G'raha Tia
Scion of the Seventh Dawn
All-rounder
A relatively recent addition to the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, G'raha Tia hails from Corvos in southern Ilsabard, where the Allagan Empire once flourished during the Third Astral Era. Although the Miqo'te were once forced to toil in obscurity for the glory of Allag, G'raha Tia's tribe, ever proud, devoted themselves to the study and preservation of arcane secrets. Thousands of years later, when Corvos was conquered by the Garleans and brought under the jurisdiction of the illustrious House Darnus, a young G'raha─heir to vast stores of Allagan knowledge and the last child born with the Allagan Eye, was given into the custody of the Students of Baldesion.
After acquiring Sharlayan citizenship and freedom from more mundane duties, G'raha concentrated on his education, earning his Archon's mark for his groundbreaking research into ancient arcane wisdom. Owing to these qualifications, G'raha Tia was tasked with the vital duty of investigating the Crystal Tower, the most fascinating and forbidding of the surviving relics of the Allagan Empire. It was during this expedition that he met with Rammbroes of the Sons of Saint Coinach, Cid Garlond of the Ironworks, and the Warrior of Light─an occasion which led to the formation of the fellowship known as NOAH.
With his newfound companions he laid bare the secrets of ancient Allag, and learned from the awakened clones Unei and Doga that the eye he inherited was in truth the Royal Eye, the unmistakable mark of the Allagan imperial family. With it, he could control the Crystal Tower itself, per the wishes of Salina, the final princess of Allag, who had chosen to pass down this gift and place her trust in future generations.
Judging that mankind was not yet ready for the secrets of the Crystal Tower, G'raha Tia sealed himself within it, in the hope that he might awaken in an age when his fellow man had set aside their differences─when they might truly comprehend and wield the Allagan knowledge for the benefit of all.
Alas, when G'raha awoke from his slumber two hundred years later, the world had been ravaged by tragedy and death, for the Eighth Umbral Calamity had come to pass. Biggs─third of his name and eighteenth chairman of Garlond Ironworks─had cracked the tower's wards, seeking to harness the power within to develop a means of time travel, that they might forge a future in which the Calamity had never occurred. G'raha agreed to lend them his aid, and so it was that he and the Crystal Tower were transported into the past─not of their world, the Source, but of the reflection known as the First, where fate would once again see him reunited with the Warrior of Light.
The First, for its part, had suffered a calamity no less daunting than that of the Source. A Flood of Light had nearly extinguished all life, and what little remained was beset by horrors born of the phenomenon known as sin eaters. Unaged due to his symbiosis with the Crystal Tower, an ever-youthful G'raha Tia took the initiative in building the Crystarium─a city and bulwark of hope where he and his growing community would stand against these foes.
For a hundred years, the Crystal Exarch─as G'raha Tia had come to be known─laid the groundwork for the coming battle, for he had always known that he could not triumph without the Warrior of Light. When the time came, he summoned the champion and their allies─albeit accidentally─from the Source, assembling a formidable alliance to take up arms against the Lightwardens and reclaim the long-absent night sky.
The final step in G'raha Tia's plan would have seen him render up his own life for the preservation of the First and the Source. Blessedly, this sacrifice did not come to pass. Ultimately, the Warrior of Light and their brave companions succeeded in laying low the Ascians Emet-Selch and Elidibus, ending the threat of an Eighth Umbral Calamity and giving the First hope for a brighter tomorrow.
When the Scions at last returned to their own world, they did not do so alone. G'raha Tia had conceived a method in which his memories and essence in the First could be merged with his past self still sleeping within the Crystal Tower of the Source. The awoken G'raha Tia eagerly joined the ranks of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn and proceeded to employ his ample knowledge of all things Allagan, as well as the leadership skills he honed as the Crystal Exarch, to provide invaluable guidance and support to his companions. In particular, his decisive actions in Thavnair during the Final Days ensured the survival of countless innocents.
After the de facto disbanding of the Scions, G'raha Tia joined Krile in helping to rebuild the Students of Baldesion. However, he has not yet shaken his wanderlust, and will not hesitate to seize any opportunity to embark upon a new journey with the Warrior of Light.