Piñara Conada

A History of a Potato

Pre-ARR

Piñara started her life as the third child of seven in the prosperous Conada Syndicate's lead pair, Cocola and Momonada Conada. As such, she was treated as any potential heir to a large merchant business would be growing up; many lessons on etiquette, music, management, accountancy, business, etc. It would be an overstatement to say that she didn't like these lessons, but she was unsatisfied with the rigidity of her days. 

By her teens, she had decided that no, her parents didn't know everything! And started to explore the city of Ul'dah for herself in a 'disguise' of tucking her bright blonde hair in a cap and wearing some less expensive looking clothes. In this way, she learned how the common folk and the refugees lived, how the markets really looked like to someone who didn't have their family crest and money behind them. Though she wasn't entirely sure what to do with this information, she tried her best to be courteous and respectful to everyone she met, even if they were mean.

This is how she met Rogir, an Ala Mhigan refugee that would go out into the Thanalan desert and hunt for his camp area. During a scuffle instigated by a hooligan in the markets because Pinya had been perhaps throwing around more money than was sensible, he was the one to step in and save her, though she would never admit she needed saving. 

Rogir was gruff, rude, and everything her parents warned her to stay away from, but he was kind, knowledgeable and skilled with a bow, and Pinya refused to leave him alone; pestering him for stories of Ala Mhigo and, eventually, how to wield a bow.

He was the first person she let know who she really was, and this was after asking how to help himself and his camp how to help them. They wouldn't accept straight up charity, as it would simply look like she was buying servants that way. Rogir and his wife, Savannah, had previously been hunters and farmers. And so, when Pinya was 15, she bought up a previously 'unfruitful' piece of farming land, and hatched her plan.

Pinya's farm had a quite literal rocky start, but with Savannah's expertise and Rogir's and Pinya's tenacity, they had a working farm in under a year with three other refugees working for a wage coming directly out of Pinya's funds. And so, the Conada's added Agriculture to their portfolio, and by the age of sixteen, Pinya had earned herself her own business, love of Botany, and the trust of several refugees.

She spent near a decade perfecting her skills in both business and botany, an interest sparked by her time spent with the farmers and time she spent out in the fields. She also spent a lot of time learning about poisons, as is the Dunesfolk Tradition, and studied alchemy to compliment her Botany.

She believed this is how her life would be, until the sky exploded, and Bahamut razed everything to the ground.


ARR

Having a lot of money means nothing if you don't spend it, and the Conada family had to spend near all of their fortune rebuilding their business and sheltering their employees after the Calamity. It was the first time that Pinya had even thought about being not wealthy. She didn't know what to think.

There was also the small matter of the Voice she kept hearing in her head. After she had done as much as she could for the Syndicate, she couldn't ignore it any longer. She was being tugged towards somewhere else that wasn't home.

She penned a letter to her family, telling them she'd taken a small amount of gil from the coffers to keep her alive until she reached her destination, and that she would write when she had arrived.

She didn't know where it was she was going.

After a month of wandering the continent, helping people where she could with the Archery skills she'd learned with Rogir, she arrived in Gridania with not a penny to her name and even less clout.

It is here she joined the Archer's guild and became a registered adventurer to earn her keep. Part of her found it refreshing that people didn't treat her like the heiress she was, a greater part was amazed at the gall of these commoners asking her to do their dirty work; but then, of course, she still helped.

When she was tasked with investigating trouble happening at the Lifemend stump with Q'uila and Connor, representatives of the Lancer's and Conjurer's guild respectively, she was met with two of the Scions of the Seventh Dawns; Yda and Papalymo.
Connor, perhaps the wisest of the three of the Gridanian adventurers, was asked to be the Gridanian envoy, while Pinya and Q'uila took up positions as his bodyguards.

It seemed like after that, it was simply one thing after another: Making sure that Pirates didn't have a foothold in La-noscea, clearing out abandoned mines of monsters in Thanalan, halting cult activities in the Black shroud; until one day she was face-to-face with a Primal.

She'd never been more scared in her life, and yet strangely full of conviction. It was a hard fight, and it had pushed her knowledge of battle and archery to its limits.  With quick wits and quicker feet, she and her comrades made it out alive, if not a little singed.

It was not long after that the two Sharlayan scholars they'd run into before recruited her into the Scions of the Seventh dawn. These people were neutral, committed to the wellbeing of Eorzea and combatting the Primal threat. Pinya had no idea why she was able to resist Tempering, but as one of the few people that could, and even fewer that had any chance to help, she took the position with determination.

There were more primals after that. Titan, Garuda, Ifrit again. Then Garleans, Ascians, more cults. Pinya was starting to think that becoming a Scion was to become constantly busy and relentlessly bossed about until the never-ending problem ended.

Though she grumbled out loud, she couldn't deny that she didn't feel challenged and oddly satisfied. To beat down the Empire that displaced her friends felt good, and to outwit and thwart beings who thought they knew all felt even better.

And at the end of that road, there was Ultima. She knows that it was only by the Hydaelyn's grace that she and her companions lived though that encounter, and knew that if she were to survive that she would have to become even stronger. She hoped that she could take it all upon herself, to see that no one she cared about ever had to suffer again.

She wasn't strong enough when the time came to defend the sultana, nor was she able to sway Alphinaud from his grand dreams that never quite add up.
With her friends and colleagues all scattered to the winds, heart low and angry, she arrived at the cold iron gates of Ishgard.

Heavensward

She decided that she loathed the snow of Coerthas, as any good Dunesfolk should.

Neither the warm hearth of the Foretemps household nor the spiced wine of the Forgotten Knight could lift her spirits for the first few days, nor would she crack a genuine smile for a week after they arrived in Ishgard. Oh, she could play along as the happy, empty-headed Bard they thought she was, but even with her Echo telling her when lies were about, she couldn't trust anyone outside her party, not fully. She was entirely grateful that Uila and Connor were still with her, even here in this cold, dark nation of snow and clergy.

There wasn't any time for brooding, though, as she was put to work almost immediately.

The first time she saw the Sea of Clouds, something in her loosened up. All that sky! All that free space that she could simply glide through! To hear her songs be snatched away in the powerful winds and echo against the green wind-charged aether crystal was exhilarating. Not even Emmanellain's childish and boorish behaviour couldn't put her down. She tackled her tasks here with grace and excitement, almost managing to forget that she has been branded a traitor in her home city. There was so much to explore, to study, to learn. And the dragons, they fascinated her so.
She grew up reading tall tales of the winged beasts, terrifying and destructive; and so when she discovered that not all of them were of Nidhogg's brood and even quite apt conversationalists at times, she was thrilled.

But as it always does, things came to a head. In attempting to clear their name and slay the Dreadwyrm himself, gathering allies to do so-

She experienced her first, real loss.

Her friend, her confidante, a man who had come to their aid in their time of need, died right there in her arms as he foolishly, stupidly, bravely leapt into the way of an attack meant for her. Not her potions nor her basic conjury skills could do anything to dissipate the odours Aether that burst through his chest.