X'rhun Tia

X'rhun Tia

Title

Deep Red

Gender

Male ♂

Age

42

Race

Miqo'te (Seeker of the Sun)

Job

Red Mage

Zone

Central Thanalan (19.5,20.5)

Services

Quest NPC

Patch

4.0

X'rhun Tia is a Miqo'te found in Central Thanalan.

Quests Started

Quest	Type	Level	Quest Giver
The Crimson Duelist		50	X'rhun Tia
A Rewarding Struggle		52	X'rhun Tia
Tracking the Cabal		54	X'rhun Tia
A Vermilion Vendetta		56	X'rhun Tia
On Lambard's Trail		58	X'rhun Tia
Stained in Scarlet		60	X'rhun Tia
The Color of Her Hair		60	X'rhun Tia
Traced in Blood		63	X'rhun Tia
Nightkin		65	X'rhun Tia
Child of Lilith		68	X'rhun Tia
With Heart and Steel		70	X'rhun Tia

Quests Involved In

Quest	Type	Level	Quest Giver
Taking the Red		50	Distraught Lass
Succession of Steel		80	Arya

Locations

Zone	Coordinates	Level range
Central Thanalan	(X:19.5, Y:20.5)	50
Eastern Thanalan	(X:11.5, Y:22.0)	52
Western Thanalan	(X:11.9, Y:12.8)	54
Western La Noscea	(X:27.6, Y:27.6)	56
Western La Noscea	(X:27.7, Y:26.0)	58
Northern Thanalan	(X:19.5, Y:20.8)	60

Lore

“

X'rhun Tia is the last living member of the Crimson Duelists, a band of red mages active during the Ala Mhigan revolution. Seeking a means to resist the tyranny of the mad king Theodoric, he worked with Lambard and his other sworn brothers to successfully revive the lost art of red magic. Yet even as the revolutionaries claimed victory, their triumph was soured by the imperial invasion, and Lambard’s sudden and bloody betrayal. His fellow Duelists slaughtered, the surviving X'rhun chose to leave Gyr Abania and travel the realm alone, a wandering pilgrim lending aid to those in need. Along his journey, he crossed paths with a certain adventurer and a girl named Arya, and would go on to confront the demons of his past.

— Encyclopaedia Eorzea Volume II, p. 183

X'rhun was a member of the Crimson Duelists, a group that practiced and studied the art of Red Magic. X'rhun fought against King Theodoric during the Ala Mhigan Revolution alongside his brother-in-arms, Lambard Calowise, however the two would be the only members of the Crimson Duelists to survive an attack on their order. With the Garlean Invasion soon following after, X'rhun learned that Lambard had been the one to sell out the Duelists and caused their deaths. After over twenty years, X'rhun believed him to be dead. Vowing to revive Red Magic, he traveled to Eorzea, where he met Alisaie Leveilleur, and trained her, making use of her potent ability with magic to make up for her lackluster fencing.

While in Ul'dah, he meets the Warrior of Light after defeating a group of traffickers. Escorting the Warrior and the young woman back to town, he learned that the girl's sister had been kidnapped, and asks for their help X'rhun agrees, then asks the Warrior to meet him in Central Thanalan. Meeting with the Warrior of Light at the Coffer and Coffin. He offers them the chance to train in the art of Red Magic, which they accept.

The pair set out to learn what they can about the kidnappers, which leads them to The Church of Saint Adama Landama to speak with Iliud about the strange sigils they were carrying. He explains that the sigils carry powerful magic that destroy the minds of the bearer and turn them into little more than puppets. Upon leaving the church, X'rhun noticed that they were being followed, and used the ensuing battle as an opportunity to educate the Warrior of Light. Following their enemies, they reach a mage who uses his life force to summon a massive Voidsent, which the two quickly dispatch.

X'rhun learned that the two girls are the daughters of an Ala Mhigan merchant who does business out of the Gold Saucer. Meeting with the merchant, they learn that he is being targeted and the kidnappers are demanding that he pay a ransom. He thanks the pair for saving his daughters, and they agree to act as bodyguards to attempt to learn who is behind the attacks. At Vesper Bay they receive an opportunity, as the merchant is attacked once again. Following one of the assailants who flees, they end up in Aleport, where they take down more of the mindless kidnappers. Inside one of the boxes the ship was delivering however, they discover an amnesiac girl named Arya.

Fearful of X'rhun at first, Arya eventually warmed to him. X'rhun surmised that she had been forced to take an extract that clouds the mind, then was given one of the sigils. Luckily the Warrior of Light found her in time, so the effects should eventually wear off. When asking Arya for more information, it soon becomes clear that the memory effects will take a while longer to wear off. Not willing to send her away on her own, but not convinced it would be altogether safe to bring her with them, X'rhun eventually allows Arya to join them in the hunt to stop the kidnappers.

Arya reveals that she can remember hearing the enslaved repeatedly say "Isles of Umbra" over and over. X'rhun notes that they can not simply idly speak, and determines that must be where the leader of the cabal must have set up camp. The group makes their way to the island and are beset by groups of undead and the brainwashed. Finally fighting to the shore, they encounter another mage who sacrifices themself to summon a voidsent. Defeating the monster, they split up to locate the leader.

When the Warrior of Light is approached by Lambard, X'rhun prepares to fight, promising revenge for what happened twenty years ago, but is stopped by a powerful spell cast by Arya. Lambard uses this chance to flee, and X'rhun and the party return to Aleport.

After explaining his connection to Lambard, X'rhun attempts to go it alone, only to have the Warrior of Light and Arya stop him, telling him he doesn't have to fight alone. He also agreed to train Arya in the ways of the Red Mage. X'rhun decides that their next plan of action should be to learn what Lambard's plans are, and eventually end up in Northern Thanalan, where they learned where he gets his orders from. After creating a commotion inside the Castrum, X'rhun and Arya steal the plans that Lambard and the Empire have been working on.

As it turns out, Lambard has been in charge of kidnapping young women who show promise in spellcasting, enthralling them, and giving them access to powerful magicks in order to create a mindless army to attack the Ala Mhigan Resistance. They learn that Jessie of the Garlond Ironworks is the target of their next ambush, and X'rhun plans to lure Lambard out and put a stop to him once and for all. After convincing Jessie to go along with their plan, they eventually manage to corner Lambard, who reveals himself to be draining the aether from those around him to vastly enhance the power of his spells. To do this, he had to spend several years being altered while in an arcane slumber. In their duel, Lambard slightly wounds X'rhun, and is able to draw upon his lifeforce, turning his own magic against him. When X'rhun is rendered immobile, the Warrior of Light and Arya draw their weapons and take a stand against Lambard.

Following his defeat, Lambard soon dies from his wounds, and the trio return to Mor Dhona. X'rhun thanks Jessie for her part in defeating the cabal, noting that without its leader, they should soon disappear. He also thanks his students, not just for saving him, but for carrying on the legacy of the Crimson Duelists.

After the liberation of Ala Mhigo, X'rhun continued to train both Arya and the Warrior of Light in the art of a Red Mage. Feeling more confident, Arya wished to try fighting alone. She heads out into the Dravanian Hinterlands but does not return for some time, causing X'rhun to worry. He and the Warrior of Light both head out to try to find her. Eventually they find her exhausted and slumped over on the ground, surrounded by the bodies of several Goblins and their machina. X'rhun checked to see that she was alright, when suddenly her aether surged, and her hair shifted from blonde to a blood red. She attacked the pair, and they had to subdue her to get her back to Idyllshire. Upon regaining consciousness, with her hair returned to blonde, she told them that she didn't remember anything, except her thoughts growing dim and a roar in her head growing louder before she blacked out.

X'rhun pointed out that her transformation when she was almost completely exhausted of aether was similar to the transformation undergone by Lambard. She questions if she could have undergone the same procedure as he did, but X'rhun reminded her that Lambard's transformation took several years. He and the Warrior of Light headed out to the Ziggarut built by the first Red Mages during an Umbral Calamity to aid in dampening the raging weather and temper the land's aether. In time it had become a library of their knowledge, but had been pillaged and weathered so much that many of the tomes within were illegible. Eventually he and the Warrior of Light discover a tome speaking of a ritual involving consuming the blood of a voidsent to gain power beyond mortal limits, but at the cost of hungering for aether, indicating the ritual was from a time before the Sixth Umbral Calamity, and must have been the one used by Lambard. X'rhun also found the recipe for a potion to waylay the hunger if living aether was not readily available. He and the Warrior of Light gather the ingredients, and bring the potion back to Arya.

Upon consuming the potion, she felt much better, but X'rhun warned that it was merely to replenish her aether and had not cured the underlying sickness. Arya recognized that meant she must stop practicing spellcraft for a time. This drove her to want to assist in finding a cure faster so she can get back to training, which X'rhun agreed to. With that, the group began searching through ancient text to find a cure.

After some searching to no avail, X'rhun remembered that Lambard used to read a book about a gruesome heretic in Ishgard that held all manner of spells and rituals. He believed that the book may hold some answers for finding a cure. While the Warrior of Light and Arya went to ask Midnight Dew about the book, X'rhun went to speak to Rowena about whether she would have such a book in her collection. Eventually, they found the title of the book: Nightkin, and learned that a copy was held in The Great Gubal Library. X'rhun and the Warrior of Light left to the Library, fighting through its many guards and wards, eventually claiming the book.

X'rhun learned that the man in the book was in fact not some crazed mage, but an heir to a Mhach royal family who communed with the voidsent. The first of his line had trapped and consumed the blood of Lilith, a powerful queen of the voidsent, and trapped her on The Source, so the power of her blood would not wane. As luck would have it, both Lambard and Arya share a lineage with this family, and was most likely how both of them awoke to their powers without the need to consume Voidsent blood. X'rhun determined the next best step would be to locate Lilith and destroy her so the effect of her blood would eventually fade. With their best chance to find the box she was sealed away in Ishgard, the group heads there.

Arya revealed the night before that she had a dream that she could see the last moments of the author of Nightkin, and the coffin that Lilith was held in. After the group recovers the records of what happened when the author of Nightkin, they learned that the coffin was cast into Witchdrop. After uncovering it, X'rhun realizes that the coffin looks exactly how Arya described it. Upon trying to open it, a voice declared that only one with her blood may open the coffin. When Arya opened it, a massive snake-like voidsent appeared, and told Arya that she was born thanks to her machinations over centuries of cultivating the perfect vessel. She beckons to Arya and teleports her away.

X'rhun eventually figures out that their best option would be to speak to the mages at the Thaumaturge's Guild. There, they learned that Lilith has the power to control any who have her blood, and the sigils used by Lambard were made using her blood. After perusing their records, he determines that Lilith would have taken Arya to the Weeping City of Mhach to perform the ritual. X'rhun secures a flight there thanks to Jessie, who wished to repay her debt to Arya for saving her before.

After landing in the Weeping City, X'rhun and the Warrior of Light battle their way through the Voidsent, until they reach Lilith, where they do battle. After an intense battle, the pair manage to put down the queen Voidsent, and Arya eventually awakens. After returning to Mor Dhona, X'rhun notes that Arya's aether has most likely returned to normal, and she could no longer cast spells with such veracity. He tells her that he must continue his pilgrimage, but when she masters her aether once again, he will take her back on as his apprentice.

Some time later, X'rhun reaches out to Arya, searching for aid from the Warrior of Light. The two meet with him in Ala Mhigo, where he tells him that a sword once belonging to one of his comrades in the Crimson Duelists has been robbed from its resting place, and he needed their help getting it back. He is reluctant to let Arya go, uncertain if she could handle combat without spellcraft, but she insists nonetheless.

The group eventually manage to capture the bandits and uncover the location of their cache, recovering several stolen artifacts and the sword. Returning them all to their rightful place, X'rhun recalls the owner of the blade, who had relatively low reserves of aether, and had the blade specially made to aid him in channeling magicks. Though they chided him for the extreme cost of the blade, he simply told them that even after he was gone, another mage would take up his sword and see its legacy continued, thereby justifying its cost. X'rhun turned this blade over to Arya, and officially inducted her into the brotherhood of Red Mages. He tells her that he must still finish his pilgrimage, but now that she has mastered her aether once again, he would officially take her back on as his student when he returned. With that, he set off once again.