5) Ciardha was born into a retainer family who served. Her family never gave her any choice or permitted her to question the matter and she accepted her role without a fuss. However they put their duty before their daughter and as a result they had a working relationship rather than a familial one.

4) Ciardha is an only child and as such the duty of guarding the family heir fell all the more heavily upon her shoulders. She was always determined to do her family proud by becoming an exceptional retainer.

3) Menphina - because Ciarhda is someone how loves very powerfully just as Eury did. Ciardha is terrible at looking to others for support, however, as she has grown up believing it is her duty to be the one providing support to others not to receive it herself so she doesn't often turn to prayer.

2) Ciardha was born in Yanxia to a family of retainers that served one of Doma's warlords. As a only child she was to serve as the retainer to the next heir of the house, a task she embraced with great pride.

1) Ciardha is generally very quiet and quick to do as others ask of her without complain or question. Unless she is the centre of the discussion she is often not perceived at all. She prefers to hang back as a shadow on the wall and listen to conversations around her rather than actively partake.

I love this so much

They see in her the dreams they couldn't achieve and by trying to help her they are putting one last hope in the chance that there is better way to resolve the mess the Ascians are in than rejoinings. They lose their hope when the world is sundered but they find it again in seeing Ciardha fight.

In Eury's unsundered Azem verse, they meet Ciardha very early in her ARR days and end up becoming somewhat of an adventuring mentor to her. Their paths cross throughout her journey and Eury often gives her advice and encouragement despite being an Ascian themselves.

Over time her strength with it grows and it shifts from seeing images or hearing conversations to feeling entirely immersed in the moment as if she too were living it. After being taught by Venat in Elpis she has gotten a bit better at controlling it. The aftereffects have lessened over time as well

In her normal verse she would never condone or choose these paths willingly. She is sympathetic to the Ascians' reason for fighting, but even in her Ascian verse she never fully agrees with the rejoinings as her Azem, Eury, never would have either. She works from within to try and find another way.

Taking it one step further, her Ascian AU derives from this scenario where an encounter with Solus has him recognize the colour of her soul/her identity as Azem. He then has her serve directly at the palace to keep her close, arranging for her to assist Elidibus once he reaches the end of his life.

Her dark knight skills naturally weakened for the duration due to the elemental opposition just as her white mage skills warped from earth and wind based to pure light based. It took her some time afterwards to resettle back into and relearn her dark magic. Her white mage skills never reverted.

After being relieved of the light her senses returned to normal and her hair eventually grew out in it normal shade again (she cut and dyed it in the meantime for other reasons) but she maintained a very heightened sensitivity and sense for aether compared to before.