, grew up seeing the soldiers of the Garlean empire as that of people of great respect. But any time he mentioned it to his parents of him joining the military as a conscript, they would immediately attempt to shunt the idea from his head. But, to their dismay, it never worked. When he was of age, he was told he would begin training to become a Wood-warder and protect his village. He was glad to be able to make his parents proud and began to start some of the training. It wasn’t until he was informed that he would have to live in isolation, that he changed his mind, and came to the conclusion that this was just another ploy from his parents to stop him from actualizing his dreams. Not liking the idea of a life of isolation, Cen attempted to flee his trainer and came across a garlean scouting squad. It was here that he realized he could realize his dream of being a soldier. Begging the leader to bring him back with them to train him as a soldier, at first the leader of the expeditionary force refused to let a child come with them. Especially since he likely has a family here. Cen lied to the man, the first one he would tell the man, and said that he had no family left and he was alone. The man knew he was lying to him, but picking up on the desperation in his voice, he decided not to push it. Telling his men to return back to base, Cen initially thought that the man was being told by another adult to give up on his dream. As he stood there sulking, the pilus turned to him and asked if he was coming. Cen’s face lit up at the question and he hurriedly followed after the leaving cohort back to their base. Once there, the man asked him what his name was. When he heard it, he chuckled a little and advised him to just go by Cen, as he found it amusing that it was already his middle name.

1

The Echo

Cen unknowingly awakened to the Echo, namely the protection from eikonic corruption. Because of it, he was transferred to a unit that specializes in eikonic suppression. The following events are what happened during that moment.On a normal mission to suppress a local beast tribe, an eikon was summoned. As the aether coalesced into the eikon, Cen’s head began to pound. His primi shouted at him, telling him not to lose focus and that he was trained for this, but Cen had felt the fear of battle before. This was not that. He could make out a voice in the background faintly telling him to hear, feel, think. As suddenly as it appeared, it was gone and his head was clear. He could clearly hear his primi barking orders at the squadron, shouting at him to go and fight the enemy. As he grabbed his gear and rushed the enemy, he could feel a deluge of aether approaching him from the eikon. But just as it was to crash upon him and his allies, he could feel a shield of sorts stopping the wave before him. As he noticed this, he could see his fellow non-Garlean allies stopping in their tracks. As he noticed this, he could hear his primi shouting commands at the vanguard. As they aimed their rifles, he instinctively hit the ground to avoid the gunfire. As he laid there and as his garlean allies approached, they saw that he, unlike is non- garlean allies, was fully lucid and wasn’t tempered. The primi, confused, but not one to throw away a good soldier, told Cen to stand and fight with his brothers in arms, and he’d explain after the fight. As they sat after the battle, the primi gathered up the corpses, and laid them to rest with a proper combat burial. Cen approached his primi and began to question him. Asking him to simply answer why. Why did he send men out into a deluge of aether only to kill them. The primi, with sadness in his eyes, explained that his orders for the action come from above. And that when it comes to certain garleans, they view conscripts such as he as lesser in terms of manpower, even though they are able to weave aether into spells. Cen was appalled by the notion, and it was here that he began to become disillusioned with Garlemald, and understood why his parents tried to steer him away from this life.

2

Augmentations

During his time in his unit, Cen was sent on multiple missions expecting to be killed on them. But to the higher up’s surprise and initial dismay, he always returned from the missions. His primus, the same man who was the one whom Cen begged to let him join all those years ago, was finally proven right in his claims that he was truly something special. Eventually, he got rewarded with a special operation to be done on him, implanting him with magitek that let his eyes see the flow of aether in his target, allowing him to easier hit the weak points on the eikons that he was tasked with suppressing.

3

Bearer’s Mark

At some point, he’s not one to share about the exact time, Cen had an encounter with a voidsent. All he will say on it was that, after a mission to suppress a primal, his squadron was beset by the fiend. Fighting with all he had, he was left alone. The voidsent, following its nature, regarded him as a strong creature and made him a simple offer. Make a contract with him to feed them aether, and they’d lend him his power when he drew upon it. Not seeing any other option, He agreed, seeing no other option. Upon his return to base, he was called to report to his primi. In the report he let slip his incident with the fiend. The primi’s face went pale at the mention, and ordered Cen to remain there for a moment. As he left, Cen could hear orders being called, and men rushed in to bind him. Confused, he initially struggled against them, but later submitted to them when his primus arrived. He ordered all to clear out and sat with Cen. As they sat, he explained that because of his newfound “friend” he’d now be an even more special asset. One that was now out of his command. He was now to live a life of solitude, the one thing that he initially ran from by joining the military, and as far as anyone knew, he was wiped out with the rest of his squad by an outside force after successfully completing their mission. As he was explaining, someone approached with a needle in hand. The primus explained that he’d be marked for the rest of his life, and it was at least the one service he could give him. He was marked with a Bearer’s Mark, making him now forced to serve as a personal black hand of sorts.
During his time as a bearer, he was forced to do many things of which he was not happy with. For the life of a bearer is one that goes on at the whim of their master. Cen swore to himself that one day, he’d be free, and he’d never again have a master that he must answer every whim of and do the things they themselves would like to keep their hands clean of.

4

Time as a Bearer

Cen had spent a lot of time in the empire, some of which in the capital itself wherein he gained his enjoyment of the colder climate such as that of Ishgard. It was there that he met the man who he viewed as his greatest friend, Amatius het Haustratus. The man who gave Cen his own freedom. But before that, he was simply just a new holder of the proverbial leash he lived on. Upon first meeting him, Amatius looked upon him with sadness and asked him a simple question. “What happened to you to have such a sad feeling around you?” Cen was taken aback. Nobody had asked him something like that before. He had seen many things. Namely being a black hand for his old master who murdered the people who they wanted dead. It was then that Cen got the feeling this man would be different from the previous master. Amatius taught Cen how to simply live. Treating him as a friend before anything else. Even offering, several times even, to see into removing the brand from him, but the offer was always declined. Cen, although he initially saw it as something to bind him in servitude, now saw it as a reminder to his dear friend. Eventually, Amatius gave Cen the best gift he could, his freedom. Given his position in the empire, he was able to pull some strings and make Cen a normal citizen once more. Upon hearing this, Cen was overjoyed, but still chose to remain at the side of his friend, not because he had to, but because he wanted to. One day, Amatius suddenly told Cen that he needed to leave. Confused, Cen asked for an explanation. All Amatius told him was that something was coming and he wanted to make sure he wasn’t anywhere near the fallout. Cen begrudgingly did as his friend asked. Later, he learned exactly what it was and why he was asked to leave. Amatius was assassinated, and given his title of a bearer, and his history of that specific line of work, he knew that it was best for him to leave.

5

Freedom Again

After his freedom, Cen eventually rejoined his old unit, Special Eikonic Suppression Unit 19 or just Unit 19. Before that he had attempted to return home. Upon seeing his parents, they immediately questioned him as to what happened to him. Leaving out a lot of the things that he was not especially proud of, he told them of his life to that point. They were appalled by most of the things he told them of. But were simply glad that he had returned to them. As he left them, he knew that he might never see them again, as when he was leaving, a wood warder approached him. They told him even though he was able to sneak past them once, praising his abilities to do so, that he must never return to the village as he was an outcast for abandoning his duties as a wood warder. As he began to search for his old unit to rejoin them, he eventually rejoined them in Kugane. But as time went on back with them, he remembered what he had forgotten living his fairly peaceful life in the capital.

Leaving the Empire

As the time went on, his unit was being ordered to support the XIVth Legion in their campaign of conquest of Eorzea. It was here that he decided to make his move. Using the skills he learned with his initial master, he snuck off and decided to get to Eorzea not with his unit, but on his own terms. Buying passage on a trade ship, he set sail for Eorzea, hoping to make a new life. One that those comrades whose lives he was forced to end from tempering, and that of his friend, Amatius het Haustratus.

Fin?

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