#IliiLore: Iliira is low support needs autistic, but suffers from a prolonged state of burnout from how long she's kept up her masking.
She's unfortunately very good at masking, which overlaps with some of her other struggles, but she makes do & lives the best she can while juggling every single-
#IliiLore: Eline labelled Iliira as, "The Dodder," after the parasitic weed of the same name (genus 𝘊𝘶𝘴𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘢.) Also an intentional pun on, "doddering."
It was every bit as derogatory as it was menacing. The Warrior of Light, the Eikon Slayer herself was naught but a tiny little girl with no history-
#IliiLore: A fickle hazel that can't quite decide whether it wants to be more chartreuse than saffron at any given moment.
The gemstone, Zultanite, is a good shorthand for how Iliira's aether looks.
#IliiLore: Ehhh...she's an acquired taste, at best. Plain Jane at worst.
Iliira knows she's not exactly a looker when compared to her friends, but she's pretty firm in her belief that she's ugly as sin, as she was told all the time in her youth.
Her charisma & wits don't extend to her looks.
#IliiLore, #CalliopeLore: A good differentiation between them is the trajectory of their character arcs.
Calliope was very extroverted & naturally charismatic, with the brightest smiles that could burn holes through steel. But she hid a lot of sadness, softness, & insecurity behind her radiance-
#IliiLore, #BridgingTheGap: Definitely Gilgamesh.
Their friendly rivalry simply bloomed into something more the closer they got with each other. If it wasn't for the dewprism incident in StB, the two would still be together into the present!
It was a laborious decision for her to let him go, but-
#IliiLore: Iliira has never had an easy time killing people. Doesn't matter if the foe at the end of her blades or arrows is unequivocally, cartoonishly evil. She tries to prioritize self-defense as key & only kills as a last resort.
It was especially difficult for her to lay harm until Eorzea's-
#IliiLore: Demi-ace that she is, she'd probably be so wigged out that her will to fight diminishes.
Either that, or Ilii goes EXTRA aggro if it crosses a certain threshold (or if it's specific people attempting.)
She is a terrible flirt when she tries, so she doesn't. It doesn't even cross her-
-struggle to write it.
It purely just depends on which characters are able to be brave about their feelings & which of them, such as Iliira ( #IliiLore ) are more willing to just fester in those emotions & never let them escape lest they fear the worst from their honesty (ie; being rejected worse-
#IliiLore: Not so fun fact! Little Ladies Day is actually Iliira's least favorite holiday, & her personal Friday the 13th.
Every time she's tried to enjoy the festival in some fashion, a staple in her Thanalanian upbringing, it's gone horribly wrong in some way.
It was worse when she was a child-
#IliiLore: Either the below meme or, "sad wet cat chosen by God even though she doesn't want to be chosen."
#IliiLore, #CalliopeLore: Iliira's Ancient incarnation was Calliope, the eldest & chief (as described by Hesiod & Ovid) of the Nine Muses in Classical antiquity; said Muses being the goddesses presiding over literature, science, & the arts.
Calliope's domain was of eloquence & epic poetry (think-
#IliiLore: Instant banshee screeching is the first sign of a major fuck-up.
Depending on her fight-or-flight response, Ilii's immediate instinct is usually to find cover & hide her shame from peering eyes. Linger longer, & she'll either start throwing shit or dive-bomb for the door & slam it.-
#IliiLore, #AltanLore: If Iliira just so happened to die in Ultima Thule, all those responsibilities she carried would return onto her co-WoL, Altannamar's, shoulders.
He was the 1.0 WoL, the role Iliira unintentionally usurped when Hydaelyn chose her as Her new champion. Though, he more or less-
#IliiLore, #CalliopeLore: While Iliira, herself, is GNC cisfeminine, Calliope's gender didn't quite fit with modern Eorzean concepts of gender.
Absolutely queer (they/she), but I see all Ancient society as dwelling outside a cisheteronormative mold. In modern terms, "GNC nonbinary," would be the-
#IliiLore: Ilii's the only one out of my three WoLs in DT who ever uttered, "Elene'shpya." But THAT was purely because she wasn't in Shaaloani at the time everyone else was.
She was merely reacting in confusion when meeting robo!Cahciua for the first time when she greeted Erenville after so long.-
#IliiLore: Did I have to photoshop the slice of chocolate cake to look like an ube cake?
Yes, I did. Still too small for Mighty & Mystic to even share.
Bakool Ja Ja would enjoy ube & you can't change my mind. As much as Ilii is a bit of a chocoholic, she'd also be eager to try ube.
#IliiLore (Meta): I keep having to do the hard work of emphasizing how nearly all of Iliira's victories are hard-won & messy.
She's meant to be an underdog, even as a WoL. There's nothing about her that's particularly special in comparison to her comrades, & she was legit unworthy of being chosen-
#IliiLore: Not proper medical training, but all the textbooks & field guides Ilii read as a kid coupled with her time spent on the road learning first aid, field medicine, & botany helped her become quite proficient with her healing magic.
Setting bones, deft suturing, identifying local plants to-
not me forgetting to elaborate on that, "temporarily."
in #IliiLore, Leih ends up reconnecting with her heritage after Iliira introduces her properly to Jehantel, Sanson, & Guydelot. While not becoming a BRD herself, at least not yet, she's grown more self-assured thanks to this newfound support-
#IliiLore, #BridgingTheGap: For the longest time, Ilii mostly had other things to occupy her time with than dwelling on heartache. Mostly via saving the Star & whatever horrible new traumas she'd inherit in the process.
It may not be her fault that Gilgamesh vanished, but the whole damn ordeal was-
#IliiLore (Meta): I was slowly developing Ilii's sense of style all ARR long. While I DID use the lvl50 Bard Artifact gear for her during Praetorium, the true start of her fashion odyssey began when my friend gave me the Expeditioner's Tabard a few quests into the Ifrit part of MSQ (5.3 post ShB.)-
#IliiLore: Inner peace & a sense of self-worth.
Not to hate herself whenever she looks in the mirror.
A foundation of confidence that won't crumble under the most minor pressure.
The will to live for herself & not rely on others' approval.
For everyone she loves to stop being stolen from her.
#IliiLore (Meta): Other than that one time I fanta'd to a Rava Viera for about a week after I was sexually harassed by a pair of catgirls, Iliira's always been a Dunesfolk Lalafell.
I've been tempted to change her for good often enough, but no other race really fits with her character & journey.-
#IliiLore: Marginally goofy answer? Aenor. Ilii sees her as a sex pest constantly whining about her fetishes & it makes her super uncomfortable to be around her.
Serious answer? Thancred. Granted, Iliira doesn't want to dislike him! She trusts him as a fellow Scion & knows his heart is in the-
#IliiLore: Since Iliira changed her name to that of a child's mispronunciation of her more lore-accurate deadname, Lilira, I'd have to experiment.
Perhaps changing her name from Nilüfer to Samirah. "Nilüfer," being the Turkish variant of the Persian, "Niloufar," meaning, "water lily."
Kinda punny-
#IliiLore (Meta): I really do try to be nice to her, but the combination of MSQ shenanigans & my own creative dissatisfaction with her in spite of her being my main character has caused her to be my punching bag OC.
It's a lot easier to bully her than to throw her an occasional bone.
#IliiLore: For all her compassion, Iliira holds grudges & despises being lied to. Some circumstances will give her due cause to be more lenient, but it takes a while for her to forgive a wrong.
She's also very self-sacrificing & has both an Atlas & Superman complex, at this point due to fatigue-
#IliiLore: It would take a hot minute for Iliira to let go of her resentment for Calliope. All because of how trapped in her shadow she's been at the end of the day.
Calliope would understand & give her the grace she needs to be upset & lash out, to do whatever that can grant her a modicum of-
#IliiLore, #LucienLore, #AltanLore, #FawnLore (Meta): It's more of a universal plothole for my main Echo bearers, sans Fawn, considering she's at least a century older than the rest of them & thus would be separate from the timeline snag.
The others awoke their Echoes in early childhood, rather-
