Cassie Black
The Blue Machinist of Malboro & Midnyght Morning Band Member
Cassie has no memories of her early childhood... The earliest she can remember was when she was but a young child Viera being found alone by a band of Miqote pirates known as the Warcats. Her only possession being a medallion she wore around her neck that the pirates allowed her to keep. With no memory of her past or even her name for that matter the Captain decided to name her Cassandra after his late mother, Cassie or Cass for short. Cassie had never got an answer on the pirates initial intentions for taking her in.. whether it was out of pity, or the free labor, all she knows is she probably would not have survived if it wasn't for them.As she grew older she began to show real combat prowess and began to join her crew-mates on raids and adventures around the world, eventually being welcomed into their ranks as a full fledged pirate. She spent her younger years raiding with the pirate crew as one of their best combatants. Be it fisticuffs, blades or even magic (a skill few in their ranks possesed) Cassie excelled. Though none of these skills held a candle to her ability as a markswoman.It was discovered early on in her combat training Cassie had an eye and could always hit her mark. Maybe it was a natural trait of being a Viera or maybe the talent was just her own, what mattered was the Warcats recognized and appreciated her skill. Initially she started with a bow able to pick off enemies with more precision and much greater distances than any member of the crew, she was a vital asset. Eventually they trained her in firearms which quickly became her favorite. The ability to use them as close range and at distance mixed with the ability to fire off shots quicker than she ever could with a bow, firearms quickly became Cassie's go to weapon of choice and with them she was nearly unstoppable.Eventually as Cassie aged into her earlier adult years, many of her crewmates, including the Captain had passed away and been replaced. Around age of 120 her time as a pirate would come to an end. On one of her adventures she arrived in Ishgard to sell some goods during which one of the merchants recognized the medallion she wore as a symbol of the Noble House of Black an Ishgardian noble house that was abolished hundred of years before the great calamity. Their reason for doing so was unknown and there were rumors that members of the noble family then spread across the world. After hearing this Cassie realized that if she tracked one of these members down she could learn about her past and her families heritage. Maybe even find out who she truly was and learn about her parents. With that decided to leave the Warcats. She knew that they would no doubt aid her in her quest without hesitation but she didn't want to drag them along on a wild goose chase that could ultimately end in nothing. She just couldn't let the Warcats abandon their way of life for such an endeavor, so she took her leave thanking them for raising her as now she was prepared to live her own life.
After leaving the Warcats Cassie stayed in Ishgard for a while to try and gain as much information as possible about her family. Sadly considering how long ago they were abolished very little came up. Between the lack of info and the fact that she was running low on funds Cassie eventually made the decision to become a mercenary. While traveling for jobs she would have the opportunity to gather information from around the world while also making a living for herself. After a few jobs she noticed her firearms were getting very worn and were in dire need of maintenance. One of her crewmates had mentioned a place to her before she left that she should go to if that was ever the case, the Skysteel Manufactory.Upon arriving there for the first time Cassie was awestruck by what she saw. So many machines and inventions that she had never seen before. Many of which were built to augment ones combat ability. She knew from that instance she needed these machines, but she didn't want to outright buy them, she wanted to learn how to create them, upkeep them herself, improve and adapt them to her needs. She needed to become a Machinist.And a Machinist she did become. Between jobs she would spend all her time at the manufactory learning from the machinists there. Every waking hour that she wasn't on a job she would tinker, study, and observe. She had never been more passionate about anything in her life. There were even cases where she would forget about her ultimate goal of finding her family because of her passion for machinery. Thankfully her jobs would remind her. All that passion would pay off though as Cassie would excel quickly as a machinist even more so than her marksmanship. In only a few short years she had learned everything the machinists guild could teach her, became a master crafter as well in the process to help with her machine craft, and was on her own. Now she was able to invent and improve her own weapons and machines most of which were used to improve her combat as a mercenary, which in turn helped her gain fame and notoriety.Over the next few years Cassie invested her time to her mercenary work, doing her best on each job to try and find out something, anything about her family. During this time she'd spend time learning new skills from other mercenaries and warrior groups to bolster her abilities as a combatant. She'd spend time with the Ninjas to improve her stealth and assassination skills. The Samurai and Monks taught her patience and even more precision with her attacks. She learned how to keep light on her feet from the Dancers and even further close quarters training from the Lancers and Dragoons in Ishgard. She even bolstered her magical abilities she had shown with the Warcats learning from Black and Red Mages and even learned the art of summoning.Eventually Cassie noticed during some of the jobs that she took that required her to work with others that her groups would often be lacking some vital roles such as a healer or someone to take the enemy head of and distract them while defending themselves and the party. Because of this decided to try and learn even more skillsets in order to fill whatever group role was needed.She already had skills with white magic and even dabbled in fairy magic when she learned how to summon, but ultimately she took her greatest liking in the healing arts of the stars that she learned the Astrologian's guild not far from the Manufactory. While visiting Old Sharlayan she would also learn the about the tech their sages use to create barriers and mend wounds and would add that to her arsenal of machinery that she could augment.For more defensive roles she was already skilled with swords, shields and axes from her time with the Warcats so she spent time with the Paladins and Warriors to learn their defensive tactics. Holy magic from the Paladins and the sheer rage and tenacity fo the Warriors. While in Ishgard she learned about the Dark Knights and so decided to dabble a bit with the dark arts, which helped her excel when she met the Reapers down the line and learned their way of combat. But even with all that training Cassie would eventually find her favorite piece of weaponry to fight with when she had to go on the defensive... the Gunblade. Given her skill with firearms to begin with and all the close quarters training she had done, the ability to fight up close with a pseudo-firearm that could be used to generate barriers, cause explosions, or heal herself, this was the style she was most proficient with.Despite all her training to hone her skills or fulfill other roles in her groups Cassie was always at her best when she could bring her arsenal and do her job as a Machinist. With the knowledge she had learned from the combatants she could apply those to her fighting style and become an even more unstoppable force with her firearms, and would almost always choose to run with what she knew best if other roles didn't need to be filled. With all this experience Cassie easily began to make a much larger name for herself and even a more than comfortable living..... yet despite all the fame, none of it helped with her search and no one had any answers about her families history nor the whereabouts of her family. She was hoping that making a name for herself would have drawn at least one of them out.
Now at age 165, with no luck in her effort to find her family Cassie began to settle down a bit. She still does plenty of work as a mercenary but has decided to enjoy life a bit rather than devote all her effort on her quest. She moved to a nice peaceful home in the Lavender Beds of Gridania and even tried her luck with marriage, though those had some disasters in her own right. Both of her first 2 husband's were fellow mercenaries who later died in combat. She met her third at a venue, but that relationship ended in a mutual divorce, as much as they were good friends the stars just didn't quite align. Cassie has continued to remain single for the time being, in hope of one day maybe finding her true life partner.Despite that she was far from lonely and had plenty of allies and friends to keep her company. She even decided to start a band with a few of them and call themselves Midnyght Morning after a late friend of one of her band mates. Cassie's bandmates consist of Scarletta Vendetta, Dan'ro Vulpe, Josiff Cujoh, Rhen'a Zhalahro and Sylden Drather. Now between jobs she spends her time with them working on their music career and hoping to make a name for themselves.Yet Cassie could never fully give up her job as a mercenary, the money was amazing at this point and she did ultimately want to complete her quest even if at a slower pace than before. And the slowdown ended up being exactly what she needed. During her time as a mercenary and gaining fame she rarely stopped to appreciate the smaller things in life and so would only be asking clients, fellow mercenaries, merchants and those of political or noble power about her family as well of those she'd run into on the jobs. But it was at a venue that Cassie and her band played at, a place she had never would of gone to before she slowed her life down, that Cassie would at last get her first clue about her family since the day she learned about them from that merchant in Ishgard. One of her new fans asked if she had any relation to a Darren Black. Supposedly he was another member of the Noble House of Black who has been making a big name for himself on the continent of Tural.With this new news a spark has been lit inside Cassie once again. Never had she considered her family would have drifted to an entire new continent and so had limited her search. Now Cassie has begun to make preparations for an expedition into Tural to search for this family member. Was it a brother? Her father? Hell she'd even be estatic if he was just a distant cousin, at this point any information is gold to her. Sadly there seems to currently be a large amount of traffic with alot of adventurers currently making their way to Tural so Cassie has not been able to charter a ship yet, but maybe a certain pirate crew can help....
