Garred Archambeaux

Biography

Garred grew up in Gridania to a single-parent household. He was an only child and was raised solely by his father, a former Knight Dragoon of Ishgard, after his mother had died to an illness when he was just a baby... or so his father had told him. Much to his father's delight, Garred was a natural-born protégé with the lance as was generationally customary for his family. By his mid-teen years, Garred's talent and potential quickly became spotted by his ancestral homeland of Ishgard and thusly was recruited to follow in his father's footsteps to become a Temple Knight and ultimately, a Knight Dragoon.

Much of his young adulthood was spent in war, conflict, and disquiet. Much of his impressionable late-teen and early adulthood years were spent in the heat of battle, witnessing untold loss and horrors against the Dravanian Horde when the Dragonsong chorus had begun again. By the time peace had been found, the damage done to Garred's psyche had been irreversible: from an optimistic and self-assured youth, Garred had become bitter from the cruelty of war and men's hearts as his own remained closed-off. After losing his commander in the Calamity and learning the truth behind the Dragonsong War, a seed of doubt was sewn in the man that hid within the shell of his armor- the cry of justice that slowly led to his downfall and rebirth as a Dark Knight.

Until recently, Garred lived and breathed as a knight at war. More terrifying than acknowledging the seed of doubt sewn in his mind, was the thought of retiring from service after the war and living life as a civilian. As soon as conflict erupted with the Empire, Garred was one of the first Dragoons to enlist for Ishgard to aid the Eorzean Alliance in the conflict of the war in Ala Mhigo against the Garlean Empire. As the war continued to grow, so did the seed of doubt inside him, manifesting fully when the Final Days had come to render the Star in ruin. After losing and having to dispatching his own squadron-turned-Blasphemies in Garlemald, Garred was sent home on leave where he learned his father was also turned and subsequently lost.Having lost everything, Garred reached an all-time, despairing low. On his way to mourn on one of the desolate battlegrounds in Coerthas, he was approached by a furious, grieving dragon. The two found a similar pain and hatred within the other and challenged each other to a duel to the death; the winner would die and thusly be reunited with all they had lost and the loser would live to carry the scars left behind. A bloody battle and a cruel twist of fate later, Garred had awoken in the dead dragon's mouth- blood from the wounds of the dragon mixed with his own and the Abyss he had once suppressed, now came to life- reborn as a Dark Knight.Hearing Garred's tale and seeing the draconic changes already seizing the once-reliable and accomplished Dragoon, Garred's Commanding Officer dismissed him from service, stripped him of his title and honor, and banned him from ever entering Ishgard ever again. Harsh as it was, Garred left Ishgard with the mercy of his spared life for the years of his dutiful service, and to the rest of the world... he was set free.

Now in present times, Garred is healing from his war-tattered spirit and is finding the man he is and had hidden away underneath his armor for all these years. His journey as a Dark Knight has been a healing one and through the whispers and temptations from the Abyss, he has gained a better sense of truth and self. For the first time in his life, he is learning to think and feel for himself instead of blindly following orders like the 'good soldier' he was molded to be. After a lifetime of war, Garred found peace within himself and forgiveness and acceptance of the deeds of the past done. Now being exiled from service, Garred has been forced to slow down in life and is now taking everything in leisure and living in stride, one day at a time.

For the first time in his life, Garred can comfortably look towards his wants for the future. Having spent most of his life assuming he would have died in conflict by now, he's taking his time figuring out what he wants for his future. Little by little he is making progress on opening up to others and friends -something he hasn't afforded himself since the loss of his brothers-in-arms during the Dragonsong War- is a blessing he would hope to receive one day. Finding strength in Fellowship, he would like to meet other Dark Knights and find a sense of comradery he has since missed dearly. Most surprising of all, he has allowed himself to fall in love yet he remains undecided if he would like to sire children and raise a family. Unphased by the indecision, he now knows he has the rest of his life to decide for himself what he wants to do with it, and is starting to look forward to every minute of it.

Video by me, all rights reserved.

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