Qorin of the Iriq

Healer • Elementalist

"And he was the raging river, though he looked the gentle stream."

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History

Like every male Xaela born to the Borlaaq, Qorin was destined from the moment he was born to be left behind by his mother and adopted by the Iriq tribe. Unlike many male Xaela, though, this boy did not grow up tall and strong. He barely cleared the tallest of his female counterparts, his face never sharpened like the other men of his tribe, and no matter how he tried, he never could get the muscle mass or masculine shape that his brothers sported so easily. With his softer, rounder face and his diminutive stature, he was often mistaken for a female, and it wasn’t until he was in his teens that he realized that he was actually somewhere between genders. Unfortunately for him, signs of weakness on the Steppe are often viciously exploited, and the knowledge that he was not the man he’d thought he was and would never be the man he aspired to be pained him deeply.

But still, he tried. Training with a spear, fighting alongside the men and women of his tribe, he never quite measured up. In training with a bow, or an axe, or most other weapons, he struggled to keep up. Even the realm of aether and spirituality fled his oppressive mind, and eventually he found himself caring for the tribe’s young ones and doing the tribe’s more domestic tasks. In that, he was highly skilled, and highly unhappy. Tensions grew between Qorin and a few of the more overconfident males. When those tensions came to a head, they came in the form of an assault that left him embarrassed, violated, and broken, and he decided then to leave and strike out on his own, so he went someplace far away where he could lick his wounds in peace: Eorzea.

It was once he’d traveled halfway across the world and emotionally isolated himself that he found the clarity he’d been seeking on the Steppe and discovered that he did have a talent for healing and shaping elements. Hearing rumors of a guild in Gridania devoted to healing, he ventured there and began learning conjury in earnest. A few years later, Qorin began traveling and made his way to Coerthas, where he observed and practiced with the dragoons in Ishgard’s outlying settlements while acting as a live-in healer for a time. Finally, he’d found what he needed, and began to rebuild his confidence in himself little by little. Now he travels, offering his healing services where he goes, and hopes to reconnect with his people in a way that will make him want to go back home.

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