sharp teeth

The left hand of the Ephemeral Hare, Lady of the Dark Burrows.

Profile

FULL NAME: Sharp Teeth

RACE: “Viera”
Born a Miqo'te, but corrupted by a voidsent lord known as Behir. He started to transform into some sort of voidsent creature, his hair turning to scales, but was able to pull back before it got to him too badly, the result being something that looked like an unusually short Au Ra with fewer scales than normal. Afraid of what people would think if they knew the truth, he spent a few years claiming to be an Au Ra. Recently, desperate to be free of Behir’s clutches, he made a deal with another voidsent by the name of Michabou. As part of their deal, she transformed him into an approximation of a Viera, to "properly serve as her representative," so that’s what he claims to be now.

AGE: 23 at the start of Dawntrail.

HEIGHT: 5'2"

GENDER: Male; Trans (he/they)

BODY TYPE: His stature belies the strength he's developed over rigorous training programs and serious physical therapy after his airship accident. His musculature isn't what it used to be, though, and he's no longer a strong physical fighter, though he won’t go down without a fight. He is, however, heavily scarred from said airship accident, leading some people to think he still is quite the brawler.

PERSONALITY: Brash, outspoken, loud, acts tough, short-tempered, scrappy, doesn't always think things through, very loyal once you befriend him, cares more than he lets on. He tends to express how he feels about people through actions rather than words. (He's not good with words.) Surprisingly studious and devoted to learning. Most people expect more brawn than brains from him, based on how he acts, but they're wrong. He has his mother's sharp mind.

CURRENT OCCUPATION: Public servant assisting in the rebuilding of Garlemald. (Left Hand of Lady Michabou, here to carry out her will on the Source.)

FORMER OCCUPATIONS: Academic scholar attempting to discover the mathematical language of magic; dragoon-in-training with the Congregation of Our Knights Most Heavenly; adventurer.

ORIENTATION: Bisexual

He got married at 18 on a whim to Mavureaux Mette while drunk off his ass at the Gold Saucer. He was convinced the elezen was lucky and the reason he kept winning. The two parted ways for several months after they sobered up and stumbled across each other again in Coerthas after Sharp had been accepted into the Congregation and Mavureaux was on his way to Ishgard to commission an airship from the Manufactory. They ended up traveling together and realizing over their adventures that the spark between them was real. They had a proper wedding at the Sanctum of the Twelve to renew their vows and legitimize their marriage. They’ve been together since.

Trivia:
— Sharp used to take synthetic hormones created by the alchemists in Thavnair, but since Michabou transformed his body he no longer needs them.
— Because of his condition (being part voidsent) and because he wields large amounts of power from Michabou, Sharp has become something of an aether vampire. He often needs to feed on the aether of other living things, be they flora or fauna.
— Sharp's mothers do not know about the deal he made to free himself from Behir. They haven't seen him in years.
— Had his mother survived to raise him, he would've been named Blair Eschera, until he came out as trans, then his mother would've insisted on calling him Vahn'a, as is tradition.
— Extremely particular about how his kitchen is used and treated by others.
— He won't let anyone else clean his house. He does it all himself.
— Used to smoke fogweed to dull Behir's voice in his mind, but when he began making plans to kill the voidsent lord he switched to smoking tobacco, claiming it helps him think better.
— Sharp's voice claim is the indie musician Case (hi I'm Case) and the song "Hardly Trying" is basically spot on to how he sounds.

HISTORY:
(Covers A Realm Reborn through the end of Shadowbringers. Endwalker portion coming soon.)
Sharp's birth parents were Vahn Eschera and R'ven Tia, two adventurers that had travelled together for many years before agreeing to have a child together. While not in love with one another, they shared a deep platonic bond, and R'ven wanted to help Vahn, who had decided she wanted to have a child so that she could leave behind something good in the world when she passed. Vahn and R'ven travelled with a roegadyn couple, Eventide Rain and Dark Forest. As Vahn came into the final term of her pregnancy, Eventide and Forest pleaded with her to finally settle down and build up a home with R'ven to raise her child, but she ignored them and insisted they all continue travelling together. Vahn and R'ven both were fatally wounded not long after when Vahn attempted to slay a voidsent that had been trying to lure her into its clutches for quite some time. Eventide and Forest fled with their bodies, stopping as soon as they felt safe enough to do so to assess the damage. Both miqo'te were beyond saving, but in a desperate attempt to salvage anything she could of the situation, Eventide Rain sliced open Vahn's belly and pulled her baby out. He survived.

Eventide Rain and Dark Forest took the infant miqo'te with them to Gridania, where they officially laid down their weapons and took up artisan jobs as a carpenter and a baker. For the first year of life, the child had no name, as Eventide couldn't decide if they should name him in his mother's tradition or in their own. They finally came to a decision when the scrappy kit bit Eventide one night when she was attempting to put him to bed, earning him the Hellsguard style name Sharp Teeth. (Sharp for short.)

Sharp was raised entirely in Gridania, though he did spend a week in La Noscea to visit the graves of his birth parents. Eventide and Forest made it a point to tell him at length about his parents so he could honor their memory. This ended up backfiring on them, as Sharp decided he wanted to follow in their footsteps and become an adventurer once he turned 17. Both women didn't support his decision and urged him to take up a craft, as he'd shown promise as a culinarian already. Sharp was having none of it though and insisted he had to walk this path. Eventide and Forest finally gave in and said that they wouldn't stop him. When he chose to leave them, they gave him a chocobo that he named Cocoa.

Sharp spent a year scraping by on what meager gil he could make taking odd jobs and realized that the adventurer life was nothing like he thought it would be when going about it alone. He started to consider returning home when he stumbled across a dragoon hailing from Ishgard traveling through Eorzea on leave. Sharp sat with him for hours listening to his stories about battling dragons for the Holy See and, like he had with stories of his mother, became completely enamoured with the idea of being a dragoon. He stole the dragoon's lance and fled, determined to travel to Ishgard and enter the Congregation the dragoon had told him about.

On the way, Sharp decided to visit the Gold Saucer and see if he could get lucky enough to score a jackpot to fund his travels. That is where he met the duskwight Mavureaux Mette and proceeded to get himself into heaps of trouble. He'd been losing his games until the elezen showed up, then started to win. Convinced that Mav's presence was why he was winning, he kept him around with wine, drinking with him and playing as many rounds as he could before he blacked out. When he came to, he had a killer hangover... and a ring on his finger. In their drunken stupor, the two had gotten married. Thoroughly embarrassed by the affair, the two parted ways and expected to never see each other again.

Sharp went through with his plan to travel to Ishgard, arriving in Coerthas not long after the Marriage Incident. He went to every house and military group he could pleading his case, begging for a sponsor so he could go to Ishgard and train. Everyone turned him away, put off by the fact that he was a foreginer and didn't look strong enough for what he was trying to accomplish. Everyone except a certain elezen who was also rather small and underestimated. That man was Silverstein Metannes. Born to an elezen mother after she had an affair with a hyur man travelling through Coerthas, Silverstein was no stranger to adversity. Despite the world working against him, he'd managed to be accepted into the Congregation and become a dragoon himself. Some years before Sharp would come to his door, he lost his leg in a wicked battle against a dragon and had resigned himself to cooking for the other knights and dragoons. Seeing much of himself in Sharp, he agreed to sponsor him and help him get into Ishgard. Though the Congregation was incredibly skeptical, they respected Silverstein (and were desperate for new blood, as the war was picking up speed) and allowed Sharp to train with them. He was becoming a dragoon, just like he'd wanted-- but he had to start as a knight first.

Some months into his training Sharp was dispathed to Coerthas to do a little guard duty at the Observatorium. It was here that he ran into Mavureaux again. Now that Ishgard had rejoined the Eorzean alliance, Mavureaux was travelling to Ishgard to visit the Skysteel Manufactory and finally commission his airship, the object of his dreams ever since he abandoned his life of thievery. The two met up that night once Sharp was off duty to talk about what had happened between them and the things that transpired since they parted. They discovered that they each still held onto their wedding rings, despite agreeing their marriage was a mistake. Intrigued by this and the circumstances that brought them together, Sharp traded his guard post for extra weeks of kitchen duty back at the Congregation and travelled to Ishgard with Mavureaux to make sure he arrived safe.

The two ended up travelling together at length as Sharp got stationed around Coerthas and Ishgard for training and Mav killed time waiting for his airship to be built. Sharp often felt like he needed to protect Mavureaux when he travelled across Ishgard, as the other elezen often looked down on him for being a duskwight. It was in Coerthas's Western Highlands that this would really come into play. While out on patrol-- with Mav in attendance as usual-- Sharp noticed a dragon corpse that had decayed down to the bones and mentioned to Mav that some Ishgardians would pay a good sum for dragon bones and the corpses in the Western Highlands were basically free for the taking. Since Mav had just spent his life savings on his airship, he decided it couldn't hurt to try pedalling some dragon bones and began to dismantle the corpse. What neither of them knew is a dragon herd had been spotted flying towards Falcon's Nest not long after they set out into the snow. One dragon in particular had strayed from the group and was attempting to catch up when it saw the elezen and miqo'te desecrating the body of its fallen kin. Enraged, the dragon dove in for an attack, significantly injuring Mavureaux before Sharp was able to get the upper hand on it. Before Sharp could slay it, however, the dragon fled back towards Dravania. Sharp rushed Mavureaux back to Falcon's Nest for medical attention, but before he could even be properly looked at, Sharp left, on the hunt for the dragon that tried to kill the man he was still not acknowledging as his significant other (even though everyone knew he was.)

Sharp tracked the dragon deep into Dravania, to Anyx Trine. He was met at the threshold by a massive dragon who warned him that she would not kill him on sight 'like he was so likely to do,' but if he brought violence into their place, they would do away with him swiftly. Sharp knew he was far too outnumbered to fight back, so he agreed to lay down his lance for the opportunity to get inside and find the dragon he was hunting, hoping to lure it out into the wild to properly slay it. Sharp was led through Anyx Trine and met many of the dragons that called the place home. A few spoke to him, though most watched him warily. Young ones flocked around him, interested in seeing a person so close without being in danger, something not afforded to them often. Finally, Sharp found the dragon he was looking for. She recognized him and the fear was apparent in her eyes. She quickly tried to explain that she attacked them out of anger over their disrespect for her fallen. Sharp told her how she nearly killed someone dear to him and she retaliated with how those she loved were killed everyday. This was when Sharp realized dragons were not too unlike people. Despite his rage with her, he sat with the dragon and talked to her for hours, about the war, about life, about family. The longer he spoke with her, the more he realized he'd been training to kill beings that were people in their own right. The thought didn't sit well with him. In the end he left Anyx Trine to return to Coerthas, abandoning his attempts to slay the dragon. He couldn't find it in his heart to anymore.

Back at Falcon's Nest, Mav had been attended to as much as was needed to make sure he didn't die and left to his own devices. Sharp reunited with him and took him back to Ishgard to receive proper attention and healing. Sharp took leave from the Congregation to stay with him. It was during this time that they finally confronted their relationship and decided this was real and they loved each other. They travelled back to Eorzea to renew their vows, then returned to Ishgard to have Mav's injured arm assessed and get an update on his airship. The news was grim. Mavureaux's arm didn't heal correctly and he would never be able to draw his bow properly again. He was devastated, as archery was such an important part of his life. Desperate to find a way to help him, Sharp resigned from the Congregation and turned to the astrologians of the Astrologicum instead. Having developed an interest in astromancy while he was training and travelling to and from the Observatorium, Sharp had heard the rumors of how Sharlayan astromancy had the power to heal and decided to try it.

He studied everything he could get his hands on, picking up astromancy quickly and doing his best to master it as fast as he could. However, even though he showed great promise, it wasn't enough to heal Mavureaux. He still couldn't draw his bow. Mav claimed that he'd made peace with the fact and was applying himself elsewhere, becoming a student at the manufactory and trying his hand at this machinistry that the facility was trying to promote. Even though Mavureaux seemed complacent, though, Sharp was not. He was angry. He felt like a failure, as he'd failed to protect Mav, avenge him, and now heal him.

Sharp mired in his anger for a while. He kept up with his studies out of a feeling of obligation, but his zeal for it was wearing thin. He would wander Ishgard, desperately hoping that maybe he would just stumble upon the answer he needed. That is how he came to meet the being that would call itself ‘Siegfried.’ Fray could sense the bitterness in Sharp's heart and claimed he had a solution. What Sharp needed to do was harness that anger and make it work for him, make him more powerful. Feeling the weakest he'd ever felt in his life, Sharp was desperate for that power and accepted it without thinking of any of the consequences. He began to sneak around behind Mav's back, honing his power, letting himself fall deep into the Abyss.

Sharp fell too far. In his desire to prove that he was strong and could succeed at something, he gave himself fully to the ‘Abyss’ and discovered that the power it offered was a trap. It began to corrupt him. Terrified of what was happening, Sharp confronted ‘Siegfried’ and discovered that ‘Siegfried’ was not a person at all, but the voidsent lord known as Behir, who wanted to possess his body and transform him into another member of its hivemind horde. The ‘Abyss’ Sharp had been tapping into was actually the Void. Sharp fled from Behir's embrace, but the voidsent had already gotten its claws in him. Ears had hardened into horns, fur clustered together into scales. He was visibly changed, and he knew no way back from it.

Afraid of what Mavureaux would think, he hid from him for days, but the elezen finally found him and saw what he'd let happen to himself. They fought for hours, finally unleashing all the pent up feelings they had about themselves and the unfortunate situations they both ended up in. In the end, they came to terms with what had happened to them both and how they acted, Sharp promising to try and make up for his absence when Mavureaux needed him and Mav promising in return to be there for him while he worked through what happened to him in the darkness. Sharp agreed to focus his efforts on bettering his astromancy and setting his greatsword aside. He still kept it close, however, just in case it was needed. He developed a strong enough hold on himself and to properly funnel his emotions into his sword rather than letting it out into the Void for Behir to feed on and further corrupt him.

Fearing what would happen if people knew the truth, he pretended to be an Au Ra and refused to tell strangers large portions of his past.

However, that would not be the end of Behir's presence in Sharp's life. Unknown to him, Mavureaux had also been pursued by Behir since childhood. Convinced that he could avoid making the same mistakes as Sharp, Mav walked down the same path, lured in by the sword and the promise of power. For the most part, Mav was right. However, when Sharp found out that Mavureaux was making the same mistake he had, he became enraged and the two fought-– both physically and verbally. Sharp lost his grip just long enough for Behir to slip into his body and Behir began to speak through him to Mavureaux as Sharp’s body slowly corrupted further. That was when Mavureaux realized the mistake he made letting himself be lured in by ‘Siegfried’ and the sword he offered, and when he understood how Sharp had done the same thing.

Behir told Mavureaux about how he’d taken his father, and how he followed Mav all through his life, waiting for when he was ripe to feed from. He told him how Sharp’s anger was delicious and Mavureaux’s tasted the same, and he wanted to devour it. Mavureaux could tell Sharp was fighting to get his body back, but Behir had just enough of a grip on him to edge him out. Desperate to save Sharp from being fully converted, Mavureaux offered himself up to Behir like he wanted. As Behir’s energy flowed from Sharp to Mav, he was weakened and distracted just enough for Sharp to force his spirit back into his body and to the forefront and shove Behir out completely. Mavureaux, with his exceptional willpower and discipline, was able to do the same. As they felt the voidsent’s presence leave, however, they realized Mav had paid a price for his heroism. The immediate burst of Behir’s energy in his aether had corrupted him as well. Thankfully, not to the same degree as Sharp, but enough that the damage was noticeable.

Unfortunately, even after forcing Behir’s presence out of his body, the voidsent still lingered, hoping to take him. He knew, after all he’d been through with Sharp and Mav, that they’d be exceptional voidsent themselves and he wanted them for his horde. Behir continued to whisper to him, but Sharp did what he could to ignore him. He often studied to drown out the whispers and would talk to himself while he did. Sometimes he would assist Mav at the Manufactory. Sometimes he would get desperate enough and smokes fogweed out in the cold or the wilderness.

Since discovering that Behir was feeding off his anger through his dark knight powers, Sharp figured out a way to funnel his anger into his power without letting Behir have it. Sharp let his energy flow through his weapon like it is an extension of himself. Unknown to him, this excess of emotion flowing into it, as well as its regular use in battle, slowly caused it to become self-aware. The sword occasionally spoke to Sharp, but because Sharp was so used to hearing voices, he often talked back to it without a second thought. It didn't occur to him that he answered the sword’s whispers when he adamantly ignored Behir’s. Such a thing wouldn't actually register until the two beings that harbored themselves in Sharp's weapons: the emotional, angry spirit in the sword, and the cool, rational spirit in the globe, manifested enough to have physical bodies. This event wouldn't come to pass until a major trauma, however.

That trauma was Sharp's near-death. It was a routine airship run for Mavureaux and Sharp, with no great battle to make it to or vital supplies to deliver. Nothing exceptional at all. That was, until a dragon cut right into the flight path of the ship. In a panic Mavureaux attempted to shoot it, but Sharp, who'd vowed never to hurt a dragon again, reacted without thinking and shoved at Mavureaux to offset his aim. The elezen still had one hand on the wheel, however, and the sudden jolt caused him to yank it drastically and send the airship careening into one of the outcroppings in the Forelands. Mavureaux managed to escape the ship, but Sharp was caught in the crash.

Mavureaux had a choice to make: let Sharp die to salvage what he could of the airship, or call on the one power they never wanted to see again and destroy the ship to save Sharp Teeth. Despite his initial hesitation (that airship was literally his life savings, after all) Mavureaux chose the latter. Calling on Behir, he harnessed the strength of the voidsent to tear open the airship, retrieve his husband, and get him to the chocobo hunter camp to receive immediate medical attention before being carted back to Ishgard. By the grace of the Twelve, and the work of a couple chirurgeons, Sharp lived. He'd broken both legs, some ribs, and been torn up and burned, but he lived.

Sharp Teeth was bedridden for weeks after the crash, often left alone to wallow in his misery as Mavureaux was being eaten alive by the guilt he felt over almost considering his airship over his husband. As Sharp's feelings turned to anger at his own inability, the situation heavily strained their relationship. Eventually, Mavureaux came clean about his feelings to Sharp, expecting heavy backlash. After a few days of silence, Sharp simply said, "In the end you picked me, and that's all that really matters." After that they began to repair their relationship. Silverstein, Sharp's old mentor, gifted them his old wheelchair once he felt Sharp was up to using it, and Mav and Sharp began to figure out a routine where Mav did the physical work around the house, but Sharp was still involved. At the same time, Sharp took it upon himself to finally teach Mavureax how to read, since there was little else he could do in his state.

As his body healed, Sharp Teeth eventually transitioned to crutches, then a cane. Since Silverstein had experience with this kind of physical therapy, Sharp began working with him to build up his strength so he could walk again. It was slow going, and it tested every fiber of his patience, but eventually Sharp made it back to that point. However, his strength never returned to its normal levels, as he was unable to train his body to the degree that he had in the Congregation.

It was towards the end of his recovery that the spirits of his sword and globe finally manifested for him. The sword, being primarily fueled by his emotions, tried to convince him that all his study had been meaningless in the end, while the globe, fed by his reasoning, argued that he simply had not learned the right kinds of knowledge yet. At first, Sharp shunned these beings, having grown pretty wary of mysterious voices owned by mysterious creatures over his short life, but what the globe said struck home with him. He began to question his studies with the astrologians and wonder if, perhaps he was spending too much time looking at the sky and not enough time looking at the world around him. With a heavy heart, he chose to leave the astrologicum.

With the help of a few friends Mavureax made in the Manufactory, and enough studying, Sharp was able to take the anima from his globe and transfer it into a mechanical 'fairy.' The sword, however, did not fair as well. Due to the intense emotions-- primarily the anger-- contained inside it, Sharp ultimately made the decision to melt the sword down into a shaft that he fashioned into a broom. The shaft contained a strong force and Sharp suspected it might be capable of channeling magic, but he didn’t want to wield it. Not yet. The voice inside didn’t return once it was melted.

After leaving the astralogicum, Sharp turned his studies to the scholarly pursuit of mathematics: specifically, finding the mathematical language of magic, if there was one to be found. For a few years, he devoted his life both to this goal, and to his continued efforts to free him and his husband from Behir's grasp. Unknown to Sharp, while he had managed to keep Behir fairly at bay, his husband was slowly succumbing to the voidsent's whispers and siphoning his power tiny bits at a time.

Despite his best efforts, Sharp couldn't escape the constant whispers of Behir in his mind, always trying to tempt him closer, trying to sink his claws in again. After years of persistent daily study and no clear result in sight, Sharp began to consider... other methods.

Finally, he snapped. So desperate to be free of Behir and save both himself and his husband, Sharp Teeth turned to the one thing he’d been running away from all these years: the Void. In his extensive research he’d learned of a handful of powerful voidsent who claimed to be benevolent. Brandishing his broom as a staff, Sharp left Ishgard for a week, claiming that he was taking one of his trips to Dravania he was known for, and went to a remote place in the wilderness to summon one of the voidsent. The one he chose was Michabou, the Ephemeral Hare, Lady of the Dark Burrows. She answered his call, smiling sweetly. Sharp explained his situation to her. To his shock, Michabou not only knew of Behir, but hated him.

Michabou, intrigued by his plight, proposed a deal to Sharp. Become her disciple on the mortal plane, and she would rid him of all Behir’s influence and replace it with her own. She would make him powerful and, in return, all he had to do was travel the world and kill the minions of the other voidsent who’d earned her ire. Sharp Teeth accepted.

Michabou did as she promised, flooding Sharp’s body with the power of the Void and expelling all of Behir’s influence from his spirit and mind, replacing it with her own. For the first time in years, his thoughts were quiet.

He could feel the power coursing through him. Michabou watched with glee, picking up the fallen broom that served as his staff and offering it to him. As he took it, the head of the broom burst into blue light, and when Sharp could see again, a scythe blade of crystal fragments had formed. “My gift to you,” Michabou said. “For slaying yours-- and my-- enemies.”

Sharp took a moment to admire the weapon, then looked to her. “I have one in mind,” he said. “An enemy.”

“Who would that be?” Michabou asked.

Sharp looked to the remains of the summoning, gripping the shaft of the broom-scythe tightly. “Behir.”

In-Game Information

Voidbound Sharp Teeth
Balmung • Crystal Datacenter
Officer of Minerva <ERA>

Healer main (WHM; AST; SGE) & tank alt (WAR; GNB.)
Current favorite DPS are PCT, MCH, & SAM.
Retired savage raider (SHB; EW.)
I cook & gather. Other crafters? Never heard of 'em.

Attended FanFest 2018 & 2023.
Playing since Fall 2014.

Void & Voidsent Lore

Generally speaking, I follow the canon lore we have of the Void and voidsent offered by the game. However, where I've felt it necessary, I've supplemented my own lore, including creating my own voidsent lords and minions. Here are the notable voidsent I've created:

Below is some general voidsent lore I've created:

Mortal Representative:
This is a person carrying out the work/deeds/will of a voidsent on Etheirys or other stars/planets within its universe. Mortal Representatives vary in importance, ranging from minor Representative like Reapers, to those representing actual voidsent lords.Sharp Teeth is the primary Mortal Representative of Lady Michabou the Ephemeral Hare. As such, he's the most powerful of her Representatives, and was transformed to resemble her when he took up the mantle, hence why he is mistaken for a Viera.The more powerful of a Representative you are, the more actual power you syphon from your voidsent to carry out their will/work. This, however, comes with a catch: aether vampirism.

Aether Vampirism:
Particularly powerful Mortal Representatives suffer from aether deficiency, where they cannot consume/absorb enough aether through normal means to sustain the supply their power relies on. As a result, they become aether vampires, needing to consume/absorb the aether or other complex living things to make up the difference. A 'complex living thing' is typically an animal or a person, but large plants can also suffice if someone is desperate. Absorbing the aether of a living thing weakens its life force. If enough aether is taken, they will die.Sharp Teeth suffers from aether vampirism and primarily feeds on animals. When in a tight spot, he will consume his husband's aether, but only enough to take the edge off. He would never dream of harming his husband beyond what he could heal from unassisted.

Avatar Vauhn Eschera,
The Ruined Mother

Vauhn Eschera was once a Moon Keeper Miqo'te woman, but these days she has become something more-- or perhaps something worse. Driven by her want for power and intense desire to control voidsent for herself, Vauhn dedicated her life to the practicing of forbidden magics, learning how to harness the power of voidsent and the elements to carry out her will. Eventually she reached a point where she felt confident enough to attempt to shackle a voidsent lord to herself, believing herself powerful enough to control whatever voidsent noble she set her eyes on.

Hungry for his power and the challenge of bringing him into the Source-- which she had yet to discover any evidence of another mage being able to do-- Vauhn set her sights on Behir. She failed, in the end, and Behir claimed her and the life of her best friend, R'ven Tia.

Unknown to her traveling companions who managed to escape with her body, Vauhn hadn't been merely killed, but had her aether and soul pulled from her body and flung into the Void, where Behir intended to make her a servant as punishment for her hubris. For 21 years Vauhn suffered under the heel of Behir, but she persisted, not allowing herself to give in and be eaten. Eventually, as Behir became more occupied by Sharp Teeth's efforts to kill him, Vauhn found an opportunity to escape his realm and flee into the Thirteenth. She became a free voidsent.

Whether it was pure coincidence or fate, Vauhn would eventually find herself in the employ of a mortal seeking her for an avatar: Mavureaux Mette, the husband of the son she never knew survived her ruin. When she discovered that her child had not only lived, but grown into a powerful being of his own, she was proud. That is, until she realized his power was gained through selling his soul. That enraged her. She had dedicated her everything to proving she was powerful enough to control these beastly creatures and here her own flesh and blood had given himself up to one, and for what? To free himself from the very voidsent who'd taken her.

It took Vauhn some time to overcome her intense negativity toward her son, but between her time as Mavureaux's avatar and many, many long talks with him about the life Sharp had led, she grew to care for her child like a mother should, and gradually put aside her anger to embrace the opportunity afforded to her: the chance to be part of her child's life.

To this day, Vauhn remains Mavureaux's avatar and the two have learned how to compartmentalize so they she doesn't intrude on his entire life. Eventually Sharp hopes to discover a way to sever her connection to his husband and give her a new body, but has yet to figure out how to do this without owing more than he already does to Michabou.

As an avatar, Vauhn appears similar to Cait Sith, but is black and purple and stands about six feet tall with elongated limbs. She is capable of summoning fire, ice, and lightning, and wields these elements against Mavureaux's enemies.

Michabou the Ephemeral Hare,
Lady of the Dark Burrows

Lady Michabou is a voidsent noble on par with Diabolos. She hails herself as a 'benevolent' voidsent lord, claiming to want to help the mortals of Etheirys rather than feed off them and their aether like her counterparts. In reality, she simply wants to be more powerful than other voidsent and sees mortals as useful tools to achieve that goal.

Michabou, in her most basic form, resembles a massive hare with a coat like the night sky, four ears, four eyes, and a mouth that splits her whole head open. However, she more often appears in her humanoid form pictured above. This makes her appear less threatening to those she wants to create contracts with.

Michabou is a fairly obscure voidsent in the Source, with little information recorded about her. It took Sharp Teeth years of relentless searching to find anything about her. Once he did, though, he was able to successfully create a way to summon her to Etheirys. Desperate to be free of Behir's hold, Sharp Teeth offered his service and his soul to Michabou in exchange for freedom from Behir's corruption. Michabou accepted this deal, severing the hold Behir had on him entirely and declaring him her Mortal Representative in this world.

Because of her level of prestige and nobility among the voidsent, Michabou is able to be very generous with her power and aether. She is also capable of syphoning aether from others and channeling it through herself to her chosen. Because Sharp Teeth is her primary Representative, she feeds him large amounts of power and aether to carry out her will-- which tends to be 'kill other voidsent and absorb their aether to pay me back for what I've given you.'

While Sharp Teeth is her primary Representative, Michabou does have many other minor Representatives across Etheirys, and even some on the Reflections. Sharp has yet to meet any of them, however-- at least, as far as he knows.

Michabou did have a main Representative before Sharp, but he took their place when he offered up his soul. He does not know what happened to them, and he doesn't want to.

Michabou's lair is a massive labyrinth occupying a far corner of the Thirteenth known as the Dark Burrows. She welcomes many voidsent to live with her in the Burrows, provided they swear allegiance to her and agree to serve her. Many weaker voidsent see the Burrows as a safe place (not too unlike Zero's home) and accept this arrangement. In return, she feeds on their aether-- but never enough to kill them-- and sends them out into the Reflections to assist her Representatives or carry out tasks for her.

At this time, Michabou seems quite happy with her arrangement with Sharp Teeth and has no intention of doing him any harm or ending their contract. He's just so useful.

(For all intents and purposes, Sharp Teeth is a Reaper and Michabou is his avatar.)

Hive-Lord Behir, Lord of Hatred

Hive-Lord Behir is a fourth tier voidsent who thrives on anger and hate. He is represented as a six-eyed basilisk-like creature with an extremely long, stretched out body.

Behir is the strongest voidsent that represents a group collectively known as the Hatred. The Hatred are focused around anger and hate, either instilling it or feeding off it. Behir himself feeds off it. Specifically, Behir uses peoples’ anger and hate to funnel away their essence and plant the seed of his own mind in their bodies, taking them over and corrupting them into a branch of the great hivemind that forms Behir himself. If the person is strong of spirit and he succeeds in taking them, they more often than not turn into a voidsent themselves. If they are weak, they turn into creatures that most closely resemble peistes and basilisks.

Behir is a large voidsent and has extreme difficulty crossing over the Abyss into Etheirys, so to counter that he splits his consciousness up among several bodies, the number of which changes all the time. Since Behir can’t exert his full presence in Etheirys, he is relatively weak until he builds up a strong enough presence in a person’s body to overpower their natural self. This is why he has so many fragments of himself in the world and is constantly hunting for more people to corrupt to maintain his presence here.

Behir is believed to be both snake-like and humanoid at the same time, though since he can’t manifest fully in Hydaelyn no one knows for sure. The closest people can get to a ‘definitive’ form for him is that he might resemble a very stretched basilisk or peiste with multiple eyes. As a result, some Duskwight groups in the Shroud have rumors and urban legends about a peiste that promises power to people deep in the woods. These claims are often brushed off with the excuse that peistes do not live in that region. There is actually a high degree of truth to these claims, however, as Behir has often favored preying on the caves where Duskwight bands live and hide, finding them to be a rich source of anger.

Because Behir struggles with keeping its presence in Etheirys at all times, he is very much an opportunistic hunter. He hunts down the weakest links. Behir also has a strong history of seeking out those already affected by its presence, such as the loved ones of those it has already taken and integrated into its hivemind. These people, he finds, are often harboring a deep negativity from their loss that he is able to manipulate to his own agenda easier than a fresh, new person. Behir can absorb the memories of those it fully corrupts and use things from those memories on others, such as manifesting the whispers of lost loved ones around new victims in an attempt to lure them in.

That is how Behir came to target and hunt Sharp Teeth and Mavureaux Mette and, ironically, thread their fates together.

As a child, Mavureax lost his mother to a raid. His father partially blamed himself for not being there with her, so he would take Mavureaux with him everywhere to make sure he could protect him, including on his patrols through the Shroud. On one such occasion, his father heard Behir’s whispers and thought it was a Wood Wailer. He left Mavureaux in a hiding spot and went to investigate. Slowly, Mav also began to hear the whispers. He waited for his father to come back. Minutes. Hours. The whispers faded away, like the being was leaving, and no one ever came back for Mavureaux. Unknown to him, he’d lost his father to Behir and was thus marked.

On the other side of Eorzea, Vahn Eschera was playing with forces she didn’t know enough about. Vahn had a bad habit of biting off more than she could chew, something that she could normally be helped out of by her friends Eventide Rain, Dark Forest, and R’ven. R’ven often grounded her and stopped her from going too overboard, but as they got closer, he actually had less of an influence on holding back her zeal. When he agreed to conceive a child with her, that ability was basically gone. Vahn, coming from a life of hardship long before she took to adventuring with the others, heard Behir’s whispers often, but could ignore them fairly easily most of the time. The farther she got into her pregnancy and the bigger a toll it took on her, however, the harder it became. Finally, late into her pregnancy, she couldn’t take it anymore and, rather than submit to the whispers, she tried to kill them. While there is no definitive account of what happened that day, Eventide Rain swears a ‘hell beast rose from the water and came for Vahn,’ slaughtering her– and R’ven, who tried to protect her– and attempting to do the same to the two roegadyn. Eventide and Forest fled with Vahn and R’ven’s bodies before they could be grievously wounded, and Eventide quickly to cut Vahn’s child from her body to save him from sharing her fate. That was the day that Behir marked Sharp Teeth.

Behir also marked Eventide Rain and Dark Forest, but as soon as they began to hear its whispers they picked up and moved to Gridania to pursue artisan work and keep themselves busy. They were convinced living near the water would bring the creature back. After their move, the whispers died down. They never told Sharp about it.

When Behir marks someone young, he waits for them to reach adulthood before pursuing them, so they can build up a strong well of anger for him to feed on, so it wasn’t until early adulthood that Sharp and Mavureax began to feel the voidsent’s influence.

Mavureaux had a hard life growing up. Having already been born into an often discriminated people, orphaned, taken in by a bandit crew, and raised to be a thief, Mav built up quite the well of anger and bitterness that he buried deep down and hid from others. He was quite ripe for the picking, but it was ultimately Sharp who got chosen first.

Sharp Teeth had a good life, all things considered. He had loving parents and was raised well. But, just as Behir wanted, the loss of his birth mother and father weighed down on him. Most of Sharp’s anger came from his own internal conflicts over how ‘weak’ he felt in his family and how his adopted parents lacked some of the resources to raise him around these insecurities. This eventually led him to leave home and try to prove himself. His insecurities with both himself and his abilities followed him through all his pursuits, and each time he didn’t succeed (by his standards) was another level in the well of his own anger. It finally all came to a head when he failed to heal his husband’s arm and they both came to the realization he wouldn’t be able to draw a bow again. Sharp was so furious with what he perceived as his failure to fix the problem he’d created for Mavureaux, and that finally opened him up to Behir’s influence.

Behir had been watching Sharp and Mavureaux for years by then and always thought Mav would be his victim first, but Mav was proving to have an amazing level of discipline. Sharp, however, lacked much of that discipline. Thinking that Sharp could be his way to Mavureaux, Behir went for him first. The voidsent disguised himself as the ‘mentor’ entity Fray and lured Sharp in with the promise of power through the sword. With Sharp’s feelings of failure at both being a dragoon and an astrologian strong in his mind, he was easily won over. He took up the sword and swung himself full-force into training with it.

Behir’s corruption of Sharp was slow and subtle, with virtually no changes at first. The more Sharp trained, however, the more drunk with the power he became, pushing himself more and more and leaving himself wide open to Behir’s influence. Finally, Behir struck, pouring his corruption into Sharp in an attempt to transform him. Sharp did actually begin to transform physically as Behir pulled his spirit into the Darkness. However, he underestimated how much raw will power Sharp had underneath his recklessness and disregard, and was caught offguard when Sharp began to push back. Sharp was able to reclaim his body, but he couldn’t undo the partial transformation he’d undergone. Ashamaed and afraid of what happened to him, Sharp went into hiding until Mavureaux finally found him. At the time, Sharp didn’t reveal the full truth of what happened to him, but he told Mavureaux enough for him to understand.

Unknown to Sharp Teeth, Mavureaux had been hearing the whispers from his childhood again and didn’t tell him. Sometimes, he would look at Sharp and hear his missing father’s voice, soft and distant. He did his best to ignore it. After Sharp’s corruption, however, they became harder to ignore. While Mav forgave Sharp for deceiving him, he was still bitter over it happening, and that fueled the already deep well of his anger. It wasn’t longer after that ‘Fray’ came looking for Mav to offer him power, too. Behir, disguised as Fray, told Mavureaux that he could use his anger to make himself stronger, despite his injuries. Despite knowing what happened to Sharp, Mav was convinced that because he was more disciplined, he could control it much better than Sharp and avoid being corrupted.

For the most part, Mav is right. However, when Sharp found out that Mavureaux was walking down the same path he had taken, he became enraged and the two fought– both physically and verbally. Sharp lost his grip just long enough for Behir to slip into his body and Behir began to speak through him to Mavureaux as Sharp’s body slowly corrupted further. That was when Mavureaux realized the mistake he made letting himself be lured in by Fray and the sword he offered, and when he understood how Sharp had done the same thing.

Behir told Mavureaux about how he’d taken his father, and how he followed Mav all through his life, waiting for when he was ripe to feed from. He told him how Sharp’s anger was delicious and Mavureax’s tasted the same, and he wanted to devour it. Mavureaux could tell Sharp was fighting to get his body back, but Behir had just enough of a grip on him to edge him out. Desperate to save Sharp from being fully converted, Mavureaux offered himself up to Behir like he wanted. As Behir’s energy flowed from Sharp to Mav, he was weakened and distracted just enough for Sharp to force his spirit back into his body and to the forefront and shove Behir out completely. Mavureaux, with his exceptional willpower and discipline, was able to do the same. As they felt the voidsent’s presence leave, however, they realized Mav had paid a price for his heroism. The immediate burst of Behir’s energy in his spirit had corrupted him, as well. Thankfully, not to the same degree as Sharp, but enough that the damage was done.

This is where they are now. Unfortunately, even after forcing Behir’s presence out of their bodies, the voidsent still lingers, hoping to take them. He knows, after all he’s been through with them now, that they’d be exceptional voidsent themselves and he wants them for his horde. Behir still whispers to them, but they both do what they can to ignore him or drown him out. When ignoring him is not enough, Mavureaux will go to the Manufactory to work on guns and turrets. While the loud environment doesn’t necessarily drown out the whispers, being in that setting and doing work makes it easier for Mav to ignore them. Sharp often studies to drown out the whispers and talks to himself while he does. Sometimes he goes with Mav to assist him.

Since discovering that Behir was feeding off his anger through his dark knight powers, Sharp discovered a way to funnel his anger into his power without letting Behir have it: feeding it to his sword. Sharp let his energy flow through his weapon like it was an extension of himself. Unknown to him, this excess of emotion flowing into it, as well as its regular use in battle, slowly caused it to become self-aware. The sword occasionally spoke to Sharp, but because Sharp was so used to hearing voices, he often talked back to it without a second thought. It didn't occur to him that he answered the sword’s whispers when he adamantly ignored Behir’s. At least, not for a while. When he eventually realized his sword had taken on a life of its own, he melted down the blade and reformed it into the shaft of a broom.

Playlist

Emperor's New Clothes - Panic! at the Disco
Victorious - Panic! at the Disco
Unravel (from Tokyo Ghoul) - AmaLee
Bleeding Out - Imagine Dragons
Barton Hollow - The Civil Wars
kakusei - Superfly
Champion - Fall Out Boy
Young and Menace - Fall Out Boy
LA Devotee - Panic! at the Disco
Woke Up a Rebel - Reuben and the Dark
Marching On - Krewella
Heart of the Darkness - Tommee Profitt
Bury Me Face Down - grandson
Man or a Monster - Sam Tinnesz, Zayde Wolf
Sinners and Saints - Andrea Wasse
Devil Devil - MILCK
Raise Hell - Dorothy
Pray - The Amazing Devil
Devil Inside - CRMNL
Devil on My Shoulder - Faith Marie
The Old Witch Sleep and the Good Man Grace - The Amazing Devil
Godhunter - Aviators
Hallelujah (I'm Not Dead) - Citizen Soldier
I'm Dangerous - The EverLove
Bottom of the River - Delta Rae
Start a Riot - BEGINNERS
You've Created a Monster - Bohnes
Alone Together (Krewella Remix) - Fall Out Boy
Hardly Trying - hi I'm Case
Daylight - David Kushner
sobriety - Christabelle Marbun
Demons - Hayley Kiyoko
Danger to Myself - The Unlikely Candidates
Used to the Darkness - Des Rocs
Acetone - Skylar Capri